 edition of Tony G. Create a life you love. Today we're going to be talking about how you take your passion, turn it into your purpose, and make that purpose a viable career, a career you can survive and thrive on. We're going to be doing that with PGA Pro and owner of Four Milwaukee, Tim Grogan. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. Absolutely my pleasure. So, Tim, now you're a PGA Pro and you own Four Milwaukee, which is located downtown Milwaukee. Let's go way back to when this was an idea. When this is something that just started, you thought, hey, why not? How old were you when you first thought about golf? Oh, I mean playing golf and yeah, I was eight years old when I first started. So I was playing baseball and other sports and then just started playing golf and there was a golf course not too far from our house. So then we started, me and my brother started going there to caddy and then if you caddy, then you got free golf on Mondays. And so kind of one thing just led to the next and then just started playing some junior tournaments and had some success at some of the local ones and just kind of kept going with it. Awesome. How did you know or when did you know you wanted golf to be a career? Like this is what I want to do with my life. I would say, you know, probably eighth grade and like all kids, whether they want to go play professional baseball or you have these dreams, you know, at that point, I thought, okay, I'm going to play the PGA tour and pursue that. And so did well in the junior tournaments, did well in some of the state events and some national things. Then you know, that led to a golf scholarship and then you continue from there and you find out that there's a lot of really good players out there. So you keep going with this as long as you can. So now a lot of kids, a lot of children, they do have that dream, whether it's NFL, NBA or PGA, they're thinking, I'm going to do this. I'm going to take it all the way, right? And then like you said, you find out there's a lot of really good basketball players. There's a lot of really good football players and a lot of really good golfers. How did you know what your next step was? Well, in this way to this day is that I went to UNLV for college. My golf program was pretty good. And then, you know, once you graduate, the next step is the mini golf tours. And those are usually in Florida, out of Orlando. You play those and some guys make it. And some guys who are college stars and First Team All-Americans don't. So you really don't know until you get to that next level, I think, when you're trying to play the mini tours, which is the next step after that is to play the PGA tour. Excellent. So now you teach golf. So you teach and you've been teaching for quite some time? Yeah, I would say 22, 23 years since 92. Wow, that's amazing. So tell me, where do you teach and who do you teach? Okay, I have a business called Four Milwaukee, which is located right downtown Milwaukee. There are four golf simulators. There's a full bar in there. But that's where I do the majority of my teaching there. You can teach in these simulators, which it's the closest thing to playing real golf. You're playing with a real club, real ball, see the ball in flight. So I do most of my teaching there with video. You can video the swing, email it out to the person and do the lessons there. Now I still am at Missing Links up in Mequon, which is an outdoor facility, and that's more for the junior golfers. More of the people want to be outside and see their their golf shots outside. So I'll be mostly there during the summer months. So basically from April through October out there. Okay, so now you mentioned that's awesome. That's unbelievable. So you can teach pretty much anyone at any age? Yes, yeah. I'm going to Missing Links. We have a program, three to six, we call it a Tiger Totler program. Three year olds is just getting their attention. But you can, at about four or five, you can start teaching kids, you know, the grip, the setup, and they mimic so well. They can just see it and actually just replicate it and do it. But anything earlier than that, it's just, it's tough to get their attention, I think, but four or five to be focused in there. Yeah. So former walkie, you said that there are simulators there. What do the simulators simulate? I'm not a golfie per se, but explain if somebody goes in there and they want to use a simulator, what are they seeing? Yeah, good way to describe it. It's the closest thing to playing real golf. So as I said before, you play with a real club, a real ball, you hit from, it'd be a cubicle, basically all enclosed, a big movie screen. And so you're hitting into that screen. As the ball is approaching that screen, there is sensors that read how fast the ball is going, the spin, the trajectory on it. So when the ball hits the screen, now that ball is in real flight. So the information goes from those sensors through the computer up through the projector and onto the screen. So it's remarkable how fast it happens, but you'll see your ball in real flight just like you would outside. And the graphics are of a golf course. It could be Pebble Beach, it could be Piners, any famous golf courses on these simulators. So you'll see your ball in flight, you'll see it land in the fairway. And the sensors know that that ball went 250 yards. It's in the middle of fairway. So it's, you know, it's very close to playing real golf. That's amazing. Isn't technology amazing to you? What technology has come up with to allow us to do this? Yeah. I mean, you just see with some of the video games the kids are playing those EA sports games, the graphics are just like a video. You can't tell the difference sometimes between, is this a real baseball game or is this just, you know, an EA sports with the graphics? But yeah, I mean, I would think the technology in the next five years, it's going to be, it's hard to imagine what could be out