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Bringing PICKLEBALL mainstream | Laura Gainor | Marketing
175 Plays2 years ago
Maybe you caught that episode of Jimmy Kimmel featuring Maren Morris mentioning Pickleball and how she ended up on the cover of Pickleball Magazine just 4 months ago? Or you heard about the Galentine’s Day event this past February in LA hosted by well known actress and comedian, June Diane Raphael. My guest, Laura Gainor, is one of the faces in the industry behind helping making that happen. We take a deep dive into why LinkedIn is highly overlooked as a social media platform for Pickleball and how to leverage it, as well as her insightful advice on networking, and organizing your very own Pickleball event.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro recap
00:52 Volair ad
01:20 Start of the show
03:12 Working with USA Pickleball
07:20 Newsletter and growing opportunities
14:00 Utilizing LinkedIn
18:40 Experience as a female founder
19:50 Celebrities in the sport
20:46 Advice on organizing an event
23:40 What is Pickleball In The Sun
26:30 Finding a start as a female in the industry
29:10 Building your team
33:20 Most unique pickleball events and stories
36:20 New project with Real Dill Pickleball Club
37:40 Advice on networking
40:10 Why media is eager on pickleball content
42:00 Challenges
43:30 Visit Laura and challenge her!
44:50 Go to spot to play in Ponte Vedra
46:35 Future of her businesses
48:15 How her mentality developed
49:50 Being remembered
51:50 Girl Scouts Troop 52017
53:20 Skills for empowering females
55:30 Book recommendations
56:33 Closing
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Vossberg Gainor is a digital marketing agency that focuses solely on marketing efforts for the sport of pickleball. The company focuses on driving awareness for brands and organizations involved in the sport of pickleball, works with avid pickleball players to strategically implement their personal brand online, and is a leader in strategic thinking and experiential marketing for pickleball events and tournaments. Vossberg Gainor offers brand development and strategy services, personal brand development services, tournament and event experiential marketing, and social media management services to individuals and brands specifically within the pickleball space.
Pickleball destination and lifestyle site dedicated to all things luxury pickleball.
https://www.pickleballinthesun.com/
Link to the newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/pickleball-marketing-news-6987526119562342400/
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Get in touch via email or Instagram:
Email: buildingpickleball1@gmail.com
https://instagram.com/buildingpickleball
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Transcript
Impact of Pickleball Magazine Cover
00:00:00
Speaker
She just loved kind of playing with her crew while on tour. So we put her on the cover of Pickable magazine. And from there, Jimmy Kimmel had reached out. They saw that she was on the cover, that people don't understand the sport just yet. And right now the audience that's on LinkedIn are all these executives. They're working for top brands that are like waiting for the opportunity as to when they should jump into Pickable.
Galentine's Day Event with June Diane Raphael
00:00:21
Speaker
And the algorithm is so much
00:00:23
Speaker
different I mean there's so much more opportunity is she was one of them on the Colbert show when they did the pickled show and in December she announced that she was doing this Galentine's day pickleball event and so I reached out to her team and said hey I would love to be a part of this I would love to help you I'd love to get you some sponsors and so I helped bring them in some sponsors Franklin and OS first came in and then other many sponsors came into the event.
00:00:51
Speaker
Remember this guy I interviewed?
Founding of Volaire by Julian Arnold
00:00:53
Speaker
Right. Well, he and this guy, you may have heard of him, he goes by the name of Julian Arnold. Together, they both founded Volaire. Long story short, we support each other and therefore, out of that support, you get this discount code.
Vosper Gaynor Marketing Agency Launch
00:01:10
Speaker
For all the folks who have liked and subscribed to my videos, thank you. It means a lot to me. To those who haven't, this is how you make them feel.
00:01:19
Speaker
All right, let's carry on with the show. Hey, what's going on, Laura? Thanks for joining me today. Yeah, thanks for having me. Always great to share a pickleball.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and Vosper Gaynor as well as Pickleball in the Sun? Yep. So Vosper Gaynor is my marketing agency. So I launched it in 2019, a little over three years ago. I've always had this marketing sports marketing background as well as worked with a lot of nonprofits. And well, when I launched my company, I got USA Pickleball as actually my first client.
00:01:53
Speaker
And since then, I've been diving completely
Rebranding USA Pickleball
00:01:56
Speaker
into pickleball. I had no clue what it was when I got that introduction. So, of course, I went out and learned how to play. And like everyone else, you learn so quickly, learned within 20 minutes. And again, with my background of event planning and sports marketing, I was like, oh, this is so fun.
00:02:12
Speaker
There's going to be a lot of opportunities in this sport. Of course, we'll talk about it kind of my past through the last three years, but overall, Bospor Gainer is my sports marketing agency and now specifically focusing on pickleball as a niche. And then I'll talk about my passion project, Pickleball in the Sun, which was launched to create kind of a fun lifestyle leisure brand about the sport, as well as now featuring top pickleball destinations across the world.
00:02:38
Speaker
So you mentioned your first, I guess, like interaction customer was USA Pickle. How did that happen? So my husband also, we're just a big marketing family. He also works in sports marketing. And so when I launched Bospor Gainer to introduce me to George, who was just brought on at USA Pickleball at the time to lead their marketing efforts. So he was like, you know, my wife just launched her marketing firm. And so George and I connected, learned how to play and then brought in a lot of my agency.
00:03:07
Speaker
kind of contacts. I actually brought in one of my agency partners from Milwaukee to help with the USA Pickleball rebrand when they went from USA PA to USA Pickleball. So George and I had worked directly with Belcher Lincoln, the agency, and did all the necessary focus groups research as far as from moving from USA PA to USA Pickleball and what people want in, you know, what is Pickleball?
Networking in Pickleball on LinkedIn
00:03:30
Speaker
What is the Pickleball persona? And of course, fast forward three years, it has definitely completely transitioned with the growth
00:03:36
Speaker
and obviously demographics getting younger as well, but so it's very fast pace moving with the sport. And so yeah, I was honored to bring on USA Pickleball as my first client and helped them lead their marketing efforts with George. And then can touch on to kind of other projects I was able to work out with them in the midst of the pandemic and then moving into post pandemic.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah. What was that process like doing the rebrand for USA pickleball and they were your first client. So you didn't have like anyone to kind of build off of in the past.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, like I said, I mean, by background, kind of with event marketing, sports marketing, when I saw this board that it was fun, social, I actually jumped in myself right away and organized a Friday night social league. Um, so it's very important. I mean, what I love about my job and my career is I live it as well. I love playing. And so I was playing every single Friday night. We gathered about 30 friends each Friday. And that was like our Friday night date night with my husband and our friends to where we were playing at the local gym.
00:04:36
Speaker
And they served beer, so we just kind of really lived it. And then it kind of helped, of course, as a marketer to be able to speak about the sport, to understand the sport, understand why people love this game. So when we were doing the rebrand, it just always, you can always tell too now, of course, it's a fortunate opportunity for me that I had this pickleball marketing niche where agencies now bring me in to help them, consult them.
