Connect with Grant Gers on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/grant-gers-5a29245a

Visit Grant on his website:

www.eaglesandarrows.com

Connect with Russ Johns on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext

For more information visit his other websites:

• russjohns.com/  

• thepiratesyndicate.com/  

• nextstepnext.com/  

Russ Johns  0:03  

Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

It's another beautiful day and I just wanted to welcome you, and thank you and all the gratitude in the world for having you here and the pirate community. I know that there's a lot of lot of #interestingthings that we talk about every single day on the #piratebroadcast. One of the things that always intrigues me is what business owners do or what people do to change and evolve and grow and kind of bring some value to the world and today we want to talk a little bit about something completely different and 

We have grant in the room and we're going to be talking about a couple of different things. Golf being one of them, air traffic control being another one, and how they, how they correspond and connect with each other. Grant, happy day, how are you the spine wonderful day? 

Grant Gers  1:20  

Excellent. Thanks for having me. 

Russ Johns  1:23  

You

It's a pleasure in an opportunity to kind of share some of the things that, on a positive note. You take care of a lot of the things that are flying around in the air in Atlanta area, and you've been in, you've served the country and Air Force and you've had a lot of experience in flight and managing flights. With this whole COVID thing and the pandemic, there's been a few challenges with flying and so I anticipate that there's probably a reduction in flights. I don't know what the total closure looks like or anything like that. has that impacted your workload and your activities across the board? 

Grant Gers  2:06  

Yeah, absolutely. As you can imagine, the the flying community as far as the airlines is goes is severely impacted by the COVID-19. So the flights are extremely down. They're still flying, there are still airplanes in the air, and we're still in there and providing the service and separating airplanes, but it's seriously slower than not that long ago.

Russ Johns  2:37  

You've been doing this for a while. I anticipate that technology has evolved, radar communications have evolved and some things that you've seen in even in your career have taken place. So what are some things that people would not even be aware of that have an effect Since you've been in the business of air traffic control

Unknown Speaker  3:04  

so

Grant Gers  3:04  

It is evolving, it's kind of a cool time to be involved in it. Really until the last couple few years, the technology hasn't really evolved. It's basic radar technology, which we're still using, but they've taken it to another level with Next Gen. They're using satellites and a DSP, which is our sensors, basically, on airplanes where they can detect each other, and they've integrated it. Now they use the satellites, the radar and the atsb, all together and it provides us a better picture and allows us to more efficiently separate the airplanes.

Russ Johns  3:50  

So

You can identify their location and their distance and their altitude and everything that goes along with it?

So

Grant Gers  3:58  

Absolutely. So like with The old school radar technology if you can think actual radar spinning, we would get updates periodically. Long range radars. 12 second update and short range radars, like a three second update. So now we're getting updates every second.

Russ Johns  4:16  

Oh wow!

Grant Gers  4:17  

So we know more precisely the positioning of the planes and not only longitudinally, but also with their, their altitude so you think in a 3d picture. So, yeah, it's an interesting time to, we're finally seeing thetechnology kind of get into, you know, the new century and it's fun time to be in aviation.

Russ Johns  4:47  

You

It's funny because my son right now, I actually, I've always had been a fan of aviation and one of the things that I was excited about bringing you on is kind of understanding What the roadmap looks like in terms of technology in aviation. I actually went all the way through ground school in high school, and was on the road map to get a pilot's license and everything else. Then I went down a path of music and it's like they didn't coincide. Now my son's getting his pilot's license. So it's personal adventure down this kind of conversation about aviation and the architecture of aviation. It's just fascinating to me. What's really fascinating is this week that relating to aviation and in history in space is that we actually sent a couple of people out into space into the space station from US soil first time in nine years. That's kind of exciting. Did you get a chance to watch that? 

Grant Gers  5:52  

Yeah. I was actually at work when they did the launch was pretty cool. We were looking on big maps in kind of the restricted areas they'd put up and they had recovery zones and restricted areas and stuff. We were looking at that and I was at work, but yeah, I was able to watch it. And it was cool. It was it was just awesome to see that. I don't know what was. I guess this one was different just because it hasn't happened in a while. It was fun. It was fun to watch. It was surprisingly really fun to watch. Like, it was pretty awesome. 

