February 14, 2025 • 43 mins
This episode dives deep into the world of wrestling media with Martin Floriani, exploring his journey from a passionate athlete to the founder of prominent platforms such as FloWrestling, Rockfin, and the newly launched Boutboard. We discuss the challenges and triumphs of innovating within wrestling, the importance of community engagement, and the future of wrestling in the digital age.
• Martin Floriani’s early sporting influences
• Transition from football to wrestling in high school
• The pivotal role of Flow Sports in wrestling media
• Creation and mission of Rockfin for niche sports
• Launching Boutboard to improve wrestling events
• Future aspirations for organized wrestling experiences
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thank you all.
Right, we are live.
Like I said, we used to do twominutes of that.
We're just gonna cut it short.
We got, we gotta get a get aninterview here with uh.
I'm really glad actually thatI'm able to sit down and talk
with you about this.
But we are, uh, this episode110 of the vision quest podcast.
But we are joined by none otherthan martin floriani.
(00:56):
Sir, I appreciate you joiningme you bet brad happy okay well,
let's, let's talk about this.
let's.
I want to bring you on because,again, you are a very large
name in wrestling media.
You're one of the guys thatstarted Flow Wrestling, right?
You started Rockfin and nowyou've got this big thing called
Boutboard, right, yeah, andwe're going to talk about that,
(01:18):
we're going to lead into that alittle bit.
So first, let's kind of talkabout how you got into sports.
We do this with everybody, fromthe time you remember sports to
to now.
So what, what do you rememberfirst of, what kind of sports
were you in when you were a kid?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I love football, I was like football is your thing
yeah, I love football.
Okay, um, I didn't come from awrestling background.
I didn't really come from likean athletic parent household.
My dad was a, a Italianimmigrant, and I had three older
sisters who really you knowthey kind of did maybe you know
basketball in grade school oryou know the local rec thing for
a few school teams, but nothingbig.
(01:56):
But like I was just a sport nutand I loved football probably
first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay, okay.
So you mentioned that youweren't you didn't come from
like a sports family either, soit wasn't a ton going on, so it
sounds like it was justsomething that they put you in.
Was it to like burn energy?
Were you an energetic kid?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
yeah, I mean they didn't put me in anything.
It was just me like saying, hey, I want to sign up for this, oh
, yes, yeah, yeah, it was likeokay, in the playground and then
figuring out that there's teamsand then like going to my mom
and dad like, hey, I want to dothis.
Uh, they didn't.
You know, they it's like, uh,my, yeah, it's I.
I, they didn't really have anyof that background.
My dad was just probably moreinterested in academics and
(02:36):
making sure that you know I was,I was doing good in school, but
yeah, that was also important.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, okay, right on.
So when you let's say gettinginto like high school and stuff,
what were you kind of thinkingof already?
I mean, obviously there'ssports where we're a little just
kind of on your own thing.
But I mean, when you got intohigh school, were you kind of
what were your dreams of wantingto go to college?
What were your thoughts aboutmoving on in life once you got
into that area?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Oh yeah, it's just.
I mean, my dad was a, hestarted his own, he had his own
company, so I always kind of hadthat element and he would come
home and he would like have meread like books that are just on
different entrepreneurs orinteresting stories.
I remember he would like giveme like little tests on like hey
man, I saw this cool NBA test,I want you to take it.
(03:26):
And so then we talk about it.
And so for a long time therewas always a seed in my head
like I would go and do my ownthing, and he planted that seed.
So that was, that was very,that was a very strong current,
I would say, growing up.
(03:48):
But yeah, in high school Iplayed football, pop Warner.
I loved it.
And then but it's interesting,you know, when you're in rec
sports now, like I've seen ahigh level of wrestling and I
know what good training is andthere's so much in between right
Between great training and goodtraining and okay training, and
(04:10):
there's different times anddifferent seasons in people's
lives where they need differentthings.
But I never really had much ofa structure around me for that.
And so after Pop Warner in highschool, I went to a much more
academic school, which at thetime, didn't have football.
So I was really you know, itwas really hard or I don't know
(04:33):
crushed.
You know, eighth grade crushed,fresh freshman year crushed
because I'm going to thisacademic school as opposed to
have an opportunity to playfootball, so but yeah, so that
was that, was that was headinginto high school, okay so where
you, because you're talking alot about business where did you
wind up?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
so I remember when I was a kid, when I was around 12,
I started a baseball cardbusiness with my brother, or not
my brother, my best friend,right so it was literally out of
his parents basement.
We just had a little sign thathung up from the side door and
people came in the basement.
Were you trying business?
Like doing little businessthings as a kid too?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Like you had lemonade stands, I guess.
So it's a little weird, youknow, not really.
My dad always told me I have tobe a good follower before I can
be a good leader, and so Iwould work in his factory.
I mean cut and steal I mean, andI was there with all like the
violation of so many child laborlaws, I'm sure I was there
(05:32):
cutting drilling, you know,sandblasting, uh, spot welding,
uh, all sorts of uh, wow, allsorts of things.
Uh, from a kid doing that onsaturdays cleaning toilets, you
know, just cleaning, cleaningthe bathrooms, cleaning, um, so,
just like all sorts of things.
Uh, growing, uh in high school,um, that was, and then in the
(05:56):
summertime as well, just like hewould.
Just, you know, he just put meto work okay.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So yeah, that I mean that sounds like a good old
midwestern style type and I'm asfar as wherever you were, but
the midwestern style type kindof upbringing you know hard work
, honesty, honest works, youknow honest works, uh, pay all
that stuff.
So when you're in, kind ofgoing into high school now, but
did you, were you kind ofgetting into the business mind?
(06:22):
Did you have an idea what youwanted to do once you got to,
like your sophomore junior year?
Were you thinking, yeah, I wantto do what my dad does Because,
man, he was working?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, I I definitely had, like that was an element
Like cause he's I was reallyclose to him and he would always
, like I said, he would alwaystalk to me about business or how
I should think about things anddifferent aspects, and so I was
very connected with him.
(06:54):
So probably a lot more than Ithought that, hey, man, this is,
you know, I would maybe go dowhat he did or work at his
company or you know somethingwith him in some fashion.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Nice, okay, I didn't ask this.
Where were you born?
Oh, chicago Park Ridge,illinois.
Oh nice, oh man, yeah, yeah,yeah.
So you were definitely comingup and that's crazy that you're
mentioning like a manufacturingbackground.
So I mean to me as a kid comingup, cause I, you know, I, my
dad, was a manufacturer, didn'thave his own company, but I
basically said that I didn'twant to do what my dad was doing
(07:32):
, right, like I, I didn't.
I appreciated, you know what hewas doing, took the lessons,
but I was like God, he works waytoo hard.
Like I don't want to work thathard when I grow up, like, did
you wind up thinking that too?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
uh, I definitely felt like there was um, as I got
more distance, more educated,you know, obviously I have very
strong personality right.
So like he was an italianimmigrant, so he passed a lot of
that like, very like, uh, youknow, when people say like
there's an immigrant mentality,it's just kind of true.
(08:05):
There's just a certain elementof like when someone comes here
and just gets to work and theydon't really have much like my,
my, my, no, no, my grandpacoming, I mean, when you think
about like someone doing thatand they're like going, and then
they, they don't have anything,they don't have much of a
structure and they just buildwhatever they have, um, there's
(08:26):
just a certain level of like, um, they don't give a shit.
It's kind of like yep, we'regoing, we're doing it, let's go,
you know, and uh, I think theypassed.
There's a certain element of uhwhere I don't have maybe the
risk.
I don't have the risk fear, thefear of risk of that other
(08:49):
people have.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Okay, yeah because I still have that.
I have that for sure.
Really.
Yeah, the risk fear is stillthere.
Well, I mean doing what I do.
You know there's a lot ofthings I want to do, but it's
like God, if I jump off and dothat, what's going to happen?
You know, I got a mortgage topay for.
I got, you know, this to payfor.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah.
I want to I don't know if Ishould.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So whatever he taught you, you were kind of able to
kind of get past that and pushforward right.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, so I didn't.
I would say I have a verylittle risk fear or high risk
tolerance in another way to putit Right and so good and bad.
It cuts for me and it cutsagainst me in a lot of ways too.
So so, yeah, so that's that.
For whatever environmentalfactors I grew up with, I think
(09:39):
it's definitely something I grewup with.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
What were, what were some of the more memorable
things that you remember as akid Cause I know, like there and
it's not even sports for melike I remember being at my
grandparents well, I, I'm irish,german, right, so I had a grand
, I grandparents that owned atavern and I remember fourth of
july parades.