00:04:59
Speaker
with their clients, because their team members might not understand the sport just yet. So having that knowledge. So that's huge as part of when we were going through that USA Pickleball rebrand, creating a new logo, a new website that we were listening to the players, what they liked, listen to the sport to help them grow kind of with the game. USA Pickleball kind of has, as far as like an organization and association, and they're like synonymous with Pickleball and tournaments and everything like that.
00:05:27
Speaker
What was it? How if it has changed at all? How has your approach changed given that like USA Pickleball is kind of more of like a legacy name, has that legacy brand and there's all these new changes coming in. There's new like resources, investments, tournaments are changing, rules are changing.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yes, I'm actually a USF pickleball. So I helped them with their marketing efforts from 2019 through the rebrand. And then of course the pandemic kind of shut things down. Tournaments were kind of shut down around that March timeframe. And then from last December until the most recent June, almost a year ago now, I was actually kind of their interim. They were going through a transition period to bring in a new CMO when George left.
00:06:11
Speaker
Um, so then when Chuck, their new CMO came on, I was like, Oh gosh, like I've launched this pickleball in the sun brand that I've kind of ignored. And I've really done what I've wanted to do. So I led their media relations efforts when I, when you saw pickleball on good morning America today show New York times, I had the fortunate opportunity to help bring the sport.
00:06:29
Speaker
into the media. So I just built this credible name for myself. So I was very fortunate for kind of helping USA Pickleball as a national governing body. As you said, I mean, they create the rules. They're teaching people how to learn this forward. It was just very great to kind of see so many people being interested in wanting to learn how to play.
Community Building Through Events
00:06:45
Speaker
But then at that moment, last June, I was like, hey, like I've, you know, kind of done what I've needed. And it's time to kind of bring those tasks that I was doing for USA Pickleball in-house. So I haven't worked directly with them.
00:06:57
Speaker
outside of it being a fan and kind of directing. Thanks to that, when opportunities still came up, I would always still kind of pass along opportunities to kind of feature what USA Pickleball was doing to help grow the sport. But yeah, now fast forward. Kind of, I actually started this Pickleball marketing newsletter on LinkedIn because people had those questions constantly. Like, what is PPA? What is APP? What has made it like Pickleball? And when I launched this newsletter, it was in the midst of when LeBron James was coming in as an investor and
00:07:26
Speaker
PPA, launched five, and Mark Cuban were coming in, people's heads were just turning. They're like, what is happening in the sports that people would be continuously reaching out to me knowing that I've been in the game for over three years. So I launched that newsletter really as an outlet to kind of help inform everybody, all these executives on LinkedIn, as far as what the sport is, how their brand could get involved, and people just kept listening.
00:07:48
Speaker
reaching out to me, understanding that I can kind of help them jump in, consult their brand, their teammates to whether they want to launch an event, whether they're launching a product. So I'm just kind of a step forward that pickle marketing newsletter I've done on LinkedIn has just been incredibly valuable and just more of a passion of mine too. Like I love informing people. And of course, for me, business wise, it's brought in some incredible opportunities for just the beginning of 2023 already to come in on some exciting projects that are in the works.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's super exciting. That's awesome. Um, one thing that came to mind is like, how did you know that when you got your first client in pickleball, USA pick, well that it wasn't just going to be like a one off. Like I tell people all the time that pickleball is just super contagious. It's addicting. Um, there's so many instances of people who just like, can't stay off the courts. Um, yeah. How'd you, how'd you know that?
00:08:41
Speaker
I really kind of, I kept saying to myself, I mean, there's lots of opportunities that I was given and I've never been focused on like, Hey, no, you need to pay me to do this. Like I knew when I saw that this sport that I was so passionate about it in the midst of that we moved from Chicago to Florida and then even more. So I was living even more playing every morning on the courts and then going home on my computer to help with marketing. And, but I was never one of those where it's like, Oh no, you got to pay me.
00:09:06
Speaker
for that or that time I would just end it myself so passionate about it and so I knew opportunities would come so with USA Pickable I'll be in the governing body and having those great media opportunities I just had a blast getting so many stories into the news into these large national and international media outlets getting people excited about the game so really I never really saw USA Pickable as I mean obviously they were a client but I never really saw them and
00:09:31
Speaker
I was part of the team and I looked at a lot of thought I was part of the team when we actually they were a client but I mean again I just knew that there was gonna be so many opportunities that came from it and when I look at my business I always see those opportunities like obviously like yeah this needs to be worth my time to make the income that I need to for myself my family but also like what opportunities what case studies
00:09:52
Speaker
are going to come from this that continually to help me grow, but at the same time just help grow the sport. I mean, it's just, I love seeing so many people excited.
Women-led Initiatives in Pickleball
00:10:00
Speaker
It's funny how it transitioned when I first started working with USA Pickleball, sharing on social and I was playing pickleball. People were kind of laughing about it and like, Oh, my grandpa plays or, you know, but, and now those people are like, Oh my gosh, like how should I get started? How can I play? And it's completely transitioned.
00:10:14
Speaker
just a short time of three years where everyone's laughing and how everyone's playing and I'm sure so many people are just probably annoyed that you know it's just become my life and it's just work work play everything but it's just incredible to be a part of it and very gracious for that first opportunity to start working with USA Pickleball.
00:10:31
Speaker
You mentioned another thing there that it's come up in my previous roles, like as a designer and just like whenever I was getting start, getting like my footing in a new industry, a new role. Yeah. Like for me, I was always like, just do it for free. Just take the opportunity and like the pay and all those other things, they'll come later. But everyone's always like, you know, get paid what you're worth. And like you just mentioned you have a family.
00:10:57
Speaker
How about how to still have that family? Like during that time, how do you justify doing something for free while you've also, you know, like you've been in the marketing agency industry for like 15 years. Um, yeah. How do you, like, what insights would you have for someone that might want to, might be fearful of that?
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, not necessarily. I mean, I definitely wasn't doing it for free. There's other opportunities in different projects where it's like, oh, I know my work. I know I could charge this. But right now, everyone in the pickleball sport, they're all interested. Like, how can we make money in this game? I mean, you've seen so many people eager. Everyone's kind of jumping in. And are they doing it right? Are they taking their time? Are they focusing on the money first or the passion?
