November 8, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of the Sidewalk Conversations Podcast, we’re joined by Jared Jolly, entrepreneur and owner of the innovative new Pickleball Kingdom. Jared shares his journey from selling his former business to starting a pickleball facility, guided by a mix of business savvy and strong faith. With refreshing honesty, he discusses the joys and challenges of co-parenting his grandson, balancing risk-taking with spirituality, and how he seeks to make a difference through his work. Whether you’re a pickleball fan, a business enthusiast, or someone searching for purpose, Jared’s insights on navigating life's unexpected turns are sure to inspire.
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Episode Transcript
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Piet Van Waarde (00:14):
Hey , uh, we're so glad that you are
joining us. We have had a 10month hiatus, and so we are
back at it. And I am excitedabout our guest today. We are
actually in his building. He ,uh, has just opened up a new
pickleball facility called thePickleball Kingdom. And , uh,
he was generous enough to say,Hey, if you want to use one of
(00:36):
our offices for your studio, goahead and use it. So thank you,
Jared . Welcome . We're sograteful to be here. Welcome .
Thank you for your generosity.
And , um, we actually had youon back , uh, when we did our
season one, and , um, that wasback in our first studio. Right
. So this two studios ago.
Right, right . A lot hashappened in your life as well.
(00:57):
Right . So give us a littleupdate on where you've been,
what you've been doing.
Jared Jolly (01:00):
Yeah. Life has changed dramatically in a lot
of areas, both , uh, family,professionally, business wise .
Yeah. Um , so a lot of updates.
Uh, number one and mostexciting is my daughter had a,
a son , uh, Jack's . And , uh,he's turning four soon and ,
uh, he's a delight. And my wifeand I have the luxury, the
(01:23):
pleasure of co raising him withmy daughter Danielle. Okay. Um
, so that's changed. We've gonefrom,
Piet Van Waarde (01:28):
And he's an active little guy. I've , I've
seen very active, yeah, very
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Active. A lot of fun. , he's a , he's
just a, a beautiful boy. Um, sowe've gone from kind of empty
nesters Yeah . To where we're,we have a 4-year-old around a
lot. Yeah. And I'm not old, butI'm not young . So
there's some good things aboutthat. And there's some other
challenging things about that.
'cause sometimes he wants toplay a lot, and my wife and I
are like, oh , our back'shurting, our legs
Piet Van Waarde (01:52):
Hurting . Can you go
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Play for five minutes? We gotta laid out for
five minutes. Um, so , um, butthat's just , uh, it's awesome.
Uh, we are looking forward tospending the next, he's four,
so we we're gonna be evolvedall the way up until he's an
adult. So , um, that's, that'sa ton of fun. Um , also, we had
the, probably about a littlebit over two years ago. Yeah.
Right. At two years ago. One ofmy customers of my previous
(02:16):
company that I've been workingwith for about six years called
me out of the blue and said,Hey, would you ever think about
selling your company? It Oh ,wow . Wasn't looking to sell my
company. Uh , we weren't reallypraying about selling my
company. It was something thatI was looking at around this
time. Yeah . In 2024, I thoughtthe company would be at a , a
position where it was gonna besellable , um, where the, the,
(02:39):
the asset would make the returnthat would be worth it for my
wife and I. But they , uh,called us up and , um, you
know, it was really out of theblue. Um, and because I thought
they were just calling abouttheir account. Right, right.
They were a customer for sevenyears at the time. Um, but it
was kind of a shocking , um,shocking call. Um, so I talked
to my wife and we're like,let's just see where this goes.
(03:01):
Yeah. Um, and it was a threemonth kind of dance, if you
will, or dating and kind ofgoing through it. And , uh,
when it first came along, Ikind of had a number , uh, that
I talked to my accountant aboutand he said, you're not gonna
get that . But , um,that was the number . Good try
number that , uh, I thought ifwe could get to that, it would
be perfect. Yeah. Um, and gotreally, really blessed. Their
(03:24):
first offer was right at thatnumber, just underneath it. And
, uh, we made a counter offer .
They accepted it right away.
And , and for any people thatdo negotiations, that means I
should have been higher . Yeah.
Um , you never want them toaccept your second one.
, that should have been higher.
'cause we could have beensettled at a higher number, but
it was still a , a hugeblessing , uh, for us. Uh ,
(03:45):
because at the time Jack's was,my grandson was , um, you know
, a year and a half. And mywife's been working for me ,
uh, with me for about 25 years.
And , um, you guys don't knowme out there, but , uh, I'm a
fun guy, but I do push peoplehard. Yeah. Um, so , um, I just
thought it was time that shecould kind of take a backseat
(04:06):
and not have to work so hard.
And I knew we , we would beinvolved with Jacks at some
level at that particular time.
We didn't know we'd be involvedas , as much as we are in
co-parenting, but , uh, we knewwe'd have some involvement, so
, yeah . Yeah , yeah . Um , andone of your questions you're
gonna ask, but , uh, it was, itwas interesting , uh, whenever
you have huge decisions, littledecisions, we all as Christians
(04:28):
want to find out, is this whatGod wants? Is this what my
flesh wants? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah .
And that's tough because thenumber wasn't, you know,
extraordinary, but it was lifechanging , uh, where my wife ,
uh, wouldn't have to work thatmuch and our retirement would
be taken care of. Um, and, youknow, was that from God or was
(04:48):
it not? And that took us sometime to kind of navigate
Piet Van Waarde (04:52):
And , and I know we're gonna get to this as
it relates to your newbusinesses, but it seems to fit
here too. Right? So when you'remaking those kind of decisions
and you're trying, you know,you're in a discernment
process, Lord, is this what youwant for us? Are there some
specific things that you lookat or wait for to say? Okay.
For sure. And I, I know we'renever like a hundred percent
(05:12):
sure, but
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, occasionally people told me God spoke to
them. Oh, really? So I haven'thad that. Oh, okay.
Piet Van Waarde (05:16):
. But
there have been
Speaker 2 (05:17):
People told me. Yeah , yeah . Yeah . Other than
that, it's kind of hard to havea , a guarantee, right? Yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (05:21):
Yeah . Yeah.
So what , what are some of thethings that you're looking for
when you're in that discernmentprocess?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah. Number one, I , I want to be patient. Um, you
want to allow God to speak toyou. And sometimes it's, it's a
fast turnaround, but you wantto , to, to take your time and
settle in and just startpraying. Um , you need to, to
be in prayer. If it's a , withyour wife, you'all need be
doing together. Yeah. Prayingamongst each other. Um, you, if
(05:48):
anyone fast, I think it's animportant part of that is the
fast. Yeah . Because when youfast, you then focus solely on
God.
Piet Van Waarde (05:56):
Yeah . Yeah .
Helps you that sensitivity.
Yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah. It helps you hear 'em . Um, and you know,
sometimes we go to people toomuch and I wouldn't go to 20
people to ask their opinion.
Yeah. 'cause then you could geta lot of opinions that that
actually end up creatingconfusion. Sure , sure. But in
life, you wanna have a fewpeople, 2, 3, 4 people that you
(06:20):
know, have your best interestsin mind , um, that you know,
are connected to God and thatwill pray with you and they'll
be truthful and honest as
Piet Van Waarde (06:28):
Well. And maybe have some business acumen
too. Well ,
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It depends upon what it's about. Yeah . Right . Like
, if it's about a business, youwould like one or two of those
to have some business acumen,but they don't have to be
Right. Because they could justbe godly men that will maybe
hear God in a different way.
But it is better if you'repraying about your health that
someone is a Christian in thehealth field as well. Yeah .
Right . So you can lean on thatexpertise. Um, but um, so you
(06:55):
go to those people and you askthem to pray. So that's step
one is take your time, try to,to get as much time before you
make a decision and just startpraying through it. And
sometimes in a day, in threedays, five days, you get some
confirmation. Maybe you're andyour wife feel sense, something
that's very similar. Um, andsometimes you
Piet Van Waarde (07:17):
Hope that's the case, ,
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's what you hope, right? Yeah. Sometimes
you'll get a word from someoneelse. That's exactly what you
felt like God told you. Yeah.
That's a confirmation. So Idon't want people to think that
that's what happens all thetime. It does sometimes. Yeah.
But sometimes it does. And thatkind of acts as a confirmation
that I was thinking this, thisis what I felt like God was
saying. My wife or this personI respect heard the same thing.
(07:40):
Yeah. Um, so that is whatyou're after. Um, for those
that have a herd , audible,that would be awesome .
, God said , God , sell it.
Jared , that would be awesome.
But I haven't heard the audiblevoice of God. Like most people
haven't. Um, and then othertimes I have found that I
haven't got that confirmation.
We still have that questionmark, my wife and I, or if I'm
(08:02):
making a personal decision andno one else is confirming. So
what I usually do in thatsituation is I, I decide, but
then I don't act. So I make adecision. This is where I think
God wants. I'm not a hundredpercent sure, but I'm gonna
decide. And then I want to have3, 4, 5 days where I want peace
or un peace to kind of takeover. Yeah . So if you decide
(08:24):
and you start feeling peacefulover the next couple days,
that's kind of confirmation.
