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Conversations with the smartest people in the golf business to get the inside stories and strategies driving the business of golf forward. Hosted by former PGA Tour player Roberto Castro.
[00:00:00] Roberto: I'm Roberto Castro, and this is the Course Record. Show the trends, technology, and strategy driving the business of golf.
[00:00:13] Roberto: Welcome back to the Course Record. Show a quick nine with Kyle Porter. Kyle is the founder of Normal Sport, a newsletter whose mission is to quote, use humor and humanity to make the daily fan's personal experience of golf feel meaningful. Kyle, thanks for being here.
[00:00:28] Kyle Porter: Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you for having me. I'm—I've been a listener for a while, and, uh, it's fun to join you and talk a little bit about the industry.
[00:00:36] Roberto: Yep. So we're gonna focus on the business side of golf here, and then specifically media. Good timing. This week you sent out to your newsletter subscribers an update on your business.
You know, you're a couple years in, and I find it interesting—like, you're getting pretty detailed. You, you've been pretty forthcoming the whole time. Why share updates on the business side of Normal Sport versus just churning out your usual content?
[00:01:01] Kyle Porter: Yeah. So I think it goes back to our mission, which is to make the daily fan's experience of golf feel meaningful. I think I would—some days—I add to that: feel hopeful. And I think that, you know, I was talking to one of our friends in the industry,
and he was talking about how, like—he's like, you know, sometimes your newsletter makes other people feel less lonely and feel more seen. And I think that a lot of the readers of Normal Sport, or listeners to our podcast or whatever, are in the same life stage that I'm in, which is like, hey, I've been in the industry that I've been for 10 or 12 or 15 years, and I'm thinking about maybe leaving and starting my own thing for whatever reason.
Maybe I don't have enough expertise now, or I'm worried about AI, or any number of things. And so I'm like, man, if my story and what I'm building can be an encouragement to other people who are probably not even in golf media—maybe they're building a management company or a marketing company, whatever, uh—then that's awesome.
Like, I'm happy to share, uh, you know, not every detail, but a lot of details that maybe other people wouldn't share, just to encourage other people: like, hey, I see you; you're not alone. Like, every day is a struggle for me also. And maybe, maybe we can all be in this together.
[00:02:15] Roberto: That's really cool. Uh, yeah, you've been forthcoming; you've been an open book, um, to the point where I remember—not a direct quote—but six, 12 months ago, you had something where you're at the dinner table and you look around and you're like, okay, I have four mouths to feed times how much money it costs to feed them per week.
Like, that's a pretty sobering experience, right?
[00:02:36] Kyle Porter: Yeah. I mean, I put this in—one of the metrics that I look at is how much runway do I have, you know? And right now we have about a hundred days of runway, and that's, you know, it's not—it's staying steady or maybe going in the right direction a little bit.
But yeah, I have four kids and dance lessons and travel baseball, and, you know, man, my wife and I were talking the other day: the grocery budget is not what it used to be. I mean, you know, when we first started having kids 12, 13 years ago, you know, the $10,000 doesn't go as far as it used to.
Yeah. So, yeah, I definitely have to keep that in mind as I'm making decisions for the business.
[00:03:16] Roberto: No question. So let's get into that. That note you sent to your subscribers—you really talk about three metrics that really matter to you: paid subscribers, total subscribers (because you're on a freemium model, right? You can get a free newsletter, and then if you want the whole thing, you need to pay a subscription), and then runway.
So customer retention. Let's hit the first one: paid subscribers. This includes the churn—so how many are dropping off and coming in. You know, doing a little bit of research, a 3% monthly churn is really good in your industry.
[00:03:46] Kyle Porter: Mm-hmm.
[00:03:47] Roberto: That's good. But it means you're replacing over 30% of your customers over a 12 month period. How do you think about that?
[00:03:55] Kyle Porter: Yeah, we've seen probably a little bit lower than that, which is great. Uh, our metrics have been really good. I think, you know, some of that is like—I've been doing this for a long time, so I think people know what to expect.
[00:04:07] Roberto: Right.
