The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Cal Dorohoy - The Fairway Co. Long Drive Tour Across Canada
Cal Dorohoy, founder of Fairway Co and director of Innovation for VaynerSports, joins Dave to discuss the ambitious Fairway Long Drive Tour across Canada and the intersection of athletics and entrepreneurship.
• Cal created Fairway Lager after identifying the untapped opportunity to own the "social side of golf"
• The beer contains a protease enzyme cutting 90% of gluten, making it less filling for extended days on the course
• The Long Drive Tour spans from Tofino, BC to Cabot Nova Scotia over 18 days
• Playing 18 rounds with over 50 athletes, creators, and entrepreneurs showcases Canadian talent
• Cal transitioned from soccer to business after an injury, finding that his competitive athletic mindset transferred directly
• Athletes make excellent entrepreneurs because they understand teamwork, competition, and resilience
• Both professional athletics and entrepreneurship require sacrifice and dedication behind the glamorized social media presence
• The vision includes building communities in each city for future tours, connecting people through golf
• Law of attraction and clear goal-setting have been crucial to Cal's success in business
• Sports that allow multi-generational play and moderate drinking (golf, pickleball, curling) create unique social connections
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Yo, what's up? Welcome back to the 268th episode of the Athletes Podcast, today featuring Cal Dorahoy, founder of Fairway Co. As well as director of Canadian Innovation for VaynerSports. We're here in Edmonton a third of the way through the Fairway Tour, the Long Drive Tour to be more specific, and holy dinah, has it been a long one. Cal, take us through the first seven days. Where are we at right now?
Speaker 2:How are you feeling? How's the vibe? We got a long flight tonight. I mean, yo, I think I'm a little more used to this than you in terms of boozing the degeneracy, yeah, yeah, yeah, look. I mean you know the sports and athlete space depending on kind of where you fit in, is man a lot of. You know networking, schmoozing and boozing, and so you know, I think it's one of those things where few pops on the golf course never killed anybody and we keep it rolling until after. And speaking of that.
Speaker 2:Speaking of those Cheers. Yeah, this is our first fairway of the trip for sure, right yeah Through like eight days now I got to tell you, the enzyme that you removed is the only reason I'm still on this tour alive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what he's talking about is I'll just, I'll just give the backstory and then we'll fuck it. So what? What is fairway co? And I'll talk a little bit about venus sports. So this is probably and I yo, I remember actually I don't think you know this it was so I didn't get into the us, like like September of last year, a year ago, whatever, and you know I was going to be there for three months. I had a bunch of work stuff happening there and they thought it was movie day or whatever, miscommunication, but whatever. And I remember.
Speaker 2:So we went overseas and I'm from Thailand and we were in Thailand for a month and, bro, I'm like I'm sitting like it's like 4 am Because I'm like I'm sitting like it's like 4 am because I'm staying up all night working like Eastern hours. I'm just sitting there and I'm like you know, and you and I are, we talk about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial, whatever, and it's one of those things where I'm like I'm happy with the swings that I've taken so far, but I'm like I need to take a swing at something that I actually you know, me and friends really enjoy and I was. What do we do more? As you know, guys, gals, whatever is then golf and drink, and so, as and as I'm thinking about this, I'm like, no, why is no one owned like the golf beer and then own like the social side of golf? Obviously you know you're having different types of beer on the golf course, different types of coolers, whatever it is, but like you have that on or off the golf course, why is there something not niche where you see that're like okay, that takes me to that space that I'm in when I'm smoothing people on the golf course, having a good time with friends, meeting new people, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, man was just like yo, like there needs to be a fairway beer, there needs to be a fairway seltzer than you know, and all these things. And, yeah, recipe tested for like six months and ended up launching fairway lager, which is a four and a half percent with an enzyme, the protease enzyme, which cuts 90% of the gluten, so it's not filling and yo, you can attest to that right, like I mean, yo, I can't drink and again, I'm the so take this with a grain of salt, but I actually can't drink like more than six of like any other beer and feel, okay, we've definitely had some days, like through the first eight of this tour, where it's like 15 and, like yo, like still feeling light, you know if the tofino 2.0 footage ever gets released people roster's on it yeah, I think roster's on it.
Speaker 1:For sure, shout out to roster for capturing all this content. But straight up, the. The quality of what you've built in the beer itself is second to the marketing. What I believe in on that side For sure, I actually enjoy the beer.
Speaker 2:No, I don't. I don't normally drink beer.
Speaker 1:Everyone knows I don't necessarily drink a lot, but that is the only reason I'm still here, because I would be bloated after two beers. Yeah, right, but yeah. You said we mentioned we might have had 14 or 15 at some point throughout the tour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, right, but yeah you said we mentioned we might've had 14 or 15 at some point throughout the tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we're not counting.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, Fortunately, but but yeah, like. So, just just to get a little bit into what we're doing here. So again, I said, own the social side of golf and just, you know, be the go-to beverage media company that people look to when they think, hey, fun golf and sociability on the golf course. And so, you know, it's one of those things where, through my background, as they've said in VaynerSports and it's sort of leading up innovation and new business, and it was one of those things where a bunch of experience in athlete marketing and why not, you know, showcase and highlight Canadian sport and athletics through a massive campaign that we're doing right now in Canada. And that is what Dave alluded to the long drive tour.
Speaker 2:So September 14th we started in Tofino, bc, the farthest West point in Canada, and on October 3rd we will be ending in we're going to St John's, newfoundland. So we're going all the way east where they're going to come back and end in Cabot, cape Breton, and so, yeah, we're doing like man. I mean, I think it works out to three straight weeks driving across the country, except we're taking a flight tonight to Toronto to skip the middle part strategically, but we're probably going to end up playing like 22 rounds of golf with. You know what is it Two people joining us every round. So you know 50 plus athletes, creators, influencers, entrepreneurs, founders. You know people who are impacting the Canadian marketplace and whatever they're doing.
