You Still Have Time

When Plans Don't Go As Planned

Hope Harley Todman & Harold Todman Season 1 Episode 8

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Our first podcast guest, shared his journey from a dynamic career in corporate America to founding Video in Play Golf (VIPGolf), an app connecting golfers with pros for personalized instruction.  He discussed the challenges of launching VIPGolf, including market barriers and team attrition while also recounting his personal health crisis which led him to prioritize health over business. He emphasized the importance of self-advocacy and health maintenance, urging others to prioritize their well-being.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to You Still Have Time. We're your host, I'm Hope, and I'm Harold. And we'd like to say hello to all of our returning listeners and welcome those who may be listening for the very first time. Thank you for joining us. Today's episode we've been titled When Plans Don't Go as Planned. Because as you know, we've been encouraging people to make plans for their life after their major careers after retirement. And sometimes, even if you make plans, they don't happen that way.

SPEAKER_00:

And during the summer, we visited a friend of ours, and we were sitting around just chatting about what has happened since the last time we spoke, and he updated us on some things, and we just thought that they would be interesting for our podcast audience.

SPEAKER_01:

And so he agreed to be our very first podcast guest. So, yes, we have a guest today. So take a listen. You know, we hope that you enjoy it and get something out of it, and we'll see you on the other side. Hi, Rick.

SPEAKER_02:

Good morning. How are you?

SPEAKER_01:

We're good. We're very excited because you, Rick Martin, are our first podcast guest.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Wow, that that's that's pressure, but uh I I appreciate I appreciate the offer, and uh I'm here to support you and tell my story.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much. I don't even remember how long we've known Rick.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't, I mean, I don't remember how it doesn't matter how we met. We met, and that's the important thing.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I was doing some things with with the group that I had, and you were probably the most dynamic person I ever met. And I was like, who is this person? I need to make her my friend.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. That was a paid commercial. I did not anticipate all of that, but anyway, um, no, I am not the most dynamic person you ever met because your wife is much more dynamic than I am, and you cannot deny that.

SPEAKER_02:

Can't deny it. No, absolutely. And and she's the reason that I'm here. Okay, let's put that out right now. Uh, everything that I've gone through, um, and not the problems that I went through, but what I went through to get to solve my problems, my wife was very much involved with that. Uh that was important to me. Now I, you know, looking back, knowing what I know, um, and where steps that I were making uh were directed, she was very helpful and instrumental in all those things.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe that one. All right. So you want to get started, Harold?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So, Rick, for our audience uh who may not know you as well as we do, could you in you know an hour or two give us a brief uh overview, I guess, of your you know, your your work experience and who are you? Where were you born? You know, tell us who who is Rick.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, I got an elevator speech, right? You know, sales one-on-one, you gotta have the elevator speech, right? So the elevator speech is is is um the the child of a man from Philadelphia, a woman from Panama, right, who met together on a planned date, right? I'm one of four children. I'm the lone survivor to this date. I'm from the projects in the Bronx, Bronx River Projects, the home of hip hop. Don't let anybody else tell you anything different. Um, I went to a Catholic school, Buster Sacrament in the Bronx as well, with other dignitaries who came out of that school. I won't have to name names yet. Um, and then I went to a Catholic high school in Manhattan. Um from there I went to school in Boston. Uh I was also a DJ at that time. I DJed in the Bronx and then in Boston for a couple of years, um and became a flight attendant. And from that, I came back to New York, got several other jobs, but eventually I got into the corporate ladder, which was Verizon, actually. I was I was brought in by somebody who told me he didn't know if I can get a job, but let me keep your name and number. Um, and I was literally going to a new job one day, having the last day at a cable company I worked for, and he called me and says, We need to come and take a drug test. We can get you in in two weeks. So I had a two-week window at one company. The guy was upset that I was leaving, but I was excited to get into uh at that time Bell Atlantic. Um, and I stayed there for about 18 years or more, it felt like. Well, I mean, you know, I did several things with with uh with Verizon, but you know, at that point I I figured that it's time to go on and do something different. And that's where I kind of explored some new things for myself.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Let me ask this question. So you were you had been in corporate America for quite a little number of years. And and you just decided that you wanted to not get another job in corporate America but strike out on your own?

