Kyle Berkshire Reveals The Dark Side of the Golf World...| DSH #2019

Summary

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Digital Social Hour: Kyle Berkshire Reveals The Dark Side of the Golf World (DSH #2019)

Podcast: Digital Social Hour
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Kyle Berkshire (4-time World Long Drive Champion)
Date: June 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Digital Social Hour features Kyle Berkshire, four-time World Long Drive champion. With Sean in the host’s chair, Kyle offers an unfiltered look at the realities of the golf and long drive world—from punishing schedules and identity struggles to the business side of elite sports. The conversation explores Kyle’s career, the hidden pressures faced by top athletes, the transitions between niches (e.g., golf, social media, content creation), and the importance of personal accountability and resilience both in sports and life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kyle’s Career Journey & Current Focus

• Balance of Priorities: Kyle breaks down his allocation of time—50% towards professional golf, 20% for social content, 15% for long drive, and the remainder for other ventures like celebrity poker tournaments.

  "In my early 20s, it was very simple. I just had to win long drive tournaments... but I definitely enjoy the hecticness of it now." (05:13)

• Keeping Skills Sharp: Despite diversifying, Kyle maintains rigorous training and periodic check-ins with his long drive coach to stay at the top of his game.

2. Life in the Golf & Long Drive Worlds

• Physical & Mental Demands: Kyle emphasizes how high-level golf is a mix of science and art, requiring understanding of technical details (launch angle, spin, apex) and near-perfection in execution.
• Pressure & Stress:

  "I could just get pretty good, become one of the top 30, 40 players in the world, make 5 million a year... Now that I've had a lot of contact with a lot of pro golfers, it's one of the most stressful lifestyles you can imagine." (11:23)

• Money vs. Reality: Outside the elite few, most golfers face relentless travel, high expenses, and job insecurity. Even Korn Ferry Tour players—one level below the PGA—are scraping by after expenses.

3. Physical Performance & Aging in Sport

• Performance Windows: Long drive and similar “brute force” sports allow athletes to remain competitive into their 30s and 40s, whereas agility-dominant sports like basketball see steeper declines.
• Athlete Longevity: Kyle references LeBron James as a physical outlier, paralleling discussion to load management and smart training.

  "You're only going to have so many hits in your body. Make sure that when you're using those hits, you're either advancing your career or getting paid." (21:40)

4. Identity, Transitioning, and Mental Health

• Tying Self-Worth to Success: Kyle notes many struggle when their identities are closely linked to peak athletic performance, referencing bodybuilders like Jay Cutler as positive transition cases.

  "The hardest part, not just physically but also mentally, is staying healthy. And you hit those heights—it's hard not to make that your identity." (17:32)

• Letting Go and Reinvention: Accepting inevitable decline, seeking to be great at something else, and the struggle to let go of past identities are central themes.

5. Social Media and YouTube in Golf

• Content Creation: Forced by the pandemic pause, Kyle pivoted to YouTube, quickly growing the channel to rival his competition earnings.

  "I went to Best Buy, bought camera equipment, had no idea how to film... replaced my income within two months." (37:45)

• Audience Building: Differentiating between hardcore golf content and accessible, personality-driven videos (à la Bryson DeChambeau) is crucial for broader appeal.
• Evolution as a Public Figure: Letting fans “in” beyond the intimidating, hyper-focused competitor persona.

6. On Winning, Villainy, and Public Perception

• Being the "Villain":

  "You can only win so many times before people get tired of you winning... People never want to see you do better than them." (45:51)

• Competition’s Human Nature: Kyle relates societal resentment of success back to evolutionary survival instincts—and urges channeling jealousy into self-improvement.

7. Accountability, Upward Mobility, and Societal Lessons

• Personal Responsibility:

  "I'm a big believer in this country being the land of opportunity. If you make a series of right choices... you can elevate yourself." (48:34)

• Family & Upbringing: The role of tough parental guidance and the nuclear family in instilling accountability and success.
• Sports as Life Prep: Both agree that sports—especially individual sports—teach accountability and mental fortitude.
• Financial Literacy & Handouts:

  "It is insane to me that... I didn't learn a single thing about financial literacy in school." (67:32)

8. The Athlete's Financial Plight

• Contrasts Between Sports: Golfers and baseball players rarely go broke due to formative years in lower-paying leagues. Most NFL/NBA players burn through millions due to sudden wealth, lack of guidance, and public pressure to help extended family.

9. Broader Economic/Philosophical Reflections

• On Societal Systems: Concerns about societal mechanisms keeping individuals dependent, and the importance of fostering independence and self-reliance.
• Success Formula:

  "Whatever it is you love doing, become the best in the world at it... If you become the best in the world at something, I don't care how small the industry is—you can become wealthy." (70:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "For very long if that happens and everything. So many things have to be perfect to play at that level." — Kyle Berkshire (11:16)
• "Once you get to a certain point, you literally have to become a scientist with the golf ball." — Kyle (10:00)
• "There's only a hundred guys that keep their tour cards on the PGA Tour every year." — Kyle (12:52)
• "If that becomes your identity, if that becomes who you are, then you're not that person anymore, which inevitably happens with everybody." — Kyle (18:12)
• "Load management is a real thing... You're only going to have so many hits in your body." — Kyle (21:40)
• "The only way to use that [resentment] productively is... ‘What can I do to improve myself? What can I do to get better?’" — Kyle (48:18)
• "No one's coming to save you. No one's going to give you a handout." — Kyle (53:57)
• "Sports, especially individual sports, teach accountability." — Sean (54:53)
• "Sixty percent of athletes are broke within five years of retiring from their sport." — Kyle (65:55)
• "If you produce something that people are willing to pay money for and you become better at it than anybody else, that's all that matters." — Kyle (70:14)
• "Excellence transcends everything. People will sit back if you can tell someone's excellent at something." — Kyle (72:06)

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Important Timestamps

• Kyle’s priorities & career breakdown – 04:17–05:31
• Demands of elite golf & science behind the sport – 09:09–11:16
• Pro golf grind: expenses, stress, & reality – 12:47–13:49
• Identity loss after sports & transitions – 17:17–18:41
• Managing performance longevity (LeBron, aging curves) – 19:14–22:20
• Kyle’s origin story: college, first long drive tournament – 23:09–35:25
• Building a YouTube career out of necessity – 37:45–40:17
• Being the ‘villain’ and the psychology of resentment – 45:49–48:34
• Accountability, family, and upward mobility in America – 51:35–54:47
• Financial pitfalls for athletes & differences by sport – 63:57–66:05
• Financial literacy in schools—missing life skills – 67:34–68:37
• Closing advice: dedication, niche mastery, finding your lane – 70:14–73:09

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Kyle Berkshire’s episode delivers an unvarnished look at the peak and the underbelly of competitive golf and long drive. Success at the highest level requires relentless discipline and often comes at the cost of identity and simplicity. Kyle’s practical advice: know who you are outside your sport, diversify your skills, learn financial responsibility, and remember that accountability is key to any real, lasting achievement. Whether it's a pro athlete or an entrepreneur, the lessons of resilience, focus, and controlling what you can apply across all fields.

To follow Kyle:
Find him as “Kyle Berkshire” on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

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For anyone who hasn't listened: This episode gives a rare, intimate look behind golf’s curtain—intense, philosophical, and refreshingly honest about the pressures and opportunities at the top.

Transcript

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[Kyle Berkshire]

I've been a sheltered kid my whole life and now I'm gonna be live on Golf Channel in primetime at 7pm next day. And I wanted to throw up now that I've had a lot of contact with a lot of pro golfers. Because long drive is extremely adjacent to golf. It's one of the most stressful lifestyles you could possibly imagine. I don't know if it's an intimidation factor or it's just like you're different than everybody else. But like, my main focus in long drive, especially when I was younger, was just I wanted everybody to be scared of me.

