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This Pickleball RETAILER is helping BIG brands with their paddle tech | Building Pickleball
153 Plays2 years ago
Online Pickleball retail store, The Pickleball Exchange, is re-designing the ways of the shopping experience for Pickleball shoppers and players. Joey B, the owner of The Pickleball Exchange, has demonstrated just that by 1. Having a demo court in his shop and 2. Providing a tailored in-person service when it comes to Pickleball product knowledge. He knows every customer is different and so are their needs, so he makes sure that your experience is tailored to you, and not what everyone else is buying. Him and his employees main goal is to educate customers before anything.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro recap
01:58 Start of the show
09:10 Guided demos
09:55 Helping paddle brands develop their products
10:45 Product development background
14:15 Number one rule for his staff
15:00 SixZero, Legacy, CRBN
16:35 What have people been looking for in paddles?
17:30 What they tell customers
18:25 Biggest challenge right now
21:20 Legacy Pickleball
23:00 Opening a retail store
29:45 Working with USAPA and the LA Fit Expo
30:00 Accepting cryptocurrency
32:25 Advice on opening a pickleball store
34:43 Advice for those who want to start a business in pickleball
34:45 25,000 demo sessions
37:00 Crediting his success
39:40 Reminder when competing with similar businesses
41:39 How do you want The Pickleball Exchange to be remembered?
42:30 Hiring
43:40 Closing
44:36 Bloopers
Leave a comment below with your thoughts on Pickleball paddle technology and which paddle you think is the best right now.
#pickleball #podcast .
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Transcript
Introduction to Pickleball Exchange's Authority
00:00:00
Speaker
We've gotten to this point where we've become an authority in the sport. We know just about anything there is in terms of pickleball technology. This has also led to us helping brands develop their products. What paddle is being tested the most right now? We've worked with some pretty large brands and we're working with some very large brands. We definitely can't mention those names.
00:00:25
Speaker
But you'll see them really soon. Look, there's no denying the fact that purchasing physical products has mostly moved to online. However, when you're purchasing a product like a paddle, a shoe, or maybe a piece of clothing, it's a little bit of a different story and you want to go in and try it out and see for yourself. Joey B, the owner of the Pickleball Exchange, has demonstrated the value of that by one
00:00:50
Speaker
having an in-shop demo court and two, providing that in-person service when it comes to pickleball product knowledge. He realizes that every customer is different, has different needs, so he makes sure that the experience is tailored to you as opposed to what everyone else is buying online. His goal is to educate customers before anything.
00:01:24
Speaker
So,
00:01:58
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, Joey? Thanks for joining me today. Well, glad to be here.
Joey B's Transition from Corporate to Retail
00:02:03
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Can you tell me a little about yourself and the pickleball exchange? First, thank you for having me because I'm not even sure why I'm here following something like Steve Kuhn. So that's, I mean, he's like one of the most beloved people in pickleball. So just sitting in the seat right now in front of you, it's like, whoa,
00:02:26
Speaker
My name is Joey. I am the founder of the Pickleball Exchange. We are a retailer in the Pickleball space. We have a brick and mortar store in Encino, and we have an online store where we service customers across the nation. But our business is primarily in Los Angeles.
00:02:45
Speaker
Our story is pretty unique, I think. I'd like to believe, I think, we're the first to have the concept of the indoor demo court. Yeah, I think that's really our claim to fame. I guess, myself, former tennis player, lived in New York, played tennis for about 20 years almost.
00:03:09
Speaker
When it came here, just converted to pick a wall and never looked back. But yeah, I spent most of my life in the corporate world grinding it out, working in an operations supply chain. And just when, I guess when pandemic had decided to jump into pick a wall, awful.
00:03:28
Speaker
Just full on. Yeah. Where did that entrepreneurial spirit come from to like move from corporate says, man, like you and I Asians, we have like a lot of standards and expectations from parents that instill it in us at a very young age. So like, I don't think there's anything that I don't think they really advise against going into entrepreneur entrepreneurship. But if you have a good corporate job, you know, that's usually like, yeah, stay in that and just keep like working up the ranks.