SPEAKER_02:

I I did. I fortunately for me, my job at corporate was uh involved a lot of travel. And with travel, you tend to envision what do you want to do next when I decided I wanted to get involved with golf because that was a product or or or a sport that I was getting involved with in the corporate environment, not as a player. I wasn't good, but I was also a marketer. So we were doing events and everybody wanted to have a golf event. So I was the guy who put in putting it all together. And I just had a vision of how to how to improve the game. And so that's why I decided to venture out. Once I decided to leave, is to venture out into that category.

SPEAKER_01:

And you're just so uh listeners know, you're in the DC area.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I met my wife here, but I I was still traveling, but we decided to stay connected. And once I made a decision that she was, well, once she agreed to be the person that would be with me the rest of my life, I decided I didn't want to take her away from this environment. Let's stay here.

SPEAKER_00:

Tell me about your golf, um, your your venture to the golf world.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. Well, well, it's you sound like the way I did when I first started. I don't play it, I don't know what I'm doing. Somebody help me. And and the guys that I played with, I give them credit because they were very um forgiving. You can't learn on a golf on a golf course, you got to go to the driving range. You should talk to a golf pro. And once I did that, just that interaction with a pro one time, and my wife was set that up, as a matter of fact. Um I went to an event and there were like 17 people there, and I was the only guy who was new. Everybody else had been doing it for years. And I said, Well, why are you why you why are you getting your game together when you already play? And I said, You gotta, you know, you gotta tune up every year. You gotta get better for what you didn't do the year before. So that's where I understood the power of the of the interaction with a pro. And I decided that that would be my entree into this business to find ways to get pros and non-golfers or golfers who need to improve an easy way to connect. So it is called video and play golf, right? You videotape your swing, you send it to a golf pro who critiques it for you, and that becomes my sales thing. That becomes the sales opportunity between the golf pro and the consumer. Because if I show you how to fix one thing, ultimately I'm trying to drive business between you and I. But you know, it's kind of like let me give you a sample, you're gonna like it, and you'll come back and you'll use this again.

SPEAKER_01:

You were trying to reach a different audience uh uh um with your it's an app, right? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

It's an app and a portal, but yes, the app is what essentially drives the business. You videotape using your phone. Everybody has a phone, everybody knows how to use a take a video with their phone. Um, and for that, it uh it made it simpler to give this to anybody, most kids, most adults, everybody knows how to use a phone. If I can give you something that you can put on your phone and use, then that'll get you excited about what you're getting, what you're saving and being instructed to do, right? So it's not like I go, hey, hit the ball and let me and tell me what you did, or I'll watch you and we'll talk about it later. Now it's virtual, it's on your in your hands. You can see and get the comments back from the professional and then go back to the golf course and do what he told you to do. Okay, he or she.

SPEAKER_01:

And so you had this idea, and it it sounds like it was well thought out. So where do you go from here?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think what we did. Yeah, we we we took a different couple different approaches, right? And so we attended events, we did a lot, I did a lot of traveling, handshaking, this and that. Um, but you realize that this thing has certain barriers that you can't overcome, right? There are certain people who listen, they talk to you, but they're not responsible for getting you in. And at the highest level, I mean, I talked to people in the PGA who, because they had those three letters on their on their on their shoulder, you thought that they were responsible, but they weren't. And then you had to encounter certain opportunities that you needed to create in order to be seen, but it doesn't play out the way you expected. So, I mean, there was a lot of, and I won't call it stress, but there was a lot of restart, uh, which ultimately, and again, going to talking that where we're headed with this, is probably some stress that was related to it because every time you look at it, you go, man, that's not what happened, what I was looking to get out of that. You know, or there's not enough interest from the people who go, Oh, this is a great idea. And then you say, Well, what do you want to do? And they go, Well, let me get back to you, you know, and they see you a year later and go, Oh, you're still around. That's great, man. How's it going? Well, you never called me, so does it really matter? You know, so those are the kind of things that you encounter when you when you go out on your own, right? And at one point I had at least some uh members on my team, and then just through attrition, I was winding being uh a lone gunman again, and that's a lot to do.

