Hey what's up Robin? Hey! How you doing man? Oh I kind of got mad at my people a few minutes
ago. We'll let you stay on mute and just drink some coffee. Good to see you Jennifer. How
is the campaign going? Any wins yet? Yeah I've gotten a bunch of, I mean I've significantly
increased following on all my social media platforms which is great. Encouraging lots
of positive feedback there and I did my first launch last night. My workshop, it was great.
Had about three people I didn't know you know show up. Sally was on there so that was super
encouraging. Her just positivity and support and all of them were excited to you know want to join
my four-week challenge next week. So I've just finished and exported my Descript video. Shrunk
down a lot of filler words. It's very humbling for someone who spends a lot of time you know
presenting and doing you know calls to see how many words that you use that are unnecessary.
So I'm excited for you know the video that I now have with a lot less of those.
And then yeah I'm excited to launch next week as well. So it was encouraging. I feel like
you know again it was great practice you know on the tech side and the flow side of it all.
So a lot of confidence and appreciate your support. That's awesome. Yeah super exciting. Yeah so you've
got some new followers. So you had a stranger show up on Zoom for your some strangers.
Yeah I didn't. That's kind of cool. Are you? And also terrifying. This could go one of two ways.
That's awesome. Yeah any other wins? I mean Marcella's here. I see Janine.
Any other wins you guys have? Holly. Holly has disappeared. You guys can just unmute and we'll
do it real quick. Yeah I got I'm having major major traffic follower increase with TikTok.
Yeah. So I've been doing this weekly thing that that really God just had me to do. It was not
even on my agenda. And I've been reading the Psalms as a declaration. And I posted one yesterday
and my follower count has gone up. I think I was it went up over a hundred a hundred followers.
So and it's going it's almost at 10,000 views. And I mean it's awesome. Yeah I'm like wow.
That's really cool. Yeah just organic views. Just organic. Wow super cool. None of my videos have
10,000 views. Yeah you can talk. Yeah don't say that Bruce. Don't say that because you know you
got to be out there. I'm just joking. No that's super cool. Very very exciting. And so are you
seeing like any traffic from like to your profile from that? Yeah I am. Yeah I am seeing I did I
can't remember the numbers now but a lot of people are checking out the profile. What I also like
that so this is really the blessing guys. Most of you that started you know started with Bruce and
Lindsay with Kingdom Messengers. I felt like I was the turtle of the group. I felt like I was in last
place all the time. Not not not in comparison. It's just where life had me and healing and all that and
and actually today is my YouTube launch anniversary. I just realized that I started at 21.
So to just see organically all the things that are happening and so what I love is you know not
only am I've gotten the views but for people to respond. You know I'm saying you know say amen or
say you know say yes. It's like 300 people are like responding and some of them are requesting
prayers. So I've been responding and so that's really been amazing. So it really is a victory
and it kind of also speaks to the grace that God will you know give you at the right time.
You know so anyway yeah celebrating. So good yeah sometimes you're just you're building. You're just
posting. You don't know if it's working and sometimes it's like the season it's either the
right season or the wrong. But a lot of it is just building those reps like you were doing like you've
got used to doing the videos and all the stuff you know a while back and then all of a sudden
it just sort of takes off. It's like oh there's momentum. There's life on this. There's grace on
it. This is that's exciting. So very cool. Sally I know we gave a shout out to you in the live
yesterday but just tell us super quick some wins. I know you did your launch.
Yeah it was amazing. I was just adding up the numbers.
bit more cash over there, just to give you, because I think
sometimes it's good to see the numbers as well. But very
briefly, launched the book, did five launches, because I did one
live first thing in the morning for you guys, for those that are
US based, did one last thing at night for the UK and for us,
actually UK was in the morning. So Australia, New Zealand
nationals, and then did physical events. We made newcomer
bestseller within half an hour of the first launch, like at 630
AM. So we'd already made that. And we're done, I'll put it in
the chat. But ultimately the day, thanks to everybody's
support, we made I think I put it in our chat anyway, number
one new release in women's inspirational spirituality,
number one new release in Christian leadership. So they
were the new releases, but then number one in the US for health
and spirituality. That's amazing. That's just nuts. And
then two in Christian leadership for Kindle, which is all in the
States, two in religious leadership for Kindle, and
number three, overall for women's inspirational
spirituality. And we made the top 100 books in Christian
leadership on the day. That's amazing. So thank you. Thank you
for everyone's support. And then I was like, okay, so what is
what fruit not only have so we are over 100 books, either
preordered, ordered in Amazon on the day, went out. So I think
we've got 82 so far that have gone out through Amazon, and
then probably about a 50 through us at the moment. But then what
came out of it was I've got two quick stories because they're
flipping funny. One is went to go and do the 8am two people sat
in the cafe, nothing to do with us at all. Oh, is this a
wedding? No, they're flowers. Just for that, you know, the
launch, whatever. Oh, can I buy your book? Brilliant. So both of
them bought the book had a word from God sent them on the way
job done, do the launch. One of the ladies started to read the
book, message to make three hours from here and said, you
need to buy this book. She bought the book and then came
on at the 7pm thing that we did. Never met her in my life. And
she goes, I've read three chapters. It's absolutely
brilliant. It's just what I need to change my life. Like what
big and the other amazing areas. So good. From way back as I was
a kid doesn't want anything about God. Don't talk to me
about God. We tried to coach him had to stop trying to work out
what the difference between religion and relationship
wouldn't have a bar of it. At 3am. I'm messaging because it
started at 6am finished at 6am. So I had a 24 hour period to
send as many books as I could. I woke up at 3am and I messaged
every person I knew in the UK in the States in Canada, who was
awake to then do it. He was one of them. Any chance you could
Hey, I've launched my book today, any chance you could buy
it would really help me and feel free to share. He then
shared non Christian doesn't believe in God with his LinkedIn
profile went out to 29,000 people. What the heck? I ride
with laughter at God's face. That was nuts. So yeah, on the
day $740 in sales for the courses that I was offering that
came out of it. And $415 from the direct sales into Amazon,
plus there's some cash on there. So probably about 1500 bucks,
which wasn't really what we were going for. But that's the add on
plus the exposure. So anyone looking to write and launch a
book, I just share that with you to encourage you because it is
so doable. And look at this group of people who are all
here to cheer each other on to support each other. And I just
want to do a quick shout out to Jennifer, who did the most
amazing workshop. And actually, many of you guys went there, you
so missed out, can I just say, but I'm sure she'll give you an
opportunity to join her again. So she was absolutely amazing
and so needed and so heartfelt and so Jesus driven. She
definitely has a mission out there. Anyway, that's my game.