00:11:42
Speaker
For me, it's always the passion first and then like you said, yes, the money will come and I've had amazing opportunities that will touch on as well as to what I've been able to get myself kind of involved in and then from there, you know,
00:11:54
Speaker
having myself in that same room is just amazing. That all kind of comes later. And in all of my careers, I've always had this focus too, that I want to help kind of young professionals learn more. I mean, I was fortunate early in my career to have some valuable internships working with people. And, you know, I got the chance to just keep asking, hey, I want to work on more projects. I want to work on more projects at a young age. And that just kind of helped me excel in my career and my skill sets that I've
00:12:21
Speaker
gained from it. But so I also have the same mentality where I want to bring in I've had a lot of internship programs and all my careers on to make sure I give opportunities to younger people that are looking to kind of find their passion and usually those are the most hardworking individuals as well. So I've always kind of had that same mentality that I want to be hardworking, get myself in that room and
00:12:44
Speaker
sport as a, this is kind of a mostly male dominated area, but really it's my passion that kind of comes through. And I become, I think a really authentic person in the game or people trust me. And as I talk to different brands, you know, it's just my focus, I feel like it's kind of having the heart in the sport and the heart in the business as well. Yeah. Mentioned passion before money and things like that. Passion before a lot of things, but comes, I mean, yeah, I've been
00:13:12
Speaker
given a lot of opportunities. So I think it's, yeah, just make sure you're focusing on what you're doing, what you're love and that you're being honest person as well.
Expanding Pickleball's Media Presence
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned female founder. I'll definitely get into that. But before that you mentioned like LinkedIn, like I've gotten on LinkedIn. It's funny because it's nothing like the rest of social media as far as pickleball goes. Um, and rightfully so, but,
00:13:38
Speaker
Even if you look up the hashtag, I think the last time I looked at it, there's like 210 posts around pickleball. What are your thoughts on that? Like, do you think there's tons of opportunity that people are missing out on as far as helping cultivate the growth of the sport, things like that?
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's so much, like you said, I mean, LinkedIn, there's a lot of times people are kind of like, oh, why are you on LinkedIn? Or why should we be on LinkedIn? But it's been incredibly valuable to me throughout the last three years. I mean, the girl, obviously, the sport's been around since 1965. But the last three years, it's been exponentially growing. And it really is this infancy.
00:14:13
Speaker
of growth or like i said people don't understand the sport just yet and right now the audience that's on linkedin or all these executives they're working for top brands that are like waiting for the opportunity as to when they should jump into pickleball and the algorithm is so much different i mean there's so much more opportunity as you've seen within linkedin i mean if i comment on a post people see that i comment on it and then
00:14:35
Speaker
over time and people have seen me as a credible resource like oh yeah Laura's who you should talk to people don't even had no clue we're listening giving me so many calls and just connections and I use it where if any reporter writes about the sport or when I was doing all the media relations efforts every time I met somebody I connected them on LinkedIn I sent them a personal note and said hey great story on the sport I would love to connect with you if you ever have any other stories you you know want to touch on pickleball I'm happy to you know provide or make introductions and
00:15:05
Speaker
Really that's kind of how I've grown so much in the last three years is just been that people connector. I continuously introduce people to valuable, whether it's a pro player or helping out those pro players. Like I've loved to kind of give whenever media would reach out and want to write a story, I would connect them with pro players and say, Oh yeah, here, you know, here's a story for you. And a lot of times, you know, I, there's just, like I said, it's always had this heart in the game. Just be a great person and know that.
00:15:30
Speaker
There's some people that I recommended and I knew that have a passion for this sport and really would have the good intentions to help growing it to make those
00:15:38
Speaker
introductions, but overall, yeah, LinkedIn has been incredibly bad. I can't say enough. I always tell people to get on LinkedIn and marketing. We have very strong LinkedIn connections are, you know, valuable people that we've worked with along our career. But yeah, I cannot say it enough. Definitely everyone should get on LinkedIn, especially pro players. There's so many brands that are not in there and
00:16:01
Speaker
Pro players are now just getting into understanding social media. I wanted to make sure that they beef up their personal brand. What content should they be sharing? So everybody pro players, make sure you update your profile, get on LinkedIn. Cause a lot of times when I'm publishing that newsletter, you know, I take people and whenever you're tagging people with LinkedIn, you see it more so compared to.
00:16:22
Speaker
different from Instagram and LinkedIn or different from Instagram and Facebook. But yeah, get your LinkedIn profile because I can take those pro players and those stories like Olivia McMillan. She's one of them. She's a professional by day with her career. So she understands it. And then she's also obviously as a pro player on PPA tour and Major League Pickleball. So a lot of times if I take her in her story, people kind of see, you know, not only
00:16:51
Speaker
We'll just help with the sport as well. But I could ramble on forever about LinkedIn, so everyone should get on it. Yeah, Olivia, mad drops. She's such a great person. Yeah, so she's local here in Ponte Vedra. Yeah, so I live right in Ponte Vedra area. And so she teaches at the yards at their pickleball courts. And yeah, she's just incredibly talented in all areas. So that's awesome to know that about her.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yes, LinkedIn. It's funny. It's a completely different audience compared to, I guess, if you compare it to YouTube, Instagram, it's definitely a different audience. And some would say that it's a more important audience to reach out to. Oh, for sure. Yeah, very valuable connections. And just, yeah, I could go. There's a full list of just opportunities that I've been given our people.
00:17:44
Speaker
reaching out. So it's a completely different audience that isn't necessarily on Instagram all day, because it's just too time consuming sometimes to be looking at all the stories and content on Instagram. Whereas, yeah, LinkedIn, there's just, yeah, just to kind of quickly go in there each morning, browse, comment, engage in content. And speaking of connections, Aubrey Steele, CEO and founder of Chaville is actually the one who pointed me in your direction. So yeah, shout out to Aubrey.
00:18:11
Speaker
Oh, I'll raise it incredibly talented. I love the work that Aubrey's been doing. I've been fortunate to kind of connect with her, whether it's at the national championships at tournaments. But yeah, I love all the women.
00:18:24
Speaker
I mean, we just keep bouncing back off and just getting each other opportunities whenever they come up, but there's just a lot of power in a lot of these women that are helping grow the sport. Yeah. Well, you're making this segue to the next, uh, yeah, you make it easy. Um, what has your experience been like as a female founder? You can touch on it prior to pickleball, but, uh, also within pickleball as well.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, I've just been there. I mean, I love, I'm very honored all the opportunities I've had throughout my career and why I named my agency. Bosburg gainers, because I love my name. Bosburg is my maiden name. I love my family and all the opportunities that they have kind of given me to kind of get to this point. But so as a female entrepreneur in the sport and knowing there's so many, I mean, it's, I love again, like all you can tell the people that are in it for their heart, for passion, just being a nice person has kind of helped me again, just kind of become a credible
00:19:18
Speaker
source in this for and there's definitely been opportunities where I was like, you know, that wasn't a great opportunity or I don't want to be involved in that one for reasons of whichever but so I kind of love being just this honest person because again, I just know that people will reach out and then I love being amongst all these other women that are helping.
00:19:37
Speaker
girl the sport too, cause there's something about having women as the top executives as well, because you all, I mean, there's just a lot of like, like I said, the money will come if you make these smart decisions to kind of put yourself into like, Hey, there's this opportunity to be at this event. Let's do it. Um, because I had the opportunity June Diane Raphael, she announced that she, she was one of them on the Colbert show when they did the pickled show. And in December she announced that she was doing this Galentine's day.