SPEAKER_00:

So let me ask you this during that period when you became the lone gunman, did you think about going back to corporate America?

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, yeah, that's a good great question because I you know I I was I was proud of my service with with the corporation, and the responsibility that they gave me was big. I mean, I had I had a large division and a particular product that I managed, and we did well. Well, I did well, it did well. Uh so I I didn't feel bad about that, but I also didn't want to lose my independence because if I went back, where was I gonna go?

SPEAKER_01:

So with with some of the obstacles that you faced, you know, you said that you had a team and then it ended up being just you, did you did you think about giving up on that idea?

SPEAKER_02:

No. And I'll tell you why, because I I still believe there is a market for this, and it just has to be positioned correctly and supported correctly. So coming into 2024, uh, 2025, I should say, coming out of 2024, we had a lot of momentum. I was just looking at some things that I looked at from last year, and uh we did a lot of things that helped the momentum, but it was kind of like backed up, stacked up. Nothing was clicking. And I had a great conversation in LA in October of 2024 with an agency that wanted to have an event, and they've asked us to put together a plan for them to um have a golf event because I hadn't thought about it until I proposed it to them. I was like, why don't you do golf? They're like, oh, that's a good idea. So we started working on it. And then here comes January of 2025, and we have a fire in LA. And that person, I don't know what happened to them. I don't even know what happened to the to their division, but I never got a response back. Plus, my daughter was in California as well. And she was, you know, she was in the midst of the fire, and that was kind of stressful too, you know, because you don't know what's going on. You know, I was calling her daily, or anytime I got an ex uh, there's an app for fires in LA that I was on. Anytime something popped up, I call her and say, Is that near you? That kind of thing. So I think that kind of put me into that stress mode. And at that point, I was like, okay, I need to pull back. And I was pulling back at that point. That was in January.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so so you made all these plans, um, and then some things happened. Uh-right. The LA fires happened, and that was, you know, that put a big wrench in the plan. But then something happened to you personally. Yes. Um early this year. That was another, you know, we're calling this episode when things don't go as planned. When things don't when plans don't go as planned. Right, right. Um, because you know, we've been talking about making plans, you know, for what you do after retirement.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think I think that's something that we need to reiterate that our earlier episodes talked about how much you need to make these plans. But sometimes plans don't go the way you planned them. And and and uh listening to Rick's uh story, there was there's there he had the plans.

SPEAKER_01:

You had the plans, and made adjustments to those plans as things changed, but then there are certain things that are just not possible to plan for because you don't I mean, fires, nobody expected the LA fires to be as huge as they ended up being. Um COVID. Nobody expected well, nobody expected COVID, and then nobody expected you know these atmospheric things as you know, fire fires, and then in your in your personal life, you had like an LA fire.

