Launching an organized youth sports franchise system in Atlantic Canada

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: All right, ladies and gentlemen,
[00:06] SPEAKER_01: welcome to Canada's podcast,
[00:09] SPEAKER_01: the Atlantic Canada version.
[00:11] SPEAKER_01: And my name is Rivers Corbett.
[00:12] SPEAKER_01: I'm your host and I'm
[00:14] SPEAKER_01: pleased to introduce to the show today
[00:16] SPEAKER_01: go straight from Lower Sackville,
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: Nova Scotia, Mr. Anthony MacNeill.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: Welcome, sir.
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: Hey, Rivers, great to be on the show.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm really pleased to have you in
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: the show with all the things that I'm
[00:28] SPEAKER_01: looking at here that you do and how
[00:31] SPEAKER_01: ultimately be able to bring value to
[00:33] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs today.
[00:34] SPEAKER_01: So that's going to be a good conversation.
[00:36] SPEAKER_01: But let's kind of start into your journey as an entrepreneur.
[00:39] SPEAKER_01: What kind of get you started?
[00:41] SPEAKER_01: Now I'm going to do this thing on my own.
[00:43] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, are you talking specifically about my 32 year journey
[00:47] SPEAKER_02: or my last seven years of premier?
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's go into premier 32.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: I won't touch a piece into that.
[00:53] SPEAKER_01: I'm sure as we do the premier sports.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, let's do the last seven years.
[00:56] SPEAKER_02: Well, essentially, why I got into the business is that
[01:00] SPEAKER_02: my previous three or four businesses were mostly
[01:04] SPEAKER_02: do about me, what I wanted, what I wanted to get out of the
[01:07] SPEAKER_02: business, the type of money I was going to make.
[01:11] SPEAKER_02: This particular business is kind of happened into it.
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: I really wasn't supposed to be a business site.
[01:16] SPEAKER_02: I had been running a real estate brokerage.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: I owned one and I came upon this.
[01:21] SPEAKER_02: This really needs sport called floorball.
[01:24] SPEAKER_02: I somewhat of the cup of sticks.
[01:25] SPEAKER_02: I ordered it from a distributor in Toronto.
[01:27] SPEAKER_02: He brought it to school.
[01:29] SPEAKER_02: Next thing you know, the school was just love in the sport
[01:32] SPEAKER_02: because I was so engaging kids who weren't playing sports.
[01:35] SPEAKER_02: We're stepping up.
[01:38] SPEAKER_02: And then that led to me getting involved with four ball
[01:42] SPEAKER_02: Canada on their on their board.
[01:44] SPEAKER_02: Well, cool.
[01:45] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[01:45] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[01:46] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[01:47] SPEAKER_02: What is absolutely a maximal deal?
[01:50] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I just, you know, I was the plus representative
[01:52] SPEAKER_02: for this sport that nobody knew about.
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[01:55] SPEAKER_02: Because I was so involved with hockey as a coach and as a referee,
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: I got the privilege of traveling with hockey Canada over to Sweden
[02:02] SPEAKER_02: in 2014 to look at the world floorball championships.
[02:07] SPEAKER_02: Well, because hockey Canada was betting the sport to see if it's
[02:10] SPEAKER_02: something they'd want to partner with or a sport that they could bring
[02:13] SPEAKER_02: into their association.
[02:16] SPEAKER_02: And it turns out when I went there was just a game-changer for me.
[02:19] SPEAKER_02: 10 to 14,000 people in the in in ranked spring
[02:22] SPEAKER_02: spilled just for four ball.
[02:24] SPEAKER_02: 400,000 registered members in Sweden playing four ball.
[02:28] SPEAKER_02: semi pro players.
[02:30] SPEAKER_02: Anyway, lots of short hockey Canada started to the use four ball
[02:35] SPEAKER_02: and branded a school curriculum to help kids,
[02:38] SPEAKER_02: you know, get an early starter sport type of thing in their sport
[02:41] SPEAKER_02: and let me to going out to more schools while I remember
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: my real estate broke reach.
[02:46] SPEAKER_02: And just connecting with teachers.
[02:48] SPEAKER_02: And the teachers loved it.
[02:49] SPEAKER_02: They bought the equipment.
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: They put it in their schools.
[02:52] SPEAKER_02: School board now reaches out to me and wants to do some kind of
[02:54] SPEAKER_02: jamboree with all the schools.
[02:58] SPEAKER_02: Subsequently, the parents and the school teachers were saying,
[03:00] SPEAKER_02: hey, we're going to play this sport in the community.
[03:03] SPEAKER_02: Wow, there was really nowhere.
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: And here I was in my real estate business.
[03:08] SPEAKER_02: The entrepreneur and me said, hey, well, you know, I can do this.
[03:11] SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a couple of weeks.
[03:12] SPEAKER_02: I coached hockey for 12 years.
[03:14] SPEAKER_02: I was on some of the executives in the minor hockey
[03:16] SPEAKER_02: associations.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: I knew what worked in work.
[03:19] SPEAKER_02: And I just decided that, hey, this might be a good side hustle for you.
[03:22] SPEAKER_02: I could just really sell gear and get these kids playing this really cool sport.
[03:27] SPEAKER_02: And so I couldn't do it on my own because it involved a number of
[03:32] SPEAKER_02: different components of business.
[03:34] SPEAKER_02: So I was part of the men's group.
[03:36] SPEAKER_02: It was actually a men's Christian business group.
[03:39] SPEAKER_02: Two gentlemen on that group.
[03:41] SPEAKER_02: One was on their own marketing agency.
[03:46] SPEAKER_02: He was a positive media.
[03:47] SPEAKER_02: And the other one worked with athletes in action.
[03:50] SPEAKER_02: So I convinced the guys to jump on board and we built the leagues.
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: We did the marketing.