[00:04:07] Kyle Porter: So many places have a freemium model, and you're like, what am I getting into here? And so I think people know what to expect. They know what they're getting into. I would say inspiration for this was Ben Thompson, who writes Stratechery, which is a tech newsletter. He is kind of the OG of, like, paid newsletters online, and I think he's got, I mean, just an insane number, like 25,000 paid members or something like that, to where he's, you know, making several million dollars a year from writing this newsletter. Now he's the best in the business, like he does the best work, but I've always thought about it, Roberto, like if I can congregate 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people
Tech newsletter. He is kind of the OG of like paid newsletters online, and I think he's got, I mean, just an insane number, like 25,000 paid members or something like that to where he's, you know, making several million dollars a year from writing this newsletter. Now he's the best in the business, like he does the best word, but I've always thought about it, Roberto, like if I can congregate 2000, 3000, 5,000 people.
that I can just go to the Masters and write stuff from the Masters to those people, or to the Open, or the wherever—anywhere. Man, that's a cool deal. And that's, that's how media has been for a really long time. You know, we could get into, like, the specifics of how a newspaper worked, but essentially, like, you were sending people out to
report back on what was going on when Ben Hogan was playing the Masters and it wasn't on TV.
[00:05:09] Roberto: Yep.
[00:05:10] Kyle Porter: And people were paying for that. And so like, it's obviously the world is very different now, but I love the idea of, of people who enjoy reading my stuff, paying me to go out and find the best stuff I can find, and then reporting back and giving it to them.
I think that is the sort of the purest form of what I'm of what I'm trying to do.
[00:05:28] Roberto: Yeah. That's really cool. Getting down to the fundamental—what it is, what a business does—which you just did very, very eloquently and very concisely (which is hard) is really important. I was at, uh, CAA World Congress of Sports last year, and I believe it's Nick Khan.
He runs WWE. And he was like, we're a wrestling company. We're not a multimedia AI—like, we're a wrestling company. That's what we do. And I just love that. You know, he maintains his focus on that, and it really matters, especially when you're trying to be a leader.
[00:06:00] Kyle Porter: There's a great—uh—Richard Branson has a quote on business.
He says, “A business is simply a team of people coming together to create an idea that makes other people's lives better.” And it's essentially what you're getting at there of like, hey, if we're focused on wrestling—or if, for me, if I'm focused on how can I make a product, whether it's podcast or newsletter, that encourages people or makes them laugh or whatever—makes people's lives better, if you, I think if you look at business like that, there's all these complications to business and all these overcomplications to business.
But if you look at it like that—people coming together to create an idea or a product that makes other people's lives better—yeah, that's a, if you keep that in mind, I think it's, uh, it's super, super beneficial.
[00:06:42] Roberto: Yeah. So you mentioned the Ben Thompson piece. Maybe just tell the listeners, were you motivated by that? Kind of—I would say it's the last five or 10 years—this concept of like, hey, if I charge a hundred dollars for a newsletter and I can get 2,000 subscribers, right? That's $200,000—or 3,000 subscribers.
Like, that seems achievable, right? And it seems like I can make a living doing that. At the same time, you see in South Florida—golf generates such passion. There are literally over a thousand people, 2,000, 3,000 if you add up the clubs, spending $500,000, $750,000 to join a club in South Florida. So you have to say to yourself, like,
I can find 2,000 people that can pay a hundred dollars for this newsletter. I mean, was that the thinking when you were evaluating this?
[00:07:28] Kyle Porter: Yeah, a little bit. There's a guy named Kevin Kelly who started Wired Magazine—or was the editor-in-chief for Wired Magazine back in the day—and he wrote this great essay called “A Thousand True Fans,” which is
[00:07:37] Roberto: Yeah,
[00:07:37] Kyle Porter: pretty, pretty famous now or whatever.
Yep. The idea was you could get a thousand people to pay a hundred bucks a year, and it would be a hundred grand now. Like we talked about earlier, a hundred grand is not what it used to be. Yeah. So I, I, I think that the, the math on that has changed a little bit, but I do think that is, that's broadly what the idea is now.
