Today we’d like to introduce you to Meleese Styles.
Hi Meleese, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Plano. My early childhood was difficult. My parents went through a painful custody battle, and I experienced abuse at the hands of a close family member. Those experiences shaped much of my adolescence. I became someone who was constantly trying to make everyone around me happy while burying my own pain as deeply as I could.
That followed me into adulthood. I was diagnosed with PTSD in my early twenties, and through therapy, a lot of self-discovery, and years of doing the work, I slowly began to find peace and healing. It wasn’t a straight line, and I don’t think healing ever really is, but I began learning who I was outside of what had happened to me.
Fast-forward to my second marriage—we don’t need to discuss the first one—and I genuinely believed I had found my forever person. I had built a successful career in real estate, and in 2019, I started my own real estate team. Professionally, I was thriving, and personally, I thought I had finally created the life and family I had always wanted.
Then, in 2021, after four failed rounds of IVF, my beautiful daughter, Ava, came into my life.
Motherhood changed everything.
About a year after she was born, my marriage began to struggle. I took time away from the day-to-day demands of my career to be home with Ava. I was still running my real estate team, but even taking that small step back created financial strain in our household, and that strain began exposing deeper problems in our marriage.
After three years of marriage counseling, I eventually had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life: leave the picture of the “perfect family” I had fought so hard to create.
What ultimately gave me the courage was my daughter. I didn’t want Ava growing up believing that what she was seeing was what marriage was supposed to look like or how she should expect to be treated. Once I became her mother, my decisions weren’t only about me anymore. She was watching. She was learning. And I had to choose what was right over what was easy.
My real estate team continues to thrive and grow, but after nearly 25 years in the industry, I could feel myself becoming weary. I knew there was another chapter in me—I just didn’t know what it was yet.
Oddly enough, Ron Burgundy helped me figure it out.
My ex and I had started learning to play golf a couple of years before we separated. One night in 2025, I was watching Anchorman for what had to be the millionth time when I said out loud:
“60% of the time, my driver works every time.”
And the light bulb went off.
I grew up modeling and acting, and film has always been one of my great loves—especially the classic comedy genre. I started researching whether anyone had built a golf brand around reimagining iconic movie moments and quotes through golf humor.
Turns out, they hadn’t.
So I didn’t wait.
Financially, I was struggling in the aftermath of my divorce, and starting a company was probably not the most practical thing I could have done. But something about this idea felt different. I felt it in my bones. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t creating something because it was what I was supposed to do. I was creating something because it felt completely, unapologetically like me.
Clapboard & Club was born.
I secured the website, began the trademark process, and jumped into designing my first pieces. The initial mockups came back—and they needed work. A lot of work. So I went back to the drawing board. The next round finally felt right, and when I began showing the brand locally, the response was more encouraging than I could have imagined.
Then the ideas really started coming.
I designed a hidden pocket behind the seam of our polos where golfers could discreetly and comfortably carry an extra pair of golf balls. Naturally, I named it BallSak Technology, which is now patent pending.
Next came ChakraCaps: hats designed with a small pouch beneath the brim containing crushed tourmaline, moldavite, and rose quartz—because sometimes it’s not just your swing that needs help. It’s your head game. So we might as well align those chakras while we’re at it.
Then came the Thrustworthy gray sweatsuit collection, because what woman doesn’t appreciate a man in gray sweats?
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I realized I had found my place.
Clapboard & Club officially launched in February 2026. I did not wake up the next morning a billionaire—rude—but I woke up excited about what I was building and where it could go.
And we’re just getting started.
Right now, I’m preparing to begin our next color launch after hearing repeatedly from customers that they want more color. My design team and I are beginning that process, and there is still an enormous amount to do, learn, build, and prove.
But I know this is what I want to do.
More importantly, my daughter gets to watch me do it.
When I see Ava’s eyes light up at my trade shows, watch her proudly help me, or hear her talk about what her mommy created, I’m reminded of why this chapter matters so much.
