Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / A Masterclass in Taking Big Swings: with Entrepreneur Erica Malbon (Malbon Golf)

Transcript

A Masterclass in Taking Big Swings: with Entrepreneur Erica Malbon (Malbon Golf) · QUESTION EVERYTHING

0:04
Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
0:08
Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe, and each week my guests
0:12
Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
0:17
Speaker 2: This is pretty smart.
0:20
Speaker 1: When you think of golf, what do you think of
0:23
Speaker 1: country clubs, polo shirts, khakis, older men riding around in
0:28
Speaker 1: golf carts, smoking cigars?
0:30
Speaker 2: If you thought of any of that, me too.
0:33
Speaker 1: In fact, there's even this old adage that golf was
0:37
Speaker 1: named and stands for gentlemen only, Ladies forbidden. It wasn't,
0:42
Speaker 1: but I'd heard that so many times that I had
0:44
Speaker 1: to do a little research. The sport was named after
0:47
Speaker 1: the Dutch game golf kolf, But that perception that golf
0:52
Speaker 1: is a man's sport is deeply rooted in plenty of
0:56
Speaker 1: historical and cultural factors. It's been depicted in media and
0:59
Speaker 1: add advertising with a focus on male players, which only
1:03
Speaker 1: further perpetuates the idea that it's a sport for men.
1:06
Speaker 1: It's also traditionally been associated with male dominated spaces such
1:11
Speaker 1: as country clubs and exclusive golf courses, which have historically
1:15
Speaker 1: excluded women, people of color, people who are Jewish from
1:19
Speaker 1: membership or participation. But now there's a golf brand that's
1:23
Speaker 1: changing it all up. Erica Malbone and her husband Steven
1:29
Speaker 1: Melbourne are making golf cool, young accessible.
1:35
Speaker 2: We've been this underground brand.
1:38
Speaker 3: Welbyn in general was like filling this void that Stephen
1:41
Speaker 3: and I felt existed in the space for golf and fashion.
1:45
Speaker 3: It was a men's club. It was buttoned up and
1:48
Speaker 3: it was quiet and it was fun, and so I
1:51
Speaker 3: think that's sort of how we reframed it. It was like, well,
1:54
Speaker 3: if we make cool clothes and we make it a
1:57
Speaker 3: cool community, and we have on music and we make
2:01
Speaker 3: this experience awesome, then more people were going to want
2:04
Speaker 3: to partake in it. And so that was how we
2:07
Speaker 3: felt as our vehicle to reach younger people, to reframe
2:11
Speaker 3: the sport.
2:12
Speaker 2: They're doing just that.
2:14
Speaker 1: At first, celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Travis Scott
2:18
Speaker 1: were organically drawn to the brand and now with the
2:21
Speaker 1: launch of Melbourne Women, they've opened it up to a
2:25
Speaker 1: whole new market.
2:27
Speaker 3: The positive thing is today like women are the fastest
2:29
Speaker 3: growing segment in golf, which is so exciting because are
2:33
Speaker 3: they really like the fastest growing demographic and golf as women?
2:37
Speaker 1: So how did they create this this bright spot in
2:40
Speaker 1: the golf world that people are organically gravitating towards.
2:45
Speaker 2: Well.
2:45
Speaker 1: They took a big swing in twenty seventeen when every
2:50
Speaker 1: adage in Forbes's article was warning people against brick and
2:53
Speaker 1: mortar stores because retail was all trending towards online. They
2:58
Speaker 1: spent their own savings building a storefront in La.
3:02
Speaker 3: You're opening a golf store on Fairfax. There's no golfers
3:05
Speaker 3: on Fairfax.
3:06
Speaker 2: I was like, that's the point. We didn't know if
3:08
Speaker 2: it was going to work.
3:08
Speaker 3: And we had two little kids, and we were like,
3:11
Speaker 3: are we making the right decision?
3:12
Speaker 2: Is this what we should be doing?
3:14
Speaker 3: And we had this idea, but then there was those
3:17
Speaker 3: days that like the store, like you need to do
3:19
Speaker 3: this to the roof and it's going to cost sixty
3:21
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and extra, and you're like, this is a
3:24
Speaker 3: hard day.
3:25
Speaker 2: It's always a windy road.
3:27
Speaker 1: But just like we've heard from so many entrepreneurs that
3:30
Speaker 1: have shared their stories here on Pretty Smart, sometimes all
3:33
Speaker 1: it takes to start a life changing business is an
3:36
Speaker 1: Instagram post and a dream. Okay, Erica Malbon, welcome to
3:43
Speaker 1: Pretty Smart, Thank you, happy to be here.
3:46
Speaker 2: One of the.
3:47
Speaker 1: Things I find really interesting about you and your story.
3:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to really go back here, is that you
3:53
Speaker 1: grew up internationally. Yes, so tell everybody where you grew up.
3:56
Speaker 2: So.
3:57
Speaker 3: I was born in la and Beverly Hills, lived here
4:01
Speaker 3: until I was seven, then moved to the Philippines for
4:04
Speaker 3: six years. So my dad's side of the family is
4:06
Speaker 3: from the Philippines. My mom's American. He had moved to
4:10
Speaker 3: the States in the seventies. His upbringing was like very
4:14
Speaker 3: traditional and i'd say somewhat conservative, and that wasn't really
4:18
Speaker 3: his personality and he wanted to like sort of create
4:20
Speaker 3: his own path. And like in that time and in
4:24
Speaker 3: that society, I think that people were very specifically this
4:28
Speaker 3: is where you came from, this is where you have
4:29
Speaker 3: to be, and everyone knows everything about you. And so
4:32
Speaker 3: my dad was definitely like the person that wasn't following
4:36
Speaker 3: the path perfectly. So he moved to La met my
4:39
Speaker 3: mom here, they lived here, and then when we were seven,
4:42
Speaker 3: we moved back to the Philippines because he had business
4:46
Speaker 3: and things that he needs to take care of, and
4:49
Speaker 3: so yeah, it was definitely an amazing experience. At the time,
4:52
Speaker 3: I probably hated the idea of it, but now, like,
4:56
Speaker 3: I would have never changed anything. And some of my
5:00
Speaker 3: best friends are people that I grew up with there
5:03
Speaker 3: who ironically now live here, and I get to go
5:05
Speaker 3: to like really fun weddings all over the world.
5:07
Speaker 2: So I don't I don't mind. I don't mind. But yeah,
5:10
Speaker 2: it was an amazing experience and something.
5:12
Speaker 3: That I really hope that I can like somehow is
5:15
Speaker 3: still in my own children.
5:17
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a perk of being your husband
5:19
Speaker 1: is going to these weddings all over the.
5:22
Speaker 2: Well, or like he will be like I can't go
5:24
Speaker 2: to another wedding. It takes your mom. And my mom's
5:28
Speaker 2: like I'll go, and I was.
5:29
Speaker 3: Like, okay, we're going to Portugal, like we're going here,
5:32
Speaker 3: And so we have an insight like a family joke
5:34
Speaker 3: that it's my mom or Stephen or like we're like
5:36
Speaker 3: my wedding dates. That's really care And you know, he's
5:38
Speaker 3: thirteen years older, so I'm thirty four now, so this
5:41
Speaker 3: is sort of the time where everyone's like getting married,
5:46
Speaker 3: having kids, like in your life cycle, and he's a
5:49
Speaker 3: little past that. Yeah, so he still enjoys it, but
5:53
Speaker 3: sometimes when he's a little too far away or someone
5:56
Speaker 3: needs to be with the boys.