[03:56] SPEAKER_02: We found the software.
[03:57] SPEAKER_02: And before we know it, we had the start of a floorball league.
[04:03] SPEAKER_02: And you know, we just ran a little part.
[04:05] SPEAKER_01: For respect there, Anthony, when you say floorball for the audience,
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: what sounds that different than
[04:10] SPEAKER_01: it's pre-hockey.
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: Great question.
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: It's a question I get all the time.
[04:14] SPEAKER_02: And there are a number of differences, mostly new lots.
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: But the sensory floorball is a sport that's been around for 40 years,
[04:22] SPEAKER_02: started in the Scandinavian countries.
[04:24] SPEAKER_02: It's actually soccer sport that plays and looks like floor hockey.
[04:30] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[04:31] SPEAKER_02: If you were to just look in at kids playing in the gym,
[04:35] SPEAKER_02: you'd think they were playing ball hockey.
[04:36] SPEAKER_02: A little different.
[04:37] SPEAKER_02: The sticks are a little different.
[04:38] SPEAKER_02: They're more or less up to your waist.
[04:42] SPEAKER_02: And I think maybe a little higher.
[04:43] SPEAKER_02: There's a wiffle ball.
[04:44] SPEAKER_02: It's a composite stick.
[04:46] SPEAKER_02: They're really cool.
[04:46] SPEAKER_02: Web blade.
[04:49] SPEAKER_02: But if you're to play the sport,
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: you would notice the soccer similarities.
[04:53] SPEAKER_02: The big differentiator is the stick
[04:56] SPEAKER_02: in that in floorball, the stick is considered an extension of your arm.
[05:03] SPEAKER_02: So like soccer and the leg,
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: you're not allowed to hack the stick.
[05:07] SPEAKER_02: You're not allowed to pin the stick.
[05:09] SPEAKER_02: You're not allowed to lift the stick.
[05:10] SPEAKER_02: It's ball contact first.
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: So very much in soccer.
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't, you don't, you don't have to play first.
[05:17] SPEAKER_02: You don't have to make contact with the ball first.
[05:18] SPEAKER_02: And after that, it was not.
[05:20] SPEAKER_02: And so there are different things like if you do make ball contact with the stick contact
[05:25] SPEAKER_02: with the ball, it becomes free and goes to the ball.
[05:27] SPEAKER_02: There's an advantage.
[05:29] SPEAKER_02: And most of the infractions are foul.
[05:31] SPEAKER_02: So it's a loss of possession.
[05:33] SPEAKER_02: Other team gets ball.
[05:35] SPEAKER_02: I have an infracting team who's back to infeed and the results.
[05:40] SPEAKER_02: So how big is the ball?
[05:41] Speaker UNKNOWN: I'm talking.
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: How big is the ball?
[05:44] SPEAKER_02: It's a bit for balls, probably three and a half inches.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: Hollow ball with, you know,
[05:49] SPEAKER_02: balls and holds in it.
[05:50] SPEAKER_02: Right?
[05:51] SPEAKER_02: Very much pickle ball almost.
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, cool.
[05:54] SPEAKER_02: It's got, it's got dimples on it, whereas a pickle ball is smooth.
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: And so pretty lightweight.
[05:59] SPEAKER_02: I think it's like three and a half ounces or something.
[06:02] SPEAKER_02: Cool.
[06:03] SPEAKER_02: Cool.
[06:03] SPEAKER_02: So that's the biggest difference, really.
[06:06] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[06:06] SPEAKER_01: And you're building a league.
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: How are you building a league?
[06:09] SPEAKER_01: Now he's going to franchise is that ultimately your encourage you then to go out and
[06:13] SPEAKER_01: build the little leagues in their communities.
[06:15] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the latter right now, but that wasn't the, that wasn't the game plan.
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: The game plan was just to build a league.
[06:20] SPEAKER_02: And then we started getting, you know, calls from different communities to say,
[06:23] SPEAKER_02: hey, how do we do this?
[06:25] SPEAKER_02: And we put the traditional route, hey, find some volunteers, put them in place.
[06:31] SPEAKER_02: But unfortunately, like many of us sports organizations volunteers aren't necessarily,
[06:35] SPEAKER_02: you know, they don't necessarily step over the equator they leave or the quality of the game is lost
[06:40] SPEAKER_02: and turns into ball hockey.
[06:43] SPEAKER_02: It's the spirit of the sport.
[06:46] SPEAKER_02: So I hate it from the franchise where I like my career for his business at 25 is I'm not franchise.
[06:51] SPEAKER_02: So I wasn't thinking about franchising those things more along the lines of,
[06:55] SPEAKER_02: I always standardize this.
[06:56] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[06:57] SPEAKER_02: We go processes so somebody to repeat them.
[07:00] SPEAKER_02: How do we put the quality assurance in place?
[07:02] SPEAKER_02: So he doesn't go off track.
[07:03] SPEAKER_02: How do we put the training so everybody gets the same type of training?
[07:07] SPEAKER_02: So I, so I, I essentially built that system that happened
[07:11] SPEAKER_02: to look like tastes like an act like a franchise.
[07:15] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[07:16] SPEAKER_02: And so some of the line we decided because we were working with four ball Canada and they were having
[07:21] SPEAKER_02: a real challenge with, with growing the sport organically because not everybody
[07:25] SPEAKER_02: was going to stop up and leave a non-sport in the community.
[07:29] SPEAKER_02: So I said to the book way and just said, I'll put it together this business model because in my
[07:34] SPEAKER_02: mind being a franchise, I saw benefits of being united with other business owners.
[07:40] SPEAKER_02: I saw the brand unity.
[07:42] SPEAKER_02: I saw the fact that we can have franchise owners can help franchise owners
[07:47] SPEAKER_02: only develop better products and services for the kids.
