Ep. 139 - Mario Conte - The Non-GMO Ingredients of Success

[00:00:00] Welcome to Mental Toughness with Dr. Rob Bell. Each week, Dr. Rob sits down with athletes,

[00:00:16] executives and expert coaches to talk about mental toughness and their hinge moment. Here's

[00:00:22] your host, Dr. Rob.

[00:00:29] All these people out there selling these programs and get Rick's quick and real state, learn how to do it my way

[00:00:45] and I'm going to teach you how to be successful. Well, at the end of the day, it's like, you've got to have passion, you've got to have drive, you've got to have the,

[00:00:53] I will run through a wall for whatever I want to do and I will do whatever it takes to be able to get to that next level.

[00:01:01] So this is episode 139 of the Mental Toughness Podcast. You know, some other golf episodes to check out. Adam Shank, Jacob Modleski,

[00:01:11] Kaylin Anderson, Annabelle Pancake, Joe Scover and they delve into their mental toughness or mental game. Of course, their hinge moments.

[00:01:19] Our guest today is executive director and founder of the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour founded in 2007. The Hurricane Tour has become the largest junior tour in the country, host them more events than any other.

[00:01:33] They've had over 350 events in 2023, 20 tournaments in China. They've helped thousands of golfers play golf in college. Our guest today is Mario Conti. Marry my man. Thanks so much, buddy, for taking the time to join us.

[00:01:49] Yeah, I look forward to it. Thanks a lot for wrapping me on here this morning.

[00:01:53] So your goal when you started the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour was to disrupt and change the industry of junior golf back in 2007.

[00:02:01] I mean, I say that's back in the day. I mean, that time flies, doesn't it?

[00:02:07] Yeah, you know, it's funny that you say that it's like every day I feel older and older and you know, I'm coming across kids that used to play with us that now have kids and it's making people.

[00:02:19] But so yeah, it's been a crazy journey over the last 17 years that I wouldn't change it for anything. We've had a lot of ups and downs but it's been a great ride really has been awesome.

[00:02:29] I mean, I mental coach for many players and especially those that play your events, they always talk about how great the courses are and how well run the events are.

[00:02:41] Do you really pride yourself on that, don't you? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, getting golf courses in these, you know, in this day and age right now post COVID is certainly a big challenge.

[00:02:50] But, you know, I kind of wish people knew behind the scenes, the battles we have to fight to just keep these these high and venues and continue to add to our schedule.

[00:02:59] You know, since day one, the reason why you know I wanted to start this tour was I wanted it to be more of an experience right. You know, it's one thing going to a golf tournament to be competitive to try to beat your your fellow competitors but it needs to be also an experience right.

[00:03:13] You know connecting with our staff, connecting with the cities that you're in connecting with the golf courses building those lifelong relationships and when I was a junior golfer, that sort of was all about to me and

[00:03:24] I wasn't going to go to the PGA tour. I unfortunately had to realize that dream, you know, came to a halt so you know when I was 17, 18, 19 but for me, you know, playing these tournaments was all about building the, you know, the lifelong relationships and the skills and I mean, I turned it into a business and not only did it help me, you know, you know, get this business, but it's helped me with other ventures along the way as well through my junior golf playing days learning how to, you know, so many different things.

[00:03:53] Problem solving, you know, connections, you know, traveling, you name it so it's it's a great experience for kids and families and I think, you know, it's awesome to see the rise in golf in general right now.

[00:04:06] Yeah, you you teed that up nicely man, I mean you grew up in Chicago start playing golf when you were seven or eight years old obviously the year is limited up there but what are some of the memories that stand out about when you really started getting serious like about the age of 10.

[00:04:22] What stands out to you. Yeah, I mean, I remember like my dad would take me to as we called it back in Chicago and even though they call it more stop and sock it was a driving range right and it's like you go there hit balls with these old like these old clubs that would collect dust and be the old wooden clubs and I just loved it, you know, and slow up and surely start taking me out to the golf course and we played nine holes on the little executive part three courses and then, you know, I just I just love being outside I love the game.