5:57
Speaker 2: I take my mom as my date and she doesn't mind.
6:00
Speaker 1: I actually think that's very very cool that you don't
6:03
Speaker 1: make him or like really find it important for him
6:06
Speaker 1: to go. Because my best friend from high school is
6:09
Speaker 1: married to somebody who's thirteen years older, and I think
6:12
Speaker 1: that sometimes you give her some advice, I think she
6:15
Speaker 1: might meet it because I think it's hard to navigate,
6:19
Speaker 1: like I think she finds it difficult to live within
6:22
Speaker 1: her own reality.
6:24
Speaker 3: In general, this is a general statement, like men generally
6:28
Speaker 3: mature later. And I have two boys at home, and
6:30
Speaker 3: then I see the girls that are in their classes,
6:32
Speaker 3: and I'm like, those are twenty year old and you're thirteen.
6:36
Speaker 3: So I think that it's like something about women just
6:39
Speaker 3: growing up faster in general. And so I think that
6:42
Speaker 3: when I met my husband, I was really young. I
6:44
Speaker 3: was in college and he was in his early thirties.
6:47
Speaker 3: He had a career success, like he had built a
6:50
Speaker 3: life for himself. But in terms of us being compatible
6:53
Speaker 3: at that phase, like I felt like I was. Of course,
6:56
Speaker 3: we all feel like when we're young, we feel like
6:58
Speaker 3: we're more mature than we are. But yeah, I mean
7:00
Speaker 3: I think we've been together for a long time, married
7:04
Speaker 3: almost fifteen years.
7:05
Speaker 2: So you know, you learn, and you learn like when
7:08
Speaker 2: it's worth pushing.
7:09
Speaker 3: And I think that we're comfortable enough now after all
7:12
Speaker 3: these years to be like, yeah, just stay home.
7:14
Speaker 2: I'd rather not take you to the wedding, like you're
7:15
Speaker 2: gonna make me leave early.
7:17
Speaker 1: Do you feel like growing up because from seven.
7:20
Speaker 2: To thirteen you were abroad?
7:22
Speaker 1: Yes? Do you think that that informed who you are
7:25
Speaker 1: as a mother, who you are as a businesswoman, as
7:28
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur.
7:29
Speaker 3: I definitely think that, like growing up abroad gave me
7:32
Speaker 3: like a much wider perspective of the world as a
7:35
Speaker 3: huge place and just culturally, like I.
7:38
Speaker 2: Was at international school, always surrounded by.
7:40
Speaker 3: Different kinds of people from all over the world, and
7:43
Speaker 3: I think that it made me more curious, and it's
7:46
Speaker 3: something that like I still am very curious. I always
7:49
Speaker 3: want to like understand different cultures, see things myself. I'm
7:52
Speaker 3: always like intrigued by why a certain behavior is a
7:56
Speaker 3: certain way, or like how certain people believe certain things.
7:59
Speaker 3: And so I think that one hundred percent has informed
8:02
Speaker 3: who I am as a person. And one thing that
8:04
Speaker 3: I've learned how to be over my lifetime is like
8:07
Speaker 3: comfortable in situations with a lot of different kinds of people.
8:11
Speaker 3: And it's like something that Steven and I talk about
8:14
Speaker 3: as well, because I can be with a lot of
8:16
Speaker 3: different groups of people or a lot of different kinds
8:19
Speaker 3: of people, whether that's demographic or what their backgrounds are,
8:24
Speaker 3: and I try to make people feel comfortable or I
8:26
Speaker 3: try to understand. And I'm very honestly curious, but I
8:29
Speaker 3: think that's because of having to go into a place
8:33
Speaker 3: that you are uncomfortable and sort of get through that
8:37
Speaker 3: and then learn how to adjust in a new environment
8:41
Speaker 3: and be the new person. Be uncomfortable and it's not
8:44
Speaker 3: fun all the time, but once you get through it,
8:47
Speaker 3: you're out on the other side.
8:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got married to your now husband who you
8:54
Speaker 1: co founded Malbond with, so Steven and had a child
8:58
Speaker 1: before you turned twenty.
9:00
Speaker 2: I know, it's insane.
9:02
Speaker 1: It's insane when you look back on it, are you like,
9:04
Speaker 1: how did I do that?
9:05
Speaker 2: Or you always felt so much more mature. I'm like,
9:08
Speaker 2: that's insane.
9:08
Speaker 3: If you asked me, like if there was like a
9:10
Speaker 3: twenty year old in front of me and be like, yeah, no,
9:12
Speaker 3: don't do that.
9:13
Speaker 2: No. I was never the person who.
9:15
Speaker 3: Was like I'm going to have a baby at twenty,
9:17
Speaker 3: and I've always felt like career ambition, but also I
9:21
Speaker 3: would say that I'm also not the person that's raid
9:24
Speaker 3: to like do something.
9:26
Speaker 2: So it's like a kind of a balance stuff.
9:27
Speaker 3: We could try this and if it doesn't work then
9:30
Speaker 3: not okay exact, I'm just kidding, but like if we
9:34
Speaker 3: move like we don't like it, we can move it back.
9:36
Speaker 3: I always try to be as optimistic as possible and
9:39
Speaker 3: be like, well, if it doesn't work out, then it's
9:42
Speaker 3: not permanent, right, And I think that sort of has
9:44
Speaker 3: been formed through life experiences and specifically mine, where you'd
9:48
Speaker 3: realize like nothing is really permanent, and so your decisions
9:51
Speaker 3: you make obviously impact your.
9:52
Speaker 2: Life, but you know you can. You can always like
9:54
Speaker 2: change your current situation through your actions. Do you try
9:58
Speaker 2: and instill that in your kids? Of course?
10:01
Speaker 3: I find like with the kids, they really just pick
10:04
Speaker 3: off on like your behaviors, and so I feel like
10:06
Speaker 3: if I'm acting that way, if I'm living like that
10:11
Speaker 3: in my own life, then like they're going to innately
10:15
Speaker 3: see that it's working or take what they want from it.
10:19
Speaker 3: I think that that attachment aspect of being in a
10:21
Speaker 3: certain place and feeling like it's permanent, like that is
10:26
Speaker 3: something that can really like make people stay stagnant. And
10:30
Speaker 3: I've been able to, like through my experiences through my childhood,
10:33
Speaker 3: move come back, move back.
10:36
Speaker 2: Do this, do that?
10:37
Speaker 3: Have a child at twenty and still have a career,
10:40
Speaker 3: whereas like people's perceptions are like, well, if you do this,
10:42
Speaker 3: you can't do that. I think that's part of why
10:44
Speaker 3: I'm not attached specifically to one place or to one house,
10:48
Speaker 3: or to one thing.
10:50
Speaker 1: We did a pre interview, yes, and as I was
10:53
Speaker 1: trying to I try and make each episode about something
10:57
Speaker 1: like a theme, and then I tie someone's story to it, okay,
11:00
Speaker 1: And so I was thinking, I really listened to our
11:03
Speaker 1: conversation and I was like, what is the theme here?
11:07
Speaker 1: And the idea was like, well, what if I fly?