00:03:57
Speaker
I always hated the corporate world. I hated the idea of just kind of following my set path. And I did so earlier in my career, and I did it in short, brief stints throughout my career in the past, I guess, decade and a half. But I've always just constantly looked for something else to do. I've always wanted to do something on my own, build something on my own, build something I can be proud of.
00:04:26
Speaker
typically not the safest decision, but I think the
00:04:31
Speaker
rewards worth it in the end. For me, I've always known that my priorities in life are first, family, and a second career. And the only way to be able to prioritize family is to have success in something career-wise. And it's really hard when you're working in the corporate world. It's had to find something that gave me a little more freedom so I could focus on
Balancing Family and Entrepreneurship
00:04:52
Speaker
my family. You mentioned that you prioritize your family. How did that feel to go from
00:04:58
Speaker
a stable income, you kind of have like a stable path in the corporate world. Nothing wrong with that, but there is that stability and just like reassurance in a way. But then like when you move into entrepreneurship, that changes drastically and there's a lot more risk that you're going into. So like, how does that feel when you know you have to prioritize family, not just providing for your family, but also being able to allocate the right amount of time with your children, your wife.
00:05:28
Speaker
I mean, it was really difficult. I had to make 100% sure it was something I could realistically get into and have a path towards success. With my background, prior to this, I also had a consulting agency where we used to develop products and take them to market. So when I came into this, I really had to deep dive into it to understand, is there a path towards success? Unfortunately, there wasn't.
00:05:57
Speaker
When I jumped into pickleball, it was still very new in LA. I did a competitive analysis, looked at the landscape, and there were barely any courts. All I could find were a handful of Facebook groups with a couple hundred members. I think to any business person, they would say, worst possible decision you can make.
00:06:21
Speaker
But I'm very thankful, have a very supportive life. I did fairly well in my previous life, so I had some savings. And I think it was really tough. But I think with a pandemic, what I realize is sometimes things will be tough. And sometimes you have to create the market. Sometimes you have to create what you want to do. Because if you don't, you're just going to be stuck in somebody else's game.
00:06:51
Speaker
And I really wanted to just be able to control my own destiny. And that's an awesome line. You have to create the market. I mean, when it happens everywhere, right? There's a lot of people just copying, just kind of following suit from other folks. And in some ways, if you're in it for the money, which there's nothing wrong with being in it for the money, I mean, this country is built on a lot of people who came from other countries and had to provide for their families.
00:07:19
Speaker
If you have the opportunity to innovate and do something differently, that's really important and to take even more risk adding that on to just taking that entrepreneurial route. When you're saying you have to create the market, was that indoor demo court, is that a piece of that? Part of it.
00:07:40
Speaker
that wasn't as intentional as most people would think. That really just stemmed from the rise in material costs during the pandemic. So it was just way more expensive to buy tile or wooden planks with the floor. So I figured, hey, why not just paint the concrete slab into a court? And initially, the intention was just if you're going to try shoes on, why not try it on a court? See what it actually feels like. And then we set up a prop net in the center of the store.
00:08:12
Speaker
just to kind of decorate the story of the film and the space and people started asking, hey, can we hit on this? And I said, sure. And then folks started asking questions about paddles and we couldn't really answer them.
00:08:28
Speaker
So we hit with them to help them understand what it felt like. And then during off times, me and my single staff member used to just hit with everything and just try to really get more into knowledge of the product that we're selling. Because when I came to the sport, I was just like, I love this. I got to do this. I don't care what the market looks like. Let's just figure it out. And it's just a long path of learning.
00:08:56
Speaker
It just continued to evolve at a rate that was not as intentional as most people would think it was. At first, it was just people asking to hit on it, and they were just having fun and saying, sure, why not? And then we started doing it with them. And then we started learning more
The Evolution of In-Store Demo Sessions
00:09:11
Speaker
and more. And we started seeing so many people come in asking to try pedals on court that we had to structure it. And we built this process out where it just became this guided demo.
00:09:25
Speaker
And then it became something more. My background is in product development, and I have a huge sports background. And I've always been hyper-analytical in sports. So all this came together in a sense to build something a little more technical. And that was the birth of the demo sessions at the Pickleball Exchange.