[Host]

All right, guys, we got Kyle on the show today. World long drive champion, four times winner. He's in town today for a poker tournament, Celebrity poker tour. Excited to get to know you today, man. Thanks for coming on.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, thanks for coming out. Really worked out well. This is, I guess, a nice little prep for the poker event I have later today. So. Happy to be in Vegas and looking forward to it.

[Host]

Yeah, it's gonna be good. Any plans for golf while you're out here? Are you gonna just chill this trip?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I'm going to be filming at Wolf Creek Golf Club in this place called the Revere Golf Club. Just for short form, kind of just to keep the social media stuff going. And I'll film like bigger shoots where I have a team that put together longer form YouTube videos. And then when I'm out here, I'll just self film some stuff.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So my one day off of golf practice in a while.

[Host]

Nice.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But I guess I'll have to be turning my brain on pretty soon to try to figure out how to play poker in a few hours.

[Host]

Are you taking content pretty serious? Like what percentage of your day are you allocating to towards content versus actual golf, I guess, or both?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Well, it's, it's been a really interesting last year or two because I, I kind of came to relevance as a world long drive competitor and I still do that and I still train and I still keep my abilities at a really high level. But I've diversified into a lot of things because I started as a golfer. I started playing golf when I was three and that's, that's really what I did. And. And then I came from college golf to do long drive just because I hit it further than everybody else. And I'm kind of coming back to competitive golf on top of social media golf and these other kind of things, like, you know, the celebrity poker Tour. I got a few other things coming up as well. And so, like, if I had to give you a pie chart, like, I would say my effort level is like 50% in the professional golf. 20% into, like, social media content, YouTube, things like that. I would say 15% into long drive.

[Host]

Okay.

[Kyle Berkshire]

5% into these extra miscellaneous things, like, you know, this poker thing. And then I don't know if I. My math is correct, but I think they leaves roughly 10% left just for anything else that comes up. Any kind of other trips that I have to do last minute. But it's been really challenging because, like, in my early 20s, it was very simple. I just had to win long drive tournaments, and that was all I needed to do.

[Host]

The money was good enough to.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And it was pretty easy, to be honest. And I don't want to say it was easy, but, like, it felt like pretty routine.

[Host]

Were you ahead of everyone else by a good amount at that point?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I would say I was about probably five to seven miles an hour, ball speed faster, which is like, it's about 10 to 15 yards longer than everybody else. And then long drive, if you've that kind of buffer, you can hit an average shot and it can kind of still get you through, you know, early rounds. And you just kind of know at the end of the tournament, you got to hit something good or great and you're gonna win. And so that was kind of a pretty simple life. But I definitely enjoy the hectic ness of it now. Like, you know, you're gonna have, like, for example, like, I had U.S. open qualifying four or five days ago, and then I had a YouTube shoot at the U.S. open preview in Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York two days later. And then I got back home last night, and I flew in this morning, so I guess the night before. And then I got this. And then the celebrity Poker Tour event, and then flying out to Scotland for a week and a half to do some shooting with this travel travel agency.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And then have some. Some lower level professional golf tournaments right after that. So it's. It's a whirlwind.

[Host]

You're doing a lot.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. But hey, when you're young, you might as well.

[Host]

Yeah. How old are you right now?

[Kyle Berkshire]

I'm 29.

[Host]

Okay. Same age as me.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Oh, nice.

[Host]

Are you still the favorite in the long drive stuff or have people caught up?

[Kyle Berkshire]

No, I definitely feel that I'm still the best. I don't compete much at all anymore, but I've competed in five tournaments in the last four years, and I've won three of Them, Wow, there's phenomenal hitters in the sport. But as you. I've evolved in my career. There's just other things I've wanted to pursue that I don't know if all of the energy to pursue while I'm

[Host]

older that makes sense.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And, but I, I take my training seriously still. Like, I, you know, do my workouts, do my mobility stuff and I stay in close contact with my long drive coach and whenever I can, every couple of months I popped on because he's in North Carolina. I'll pop down there and I'll train a day or two just to keep everything sharp. Like what I have going for me is I've done so much of it in my early 20s now. It's kind of just, it's kind of there muscle memory just kind of. Yeah. Just kind of got to maintain it.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And then, you know, compete as it makes sense and you know, when I have the time. But, you know, I definitely feel that I'm still, still the top guy.

[Host]

Still getting better too, because we were talking before this. You think you could beat that 579 yard record?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Absolutely. I mean, it was. Because my longest drive in competition is 480 yards. And so as you can imagine, like, it's condition dependent. You know, it's like that 579, we, we had, you know, altitude, so the ball goes further. We had a tailwind, but it was only 51 degrees. It was cold. But we're gonna go back there and it's a place in Wyoming called Rollins, and it's a tiny little town and we're gonna go back there probably in August.

[Host]

Okay.

[Kyle Berkshire]

When it's a little warmer, we should be able to. I'm shooting for about 6:20 to 6:30.

[Host]

Wow. So the temperature matters that much?

[Kyle Berkshire]

100%. Especially when you're hitting a ball that far. Like. And it's not actually the temperature, how it affects the golf ball, it's the temperature and how it affects the human body. It's like if you're colder, you're not going to be able to swing as hard, your muscles are going to be a little tighter. The equipment isn't going to react as good because it's colder. It's not going to have as much of a spring effect off the club. I mean, you can add about 2 to 5% of yardage just based off of hitting in 50 degree weather versus 80 degree weather, which at that distance is 30, 40 yards.

[Host]

That is so interesting to me because when I watch golf, I don't even Factor that in my head. But when people are golfing, they must think about this kind of stuff, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. I mean, when you get to a certain level, you have to, because, like, you know, for the 99.9% of golfers, it's really more about, can I hit it straight? Can I hit it at my target? But then when you get to, like, higher levels, and I'm experiencing this myself, because when I left college, I left college to do long drive. I was probably about two years away from turning pro and competitive golf. That was my track since I was three years old. And the only reason I got pulled off of it was because I had a lot of people in my life who saw something I didn't. And it was very obvious to them that I would probably become a world champion in a couple years if I developed what I had a little more. But, like, my experience with it, up to probably about sophomore year in college, was all I did was golf. And even at that point in college golf, you're starting to learn spin rates, launch angle, angle of descent, apex, you know, spin axis, all these numbers. Because you got to be able to create. Every golf shot's like a science experiment. You're trying to get that science experiment to create a projectile that drops right next to the flag every time on one try. And it's just really tough because sometimes you're playing in wet conditions where water and golf ball affects it. Sometimes you're playing in windy conditions or the wind moves the golf ball around. You got to hit different shots for that. Um, but I found that knowing those things in golf helped me in long drive, too, because hitting the golf ball as far as possible in different conditions, you need to know a lot of different things. You need to change the loft of the club you're hitting. You need to change how much the ball spinning. You need to change how it's launching. And those things give me a huge advantage as well. Yeah. And, I mean, it can be hard to break down, like, the people that aren't, like, super engaged with golf. But I guess what I'm trying to say here is, like, there's a lot of levels to the game, right? And once you get to a certain point, you literally have to become a scientist with the golf ball. That's crazy. And, like, that's what you see these Tour pros doing. That's why they always look like they're losing their minds on the range. Because if the ball's not flying 100% the exact way they want it to, you will not be Able to make the cut. You will not be able to stay on that tour.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

For very long if that happens and everything. So many things have to be perfect to play at that level.