Speaker 2:And yeah, you know, throughout those 21 days we're going to get to know and interview and create content with a bunch of different people through all walks of life. And you know what better place to do it, as we talked about, than the golf course, like through the first seven days? I mean just the different cats and characters that we've both got the pleasure to ride the carts with and chat and talk to for four straight hours and enjoy again like a few beers and get everyone loose. And man, it's been unreal Like I. You know, where else can we do that?
Speaker 1:yeah, you alluded to the fact that, like you can't really connect with people somewhere like this other than a golf course.
Speaker 1:I mean, I play hockey once a week with greg muller and bob rouse, but you know, I sit next to them, maybe in the dressing room, for a couple minutes before and after the game, and it's like you spend four hours in a cart with someone. You really get to know who they are, how they operate, what they're into, and that's where, like the overlap in the athletic world I think that's been the coolest part for me is, like you know, we have our two networks. We're calling people last minute, making reservations, booking hotel rooms two times, but we're making it happen and everyone involved is like, yeah, this is what athletes do.
Speaker 2:You guys just get shit done, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think it's one of those things too right, where, with all of the golf we're doing, you know golf has become a sport that is super culturally relevant. You look at, you know social right. You see photos and videos of lebron james golfing. You're seeing, you know all sorts of different athletes and people in all walks of life playing the game and obviously you know various levels. And I think again, like the one thing that is consistent across the sport of golf is that connections that are built on the golf course and so you know being able to champion that through the fairway, beer and everything else we got going on birdie juice and all sorts of all those different things. Like again, I I just think it's.
Speaker 2:It's such a. You know you're, you're a hockey guy, I'm a soccer guy. Golf was never my number one sport, favorite sport. Growing up I didn't play that much. Actually I know you did a little bit of junior golf, but as well, probably didn't play that much and getting into you know I'd love to be able to say I didn't play that much.
Speaker 1:I played a lot, dude, despite how I've been playing on the long drive tour. I played a lot of golf growing up. Not well right now, but you know what? The game's improving, we're getting, we're trending in the right direction shout out pxg for the clubs. They've been unreal dude, we we've been very fortunate with the outreach that you've done, the what people have seen with the vision that we've been putting together over the past few weeks, and it's like, dude, we have pxg putting us in brand new sets of clubs.
Speaker 1:I'm waiting for that gear to show up and I'm going to be decked out, dialed in sheldon's, shipping this across the country right now, but I mean highlighting some of the country's best golf courses, with some of the best equipment on the market, with some of the biggest brands involved and some of the up and coming brands, like a bender extender right, and making sure that you're aligning with okay, you know, if we are going to have 14 or 15 beers, maybe let's make sure we're taking care of the backend so we can wake up and do it again the next day, right For sure.
Speaker 2:For sure, and and and you know, I think too right it's. It's one of those where you mentioned vendor extended, but also championing and showcasing the entrepreneurs and like the backbone of this country and the. You know, it's one of those things, right, where I heard a quote recently on one of the podcasts I was listening to. I heard a quote recently on one of the podcasts I was listening to Maybe it was this one and it was and you show me that and I'm rambling a little bit here, but you show me that video of the AI of James Winston and Jackson Dart. Yeah, and in the new age that we're in of social and AI, what can be created now is very different than what it looked like five, 10 years ago, and so it's one of those things where, really, that creative and strategic thinking and just how you approach social and the internet in this attention economy is massive, and that's why I think you know we've aligned on so many things is like I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm a great content creator. I'm not going to sit here and act like I have all the answers. I don't know, you know, but that's what it is right. It's just putting yourself out there constantly iterating and just becoming a better human being number one. And then you know, storyteller, I think that's the most important thing, right, and I have, you know, and this was super last-minute planning in terms of long drive tour, but literally like fairway long drive tour, it was the header, as I'm like going through my notes and trying to figure out okay, let's play here this day, let's do this this day, but every like third line, I'll be like storytelling key, storytelling key. And we're still not there, like I don't feel, like I'm good enough. Yet you know, it's constantly fucking getting better and that's what sport is as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, I think that if that can be at the forefront of what you're doing and I said this to derek, I said this a couple people in the few, first few rounds we played is like you know, every brand and business needs nowadays needs to be a media company first and a business second. And so I think what we're doing here you know over the three weeks that we're going to be on the road right is you've built this, the athletes podcast, and establish yourself. Obviously, we're on episode 268, which is unreal. I mean to get past 20, 50, 100 to whatever like that's. You know we'll shout out uh, jordan ferroni, when, uh, when you get to a thousand, you got to hit him same amount of ice baths as podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you should do one with. That's a good take.
Speaker 2:Actually, we'll do the whole one in the ice bath, yeah yeah, you know, and yeah, you'll see if you can get more than three minutes, but according to you, yeah, which is crazy. But yeah, man, I just think you know it's one of those things where, if you are approaching media rights, as you know, you know you can extend whatever your mission impact is.
Speaker 1:And so you know, obviously, educate, entertain and inspire, but it's also like creating evergreen content.
Speaker 2:That looking back my word yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, look at, we're going to do this over three weeks. We're going to try our best to capture all of it possible. Ross is with us for, you know, 18 of the 21 days and there's no way physically possible for us to capture all of this. Play the golf and enjoy our rounds with the people that we're playing with.
