Real Estate Happens
All things Real Estate! From the crazy things you see in real estate to better ways to do business. Thought provoking to get you fired up and ready to take on the day. Kenny Letner is the Broker and Owner of Aweigh Real Estate in Virginia Beach VA. Join us as we explore the different aspect of Real Estate as it pertains not only to the real estate professionals but also to the consumer and see what is changing in the real estate landscape.
Real Estate Happens
Climbing the Corporate Ladder and Launching a Cornhole Empire: The Inspiring Journey of Claudell Clarke
Get ready to discover the inspiring journey of Claudell Clarke, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Hampton Roads, as we chat about his experiences climbing the corporate ladder and launching a unique cornhole equipment and apparel business. This episode is packed with valuable insights on the importance of financial planning, setting goals, understanding your target audience, and the power of collaboration.
Join us as we explore Claude's time as the Executive Director of the Hampton Roads Sports Commission and his venture into the world of cornhole with the creation of Cornhole Coastal. We also discuss his involvement in the upcoming KOA Cornhole Tournament and Festival, taking place on October 13th and 14th. Don't miss out on the exciting details about the event, including a blind draw tournament with over 125 participants, live bands, axe throwing, and food trucks. Get ready to be inspired and entertained, all while learning valuable lessons for business success!
Hey guys, welcome to Real Estate Happens. I am here today with a very good friend of mine I've known for a little while now. We've got a great show for you today. We're going to do some in just a minute. We have a wonderful show for you today. We're going to be talking today about what it's like to really work your way up in the business world and using that information that you gain and that knowledge to build other businesses, and it just makes so much sense. I'm very, very happy to introduce, to have with us today Claude R Clarke, who is the president and the CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greta, hampton Roads. So, claude, i'm so glad to have you here today. How are you?
Speaker 2:Can't it do it well? Glad to be here with you, glad to share these thoughts, glad just to see you doing so well.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, we met, I think probably three years ago, and since then, at that time when we met, you were. What were you doing at that time? You were the with the Hampton.
Speaker 2:Roads. I was the executive director at the Hampton Roads Sports Commission and VPS Sports at the Hampton Roads Chamber.
Speaker 1:So talk to us a little bit about what you did and what your capacity was at that, that stage of your life.
Speaker 2:Well working with the Hampton Roads Chamber to grow and enhance youth sports and adult sports in the region, to bring sports to this region, bring economic development to this region and to use our great facilities and showcase those to both the region and the country.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of people don't realize just what a great, you know, environment we have here for sports in general, with the fieldhouse and the fields out there and with everything that we have down at the oceanfront. I mean there's just so many things that are just so special about this area when it comes to sporting and sporting events. You know. I mean look how many, look how many of our youths have gone on to be in professional sports coming from this area. I know you were involved in a lot of that right.
Speaker 2:Well, you talk about the brand new sports center, the scope, hampton Coliseum, all the local colleges, just facilities everywhere. So again back to your question the Sports Commission, the Hampton Roads Chamber. We just wanted to highlight those and just bring sports of all levels, all ages, all backgrounds to this area. And did that, and not only just bring sports to the area that are already existent or are in existence to create new and unique sporting events. And that's kind of how we met around Cornhole. Creating one of those events from scratch almost became the largest in the country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's, it's, it's amazing And we'll talk about that real quick. So we've talked about you and what you did there and you know, President and CEO of Better Business, which I think is a natural transition when you're dealing with all of the different companies, and I think they saw the talent that you have to help them deal with businesses and having that real entrepreneur mindset and having somebody in charge of that in the industry or like that, i think is super important for our area and I think is really, really amazing. But you've also kind of taken that and started another business and another company, which is exactly how we met And you know it was very funny. There's a ACL, american Cornhole League. It's the big Mac Daddy of a mall, so what you see on ESPN and everything else. There's a young lady by the name of Catherine Kennedy who probably runs every ACL tournament in the Northern Hemisphere. I mean right, i mean that's what she does If it's ESPN from, you know 300 team tournaments out in California, 400 team tournaments. If it's happening with the ACL on ESPN, she's there behind the scenes running it and making it happen. So, real quick and everybody knows this, we're going to just talk about it real quick.