Um, and if you start feelingfrustrated, disgruntled un
peace , that's kind ofconfirmation. Yeah. You can't
decide and to just act.
Piet Van Waarde (08:38):
I love that.
I've not heard people talkabout that. That's a great way
to think about it. That youhave your all , I'm gonna lean
into this decision. This iswhere I feel like I'm supposed
to go best. I know. And then tohave a period of time just to
kind of sit with that, try iton, so to speak. Right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Exactly. You're trying on the clothes . Yep .
Yep . And that's what I, what Ido. And then the last point
I'll make for those, because ,um, sometimes we're gonna get
it wrong, you know? Mm-Hmm .
, we're just,we're in this human body. We
got our mind, we got our flesh,we got our own desires. Um, and
we wanna be completely alignedwith the spirit. That's our
(09:13):
goal as Christians. Butsometimes we get in the way. We
want something so badly we canreally be overly loud. We can't
allow God to speak.
Piet Van Waarde (09:21):
Are you sure?
? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Exactly. Or he , you know, you heard him, but you
kinda know that wasn't him.
That was something else
Piet Van Waarde (09:28):
Spaghetti from last night . But I do
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Believe Romans 8 28 is true. Uh , I believe that if
our heart is right and ourmotives are right, and we want
to to hear God Yeah. And we'reseeking it , uh, truly not
faking him out. Right . Right .
Right . 'cause he knows ourmotives. Yeah , sure . If we're
just trying to go to a genieand rub on the , the , the ,
the bottle and say, do what Iwant. Yeah . He , he knows that
motive. But if we're trulyasking, seeking, getting coddly
(09:53):
wisdom from , from his word,from prayer, from fasting, from
others, and we don't know it,and then we decide and we miss
it, I do think God sees that.
That's what I believe. Mm-Hmm.
. And he's like,okay, Jared , uh, you didn't
take the right turn, but I'mgonna turn what, what was meant
for bad? I'm gonna , I'm gonnasomehow use this,
Piet Van Waarde (10:12):
Redeem it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah . And it might not be that particular entity
or that decision's gonna workout, but I'm gonna learn from
it. I'm gonna get some valuablefrom it. It's gonna end up
turning out for good
Piet Van Waarde (10:22):
Now . I really appreciate it . I think that's
a really balanced approach, youknow, to say, okay , um, I'm
going to do my best. But no ,the truth is we're not always
gonna get it. Right. And I ,and I appreciate your
willingness to say that. Yeah .
Yeah . All right . So you didend up selling your business ?
I did business. I did. And then, uh, and then you got into ,
uh, pickleball.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Well, pickleball was , uh, it's kind of a
interesting story how thathappened. Probably two months
before I was selling. We hadthe deal closed. You're just
waiting for the date . We kindof close it at the end of the
year, but both of us wanted towait a couple of months for
economic reasons, organizationreasons for them. So we kind of
(10:59):
postpone it, the actual closinguntil early March. But it, the
deal was done, it could havefallen through, but it was like
a 99% done. And they said, whatdo you want to do? And I just
got into pickleball. I wasprobably playing with you still
at Pflugerville Rec . Yeah ,yeah, yeah . At the time. Um,
so it was early on and I justsaw the demand at the rec
center, like how many peoplewere coming in. And I'm a bus
(11:20):
business guy, so I see demand.
And you start seeing, and Isaid to them, I said, you know,
I'd love to do pickleball, butyou know, this isn't gonna
afford me what I'm getting fromthis sale . I don't see how I
could do that. So it , that'swhat I said at that time. Never
thought about it again. But Itold the guys that were selling
it to me that that's what Iwanted to do. Um, so I sold the
(11:42):
business. Uh, one opportunitycame up with a body shop with a
partner. That was awesome. Soright away I bought a body
shop, but I know nothing aboutcars. I can't even change
windshield wipers,. Um, so I can't operate. I
literally, I can't. I boughtsome, I had guys at the body
shop put my windshield wiperson. Um , so that's not
a business I'm gonna operate. Iknow nothing about it. Yeah .
(12:03):
But I, I have a good friendthat was operating one for a
long time and he was in betweenbody shops that he sold and we
kind of partnered on one. Andit was, I took some of that
money, bought a body shop thatwas there for about 20 years.
He's operating it. And it'sbeen a tremendous financial
blessing. Um, it doesn't take,I probably spend 2, 3, 4 hours
a week working with my partner.
(12:24):
Occasionally I do somemarketing accounting stuff, but
it's kind of a low , um, lowjob, low dependence upon me. I
also then started a smallbusiness in a similar realm
where I'm selling cameras forbirds. It's a bird feeder that
has a camera inside of it.
Little small business. Myprevious business I imported
(12:44):
from China, they were camerasfor trucks and farmers, et
cetera . So it's kind of downthe similar line. And I have a
good friend of mine that I'veknown for 25 years from my
church. He's retired , uh, justa couple years older than you.
And he was awesome at what hedid and said, Hey, how about
you run it? And so we have alittle, little business that
we've been doing , uh, forabout a year and a half, just
(13:05):
kind of growing that. Uh , soboth of those were going for
about nine to 12 months and ,um, probably about nine months.
But I was working five to 10hours a week if that. Yeah.
And, you know, that's nice. ButI'm still 50, so I still young.
Yeah. And I just felt like Ihad more to give. Um , and I
think it's wasteful. I didn'tneed to work , um, not rich,
(13:28):
but I had an income thatsupported me. My future was
taken care of. But I just feltlike that was a waste to God to
go, he's given me talent. He'sinvest his stuff in me that I
can do. And for me to just kindof ride off on the sunset when
I still have energy and playgolf, play golf, play
pickleball. I thought that wasjust a wastefulness. Yeah .
What he put in me. Totally getthat. So, long story short ,
(13:51):
um, an organization reach outto me LinkedIn and I never ,
uh, never reach do the , thesponsor LinkedIn. I'm sure you
get 'em where people try topitch you stuff on LinkedIn and
for whatever reason, I lookedat it this day and it was a , a
place called the Perfectfranchise. And they help
people, they're basically realestate agents for franchises.
They have about 400 franchises.
(14:12):
They represent, they fundentrepreneurs and they try to
marry the two. I don't paythem. They get commissioned
from the franchise. So it'sbasically what your wife does
in real estate. And by the way,if you need to buy a house in
Austin, Texas, Carol is thebest. Um , shameless plug. But
anyway , um, thank you. So, andI , and I said , I'm gonna take
(14:33):
this journey. I got time, maybeI can find a franchise that's
kind of low maintenance. Um , Ican invest a small amount of
money into it. Um, so I wentthrough for a couple months and
they showed me some franchisesthat were pretty interesting.
Um , and a matter of fact, oneof them , uh, Fred Lynn just
started for CoveringsInternational. That's how I
hooked them up with that.
'cause I was gonna do the floorcoverings. Um , but it wasn't
(14:54):
something I was excited about.
Um , and I said , I'd said tothe guy, I said, you know what?
I'd rather do pickleball. Youdon't have that in your, your
portfolio. Here's a couplefranchises. Can you reach out
to them, see what they, theythey have to offer. Yeah . So
he spent about three weeks,reached out to the various
franchises, came back. Longstory short, in about 30 days I
was in Arizona and the officessigning a deal to buy two
(15:16):
locations in pickleball. Andwhat I didn't know at the time,
'cause I've been anentrepreneur on my, on my own
for 25 years, is when you'repart of a franchise, is 10
times easier to borrow moneyfrom a bank than it is if
you're a startup . Yeah. And Inever knew that. So now since I
didn't have the money to fundit myself completely, I had the
(15:37):
seed money for the 10 or 20% ofa loan. Yeah . Um, once I got
involved with a franchise andlearned what that was, I was
like, actually, I can do this.
And I thought back about 15months earlier about how I
said, I wanna do pickleball.
And long story short, I pickedPickleball Kingdom.
Piet Van Waarde (15:54):
Isn't that funny how the Lord does that?
Like he drops the seed Mm-Hmm .
into your heartabout something that, you know,
may not have direct applicationin the moment. Right. But then
when an opportunity presentsitself down the road, you're
like, this is not the firsttime I thought about this. No .
This is something that's beenin my heart for a while now .
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah. And it's, it's really the first business in 25
years that I'm passionate aboutthe , the product or the
service. 'cause I, I'm apickleball attic , um,
and I love the customers. So Ijust love everything about this
business. Um , so it's reallyperfect
Piet Van Waarde (16:25):
For , for that . Now, for those who , um, who
love pickleball, 'cause it ,like you said, it has just been
blowing my mind how many peoplenot only are playing, but are
like progressively more andmore into it. Right. So I was
telling you I think before wegot on the air that my son is
playing and, and he's quitegood. Right . And he made it to
a semi-final regional thing.