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:So you know this is going to be the next two, three, four months. You'll be seeing more stuff that comes from it. But you know, in the new year it's like, okay, are we going down to the UK or the US? And it's like, where's the next step? Because, you're right, it's iterating. It's okay, what did we do during this trip that worked well? Where do we need to improve? What admin assistant are we hiring so that you and I don't have 64 different tasks to take care of on Saturday before we play our round on Sunday morning? Like? Those are the little things that you know. Like you alluded to, I've been doing this for six years. I've done a couple of minor tours. This is a major tour, you know. We got multiple people involved, moving pieces and over time, you know we're going to freaking be able to dial this in and it's going to be incredible and maybe it's not taking on an entire country, maybe it's the West Coast.
Speaker 2:Maybe you adjust accordingly, right? Look, I think this is the first step to building community and building something bigger. And for me, the vision, with something like this, that we're doing with the 18 days, 18 cities, 18 courses, is hey, next time we do it, let's get a crew out in each city we go to. Maybe that's just 10 people, maybe it's 20, whatever it is, and by the time you know we're where we want to be. We have hundreds of people in each city coming out to a golf course of our choice and joining us at each of those spots and, just again, championing the social, the connections made through sport, specifically, obviously, here with golf, but through sport just in general. Everyone plays golf, exactly If you're athletic or not, you can play golf.
Speaker 2:Proof, and golf is also probably maybe baseball, but one of the only sports where you can rip beers and or drinks and arguably be better Agreed, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1:Maybe curling, toss in curling. I've done a little bit of curling.
Speaker 2:I can't say I've drank when I've curled, but it's got to be one of the only like anything you're like you know.
Speaker 2:So, which is nice and which helps you know the cause here, but that's the vision for me is just like, hey, how can we do this and get people out in each of our stops and, honestly, man through the first eight days just with some of the social proof from people messaging us on Instagram and saying, hey, we'd love to grab a beer here. Or hey, come play my golf course here. I mean just that alone, I feel like I'm super grateful and I feel like we've won already. And how can we 10 and 100x that and get everyone in their respective cities being like, hey, this is super cool, we love what you guys are doing, let's do it here, let's do this, let's do that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm excited because we've got, we've done a little bit on the West Coast and obviously, like you know what a whirlwind of seven, eight days between the driving and the on course and the off course, and but yeah, like you know, tomorrow we get to Toronto and tomorrow night we've got a party, a fairway launch party at a golf sim spot with, you know, 50 to 100 people coming. And so you know again, like just mixing these things in along our tour is awesome because we get to connect with 100 people tomorrow who we've never met, yeah.
Speaker 2:And enjoy a beverage.
Speaker 2:And then you know, I'm like, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember the conversation I had with dave while I was sipping this, yeah, and so when I look at this, like you know, you said the the what's in the can is good, which is awesome. Obviously, you want what's in the can to be good, but in my opinion it's. It's not about what's in the can, it's not about the can, what it's about the feeling that this gives you. And so you know again, like you and I will never forget these 18 to 21 days and whenever I look at this can and this logo and this brand, I'm going to be taken to a place. It's going to be different places every time, just because the amount of memories we've already made with this.
Speaker 1:It's true. I think that's one thing that like for me at least I want to make sure for those watching, listening, consuming. This is like if we did see you over these past seven, eight days. Thank you for being a part of this. Like that was incredible. And for those who have been with us for six years here on the podcast, you've seen the growth, the pitfalls, the ups, the downs, like it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I've talked about this for years and, like you experienced this right now, having been in this for what? Seven, eight, nine months with fairway co. And like you're adding new brands now to the portfolio. And for you it's like okay, now, how do I continue to grow? And I heard when we were talking a few days ago it's like yo, I'm taking big swings right now. Like we're at the age where you can do that. We don't have a crazy amount of responsibilities. And yo, let's, let's, swing for the home run instead of hitting a single.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I think it's a combination of consistency, right? You know, take getting your at bats, waking up every day doing what you need to do, and then you know, being strategic around, okay, now's the time to take a big. You know, people always say when's the best time to start, when's it's fucking right now. Like you know, there's never going to be a good time. There's no.
Speaker 2:You know, financial situation, personal situation, families, what the the world is a crazy place, as we've seen. You know, especially over the last five years, just with all the kind of BS that's happened, and you know everything that's just gone down. And I think, at the end of the day, you are your own thoughts, you control what you can control and you know, just do your thing, keep that consistency and really, like, I truly believe that if you want something, you'll make it happen. I think the issue with you know and I speaking like to our generation, probably more so than the older generation it's one of those things where most of us kind of go through life and think we want things and are kind of like, oh, oh, yeah, you know, that'd be nice, I kind of want that, but we never actually defined what it is that we actually really want and go after it. And so, you know, I believe in law of attraction, I believe in the power of manifestation and I think you know, again, the problem with most people is like they don't know exactly what they want and therefore can't go after what they don't know that they want.
Speaker 2:Versus, you know, coming into something like this, it's like I want everyone who's on the golf course or and or enjoys the game of golf to have tried this and know what we are over the next five years, and if I know that that's exactly what I want, then I work to achieve that. Versus you know, again, even a few years ago, it's like, oh yeah, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this, but, like you know, I'm not fully committing to anything. And how am I going to get to where when I'm, you know, half-assing things and all that? So, yeah, man, you know I can't preach enough. The law of attraction is a real thing really. You know, when you're young, try as much shit as possible.
Speaker 1:Obviously, throw as much shit at the wall and see what sticks I use. A alfredo, yeah, instead of spaghetti. It's a little bit nicer, you know? Yeah, it sticks nice.
Speaker 2:We'll have to literally, you should literally hug some, yeah, yeah but yeah, you know, I I just think that it's such a a real thing, right, it's like dude, that is why we're sitting here having this conversation right now.
Speaker 1:Right, like for what? Four years ago, I hit you up on linkedin because you were a young canadian kid that was grinding in the sports space. Yeah, and that was what I was doing for a couple years and I'm like yo how, when you hit me up four years ago, how?
Speaker 2:and you said young canadian kid, how young did you think I was?