11:09
Speaker 1: Like most people barely start one business. If they do,
11:13
Speaker 1: they're very satisfied. You start to multiple businesses like you
11:17
Speaker 1: just always forge ahead. And that was actually the theme
11:21
Speaker 1: of this episode for me. And then now I'm understanding
11:24
Speaker 1: the why behind it. You don't have a fear.
11:26
Speaker 3: Well, of course I do very I think we all
11:29
Speaker 3: have fears as humans, right, and nobody would if you
11:33
Speaker 3: knew me, Like no one would advertly say, oh, she
11:35
Speaker 3: seems like a very anxious or fearful person, but ironically
11:40
Speaker 3: like I am very anxious.
11:42
Speaker 2: Wow, So I think that I've had to manage that
11:44
Speaker 2: through the years.
11:45
Speaker 3: But at the same time, when it is the right opportunity,
11:49
Speaker 3: I do get a feeling about it and say let's
11:51
Speaker 3: jump in.
11:52
Speaker 2: It's like a.
11:53
Speaker 3: Feeling whether it's a business or the right move. I
11:56
Speaker 3: won't let that fear like paralyze me. So like I
11:59
Speaker 3: have to like work through that fear.
12:01
Speaker 2: And I think that's something.
12:02
Speaker 3: That I've had to do multiple times in my life
12:05
Speaker 3: or I'm constantly doing, is working through that fear or
12:07
Speaker 3: like talking yourself down from it.
12:09
Speaker 1: Have you found a question or that you ask yourself
12:12
Speaker 1: or something that helps you talk?
12:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like one of the things I've learned through is
12:16
Speaker 3: this true a thought that's like in your brain that
12:19
Speaker 3: you're like telling yourself, like this is going to happen
12:21
Speaker 3: or I'm scared of this, And is that true?
12:23
Speaker 2: You can be scared of.
12:24
Speaker 3: Certain things, but at the same time you have to
12:27
Speaker 3: tell yourself that like that there's the outcome is uncertain
12:31
Speaker 3: and it could be very positive too. So I's sort
12:33
Speaker 3: of that balance that I think we all struggle with
12:36
Speaker 3: just as humans, as women, as people. Is sort of
12:40
Speaker 3: like figuring out how to talk to yourself and read
12:43
Speaker 3: program like the way you do that.
12:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, I want to go back to being twenty
12:49
Speaker 1: one for a second.
12:50
Speaker 2: Okay, let's do it. Let's go back. Yeah, let's go on.
12:53
Speaker 1: You're twenty one, you get married, you have your first child,
12:57
Speaker 1: and you mentioned earlier that you were very career and
13:00
Speaker 1: I know you were in college too, like you were
13:02
Speaker 1: always kind of just like wise beyond your years.
13:06
Speaker 2: So how are you thinking about your career at this point?
13:09
Speaker 3: So it was like an interesting time period for me
13:11
Speaker 3: because I graduated from high school.
13:15
Speaker 2: I decided I'm going to go to college. I move out.
13:17
Speaker 2: I live in Santa Barbara.
13:20
Speaker 3: I'm going to school, and I'm not happy, and I'm
13:23
Speaker 3: driving home on the weekends and I'm like, want to
13:25
Speaker 3: go out and I'm like, oh, let's good clubbing. I
13:28
Speaker 3: don't want to be at like a frat party or
13:30
Speaker 3: and I just realized, like that wasn't for me anymore.
13:33
Speaker 3: And so ironically I had met my husband in March
13:38
Speaker 3: of two thousand and eight and was super crazy but
13:42
Speaker 3: I knew you just had a feeling, like you had
13:44
Speaker 3: a feeling. I didn't know he was going to be
13:46
Speaker 3: my husband, but I knew that there.
13:48
Speaker 2: Was something there. So the first time we.
13:51
Speaker 3: Talked on the phone, we were introduced by someone else
13:54
Speaker 3: and I was like, Okay.
13:56
Speaker 2: He's older. It was very casual.
13:59
Speaker 3: His brother actually do this because I had met his
14:01
Speaker 3: brother out in Vegas with my girlfriend, like just like
14:05
Speaker 3: very friendly, and he was like, oh, my brother's moving
14:07
Speaker 3: to LA from New York. Like you girls are super fun,
14:09
Speaker 3: Like I'll give him your number, go we'll have drinks.
14:11
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, he's an older guy in early thirties, eighteen.
14:15
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I was like, whatever, we'll
14:17
Speaker 2: go have fun. And I just wanted to have fun.
14:19
Speaker 3: And I wasn't like, oh, I'm good, this is my
14:21
Speaker 3: career path, like in terms of being career orientsed. Like
14:23
Speaker 3: I was like I always knew that I wanted to
14:25
Speaker 3: do something, but it wasn't like this is going to
14:27
Speaker 3: be my path. I'm going to go to college, then
14:28
Speaker 3: I'm going to do this. Then it was like I
14:30
Speaker 3: want to have fun. I want to figure it out.
14:33
Speaker 3: But at the same time, like I never was like
14:35
Speaker 3: I just want to be a mom and like a homemaker.
14:37
Speaker 2: That wasn't for me. I knew that I wanted more
14:39
Speaker 2: than that.
14:40
Speaker 3: But then when I met Steven, and I think like
14:43
Speaker 3: part of like maybe like maturing in terms of like
14:45
Speaker 3: observing him. And as we started to get more serious,
14:50
Speaker 3: like he had started his own business and he ran
14:53
Speaker 3: his own business and it was a successful business, and
14:56
Speaker 3: he had offices in New York and LA and you know,
14:58
Speaker 3: I think that was something that I admire.
15:00
Speaker 2: But I also was very observant about it, and I
15:02
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, I think there's something here, Like his
15:06
Speaker 2: fire ignited me.
15:07
Speaker 3: Exactly, and it was like passion and excitement about what
15:10
Speaker 3: you were doing. And then my parents were at the time,
15:15
Speaker 3: like my dad was like, oh, like he's.
15:18
Speaker 2: Older than you.
15:19
Speaker 3: Stay in school, like graduate ironically, like my parents are
15:23
Speaker 3: thirteen years apart. Oh, and my dad and mom met
15:25
Speaker 3: when my mom was like in her early twenties, and
15:28
Speaker 3: so I was like, you're a hypocrite, and my mom
15:31
Speaker 3: would tell him, you're the one to speak like I
15:33
Speaker 3: met you when I was twenty two.
15:34
Speaker 2: But I think that's just a father.
15:37
Speaker 3: And then suddenly my dad just got sick and Stephen
15:40
Speaker 3: and I were getting more serious, and he had met
15:42
Speaker 3: my dad and it was super unexpected.
15:44
Speaker 2: My parents were still together. He had a stroke and
15:46
Speaker 2: then within a month he had passed, and so better.
15:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mean it was it was two
15:52
Speaker 3: thousand and nine, and so I think that with Stephen,
15:54
Speaker 3: it was like him being the person that he was
15:57
Speaker 3: through that journey brought us really close.
15:59
Speaker 2: Even though it was a period of time it was
16:01
Speaker 2: a really weird space.
16:02
Speaker 3: At that time, I was like, Okay, well, life is sure,
16:05
Speaker 3: this is unexpected. Crazy things can happen, so it wasn't
16:09
Speaker 3: part of the plan. And then four months later I
16:12
Speaker 3: found out I was pregnant, and so I was like,
16:17
Speaker 3: I'm not having a baby. Like I'm at the time
16:19
Speaker 3: twenty years old. I need to do more. I need
16:22
Speaker 3: to figure it out. And Steven was like in his way,
16:24
Speaker 3: he was like thirty three.