[Host]

Very high pressure lifestyle, I'd imagine it is.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I mean, you know, like, I had this kind of foolish assumption as a kid that, you know, I could just get pretty good, you know, become one of the top 30, 40 players in the world and make 5 million a year for 15, 20 years and retire and be easy. And now that I've had a lot of contact with a lot of pro golfers, you know, because long drive is extremely adjacent to golf, it's one of the most stressful lifestyles you could possibly imagine. Like, people see the top 10 to 20 players in the world and they think it's, you know, all these private jets and, you know, they play these amazing courses and they wave to the fans and get back. And get back in their limos or Ferraris and drive back to the hotel. Yeah, these guys are grinding all the time. And it's just, it's a different level. And like, even in my experience in long drive, like, I thought it was going to be easy. I thought, oh, I have all this speed. But I had to spend a lot of time, like three or four years really developing my knowledge of sport. Even coming from a background where I already had all the speed and all this distance, I had a huge head start. But even then, it took me three to four years to really know that and become the best. And it's just really tough to become specialized in a field to where you are the best. It's like, it's hard to explain, but like, you almost have to do things. You have to do things that no one else can do. And to do that, you almost have to be like, aware of and learning things no one else has ever learned. That's the only way to get a competitive edge as a professional athlete.

[Host]

That's nuts. Yeah, because if the top 30 guys make money, there's probably millions of people fighting for those spots, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

100%. I mean, there's only a hundred guys that keep their tour cards on the PGA Tour every year now.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And even those guys, like, I know a lot of guys that are grinding, you know, you know, the Korn Ferry Tour, it's like, think of it as like triple A in baseball. It's the tour right below the PGA Tour. I know guys that are grinding, you know, getting their card, losing it, going back to Cornfare, going back and forth. And these guys are maybe Making. And I don't mean it's not an insignificant amount of money, but it's when you think about agent fees, you know, travel expenses there may be making before all that, half a million to maybe a million. If you're spending a lot more time in the PJ Tour than the Korn Ferry Tour. And these guys have expenses of a quarter million plus at least because travel

[Host]

alone, because you're golfing internationally.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So yeah, it's just a really tough lifestyle and people don't understand like the travel wears you down. And then when you do become a top player now all of a sudden you got autograph signings, you got sponsor obligations, you got all these things pulling you away from your golf game.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's probably the hardest part is transitioning into like being someone who's a legitimate star like on the PGA Tour.

[Host]

Distractions.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, cuz like I noticed it a lot, like, and I mean I talked about it like our first few minutes of this podcast, like being a top hitter in long drive, you know, all these things now that I have to be on top of and kind of take care of and do on top of what I was doing, I was building my abilities. It's absolutely insane.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And it's really hard to maintain a level of proficiency where you continue to be the best or at least one of the top guys.

[Host]

Yeah, man. This is the stuff that doesn't get talked about on tv, but it's what's needed.

[Kyle Berkshire]

It peels back the curtain a little bit because I think a lot of people, they just don't understand when you get to a certain level in a sport and you get your name out there and you get known for being at a certain level, you. That's who you have to be 247 or you're not that person anymore.

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

Example, like you know, the Mr. Olympia.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So guys who win the Mr. Olympia, there's just tremendous pressure on them even when they retire to stay huge and massive even though it's terrible for your health.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so a lot of these guys, they really struggle with not being that guy anymore.

[Host]

Identity issues.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, yeah. Like a guy I think did a great job transitioning away from that was Jay Cutler. He won like three or four and then he's, he's retired, but he still maintains size. But he, you know, he keeps it very, very low in terms of the dosages of like the stuff. He takes things of that nature. And he stays huge, stays big for these bodybuilding exposures, but he stays healthy. Yeah, and that's the hardest part. Not just physically, but also mentally staying Healthy. And you hit those heights in anything sport, the technology sector, anything. It's hard to not make that your identity 100%. And you can't maintain that person. It's just not possible.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so if that becomes your identity, if that becomes who you are, then you're not that person anymore, which inevitably

[Host]

happens with Everybody, everyone, business CEOs that sell their company or athletes.

[Kyle Berkshire]

It's brutal.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because you. You want to be that person, and when you're not anymore, you don't know who you are. Right. You lose yourself.

[Host]

Yes.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Really tough.

[Host]

Yes. You're constantly battling with that, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Oh, yeah. I mean, like, for me, you know, as I shift into these different verticals, like, that's why I still train. I want to be that guy.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I want to be the longest sitter in the world. And I feel very comfortable saying that I am the longest sitter in the world. But I know that there is a time that will come that I won't be. And that's something that I know eventually I'll have to accept at some point. And to be honest, it's one of those things where you're not. I don't think you're ever truly ready for it. You just learn to kind of cope with it and accept that things have changed and you just try to go into being great at something else.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. What age would you say you start peaking at in terms of hitting?

[Kyle Berkshire]

I would say most long drive guys, and in general power and sport, you see a lot of people peak in their early 30s.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I would say late 20s to mid 30s is a pretty consistent window.

[Host]

Unless you're LeBron James.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. LeBron James is. People don't understand how absurd that is. Because it's one thing to be at your peak in a sport, like in long drive. It's very. I don't. It's pretty easy to still be a top hitter in your early 40s.

[Host]

Oh, yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because it's just.

[Host]

Because.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Because, like, long drive follows an aging curve very similar to strongman, where you're just trying to create brute force, brute wattage from your muscles. Right.

[Host]

Very fast.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Fast twitch. Yeah. Like, but the NBA, you got to be. Agility goes before almost anything else. Athletic agility. And that's why to be running up and down the court. I think he's 41 now.

[Host]

41.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like, storming up and down the court, like, and he's not a role player. Like, he's probably the number two to Luka Doncic in terms of, like. I mean, number Two option.

[Host]

He just won the series for them against the Rockets.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

Lucas hurt right now, and he was the number one option.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I mean, that's what he's still. And I think he. He says it too, like he's. He can, in spurts, still be the number one option.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

When needed. And that's unbelievable at 41. Well, if you look at the stats, I think he was. There were eight or nine guys who made their NBA debut younger than him, and now there's only six or seven guys who play who. Who made their last NBA start who were older than him.

[Host]

Insane.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's, to me, to be on the top 10, both of those lists.

[Host]

Basketball, like you said, it's one of the toughest sports. It's a sport for young people.

[Kyle Berkshire]

It is. I mean, I think the average age on every any given Roger, like, 26, 27.

[Host]

Yeah, something like that.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I mean, if you're 30, you're a vet, and you're hoping you have maybe another four or five years if you take care of your body.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But it's a. It's a lesson to a lot of athletes, and I think people in general, like, if you take care of your body, if you're smart with how you utilize your. Your athletic abilities or frankly, any of your abilities, you always got to be asking yourself, what's the. What's the risk to doing this thing and what's the reward? And this was something I had to really learn early in my career because, you know, when you hit the ball for everybody else, everybody's just like, hey, you can hit a golf ball for us. You know, things like that. And I never said no when I was young and I had to learn, at some point you have to say no. Right. Because the. One of the pioneers of long drive, his name is Art Sellinger. He was one of the guys that got me into it.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Told me I was good enough to do it. He said, you're only going to have so many hits in your body. He's like, you need to make sure that when you're using those hits, you're either advancing your career or you're getting paid.

[Host]

Interesting.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And he said, don't be sorry for it. Don't apologize for it. It's like, would you. Would you have a plumber fix your house for free? Just even if he's your buddy? Like, no. It's their job. They need to be paid for that. It's their skill. And I think LeBron has done a great job of that, too. He does, you know, you hear load management all the time in NBA, but it's a real thing. I have a hard time thinking that it's not a real thing. If you have a guy who's practiced load management to a reasonable extent. He's playing at this level at the age of 41.

[Host]

I mean, they play 82 games a season. He takes a couple games off. People are freaking out. But yeah, dude, he's 41.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like, he's got an UNK for like 10 years. He's still playing in the NBA.

[Host]

Son's in the league with him.

