Marketing a New Pharmacy | Kyle Palmer of Parker's Pharmacy

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

[00:00:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, good morning, Kyle. Good morning. Good morning. 

Thank you for joining us here. Of 

[00:00:17] Kyle Palmer: course. I'm uh, I'm, I'm thrilled and ready to, um, give the listeners something to listen to Mike Kyle, 

[00:00:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: for those that have not had the pleasure of coming across what I'm gonna call your magic and your artwork online. Tell the listeners who you are, where you're from, why we're 

[00:00:37] Kyle Palmer: here.

Good morning. My name is Kyle Palmer. Co-owner of Parker's pharmacy here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Uh, my title is the director of marketing and that's just what I do. That's what I love to do. I've been, uh, been in marketing for the past 10, 11 years now. So, uh, that's my take on the business. I love every aspect of it.

Digital marketing is what I think that I do well. Uh, and I'll leave that up to others to say, if I do it well or not as well, but, um, but yeah, digital marketing is my niche, as well as just making great relationships with people in the community. So it goes hand in hand, Kyle, I came 

[00:01:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: across Parker's pharmacy mm-hmm , uh, about a year ago as I was kind of wandering through the internet on social media and that, and we, we connected, I guess, more business to business than person to person mm-hmm

But every day I would turn around and you guys had not necessarily a bombardment at all of, of social, but a very nice flow and everything that you put out was like, It just seemed like high quality kind of perfection a month or so ago when I was thinking about the podcast and who I wanted to be on it.

And so on, I sent a generic note over to your guy's place on Instagram. And I said, whoever is in charge of this. I wanna talk to you. yes. Yes. And 

[00:02:12] Kyle Palmer: so I had, so I was a little, I was a little delayed in getting back to you, but I was like, I was really thrilled that you reached out 

[00:02:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: too, and I saw you and your, and your brother on, uh, you know, on some of your stuff.

But I had no idea who was gonna be replying and I got one of the head honchos himself and so that's why we're here. Any of the listeners before you finish this, take a pause, this show here a second, go over to Parker's pharmacy and you'll find them and you'll see what I mean. So, Kyle, let's start with your education.

You've got education and your education, is that right? 

[00:02:47] Kyle Palmer: Yes. Um, I. I come from a line of, uh, educators, um, 11 uncles and aunts and, and nine of 'em are educators from elementary all the way to, to, to pharmacy professors. So, um, educators are deep in our family. I finished educating myself in Montana, Billings, Montana.

Um, yes, that's a little strange. I play college basketball at Montana State university. And, uh, I finished my degree there, but immediately after that, I've always been interested in marketing. Um, and I dove into it. I started my own marketing firm in Billings, Montana. Uh, while I lived there for a total of 10 years, 

[00:03:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: You knew sort of right away, you weren't gonna be going into education per se.

Or I knew that 

[00:03:34] Kyle Palmer: I wasn't going into education right away. I've always been an entrepreneur, but I also knew that learning how to. Build a team and run an operation. You have to learn how to teach people. Yeah, for sure. I used my education degree to, uh, assist me with learning how to teach, relate and build a team mm-hmm uh, so, um, they didn't know that while I was in school.

And can I teach, I can, I can go in and teach right now if I would like to, you know, but yeah. Right. I took a different angle on my, uh, education degree and it's actually, um, Helping us out right now with Parker's pharmacy, how we're able to teach our employees how we need to get them to where we need to 

[00:04:20] Mike Koelzer, Host: get 'em.

Yeah. And from my end, you guys need to get 'em there quickly because you've opened up another, within a year or so you've opened up what, another location or? 

[00:04:29] Kyle Palmer: Yeah. Um, so we are currently in the building stages right now. We just put the signage up, uh, a month ago and we're currently building, putting tile in and, and everything right now in the second location, tile and electrical right now.

That's where we sat on that project. So yeah, we are expanding. Really fast. Wow. Um, which is a great thing because it could be on the other, the other end where yeah. Business isn't moving, but everything's been going really well so far for us here at how far are those two locations 

[00:04:59] Mike Koelzer, Host: apart? Uh, 

[00:05:00] Kyle Palmer: the second location is probably like four.

Four and a half, five miles away. 

[00:05:05] Mike Koelzer, Host: I've always had just one location for our pharmacy, but I've always thought I maybe wanted more just so I could hide from people. So no one, so no one really had tabs on me. Where's Mike at the other locations? Gotta be working hard over 

[00:05:21] Kyle Palmer: there. That's hilarious. But, uh, just to give you a little background, uh, and if you, if you look at our logo, it says it was established in 2016.

Uh, so that is kind of confusing to some that don't know the story. Tell us. So, in 2016, Orlando and I, this is your brother. Yes. Brother pharmacist, older brother, younger. My oldest brother is actually three of us. So we are eight years apart. So, um, Orlando is my oldest brother. Uh, graduate of Xavier university of Louisiana school, college of pharmacy.

Okay. Uh, he contacted me understanding that I had a heavy background and skills in marketing in 2016. Uh, he was doing well off for himself here in, uh, Louisiana as he was practicing a nuclear pharmacy. Okay. Um, and I was in Montana running the marketing firm there. So he contacted me and said, Hey, I have this idea of opening up a string of independent pharmacies.

I had no idea about pharmacy besides what he talked to me about. , you know? Yeah. But, uh, we both were away from home for a little while and we just decided to make that go, uh, be closer to family as our family continued to age and grow. So, um, in 2016 we will develop. Parker's pharmacy. And we actually started game planning for two years straight and we opened up the pharmacy April of 20 18, 2 years 

[00:06:52] Mike Koelzer, Host: straight, two years of planning.

Where does, uh, where does the name parkers come from? 

[00:06:56] Kyle Palmer: Parker is Orlando's daughter, the first girl of the family. So we decided to name it after Parker. Ah, that's beautiful Uhhuh. That was just a little background, just so people understand, you know, well, I see 2016 on the logo, but I also see that you guys had a grand opening in 2018.

So that's the little background on it. You guys 

[00:07:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: did your homework. The logo's got the, um, a little bit of the, the saints, uh, yeah, saints there we're big saints fans here because my, I went to Purdue and when Brees was playing at Purdue, my son, my oldest son was maybe like five or so. 

[00:07:33] Kyle Palmer: Okay. 

[00:07:34] Mike Koelzer, Host: Somewhere in there.