Russ Johns  6:29  

Yeah, they put on a pretty good production. It's, and fortunately, nothing happened. And everything worked as designed and expected. And the Rockets came down and landed. Just like the fact that the rockets are coming down in landing and they're reusing them is just phenomenal. I mean, that's the same equation as airplanes. If you had to take a flight and every flight, they had to dispose of an airplane it would be kind of a costly adventure. So it's fantastic. Well, the reason that I wanted to bring you on here and one of the exciting things is aviation, flying, and especially air traffic controller can be kind of stressful Grant and that's what I've been told. 

I don't know the job i'm sure like we were talking about before the show is your wife has more stressful job than you do with the kids in the chaos and the schedules and everything that go along with it. However, one of the benefits of having a stressful job is finding an outlet and what I want to talk about on the #piratebroadcast a lot of times is how do you find a way to relax in and what I've discovered about you Grant is that you are an avid golfer, and I really haven't talked a lot about sports on this channel, but you have a unique opportunity. Not only are you an avid golfer, but you're starting an entrepreneurial journey around the clothing line and stuff like that. Talk about golf first and then let's venture into the conversation about your products and some of the things you're doing with that. 

Grant Gers  8:17  

Yes. 

Russ Johns  8:17  

Tell us about your golfing experience. You got a long history in golfing from what I understand. 

Grant Gers  8:23  

Yeah, so we have a long family history. In golf, my granddad and his three brothers were all professional golfers from the PGA Tour on down to just the teaching professional level. I kind of got into golf. You would think I would have gotten into it really early with that background, but my grandfather introduced me to the game, but I didn't really get into it until after he had passed and I was in just before High School and so yeah just fell in love with the game and so yeah, I played competitively. Now I just play for fun and it's just, I just love to do it and now I just get out there and enjoy it and still want to play well get those competitive juices going but I keep that in check and enjoy the weather and just enjoy being out there and enjoy my buddies and the banter and the fun of the game. 

Russ Johns  9:26  

Well, it's really a relationship game. It's about spending time with somebody. It's not as if you're, shooting an electronic game or anything like that whole different atmosphere, a whole different pace. It's the pace that it's so different than most games that you play. If you play a full, even a nine hole game if you play nine holes, it still takes a little at a time. So you have to go out there and you have to learn how to relax through the game, walking and having conversation and things like that. For me, it's a relationship game. It's a game of, it's an opportunity to build and develop deeper understanding of who you're hanging out with. And what you're doing. Is that something you find valuable or include in your golfing activities. 

Grant Gers  10:27  

Yeah, absolutely. To kind of echo what you're talking about the game there's a pace of the game and so it's a challenge for everybody. I play every Monday morning, we have the first tee time at our club and typically the same group and we play fast and that group we really rip it around. When I play other times, and we're not the first out, you got to really change your mindset. Because you're not going to rip it around, you're gonna play that for four and a half hour round and you gotta kind of change your mental mindset on, alright, let's slow it down. I really kind of enjoy that because there's other things you get to enjoy. There's a little more banter. Just changing your pace and really kind of thinking and clearing your mind. If we play before work, you clear your mindset.

It's just, yeah, it's awesome. But, yeah, there's a challenge in golf. You know, there's a mental challenge there. It's part of what I really like about the game. Also like you're saying it's relationship game. You build relationships with people out there and that is really, really fun.

Russ Johns  12:00  

Yeah it's been a while since I've played around in golf. When I have played golf, it's been enjoying the company. It's not a hurried pace. It's been a relaxed pace is probably to the chagrin of the people behind us. The thing about it is I'm sure that gives you a lot of time to think and you've actually developed a line of clothing and golf attire, gloves and  you're creating and evolving into and what kind of sparked that whole activity and what is that looking like and developing the expand on that a little bit for us. 