So good. Awesome. That's so exciting. I think it's so
helpful to start with testimonies, right? Because
we're all in various stages. And it's just cool to see people
just take that one last step. And then it's kind of live,
then it's public, then you know, they take that little step. So
yes, it's much easier to do it together, then separate. That's
really cool. So we're gonna jump into it. Today, we've got a
guest here, one of my friends, Bo Garrett, has been, you've
probably heard me talk about him a little bit. And some of the
challenges and the workshops, we talked about the little the
watch here story. And I talked about pilots, but Bo has some
really unique perspectives and has been doing this as well. He
launched, I think two and a half, three years ago, I'll let
him tell the story. But he's now like a few years into it. And
I'd love to kind of hear from him.
as far as kind of what all has happened in that time.
So Bo is a commercial pilot and he has got his MBA,
turned entrepreneur,
he's done a number of different things.
I have met Bo actually before I met Lindsay,
as we can imagine that.
So I realized that was over 16 years ago,
known Bo and his wife, Courtney.
And just the way that the Lord works is crazy
because they are now our neighbors somehow,
16 years later.
And so we're so excited,
but thanks Bo for jumping on
and everyone's happy here.
Oh, it's an absolute honor, Bruce.
Very glad to be here.
And yeah, man, it's hard to believe it's been 16 years.
It's just, it's, I think a testimony
to how God weaves our stories together.
And it's just really cool to be with you on the journey, man.
So thanks for having me.
That's awesome.
Well, I'm just gonna,
we'll go through some questions,
let you kind of interview.
And then if you guys have questions for Bo as well,
just drop them in the chat
and we'll do some Q&A at the end.
We're still gonna do,
we'll do 15, 20 minutes of hot seats as well at the end.
So if you came with a question,
we'll jump into that, save that,
we will get to you.
But yeah, so Bo,
maybe just kind of giving some backstory,
like what inspired you to start Bravo Golf
and then kind of how'd you get the idea?
And then you actually had to launch,
like maybe talk to that process.
100%.
So that's a very open-ended question.
So if I go too long or if I go off the rails,
just stop me.
So I'll just-
I'll fade the music in.
Yeah, okay.
That sounds good.
Just a real quick,
I think Bruce was very generous in his intro of me,
but as he said,
I was a commercial pilot for a number of years.
Did that primarily in Atlanta where I met Bruce
and then ultimately decided,
halfway through that career,
I basically survived two market cycles.
In aviation, you're very subject to economic cycles.
And at the,
I basically just gotten enough hours
to go fly for the airlines
when the 08 financial crisis happened
and aviation opportunities just dried up for years.
And so I decided to go back and get my MBA.
And that launched me
into a whole other ecosystem of opportunity.
But that kind of segues
into how I got the idea for Bravo Golf.
Aviation has always been my first love,
love flying.
Bruce is working on his private right now.
So we get to,
go up every now and then.
If you don't know,
in aviation,
there are so many milestones that you hit.
The first time you go on a discovery flight,
your first solo,
your first cross country.
And there's very few ways
to help pilots celebrate their journey.
And so,
it really started out as an inspiration
to help commemorate the moments
that a person experiences
as they travel through their aviation journey.
And so,
I love watches as well.
And most pilots do.
So I thought that was a very obvious starting point,
to create something for the aviation community
that would help them to commemorate certain milestones.
That's awesome.
And I think,
you had that transition point
where I think the first time I heard about it,
you're like,
hey, I have this idea.
I've got this idea for this thing.
One day,
either raise money or do something.
And then I'm gonna like,
when I have all this extra money or whatever,
I'm gonna go and launch this thing.