00:20:05
Speaker
pickleball event. And so I reached out to our team and said, Hey, I would love to
Launch of Pickleball in the Sun
00:20:09
Speaker
be a part of this. I would love to help you. I'd love to get you some sponsors. Um, and so I did, I worked directly with June, her PR, her publicist, um, team and helped bring them in some sponsors. Franklin and OS first came in and then other many sponsors came into the event. I flew out there for the event and I was one of those where I knew it was this huge opportunity. I want to be involved June and all of our comedian friends, um, celebrity user doing such a great job to help grow the sport.
00:20:35
Speaker
Um, and she nailed it. That event was incredible. Uh, her first inaugural event and they'll be doing more, but, um, yeah, so shout out to all of the women that are doing great things and helping the sport crew. Yeah, absolutely. What advice would you have for someone who would, who wants to start an event similar to that Galatine's day event? I mean, that event, if you.
00:20:58
Speaker
check out lower social media. It looks very professionally run. It's very like just clean as far as the aesthetics. I saw the gear bags for someone that maybe like has never even heard of pickleball or is that's like their first event. I think that's a great way to try and get them into the sport or just introducing them into, you know, something that's unfamiliar and unknown territory.
00:21:21
Speaker
And I mean, for me, I mean, that's why I love the sport is like pro part of side. I mean, the pro players, they make up just a tiny portion of the growth of the sport. The new numbers are nearly 9 million.
00:21:32
Speaker
players from SFIA that are playing and from that number, majority is the casual rec player. And like I said, June, they did an amazing job at that first event because they focused on fun, comedy, getting people together that most of them had never even heard of pickleball, but they're just a huge followers of June's podcast, Deep Dive, and they wanted to be a part of it. She sold out quickly. And then they went through with their promise where they entertained everybody. They had a boozy brunch at the beginning where they got to mingle
00:22:01
Speaker
with June Casey and Jessica St. Clair and Danielle Schneider, the other hosts of the event where they got, and then Retta was there in attendance. There were just so many celebrities that were there. And then the comic relief, so her husband Paul Scheer was on the mic.
00:22:18
Speaker
and commentating with Blair Beacon another comedian where they were just adding like a fun flair and so it wasn't just watching pickleball it was just this whole experience and I always tell my clients like these brands it's like don't necessarily just focus on the pro tournaments and having a booth there like think about what can you create that's new what can you create in these events and be a part of this experiential
00:22:40
Speaker
events, my background is experiential marketing. And so having something different, like let's think outside the box to think of those casual rock players because they're the ones that are getting the most excited.
00:22:51
Speaker
And yeah, they did a great job. They had, as you just saw on social, the brands, they had the goodie bags for the players. The players went home with so much incredible stuff. And they all had great things to say, and they all laughed extremely happy, smiling, like what the sport gives to us, another eager for more. So they're doing more events. And yeah, there's just so many brands that are doing a great job creating similar events. Some that I'm excited to be a part of here in the year to come and kind of help them. What's entertainment? What can you get them? You don't need necessarily a pro player to
00:23:20
Speaker
do a clinic to teach your score. That's great and great for our pro side of the sport. But yeah, just have entertainment, a brand investor that just shows everybody a great time, which we can segue into why I pick a bone son. It's great for that as well. Absolutely. Go right into it. I don't want to end up to a train of thought. I work in marketing.
00:23:41
Speaker
Um, but no, I mean, that's why a lot of times why when I had the inspiration to create pickleball in the sun was us here at our courts in Nokati, we were playing every morning. We were practicing for tournaments where we found ourselves like, Oh gosh, let's play on a girls weekend. And it's really when I created the pickleball in the sun brand, it was not necessarily having a vision where, Hey, I'm going to build this.
00:24:01
Speaker
full-out brand, it was just something fun. I created a logo. I had my friends create, and a horse create a logo, the branding identity for Pickleball in the Sun. And this was a little over a year ago. And since then, now we're featuring Pickleball destinations. It's really about an experience. We'll be helping to plan, share people where they should be traveling. I'm actually partnering with the Pickle Play app, another female entrepreneur in the sport, Blank Bernad. She's the founder of Pickle Play, which you already interviewed her.
00:24:30
Speaker
Um, and so she's incredibly talented. She's really dedicated her time and her talents. Um, and got a lot of funders kind of behind her to build this app. So it makes it easy for us to use the app, open it for traveling to San Diego or for up in Washington. Um, where can we play pickleball? Um, so she has the app where you can find cords. So we're partnering together. It just really makes sense. I'm featuring top pickleball destination. She's already built this platform, this app where now we come together.
00:24:58
Speaker
featuring Premier Pickleball in the Sun, destinations powered by pickle play to where resorts, hotels, there's so many they're adding cords that they can partner with us to where we can feature them and not only highlight them within the app, but also tell people
00:25:13
Speaker
on our social channels and email, write a full feature on their resorts and tell people why they should choose that because people are searching constantly. Where should I travel? Where should I go play pickleball? So I'm really excited for how this brand pickleball in the sun is going to continue to evolve and grow and give people kind of help them find where should they go play with their friends, their family.
Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurs
00:25:34
Speaker
And yeah, there's so much that
00:25:35
Speaker
Blake and I are excited to do together and bring other resorts, hotels, travel influencers, and brands into it as well. That's awesome. Very exciting. Those pickleball camps, destinations. I mean, people love it. It's a great thing about the sports. You could play in a lot of places. I mean, if you consider the tennis courts, which are already lined out, then that's why I feel like pickleball has
00:26:01
Speaker
just like a very easy runway to like successes because it can kind of already recycle and reuse some of the courts that tennis courts have already used. But
00:26:14
Speaker
You know, we've talked a lot about female founders and is there a resource that if there's a female listening to this podcast and this episode, where do you think they could go as a resource to get an opportunity in the industry aside from, you know, starting up their own business? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but maybe outside of just starting their own business, but maybe teaming up with someone else.
00:26:41
Speaker
And I think I mean, again, just looking at, again, LinkedIn, feel free to subscribe to my pickleball marketing newsletter. And I'm always happy to make introductions. People reach out. I've had so many like paddle companies that.
00:26:53
Speaker
Reach out Jennifer who created single double pickleball paddles. She's another one that's kind of coming in and it's just, he's done a really good job in the branding. Cause really right now, especially with paddle companies, I mean, there's so many out there. So really how are you differentiating yourself amongst others? What are you doing kind of for the game and really focusing on those? Cause I mean, paddles like hers are focusing on the casual rec player. We're not focusing on the player that's going to go try and compete in a tournament.
00:27:17
Speaker
per se, but it's just a fun paddle. People get excited with the branding, similar to Nettie, Catherine Baxter. I mean, she's created her Nettie brand, but now she's also moving into focusing on them growing with her paddle. She has the casual rock player as a nice box, you know, comes in with the full paddle set. And now she's focusing on her pro series paddles as well. But overall, I mean, kind of look at like, how can you help, whether obviously you're getting into pickleball, how can you help the sport as to what, or hasn't already been done? How can you help?