00:09:49
Speaker
And we've gotten to this point where we've become an authority in the sport. We know just about anything there is in terms of pickleball technology. This has also led to us helping brands develop their products. It just kept snowballing, snowballing. And we just had to stay dynamic and grow with it. And yeah, it just kind of took on a life of its own.
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's, I have a lot of questions that I keep coming up, but I'll try to go with the flow. I tried to stick to one that is the most recent for the sake of the listeners. Um, you mentioned, I don't remember how you just phrased it, but you were talking about how like your product development background helped you and your employees become
00:10:40
Speaker
better at testing and just like more knowledgeable around products. Can you talk more about that? Yeah, I mean, I've worked in labs with PhDs, I've worked in cosmetics, I've worked in, well, lots of consumer packaged goods with plastics and rigid materials. And that's essentially what pickle paddles are made of. So understanding how they respond to impact, how they respond to different environments, really helped us understand
00:11:06
Speaker
how pick up balls would be influenced by a paddle. And it led down the rabbit hole where we just start researching and learning and talking to people far more knowledgeable than us. And yeah, just really growing our knowledge base so we can better help customers. There's probably a lot of folks that order from like online and like pickleball central is very well known for just
00:11:31
Speaker
demo any paddles you want. You have 30 days and you can just return it. So I've had friends taking like five paddles, but to be able to have someone that has a technical background to provide like
00:11:42
Speaker
a review in a sense and one way to definitely provide more value to customers. We really try to take a non-biased point stance so we don't push people toward any one direction. So when you come in, we talk to you about your needs, wants, your challenges. We'll pull the line up. We'll try a bunch of stuff. We make it very scientific. We set a baseline, put a bunch of different things.
00:12:08
Speaker
different variations of pedals in your hand. See what the preferences lie and then that will help us navigate through the array of pedals because quite frankly they're just way too many out there. So we try to simplify the process and make it at least intimidating as possible.
00:12:24
Speaker
what the time for the first point of contact for people coming to the sport the problem with a lot of industries is there always industries hobbies sports look at it even in my background shit so coaches were always looking at like just jiu-jitsu but then the coach is not excelled. They are the ones that look at other sports like cross breeding the site cross pollination select.
00:12:46
Speaker
the fact that you're bringing in your experience in product development. And that's, you see it in some of these other pickleball companies is they have people who come from the tech industry and they find out like, oh, we can leverage different things to help provide value. Like you mentioned, when a customer comes in, you talk about your needs, wants, that's very like, yeah, that's very product development oriented.
00:13:12
Speaker
And it's very focused on the user's experience.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, we find it really important because a lot of folks coming in, especially in Pickleball, have no sports background. And they look at this wall of paddles and go, uh-huh. So we want to make it as easy as possible. We want to make it so that there are as few barriers entering into the sport as possible from our end. Yeah, this is very refreshing to hear. A lot of these terms that came from last job is low barrier to entry. It's very common. You want to create less friction. And when you said,
00:13:46
Speaker
I think that's a really good point earlier. You said that we are the first point of contact and that speaks volumes. It's like, look, this sport has a lot of traction. If you're the first point of contact, that's a huge responsibility that anyone should take very seriously. Um, and at the outside of pickleball, you see that's just not really the case, but
00:14:11
Speaker
Damn, that's awesome to hear. That's our primary emphasis. I have very few rules for our staff, and the under-born rule is we don't upsell, we don't push. Our goal is to educate rather than sell. Sales will come. The sport's growing really fast. But as a first point of concept, we have the extreme responsibility to ensure that the process is easy so the sport continues to grow.
00:14:36
Speaker
i mean people like steve kahne are doing wonderful wonderful things at the top of pickleball we're just trying to do our part at the bottom the fact that you emphasize with your team and your brand is the goal is to educate first that's also like huge if more people took that approach i you know like caring about the whoever's purchasing the item and like just caring about educating them that's
00:15:05
Speaker
things would look a lot better for everyone. What paddle is being tested the most right now?
