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Mike Graber is the President and CEO of Toyo Tires, a role he has embraced with vigor since joining the company in 2013. With a foundation in truck part sales and an eight-year tenure in various roles at Michelin, Mike’s experience spans across the industry from sales to product development. In addition to a passionate commitment to product quality and customer engagement, Mike’s leadership reflects his belief in the significant role genuine relationships and people play in the success of the tire industry.
In this episode…
Have you ever considered how the tire industry leaders keep their wheels spinning in the right direction? The right blend of leadership, innovation, and community engagement can turn any company into an industry powerhouse. But how does one navigate the intricate paths that lead to success in such a competitive market?
Seasoned tire industry professional Mike Graber of Toyo Tires explores what makes a leader effective in the tire industry. Highlighting Toyo Tire’s reputation for high-quality products, Mike shares critical strategies for customer re-engagement, emphasizing the role of a passionate team in fostering a high-energy corporate environment. With a career encompassing various roles, his story is a blueprint for embracing change and leveraging partnerships to enhance brand visibility.
In this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge chats with Mike Graber, the President and CEO of Toyo Tires, about nurturing leadership and growing a quality-centric brand. Mike provides an insider’s look into Toyo Tire’s approach to innovation, such as developing an EV tire and enhancing wet traction performance. He also delves into the value of humbly learning from industry role models, balancing a genuine management style, and the symbolic parallels between golfing and leadership.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [4:26] Mike Graber’s fascinating background and rise to leadership in the tire industry
- [7:53] The significance of people and sincerity in the tire industry’s success and innovation
- [14:14] How Toyo Tires builds its high-energy environment and cultivates customer loyalty
- [17:40] Insight into Toyo Tires’ passionate community culture and impactful social media strategies
- [21:30] How partnerships, like the one with UFC, enhance brand loyalty and showcase products
- [28:02] The importance of authenticity in leadership and the pursuit of personal interests for growth
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Mike Graber on LinkedIn
- Toyo Tires
- Mike Edge on LinkedIn
- Tread Partners
- Robert “Sonny” McDonald on LinkedIn
- Stan Chen on LinkedIn
Companies:
Websites:
Quotable Moments:
- “It’s not just about the tires; it’s the people behind them that drive our success.”
- “Returning to Toyo was like coming back home — the industry’s genuineness was always the draw for me.”
- “We’re not just selling tires; we’re building a community, a brotherhood among our customers.”
- “Innovation is key, but without a passionate team, the wheels don’t turn as smoothly.”
- “Golf has taught me life lessons that I apply to my leadership style — strategy over power, always.”
Action Steps:
- Engage with your customer base personally: Mike’s success with Toyo highlights how genuine customer interaction can improve brand loyalty.
- Innovate continuously to meet emerging market needs: Toyo’s development of new products, like an EV tire, demonstrates the importance of staying ahead in technology trends.
- Encourage a company culture of passion and teamwork: Toyo’s energetic environment at SEMA is a testament to the effectiveness of a collaborative and enthusiastic team.
- Build strategic partnerships to expand brand visibility: The partnership with UFC underscores the power of well-aligned collaborations for broader exposure.
- Cultivate both leadership abilities and personal interests: Mike’s approach to authentic leadership and embracing hobbies, like golf, points to the need for a well-rounded personal and professional life.
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts and share their inspiring stories. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Mike E.:
Hey, folks. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. I am Mike Edge, your host. Our guest today is the president and CEO of Toyo Tire USA, Mike Graber. Before we get started though, I need to do our sponsorship. This is strictly for tire and auto repair shop owners, managers specifically. So, this episode is brought to you by the ReTread Marketing Program created by Tread Partners. Do you want customers back that have been gone missing? I mean, the good customers. Tread Partners runs a program that guarantees your marketing money, no tricks. It is a customer reengagement program going after your best lost customers. It is a one-time 120-day program that generates a 10 to 1 return on investment and it’s guaranteed.