16:25
Speaker 2: He was like, why not, let's have a baby. This
16:28
Speaker 2: will work, and I was like will it? And I
16:30
Speaker 2: loved him, and I.
16:31
Speaker 3: Was like also thinking if I don't have a baby
16:34
Speaker 3: and I don't choose this, well, I regret this one day.
16:38
Speaker 3: And so I was like, okay, we'll figure it out.
16:40
Speaker 3: And then we were like, Okay, let's.
16:42
Speaker 2: Get married and have a baby. And so again, like.
16:45
Speaker 3: There was no turning that back, and that was really
16:47
Speaker 3: jumping in.
16:47
Speaker 2: But I think it.
16:48
Speaker 3: Must have felt safe with him, though I think I did,
16:51
Speaker 3: and I was just like happy to have somebody like
16:54
Speaker 3: through that whole process. And I also felt like it
16:57
Speaker 3: was almost like a messaging from like higher beings and
17:00
Speaker 3: like my dad passed, I find out I'm pregnant, Like
17:03
Speaker 3: life is like this crazy journey and you never know
17:07
Speaker 3: what you're going to get and you never know what
17:08
Speaker 3: to expect, and I don't want to fight the universe.
17:10
Speaker 1: That was that there's something really special too that the
17:14
Speaker 1: person that you're with met your dad.
17:17
Speaker 2: Well one hundred percent.
17:18
Speaker 3: And so at my dad's funeral, my mom was like,
17:20
Speaker 3: you can't break up with her for like at least
17:22
Speaker 3: six months, Like she like said that to Stephen, and
17:25
Speaker 3: he like told me later because she was like being protective.
17:28
Speaker 3: But she's like, like her dad just died, and she
17:30
Speaker 3: said it in the most protective way, which is really sweet.
17:33
Speaker 3: She also said, you can't have a baby, but you
17:36
Speaker 3: have to get married. She's super not traditional in that sense,
17:39
Speaker 3: but at the same time, like we still have those
17:41
Speaker 3: values it is, I mean, every family's different. But I
17:44
Speaker 3: also thought it was like no one else will ever
17:45
Speaker 3: meet my dad, yeah, and so I was like, let's
17:48
Speaker 3: give it a shot.
17:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:52
Speaker 3: So I think that was part of it. And it
17:54
Speaker 3: was like this whirlwind year. And then we had another
17:58
Speaker 3: baby seventeen months later, and the second time I found out,
18:01
Speaker 3: I was crying because I had just gone through having
18:06
Speaker 3: one and just what that journey looked like, especially at
18:08
Speaker 3: a young age, especially without real support system of like.
18:11
Speaker 1: Friends at that point, right, your friends are at a
18:13
Speaker 1: totally different stage of life.
18:15
Speaker 3: There in college, they're like out and Steven was a man,
18:20
Speaker 3: and I really had to figure out who I was
18:22
Speaker 3: lonely of course now reflecting back one hundred percent, but
18:26
Speaker 3: I had my mom and I had Steve. But that's
18:30
Speaker 3: sort of when I also realized, like, I don't want
18:33
Speaker 3: to just be this and I needed to like figure
18:36
Speaker 3: out who I was, because I knew who I was,
18:38
Speaker 3: but I didn't I was I was twenty and now
18:40
Speaker 3: I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm this person, I'm
18:45
Speaker 3: like managing a lot of different things.
18:47
Speaker 2: But I also knew that I.
18:49
Speaker 3: Wanted to figure out more of who I was, and
18:51
Speaker 3: I had some more to offer, and that's sort of
18:53
Speaker 3: how I thought about it.
18:58
Speaker 1: Can you guess the number one most common complaint after
19:01
Speaker 1: any first date, first meeting, or interview, I wish they
19:06
Speaker 1: had asked me more questions. I've studied the art of
19:10
Speaker 1: conversation for a decade, and I know one thing for sure.
19:14
Speaker 1: The most interesting thing is to be interested. But sometimes
19:19
Speaker 1: it can be awkward to enter a conversation, or you
19:22
Speaker 1: just don't know what to ask. Here's the solution. Two words,
19:27
Speaker 1: question everything. This game is like a superpower in your
19:32
Speaker 1: pocket because questions are an accelerator.
19:36
Speaker 2: There are way in I put together.
19:38
Speaker 1: A deck of cards of fifty two of my favorite questions,
19:42
Speaker 1: ones that have sparked some of the most meaningful and
19:45
Speaker 1: insightful conversation in not just my career, but also my life.
19:50
Speaker 1: Some are light and fun, and some are deeper and
19:53
Speaker 1: more reflective. These fifty two questions will build any relationship, trust, intimacy, connection.
20:02
Speaker 1: It all starts with curiosity. Get your deck today at www.
20:07
Speaker 1: Dot Pretty smartshop dot com or head to my Instagram
20:10
Speaker 1: at Danielle Robe and click the link in my bio.
20:14
Speaker 1: And I've never done this before, but pretty smart people
20:17
Speaker 1: are my people. So use the code pretty Smart at
20:20
Speaker 1: checkout and you'll get free shipping. Now, whether you're grabbing
20:24
Speaker 1: these cards for a friend's dinner, party, a birthday, or
20:27
Speaker 1: a date, just no question.
20:30
Speaker 2: Everything is not a game. It's a game changer.
20:37
Speaker 1: So fast forward a little bit, yes, and you start
20:41
Speaker 1: the now. Yes, which for people who don't live in
20:44
Speaker 1: La tell us what the now is.
20:46
Speaker 2: Yes.
20:46
Speaker 3: So the Now was a concept that me and my
20:48
Speaker 3: friend Amy started. I would describe it as a massage
20:52
Speaker 3: business but like an oasis. Yes, but it was always
20:55
Speaker 3: so opposed to like bridge the gap between a high
20:59
Speaker 3: end vacation experience and the massage joint around the corner
21:04
Speaker 3: from wherever you live. Everyone has one, and we were
21:07
Speaker 3: just connecting the dots. Isn't there something in between? Is
21:09
Speaker 3: there something that we can put in urban areas and
21:11
Speaker 3: have like these escapes for people to come and without
21:15
Speaker 3: being extremely expensive or unattainable or difficult to get into.
21:21
Speaker 3: Can we create like these little oasises for people to
21:24
Speaker 3: take a break from their busy days their lives and
21:27
Speaker 3: just sort of recharge.
21:30
Speaker 1: Now has fifty locations across the country.
21:33
Speaker 3: But just wild, Wild Wild, because we started with me
21:38
Speaker 3: and her building a business plan at her apartment in
21:42
Speaker 3: West Hollywood.
21:43
Speaker 2: I had babies, she had a young son.
21:45
Speaker 3: We would go get foot massages and we were like,
21:47
Speaker 3: this experience can be improved, and then we both left.
21:51
Speaker 2: She left a little bit earlier on, and then I
21:53
Speaker 2: left after.
21:54
Speaker 3: Two and a half years of the business and we
21:57
Speaker 3: had brought in different partners to grow.
22:00
Speaker 1: When did you start feeling like this part of my
22:03
Speaker 1: life is done and I want something more different.