there, you know, five years from now. Absolutely. So now you've played at a lot of the courses, right? You've played many of them. So would you say that the simulators are accurate to the courses? Yes. Yeah, I would, when you hit a good shot, you know, just say you hit your seven iron, it goes 162 yards outside. It does that exact same yardage when you're inside in the simulator. So it's very accurate. So what is the clientele at four? Is it a majority of men, businessmen? Is it because it's downtown? Are you getting that downtown? Yeah, I would say mostly, you know, it's a downtown crowd. It's a lot of guys that live on the east side. They could be living downtown. The good and the bad, we're probably 70% guys come in, but we just had Executive Women Golf Association last week. So that's growing. We're getting more of the ladies to come in. But it is a wide range. It could be guys from, you know, 18 years of age, we have high school kids that come in to the 28 year old young professionals that live downtown to some of the lawyers who are in their 50s, they come in. So it's really anywhere from, you know, 18 all the way up to, you know, 65. We've got a big retirement group too that comes in. Amazing. Now the people who are coming in, are they, they probably come in by themselves. Do they come in for parties and events? Do they do meetings there? Yeah, it's been a little bit of everything. We've got corporate special events. So it could be a team builder for Johnson Controls or any close by company downtown. That could be 40 people. They could be their customers at one of the financial institutions that come in and want to entertain 40 of their people. Birthday parties have been pretty popular and the bachelor parties are good too. Amazing. So a little bit of everything. Now do you do group lessons at four? In small groups, because those simulators, you can put anywhere from one person into a simulator or you could put up to six to eight into each one. So usually groups would be groups of three, something like that. But most of the majority of the lessons are individual lessons. Okay. So if somebody wants to come to four, what are your hours there? Monday through Friday, we open at 10 a.m. and stay open until midnight on Monday through Friday. Then Saturday and Sunday, we open earlier. So we open at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and open until midnight on both those days. So that's perfect. Like in the summertime after or before the summer festivals, like Summerfest and Festa Italiana, if somebody wants to stop in and hit some balls, they can do that. That's been very good about our location. We're on Water Street. We're basically probably about five blocks from the Summerfest ground. So whether it's Summerfest or any of the other festivals, we get people that are on their way down there or at 10 o'clock at night, they're on their way back. And we do some fun events for them, whether it's a close to the pin event or something to have some contest for that week at Summerfest. Excellent. Now let me ask you, if somebody's coming there, can they bring their own clubs? Do they have to, do you have clubs they can use? Yeah, kind of both. The more serious the golfer is, we recommend bring your own clubs, just like going to the golf course. You'd like to play with your own set of clubs and getting a rental set at the golf course you go to. But we have rental sets there. People don't want to lug their clubs all the way down there. We've got plenty of clubs for people to use. A lot of them are demo clubs and we have brand new rental sets too. Okay, so if somebody comes in and they like, let's say that there's something wrong with their club, can you repair it there? Yeah, we can do club repair, grip, we re-grip clubs. The head comes off or something needs repair. We can do that too. Does the head usually come off because they throw it in frustration? No. Because these heads are so much bigger, they're breaking more. The shafts are right by the head is where they're breaking more. So they can break when they're normally swinging too, but it could be from getting that also. Okay, so do you have a pro shop? Let's say somebody like me comes in there and I swing the club and I just, I say, oh my gosh, I just love this. And I decide I want to be all in. Yeah, this spring we've just started that where we will have the clubs demo, whether it's a pink club or a touredge, tailor-made, Callie, any of the major brands. Nice thing is with the simulators, they can try them out. So we have the different clubs that they can travel from all the different drivers to the irons to the hybrids. And then we can order them up. And nowadays clubs come pretty quickly. I usually get those in 48 hours once you order them up. Very nice. Excellent. So now after you're done swinging clubs and golfing, that's what it's called, do you have a bar there where people can sit and talk? Yeah, we have two bars in there. So the front bar seats about 20 people. And that's right up to the simulator. Okay. So you're on your bar seat and the simulator is literally five feet from you. That's amazing. Okay, so now we're going to get into a little bit more detail. And then because this is about creating your future and following your passion, we're going to go with that. So where is Fort Milwaukee located? Okay, it's right in the heart of downtown. So it's 530 Northwater. It's between Clybourne and Michigan, right in between the two, across from the Chase Bank building. So here's my question, one of my questions for you, because I believe, and I don't know if you feel this way or not. And sometimes we all have that intuition or that inner guide that we can follow or have a, like a knowing of, do you feel like you being in golf and where you are now was destiny? Did you co-create this? Was there or did you just, did you just keep following those steps? And it just, here you are. Yeah, I guess I would think of it kind of as both. I