Tread Partners gets your best lost customers back to spend money with you. These are customers that are currently in your point of sale system right now. So, for example, if you invest $5,000 today to go back after these customers, we’re saying you’re going to receive $50,000 back within 120 days from that very list, that targeted best loss customer list. Tread Partners works only within the tire and auto repair industry. Tread Partners specializes for you. To learn more, visit treadpartners.com or you can call them and ask them any questions you want. They’ll be glad to help you.
Also, I wanted to bring up the Traction Summit. If you’re not familiar with it, you can visit tractionsummit.com. I want to encourage you to learn more about it, but you can go to the summit this year. It’s August 13th to the 14th in Charlotte, North Carolina. A lot of direct flights to Charlotte these days, so it’s easy to attend, but you can find out more at tractionsummit.com. So, without further ado, let’s get started. Mike Graber, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast.
Mike G.:
Thanks, Mike. Good to be with you. Appreciate you having me on today.
Mike E.:
Yeah. Well, we had Sonny a couple of times now and felt like it’s high time we had Mike Graber on.
Mike G.:
He’s a hard act to follow. I think I told you when I introduced you to Sonny, he’s a national treasure.
Mike E.:
He is.
Mike G.:
He does his job well and he recommended I do this and happy to be here with you.
Mike E.:
Well, we had a mutual friend. Sam introduced us through email and I’ll never forget your email was just like, “Look, I’m not the guy, but I got the guy.”
Mike G.:
Well, once you meet Sonny, you realize he was born to do this stuff.
Mike E.:
He is.
Mike G.:
He’s a great brand ambassador for Toyo. He’s been here 20+ years now. I think you might even mention this before when you saw him perform, but you go to a lot of these training things with these dealers or industry stuff. People will get coffee or have side conversations, be on their phones, but when Sonny’s up there, people are watching him and clapping along and participating.
Mike E.:
No, he’s a true artist at it and he makes talking about new tires a lot of fun. Whereas a lot of guys get into it and he gets into the emotional side of where the tire connects with the consumer and he has a lot of good graphics. It’s not like a PowerPoint where you’re just going through pictures of the tires and whatnot. But yeah, Sonny, I love the way you call him a national treasure, but listen, I knew we had to talk because I mean you get written up a lot in some of these journals and everything. I reached out to you and said, “Hey, it’s high time we had you on the podcast.” Let’s just talk about where you started from, how you got into tires, and I know you grew up in Buffalo. Want to tell us a little bit about that? Tell the audience how you grew up. Did you grow up in tires?
Mike G.:
Yeah, I didn’t. Born and raised in Buffalo. My parents are Buffalonians. My dad was a steelworker at the time when I was a little kid and my mother grew up in a big family in South Buffalo, one of nine kids. Her father was a fireman.
Mike E.:
Awesome.
Mike G.:
So I started there. I went to finish high school in Buffalo. Then I went to college in Ohio at John Carroll University and went back to Buffalo. My career started as a truck parts salesman for heavy trucks. My dad worked at a truck dealership, got me a job selling truck parts in the southern tier of New York, so Jamestown, New York, that area, if you’re familiar with it, Northeastern Ohio, Northwestern Pennsylvania. Did that for a couple years, went into truck sales. I was a Volvo truck salesman.
So, that was my first exposure to tires, I guess, spec-ing tires for trucks. I had a few variety of jobs right after college for a few years, and then I ended up at Michelin in 2001. Started with Michelin as a truck tire salesman. So, my background in selling truck parts helped me get a job with Michelin. Moved from the North to Alabama, Michelin assignment to Birmingham, Alabama. So, sticking a kid from Buffalo in Alabama was an interesting assignment, but I loved it, met a lot of good people there.
Mike E.:
I don’t know if it was around there, but I’m a restaurant guy, but did you ever eat the fish market down there? Do you know?