I remember talking to Jeff Shackelford at the—maybe it was the LACC U.S. Open. And he, you know, he was talking about how he's on Substack, and his newsletter, The Quadrilateral, is really good. Like, we come at it from different angles, but he's a very good writer. And, um, he was just talking about how he's like, man, I have people on my list that I know have a ton of money, and, like, everybody has to pay the same amount.
[00:08:16] Roberto: Yeah.
[00:08:16] Kyle Porter: And so the solve that we came up with, 'cause we don't use a Substack or anything like that—we kind of customized it—was: you can pay, like the minimum is $82 a year for Sam Snead's 82 wins. We modeled it—or Tiger's, whoever you wanna say. But we have a little slider where you can go up to $502 a year.
So we have people—we have some people on there that make a lot of money and that are happy to subscribe, and $502 a year to them is like 10 cents to you and me, right? And so we, we tried to solve for that a little bit in there. But yeah, generally that's the idea is like, how do I congregate 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 people and just really delight them with a product—a golf product—that is hopefully the best in the world at what we're doing.
[00:08:59] Roberto: That's awesome. Alright, let's get to the second metric: total subscribers. So you had a chart in your email update showing trends the last couple of years, and I tried to zoom in—it wasn't super detailed—but it looked like the Masters and the Ryder Cup really move the needle, and your subscribers jumped 10, 20, 30%. Is that right?
[00:09:18] Kyle Porter: Yes. Yeah. Masters. You know, when I was at—I worked at CBS Sports for 12 years. When I was at CBS Sports, obviously, we know the Masters is a big deal. I think I didn't realize, as an independent business owner, how much bigger it is than even every other major.
And so we've really tried to focus on publishing, giving—like doing as much as we can around the Masters, 'cause it just—even last year—it dwarfed U.S. Open, PGA, and Open Championship. So those are, those are where our big jumps are. You know, I thought that number—the free subscribers—would be easier to grow just
moving people over from social or
[00:09:56] Roberto: Yeah,
[00:09:56] Kyle Porter: people getting excited around May or, you know, there's a million ways to do it. That's actually been harder than I thought, and that's been one of the pain points for me is I don't care if I have 200,000 people on the list 'cause it's probably not the right 200,000 people.
But I thought we'd be able to find more of the, you know, 20 to 25 to 30,000 that were the right people that were in our, you know, right demographic and who our advertisers—or who our sponsors—want to talk to. But that's been, um, that's been a more difficult thing than I thought it would be.
[00:10:25] Roberto: Interesting. So David Cummings is the guy in Atlanta, a really successful entrepreneur, and he had a post up last week about human behavior and how hard it is to change.
[00:10:34] Kyle Porter: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:35] Roberto: His Tesla is driving him around 98% of the time, so it's, and he has a thing where you need to have a product that's 10 times better than the competition.
If it's a little better, people are not gonna switch. And he comes from a software world, but, like, my car is 10 times better than just a normal car. The Tesla with full self-driving now is, and he started doing test drives with people and showing it to them, and not one of those people has bought a Tesla.
Like that's how hard it is to get people to change behavior. It's a much better, it's a 10 x better and you're giving away a really good product right. To your free subscribers and you still can't get them to sign up. It's a challenge.
[00:11:10] Kyle Porter: Yeah. And it's a challenge because, you know, in the same way that self-driving is, is—
it would be even harder to sell somebody on a non-self-driving car now. Like, think about how good that would have to be. And so if you think about the world going toward—if self-driving is the video and audio of the media world,
[00:11:28] Roberto: yeah.
[00:11:29] Kyle Porter: then you're—I'm trying to do a product that is like the non-self-driving: the writing and the reading.
And I was talking to somebody the other day that was like, man, I was talking to Dylan Dethier of GOLF.com and he was like, are our kids even gonna read in 10 years? And I'm like, gosh, I hope so. And I think I really like—I love reading and writing, whether it's golf or not. I just think it's, I think it is such a—it is something that I push on my kids a ton, and I read to them a ton.
So I'm really betting on something that is a little bit of an, I guess, old-school. It sounds weird to say reading and writing is old school, but compared to where, you know, our culture is headed, it feels like an uphill battle most days.
