[00:00:00] Joe: something got unlocked in me. I was able to carry that momentum to the next year. Bring in $300,000 for our business and we made about $189,000 that first year, which was far and above anything I had made up to that point. And we've just hit the ground running. Year after year, coming outta the winter.
[00:01:22] What's up guys? My name's Joe. I'm your host and I'm super excited today 'cause we're gonna take the entire podcast to just share my story and my hope is that if you are a, a dad especially, that is looking to start a business that can truly bless their family, And lead to a lot of freedom, a lot of options, a lot of opportunities for you and your spouse, your kids to do good in the world.
[00:01:49] if that's. you, then I'm really hopeful that this will be inspiring and encouraging to you. So I'm gonna jump right in and just share most of my story. I won't bore you with my upbringing, but on the career side, I went to college to be a teacher. I came from a family of teachers.
[00:02:07] My mom's a teacher. my grandfather was a teacher administrator and I had really bad grades in high school. and that kind of continued into college. the thing I cared most about was playing college tennis. So, because of my grades, my opportunities, different.
[00:02:23] Colleges were pretty limited, but I was able to get to college and I played college tennis, at a little school called Wilmington College here in Ohio. I very quickly realized once I graduated, that I actually don't want to be in a classroom. So like many of us who go to college, we find ourselves not using our degree, which is, disappointing, frustrating, but it is just simply the reality for a lot of folks, me included.
[00:02:49] So when I graduated from college. I immediately went into teaching tennis, so that was my full-time job for about, three years out of college. And unexpectedly, me and my wife got married, I'm a year ahead of her, in school, a year older. she graduated college and we got married pretty young.
[00:03:07] I think we were both 22 actually. we found ourselves. in youth ministry. So we started doing some church work right out of college. I fell into that completely. I did not see that coming. we actually started a drama program at a church.
[00:03:22] And that church needed a youth pastor. And, we were so in love with just helping the kids and we, we felt so much passion around that, that, it was, it was an obvious step to say yes. So I actually spent about, Seven years in youth ministry, children's ministry, worship, music ministry.
[00:03:41] So lots of church work. And through a variety of circumstances, I realized, seven years into that, trajectory that I actually wanted to, Test to see. It was very much a faith thing, but I was like, man, would I love people in the same way if I didn't get paid to do it? There were a lot of those types of questions.
[00:04:00] certainly wasn't that question alone, but I had this kind of instinct that I need to remove myself from doing ministry in the church as a vocation. And that was really confusing for me because a lot of my strengths were actually in that world. So it was very confusing to leave. And, even more confusing to understand what are my skills, in the rest of the marketplace.
[00:04:25] And that was a very much a journey. I spent about a year working for a friend of mine who is gracious enough to invite me into his business where he was flipping stuff on eBay at a large scale. So I'm taking pictures in his basement of different. pillowcases and costumes and, rugs.
[00:04:43] It was not the most glamorous job, but I'm super grateful for it. So that started my transition and gave me a chance to, really reflect on the church time and also, gave me financial space. At that time we had. One, maybe two kids
[00:04:57] money ran out for that position, for that business. And so, he graciously gave me a little bit of runway and then said, you gotta get outta here. So then I took another job. where I essentially put, plastic pieces together to create IV pump parts
[00:05:13] And that job, was very good for me at the time, it provided for our family's needs. but I think the biggest benefit of that, job I was there about two years, was that it gave me. Time. So in that job I had, the ability to just listen to headphones, you know, eight hours a day.
[00:05:31] And so it took me about six months just listening to like random music while I was doing my job. The job is, it's like putting puzzles together over and over and over the same puzzle. And so I realized, oh my gosh, I'm only using like, 20 percent of my brain capacity on this job.
[00:05:47] So I, realized, oh man, if they're letting us use headphones, I could really go to school on any topic that I want to, eight hours a day. And because my grades were really bad in high school and college. I was not a great learner up until this point.
[00:06:03] I really saw an opportunity to learn, and I think that the combination of the opportunity with the questions that I was asking at that time really set me up to start to take off when I was, you know, close to man, I must have been 29, 30 years old. And at that point we had three kids. the questions I was asking were, how do I become a good dad?
[00:06:26] it was not obvious to me how to be a good father. I thought it would be, I'm a pretty personable guy, and I was like, I don't know how to be a good dad. Like how do I do this? this should be more intuitive. so yeah, lots of dad questions, you know, dad, husband, how do I be, how do I lead a family?
[00:06:43] the second one was some of those faith questions, that I had wrestled with in a previous season. And the, the last one were, the last question I was asking was, how do I become more financially? literate. So, because I didn't pay attention in any of my economics classes or math classes or any class, I, I felt very behind in the way that I, I should think about money.