00:27:46
Speaker
build community in your local area. How can you help grow the sport? I mean, people are continuously getting excited to, um, you know, focus social events, corporate events, get your company into pickleball because really it's a great networking tool. I, we moved to Florida, as I mentioned a little over two years ago and pickleball just helped us build our community. And when we would go play pickleball, like, you know, I'm just amazing how many people I've met just because of the sport of pickleball.
00:28:12
Speaker
People get excited if you just mention that word, whether it's in a meeting or so I always just kind of spark conversations about it. And then obviously quickly it kind of turns into like, Oh yeah, my company, you just never know when those opportunities are going to come. If you utilize pickleball as a networking tool.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's definitely like associated with lots of enthusiasm and curiosity. So it's definitely like ripe for a lot of growth. I've seen, we keep going back to this, but LinkedIn, I get a lot of updates like on your business. I get a lot of updates.
00:28:49
Speaker
as our official sponsor of this podcast. Yeah. Give you some royalties. Um, I get a lot of updates on your business and when things are, how things are going. Obviously, uh, employees team, um, cultivating a strong culture around a mission statement, a brand like how, and I've seen, I think in the past like week or two weeks, I've seen like two updates with two people that you've hired. How do you select?
00:29:17
Speaker
your team and employees and what expectations do you have as far as like how you want to bring them into your brand and like your mission.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, those are kind of first started as relationships like so Nick is now kind of part of my team as far as helping with PR. I mean, we've got a bunch of projects coming in. So of course, I want to make sure that I'm set out to be able to help those clients and bringing in talented people that I trust. So Nick is one of those. And like I said, with other brands coming in, like Nick has an experience with pick a ball and then he also has other projects. So just building up this opportunity for it to grow into hopefully more opportunities for Nick to help on other future projects. So building that base now.
00:29:58
Speaker
having these consultants with me knowing that as I scale and get larger we have the team set up to where I'm not just driving myself crazy doing all the work by having a team of support and I've been very fortunate to kind of build those relationships first and Emma she's also just a talented
00:30:13
Speaker
writer. She's been doing a lot of work for me in the pickleball in the sun. She can whip out an article like no other. So as we bring in these different destination partners, she's going to be on that to help write these destination features, create content that let us showcase how beautiful and amazing
00:30:28
Speaker
these resorts amenities are aside from their pickleball courts. And then like I said, the internship program, that's huge to me because I love giving back and I love helping these up and coming because that's just been the most valuable experience I have. And my previous interns and my other career, it's great to see them now leading professionals in the industry, in the marketing advertising industry as well. So I just love to have different opportunities. So I would just suggest too, if anyone is looking to
00:30:54
Speaker
kind of while they're in school they're passionate about pickleball. I was just playing in a pickleball tournament this past weekend and two guys were there filming and interviewing and creating a documentary as their thesis and so obviously I
00:31:06
Speaker
kind of interviewed with them but projects like that and just seeing that they're so passionate. They love Pickleball themselves and now they're finding a way to obviously bring it into their schoolwork and then that'll just help them build their kind of their case studies and their portfolios as they kind of finish out school and look to get their full-time job and again I can't say enough that Pickleball is just a great connector in those interviews.
Effective Networking Strategies in Pickleball
00:31:28
Speaker
Mention it when you're interviewing for a job. Ask them because it's always great to be personable and
00:31:34
Speaker
find out their interests. So ask them in an interview, like, do you play pickleball? We love to play pickleball. Let's go play sometime. And hopefully it'll kind of help you obviously just build that relationship and become a trustful, trusting person. And then into that corporate world. Yeah, so many companies.
00:31:49
Speaker
my friend up at Chicago with Gatorade they had a full Gatorade team that was their outing on a Friday where they went and played pickleball together and it's just so much you can do from a team to a sport that everybody can play so I'm sure some people that you know might not be on the company softball team or whatnot it's a sport that everybody can do so just a great way for team building. Yeah that would be awesome if they didn't like
00:32:12
Speaker
I don't know how many years, 10 years from now, like instead of business meetings where you're like client meetings where you're going out to like dinner and drinks, the norm is just like pickleball.
00:32:21
Speaker
healthy and social that's why in Chicago when we played every Friday night because there wasn't much to do in Chicago outside as far as like usually your date night is consistent of going out to eat and drinking but we loved every single Friday night we got exercise it was Brian and I we got a babysitter every Friday and we went and played pickleball and once that shut down when the pandemic started like it was just awful we were
00:32:43
Speaker
Perhaps we missed going out to play pickleball and that's when the sport continued to really boom as well because people were putting portable pickleball nets in their driveway and bringing it back and just that's what sport people were taking up as to why the sport kind of grew so fast but yeah it's fun social and it's just you get exercise like I love starting every single day to go play pickleball with my friends just play this morning and plan to play tomorrow as long as the weather's good so it's just a great way to kind of mentally clear your head, network, get healthy exercise and
00:33:13
Speaker
doesn't hurt. I love that I get to work and play in pickleball every day. Sounds like the dream. Yeah, I feel very lucky. Yeah. What are some of the most like unique pickleball events or stories that you've been involved with? June was definitely a top. Yeah. And then we have while I was out in LA, we can't share yet but by the time this
00:33:37
Speaker
podcasts come out. It will be out to another reason why I was out in LA. We got to do a shoot for Pickleball magazine, which will be the March cover. So I'm excited for everyone to see that as well. But yeah, so the June event, I got the chance to interview so many incredible people. It's actually on my wall, Maren Morris. She had tweeted back this past summer that she was playing Pickleball while on tour. And so I just took a shot
00:34:04
Speaker
I emailed her team on her website and was like, Hey, I would love to hear more about you playing pickleball. I'd love to feature you with that pickleball magazine. So we got her on the cover. I got to interview her, talk with her about playing literally at every stop. And she just got so excited talking about it. That it was kind of her not thinking about work. I mean, to me, she's a huge celebrity. I'm like, how can you think about being a musician and on tour as work? Um, you know, but it's just like an outlet. Everyone's busy. She's busy with all that. And she just loved kind of.
00:34:30
Speaker
playing with their crew while on tour. So we put her on the cover of Pickleball magazine. And from there, Jimmy Kimmel had reached out. They saw that she was on the cover. And so when she was on his show, they asked us to career over an issue over to the studio. So that's what the picture is of, is Jimmy Kimmel showing the Pickleball magazine and Mirren Moore just being honored and excited.
00:34:56
Speaker
Um, and almost giving me a shout out because she knew that I was freaking out since it was just her and I on the phone, uh, when I did the initial interview, but she's like, oh, we're going to be freaking out that this is on Jimmy Kimmel right now. And she was right. Um, but so I just feel very fortunate. And then I got to interview Scott Foster, who's an NBA referee. Um, we put him on the cover when all the referees are playing, he was leading the charge in the NBA bubble, um, when they were all playing and again, these destinations, I'm just excited to be able to feature.