Speaker 1:I thought we were the same age. Yeah, I figured we were around the same age I was. I would have been 24 at the time, so I I assumed you were older than 20. I'll be honest there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, but then, like, once you start doing the math, you realizing you're at U of A and like, but you were hustling during school after like, and now the same as me, right, like I started working with Rob Chevers, who were here, gm Windermere, and it's like I started working with him at during second year of sport management at Brock University.
Speaker 1:It was like I was basically holding down a full-time job during the summer while doing school, and it's like you're involved with Vayner doing the same shit and it's like yo, that's there's not a lot of. I've told you this. There's not a lot of people our age that are working as hard as we are or that are externally showcasing that and like hustling and trying to go after it. Like, yeah, and I shouldn't say where there's a lot of people working hard, let me individuals who are working hard to share that and like I don't think it's out there right now. There's founders clubs out there. Aaron Spivak's built that and it's like for me, it's the next generation trying to educate, entertain and inspire. It's like yo, I went through this as a young athlete. I don't want other young athletes to go through the same pitfalls and difficulties, so let's build something that's going to help them, whether it's a community right, same thing here.
Speaker 2:And look you, you you speak about a young athlete, right. Athletes nature is to be competitive, right. And I think it's one of those things where, you know, for me as well, leaving high level sports, you know, just due to injury and obviously growing up, et cetera, you know, I would say the one thing that felt like it was missing for a few years after that was, you know, that competition, right, it's like we're out here playing big games and you know, you know, oh shit, I got it, you know, and it's, it's that high and that feeling is why we, us athletes, do what we do. But I think, if you, you know, not everyone's going to make it to the top of their sports, not everyone is going to, you know, have successful careers, just because there's other factors involved, right, and you know, I think athletes, in just their mindsets and how they operate, are entrepreneurial in their nature from a competitive standpoint.
Speaker 2:And I think, you know, I'm lucky enough to have found business, just in general, at a young enough age where it's like yo, like this is now my sport, yeah, like I don't want to lose, you know, like I don't give a shit who else is doing what.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I again I want to prop people up, you know, but at the end of the day we're competing against each other. I want to win and so you know, I think I mean and men like you know most businesses that I've been in again through my short career because I'm not a seasoned vet yet but you know, most people hire in athletes. Man, or you know college youth, whatever it is man, or you know college youth, whatever it is like. If you know how to play in a team, you know how to compete, all these things. Most of those skills translate over into the professional world and so you know, I think through this as well, just the ability to be able to say things out loud that you know impact people and help people who are maybe a little lost or trying to find their place after their athletic careers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, you know, I I just think it's super powerful to be having conversations that do that yeah, and that's, I think, honestly, something that I've maybe missed or not hit home enough is like that transition from like sport to the real world and, like you know, now it's building a brand and building a business and having the skills that you applied as an athlete, and how you can transition that to the works, to the workforce or to your own business. Like that's why jr butler and I connected and he started an agency that strictly hires sales reps who are former athletes and they absolutely smash. And I just see them crushing on LinkedIn week over week and I'm like, dude, there's a reason. You hire high performers who are competitive, who love to get after it, who are probably financially motivated, and it's like, yeah, why not? Right? And it's like, okay. So I'm curious to know from you, like when did that switch flip? Because I know soccer was your sport. Obviously you probably had aspirations to play for Chelsea. You're sitting here watching every game.
Speaker 1:The guy's going absolutely berserk.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I've seen that. But when does that moment hit for you where you're like, okay, maybe I'm not going to be the starting man for Chelsea FC? For me it happened in high school, probably around grade 10, 11, 12. I was like you know what? I'm going to play house this year, I'm just going to enjoy it with the boys. You hit that shift. When was that for you? How did you handle it? How did you do it? Since we're talking about it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Look, I grew up in warm climates so I was playing outdoor year round, right I? I genuinely and again this will be funny to clip for my friends and shit but genuinely I and my grandpa played in the nhl. My family's a hockey family. If I grew up in canada and was here and you know, we just played with tyson and we've been around you know, younger, you know younger hockey guys.
Speaker 2:Right, I think that there's no world where if I'm living in canada, then grow up in canada I'm not in like at least some sort of professional hockey player for real, like on, no bullshit again. And you can see the confidence Hockey. My point being is that I grew up in a warm climate so I was playing soccer every day outside, right yeah. And when I was 12 years old we moved to Edmonton and at that point playing indoor whatever always made the provincial team, always did this, that whatever. And you know, I think for me the moment was probably my first year universe. So I signed for FC Edmonton and I was thinking at 16, like shit, if I'm going to sign for a pro team in Canada and I work hard, why can't I do my thing?
Speaker 1:overseas. There's a limit.
Speaker 2:But at that point, kind of six months later, there was a lot of other opportunities coming up. From a business standpoint, I was super passionate about building network, doing different things, whereas I felt like I wasn't 100% dedicated to diet everything that's needed to be at the highest level. I enjoyed other things too much, maybe the beer as well, and not at the. You know, I honestly I never had a sip alcohol in high school. This would have been, you know, probably yeah, like 19.
Speaker 2:So second, second year uni, I ended up fucking up my hip and the doctor said you're never going to play again. And at that point I was like okay, well, I'm already not at the highest level and so there's no way I'm going to work back. And you know, make. And so he, he told you that, though, that I was never going to play again, and so and this is, this is, but this is how I got to vayner, like, so it all worked out is as soon as I was told that and this was the, this was the oiler's doctor like, so it was like two, he was at the time and this was for a couple weeks span. It was during COVID. He was seeing two people. This was when Connor McDavid had his knee injury. So Connor McDavid would go in and then he'd come out high five me I'd go in and this was like maybe like two weeks straight we never really talked you and Dave, were just high five buddies.