[00:07:05] And so, but I had all this time at this job, so those, I went to work. I literally went to work on learning how to be a good dad, how to become more financially literate, and how to think about. My faith in a world where truth is, is really seems to be up in the air. and yeah, I was trying to untangle my own upbringing in regards to faith.
[00:07:30] So I'm listening to podcasts. I'm listening to YouTube videos. I'm going down all these YouTube rabbit holes while I'm working. for, I would say nine months to a year I was listening to audio books. you know, really just trying to immerse myself in any experts that could give me any kind of guidance that I hadn't yet received.
[00:07:48] at that point, I, about a year, year and a half into that job, I listened to a podcast, uh, where it was called Dad Tired. If you guys wanna go check it out, it's a great podcast. Um. And there was a guest on, on that episode, uh, who talked about all three of those topics in one podcast episode. It was like 45 minutes.
[00:08:11] In a way. He talked about each of these, um, these topics, faith, family, business. Uh, in a very integrated way that I had never, that I had never heard anybody talk about these things. And it, it felt so personal to me as I listened to it. And at the end of the podcast, this ge, this guest, his name's Jeremy Pryor, uh, you guys should go check out some of his stuff.
[00:08:32] He's a, he's a good friend of mine now. But I reached out to, uh, at the, oh, sorry, at the end of the podcast, he says, we have a nonprofit that we run here in northern Kentucky. And I'm in, I'm in Cincinnati, and so Northern Kentucky is, you know, right next door. And I was like, oh my gosh, this guy, this guy's really close to me.
[00:08:50] So I, I reach out to him. And, uh, long story short, is he, he becomes a mentor of mine and he offers to come and. He offers for me to come and kind of learn under him and even even provided me with a, a job in that nonprofit. But the stipulation for hiring me was, you know, and I loved this stipulation. It was, look, we're going to support you full time to help with a nonprofit, but you are also, we're also gonna coach you on how to develop other income streams.
[00:09:19] So, you know. He's gonna coach me in family, he's gonna coach me in business and the faith stuff. So I was a, as a absolute godsend, truly, uh, in the truest sense, I felt very, very much that God just said, here you go. You've been hungry. Go for it. So. So I did, so the, the next couple years, I'd say the next 18 months, two years, I helped Jeremy with his nonprofit and he started to coach me in how to be a better dad and how to view my family as a team, with me as the coach.
[00:09:51] And, uh, it was so deeply impactful. He, he taught me how to org organize my time, how to think of my. Week, uh, um, you know, as a series of opportunities to create my ideal seven day chunk. And so just keep iterating on it. I was learning so many skills, uh, and I continue to learn from him. It's been great. So once he, so the, in, in terms of the asset building I, and, and developing some of these income streams.
[00:10:19] We, I remember I had tried to start this pickleball coaching business 'cause I had a background in, in teaching tennis and I was like, oh man, I can, I can learn how to teach pickleball. It's, it's much, it's a much easier game. And my, my doubles partner from college had actually invited me to play in a pickleball tournament.
[00:10:37] And that was the first time I had really experienced the pickleball culture. And I was totally captivated by it, um, how friendly the people were, how, um, how open the community was to, to beginners and new folks. And so I was like, man, this is, this is way different than tennis. Just the vibe is different and I like it.
[00:10:55] And so I took, um, I took, I took the opportunity to what I thought was the opportunity to create a coaching business. We called it Pickle Fam. And we did corporate events. We did, uh, I, I taught pi, I taught pickleball lessons to groups and individuals. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't making money. It was a lot of trading time for dollars, which I had already done in, in, uh, employment.
[00:11:17] Um, you know, scenario. So I knew what that felt like. I knew this wasn't working. Jeremy was watching me. He was like, Hey, that's great. Uh, but it's, it's not working. So the, the biggest piece of advice that he gave me, and a couple other people really encouraged me in at that point were, can you if you're gonna, if you're gonna pick an industry like pickleball, can you find a transaction that is happening?
[00:11:40] That's high in that space. And if so, if that thing exists, you need to ask yourself, how do I get involved in that transaction? And so that's what I did. Um, I, I was, I started asking that question and you know, the other thing that he said was, you know, if that thing doesn't exist, then you probably need to find a different industry.
[00:11:58] And I will never forget right after he said that, he said, you know, I just got this pickleball court built in my backyard, which I knew about. He said, I watched, I watched these guys build it. I obviously know what it costs and what if you just competed with those guys? What if you just went out and, you know, created your own court building business?