Pickleball Product Trends and Collaborations
00:15:11
Speaker
The six, zero, a double black diamond or the legacy pro, uh, really hot pedals on the market. Also the carbon carbon one 16, uh, carbon one X 16. Um, those unit bodies are all the rage right now. Yeah. That legacy pro. If you like, maybe Chris sticker, we'll be listening to this at some point, but he's like the co-founder. If he looks at Reddit, it's, it's kind of like a,
00:15:34
Speaker
love hate because there's a lot of people who are like, I can't wait for this paddle, just ordered it. And then those same people are also like, I've been waiting months. And I imagine, you know, they're not trying to do this intentionally. It's supply chain. It's a high demand. Yeah, we work with a lot of the brands on the back end, especially the smaller brands that help them into the market, because it's a really competitive market. And
00:15:59
Speaker
part of what we like to do is help good people try and do good things in the sport. I mean, Chris is a single dad trying to push this company forward to create something for his family. So we love supporting people like that. And not just them, but there's a whole bunch of brands. And a lot of it just stems from manufacturing issues in Asia. It's really not the fault of the brands. It's just the factories.
00:16:28
Speaker
demand is just through the roof and it's really hard for them to keep up. Yeah. So for any of the listeners, if you ordered a legacy paddle, give them a break to stop emailing him. What have people been looking for in paddles when you first started the business, then to like,
00:16:47
Speaker
what were the people looking for next and what are people looking for most now? Oh, that's a tough one because it's just evolved so rapidly. Um, in the beginning, I'd like to say people just focused heavily on power. They just wanted to pound a ball for the most part. Um, I think a lot of it's because we sit in a fairly new market for pickleball. A lot of new players, a lot of tennis players converting. So they're just looking for things to hit as hard as possible. Um, now I think the players become a little more savvy. Um,
00:17:17
Speaker
little more experienced, so they're looking for just more complete paddles. I think people are becoming more educated in, well, paddle tech, so they're looking for more than just power. For us, we just tell folks, play what's comfortable.
00:17:34
Speaker
And you're going to be the person on court for hours playing. So focus on things like the grip size, the weight, and just make sure you have fun with it. Play with what you like as opposed to what you should play with or what people are telling you to play with. Play with what you like as opposed to what you should play with or what people are telling you to play with. The thing is, the more advanced of a player you are, the more meaningful these differences are.
00:18:00
Speaker
But for the average player, local record player, they're not going to feel the difference between, I guess, two different control battles. Some will feel much of a difference between the power and control battle. Because I think our understanding of power, control, spin, or form, it's different from player to player. So it's really relative to the person's experience. What is the biggest challenge you're experiencing right now?
00:18:30
Speaker
Well, I mean, we're technically a startup, so everything has been a challenge. But keeping a steady supply of paddles coming in, keeping up with all the new paddles coming out. But we try to stay a couple of steps ahead. We work with a lot of brands to develop their paddles. So hopefully that helps in the long run. But the economy isn't great. There's a million one things affecting sales right now.
00:19:00
Speaker
tons of competitors coming into the game. The landscape is getting quite saturated. And for us, our focus really isn't the sales, but we want to make sure that our players are protected.
00:19:12
Speaker
There's just so much marketing out there. A lot of it's complete junk. We just want to make sure people understand what the pedals are, what the pedal science is, and so they can make it a well-informed decision. Working with brands and developing paddles. What does that look like? How did that relationship begin? At the beginning, I spent the first two years in-store hitting with people, talking to people, and just trying to do what we do, just trying to educate folks as much as we can.
00:19:42
Speaker
At some point during the first couple of first year, people from these companies were coming in. I think there were a lot of secret shoppers just trying to see what we were doing. They realized that we were doing more than just pitching paddles.
00:20:03
Speaker
They figured, hey, maybe you should work with these folks. So they've come to us and asked us to play test, advise on the direction of their pedals. We've worked with some pretty large brands, which we can't mention their names. And we're working with some very large brands. We definitely can't mention those names. But you'll see them really soon.
