Club Mastermind: The ultimate pickleball club playbook

0:00Yeah, so Jimmy, take us away. We're here at Mastermind. Yeah, so we're here with Nick. Nick, this because I've got the name tag I can read. So tell us a little bit Nick just about like what your club is, your experience with Mastermind, what you're located. Yeah, so I'm in San Diego, California. Okay, we've got an indoor facility. It's absolutely amazing. It's 11 indoor courts. Okay, we opened about a year ago. Rallyhouse? Rallyhouse Pickleball Club, yeah. You don't rep yourself. Who's going to rep you, right? More shorts out though. Yeah, they're in the hotel room. Flip flops, the board shorts come out later. Yeah. But no, so yeah, I'm excited. You know, I've known about Mastermind since before we opened. Yeah. And I actually had a call with Devon a year ago. Okay. And it's like, yeah, I'm definitely going to make it out for an event. Want to get a little bit of time with the facility under our belt? Yeah. You know, we've grown exponentially about 8,000 members right now. Oh, wow. It's 8,000 members. Most of the free membership, but we have, yeah, we have hundreds of paid members. Yeah. And still it's, yeah, it's, it pops off. We're almost a capacity of every single day.

1:02We're, I mean, peak down for four, but yeah, what are you at? What are your hours? We open at 6 a.m. And we go till 10 p.m. 11 o'clock on Friday nights. And then, you know, we, we open on Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. So we have 11 courts. Do you have 11 courts? 11? Yeah. 11 premium courts. We've got three court side lounges. Get ton of corporate gigs, buyouts are happening all the time. What's the valuable lesson you've learned from Mastermind? You know, I've already got some really good notes and some nuggets. I mean, this last hour was, was really cool. I'm on the marketing and how to, you know, build the funnels and, you know, be able to expand and bring in people to the club that haven't maybe been exposed to Pig Ball. Yeah. Intro to Pig Ball. That was a good one. Last night, there was a lot of good takeaways. And I don't know what was my favorite takeaway from yesterday. I mean, it's kind of this swimming with all these courts. Yeah, I mean, you got to like, yeah, just all the, yeah, for sure. But sure, and then pull out what was there on a huge fan of court reserve, you know, I was, no better software. After last night, I was chatting up with Jeremy and he was sharing some cool stuff and pro tips. So, you know, just enhancing our tech stack at all times.

2:04Yeah. So if you're ever use literally every single thing they have there, and we got the earning, court reserve, duper, swish. We use that same play. We got to get KOTC over here. Yeah, I know, right? There we go. So if you're ever in San Diego, yeah, rally house. Yeah, let's pick a ball. Check them out. Yeah. We, I think we're going to be what MLP San Diego. Yeah. We'll have to stop by rally house. Yeah. I podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. That'd be sick. So yeah. Awesome. Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks Nick. Thanks. Thanks. That was super quick. Joshua. So we can read. That's one thing we are good at. We can read. So tell us a little bit about you're here at mastermind. Tell us a little bit about your club where it's located. Members, courts. Yeah. So we're in Southeast Idaho about three hours north of here. Pocatello, Idaho, Chabokite. Nice little valley. We're going to have ten indoor courts. First of its kind there in the area. Yeah. A lot of people will always joke that you always leave Pocatello to get really nice stuff. Yeah. And Chabok, well, we're going to bring it to our area and we're really excited.

3:05That's awesome. So there's nothing I don't right now like we're in Pocatello. Well, there's another smaller court that's got five courts. Yeah, we don't even talk about that. And yeah, ours is going to be better. How many courts? Ten. Ten. Oh, sitting in the courts. Climate controlled. We are in Idaho. So whether it's an issue, you're going to want to be in our facility. Yeah. How long have you been wanting to do this? This is a labor of love. We were hoping to be open about a year ago. So we're developing what's going to be in the new downtown Chabok area next to Chabok City Hall. And so our goal is to be open by July for a big birthday party, but we'll be open before winter. Love that. Love that. What's the most valuable thing you've learned from Mastermind? You know, the thing I love about this, so I'm big in the sports. I've got a daughter that's going to be competing. So I might get emotional. For two state titles in track. Anything in your life, it's worth getting educated. It's worth seeking things out. It's worth trying to be better.