SPEAKER_00:

So, yeah, you know, so let's back up. So so now we're talking January 2025.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we I can take you back to January to December of 24 because that was the underlying thing that happened on top of what was going on with the fire and and well the relationship with with LA and the possibility of business. Um I had to get my physical end of your physical. And um, I went to see the doctor and he said, he says, uh, you know, I'm looking at your your chart, and I don't have I don't have a stress test on here. And I said, I knew I took a test because I I had to wear a monitor, and then after I took the monitor off, they took some tests and that thought was the stress test. He goes, No, that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something different. And I said, Well, I don't, I guess I don't have it. So he said, well, and you know, he said, make an appointment. So I made an appointment in December, uh, and actually wound up being in December for January. Um, and I went back to the cardiologist and uh he says, Yeah, you didn't get this test. Uh, you know, I don't know why we missed it, but let's get it done. And so there the ball started rolling, right? The first thing was uh, you know, probably I can't tell you the test that I each test that I had, but I know it took several needles, and that was and that was not a fear that I had. So I felt confident that I could go in there and get these needles plugged in, come back, get another one, blah, blah, blah. And then there was the blood test that came back, and he says, Well, I'm looking at some stuff and I need to have a conversation. I I'm looking at some stuff. I said, Okay, well, let me know what you want to do. Um, and so I knew that I was going to California in February for an event with the family. And um it we were going to walk uh uh Catalina Island, right, through the mountains in Catalina Island. And um I said, Well, can you let me know if I'll be in good shape enough to get to take the walk? He says, Yes, I will. He said, But you go ahead and go to California now and I'll call you, right, and let you know after I look at the results. So I go to California, I get the call, and he says, I need you to come back. Well, I don't want you to, I don't want you to take the walk for sure, but I'm gonna need you to come back as soon as you can. And I said, Okay. So if in the room, I repeated the word open heart surgery, and my daughter was in the room and she took off. She she was upset, very upset about that. And then I said it again to my daughter and my wife on the phone, just trying to describe what would happen, but not to say that this was the plan. And so everybody, we you know, so I had to get back. I got back um like on a Wednesday, and by the following Friday, I gone through the steps that I needed to go through, the process with the doctors, the uh opportunity to sit down, have a conversation with the with the the the heart surgeon, and uh I was prepped to go in like by that Friday.

SPEAKER_01:

So a little more than a week later, yes, you were ready for surgery.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Now, I will say this. So let me speak to the point that was important to me and why I um I was comfortable with this whole process, right? One, let's go back to my wife, right? She's an important person. She made sure that everybody that that I had to deal with, she was the advocate with, right? She made sure that everybody understood, not to say this is her husband, but you know, I want to make sure that we find the best of the best to do this, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And and she she works for the hospital, she works in the hospital system.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, she does. She works at that. The hospital that she worked at is where where we went, where I worked. Okay. Um, and again, you know, but I think the point is not where she worked, the fact is she she was that person and she taught me about being my own advocate down the road, right? But yes, fortunately, she was able to find and get people in line to make sure that this was going to happen uh successfully.

SPEAKER_01:

And quickly.

SPEAKER_02:

And and quickly, because one of the first responses we got was we'll get to get somebody for you. You know, come back and you know, we'll call you, kind of a thing. And she's like, No, we'll call you. Right? We're gonna call you and get the right person and get it with us. So, yes, that's important. And and again, to to the point of this of this conversation is to say that you know, you have to take control. If you don't, you know, you're waiting and you don't know what kind of time you have. Right? Never mind the fact that that doctor told me I had to get that test, or even prior to that, the fact that I didn't tell my wife that I had an incident uh in COVID where a technician said to me, I think you have a heart murmur, and I kind of blew it off, but I mentioned it to her, and she goes, You need to get a doctor. And I was like, Okay, finally, you know, she's been telling me this for a while, but I did. That moment and those incidents tick tick tick all the way up to me getting into the hospital.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so you uh at the end of the year you you had like an annual physical. Was that brought on because of something you were feeling, or is that something that you regularly did?

SPEAKER_02:

No, that's because she made me start the process in uh I I guess it was maybe in March of 2024.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, where someone told you that you had a heart murmur.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, was that a regular visit to a doctor?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I didn't have a doctor. I did not have a doctor. This is the point. I didn't have a doctor. Right. So I've been, I've been, I've been told, but I wasn't listening for a while. Right. And at that moment, I was like, okay, you know, and she helped me find a doctor, could have been anybody, but that's the doctor who then sent me to the cardiologist, who then sent me back to him to get that test. Who actually in August he retired. So he I thanked him and he went on his lovely way. Uh, but the point is that he was the guy, and that was the process that that moved moved me to do what I needed to do, which I hadn't been doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so let's so are we and have we made it to 2025 yet?