But just that moment of like,
what got you from like,
hey, this is just an idea,
to like,
it started.
It's a company now.
That's a great question.
Let me,
I just wanna share one quick qualifier
with everybody here.
I just wanna say that getting an MBA was great
and it helped provide a foundation for me
professionally in another way.
But it has probably done very little
in helping me build the muscles
that I needed to build to start Bravo Golf.
So I just wanna say to everybody on the call,
like,
if you're just starting,
don't feel like that was an advantage
that I had or anything else.
It literally is just very little.
An MBA essentially makes you a very good observer
of business and you understand,
like a doctor,
what a business looks like.
But it doesn't teach you how to be a participant
in business,
so to speak.
And this has certainly taught me
the latter part of that skillset.
So Bruce,
back to your question.
How do I go from an idea to getting started?
Well,
you and I were on my patio
and I was sharing the idea with you.
And
I think you have to take it one step at a time
and give yourself an initial target
and then just take action.
And I shared it with Bruce, what I would love to do,
what was in my heart to do, the vision for it
and everything else.
And Bruce really just said to me, he's like,
look, just send a survey out to pilots on social media
and see if people respond.
And so instead of spending a lot of time
going to watch events and watch fairs
and understanding manufacturing and everything else,
just share your idea out there and solicit feedback
from the people who are gonna be in your market,
which happen to be pilots.
So that was my first goal.
It was very simple.
It was just like, okay, I know what I would like in a watch.
I know there's probably six or seven features
in a pilot watch that other pilots may like.
Let me build a survey, do a video
and ask people to fill out the survey
on what they would like to see in a time piece.
So that's what got us started.
That's awesome.
Yeah, and you took that step,
you basically went from here's an idea
and then you actually had to,
there's a few things that it's like practical things.
Like you had to record a video,
you had to like push some ads out.
And what was the thing?
Cause there's probably a lot of like fear at scale.
You're like, I'm gonna try this,
but it's probably not gonna work.
Like, where's your mindset?
So a hundred percent, I mean, there,
and let me just say this,
that feeling of taking that next step
and not knowing what that's gonna feel like
or what's gonna happen,
that stays the case as long as you're growing.
And it's just, you don't, you always have to face that.
You get more used to taking that step as you go,
but you're always faced with,
oh, should I go to this show now?
Should I do this thing?
Should I launch this new series?
So it's kind of this muscle you build over time.
But the hardest thing for me,
so after I spoke with Bruce,
I realized I need to record a video.
I need to learn how to market that video
and find an audience.
And I need to build a type form survey,
all things I had no idea how to do.
And so Bruce was instrumental.
He said, look, it only needs to be 15 seconds.
Say, you know, two or three things,
get people into your story
and then give them a link to your survey.
And so literally I went to an airport
with my iPhone and I walked out onto,
it was a private, like in aviation,
there's general aviation airports
and there's usually just airplanes
right out there on the tarmac.
So I just walked out to one of those
and put an airplane in the background
and walking away from the airplane,
shot the Facebook ad.
Took me like, it took me like 10 takes to get anything.
And I would send them to Bruce and say,
what do you think of this one?
That's okay, try it again.
And so I learned that your ads get better
the more takes you have and, you know,
around take 20 or so, it's perfect.
And so anyway, we found something that worked
and then I was like, okay, I've got a video that might work
and I've figured out how to do a type form survey,
no idea what to do next.
And so then Bruce really just helped me
define an ad campaign on Facebook
and with his help, got it launched.
Yeah, I think one of the things that was,
I remember back, like you never really know,
we're setting up all these targeting,
you know, niches and stuff,
but we were targeting, you know,
Christian people launching their podcasts.
It's a totally different thing.
So there's a lot of unknowns there,
even as I was like giving you advice
and this was years ago, but we didn't, we had no,
I don't think any either of us knew that
when you kind of got super specific,
like you targeted the pilots,
that it just was so targeted that it just,
somehow we just found pilots instantly.
So what are some of the like metrics
on that first campaign?
This is like, what is this?
Like the first few weeks, maybe a month or two into it?
Yeah, so this was three years ago that we did this
and we found some audiences.
I think we found like people who are interested
in flight instruction or student pilots
or commercial pilots.
It wasn't a huge,
it wasn't like millions and millions of people.
I think it was probably a million folks, maybe,
maybe not even.
And so I was planning to use the results
of that survey to do two things.
I was like, okay, if I can get this out there,
I think I had maybe five or 600 bucks to spend on ads
to get it out there to everybody.
If people respond, number one,
I wanted to see if anybody would respond.
Number two, I was hoping that there would be a very.
clear indication of what pilots would want to watch.
And it was actually about seven weeks we ran it.
And in seven weeks, we got over 1,800 responses
to that survey.
Yeah, and so like statistically speaking,
2,000 people tends to represent an entire population pretty
well, statistically.
So at 1,800, we got 1,810.
And 98% of them we validated were actual pilots.
And so I had data.
I had data at that point.
I was like, holy cow.
I couldn't even believe it.
I thought Bruce and I were talking really, OK,
we might get 100 or 200 if we're lucky.
We had over 1,800 responses in that time frame.
And that survey became my product development
roadmap.