00:20:27
Speaker
but we're really just trying to steer the market in the right place, primarily in the sense, or probably just trying to create more value for the customers because these days it's a lot of rebranding and high prices. As much as I'm enjoying the advancement of the paddle technology, I do wish that there was more, there were more brands
00:20:52
Speaker
in other aspects of this industry. I feel like, like you've said, the paddles are definitely becoming very saturated, a very saturated market. And I don't have a problem with that as long as each different persona or user type is being catered to. But at this point,
00:21:13
Speaker
Like, come on, it's getting kind of like ridiculous. Um, but yeah, I don't know the other end of the others, other side of the story of, you know, who's creating what? Like, like you said, Chris Dickard is, uh, you know, single dad trying to provide for his family, but same time also providing.
00:21:29
Speaker
very standout product, and it's clear. Many people are talking about it. Yeah, we actively go out there searching for paddles in companies that are filling spaces. Like, for example, Chris Dickert, Legacy Pro, great power paddle, lots of spin, but it's quite unique because it's a little more balanced in the handle, and that's something quite rare for power paddles. Most are a little more head heavy.
00:21:55
Speaker
So that's why that offering is incredibly unique. And I think that's why it's so popular these days, because there's a lot of power panels out there, a lot of great stuff out there. But we actually go out there seeking panels that fill a certain segment of consumer needs, like lightweight, small grip, head heavy power paddles. And we have such a variety and we try to fill every
00:22:21
Speaker
Every, uh, possible something I did want to really touch on and ask about is. So you came up with this business in a very significant, unique time. And especially given your background, uh, what's your
Challenges During COVID and Social Issues
00:22:41
Speaker
ethnicity? If you don't mind me asking. No, I'm Chinese. I'm originally from Hong Kong. Gotcha. Yeah. So that goes into my question. Um,
00:22:52
Speaker
You started in COVID. COVID had many responses, many, uh, different takes and opinions from the entire experience. One of them was the perspective on Asians. And you saw that there's a lot of crime around that time. And then there's also like the Asian hate. There's a lot of like crime against Asians.
00:23:17
Speaker
What has that experience been like starting a business during COVID from the perspective of your nationality and ethnic background? There are points where it's a little uncomfortable. I think being Asian at the time definitely wasn't great.
00:23:40
Speaker
Being Asian during the time, if you're out, if you go to a restaurant, if you go anywhere, you're going to see that you're just being treated a little differently. I remember when I went to this one restaurant and let's pick a food for the family. And when I walked in, it was like Moses parking the seat. That was fascinating. But in those situations, it's easy because you leave. You go, okay, whatever, brush it off. When you're a business owner and you're in a fixed location,
00:24:08
Speaker
you have to worry that if it comes to you, what do you do? So it was scary to be honest with you. We never advertised as an Asian owned business because of that. I'm on every local neighborhood app and we saw tons of counts of just crimes and violence gets Asians and
00:24:31
Speaker
I'm not that far from the store. So the concern was always, what if it comes to the store and how do I deal with it there? But also, what if it's incredibly targeted and they follow me? And maybe being paranoid, who knows? But it was uncomfortable at times. But we never really had anyone that was a really aggressive tortoise because we're Asian, but we've had a couple of moments.
00:24:59
Speaker
I remember one time someone walked in, came to me and said, hey, is there anyone else that could help me? I said, oh, I'm sorry, I'm the only person here today. They turned around, got in their car and left. So that was odd. And some of the other staff noticed, my first staff member was Asian as well. And some of my staff had mentioned that people were a little less patient with him.
00:25:25
Speaker
Um, they're eager to get upset. Oh, they're quick to get upset and try to move on to somebody else. And, uh, these little things, um, you know, that we were dealing with through the pandemic. Um, but it wasn't a lot of the currencies. Um, you're not going to play the victim card and go, Oh, we were targeted. And this was so hard for us because the huge majority of the pick wall community is.
00:25:49
Speaker
super warm, super welcoming. I mean, especially in LA, it's probably the most inclusive sport you could find. We're very blessed that the Pickwall Exchange, though we had a few minor incidents, has been just this really warm, open, inclusive place. And we've been fortunate to be able to keep that out. But there's always that fear.
00:26:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't mean to try and make this about, uh, like playing the victim or creating some sense of, uh, like outrage or controversy throughout this, but, um, I do think it, like you said, the community and pickleball is great. Anyone has been listening to these episodes. We probably like the most used word besides like paddles in this episode. Um, but.