SPEAKER_02:

We're in surgery. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

How are you doing now?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, for all for all that I can say, it's been good. Um I've got three more sessions of rehab. So I'll be out, I'll be out of rehab by the end of the of next week. Um, because I go twice a week and I've done it for 20 21 days, 21 sessions. Um you know, I I I'll I'll see my doctor in two days, right? And every time I go in there, I try to figure out something I need to complain about so I can tell them that, you know, what's wrong. But I will be honest with you. When I went in, I felt this way. And when now that I'm out, I feel this way. I feel I have more energy, but I don't feel like I'm lesser of, you know, uh, like I didn't go in, I didn't go into the hospital um knowing that I had a I needed a procedure. But I did know that I had to trust everybody that I talked to that was in front of me. And I had to build that relationship with that person. You know, I had to ask questions. We had to know that this person understood that, you know, what are we going to go through? You know, what what's gonna happen? Explain it to me, explain it to my wife so that we know going in that there's there's there's consequences to this, to the surgery. My children were very upset about that, you know, knowing or not fully knowing, I think they they're more impactful to them now because they're like my oldest daughters. Like, I didn't know that there was that chance that you wouldn't make it. But I didn't have that, I didn't have that in my mind. I just felt that I needed to believe what they told me and be a good patient as best as you could.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so the business. What's the plan now?

SPEAKER_02:

The business is is is is on a recycle right now. Uh, because part of what we were planning on doing was to kind of upgrade the information that we have about it going out, right? Um, there's a lot of different things that are in the ether of the business now that we can take advantage of. So we're we're reworking some of the language and uh and the information that we're gonna be sending out.

SPEAKER_01:

And so your health issues, I know that there was a lot of fear around around this event. So did it make you first of all, did you ever think about giving up on the business idea? And I guess the second question I would have is what's changed? How how how have you changed? How have your plans changed, not just for the business, just for your life overall?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think what it taught me is your health is more important than the business, right? And that was as I was going through the process, and then when I was recovering in the hospital, you know, um golf wasn't in my mind, right? This was in March, you know, we got the US Open, we got whatever golf events are going on. I don't know who won the, I don't know who won the blue cup, the raw cup, or whatever. It was really about making sure that I know how to get healthy because what I took my family through, I didn't want, I didn't do it intentionally.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_02:

You think about it, and someone says, well, you know, don't eat that apple, and you eat the apple, and other people see you go away, right? That's because you're not listening, you know, you're not listening to your body. So what that said to me, those four or 18 weeks or whatever I was, where I couldn't get before I even went to rehab, I didn't think about golf. I didn't think about what was next. What was next was how was I going to get better and how was I going to heal the fear that my family had for me? Right? Because that was scary, and I get it. You know, I'm not the person who wants to leave anybody uh without me. So I wanted to do, I now had to figure out how to be better at that. So to your point, I I feel better now because now I think differently. I think what are we doing? And then what can I do? And then what is the job, as opposed to the job being the first thing you think about, right? Came out of that, that came from a purpose in corporate, where corporate you figure, you know, the money, the family, God kind of a thing, right? Well, that's not the order anymore. It's God's God family money, you know, that that kind of thing. So you know, those are things that changed in in my heart to say, okay, listen, I've got to be here for everybody else. In order to be here, I've got to take care of myself.