Grant Gers  12:49  

For like, the last decade, I wanted to be in the golf business space, and I just didn't know what that looked like. I didn't know what that would be. We come from a family of entrepreneurs. My brother's an entrepreneur, my dad's an entrepreneur, his dad was an entrepreneur. I've been the blood. It's just the way that we kind of think. I kind of always knew in the back of my mind, I would get into it, but I didn't know how or what that would look like. This winter, I was jonesing for golf, and I was looking for a carry bag and kind of had my mind what I wanted. I couldn't really find what I wanted. A few days later, I was like, I'm gonna make that bag.

Russ Johns  13:40  

Scratch the itch, right? Scratch the itch. 

Grant Gers  13:44  

That's it And then I said this is it. This is where I'm going to come into the golf space. I was like, Well, if I'm gonna make golf bags. I'm going to have hats and T shirts, and I got really lucky, it's hard to get into the golf glove space, if you will. You may not think that but it's a very, very tight community there. It's very difficult to kind of get into, and things just kind of came together. I reached out to some friends and got set up in that and so we have a golf glove and other leather goods head club covers and

Russ Johns  14:26  

 Oh, wow.

Grant Gers  14:27  

It was going from there. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty awesome. 

Russ Johns  14:33  

So,

Tanner, your brother, who I know he lives here in Phoenix, and we're connected through a couple of different groups. I've known Tanner for years, and he told me about what you were doing. I was like, That's fascinating. I love that. Here's the thing that really brings it to attention is that even in an industry that you would think would be populated with the biggest Players, there's still room, there's still activity in the niche space for a brand identity. Being able to create your own identity, be able to create your own space and develop something that isn't in place already. I love the activity. I love the idea of sharing that. The pirate community is all about #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. It's really fascinating to me that you couldn't find a bag, you couldn't find exactly what you wanted. You went out and created it. Then all of a sudden, all these ancillary items as a result of your kind of experience in your journey through that. 

All of a sudden, you're saying, Hey, I can do this, right. You didn't say you didn't talk about it? You went out and did it. Congratulations applause to you. It's like, around a silent applause for Grant. It is fantastic. I want to inspire people to think about how that applies to your business, your hobby, your sports, anything that you're doing. What was the biggest challenge you had in this process? What was it that you found interesting or curious as you're going through this process? 

Grant Gers  16:36  

Well, I would kind of just to tag along with what you're saying. I think almost the most challenging thing is I talked about wanting to do this for like 10 years, right. I think the biggest challenge that people can probably relate to is is just hitting launch. Just go for it and once I got past that, and once I committed to doing it, it's like everything else just fell into place. I used my contacts and my network and everything was right there. I didn't know it or was trying, whatever, subconsciously blocking it. You commit and you go and then everything. It's like the universe just opens up for you. It you're meant to be there. That's what I would tell people is Go for it. That's probably the biggest challenge everything else. There's been challenges. Obviously, anybody who started a small business, though, there's always challenges. 

If you just keep working it and working the problem, you're going to figure those challenges out and if you don't, maybe maybe that portion of whatever you're trying to figure out wasn't meant to be and you pivot. Typically, those challenges are going to be worked out. I think the biggest challenge for me was going and 

Russ Johns  18:04  

Starting. 

Grant Gers  18:05  

Yeah. Once I committed I'm kind of an all in person. I want to, it's like Tanner and I talked about all the time I'm committed to being a winner. Whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to give it 110% and that's everything in life, not just the my business, air traffic, being a dad, all that stuff. I'm going full bore. 

Russ Johns  18:40  

That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. It's a message that I think a lot of people need to hear and understand, especially during this challenging time there's a lot of people that are out of work, and I've talked about this so many times on the show. There are other things that people can do their skills you can learn, there's activities and opportunities out there everywhere, if you're willing to look for it and take the leap of faith and say, I can do this, I can do something, I can make a difference. What happens after you start, is, that's the point where you start getting some feedback on what you're putting out there. It's like, okay, you can't really get any feedback, when it's just an idea in your head, you have to really kind of put something out there in order for you to actually see kind of what direction and make adjustments along the way. It's just like a flight two degrees off going across the country, could you end up in a different place, and you make adjustments along the way and the wind comes up, and you have to make, a few more adjustments and then to get to where your destination is, business and in startups especially, are the same way. You make adjustments along the way but you need the feedback of launching in order to accomplish that. 