(16:47):
Right . And so there , youknow, you , at least when I
first started it was mostlyolder people. Mm-Hmm .
. It was likepeople retiring from tennis and
it was a little easier on yourbody and so on. Right . But
it's like all ages, all people,everybody's kind of doing it
and loving it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Since Covid, the average age went from like 51
to 36 in five years. Wow. So itliterally was, it started in
the fifties , um, inWashington. And for 40 years,
90% of the people that playedit were 55 and older. Because
it's a perfect sport for peoplethat don't want to move a ton,
but want to still play a sport,still want to compete. Um, and
(17:23):
you can still be quite good atpickleball. Even if you don't
have great mobility, you canactually be still
Piet Van Waarde (17:28):
Good. Well, and, and I wanna talk a little
bit about your facility becauseyou know, we, we referenced
earlier that there's a reccenter , uh, here in town that
we both were playing it for awhile , but you have kind of
taken it up like a notch orthree, right. With the facility
that you've created , uh, braga little bit about, you know ,
the thing that you do . Yeah .
Well
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I appreciate that .
I mean , as an addict, Istarted at a , at outside at ,
in Taylor . So I started for acouple months playing outdoors.
Um, realize that I hate sun. Ihate heat. , I don't
like wind. You're in Texas,brother . I know, I
know. I , I can't get out ofit. Um , so I don't want to be
here in the climate, but I loveTexas 'cause we're the best
(18:08):
state. Uh, there is. Uh , butanyhow , um, so I wanted to go
indoor because I, I, I , I'm a, a guy that likes to control
the environment and outdoor,you can't control it. Sometimes
you're facing the sun that hasan impact. Sometimes the wind
is with you behind you,whatever. Yeah . Um, you go out
there, the courts are dirty,whatever the situation. So we
(18:30):
went indoor to Pflugerville reccenter and liked the air
conditioning. But then I didn'tlike that there's 72 lines.
'cause when you go to a reccenter Yeah. There's basketball
lines, the volleyball lines,the pickleball lines . So I
didn't like that. The balldoesn't bounce true on a, on a
basketball court kind of slidesand skips. Uh , and then what I
hated the most was all greatpeople was the lines to wait.
(18:53):
Um , you're stacking , uh, forthose who play , play
pickleball, it's called paddlestacking. And sometimes you
play a game that lasts 10 to 12minutes and then you might be
out 20, 30 minutes. Yeah. And Icouldn't stand that. Um , and I
also couldn't stand, I couldn'ttroll my, I couldn't control
the partner. So I like to, toto play with people that have
similar goals in the pickleballgame. Yeah. And I like to play
(19:15):
hard. I like to play to win. Uh, and some people like to just
hit the ball and laugh. Yeah.
Um , and there's wrong withthat . That is not you
not me, but there's a place forthose people and it's not being
my partner. Yeah. Um, so then Imoved over. We found another
rec center. Four of us justleft for about six months.
'cause we can control theenvironment. It was just four
of us that were all similarskilled . That was great. But
(19:36):
then if one of us was out townfor a week, then we couldn't
play. Uh , I mean we couldn'treally grow it. Yeah. So then I
joined , joined Lifetime , uh,'cause Lifetime , uh, invested
a lot in pickleball. And I waslike, this is awesome. They had
three courts, indoor, prettygood facilities. Not perfect,
but really good. Uh , and theyhad a community. Um , so that
was great. Uh , but it was 25minutes from my house. It got
(19:59):
so popular there. And this isno exaggeration to reserve a
court. You literally had to beon the app on seven days in
advance, right. At 8:00 AM Andyou had about a three second
window. And if you miss thatthree second , no exaggeration,
you're not gonna get a court . 'cause that's the
demand of it. And funny enough,I had some friends that were
(20:20):
computer programmers, they wereable to develop a program, a
bot that would do it, ,do it for you, . They
would do it for 'em . And thenthey put it in . And this is
really funny. They , uh, theyhad it in one place. They found
out that if you put it closerto the server, that lifetime
you would , you would thatnanosecond of distance give 'em
a better chance. So they movedthe server to a closer area so
(20:42):
the bot was able to get 'emeven faster. . That's
what , so I was like, wow, lookat what I'm doing to try to
play pickleball. So long storyshort, then a couple people ,
uh, opened in Austin and Ijoined all. I've joined
everywhere. Played everywhere.
Um, so saying all that I playedin all conditions, outdoor rec
centers , lifetime. Yeah .
Couple other indoors. So you've
Piet Van Waarde (21:02):
Got a good idea of what Great
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Idea. Yeah . So what you needed combined with what
the pickleball Kingdomfranchise, 'cause I'm a part of
a franchise, so they have veryspecific rules on how we build
it, lighting, coloring, etcetera . And what have I
learned? I do think I put theperfect pickleball courts
together. And it's not me justsaying that over the last week
since we've opened, I've had ahundred people and some of them
(21:24):
are really good people and someof them today were beginners.
And they said , I love yourlights. I love the space, I
love the court quality. I lovewhere you put the fences. I
love, you know , um, the netquality. So we put together, we
,
Piet Van Waarde (21:38):
You even have like technology where people
wear the little watches and youcan change the score on the
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Scoreboard. We got a 10 80 p camera that's recording
everything. So you can download, you get a replay, you can do
a replay. So if you hit areally cool shot, you press a
button on the iPad or on your,your , on this , uh, wristwatch
and it saves the , the replayin your profile in the app. And
then you can download that,post it, you can save it and
you can keep score on 75 inchTVs behind you . And you can
(22:06):
download the whole hour or 30minutes. So if you wanna
download the game and analyzeyour game, it , that is
humbling. , I will tellyou, if you've watched
yourself, you're not nearly asgood as you think you are. Yeah
. You think you're movingfaster than you are . And you
see yourself going, man , I'mslow . Uh , it's, it's
, uh, not something you wannado.
Piet Van Waarde (22:23):
And then you have these really nice areas
where people can sit and watchthe game. So if you know you
need a break or something, yougot these really comfortable
chairs and tables. I mean,
Speaker 2 (22:32):
It's , it's important to have a good lounge
area because you're gonna be inand out on paddle stacks. So I
got couches, I got TVs, I gotchairs, I even have tables.
'cause if you wanna work from,you know, come here and act
like you're working, your bossthinks you're working from
home, , come up here,bring your laptop, get on our
Google fiber internet. You canwork in between games. Yeah .
So I try to think of everythinggot a bottle filler for those
(22:54):
that wanna fill bottles. It's aHVAC to keep it at 70. So it's
, it's a cool environment. Yeah. Not just cool, but cool .
It's just so
Piet Van Waarde (23:01):
Great. Yeah .
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So great. And we got this building and then we're
opening a building next door.
It's gonna be eight courts. Sohere in about three, four
months we'll have 11 courts ,uh, in this facility that we're
at now.
Piet Van Waarde (23:11):
Nice. Really nice. Yeah. Alright . So , uh,
I want to shift focus a littlebit. I wanna come back to the
whole , um, business risktaking thing. Uh , you know,
you've been an entrepreneur, itsounds like almost a serial
entrepreneur with all , allthese different ventures that
you've done. And that requiresa certain amount of risk taking
, uh, capacity. Like you'regonna have to be willing to
(23:34):
absorb some risk. Mm-Hmm.
. Is there a wayin which you've kind of put
that together with your faithjourney where you, you know,
you , you're , you'restretching yourself, you're
moving forward in a , in , insomething new, but you're also
kind of depending on the Lordto give you guidance about
that. How does that actuallyplay out for
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You? Right. Well first I think some people have
risk aversion or risktolerance. Mm-Hmm .
. And that's kindof in your personality. And if
you have risk aversion , um,it's gonna be tough for you to
be an entrepreneur and be supersuccessful because if you
aren't willing to risk, you'regonna be always trying to build
(24:14):
your business on a budget. And, um, it's just most likely
it's gonna really thwart yoursuccess. It's just gonna be
difficult. So you need to havesome risk tolerance. You need
to have a personality. You needto go in and knowing that I'm
gonna risk. Yeah . 'cause I'vetalked to a lot of
entrepreneurs, people that wantto be entrepreneurs, and then
you tell 'em, Hey, you need todo this. And like, well that's,
(24:34):
how am I gonna afford it? Well,you go get a credit card and
you go borrow money .
And they're like, what do youmean? I go, well, you figure it
out . You have to, youcan't, you gotta fuel the
business. Yeah . Mostbusinesses require some sort of
fuel in cash. Yeah . And itcould be for inventory. If you
have an inventory basedbusiness, it could be in rent
because you're gonna be aretail storefront. It could be
in some marketing, if you'regonna have a website , uh,
(24:56):
you're gonna have to fuel it.
Yeah . At some level. Um, andthen a lot of my risk tolerance
grew as being an entrepreneur.