SPEAKER_01:

So it really reordered your priorities.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, absolutely. And and you don't think about it until you realize that, you know, first of all, I had triple bypass, right? I thought I was having a pass. I had a double pass. I came out with a triple, right? So I'm like, damn, you know, but you know, I, you know, I still walk and talk the same way, right? I kind of feel the same way, you know, it's a little aches and pains, but even from coming from the hospital home, there was still time that I still had to recoup. And now, I mean, I'm mobile, I go to rehab, I I can, I can uh I'm active. And so therefore I feel like whatever has been done has been done for a reason, and I need to take care of myself.

SPEAKER_00:

So, what would be your message to other folks who maybe have been planning things and then their plans, you know, a wrench gets thrown into those plans, or um I I don't know, I don't know if there's a uh if if you have words of wisdom or yeah, because they might people might not maybe not have triple quadruple bypass, but maybe they've maybe they've you know lost a loved one and you know that that they had planned to be with this person and all of a sudden now they're alone and um you know sometimes they just have trouble even being motivated to to to do anything.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I uh I have two exam well let me let me answer your your question first um about uh having somebody that's lost. Um a friend of mine who I he and I were on a uh business council together, and the leader of the council Uh was sick and I had just gone through my surgery and I told him and so he mentioned it to the guy. He says, you know, Rick just went through this thing, and you should probably go check out yourself out because you know you're not feeling well. Like he goes, No, I can't do that right now. It's just because my dad is elderly, and I can't go to the hospital because he he may, you know, because he needs me here. Right? No sooner than I say a month, I got a call from my friend and goes, you know, the person died. And the father is now alone. You know, so sometimes you're thinking that you're saving you're saving yourself for somebody else by not taking care of yourself. That's not the way it should go. And I become an advocate. So to answer your question, help. I mean, I mean, I talk to, I have groups of friends that we run back and forth via Skype and and Zoom calls and all that kind of stuff. But I I, when I first, when I got out and I was able to communicate, I said, listen, this is where I am, this is what happened. But you guys have to. You have to go get checked out. Right? We're at that age where it should be your health first, right? Because you can't make anything happen. You can't enjoy that life that you prepared for if you're not taking care of your health. That priority has to change. And so that's my conversation to anyone at this point. And I'll say it, I'm like, listen, listen, you know, my daughter says, Why do you have your chest open? You can see your scar. I said, because that's who I am. I'm not afraid to wear my shirt open. But if you ask me, I'm gonna tell you what that is and what it means. And it means something to me because I went through it.

SPEAKER_01:

We're so glad that you came through it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

I think um we could probably end it on that note. Uh yeah, that that's a good note to end it on. Um, we really appreciate your candidness and willingness to uh share your story with us.

SPEAKER_02:

My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there anything that you we haven't covered that you you know you want to say?

SPEAKER_01:

You want to say the name of your app again?

SPEAKER_02:

Video in play golf. V I P G. VIP. We got the letters first, and then we can put the words in there. But yes, video in play golf. Uh it's having a pro in your pocket. That's our slogan.

SPEAKER_00:

So maybe when you launch you launch the app, we could have you back on the show. Give us updates.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And and by then, I'll be doing podcasts with my professionals because this is the place to be. I like this. This is very comfortable. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank that, Rick. Really, Harold said it, but thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being our friend.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for joining us today, and we're gonna thank Rick once again for being our first podcast guest.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Rick.

SPEAKER_01:

We hope that this uh podcast was informational, maybe even inspirational.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, you can always reach out to us at You Still Have Time Podcast at gmail.com. You can reach us on Speakpipe where you can leave an up to 90-second voicemail message and we will respond to you. You can go to our Facebook page, links will be in the show notes, and we really encourage you to comment and leave any questions you might have.

SPEAKER_01:

And finally, uh, after listening to today's podcast, for those of you who maybe have not been to the doctor recently, who don't have, you know, a primary care physician or get annual checkups, we hope that you're motivated to do so. Please do so because you do still have time, but you have to take care of it. Okay? See you next time.

SPEAKER_00:

Take care. Bye bye.

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