00:35:25
Speaker
be a part of them. I visited so many incredible resorts, hotels right here near us as the Omni Amelia Island. It's gorgeous. They have seven brand new pickleball courts right on the beach. But yeah, so I'm excited for what's to come as well. Just being able to travel the world and seeing how this sport is just insane. Like how it's, I mean, it's literally just a game, but it's just connecting everybody. Everyone's just wanting more courts. But yeah, so much fun to be had and people places to see.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. More courts is definitely a big thing. I had George or Jorge about a Hana. Uh, he is out in Utah and he started the pickler and he was talking about like in the next like three years, having like 120 facilities. And then when I talked, spoke to Steve Kuhn this past week, he mentioned the biggest thing holding pickleball back right now is not enough courts.
00:36:15
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yes, I'm actually, um, so when I, my one year anniversary of Bospor Gainer, I transitioned my agency to be specific niche for pickleball marketing, which obviously it is now. And Todd Reed of real deal pickleball clubs at that time, I Googled pickleball marketing, um, it came up Bospor Gainer. And so I've been working with them for over two years now to.
00:36:36
Speaker
Um, help them announce their social clubs. I mean, that's just gonna be huge in this coming years. All these social clubs like Realtor, like Pickler, Raleigh and Charlotte, you know, there's just so many that are opening and it's an honor I've been helping.
00:36:48
Speaker
Real Deal Pickleball Club, kind of an advisor for them to help them bring courts. They're opening up in Columbus and St. Louis to start this summer. And then they have the same goals. I mean, there's room for all of them. There's some that this huge need for pickleball courts to be able to especially indoor in the Midwest so that we can you can play year round. You can get together with your family. You can book a court and then get dinner and drinks. So I'm excited to see the growth of all of these social clubs that are opening up all around the U.S.
00:37:16
Speaker
Over the past, it's only been 37 minutes, but over the past like 37 minutes, you've mentioned a lot of like opportunities, a lot of like, a lot of opportunities that have come through networking. And sometimes that's all it takes is just like picking up the phone, right? That's like one of the things Steve Jobs quotes. What advice would you have for founders as far as building network and yeah, just building network? Yeah, I think like,
00:37:46
Speaker
really focus on like, what is your passion? Who do you want to connect with locally? Meet as many people as possible. Like I can't stress it enough where like, don't limit yourself, go to networking events. I've recently, you know, I've been working kind of on a national scale the last three years, but this year I've made it a goal of mine. Like I want to connect locally in the Jacksonville area. Like I've lived here for a little over two years, but I haven't
00:38:08
Speaker
you know, really connected from a local level. And so I had the opportunity. There was a nonprofit that was hosting a pickleball tournament at the yards here in Pono Vito that I mentioned.
Pickleball as a Lifestyle and Networking Tool
00:38:20
Speaker
And so I invited the two meteorologists from Action News Jax, Mike Burish, and Maritza Ross, who's a traffic anchor. They, I was like, oh, you guys should play in this tournament. And they did an amazing job. Like they were so generous.
00:38:32
Speaker
to give exposure to this nonprofit, Villages of Hope, that was hosting this tournament. It was an amazing weekend. They played, had a blast, and now they're both moving forward and passionate about the sport. So really just find ways to get people excited. And again, all those opportunities will just continue to come. So I'm excited. I just saw Mike last night at an event and you just get excited talking about it.
00:38:52
Speaker
pickleball and then opportunities, you know, he just wants to continue to play and they've just been so generous to kind of give exposure to other nonprofits and events. But yeah, just continually find those unique opportunities. That's, I mean, it's kind of my forte is find those opportunities and I work in media media relations. So it's always like, what's that unique story? What can we share? How can we uniquely kind of get it out to the world? So when Good Morning America
00:39:18
Speaker
had reached out, you know, I gathered a bunch of our kids at our local pickleball courts. Good morning America actually came here to film it. And then the next day, NBC Nightly News reached out and I was like, are you kidding me? Like, are you like, I thought like someone heard like a morning America was just here. Um, so I rallied everybody to get together again. I was like, all right, everybody, NBC Nightly News is now coming to our courts. Let's come out there and play. So yeah, just finding fun, unique opportunities as to how to share a story, how to build your network. Um, yeah, there's just so much that, uh, you can
00:39:48
Speaker
So that's really has helped as to why all these opportunities will come along. When you mentioned the Good Morning America, and we've seen that you've been on like CNBC and you've had like opportunities with them as well. Why is the media so eager on the pickleball content?
00:40:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, as you've seen over the last 10 people, they tell me all the time, like, if I hadn't heard about it, no, all I hear about is pickleball. But yeah, so they want and like everyone else, I mean, you've seen now even in TV shows, I was talking to Blair Beacon yesterday, who I met at June's event, and she's a writer and everybody is working into their scripts. So she's in this great opportunity.
00:40:29
Speaker
where they're asking her to write these stories, because she understands the sport. She knows that she plays it herself. Everybody wants that keyword on their website, on their news show, because it gets people sharing it. The show's shrinking Harrison Ford. He was quoted in that show. Someone was asking him, like, oh, let's pick a wall anyway.
00:40:47
Speaker
He's like, oh, it's only the America's fastest growing sport. That's all. And you know, the people then they they know that people are going to be screenshotting it, sharing social posts like, hey, you got to watch drinking. They talk about pickleball. So everybody wants that on their website, on their news broadcast. So my job when they're reaching out for media, then it's finding how can I get a unique story to each of these media outlets that we're not sharing the same story that got kind of old after a little while as far as day as a passive spring sport.
00:41:13
Speaker
So now people are transitioning to, here's all these large name investors that are coming into the game. This year it'll be all the social clubs, the rec players, the celebrities that are getting into the sport. So the story is continuously there because it's a top search keyword. And now with pickleball in the sun, travel and trips, that's a top keyword what people are searching for.
00:41:33
Speaker
wanting to be involved in the sport from a travel perspective. I just showed on Good Morning America this morning that passports are completely backed up and you have to wait so long to get it because people are getting back into traveling and hopefully all those people with their passports are heading out to those resorts that have pickleball courts. Yeah, definitely. With a lot of this growth, a lot of opportunities that you've had, what challenges have you faced so far?
00:42:01
Speaker
Gosh, I think keeping up with all of it. I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm just trying to do so many things. And some days I'm driving myself crazy, where it's just like, what am I doing? But really, there's just so many opportunities that I try and balance it all. Obviously, I have my two little kids, my husband and family, where I want to make sure that we live in a beautiful place. So some days I'm like, oh gosh, I got to try and not do it all and just
00:42:25
Speaker
really become more focused, which we're getting there. I've had an opportunity to kind of grow and take on a lot of projects here over the last three years, but I'm excited to be focused on my agency, Vossburg Gaynor, helping clients. I have other agencies that are bringing me in to help consult them. I love doing that work. And then my passion project, Pickleball in the Sun, to be focused on sharing these top
00:42:46
Speaker
pickleball destinations, helping brands, my partners, almost as an influencer where now they're having me almost sponsoring myself, my companies, pickleball in the sun to showcase their products in an authentic way. So I'm excited so the future is kind of what it grows so that way I am.