So when I start, you're asmaller company, so $5,000 is
what you need to , to borrow.
So it's kind of like liftingweights. You start with 10
pounds and then you start with20, and then you start with 50
and then you get higher. Sonow, is
Piet Van Waarde (25:17):
That a mistake you watch people make, is that
they go, you know, they try togo right from zero to 50.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's not a good idea. , that's 'cause
you , you don't have the themuscle built up Yeah . For the
risk . Nor do you have theexperience to manage all it
takes to run a big business.
Yeah . So you need, if you're afirst time entrepreneur, if
unless you have a partnerthat's been through it , um,
unless you heard God audiblyliterally say mortgage,
(25:45):
everything, you have to goafter this. And there , there
are times when you can do that.
Yeah . So I don't want to tellyou, you shouldn't go big early
because God could havesomething different for you
than most. But typically youwanna a building block. Yeah .
You wanna build on each otherfor your business, for your
risk tolerance, for musclememory, for and
Piet Van Waarde (26:06):
Sleep
Speaker 2 (26:06):
At night, sleep , everything. So some
of it is I'm a risk tolerantperson when it comes to
business. Yeah . That's who I,I am A lot of it was experience
I started risking and thenprobably the last 10 or 15
years, once my wife and I feellike this is what God , um,
calls for us, we're willing todo it all. Yeah . We will
(26:27):
literally put all of our chipsin the table. And the
pickleball business is aperfect example. I was, had
zero debt owned everything.
Mm-Hmm. , um, hadno reason to get into debt. And
now we're back into prettysignificant debt personally
guaranteed a 10 year lease thathas a pretty high nut on a
monthly basis. So people arelike That's crazy. It is crazy
(26:51):
. Yeah . But it's gonnabe crazy if you feel like God's
not gonna have you do somethingthat's not a little bit crazy.
Yeah. Otherwise, it's probablynot God, it's probably, you're
, you're just doing somethingconservative. So now I'm at the
point because I've been walkingwith God for a long time and I
built up some risk toleranceand I've got some experience
behind me that I'll put it allin every dollar, all of it. If
(27:15):
I feel like God's behind it and, uh, and I don't lose sleep
over it. I I really don't. Mm .
And uh , that's, that's toughfor most people. Uh , but I
won't, I won't be concernedabout my risk at all.
Piet Van Waarde (27:28):
Now that , that kind of leads me to my
next question and we'll bewrapping it up. But , um, so we
talked a little bit aboutstarting a business and how
your faith integrates and, and, and supports a , a
risk-taking venture. Butthere's, you know, this idea of
a Christian business man orwoman. And I'm just curious
(27:51):
from your perspective, whenyou're running a business , um,
how are, how is your faithinforming your, like your
day-to-day business practices?
Is there an integration foryou? What does
Speaker 2 (28:04):
That look like?
Yeah, I mean, if I was on thepodcast that said no, I would
be a bad Christian businessleader, . But in
reality there is, thereprobably wasn't my first fi
five to eight years ofbusiness. I was a prophet
first. Um, I went to church, Isaid I loved God and I probably
did at some level. But if thereis a corner to cut for profit ,
(28:27):
um, I would take that thatcorner. Uh , and probably not
probably , um, I actually wouldcheat , um, in order to make
that profit. Um, and those bestbusinesses had a lot of
success, but they all crashedand burned. And I'm not gonna
say it's cause and effect. Um,it could have been exactly.
That could have been a lot ofother decisions. 'cause there's
(28:48):
a lot of other bad decisions Imade , uh, that , um, that
contributed to the, the , theburn, the , the fallen burn.
But now , uh, as, as I want tolive my life to glorify God, I
want to be an example for him.
I want my business to make adifference. It it, I'm not
gonna say it guides everydecision because that would
(29:10):
make me seem like I'm probablymore spiritual than I am. But I
want it to guide everydecision. Yeah. So I try to get
it to do it. So a couple ofthings is I try not to focus on
profit because if you focus onprofit, then you're focusing on
what the world thinks isimportant and what God does.
Mm-Hmm . . Nowdoes that God mean I'm not
gonna be profitable. I thinkI'm gonna be profitable. Um , I
(29:32):
think God wants to financiallybest me. It says it in his
word. Right? Mm-Hmm.
. Um , so, butthat doesn't mean every day or
every decision is gonna lead toprofit. So you gotta remove
what the world says isimportant, which is profit. You
still plan for it. You stillmake smart decisions. I'm not
saying you don't considerfinancial decisions 'cause you
(29:54):
do, but you don't make it yourgoal. I to be profitable.
Mm-Hmm. . Um, andif you remove profit, it helps
do these other two things thatare important is number one, I
mean number two, I want to be amoral person. Yeah . Um , I
don't wanna just, if you haveprofit first, then you can be
our moral because the immoraldecision could help get you
(30:15):
more profit. And that could beby treating people wrong, that
could be not paying a vendor.
And you could, you could say,well they, they screwed up. Mm
. They don't deserve to getpaid and it's a profit
decision. But you're justblaming the fact that, that
maybe they screwed up or youcould , um, you could cut
corners on on what you tellcustomers. You could kind of
deceive them on what they'regonna get to get money out of
(30:39):
'em . Um , because it helpsyour profit. So I want to be
moral in our decisions. Uh, andthen lastly with my employees
and customers, I want to bedifferent. There's not a lot of
people that you meet that hasjoy, that is genuine, that has
(31:00):
fun, but yet is a , a personthat you can respect. Yeah. Um,
so I want to be different tomy, the people that work for
me, the vendors customers. Iwant to see Well, there's
something different about him.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Iwant to do. I want them to ask
me that question. Yeah . Why ?
What is it ? What's your deal?
, what is your deal? Isay, well, that then I could
(31:22):
get the open up theopportunity. So at pickleball
Kingdom it is kingdom's in thelast name and it's gonna be
important. We do want to expandhis kingdom, but I'm not gonna
have , uh, you know , Christianverse on every chocolate bar of
cell . Yeah . I'm not gonnahave Christian verses all over
the walls. Um, but my goal isto be the type of person that
(31:46):
is different and people go, whyI get to answer that question
and plant a seed that God isthe reason.
Piet Van Waarde (31:53):
Well, and I , and I just wanna say this
publicly , um, that is who youare. I mean, I, I have seen
that in a variety of ways. Andeven the fact that we are here,
like you knew I was looking fora new studio and you know, you
could have rented this out tous. You could have done
something else with the space.
(32:14):
And you said, look, I I I havethis opportunity and I have
this facility and if you canuse it to bring some honor to
God and do some good work, man,have at it. Yeah. And , um, I
was, I was totally blown awayby your, your generosity and,
and your willingness to just ,uh, help us get this done. So ,
(32:37):
um, you are living out what youjust just said. Well , I
appreciate
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It. Thank you. I I think I'm different. Yeah. You
, in some ways it's kind ofunusual, different 'cause
people , I come off to peopledifferent, but once people, and
it , it doesn't take long now.
It used to be, it took up acouple of weeks to get to know
me. Now I think usually alittle bit faster they go out .
He's unique. But I , I like it.
I don't know what I like aboutit, but, but I like it.
(33:00):
And I'm hoping it's justsomething God put in me. It's a
joy, it's a sense of humor.
It's how I wanna , uh, livelife to the fullest. Um, and I
, I , I don't, and I try not toever be the different person in
any circumstances to anyperson. I wanna be the same.
Like what , you know, yourbrother, my pastor is a good
friend. I wanna be the same tohim. I don't wanna act
(33:22):
different around a pastor Yeah. Than I do around my son
around a stranger. I wanna bethe same person. 'cause I think
that's what we're called to
Piet Van Waarde (33:29):
Be. I think that's what, that's what
integrity means, right. Could
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Be you , you're saying that . But , uh,
but I , I want to be thatperson. So that's important. So
that's, that's the three thingsI I try to integrate with my
business is not, I care aboutprofit, but it's not my goal.
It's not why I'm doing it. Um,and I think it's, if you seek
him first, all these otherthings will come the added to
it. So I'm trying not to seekprofit. And that's hard if
(33:52):
you're a business person, it'shard not to seek profit. Yeah.
But whatever you focus on is ,is what's gonna occupy you. And
if you're focused on profit,it's gonna occupy all your
decisions and it's gonna lendyou to make bad decisions. Im
moral decisions, cut corners ,uh, et cetera . Yeah .
Piet Van Waarde (34:10):
Well, Jared , this has been a great
conversation. Thank you somuch. You for welcome . Taking
the time. You're welcome . Iknow you had other commitments
today, so
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Just playing pickleball. Hopefully
Piet Van Waarde (34:17):
You're gonna go out and play pickleball,
,
Speaker 2 (34:19):
But uh, yeah, I am , you know, we just opened up
this last week, so it's been acrazy couple of weeks. But ,
um, no , I'd like to do this asmuch as you can. Hopefully
someone out there got a littlesomething out of it. Yeah . And
it was a blessing and , uh,encouraged you. Um, so,
Piet Van Waarde (34:33):
And I'm sure it was. Yeah. So, and thank you
for joining us. Joining usagain. We're gonna be doing
this every other week here. Andso if you wanna put it on your
calendars, we have some greatguests lined up. So join us
Thursdays , uh, live at five.