[00:12:19] And honestly, I thought that was a terrible idea because I had zero construction background and I'm not, I'm not a very handy guy. Um, so I, I actually was very intimidated by that idea and didn't give it a whole lot of, you know. Credibility, honestly. And so I kind of re spent a couple more months retreating into my comfortable pickleball coaching, kept giving lessons, kept working for the nonprofit.
[00:12:46] And at some point, you know, I, I, I think I kind of came around to this idea that, man, I think that whole high transaction in an industry comment, I think that's, I think there's something to that. And so I, I did, I decided, I told my wife, I, I'm gonna go and try to. At least look into some paint suppliers and like kind of tiptoe my way around this industry and see if I can maybe make it work.
[00:13:10] And so as I, as I committed to that, uh, I kind of half committed to it, but the first step I took was reaching out to, I just, I think I just Google searched. Painting a pickleball court or, or a pickleball court supplier, uh, paint suppliers or something. And the, one of the first people, one of the first hits I got on the Google results was, uh, Nova Sports.
[00:13:35] So I reached out to Nova. I said, Hey, I'm thinking about starting a pickleball business. I have no idea what I'm doing, but you guys seem to be a, uh, a reputable paint supplier. So can I maybe buy some paint or something? I don't remember what I told him. And they immediately said, well, actually, uh, there's a guy, there's a court builder and court surfacer in your area.
[00:13:58] That, uh, kind of has exclusivity on our product in your region. So they, they grant exclusivity to, uh, certain contractors. And so they said, you, you're welcome to use our product, but you're gonna have to buy it through him, and he'll probably mark it up and whatever. And then they actually sent my information to this other court builder, which kind of didn't feel good 'cause I'm like, ah, man, like all I gained here was just alerting a potential.
[00:14:23] Competitor that I exist now. And so because that email got forward, that, that, uh, inquiry form got forwarded to my potential, uh, competitor, he reached out to me and said, Hey, cool that you wanna start a business. Uh, yeah, let us know if you wanna buy some paint. And it was kinda this feeling of like, ah, man, I know you exist.
[00:14:42] You know that, I know you exist and if you wanna buy paint then we'll talk about it. So that kind of, and that actually happened, uh, at least once more where somehow my information got connected to this guy, this other court surfacer, and I was like, ah, dang it. Well. What that caused me to do kept, because I kept running into this other court builder.
[00:15:02] I was like, I might as well just ask this guy to, we're emailing back and forth. I might as well just ask this guy to lunch and try to accelerate, uh, you know, the, the discovery process for myself and just decide, you know, if, if he agrees to have lunch, then I'll, I'll just, I'll know if I can do it or not.
[00:15:19] And what's crazy is that he actually agreed to have lunch with me, which I was very surprised by. So, you know, I'm, I'm kind of explain. So we have lunch. I'm kind of explaining to him why I wanna start the business, and he says to me, he, he's just listening. He's, he's, you know, he's probably, you know, late fifties maybe, maybe close to 60 years old.
[00:15:40] So he's like, in his mind he's probably thinking, you know, how do I exit this business in the next few years? How do I retire? So as I'm explaining why I wanna start the business for my family to do good in the world, things like that, he is listening. And then he says, look, Joe, I, I think that the reason that you wanna start the business is great.
[00:15:58] You seem to have a lot of enthusiasm. You do have a major construction gap, though. The fact that you have, uh, that you're not handy, that you haven't worked with many tools before, that that is going to be a challenge for you. I was like, I know. Uh, so I was like, oh, shoot, here it comes. He's about to like squash me.
[00:16:15] Uh, but then he said, but I, I actually also have a gap, uh, myself, which is my. My team of my crew. We need a couple more guys. And I'm looking, I'm actually actively looking for somebody. This was probably, March, February or March and he said we, we've got this upcoming season and I could use another guy.
[00:16:35] So if you want to learn this business, um, you know, I would be willing to. To take you onto my team and you can learn everything about the business. You can ask me, you know, any questions you want about, you know, how, how, how I do sales. We'll have lots of time in the truck together. Um, and then obviously you'll be working on the court.
[00:16:54] So you'll learn all the hard skills. And if you get to the end of the summer and you decide that you actually want to do this business. Then yeah, you, my blessing to, to go after it. And you know, there's, he, he said there's more than enough market for both of us to succeed. So, you know, that is not normal.
[00:17:14] Um, and, and it should be more normal. But I think I really, I think I really had a lot of, a lot of favor to, to res, to be connected with another, you know, really competitor. He's inviting me to be his competition, and that is, that's just not normal. And I, I'm still, we just had lunch, we always had lunch a couple times a year.