Got it. So he took a liking to Drew Brees Not knowing Brees' future. And then, uh, and then when Brie went to the, uh, chargers, our, our house was kind of a charger's, um, design. 

[00:07:48] Kyle Palmer: You follow him, he's you follow him? He's a great 

guys. And then it went to, and then it went over to the saints and we had to get the Saint's memorabilia.

[00:07:54] Mike Koelzer, Host: Oh yeah. And, uh, and so we've been down to St. Louis twice to watch the saints play the Rams. And we also went to Detroit once to watch the saints play the lion. So we saw 'em like three times live, but we've never, uh, never made it down to those parts down there. 

[00:08:13] Kyle Palmer: Oh man, it's a beautiful thing. So, I mean, if you just scroll on our.

Instagram and Facebook account. So we have season tickets. So we, we, you do, we are heavily who, who dat nation, you know, how, how 

[00:08:25] Mike Koelzer, Host: How far are you guys from? Uh, I, I don't know any, I'm terrible at geography. How far are you from both the new Orleans, the stadium, and also all of the, all of the, uh, you know, hurricane stuff from, from years back.

How, how, where are you guys compared to that? Um, 

[00:08:40] Kyle Palmer: We are, we are an hour away from New Orleans. Okay. And, um, oh, and that's 

[00:08:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: where the, that that's where all the hurricane was obviously, uh, 

[00:08:52] Kyle Palmer: the, the biggest impact. Right. So when, when, when everyone from outside of Louisiana, you know, speaks on the hurricanes, everyone was affected in Louisiana.

Everybody 

[00:09:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: was everyone in some way or form or? Yeah, 

[00:09:06] Kyle Palmer: But after Katrina hit, um, New Orleans really had the worst. Um, gotcha. Hit of all, but yeah, we're just an hour away. 

[00:09:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So everybody was affected by, actually, the weather itself. Yep. Yep. Not, not, not just the ramifications of it. Oh, of course. Of course.

All right. So, Kyle, what happens then in that, what happens in those two years as, as your brother calls you and you know, you're responding? Do you just start planning then, or yeah, 

[00:09:36] Kyle Palmer: basically. Yes. Um, a lot of research, a lot of market research. Um, that he was doing, that was totally different from what I was doing.

So he coached me up in a lot of areas that I had not no idea about. And then I ran with that to do homework. Um, I researched a lot of other, um, pharmacies across the nation, independent pharmacies across the nation, successful from what I can see. And then. Some unsuccessful ones that I've heard about, right?

Yeah. So I researched the whole, uh, spectrum. And then of course I incorporated that into my game plan and strategy marketing 

[00:10:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: wise, I'm seeing your graphic design stuff. You've got also the love and the skill of the background, the market 

[00:10:21] Kyle Palmer: research. Yeah. And, uh, it is totally different. Right. So I think about it, and I speak about this a lot.

I have a seminar coming up on the 19th of September where I'm talking about marketing, it's all strategy. We can put out great content. On our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter pages, it just looks good. But what's the strategy associated with it? Is it associated with mm-hmm are we releasing it? Perfect timer for cold and flu season?

Mm-hmm are we releasing it? Perfect timer for national drug takeback day? Is the community involved? So it has to have a strategy associated with it. So, and with that strategy, I was able to attend, thankfully, before we even opened the doors, I was able to attend two. Of, um, Cardinal health conferences.

Gotcha. So, and you know, all the continuing education, I'm not even a pharmacist. Yeah. Myself, but I was in all of the CE classes that I can get in one day. Yeah. You know, so that was amazing for myself not being a pharmacist or right. Um, a new pharmacy owner myself, um, at the. To attend those classes to learn and soak up, um, as much information from the presenter.

Yeah. But also I was questioning all of the other pharmacy owners and pharmacists that were attending. 

[00:11:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: Was that their like retail business conference you were at? Yeah, we 

[00:11:42] Kyle Palmer: went to the first one in, um, San Antonio. I think that was in 2016. That's about 

[00:11:49] Mike Koelzer, Host: the first one I didn't go to, I think, see, we missed 

[00:11:51] Kyle Palmer: out on each other, man.

I'd gone to four or 

[00:11:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: five years before that. And I think that was one of the first ones I didn't go to. And then what was the next, what was the next one? 

[00:11:59] Kyle Palmer: The next one was in San Diego and that was beautiful there. So my 

[00:12:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: son has been to both of those because we send someone every year, but I, um, I guess they left me behind, maybe they don't even, maybe they don't even show me the advertisements anymore.

They just don't want me to go . Yeah, because when you talk about your strategy, that's something, that's something that I was just feeling. I was picking that up too, that you seem to have great graphics and a great message and great timing. And, and until you mention that to me, I wouldn't be able to say, oh, this is what they're doing, but that was a, but as you mentioned, these things, to me, that's kind of the feeling that I get.

Yeah. Let's start with something as simple as the logo, Kyle, is that something that, and I'm asking deeper about your, your GRA, the graphics and so on. Are you doing those graphics yourself or are you, do you have an assistant or hire that or something? 

[00:12:51] Kyle Palmer: We have an in-house graphic designer, photographer and videographer.

That we work with, um, consistently. So we don't jump around with graphic designers and things like that, just because, you know, as you jump around with different graphic designers, your look and brand can get lost. So we do have, um, an in-house team. That's doing everything where I, of course I am the person that's, you know, delegating and telling 'em what we need to get done at certain times.

Um, but yeah, I don't personally do it myself. I have, I am more so the creative and strategist 

[00:13:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: I need to back up then mm-hmm, , don't give the world any secrets you can't give away to answer on any of Mike it's. It 

[00:13:34] Kyle Palmer: is. And I'm glad you mentioned that it's no secret it's no. All right. Meaning, meaning you just gotta 

[00:13:40] Mike Koelzer, Host: do the work.

You gotta do the work and it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, but you have to do it. That is such a great point. All right. So during those two years that you and Orlando were talking, what were you coming up with? It was obviously a plan and it seems. It's a plan I've never seen before. Mm-hmm what was that plan?

What was that overarching idea? Like, it's almost like you had a mission statement of your marketing. Mm-hmm , you know, like, like a strong mission statement of your marketing and what was that? That's a 

[00:14:11] Kyle Palmer: great question, Mike, with my experience, I've seen small businesses as well as large businesses take the route of doing the normal advertisement and marketing strategies, whether it's a billboard, right?