[Kyle Berkshire]

That's. Which is pretty cool. I mean, imagine sharing a playoff series with your son.

[Host]

Yeah, that's nuts.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I mean, that's low key. Like something I want. Like, I want. I would love to be in a situation where like, I'm like the last stages of my career.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I have a son who's like in my. I'm in like my last world championship and I have a son who's like in the tournament with me. That's a competitor.

[Host]

Full circle moment, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, it'd be like a full. Yeah, full circle. You know, I, I imagine though, one of my goals is to become the oldest world champion of all time. I missed becoming the youngest by less than a year. So, yeah, I had a chance. My, my debut in 2017, I had a really good chance to win my first ever tournament.

[Host]

What happened?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Well, I just, honestly, I ran into guys that were better than me.

[Host]

Was this the long drive or.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yes, the World Championship in 2017. And again, like, there were so many things that came together for this to end up being my career. I was, I was so dead set on being a professional golfer. And I really believed, and honestly, I still do believe I had the ability to play at the highest level. And so I. But in one of my college tournaments, they had this launch monitor tracks ball speed and things like that. They're gathering data so they would have it to show at the national championship which was being held the same course later that year. And some of the numbers came back. And for PGA, for context, PGA Tour ball speed average is about 172 miles an hour. The super fast guys are high 180s, low 190s. Every once in a while you see a guy Touching mid-190s. And I was about 207. 208.

[Host]

Wow. I was in college.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And I never thought anything of it. I knew I was longer than everybody else at that point, but I never, it never really occurred to me as a career path. And Then I had a lot of guys around me who were like, dude, like, one of the guys happened to watch the World Long Drive Championships, which was like a week or two earlier, and he's like, the winning drive is 209 ball speed.

[Host]

Dang.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so. And granted, the highest ball speed of that tournament was in the low 220s. But like flighting the ball. Right. Stuff we talked about earlier, that matters just as much as speed. And a lot of the guys don't have a golf background, so hitting the ball solid, hitting in the center of the face over and over is critical.

[Host]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

But he's like, dude, you're literally swinging the club fast enough to already compete with these guys without training. And so I decided I'll do a qualifier for fun. Never expected much come of it. And ended up winning that qualifier.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

With the driver I was using in college golf, I won it by like, I think 30 or 40 yards. And hit. Ended up hitting a dry 474 yards. That kind of turned a lot of heads. And then that was to get into the World Championship. So I still, you know, I was like, you know, we'll see, I'll go to the World Championship, we'll see what happens. Only packed clothes for two or three, three days. And it's a six day tournament, you know, and I was aware that I'd be competitive. Like, I knew I wouldn't embarrass myself.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But I still had every intention of going back in for my junior year and coming back and playing, that was my intention. I just thought it'd be a fun thing, maybe help me see golf a little differently. Kind of help decompress from the game, but still be swinging the golf club. And then, you know, day one, made it through effortlessly, like, to where I just never really felt like I was even close to being eliminated. And to simple, simplify it. You hit in groups of 16, and you have five. Five sets per group, and you hit against three other people. And it's a round robin, so you hit against one guy each time, but there's four guys in the tee the same time, if that makes sense. Yeah. So it's like you and 15 other guys, and you have five sets, and it's you facing three other guys five times, and you're facing every guy once.

[Host]

Got it.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And first place, longest drive, gets 200 points. Second place gets 100, third gets 50, fourth gets 25. If you miss the grid, you get zero, and you hit six drives in two and a half minutes. And then if you're in the top half of that group of 16, you advance. If you're in the bottom half, you get cut. And I just kept finishing top 1, 2, or 3 in my group every time. And these days are passing on day three, and I'm seeing not as many people in the range as there were on day one. And then we went and made it to the round of 36, and the change became a double elimination format where it would be match play, you versus one guy, and it'd be best two out of three sets. So we'd have three. Three sets, and whoever won those two out of three would advance into the winner's bracket. And then whoever lost go to losers bracket and then the losers bracket. If you lost again, you'd be eliminated. And so I think my first. My first match was against Justin James, who was, I think, either number one in the world at the time or very soon to be. He ended up winning the whole thing that year.

[Host]

So were you intimidated by that?

[Kyle Berkshire]

A little bit. I mean, I played him. I knew how good he was.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But to be totally honest, I literally had no idea what was going on.

[Host]

Like, I might have worked your benefit, actually.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Oh, 100%. Like, I was so green, I had no idea what I was doing. Like, all I knew was to just make sure I showed up to the tee on time. I knew how many balls I was hitting per set.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I was just. I knew I was just trying to hit the ball as far as I could inside the boundaries. I saw in front of me and Justin hitting a freak ball in the first set, ball that I probably couldn't have could have never caught at that time.

[Host]

How many yards was it?

[Kyle Berkshire]

What was that?

[Host]

How long was the hit?

[Kyle Berkshire]

It was 396 but like into a headwind, you know, no elevation, just a ridiculous shot. Like 360 to 370 was winning most sets at that point, but it was best two or three. So in the second.

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

He goes, ob. And I hit a decent ball. Won that. And then the third set, I. I won that.

[Host]

Oh, wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And then in my mind I'm like, okay, let's get ready for the, let's get ready for the next match. Like, let's keep going. And then Art, the guy I mentioned earlier, he, he passed me the back when I'm walking off, walking away from the tunnel up to, to the hitting grid, I'm hitting, I'm walking from the tunnel back to the range and he's waiting for me at the tunnel and he pats me on the back and he says, welcome to the top 26. I think it was. Yeah, he said, welcome to top 16. We'll see you tomorrow. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you're in the show, you're in the top 16. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks because I had no idea that I would even come close to the TV rounds. And then it hit like, I've never been on TV before. Yeah, I've never, I've been a sheltered kid my whole life. And now I'm gonna be live on Golf Channel in prime time at 7pm the next day. And I wanted to throw up. I was so nervous.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Luckily I had about 30 hours to get ready for it mentally. And then, yeah, first drive out of the eight in the round of 16, I believe I drew. I think his name was Trent Scruggs. Solid hitter. I think he was seventh or eighth in the world at the time. And first ball was, I topped at like 60 yards. Like, it was one of the worst shots I'd hit in 10 years.

[Host]

Dang.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But second one, I'll never forget it to this day. 214 ball speed right up the gut. Perfect drive. Ended up winning the set with that. And so the first day television was just a round of 16 matches. So then, now I'm in the final eight. And at this point, I don't know what, I'm like out of my mind. Like, I, I'm just so much further in the tournament than I expected. And the final eight I finished faced Tim Burke, who's a two time world champion and one of the top picks to win the whole thing, and hit a pretty good drive. He hit a monster ball that just stayed out of bounds. But I hit a good drive in my sixth or seventh ball and ended up advancing past him.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And at this point, this is where everything changes in my mind about what I'm going to do going forward. Am I going to do competitive two more years of college golf and then turn pro, or am I going to do long drive for a living? Because one of the things, obviously is you got to have a lot of speed. And I actually didn't know how fast I was. I knew I was 207, 208 in that golf tournament, but in my mind, I thought I was maybe 210, 212 in these long drive events with, you know, the long drive club and the Specialized equipment. And they had a live. A live screen, like on the left. Like on the left side of the. The scoring error. You could actually see your speeds during your set. And I think that was the set. Everything changed because I saw 220 ball speed drop down on one of my swings, which is a number maybe four or five people can touch.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

It's like throwing 100 miles an hour in baseball. So that was when I realized, okay, I have a future in this. Like, I can be the best in the world of this one day.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And then. So I got past Tim Burke and then ran in the final four. It was Mitch Grassing, and I just got beat. You know, he. I hit a. He hit an absolute monster ball. I think it was like 437. And I killed. I killed mine. Just absolutely killed it. And it went 433. Ended up just a little short.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But, you know, at that time, he was like 225 ball speed. I was topping out at 220, 221. I think the only two guys in the tournament that were faster than me that that year was Justin James and Mitch Grassy.