I remember you know all thatkind of crazy kind of kid stuff,
but what kind of sticks out inyour mind the most is from your
(10:02):
childhood that you still takewith you to this day.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That kind of sticks with you um I mean there's a lot
um, I, um, I, when I wasgrowing up, um, I mean there's a
lot like uh, um.
So my, my, my mom was at the.
She was going through a lot ofalcohol issues too.
(10:25):
So when I was growing up it wasvery formative years that was
happening and so you know thosetype of struggles of like not
having, like having a reallysolid in one way dad Right, but
a home that was kind of was verytumultuous, was difficult.
She's been in AA for a coupleof decades now so she's better,
(10:52):
but that was definitely adifficult time and I think that
caused some.
But I was always concerned aboutthe stability.
Like, maybe in the back of myhead there was always this
concern about the stability.
Like you put me, in the back ofmy head there was always this
concern about the stability of,of of the family and and I
didn't have that probablyfeeling, that of stability and
(11:17):
security that kids have with awith a good solid home.
Kids have, with a with a goodsolid home, consistency with
parents that are not drunk, youknow that are, you know they
have, they can relate, sure andum, so yeah, so there was
there's probably that justoverall uh, unsettledness, that
(11:40):
I remember as a kid, but I alsoremember having a ton of fun
just playing sports and doingsports and and just wrapping
myself in that as much aspossible too.
It's awesome, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Okay, so we kind of talked a little bit about high
school and we'll kind of get intowards the end of high school.
Where were you?
Were you in your junior year,senior year?
Where were you starting to lookat colleges?
Were you thinking about college?
About college?
Were you like no way, I'm donewith once, I'm done with high
school, I'm done with school.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm gonna go start something no, college was very
much like expected and, um, my,uh, my sister was my two.
I have three other sisters, um,and two of them were like
outstanding students and theywent off to college and so I was
(12:28):
very much thinking, okay, thisis, this is where this is the
next steps.
I mean really brilliant in alot of ways.
Um, and so I always was tryingto strive to to meet, uh, uh,
like kiss what their bottom of,what their academic standards,
cause they had pretty highacademic standards and so, um,
(12:49):
and I was, you know, just alittle bit more unorganized and
and didn't didn't have what theyhad.
So, um, um, so, yeah, socollege was always a factor and
and so, yeah, that's where, um,so I was looking to go to
college, and, and, and so, yeah,that's where.
So I was looking to go tocollege, and, and it was
expected to go to college.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Do you think?
Do you think ADD was a role?
Do you think you do you?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
think you had a little bit of that I know I did.
I for sure did what you did.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
It could be, you know why?
Because it's like I don't knowhow much I I believe in the
whole add.
Or is it just the foods we eat,like we drank a ton of pop
growing up, like soda, sure it,sure did.
I don't feed any of that to mykids I couldn't believe how much
soda I drank when I was a kid.
(13:36):
I would drink it like it was,like you know, water.
I feed my kids today, right, soit's just like it's to me.
It is pretty.
I'm sure it was also probablynot as bad as today, like the
stuff that they put in it.
But but yeah, so I, I, Iprobably wasn't eating right, it
probably wasn't sleeping rightand doing some of the core
(13:58):
things that you need to do.
So, yeah, maybe ADD like ish.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
What.
So what?
What colleges did your sistersgo to?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So my one sister went , got accepted to the university
of Chicago, but then decided togo to university of Illinois
and and then the other one got afull ride, I think, to like
Boston U, nice, but then shecame back to Illinois as well.
So they were all scholarshipedlike kids that you know were,
(14:35):
you know very much look up to inthat regard.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Did that sway your decision in looking for a
college?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
What would you?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
mean Well, because your sister went to university
of illinois, you're like I'mgoing to illinois or I'm going
to boston college oh, um.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
No, I was more probably influenced by my
friends at the time.
You know my peer groups.
I was more talking with them asthey went to college.
I was more immersed for acouple of years just with my
peer groups and kind of formedmy own opinions.
Okay, where did you wind upgoing to school?
In Indiana it's calledRose-Hulman, no kidding.
(15:18):
Super intense engineeringschool, not really great with
sports, although I just saw theyhave a punter, a D3 punter.
I just saw they have a D3punter who may get drafted.
Lift that up.
(15:39):
They were not great with sports,and as I got more and more kind
of isolated into the academicsportion, I really felt like I
needed an outlet for forwrestling and doing what I
wanted to do there, and so, um II decided to transfer to cal
poly okay, so now you mentionedwrestling in there.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What did wrestling catch your eye?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
already in college uh , yeah, so I I started wrestling
when I was a junior in highschool.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You did late yeah okay yeah, yeah, so I I started
talking about that for a secondand um, they didn't have
football.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
So I was kind of like I was just didn't have much
like really to get my aggressionout, I just had a lot of,
probably, aggression I wanted toget out.
And so when I first experiencedwrestling, I was like, oh my
gosh, this is incredible.
I actually remember I probablyexperienced it in eighth grade
and I remember this the mosttime I was wrestling around with
(16:35):
some kid who knew somewrestling moves and he put me
into what I, I don't know is is,um, is like basically a chicken
wing.
Right, he's got chicken in thewrist and I'm thinking I could
just get out and he just pins meand he's, and I was just like,
oh my gosh, that was awesome.
I mean, that was all in my head.
I was like, no, but I was likethat was Like I need to do more
(16:57):
of that.
But I didn't even really.
No one told me oh, that's, youcan have that with wrestling,
you can go this route and dothat.
But I just remember thatexperience of this kid pinning
me and I was just like.
I was like how did this kidjust pin me?
That was crazy to me and Iloved it.
(17:19):
There was something deep thatwas like, oh man, I got to learn
what this was and so.
But that was probably in eighthgrade and then I didn't no one
really told me anything about it.
But then when I in junior year,fall of junior year, I
experienced it reallysubstantively for the first time
.
That's why I really fell inlove with it.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So that was the one sport your school did have, or
did they just happen to have acouple other sports, just not
football?
They just didn't have football.
No kidding, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Now they do.
They've added it, but theydidn't at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
It probably is their moneymaker now, just guessing
Right.
Okay, so you wound up gettinginto wrestling then, but in in
college, did you carry thatthrough?
When you, when you especially,went to Cal Poly, did you try to
get on the wrestling team there?
Yeah, yeah, I was on thewrestling team Nice, okay.
So how?
Okay, since you just startedyour junior year, then you go
(18:14):
into did?
They didn't have any collegewrestling at the school you
originally went to right, nosports.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So when you get to Cal Poly, what was that like?
I mean it wasn't a greatwrestling school, right.
So I was again kind of not in agreat.
I was not in a great wrestlingschool.
I did have a pretty good highschool coach.
I thought I had a really prettygood high school coach.
Man, I'm really appreciative ofmy high school coach and he, he
set a really good structure forme.
(18:47):
He was great.
And but then when I went to the, when I went to the, the
college it was I don't know, itjust didn't, it was just not, it
wasn't really paid attention to, it just was not a good
structure for success.
I could sense that prettyquickly.
(19:08):
Did you wind up quitting?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
No, I transferred to Cal Poly.
Right, that's what I thoughtyou were talking about right now
.
Was Cal Poly wrestling?
No, no, then I went to Cal Poly.
I was at.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Rose-Hulman.
Then I went to Cal.
Talking about right now was CalPoly wrestling, oh no, no.
So then I went to Cal Poly, Iwas at Rose-Hulman, then I went
to Cal Poly and Cal Poly waslegit.
Man, I mean, cal Poly wasawesome.
Yeah, yeah, cal Poly isoutstanding.
It's just a great school and,man, even their coach now is
great and I had great coachesthere and that was just an
(19:39):
awesome experience.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So what was, what was one of the more memorable, I
guess, experiences in collegewrestling, especially at Cal
Poly?
What kind of sticks out in yourmind the most?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Uh, just going in, uh , in the I probably just going
in the wrestling room andbattling.
It was great, you know.
And so, like now I've startedto mature.
So I was on my fourth year ofwrestling and now kind of going
into my fifth year of wrestling,in sixth year I wrestled there
and I started to go toe-to-toewith, uh, um, in some of the
(20:11):
prac, in the.
In the prac, I mean, I was whatI'm probably below 500 wrestler
out on division one ish, but inthe practice room, you know,
it's just, it's just great.
It's just a great experiencegoing up against these, really,
you know, nationally ranked goodkids, um and um, and that was,
(20:33):
that was just awesome.
And I felt like, hey, man, Icould, I could take some of
these guys down.
I could.