Whether it's a commercial on your local N station, whether it's an ad in a newspaper. Right. Um, where's the connection, Mike? So I, that was my mindset that they can see you driving by and, uh, Driving on an interstate or on the street too, and pass up your billboard. They can see you on the local news stations.

Well, how are you really hitting them where the heart is? Hmm. I truly believe that if you connect people, connect with people at the heart, you have 'em forever. Hmm. All of the other traditional marketing strategies that people are doing, you're here today and going tomorrow because you, you don't have a real true connection.

So everything that we are doing marketing wise is really trying to make deep connections with the current patients, but also potential patients. That was the mission and, and vision. Then we break it down from there to strategies to go after how we can get that 

[00:15:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: done. All right. I'm hooked. I buy into that.

Now, break that down and then to your general strategies. Yeah. In 

[00:15:54] Kyle Palmer: Any business, right? So I'll break it down. Six months ago, I moved from Montana, Billings, Montana, August of 2017. So all this communication and research Orlando was in Louisiana. I was in Montana. We were still running our businesses during our day to day, but we were researching in all of our extra hours that we had.

So I moved down in 2017 to Baton Rouge to get this ball started. But I told Orlando that the marketing had to start the day that I got there. It takes time for people to just say you like these, just say you like a, a, a pair of shoes, Mike. It might take you two or three times to see that shoe, maybe on someone else, or maybe as an advertisement online to say, Hey, you know what, I'm gonna go get it.

Mm-hmm rarely do you see people making, oh, it's a new pharmacy. I'm gonna go in there. Right, When you open the doors, right? So I knew that from the start that we needed to build up a marketing campaign before we opened the door. 

[00:16:59] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Because I always tell people on that point, I always tell people it's like, guys, just because we're new or we do something new.

It's not like we're inventing the wheel. It's not like people in your area said, oh, there's such a thing as drugs. We can start using medicine. Now they're already serviced by somebody. 

[00:17:17] Kyle Palmer: Exactly. 

[00:17:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: Not as well, hopefully as you could, or I could, but they're already being serviced. So just because you're new.

You've got a big hurdle still. 

[00:17:26] Kyle Palmer: Exactly. So with that being said, for that six month span, before we actually opened the doors, we were at every church, we were at every community health fair. We were at every school. So we built up a lot of momentum. We were sponsoring things. Our pharmacy was still going through approvals and everything.

Right. We were still getting everything really rolling, but we were deeply in the community getting our name out there. 

[00:17:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: Even if someone said you could have opened that first day, was it better to wait six months? Because it building up that, um, 

[00:18:00] Kyle Palmer: Anticipation 

[00:18:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: That tension, right? That 

anticipation.

[00:18:03] Kyle Palmer: Yeah. So, I mean, we knew the areas that people are, um, frustrated with, you know, the big boxes. Yeah. So, we knew where we were gonna be able to Excel in those areas. So, 

[00:18:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: so on purpose, you wanted that anticipation to build up, of course, like the trailer for a movie coming out, 

[00:18:19] Kyle Palmer: You can't explain these better than what you just explained.

That's exactly what it is, you know? So that was some of the, that was some of the strategies. So in Louisiana, the first big strategy that we had, right. Um, in Louisiana, we love our crawfish. Right, that 's okay. That's the thing, right? Boiled crawfish. um, is it the healthiest thing for us? No. Right. Um, but it's a strategy.

So right after our grand opening was April 19th. We had our first event. So two days after our grand opening and we had an event called, we got it right here. Still it's called transfer and peel. Okay. So it is very unorthodox, right? Very, yeah. Very unorthodox. So meaning all the people in the community that we've connected with already.

They're following us on Facebook and Instagram waiting for us to open our doors. We finally had our grand opening event. Okay. So now if you, your family member, your friends wanna stop by Parker's pharmacy and transfer your prescriptions from CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, wherever you're currently at. Yeah.

We're gonna give you a couple of pounds of crawfish, corn potatoes, but you have to transfer. It's very unorthodox for a pharmacy to do this, but. That day alone. In a matter of three hours, we had 250 transfers 

[00:19:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: were audio here, but Kyle held up this beautiful looking postcard. It said transfer and peel on the, on the postcard.

I'm assuming that I went to your mailing database. You had gotten six months of anticipation and so on. Were they eating around in your parking lot or are they 

[00:20:02] Kyle Palmer: I'll explain the setup of the event, right? Uh, we have a drive through access here. It was a day where they get to meet everyone, our staff, they get to walk through the pharmacy.

The pharmacy is beautiful and fresh. Um, we had live music. We had some other health vendors out there, you know, we had the table set up, you know, it, we, everyone had to Ming got a chance to mingle and, uh, those photos are also on our social media pages as well. Just to be able to see the community. We were out there for like four hours, man, just enjoying each other.

And by 

[00:20:34] Mike Koelzer, Host: this time you and Orlando are rock stars. right. Because you got people for six months that have been wanting to, well, I know you met some of 'em at the churches and things like that. Yeah. But you've got people that wanna then see you in your element and congratulate you and all this kind of stuff.

Oh, of course. 

[00:20:49] Kyle Palmer: I must I'ma say that's the second piece, but the first piece that the first reason that, uh, we became rock stars that day was cuz we was giving away free crawfish and if, you know, if you know the level of, uh, of, of what free crawfish could do out here, you'll understand it. Well, I 

[00:21:04] Mike Koelzer, Host: love that.

It's it's, it's like, I don't know us in Michigan giving away, you know, Instead of a, a coupon or something is giving away warm cherry pies. Yeah. Or because it's cold there. We're stupid. I don't know why we stay around here in the winter, but um, we'll do, let's say that was in the summer though. Hey, so that day happens, then that's a really cool thing 

[00:21:24] Kyle Palmer: On the business side, instead of opening up our pharmacy, it's been six to eight months that we're struggling to get people through the doors.

Literally two days after the grand opening, we're we, we have 250 people immediately. Wow. Um, wow. And, and it actually just took off from there and if we've done many other strategies since then that we'll probably talk through in this interview. But, um, I definitely advise future pharmacy owners. That's not acquiring an existing pharmacy, yeah.

To. And it has to work out this way for hopefully. Um, but give yourself enough time to build up something before you get into just opening the doors without momentum. 

[00:22:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So it sounds to me, and I'm gonna jump the gun on this. It's sort of like when people hear social media from you, it's almost like you're saying the social media is secondary because this could have happened 10 years ago or 10 years from now or 30 years ago.