[00:04:51] I love the fact that you could play for the rest of your life, you know, baseball basketball hockey, you know, these sports necessarily you can't thrive at a high level until you're 75 80 years old.

[00:05:01] Well golf you can and it teaches you so many things about, you know, life and values and manners and everything and things that I'm trying to instill in my kids right now as well as through the game of golf.

[00:05:13] Yeah, what because I'm always sharing again, I mean the benefits about golf. I mean this is a sport that you're going to play your entire life and my daughter wouldn't take to it because my son took to it so early and he was good.

[00:05:27] When you think of like the life lessons, what is one in particular that really stands out to you from golf that let's just equate it to how it's impacted like your entrepreneurship journey.

[00:05:39] What do you think is that biggest lesson from golf that's impacted your journey?

[00:05:44] Oh man, there's so it's hard to pick out one thing there's so many that comes in mind from, you know, integrity to calm yourself out on rules and keeping the scores, you know, accurate scores and you know, I would say for me,

[00:05:56] it was just, you know, the ability to learn how to to communicate with other people when I was young, you know, my parents had dropped me off at the golf course and I was 13 14 years old.

[00:06:07] They dropped me off for the entire day and I would have to talk to business executives and I mean this is that a local golf course is a name in a country club and learn how to communicate with them. Yes sir, no sir.

[00:06:18] You know how to talk on high level how to be, you know, earn a seat at the table right when I'm 13 14 years.

[00:06:24] I mean, I used to play, you know, 35 40 year old men for $2 a golf hole and like, you know, it was just learning how to communicate and be accepted into into that room and

[00:06:35] and learn those skills at a young age are, you know, irreplaceable right and you can't learn that in school. You can't teach people that it's just by going through it and learning, you're going through the motions and be able to connect with people and build relationships.

[00:06:49] Yeah, Mario, I love that one man. One of the rules that we always put with my son, what my wife and I, we put him my son was, we don't want you playing alone meaning now again there are going to be exceptions of that, right?

[00:07:03] I mean, if you have to get out there and you got to play, but you're always playing with somebody and one of the things that really man brings it to your mind like when I hear.

[00:07:14] Wow, like you really fun to play with.

[00:07:18] You know, like what would a great gentleman, like what a great kid like that.

[00:07:23] I don't care how he shoots, you know what I mean? It's just that part right there and he's getting all these lessons in life that I don't see. But man, and I guess you see it now as a father as well, right?

[00:07:35] Yeah, so I mean, you brought up a good point there and you know when you said that I started going back to nostalgia the lane of like me going to the golf course and always wanted to be paired up with somebody else like nowadays it's like the social media generation and texting versus calling everyone to kind of

[00:07:52] you know, it's uncomfortable to play with other people. I enjoyed that so much. I got to know people where they're from, asked a lot of questions got comfortable with how to have conversations and to this day I don't I never feel uncomfortable just going up to people that are, you know, executives or presidents or what have you.

[00:08:09] It's just I learned that in my junior golf days and that's what I just, you know, want to want kids to embrace nowadays is you may not go pro right there's a high chance you're not going to go pro but the skills that you're developing right now are going to be.

[00:08:21] With you for the rest of your life and embrace them, home them in right now.

[00:08:26] Absolutely man, but more I see get fired up on that stuff man. I love it dude.

[00:08:30] It's like when you when you're saying that I'm like going back to my junior golf days I miss those days just go into the golf course and just, you know with, you know, five bucks in my pocket and you know going out and playing with other people and getting to know them it's like you don't get to have those those, you know, the time to do that anymore as much as I used to and I miss those days.

[00:08:50] Absolutely man.

[00:09:01] Hey good looking if you like this podcast and are already a badass but it's all way too complicated then visit our website.

[00:09:10] You can go to Robbell.com and schedule call with us to help capture your very own hinge moment.

[00:09:21] I always say like golf as well like you're, you're naked in front of the gods like when you're playing golf like yeah you're in your bubble but man you learn so much about yourself and you learn so much about other people.