4:07Somebody else has already done it. Go find out and get better. And really you're in a race with yourself. So we're just here to try to figure out how to create the best pickleball experience for the people in our community. And we're really excited to be a part of Mastermind. Your daughter has coaches, right? She does have coaches. She prefers if I don't coach her. Of course. Let me ask what events? She does a 100 meter hurdles, the 300 meter hurdles. She's doing the 4x4 relay and it's the 300 and the 100 we're excited for. Love it. That's awesome. She's one second off of a state record. Okay, let's get it. Let's go get it. Let's go get it. Let's go get it. Last but not least, what attracted you to pickleball wasn't the finances? It wasn't the pickleball sport itself. So I'm a tennis player by nature. And my son's a tennis player. And then he and his friends started playing pickleball. And we just fell in love with the sport. There's something about the fact that you can play all ages. It is a great sport for the sociality of the sport.

5:08It's incredible. And that is so important in our lives. Yeah, absolutely. What's your name for your episode? It's called Upper Level Pickleball. And it's supposed to be opened by... Before winter. Before winter. Let's say August. August or September. Okay, tell us. Idaho State University. Idaho State University. Okay. But it's going to be in Chubbock. So Chubbock. Okay. Chubbock's where we're built. Chubbock Tell and Chubbock Relief. It's the Portana Valley Gate City. Okay. Great place to be. Love it. Awesome. Okay. It's your first time, John. Thanks for having me. Thanks, man. Yeah. I would watch the commercial line interviews. Oh, you did? Yeah, you did. Awesome. Do you mind holding this because you're the star? Oh, boy. Okay, here we go. Nicole, so I've seen you many, many, many, many years ago. Wow. Don't age or so much. Yeah. We have a video with you, actually. Yeah. The volley drills. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Okay. So tell us about yourself. How did you get here? Yeah. So I have an online business in Pickleball. Much like these guys are doing a great job with their podcast.

6:08I have an online YouTube channel with instructional videos. Let's plug it. Let's plug it. Primetime Pickleball. Primetime Pickleball. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm back into the on court teaching. I loved online, but the community aspect is just like nothing else in Pickleball. Yeah. Love the indoor facilities that are popping up all over the place. So I'm really looking to like, I'm not here necessarily to open a facility for myself, but to be the director or head pro or the, or both. So you're here to learn? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. These guys really have it dialed in. Just amazing on how they structure their, their membership, the pricing structure, the ad campaigns, the funnels that we just all went through. I mean, wow, they've really thought through everything. It's awesome. And it's just incredible. And we're only, we had one night last night. We're only third of the way through the first, through the second day. Yeah. We sent all the rest of today. And tomorrow, I just, and it's already like, where, where are you based out of? I'm well, I'm currently in Hawaii on this. Okay.

7:08Oh, I'm on a, I'm on a wellness retreat. Okay. You know, as I play, well, you play to BYU, right? Yeah. So I played at Cal. And you get destroyed physically. And so I have a still a longstanding chronic injury. Wait, wait, wait. So Cal is a home, a lot of pro pickleball. I mean, Anna Bright. Yes. Anna Bright. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm carrying the torch for us, and the lead on that one. So that's awesome. What's the lead on that one? Why? Co-why? Okay. So, I've been trying to work through this injury for quite some time. And I realize, okay, it's close, but just not quite enough. So I kind of put things on hold. I went there, and I'm three months in, just different modalities of recovery every day. And then when I come out of that, I'm probably going to land somewhere. I don't know, on the West Coast, that maybe one of these?

8:08One of these, yeah. Yeah, have you made some good contacts, so you've been here? Yeah, really good. you know, they got the pickle ball bug, they see the, it's a great business opportunity, but you got to do it the right way. Like I think a lot of people are just, you know, throwing some spaghetti at the wall, thinking, oh, like open some cords and a little bit kind of approaching it too much hobby-like. If you do it like this, you're almost like guaranteed to succeed. I mean, if you just follow along. How did you find a pickle ball masterfly? Facebook ads, yeah, they targeted me. They were, yeah, yeah, we're, who was just talking, was it Tanner? He said, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt. It worked. Yeah, it really works. So that's how I got here. And I'm the type that's going to like watch every testimonial, watch every video on the sales page, searched around that type found that you guys interviewed him. I typed in Devin Egan, whatever. Yeah, that's awesome. And yeah, so, so. So I mean, you were like, I'm going to, what, I'm going to plug you here. But you were like a valuable asset.