[Host]

Got it.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So. So I kind of pushed it as far as I could, but I also knew it was my first year. And now I've gotten ball speeds into the two 40s. So, like, that week changed everything for me.

[Host]

That's insane.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

So your first tournament, you made the final Four.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And I didn't even pack. It was the classic thing, man. I didn't even pack enough clothes. I had to start washing my clothes from earlier in the week.

[Host]

That's funny.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I was not ready for it. Like, I had no idea I would go that far. And then. And then 2018, I had a decent year. And then 2019 was when.

[Host]

That's when you won it, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And that was when I knew I was the best. I knew I was. That was my tournament to win or lose.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And had a couple close calls, but ended up Pulling it off. And that was when. That was when everything else changed for good, you know?

[Host]

And now you got four. Is that the most in history?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Jason Zubak has five.

[Host]

He's got five.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's kind of the last big thing I'd like to achieve in long drive is to win the most world titles. You know, I. I think I can win. If I was focused on long drive full time and really grinding it out and doing it week in, week out, going everything, I think I could win 10 or more.

[Host]

Wow. But the money's not there for that lifestyle.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Like, it's not even that. It's just there's so many other things I want to do while I'm young, and there's. There's a pretty long prime you can have in long drive. I have. I definitely have an idea that I feel like in my mid-30s, I'm gonna be doing a lot of long drive stuff, but it's just other things I want to do while I'm young that I don't know if I can do when I'm older. Like, playing competitive golf. Like, I really like to push the envelope with that. Really like to push the envelope with, you know, YouTube, YouTube, golf, things like that.

[Host]

You're crushing on YouTube.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Trying.

[Host]

Thousand on YouTube.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, we're trying. We're trying. I appreciate it.

[Host]

I feel like that's a lot, though, because it's such a specialized niche. So to have 250 on just for golf fans, like, that's actually really big, you know?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I would say there's a couple accounts with a million plus, but with the exception of Bryson and maybe one or two others, they're like group channels, you know, like, where they have, like. It's really tough as a solo creator to build a big following because you're competing against a lot of channels that have, like, production. Four. Yeah. Well, four, five, six, seven, eight great personalities. Right. But I mean, it's a fraternity, you know, like, everybody's friends with everybody, and I really don't have a bad thing to say about any of the guys in the space. That's cool. It's just tough because, you know, in YouTube, when you go into long form, as I'm sure you know, I mean, just looking at all the stuff here, it's gets like, it's a. It looks like a space. Looks like we're in a spaceship or something. But, like, you got, you know, but it's. It's also the content production chain. Like, When I started YouTube, I did it by myself.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because when Long Drive fell after Covid, my income was gone. And so I went to Best buy, bought about $5,000 of camera equipment, had no idea how to film, no idea how to do anything. Just started a YouTube channel. I would do it all myself. I filmed myself film on the tripod, learned how to export files, learned how to download them in the software, put shot tracer to show the ball tracing, learned how to do a bunch of other stuff. Did voiceovers and just video my rounds and voiceover them and post them on YouTube and became a really, really good, like, replaced my income within two months. Holy crap. And. But I guess when you don't. When your back's against the wall. Not that I felt that my bag was against the wall, but I hadn't made enough money to that point where I really could just not worry about it.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because like, Covid wiped the sport out for like a year and a half.

[Host]

Everything got canceled, right?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, everything. I mean, we had us. We had so much lined up for 2020. Such a shame. But Golf Channel owned it. And you know, when businesses encounter something like Covid. Yeah. They constrict. They want to protect their core business. And their core business wasn't long drive. It was professional golf. Crazy.

[Host]

And that felt like golf was one of the sports that was kind of like you could get away with during

[Kyle Berkshire]

COVID Yeah, I mean, it was. I think there was just a lot of panic in general for a lot of high level people. I thought it was a missed opportunity because you could have. You could have put us into a bubble and just held a long drive. Yeah. So, like, there's a huge opportunity there. We could have been like the only live sport program on it for months.

[Host]

That's why the UFC excelled during COVID Yeah. Because they were the only sport you could watch.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Exactly.

[Host]

Everyone became fans of it.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's why I think YouTube golf grew so fast.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like when I got. And I think it was really good timing for me because, like, when I got into it, you had all these people who. Two factors. One, who had been playing golf and had no ability to play it anymore, but still wanted to watch these great golf courses. And because I was a world champion, I had access to these courses. I could, you know, make a call. And they say, yeah, when you want to get out, let you play.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so these people could vicariously live through those videos. But also you had these people now who have nothing to do, who've got these, you know, four figure stimulus checks. And there's one sport Maybe a couple, but once one obvious sport where you can. Social distance and it doesn't change the experience of it. And that's golf.

[Host]

Yep.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so you have all these people, this explosion of golfers in Covid, and they're all wanting to watch something and they go to YouTube. So the YouTube space for golf became massive, and now it's super saturated. Like, the competition to get high viewership and to get in front of people is crazy.

[Host]

There's a lot. Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But it was really good timing, and so I did that, and that's what got me into YouTube. And now it's expanded so much. Like, it was just my. Just me for about a year or two doing everything. Now I got a team of like five or six people doing all kinds of different stuff. And the only difficulty with that is, like, when it was just me, I could post stuff whenever I wanted. Like, I could edit it and it's out there, but now when I. Someone's filming it, someone's sending it to another guy who's editing it. And then we have meetings on how we're gonna distribute the content, when we're gonna put it out so it can make it. You gotta have it, like, all organized.

[Host]

A lot of moving parts. Yeah. The thumbnail, the title.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And my team's amazing. Like, they're amazing what they do. It's just a lot more. A lot more noise. A lot more stuff has to be talked about. A lot more things have to be figured out.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So, like, it's. It's a lot more complicated than it was, but it's still worthwhile doing, and I really enjoy it. And. Yeah, it's a good challenge.

[Host]

Yeah. I watch. I watch Bryson's videos, even though I'm not, like, a huge fan of golf, but I think he's got a really good format with the interviewing and then trying to break a hundred or whatever things.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Break 50.

[Host]

Break 50. Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

What he's done a really good job of is he's really good at. He understands his audience. He understands that probably more than half of his audience isn't like, super, super serious. Back off. So he's really done a good job with collabs, bringing people in more of, like, a human interest thing, using golf as a vehicle to drive that human interest. And I think that's really been a formula that's worked for him really well.

[Host]

Brilliant.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

Cause to bring that mainstream eyeballs, I feel like you can't be too technical.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Right.

[Host]

Can't be too much about golf.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's like a line that as YouTubers, we always have to tow is like, you know, you gotta have satisfy the audience that's there because they're super fans. They're super big fans of golf. But you also got to then make it bring other people in. Right. Like, so if someone who's new to golf but is curious about it, they don't hear you saying, I guess, the stuff I was saying earlier, like, spin rate, apex, all that, and then they get turned off and they leave the videos. They don't know what you're saying.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So it's about storytelling. It's about crafting a narrative that people can instantly figure out and instantly get invested in.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's the tough part. You got to almost be like an actor and a director for sure. But it's. It's really good because it's forced me to become. To expand my personality a little bit and to learn how to let people in. Because in long drive, especially the first couple years, like, I don't want to say I was a pariah. Like, I was not, like, mean to people or anything, but, like, it was kind of like Tiger woods or any. Or Michael Jordan. Any guy who's like a top guy at their sport. Like, there's just a different vibe they give off and in a different way they carry themselves. That can put off a lot of people. And I don't know if it's an intimidation factor or it's just like, you're different than everybody else. But, like, my main focus in long drive, especially when I was younger, was just. I wanted everybody to be scared of me.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I wanted there to be an intimidation factor. And I still do. And competitive. Yeah. Like, and it's. It's not like I'm trying to put that on. That is literally who I am when I enter that space. That's the way I see myself. That's how I operate. Right. But I think when it comes to building a brand, a brand with people who follow you, you got to be able to let people in. In a different avenue. And that's why YouTube and then doing stuff like this has been so good, because it allows people to see me outside of that context of, you know, being super focused, game face. Right. And kind of not letting. We've been the trusted experts since 1960 because nobody knows tires better than we do.