I, yeah, I could do some damagehere.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Did your parents as far as like, because obviously
you tried football, things likethat what were your parents'
thoughts on you doing wrestling?
Did they have any thoughts onthat?
Did they think it was a weirdsport?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
It was super free-range parenting, that's
awesome.
It was just like that's awesome.
It was no structure.
It was like you're going off.
Okay, I guess he's going offdoing that.
I remember I used to drive inhigh school, like an hour and a
half to.
It seems crazy to me now, but Iwould drive to the South side
of Chicago to a practice Maristhigh school which had a pretty
(21:16):
good practice room in the summerand it was like an hour 45
drive from and I would just doit.
Yeah Well, you want it.
No, I had bought my own car.
No one said you know, no onewas like hey, you, you shouldn't
be driving two hours there, twohours back to the South side of
Chicago to go to a practice.
(21:37):
Like there was none, no onetold me anything, I just did
stuff.
So it was.
It was very free range.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Nice what were you thinking about towards the end
of your college career?
What were you majoring in?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I was engineering, mechanical engineering.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Okay, okay.
So this is the.
This is where it getsinteresting to me, right, like,
I think about what you're doingnow right, that's that's what's
in my head is wrestling media,helping wrestling out and things
like that.
But you went to school forengineering.
It makes me think of mysister-in-law who went to school
for zoology and now she worksin IT.
Right, it's kind of different.
So what were some of the thingsyou were kind of thought
(22:17):
process you were going throughonce you were starting to end
college Was that did you get ajob in engineering?
Were you looking at getting ajob in engineering?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I remember I bought a suit because I was going to go
do some interviews and I'm not asuit guy and I remember,
wearing the suit, I went to likeone of like the like the open
resume.
You know, I don't know, I justwalked in there.
I'm like what feels so weirdand I'm like you go up and you
put your name.
I was like god, it's so dorkyand I just left and I was like I
don't know why I got this.
(22:48):
My aunt, she got me the suit.
She's like hey, you're gonna goon job interviews, get a suit.
I'm just like, um, so I justput the suit away.
I was like I don't think thisis for me, this is not, uh, me
going applying to boeing is, isnot?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
so okay, okay.
So what did you wind up gettingfor a job right out of college?
What were you doing right outof college?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
uh, I moved my dad a little bit, okay, his company
back to the hard work, yeah, um,kind of retaking all the
knowledge I learned around theengineering and the process
applying it there.
And then I worked a little bitand another company that that I
was an owner in just sellingbasically time to lawyer, kind
(23:35):
of like automating their legalprocesses, processes like with
the city around, like watercertifications, zoning
certifications, things like that, um, and that was um, um, and I
didn't, I didn't enjoy it.
And then then I was like, allright, I'm gonna do, I have this
idea of what I want to do.
And it was um, it was how we,how we started with flow.
(24:01):
It was like I just the internetwas just pop, starting to come
off a little bit.
You know, okay, I mean there'sdifferent stages of the internet
, right, but like the internetwas like.
I was like at this point I waslike, oh, okay, we could maybe
do video on the internet.
That that seemed like apossibility, we could maybe pull
that off, and so just startedflow sports from there so you
(24:22):
started flow sports with with uh, with family right, so with
your brother right yeah yep, andit's not.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It was your sister, were one of your sisters
involved in it as well, kind ofgot super critical.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
They were like, uh, my first backers, so they backed
me, uh, going when I firststarted.
I remember my one sister waspregnant with her second child
and she like was going tomedical school and she like gave
me a five thousand dollar check.
I was like, oh my gosh, holygod, thank you yeah, that's
(24:55):
awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, what, what, uh, what was one of the first
videos you made?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
John Smith, john Smith.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
No kidding.
First videos yeah, how did youget in touch?
I mean the video itself, buthow did you get in touch with
someone like?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
that I just went to his office.
So, like 2006, I went andwatched the championships at
Oklahoma City and I had thisidea of this, what I wanted to
do, and um, and then I wasalready up there, so I don't
know if I went there or I wenthome, but then I went back and I
(25:31):
went back and they werefreaking just high as freaking
can be.
I think there's a year they hadfive champs or something, oh
yeah, and I.
And I came back and I came inthe office I'm like, hey, man,
this is what I'm doing.
I had like a whole like website.
I'm like this is what I'm doing.
And he's like, hey, pick acalendar date and come back.
And I picked a calendar dateand I came back and I like I
(25:55):
took like eight hours of JohnSmith's life.
I was just like, oh, I had 150questions and I was just asking,
asking, asking, asking tons ofquestions.
Yeah, that was a.
That was the first video that Iever did.
Was that?
Uh, they did Mark branch.
Uh, yeah, mark branch, he'sawesome.
They did Eric Guerrero Uh, andthen those are the.
(26:18):
Those are the first threevideos we did okay.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So what was it called flow at that time?
Did you call it flow okay, yeah, okay, where did you wind up?
Because obviously we know whereit went to.
But in the early days, as Imentioned joe williamson and
things like that when, when didyou guys start kind of building
the crew as you went along?
Was that just right away, justgrab some college guys that you
knew, or how did that all workout?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
no, I no, I just started grinding.
I mean it was just banging myhead against the wall and just
going from place to place andgetting videos and learning how
to do this stuff, just really.
And then certain people wouldbe like oh, I think Ben Askren
introduced me to Joe Williamson.
(27:02):
He's like OK, at first Iinterviewed Ben, he kind of
shrugged me off and I was likescrew this, weird.
But then I saw him again.
He's like hey, man, that waswell, I saw, because he saw what
I did.
He was like oh, dude, I reallylove what you did.
And then yeah put me in touchwith joe and um, joe was, um was
(27:22):
a great addition.
Um, and then yeah, so, so thenwe just went from there and yeah
, month after month, year afteryear, just grinding.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
How did you get?
How did you wind up runninginto Joe K?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Joe.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
K yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Oh, joe K came on.
I don't know what year Joe Kcame on, but it was.
I don't know what year JoeKenya came on, but it was, it
was.
I don't know Joe, what, whatyears you come on.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Popping, joe.
You can tell us in the comments.
We'll.
We'll keep scrolling, we'llkeep going here.
But so interesting crew.
I remember watching it early onwhen I was a little.
It's not like it was forever,but when my kids were younger
and I first discovered it, right, I came up wrestling where you
didn't I mean it was, it wasstill, um, what do you call it?
Bullpens?
You line up underneath yourbrackets.
(28:13):
You didn't have youtube,nothing like that to watch it.
When I saw this, I was like yougotta be kidding me, because
the first thing I saw were thebrands brothers.
Right, that was the first thingthat I saw, because, I mean, I
grew, grew up loving Iowa, so,knowing what was out there, and
then my kids were starting toget into wrestling, I was like
this is awesome.
So we all started to reallydive in 2017 Joe says 2017.
(28:39):
But I remember watching it andenjoying it.
I can't believe there's thismuch wrestling media out here,
right, you don't think of it inthe grand scheme of things like
the entire world, but like itwas, just seemed like it was so
big at the time, right?
So watching all the videos, allthe live feeds, things like
that now go down further downthe road.
When did you wind up leavingflow 2018?
(29:02):
Oh, geez, not too long afterjoe got there, yeah.
So when, when you left, I wasit just a.
You wanted to start somethingelse, wanted to do another
business?
Why'd you want to believe him?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It was just disagreement on the direction of
the company.
Okay, Investors, they, you know, some board members are saying,
hey, I think they wereexpecting me to stay.
Some people were like asking mehey, like you got to stay, you
know you got to stay, you got tostay.
But I was just like, no, I'mout.
(29:38):
And so it was just like it wasjust going in a direction that I
didn't.
I didn't, I didn't like.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So when you, when you left, was Rockman on your brain
?
Was that something that youwere?
You're like there's a betterway to do this kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Different, different media no, not really um, I was
so zeroed in on on flow, uh.
So then when I left it was like, okay, uh took a couple months,
but I was really interested inum, in how networks form and how
they work, and so I spent acouple months just kind of
studying that.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh, okay, it took a little time to figure something
out, okay, so when did Rockfinfinally hit?
Was that a year or two after?
No, just a couple months after,oh, and then boom.
So, because I'm currentlytrying to create an app right
now, which it's not easy, right,kind of joe and I are working a
little together on it, but withwith that being said, and
(30:32):
you've gone through flow, was iteasier this time around doing
something like rockfin, uh, someways, yeah, yeah, okay, okay,
all right, so we, we know wherethis goes to.
Then rock fin is still yourthing, right, you still.
You still own own rock fin, butnow you can't.