Unless we're having sometechnical issues. It might be
five 15
Speaker 2 (34:51):
. Right.
. Exactly. Andwhoever's coming next probably
be better. So make sure youcome back.
Piet Van Waarde (34:56):
and
Preston, thank you for your job
behind the scenes. You're agreat guy. Thank you for your ,
uh, troubleshooting today. Itwas , uh, a blessing and glad
we were here.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Amen. Alright .
Alright . Have a great day.
Thanks bro .
Hey , uh, we're so glad that you are
joining us. We have had a 10month hiatus, and so we are
back at it. And I am excitedabout our guest today. We are
actually in his building. He ,uh, has just opened up a new
pickleball facility called thePickleball Kingdom. And , uh,
he was generous enough to say,Hey, if you want to use one of
(00:36):
our offices for your studio, goahead and use it. So thank you,
Jared . Welcome . We're sograteful to be here. Welcome .
Thank you for your generosity.
And , um, we actually had youon back , uh, when we did our
season one, and , um, that wasback in our first studio. Right
. So this two studios ago.
Right, right . A lot hashappened in your life as well.
(00:57):
Right . So give us a littleupdate on where you've been,
what you've been doing.
Jared Jolly (01:00):
Yeah. Life has changed dramatically in a lot
of areas, both , uh, family,professionally, business wise .
Yeah. Um , so a lot of updates.
Uh, number one and mostexciting is my daughter had a,
a son , uh, Jack's . And , uh,he's turning four soon and ,
uh, he's a delight. And my wifeand I have the luxury, the
(01:23):
pleasure of co raising him withmy daughter Danielle. Okay. Um
, so that's changed. We've gonefrom,
Piet Van Waarde (01:28):
And he's an active little guy. I've , I've
seen very active, yeah, very
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Active. A lot of fun.
just a, a beautiful boy. Um, sowe've gone from kind of empty
nesters Yeah . To where we're,we have a 4-year-old around a
lot. Yeah. And I'm not old, butI'm not young
there's some good things aboutthat. And there's some other
challenging things about that.
'cause sometimes he wants toplay a lot, and my wife and I
are like, oh , our back'shurting, our legs
Piet Van Waarde (01:52):
Hurting . Can you go
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Play for five minutes? We gotta laid out for
five minutes. Um, so , um, butthat's just , uh, it's awesome.
Uh, we are looking forward tospending the next, he's four,
so we we're gonna be evolvedall the way up until he's an
adult. So , um, that's, that'sa ton of fun. Um , also, we had
the, probably about a littlebit over two years ago. Yeah.
Right. At two years ago. One ofmy customers of my previous
(02:16):
company that I've been workingwith for about six years called
me out of the blue and said,Hey, would you ever think about
selling your company? It Oh ,wow . Wasn't looking to sell my
company. Uh , we weren't reallypraying about selling my
company. It was something thatI was looking at around this
time. Yeah . In 2024, I thoughtthe company would be at a , a
position where it was gonna besellable , um, where the, the,
(02:39):
the asset would make the returnthat would be worth it for my
wife and I. But they , uh,called us up and , um, you
know, it was really out of theblue. Um, and because I thought
they were just calling abouttheir account. Right, right.
They were a customer for sevenyears at the time. Um, but it
was kind of a shocking , um,shocking call. Um, so I talked
to my wife and we're like,let's just see where this goes.
(03:01):
Yeah. Um, and it was a threemonth kind of dance, if you
will, or dating and kind ofgoing through it. And , uh,
when it first came along, Ikind of had a number , uh, that
I talked to my accountant aboutand he said, you're not gonna
get that
number that , uh, I thought ifwe could get to that, it would
be perfect. Yeah. Um, and gotreally, really blessed. Their
(03:24):
first offer was right at thatnumber, just underneath it. And
, uh, we made a counter offer .
They accepted it right away.
And , and for any people thatdo negotiations, that means I
should have been higher . Yeah.
Um , you never want them toaccept your second one.
, that should have been higher.
'cause we could have beensettled at a higher number, but
it was still a , a hugeblessing , uh, for us. Uh ,
(03:45):
because at the time Jack's was,my grandson was , um, you know
, a year and a half. And mywife's been working for me ,
uh, with me for about 25 years.
And , um, you guys don't knowme out there, but , uh, I'm a
fun guy, but I do push peoplehard. Yeah. Um, so , um, I just
thought it was time that shecould kind of take a backseat
(04:06):
and not have to work so hard.
And I knew we , we would beinvolved with Jacks at some
level at that particular time.
We didn't know we'd be involvedas , as much as we are in
co-parenting, but , uh, we knewwe'd have some involvement, so
, yeah . Yeah , yeah . Um , andone of your questions you're
gonna ask, but , uh, it was, itwas interesting , uh, whenever
you have huge decisions, littledecisions, we all as Christians
(04:28):
want to find out, is this whatGod wants? Is this what my
flesh wants? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah .
And that's tough because thenumber wasn't, you know,
extraordinary, but it was lifechanging , uh, where my wife ,
uh, wouldn't have to work thatmuch and our retirement would
be taken care of. Um, and, youknow, was that from God or was
(04:48):
it not? And that took us sometime to kind of navigate
Piet Van Waarde (04:52):
And , and I know we're gonna get to this as
it relates to your newbusinesses, but it seems to fit
here too. Right? So when you'remaking those kind of decisions
and you're trying, you know,you're in a discernment
process, Lord, is this what youwant for us? Are there some
specific things that you lookat or wait for to say? Okay.
For sure. And I, I know we'renever like a hundred percent
(05:12):
sure, but
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, occasionally people told me God spoke to
them. Oh, really? So I haven'thad that. Oh, okay.
Piet Van Waarde (05:16):
Speaker 2 (05:17):
People told me. Yeah , yeah . Yeah . Other than
that, it's kind of hard to havea , a guarantee, right? Yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (05:21):
Yeah . Yeah.
So what , what are some of thethings that you're looking for
when you're in that discernmentprocess?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah. Number one, I , I want to be patient. Um, you
want to allow God to speak toyou. And sometimes it's, it's a
fast turnaround, but you wantto , to, to take your time and
settle in and just startpraying. Um , you need to, to
be in prayer. If it's a , withyour wife, you'all need be
doing together. Yeah. Prayingamongst each other. Um, you, if
(05:48):
anyone fast, I think it's animportant part of that is the
fast. Yeah . Because when youfast, you then focus solely on
God.
Piet Van Waarde (05:56):
Yeah . Yeah .
Helps you that sensitivity.
Yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah. It helps you hear 'em . Um, and you know,
sometimes we go to people toomuch and I wouldn't go to 20
people to ask their opinion.
Yeah. 'cause then you could geta lot of opinions that that
actually end up creatingconfusion. Sure , sure. But in
life, you wanna have a fewpeople, 2, 3, 4 people that you
(06:20):
know, have your best interestsin mind , um, that you know,
are connected to God and thatwill pray with you and they'll
be truthful and honest as
Piet Van Waarde (06:28):
Well. And maybe have some business acumen
too. Well ,
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It depends upon what it's about. Yeah . Right . Like
, if it's about a business, youwould like one or two of those
to have some business acumen,but they don't have to be
Right. Because they could justbe godly men that will maybe
hear God in a different way.
But it is better if you'repraying about your health that
someone is a Christian in thehealth field as well. Yeah .
Right . So you can lean on thatexpertise. Um, but um, so you
(06:55):
go to those people and you askthem to pray. So that's step
one is take your time, try to,to get as much time before you
make a decision and just startpraying through it. And
sometimes in a day, in threedays, five days, you get some
confirmation. Maybe you're andyour wife feel sense, something
that's very similar. Um, andsometimes you
Piet Van Waarde (07:17):
Hope that's the case,
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's what you hope, right? Yeah. Sometimes
you'll get a word from someoneelse. That's exactly what you
felt like God told you. Yeah.
That's a confirmation. So Idon't want people to think that
that's what happens all thetime. It does sometimes. Yeah.
But sometimes it does. And thatkind of acts as a confirmation
that I was thinking this, thisis what I felt like God was
saying. My wife or this personI respect heard the same thing.
(07:40):
Yeah. Um, so that is whatyou're after. Um, for those
that have a herd , audible,that would be awesome .
, God said , God , sell it.
Jared , that would be awesome.
But I haven't heard the audiblevoice of God. Like most people
haven't. Um, and then othertimes I have found that I
haven't got that confirmation.