Mm-hmm the whole thing was community. Filling the needs and making connections and whether it's social media or they're carried by pony express or by pigeons, it doesn't really matter. The message is getting to them. And that is the unity, the community and so on. Yes. But like what I saw in my head from you, and the reason I wanted to talk is because I got pulled into that.

Mm-hmm I think I, as you were even talking now, I got pulled in, I guess, now that I think about it less from your social media, but more from what it was speaking to my soul about being the community, but then being able to communicate that to other people and let them join the community too. Exactly. 

[00:23:17] Kyle Palmer: You hit it right on the head.

This is home for us, you know? Um, and we have some plans to actually show. It's gonna be a, uh, documentary that we'll put out. We're from a very, very tough part of Baton Rouge. Hmm. You know, lower economic development. Um, single mom, three, three boys. My mom pulled us out, gave us that education that we needed for us to move out of this area to continue our life.

So when, when, when we hear community. And when we say community, it means a lot. Um, yes, just because we know what needs to be done in our area. So, uh, and we go fight for that every day and do whatever we need to do to assist those in our community. So that's definitely the piece, the heart of the park is the pharmacy, the community.

Uh, we won't stray away from that year one to year 50 or as long as we're in business. Um, the community definitely gonna, um, dictate who we are and what we do. 

[00:24:20] Mike Koelzer, Host: There are communities all over the place, but your community really means community because communities are needed in your area more than, oh yeah.

A lot of other areas that bonding and that support 

[00:24:33] Kyle Palmer: and so on without, without a doubt, you know? So, uh, everything we do, you know, the strategy, everything is associated with it, which I'll lead into now, the, the nonprofit organization that we started. Right. So before we even opened, as I was doing research, I understood being in, uh, an area where it's a huge, uh, transportation issue, you know, financial issues and struggles that, um, our community faced.

Um, we knew we needed to step in, you know, to assist those, uh, individuals some way somehow. So we developed our, um, nonprofit organization, title parkers cares foundation, and we're gonna do many things with it. But as of right now, you know, we're able to legally assist those with. Copay assistance who really I really had and, and, you know, I'm new to pharmacy, right?

So I had a situation where a lady was like, you know, we delivered to her for a while. Since we opened six months from now, she called us and said, Hey, Kyle, I just can't get my medicine right now. Um, I had to go buy toilet tissue, you know, so for me, Orlando probably has experienced many of these, um, um, scenarios, but for me being new to the industry, I was like, man, You know, it, it, it really hit me, but, you know, knowing that we had the foundation, the medicine was only like two, three bucks.

And, and 

[00:26:13] Mike Koelzer, Host: part of that, you said legally, because a lot of the contracts and stuff say, you're not able to discount you can't wa the co you 

[00:26:20] Kyle Palmer: can't wave it so on. You can't, you can't not pay the copay. Uh, and that, that, that is illegal. But the, the, the way around it is the non-profit, which is more work. So some pharmacy owners may not want to implement that because it's more work.

Uh, but if you plan it in advance, put people into place to run it and make sure that it's, uh, run properly, then it works out best. So with the non-profit organization, we had, um, a black Friday sale in, uh, 2017. And you could find this on our Instagram page, where we had, uh, I wish I could show up to you.

We sold Christmas ornaments. We sold out. Actually we had like four different color patterns with Parker's pharmacy logo for 15 bucks. And a hundred percent of the proceeds went directly to Parker's care foundation. And I think we were at 16, 1700 bucks. So now that was the first initiative to raise the money for the foundation that will assist those in our community that can't pay for their copays or need some DME items over the counter items that they just can't afford.

So that's a way around it. So that was the first initiative that helped us out a big time. Uh, we did. And in the meantime, it's like 

[00:27:46] Mike Koelzer, Host: Recently, anybody who sees that nobody could disagree with that. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like a beautiful thing associated with your 

[00:27:54] Kyle Palmer: place. You know, we, we we're keeping the momentum, Mike and, and, and that's the plan and how can we keep the momentum.

So we can continually grow, but also continue to grow deeper and have deeper connections in the 

[00:28:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: community. If somebody were living, let's say in a little bit of a vacuum or something, if they saw your Parker's care foundation before seeing Parker's pharmacy, would that, would that 

[00:28:20] Kyle Palmer: Be okay? It won't hinder us in any way.

And I, and I'm assuming that you're speaking on, you know, individuals that hear about the Parker's Cares foundation that need it. Before they actually hear about the pharmacy. Maybe if 

[00:28:35] Mike Koelzer, Host: you could choose, would you always rather have someone hear about Parker's pharmacy before the foundation, or is the foundation such a nice builder that you'd actually like to have them hear about the foundation before the pharmacy?

Uh, 

[00:28:50] Kyle Palmer: great question, Mike, honestly, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter. Um, because it's all tied into helping our community. Yeah. Right. Um, so, so we understand that the Parker's Cares foundation, isn't, isn't an unlimited amount of money just sitting there that we can assist. Right. So it's a case by case basis, you know?

Yeah. Because 

[00:29:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: you don't want to have it, like everybody comes for this because it's free. 

[00:29:16] Kyle Palmer: You don't have it for sure. You know, so we do as much as we can throughout the year, we have, um, approximately like three to four different fundraisers throughout the year too. Donate a hundred percent of that, uh, money to the foundation.

And it's there. Now, if we run out, then that's a case by case basically we can't really do anything about that, uh, issue, but it doesn't really matter if they hear about Parker's cares foundation first, you know, I think if it comes to a situation where the foundation isn't able to step in, I think it's just great communication that we have to have on our end, for sure.

To let them know, Hey, we may not have it right now to assist you. Yeah. But trust me with the initiatives that we have coming up, we'll be able to assist you soon. So if we have to turn down someone temporarily, um, they'll probably come back after a while. Yeah. 

[00:30:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. 

[00:30:12] Kyle Palmer: I found a, I found the, uh, second thing though with what we did.

So, you know, uh, it was time for us to raise more money for the foundation and I struggled with it. Pronouncing these drug names. I'm gonna just keep it honest with you. And they pick on me every day here every single day. So, you know what I was like, Hey, let's raise some money. We got a community sponsor.

They donated, I think, a thousand bucks. Um, and, and some other individuals in the community donated as well. But the objective was, if I pronounce this drug name correctly, I will get my brother in the face with a pie . Now, if I get it incorrect, he gets to pie me. So, um, oh, that's great. We released a video on our Instagram as well.