Speaker 1:Like how you feeling today, whatever, oh yeah, okay yeah whatever.
Speaker 2:and we were working through it. We were trying to-five like how are you feeling today? Whatever, oh yeah, okay, whatever. And we were working through it, we were trying to figure out what was wrong. And then I ended up going to the sports performance place shout-out. Derek Lamptshire called Ethics and he was like yo, what the doctor is trying to do is he's trying to find the problem, do some sort of surgery and he'll make you better for a few years. But, like you know, this is a problem with Western is. Like you know, let's find the problem and then give it an acute solution, but bandaid it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but not actually fix the root of why you have a problem. And so he was like look, you gotta be doing like your, your super imbalance, your right core is stronger than your left, your glutes are stronger than your hamstrings, blah, blah, whatever, a bunch of different shit. And he's like yo, you got to start doing like corrective exercise and stuff. And it was one of those things where, with that, he was just like you know, every day I'd go in and I'd be doing all sorts of different like workout regimes and stuff and finally, on my hipster guess what, I'm like shit, I can run again and through that, just spending time with him every day. We ended up building a connection. I ended up doing some business stuff with him and that's what brought me into the sport world and got me to, you know, interested in all sorts of different like business and, yeah, you know, at the end of the day I could have probably made a go at soccer.
Speaker 2:But it was one of those things where you speak about financial motivation. When I think about what I want to get out of life, it's like you know, I want to raise an awesome family, I want to be able to be financially free and you know, have a house wherever. I want to have a house and do this with the people I love and, you know, enjoy time with friends and stuff. And if you want to reach the top of your sport, you're making like you're not spending time with family, you're not spending time with friends. You got to diet, you got to do all these things, and so I didn't want to do something and be second best. I felt like I could have taken it farther than I did, but I'm either going to be the guy or not the guy. And what it would have taken to be the guy, especially when I was already behind the eight ball, you know, I just didn't want to make those sacrifices and I think you know, at the end of the day, that seems saying it out loud seems like, hey, you know I gave up, I'm soft, whatever, but I genuinely believe that your greatest asset as an athlete and as a human being is to be true to yourself and listen to what your body is telling you, what your mind and you know.
Speaker 2:Go from there and so at least, like for me, I can sleep at night knowing, like I've always done what I've wanted to do. I live life on my own accord, whether that is in athletics business, whatever it is. And so sure Are there days where I'm like, fuck, I'd love to be, you know, training all day and playing a day, whatever. But at the end of the day, you know you make choices and you run with them and maybe they're not always going to be the right decisions, but again, you constantly need to adapt and do what's best for you and the people you love. And you know I I felt like I did that, even though you know, would I love to be sitting here on episode 268 and you're like yo, we've got the best canadian soccer player here and whatever. Yeah, fucking rights. And could that have been a thing? Yeah, I believe so, like I played with Alphonso.
Speaker 2:He's the best Canadian soccer player Like him and left back, right back, like way more athletic than I am. That's the problem. He's not drinking a fairway on a Monday for sure. We've got to put fairways in his hands. Maybe we'll find him on a friday night. Hey yeah, on a friday definitely he riffs it, for sure he's got the hcl right now.
Speaker 1:But uh yo, all that being said, dude, I want to make sure you recognize you're not soft no, for sure like though I know you're saying that you're being humble like I went through the exact same experience, right like I played not even to the same high level as you did at soccer even though I heard you're a stud, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, mules, mules was pumping my tires. Yeah, they hype him up as a goalie.
Speaker 1:Yeah like, and, honestly, looking back, I look at it. I'm like, okay, maybe if I had continued to train the way you and I know that it is required to get to that level, maybe I could have done something. I ended up being six, two, six, three in a suit, like a good lean build for a hockey goalie. Like, for sure, for sure there could have been something there. But I'm also like the stats were one in 10,000.
Speaker 1:When I was a 16, 17 year old kid, I was playing a two, a three hockey. I'm like you, a smart kid. Let me apply these same skills in life and, hey, maybe I'll end up playing golf with them 10 years later, you know. And it's like, here we are doing this stuff, yeah, and having trained with world's strongest man and, you know, talked with the best pickleball and racquetball players in the world, it's like, yeah, sure, that would have been sick to be a good hockey goalie and make the nhl, but I can also do a heck of a lot outside of the NHL and still be involved in the NHL potentially. Yeah, yeah, interviewing people like Jessica Campbell, who's spearheading women's hockey. Yeah, yeah, there's levels to the game and if you don't just put yourself into one game. Maybe there's a bunch of different games you can play along the way, and for me that's just like yo.
Speaker 1:I six years ago probably wasn't thinking, oh, let's start a beer company, or? Become involved in a beer company. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the crossover is there, why not? Why not include people when you can have conversations that lead?
Speaker 2:to so many more things outside of a hockey game, playing a game, shooting a ball in a hoop, yeah, and look, I think you nailed on the head right and I think you can probably appreciate this. With sport and with the dedication that it takes to make it at a certain level, in whatever sport that is, you have to be all in, and for me, it was one of those things where I always, you know, I loved investing, I loved financial markets, I loved crypto, I loved sports card, collect all these different things and it's like yo, oh, that's sick. Cheers, cheers, oh the spillover, oh Arlo, oh no, no, don't get dog, no beer, stay there.
Speaker 2:Stay there. It's just like yo, like I don't want to just do one thing, I want to have several things and be able to do them all proficiently and do that. And so, yeah, I think athletes are, for sure, underappreciated still in terms of what they have to do to just bring it on a day-to-day in whatever sport it is. And so and I I think people don't realize that, right, it's like you know, a lot of people say to me hey, you know, oh, I wish I was a pro sport or athlete, whatever. It is like they live such a good life, you know, whatever, sure they have to play 82 games a season or whatever it is if you play baseball, which is insane, yeah, in in a summer not even yeah, but you know it's like you don't again.