Mike G.:
I remember that. I mean, Dreamland Bar-B-Que is the famous barbecue place, but it was a while ago. But I loved Alabama actually. So, yeah, I started with Michelin. I spent eight years with them and I was in Birmingham. Then I moved to New Orleans and then to Minneapolis after Hurricane Katrina. Had a variety of roles.
Mike E.:
That’s a climate shift.
Mike G.:
It was. One under the Mississippi to the other, but I moved from truck tires at that point to OTR. So, I spent a few years with Michelin and the OTR side, left the industry in 2008. I worked for a company called Rain Bird in the irrigation business for a little while, and then I went to Republic Services in the waste and recycling business for a few years. But as many of your listeners will attest, those of us who try to leave the tire business end up coming back somehow and I was recruited by an old Michelin manager to Toyo in 2013.
So, that’s how I ended up at Toyo and really happy I came back to the tire business. I’m also glad for the experiences I had outside of it because I think it’s enriched my experience the second time. You appreciate it more. You learn a few tricks of the trade doing other things, using different parts of your brain, and it helps out the second time around.
Mike E.:
No, I agree with you. I don’t know if I told you this and some of the audience knows this, but I left for five years and then I got invited back in. I mean it is like I told my boss today, I see this as my last stop. I guess you said this when you and I first talked, it’s the people of the industry that make this awesome. I mean, I know the products and all that and the way the industry works, but at the end of the day, it’s just a great group as a whole of people in this industry.
Mike G.:
Entirely, that’s the whole reason I wanted to come back. I missed the people. The game of selling tires is fun. It’s strategic and it’s competitive and it’s fun, but it’s friendly competition. It’s a small industry, so you ended up knowing a lot of the same people you’re competing with and you want to beat them every day. But it’s a fun business and the people are very genuine. The customers are very genuine. A lot of them are self-made and got there through hard work. So, they earned it. It’s just the type of people I like to be around.
I’m happy to be back in the tire industry and I’ve had a lot of good opportunities at Toyo. I started out when I came back as a salesman in Boston and then I was a product planning and then head of truck tire sales and then eventually up to the president role in 2021, I guess 2022.
Mike E.:
Oh, right after COVID.
Mike G.:
Right after COVID.
Mike E.:
Kind in the middle of it, I guess still, yeah, the effects of it.
Mike G.:
I was promoted to VP of Sales in January of 2020, so I had a couple of months to get my act together and then COVID hit. So, the thing with COVID, the timing for me helped because I was adjusting to a new role and nobody had ever gone through COVID. So, the learning curve didn’t matter at that point. You’re just trying to keep the train on the tracks and manage how do we sell tires in this environment. A lot of your listeners probably went through the same stuff. What do we do next? Because there was no blueprint for it.
Mike E.:
What’s your family makeup? Did they enjoy moving around with you at the time, your wife and children?
Mike G.:
Well, my wife, I met when my New Orleans stop with Michelin. She was in the hotel business and we met there. She moved to Minnesota with me. I mean, she’s from Boston. So, the snow didn’t scare us, but since I’ve been married, we’ve moved, I guess, four times. So, she’s always game. She’s a good egg that way. She rolls with it and she’s about the most social and friendliest person I know. So, she doesn’t have a hard time meeting friends or adjusting to new environments. But my kids, even though they were born, one was born in Minneapolis and one was born in Boston.
They’re 100% purely California kids. We’ve been here nine years. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son. So, they remember life before California, but it’s hazy. So, they love it. I’ve been fortunate we haven’t had to move in a good nine years, so that’s been good. They’re in high school now and loving life out here.
Mike E.:
Oh yeah, perfect climate for kids, right?
Mike G.:
It really is.
Mike E.:
Well, so let’s talk about Toyo a little bit. Anything new on the market tire-wise or segments that you’re going after?