22:06
Speaker 3: What I did realize in that journey was like I
22:10
Speaker 3: loved the entrepreneurial journey of starting something from an idea
22:15
Speaker 3: and seeing it come to life. And I loved picking
22:18
Speaker 3: out the esthetic and the logos and what the experience
22:22
Speaker 3: was going to feel and look like. I didn't love
22:25
Speaker 3: the day to day operational aspect of that kind of business,
22:29
Speaker 3: but I learned so much and I'm so proud of
22:35
Speaker 3: that experience. It was my first building a business from nothing,
22:39
Speaker 3: from an idea that my friend had and then built
22:43
Speaker 3: like my contribution and this is what the experience is
22:46
Speaker 3: going to feel like, look like, these are the people
22:48
Speaker 3: that we're going to bring in to help amplify it.
22:50
Speaker 3: I really loved that aspect of it, and then once
22:54
Speaker 3: we brought other partners in, there was a lot of
22:56
Speaker 3: different personalities and I think we all realized, I'm so
22:59
Speaker 3: proud of this, but it's time for me to like
23:00
Speaker 3: focus my energy on what I want to love and do.
23:04
Speaker 2: And this isn't that anymore.
23:06
Speaker 1: I think there's so many people that hit a marker
23:11
Speaker 1: of success and are like thanking, they're lucky stars.
23:14
Speaker 2: I better just be grateful.
23:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have this pushed forward mentality.
23:22
Speaker 2: Where does that I want more I know, come from.
23:26
Speaker 2: I think like it's something innate.
23:28
Speaker 3: Even this morning, Like I listened to this meditation like
23:31
Speaker 3: with Stephen this morning because I was like, we need
23:33
Speaker 3: to start meditating more like and that's part of my
23:35
Speaker 3: New Year's resolution. And it was Deepak Chopren the desire.
23:38
Speaker 3: It was about desire, and desire isn't something to be
23:41
Speaker 3: shamed of.
23:42
Speaker 2: You shouldn't feel guilty.
23:43
Speaker 3: Like we have these attachments towards what we think, like
23:47
Speaker 3: we want, and I think that it's like part of life,
23:49
Speaker 3: Like I always say to my kids, no matter what
23:52
Speaker 3: you have, no matter how much or of this or that,
23:54
Speaker 3: Like you want passion and you want to feel excited
23:57
Speaker 3: to wake up in the morning, and whether that's golf
23:59
Speaker 3: because like you can't wait to improve at that, or
24:02
Speaker 3: it's your business, or it's your health, whatever it is,
24:05
Speaker 3: like something that makes you excited to wake up in
24:08
Speaker 3: the morning. I think that's all we want for ourselves
24:11
Speaker 3: and our kids to be like productive human beings. And
24:14
Speaker 3: so when I'm feeling grateful, I want to feel inspired.
24:18
Speaker 2: I want to feel excited.
24:19
Speaker 3: I want to have something that I'm working towards, and
24:21
Speaker 3: I think that's where it comes from. Those are the
24:23
Speaker 3: things that keep us moving forward in life. I'm always
24:27
Speaker 3: like striving for something, but I don't look at it
24:29
Speaker 3: as like a negative thing. I think part of that
24:31
Speaker 3: is I've also worked on myself of like how do
24:33
Speaker 3: you balance that desire with contentment?
24:36
Speaker 2: And so there's a space there where.
24:39
Speaker 3: You're like, well, I'm working on it because you want
24:42
Speaker 3: to feel grateful, you want to feel content, but at
24:44
Speaker 3: the same time you want that desire, and so there's
24:47
Speaker 3: a space there where I'm still I'm a work in progress.
24:51
Speaker 1: But there's seasons, right, like you can lean into one
24:55
Speaker 1: more than the other.
24:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think we all are figuring that out.
24:58
Speaker 3: But there is a way I feel grateful and I
25:01
Speaker 3: am content. I don't know if I'm going to stay content.
25:05
Speaker 3: I'm content today, but.
25:07
Speaker 2: I'm not content. I'm grateful. I'm not exactly are we
25:11
Speaker 2: ever content? I don't know. That's a tough word. I
25:14
Speaker 2: actually have to think about that more. Yeah, me too, Okay,
25:18
Speaker 2: Malbond the fun part, No, this's really for me.
25:22
Speaker 1: It's the fun part because first of all, you make
25:24
Speaker 1: my absolute favorite sun hat, and I'm a connoisseur of
25:27
Speaker 1: sun hats. So I walk down Melrose because I go
25:30
Speaker 1: to this farmer's market that's there on Serve. And I
25:33
Speaker 1: was with a friend who was in town. Usually stop
25:35
Speaker 1: in the middle of the farmer's market.
25:36
Speaker 2: Yep.
25:37
Speaker 1: He was like, I want to, like, go to the end.
25:39
Speaker 1: We never go to the end. We go and he's like,
25:41
Speaker 1: what's this store? And I'm just like, let's go in.
25:44
Speaker 1: It is carpeted, yeah, the whole time, the whole thing,
25:47
Speaker 1: the walls, it's so gorgeous. And we both looked at
25:50
Speaker 1: each other and we were like, what.
25:51
Speaker 2: Is this cool store? Where are we?
25:54
Speaker 1: Where are we? Who started this? And so I'm googling
25:58
Speaker 1: and I was like, I was.
26:00
Speaker 2: Said, dinner with her? How crazy? Is that crazy? How
26:03
Speaker 2: it always works that way. It does right the universe.
26:07
Speaker 3: It does because we get mad at that dinner and
26:09
Speaker 3: then we spoke a few weeks after that, but yeah,
26:12
Speaker 3: I love to cut you up.
26:13
Speaker 1: And I was like, Eric hid didn't really I love this, Yes, amazing.
26:17
Speaker 1: It's without doing a comparison game, but for people who
26:21
Speaker 1: don't know yet, it's kind of like Kith for golf, I.
26:24
Speaker 3: Would say, like, we love Kith. Ronnie's a great friend
26:26
Speaker 3: of ours. I mean he's super inspirational in just the industry. Yeah,
26:30
Speaker 3: I mean, look, we wanted to create a brand in
26:32
Speaker 3: the golf space that spoke to an audience that nobody
26:37
Speaker 3: was speaking to. Yeah, and so we've combined I think
26:40
Speaker 3: like all of our experiences Stevens in his past life
26:44
Speaker 3: with his media company and his agency and his relationships
26:48
Speaker 3: mine with the now and just like starting the business
26:52
Speaker 3: and then sort of blended it all together into what
26:54
Speaker 3: Malbyn is today, and of course put in our passion.
26:58
Speaker 2: For golf and what that looks like.
27:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, and our relationship to golf each individual's I grew
27:04
Speaker 3: up my dad.
27:04
Speaker 2: He was a huge golfer.
27:06
Speaker 3: Every vacation we took somewhere where there was golf involved.
27:10
Speaker 3: You know, it would drive around to the Roger Dunns
27:12
Speaker 3: and the stores where they sell the stuff with my
27:14
Speaker 3: dad and get clubs, and so I always had this
27:17
Speaker 3: relationship with it.
27:18
Speaker 2: It wasn't always a positive or close relationship.
27:21
Speaker 3: We had a relationship golf and I and then Steven
27:25
Speaker 3: grew up golfing. His parents live on a golf course.
27:27
Speaker 3: Currently it's always part of the conversation. Then moved away,
27:32
Speaker 3: lived in New York City, didn't touch a club, wasn't
27:35
Speaker 3: part of his dialogue, wasn't part of his daily life.