Speaker 2:You don't see the sacrifice, you don't.
Speaker 1:It's glamorized dude and everyone on sees it on social, and now more than ever it's it's amplified because these athletes are being asked to also become content creators and capture everything that they do throughout their day. So now, not only are you trying to be the best athlete in the world, be the best at your sport, you're also being asked hey, film all this, be interactive, have a personality. And it's like yo we've established sometimes if you're really good at a sport or really dialed in in business, whatever.
Speaker 1:You might not be the most interesting person to talk to or like be able to look at a camera, speak clearly, concisely, communicate effectively. Like it just doesn't happen all the time.
Speaker 2:You know what else is is glamorized right now, like as of the last couple years.
Speaker 2:Friggin and gary's definitely a reason, but entrepreneurship man for sure you see, you know, you see guys calling the shots, making their own decisions, doing what they want. Every day it's like, oh my God, I want. You know, if I'm not an athlete, I want to be an entrepreneur. But you don't see the fucking, the calls at 5am because shit's fucking hit the fan, or the grinding till 4am because literally everything is on you. It's not. You know, when you work for someone else, you know at the end of the day, I clock in, I clock out, it's not my problem, whereas you know when you're doing your own thing, you live and die by what you're doing. And so you know you deal with all the ups and downs and the stress, and I think you know it's become so glamorized, but you really don't see the. You know there's so much shit that comes up.
Speaker 1:Dude, we look at this past week alone Like what.
Speaker 2:And this is like, and this past week alone is like you know, this is a week on a campaign that we're doing and like, at the end of the day, obviously we want everything to go well. I think at the end, you know, you got to assume that it's not and adapt and plan for the worst and hope for the best, whatever. But what's happened is just scratched. I mean, the amount of yeah in business is ridiculous and it's just like you can't not have a and I think what, at least for me and I'm still earning early in my journey I am, you know, again 24 like dude we're babies.
Speaker 2:No, we're babies. You know new to run like. You know having to take care of all the financial stuff, from having to build the brand, from having to do everything, from you know having to generate revenue, et cetera, and it's one of those things where-.
Speaker 1:Answer to investors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I can sleep at night and I hope this helps. Honestly, I just hope this helps one person. It will. The only reason I can sleep at night when I'm being blown up at 12 AM because we missed our packaging date and now we're on the hook for 20 grand and we can't get anything done, and so I've just lost 20 grand. Whatever is that which I don't have, you know, is that my family and friends and the people are not impacted and won't change based on what happens in my business and entrepreneurial journey. Sure, they'll celebrate the wins with me and console me on the losses, but at the end of the day, there are more important things in life. And so then sport, then beer, then business, whatever, you know, we're living it, we're're breathing it. It feels like the most important thing to me right now. But, like you know, if, if I don't, I can't come home to my family. I can't come home like at the end of the day, you know yeah what are we doing?
Speaker 2:yeah, like, so you know, and we do it for them, right. Like you know, I do it for the people that I fuck with and that I love and that you know, and and that's why I I really think that business, just in general, is a people's game, right, if you can. I'm glad we connected four years ago and I'm glad we're doing what we're doing right now. And this is just scratching the surface in terms of what we can do together. And I think, at the end of the day, when you've got like-minded people who you can bounce ideas off of, who you can be creative with, who you can work with, who you know are going to grind for you and grind with you, whatever it is like the sky's the limit, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, just to double down on that, it's like one plus one in business does not equal two and we've proved that for sure, right? Yeah, like straight up, it's not everyone is created equal. Some work harder in pre-season. That's an emin smith quote. That's my shit. And not everyone is created equal. The quote goes not all men are created equal yeah some work harder in preseason.
Speaker 1:I like to adjust it because everyone's equal, but like you know, and it's that's that's legitimately the way I look at things and like maybe our preseason could have been a bit more dialed in prior to the launch of this long drive tour.
Speaker 1:But we're athletes, we adapt, we're agile and you make it happen and you know we may not look the most agile on the course after a couple fairways, but, holy dinah, can we make stuff happen on the back end too? Right, and like that's a testament to all. Right, maybe I'm gonna shoot high 80s on the golf course today, but you know what? I'm still going to show up the next day and put down my best round I possibly can, and maybe that's a 90 the next day. But that's also entrepreneurship, right?
Speaker 2:Like you got to be cool with the fact that not every day is going to be an A plus bro.
Speaker 1:Dude, like sometimes you just got to whack it around out there and try and put the ball in the hole.
Speaker 2:And it's not going to be pretty, but there's no pictures on the scorecard. Yeah, and the only person that doesn't get to the finish line is the one that gives up for sure. Yeah, yeah, and and yo, yeah. Like you know, through these, for what we're, we're eight are we in day eight?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we're eight days in of probably what's going to turn into 21, which is crazy that we're less than half with the amount of stuff we've gone through, and I think you know the ability for us to just be on the fly and do what we're doing and you know, shout out everyone who's made this happen from derrick or yeah, even, just like you know yeah derrick's plugged a bunch of stuff, like you know. You know we've had great guests out.
Speaker 1:Every single day it's been phenomenal, dude. The weather's been insane. Honestly like shout out to Mother Nature for holding it down for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we heard we got some rain coming into our house yeah. Rosser, shout out to Bridget and Kendra and Kurt and Tofino who are going to. You know, make sure that Fairway Beer the athlete.
Speaker 1:It's on the West Coast. Across the island, it's going to be coast to coast, thanks to those three for sure.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you know, and I'm excited to get out east and see what the East Coast is all about. So I mean, yo like just to take a step back and to go through what we've done. So we this is showcasing the country athletics, golf, fairway, beer and the sociability of just Canada and golf in general. We started in Tofino on September 14th. We then drove 13 hours from Edmonton to Dave Scoop me, 4 am ferry, bang, we're in Nanaimo. From Vancouver, 6 am ferry 4 am wake up. 4 am.