00:43:03
Speaker
have worked really hard these last few years to kind of build up my brands and then to make sure that I'm building it up to be sustainable that I can then make sure I can one of course, play pickleball in the morning, hit the computer for a few hours and then be there for my kids when they get off of school at three o'clock, go do fun things, go for a walk, take them to the park, just kind of slow down a little bit and not feeling like I need to work all
Balancing Business, Family, and Pickleball
00:43:24
Speaker
the time. Are you competitive player? Oh yeah. He wants to come down to Florida and challenge you. What's your rating?
00:43:33
Speaker
Oh gosh, I would say I can play a solid three, five. I actually were playing in some competitive games to where right now my partner and I were undefeated. Um, so I think in the next week we'll find out if we win the championship or going against the other undefeated team, they always get so competitive. And then Mia, my cookable partner, she'll laugh because she's the most competitive. She has three boys. Um, and so we, she's the one that we play in tournaments a lot. And, uh, we just did our first four, oh,
00:44:00
Speaker
tournament this past week, we did not win. Um, but we definitely played really hard. We were really, I mean, just as we've been practicing together the last two years, it's fun to see cause when I moved out from Chicago, I thought I was good. I thought I was okay, but oh my gosh, Florida is a whole different game. Like you think you're rated a four Oh up and up, you know, up in Chicago or whatnot and you come down here and you're like a three Oh. Um, so it's just so much more competitive cause we all play every day. We all practice every day. So it gets to be so much fun, but then I want to make sure that I get back to the,
00:44:28
Speaker
roots of when I first started playing the game where it's really just a fun social. We don't have to worry about winning. Get your friends together on a Friday night to play. Get the kids out there to play. But yes, I'm very competitive. And then Mia helps that. And sometimes we I'm like the nice one of us just like stopping so nice. But we have a lot of fun and definitely competitive. Yeah. Where's the spot to play at down there? What's like the go to spot?
00:44:53
Speaker
Well, of course, the premier pickleball and sun destination on the Amelia Island. Definitely go up and play. They have the Cliff Drysdale Tennis Center that they have pickleball courts, but we're fortunate. So, yeah, when my sister got a job in Noc, they were in Florida in Ponte Vedra, she moved to this community called Nocati. And so it's a little over two years ago, we moved from Chicago. We came here purely just to visit. And when we got here and then this master plan community in Nocati, we saw the water parks with 12 pickleball courts.
00:45:22
Speaker
in between the water parks. I was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. We live at like a resort. We have a golf cart that we can golf cart to the water parks, to the pickleball courts. And so yeah, it's just amazing. So obviously we get to, we're fortunate that we get to play at our local courts and then the yards. I love going to play to the yards. We're actually on the cover of our three, two, eight, one living magazine here from Pondervedra. We took our photos. My pickleball partner, Mia had nominated us to be on this magazine and we went to the yards. They have beautiful courts, Maria.
00:45:53
Speaker
who is the pro there, she chose the colors and there's this beautiful green purple teal pickleball course overlooking the championship course golf course, which this coming week, the players championship is hosted there. So there's going to be a lot of people excited to come to Ponte Vedra and hopefully they check up the pickleball courts while they're here and show the golfers they can't risk getting injured right in the middle of the players championship. But I heard that their wives are going to hit the courts and play some pickleball
00:46:21
Speaker
Hell yeah, that's awesome. Okay. Coming back after that tangent that I put us on, you spoke about the challenges. Where do you want Vosford Gaynor and Pickleball in the sun to be in the next three years?
00:46:39
Speaker
I think, I mean, they've evolved so fast. I've been evolving kind of with the sport. So really, I think the chance to be able to define it and let people know, like, Bospor Gaynor is my agency. I'm here to kind of help with consulting, help people understand the sport and have a lot of fun with it. And then, of course, hopefully, Pickleball and the Sun kind of guides me into my retirement too.
00:46:58
Speaker
get my husband, you know, my husband even on board to have him working for me to be a part of the brands and to really showcase why we love the sport. It's just going to continue to grow from here. So I'm excited to determine what that is and evolve with it. So I'm excited to kind of have my company as our neutral, you know, I'm not aligned with one pro area or whatnot. I'm more so
00:47:17
Speaker
recreational, but at the same time guiding people how they can dive into the professional world, how they can get on TV broadcasts, where best they should sponsor. But yeah, really that focus of the Pickleball and the Sun brand and featuring destinations, resorts show that this is a lifestyle. I love living this lifestyle every day. And then of course, making sure again, that my priority is always with the family and I'm not kind of working too much, but I'm just kind of building it up where I want to and then having it as a base. So then if I do want to
00:47:46
Speaker
you know, continue to grow as the kids get a little older, um, or maybe, but hopefully I'm living in a beach house with a private pickleball court, uh, living some pickleball on the sun in five years, maybe. Yeah. And hopefully the kids are running the business and hands off.
00:48:01
Speaker
I'm very curious when I think of people from cities like Chicago, New York, you could probably toss in LA in there too. And then even just speaking with you is very like on point, very, you seem like a go getter and you've created a lot of opportunities for yourself. Where does that come from?
00:48:22
Speaker
Oh gosh, how have I been a go getter? Um, well, I think it just, yeah, just always when my sister will love me younger sister, um, I would always kind of speak for her when she was little, when people would ask her a question. So they just always been my personality. I've just always been trying to like, when I graduated college from UW Milwaukee, I just on a whim and still shocked that my parents let me do it. But thank you to them that I on a whim moved to Charlotte.
00:48:44
Speaker
North Carolina didn't have a job and I've just always been like having this mentality even through college when I had these internships. I even went back to high school like I had asked my art teacher in high school like hey I want to learn how to do photography so she created me my own little personal darkroom back pre-digital of course developing my own film like in the closet of our high school art room and so I just always kind of like found my way to making opportunities for myself like hey I want to do that I want to make it happen
00:49:11
Speaker
Um, so even since high school, I've just always kind of had that in all my careers. Um, back when first social media first came out, I had done this campaign to get hired when Brian and I moved from Chicago back up to Milwaukee and it was called comic branding at the time. And I think, you know, I remember that social platform four square. Um, but I had done this whole like picture tagging thing to get myself. And then I was featured in the news for getting a job in social media and it was a dedicated social media agency, which is funny now.
00:49:38
Speaker
But yes, I've just always kind of, I've been fortunate that my art background, my art degree helped me in all my career paths to kind of teach my own way. And then learning from so many others during that path as well. That's awesome. How do you personally want to be remembered?