27:38
Speaker 2: Moved to La we have our.
27:39
Speaker 3: Babies, and he's, well, maybe I should pick up golf again.
27:43
Speaker 2: And then just became completely obsessed.
27:46
Speaker 1: But in twenty seventeen, you guys open a brick and
27:49
Speaker 1: mortar store.
27:49
Speaker 2: We do. So I was thinking about this.
27:52
Speaker 1: Twenty seventeen is the time I would say the zeitgeist,
27:56
Speaker 1: like people talking were starting to say everything is online
28:00
Speaker 1: and don't open brick and mortar.
28:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you guys do that, Yes, yes, totally, Because
28:04
Speaker 3: so what was the top process? We wanted to introduce
28:08
Speaker 3: golf to a person that didn't have a very positive
28:13
Speaker 3: impression of it. And so golf as is a sport
28:17
Speaker 3: in general has historically been viewed as an elitist sport,
28:22
Speaker 3: like very non inclusive, not for you're just saying, yeah,
28:27
Speaker 3: this old man plays golf. It's not for women, it's
28:31
Speaker 3: not for anyone of color. It's not for anyone that
28:34
Speaker 3: doesn't make X amount of money. It's this is a
28:36
Speaker 3: country club. It's exclusive. It's this, it's that, and we're like,
28:39
Speaker 3: but there's so much more to that. There's such a
28:41
Speaker 3: story that could be told about how powerful it is
28:44
Speaker 3: for certain people in their lives. And it was really
28:47
Speaker 3: through Stephen's true passion for the sport that the whole
28:51
Speaker 3: business sort of started. He had started like an Instagram
28:54
Speaker 3: called Malbon Golf because his friends were like, stop posting
28:57
Speaker 3: golf stuff on your personal instagram because I don't like
29:00
Speaker 3: golf and we don't play golf. And he's like, okay, fine,
29:02
Speaker 3: So he starts this Instagram. It becomes this mood board
29:05
Speaker 3: of things.
29:05
Speaker 2: That he likes because he's a great taste.
29:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's super creative, he has a perspective, he has
29:11
Speaker 3: his individual style, and he's really he's great at just
29:15
Speaker 3: like imagery and creating.
29:17
Speaker 2: That's like innately he's an artist and so were.
29:20
Speaker 1: You, because you guys have this vibe together. You both
29:22
Speaker 1: dress cool.
29:24
Speaker 2: Like I love fashion and I've always loved fashion. He
29:26
Speaker 2: does too.
29:27
Speaker 3: But I'm not a fine artist like he draws. Like
29:30
Speaker 3: he can draw, like he went to art school. I
29:32
Speaker 3: like to put things together. I love design. I love art,
29:35
Speaker 3: but I am not one with a pen, but I
29:38
Speaker 3: like and appreciate it. I love interiors, I love architecture, fashion.
29:43
Speaker 2: Those are all art forms as well.
29:45
Speaker 3: But yeah, but so Steven had this Instagram and he
29:49
Speaker 3: had this Friday group of guys that he played golf with,
29:52
Speaker 3: and they were like pro skaters, musicians, industry executives, and
29:58
Speaker 3: they all loved golf, but they had these other lives,
30:02
Speaker 3: but there was no brand that they could even want
30:05
Speaker 3: to wear. So they would buy brands that were not
30:08
Speaker 3: golf brands. And we looked at that as Wow, this
30:11
Speaker 3: is a really good opportunity to create something for this
30:14
Speaker 3: group of people.
30:15
Speaker 2: Even though it's only six people, there must be more
30:18
Speaker 2: of them out in the world.
30:20
Speaker 3: And so when we started this store, it was really
30:22
Speaker 3: to create like a community based, a hub for the
30:26
Speaker 3: like minded people that loved golf but also loved fashion,
30:30
Speaker 3: loved music, had other interests, not just I'm this guy
30:34
Speaker 3: and all I think about is golf, and I wear
30:36
Speaker 3: performance product and I don't really care how I present
30:39
Speaker 3: myself when I'm playing golf.
30:41
Speaker 1: I've heard you say this in other interviews, that it's
30:43
Speaker 1: an intersection of sport.
30:44
Speaker 2: Fashion and culture. Yeah. I believe so. Yeah, So I'm
30:50
Speaker 2: going to brag on you for a moment.
30:51
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, Justin Bieber, Travis Scott, lots of actors, pro athletes,
30:57
Speaker 1: musicians like Justin Timberlake, they all became fans of malb.
31:02
Speaker 3: So I think that all happened because they had this
31:08
Speaker 3: connection to the game and nobody knew that, but they
31:11
Speaker 3: had their own relationship with it, and so when they
31:13
Speaker 3: saw a brand or people that could speak their language.
31:17
Speaker 2: That we're like, wait, they like golf. I'm into that.
31:19
Speaker 2: And I know how many golfers. But when someone loves golf,
31:22
Speaker 2: they love golf, they love they love golf. There's no
31:26
Speaker 2: in between. There's absolutely no in between.
31:28
Speaker 3: So like, if your golfer, golf is life, it's part
31:31
Speaker 3: of your personality, it's all you want to talk about.
31:33
Speaker 3: I think that them being golfers, they're like, this is
31:37
Speaker 3: my little dirty secret. No one knows about this little
31:40
Speaker 3: like I'm a musician, but I secretly love golf. Now
31:43
Speaker 3: there's someone else that like isn't the golfer that everyone
31:47
Speaker 3: thinks of, But so that there's like this connection to
31:52
Speaker 3: a brand because they're speaking to you directly, and I
31:55
Speaker 3: think that was like how we really gain traction. And
31:58
Speaker 3: also being in La opening that store in La on
32:02
Speaker 3: Melos in Fairfax, having a simulator where people could hit
32:05
Speaker 3: golf balls. You're opening a golf store on Fairfax. There's
32:08
Speaker 3: no golfers on Fairfax. It's like that's the point, Like
32:11
Speaker 3: we want to introduce the sport to people that don't
32:15
Speaker 3: necessarily didn't grow up playing, didn't have the opportunity to
32:17
Speaker 3: do that, but you know still want to learn.
32:21
Speaker 1: Will you tell me the tagline for Melbourne's mission, Yes,
32:24
Speaker 1: So our mission statement has been to inspire today's youth
32:27
Speaker 1: to participate in the greatest game on Earth, which you know, golf.
32:30
Speaker 2: It's golf to us.
32:32
Speaker 3: So that was always our mission statement from the very beginning.
32:35
Speaker 3: Steve and I sort of sat down and said, like
32:37
Speaker 3: we need a north star because when you're starting a business,
32:41
Speaker 3: you know, there's so many different directions you can go
32:44
Speaker 3: and so many different opportunities that come your way, or
32:47
Speaker 3: so many ways you can spend your energy and focus,
32:50
Speaker 3: and we said, like, we have to have this north
32:52
Speaker 3: star so that we can stay aligned, and if it
32:54
Speaker 3: doesn't align with that mission, then we're not going to
32:57
Speaker 3: do it well.
32:58
Speaker 1: To your point earlier with trying to engage people who
33:02
Speaker 1: aren't usually into golf, I was reading that twenty percent
33:06
Speaker 1: of new golfers our gen.
33:07
Speaker 2: Z so exciting, really exciting.
33:11
Speaker 1: I feel like Malbourne is an entry point for people.
33:16
Speaker 1: It was an entry point for you you started playing.
