To kick off Season 6 our host Colin Weston speaks to Professor Renée Mauborgne, co-author of the best-selling business books Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift. Renée provides a masterclass on how golf industry businesses and organizations can capture new demand, find new customers and make the competition irrelevant.

Join our mission to make golf more innovative, inclusive and fun... and WIN some awesome golf gear!

As the creator and host of The ModGolf Podcast and YouTube channel I've been telling golf entrepreneurship and innovation stories since May 2017 and I love the community of ModGolfers that we are building.

I'm excited to announce that I just launched our ModGolf Patreon page to bring together our close-knit community of golf-loving people! As my Patron you will get access to exclusive live monthly interactive shows where you can participate, ask-me-anything video events, bonus content, golf product discounts and entry in members-only ModGolf Giveaway contests.

I'm offering two monthly membership tiers at $5 and $15 USD, but you can also join for free. Your subscription will ensure that The ModGolf Podcast continues to grow so that I can focus on creating unique and impactful stories that support and celebrate the future of golf.

Click to join >> https://patreon.com/Modgolf

I look forward to seeing you during an upcoming live show!... Colin

On this episode Renée and Colin cover a wide range of golf industry topics including:
• How non-golf oganizations like Cirque de Soleil, Airbnb and Apple have applied Blue Ocean Strategy to their success.
• How you can shift your organization from competing to creating with tools and a framework in a risk-minimizing way.
• If you want to create a blue ocean, you can’t look at what people are doing in your competitive set. You need to look outside to understand how to shift what you do to creat new value.

To learn more about how Blue Ocean Strategy has unlocked new growth in the golf industry, read Colin's blog post "Turning Green Fairways Into Blue Oceans".

Renée speaks about how successful companies have created new products/services/experiences that appeal to the ocean of "non-customers" that both Topgolf and Cirque de Soleil have captured. Rather than competing over the existing customers your industry fights over, Blue Ocean Strategy allows you to attact a much bigger audience found in the "Three tiers of non-customers".

To learn more about Blue Ocean Strategy, visit their website at https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/

Special Guest: Renée Mauborgne - Co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift.

If you didn’t get the chance to listen to all of our twelve Season 5 episodes, this bonus show gives you a recap of the great conversations I had over the past three months with some of the golf industry's top influencers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Hopefullly this will inspire you to listen to a couple of the episodes listed below.

We're excited to announce our partnership with Golf Genius Software and look forward to telling you more about the elegant solutions they've created to simplify running golf tournaments. Go to https://www.golfgenius.com/ to learn more!

Our Season 5 guests were:

Episode 1
Joanne Cloak / Founder and CEO of JoFit
Empowering Her Team To Reach Their Creative Potential

Episode 2
Jared Williams / The Golf USA Team Coalition
Embracing Technology and Diversity to Create a Bright Future For Golf

Episode 3
Mike Zisman / CEO of Golf Genius
Sharing A Passion For Building Elegantly Simple Solutions to Solve Complex Problems

Episode 4
Dogu Taskiran / CEO of Stambol Studios
How Virtual Reality Will Influence The Future of Golf

Episode 5
Steve Rosen / General Manager of Indian Wells Golf Resort
Re-imaging Golf Experiences With "Shots In The Night"

Episode 6
Gia Bocra Liwski / Founder of Golf Experiences for Her
The Emergence of The Golf Industry "Mompreneur"

Episode 7
Dale Jackson / Canadian member of The USGA/R&A Joint Rules Committee
Revealing The Process Behind Creating The New Rules of Golf

Episode 8
Marc Simon / Event Vice President of PGA Golf Exhibitions for Reed Exhibitions
Creating The Innovation Lab For The Golf Industry

Episode 9
PGA Merchandise Show Recap - Part 1
Featuring Aimee Cho, HYPE Sports Innovation and The Global Golf Innovation Competition

Episode 10
PGA Merchandise Show Recap - Part 2
Featuring Latina Golfers Association Founder Azucena Moldenado and Tagmarshal Co-Founder/CEO Bodo Sieber

Episode 11
Matt Pringle / The USGA's Senior Director of Research, Science & Innovation
Creating a "Lean Startup" Culture At The USGA

Episode 12
Laurence Applebaum / CEO of Golf Canada
Creating Golf Moments That Matter

Join our mission to make golf more innovative, inclusive and fun... and WIN some awesome golf gear!

As the creator and host of The ModGolf Podcast and YouTube channel I've been telling golf entrepreneurship and innovation stories since May 2017 and I love the community of ModGolfers that we are building.

I'm excited to announce that I just launched our ModGolf Patreon page to bring together our close-knit community of golf-loving people! As my Patron you will get access to exclusive live monthly interactive shows where you can participate, ask-me-anything video events, bonus content, golf product discounts and entry in members-only ModGolf Giveaway contests.

I'm offering two monthly membership tiers at $5 and $15 USD, but you can also join for free. Your subscription will ensure that The ModGolf Podcast continues to grow so that I can focus on creating unique and impactful stories that support and celebrate the future of golf.

Click to join >> https://patreon.com/Modgolf

I look forward to seeing you during an upcoming live show!... Colin

Special Guests: Azucena Maldonado, Founder of The Latina Golfers Association, Bodo Sieber, Co-Founder and CEO of Tagmarshal, Chris Månsson - Founder & CEO of Kinexit, Dale Jackson - Past Joint Rules Committee Member to rewrite of the New Rules of Golf 2019, Dave Shultz - Founder & CEO of NextLinks / REALiTEE Golf, Dogu Taskiran - CEO of Stambol Studios, Fabio Peral - Founder & CEO of GOLFBOO, Gia Bocra Liwski - Founder of Golf Experiences for Her, Ilan Hadar - Partner & CEO at HYPE Sports Innovation, Joanne Cloak - CEO and Founder, JoFit, Jon Claffey - Vice President of Marketing for Tour Edge Golf, Laurence Applebaum - CEO, Golf Canada, Marc Simon - Event Vice President for PGA Golf Exhibitions / RX Reed Exhibitions, and Mike Zisman - CEO, Golf Genius Software.