And ultimately, that survey became the primary marketing
message when I made the product.
It wasn't that I just, I'm making this for you,
and here's why you'll like it.
It's, hey, I talked to 1,800 pilots,
and this is what they said.
So it's not me selling it.
It's the survey that's selling it.
And so that became a huge advantage for us
as we went to market.
That's awesome.
Yeah, so you were talking about as you're really
building a brand, right?
So watches, timepieces, they're crazy competitive.
The people are super picky about it.
Brands have been around for 100 years.
What are some of the things that you did to kind of differentiate
Bravo Golf in those early days?
That's such a good question, man.
And it's so hard.
So I'll just share with you, it took me a year
from that point, from the time that I got the survey,
it literally took me a year to figure out how to make a watch.
So I did all this research, and I actually
put myself through watchmaking school
online just to find how to do these different things.
And in the design process, I kept coming back
to those survey results because I really
wanted to say with integrity and conviction and confidence
that this was designed with pilot feedback.
And so that's the best answer, I think, to your question,
Bruce, is that I literally spoke to the market extensively
as I was creating this product.
And I could say that to people with a straight face.
Hey, look, we made this with you in mind.
Here are the results.
Here's what we heard.
And there's specific features.
It's a very simple watch, but there's
one specific feature on it that is uniquely made for a pilot.
And when I shared that we sent the survey out,
we had that response rate.
And this is what we built as a result.
Usually, when I'm speaking to a pilot,
that's when their eyes light up.
They're like, oh, that's what it does.
And they're like, yeah.
And then that prompts them to want to purchase the timepiece.
That's great.
And I mean, in this process, you did the survey.
And now you have all these email addresses.
But they have not given you any money yet.
You kind of need money.
If you're doing anything with a product,
you have to go make a product at some point.
And manufacturers don't just do it
and then you pay them at the end.
They want you to put down deposits.
And so how did you do that?
I know you just tried to preorder stuff.
Like, what was the process there just to get cash?
That's such a good question, man.
So it was so iterative.
I later found out that I would need tens of thousands
of dollars to make the watch.
And I didn't have that laying around in savings
that I could use as discretionary savings
or whatever.
I had to find it.
And so what I learned through the process of designing
the watch is that when you go through engineering
and everything, you end up with these really high-quality,
high-res renders that you cannot tell
the difference between the render and the actual product.
And so this was another inflection point, Bruce,
I remember.
It was in December.
And I was like, hey, man, check this out.
We finished the designs.
They're all done.
It's been engineered, the whole thing.
Look at this.
And he's like, wait, that's not a real watch.
I was like, no.
He's like, you should sell that as a preorder.
I was like, what do you mean?
So.
Um, basically what I've learned since launching is that, and watch companies
do this all the time, they do it through Kickstarter or otherwise, but they'll
do a pre-order campaign and you ask your customers, your potential customers to
pay a fraction of what the total cost is with the deposit due on delivery.
And, um, that's what we ended up doing with a digital file.
And, um, we ended up getting about 80 or 90% of the way there for our manufacturing
deposit, just on pre-orders for the watch using a digital file.
And so it was very scrappy and very, um, you know, just iterative one step after
another, and then I was able to put the deposit down and then the interesting
thing is, um, as Bruce mentioned, I didn't just have 1800 responses.
I had 1800 email addresses from people who were now vested in the story
and have provided their feedback.
So my first marketing with that digital render was, um, an email campaign.
And I'll never forget, we launched December 21st of 2022.
So it wasn't that long ago.
Um, I sent the email out and about 45 minutes later, I saw the
first pre-order come through and I, yeah, so, and then I, um, Sally, I saw your
response, that's exactly what I did in my, I was like, oh my God, I was so, I was so
blown away that was my first experience ever of conceptualizing something and
conceptualizing something and creating something and getting money in exchange
for an idea that you, that there is no other feeling like that.
Um, and so immediately I called Bruce and they had just him and Lindsay had just
sat and sat down to dinner and I was like, man, what, guess what just happened?
And so, um, that sort of kicked off a really cool spring.
Like we had before we even got the watches in, in stock, we probably had
like 80 pre-orders of the watch, but that was over the course of a seven or eight
month, eight month period.
And, um, and, and that was another step.
So maybe I'll pause there.
Let you guide the,
No, that's, that's great.
I mean, you're talking already about like the, the community, like having this
community of people, it's not just that me, just, we think like we're just gonna
stay on the street corner and just like yell at people by my thing, by my thing.
But you actually kind of brought them into a community and made it about them.
Like, Hey, this is your watch.
This is, we're building this.
Like you gave input.
We heard you.
Um, so yeah, that maybe just talking through like, um, obviously they helped
shape the brand right early on.
Um, but just that idea, like you, you were able to do some pre-orders.
We were able to do, uh, the, um, that initial, those initial sales, but, um,
how has that like helped as well?
And I think you've, and you've also involved other, uh, uh, influencers,
pilots out there, maybe just talking about it because it's built quite a bit.
Yeah.
Yep.
So, so, um, we started, um, and again, Bruce guided me through this process of
marketing the pre-order campaign and it worked really well.
Like during that pre-order campaign, we had a row as of like 4.2.