You came up with belt board andI've been onto it, because
(30:52):
there's actually an event thatmy son was in on it it was the
big cheese from WI wrestle anddidn't really realize anything
about it until, actually, Italked to Joe and then saw you
post something about it.
Yeah.
So let's talk.
We already talked about it, youand I, but let's bring up the
origin story again.
I think it was something to theeffect you were at a tournament
(31:15):
and just kind of waitingbecause track went down right.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yes, yeah, I was with my son and it's funny because
it's like you know, we're inTexas, so it's not like we have
wrestling everywhere, so it'snot like we have wrestling
everywhere, so it's hard, butit's hard to be a wrestling
parent here, yeah and uh, and soI was like you know what, um,
I'm going to get?
We're going to get some goodlooks at this tournament.
It's called the SockyardStampede, it's in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And, uh, it's like all right, let's, let's go up
there and get some good looks.
And I'm like, looking at theweigh-in schedule and it's like
you can only weigh in the nightbefore.
I'm like or or or like you,yeah, it was night before
weigh-ins and I'm like okay, sothat means we gotta weigh in.
That means we gotta drive upthere now and then spend the
(32:00):
night and do it, you know.
And so I was like, okay, um,common, but hey, let's make a
trip of it.
That's good.
Sure, I have friends up there.
Let's go out to dinner.
Good, okay, we go and do that.
Then the next morning I noticedthey changed the schedule from
the previous year.
I need a personal admin at alltimes around me because I read
(32:24):
something too fast and I justmove and I'm like oh gosh, we're
, that's not I should be and Ishould be there.
Um and so, um and so I Irealized, oh shoot, they changed
the schedule from last year.
It doesn't start till noon.
All right, we'll just go getbreakfast and, you know, go to a
book store and then go.
And so then we get there, youknow, like whatever 30 minutes
(32:47):
before Um, and it's like delayedthree hours.
I'm like, and my wife calls me,she's like, how did Monroe do?
And I'm like, dude, we haven'teven started wrestling.
I'm like this is ridiculous.
And I just remember likewalking past these other parents
and it was just like thatthousand yard stare of like, oh
(33:10):
my gosh, what am I involved in?
And so then my son wrestled andit was.
It was great.
Once he got going wrestling hehad five matches, but a quarter
of those kids went 0-2.
Another was.
Another quarter went like oneand two, it's like it was.
It was just a realization whereI was just like at the time I
(33:34):
was like I would remember wassitting because the us open was
there too and I was with monroe,and my son loves football.
We have a great time when we'rein central texas.
It's like football king outhere.
Yeah Right, I mean, you've gotquarterbacks that went to the
local high school, that areplaying in the NFL and it's like
everything is zero to roundfootball and you go to the
(33:56):
football and it's so organized,it's so nice as a parent, it
works.
It's like they've put a lot ofthought into all these different
aspects around football.
It's not just a coincidence.
They think about it and theyexecute and they put on a great
uh experience for every facet ofthe stakeholder, whether it's a
(34:18):
football player, the parent,the coaches.
It's like organized and doneright.
I mean I'm sure they haveimprovements to make, but it's
like so far advanced relative tomy experience with wrestling as
a wrestling parent in texas and, and so I you know, sitting in
the stands I was just like, whyam I even doing this?
Like we could just go dofootball, I mean.
(34:41):
I mean I love wrestling, butlike there's other things yeah
well, I was just.
That was at that point where Iwas like either I'm gonna do
something else or I'm just gonna, uh, I'm gonna fix this.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And so then I talked a couple other things, a couple
other coincidences happenedaround that time where I was
like okay, maybe I should bedoing this, and so that's when I
died falling so that and Inoticed that on there because
I've gone into a couple of thedifferent uh events that have
occurred yeah, I haven't been ona live event yet, but going
through and I mean you can gothrough you can see who's where
(35:17):
you can click on the on thematch you can takes you right to
the mat where they wrestled, ortakes you to the past match
that kind of thing.
What type of nuances within your, your app, the about the
ballpark app, make it sodifferent from like and you can
go in and see it like?
Visually it's different already, right, but the but the um, uh,
(35:40):
the background of it, the backside of it, what makes it
different from the rest?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
right, uh, well, I think it think it's so I've done
like.
I ran my first tournament whereI was like, hey, I'm just going
to run a tournament and someguys like, hey, man, I want to
use the software.
I said, yeah, I can use thesoftware, let's, let's go.
It was up the street, so I ranit and I think one of the things
is is that everyone just knowswhat to do.
(36:06):
Like there's not a lot oftalking, there's not a lot of
questions like, hey, what'sgoing on with this, this, this,
and we can get better too.
But like, when you go to it, Ithink it's a lot, it's a lot
clearer of like, hey, what doyou?
What does actually need tohappen here?
And, and my goal, my, my goalis to make a an element where
(36:34):
you know a new parent comes in,they're like they don't have to,
like you know, my, my sisterstarted had her kids wrestle and
she's like what is?
Like you have to like go andlook and learn, and it's just
this really weird element whereyou it's very difficult for
someone new to come in the sport.
But not only that.
I want to make it so that it'sincredibly great for, like, the
top end of the sport.
(36:55):
It's super, super diehards,right, but also you can ease
your way into that very easily.
In every step of the way, youknow what to do and then,
through through the process, thevision is is to put on better
events and make sure tocommunicate to the tournament
operators.
Hey, these are the type ofevents this is, these are how
(37:18):
many matches you're going to get, right?
This is are the matches goodmatches?
Are they bad matches?
Okay, you know, like it doesn'tdo anyone any good if I go out
there, my son goes out and 10seconds gets a pin.
Yeah, right, right, he might bereinforcing bad technique in
that scenario so you'rereferencing like seating.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Does it do seating?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
no, uh, no, no, it doesn't do seating right now,
but our goal is just to make itso that our goal is just to put
on better events throughout okay, throughout the whole nation
and be able to just assistpeople in putting on better
events, because I and I'vealways said but it's, it's a
start yeah, and I've only seenit on the phone side, like in
(38:03):
going through there, so I'venever seen it on.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
You know running a tournament from it or you know
keeping score, anything likethat, but what, where does
what's the?
What's the?
Because the filters on thereare great.
You can search for an athlete.
I believe you can see.
You know you can.
There's lots of ways you canfigure out where you need to go
and what you're looking forwithin a tournament.
So it's it's not complicatedand it's very simple.
You guys have simplified itquite a bit.
Yeah, on the on the other sideof it, is that something that
(38:28):
you can?
You plug in your computer andyou keep score from it as well?
Speaker 3 (38:31):
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah okay, okay, or keeper, yeah,
that you that each mat keeps thescore okay.
And then there's the head table.
That puts on the, thebracketing, and the scores feed
to the head table are you goingto integrate it into Rockfin?
Yeah, we're going to we'rewe're doing more, we're going to
(38:52):
go more and more on that front,100% yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
All right.
Well, I know you got a tightschedule.
I wanted to talk about ballport, If there's.
Is there something you want toadd about ballport that we don't
know about?
That's coming up, something weshould watch for.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Our goal is just continual improvement in a
really systematic way.
We built a really strong, largefoundation so that we can go
really high.
I kind of think of how big of afoundation did you start off
with and we built a reallystrong foundation.
So we might not have everysingle feature that is out there
(39:28):
right now, but we've got areally good, a good base where
we can add, where we're going tobe adding things pretty
methodically as we go, and so so, yeah, I'm just I'm excited to
put on better events and workwith, work with other
tournaments or with otherorganizations to help them put
(39:50):
on the best events, to put thebest facing front, facing
forward for for wrestling, andimprove the approve how people
go and experience events.
That's really what, what ourgoal is.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Well and I know us in the wrestling world just as
regular Joe's kind of out here.
We appreciate what you've doneso far.
I mean flow wrestling to rockfin to now ball board.
So we're excited.
We here at Vision Quest Podcastare excited.
We want to keep following andsee what's going on.
We follow everything you've gotgoing on.
We watch your glaring reallyegregious stuff.
Nice nice, it's fantastic it'sfantastic, so we appreciate
(40:27):
everything that you do and, likeI said, I know you're busy when
I get out of your hair.
Your daughter's got a birthdaycoming up, so happy birthday to
her yeah we'll get her a present, but we are going to wind up
leaving this here.
I don't know if you have anyshout outs guys.
You want to say hi, to tellthem to have a great day, kind
of thing.
You got any shout outs at all,uh?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
no, I'm good.
Shout out to the texas, uh, uh,to the texas wrestling
community.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Um, yes, yeah, yeah, you are congratulations that
you're the president of texasusa wrestling yep chairman.
Chairman, congratulations onthat as well.