Grant Gers  20:03  

Yeah.

Russ Johns  20:05  

I want to say hi to a couple of people here. So, good morning, gentlemen from Air Force One veteran to another aim high 44th. So Louis, thank you so much for being here. Angie's Good morning. Thank you. Angie. Always happy to have the pirate in the room. Wendy's here. Good morning. Thank you for being here. Wendy. Khan. Hey, good morning. Ahoy. Pirate broadcast. Thanks for your service. And Wendy says I played golf in high school years. I had to quit due to allergies and grass. 

Grant Gers  20:40  

Ah. Oh man. 

Russ Johns  20:42  

That's brutal. Push it off. Always follow your dreams. And Michelle, she was on here yesterday. Michelle is always is also an avid believer in living the day living your life and putting it all in there. Sherry lolly innovation out of necessity. I love it. So just because it's been done, it's never been done by you. I love that. 

Grant Where are you in the process? Where are you in the evolution, as far as you can tell, right now are so you're still developing products you've got a space in the glove market which is gloves or consumables. That's an ongoing thing that you can actually evolve with and pursue and then what about bags I anticipate bags, people hold on to bags for a little while because that's a that's a pretty stable item. Shirts, apparel. Is that something that you're going to be pursuing as well? 

Grant Gers  21:49  

Yeah We do t shirts right now we don't do like collared golf shirts yet. It is something we're going to get into. I'm exploring Right now and again gonna use some of our connections and get into that as well. I have some, some design ideas that I want to do there but we have we're making just t shirts right now we're making hats, gloves, towels, leather goods in the bag. We have some, some different stuff coming out as far as the hats and whatnot and in the apparel side of things, but yeah, and the bags. The bags are doing good. It's it is a like you said before we're in that niche market, the boutique golf, I call it and but yeah, it's going good. And yeah, so there's some other ideas that we're going to explore here and hopefully the second half of 2020 which I'm going to venture to say is gonna be better than the first half of 2020.

Russ Johns  22:58  

crossing our fingers Right. 

Grant Gers  23:00  

Yeah.

Russ Johns  23:04  

How do people find you? I mean let's talk about the the actual brand, what is what is the brand and what is the name and everything that goes along with that? 

Grant Gers  23:15  

Yeah the name is the eagles and arrows. 

Russ Johns  23:19  

I love that. 

Grant Gers  23:21  

Thank you and you can find us at eaglesandarrows.com. And then social media. You can find us at eagles and arrows co on Facebook, Instagram. And check us out on our website and you can hear read the story of our family history in golf and how I kind of came came about playing and yeah, 

Russ Johns  23:48  

I'll have to share all the links in the post in the on the all of these posts the transcription, the podcast, the broadcast and transcription are all Going to be on russJohn.com. As I post these every day and I share this story every day with people and it's just amazing that you're doing this. So from an overall entrepreneurial journey, what would you say is what are some lessons learned that you could share with people that are thinking about it, and haven't yet jumped into the equation? I mean, other than get started, just get started thinking about it.

Grant Gers  24:31  

I think, you know, it's a lot. It's a lot like many things in life, using your network and the connections you've made with people in other places and times in your life and then justlike a lot of things in life if you put the time and the effort into it and stuff, really hard at it, there's a good possibility you're gonna come out and be a winner, and it's tough in small business, but if you want it bad enough and you put the work in you can do it. I kind of relate it back to air traffic and we work at Atlanta approach which is one of the busiest air spaces in the world and guys come in here and they transfer in here from other facilities and they're kind of blown away mesmerized by what we do and and I tried to simplify it for him if I tell him if you put the effort in and you want this bad enough, you have to believe you can do it and then you just put the work in and you can do it and it's very, very few people who do that those two things that don't make it. 