Speaker 1:Wake up. 6 am Ferry Bang. We're in Nanaimo from Vancouver 6 am Ferry. 4 am.
Speaker 2:Wake up 4 am. Wake up 6 am. Ferry Shout out Chartsy for having eight years For detonating yeah and detonating On site On the ferry. We then get to Nanaimo we Three hours to Tofino to play Long Beach Golf Course.
Speaker 1:We show up with like five minutes to spare.
Speaker 2:Long Beach Golf Course unreal, but might have been the worst that we've. This might have been the worst I've played in Like hard. We got the new clubs.
Speaker 1:Never hit the clubs. Once PXG put them, they were still hot off the press dude Hot off the press.
Speaker 2:So tough round whatever.
Speaker 2:But honestly, the beers were flowing, the vibes were high and turned around meeting some people on the golf course good tofino locals you know who enjoyed again what the mission and what we're trying to do, and yeah, again, this is on and off course, right, and so end up having a good time. You get on the boat, dinner, hot tub, whatever, and then, and then, you know, scratching that into fino. Then the morning drove four hours to victoria. Yeah, bear mountain had a great round with kevin woodley from in goal magazine and derrick or yeah, pxg rep, pga professional, and so, yeah, that that was awesome. Played with dom and then dinner with derrick, who we convinced to come to Cabot because they're great people really had to twist his arm on that oh, yeah, he was, yeah, he was.
Speaker 2:He did not want to do it, he did not want to. And the crazy thing about that is and you want to talk about, like you know, good energy, good omen, love, attraction, power, whatever I was telling you this before the first time we ever had the beers on the course, one of my my best buddies, ryan, got a hole-in-one. None of us ever had any, so we were like, okay, we're in the right spot here. And then I was telling you before we went on this tour, in terms of Canadian golf content creators and golfers, I was telling you before we went on this.
Speaker 2:It's like yo, my ideal person to have on and feature in our cross-Canada docuseries. The Long Drive by Fairway is probably Mac Boucher, right? Yes, sir, yeah. And the slingshot, trickshot BMW commercial, lefty slinger, great guy. And who do we run into after our round at Bear Mountain? Mac himself, standing there as we get to our massive sprinter van. Whatever Ended up giving him an eight-pack of beer. He was with Luca, who I think is the head pro there, and a couple other guys. Another guy was actually from Edmonton and yeah, man, and he's going to be a Cabot at the same time. We're going to be a Cabot. So if Mack is listening to this, stars align. Yeah, we time we're going to be a Cabot. So if Mac is listening to this, stars align, yeah we'll see you October 3rd, hopefully a little night golf, night golf round with my, my clubs.
Speaker 2:That might not be able to see because PXG got the all blacks, but Sheldon did warn me not to get the all blacks just just for that. Just for that, I like the New Zealand rugby team, too much to not get the all black who just lost to Canada to advance to the gold medal match of the rugby championships. Really, yeah, dude. And the women's, or men's Women's? Oh really, canadian women's team just took down New Zealand Rugby championship or World Cup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, world Cup. I don't know. I should know. We'll edit that part in. It's either World Cup or I don't know. I don't know, I've not been following. Is it the World Cup? Okay, thanks, mama Dora. Hawaii just came in here and clutched up Women's World Cup, canadian team.
Speaker 2:They're in the final.
Speaker 1:They're in the final dude, oh shit. It's not being talked about enough right now. We're going to drop this episode so fast so that this can get out, but seriously, they, we've got to watch the final. Yeah, dude, it's happening. This, the uk, they're in the uk.
Speaker 1:Quick fairway long drive detour to the uk to the uk no, we can make it happen, but honestly there's like they are making history just by beating new zealand alone. But now they got a chance in the gold medal match to to take it down and hopefully again. That's like that's part of this right. It's canadian sport being highlighted in a non-traditional fashion because, frankly, media hasn't been doing what they could be doing with it and I think there's opportunities to do more in the space.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah we're trying right now yeah, yeah, yeah, and so yeah, just to kind of take it back left victoria, right, yeah, yeah, yeah I like victoria. Yeah, I had a conversation with chloe from theways Hotel. We bought it and whatever. Get to Vancouver and Morgan Creek with Greg Mueller, poker player.
Speaker 1:Three World Series of Poker Championship rings no big deal. Bracelets, rings, bracelets.
Speaker 2:Bracelets and Bob Rouse.
Speaker 1:Bob Rouse, two cups 97, 98. Those are rings for sure, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was a fun round in morgan creek.
Speaker 1:We clutched up and didn't lose a thousand because they missed a two-foot putt to end it, which was crazy honestly shout out to rouser for for not burying that putt, because we know he had to make mules and finish us off and he wasn't successful. But you know what we moved on day four was sagebrush day four with sagebrush sick track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think might have been the yeah, the most fun course I played in canada I think it had to do with the fact that you were also playing well there.
Speaker 1:Hey, I shot better at jpl.
Speaker 2:Jpl was a fun round I was jpl was probably 79 and jpl.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I was playing you've been playing good golf this first. We haven't even brought that part up yet. The fact that you're careering, or what Well, yo, I was probably going.
Speaker 2:You were coming in hot. Well, going into the year, like going into the season, I was a 13 handicap, yeah, and yeah, man, now like my index is like an 8.5. Like I honestly haven't played that much. I think what helps is I played over in Ireland like six rounds. Just with how hard it was over there I was like, holy shit, it's got to get easier when I get back to Canada. It has, because it's not pissing rain and sideways wind. How'd you get introduced?