It was called a pie face challenge. And, uh, I think we raised like 17, 1800 bucks for that. So it is, you know, different things where we need to have fun. Uh, we wanna make this as enjoyable as possible. So we got to have fun and raise some money. I don't 

[00:31:13] Mike Koelzer, Host: want your head to explode with all these, uh, cool things that you're telling me, Kyle and me saying how great of ideas these are.

So. 

[00:31:21] Kyle Palmer: It's deeper than that, you know, it's it is it's it's serving its purpose and that's really all that matters. That 

[00:31:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: is so cool because sometimes you'll see a company like a medical company, for example, mm-hmm I tell my employees like guys, guys, we're not gonna dress up on Halloween. Mm-hmm because nobody dresses up because someone's gonna wear it either something risque or they're gonna have a clown nose on and have to go out and talk to somebody mm-hmm about their mother dying of cancer or something.

Yeah. It's like, I don't want you to do that with a clown nose on mm-hmm but what's so cool about your idea is you can get, you can get goofy mm-hmm . But then someone's not saying, well, I don't want those guys being goofy. I want them to be serious about my medicine. Mm-hmm but what you're able to do is have fun with the social media, but then balance it way over here by saying, no, we're do, we're getting goofy for a cause mm-hmm for something bigger than ourselves.

We're doing this for the foundation instead of just to market the pharmacy. So that's just a beautiful balance. You are there doing those things. 

[00:32:26] Kyle Palmer: Yeah. And, and it's important that we keep our positive energy, you know? Yeah. You know, with the way the world is, there's a lot of, um, negativity out there.

So it's kind of like that. To stay clear of that. We want you to walk in our doors and just feel the energy from each employee that we have here to know that no matter what I'm going through personally, whether I'm sick, my family member or, uh, family members are sick, whatever the case may be. Um, every time I walk in here or see you guys online, uh, the energies there, the positivity there, you guys are enjoying life because that's what we're trying to, to, to put off, you know, I mean, exactly optimistic, you know, we want you to, no matter what we all know life is serious and it, and it's hard for all of us.

So throughout it all, how can we still be optimistic? And that's just what 

[00:33:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: we're. I know that in the midst of running a pharmacy, those events are hard. Mm-hmm, , it's hard because events are, they take a lot to get going a lot to market. And when they're done, they're kind of done. And so. To and so I never have a lot of events at my store just because they're really hard of course.

And, and, and they pass by as time passes by. They're just passing. So if you're, when you guys are spending time on these events, you've gotta do it with a purpose and with, and with something that's going to dig deep into someone's soul mm-hmm and stay there for years and years and years. Oh yeah. And if not, there's no sense doing them, but you know that every one of these you're pulling off is not just shenanigans to have people take a look at your sign.

It's really digging deep into their soul. Yeah, 

[00:34:24] Kyle Palmer: no. And, and, and you definitely correct. How much time, energy, and how, how that you have to dedicate to these events and strategies. We get it from our mom and if, and our mom's is she's in here as well. So, um, how about your 

[00:34:40] Mike Koelzer, Host: other brother? How about your third brother?

Is he still around her? He's 

[00:34:43] Kyle Palmer: he's not as around as much as, um, he would like to be, 

[00:34:48] Mike Koelzer, Host: is he in the business 

[00:34:49] Kyle Palmer: at all or not? No, no. It's just my Orlando and I in the business, you know, my mom and them will stop by here and there. But, um, yeah, my brother's in real estate, other brothers in real estate, so he does a lot of real estate, uh, gotcha.

Deals. Gotcha. You know, my mom gives us that energy. That's exactly where we get it from. So we are able to run how we run, uh, yeah. Long term. So we're very thankful for that. Um, But yeah, these events are as, as you know, you know, after you get through with one, you can be burned out and you still have the day to day operations to ACC, uh, exceed in 

[00:35:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: very much.

So, you know, very much so, so I totally understand that piece. So you had that six months build up, you've got the events transfer NPL mm-hmm and then going on to some of these other events, anything else in the strategy that you can share with the listeners? Or is that at the buildup and that deep bond?

No, 

[00:35:41] Kyle Palmer: It is more than that I would say. And, I would love to share it. It's no secrets here, but independence. We are, we have a lot to prove, you know, mm-hmm um, it's like we have to make sure that our service is better. We have to make sure that our co-workers know that our brand is acceptable. So what I'm, what I'm seeing out there when I'm doing my research is that when you look at our graphic design and how we present yourself, whether it's the, the, the content writing, um, making sure that there's no grammars, um, making sure that the graphic design looks like it competes with the highest company out there, you know, mm-hmm, , it, it, whether it's videography, we're gonna make sure that our commercial is no lesser than what you will see from a Walgreens or a CVS quality wise.

Um, because the consumers, they're not crazy. Right. Uh, they know we're not as big as a CVSR Walgreens. Right? But that doesn't mean we can't present ourselves to say, I want them to accept everything about us. Uh, from the, from the first time they see us, right? So for example, my on Instagram, social media, Facebook or Twitter, if you see someone asking for business, asking for the community to support their business, but their graphic designs are blurry.

You know, it's not at a professional level, some consumers are automatically safe from the first time they spot you online. They may not have it together. It might not be worth going over there. The same thing with the quality of a website, the quality of a website, while you're sleeping, your website is doing everything for you.

Whether it's the physicians, the doctors looking at it to, uh, check you out to see what services you provide. Um, so if that website isn't up to par and actually, I don't want you to just look at my website. I want you to, like, we want to grab you by the heart when you look at our website or our Facebook.

Right. Mm-hmm . So I'm saying that all to say that the quality has to be there. Um, because that's your first line. It's like a chess chess game, right? Yeah. The ponds are going out first, you know, they're the first frontline. So how are they representing us? Yeah. Right. The people that's seeing us first, whether it's social media, I need you to gimme them.

Yeah. You know, so by that, I'm gonna make sure that all of my content is the highest quality content. Even if you try to compare it to CVS or Walgreens, I want it to be better. 

[00:38:29] Mike Koelzer, Host: Arguably you, you wanna compare it to the best of any business, because let's just say that all of the pharmacy chains had crappy locals or social media.

So you've maybe won that battle, but you wanna win the battle of the best of 

[00:38:42] Kyle Palmer: the best. Exactly. And just to be honest, um, when I first started doing my research, I noticed that pharmacy and also maybe healthcare ISN, an outdated industry where marketing isn't the thing. Maybe because people need it right.