00:49:55
Speaker
Oh goodness, I think just fun, social. Yeah, just being a people person, really the relationships, the friends, I just always tell because when I first moved to Charlotte on the whim, like it was the loneliest I'd ever felt. I just remember always go back to that day when I moved to Charlotte, it's like, oh my gosh, I don't have
00:50:11
Speaker
any friends but then i made that happen i was like okay i'm gonna go get it so i got a job at um you know a restaurant bar and worked nights amongst my advertising job during the day it's just always been very important to me and that's what i always tell my kids as well like i've never i mean they unfortunately they're really good at their academics
00:50:29
Speaker
in school as well but to me like that doesn't matter like when we did the whole move from Chicago to Florida all I worried about was their social you know being and their mental health and I which has always made sure I started to Girl Scout true for my daughter because you know it hurt me when I saw her sad or you know like wanting to missing her friends in Chicago so I made sure I created opportunities to her for her to help guide and then same with my son it's like and you're just
00:50:53
Speaker
It's the worst pain when you see your kids sad. So I've made sure that I've always kind of made opportunities for them, been involved in school as much as I can to make sure that I'm helped guide them and build those relationships. Because I think, yeah, it's a social, the friends relationship that you remember. It's not how well you did in school. I mean, that helps because hopefully my kids get into a good college on a pickleball scholarship. But it's important. But yeah, just social and just being a good friend. So hopefully it's kind of how I want to be remembered. And then, of course, I'm the pickleball girl.
00:51:22
Speaker
Everyone knows me and they always reach out whenever they hear pickleball that. So luckily people kind of know that to reach out to me if they either want to play or to help brands in the sport as well. So not your competitive side. No, no, no. I'm sure that I've probably made a few enemies in some sense where I had a bad day. I had to apologize on some of the courts because they got crabby one day and then saw a few days later. I was like, I'm so sorry. I was really crabby that day. It's not me. Don't remember me that way.
00:51:48
Speaker
Definitely have some crabby days, but hopefully more of the happy days. Yeah. And speaking of Girl Scouts, I believe like right now is Girl Scouts season. Uh, the lemonades, by the way, are great. Oh, the lemon ops. Yeah. Those are amazing.
00:52:03
Speaker
We just wrapped up our cookie season, but if you want to go to troop52017.com, you can still order Cookies for Directship and support our troop. Our girls are actually, like I said, I want to inspire others. I'm working with our Girl Scouts group to help teach them how to create their own business.
00:52:19
Speaker
So they're excited. First, they're working on budgeting this month, how to create a budget. They're little cute little fifth graders. They're going to be female entrepreneurs. So right now I'm really excited to kind of help them. They're working on creating. What do they want to create their business in? My daughter, of course, is working on her. So hopefully in May, they're actually pitching what their businesses are and helping other women get into
00:52:41
Speaker
business and teach them how to be really good speakers and kind of growing within their professional world, whatever side they want to go on. But overall, yes, true five two zero one seven dot com. You can support these little young entrepreneurs. Yeah.
00:52:59
Speaker
I wish we didn't have only six minutes left, but maybe you can make this one quick. You mentioned like when you were talking about the encouragement and helping the growth of young girls become successful female entrepreneurs, you mentioned like I think communication.
00:53:18
Speaker
What else do you think even not so much as a young adult, but even just like an adult now, if they wanted to get into this space, like what advice would you have for them? And especially what do you think maybe is something that would
00:53:35
Speaker
It's like a skill that females could maybe use more strongly to their advantage to break into some of these, like, uh, I guess like organizations or pieces of society where it's male dominant. Yeah, really networking. So I always tell my kids like, look to where the jobs are going to get you the best skill. Like if you're just sitting in the gym at a desk.
00:54:01
Speaker
Not communicating with anybody at all. That's not going to help you in your career. So I got a way interesting job in high school that really teaches you those people skills, your presentation skills, your public speaking. Because you're communicating with people all day. You're networking. So really that networking aspect is just I think why I always am passionate about meeting as many people.
00:54:19
Speaker
as possible and putting yourself into an opportunity where those skills will come. So get a wage or same job, get a job where you're continuously talking to people, you're problem solving, people got so angry if their food wasn't, you know, on time, but instead of getting upset at them, like you learn these skills to be able to say, Oh, I'm sorry, or kind of just solving the problem, but always having like a
00:54:40
Speaker
happy face you know because i think in media relations i had people that were trying to you know steer the story in a negative way about the sport but then you try and try and steer them around and really focus on the positive and you'll be careful as to what you say because you'll get quoted for you know some random quote that you're going to say so really those people skills communication and find opportunities to
00:55:00
Speaker
Again, volunteer, go to events. I'm honored to be an ambassador for the J Fund here in Nokati and Jacksonville. That's what the event was last night. It helps our families that are tackling childhood cancer, which is close to our hearts because our friend and next door neighbor, Finney, has brain cancer at just five years old. So finding opportunities to help the community and help others that you love as well. That's great. Are you a reader?
00:55:30
Speaker
Gosh, if I had time, I would love five years when I'm retired, I'll pick a ball in the sun, living at a beach resort with my kids waiting. I'm just kidding. I would love to read, but I do like reading, but usually I try and do a mix up. There's something I love having the actual books. I like to time when I can have the time on vacation to get the audio books so I can listen on the go and doing other things as well as read when I'm able. Awesome. Any recommendations? Actually, I wish I had
00:56:00
Speaker
I have actually this, gosh, what's the name of the book? But it's more of like a journalist of how to help the Girl Scout troop with their business. But there was audio books. I think Verdi was like the last full book that I read, which was a good one. But yeah, geez. I love going to library with my kids. I love checking out books and having the ambition to want to read. But we're big library fans around here, but usually I can't find the time to read. Gotcha.
00:56:30
Speaker
How can those interested follow you, find out more about you, uh, take these last few minutes to plug away? Well, of course, LinkedIn, we would love to have you be a sponsor of this podcast. So connect with me on LinkedIn for sure. And subscribe to my pickleball marketing newsletter. You can find it right in the link of my LinkedIn profile there, but, um, and then boss for gainer.com, my pickleball marketing agency. And then of course, pickleball,
00:56:57
Speaker
InTheSun.com, it will continually be updated. We'll be adding more to the website as we work on this partnership with the Pickle Play app. And then of course on our social media channels, mine, at Laura Gaynor, and then Boss Bird Gaynor and Pickle Ball in the Sun. Be sure to follow us and reach out. I mean, just message me, email me. You can find it on the website, of course. And then whenever you're visiting your favorite Pickle Ball destinations, make sure to let me know.
00:57:22
Speaker
where those are and we would love to share your content and have you be a part of because everyone's helping for the sport. It's not just one person or any of our individual companies. It's everybody all working together just such as yourself to make this podcast. I admire.
00:57:36
Speaker
the name building pickle balls genius, because that's what we're all doing is helping grow the sport. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you again for your time. And thank you for sharing your insights, being very transparent and calling out the things that are passionate to you, especially like female entrepreneurship. And I hope that
00:57:56
Speaker
This episode is watched by someone who is inspired by you and what you've said in, has decided to start a business. And hopefully it also reaches out to you and partners up with you too. Yeah, I would love it. Yeah. I love seeing all these women do successful. So thanks for having me on. And if you ever want to play pick a ball, let me know. I won't be too competitive. We can. Sounds good. Thank you again, Laura. Thanks, Brian.
00:58:25
Speaker
you