[07:50] SPEAKER_02: But what, what, what I kind of discovered in doing all this is that we had built around essentially all the
[07:56] SPEAKER_02: business marketing and operational systems around new sports.
[08:00] SPEAKER_02: So essentially we were just an organized youth sport business
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: to have four ball as its product.
[08:08] SPEAKER_02: And so they're like kind of went off and I said, well, you know, this is the case.
[08:11] SPEAKER_02: Why don't we bring more sports into our brand?
[08:14] SPEAKER_02: More of these profile unknowns for the ones that are easy to play, they're affordable,
[08:21] SPEAKER_02: kids need any early specialization.
[08:24] SPEAKER_02: I said that's the making of a pretty good business model.
[08:28] SPEAKER_02: And so we've got a shift of gears to start thinking about scaling and moving to more communities.
[08:33] SPEAKER_02: And that's where the franchise concept kind of was birthed.
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: And so who's your first franchise that you're sold to?
[08:39] SPEAKER_02: So I sold to a local guy.
[08:43] SPEAKER_02: I'm being in the real estate business.
[08:45] SPEAKER_02: One of the things that I've always fought for when I was a real estate agent and
[08:48] SPEAKER_02: and all my brokerage was trying to get my name out there trying to be different than all the other real
[08:52] SPEAKER_02: estate agents.
[08:53] SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of things that really estate agents do, you know what I mean?
[08:57] SPEAKER_02: But there's a lot of noise out there.
[08:58] SPEAKER_02: So I found that when I ran the leagues or I coached hockey,
[09:03] SPEAKER_02: I got business naturally because the parents at the moment and they started to ask what it did
[09:08] SPEAKER_02: and that turned into business.
[09:09] SPEAKER_02: Well, I felt probably the first place to start as far as franchising those is to find real estate
[09:16] SPEAKER_02: agents or mortgage brokers.
[09:18] SPEAKER_02: Who would like to go into the community?
[09:20] SPEAKER_02: So would like to differentiate themselves, would like to go to the person and have the time,
[09:24] SPEAKER_02: the flexibility, understand regulations, you know, the systems and also understands about
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: the same old relationships.
[09:32] SPEAKER_02: And hey, I hear that.
[09:34] SPEAKER_02: That was me who did it.
[09:36] SPEAKER_02: You know, another mortgage broker, another real estate agent would want to do the same in their
[09:39] SPEAKER_02: community and be the face of the sport.
[09:42] SPEAKER_02: And so I reached out, trilling it into a number of mortgage brokers in light of Canada,
[09:47] SPEAKER_02: and particularly this area of Halifax.
[09:50] SPEAKER_02: It is really neat little white
[09:53] SPEAKER_02: report story and explain how it could help the kids in the youth and more importantly,
[09:58] SPEAKER_02: but also their business.
[09:59] SPEAKER_02: And then I got a call from a gentleman who said, I love this.
[10:03] SPEAKER_02: And more importantly, he loved it because as a child growing up playing sports,
[10:09] SPEAKER_02: he sports had a big impact on his life.
[10:12] SPEAKER_02: And he said that not only did have impact, they kept him off the streets and he would have gone
[10:16] SPEAKER_02: the wrong way and would end up in sports.
[10:20] SPEAKER_02: And so that was much just heard and he spoke to his wife and ultimately they bought the franchise.
[10:25] SPEAKER_02: And turns right to a cost.
[10:28] SPEAKER_02: Our franchise has started $15,000.
[10:30] SPEAKER_02: Right on, very affordable.
[10:32] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, very affordable.
[10:34] SPEAKER_02: It's what we call a lifestyle franchise.
[10:36] SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, by lifestyle is you don't have to commit your full hours.
[10:40] SPEAKER_02: You can keep your day job, you can keep your career, you can keep your personal schedule.
[10:44] SPEAKER_02: You just need three to five hours a week to work around that.
[10:47] SPEAKER_02: And you know, creature leads, do a little bit of marketing,
[10:51] SPEAKER_02: participate in some network groups.
[10:54] SPEAKER_02: So anybody can add it onto their lifestyle.
[10:56] SPEAKER_02: You don't miss it.
[10:57] SPEAKER_02: You have to quit and get out of the business.
[11:00] SPEAKER_02: $15,000 is probably $100,000 from a lot of intellectual property.
[11:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
[11:06] SPEAKER_02: Of course.
[11:06] SPEAKER_02: I guess.
[11:07] SPEAKER_02: So, I've found in there a lot of money spent discovering what work, so what doesn't work.
[11:12] SPEAKER_01: And where are you now with your how many people do you have as franchisees?
[11:18] SPEAKER_02: I've got one franchisee now.
[11:20] SPEAKER_02: It's my beta franchisee.
[11:23] SPEAKER_02: And in the other hand, as in world, that's kind of the em all.
[11:26] SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, you get your first, you work with them.
[11:28] SPEAKER_02: Of course.
[11:29] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[11:29] SPEAKER_02: You see it.
[11:30] SPEAKER_02: It's one thing of, it's one thing of I work the business and it all worked fine.
[11:34] SPEAKER_02: But now can I hand the package over to somebody?
[11:36] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you need to, you need to, you need a success story to which you can absolutely.
[11:41] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[11:42] SPEAKER_02: We actually kind of sold the franchise at the tail end of the cold, but actually last summer 2020.
[11:48] SPEAKER_02: So here at the time, we really couldn't do much.
[11:50] SPEAKER_02: So what we could do we did and it actually served the purpose and that allowed me to
[11:55] SPEAKER_02: be with them in the hands on a little bit more and actually walk them through all the things.
[12:01] SPEAKER_02: Because I wanted to succeed.
[12:02] SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see them successful.
[12:04] SPEAKER_02: But not just for the sake of fantasy.
[12:06] SPEAKER_02: I wanted the kids to feel the same impact that when I rented as an operation, kids felt.