[00:09:32] I mean you play around with golf with somebody you know them more intimately than maybe their business partners don't you?

[00:09:38] Absolutely and that's another thing that when you ask me the question about what did you take away from your junior golf days I mean that's another thing too as you get a chance to learn how people carry themselves right and, you know, I pay attention to how people carry themselves in restaurants and I pay attention to how people carry themselves on the golf course.

[00:09:57] Do they have integrity or are they you know, are they throwing the ball out in the fairway just everything how do they carry themselves and you'll learn a lot about that person by spending four hours with them on the golf course.

[00:10:11] Yeah why do you say restaurants who watch people specifically restaurants?

[00:10:15] That to me is how you treat the wait staff you know I worked in restaurants for a very long time and you know how do you treat waiters how do you treat bus boys how do you treat hostesses when you walk up the stand and that's important for me and you know I took my son out to a restaurant the other night and, you know, when you go up to somebody you smile and you say yes sir you know man yes man you open doors for people are you putting plates together on the table for them to make their jobs a little bit easier.

[00:10:41] Those are like little things that I look for and how people carry themselves.

[00:10:45] Yeah no great point man I mean it's interesting because it's like my world of like mental coaching and sports psychology when I hear about mental game.

[00:10:55] It's self-heard so off so like working out and running like it's part of the fabric of who I am so like the manners and the respect.

[00:11:08] In fact giving to individuals a lot of times like I don't see it until it's evident of the opposite way you know like how rude somebody could be or it's like I love going out to eat so like I'm always like when we're going out to eat as a family like it's just something I'm not going to be in a bad mood.

[00:11:29] I mean like no matter how bad it is but we're still out to eat like it's fine and I guess that's what it's just interesting to me when I see it on the opposite end I'm like man like really got to pray for that person because they really got to be pissed off just because you know they had a way to cut more minutes for food you know what I mean it's like yeah that's a great point that you bring up man.

[00:11:50] Sorry for the tangent but I don't like talking a lot when I'm a podcast I was like asking the questions so I'll just get back to my lane but

[00:11:58] one of the things I'm interested in is always these hinge moments and you know the hinge moment right that one person one moment one event makes all the difference in our lives and we were talking before obviously we're going to have multiple hinge moments in our life but can you share with us like one that was really impactful to the tour and the entrepreneurship and specifically.

[00:12:22] Yeah you know it's really hard to come up with you know two or three hinge moments right I'm I have been blessed my life that I've had a lot of people that have supported me and it really helps me get to where I am today I mean I couldn't possibly thank all the people in all the hinge moments but they're obviously you look back to the early days and you're like well this didn't happen with all those other things happen and that's what I have to focus on when you ask me what are the hinge moments and to me like a couple things stand out.

[00:12:51] It's like you know in year two when we're really struggling to get players and you know really delivering the message of like hey come play with us over you know where the better option here's why I am G Academy was really a big hinge moment for me and you know the two instructors there who made the decisions you know they had 150 kids there and we were mostly in Florida at the time and you know I was like hey you know knocking on their door constantly like hey you know we're a good option for you you got your you're kid should come play with us and finally you know we're going to have a good opportunity to do that.

[00:13:21] I mean I decided to meet me in Orlando which I was in Jackson all the time there in Sarasota which they still are and we met halfway and they just laid out on the table they're like you know we want to support you but like here are concerns and they gave me a chance and to this day 17 years later there's still one of our biggest supporters.

[00:13:39] I can't thank them enough the coaches down there Mark Rumbing Shane Riser Tracy Riser people that I still I have mad respect for and they gave me a chance and quite frankly our field started growing and then all the other kids started flowing into the event seen that the competition was was increasing and you know I owe a lot to them and I tell that story a lot and a second hinge moment for me was we had a parent of a junior golfer he saw a lot of potential in me.