Speaker 1:I'm a Mason Virginia Free Mason and a Shriner, and so I have gotten involved with that because you know my philanthropy, i don't have a lot of money to give but I have time and some talents and some other areas to give. So we started about three years ago. We did a Cornhole tournament and we did it at the K-Wade campground And our first year, i mean it wasn't bad, very rudimentary, you know. Not a lot of people knew who we were, but Catherine Kennedy. The very next year she goes hey look, this has some potential to be a very big tournament. And she said I want you to talk to Claude L. And so who the hell is Claude L? right? So I mean, with a name like Claude L, i'm expecting to meet Bubba, right, you know? and you walk up. This very professional businessman shows up and we sit down and we talk and come to find out He owns a company called Cornhole Coastal. Please tell us about that.
Speaker 2:August 1st 2022, we make the leap, stop doing tournaments, stop kind of being this organizational figure of tournaments and building that side of it and say, hey look, we want to get into the manufacturing side. So we started off making these bags, boards, apparel as I said, august 1st of 2022 and hadn't looked back. We've used the contacts that we had in the Cornhole World, cad and many other organizers around the country in this region and have just sold quality bags based on this coastal theme Cornhole Coastal. We have these coastal animals, but have just had a lot of fun, trusted the process and enjoyed the process, been a lot of challenges growing a company sponsoring major events like KOA and the challenges and the rewards that come with those sorts of things and just building our business model and learning from the ups and downs of business, as you know, as any business owner will do And, again, just have enjoyed and been so fortunate and so blessed to be at this point to have this established and actually very successful Cornhole Bag company well into year one.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, i believe in karma and you know, let's be honest, you probably lost money on our tournament. but it's not really about that, right, it's about the charity. And you know, i just see so many companies out there when they first start out, they want to do good and they want to make money and do these things and they forget about giving back to the community. And, cloddy, you mean, you gave back to the community day one. You gave back to the, not only to the Cornhole community, but also to the Shriners and the good work that the Shriners do, and everybody knows the Shriners. you see us in our little cards, out there in the parades and raise money.
Speaker 1:The first year we did this, we netted about 20 grand, which is great, And then Cloddell came on the next year and really helped us pump it up And the next year we netted 32,000. So thank you, i really appreciate the help in that. And you know, this year coming up will be our third year and Cloddell is our presenting sponsor this year And as far as I'm concerned, we'll be every year after that. So it's working out really well. So we're super, super excited about that. Cloddell, where do you see this, this company of yours, going? I mean, in a very, very short period of time you damn near hit the national stage with this company. You're not just you're not just selling things local anymore, you're really moving up and starting to be a force to be reckoned with And people are starting to recognize you're equipping your bags, your brand, as being something special within the thing. I don't even think you have some ACL pros that you sponsor that are playing on ESP, and Mike, mike Harvey comes to mind.
Speaker 2:So well, it's a very good question And you go back to charity, which was so important as the kind of the precursor to that question. But actually, when you talk about business is about growing relationships, is about banking networks. So, to be very honest, yes, we sponsored the event, but we actually have reaped the benefits of being a potential or being the presenting sponsor of last year's tournament 10 fold. There are certain persons that we met there, on top of the sales that we did, who continue to buy things from us to this day, who continue to trust in us to this day, who continue to grow with us. At that point, just bags and apparel Now it's bags, boards, pitch pads and other things And they continue to buy from us. So those networks and those relationships that we built there, on top of the charitable component giving back to community, which we love.
Speaker 2:Now, we knew this was a way by way of such a prestigious tournament and such a uh a tournament that has grown to this, this regional giant. We knew the visibility was going to also help our company. And that leads us to your next part of your question. It's about collaborating with successful organizations. I knew when SCAT uh recommended it, referred you to us and the Soraner's organization. I knew that was a person, an organization we could grow with, we could be seen with, we could extend our reach, so to speak, and be seen with them, and other people will see us on top of the charitable component And that we took that very same attitude and collaborated with groups all over the country, um, from all walks of life, all skill levels, all nationalities, and we've collaborated our brand with some, uh, with companies and and organizations, cornhole clubs, all 50 States.
Speaker 2:So that's why you see us so far nationally. We're also very fortunate to get a Devin Harbaugh, a professional, right here in church in Virginia, and Devin is currently ranked the number one player in the world. So as he wears our gear and he holds up our bags, that's certainly great exposure there. So, just in a business sense, uh, a person may say Cornhole is just sports, just fun, just recreation. That's a tough business. But uh and and business, kenny, as you talk about real estate and Cornhole better business bureau, it's just about the network And it's about continuously growing that network, uh, collaborating with persons in that network, and then that's what was made us so successful. We're not afraid to collaborate with anybody.