[00:12:08] Roberto: Yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point. Alright, last metric you shared was the runway. So, like you said, if your revenue went to zero right now—which is not realistic, right?
You've got a runway of about a hundred days. So I wanna share a story with you. This is not supposed to be about me, but I won my second mini tour event, so I turned pro. First week I went out, probably broke even. Second week, I think I won $16,000 in a mini tour event. It
[00:12:32] Kyle Porter: probably felt like a million dollars.
[00:12:33] Roberto: It did. And I mean, again, $16,000 in 2007 was very different than what it is right now. I just remember thinking, then, in those next six, 12 months as I was playing mini tours, that extended my runway. 'Cause I had raised some money to play pro golf, and that $16,000 was like, oh wow. Like, I could go miss another six months of cuts, and that gives me six more months that I could play professional golf before I run outta money.
Fast forward—I don't remember if it was, like, the first good year I had, or second good year I had on tour—I all of a sudden, like, I would make a big check on tour and I would start to think: if I do, like, five more of those, I can not play golf anymore.
[00:13:14] Kyle Porter: Mm. And
[00:13:15] Roberto: I have no—to this day—I have no idea why, like,
I guess I didn't love professional golf as much as the guys that do it for 40 years. Or maybe I wasn't good enough and I knew I wasn't good enough. Yeah. But, like, that flip, it was so crazy to me. But it's a weird thing. And when you put runway up there, I was like, right now he's dying to do what he's doing.
And there could be a day where he's like, I'm gonna sell it and then I don't have to do this anymore—which is probably very foreign to you at the moment right now.
[00:13:42] Kyle Porter: Yeah, it is. You know, it's funny—I started an Oklahoma State website back in—this is how I got into sports media. But back in 2011, when Oklahoma State was good with Justin Blackmon and Brandon Weeden and they went to the Fiesta Bowl, that was a fortuitous year to start an Oklahoma State website.
And I ran that for nine years concurrently with CBS Sports and ended up selling it in 2020. And I think, looking back on that, I was glad to sell it. I didn't want to be involved in reporting on college football recruiting when I was, like, 52 years old. Yeah. And so I think all that to say, this feels more like I've found the work that I wanna be doing for a really, really long time.
Yeah. Um, I think reporting—or I think writing about and covering professional golf—is just very different than, you know, college sports or high school sports or whatever. And, um, you know, Jason, our illustrator—we talk about how, like, man, we found the work that we wanna be doing. How do we just make enough money to do it for a really long time? Yeah.
And that's, uh, I had a conversation with a buddy, uh, who lives—I live in Dallas—and he lives close by, and he's an entrepreneur: has a coffee shop, has a landscaping business, kind of a serial entrepreneur. And I said, hey, what's your best advice for me? When I launched this full-time back in 2024, I said, what's your best advice for me?
And he said, just don't run outta money. And at the time I thought, that's kind of dumb. Like, I was hoping for something more sophisticated than that. And now, almost two years—or a year and a half—into it, I'm like, that's kind of the whole deal, is just don't run outta money, you know? Yeah.
And you gotta plan out for that. And there's a number of things that go into it. But if you can do that, then you just keep getting to do what you love doing for a really long time. And that's a very good gift when it comes to work, 'cause most people don't get to do work that they really enjoy.
[00:15:28] Roberto: Yeah. Alright, so let's talk about that 2024 move: leaving CBS Sports. You were there for 12 years. Yeah. Uh, you wrote very eloquently about it and said some really lovely things about your former employer that helped you personally, professionally. I'll link it at the bottom of the notes. Folks should read it, but here's an excerpt you said.
The thing about dreams, though, is that they cannot be concurrent. You can play two balls at once on the course—shout-out to those worst-ball 66s the Cat used to shoot—but you cannot have multiple dreams at the same time. By definition, one has to end before another begins. So talk about—was that the driving force?
Was it a big change at CBS? The media industry has changed over those 12 years. Like, talk about that transition.
[00:16:12] Kyle Porter: Yeah, I think that was certainly part of it. It's, as you know, 'cause you probably—I presume—had one foot in two different worlds for a while.