[12:12] SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't pick the better franchise.
[12:15] SPEAKER_02: They're just excellent.
[12:16] SPEAKER_02: They just love kids.
[12:18] SPEAKER_02: They're entrepreneurs themselves and that they want a mortgage brokerage.
[12:22] SPEAKER_02: She's a financial college.
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: She has three kids who parents five kids.
[12:27] SPEAKER_02: So I could have asked for a better, better first franchise franchise.
[12:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you got to leave.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: Happen.
[12:33] SPEAKER_01: I'm just between that group right there.
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: A family.
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: So what's the, when someone gets going, how do you, what are some of the key things?
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking for more for generalities now that you'd say,
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: this is how we focus in with Laura while hockey.
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: What are some fundamentals to getting it up and running?
[12:57] SPEAKER_01: What are some, some, some hacks that you want to call it that you have the team
[13:01] SPEAKER_01: you focused in on that maybe others and other businesses could also grab on to and say,
[13:05] SPEAKER_01: yeah, that's cool.
[13:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess it all starts with the individual.
[13:08] SPEAKER_02: I mean, that doesn't, what business doesn't.
[13:11] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[13:12] SPEAKER_02: You know, you've got to be able to have some grit.
[13:16] SPEAKER_02: You've got to have some resilience.
[13:18] SPEAKER_02: You've got to have some determination.
[13:19] SPEAKER_02: And that just doesn't come because you tell yourself to be like that.
[13:23] SPEAKER_02: There has to be that generally is a result of believing in the business.
[13:28] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[13:28] SPEAKER_02: Believing in the products.
[13:29] SPEAKER_02: And I call it the big why.
[13:31] SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, it's why are you, why are you in this business?
[13:35] SPEAKER_02: A organized youth sport.
[13:37] SPEAKER_02: Going into a business that has a sports of relatively unknown.
[13:41] SPEAKER_02: You're going up against some of the main sports out there.
[13:43] SPEAKER_02: You're fighting for parents times.
[13:46] SPEAKER_02: If that why isn't there, you don't buy into that why.
[13:49] SPEAKER_02: And you don't see the opportunity to impact kids.
[13:53] SPEAKER_02: In our case, it may be different for different different businesses up there.
[13:59] SPEAKER_02: And it's going to be somewhat of a why.
[14:01] SPEAKER_02: In other words, what can you provide?
[14:03] SPEAKER_02: What do I got to do next?
[14:05] SPEAKER_02: And you can easily get yourself to boggle down with the thousand details.
[14:11] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[14:11] SPEAKER_02: Then get to scourge if those thousand details don't get done.
[14:14] SPEAKER_02: You know, we are essentially an event planner for you sports.
[14:18] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[14:18] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[14:19] SPEAKER_02: I'll go in.
[14:20] SPEAKER_02: Lots of checks and balances, deadlines, dates, ordering, registration.
[14:24] SPEAKER_02: We make it a lot easier because we have a system.
[14:28] SPEAKER_02: But if you get caught up in that, you can spend a lot of time in the weeds
[14:33] SPEAKER_02: and get unmotivated.
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: And so essentially what you want to do is you want to know before we start,
[14:40] SPEAKER_02: is we want to know why they want to be part of our organization.
[14:43] SPEAKER_02: Sure.
[14:44] SPEAKER_02: If that doesn't work, then we know there's a little bit of stuff.
[14:48] SPEAKER_02: So I would ask number one, number two is being open,
[14:52] SPEAKER_02: being open to do something different.
[14:57] SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, willingness to try something that's maybe never tried before,
[15:01] SPEAKER_02: do things that have been differently for it.
[15:04] SPEAKER_02: Any organized sportswear particularly in Canada,
[15:06] SPEAKER_02: it's very much a volunteer or community volunteer base.
[15:09] SPEAKER_02: It's parents typically that sit on the board.
[15:12] SPEAKER_02: It's a code to play the sport that's put behind the bench apparent possibly.
[15:16] SPEAKER_02: We're coming in from a different angle because we want consistency,
[15:20] SPEAKER_02: we want accountability for our leadership, we want turnover,
[15:24] SPEAKER_02: we want quality in our sports.
[15:25] SPEAKER_02: We need somebody to buy into that model.
[15:29] SPEAKER_02: And that means putting an investment upfront in a capital and investment of time.
[15:35] SPEAKER_02: And that's an anomaly in the use, or an Azure sports market.
[15:39] SPEAKER_02: It's not that it's not done.
[15:40] SPEAKER_02: It's done.
[15:41] SPEAKER_02: It's done in very many independent ways.
[15:43] SPEAKER_02: So there are hockey schools out there,
[15:44] SPEAKER_02: Goldie schools, soccer camps,
[15:47] SPEAKER_02: Taplan dole.
[15:48] SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of great individuals out there doing their own
[15:50] SPEAKER_02: at house and fitness or sport organizations.
[15:54] SPEAKER_02: But there's none that I know of in Canada that are a single brand
[15:59] SPEAKER_02: literally going across Canada with a unit brand.
[16:05] SPEAKER_02: Under franchises, there is one success story and I model myself somewhat off it.
[16:09] SPEAKER_02: And it's right here in it's right in your territory.
[16:12] SPEAKER_02: It's the Atlantic hockey group.
[16:14] SPEAKER_02: Charlie Bordwater.
[16:15] SPEAKER_02: And he built a great spring hockey program
[16:20] SPEAKER_02: post hockey league for a lot of youth over the over the years.
[16:26] SPEAKER_02: And he was in every community in the Atlantic Canada with the spring hockey.
[16:30] SPEAKER_02: So I said if he did it properly,
[16:31] SPEAKER_02: but it was all under the Atlantic hockey group.