We still have that questionmark, my wife and I, or if I'm
(08:02):
making a personal decision andno one else is confirming. So
what I usually do in thatsituation is I, I decide, but
then I don't act. So I make adecision. This is where I think
God wants. I'm not a hundredpercent sure, but I'm gonna
decide. And then I want to have3, 4, 5 days where I want peace
or un peace to kind of takeover. Yeah . So if you decide
(08:24):
and you start feeling peacefulover the next couple days,
that's kind of confirmation.
Um, and if you start feelingfrustrated, disgruntled un
peace , that's kind ofconfirmation. Yeah. You can't
decide and to just act.
Piet Van Waarde (08:38):
I love that.
I've not heard people talkabout that. That's a great way
to think about it. That youhave your all , I'm gonna lean
into this decision. This iswhere I feel like I'm supposed
to go best. I know. And then tohave a period of time just to
kind of sit with that, try iton, so to speak. Right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Exactly. You're trying on the clothes . Yep .
Yep . And that's what I, what Ido. And then the last point
I'll make for those, because ,um, sometimes we're gonna get
it wrong, you know? Mm-Hmm .
got our mind, we got our flesh,we got our own desires. Um, and
we wanna be completely alignedwith the spirit. That's our
(09:13):
goal as Christians. Butsometimes we get in the way. We
want something so badly we canreally be overly loud. We can't
allow God to speak.
Piet Van Waarde (09:21):
Are you sure?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Exactly. Or he , you know, you heard him, but you
kinda know that wasn't him.
That was something else
Piet Van Waarde (09:28):
Spaghetti from last night . But I do
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Believe Romans 8 28 is true. Uh , I believe that if
our heart is right and ourmotives are right, and we want
to to hear God Yeah. And we'reseeking it , uh, truly not
faking him out. Right . Right .
Right . 'cause he knows ourmotives. Yeah , sure . If we're
just trying to go to a genieand rub on the , the , the ,
the bottle and say, do what Iwant. Yeah . He , he knows that
motive. But if we're trulyasking, seeking, getting coddly
(09:53):
wisdom from , from his word,from prayer, from fasting, from
others, and we don't know it,and then we decide and we miss
it, I do think God sees that.
That's what I believe. Mm-Hmm.
take the right turn, but I'mgonna turn what, what was meant
for bad? I'm gonna , I'm gonnasomehow use this,
Piet Van Waarde (10:12):
Redeem it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah . And it might not be that particular entity
or that decision's gonna workout, but I'm gonna learn from
it. I'm gonna get some valuablefrom it. It's gonna end up
turning out for good
Piet Van Waarde (10:22):
Now . I really appreciate it . I think that's
a really balanced approach, youknow, to say, okay , um, I'm
going to do my best. But no ,the truth is we're not always
gonna get it. Right. And I ,and I appreciate your
willingness to say that. Yeah .
Yeah . All right . So you didend up selling your business ?
I did business. I did. And then, uh, and then you got into ,
uh, pickleball.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Well, pickleball was , uh, it's kind of a
interesting story how thathappened. Probably two months
before I was selling. We hadthe deal closed. You're just
waiting for the date . We kindof close it at the end of the
year, but both of us wanted towait a couple of months for
economic reasons, organizationreasons for them. So we kind of
(10:59):
postpone it, the actual closinguntil early March. But it, the
deal was done, it could havefallen through, but it was like
a 99% done. And they said, whatdo you want to do? And I just
got into pickleball. I wasprobably playing with you still
at Pflugerville Rec . Yeah ,yeah, yeah . At the time. Um,
so it was early on and I justsaw the demand at the rec
center, like how many peoplewere coming in. And I'm a bus
(11:20):
business guy, so I see demand.
And you start seeing, and Isaid to them, I said, you know,
I'd love to do pickleball, butyou know, this isn't gonna
afford me what I'm getting fromthis sale . I don't see how I
could do that. So it , that'swhat I said at that time. Never
thought about it again. But Itold the guys that were selling
it to me that that's what Iwanted to do. Um, so I sold the
(11:42):
business. Uh, one opportunitycame up with a body shop with a
partner. That was awesome. Soright away I bought a body
shop, but I know nothing aboutcars. I can't even change
windshield wipers,
literally, I can't. I boughtsome, I had guys at the body
shop put my windshield wiperson
a business I'm gonna operate. Iknow nothing about it. Yeah .
(12:03):
But I, I have a good friendthat was operating one for a
long time and he was in betweenbody shops that he sold and we
kind of partnered on one. Andit was, I took some of that
money, bought a body shop thatwas there for about 20 years.
He's operating it. And it'sbeen a tremendous financial
blessing. Um, it doesn't take,I probably spend 2, 3, 4 hours
a week working with my partner.
(12:24):
Occasionally I do somemarketing accounting stuff, but
it's kind of a low , um, lowjob, low dependence upon me. I
also then started a smallbusiness in a similar realm
where I'm selling cameras forbirds. It's a bird feeder that
has a camera inside of it.
Little small business. Myprevious business I imported
(12:44):
from China, they were camerasfor trucks and farmers, et
cetera . So it's kind of downthe similar line. And I have a
good friend of mine that I'veknown for 25 years from my
church. He's retired , uh, justa couple years older than you.
And he was awesome at what hedid and said, Hey, how about
you run it? And so we have alittle, little business that
we've been doing , uh, forabout a year and a half, just
(13:05):
kind of growing that. Uh , soboth of those were going for
about nine to 12 months and ,um, probably about nine months.
But I was working five to 10hours a week if that. Yeah.
And, you know, that's nice. ButI'm still 50, so I still young.
Yeah. And I just felt like Ihad more to give. Um , and I
think it's wasteful. I didn'tneed to work , um, not rich,
(13:28):
but I had an income thatsupported me. My future was
taken care of. But I just feltlike that was a waste to God to
go, he's given me talent. He'sinvest his stuff in me that I
can do. And for me to just kindof ride off on the sunset when
I still have energy and playgolf, play golf, play
pickleball. I thought that wasjust a wastefulness. Yeah .
What he put in me. Totally getthat. So, long story short ,
(13:51):
um, an organization reach outto me LinkedIn and I never ,
uh, never reach do the , thesponsor LinkedIn. I'm sure you
get 'em where people try topitch you stuff on LinkedIn and
for whatever reason, I lookedat it this day and it was a , a
place called the Perfectfranchise. And they help
people, they're basically realestate agents for franchises.
They have about 400 franchises.
(14:12):
They represent, they fundentrepreneurs and they try to
marry the two. I don't paythem. They get commissioned
from the franchise. So it'sbasically what your wife does
in real estate. And by the way,if you need to buy a house in
Austin, Texas, Carol is thebest. Um , shameless plug. But
anyway , um, thank you. So, andI , and I said , I'm gonna take
(14:33):
this journey. I got time, maybeI can find a franchise that's
kind of low maintenance. Um , Ican invest a small amount of
money into it. Um, so I wentthrough for a couple months and
they showed me some franchisesthat were pretty interesting.
Um , and a matter of fact, oneof them , uh, Fred Lynn just
started for CoveringsInternational. That's how I
hooked them up with that.
'cause I was gonna do the floorcoverings. Um , but it wasn't
(14:54):
something I was excited about.
Um , and I said , I'd said tothe guy, I said, you know what?
I'd rather do pickleball. Youdon't have that in your, your
portfolio. Here's a couplefranchises. Can you reach out
to them, see what they, theythey have to offer. Yeah . So
he spent about three weeks,reached out to the various
franchises, came back. Longstory short, in about 30 days I
was in Arizona and the officessigning a deal to buy two
(15:16):
locations in pickleball. Andwhat I didn't know at the time,
'cause I've been anentrepreneur on my, on my own
for 25 years, is when you'repart of a franchise, is 10
times easier to borrow moneyfrom a bank than it is if
you're a startup . Yeah. And Inever knew that. So now since I
didn't have the money to fundit myself completely, I had the
(15:37):
seed money for the 10 or 20% ofa loan. Yeah . Um, once I got
involved with a franchise andlearned what that was, I was
like, actually, I can do this.
And I thought back about 15months earlier about how I
said, I wanna do pickleball.
And long story short, I pickedPickleball Kingdom.
Piet Van Waarde (15:54):
Isn't that funny how the Lord does that?
Like he drops the seed Mm-Hmm .
may not have direct applicationin the moment. Right. But then
when an opportunity presentsitself down the road, you're
like, this is not the firsttime I thought about this. No .
This is something that's beenin my heart for a while now .
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah. And it's, it's really the first business in 25
years that I'm passionate aboutthe , the product or the
service. 'cause I, I'm apickleball attic
and I love the customers. So Ijust love everything about this
business. Um , so it's reallyperfect
Piet Van Waarde (16:25):
For , for that . Now, for those who , um, who
love pickleball, 'cause it ,like you said, it has just been
blowing my mind how many peoplenot only are playing, but are
like progressively more andmore into it. Right. So I was
telling you I think before wegot on the air that my son is
playing and, and he's quitegood. Right . And he made it to
a semi-final regional thing.