think just one step led to the next. You know, one's playing college golf and then pursuing playing. I was a college golf coach at Marquette University and then led into teaching and doing junior golf camps and things. So just kind of one thing led to the next. If that's a destiny, maybe that is then. But I just get found the path that, you know, it's kind of whatever opportunities are in front of you to pursue those and that kind of leads to the next thing. So clearly you love golf, right? To be this enmeshed in it. If somebody really loves something, what would your advice be to them as far as how to, you know, if it gets difficult? Because I'm sure there were times like that you thought, this is where I'm going to be. Okay, now that's not happening, but you really love golf. So what would your advice be when those blocks come in for people? What would you tell them to keep going? Well, I mean, just like you're saying, you know, pursue your passion. You know, they say if you don't work a day, you never work if it's something you really enjoy. It's not like going to work and things, but I think, you know, golf is a business. So there is that part of it where it can be difficult or financially trying it sometimes. But as long as you look at the big picture and just keep going along, you kind of know where you want to be or want to get to, it's easier to get through the kind of the stomach box along the way. Right. I do believe that each of us has a Dharma or a purpose, something we're put here to do. Absolutely, positively, no two ways about it. And when we're not doing that, we feel out of balance, we feel a little lost. And I have so many people come to me and say, I feel lost. I feel, what am I supposed to be doing here? And inside of us is that knowing of what we love. We all know what we love. Right. So if you didn't, if you weren't involved in golf, is there something else that you love enough that you could say, yeah, this would be my life? That's a good question. You know, I, to be honest with you, I never thought of doing anything but doing something in golf. Is that amazing? But I would have had to switch gears, whether it's something in the financial world or something like that or insurance, maybe, but I would say I never really thought about the other options. And I agree with that because when you, when you so, when you have your mind and your destination set, like you're determined or you're saying this is where it's going to be, there is no other option. I believe the universe works with you to co-create where you're going to end up. However, if somebody wants to put that in a more western term, that's great. If they want to say it the way I said it, that's great too. But I just believe there's a place we're all supposed to be and when we're there, we feel at peace or in harmony. So you decided to do a formal walkie in downtown. What made you decide to put it downtown? A couple of factors. One, I've always taught out at Missing Links up in Mequon and a good deal of the students were coming from downtown. There was road construction, there was traffic. So anytime in the afternoon, there was always a delay in the lessons. It was because someone's 10 minutes late because of traffic. It's not their fault, but it just seemed very difficult to come from downtown to come to the suburb to do golf. So I always thought there should be something golf-wise downtown. I looked into driving range and plots of land down there, but this seemed the most feasible to start with doing something with golf simulators and it just bring golf close to the downtown business guys. There's more people living downtown. You can see all those condos going in. A lot more apartments are down there, so there's just more people living downtown too. So that was I guess the main goal to it. Excellent. I have a question now that is a little bit different. How much of golf is about mindfulness and how much about it is about skill? Well the skill is in the practice, I would say. The preparation, the skill to hone those skills and to put the time and effort into that. The mindfulness, the simplest way I could put it is if you think you can do it, you can do it. They say all the great achievers do it twice. They imagine it first, and then they go through the real life of actually doing it. The simplest thing is the shot that you have in front of you. You better have a singular focus for that 20-30 seconds that you have to pull that shot off, but you have to visualize it first. I think the really good ones see it perfectly, crystal clear, and then they go ahead and do it. That's mindfulness and answers. Yeah, that is. Because I've always thought of golf as a game that you play in your head before you can play physically. When you try to play it physically, it kind of messes up the shot. I don't know, would you say that's accurate? Well, I think kind of what you're trying to say, if you overthink it, if you analyze it too much and you think this needs to be perfect and you just don't go with the flow of it, you're not going to hit the shot that you want to hit. There has to be, there is that skill part that the same before the practicing of it, the physical part of it, but there is that where you just have to let go. You can't think about it. You should have done it enough. You visualize it, you feel it, and then you can actually do it. Absolutely. Let me ask you this. If Tim today could go back and talk to that eight-year-old Tim, that was our eighth grade Tim, that said, I'm going to do this for a living, what are the three things today, Tim, adult Tim, would say to that Tim, to younger Tim? That's tough. I would say I would have probably looked more at the technical side of the golf swing and any changes, it's easier to make changes when you're in eighth grade or 20 years old and things like that. Just where the golf swing was going, it's turned into so much of a power game. It's all about length and things like that. I