00:26:43
Speaker
It is an important reminder that the minority, no pun intended, does not make up the majority. So while there are instances and cases, it's not actually that common, but you know, I think there are a lot of folks who start a business and they don't have to be Asian. They could be a female. They could be a different race. They could be, uh, they could have a mental disability and it's important to share an experience where
00:27:12
Speaker
you're having a less favorable experience with someone and like how you navigate it. When I think of like LA and
00:27:23
Speaker
what times of crime and like having a brick and mortar store i think back to the l.a riots of like rodney king and like i have a korean background so very kind of like connected to the experience of korean store owners during that time were like kind of battling against each other against the people who are rioting which in a sense is each other we're all just we're all
00:27:50
Speaker
in this same country. We're all just human beings at the end of the day. And even having parents who own a retail store business is very interesting. So I kind of empathize with you when...
00:28:01
Speaker
you said it's one thing to go into a store or like a place of business, but it's another thing when that's coming to you. We're fortunate. We just haven't really had any crazy incidents. I mean, I talked to my staff all the time about it and how to just kind of manage these situations the best they can. Uh, if they find someone who's a little more aggressive, but I think
00:28:25
Speaker
as a person, especially going through the pandemic, you have to think that after being locked up for so long, there's a lot of mental illness floating around. And yeah, I created this business for that purpose.
00:28:39
Speaker
I created this because I needed something for my own mental health. I want to surround myself with cool, awesome things that make me happy every day. Not everyone has that. For us, I always tell my staff, just try to understand that folks can come from a very difficult place and just talk to people and listen. Sometimes that's enough to help them.
00:29:05
Speaker
just open up to the world a little more and not be so close minded. It's a unique position because I think in many ways, ways to overcome these particular experiences or interactions is through help. It's like the person on the other side might have a certain perspective or view on you. But once, and this is happening without any interaction, but once the interaction happens and they realize like,
00:29:33
Speaker
okay i have this exterior but i'm here to help you that like breaks away a lot of that like tension and a lot of like preconceived conflict um that's that was going to be my question of how you handle the situation but you answered it so uh yeah i really appreciate it and i hope
00:29:52
Speaker
Whoever's listening if they have a store that they can you know adapt adopt that similar kind of approach what was a thought behind taking crypto and how that could potentially yeah help hinder or like be viewed for your business and
00:30:14
Speaker
So far it's been viewed pretty positively.
Cryptocurrency in Retail
00:30:16
Speaker
For the most part, people will see Bitcoin or Ethereum or Dogecoin logos on our door and go, hey, that's cool. So that's been nice. But to be honest with you, not many people actually use cryptocurrencies to make payments. We have some regularities I do. I also figured hopefully it would open a new segment of customers, but it didn't. I think people are not really looking to send their crypto.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, huddle for life for sure. Unless you have Luna. So I read in one of the news outlets said you had partnered up with USA Pickleball at the LA Fit Expo. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is our second year doing it. I think about pickleball exchanges. We love
00:31:07
Speaker
helping the expansion of pickleball, especially in our local communities. And we don't get a lot publicity for it. We just do it because it's cool and a good thing to do. And we had the opportunity when USAP asked us if you want to be a part of this. I said, hell yeah. Because this is a segment of people who would probably be least inclined to play pickleball. I mean, huge bodybuilders that are just
00:31:36
Speaker
looking for, like, excitement. And when you think of pickleball, you don't think of that, not from our perspective, but from someone from the outside. And we wanted to change, well, I wanted to change that understanding. And I think the best way to do so is showcasing pickleball to these folks that would probably be the least inclined to jump into the sport.
00:32:00
Speaker
And I think it's been a success. Every Fit Expo we've been a part of, hundreds of thousands of people have tried to pickball for the first time and they're smiling and they're enjoying and they're loving it. And they're like,
00:32:18
Speaker
I like to believe we converge some folks, but we do it just because it's awesome seeing new people smile and love the sport, hopefully as much as we do. This had to have crossed your mind when you started your business, but basically someone wanted to start a pickleball store, but they said, I'm not really sure they had these doubts. They're like, there's a tennis store right down the street from me. How do you compete with that? A lot of the comments and responses were like, Oh, don't do it. Just create like online retail.