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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Buy and Drive [e-mail] Let's get you

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[Kyle Berkshire]

And I really want to let people in more when I have those opportunities.

[Host]

That's interesting. So some people saw you as like

[Kyle Berkshire]

the villain almost 100%. You know, like you can only win so many times before people get tired

[Host]

of you winning the Golden State Warriors.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Exactly. Because I think people, people never want to see you do bad. But I think the best way to say it is people never want to see you do better than them. So like if someone's really struggling, if someone's having like a hard time, people will pick the, pick that person up as we all should. But I think it's human nature that eventually if you see someone doing better than you or you perceive someone to be doing better than you, you look upon. Your first gut instinct is resentment. And if you look back to our basic. I like to trace everything back to, like, our survival and what we do to survive. And if someone's doing better than you in your mind, so go back to thousands of years ago when it was hunter gatherer times or caveman times. You could perceive as they're hunting better than you, or they're building a better abode, a better place to sleep better than you. That resentment fuels you to do better, fuels you to do what you have to do to. And I guess this is kind of a jaded way of looking at it, but, like, to take them down, to take their cave, to take their food. And so I always trace it back to that. Like, obviously, we see things. We're different now in terms of our society, but when you see someone doing better than you, that resentment is a good thing because you should use it to feel yourself to become better.

[Host]

I actually.

[Kyle Berkshire]

To get on that level, I definitely agree.

[Host]

But most people use it the wrong way.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Like, they just. They let it put them into this frame of mind where it's. They direct that resentment towards the person instead of using that resentment as fuel to improve themselves 100%. And I'm guilty of that. Like, there's times I see people who are doing, I think are doing better than me, and I'll spend time, like, being jealous or thinking of, they did this and they don't deserve it. Doesn't matter if they deserve it or not. It is what it is. They've gotten what they've gotten through one way or the other. And as long as it's legal and moral, there's nothing you can do about it. And you have to accept it. And so the only way to use that productively is to accept that. Yeah, you're resentful, yes, you're jealous. But instead of directing that to that person who, frankly, doesn't deserve it, you're gonna look inwards and you're gonna say, okay, what can I do to improve myself? What can I do to get better? Can I use that fuel to improve my product, improve my business, to improve who I am?

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And then ultimately, there's always an element of luck, of course, but that gives you the best chance of getting to that place that that person's in where everything is solved, because now you're in that place you want to be.

[Host]

Great advice, man. Yeah. I think you could create your own luck, too, if you work hard enough. Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I Think a lot of people don't want to. I think the. I think I'm a big believer in this country being the land of opportunity. And I think a lot of people don't want to believe that because if they do, then they have to take responsibility for where they are in their current life.

[Host]

Right.

[Kyle Berkshire]

You know, I, I just don't believe any. I think everybody, for the most part, some people are given head starts.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I think there's no denying that. But I think 99.9% of all people start from a viable position in this world, especially in this country, where if you make a series of right choices, if you make sure you position yourself in places where you got a good chance for things to happen in your favor and you hustle and you work hard, I truly believe you can elevate yourself to a very favorable place in this society. Now where I will say there is a notable difference is if you're in, say, you know, if you're in that 99.9% of people, if you're in that, like say top half who had a small head start, you might be able to elevate yourself to a CEO or some crazy huge place. If you're in that bottom half, you might only be able to elevate yourself to like upper level manage or some kind of. But a really. Yeah, but like a really good job still.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So like, what I'm trying to say is like, it's all perspective, right? Yeah. Like upward mobility is very, very real in this country. I think a lot of people, it's just very hard and it doesn't happen a lot because you have to be beat out other people to get it.

[Host]

Yeah. There's stats to back up what you're saying. I believe 85% of millionaires in this country are self made.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

So they didn't start off as millionaires, myself included. Myself too.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. I mean, and I think, you know, we, I think it's really cool to talk to someone like yourself because we had, we. You know, you briefly talked about your background before we started this. But like, you know, we found something we were good at. We worked our butts off at a young age. We were smart, we were intentional how we did things, we made good decisions, we had a little bit of luck, obviously, and we are where we are. And I think it's a lesson to a lot of people that obviously there's a luck involved, there's environmental factors involved, but what's the point in dwelling on that? Like, what's the point in Saying you're given a dis, you're a disadvantage. How does that help anybody? How does that help you? Right. What if you say, okay, I've been given, I've started behind a little bit, but I'm going to use that as fuel to work even harder. And man, imagine a story it's going to be when I can tell people where I came from to where I am now.

[Host]

Exactly.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Everyone's going to be so impressed and inspired by it. And I just think there's just a lack of accountability in general with a lot of people in this country where. And it's sad because I wish people believed in themselves enough where they, they believe if they put in the work, they are giving themselves a chance to be great, to be the best version of themselves. And I think some people just aren't willing to take accountability for themselves. And I feel like our country as a whole and the world as a whole, people did have that attitude. The things we could do as a society would be massive, unimaginable.

[Host]

Where do you think you learn that accountability thing? Because that is a rare trait these days.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I feel like, I think it's, it's how you're raised. You know, my parents raised me to take accountability for a lot of things. And you know, I think just. I think a lot of the time I had a lot of really good people in my life early on that held me accountable for a lot of things.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

My college coach was another one like he, he really was tough on me.

[Host]

Tough love.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

That's how I was raised.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And I think people that are raised like that directly correlates to more success. I think, I think one of the toughest things is when you have. You come from a home or a family where your accountability isn't taught because then it's so hard. It's so easy for you to then to blame everybody else for your situation. But I think, I think the best way to teach accountability is. It's oversimplified, but it's. I don't know how to say it. If you do something that is against the laws of society, is against what you're supposed to be doing, a negative consequence should be directly imposed upon you that you dislike. And that memory of that negative consequence teaches you accountability.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And there's just too many people, especially nowadays, who grew up without that, that influence. Yeah. And they turn into people that get mad at everything, that they're not being handed everything. And they walk around this era of entitlement.

[Host]

It is interesting. A lot of Parents want to be like friends with their kids these days.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. You can't be a friend with your kid. You have to be, you have to be a father figure or a mother figure. And I think it's just. And you have to be strong. I think there's a direct correlation between people turning out to be successful contributing members of society and there being a strong father figure present in the house and a strong mother figure, president in the house.

[Host]

Nuclear family. They've done a lot of studies on this and that is the best system for raising kids, for mental health, for outcomes.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And people. I don't know why people want to move away from that. I don't know why we're trying to reinvent the wheel. Humans have been genetically and biologically wired the same for a hundred thousand years. I don't think one generation is going to change how we truly are wired.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I think that's why there's just been so much chaos in the world the last 10, 20 years.

[Host]

Just because.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because there's a lot of people who think one way, but they truly think a different way. And they're trying to convince themselves they don't think that way.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And it's tough because a lot of it's really comes down to how they were raised and their experiences and a lot of what they feel and experience is valid. It's just sometimes they're not seeing it the way they should be seeing it. And it's a sad situation for sure. But I mean taking accountability and understanding, it's up to you. One of the biggest things I've learned in my life that has helped me so much is that no one's coming to save you. Y like no one's going to give you a handout. No one's going to help you out.