Yeah, we, we appreciate what webelieve you're going to be
doing yeah down yeah.
So let's let's spread thataround, so I will leave it at
that.
It's been another episode ofthe vision quest podcast.
I want to talk to you for justa minute once we're done here.
(41:14):
So, we're going to.
We're going to tell everybodypeace out and we're going to
hang it up and then that's goingto be it.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
Right, we are live.
Like I said, we used to do twominutes of that.
We're just gonna cut it short.
We got, we gotta get a get aninterview here with uh.
I'm really glad actually thatI'm able to sit down and talk
with you about this.
But we are, uh, this episode110 of the vision quest podcast.
But we are joined by none otherthan martin floriani.
(00:56):
Sir, I appreciate you joiningme you bet brad happy okay well,
let's, let's talk about this.
let's.
I want to bring you on because,again, you are a very large
name in wrestling media.
You're one of the guys thatstarted Flow Wrestling, right?
You started Rockfin and nowyou've got this big thing called
Boutboard, right, yeah, andwe're going to talk about that,
(01:18):
we're going to lead into that alittle bit.
So first, let's kind of talkabout how you got into sports.
We do this with everybody, fromthe time you remember sports to
to now.
So what, what do you rememberfirst of, what kind of sports
were you in when you were a kid?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I love football, I was like football is your thing
yeah, I love football.
Okay, um, I didn't come from awrestling background.
I didn't really come from likean athletic parent household.
My dad was a, a Italianimmigrant, and I had three older
sisters who really you knowthey kind of did maybe you know
basketball in grade school oryou know the local rec thing for
a few school teams, but nothingbig.
(01:56):
But like I was just a sport nutand I loved football probably
first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay, okay.
So you mentioned that youweren't you didn't come from
like a sports family either, soit wasn't a ton going on, so it
sounds like it was justsomething that they put you in.
Was it to like burn energy?
Were you an energetic kid?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
yeah, I mean they didn't put me in anything.
It was just me like saying, hey, I want to sign up for this, oh
, yes, yeah, yeah, it was likeokay, in the playground and then
figuring out that there's teamsand then like going to my mom
and dad like, hey, I want to dothis.
Uh, they didn't.
You know, they it's like, uh,my, yeah, it's I.
I, they didn't really have anyof that background.
My dad was just probably moreinterested in academics and
(02:36):
making sure that you know I was,I was doing good in school, but
yeah, that was also important.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, okay, right on.
So when you let's say gettinginto like high school and stuff,
what were you kind of thinkingof already?
I mean, obviously there'ssports where we're a little just
kind of on your own thing.
But I mean, when you got intohigh school, were you kind of
what were your dreams of wantingto go to college?
What were your thoughts aboutmoving on in life once you got
into that area?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Oh yeah, it's just.
I mean, my dad was a, hestarted his own, he had his own
company, so I always kind of hadthat element and he would come
home and he would like have meread like books that are just on
different entrepreneurs orinteresting stories.
I remember he would like giveme like little tests on like hey
man, I saw this cool NBA test,I want you to take it.
(03:26):
And so then we talk about it.
And so for a long time therewas always a seed in my head
like I would go and do my ownthing, and he planted that seed.
So that was, that was very,that was a very strong current,
I would say, growing up.
(03:48):
But yeah, in high school Iplayed football, pop Warner.
I loved it.
And then but it's interesting,you know, when you're in rec
sports now, like I've seen ahigh level of wrestling and I
know what good training is andthere's so much in between right
Between great training and goodtraining and okay training, and
(04:10):
there's different times anddifferent seasons in people's
lives where they need differentthings.
But I never really had much ofa structure around me for that.
And so after Pop Warner in highschool, I went to a much more
academic school, which at thetime, didn't have football.
So I was really you know, itwas really hard or I don't know
(04:33):
crushed.
You know, eighth grade crushed,fresh freshman year crushed
because I'm going to thisacademic school as opposed to
have an opportunity to playfootball, so but yeah, so that
was that, was that was headinginto high school, okay so where
you, because you're talking alot about business where did you
wind up?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
so I remember when I was a kid, when I was around 12,
I started a baseball cardbusiness with my brother, or not
my brother, my best friend,right so it was literally out of
his parents basement.
We just had a little sign thathung up from the side door and
people came in the basement.
Were you trying business?
Like doing little businessthings as a kid too?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Like you had lemonade stands, I guess.
So it's a little weird, youknow, not really.
My dad always told me I have tobe a good follower before I can
be a good leader, and so Iwould work in his factory.
I mean cut and steal I mean, andI was there with all like the
violation of so many child laborlaws, I'm sure I was there
(05:32):
cutting drilling, you know,sandblasting, uh, spot welding,
uh, all sorts of uh, wow, allsorts of things.
Uh, from a kid doing that onsaturdays cleaning toilets, you
know, just cleaning, cleaningthe bathrooms, cleaning, um, so,
just like all sorts of things.
Uh, growing, uh in high school,um, that was, and then in the
(05:56):
summertime as well, just like hewould.
Just, you know, he just put meto work okay.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So yeah, that I mean that sounds like a good old
midwestern style type and I'm asfar as wherever you were, but
the midwestern style type kindof upbringing you know hard work
, honesty, honest works, youknow honest works, uh, pay all
that stuff.
So when you're in, kind ofgoing into high school now, but
did you, were you kind ofgetting into the business mind?
(06:22):
Did you have an idea what youwanted to do once you got to,
like your sophomore junior year?
Were you thinking, yeah, I wantto do what my dad does Because,
man, he was working?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, I I definitely had, like that was an element
Like cause he's I was reallyclose to him and he would always
, like I said, he would alwaystalk to me about business or how
I should think about things anddifferent aspects, and so I was
very connected with him.
(06:54):
So probably a lot more than Ithought that, hey, man, this is,
you know, I would maybe go dowhat he did or work at his
company or you know somethingwith him in some fashion.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Nice, okay, I didn't ask this.
Where were you born?
Oh, chicago Park Ridge,illinois.
Oh nice, oh man, yeah, yeah,yeah.
So you were definitely comingup and that's crazy that you're
mentioning like a manufacturingbackground.
So I mean to me as a kid comingup, cause I, you know, I, my
dad, was a manufacturer, didn'thave his own company, but I
basically said that I didn'twant to do what my dad was doing
(07:32):
, right, like I, I didn't.
I appreciated, you know what hewas doing, took the lessons,
but I was like God, he works waytoo hard.
Like I don't want to work thathard when I grow up, like, did
you wind up thinking that too?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
uh, I definitely felt like there was um, as I got
more distance, more educated,you know, obviously I have very
strong personality right.
So like he was an italianimmigrant, so he passed a lot of
that like, very like, uh, youknow, when people say like
there's an immigrant mentality,it's just kind of true.
(08:05):
There's just a certain elementof like when someone comes here
and just gets to work and theydon't really have much like my,
my, my, no, no, my grandpacoming, I mean, when you think
about like someone doing thatand they're like going, and then
they, they don't have anything,they don't have much of a
structure and they just buildwhatever they have, um, there's
(08:26):
just a certain level of like, um, they don't give a shit.
It's kind of like yep, we'regoing, we're doing it, let's go,
you know, and uh, I think theypassed.
There's a certain element of uhwhere I don't have maybe the
risk.
I don't have the risk fear, thefear of risk of that other
(08:49):
people have.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Okay, yeah because I still have that.
I have that for sure.
Really.
Yeah, the risk fear is stillthere.
Well, I mean doing what I do.
You know there's a lot ofthings I want to do, but it's
like God, if I jump off and dothat, what's going to happen?
You know, I got a mortgage topay for.
I got, you know, this to payfor.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah.
I want to I don't know if Ishould.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So whatever he taught you, you were kind of able to
kind of get past that and pushforward right.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, so I didn't.
I would say I have a verylittle risk fear or high risk
tolerance in another way to putit Right and so good and bad.
It cuts for me and it cutsagainst me in a lot of ways too.
So so, yeah, so that's that.
For whatever environmentalfactors I grew up with, I think
(09:39):
it's definitely something I grewup with.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
What were, what were some of the more memorable
things that you remember as akid Cause I know, like there and
it's not even sports for melike I remember being at my
grandparents well, I, I'm irish,german, right, so I had a grand
, I grandparents that owned atavern and I remember fourth of
july parades.
I remember you know all thatkind of crazy kind of kid stuff,
but what kind of sticks out inyour mind the most is from your
(10:02):
childhood that you still takewith you to this day.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That kind of sticks with you um I mean there's a lot
um, I, um, I, when I wasgrowing up, um, I mean there's a
lot like uh, um.
So my, my, my mom was at the.