They have to go there. Right. So my, one of my main things is when you see the logo of Parker's pharmacy, or you go to our videos and things, it's just a freshness, right? The powder, the, the, the powder blue is accepting, right? It's very important when we're selecting colors that we understand what colors do to people's minds, you know, the reds, what, what does that mean to us?

The, the, the dark colors. What does that mean to us? So everything that we ex, uh, utilize in our brand and our marketing are welcoming colors. We have smiling people. Um, we, we, we want you to come in. I don't wanna just use things. That's going to make you think, like, man, I don't know if they're gonna accept my type or my kind or me, if I go there, you know, we accept everyone.

[00:39:49] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. For those of you that haven't seen Kyle's stuff yet. It's almost as if their designs are so sharp that I don't want to steer anybody wrong in saying that they're 3d. But, they're almost like 3d, they're so sharp that they jump, that they truly jump off. They have a tightness and there's something definitive about them that they're almost jumping out at you they're, they're so tight.

Yeah. And that's 

[00:40:12] Kyle Palmer: just the, um, the experience of our graphic designer, you know, being patient and selecting someone that's going to give us exactly what we need, you know, but, but this is business, right. Um, so right. What I know is sooner or later, our social media platforms will turn into revenue streams.

Mm-hmm . 

[00:40:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: And I will tell you more about that. 

[00:40:39] Kyle Palmer: So right now we are currently at like 15, 16,000 followers on social media. Right now I'm planting seeds and doing strategic things. So once we start putting products out there, and once we, I can't speak on too much right now, but once we start going in a certain direction to online sales, we have generated people that believe in us, our quality, our brand many pharmacies are only focused on their, their day to day, what they have to get done to, to, for the business to succeed.

Right. I understand that part as well, but I also know that how the world is trending and moving towards online and digital that we have to position ourselves to be ready for another stream of revenue. So, um, just for instance, right. Instagram little things, right. Instagram, when you reach 10,000 followers.

So I'm trying to get 

[00:41:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: the, then 

[00:41:43] Kyle Palmer: you can have the swipe up, you can have the swipe up. So meaning, I can tell people, Hey, click this link in my bio to go buy this. Right. That's too. Yeah. That's too much work for people nowadays. Believe it or not two clicks. Yeah. Two clicks away is too much for people to like, yeah, that's sad.

Right? Yeah. But, um, but it's just making it that much easier for my 10,000 followers to say, man, that's a nice thing that we're gonna have here soon. 

[00:42:10] Mike Koelzer, Host: I know you can't tell, but let me ask you this. Maybe at least you can share this mm-hmm . Is this gonna be a branded store or is it gonna be a branded actually a branded product.

Okay. That's I, I know you can't tell me much more, but, um, and when I say a branded product, is it something that people are gonna be able to have branded that they have in their 

[00:42:35] Kyle Palmer: hands? Yes. Um, that will be out sooner than the store and another huge product that we will be releasing. Um, so I think we're once we get through.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. 

[00:42:49] Mike Koelzer, Host: One point back on your point about having a certain quality of your content presentation mm-hmm is that medical has almost been like the department of motor motor vehicles where it's kind of been a, almost like a monopoly mm-hmm . And so as much as a DMV doesn't care all that much about their marketing mm-hmm the same.

Um, and also, I always tell, I always tell my team it's like, Yes, we might be independent. We might think we're better. We might think all this kind of stuff, but if someone new comes into the area, it's like, if you go into an area, like if I come down to your area, there's gonna be a McDonald's. McDonald's is not great, but I know what I'm getting.

Maybe somebody will say, well, why didn't you go to Joe's burgers? It's like, well, because McDonald's is at 50 mm-hmm and Joe's burger might be. 80, but they might be at 20 mm-hmm. I don't know about Joe's burgers. And so I'm just not in the mood to gamble with my burger this afternoon. I wanna go to McDonald's because it's a 50, you know, and with an independent pharmacy, you know, on average, they might be us included many times there there's many times where maybe we're at a, a 40, we're not even at the average, in some cases on I'd like to think we are.

I'd like to think we're above that. Mm-hmm but the customer doesn't know that exactly. They don't wanna gamble on their health on their prescription. So they're gonna go to some place that they know has made it in quote, but like a McDonald's, but they might not be sharing stories home to their family and how great it was, but they know they're not gonna walk away hungry.

Let's say, of course. 

[00:44:23] Kyle Palmer: Um, and, and, and that's a very true statement in how we were able to enter the market and dominate and get to. The place that we're in, we studied the independence in the area. We studied the chains to know what they do well and what they don't do well, but that gave us an opportunity to jump out and run and stay consistent and stay ahead.

So now the downfall to it is whenever we decide to slow down or just stop or, Hey, we've had enough, guess what that happens. That allows the next person to enter the marketplace because they've stopped or slowed down their consistent branding, their consistent aggressiveness in the community and things like that.

You've lost that connection. 

[00:45:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. What has happened to the parkers? They must have, you know, you're just going down to average, but people think something happened to you. Yeah. So, I mean, 

[00:45:19] Kyle Palmer: we, we're definitely gonna be, um, extremely aggressive, um, throughout our entire campaign, because I just read a book 20, the, the 22 laws, the 22 immutable laws of, of marketing.

Yeah. And, um, and it is always said, instead of trying to focus on great customer service, we need to focus on acquiring new business. To stay alive. Yeah. You know, so how are we marketing ourselves to acquire the new business that we can then secondly, provide that great customer service? 

[00:45:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So we can, I wanna say, let me test my memory.

I wanna say trout, does that ring a bell as the author of that reason? 

[00:46:05] Kyle Palmer: I think some, I forget his first name. It was two guys that, 

[00:46:08] Mike Koelzer, Host: something trout, I think. Cause yeah, cuz they had, yeah, they had some, they had to note some other big, big books, uh, too. And then I think they might have split or something like that.

Mm-hmm all right. So, Kyle, so we've got, we've got the lead up, we've got the events, we've got the consistency and the, um, quality of the, of the social media. Are those the legs of a three legged stool for what you guys have done so far? Or is there other things in the 

[00:46:34] Kyle Palmer: mix? We have other details, you know, but for the time sake, what I can say is what I, cuz everyone's like, man, um, That's a, that's a balance.