Mike G.:
Yeah, we’re always working on new stuff. As you know, our main product, our hero product we call it is our light truck product line, the Open Country. We’re always evolving that, always developing new products. We released last year at SEMA an Open Country EV tire that is emerging in that emerging market more recently where we just launched the Proxes Sport A/S+ Ultra High Performance tire, going back to our roots a little bit and UHP. In fact, you mentioned Sonny, that was Sonny’s first job with Toyo was a UHP specialist back in the Fast and the Furious days. Toya was a big tuner, Fitment, we still are, but our new UHP tire, the Proxes Sport All-Season Plus improved wet traction.
Mike E.:
Nice.
Mike G.:
Just feel a little bit better about the tires and stopping distance. We’re always trying to work on improving just a little bit, just make it a little bit better and constantly improving our products. So, we’re excited about that. We got a lot of TBR products in development that we’re looking forward to releasing.
Mike E.:
Now, will that be at SEMA that you release?
Mike G.:
We should have, yes. Some announcements at SEMA on both light truck products and TBR. That’s usually [inaudible 00:13:23] new products.
Mike E.:
Well, and for our listeners out there that go out there, you guys are always located what, between the two halls there? What’s that area called?
Mike G.:
We call it the Tread Pass.
Mike E.:
Yes.
Mike G.:
Yeah, the Toyo Tread Pass in between South and Central Hall. We’re still there. The Convention Center keeps telling us they’re going to do construction, but each year we still have that same spot, but we have a lot of world premier builds from our enthusiasts. Our marketing team does a tremendous job with SEMA and we’ve got a lot of interesting stuff there. So, if you’re there, come see us. Like you said, Mike, we’re in between the South and Central Hall outside. So, it’s a unique experience at SEMA.
Mike E.:
Well, I’ll give you kudos on your setup. I mean, the cars that you have and displaying the tires, I mean, it is very cool out there. It’s a great place to visit. Obviously, I got to run into Sonny last year and I interviewed him while I was out there as well. But yeah, you guys have a fun setup all the way around. Look, you guys are exciting anyway. I think the market that you target and the people that work for you, it seems like the Sonny environment, right? It’s a high energy environment. It’s a lot of fun.
Mike G.:
Yeah, one of the beautiful things about Toyo is we have a lot of people that are just as passionate about this as Sonny. Not everyone has Sonny’s personality, but the guy who really organizes our SEMA is Stan Chen. He is really involved in the builder part of the business where he finds really cool cars to show at SEMA and they have to be world premieres. They can’t have been shown anywhere else. So, his network is almost endless. It seems like he’s got people trying to get into the show. It’s a must see, must attend deal, and we got other guys that motor sports and even truck that are just passionate about individual slices of the business.
Mike E.:
That’s so cool.
Mike G.:
So it’s just a great place to be.
Mike E.:
Yeah. Well, I can attest to this. I didn’t tell you this the other day when we talked, but Neal Maier, the co-founder of Tread Partners and then started Gain Traction Podcast, when I told him the other day I was interviewing you, he goes, “I have nothing but fond memories of Toyo Tires.” He used to own shops and he said, “That was my favorite tire to sell.” He said, “I always had a great experience with it, my customers did.” It’s a little bit of distant memory, but when I brought your name back up and then I was interviewing you, he goes, “Toyo Tires just brings a good vibe to me.” He goes, “I did real well off Toyo.”
Mike G.:
Well, we appreciate that. I know Sonny probably told you when you interviewed him, we make tires people love as our little logo or tagline or motto. It’s so true though. People love Toyo. We hear story after story about people saving their money to buy the Toyos for their trucks or using their tax return money to buy Toyos. Before I got to tire business, I bought what was at sale. I didn’t have a passion for it, but there’s a whole community of people that love them and it says a lot to us.
The people that care that much are choosing our brand to save their money for tires and it’s incredibly fulfilling as we work hard and try to develop the tires and really put the work in that people really love it and it’s going to pay off and they love our company and our tires. So, I appreciate Neal’s sentiments and we hear that all the time both from customers and consumers about the passion they have for the product.