Russ Johns  25:56  

Yeah, 

Grant Gers  25:56  

I think in small business, kind of the same thing. You have to, if to try and make some good financial decisions, I think and, but then you put the work in and use your network of people and really just give it everything you have. I feel like you'll probably be more successful than than not. So I would be the biggest thing I would say is obviously getting started number one and then just working your tail off and you got to believe in yourself and you got to believe in your product and use your network. 

Russ Johns  26:39  

Well I think so many of us especially in a long journey for developing a business there's there's moments where you're thinking why did I think I could do this there's the self doubt and the the imposter syndrome and those things kick in and you do have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that this idea is worth sharing. It's worth worth putting out in the world. It's important to make sure that this is out there. I just really, I thank you for being on here. I thank your brother Tanner for introducing us and connecting us and building that network. Because reall right now in this day and age everybody is open and available to have an opportunity to share their voice, their message, their gift, or whatever it happens to be, and you're only one conversation away from getting what you might need to move your business forward. 

So going out there, building relationships, developing connections, making sure that you're having conversations like this, I think is really important, and you never know where it's gonna go. You never know what it's going to be like. ideally, long term, five years From now what what would be the best possible outcome you could envision in your, in your future with this brand? Eagle scenarios? 

Unknown Speaker  28:08  

Um, you

Grant Gers  28:09  

I just hope that people are enjoying and liking the products that we're putting out. In five years, it would be just amazing if we're ingolf courses, public municipal courses and country clubs across the country and you go walk in and get you an eagle's narrows carry bag

Russ Johns  28:30  

in the PGA Tour.

Grant Gers  28:32  

Yeah, I mean,it would be it'd be awesome to have somebody out there wearing Eagles narrow shirt. 

Russ Johns  28:39  

Yeah. 

But yeah, I think, you know, kind of touching back to to offer people starting a business and whatnot. Don't limit yourself to what's out there. It's important to set goals but don't set them too low go noon, and 

You might reach them

Grant Gers  29:00  

You might reach them. There's a golf psychologist that I read a lot of books from and he talks about he does work with PGA Tour players and these guys they just like I can make a cut and that's all I can do. It's well, they've made their goal is to make the cut on a PGA Tour event and they do that and then they fizzle from there and it's so we'll set your goals too low shoot for the moon and really go for it. Yeah, I'd love to see eagles and arrows in golf shops all over the country. And yeah, so we'll see what happens.

Russ Johns  29:38  

When that happens, Grant, I can say I knew him when.

Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you sharing your story and sharing your gifts and some of the things you're doing and thank you for serving the country and keeping the airspace safe. In Atlanta. I've flown in and out of that airport. A number of times. It's a busy airport, and it had a lot of airspace there. I just really thank you for being here. I appreciate you and all the things you're bringing to the table, if you want to get a hold of grant, eaglesandarrows.com, is it, 

Grant Gers  30:20  

you got it. 

Russ Johns  30:22  

He's also on LinkedIn, although you're not as active on LinkedIn is some of the people in the community. We'll have to work on you there. 

Grant Gers  30:31  

I'll have to do some work in LinkedIn,space.

Russ Johns  30:36  

Stay on the course. And keep growing the business and keep us posted on what the activities look like on that side of the equation.

So

Grant Gers  30:44  

Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute blast. 

Russ Johns  30:47  

Grant. It's always a pleasure and I love the opportunity to share stories like yours to the pirate community and everything else. So great show love the company name. Have a groovy day, guys. That's Lewis, you're awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Also, as you guys know, and every day is #kindnessIscool, #smilesarefree, and you #enjoyyourday.

Thank you for joining the #pirate broadcast. If you found this content valuable, please like, comment and share it across your social media channels. I would love the opportunity to help others grow in their business. #Thepiratesyndicate is a platform where you show up we produce the show, it's that easy. If you want to be seen, be heard and be talked about. Join #thepiratesyndicate today.

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