[Host]

Not even the government.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Exactly. I mean government, I mean stuff that the government's not even capable of running basic programs now.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

You know, like, last thing I would trust is the government for real. I mean I'm a big believer in self reliance and I want to take care of my own household because I the way I know I can. I don't want someone else to do it for me.

[Host]

100%. Yeah. Golf really teaches you accountability. Right. That's why I like sports too.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

Because to, to excel in a sport, especially an individual sport like golf and I was a big track and field runner. Like you're accountable for everything you do at that, at that point.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Oh, 100%. I mean if you hit a bad shot, you can't point at a teammate. Yeah, you're the guy who hit it.

[Host]

Exactly.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's. And you said track and field the same way.

[Host]

Yeah, I run a bad race, that's

[Kyle Berkshire]

on me and that's what makes it so tough. But I think that's why it's so important to be involved in sports as a kid.

[Host]

Yeah. My mental, my mental fortitude or whatever you want to call it comes from track and field, comes from sports.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And was there a lot of. How do you. What was the biggest thing, how mental is track and field comparing?

[Host]

Because people think it's all physical, but when you're a distance runner, you have to stay locked in. Like, you know, it's, it's a really mental sport.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And is it just knowing when to kind of how, how to pace yourself to like time like your last sprint to the finish, or is it just

[Host]

like a lot of it's pacing? Yeah. There's a lot of strategy that goes into these races. You're reading body language, you're reading the other runners breath, seeing where they're at physically. But it's so easy to give up when you're running too. Like a lot of people will just give up, but the strongest runners are the strongest ones mentally.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

There's a guy that just ran a marathon in under two hours, which is crazy. Isn't that nuts?

[Kyle Berkshire]

I mean, when you realize how far that is.

[Host]

Yeah. The fact, 6.2 miles, fact that human

[Kyle Berkshire]

legs can move that fast, that far, that in that time is just crazy nuts. But like I, I really think it should be mandatory for all kids to play some kind of sport up to a certain age because I think it teaches life lessons and I think it obviously gets kids in better shape. And I think the kids that are most at risk are the ones who don't play sports, who don't practice healthy eating habits and exercise habits and don't have a strong authority figure present. Those are the kids who turn out, who end up in jail. Those are the kids who end up in bad situations, who end up not making the most of what they could have made of their lives. There's just a certain way in this world, if you want to be in this world, you have to pull your own weight. You have to be responsible for your own actions and you have to behave in a way that doesn't infringe others. That's the law of the society. And no one can get away from that. No one can protest that away. No one can say this or that. That is how our society works.

[Host]

I agree.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And you can either choose that or you can have fun in the in the jungle trying to scavenge for food. Yeah, you can choose which one you want to participate in. But if you want to have the ability to have the comforts of a civilized society, then you have to participate in that society. That means working, that means not infringing upon others, and that means pulling your own weight. And I feel like that sometimes people, they have this sense of entitlement where they think they're entitled to those comforts without pulling their weight in this world.

[Host]

Yeah, it's weird how people call golfers entitled.

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[Host]

Have you seen that?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think that comes from people see really wealthy people who work their butts off their entire lives finally enjoying their work.

[Host]

Right.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So they only see them in the context of them being in their leisure time. But like, I've played golf with a lot of very wealthy people and I can tell you I'm very curious about their backgrounds. Every one of these guys still works, maybe works less if they're in their 60s, 70s, 80s, but every one of them has a background where they could talk for hours about their work history. And that work history included 70, 80 hour weeks where no one else thought what they were doing made any sense. They innovated, they got ahead, they found a way to beat their opponents, they found a way to beat the market and whatever they were selling. And they made a series of good decisions over a period of decades that compounded to a place where they can do whatever the heck they want. And that's, that's the context. People see these people in and they want a point of figure saying, you know, I'm not where I am because of that guy. He's holding me down. No, that guy worked his butt off for 50 years and now he's enjoying himself. You're 25 years old, 30 years old, you don't even know half of what he's forgotten. So get, get a job, work your way up, do what you have to do to level up, and maybe one day you'll be like him.

[Host]

Yeah. You're gonna be a good parent.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, one day. You know, hopefully one day. But I mean, I think it's just, to me, it's just common sense.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

You know, and I think unfortunately common sense is becoming less common.

[Host]

Yeah, there is no common sense anymore.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

Because everyone's just doing their own thing.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I think too many people have just been given handouts. When you're given it, when you're given a handout, you stop, you stop looking for a hand up.

[Host]

Doesn't work. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not the biggest fan of handouts. It obviously sucks growing up and you see all your peers getting them and you know, that used to affect me, but now I'm grateful for the way my parents raised me.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

Because like, they didn't give me a car when I was 16 or whatever. Everyone in my neighborhood got one. I grew up kind of middle upper class, but that made me stronger, I think.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And I mean, there's. And I think. And to be clear, there's. There is a very small fraction of the ultra wealthy. This doesn't apply to it all. Where they grew up in luxury and they never had to learn to work. And you'll see more often they blow an entire family fortune. You can have a family fortune slowly build over centuries, and it takes one bad parent to raise a kid. That blows the entire thing.

[Host]

I think it's every three generations, it cycles something really high. Like 80%.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Because they lose touch with what it took to get there. My father was raised in the projects.

[Host]

Wow.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I have the benefit. And my mother wasn't super wealthy either. So I had the benefit of two parents who, you know, we had enough money to. Where money wasn't an issue. But like, we. I was always taught the value of the dollar.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And that's why, like, even. And you have the same background as me. It seems like even as I started making more money, I never lost sight of the fact that money is extremely valuable. When you have it, don't blow it. Don't spend it frivolously. And like, I think a lot of people, especially athletes, you see this with athletes all the time. They come from these backgrounds where they're not taught this stuff. They don't have a strong authority figure, president. They're just really, really good at something that our society pays a lot of money for. And then they get this money and they don't have any support around them to protect it. They have all these people coming out of the woodworks demanding money because apparently they knew them five years ago and they lost cousins. Well, that's the problem, is an athlete's income is public record.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

You got other people who make tons of money who you wouldn't have a clue. They make a lot of money, and that's the best situation to be in.

[Host]

I agree.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But it's like, it's amazing how many athletes are broke who had they been even reasonably frugal with their expenses.

[Host]

Does that happen in golf, too? Because I know with other sports it's

[Kyle Berkshire]

obviously golf, so it's really interesting. Golf and baseball are the two sports where you almost never see it happen. And I think I know why. Golf and baseball have lengthy periods where even if you're a top player, you're grinding your butt off in the minor leagues. Like in baseball, a top prospect, when he gets recruited and signed, he probably won't make it to the big leagues for four years. Three to four years.

[Host]

Got it.

[Kyle Berkshire]

One of my buddies, he wasn't like a super top prospect, but he was drafted pretty high. Was drafted in 20, 20, 18. He just got the call to the big leagues yesterday.

[Host]

So seven years.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, seven and a half, eight years. And in the minor leagues, you're making anywhere between 20 grand a year to maybe 80,000 a year.

[Host]

Oh my gosh.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And so what happens is these guys, even these top prospects, you might see, you know, a generational player like Juan Soto, a couple other players that are really judge. Yeah, yeah. Like they might make it through the minor. Judge didn't debut until he was 25.

[Host]

Oh, really?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. So. But these guys will maybe make it through in two years. Bryce Harper, I think, made it through the minors in about a year. But the average top prospect, guys that are making 30, 40 million a year right now, spent three, two to four years in the minor leagues making nothing. And so they have this adjustment period. But NFL, NBA, you're drafted, boom, you're on the roster.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

You're making 40 million a year out of college.