Speaker 1:You know, i I'm kind of glad you kind of went down that hole. So let's go down this rabbit hole just because I want to. I want this to be something useful for all young entrepreneurs or old entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter, i want there to be something useful. I want them to be able to take something home from this, and the one thing that I want them to take home is we see a lot of people and we all hear the old cliches. Well, the biggest problem with businesses under capitalization is this problem. Is that problem, is this problem? But I think there's more to it than that.
Speaker 1:You have taken something in a very short period of time And you've taken it from a thought and an idea to something. Like you said, you're all 50 States. Right now, you've got the number one cornhole player in the world, is one of the people that is, you know, representing a company, and we know, if you read books by Malcolm Gladwell like blink or tipping point, um, we know that it takes a combination of hard work, determination, exposure and then also takes that opportunity Right. So what I'd like for you to talk about right now is I would like for you to kind of take a young entrepreneur who's really wanting to do something. He's got a great idea and just give him some pointers of what would be really appropriate and what would be really helpful for him to start grow and start to be able to scale and succeed at whatever it is they're trying to do. What would you, what advice would you give someone?
Speaker 2:Not a great point, we do this at the uh, better business bureau all the time with micro businesses and startup businesses. Uh, by bringing in these large scale service companies and persons who have been successful and been accomplished and teaching them those exact principles. Um, it could be accounting, it could be inventory, it could be sales, whatever it may be, finances, right, right.
Speaker 1:Um, but to, to get directly to that question, And some of this we did backwards also.
Speaker 2:Uh, because I'm the type person, i'm an emotional leader, i'm going to visionary leader. Uh, you have persons who are out here who are not going to be successful Out here who are very practical and very numbers driven and very um, very planned and calculated and everything they do. And they have to be that way And they should. That's why you have business partners, but, um, you know, to have that exact plan, your financial plan, your accounting plan, your goals of what you want your sales to be, your suppliers, your vendors, your end users, the target audience, the target market, and then the activities, the sponsorships, the business development, the continuing education, whatever it may be, the actual steps you're going to have to scale up. And then also surrounding yourself with other successful business owners.
Speaker 2:Don't look at these other persons in the same industry as competition or out of that. Go to every single person that you respect and that you respect in the business world and study with them. It's no different than Nick Saban or Bud Foster and these guys, after their football seasons they go off and study with a coordinator, they study with an offensive coach or defensive coach. You know, go out and study with other business owners and sit with those persons Starbucks or wherever it is and just sit and listen Don't talk. Sit and listen to their stories, sit and listen to their pitfalls, sit and listen to their successes, sit and listen to their process and then learn from that and then incorporate that into your own And they're giving you that information to sometimes make you better than what it is they did.
Speaker 2:So it's just this constant learning, constant planning, and people talk about hard work. That's one thing to work hard, ken, you know this but it's not working hard, it's working really hard and working smart at the same time. And in understanding, when you get to be a business owner, you got your family, you got your health, you probably got your day job, you started a business on the side. It's about time management And you just got to manage your time down to the second, not the minute.
Speaker 1:So I had someone give an analogy about hard work one time, and I think it's probably the most appropriate analogy I've ever heard. If you have somebody who's a ditch digger and he's digging ditches and he's the best ditch digger on the planet and he can dig, you know, 40 feet of ditch every single hour, that's great And he's working hard. But if he's digging it in the wrong direction, what good is it? So, to your point, you know you've got to have a work hard, but you've got to have a plan. You've got to have a plan to work hard and taking that direction. I think some of the best advice you just gave was listen to those that have been there before you. Right, there's not many times in this world we need to recreate the wheel. We need to look to those who are successful. So I guess what we could take from what you just said was look to those who are successful, listen to them and repeat the process Right, wash, rinse, repeat, right.
Speaker 2:That's what we like right.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, i learned a lot at a number of different jobs, coach, and we talked about the sports commission, norfolk Fest events, which we hadn't talked about how to do things at the absolute highest level with these tournaments and major events And Karen Sherbur and Ted Verruti over there, they they world class events done at the highest level. You don't eat right off the ground. So what I've done is taken these different experiences and try to draw from those, still learning, still collaborating with people, but taking these different experiences and trying to put this all into how to make the best cornhole bag or how to make the best design, or how to make the best packaging, or how to be the best sponsor at a cornhole event, or how to make the best apparel or how to make the sponsorship and and enhance that sponsorship And just it's just drawing on the experiences that you've had. But it goes back again to collaboration And if Kenny's the greatest real estate mind out here and he's a business owner, which I am, which I am, which I am.