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: So that was somewhat of an inspiration to me to say that,
[16:36] SPEAKER_02: hey look, here's a guy that just
[16:37] SPEAKER_02: extended the hockey seasons, did it privately,
[16:40] SPEAKER_02: rented the ranks to go to risk on his own,
[16:43] SPEAKER_02: created the manuals for the coaches hired the coaches,
[16:46] SPEAKER_02: ran it like a business and he did very well for himself.
[16:50] SPEAKER_02: Not necessarily financially, he did well and he gave kids
[16:53] SPEAKER_02: an opportunity to play hockey in the spring as well when
[16:56] SPEAKER_02: when the 50 ends in early spring.
[16:58] SPEAKER_02: So who does to him?
[17:00] SPEAKER_02: We want to do that with the more old pro athletes like the Corbana put some.
[17:04] SPEAKER_02: There's another sports we want to go across Canada under one hand.
[17:07] SPEAKER_02: So it will require a different model or different approach.
[17:11] SPEAKER_02: I believe in that to me is ownership at the community level.
[17:15] SPEAKER_02: So I got an older in Bathurst or I got an older in Sydney or in Charlottetown.
[17:20] SPEAKER_02: It's comforting to know that they have skin in the game.
[17:23] SPEAKER_02: They're there.
[17:23] SPEAKER_02: They're out on the gyms meeting and greeting their customers.
[17:28] SPEAKER_02: They're not leaving in two years when they're evolving.
[17:30] SPEAKER_02: They're terms up.
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: So he's done in gyms.
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: He's not done in the cocky arenas.
[17:35] SPEAKER_02: No, we do in mostly gyms.
[17:36] SPEAKER_01: Although we can use a dry pad if we had the dividers.
[17:39] SPEAKER_01: Mostly gyms, gyms, partners.
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: How do you make money besides the 15k?
[17:46] SPEAKER_02: Make money, yeah, well.
[17:48] SPEAKER_02: The question could be when I make money because
[17:51] SPEAKER_02: as a stirrup in the last seven years,
[17:54] SPEAKER_02: I haven't made any money and you know, it's a labor of love.
[17:59] SPEAKER_02: I find these are made from one is making money, which is good.
[18:04] SPEAKER_02: In typical fashion, there's a point where I have a number of franchisees
[18:08] SPEAKER_02: or the royalty I get from a franchisee, well,
[18:13] SPEAKER_02: afford me a comfortable living.
[18:16] SPEAKER_02: And that's 20 franchisees from here.
[18:20] SPEAKER_02: In the meantime, I've got a side visit myself.
[18:23] SPEAKER_02: I'm in the mortgage business.
[18:25] SPEAKER_02: And I'm very blessed and very fortunate.
[18:28] SPEAKER_02: Very much supported by my wife, who, you know,
[18:31] SPEAKER_02: is doing well in the corporate world and is giving me the latitude and the liberty to take us on.
[18:37] SPEAKER_02: And simply as she believes in the why too.
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: So tell me, tell me, you talked about the national organization.
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: Talk to that partnership piece for our viewers or listeners about how you
[18:57] SPEAKER_01: utilize outside help who are in the industry to help you to build what it is that you're building.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people don't, you know, I forget that you can build strategic partnerships.
[19:07] SPEAKER_01: Yours happens to be one that's already put together and it has some momentum behind it.
[19:12] SPEAKER_01: But can you talk to that?
[19:14] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, the good thing about the sport of floorball and any of these low profile emerging
[19:18] SPEAKER_02: global sports like Futsal and the other ones, Corp Ball, Pickle Ball,
[19:23] SPEAKER_02: is that there's a small community worldwide.
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena, from comedy goal to relationship fails,
[19:31] SPEAKER_00: Amazon Music's got the most ad-free top podcasts included with Prime.
[19:36] SPEAKER_00: Download the Amazon Music app today.
[19:41] SPEAKER_02: And so, anybody that's involved with, let's say, floorball in like case,
[19:47] SPEAKER_02: are very, very helpful, very open to helping you grow so the sport grows.
[19:54] SPEAKER_02: And so, when I reach out to the Corp Ball Canada or I reach out to Team Reach 4ball,
[19:59] SPEAKER_02: I have I reach out to Ottawa 4ball Club.
[20:03] SPEAKER_02: You know, are we competitors at some point?
[20:05] SPEAKER_02: I'm just not there now.
[20:06] SPEAKER_02: I probably won't step on the toes for a while.
[20:09] SPEAKER_02: Even USA 4ball, the International 4ball Federation.
[20:12] SPEAKER_02: These are just organizations that are desperately wanting their sport to grow.
[20:17] SPEAKER_02: And so, when I come along with a model that can help make that happen,
[20:22] SPEAKER_02: they're open and willing to do what they can when they can with resources they can.
[20:26] SPEAKER_02: You know, they're not just everything at me.
[20:28] SPEAKER_02: But they're certainly saying, hey, you know what,
[20:31] SPEAKER_02: maybe we'll create a pathway for some of your kids who
[20:34] SPEAKER_02: accidents 16 years old and we can bring them to the national level.
[20:37] SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe we can, well, just give you the correct example.
[20:41] SPEAKER_02: You know, this five to six years ago, I had a bunch of kids and,
[20:44] SPEAKER_02: you know, they started playing 4ball as I alluded to earlier.
[20:47] SPEAKER_02: And they just reached an age where they were 16 and 17.
[20:51] SPEAKER_02: But I didn't have enough of them to form a league.
[20:54] SPEAKER_02: And so, what we're doing right now is we're partnering with 4ball Canada and
[20:58] SPEAKER_02: a local gentleman and we're forming kind of like a Halifax team,
[21:02] SPEAKER_02: which went into 4ball league of Canada.
[21:05] SPEAKER_02: And the 4ball Canada is a tournament style league where you'll go away on a weekend
[21:11] SPEAKER_02: and you'll be in Montreal and the four cities will get together for a tournament.