[Host]

Plus they have nil now too.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

So they're making, some of them are making 67 figures in high school.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Exactly. So how can you expect these kids to deal with having all that money? The sharks are going to be circling. Guys are going to be, they're going to be coming out of the woodwork left and right asking for money.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And it's like you're going to say yes because you don't know any better. Like you're sure? Yeah, sure. I want to make you happy. Like here's, here's this hundred thousand dollars. I'm making 40 million a year. What is it to me? But you have a, again in the NFL you have a. On average you have a four to six year career.

[Host]

I think it's actually two and a half now for NFL. Yeah. It's lowered.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So even more than, I mean, so.

[Host]

Yeah, three and a third.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. 60% of athletes are broke within five years of retiring from their sport.

[Host]

That's crazy. They spend their whole lives to become a professional athlete and then they're broke within five years.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Because like the average guy in the NFL is probably making 2 million a year maybe, which is phenomenal money. But think about this. Like, let's say you're, you're playing, let's say you're playing like for, like I don't know, the. I'm not super up to date with my NFL stuff. But let's just say, for example, you're playing Baltimore Ravens, you got, and you're making 2.1 million a year. You're maybe a second string safety or something, which is most people, that's most their experiences. You got first off, you got 1.7 million of that is being paid out of 40% tax bracket.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

So that's about 500 grand, 600 grand. You got 10% state income tax on the whole thing. So that's another 200 grand you got to pay your agent, which is anywhere from 10 to 20%. So that's another 150,000. You're seeing maybe 50, 40, 45 to 50% of your paycheck hit your account. So now you got a million dollars to work with. And then from there it's, you got all these crazy expenses. You got to live in the city, you got probably a hundred thousand dollars a year in rent, you got all these things. And then you got to buy a cool car because you're an athlete. That's another two, $300,000. And now you have all these liabilities.

[Host]

You got to retire your parents.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. And save a five year career, which is being generous. $5 million is what you come into contact with. That's what you have to work with. And these guys, they burn through it before they even finish playing. Yeah.

[Host]

If you don't invest that, you're screwed. Look at Odell Beckham. I think he made 100 million.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah.

[Host]

And he just filed for bankruptcy.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. Adrian Peterson's another example. And it's just, that's why again, being raised and one of the things that I really. And this might be a little preachy, but I think it's. I've felt this way so long, it is insane. To me, at least in my experience in school. I learned to freaking knit in seventh grade. It was a home economics class. I didn't learn a single thing about financial literacy. My entire experience growing up through middle school, high school, even in college, same.

[Host]

Yeah. They taught sewing class in my seventh grade. I broke the machine on the first day.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Who cares?

[Host]

You're sewing.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Who cares about that?

[Host]

I'll just buy it from China for 10 bucks. Why am I going to sew for an hour to make a shirt?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like why? Why don't we teach our kids how to manage our money? And part of me actually wonders if there's special interest groups that don't want us teaching the kids, our kids a whole rabbit hole. But if you look at this landscape of our world, it's Actually insane how many things are set up to keep the individual weak and the government strong.

[Host]

Almost all of it. It's the food, the education, the water. I mean, literally everything.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like, the government does not want free thinking individuals who accumulate power and wealth because then they can't control you.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I don't think there's these giant conspiracies. I'm just saying that, you know, when you get to a place of power, you're going to do what you can to stay in that place of power. And part of that is trying to influence everybody else to knuckle under and be controlled.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And I just wish more people were raised in a way where they thought for themselves instead of as a, as a group mentality.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

This goes back to taking accountability and knowing that you can rise. They don't want you. People don't want you to know that upward mobility is possible in this country. They want you to buy into that narrative that the rich are out to get you. And to be clear, the rich want you to stay where you are, but you have control over a certain set of circumstances where you can elevate yourself way more than you thought possible.

[Host]

Agree.

[Kyle Berkshire]

But if you think it's the richest fault, that's what they want you to think.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Because then you're going to protest, you're going to, you're not going to do anything productive. They got the special interest groups where they got more money than protesters ever could have. And you're going to stay where you are and they're going to stay where they are.

[Host]

Yeah, there's that narrative that the 1% are evil. Yeah, I see that all the time. And we're part of the 1% and we talk to these guys and it's farther. So far from the truth.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah. We're just people that worked our butts off, got a little lucky and, you know, innovated something, did something that a little better than everybody else or just worked harder than everybody else, worked hard,

[Host]

learned a high income skill. That's what you need these days with AI. You need to be able to find a skill that you can monetize.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Absolutely. I mean, I think that, you know, at the end of the day, that's really what it comes down to. And I hope more people start waking up to that fact is like there's just so many. If you produce something that people are willing to pay money for and you become better at it than anybody else, that's all that matters.

[Host]

Right.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like, the best advice I can give is forget about the Size of the industry. What do you love doing? Whatever it is you love doing, become the best in the world at it. Because I think. I don't know there's any studies to back what I'm about to say, but just anecdotally, people that become the best in the world at something, most of them love doing it more than everybody else. And I think when you're practicing a skill, if you enjoy it and you love it and you're more engaged, that transitions to the brain, that gets stored in the brain better than someone else doing the exact same thing for the exact same amount of time. I love long drive more than even golf. I didn't realize how much I loved it until I started really getting into it. And I think my love for the sport in those formative years allowed me to work harder and train harder, but more importantly, absorb more of what I was doing. Because I was so mentally engaged in it. Because I love doing it so much, I think that's what allowed me to become as good as I was. And that's my advice to people. Like, long drive is a tiny industry, but because I became the best at it, I was able to make money in it. So, like, whatever it is that you love doing, forget about, oh, is it a small industry? Oh, is it this? Every person. If you become the best in the world at something, I don't care how small the industry is, you can become wealthy.

[Host]

Agreed. Look at Rogan. When he started podcasting, it wasn't big. Now he's making. He's gonna be a billionaire of podcasting. He's already made 500 million.

[Kyle Berkshire]

That's unbelievable.

[Host]

Yeah. And no one watched podcasts 15, 20 years ago, he created a lane, created a movement, now pot. Everyone has a podcast, but, well, the

[Kyle Berkshire]

beauty of it is excellence transcends everything. People will sit back if you can tell someone's excellent something or the best at something. You'll watch, like, you know, like, totally random, but, like, cup stacking, speed stacking. I'll watch that stuff because it's so amazing to watch someone who's the best at what they do.

[Host]

I watch chess. I watch random stuff like that. Even video games. If you're amazing at Super Smash Brothers, I'll watch that.

[Kyle Berkshire]

I think our minds genetically and evolutionarily are wired to be drawn to greatness. And the beauty is, if you love something, I believe that love and that passion for it can be channeled to where you can train better, more efficiently, and harder at it than even someone who's trying to become that and pass them and you can become the best. And then having a skill that specialized at that level, people are going to want to watch because we're just drawn to excellence. We're drawn to greatness.

[Host]

Absolutely.

[Kyle Berkshire]

And it transcends, transcends every single niche.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Like it transcends in the general population.

[Host]

You're living proof of a man. But dude, this was awesome. How could people support you, find you, keep up with you?

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I mean I, I got a YouTube. I mean all my sources are my name Kyle Berkshire. I'm on tick tock, YouTube, Instagram and try my best to keep up to date with as much of those as possible. Post as frequent as I can. Yeah, um, but yeah, man, this is an absolute blast. I'm really able, really glad we're able to get together and talk about it. Seems like we're both pretty like minded individuals, so it's, it's refreshing.

[Host]

Yeah. Appreciate your time, man. We'll link everything below. Check them out guys. And good luck tonight in the channel.

[Kyle Berkshire]

Yeah, I appreciate it man. Thank you.

[Host]

Thanks for watching all the way to the end, guys. It means a lot. Please click here if you want to watch the next episode and please subscribe to the show. It helps us get more guests and helps grow the brand.

[Kyle Berkshire]

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[Kyle Berkshire]

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