Speaker 1:to golf. Was it your dad?
Speaker 2:That's a good question that we'll have to circle back. I I think, yeah, I think it was yeah in dubai. In dubai, 10, 11 years old, took a few lessons, didn't play again till like 17 and then was just like, okay, yeah, I enjoy this, but always soccer season we're in the summer in canada, we don't have much of a golf season right, so couldn't really play. I honestly I would say like I actually the only I started playing more than like 10 rounds a year in like 2021 covid, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1:Uh, that's one thing I'm fascinated you talked about like sports that you can play after a couple pints. I think sports that you can play with your parents or grandparents is like a really unique thing too. Like, yeah, you know pickleball golf curling.
Speaker 1:Like you know, there's not many and I think I love that about sport. Like bob rouse could probably kick both our ass in a pickleball match. You know you haven't seen me play pickleball. I know you haven't seen me either, but he's a 3.5 and he's pretty. That's pretty good 3. In a pickleball match, you know.
Speaker 2:You haven't seen me play pickleball. I know you haven't seen me either, but he's a 3.5, and that's pretty good, 3.5 in pickleball. Yeah, dude, I'm a 4. Oh yeah, are you no for real? No shit, eh, we should play. We'll have to play, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've actually never tracked.
Speaker 2:I have no 3,000. To get it all back to even I thought you were saying he's a 3.5 handicap in golf which he also is.
Speaker 1:He's a 3.9.
Speaker 2:And he didn't tell us, man talk about sandbagging us earlier.
Speaker 1:No wonder he didn't want to play us for that amount of cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Hey Mules only started playing a couple of years ago. Which?
Speaker 2:is also crazy he was good for only playing for a couple years ago, which is also crazy.
Speaker 1:He was good for only playing for a couple years.
Speaker 2:So day four Sagebrush. Oh yeah, she likes.
Speaker 1:Sagebrush yeah, fired her up. Number one public course in BC. No big deal Predator with Blake and Tice. That was fun man.
Speaker 2:That was a good round, blake, and I took down you and Tice.
Speaker 1:Well, I almost took down a human being at the same time. Yeah which started the video yeah hole 10. Not my finest moment. Sorry again to that individual that I almost took off the temple.
Speaker 2:Unreal weather, though, in both Merritt and Kelowna there.
Speaker 1:I think the Predators greens were pretty damn quick Quick yeah. Too bad we didn't get to play the ridge course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is what we were originally supposed to play but again, when you do stuff like this, you mix the dates up a little bit. So shout out, predator for being able to move us. Accommodating yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, predator, everyone's been accommodating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all of the courses. For sure I won't call out the couple that haven't. But yeah, shout-out Long Beach Golf Course. Shout-out Bear Mountain. Shout-out Sagebrush. Shout-out Predator JPL. Massive shout-out to the JPL they hooked us up with customer bag tags, divver repairs, ball markers, a couple magazines.
Speaker 1:We'll get Ryan to do a little overlay of those, because that was legitimate. That's legitimate hospitality Coming from the club space, knowing what that takes to turn around In 48-72 hours after Derek makes one phone call, that was phenomenal, so shout out JPL.
Speaker 2:I honestly think we went to Predator.
Speaker 1:Matt and Ryan, both beauties.
Speaker 2:I think that was my favorite round.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:You know everyone's been great and it's all been fucking awesome. I also think it had to do. I mean, you shot an 83, I shot a 79 there. We drained two Eagle, like I drained an Eagle, Matt drained an Eagle in the same hole. Yeah, I was like 300 through five.
Speaker 1:you then started playing really good yeah fairmont phenomenal, as always, giving us a little extra, like, yeah, it was, that was a, that we were treated that day for sure. Yeah, uh, and I, I, this whole trip. I feel like I've been treated honestly, man, like straight up from day one quite a couple years ago. When we have conversation with at jules's in restaurant we're having a what was that? A scotch that you ordered, what was that? At 10 am at the restaurant it was lunchtime. You got one on the rocks In McAllen.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see hey no stranger doing early bevy. Either way, it was like, from that moment you align with people, like you said, you got the same mentality and there's like yo, I feel treated just being a part of this whole process and being able to meet all these people that we've formed relationships over years but never necessarily activated on. Or, like you know, you meet people online, social media and it's like, yeah, this would be great to do sometime. We've talked about doing this from an olympic standpoint, touring around and like, yeah, that's still probably in the works.
Speaker 2:But again, like you know, why can't we get the if it's summer? Why can't we get those olympians on the golf course? Exactly again, because we can have a 30 minute to an hour conversation with an olympic, like you know even an amber setting like but yeah, you know, play nine holes two hours. Yeah, golf course, if they drink, they we have a few drinks, if not, we just chill and we end up running some bogey miles thanks to blake jakes, you know, whatever the case may be, or ice bath. Thank the jordan for honey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be in the atlantic. It might be a little cold by then. We might actually be shivering, hey, I mean if jordan's out there. He'll show us that again yeah, yeah'll go through the mental. He'll just speak some quote and we'll be good to go from there, hey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's got a thousand of those.
Speaker 1:So dialed Harlow. What do you think? Is that the? Is that the end of this pod? Do you want to bark and end it? Fairway, co. Long drive tour day. We'll probably do another one of these day 16. Yeah, we'll, we'll rip a cabot. Oh, oh man.
Speaker 2:In the four bedroom residence. I actually got to email the guy.
Speaker 1:You guys are in for a treat. Hey, thank you folks for tuning in. This is 268th episode of the athletes podcast featuring Callum Dorahoy, the founder of fairway co and also good friend of mine man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:It's been a lot of fun. I appreciate you, dude.
Speaker 1:Yo, here's to many more fairways, cheers. Both on and off the course Appreciate you guys. Thanks for tuning in.