She was going through a lot ofalcohol issues too.
(10:25):
So when I was growing up it wasvery formative years that was
happening and so you know thosetype of struggles of like not
having, like having a reallysolid in one way dad Right, but
a home that was kind of was verytumultuous, was difficult.
She's been in AA for a coupleof decades now so she's better,
(10:52):
but that was definitely adifficult time and I think that
caused some.
But I was always concerned aboutthe stability.
Like, maybe in the back of myhead there was always this
concern about the stability.
Like you put me, in the back ofmy head there was always this
concern about the stability of,of of the family and and I
didn't have that probablyfeeling, that of stability and
(11:17):
security that kids have with awith a good solid home.
Kids have, with a with a goodsolid home, consistency with
parents that are not drunk, youknow that are, you know they
have, they can relate, sure andum, so yeah, so there was
there's probably that justoverall uh, unsettledness, that
(11:40):
I remember as a kid, but I alsoremember having a ton of fun
just playing sports and doingsports and and just wrapping
myself in that as much aspossible too.
It's awesome, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Okay, so we kind of talked a little bit about high
school and we'll kind of get intowards the end of high school.
Where were you?
Were you in your junior year,senior year?
Where were you starting to lookat colleges?
Were you thinking about college?
About college?
Were you like no way, I'm donewith once, I'm done with high
school, I'm done with school.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm gonna go start something no, college was very
much like expected and, um, my,uh, my sister was my two.
I have three other sisters, um,and two of them were like
outstanding students and theywent off to college and so I was
(12:28):
very much thinking, okay, thisis, this is where this is the
next steps.
I mean really brilliant in alot of ways.
Um, and so I always was tryingto strive to to meet, uh, uh,
like kiss what their bottom of,what their academic standards,
cause they had pretty highacademic standards and so, um,
(12:49):
and I was, you know, just alittle bit more unorganized and
and didn't didn't have what theyhad.
So, um, um, so, yeah, socollege was always a factor and
and so, yeah, that's where, um,so I was looking to go to
college, and, and, and so, yeah,that's where.
So I was looking to go tocollege, and, and it was
expected to go to college.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Do you think?
Do you think ADD was a role?
Do you think you do you?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
think you had a little bit of that I know I did.
I for sure did what you did.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
It could be, you know why?
Because it's like I don't knowhow much I I believe in the
whole add.
Or is it just the foods we eat,like we drank a ton of pop
growing up, like soda, sure it,sure did.
I don't feed any of that to mykids I couldn't believe how much
soda I drank when I was a kid.
(13:36):
I would drink it like it was,like you know, water.
I feed my kids today, right, soit's just like it's to me.
It is pretty.
I'm sure it was also probablynot as bad as today, like the
stuff that they put in it.
But but yeah, so I, I, Iprobably wasn't eating right, it
probably wasn't sleeping rightand doing some of the core
(13:58):
things that you need to do.
So, yeah, maybe ADD like ish.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
What.
So what?
What colleges did your sistersgo to?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So my one sister went , got accepted to the university
of Chicago, but then decided togo to university of Illinois
and and then the other one got afull ride, I think, to like
Boston U, nice, but then shecame back to Illinois as well.
So they were all scholarshipedlike kids that you know were,
(14:35):
you know very much look up to inthat regard.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Did that sway your decision in looking for a
college?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
What would you?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
mean Well, because your sister went to university
of illinois, you're like I'mgoing to illinois or I'm going
to boston college oh, um.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
No, I was more probably influenced by my
friends at the time.
You know my peer groups.
I was more talking with them asthey went to college.
I was more immersed for acouple of years just with my
peer groups and kind of formedmy own opinions.
Okay, where did you wind upgoing to school?
In Indiana it's calledRose-Hulman, no kidding.
(15:18):
Super intense engineeringschool, not really great with
sports, although I just saw theyhave a punter, a D3 punter.
I just saw they have a D3punter who may get drafted.
Lift that up.
(15:39):
They were not great with sports,and as I got more and more kind
of isolated into the academicsportion, I really felt like I
needed an outlet for forwrestling and doing what I
wanted to do there, and so, um II decided to transfer to cal
poly okay, so now you mentionedwrestling in there.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What did wrestling catch your eye?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
already in college uh , yeah, so I I started wrestling
when I was a junior in highschool.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You did late yeah okay yeah, yeah, so I I started
talking about that for a secondand um, they didn't have
football.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
So I was kind of like I was just didn't have much
like really to get my aggressionout, I just had a lot of,
probably, aggression I wanted toget out.
And so when I first experiencedwrestling, I was like, oh my
gosh, this is incredible.
I actually remember I probablyexperienced it in eighth grade
and I remember this the mosttime I was wrestling around with
(16:35):
some kid who knew somewrestling moves and he put me
into what I, I don't know is is,um, is like basically a chicken
wing.
Right, he's got chicken in thewrist and I'm thinking I could
just get out and he just pins meand he's, and I was just like,
oh my gosh, that was awesome.
I mean, that was all in my head.
I was like, no, but I was likethat was Like I need to do more
(16:57):
of that.
But I didn't even really.
No one told me oh, that's, youcan have that with wrestling,
you can go this route and dothat.
But I just remember thatexperience of this kid pinning
me and I was just like.
I was like how did this kidjust pin me?
That was crazy to me and Iloved it.
(17:19):
There was something deep thatwas like, oh man, I got to learn
what this was and so.
But that was probably in eighthgrade and then I didn't no one
really told me anything about it.
But then when I in junior year,fall of junior year, I
experienced it reallysubstantively for the first time
.
That's why I really fell inlove with it.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So that was the one sport your school did have, or
did they just happen to have acouple other sports, just not
football?
They just didn't have football.
No kidding, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Now they do.
They've added it, but theydidn't at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
It probably is their moneymaker now, just guessing
Right.
Okay, so you wound up gettinginto wrestling then, but in in
college, did you carry thatthrough?
When you, when you especially,went to Cal Poly, did you try to
get on the wrestling team there?
Yeah, yeah, I was on thewrestling team Nice, okay.
So how?
Okay, since you just startedyour junior year, then you go
(18:14):
into did?
They didn't have any collegewrestling at the school you
originally went to right, nosports.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So when you get to Cal Poly, what was that like?
I mean it wasn't a greatwrestling school, right.
So I was again kind of not in agreat.
I was not in a great wrestlingschool.
I did have a pretty good highschool coach.
I thought I had a really prettygood high school coach.
Man, I'm really appreciative ofmy high school coach and he, he
set a really good structure forme.
(18:47):
He was great.
And but then when I went to the, when I went to the, the
college it was I don't know, itjust didn't, it was just not, it
wasn't really paid attention to, it just was not a good
structure for success.
I could sense that prettyquickly.
(19:08):
Did you wind up quitting?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
No, I transferred to Cal Poly.
Right, that's what I thoughtyou were talking about right now
.
Was Cal Poly wrestling?
No, no, then I went to Cal Poly.
I was at.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Rose-Hulman.
Then I went to Cal.
Talking about right now was CalPoly wrestling, oh no, no.
So then I went to Cal Poly, Iwas at Rose-Hulman, then I went
to Cal Poly and Cal Poly waslegit.
Man, I mean, cal Poly wasawesome.
Yeah, yeah, cal Poly isoutstanding.
It's just a great school and,man, even their coach now is
great and I had great coachesthere and that was just an
(19:39):
awesome experience.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So what was, what was one of the more memorable, I
guess, experiences in collegewrestling, especially at Cal
Poly?
What kind of sticks out in yourmind the most?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Uh, just going in, uh , in the I probably just going
in the wrestling room andbattling.
It was great, you know.
And so, like now I've startedto mature.
So I was on my fourth year ofwrestling and now kind of going
into my fifth year of wrestling,in sixth year I wrestled there
and I started to go toe-to-toewith, uh, um, in some of the
(20:11):
prac, in the.
In the prac, I mean, I was whatI'm probably below 500 wrestler
out on division one ish, but inthe practice room, you know,
it's just, it's just great.
It's just a great experiencegoing up against these, really,
you know, nationally ranked goodkids, um and um, and that was,
(20:33):
that was just awesome.
And I felt like, hey, man, Icould, I could take some of
these guys down.
I could.
I, yeah, I could do some damagehere.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Did your parents as far as like, because obviously
you tried football, things likethat what were your parents'
thoughts on you doing wrestling?
Did they have any thoughts onthat?
Did they think it was a weirdsport?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
It was super free-range parenting, that's
awesome.
It was just like that's awesome.
It was no structure.
It was like you're going off.
Okay, I guess he's going offdoing that.