[21:15] SPEAKER_02: A month later, you might go down to Toronto.
[21:17] SPEAKER_02: A month later, you might go up into Ottawa and this all accumulates the final spring tournament,
[21:23] SPEAKER_02: which from Canada homes, which is called the,
[21:26] SPEAKER_02: the kind of 4ball championships.
[21:29] SPEAKER_02: And that's where the finals will be played amongst other
[21:33] SPEAKER_02: teams that join in recreation.
[21:35] SPEAKER_02: And so, the impetus for us was to say how do we grow on our kids?
[21:40] SPEAKER_02: Well, the partnership with 4ball Canada and some parents have taken on the routes
[21:44] SPEAKER_02: that was possibly forming this team.
[21:46] SPEAKER_02: We've now created kind of the very first city team,
[21:49] SPEAKER_02: which is the impetus of that, that the Indian 4ball league, right?
[21:54] SPEAKER_02: And you know, this is you playing on that team?
[21:57] SPEAKER_02: Are you playing on the team?
[21:59] SPEAKER_02: No, my god.
[22:08] SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll just, I'll just kind of worry it all as I've aged out on that team.
[22:15] SPEAKER_01: So what's the typical age somebody plays the game?
[22:18] SPEAKER_02: Well, in our case, it's the seven year olds up to the 16 year olds.
[22:22] SPEAKER_02: Got it. That's where we've kind of drawn our state.
[22:25] SPEAKER_02: Most of the clubs in Canada are more adult, like they're eating an over.
[22:31] SPEAKER_02: And then you can get the unsewner league that might play in their 35 and over.
[22:36] SPEAKER_02: They're technically saying, yeah, of course they bad.
[22:39] SPEAKER_02: Now, Ottawa has a really good club.
[22:41] SPEAKER_02: They're starting to work on their use a little bit more.
[22:43] SPEAKER_02: Cambridge now is starting to bring more use into the club.
[22:46] SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's they have to, you know, the best for you going to get the future 4ball players.
[22:51] SPEAKER_02: Right now, we're doing a lot of what I call a key inversion.
[22:54] SPEAKER_02: So when a player finishes their final minor hockey and they're not going on a hockey,
[22:59] SPEAKER_02: they usually flip over for them.
[23:03] SPEAKER_02: If I'm with some skills, but you know, we're looking to go deeper and grow 4ball players.
[23:10] SPEAKER_01: So what's, you talked about passion as being important.
[23:13] SPEAKER_01: We talked about partnerships being important as we grow your business in this conversation.
[23:18] SPEAKER_01: What's the, what are some other gold nuggets you can bring?
[23:24] SPEAKER_01: I guess from any party your journey as being an Atlantic Canadian entrepreneur.
[23:32] SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, there's there's someone of a stigma in Atlantic Canada.
[23:36] SPEAKER_02: I think it's a self stigma in that can we bring something big and large across the country?
[23:43] SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, or we just a lady Canadians.
[23:45] SPEAKER_02: And I've seen that manifest itself in a lot of organizations.
[23:50] SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes that's just a mindset.
[23:53] SPEAKER_02: We are very traditional people.
[23:55] SPEAKER_02: We like to keep things the same.
[23:57] SPEAKER_02: We don't rock with both.
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: But I've seen so many success stories from an Atlantic Canada that have influenced Canadians
[24:04] SPEAKER_02: in North Americans.
[24:05] SPEAKER_02: And I see more and more of that.
[24:08] SPEAKER_02: And so I think for me, once I get past that geographical mindset,
[24:14] SPEAKER_02: and like I said, it's probably something that I grew up with.
[24:18] SPEAKER_02: I think that we've got a lot of talent here in Atlantic Canada.
[24:22] SPEAKER_02: And a lot of entrepreneurs and there are a lot of franchiseors,
[24:25] SPEAKER_02: surprisingly, in terms of any kind of one in particular is property guys.
[24:31] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[24:31] SPEAKER_02: Jesus for a huge, huge, huge success story.
[24:34] SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
[24:35] SPEAKER_02: And I think, can do the great job 20 odd years ago of breaking some ground for more franchises.
[24:42] SPEAKER_02: A mesa, mesa restaurants is now starting to see some of some big growth.
[24:47] SPEAKER_02: And I love these success stories.
[24:49] SPEAKER_02: So for me, it's two for one.
[24:52] SPEAKER_02: Again, the focus and because of the way the economy works right now,
[24:56] SPEAKER_02: the way the world is, you can be anywhere.
[24:58] SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
[24:59] Speaker UNKNOWN: Right on.
[24:59] SPEAKER_02: He's getting the entrance to markets.
[25:03] SPEAKER_02: And people are more open to looking on their state or their province or their city
[25:08] SPEAKER_02: or for new and emerging, great ideas.
[25:10] SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of those great ideas are,
[25:13] SPEAKER_02: haven't been started for some 20 years ago by the people I can.
[25:18] SPEAKER_02: And I think there's a, there's a problem.
[25:21] SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to be part of that.
[25:21] SPEAKER_02: So, part of my, my drive is to say, you know what?
[25:26] SPEAKER_02: The talent pool is great here.
[25:28] SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying I'm the greatest person, but you know, I've got 25 years in business.
[25:32] SPEAKER_02: Why can't I build a franchise?
[25:34] SPEAKER_02: Why can't I be the hub of a franchise system that will work?
[25:39] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm totally agree.
[25:40] SPEAKER_02: You can do it.
[25:41] SPEAKER_02: There's absolutely nothing other than my mindset.
[25:44] SPEAKER_01: Well, my next question was what's your, what's yours?
[25:48] SPEAKER_01: What's your question?
[25:49] SPEAKER_01: What's your call to, to entrepreneurs who are living in Atlanta, Canada,
[25:55] SPEAKER_01: but the support, the community, the ecosystem if you want to call it.