It's very hard to be focused on and committed to either one when you're, you know, you're trying to do both. And so I think that was a big part of it. I think two other things. I think a probably traditional path for somebody like me who was at CBS Sports for a long time was
maybe getting into more broadcasting or TV or maybe something like that. That was never really massively put in front of me, but it was kind of like, okay, I could see that path. That's not really a path I want to go down. I don't want to travel a ton. I don't necessarily enjoy that side of it. And then I think the other
part of it was like, oh, I can kind of see around the corner here of a lot of the stuff that I do at CBS Sports, which they allowed me a ton of autonomy. But some of it was, hey, write the tee times for the third round of the Masters. And I'm like, oh, well, that's like what Claude and ChatGPT are gonna do in, like, three months from now.
You know? Yeah. Like, that, that's pretty easy to see around the corner on. So I think it was a combination of things that kind of led me to jumping off and saying like, okay, let's do this. Let's see if it works. And if not, then, uh, you know, hopefully there's still someplace that's using writing and words around that I can latch onto later on.
[00:17:36] Roberto: Yeah, that's actually a good segue. You wrote in your Tuesday note that you believe that people become so worn down and exhausted of an AI world that basically tangible artifacts will become increasingly more meaningful. Yeah. And it's a bet you're willing to make. Do you mean actually physical things you can hold, like books?
Yeah. I mean, I think you close a lot of your notes with, like, thanks for reading this non-AI-assisted newsletter.
[00:18:02] Kyle Porter: Yep, yep. Yeah. I think—and I could be wrong about this—I think that, uh, the most sexy stuff in business and media, and this sort of intersection that you and I are in a lot of the time, is AI.
You know, and you think about all the investment money and all the newsmakers, it's all AI, AI, AI. And I just know that, I mean, honestly, Roberto, like just sitting there watching a Dude Perfect video with my kids or a Mark Rober video—by the end of it, it's fun, and like, it's the feeling that we had growing up and we played video games for, like, six hours.
You get done, you're like, oh, I don't feel very—I feel kind of lifeless. I feel exhausted. Yeah. I feel like I need to go move around and do something. I just, I think that we get so enamored of this media, digital world, and everybody has headed in that direction. I think about positioning even within the golf media world.
[00:18:56] Roberto: Yeah. I
[00:18:56] Kyle Porter: I think about the golf media companies that have thrived over the last five or 10 years—Friday, No Laying Up, Fore Play—and they've all been awesome. Like, I have a ton of respect for all those guys, but they've all moved digital, digital video, video. And I'm thinking like, okay, can I counter-position?
[00:19:11] Roberto: Yeah.
[00:19:11] Kyle Porter: And say, hey, we're actually gonna produce some physical art: a coloring book of Jason's illustrations that we sell to parents so that their kid can color during the final round of The Players while they're trying to watch the golf. You know, stuff like that, that I think maybe other businesses aren't necessarily thinking of—so could be wrong.
But it is, it is a bet that I'm happy to make, 'cause if I'm wrong on that, then, like, that's what I want to bet on anyway, 'cause that's the stuff I wanna make.
[00:19:39] Roberto: Yeah. Uh, let's talk about—we've covered a little bit of startup world. You did some coverage of TGL in season one. Is that right?
[00:19:47] Kyle Porter: Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. I was, uh, I did all of their, like, digital writing, a little bit of video, and stuff for the website.
[00:19:55] Roberto: Okay. So in this Tuesday newsletter—I mean, we've talked about this newsletter. Now I've referenced it, like, four times. Your edition this week—so this is how much you get in just one edition.
People—you talk about building your own business. I mean, you're updating folks on the business. That's why I wanted to talk right now.
[00:20:11] Kyle Porter: Yeah.
[00:20:12] Roberto: Somebody said it's like going to a knife fight every day. And I, uh, have done a couple things about my experience with TGL—from slideshow all the way to being part of the ESPN broadcast this year.
And, you know, highs and lows of startups is real, and I have seen it. And that can be very public facing. You know, you get a great finish to a match. Rory hits, like, the closing shot, or Tiger—mm-hmm—and it's like everyone in the whole company is walking six inches off the ground. Yeah.