For much of my life, I was trying to create the life I thought I was supposed to have. Now, I’m creating one that actually feels like mine.
And having my daughter beside me, watching me build it from the ground up, is all the fuel I need to see just how far I can take it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not! I spent every dime I had getting Clapboard & Club off the ground, so I had to start looking for investors. While I have had a couple step up, I still find myself struggling to get it all done and make it happen. It’s because of this, I recently signed up for business coaching with Sandra Yancey, a guru in business start up and scaling. I know with her coaching and guidance over the next 9 months things are going to look and be entirely different, in all the right ways.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Today, most of my creative energy is focused on building Clapboard & Club, a golf lifestyle and apparel brand where cinema, comedy, performance, and a little bit of inappropriate humor meet the golf course.
The idea started with taking the iconic movie lines so many of us grew up quoting and giving them a golf twist—like our flagship line, “60% of the time, my driver works every time.” But very quickly, I realized I didn’t want to build another golf brand that simply put funny sayings on polos. If I was going to do this, I wanted to create products people hadn’t seen before.
That mindset led to BallSak Technology, our patent-pending hidden pocket built discreetly into the seam of a golf polo that comfortably holds two extra golf balls. Then came ChakraCaps, which incorporate crushed tourmaline, moldavite, and rose quartz beneath the brim—because golf is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, and sometimes your swing isn’t the only thing that needs realigning.
And then there’s our Thrustworthy gray sweatsuit collection, which exists because I am also a woman with eyes.
I think that combination is what sets Clapboard & Club apart. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but I take the brand and the products incredibly seriously. There is intention behind the fabrics, fit, construction, functionality, branding, and even the smallest details. I want someone to laugh when they discover us, but then pick up the product and realize, “Wait—this is actually really good.”
What I’m most proud of, though, isn’t any single product.
I’m proud that I started.
I built this company during one of the most uncertain and financially difficult periods of my life. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until everything was perfectly aligned. I had an idea I believed in, so I started figuring it out—one prototype, one mistake, one trade show, one relationship, and one ridiculous golf pun at a time.
I’m also incredibly proud that my daughter gets to see the process. She isn’t just seeing the polished photos or the finished products; she’s watching me build something from nothing. She sees the long days, comes to the trade shows, helps me, celebrates the wins with me, and gets to watch an idea that started in her mom’s head slowly become something real.
Ultimately, I think what sets both me and Clapboard & Club apart is that neither fits neatly into a box. We’re premium without being pretentious. We’re irreverent without sacrificing quality. We love golf, but we’re perfectly willing to make fun of it. We’re inspired by nostalgia while trying to create things the industry hasn’t seen before.
I’m not interested in building another golf apparel company, and I sky’s the limit. I want to expand to other sports, like Pickle Ball, and won’t stop there.
I want to build a brand people recognize, quote, laugh about, wear proudly, and eventually wonder how golf ever existed without it.
Lights. Camera. Tee Time.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I think what might surprise people most is that, despite how bold and outspoken I can appear, I spent a huge portion of my life terrified of disappointing people.
If you meet me today—or discover me through Clapboard & Club—you probably see someone who is confident, irreverent, a little inappropriate, willing to take risks, and clearly not afraid to put something called BallSak Technology out into the world.
But that version of me took a long time to become.
For years, I was an enormous people pleaser. I could walk into a room and immediately read everyone else’s emotions, then instinctively become whatever I thought they needed me to be. I was much better at advocating for other people than I was for myself.
One of the greatest transformations of my life has been learning that being kind and being agreeable are not the same thing. You can love people deeply and still have boundaries. You can disappoint someone and still be a good person. You can choose yourself without being selfish.
At this stage of my life, I think I’m finally becoming the woman I probably always was underneath all of that noise.
And ironically, building a brand that is loud, funny, unconventional, and completely unapologetic has become one of the ways I’ve found her.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.clapboardandclub.com
- Instagram: @clapboardandclub
- Facebook: @clapboardandclub