wish I would have made those changes earlier on, then I may have been able to play at a higher level. I guess the other thing would be just don't sweat the little setbacks that you see. Don't get all worried about some of those things. The third thing, I wish I had an answer for that. There's only two things you would go back and tell younger Tim, huh? Yeah, I'm thinking of it right now. There's probably a couple other things I can't think of those right now. That's okay, that's okay. I teach a program called Create Your Future. A lot of that program has to do with visualization, really being focused on your goals, knowing where you want to be, and not accepting anything else. Being practical, but not accepting other, not having that default button, okay, this didn't work. I'm going to go back to the way it was. If somebody's uncomfortable in what they're doing, if they're not loving their career, is there a piece of advice you would give them to help them get into a place that they really love? If I could say, so many people, they're taught as children, you need to go to school, you need to go to college, you need to get this secure set check coming in every single month or week, and you need to do this corporate life, and then you used to be, you should have a pension or 401k, but so many people are miserable doing that, right? What would you say to them, and then I'll tell you what I would say to them? Well, I think it's a debate for a lot of people. I mean, financially, some careers can be very rewarding, and you're into that for 20 years, it's hard to walk away. I mean, financially, things are doing very well, but I've always seen a lot of things in career or life, really, is you learn some things that you don't want to do. I mean, you can have the passion for what you want to do, and you know what that is, but sometimes spending that 20 years is maybe it was just a process of elimination, that you don't want to do this job or that job, and then you start seeing more clearly what job you want to do or what career you want to have, and not everyone knows that when they graduate from college or know that at 22 years old, so I think I always just know there's always different things you could do to make you happy, and it's not all about the dollar sign on your check, I guess. Absolutely, absolutely. That's a great answer, and one of the things I would say too to people is there are different stages in our life, and each stage we might play a different role. For one stage, we might play the college student and then have this corporate career, but it's never too late to start being the creator of your own destiny. Even if you have to start doing that part time, people always say to me, I don't have time, and I always respond well how much time do you spend sitting on the couch surfing certain sites, and they'll say oh probably like an hour, two, three hours a night, and I'll say well if you dedicated that to what you really want to do, where your passion is, what you love, and you started doing that part time, could you start building that momentum? The law of the universe I think says the energy that we're in or what we think about, more of that comes to us, so being mindful and really focusing in on what we love and where we want to be, I think takes us pretty far also. Would you agree with that? Oh yeah, I very much agree. When I was coaching I used to tell them we have 24 hours a day, so do all the other teams, it's what are you going to do with those 24 hours, and how you can focus in, and I would think it's a little bit of a snowball effect, all of a sudden you're able to spend three hours a week doing it, and now eight hours or whatever it is, so there's, I guess you're right, I mean there is always time, and you just got to find a way to make time for it. So somebody who's watching who is saying, you know what, I love golf, I want to, and maybe they're younger, maybe they're not younger, and they want to make it a part of their life or a part of their career, what's the one biggest piece of advice that you would give them? For someone starting in the golf business? Yeah, maybe it's a young kid who's saying, you know what, I want to be the next Tiger Woods or the next this person, what would you say to them? I would say go seek a PJ golf professional and get your mechanics out, make sure you've got just the correct mechanics that you need so you can keep getting better, I think some people, their ceiling is only so high because of some of the physical things that they may have in their swing, so I think with that, and for a young kid to go out and hit it as hard as you can, and it's a game of, it's how far you can hit it now, the guy who hits it the farthest, it's Dustin Johnson, it's number one in the world, he hits it farer than everybody, so it just makes an easier game, so I think that would probably be where the emphasis is, you know, going forward with someone who's, you know, a 10-year-old just getting going. Yeah, excellent piece of advice, my piece of advice is no matter what you want to do, be flexible in that, allow yourself to have the flexibility to think, I think it's going to go this way, and this is what I want, but maybe the universe has a much better plan, that's going to unfold for you, or maybe something else might, it might go in another direction first, and then get back there, so just be really flexible, and don't sweat the small stuff, is that what you said earlier? Something like that, yeah. Absolutely, so I want to thank you so much for being a guest on the Tony G show again, it's completely amazing, I want to say thank you for joining us today, we will be here with Tony G, create a life you live turning your passion into your purpose, and your purpose into a viable career for you, please don't hesitate to contact me at the website below, www.tonig.info, with any questions you might have on how to create the life that you love, thanks for joining us tonight.