Mike E.:
No, and that’s what I get out there. So, since I’ve gotten to know you guys a little bit, I’ve got obviously friends in the industry, but I’ve got one childhood friend that bought into a store two, three years ago or whatever, but he even says that he likes selling Toyos and I didn’t have to. It wasn’t like I was asking him or baiting the question, “How’s Toyo in here?” or whatever. I knew he sold them, but he brought up, it’s one of his favorite tires to sell.
Mike G.:
Yeah, they’re cool. The product planners really put a lot of work into the design, the sidewall design, the font, how it looks, just the depth of the sidewall treatments like the shoulders. We get into everything and it’s a craft. These guys really care and we’re a small company. There’s only 80 of us in the sales end of it, and every one of the 80 of us care. We all care very much about the image and the product and the company and each other.
Mike E.:
I don’t know if this is a good or bad example, but I’m going to throw it out there, but you know how there’s that Jeep culture and all Jeep lovers love each other and they love their Jeeps. But Toyos created a culture around their tires that way, I feel like. Would that be fair to say? A little comradery is what I’m saying with Toyo owners, if that makes sense.
Mike G.:
Yeah. I think the people that are into the truck scene especially will notice what other people have on their trucks, and yeah, I think there’s a brotherhood, sisterhood there. There’s a comradery. I wouldn’t diminish it by calling it a cult, but there is that tribalism of this is the group of like-minded individuals and we care. I think it’s just really cool.
Mike E.:
I say that too because I had the experience of going to the Tread Pass where you’re located between the South and Central Hall last year and it felt like a community there besides just you guys doing your thing, working the show, but it just felt like there was a lot of energy. That’s what I felt, and it was just you guys had something unique going on there.
Mike G.:
Yeah, it’s just completely different than your run-of-the-mill booth inside one of the halls that you’re limited to space. They give us a lot of latitude to think about, just conceptualize, make it different, make it memorable. Stan and his team certainly do that. It’s a memorable experience to go see it.
Mike E.:
Well, if I’m not mistaken and I’ll promote this a little bit, but you guys are very dominant on social media for tires, aren’t you?
Mike G.:
Yeah, we’re the number one brand in many of the… I don’t want to name the platforms because I’m not sure I have all my facts straight, but we’re widely considered one of the number one brands on social media. We have a couple of different channels, Toyo Tires and Team Toyo I think is the other one where it’s all enthusiasts, all people sharing pictures and events and showing off their Toyos. Then we have a partnership with the UFC where we incorporate some of that into our social media and expand our tent.
Mike E.:
I’m glad you brought that up. I was going to compliment you on that sponsorship, because my sons, for instance, they’re UFC fans and they know that I know you guys because Sonny sent me gear one time. He asked me about my sons and he said, “Hey, what’s their sizes?” So I sent him and he sent stuff to those guys. So, now they’re just like, “Hey, Dad, there’s Toyo.” You guys are on the Octagon. I mean, pretty prevalent all over the place.
Mike G.:
Yeah, we were one of the first brands to partner up with them. Again, Stan was involved in that, our SEMA guy. They’re such a good group of guys, like loyal. There’s bigger brands that want in on that, but we were there and as long as we can work it out and it’s mutually beneficial.
Mike E.:
It’s interesting you said that because that’s the way I feel about UFC seems to be very… Maybe it’s Dana White, obviously, he’s the owner and operator. I know he’s got partners, but he seems to be very loyal to brands that were loyal to him in the beginning.
Mike G.:
Those words have come out of his mouth. I mean I’ve had the opportunity to meet with him a couple times and he says that that early entrant status we have helps us and the brands fit.
Mike E.:
It does.
Mike G.:
They’re a little gritty, we’re a little gritty. We are widely associated with UFC and it gives us a lot of exposure and we appreciate their partnership and they’ve always been good to our customers when they’re attending matches. It’s just really been great.