And then 12 hours later, like, something just comes and smacks you down. What was your experience like in that season one? And what'd you learn? Or the knife fight—the ups and downs—yeah. Like, what was the startup experience?
[00:20:53] Kyle Porter: Well, I think the parallels there with my business are, it takes a while. And this is where investment money and startups are difficult, because it takes a while to even figure out what you are.
Right? Yeah. I think even now, after having done Normal Sport for a year and a half, two years, it's like, okay, what is this? Like, what is, like—is the business just the newsletter, or are we a product company? Like, what are we? And not only what are we producing, but what is our positioning? And I think the same about TGL.
That was my experience of like, okay, we've got some names and we've got some money and we've got a very cool arena, but, like, what is our position within the sports world? And I think even now I struggle with that with TGL because there are days where I'm like, oh, this is, this is what it is.
Yeah.
[00:21:44] Kyle Porter: And then two weeks later you're like, oh no, I think, I think actually this is what it is. And so I just think generally—and maybe I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, 'cause I don't know that I said this about LIV—but I think generally entities need to be given time to breathe, and we need to give
starting quarterbacks in the NFL more than two, like, you know, two quarters to declare what they are. We just, we have no patience for things developing. Yeah. And so I, yeah, that, that's my whole take on that entire world, and I think it applies to how I talk about golf, too.
Like, everybody wants to declare, okay, this is what Ludvig is. It's like, dude, he's played, like, 65 events. Like, we have no idea what he's going to be. And so I try to remember that as I talk about people within the golf world, but also businesses like TGL and like my own stuff.
[00:22:39] Roberto: Yeah. A different spin on that is one of my college teammates told me, right?
I think when I was turning pro about sponsorship dollars or endorsement dollars.
[00:22:48] Kyle Porter: Mm.
[00:22:48] Roberto: And his quote was, the value is created once you're out there. Yeah. And that really applies to so many things, right? It's not getting that job or getting this league off the ground and on ESPN—like, the value is created once you're out there in the market, right?
Yeah. Like, that's where you really get out there and build something valuable. Same, same for you, right? So,
[00:23:07] Kyle Porter: Yeah. And it might not be what you thought it was going to be, right? Yeah. Like, that's, that's the part. I can't think of any great— I mean, I think about Allbirds switching to an AI company.
I don't know if that's gonna work, but even—I don't know—like Nike is probably a pretty good example of, like, they were trying to make running shoes with a waffle iron, and now they, you know, are this global, you know, ambassador for sports like baseball and football. You know, you just don't know what it's going to be.
My wife and I have this saying of like, hey, just be in the mix. Like, be in the mix with your friends. Be in the mix with business, be in the mix with your kids, and things will happen whenever you're in the mix. And so that's, that's one that I try to constantly live by, even if it's, uh, even if it's a knife fight every day.
[00:23:55] Roberto: Yeah. Yep. I totally agree, and I love that. The one thing I'll say about TGL that they have been steadfast about, you know—and again, kind of having an inside track—and I think I'm a hundred percent convicted they're right on this: the competition has to matter. Mm-hmm. The players have to care.
Mm-hmm. And I think that you see that, obviously, as the season progresses and you see it into the playoffs, and you see it more in season two than you do in season one. And yeah, like week three, it's like a July baseball game between two teams that are under .500. Like, yeah, they care, but it's very different than playoff baseball.
And I think that is so, so important. And I think one of the Golf Digest writers came out and his season two recap was, they need to just lean into the entertainment. It's, this is not a competition, and I was like, could not disagree more. Mm-hmm. Fast forward four weeks and the New Yorker piece on kind of the demise or whatever is happening with LIV.
And his headline was like, sports work because the players have to care. Yeah. The outcome has to matter. And hey, two opinions—you know, everyone's entitled to theirs—but I could not agree more with the New Yorker piece and the opinion that that's why you turn on the TV, is because the outcome matters.