(16:47):
Right . And so there , youknow, you , at least when I
first started it was mostlyolder people. Mm-Hmm .
it was a little easier on yourbody and so on. Right . But
it's like all ages, all people,everybody's kind of doing it
and loving it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Since Covid, the average age went from like 51
to 36 in five years. Wow. So itliterally was, it started in
the fifties , um, inWashington. And for 40 years,
90% of the people that playedit were 55 and older. Because
it's a perfect sport for peoplethat don't want to move a ton,
but want to still play a sport,still want to compete. Um, and
(17:23):
you can still be quite good atpickleball. Even if you don't
have great mobility, you canactually be still
Piet Van Waarde (17:28):
Good. Well, and, and I wanna talk a little
bit about your facility becauseyou know, we, we referenced
earlier that there's a reccenter , uh, here in town that
we both were playing it for awhile , but you have kind of
taken it up like a notch orthree, right. With the facility
that you've created , uh, braga little bit about, you know ,
the thing that you do . Yeah .
Well
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I appreciate that .
I mean , as an addict, Istarted at a , at outside at ,
in Taylor . So I started for acouple months playing outdoors.
Um, realize that I hate sun. Ihate heat.
like wind. You're in Texas,brother
know. I , I can't get out ofit. Um , so I don't want to be
here in the climate, but I loveTexas 'cause we're the best
(18:08):
state. Uh, there is. Uh , butanyhow , um, so I wanted to go
indoor because I, I, I , I'm a, a guy that likes to control
the environment and outdoor,you can't control it. Sometimes
you're facing the sun that hasan impact. Sometimes the wind
is with you behind you,whatever. Yeah . Um, you go out
there, the courts are dirty,whatever the situation. So we
(18:30):
went indoor to Pflugerville reccenter and liked the air
conditioning. But then I didn'tlike that there's 72 lines.
'cause when you go to a reccenter Yeah. There's basketball
lines, the volleyball lines,the pickleball lines . So I
didn't like that. The balldoesn't bounce true on a, on a
basketball court kind of slidesand skips. Uh , and then what I
hated the most was all greatpeople was the lines to wait.
(18:53):
Um , you're stacking , uh, forthose who play , play
pickleball, it's called paddlestacking. And sometimes you
play a game that lasts 10 to 12minutes and then you might be
out 20, 30 minutes. Yeah. And Icouldn't stand that. Um , and I
also couldn't stand, I couldn'ttroll my, I couldn't control
the partner. So I like to, toto play with people that have
similar goals in the pickleballgame. Yeah. And I like to play
(19:15):
hard. I like to play to win. Uh, and some people like to just
hit the ball and laugh. Yeah.
Um , and there's wrong withthat . That is not you
not me, but there's a place forthose people and it's not being
my partner. Yeah. Um, so then Imoved over. We found another
rec center. Four of us justleft for about six months.
'cause we can control theenvironment. It was just four
of us that were all similarskilled . That was great. But
(19:36):
then if one of us was out townfor a week, then we couldn't
play. Uh , I mean we couldn'treally grow it. Yeah. So then I
joined , joined Lifetime , uh,'cause Lifetime , uh, invested
a lot in pickleball. And I waslike, this is awesome. They had
three courts, indoor, prettygood facilities. Not perfect,
but really good. Uh , and theyhad a community. Um , so that
was great. Uh , but it was 25minutes from my house. It got
(19:59):
so popular there. And this isno exaggeration to reserve a
court. You literally had to beon the app on seven days in
advance, right. At 8:00 AM Andyou had about a three second
window. And if you miss thatthree second , no exaggeration,
you're not gonna get a court
demand of it. And funny enough,I had some friends that were
(20:20):
computer programmers, they wereable to develop a program, a
bot that would do it,
would do it for 'em . And thenthey put it in . And this is
really funny. They , uh, theyhad it in one place. They found
out that if you put it closerto the server, that lifetime
you would , you would thatnanosecond of distance give 'em
a better chance. So they movedthe server to a closer area so
(20:42):
the bot was able to get 'emeven faster.
what , so I was like, wow, lookat what I'm doing to try to
play pickleball. So long storyshort, then a couple people ,
uh, opened in Austin and Ijoined all. I've joined
everywhere. Played everywhere.
Um, so saying all that I playedin all conditions, outdoor rec
centers , lifetime. Yeah .
Couple other indoors. So you've
Piet Van Waarde (21:02):
Got a good idea of what Great
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Idea. Yeah . So what you needed combined with what
the pickleball Kingdomfranchise, 'cause I'm a part of
a franchise, so they have veryspecific rules on how we build
it, lighting, coloring, etcetera . And what have I
learned? I do think I put theperfect pickleball courts
together. And it's not me justsaying that over the last week
since we've opened, I've had ahundred people and some of them
(21:24):
are really good people and someof them today were beginners.
And they said , I love yourlights. I love the space, I
love the court quality. I lovewhere you put the fences. I
love, you know , um, the netquality. So we put together, we
,
Piet Van Waarde (21:38):
You even have like technology where people
wear the little watches and youcan change the score on the
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Scoreboard. We got a 10 80 p camera that's recording
everything. So you can download, you get a replay, you can do
a replay. So if you hit areally cool shot, you press a
button on the iPad or on your,your , on this , uh, wristwatch
and it saves the , the replayin your profile in the app. And
then you can download that,post it, you can save it and
you can keep score on 75 inchTVs behind you . And you can
(22:06):
download the whole hour or 30minutes. So if you wanna
download the game and analyzeyour game, it , that is
humbling.
yourself, you're not nearly asgood as you think you are. Yeah
. You think you're movingfaster than you are . And you
see yourself going, man , I'mslow
, uh, not something you wannado.
Piet Van Waarde (22:23):
And then you have these really nice areas
where people can sit and watchthe game. So if you know you
need a break or something, yougot these really comfortable
chairs and tables. I mean,
Speaker 2 (22:32):
It's , it's important to have a good lounge
area because you're gonna be inand out on paddle stacks. So I
got couches, I got TVs, I gotchairs, I even have tables.
'cause if you wanna work from,you know, come here and act
like you're working, your bossthinks you're working from
home,
Google fiber internet. You canwork in between games. Yeah .
So I try to think of everythinggot a bottle filler for those
(22:54):
that wanna fill bottles. It's aHVAC to keep it at 70. So it's
, it's a cool environment. Yeah. Not just cool, but cool .
It's just so
Piet Van Waarde (23:01):
Great. Yeah .
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So great. And we got this building and then we're
opening a building next door.
It's gonna be eight courts. Sohere in about three, four
months we'll have 11 courts ,uh, in this facility that we're
at now.
Piet Van Waarde (23:11):
Nice. Really nice. Yeah. Alright . So , uh,
I want to shift focus a littlebit. I wanna come back to the
whole , um, business risktaking thing. Uh , you know,
you've been an entrepreneur, itsounds like almost a serial
entrepreneur with all , allthese different ventures that
you've done. And that requiresa certain amount of risk taking
, uh, capacity. Like you'regonna have to be willing to
(23:34):
absorb some risk. Mm-Hmm.
that together with your faithjourney where you, you know,
you , you're , you'restretching yourself, you're
moving forward in a , in , insomething new, but you're also
kind of depending on the Lordto give you guidance about
that. How does that actuallyplay out for
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You? Right. Well first I think some people have
risk aversion or risktolerance. Mm-Hmm .
you have risk aversion , um,it's gonna be tough for you to
be an entrepreneur and be supersuccessful because if you
aren't willing to risk, you'regonna be always trying to build
(24:14):
your business on a budget. And, um, it's just most likely
it's gonna really thwart yoursuccess. It's just gonna be
difficult. So you need to havesome risk tolerance. You need
to have a personality. You needto go in and knowing that I'm
gonna risk. Yeah . 'cause I'vetalked to a lot of
entrepreneurs, people that wantto be entrepreneurs, and then
you tell 'em, Hey, you need todo this. And like, well that's,
(24:34):
how am I gonna afford it? Well,you go get a credit card and
you go borrow money
And they're like, what do youmean? I go, well, you figure it
out
business. Yeah . Mostbusinesses require some sort of
fuel in cash. Yeah . And itcould be for inventory. If you
have an inventory basedbusiness, it could be in rent
because you're gonna be aretail storefront. It could be
in some marketing, if you'regonna have a website , uh,
(24:56):
you're gonna have to fuel it.
Yeah . At some level. Um, andthen a lot of my risk tolerance
grew as being an entrepreneur.
So when I start, you're asmaller company, so $5,000 is
what you need to , to borrow.
So it's kind of like liftingweights. You start with 10
pounds and then you start with20, and then you start with 50
and then you get higher. Sonow, is
Piet Van Waarde (25:17):
That a mistake you watch people make, is that
they go, you know, they try togo right from zero to 50.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's not a good idea.
you , you don't have the themuscle built up Yeah . For the
risk . Nor do you have theexperience to manage all it
takes to run a big business.