[00:14:09] He saw my passion and he basically knew that we were struggling financially I mean I didn't have I mean I was running around in a truck with you know in gas station hot dogs to survive for the first four or five years and in the first year he was able to give us a little bit of sponsorship money to buy and assess these like radios for tournaments and you know gas to put in the truck and you know I was able to you know bring on some support staff to help me out and and his name is a

[00:14:38] Dennis Bruno and he's in Kentucky and I owe lots of him he was I think God kind of put him in my life and I'm really happy for him and you know my very first intern as well you know Chris Grillo he's a good friend of mine and without him I again none of this making what happens without those people so again I'm very thankful and I have a lot of gratitude in my life now which I did you know wasn't able to focus on early in my career but now now I really you know

[00:15:08] stepstopping think about those moments a lot that's awesome Mario thanks so much for sharing those but I don't think we get to do that too often you know and that's that's the importance of like the hinge is you and I get an older like to be able to kind of look back and see the impact and even given them credit so I mean that's

[00:15:25] that's awesome and thank you for sharing that like I said I can go on and on for days and I'm sure me leaving out a thousand people but you know those are the ones that early on come into mind for me that really got me to 17 years down the road absolutely man so you had 20 tournaments in China talked us about that expansion

[00:15:45] and how that's developed yeah so China was a huge initiative for us and you know I know junior golf is becoming a lot more popular thriving over there but we took our time we vetted out the right partner we have a team over there that runs events and you know the Asian

[00:16:04] agents have been such a huge part of our growth here and you know in the United States and they support our tour and they've been great you know with playing our events and we wanted to bring some events to them and they've been asking for a long long time finally found the right partner took me about three or four years to put this deal together

[00:16:25] and a lot went into this I had to I went over there twice in the last three or four years and it's been great and quite frankly this is the opening of our of our international expansion we have a great staff member Joy who basically runs all of our international business development she actually just signed another country we're about to release India here very soon we're about to have 30 events 25 to 30 events in India this year

[00:16:51] and she's basically got a lot of traction going right now internationally so we're really excited and passionate about our international expansion

[00:17:01] yeah I love it man you know one of the missions for Hurricane junior golf tour is you know getting players the availability playing college

[00:17:11] and you do that excellent job and given them a platform the fact of you know anyone can play in these events this is sort of like a parents question but like I know great golfers who have played D1 who went to D1 schools

[00:17:28] and when I'm talking to parents sometimes I will I will mention them look the seventh or six best player on university attendees roster is a great player one of the best players you've seen

[00:17:41] and he or she doesn't even make the bus you know it's not even playing in tournaments I mean that's how hard it is sometimes like at these levels and I bring this up because I mean D2 D3 NAA I got off I mean those are excellent opportunities excellent companies

[00:17:57] excellent competition and they give you even more balanced players I mean I know that's one thing that you encourage as well like for parents to look at all these other options but I'm just wondering if you could kind of speak some truth into that as well

[00:18:09] yeah that's a great point and that was a big focal point and as I was growing the tour in the early days is why we're going to play Hurricane junior golf tour events and to me it was very simple is that there are so many there's a plethora of options out there why do you need to go

[00:18:23] and try to get into the university of Georgia or Tennessee or Florida when you're not able to make the top five and you're going to ride the bench there's a guy that I know here my local golf course he goes to a high ND1 school all he's doing is riding the bench what did he do he ended up he's basically just he quit the team because he's not playing

[00:18:43] and why would you not rather go to a division two school where you know you're going to consistently play work on your game get better there's so many opportunities out there I went to a division two school of St. Leo University in Tampa I wanted to go to USF I wanted to go to UCF I wanted to go to all these big schools I had no business playing golf there or even trying to play

[00:19:04] even if I would have walked down I would have lost interest and there's so many opportunities out there and the beauty about golf is that like football you know you got to go to the big schools if you're recruited by the NFL what have you golf do I mean you go you play you work on your skills you got to go through the qualifying stage it's just like almost everybody else so eventually you know keep your skills to a high level go to Q school and work your way up or go to the mini tour so so many great opportunities and golf

[00:19:33] and you don't need to go to a high D1 school and that's where where our growth came in big time is that people parents are realizing that is that I don't need to play the top tour all the time you know the junior go I could play hurricane junior golf and still be recognized by all the other coaches out there.