9:08Anybody that's opening a club like, this is who they want to hire. I appreciate that. That's what I'm hoping people think. Yeah. Like with online, we'll have the, you know, the playing chops, coaching chops. Yeah. And I've already, this funnel stuff, I've already done it in my business. So, yeah, and I just love it and love pickle balls. So it's fun to like rope in all those additional skills into the thing you love. Like, it's just, I mean, it's play. It's like, I can be there all day and just have fun with it because it's a good time. So, I have a question for you. What's your schedule with your YouTube stuff? How often are you posting? What's your core demographic? Okay. What are you trying to do with your YouTube? Is it just purely teaching skills? Yeah, basically teaching skills. So I had, because of the injury, I had to really couldn't really lean into it as hard as I would have liked. But in a perfect world, it was once a week YouTube video, because there's a lot of you guys know, like there's a lot of production that goes into everything. When you see a, even a 10 minute video,

10:10it's like hours of post. Yeah, for sure. I don't think anybody, nobody really gets it. Really gets that. Yeah, so let's say once a week posting on YouTube, I'm not as strong as at IG and Facebook as I could be, but ideally they're doing that like three, four times a week. And the goal is like courses. So putting out like maybe a course every three months, like a strategy course or to be clear, I haven't done that because of the injury. But that's like what you can do. If you want to do that, anyone could do that. It's a really great business. You can do like, you know, forehand power course, attacking course, defending course. There's just like so many things. And even if you did like three a year, and but the key is you got to the email list and you know that stuff, so. Have you ever, so Tyler and I have done this several times recorded a whole video and then realized you didn't press record? Yes. We have, we have done that, huh? If you haven't been a content creator, until you've done that, until you've done something like that, or like you're editing and you've, you're almost done with the video and it just crashes.

11:12Oh, yeah. You've got hours into it and it's unrecoverable. Yeah, awesome. Nah, well listen, Nicole, I love this. Yeah, great to meet you. You've met her in person. You did a video with her. I wasn't there actually. Oh, okay, so you're on it. Like you knew right away, like your memory's pretty good. Really good. That was like seven years ago. That's crazy. So awesome. Okay, appreciate it. Thanks. Good to see you. Same. Thanks. Was that good? Yeah, awesome. Yeah, he's great. All right, how's everyone doing? Tyler, Jimmy, we're here at Club Mastermind. We have Neil here. We can read. That's right. So Neil, you were with Court Reserve. That's right. Right? So Court Reserve obviously is the leading club management software. Tell us a little bit about Court Reserve and kind of, you guys are obviously a big sponsor of Mastermind. Yeah, we just kind of love a little bit about, you know, what makes Court Reserve, because there's a lot of club management software's out there. What separates Court Reserve from everybody else? Well, you know, Court Reserve is kind of the OG is what I would say.

12:14We're in a lot of clubs. We're in most of clubs that are... Do you know how many clubs you're in? That's not a number. I know. Okay. But it's worth it. Steve, how many clubs is Court Reserve in, you know? It's over 2,000. Okay, 2,200. Wow. That's insane, for sure. And we're expanding every day. Yeah. We are based in Florida. We've been just expanding, building out the team. And we've got some exciting things coming to make it not just... And this is where I am over. Make it not just really like club management software, but actually like more of a better player experience. So that your players in your clubs are really enjoying themselves. And it makes it a great experience using our software. I mean, we have, obviously, Club Pickleball USA uses it, but we even have a guy that lives by us. That was one court. And you have to reserve his one court on court reserve. I believe that. Yeah. So I mean, it's for everybody, right? It's cool. What have been some of the biggest bottlenecks that you guys have faced

13:15with your software and your club players? Oh, hard hitter. I mean, yeah, that's hard hitter. Hard hit in question. You know, I think being able to respond to the needs of clubs is one of the things where fairly small company from an employee standpoint. But we're expanding. We've grown from, I think, about 35 employees to over 70 in the last year. Wow. So you're going to start to really see that velocity as we're able to respond more to players' needs. I can't say that that's exactly the biggest challenges, but in my opinion, that seems like that's been what it is. So I'm also a tennis player as well. And so I get a bunch of emails from tennis. And I noticed that there's a court reserve email with tennis. Are you guys branching off into the tennis world as well? We absolutely have been. We're all racquet sports. We even have some clubs that are ping pong clubs. We do things for swimming pools.