Speaker 1:What's your students?
Speaker 2:I am. He paid me to do that, but a sponsorship moment. But if you have these experts around you don't be uncomfortable in your skin to just sit with them. Hey man, let me come. You don't move a muscle. Kenny, where's your office at? Can I bring, can I bring you lunch? Can I have 10 minutes of your time just to talk to real estate about me? The more that you sit with experts, a lot of people don't understand that concept. The more that you sit with experts and be comfortable about just taking in information and just being like a doormat And baseball we used to say be like a sponge Got a big time hitting coach or big time pitcher, don't say a word man.
Speaker 2:Just understand his curve ball. Understand his, his fastball in the business world. Just understand his process of how he scaled up or how he manages his employees or how he itemizes his finances or whatever it may be. Listen and take that stuff in and put it with your own unique idea and your own passion. It's just yours. He didn't take it away from your passion. He didn't take it away from your unique idea. He's just showed you how to package that, scale it up and make it digestible for the public. Once you understand that concept, then you have a chance to be successful.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny because you don't have to take everything one person tells you. You take the things that work for you from that person, the thing that worked you from someone else We should say in the Navy all the time. Leadership is not imitating the person that you work for. Leadership is taking all of your experiences and taking something from everybody you've ever worked for and making it work for you in your own unique way. I tell people in a way real estate all the time, your business, your way I mean real estate agents shouldn't have been a contractor, right? So it's not my business, it's their business.
Speaker 1:So I try to coach, mentor and get them to really work on what works for them, their unique selling proposition, what is unique about them that makes them better than anybody else. Some of the processes are the same. Trying to understand the back end of things is financing and some of those things and your taxes and tax liabilities. Gets to know those things, because they'll screw you, they'll, they'll, they'll. Boheka, right, you know, you know. Boheka right. Bend over Here it comes again, right? IRS is really good about that right. Every quarter, they want, they want that money. So. So something to really think about. Claude, what else would you like to add to this today?
Speaker 2:Well, kenny, just back to the cornhole thing. You know we just very excited to do this for our second year events, third year. But to be able to do this and grow with you, to have this vision of taking this chance on you, you taking this chance on us last year, to be able to come back this year to add some new elements to our sponsorship, to have enhanced some of our equipment that the players will be using, to, you know, grow to the level that you're trying to grow and have the same mentality of how we want our company to be nationwide versus how you want this tournament to be. You know, it's just this, this great sponsor positioning, and this is why we continue and intend to continue to do this each year.
Speaker 1:Well, you know it's amazing because you're right, we were really taking a chance on each other. I think we were just, you know, two little jackasses out there in the wind trying to kick a door in, and we and we found each other, and I think that's it's been really, really great. October 13th and 14th at the KOW campground, every year is going to be that second weekend of October. This year It lands on the 13th and the 14th Friday night. Gates open Friday night at the KOW. Parking is free. We got shuttles run you back and forth. It's only like two blocks. We got shuttles anyways. Right, because you know I've got shuttle sponsors going to advertise them Run you back and forth. Gates open at five.
Speaker 1:Registration for blind draw. Look, one of the biggest blind draws, damn near on the East Coast, i think. Last year we had what? a hundred and almost a hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty people just in our blind draw tournament. Now it's a 50 50 blind draw. It's a $20 to come in. 50% of it goes to the charity, the other 50% gets paid out, which is kind of nice. Kat does a great job doing that, so that's that works out for God.
Speaker 1:Last year, though, man, we did not have enough set boards out, so let me just digress for a second. So we kick this thing up. Everybody knows you're at a KOW campground quite times like 10 o'clock. Well, i'm very fortunate to KOW, he loves me down there. I've done some big events, big giant professional barbecue tournaments, yada, yada, anyways. So Kat goes, this is going to be running kind of late with a number of boards. I got on like yeah, okay, you know 11 o'clock. I think the bag, last bag went in at like two am. So we've solved that problem. This year We have a 40 by 100. We got a 40 by 140. 10th. This year We've added, we've added four more sets of boards which should really kind of speed that play up. But anyway, so back splice seven o'clock that night. I think we've got the beekeepers playing that night.