[00:19:50] Yeah no it's all Somalia you know you have wonderful corporate partnerships I mean Ninja golf short par four which I love as well among others do you want to talk about that for instance about like the importance of those

[00:20:02] partnerships. Yeah I mean when I hired one of my main executives Rex Kramer he took this tour to the next level there's there's just no doubt about it he's been with me for two years now I mean the man his he comes in with a wealth of knowledge he owned his own business for 20 years he's been able to complete via game changer in our operation he's brought on some massive corporate partners Mizuno advent health short par four I mean the list goes on and on and on you know four

[00:20:32] side sports he's got you know pending deals right now that have been able to enhance the tour to be able to give us the resources we need to be able to continue to disrupt the industry and you know he's going to continue bringing in heavy hitters that will add value to the

[00:20:49] juniors but also help us with you know scale the operation to enhance the the playing opportunities. Yeah absolutely man love it. The junior golf growth conference three days the inaugural not not the first annual but the inaugural to lie eighth ninth and tenth I mean you have speakers man Mara Hodge go term an Edwards I mean you have Rudy that's talking great

[00:21:14] about it. What was the impetus behind setting us up? Yeah it's crazy you know nothing like this has ever been done in the industry which is again what we're all about we wanted to

[00:21:23] disrupt the industry and we want to continue doing things that nobody else has ever even thought about and you know we I wanted to put this together you know I've been to some

[00:21:32] conferences that have changed my life and I again going to what we've talked about right we want kids to understand hey there is life after

[00:21:39] the fall from a business standpoint from a entrepreneur standpoint from then whatever it is right and we we carefully selected all of these these speakers right and we didn't want to just go

[00:21:50] after like the pro golfers that will just come in and say hey I'm a pro golfer you know here's my story right and because they have a we wanted to bring in people from all different walks

[00:22:00] mental mental health you know we've got blood on you coming in her that her Edwards Mara Hodge who has an unbelievable story with always a cancer survive like these are things and I know that you know

[00:22:14] kids are going to see this and be like well who is Mara Hodge who is her med words you know even though their big names out they're not necessarily in golf and that's how we wanted it to be and this is

[00:22:24] going to be for the value you know $550 to come to a wall class resort you know foods included you're getting tens of thousands of not hundreds of thousand dollars worth of advice here and and coaching and skills that we're bringing all into one place.

[00:22:38] Yeah no I love it man yeah it's awesome it's funny because it's like very beginning I said 2007 was back in the day it really was right I mean that was like Facebook a couple years old back then

[00:22:49] people have no idea of her med words right but these are great I mean Mara Hodge man great stories man great speakers they have coming in man it's it's impactful it's going to make a big difference.

[00:22:59] Yeah and the challenge for us is like getting the kids in the families then necessarily the families the kids that buy into these people right because you know let's face it they're you know they're they're they're not necessarily playing right now where they're seeing them on sports center and on the golf channels and all that stuff

[00:23:14] but these are people that have like been trialblazers and and and having and they've done massive things that you know kids need to hear these stories and see in building skills that these individuals have so I mean Rudy I mean I don't even know if most of the kids have seen that movie but I mean it's an absolutely inspiring story what he was able to do at Notre Dame.

[00:23:34] Yeah indeed man indeed when 2025 comes around the second annual man I'm going to be a speaker there too man I know I can do a good job for you.

[00:23:42] I'm sure you'll have you there for sure.

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[00:24:05] Mario what question should I be asking that that I've just missed that I haven't asked yet.