00:32:49
Speaker
kind of people steering this person away from that, which is kind of the Reddit, uh, the usual vibe. But yeah, we'd love to see what your thoughts are on that and what insights you could provide. If you don't love it, don't do it. Um, margins aren't great, but
00:33:06
Speaker
you can probably make a decent living doing it. I wouldn't know because I haven't paid myself. So the landscape is incredibly saturated. Every tennis store, I guess in the nation right now is looking at pickleball. They're taking on paddles. Parks are saturated with folks selling paddles at the parks. So it's really tough. And you really have to just figure out how to differentiate yourself from all of them. And I think passion will do it because it'll give you an
00:33:36
Speaker
Oh, at some point, it will evolve into something that will give you the competitive advantage over these folks. Hopefully, it's your expertise. But yeah, really make sure that you love it. Make sure you are in the game. Because if not, you're just another person out there. Definitely to go on, online is really tough. Digital ads, cost per per version,
00:34:04
Speaker
they were like through the roof, the marketplace online is super, super saturated, far more than the brick and mortar retail side. So can you do it? Yeah. But man, we made the push online and we have a decent amount of online volume, but it's incredibly costly. And especially almost, especially if you don't have the ability to kind of
00:34:29
Speaker
drive traffic through alternative methods like creating content or shooting partnerships. There's so many things you have to do to be a successful online retailer. What other advice would you say you have for someone who wants to successfully start a business and pick a ball? Play the game.
00:34:48
Speaker
actually play the game you would be surprised how many people are in this sport that don't play pickleball so we try to filter through and help those that do and are passionate about the sport but play the game
00:35:02
Speaker
Listen to people. Listen to the folks at your local parks. Find an opportunity to fill needs anywhere you can. And hopefully that will take you far. In an interview with LA Daily News, they said your store gets customers through word of mouth.
Competing with Retail Giants through Experience
00:35:22
Speaker
Some people come in out of town. Is there something that you're doing differently that compels these people to come in from out of town? The people coming in have snowballed primarily because word about our demo process, our demo sessions has really spread. I did the numbers recently and we've run our demo sessions at least 25,000 times in the past two years.
00:35:52
Speaker
We've had that make it will come in. It's just ridiculous. People love this one-on-one intimate experience, where you essentially tailor this to each person. And it's really developed the following. We have lots of locals that come. We have a big community in Hawaii that's always here, especially during like September. We have a few celebrities and influencers.
00:36:22
Speaker
come from all over the nation. We had some regulars flying into private jets, which I'm like, whoa, that's insane. I think what we do is cool, but I'm not sure if it warrants all that. In the beginning, it was really hard for us to get people to know that we exist and to come in. And so we just paid for tons of ads and just pushed it out there into the world. And people started just really trickling in.
00:36:47
Speaker
But we got to the point where we could almost turn off those ads. I mean, the budget now is like a 20th of what it used to be. And more, it's just now more word of mouth that brings folks in. What would you credit or who would you credit to your success and what kind of story could you tell there?
00:37:07
Speaker
I worked for a lot of really, I guess, powerful people in my lifetime. People that had headed Fortune 50 companies, people that were incredibly successful entrepreneurs. I went through my 20s just trying to learn as much as I could from all these folks. I'm trying to figure out that secret recipe for success.
00:37:30
Speaker
what I learned is just that it was passion, right? Just the eagerness to the drive. But one thing that came with that was there's a lot of ways to be successful and passionate and you get to choose. Do you want to be a good person and a good person doing it? I think ethical or you want to be like the jerk. Um, probably watched a little too much, uh,
00:38:00
Speaker
to make movies like Wolf of Wall Street and stuff like that. I've learned from some really successful people that you can be a good person and run a successful business. It takes a little more work, but it's worth it in the end. That's just a primary ethos of political exchange. My hope is that
00:38:24
Speaker
We could create a successful business while being on ethical, having a great culture. But it's still your preference. So fingers crossed it works out. And that's really been what the Pickle Wall Exchange has been about and what really drives us day to day and in all our actions. I mean, I came into this sport as a businessman. I thought I could build a business, I could build a market, it'll be great, I'll be successful. What I think changed me was the community.