I remember I used to drive inhigh school, like an hour and a
half to.
It seems crazy to me now, but Iwould drive to the South side
of Chicago to a practice Maristhigh school which had a pretty
(21:16):
good practice room in the summerand it was like an hour 45
drive from and I would just doit.
Yeah Well, you want it.
No, I had bought my own car.
No one said you know, no onewas like hey, you, you shouldn't
be driving two hours there, twohours back to the South side of
Chicago to go to a practice.
(21:37):
Like there was none, no onetold me anything, I just did
stuff.
So it was.
It was very free range.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Nice what were you thinking about towards the end
of your college career?
What were you majoring in?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I was engineering, mechanical engineering.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Okay, okay.
So this is the.
This is where it getsinteresting to me, right, like,
I think about what you're doingnow right, that's that's what's
in my head is wrestling media,helping wrestling out and things
like that.
But you went to school forengineering.
It makes me think of mysister-in-law who went to school
for zoology and now she worksin IT.
Right, it's kind of different.
So what were some of the thingsyou were kind of thought
(22:17):
process you were going throughonce you were starting to end
college Was that did you get ajob in engineering?
Were you looking at getting ajob in engineering?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I remember I bought a suit because I was going to go
do some interviews and I'm not asuit guy and I remember,
wearing the suit, I went to likeone of like the like the open
resume.
You know, I don't know, I justwalked in there.
I'm like what feels so weirdand I'm like you go up and you
put your name.
I was like god, it's so dorkyand I just left and I was like I
don't know why I got this.
(22:48):
My aunt, she got me the suit.
She's like hey, you're gonna goon job interviews, get a suit.
I'm just like, um, so I justput the suit away.
I was like I don't think thisis for me, this is not, uh, me
going applying to boeing is, isnot?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
so okay, okay.
So what did you wind up gettingfor a job right out of college?
What were you doing right outof college?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
uh, I moved my dad a little bit, okay, his company
back to the hard work, yeah, um,kind of retaking all the
knowledge I learned around theengineering and the process
applying it there.
And then I worked a little bitand another company that that I
was an owner in just sellingbasically time to lawyer, kind
(23:35):
of like automating their legalprocesses, processes like with
the city around, like watercertifications, zoning
certifications, things like that, um, and that was um, um, and I
didn't, I didn't enjoy it.
And then then I was like, allright, I'm gonna do, I have this
idea of what I want to do.
And it was um, it was how we,how we started with flow.
(24:01):
It was like I just the internetwas just pop, starting to come
off a little bit.
You know, okay, I mean there'sdifferent stages of the internet
, right, but like the internetwas like.
I was like at this point I waslike, oh, okay, we could maybe
do video on the internet.
That that seemed like apossibility, we could maybe pull
that off, and so just startedflow sports from there so you
(24:22):
started flow sports with with uh, with family right, so with
your brother right yeah yep, andit's not.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It was your sister, were one of your sisters
involved in it as well, kind ofgot super critical.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
They were like, uh, my first backers, so they backed
me, uh, going when I firststarted.
I remember my one sister waspregnant with her second child
and she like was going tomedical school and she like gave
me a five thousand dollar check.
I was like, oh my gosh, holygod, thank you yeah, that's
(24:55):
awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, what, what, uh, what was one of the first
videos you made?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
John Smith, john Smith.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
No kidding.
First videos yeah, how did youget in touch?
I mean the video itself, buthow did you get in touch with
someone like?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
that I just went to his office.
So, like 2006, I went andwatched the championships at
Oklahoma City and I had thisidea of this, what I wanted to
do, and um, and then I wasalready up there, so I don't
know if I went there or I wenthome, but then I went back and I
(25:31):
went back and they werefreaking just high as freaking
can be.
I think there's a year they hadfive champs or something, oh
yeah, and I.
And I came back and I came inthe office I'm like, hey, man,
this is what I'm doing.
I had like a whole like website.
I'm like this is what I'm doing.
And he's like, hey, pick acalendar date and come back.
And I picked a calendar dateand I came back and I like I
(25:55):
took like eight hours of JohnSmith's life.
I was just like, oh, I had 150questions and I was just asking,
asking, asking, asking tons ofquestions.
Yeah, that was a.
That was the first video that Iever did.
Was that?
Uh, they did Mark branch.
Uh, yeah, mark branch, he'sawesome.
They did Eric Guerrero Uh, andthen those are the.
(26:18):
Those are the first threevideos we did okay.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So what was it called flow at that time?
Did you call it flow okay, yeah, okay, where did you wind up?
Because obviously we know whereit went to.
But in the early days, as Imentioned joe williamson and
things like that when, when didyou guys start kind of building
the crew as you went along?
Was that just right away, justgrab some college guys that you
knew, or how did that all workout?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
no, I no, I just started grinding.
I mean it was just banging myhead against the wall and just
going from place to place andgetting videos and learning how
to do this stuff, just really.
And then certain people wouldbe like oh, I think Ben Askren
introduced me to Joe Williamson.
(27:02):
He's like OK, at first Iinterviewed Ben, he kind of
shrugged me off and I was likescrew this, weird.
But then I saw him again.
He's like hey, man, that waswell, I saw, because he saw what
I did.
He was like oh, dude, I reallylove what you did.
And then yeah put me in touchwith joe and um, joe was, um was
(27:22):
a great addition.
Um, and then yeah, so, so thenwe just went from there and yeah
, month after month, year afteryear, just grinding.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
How did you get?
How did you wind up runninginto Joe K?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Joe.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
K yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Oh, joe K came on.
I don't know what year Joe Kcame on, but it was.
I don't know what year JoeKenya came on, but it was, it
was.
I don't know Joe, what, whatyears you come on.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Popping, joe.
You can tell us in the comments.
We'll.
We'll keep scrolling, we'llkeep going here.
But so interesting crew.
I remember watching it early onwhen I was a little.
It's not like it was forever,but when my kids were younger
and I first discovered it, right, I came up wrestling where you
didn't I mean it was, it wasstill, um, what do you call it?
Bullpens?
You line up underneath yourbrackets.
(28:13):
You didn't have youtube,nothing like that to watch it.
When I saw this, I was like yougotta be kidding me, because
the first thing I saw were thebrands brothers.
Right, that was the first thingthat I saw, because, I mean, I
grew, grew up loving Iowa, so,knowing what was out there, and
then my kids were starting toget into wrestling, I was like
this is awesome.
So we all started to reallydive in 2017 Joe says 2017.
(28:39):
But I remember watching it andenjoying it.
I can't believe there's thismuch wrestling media out here,
right, you don't think of it inthe grand scheme of things like
the entire world, but like itwas, just seemed like it was so
big at the time, right?
So watching all the videos, allthe live feeds, things like
that now go down further downthe road.
When did you wind up leavingflow 2018?
(29:02):
Oh, geez, not too long afterjoe got there, yeah.
So when, when you left, I wasit just a.
You wanted to start somethingelse, wanted to do another
business?
Why'd you want to believe him?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It was just disagreement on the direction of
the company.
Okay, Investors, they, you know, some board members are saying,
hey, I think they wereexpecting me to stay.
Some people were like asking mehey, like you got to stay, you
know you got to stay, you got tostay.
But I was just like, no, I'mout.
(29:38):
And so it was just like it wasjust going in a direction that I
didn't.
I didn't, I didn't like.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So when you, when you left, was Rockman on your brain
?
Was that something that youwere?
You're like there's a betterway to do this kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Different, different media no, not really um, I was
so zeroed in on on flow, uh.
So then when I left it was like, okay, uh took a couple months,
but I was really interested inum, in how networks form and how
they work, and so I spent acouple months just kind of
studying that.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh, okay, it took a little time to figure something
out, okay, so when did Rockfinfinally hit?
Was that a year or two after?
No, just a couple months after,oh, and then boom.
So, because I'm currentlytrying to create an app right
now, which it's not easy, right,kind of joe and I are working a
little together on it, but withwith that being said, and
(30:32):
you've gone through flow, was iteasier this time around doing
something like rockfin, uh, someways, yeah, yeah, okay, okay,
all right, so we, we know wherethis goes to.
Then rock fin is still yourthing, right, you still.
You still own own rock fin, butnow you can't.
You came up with belt board andI've been onto it, because
(30:52):
there's actually an event thatmy son was in on it it was the
big cheese from WI wrestle anddidn't really realize anything
about it until, actually, Italked to Joe and then saw you
post something about it.
Yeah.
So let's talk.
We already talked about it, youand I, but let's bring up the
origin story again.