14:16All kinds of different sports. If you need to reserve kind of some entity, we're are some basketball with them. Anything. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're doing all kinds of stuff. Yeah, that's awesome. It makes sense, right? Awesome. So tell us why a court reserve is over a competitor. There you go. Well, we have the most features. That's for sure. There are definitely some great competitors out there, of course, that have some nice features to them. But we have all of them, and we've got more. That's what I would say is that we have a broader range of offerings for what clubs actually need. You have to integrate a Tinder. That's why I pray. A dating aspect. A dating aspect of court reserve. I like it. Can you talk about that? Can we add that in? That's the first. I actually think, I'll say this, I'm technologically incompetent. And I think the court reserve has the easiest user interface.

15:19Oh, good. Yeah. From our side of it, you know, it's the easiest to use. Even I can't screw it up. That's good here. So that's a big thing. And honestly, it's going to be getting better. We have a new head of design. Myself, I'm trying to improve the player. You guys can't see him. Steve's a handsome guy, though, over here. He's off camera. He looks like a designer. Like, if there was designer in the dictionary, it's this guy. His picture. Yeah, we'll be improving it. But yeah, I think that's one of the big things is it's easy to use. It's usually pretty quick. Yeah. Awesome. How do people stay up to date with court reserve? Is it socials? Is it the website? I would definitely say socials, which we're pretty active on social media. But, you know, honestly, go to court reserve.com. If you're a club, if you're an individual, anybody can reach out to you guys? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There's new things coming out every day on our website. For instance, you know, being able to just go to court reserve

16:19and say you're traveling for work or something, you want to play pickleball. Go out. Go on our website. The white clubs are closest. You can search based on where you are and find a good club. And it's court reserve, so you're used to it. It's pretty familiar. Awesome. Thanks for your time. Yeah, appreciate it, guys. We're talking to Devin. You can hold it. Okay, okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Mike, check, Mike, check. Did I do something? DJI testing 1, 2, 3. Tyler and his tech. It's such a good word. How many days before we see this on an Instagram story for sale? All right, we're back here with Devin. Wait, none of my hotel jokes report. Yeah, it is. All right, number one thing that you hope the people attending will take away from your club pick well, mastermind. Yeah, I'd say the most important thing, because there's a lot to it, right? You're, we talk about your facility and construction and court utilization and all the tournaments, corporate events, sponsorships. The most important thing is the business model.

17:20What is your pricing structure? What is your membership offering? What's the value proposition that you bring to the marketplace? And this is where we feel like so many club owners get it wrong. The way that we construct it is we outline your math to say, how can I pay my bills? How can I cover payroll, rent, and everything else without selling a membership? That's all based on occupancy and utilization. How do we just get bodies on courts that are willing to play pickleball and pay for it? And we don't care if they're a member or a visitor, as long as we can get them on the court. So when you, when you build it that way, you're built for longevity. You have far less risk because you know going in. Hey, as long as I can be 40% occupied, I'm going to cover my cost basis. And then everything else is gravy, your profitability. I sell a membership, profitability. I have a higher than 40% occupancy rate, profitability, corporate event, profitability, tournaments, profitability. Sounds like a pretty good value and pickable if you ask me. It's not bad, it's not bad. It feels like you're doing a good job over here. So tell us a little bit, Devon, you have, not only we've talked a lot of people,

18:22not only do you have people that have clubs that are open. There's clubs that are opening, but you actually even have someone here who doesn't even have a job. And they came to learn how to be a club coordinator. I learned so that someone, the cold, so if someone hired them, she would have a skill set. So this is for everybody, right? Yeah, I mean, if you want to get in the pickleball business as an owner and operator, I think that there's a lot of avenues that you could take to it. But mastermind kind of gives you that fast track, your pain for speed, to get ahead of the competition and have an unfair advantage in the marketplace. The next club pickwall mastermind, what is it? Yeah, June 17 to 19, registration opens next week. And so, yeah, we'd love to see if you've got a club or you're thinking about opening one. Come check out mastermind. If you use code KOTC, it might save you a little bit here and there. The club pick a wall mastermind slash KOTC that we know. Yeah, and he'll put you up in a nice three and a half star. Yeah, how do we upgrade the hotel that these people say? Okay, so I'm going to call Marriott. I have a few contacts there.

19:22They're going to build a new hotel for us. We weren't in Oram, Utah. So you got to bear with me. But the nice thing about the hotel, it's paid for. It's included in your registration. We take care of that for you. But yeah, it is a sweet little fairfield. Did you use like a group on or something for it? Yeah, I got a special deal with Marriott. Everybody's in the basement. You traded some club court time? That's right. Some credits. Club credit. Club credit. Club credit. We love club credit. I think I still have something in my bag somewhere. Thanks, Evan. Thanks.