00:38:54
Speaker
You know, it was really hard the first two months. I think that month two, month two or three, I think we had a total of like five sales. And what really kind of carried us is the community. One person found us, uh, was evangelical, uh, to his closed group, literally, uh, would call folks and threaten them if they would order their pedals online. And, you know,
00:39:23
Speaker
As a business owner, you start wondering why. As a person, you start thinking, that's so cool. Why me? And you start thinking, man, if they're going to go so far for me, I have to try to reciprocate.
00:39:42
Speaker
What do you think when you're competing with larger retailers like Amazon and other online retailers? I won't name any names, but in the pickleball space. Do what we can. I mean, do we can focus on our experience, focus on what we're strong at, which is the in-store experience and hopefully resonates well with the community.
00:40:09
Speaker
And just keep growing, keep evolving and just keep trying to spread the message. I think we just got to try to be ourselves. You just got to remember our message and just focus on that and really drive it forward and grow it as much as we can. The hope is that we could just really spread this across a nation and raise a standard of what retailers
00:40:32
Speaker
are doing. And I think just having the end goal really helps us because it is not easy. There's no clear formula how to compete or how to be successful, especially when these guys are so big.
00:40:48
Speaker
So we just do the best we can. Yeah. And glad there's no clear formula. Then people would, wouldn't branch out, right? Like people like yourselves, if everyone just followed what some of these other big brands are doing. Um, and obviously that doesn't even work either. I, you see, not trying to throw any shade really, but you see like companies like Adidas was just a legacy brand, a very large brand and.
00:41:11
Speaker
They're trying to come into this sport. I'm happy to see folks like Legacy, Yola, Selkirk, Volaire, that they're out doing them, right? I'll say that over time that Adidas won't catch
00:41:29
Speaker
the traction that they need but it is cool to see that the small businesses and smaller communities within pickleball are holding it down and they're taking that responsibility seriously. How do you want people to remember your brand?
00:41:44
Speaker
Hopefully, people would see us as one of the forces that really helped grow Pickleball, not just grow it at the professional level and at the huge broad market level, but we're just at the parks. I want to be the brand that folks like to see as just an awesome community store. That's all we're really looking for.
00:42:08
Speaker
We try to push online, we try to push as much as we can to grow. Honestly, I just want to maintain this cool thing we've built as long as I can. I want to be able to pay our staff so we can all just
00:42:25
Speaker
like work and I want people all to be our profession. I want people to be able to make a living doing something you really enjoy. Has anything crossed your mind that I haven't asked you? I guess the staff thing, you know, how do we hire staff? Yeah, absolutely. Go into it. It's really important for us in doing what we do to have the right people. So my criteria typically for folks is really just to have good people that I feel are going to make
00:42:54
Speaker
good, honest decisions in difficult situations. For example, if there's something that isn't right with a customer, I want them to do the best for the customer rather than think of what's the bottom line for the company. Skills can be taught, but morals can't.
00:43:19
Speaker
Crucial skill is not just as an employee, but even as a human being, you know, it's very easy nowadays to act irrational and emotional. I think a lot of businesses, the mistake they make is they view customers as a number. Um, we're all human beings and we need to view every customer, every staff and resume and being with role wants needs. I think it's important to forget that.
00:43:46
Speaker
out more about the Pickleball Exchange? Coming to sort. Yeah, that's the best way of doing it. Go simmering. We're here. I answer all the emails for the most part. We have a website, pickleballexchange.com or thepickleballexchange.com. But coming to sort, that's probably the best way of experiencing what we do.
00:44:06
Speaker
Thank you for joining me today and sharing your insights as an entrepreneur and your experiences. And hopefully someone who's listening can live vicariously through your trials, your experiences, and also all the advice and the insights that you provided to successfully create a business or at least be part of a team that does. But yeah, thank you again for your time today, Joey.
00:44:35
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having me.