[00:17:33] We just had lunch the other day. And I always make it a point to just show as much gratitude as I can to him. So that's exactly what happened is I spent. The next, the next summer, really the entire year. We, we did some clay courts in the spring, um, which wasn't super fun. And then we spent the entire summer and I just worked alongside his guys and learned as much as I could.
[00:17:57] And honestly, there were many times, I would say probably four or five times. Where I was very close to quitting because the work was hard. At that point, I was getting paid hourly and, um, I didn't, I didn't quite see a path for how to, how to do it, but the more that I did it, the more I paid attention. The more questions I asked, the more confidence I gained.
[00:18:19] And at the end of that summer, I, I thought, man, I, I think I'm gonna try to do a job on my own. So that fall with this guy, with this mentor's blessing, I landed my first residential pickleball court surfacing job. And the feeling, uh, I, I felt like a complete imposter. Uh, the way I landed that job was, uh, through a Facebook, uh, group.
[00:18:44] One of the local communities here in Cincinnati, I just said, Hey, I, I don't even remember exactly what I said, but anybody need their court surfaced and there was this sweet couple, they had to have known that, uh, that I was new. And I, I think I was pretty transparent about the fact that I hadn't been around for a long time doing this.
[00:19:04] Um, they gave me a shot and I did their court and it worked out great. And when I got the deposit check alone. I was, because up to that point, I, like I said, I, I, I had been in ministry, there's no, there's no money in church work. Um, and the jobs that I had after the, after that season of working in the church were, uh, were, were very much paycheck to paycheck for our family and no, no clear path for advancement or increase in salary.
[00:19:34] So at that point when I got that deposit check, I was like, oh my gosh, this is real. This is real money. Um, and we had, we did a, we did an extension on their, uh, existing concrete pad. I think the deposit check was like, man, I don't know, like $16,000. So I'm looking at this check and I've still got a picture of it on my phone that I'll never delete.
[00:19:55] I was like, oh my goodness. This is, this is insane. And then when I finished the job, um, if you guys look at our, our landing page for court pro coaching, you'll see me and my family. Uh, standing on that first court that I did and the amount of, um, relief, but the amount of pride that, it still gets me.
[00:20:17] It, it, it gets me emotional thinking about. First court and having my family come out and having the customers like get to know my family and like a general feeling of like patting me on the back and cheering me on moving forward. Something happened to me as, as a man because at that point, yeah, we had three kids and if you look at that picture, there's actually my wife's sweating a little pickleball, uh, next to her stomach.
[00:20:43] 'cause she, we, uh, that we use that picture as a, uh. A, an announcement that we were pregnant. So, um, amazing feeling. And, and I've been addicted to that feeling ever since, which in that, and to be more, you know, direct on what that feeling is, is I. I am growing as a man and I'm addicted to learning how to be better for my family.
[00:21:04] So, you know, I, that's, that's my story guys, on how I got to be a court surfacer. And there's much more to the story since then. I've learned a ton over the last few years on what to do and what not to do. That's what this PAC podcast is all about. Um, but that, that job at the end of that first season.
[00:21:23] Catapulted me into the, because that was in the fall. I just did one job, but it gave me just enough confidence and a taste of what could be to go after sales over the winter. Just scrape by, hang up, hang door hangers, um, you know, go and play pickleball at the, any place I could. Uh, teach lessons with a new lens of man, maybe this person's connected to somebody that might wanna court surfaced.
[00:21:49] And something got unlocked in me to where I, I was able to carry that momentum to the next year. Bring in $300,000 for, um. Our business and we made about $189,000 that first year, which was far and above, uh, anything I had made up to that point. And we've just hit the ground running. Um. Year after year, coming outta the winter.
[00:22:12] I'm super excited to, uh, answer any questions, guys. I'm super interested in, you know, how this strikes you, but that is my story. Um, so much more to it. We'll share in future, uh, episodes. I'm really, I'm really excited to have you guys listen to some of the people that I've gotten connected with across the country.
[00:22:29] Suppliers, guys that have treated me, um, like they're really, like, they're. Business son or something like that. Um, but they've become men mentors and there's a lot of really great people in this industry. that same culture that, uh, I was captivated by I first played in that pickleball tournament, that does carry over to some level, in the contracting, pickleball and tennis court contracting world.
[00:22:54] Um, a lot of us are cheering each other on. There's, there's a lot of people that, there's some negativity out there, but there's some really good guys that are, are going after this. So, super excited to, uh, share more of my story with you guys, and gonna hear other stories too. There's several guys our, in our coaching group that are absolutely killing it for their families.
[00:23:13] So really looking forward future episodes with suppliers, with other guy, other contractors, and everybody between. So, yeah, until the next episode, that's my story.