33:19
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I took lessons as a child. Again,
33:23
Speaker 3: didn't love it, didn't love the culture. It wasn't fun. Yeah,
33:26
Speaker 3: it wasn't exciting. It wasn't like I want to wear
33:28
Speaker 3: that cute outfit and go play golf with my friends.
33:31
Speaker 3: Like my friends didn't play golf. It was a men's club.
33:35
Speaker 3: It was buttoned up, and it was quiet and it
33:37
Speaker 3: wasn't fun. So why would anyone young want to do that?
33:41
Speaker 3: And so I think that's sort of how we reframed it.
33:44
Speaker 3: Was like, if we make cool clothes and we make
33:48
Speaker 3: it a cool community, and we have like fun music,
33:51
Speaker 3: and we make this experience awesome, then more people were
33:54
Speaker 3: going to want to partake in it. And so that
33:57
Speaker 3: was how we felt as our vehicle to reach younger people,
34:01
Speaker 3: to like sort of reframe the sport and make it
34:04
Speaker 3: something that people want to do. And I think Steven's
34:07
Speaker 3: personal experience from playing golf competitively at a younger age
34:12
Speaker 3: and then when it came to high school, no one
34:14
Speaker 3: cool played golf, and so he was like, oh, yeah,
34:18
Speaker 3: I'm going to leave that behind. Yeah, And we were
34:21
Speaker 3: thinking about our own children and our younger son plays,
34:23
Speaker 3: and we were like, we don't want him.
34:25
Speaker 2: To have that same experience.
34:26
Speaker 3: If we influence the sport enough and bring these people
34:29
Speaker 3: to tell their stories that they look up to, like
34:32
Speaker 3: the musicians and the artists and the people that they
34:34
Speaker 3: look at and idolize, if they're telling their golf story,
34:38
Speaker 3: then they're gonna think golf.
34:39
Speaker 1: School, that's so cool that you changed culture to help
34:45
Speaker 1: your son feel like that, right school, that's a big sway.
34:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, how do we reframe the way young people
34:51
Speaker 3: look at the sport? And it's so it's awesome now
34:54
Speaker 3: because we started this in twenty seventeen, at the time
34:57
Speaker 3: golf's dying, less people are playing than ever. This is
35:01
Speaker 3: not a good time to get into it. We still
35:03
Speaker 3: just had that like instincts like I spoke to earlier,
35:05
Speaker 3: like no, I think there's something here.
35:07
Speaker 2: I think there's something here to tell today, like more golf,
35:10
Speaker 2: more young people are playing than.
35:11
Speaker 1: Ever, And that's such a great lesson to follow what
35:15
Speaker 1: you know.
35:15
Speaker 2: What you feel, and it's hard and it's scary. Like again,
35:18
Speaker 2: it's it's scary.
35:19
Speaker 3: Because you don't know. We just don't know is this
35:22
Speaker 3: going to work? Is this worth my money and time?
35:24
Speaker 3: But you really do have to trust your instinct.
35:27
Speaker 1: You said there's more eyes on golf, but there's also
35:30
Speaker 1: more eyes on Malbourne. Jason Day became the first big
35:34
Speaker 1: athlete to leave Nike joined Malbone. That's a really big look.
35:39
Speaker 1: What do you feel like that means for Malbourne?
35:42
Speaker 3: I feel that Jason's involvement with the brand is just
35:48
Speaker 3: introducing us to a much broader audience. We've been this
35:51
Speaker 3: underground brand in the golf space that's lifestyle and golf,
35:56
Speaker 3: and most people be like yeah, but they're not like Encore.
35:59
Speaker 3: So that's like the segment of people and we're like, no,
36:03
Speaker 3: we are.
36:03
Speaker 2: And he's playing really well in our clothes.
36:06
Speaker 3: And so I think that it just it introduces our
36:10
Speaker 3: brand and our messaging into a whole different community of
36:13
Speaker 3: people that would never interact with our brand without his
36:19
Speaker 3: sign off.
36:20
Speaker 1: So according to the NGF, which is like the National
36:24
Speaker 1: Golf Foundation, and I think yes, anyways, it's the leading
36:27
Speaker 1: authority on Alson's golf.
36:29
Speaker 2: Clearly, don't question the NGF.
36:31
Speaker 1: No, So, seventy seven percent of golfers are men, a
36:36
Speaker 1: little over twenty two percent are women. I know that's
36:39
Speaker 1: not a surprising statistic, but I was kind of shocked
36:42
Speaker 1: to hear that. For years, I've heard this joke that
36:45
Speaker 1: the acronym for golf means guys only.
36:47
Speaker 2: Ladies forbidden it.
36:49
Speaker 3: I mean, it's not really a joke, it's not Yeah,
36:52
Speaker 3: and there's still clubs today that exist in our country
36:55
Speaker 3: that do not allow women.
36:58
Speaker 2: So just to put that in personerspective, it's crazy.
37:01
Speaker 3: I don't know that the positive thing is today like
37:04
Speaker 3: women are the fastest growing segment in golf, which is
37:07
Speaker 3: so exciting because are they really like the fastest growing
37:11
Speaker 3: demographic and golf as women?
37:12
Speaker 1: So I feel like you were a future predictor because
37:15
Speaker 1: you had this feeling in twenty seventeen, you had this
37:17
Speaker 1: feeling with the Now what's your prediction for women in golf.
37:20
Speaker 3: I think women are owning their power, not intimidated anymore,
37:25
Speaker 3: feel strong and feel like, look like I can play
37:28
Speaker 3: on an even playing field with men, and I can
37:32
Speaker 3: be good at this, and I can have fun, and
37:34
Speaker 3: I can have a group of four girls go have
37:36
Speaker 3: fun the same way guys do or two couples. Outside
37:40
Speaker 3: of the US, female golf is bigger than male golf,
37:43
Speaker 3: so like in South Korea, we have a lot of
37:45
Speaker 3: business over there, Like no one really, no one really
37:48
Speaker 3: cares about men's golf as much as they do women's golf.
37:50
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, one hundred percent. That's so cool.
37:53
Speaker 3: So I think they're a little bit ahead of us,
37:55
Speaker 3: but we're catching up, and I think people will start
37:58
Speaker 3: to pay more attention. It's just like a recreational golfer
38:01
Speaker 3: who doesn't want to like have a drink with some.
38:03
Speaker 2: Girlfriends, go out on the course.
38:05
Speaker 3: In like a beautiful place and gets to spend some
38:09
Speaker 3: time together, like doing something competitive, even if you're competing
38:12
Speaker 3: with yourself. Tennis has obviously always been more like traditionally
38:16
Speaker 3: female centric or female focus. But I think with all
38:19
Speaker 3: the club sports. They're growing and it's a social experience.
38:23
Speaker 3: I love to see that for women because they say,
38:25
Speaker 3: like business deals are done on.
38:26
Speaker 2: The golf course.
38:28
Speaker 3: Always like historically been that conversation and it's always been
38:32
Speaker 3: men and now it's wait, I want to sit you
38:34
Speaker 3: know on that I can play too.
38:36
Speaker 2: So there you have it.
38:39
Speaker 1: So when we spoke earlier, you mentioned this being a
38:42
Speaker 1: family business.
38:43
Speaker 2: I could tell that was really important to you. Yes,
38:47
Speaker 2: I know.