Yeah . So you need, if you're afirst time entrepreneur, if
unless you have a partnerthat's been through it , um,
unless you heard God audiblyliterally say mortgage,
(25:45):
everything, you have to goafter this. And there , there
are times when you can do that.
Yeah . So I don't want to tellyou, you shouldn't go big early
because God could havesomething different for you
than most. But typically youwanna a building block. Yeah .
You wanna build on each otherfor your business, for your
risk tolerance, for musclememory, for and
Piet Van Waarde (26:06):
Sleep
Speaker 2 (26:06):
At night, sleep
of it is I'm a risk tolerantperson when it comes to
business. Yeah . That's who I,I am A lot of it was experience
I started risking and thenprobably the last 10 or 15
years, once my wife and I feellike this is what God , um,
calls for us, we're willing todo it all. Yeah . We will
(26:27):
literally put all of our chipsin the table. And the
pickleball business is aperfect example. I was, had
zero debt owned everything.
Mm-Hmm.
now we're back into prettysignificant debt personally
guaranteed a 10 year lease thathas a pretty high nut on a
monthly basis. So people arelike That's crazy. It is crazy
(26:51):
not gonna have you do somethingthat's not a little bit crazy.
Yeah. Otherwise, it's probablynot God, it's probably, you're
, you're just doing somethingconservative. So now I'm at the
point because I've been walkingwith God for a long time and I
built up some risk toleranceand I've got some experience
behind me that I'll put it allin every dollar, all of it. If
(27:15):
I feel like God's behind it and, uh, and I don't lose sleep
over it. I I really don't. Mm .
And uh , that's, that's toughfor most people. Uh , but I
won't, I won't be concernedabout my risk at all.
Piet Van Waarde (27:28):
Now that , that kind of leads me to my
next question and we'll bewrapping it up. But , um, so we
talked a little bit aboutstarting a business and how
your faith integrates and, and, and supports a , a
risk-taking venture. Butthere's, you know, this idea of
a Christian business man orwoman. And I'm just curious
(27:51):
from your perspective, whenyou're running a business , um,
how are, how is your faithinforming your, like your
day-to-day business practices?
Is there an integration foryou? What does
Speaker 2 (28:04):
That look like?
Yeah, I mean, if I was on thepodcast that said no, I would
be a bad Christian businessleader,
reality there is, thereprobably wasn't my first fi
five to eight years ofbusiness. I was a prophet
first. Um, I went to church, Isaid I loved God and I probably
did at some level. But if thereis a corner to cut for profit ,
(28:27):
um, I would take that thatcorner. Uh , and probably not
probably , um, I actually wouldcheat , um, in order to make
that profit. Um, and those bestbusinesses had a lot of
success, but they all crashedand burned. And I'm not gonna
say it's cause and effect. Um,it could have been exactly.
That could have been a lot ofother decisions. 'cause there's
(28:48):
a lot of other bad decisions Imade , uh, that , um, that
contributed to the, the , theburn, the , the fallen burn.
But now , uh, as, as I want tolive my life to glorify God, I
want to be an example for him.
I want my business to make adifference. It it, I'm not
gonna say it guides everydecision because that would
(29:10):
make me seem like I'm probablymore spiritual than I am. But I
want it to guide everydecision. Yeah. So I try to get
it to do it. So a couple ofthings is I try not to focus on
profit because if you focus onprofit, then you're focusing on
what the world thinks isimportant and what God does.
Mm-Hmm .
gonna be profitable. I thinkI'm gonna be profitable. Um , I
(29:32):
think God wants to financiallybest me. It says it in his
word. Right? Mm-Hmm.
every decision is gonna lead toprofit. So you gotta remove
what the world says isimportant, which is profit. You
still plan for it. You stillmake smart decisions. I'm not
saying you don't considerfinancial decisions 'cause you
(29:54):
do, but you don't make it yourgoal. I to be profitable.
Mm-Hmm.
do these other two things thatare important is number one, I
mean number two, I want to be amoral person. Yeah . Um , I
don't wanna just, if you haveprofit first, then you can be
our moral because the immoraldecision could help get you
(30:15):
more profit. And that could beby treating people wrong, that
could be not paying a vendor.
And you could, you could say,well they, they screwed up. Mm
. They don't deserve to getpaid and it's a profit
decision. But you're justblaming the fact that, that
maybe they screwed up or youcould , um, you could cut
corners on on what you tellcustomers. You could kind of
deceive them on what they'regonna get to get money out of
(30:39):
'em . Um , because it helpsyour profit. So I want to be
moral in our decisions. Uh, andthen lastly with my employees
and customers, I want to bedifferent. There's not a lot of
people that you meet that hasjoy, that is genuine, that has
(31:00):
fun, but yet is a , a personthat you can respect. Yeah. Um,
so I want to be different tomy, the people that work for
me, the vendors customers. Iwant to see Well, there's
something different about him.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Iwant to do. I want them to ask
me that question. Yeah . Why ?
What is it ? What's your deal?
(31:22):
get the open up theopportunity. So at pickleball
Kingdom it is kingdom's in thelast name and it's gonna be
important. We do want to expandhis kingdom, but I'm not gonna
have , uh, you know , Christianverse on every chocolate bar of
cell . Yeah . I'm not gonnahave Christian verses all over
the walls. Um, but my goal isto be the type of person that
(31:46):
is different and people go, whyI get to answer that question
and plant a seed that God isthe reason.
Piet Van Waarde (31:53):
Well, and I , and I just wanna say this
publicly , um, that is who youare. I mean, I, I have seen
that in a variety of ways. Andeven the fact that we are here,
like you knew I was looking fora new studio and you know, you
could have rented this out tous. You could have done
something else with the space.
(32:14):
And you said, look, I I I havethis opportunity and I have
this facility and if you canuse it to bring some honor to
God and do some good work, man,have at it. Yeah. And , um, I
was, I was totally blown awayby your, your generosity and,
and your willingness to just ,uh, help us get this done. So ,
(32:37):
um, you are living out what youjust just said. Well , I
appreciate
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It. Thank you. I I think I'm different. Yeah. You
, in some ways it's kind ofunusual, different 'cause
people , I come off to peopledifferent, but once people, and
it , it doesn't take long now.
It used to be, it took up acouple of weeks to get to know
me. Now I think usually alittle bit faster they go out .
He's unique. But I , I like it.
I don't know what I like aboutit
(33:00):
And I'm hoping it's justsomething God put in me. It's a
joy, it's a sense of humor.
It's how I wanna , uh, livelife to the fullest. Um, and I
, I , I don't, and I try not toever be the different person in
any circumstances to anyperson. I wanna be the same.
Like what , you know, yourbrother, my pastor is a good
friend. I wanna be the same tohim. I don't wanna act
(33:22):
different around a pastor Yeah. Than I do around my son
around a stranger. I wanna bethe same person. 'cause I think
that's what we're called to
Piet Van Waarde (33:29):
Be. I think that's what, that's what
integrity means, right. Could
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Be you , you're saying that
but I , I want to be thatperson. So that's important. So
that's, that's the three thingsI I try to integrate with my
business is not, I care aboutprofit, but it's not my goal.
It's not why I'm doing it. Um,and I think it's, if you seek
him first, all these otherthings will come the added to
it. So I'm trying not to seekprofit. And that's hard if
(33:52):
you're a business person, it'shard not to seek profit. Yeah.
But whatever you focus on is ,is what's gonna occupy you. And
if you're focused on profit,it's gonna occupy all your
decisions and it's gonna lendyou to make bad decisions. Im
moral decisions, cut corners ,uh, et cetera . Yeah .
Piet Van Waarde (34:10):
Well, Jared , this has been a great
conversation. Thank you somuch. You for welcome . Taking
the time. You're welcome . Iknow you had other commitments
today, so
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Just playing pickleball. Hopefully
Piet Van Waarde (34:17):
You're gonna go out and play pickleball,
Speaker 2 (34:19):
But uh, yeah, I am , you know, we just opened up
this last week, so it's been acrazy couple of weeks. But ,
um, no , I'd like to do this asmuch as you can. Hopefully
someone out there got a littlesomething out of it. Yeah . And
it was a blessing and , uh,encouraged you. Um, so,
Piet Van Waarde (34:33):
And I'm sure it was. Yeah. So, and thank you
for joining us. Joining usagain. We're gonna be doing
this every other week here. Andso if you wanna put it on your
calendars, we have some greatguests lined up. So join us
Thursdays , uh, live at five.
Unless we're having sometechnical issues. It might be
five 15
Speaker 2 (34:51):
be better. So make sure youcome back.
Piet Van Waarde (34:56):
behind the scenes. You're agreat guy. Thank you for your ,
uh, troubleshooting today. Itwas , uh, a blessing and glad
we were here.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Amen. Alright .
Alright . Have a great day.
Thanks bro .
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