Mike E.:
They’ve come a long way and they’re one of the premier sports organizations in the world now. I mean, they are really, really big. You and I grew up in the days when Mike Tyson was… Pay-per-view was huge. Everybody showed up at a Mike Tyson fight, it seemed like, when we were growing up, every celebrity. Well, that’s the way it appears a lot of these UFC title fights get now.
Mike G.:
Yeah. I went to one in New York back in November. It was the end of the year event, but I mean there was a lot of celebrities there. It was crazy. It is very similar to watching a boxing match back in the ’70s and wide world of sports. You see all these people there or the Mike Tyson pay-per-view events when we were kids. It is very similar to that. Just a very cool experience. It’s fun to be associated.
Mike E.:
My wife’s always like, “Why do you all like that stuff?” I said, “Honey, listen, it’s guys and they’re young men.” I said, “It goes to the base of every male.” I said, “They run this thing so well at the UFC. There’s very little risk as much as there used to be.” I mean, if you get pretty much knocked down, in a boxing match, you got a chance to get back up and you go in. You might end up taking more of a beating. In this one, if you get hurt pretty early and it’s over. I mean they call it right there. So, it may look brutal, but it’s got a little nuance to it in regards to safety and just the clarity of it and who they declare the winner and when. I don’t know if you know what I’m saying. Does that make sense?
Mike G.:
Yeah, I think they take the steps to make sure the medical professionals are there, but these guys also train together. So, I mean they know each other. They’re not looking to kill each other. It’s competition and it’s a good show and it’s real. It’s a real competition and it’s just cool to be associated with them.
Mike E.:
I really like that about you guys. I think that’s very cool. Well, coming up on our timeframe here, a couple personal questions I like to ask is, you got a good story for us to make us laugh, like Sonny did? Any experiences?
Mike G.:
This ties in with my time at Toyo and SEMA. My very first day at Toyo in 2013 was the first day of SEMA. So, I got hired on Halloween night, and two days later, I’m at SEMA. I don’t know anybody and I’m going to the show. I’m waiting for the bus and this nice gentleman’s standing there and says, “Oh, I haven’t met you before. Hi, I’m Tatsu.” I am like, “Hi, I’m Mike.” We chit-chatted. So, we’re just sitting on the bus and I remember texting my wife at the time and I was like, “Hey, I think I met a friend. I got this guy who’s really nice, Japanese guy, really friendly.” I lost touch with him that day, but that night, we have this big dealer event and we’re doing the introductions.
What I didn’t realize is that friendly guy sitting next to me just chatting me up was the president of the company and he was the center of attention at the dealer event that night under the spotlight. So, I just thought it was funny and also a testament to how Toyo is. He was the president. That was my first day. He never told me his role. He didn’t care. He just worked at Toyo and he was on the bus with the rest of us going to the show. It resonated with me. It stayed with me that that’s how you behave when if I’m ever in that role, I’m going to behave the same way.
Well, that was a pipe dream. I never even considered having the same role, but here I am in the same role as Tatsu was 10 years ago and I still remember it, but it was funny because I thought I had a new buddy to hang around in Las Vegas with while he was the top dog at the company.
Mike E.:
That’s awesome.
Mike G.:
You pick up lessons along the way of how to behave and how to act, and I’ve had good role models. That’s a good example. The guy I replaced here, Roy Bromfield, was one of my true mentors in the business. You just pick things up along the way and share funny stories.
Mike E.:
I always ask visitors or I mean guests, is there something like a mantra or motto you’d like to live by or phrase, a quote somebody said? But I mean that sums it up too, doesn’t it, right there, or do you have more?