Your brother, do you guys have a great team? Your brother gets to do the pharmacy, uh, pharmacy manager. You get to focus on the community, branding the marketing. So it goes together. Well, I can do all of these things that you seem to say that they're great. But if the business, if the business isn't exceeding excelling employee wise, as well as the service that we're putting out to the customers, mm-hmm, , my marketing would not do what it needs to do.

And I'll, I'll repeat that. Right. So we could have the best marketing in the world, but if your burger sucks. Yeah, exactly. It sucks, you know? Yeah. And, um, so I tipped my hat off to Orlando. I texted him at 11 o'clock last night, I was like, Hey man, you're a beast at what you do, you know? Oh, that's cool.

Literally last night. Um, because as you know, It's a monster back here too, to not only just do your day to day, but provide a culture for your employees to really accept and believe in, you know, and to consistently take on new growth, you know? So, um, 

[00:47:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah, you can have the best social in the world, but if the customers, uh, get someone grumpy, that's just a, that's just window dressing.

Yeah. 

[00:48:06] Kyle Palmer: So, I mean, and that's, that's, I really do appreciate our team because, and we're both learning from each other so sooner or later I plan on. Um, knowing this pharmacy side that he knows extremely well, am I there yet? No. Um, but eventually I definitely will get there and he'll learn some of my strategies and things like that.

Yeah. But it, it, it, it, it's working. Right. So I know some pharmacy owners that may be listening to this are some, you know, the, the best is always at the end of a book. Right, right. So, um, I know some pharmacy owners that are listening or future pharmacy owners are listening. Okay, man, you're doing all of this.

The B the, the, the pharmacy side is, is handling business. The marketing side is, is getting done well, what is, what numbers are, what, what's the return on all of it. Right? Mm-hmm um, so as of, I think, two weeks ago, we're at, so from April 19th now, April we're at a year and five months. Um, we're at like 5,100 patients, 16,000 followers on social media platforms, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, email marketing, and we have yet to do the traditional route as far as marketing in our community.

So, um, meaning I've heard that when you're opening up a pharmacy, Hey, go introduce yourself to the physicians 

[00:49:46] Mike Koelzer, Host: around time. Gotcha. Right, right. 

[00:49:51] Kyle Palmer: Being transparent, Mike, we have yet to speak with one physician since we've opened, 

[00:49:59] Mike Koelzer, Host: you've gone around the edges. I mean, you haven't done anything traditional 

[00:50:04] Kyle Palmer: unorthodox, but let me be honest.

That's phase two. So now we are. Now we are, we, we are strategizing now on introducing ourselves, which, to be honest, we built up this campaign. Our customers are also speaking to them, uh, to their doctors about Parker's pharmacy. Um, the doctors are inviting us over. Well, I, yeah. You know, it's the, the reverse 

[00:50:33] Mike Koelzer, Host: effect now.

Yeah. They're saying now it's like, I've heard about you. Well, not only have I heard about you, but I've been expecting you. Yeah, 

[00:50:39] Kyle Palmer: exactly. That's exactly it. Where have you been? Where have 

[00:50:42] Mike Koelzer, Host: you been, I've been expecting 

[00:50:43] Kyle Palmer: you, you know, you know, and, and to answer that we just, we've been busy just focusing on, you know, just striving for excellence.

So, we are looking forward to that phase. So the current patients that we base that we have now should double, um, within like the next six to 

[00:51:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: Eight months, I can see the action right there at the store. You got a lot, a lot of stuff going on with people, wandering your ear and stuff like that.

You're growing. Let me ask you some questions. How many people do you have on your marketing side? Would you say you've got you and your graphics person? What do you have and what do you, what do you probably need for the next year? Let's say, 

[00:51:23] Kyle Palmer: uh, next year we're good with the team that we're, uh, that we have now is myself.

Um, I have a, uh, a graphic designer. I have a PR, a PR content writer, a videographer and a photographer. That's the key team members of our, um, marketing team that will last for a while until we grow and have five or six pharmacies. I don't know. Right. Are, are they 

[00:51:48] Mike Koelzer, Host: around? Are they, we meet weekly, we weekly.

And then they do some of their own stuff and, okay. Yeah. 

[00:51:54] Kyle Palmer: Um, our PR person is extremely important. Um, as you know, you get a lot of people in the pharmacy trying to sell you advertisements and different things like this that may work, may not work, whatever. Um, I like to work smarter and reserve as much cash that we can mm-hmm to put somewhere else.

So our PR person is extremely important. You can probably find one at your local university mm-hmm that is able to write at an efficient level, a proficient level. I'm sorry. And, um, understand strategy. So I'll give you an example of how a PR person is so important. We were able to, we know our, we, we have our fair shares of hurricanes here in Louisiana.

So I think it was hurricane Florence that hit the east coast, um, this past year. And they had, uh, um, North Carolina that was majorly affected. So immediately as I watched on the news. That the hurricane was coming in. It was gonna be really, really bad. I contacted a place called camp, Cedar cliff in North Carolina, where evacuees will travel and get housed.

So I was like, okay, what can I do here to get it to, to, to get our community, to support them. We understand that feeling already, right? We can find this on our social media as well. So over like four days, I'm, I'm sorry, over like a week long, we had people stop by our pharmacy, donating toiletries the day to day items that you need to survive if you vacuum for a week.

Um, so we did that. And while we're doing that to raise awareness for it, our PR person reached out to the local news stations, every news station, the local newspapers and the local radio stations. So combined, if I had to put a dollar amount on it, Parker's pharmacy for assisting these people in North Carolina, we saved like $25,000 of advertising that the news outlets gave us free because it was such a great deed that we were doing to help individuals in another state.

Yeah. So strategy was included there, but the PR person presented these stories. To the outlets and they jumped onto it, which people still come up to us today. Sure. Hey, I heard you on the radio when you guys are doing things like that. So, uh, yeah. 

[00:54:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's, that's awesome. Yeah. And, uh, boy, those things, and it's all, it's all still focused down in, in that funnel down to someone's 

[00:54:36] Kyle Palmer: heart.

Exactly. So, I mean, literally that's all you'll really see from us, you know, um, is being able to help each other. I'm 

[00:54:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: Guess you guys, we don't see many things coming out from you. You're not gonna be talking about prices and discounts and, and those kinds of things so much. Right? No. And, and that's what I do on, on my end, but explain how that, that can kind of hurt things actually, first and 

[00:55:00] Kyle Palmer: foremost, we're not trying to be the cheapest.

Yeah. Right. You know, we're gonna do our best to get you the most savings that you can be, but we don't want to be labeled as the cheapest 

[00:55:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: pharmacy in town. No, because that throws you into a bucket of cheap things. Exactly. 