Does anybody not know?
I'll tell us what a row as is.
Okay.
So row as is return on ad spend.
So for every dollar you put in your row as is the amount of
dollars that you get back.
So a 4.2 row as means that for every marketing dollar that I spent, I got $4
and 20 cents back in product sales.
And so that's a very important metric in an e-commerce business.
Um, you kind of live and die by that number.
If your primary sales channel is online marketing.
And so, um, it was just, it was incredible.
It was phenomenal.
We had, it was, yeah, like a 4.2 row as for the first five or six months.
And then as that happened, um, I started getting, um, solicited from influencers,
like, excuse me, people reached out out of nowhere and said, can I rep your brand?
And it was just so encouraging.
And so I, I, um, I started learning, I didn't know, I didn't know anything
about brand ambassadors or what that even meant or how to set it up or do anything.
And so I have a Shopify store.
And so I got on Shopify apps and I'm just typed in brand ambassador,
like all these things showed up.
And so, and then what I've learned is that with, with every app, with every
capability that you bolt onto your e-com business, whatever that app is, they,
they usually have a really good.
resource deck of, here's how our app works.
Here's what affiliate marketing is.
Here's what a brand ambassador can do.
So I just learned and I just bolted on, you know,
affiliate marketing to the Shopify store.
Never had done that before.
And then just created links and just navigated that process.
And then, you know, we, go ahead, Bruce.
No, I was saying, these are sizable brands as well.
Maybe some examples.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Well, yeah, so.
You're being super humble and I need to share some numbers.
Well, we had, so we had,
initially we had people reaching out
that had like seven to 10,000 followers.
And then when I learned about brand ambassadors
and what that meant, I started looking for people
that I would like to work with.
And I just started reaching out to them.
And it's interesting, one step leads to the next.
And so the fact that I had onboarded somebody
who reached out to me that had seven or 8,000 followers,
I used that in my next conversation
with the person that had over 120,000 followers.
And I reached out to them and I messaged them and I said,
hey, we're brand new, this is our new brand.
We just signed on this person.
And like, oh, I know that person, let's meet.
And so we signed on a guy named Bruno, Fly With Bruno.
He's 120,000 followers.
And then when he signed on, all these other people,
I think we have like five or six influencers
with over 100,000 followers
that are just repping our brands.
And so.
Yeah, and just, so how did you do that?
Because like, we didn't have money.
You didn't even have a product.
And yet, like, how did you get someone to do that?
You know, was it expensive?
What was the cost?
You know, what you can do is
you just be honest about your journey
and be like, this is who I am.
This is what we're trying to do.
I can't pay you, but I can absolutely give you a commission
on every sale that comes through your link.
And that's what they all decided to do.
And so, you know, some of these folks
will charge you $3,000 to $5,000 a post.
And I was like, there's just no way I can do that right now.
But if you would rep, and as I mentioned,
it's like one step leads to another.
And if you involve your community early on
and you can continue to reference that involvement,
it goes a long way.
Because I was able to say in those conversations,
you know, I reached out to pilots in the community.
This is what we heard back.
These are the influencers we've already got.
So it's kind of this, I want to be part of that.
I want to be part of that.
Instead of me going to them and saying,
would you please rep us?
This, you know, it's more of we're already moving
and we'd love to have you join us
versus can you please rep our brand?
And so it's, I think positioning is a big part of it.
And just having all of those steps
that preceded those conversations was a big help.
Donovan, does that answer your question, Bruce?
That's great, yeah.
So they said $3,000 to $5,000 a post
and you said, how about you do the post
and I give you no money?
They said, yes.
We'll appreciate it.
That's great.
But not everybody.
There were people that said no.
Oh, sure.
They were like, yeah.
And just to be, just so everybody's aware,
brand ambassadors, I think it varies from,
you know, niche to niche.
We've had some success with our brand ambassadors,
but it hasn't really been huge.
It's an experiment.
Like all of these things that will start to happen
when you get moving, you're gonna wanna do all of them.
Or you have to pick kind of one at a time to do.
And then you figure out what works and it just takes time.
Brand ambassadors are really good.
I have discovered for one thing, and it's not for sales.
It's to educate your market.
And so one of the things that's really challenging to do
if you are a brand new brand is educating your market.
Because think about the last time you bought
something online that you saw.
If you go back and you consider it,
you may have seen it five or 20 times
before you purchased it.
And so, but if you've never even heard about it,
then it takes even more time,
more impressions, more awareness.
So the fact that I had brand ambassadors out there
talking about it, showing the watch in the airplane,
even though we couldn't tie sales directly back to them
that were like, and there were.
there were sales, but it wasn't like this hockey stick moment.
What tends to happen is I heard it from this person
and that person, and I saw it at your show,
and then I saw the ad, and then this,
and then I signed up for an email,
and I got these three emails, and then I
decided to purchase.
And so you're building this story sharing ecosystem
with all of these different channels.
And the goal is to get sales, but when you're just
starting out, you really have to educate your market.
And that's a great way to do it.
That's great.
That's awesome.
Super cool.
So we kind of talked about the early stage,
and then a bunch of stuff happened.
But then I'd love to hear, where is that now?