I think it was something to theeffect you were at a tournament
(31:15):
and just kind of waitingbecause track went down right.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yes, yeah, I was with my son and it's funny because
it's like you know, we're inTexas, so it's not like we have
wrestling everywhere, so it'snot like we have wrestling
everywhere, so it's hard, butit's hard to be a wrestling
parent here, yeah and uh, and soI was like you know what, um,
I'm going to get?
We're going to get some goodlooks at this tournament.
It's called the SockyardStampede, it's in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And, uh, it's like all right, let's, let's go up
there and get some good looks.
And I'm like, looking at theweigh-in schedule and it's like
you can only weigh in the nightbefore.
I'm like or or or like you,yeah, it was night before
weigh-ins and I'm like okay, sothat means we gotta weigh in.
That means we gotta drive upthere now and then spend the
(32:00):
night and do it, you know.
And so I was like, okay, um,common, but hey, let's make a
trip of it.
That's good.
Sure, I have friends up there.
Let's go out to dinner.
Good, okay, we go and do that.
Then the next morning I noticedthey changed the schedule from
the previous year.
I need a personal admin at alltimes around me because I read
(32:24):
something too fast and I justmove and I'm like oh gosh, we're
, that's not I should be and Ishould be there.
Um and so, um and so I Irealized, oh shoot, they changed
the schedule from last year.
It doesn't start till noon.
All right, we'll just go getbreakfast and, you know, go to a
book store and then go.
And so then we get there, youknow, like whatever 30 minutes
(32:47):
before Um, and it's like delayedthree hours.
I'm like, and my wife calls me,she's like, how did Monroe do?
And I'm like, dude, we haven'teven started wrestling.
I'm like this is ridiculous.
And I just remember likewalking past these other parents
and it was just like thatthousand yard stare of like, oh
(33:10):
my gosh, what am I involved in?
And so then my son wrestled andit was.
It was great.
Once he got going wrestling hehad five matches, but a quarter
of those kids went 0-2.
Another was.
Another quarter went like oneand two, it's like it was.
It was just a realization whereI was just like at the time I
(33:34):
was like I would remember wassitting because the us open was
there too and I was with monroe,and my son loves football.
We have a great time when we'rein central texas.
It's like football king outhere.
Yeah Right, I mean, you've gotquarterbacks that went to the
local high school, that areplaying in the NFL and it's like
everything is zero to roundfootball and you go to the
(33:56):
football and it's so organized,it's so nice as a parent, it
works.
It's like they've put a lot ofthought into all these different
aspects around football.
It's not just a coincidence.
They think about it and theyexecute and they put on a great
uh experience for every facet ofthe stakeholder, whether it's a
(34:18):
football player, the parent,the coaches.
It's like organized and doneright.
I mean I'm sure they haveimprovements to make, but it's
like so far advanced relative tomy experience with wrestling as
a wrestling parent in texas and, and so I you know, sitting in
the stands I was just like, whyam I even doing this?
Like we could just go dofootball, I mean.
(34:41):
I mean I love wrestling, butlike there's other things yeah
well, I was just.
That was at that point where Iwas like either I'm gonna do
something else or I'm just gonna, uh, I'm gonna fix this.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And so then I talked a couple other things, a couple
other coincidences happenedaround that time where I was
like okay, maybe I should bedoing this, and so that's when I
died falling so that and Inoticed that on there because
I've gone into a couple of thedifferent uh events that have
occurred yeah, I haven't been ona live event yet, but going
through and I mean you can gothrough you can see who's where
(35:17):
you can click on the on thematch you can takes you right to
the mat where they wrestled, ortakes you to the past match
that kind of thing.
What type of nuances within your, your app, the about the
ballpark app, make it sodifferent from like and you can
go in and see it like?
Visually it's different already, right, but the but the um, uh,
(35:40):
the background of it, the backside of it, what makes it
different from the rest?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
right, uh, well, I think it think it's so I've done
like.
I ran my first tournament whereI was like, hey, I'm just going
to run a tournament and someguys like, hey, man, I want to
use the software.
I said, yeah, I can use thesoftware, let's, let's go.
It was up the street, so I ranit and I think one of the things
is is that everyone just knowswhat to do.
(36:06):
Like there's not a lot oftalking, there's not a lot of
questions like, hey, what'sgoing on with this, this, this,
and we can get better too.
But like, when you go to it, Ithink it's a lot, it's a lot
clearer of like, hey, what doyou?
What does actually need tohappen here?
And, and my goal, my, my goalis to make a an element where
(36:34):
you know a new parent comes in,they're like they don't have to,
like you know, my, my sisterstarted had her kids wrestle and
she's like what is?
Like you have to like go andlook and learn, and it's just
this really weird element whereyou it's very difficult for
someone new to come in the sport.
But not only that.
I want to make it so that it'sincredibly great for, like, the
top end of the sport.
(36:55):
It's super, super diehards,right, but also you can ease
your way into that very easily.
In every step of the way, youknow what to do and then,
through through the process, thevision is is to put on better
events and make sure tocommunicate to the tournament
operators.
Hey, these are the type ofevents this is, these are how
(37:18):
many matches you're going to get, right?
This is are the matches goodmatches?
Are they bad matches?
Okay, you know, like it doesn'tdo anyone any good if I go out
there, my son goes out and 10seconds gets a pin.
Yeah, right, right, he might bereinforcing bad technique in
that scenario so you'rereferencing like seating.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Does it do seating?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
no, uh, no, no, it doesn't do seating right now,
but our goal is just to make itso that our goal is just to put
on better events throughout okay, throughout the whole nation
and be able to just assistpeople in putting on better
events, because I and I'vealways said but it's, it's a
start yeah, and I've only seenit on the phone side, like in
(38:03):
going through there, so I'venever seen it on.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
You know running a tournament from it or you know
keeping score, anything likethat, but what, where does
what's the?
What's the?
Because the filters on thereare great.
You can search for an athlete.
I believe you can see.
You know you can.
There's lots of ways you canfigure out where you need to go
and what you're looking forwithin a tournament.
So it's it's not complicatedand it's very simple.
You guys have simplified itquite a bit.
Yeah, on the on the other sideof it, is that something that
(38:28):
you can?
You plug in your computer andyou keep score from it as well?
Speaker 3 (38:31):
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah okay, okay, or keeper, yeah,
that you that each mat keeps thescore okay.
And then there's the head table.
That puts on the, thebracketing, and the scores feed
to the head table are you goingto integrate it into Rockfin?
Yeah, we're going to we'rewe're doing more, we're going to
(38:52):
go more and more on that front,100% yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
All right.
Well, I know you got a tightschedule.
I wanted to talk about ballport, If there's.
Is there something you want toadd about ballport that we don't
know about?
That's coming up, something weshould watch for.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Our goal is just continual improvement in a
really systematic way.
We built a really strong, largefoundation so that we can go
really high.
I kind of think of how big of afoundation did you start off
with and we built a reallystrong foundation.
So we might not have everysingle feature that is out there
(39:28):
right now, but we've got areally good, a good base where
we can add, where we're going tobe adding things pretty
methodically as we go, and so so, yeah, I'm just I'm excited to
put on better events and workwith, work with other
tournaments or with otherorganizations to help them put
(39:50):
on the best events, to put thebest facing front, facing
forward for for wrestling, andimprove the approve how people
go and experience events.
That's really what, what ourgoal is.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Well and I know us in the wrestling world just as
regular Joe's kind of out here.
We appreciate what you've doneso far.
I mean flow wrestling to rockfin to now ball board.
So we're excited.
We here at Vision Quest Podcastare excited.
We want to keep following andsee what's going on.
We follow everything you've gotgoing on.
We watch your glaring reallyegregious stuff.
Nice nice, it's fantastic it'sfantastic, so we appreciate
(40:27):
everything that you do and, likeI said, I know you're busy when
I get out of your hair.
Your daughter's got a birthdaycoming up, so happy birthday to
her yeah we'll get her a present, but we are going to wind up
leaving this here.
I don't know if you have anyshout outs guys.
You want to say hi, to tellthem to have a great day, kind
of thing.
You got any shout outs at all,uh?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
no, I'm good.
Shout out to the texas, uh, uh,to the texas wrestling
community.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Um, yes, yeah, yeah, you are congratulations that
you're the president of texasusa wrestling yep chairman.
Chairman, congratulations onthat as well.
Yeah, we, we appreciate what webelieve you're going to be
doing yeah down yeah.
So let's let's spread thataround, so I will leave it at
that.
It's been another episode ofthe vision quest podcast.
I want to talk to you for justa minute once we're done here.
(41:14):
So, we're going to.
We're going to tell everybodypeace out and we're going to
hang it up and then that's goingto be it.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
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