Rather than just talk about the problem of how to deliver a more engaging golf experience that appeals to a wider audience, Steve Rosen - who is the General Manager of Indian Wells Golf Resort - did something about it. And that something is the immersive, multi-sensory experience they call "Shots In The Night".

What is Shots In The Night?
Indian Wells Golf Resort - a 36 hole golf property with a 53,000 sq. ft. clubhouse - is owned by the City of Indian Wells and operated by Troon Golf. Troon realized that to create additional value they had to become more entrepreneurial and deliver a different golf experience that would appeal to a different customer. After Steve Rosen met Nextlinks founder Dave Shultz in 2016, he realized they had found their technology partner that could deliver an unexpected, compelling, gamified and fun golf experience that first time golfers right up to professional level players would love.

Lights, music, laser projections, lit targets, glow in the dark golf balls, food trucks and drinks overlayed on both the existing putting green and 12 hitting bay driving range are the mix of ingredients that successfully create Shots In The Night.

You can listen to our engaging episode with Nextlinks Founder Dave Shultz to learn about their technology solutions that transform the golf entertainment experience by clicking here.

Images from Shots In The Night

Special Guest: Steven Rosen - General Manager, Indian Wells Golf Resort / Troon Golf.

Dogu's professional design experience across multiple industries allows him to reference validators outide golf to see the trends and patterns that are emerging to influence the future of the game. Here are some of our favourite quotes and insights from this episode:

• “From a venue perspective, a location-based entertainment standpoint, I think golf experiences are moving in a direction that falls in the lines of the movie Ready Player One. There will be worlds over worlds, overlaid on top of the real world that we are experiencing and enhancing and golf is no exception”.
  

• “Virtual Reality in its core is not just about simulation, but to gather data to improve the overall experience as all of your body movements are being tracked".

• "Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning quantifies the percentage of what we remember after two weeks based on how we experience the information. Virtual Reality creates the learning conditions that allow you retain 90% of the your experience because you are actively participating rather than passively observing".
  

• “Virtual Reality can trigger people’s imagination and trigger intense emotions, creating a bond between the experience and yourself”.

• “Volumetric Movies will be in our future, where you can engage in a first person experience and become a character within a movie, creating a real sense of empathy for the character by literally putting yourself in their shoes. Rather than watching Neo in The Matrix, you become Neo in The Matrix”.
  

• We also discuss the impact the burgeoning eSports industry will have on all traditional sports, including golf. Dogu shares how live streaming video platforms such as Twitch and global eSport tournaments staged by Red Bull Battle Grounds are attacting millions of concurrent users.
  

You can learn more about how Stambol Studios is "Creating Magical Worlds in New Realities" on thier website.

Special Guest: Dogu Taskiran - CEO of Stambol Studios.

An accomplished product development engineer and global operations leader, Dave changed his trajectory with a sudden awareness that he had the hunger and capability to create a new global economy from his idea.

A.G.E (Alternative Golf Experiences) are setting a new standard for how people will engage with golf. These solutions will socialize the golf experience in ways previously not considered, breaking down traditional barriers to entry.

Technology will play a significant role in the success of new and innovative golf endeavors, and NextLinks (www.nextlinks.com) was formed to develop software and hardware solutions required to deliver success, both indoors and outdoors.

This YouTube video is a good place to learn more about NextLinks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVqLw8BdL4

On this episode Dave and Colin talk about:
• finding "Product Market Fit" by listening to your customers to reveal where you can add real value.
• "Pivoting" your business offering as you travel along your startup journey. Dave made the difficult but informed decision regarding which products to build and which ones to abandon, as he discusses the shift from building the entire entertainment experience with REALiTEE http://realiteegolf.com/ to focusing on the technology platform with NextLinks.
• Finding an idea that's so core to you that gives you that sense of purpose. They talk about Simon Sinek's famous TED Talk "Start With Why" and how is has influenced them both professionally and personally. If you haven't seen this YouTube video, we highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
• Dave refers to how the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill has shaped his approach to business. Here's a link to a PDF version of the book: https://archive.org/details/ThinkAndGrowRichPDF
• The concepts of "Lean Startup Methodologies" and creating a "Minimum Viable Product" or MVP are discussed as they apply to NextLinks as a way to build better products and services. To learn more, check out https://leanstartup.co/

Join our mission to make golf more innovative, inclusive and fun... and WIN some awesome golf gear!

As the creator and host of The ModGolf Podcast and YouTube channel I've been telling golf entrepreneurship and innovation stories since May 2017 and I love the community of ModGolfers that we are building.

I recently launched our ModGolf Patreon page to bring together our close-knit community of golf-loving people! By joining you will get access to exclusive live weekly interactive shows where you can participate, ask-me-anything video events, bonus content, golf product discounts and entry in members-only ModGolf Giveaway contests.

I'm offering two monthly membership tiers at $5 and $15 USD, but you can also join for free. Your subscription will ensure that The ModGolf Podcast continues to grow so that I can focus on creating unique and impactful stories that support and celebrate the future of golf.

Click to join >> https://patreon.com/Modgolf

I look forward to seeing you during an upcoming live show!... Colin

Special Guest: Dave Shultz - Founder & CEO of NextLinks / REALiTEE Golf.