You can share the newest product as well.
And if you want to share your screen or show it,
it's very visual, so I know it'd be
hard to explain, but you're welcome to.
Do you want me to skip ahead to where we are now?
I don't know if I'm taking too much time.
Sure, yeah.
We can go to the latest thing you've launched.
I'm not going to say what it is or who it is.
I will fill in the gaps for you guys as you have questions.
But I think maybe I've illustrated the fact
that when we started this, it was iterative,
and it continues to be an iterative process.
And that's OK, because I really love the journey.
I really love the journey.
I love learning.
It's great to, it stinks to fail when you think something's
for sure going to work.
But what you learn from that is just so invaluable.
And then just getting up and trying again and again
and again until you find those things that work.
And it's just an incredibly rewarding experience
when you start to see the things that are paying off.
And it just takes time.
So all that said, Bruce, I'm just
going to jump to where we are now.
OK, so we are beginning our fourth year.
Yeah, it's at 22, 23.
Yeah, we're beginning our fourth year.
And since we launched, we have sold watches
all over the US and different countries,
sold some down in Australia, sold some over in Finland,
Canada.
It's starting to grow.
We have been featured in AOPA magazine, which
is the largest pilot organization in the world.
And I didn't have to pay for that either, by the way.
They came to me, and they said, can we do an editorial on you?
And I said, sure.
And they said, just send us a couple watches.
I sent the watches, and I thought they'd send them back,
and they never did.
That's OK, because we got a lot of sales from that editorial.
And we've been featured in AOPA magazine.
Bruce, I haven't told you this.
NPR reached out from How I Built This and interviewed me.
And they're like, we'd love to consider.
It wasn't for the show.
It was a pre-interview.
So they're considering putting Bravo Golf on the How
I Built This podcast.
We've been approached by three different aircraft
manufacturers to create custom timepieces for their aircraft
owners.
We've been approached by another aviation brand
that wants a custom timepiece for their customers.
And this particular brand, they are the people.
They have three companies.
And one of their companies, they create all of the pilot,
all of the helmets for every single pilot in the Air Force.
So they're a massive business.
So all these things are kind of sitting right there.
They haven't landed yet, but they're these invitations
that keep happening.
And then last spring, we got approached by,
this is where I'll share my screen,
we got approached by a family in aviation, which some of you
may have heard of, to do a limited edition watch run
celebrating the family and their history.
Let me just share my screen real quick.
You guys see my screen?
Not yet, no.
All right, hold on.
Let me try again.
No, it's OK.
I think I got it.
This is where my tech skills falter.
OK, let me get it back.
I gave you the cliffhanger and I didn't give you the payoff here. Okay, here we go. Can you see this?
Yep. Okay. So the Wright brothers family came up to us and they were like, this happened at
a show called Son and Fun in Florida. And once again, it was the president of the licensing
arm that represents the family's interests and his name's Ken Botts. And when he came up to our
booth, I had no idea who he was or what he wanted to talk to me about. But we started talking and
he said, have you ever considered doing a licensing deal? And I said, well, what do you mean
by that? So I had no, I don't know what that means. And he said, well, would you consider
licensing somebody's name to do a limited edition run? And I said, I might, it depends on who it is.
And he said, would you consider doing it for the Wright family? I was like, are you serious? And
he said, yeah. And he introduced himself and told, told me what they do. And so the Wright
brothers USA is a, an organization that has contracted with Steven and Amanda Wright, who
are the closest living relatives to the brothers to license their name and their likeness for
products that they want to, the family wants to be associated with. And they use a portion
of the proceeds from the sale of these goes back to the family foundation, which, which then
is the money is used to help support aviation education for, for youth. And so
we signed a deal with them in July. Again, I had not done any licensing deal ever before.
And I had to go through that whole process and learn about it. And each step I'm just,
you know, I tried not to sound like I didn't know what I was doing or what I was talking about,
but it certainly made some mistakes. And, but we navigated through it. And just to give you
guys an idea, and this is where these are just these winks from the Lord to keep going.
This is completely outside of myself. Like I, Sally, like you were sharing earlier about these
people that are buying the book, and there's I calling and I show up to the thing. You know,
when you, when you step out in faith on these things, it doesn't always go like you think it
will. It doesn't. And sometimes it goes badly, it goes bad, and you just keep going. But I do,
I am convinced that the Lord's hand was in this and just trying to be faithful, you know,
through the process. And so we created this series. I did a tremendous amount of research on
it. And I got to spend three days in Dayton with Stephen Wright and go see all of the original
flyers and watch the original fabric and, and hear all of the stories that are out there. And
and just to do research on the Wrights. And what I found is that the success they had
certainly is attributed, I feel, after doing all this research, as much to their family as it is
to them. They certainly were the ones to have the breakthrough. But just to give you some context,
their dad, his name is Bishop Milton Wright. He was a pastor in Dayton. And he was a pastor
in the United Brethren Church. And he was, he was a contrarian. Like, he would encourage his
family to stay at home and out of school if they had projects they were working on that he thought
could be useful or were useful intellectual pursuits. And he got in trouble many times
from teachers about that. But that's the environment the brothers grew up in.