[00:55:14] Kyle Palmer: So we know that. The level of customer service that we provide, we also provide free prescription delivery every day mm-hmm

So we know we are providing things that your, the competition isn't mm-hmm . So we're not going to put yourself in a barrel or bucket, as you stated and say, Hey, we're the cheapest pharmacy in town. Mm-hmm . We have quality. And we want people to understand that, Hey, if I go here for the cheapest, I'm gonna also have to put up with the lack of customer service.

Right. I'm gonna have to wait forever or whatever the case may be. But if I go here, it may be a little bit more expensive. Yeah. But man, they treat me like family. Every time I walk, uh, in the pharmacy. Yeah. If I can't get to the pharmacy, they're delivering it to my house job wherever I ask them to. Right.

You know, they'll bend over backwards. So, um, I don't recommend Pharmac. Out there. Um, and, future pharmacy owners out there tried to be the cheapest. No. And, and, and, and just be the reason, most reasonable, most reasonable and understanding. 

[00:56:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. And there's very few companies that can try to pull that off.

And one of 'em is I was brought up before I brought up McDonald's, but if you ever noticed McDonald's, they've gotta speak to both sides, but they never do it in the same ads. You know, they'll have one and maybe not even so much now, because maybe they've taken that cheap route a little bit more, but at least 10 years ago, you'd see a McDonald's ads over here, but would be a grandpa with his child walking through a park and just enjoying the day and you know, the smiles.

And then, then you'd have an ad with the way over here, you know, a different time of day. It'd be the prices popping up and so on, but never, ever. You know, because they know that they have to have, and, and that's risky, but if you have enough money, I suppose you could do it by hitting one area with this and one area with that.

But it's risky. It's risky for people to see that in your, in your marketing, if you don't have the, the, the world's, uh, budget, and even then it's probably not even so smart these days. Of 

[00:57:16] Kyle Palmer: course. No. I mean, at the end of the day, um, we just try to be as efficient as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Um, We can do a lot of different things that the industry standards say to do as far as marketing goes.

Yeah. Uh, we just, we, we have an Orthodox approach and I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of pharmacies and business has the, has the community at, but, um, we really have it at heart strategy around it year round. So, um, it's just going, 

[00:57:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, I could pick your brain all day, but let me ask you a couple of questions here.

Okay. You're doing something bigger than Parker's pharmacy right here. Mm-hmm . And we've talked about that a little bit. What other company would you industry, would you be doing what you're doing right now in, and what I mean by that is, let's say your, let's say your brothers, weren't in your brother.

Wasn't in the pharmacy and you're in Montana and you're gonna come back there. What other industry would you hit that if you couldn't do pharmacy, what would you re what could you repeat like this? I 

[00:58:21] Kyle Palmer: I feel like I can cater. My marketing to any industry first and foremost, um, I just need to understand it and really believe in what I'm about to go after mm-hmm um, at some point I'm gonna get back to teaching.

Mm. You know, um, and maybe it's teaching marketing , mm-hmm I love to just educate and try to get people ahead of what we were at that point of their lives. So I would love to, um, do a lot of seminars right now. I say a lot. I do a few seminars throughout the state mm-hmm right now to assist business owners, um, with their marketing, their branding, their strategy right now.

But after we get this ship selling, selling, yeah. And I'm away, I'm able to disconnect a little bit more. So, um, one of my goals is to really get. On the road nationwide to teach marketing and strategy 

[00:59:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: at the heart of all the marketing. Is it always gonna go down to the heart strings or is that mainly because of where you are and medical and things like that?

For example, if it was athletics that you are advertising, would you also go down to the heart or might you go to something else or does everything point to the 

[00:59:48] Kyle Palmer: heart? Depends on who you are, right. If you want something to last, as long as possible or for long term, the best way to make it last is to hit on where the heart is hit.

[01:00:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: 'em where the heart is, and it might be different for younger people in sports. It might be a different heart that might be feeling good about themselves. You just 

[01:00:09] Kyle Palmer: change the, you just change the 

[01:00:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: strategy up, same heart, but different strategy. That's, 

[01:00:14] Kyle Palmer: That's all it really is. You know? Um, you, you really did while I was in Montana, I did a lot of this in Montana while I was out there for 10 years.

And, um, so I, I, and I was, um, running a marketing firm, but I also did sporting events comp. Uh, I also ran a sporting event company for the youth in Montana, where I brought in NFL NBA athletes to come in to, um, this is Montana. Athletes are really not going to this state. Right. And I knew that, you know, but I brought the athletes out there where they will do free camps.

Autographs everything for the kids, you know? Yeah. Just because the community 

[01:00:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: needed that. Yeah. And their heart is, it's not health, but it's believe in themselves and do this and that 

[01:00:59] Kyle Palmer: to go about and be anything that you wanna be. All right. 

[01:01:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: Did you hang up the high tops yet? Or are you still, you still getting in some ball during the 

[01:01:05] Kyle Palmer: week?

Uh, I, I hung, I hung them up on my last. Yeah, I had to hang him up, I tore my Patel attendant at 30. And then after that I was like, oh, 

[01:01:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: no more. Are you still doing that for exercise or anything or not. You still, uh, dribbling and, and shooting in that or not so much? No, not, 

[01:01:20] Kyle Palmer: not so much anymore. Um, I just posted something on my personal Instagram.

I had a dunk contest against, uh, uh, against the NBA slam dunk champion. Zach Levine. He's a good friend of mine. Um, but after that I was, I was done. So then, then you, I go to the gym by myself now just. Stay in some type of shape, but other than that, no basketball anymore. No basketball, unfortunately. Yeah.

[01:01:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: Picking up something else. All right. Hey Kyle, thanks so much. Thanks for your time. I I'm excited for this relationship that I know who's putting this 

[01:01:50] Kyle Palmer: good stuff out. Hey, no, Mike, I appreciate you. Um, allowing me to join you on this, um, podcast. I'm pleased to join you. I'm excited to see what you have in store, uh, with everything in your future.

So, uh, I know this is the beginning of a relationship that we personally have, man, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what, uh, what, what you're gonna show me and I'm gonna learn from you. 

[01:02:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's humbling. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Kyle. It's been a pleasure pleasure 

[01:02:15] Kyle Palmer: Here, man. And, uh, thank you. Thank 

[01:02:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: you.

Bye-bye bye.