Chuck E. Cheese, Golf Tech, and Guardrails | TJ Schier

Show Notes

In this episode of The Girl Dad Show, Young Han sits down with TJ Schier, founder and CEO of SmashSwing, to unpack building a new category in golf entertainment, validating an idea against real customers instead of your own conviction, and what eighteen years at Chuck E. Cheese's taught him about designing experiences. TJ traces his path from Chuck E. Cheese's, where he left as VP of Field Support, through two decades as a speaker and consultant in franchising and competitive socializing, to COO of BigShots Golf, and now founding SmashSwing. He shares why he insists the product is something other than a golf simulator, how he worked through early resistance to a product people had no reference point for, and what long-term strategy looks like when you're selling something the market doesn't have a category for yet.

The conversation also gets personal. TJ talks about involving his family in the business, why he'd rather give his kids experiences than things, and his approach to parenting: set the guardrails, then let them do their own thing. He draws the line himself between that and delegation — the instinct that makes a good manager is the one that makes a good parent. Expect a practical view of market validation, a non-traditional career path worth studying, and a working definition of success from someone who has built inside large companies and from scratch.

🔗 CONNECT WITH TJ SCHIER

👥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjschier/

💻 Website: https://tjschier.com/

💻 SmashSwing: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smashswing-immersive/

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🔗 CONNECT WITH YOUNG HAN

👥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/younghan/

🐦 X: https://twitter.com/younghan

💻 Website: https://www.alwayshan.com/

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🔗 CONNECT WITH THE GIRL DAD SHOW

💻 Website: https://thegirldadshow.com/