They were allowed to pursue their intellectual curiosities. Their sister,
Catherine, her dream was to teach Latin and French. And she did that for a time. But when
her brothers discovered flight, she became their spokesperson throughout all of Europe.
And because they, they were terrible at public speaking. And so she was so integral in their
success in Europe and the world at large that France gave her the French Legion of Honor
alongside of her brothers for her contributions to the Wright Flyer. So these watches are really
in honor of the family. So that the one on the right here is the brothers after, you know,
what they discovered for aviation. The one in the center is the bishop for the father's influence.
And the one on the left is the influence from their sister, Catherine. So we launched that
back in October. And we launched this as a pre-order campaign, again, to try to generate
revenue to have them built. And they should be available this...
This summer so that's very cool. It's a mouthful. Yeah, super cool, man. That's great
uh
That's awesome. And i'll um, i'll
See here. I'll drop the link just to your site in case if you guys want to check it out or instagram for sure
um
Anything else like we'll do some quick and anything you'd like advice if you're starting again
Today and you're like you would know everything, you know now but like we took your took you started again from scratch
Like what would be your advice?
Uh, or how would you do it differently or advice for new people?
uh
It's a great question. Am I still sharing or no?
No, I stopped it. You're good. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay, cool. Um
That is a great question. I would say involve
your community
early on
And communicate with them early and often about what you're doing. I would say probably to summarize
is invite them into your story because um
People don't nowadays we're all inundated with
ads and um
Just options and opportunities. Um
when somebody catches your story and they see themselves in it, it goes a long way and so
You know if you if you have an idea
And you are the person that you're trying to sell to then, you know who that person is
and you know how to speak to them and um
I would just solicit their feedback and just be honest about what you're doing like
open up your journey to them and um
it's
honestly, that's my biggest challenge because my tendency is to get into a
a rhythm and I don't communicate and I
I just go from one task to the next and so that's frankly very hard for me
Um, but it does go a long way if you can do that
Awesome
Well, that's super cool
If I know there's a bunch of chat going super cool to see uh, all the things that you guys are doing
Um, and we'll take some questions as well
If you guys have uh for bow, you can raise your hand
We'll also open it up if you guys have um hot seat questions that you want to just ask
Me or bow or anyone on the group? Um, and uh, that's great
But thank you both for sharing that you guys show some love in the chat as always really appreciate that. It's it's cool to see
You know, we always kind of talk about like here's the launch and now it's amazing and wow isn't business easy and fantastic
But it's like there's four years
Of messy middle in there of you know, all kinds of things. So
um appreciate you sharing that and uh jumping on here, so
Yeah, if you guys have any questions, we can raise a hand or we'll we'll keep chatting
um
And if you guys I did drop the uh, your instagram links if you guys want to go see that
Uh bow's instagram for fly bravo golf
you can check that out and uh, just see some of the creative and some of the stuff they I feel like
It's really cool
If you scroll to the beginning like watch some of the very early posts and then you can see like all the right brother stuff
It's like the evolution of it is is pretty inspiring to see kind of where it's come
Um, and it's it's awesome to see some of these other influencers repping
Uh, you know the the product from all over
so
awesome
sweet
You guys have any questions or hot seats robin? I see what's up
Yeah, I don't know. I can't figure out how to raise my hand on this thing. So sorry. Sorry about that
One of the challenges we live in a world where people um
some people will steal your ideas and and and do it, you know, and so
were you
You had god behind you and you know, the lord's gonna
Whatever you have going that's that's one big advantage
But did you have any fear or concerns or did you do anything to protect?
Uh when you were first starting out
That's such a great question robin. And so, um
The answer is yes and um
I had this I had a similar angst that you're talking about when I created this because
Look, there are so many watch businesses out there
that have
far greater manufacturing than I do and um
Capability and their time to market is months shorter than mine and and everything and if they wanted to take my idea
They certainly could
um
That said
uh
There is
I'd never let that keep me from taking the next step
You know
There's certain amount of vulnerability. You have to assume when you're starting something
And just just going for it and being true to yourself
I think if if they could take your product they can't take your story
and so
Well, that's, and when you talk about business moats,
like what is that thing?
What's that competitive advantage?
Honestly, it's so much about you and who you are
and why you're doing it and your story
that led you to this point.
And that can't, you can't duplicate that.
Like there's, you just can't.
And so that's such a big piece of the early part
of the journey is just sharing your story
again and again and again.
Now that said, I'm also not naive
and I was able to generate enough revenue at one point
and Bruce actually introduced me
to a great trademark lawyer.
So I did get, so our original dial was,
is unique enough that we could get a,
at least apply for a patent on the design.
So I have done that, but I only did that for the U.S.
I haven't done it internationally.
So who's to say that some manufacturer
won't take our design?
It could happen.
But at the end of the day, they're not taking me.
They're not taking my story.
They're not taking the history and the evolution
that we've experienced so far.
And the thing is, even if that happens,
let's say I've got three other competitors out there,
it's just a big world.
It's just a big, and there are so many customers.
And so there's just no substitute
for getting in front of your customers too.
Like if there are trade shows you can go to,
if there are in-person events,
like that personal connection cannot be substituted.