[00:24:13] I get this I get this question a lot is you know what what was part like what got you to where you're at today and you know for me I always like to tell people like the honest raw you know here's here's what it is right and like at the end of the day it's like what were the authentic ingredients

[00:24:34] the non GMO organic ingredients that make you a successful individual right and everybody you know it's like it's funny I was on just scrolling this morning it's like all these people out there selling these programs of get rich quick and you know real state learn how to do it my way

[00:24:51] and you're going to get teach you how to be successful well at the end of the day it's like you got to have passion you've got to have drive you got to have the I will run through a wall for whatever I want to do and I will do whatever it takes to be able to get to that next level

[00:25:06] and you know these programs that they're going to teach you necessarily the technical ways to get there but I think into the day if you have all those things like you're going to figure out a way when I ran this I basically just put it out there I didn't have a business plan people to this day think that I'm absolutely absurd that I did not I did not have a business plan

[00:25:24] but I would do whatever it takes to get through and it's okay to make it's okay to make mistakes I've learned from all my mistakes I created a real estate business five years ago I I would never have thought that I would be able to know the stuff that I know right now about commercial development

[00:25:42] I do because I last down to mentors I surrounded myself around high quality people that that really cared about me and I care about them and I was able to figure it out I didn't need some program to come tell me what to do step by step by step you know I just had to drive the energy the passion because I wanted to do it

[00:26:03] that's really what's gotten me to I mean I'm training to be a pilot right now you know I'm in pilot school and I've latched on to an instructor that he's an amazing guy teaches me and I just do it by hands on experience because I want to do it I don't know the first thing about all like I get into an airplane it's like

[00:26:22] you got a lot going on man it's like I have to drive the passion if we want to do it and I'm not going to learn from a book I'm going to learn from actually doing it and the fact that I'm going to be up till 3 am studying the you know all the things they want me to study you know to be able to pass the

[00:26:38] To get my positive because so hopefully all that made sense but at the end of the day you just got to go make an happen man like nobody's going to teach you on YouTube how to be a successful businessman like you either got it in your you don't

[00:26:52] I love it buddy man fires me if I think like I think he titled a podcast to man because I love that right the non GMO and greedy and so success man that's bad ass man.

[00:27:02] Being authentic being around authentic people when I when I made a commitment to myself to surround myself around around positive people you know a few years ago and eliminating all the toxic city out of my life

[00:27:14] I mean my life is completely changed for the better and I'll be able to do things that I never in my wallestries was able to do and it's just being authentic and and and just you know focusing on the raw ingredients passion drive energy you'll develop all that from

[00:27:31] Doing things that you want to do so don't go into something for the money don't go into something because you know you have a degree I'm out of these people have these degrees that they don't want to do it they got a degree for like you're never going to be successful doing something that you don't want to do.

[00:27:44] Just because of the money you can't pay me enough money to be a you know a doctor I don't know anything about it I don't I'm not passionate about it I let you know let those people do what they do.

[00:27:59] Mara got one more question man says we're fired up here like in terms of like being a father like what's what's been your biggest because you have three kids like what has been.

[00:28:09] What's been the biggest challenge what have you learned about yourself when it comes to you know parenting.

[00:28:16] You're asking a lot of questions that have a lot of answers I would say patience you know most people that know me very well are laughing if they listen to this podcast patients because I didn't have a lot of patients and still this day I still struggle with that but I want things done yesterday and I expect that on myself and my team but I've learned a lot of patience you know

[00:28:37] You know my kids are at age ages where they're very rampant you know they're developing themselves physically and mentally I've had a lot of patience and you know it's a journey you know my kids unfortunately are not golfers and I'm okay with that you know I have to you know accept the fact that they want to play other sports and they're very good at other sports you know.

[00:28:59] And not golfers yet though right like you never know yet you know and fortunately I've seen enough of the good in the bad from the youth sports world as you've seen from being a father as well and the last thing I'm going to do is shove something down my kids throat and say you have to play golf because dad want you to play golf that will work out so I bring it up time to time they laugh and they don't think golf school you know they they they like the fact that I have a golf business but they don't they don't want to play golf so

[00:29:29] I support their baseball and their basketball football dreams. Yeah man when it comes to patience you know that's why we're at the book I can't wait to be patient.

[00:29:40] I'll get you a copy of that.

[00:29:42] Mario man thanks so much for sharing your story and just what you do the best obviously this year in the future and thanks so much for taking the time and really appreciate it.

[00:29:51] Yeah I'm not surprised to be on here and I really wish you the best assessment.