[00:25:06] Kyle Porter: It's why you, it's why you tune into anything though, right? Like if, if I'm watching. Like last summer with my kids, I watched the, the Ryan Rehan travel Around America video. I don't know if you, if you or your family saw those, but, um, you, you have to like the people that are best at YouTube at entertainment, they hook you into caring about their story.
I just retweeted Col uh, Colin and Samir quote, they said, nobody cares about your story. You have to make them care. And if. You know, if, if the people that are engaged in what they're doing, don't. Care, then I'm not, why would I care? Right. As the, as the viewer of it, you know? And so I think it can't just be entertainment for the sake of entertainment whether it's TGL or a YouTube video or a concert or anything.
You have to believe that the person who's engaging it cares deeply about what they're doing, whether it's for the sake of art or the sake of winning the PGA championship or whatever it is. Yeah, they can care for different reasons, but they do have to care because otherwise, as the viewer, you're not gonna care.
[00:26:11] Roberto: Yeah. You even have to care about the outcome. Something like Bluey, I care about the outcome of every episode. Mm-hmm. Like, I don't just watch it because they're cute and they make an occasionally funny joke, like, there's meaningful outcomes in every episode. I care what happens. And they're six minutes or whatever they are.
[00:26:25] Kyle Porter: They're, they're, they're extraordinary at story. And I think that we, we conflate the idea of being, everything being, um, shiny. Like the Mr. Beatification of everything.
[00:26:39] Roberto: Yeah.
[00:26:40] Kyle Porter: With good story. Now that's probably a bad example 'cause I think Mr. Beast is actually, he's good at manipulating story to get you to care.
I don't know if they're actually good stories, but, but as humans, like we've always only cared about story. And if you can tell a good story, then you're gonna end up being the person or the entity that wins in this next generation.
[00:26:59] Roberto: Yeah. Kyle Porter, normal sport. Thanks so much for doing a, a quick nine here on the course record show.
I will link out to a couple of the, the pieces that I referenced. Um, the CBS sports piece, there's so many things that you write that I, I call 'em, you know, I print 'em out and I put 'em in a file, which may make me out like an 80-year-old. I just have a file of like, really, really impactful.
Writing and it could be about all sorts of stuff, right? But it's something that I wanna find it, you know, in a drawer someday. Um, and read it again. And, and you do produce those with, with regularity. So check it out. Thanks again and hope to see you soon.
[00:27:36] Kyle Porter: Absolutely. Anytime Roberto. Thank you.
[00:27:38] Speaker: This episode is brought to you by Wilderness Andour, Kyle Porter, and normal sport, uh, is a partner of wilderness and Bour. So instead of me telling you what the latest thing I ordered on the website is, uh, Kyle favorite h and b shirt go. Well, it's, it's the Maxwell and I, I got a funny story about it.
[00:27:55] Kyle Porter: We, we ordered, uh, a couple different colors of the Maxwell to put Norman, which is our weird sheep side eye logo on, and, , I texted, , Chris Frame, who's, their head of marketing over there and said, man, I wanna put this logo on every single color of that shirt that you guys can deliver us.
So, uh, we've got a couple more orders in currently it is. Un an it's an unbelievable shirt. I wear it all the time and they've got some amazing, their colorways, Roberto, I gotta say, are just, they, they do such a good job of, and this sounds like very highbrow and silly, but their colorways are extraordinary and you can tell the same amount of care that I try to put in into the newsletter.
They put into picking out colors for their shirts, which is awesome.
[00:28:37] Speaker: Yep. So my favorite is the Maxwell. Also, I have about five versions of the Navy and white Maxwell. And I played golf last week with a friend of mine and he was wearing a navy and white Maxwell from SA Valley. And I swear to you, I mean, I love this stuff and I'm biased, but like 10 times during the round I'd be like, damn, that shirt looks good.
Like, and it's just the navy and white striped shirt, but it's, it is the perfect golf shirt. It really is. Yep. I'll just leave it at that. So thanks to h and b for supporting, uh, normal sport and course record show. Go get a Navy and white maxwell hb golf.com or get one with Norman. Kyle's logo is very, very cool and you can get those on normal sport.com.
Is that right?
[00:29:21] Kyle Porter: Yep.