So while that exists and it's out there,
I think, especially if you're stepping out in faith
in something and you know there's a,
you've got a strong conviction
that God's given you some breadcrumbs, just go with it.
And then, but also be wise.
Don't turn a blind eye to common sense.
When you've got enough money to trademark or patent
or copyright something, do it,
but don't let that stop you from getting started.
I hope that helps.
Does that answer your question?
Awesome.
That's great.
Super good.
Sally, go for it.
It's just a quick one, really.
How did you find your influencers
or your brand ambassadors?
Because I'm sure for many of us, it's like,
oh, that might be a step that's coming up in the near future.
What would your tips for us be?
That's a great question.
So for me, the first one I found approached me
just from ads I was running on Facebook and Instagram.
And the other part of it is, like, I love aviation.
I'm a pilot, so I follow certain people.
I just know who they are.
And so I'm like, oh, it always starts with,
oh, it'd be so incredible if we could get that person.
He's so famous.
He's got 100,000 followers, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.
And you're like, there's no way that'll ever happen.
And then you reach out to him, and they say yes.
And you're like, what?
And so I don't know what the content of your book is,
or spiritual wellness in that type of a niche.
There's probably people who are voices of influence,
very specifically for what it is you're communicating.
And you probably already know who those people are.
And so I think the, you know,
and I found them on Instagram and Facebook, essentially.
Sorry, to be more direct.
But whoever, I don't know, Lisa Bevere, maybe you wanna,
who knows?
So like, whoever these people,
just reach out to them and see, you know?
I don't know if that's, does that help?
No, that's super helpful.
And actually, I had to put my big girl's pants on
and ask Bruce's dad to write the foreword for my book.
There we go.
I just, cause that was the thing.
It was like, okay, who would be, oh my goodness,
if Dionne would do that, that would be incredible.
Right.
And he said, yes, look!
Right, exactly.
Thank you.
So that's it, but Sally, that's a great point.
Like, I think there's a,
it's really important to listen to your heart
and to your excitement.
And when you guys are thinking about reaching out
to brand ambassadors, reach out to somebody that excites you
because, you know, if they excite you,
they're gonna, they're exciting a hundred thousand
other people that follow them.
And I also just add that you are,
you're always solving someone's problem, right?
Like Bruno's got a hundred thousand followers.
That's great.
You can't actually, like that doesn't mean
you have making money, right?
Like you can promote stuff and you have influence,
but you need something to sell.
So they, they're constantly looking for two things.
One is more content.
Because once they start that content engine,
they just need more things to, you know,
they kind of run out of ideas.
So content's huge.
And then also just giving them a way to make money.
Like, hey, you've, how,
how do we help you monetize all this influence?
And of course, a lot of people are doing that,
but in that kind of range of like, I know.
I have some friends, we have Stephen Diaz coming next month, who's done a ton of
influencer marketing as well.
And they actually found the sweet spot of actually, you know, the five to 10, up to
50,000 followers because they were like very eager to jump in.
The first guy that Bo was talking about had 8,000 and they're actually like
reaching out to him, which is, which is great.
And again, you started this with, you know, zero followers on Fly Bravo Golf.
So like anyone who had like a thousand, you're like, this is amazing.
The person with 1,000 followers is amazing.
Right.
So let me, let me just give you guys a pro tip real quick too.
Um, uh, we have got more sales from our brand ambassadors with eight to 10,000
followers than we have any of the a hundred thousand plus, which is
counterintuitive, but here's, here's why, um, for whatever reason, and look, I'm
not an expert, I'm just sharing my experience.
It seems as if the followers are more engaged on those lower, um, uh, follower
influencers for whatever reason, they're just more, they're just more engaged.
What, um, he sold Danny Casanovas, who it is one of the guys that's his real last
name, by the way, and he's a pilots.
Um, he, uh, uh, he's just sold a lot of watches.
He only had like 8,500 followers and, um, and that was the case for a couple of
other people as well, but they just seem to be more engaged.
And I don't know if that means that some of these folks maybe have used, um, some
technological capability to grow their followership versus organic growth.
Anyway, I still reach out to the people with a hundred thousand.
Don't let that, you know, keep him doing that, but that's just been our experience.
That's awesome.
Very good.
Well, I know we're coming up on time, um, but thank you Bo again for, for hanging
out with us.
I'm happy to do it.
Absolutely.
Um, a couple of things, if you guys want to make sure we end on time, but, uh, I
know some of you guys are waiting for the, some different, uh, uh, uh, uh,
course as well.
So we're putting up a few more videos this week.
You'll, you'll get that as well.
We'll announce it in the group, but, um, yeah, we'll, we'll be back and I, Bo
will be in the, in the community.
I'm going to throw him into the, the pioneers group as well.
So yeah, if you have questions, you can drop them there if you think of them
later and, uh, yeah, but thanks man for showing up and thank you guys all for
jumping on.
Hopefully it was encouraging and exciting just to kind of see someone who's doing
the thing maybe you're trying to do or, um, just taking the time to do it.
Yeah.
Happy to be here, Bruce.
Thanks for having me.
See you guys.
Have a great week.
Alrighty.
Bye-bye.