Mike G.:
Yeah, I’m a big believer in being authentic and being real, be yourself. I think that comes through to people that when you’re authentic and you’re not putting up a lot of shade basically to disguise who you really are. I think that really comes through in your management style, but it also goes back to the golden rule. I know that’s a common theme, but just treat people the way you want to be treated and be real and be intentional. That’s just being a human being. But from a work thing, I think if you do what you say you’re going to do, you’re going to separate yourself from a lot of people. It’s so simple, but so few people do it.
Mike E.:
That’s a great point. Well, in the golden rule too, you and I are about the same age and there’s been so many business books you read, whatever. But at the end of the day, I think it comes down to look, I just try to treat my customer, or if I’m in a sales process, I try to sell people the way I like to be sold. It always seems to work out if I just keep that in mind. Quit worrying about what’s at the end of this or that I need this sale or whatever, we need to reach these goals or whatever. Just take care of the customer, and for some reason, it just works out.
Mike G.:
Absolutely. I mean, I am the furthest thing from a slickster type of guy, and I never thought I’d be in sales. I took a sales job when I graduated college because I frankly had nothing else going on. So, why not? I needed money. I expected it to be a short-term thing, but I quickly realized what you just said, Mike, is people aren’t looking to be sold. They’re looking for people to help them solve problems, begin it with them, somebody to talk to about stuff and somebody that follows up.
Some of the best salesmen I’ve come across were not slick. They were just guys that answered their phone and guys that were friendly and cared. It’s really simple. I try to push that on some of the newer salesmen. We’ve had guys that came here with very little sales experience. If they follow that advice, they can’t go wrong. You’ll have a long career in it.
Mike E.:
No, I agree. Well, let me ask you another question on the more personal side. What’s your favorite hobby?
Mike G.:
I am a tortured golfer. I do try to play. I used to play a lot and then as you know, those dang kids get in the way and their activities suck up all your time. But I gladly was involved in my kids’ sports for a long time, but I’m slowly but surely getting into golfing again now that I’ve got some of my weekends back. I try. I’m not very good. I used to be better, but I’m working at it.
Mike E.:
That’s the thing about golf. I was better when I was younger too, but now it’s like somebody said to me, quit thinking you’re going to be as good as you used to be. Somehow you’re going to have to find some contentment in the fact that you don’t play as often, but you still have this visualization that you’re supposed to be hitting the ball the same way you used to or as long as you used to or whatever. But it’s still frustrating because I’m on the hole right now. I’m in this fairway. I want to get to that green and it’s not working out and it just drives you crazy.
Mike G.:
I think my eroding physical skills have helped my game in some ways though, because I know I can’t drive the green anymore. I know I can’t hit it over that creek. Well, guess what? Back 20 years ago, I couldn’t either, but I tried because I thought I could. Now I’m playing a little bit smarter. The game changes. I think it’s why it’s an interesting game because when you have the physical skills to dominate, you probably score worse than when… I used to always comment about that when I was younger. The old men just hitting the ball with their iron down the middle and they beat me every time. There’s something to that. I’m starting to play like an old man as I become one.
Mike E.:
Well, yeah. When you’re younger, you’re like… Do you remember the movie Tin Cup with Kevin Costner? You’re Kevin Costner. Just give it to me again. I’m going to do this. I can hit it.
Mike G.:
Right. It was like show-off time. I was going to hit it as far as I could. It doesn’t matter if it goes in the woods.
Mike E.:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Mike G.:
It’s funny.
Mike E.:
Well, I got to tell you, man, it’s been a pleasure having you. Thank you.
Mike G.:
Yeah, Mike, anytime. I enjoy your show. I do listen to it and enjoy getting to talk to you a little bit here and happy to do it anytime.
Mike E.:
Well, and I’ll see you at SEMA for sure.
Mike G.:
Come see us. We look forward to it.
Mike E.:
I’ll be there. So, to all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of the podcast. As usual, we are very grateful for you. If you would like to recommend a guest to me, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. We take all recommendations seriously. Until next time, be safe, be grateful, and have a great day.
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