Speaker 1:Live band. Huge bar, reverend shout out to Reverend spirits been here sponsoring with us every year bourbon and vodka and just great time. We're going to have axe throwing there again. This year We got two barbecue. We got a barbecue truck and hamburger truck. Didn't have enough food trucks last year. It's got crazy. You drove them. The lines are a little too long, you know. So this year we're adding a new thing this year writing a kid's tent. So there's going to be something there for everybody. Have you been to the Cali lately?
Speaker 2:No, lately, oh my God, that's as we left.
Speaker 1:They redid their water park. I'm going to call it a water park. It was a pool, now it's a water park. I think they spent like $14 million on this thing And I'm like, man, well, you won't be open. I don't think as we might. It's heated. I'm like you are kidding me, right? So they've got like a lazy roll river and one thing or another. So all of that's there and available. So so that's Friday night. Then Gates open 9 am or 8 30 on Saturday morning. Registration 8 30 to 10 to get all the teams ready. So we're going to have 127 teams this year. So there'll be, you know, tons of players out there.
Speaker 1:We've got some great vendors. Claudette will obviously be there with his wares Again. All the other activities going on. Bags fly at 10 on Sunday. We've got an auction, a live auction that afternoon. That evening will be auction. I'll send things. We offered auction, auctioned off those barrels last year, those bourbon barrels, man, those, those did well. I think somebody paid a lot of money for this, so it did pretty well, yeah, so we're probably going to have some more bourbon barrels this year. We got a presentation of colors at 9 am. We'll be doing that thing.
Speaker 1:Another national anthem, kick off the day and just have another great band on Saturday. Now I think Louis McGee's going to be there this year. Play on Saturday night, so it's going to be just a great time. Really, come out and see us, join us. It's going to be a wonderful time. Claudette, thank you so much for being here today. I know we now have a Facebook live. Oh, oh, one last thing, claudette, we're doing something I've never. You said and of course, you're way more in the corner than I am that I think I've been done Right. We are actually going to provide for the players an actual tournament style jersey. Player only. Only way to get this jersey, the only way, is if you play in the tournament, there will be full color. Claudette, tell us about this jersey.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, we talk these things, that we want to grow the partnership. How can we be exclusive? And I'm sure, as a disclaimer, somebody's done it somewhere on earth.
Speaker 1:But not like we're doing it.
Speaker 2:As far as I know I don't want to offend anybody and politically correct, But you know, one of the larger tournaments that I've seen, who has done this, has put out this customized jersey. So you know, Kenny, you've raised the payout and you've raised the profile of this. But I said, look, how could we go another step further? So I'm grateful that we've come together on this jersey and a coastal outerwear is our apparel arm that powers Cornhole, Coastal's apparel and a lot of other groups apparel. So this year we were in position to put together a jersey, worked really, really, really hard on design. I think we've put that on your desk and you use some choice words in a positive way about that jersey. So we're getting those final kinks worked out.
Speaker 2:I think I said it was fucking sick. I can't say that he can, it's his show.
Speaker 1:It is, it is so it's such a look. This thing is so nice. It's full color. Wait till you see just the retro feel that this thing has to it for really for like a vacation desk. It just flows so well. I'm not going to get into it too much more because that announcement is going to be coming out. We're going to be sending that out to everyone, but it is an amazing, an amazing jersey. So only the players get it have to be registered by September 15th. If you're registered by September 15th for this tournament, you will get your customized name on the back of this jersey. Now, a lot of people have probably done Jersey, but I don't know how many of them have done so that where they've been, yeah, yeah, we'll put whatever you want on the back of your jersey. So it's not like one size fits all. Each jersey is customized to that player.
Speaker 2:So I think that's pretty amazing, you even have V-neck for the ladies.
Speaker 1:We even got V. I was hey, that's a new one for you. We got V-neck for the ladies. I know they're going to be so happy about that. So I get that complaint all the time. When I have a way real estate shirts made And they're like we want V-necks, i'm like I don't sorry, i have a razor blade. We cut it down a little bit. Probably doesn't work for most people.
Speaker 1:Claudel, thank you again for being here today. Guys, i'm going to get off here. We've got a Facebook live. We're going to go jump on right now, so we'll be talking some more. Join us, kc Shrinerscom. You'll see us in Facebook at KC Shriners Is. You'll be able to find us just KC Shriners here in Hampton Roads. And, like I said, join us. We're looking forward to it. Everybody, have a great day. We'll catch you next week.