[25:58] SPEAKER_01: And I think you're re-inforced it in a great way,
[26:02] SPEAKER_01: Anthony on just in the, why not?
[26:05] SPEAKER_01: You can go to the other side.
[26:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know what?
[26:09] SPEAKER_02: I think in our, in our tradition, I think we're, we want to help each other.
[26:14] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
[26:15] SPEAKER_02: You can set up.
[26:16] SPEAKER_02: I could reach out to Ken tomorrow and say, can't help me in any, yes.
[26:20] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, great.
[26:21] SPEAKER_02: That way.
[26:21] SPEAKER_01: This is very open, very, very open.
[26:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[26:24] SPEAKER_01: So, how does somebody find you, you in the pickleball world,
[26:28] SPEAKER_01: or something like that?
[26:29] SPEAKER_01: Pickleball or four-blur, four-blur?
[26:31] SPEAKER_01: Four-blur?
[26:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[26:32] SPEAKER_01: Four-blur?
[26:32] SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
[26:33] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, no.
[26:35] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[26:35] SPEAKER_02: Listen, we get confused with four-occupy all the time, but you know,
[26:39] SPEAKER_02: in the whole world, you can, you can find us in a number of fronts.
[26:43] SPEAKER_02: First and foremost, you can always google premium four-ball and you'll, and, and we'll pop up.
[26:48] SPEAKER_02: You can go to our franchise site, which is, is, uh,
[26:52] SPEAKER_02: premiumsportsleagues.com.
[26:54] SPEAKER_02: And then, sportsbooks.com, okay?
[26:56] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[26:56] SPEAKER_02: And if you're interested in looking at maybe starting one of these in your community,
[27:00] SPEAKER_02: it's a low investment.
[27:01] SPEAKER_02: It's a bit of work, but, um, the, the, the why,
[27:05] SPEAKER_02: the impact on the kids is, is, is amazing.
[27:08] SPEAKER_02: It's, um, I've seen kids who have never played sports 14 years old come up and sit next to
[27:12] SPEAKER_02: the other bands and say, I just love the sport. I didn't think I'd ever play a sport.
[27:15] SPEAKER_02: I see them up there.
[27:16] SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
[27:17] SPEAKER_02: Like, we have one child, where the, the child was a little autistic and he was in school,
[27:22] SPEAKER_02: and he really didn't play a lot of sports.
[27:25] SPEAKER_02: We put him out.
[27:26] SPEAKER_02: He suited up.
[27:27] SPEAKER_02: He learned how to play in that, and he's probably one of the best coolies I've seen in a lot of
[27:31] SPEAKER_02: and how beautiful.
[27:33] SPEAKER_02: May I ask you?
[27:33] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I can tell you and the stories like that.
[27:36] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it's, we're all about, in our world, the sport is second.
[27:42] SPEAKER_02: We're not here to develop technically sound, you need players,
[27:45] SPEAKER_02: even though that will happen.
[27:47] SPEAKER_02: Because of the different talents, people.
[27:49] SPEAKER_02: We're here to leverage sports as a way to create an environment where kids can feel
[27:53] SPEAKER_02: likely belong. They have a role.
[27:56] SPEAKER_02: Might be having a hard day.
[27:57] SPEAKER_02: They might have a hard family late, but they come to our environment.
[28:00] SPEAKER_02: And it's all about encouragement, it's all about development.
[28:03] SPEAKER_02: We want to make sure that, you know, it's not going to be some kind of, you know,
[28:08] SPEAKER_02: Kubaya. They still got to work, you know,
[28:10] SPEAKER_02: they're responsible, they're self-inveral.
[28:12] SPEAKER_02: But we have to encourage them.
[28:14] SPEAKER_02: We have to give them the tools and resources.
[28:15] SPEAKER_02: And, and hopefully, what we do in those leagues allows them to exit our league as a teenager
[28:20] SPEAKER_02: and then adult and have those skill sets so that they go to the world.
[28:25] SPEAKER_02: We did our little part in preparing that sport.
[28:29] SPEAKER_01: Cool man. That's really good stuff.
[28:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all around driven by passion, driven by purpose, and driven by opportunity.
[28:37] SPEAKER_01: So I love that whole element of it.
[28:39] SPEAKER_01: Is there anything else that you'd like to kind of bring to the conversation that we haven't
[28:44] SPEAKER_01: talked about yet?
[28:46] SPEAKER_02: I'm just not a personal note. I think, you know, you have in your heart.
[28:52] SPEAKER_02: You know, you have to have something in your heart that says you want to love on to somebody.
[28:56] SPEAKER_02: I don't mean to love in the add more way. I think it means somewhere you're hurt.
[29:01] SPEAKER_02: You've got to want to better someone's life and serve
[29:04] SPEAKER_02: to the point where even the cost you the time and money to do it.
[29:10] SPEAKER_02: That's kind of counter-cultural to a philosophy of business.
[29:14] SPEAKER_02: But somewhere along the line, if you don't have that wanting to love into your customers
[29:18] SPEAKER_02: and you want to serve them, you want to make sure that they benefit
[29:22] SPEAKER_02: for nothing in return on your own.
[29:25] SPEAKER_02: I think with that kind of mindset and that what I call hard set,
[29:30] SPEAKER_02: I think that will carry you a lot further than if you're just in the business for the second day
[29:34] SPEAKER_02: in business. Yeah, it's going in for the money.
[29:38] SPEAKER_02: And that's what I would say to anybody. Any new entrepreneur coming out,
[29:42] SPEAKER_02: is that you know, you've got to you've got to find it in your heart.
[29:44] SPEAKER_02: To know that what you're doing is is bettering someone's life.
[29:50] SPEAKER_02: I don't worry.
[29:51] SPEAKER_02: Right. Right.