38:47
Speaker 1: That a lot of people prefer to separate the two, right,
38:50
Speaker 1: this is work, this is home. You seem inspired by
38:54
Speaker 1: the fact that it is a Malbone family business.
38:59
Speaker 3: I think that we're both passionate people and it's very
39:03
Speaker 3: hard for us to like to separate anything.
39:06
Speaker 2: So if we're like, really, you know what if.
39:07
Speaker 1: So it's except for going to weddings, exactly.
39:09
Speaker 3: Except for going to weddings. But yeah, one hundred percent.
39:13
Speaker 3: If we're excited and inspired by what we're doing at work.
39:16
Speaker 2: Then that's coming home.
39:18
Speaker 3: If whatever's happening at home, like that's sort of coming
39:20
Speaker 3: to work, and that means like my kids are coming
39:22
Speaker 3: to work. So I think that's always been like how
39:25
Speaker 3: we've operated, Yeah, and be like, how do you do it,
39:28
Speaker 3: how do you do it?
39:28
Speaker 2: I'm like, it's not always easy.
39:30
Speaker 3: It's not and we've done it for long enough now
39:34
Speaker 3: we're like we've sort of figured out our roles. And
39:35
Speaker 3: in the beginning, I think it was more like challenging
39:38
Speaker 3: to say like, wait, I'm going to do this. You're
39:41
Speaker 3: going to do this, and we're not going to fight
39:43
Speaker 3: about this or what color this is or how that
39:47
Speaker 3: looks like. I'm going to give you the respect on
39:49
Speaker 3: at your respective space in the business and vice versa.
39:53
Speaker 3: The opportunity that like our kids get to travel with us,
39:56
Speaker 3: we get to be together, because that's also hard if
39:59
Speaker 3: you were so separate and you don't know what's going
40:01
Speaker 3: on in each other's lives when it comes to business
40:04
Speaker 3: or home, you're not connected in that. So we really
40:06
Speaker 3: have the full understanding of everything that's going on working
40:09
Speaker 3: at home, and it's really fun for better or worse better, Yeah, exactly.
40:15
Speaker 1: When I talked to entrepreneurs, it is like the Olympics
40:19
Speaker 1: of resourcefulness and relentlessness. Have you had a really hard
40:25
Speaker 1: day at Melbourne? Like, what has been the part that
40:29
Speaker 1: you guys had to overcome?
40:31
Speaker 3: Definitely in the very beginning, once it was just Stephen
40:34
Speaker 3: and I and we were investing financially, our own money
40:38
Speaker 3: into the business and we didn't know if it was
40:41
Speaker 3: going to work, and we had two little kids, and
40:43
Speaker 3: we were like, are we making the right decision?
40:45
Speaker 2: Is this what we should be doing?
40:47
Speaker 3: And we had this idea, but then there was those
40:50
Speaker 3: days that like the store like you need to do
40:52
Speaker 3: this to the roof and it's going to cost sixty
40:54
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and extra, and you're like, this.
40:57
Speaker 2: Is a hard day, you know what I mean, Like
40:58
Speaker 2: sixty ran on the roof.
41:00
Speaker 1: It was a really hard.
41:00
Speaker 3: Day for the store that like, is never gonna like
41:03
Speaker 3: is it gonna make money?
41:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, we're putting it.
41:06
Speaker 3: So I think like that in the very beginning, before
41:08
Speaker 3: we really honed in it was it was a feeling
41:10
Speaker 3: and in an Instagram that was what it started as.
41:13
Speaker 2: There wasn't a business plan that said.
41:15
Speaker 3: Oh we're going and started as an Instagram and a
41:18
Speaker 3: feeling like it wasn't like this is our business plan
41:21
Speaker 3: and we're going to start making clothes and we're gonna
41:22
Speaker 3: start selling X y Z. And we didn't have that
41:25
Speaker 3: background in traditional fashion background of running like an apparel business.
41:30
Speaker 3: These are all like, Okay, once we get to this step,
41:32
Speaker 3: we're just going to figure it out. And so it
41:34
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, we're gonna have this feeling in this
41:37
Speaker 3: instagram and we're going to hope that other people have
41:39
Speaker 3: the same feeling for this instagram. And then we started
41:43
Speaker 3: and we just but in that beginning stage, I think
41:46
Speaker 3: it was very difficult to continue to believe in yourself,
41:49
Speaker 3: believe in your idea, and like fund that idea with
41:53
Speaker 3: your like because you're like kids, you know what I
41:55
Speaker 3: mean to go to school like this is and it's
41:57
Speaker 3: are we going to take this risk? And are And
42:00
Speaker 3: it wasn't like we were doing this together. So it
42:01
Speaker 3: wasn't like one of us was like, well, I'm going
42:03
Speaker 3: to keep my steady position here and have fun. It
42:08
Speaker 3: was like we're all in yeah, And so I think
42:11
Speaker 3: those times, like looking back, it was part of our journey.
42:14
Speaker 3: But there were times where and it comes home, like
42:17
Speaker 3: when you're stressed at work together, you're stressed at home together,
42:21
Speaker 3: and so Steven and I would we were tense and
42:23
Speaker 3: we would argue, and so I think that that was
42:27
Speaker 3: those were days where I was there were days where
42:29
Speaker 3: it was like I made I did not make it
42:31
Speaker 3: like this was not the right decision. But then you
42:33
Speaker 3: wake up the next morning you're like, Okay, it was.
42:36
Speaker 3: So it's those it's those things. And it's like you
42:39
Speaker 3: look back and you can only connect the dots. Yeah,
42:42
Speaker 3: looking backwards, and in that moment, you just gotta trust
42:47
Speaker 3: in something feeling in an Instagram that was it. I
42:50
Speaker 3: love that so much.
42:51
Speaker 1: Okay, started rapid fire questions for you. Your favorite person
42:55
Speaker 1: to golf with, Stephen, your dream golf partner, Larry David.
43:04
Speaker 2: That's such a good one.
43:05
Speaker 1: Right, If you could be remembered by just one thing
43:09
Speaker 1: that you.
43:09
Speaker 2: Did, what would it be Making the world a better place?
43:13
Speaker 2: That's so nice. What is a book that you've read
43:16
Speaker 2: that changed your life? Something you think everyone should read?
43:18
Speaker 3: And I love Ora So I read her book did
43:23
Speaker 3: and I just my favorites of al isn't it. I
43:25
Speaker 3: just love like her perspective. I think that I'm always
43:29
Speaker 3: amazed by somebody who has such a rough upbringing and
43:32
Speaker 3: is able to like really just make the world a
43:36
Speaker 3: better place, stay positive and like impact and I'd really
43:39
Speaker 3: admire that.
43:40
Speaker 2: So anything she does can do, she can't do any wrong.
43:43
Speaker 2: In my book, I.
43:44
Speaker 1: Feel so similar, right, Okay, I'm going to give you
43:46
Speaker 1: these Okay, ooh, it's fifty two cards, so pick one randomly.
43:51
Speaker 3: What lesson has taken you the longest to learn? I
43:55
Speaker 3: think one of the lessons that I've learned is to
43:57
Speaker 3: trust my own feelings and not so I can get
44:00
Speaker 3: myself when I really feel something innately.
44:02
Speaker 2: And what is the smartest decision you've ever made? Having
44:05
Speaker 2: my babies at twenty and getting married to Stephen.
44:14
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what time it is. Today's a good day.
44:17
Speaker 1: To have a good day. I'll see you next week.