[29:53] SPEAKER_02: You might be part of my 30 years of business.
[29:56] SPEAKER_02: I've been that other guy.
[29:57] SPEAKER_02: I agree for the money.
[29:59] SPEAKER_02: And would compromise my moral sometimes when I was 25 or 26 years old.
[30:05] SPEAKER_02: I was that guy that made a little bit of money and got the pleasures of life
[30:09] SPEAKER_02: and really didn't support good causes.
[30:12] SPEAKER_02: I walked that path and it's a path of self-destruction.
[30:17] SPEAKER_02: You know, always for me,
[30:20] SPEAKER_02: now I'm on a different mission.
[30:22] SPEAKER_02: Now I know that, you know, if I can make profits, what am I doing with my profits?
[30:27] SPEAKER_02: If I do create a product and service, how is that impacting in a better way,
[30:31] SPEAKER_02: somebody's life?
[30:32] SPEAKER_02: And that's the purpose behind my journey onward in the later years of my life and my business
[30:41] SPEAKER_02: interest.
[30:43] SPEAKER_01: It just for in the last couple of minutes,
[30:46] SPEAKER_01: we'll end up finishing when it's you actually leave it lead to faith-based organization.
[30:50] SPEAKER_01: And I know I've been bad at attending, but that doesn't take away from the power behind that.
[30:58] SPEAKER_01: Do you want to talk a bit about that?
[30:59] SPEAKER_01: Do you do the 60-second spotlight on it?
[31:02] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's an organization that started to body-year-and-a-half ago.
[31:05] SPEAKER_02: It's called Faith-driven Entrepreneur, FEE, and there's also a faith-driven investor.
[31:09] SPEAKER_02: And what is it's just a moment where it's connecting business people and different businesses
[31:14] SPEAKER_02: together in a cohort, in a kind of a video series in eight weeks, one-hour week,
[31:20] SPEAKER_02: reflection with testimonial videos of entrepreneurs who've used our faith in the business.
[31:24] SPEAKER_02: And the whole idea is to show where you can actually have an impact.
[31:28] SPEAKER_02: You don't have to segregate your faith from your business.
[31:30] SPEAKER_02: You can actually bring in without having all the scripture written or out to have to be explicitly
[31:37] SPEAKER_02: over in your Christianity. You can just bring it in.
[31:40] SPEAKER_02: And there's ways to do it.
[31:41] SPEAKER_02: And you're not there as a cult.
[31:42] SPEAKER_02: You're not there to try to convert your customers to the know.
[31:45] SPEAKER_01: You're there to pour work if you're driven.
[31:47] SPEAKER_01: If you're driven, if you're passionate about Christ and the journey and you know, believer,
[31:53] SPEAKER_01: then this is a neat tool to bring in.
[31:55] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important to tell the story because there are many entrepreneurs
[32:00] SPEAKER_01: who are faith-based and I think could take advantage of that.
[32:03] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[32:05] SPEAKER_02: I call it the alpha business.
[32:07] SPEAKER_02: It's just a way for you to sit down and reflect about how can I,
[32:12] SPEAKER_02: maybe my gifts that I've been given,
[32:15] SPEAKER_02: enter the community.
[32:16] SPEAKER_02: And that's what I spoke of where you happen.
[32:17] SPEAKER_02: I love into my customers, my employees.
[32:21] SPEAKER_02: How do people get in touch with you for that?
[32:25] SPEAKER_02: I think contact me directly.
[32:27] SPEAKER_02: Texas better.
[32:28] SPEAKER_02: I don't mind giving my number out.
[32:30] SPEAKER_02: 902-0921-3-0.
[32:33] SPEAKER_02: Texas, preferably.
[32:35] SPEAKER_02: They can send me an email.
[32:36] SPEAKER_02: It's Anthony, A&T-H-O-N-Y at premier4ball.com.
[32:43] SPEAKER_02: They can order the website, which is premiersportsleagues.com.
[32:49] SPEAKER_02: And send me an email there.
[32:52] SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I already know my LinkedIn profile, which is premier sports leagues.
[32:58] SPEAKER_02: For me, Anthony, Rick Neal.
[32:59] SPEAKER_02: And they'll definitely be there because I spend a lot of time.
[33:03] SPEAKER_01: It's a week you have kept connecting.
[33:05] SPEAKER_01: We're great.
[33:06] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[33:07] SPEAKER_01: All right.
[33:08] SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Paul very much.
[33:09] SPEAKER_01: Great hanging out with you.
[33:10] SPEAKER_01: I recommend everybody's hanging out with Anthony.
[33:12] SPEAKER_01: He's got a good spirit, it's hard.
[33:15] SPEAKER_01: Good intentions.
[33:17] SPEAKER_01: And let's see, you can be second, third, fourth, fifth.
[33:21] SPEAKER_01: Ben Boll.
[33:22] SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
[33:23] SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
[33:24] SPEAKER_01: Florbal.
[33:24] SPEAKER_01: Come on.
[33:25] Speaker UNKNOWN: You'll get it.
[33:25] SPEAKER_01: You'll get it.
[33:26] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know I'll get it.
[33:27] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, listen.
[33:29] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's easy to be.
[33:30] SPEAKER_01: It's a cool sport and that's what we need to do.
[33:32] SPEAKER_01: We'll get the brand name down.
[33:35] SPEAKER_01: Florbal is not pickable.
[33:36] SPEAKER_01: It's not a hockey ball.
[33:37] SPEAKER_01: It's Florbal.
[33:38] SPEAKER_01: And that's what I'm going to end up on.
[33:39] SPEAKER_01: And I'm involved.
[33:40] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
[33:41] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
[33:42] SPEAKER_02: I'm a rooster in the opportunity.
[33:44] SPEAKER_00: From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena,
[33:47] SPEAKER_00: from comedy goal to relationship fails,
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