May 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Trent Merrell discusses his diverse career journey from a Resident Life Coordinator to becoming a professional Pickleball instructor. Trent shares insights on the skills he developed throughout his various roles, including event planning, career training, and data-driven decision-making, and how these experiences have shaped his current career and his goals for the future.
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Trent Merrell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentbmerrell/
Grant Merrell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-merrell-mdiv-5334bb15b/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cacklemedia/
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▬▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Introduction to Transferable Skills
00:26 Trent Merrell's Career Journey
01:10 Resident Life Coordinator Experience
06:13 Transition to Goodwill
11:22 Promotions and Responsibilities at Goodwill
15:06 Moving to New Opportunities
26:35 Discovering Pickleball
33:04 Becoming a Pickleball Pro
37:54 Conclusion and Reflections
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Transferable skills, skills, skills from Cackle Media.
This is transferable skills. I'm Noah Michigan.
Today's guest is Trent Merrill who shares his skills journey
from resident life coordinator into pickleball pro.
This is a first for the show, having the spouse of a previous
guest on as today's guest for this episode.
(00:20):
I hope you enjoy Trent. It's great to have you here on
the show. Yes, thank you so much for
having me. Tell me about your career
journey, what have you been up to?
Yeah, so I've always had just a lot of different interests and
that's always been the case, even from a young age.
It took me a long time to figureout what college I wanted to go
(00:41):
to and ended up going to school for recreation administration.
So had opportunities to really planned community events,
planned different like youth events, things of that nature.
Really enjoyed it. While I was in college, I got
involved with residence life. I became an RA and then a couple
(01:04):
of years outside of grad school as well.
I was a residence life coordinator.
Can I ask you a question about being an RA?
For those who don't know what anRA is, a resident assistant, if
usually as a student yourself, whether it's undergrad or
Graduate School, you are in charge of students living on
campus in housing. You're kind of like a camp
(01:26):
counselor, right? That's exactly it.
You're usually assigned like a number of rooms, a floor, but
you're in charge of an area of the dormitory and the students
that are living there. Help me understand the
difference between your responsibilities or the
experience being an RA versus maybe a resident Life
coordinator. Yeah, so I was the professional
(01:50):
staff member of the complex, so I supervised all the Ras.
We also had a 24/7 front desk, so supervised the individuals
who worked at the front desk, who were also students during
the school year had the college students.
And during the summer we would have camp camps and conferences.
(02:11):
So had a lot of different peoplecoming in for those camps and
conferences. So we had youth coming in, we
had high school students, college students, adults,
sometimes for the camps and conferences too, school year
college students and then camps and conferences, a whole mixture
of people. In that role, as resident life
(02:33):
coordinator, you're essentially managing all the events that are
taking place and you're coordinating the Ras and the
activities throughout the 12 months of the calendar year,
correct? Yeah, it was a lot because a lot
of these college students haven't been away from home
before. So we did had a lot of like
culture shock for those college students, had to counsel a lot
(02:57):
of different roommate conflicts that occurred.
And just because college life istough, also had many students
who were depressed contemplatingsuicide.
So just a lot of different issues that you might not even
think of in working in the rest of this hall that you have to
(03:18):
deal with just because people are people and people have
different things come up that they need support in navigating
through. What attracted you to that
position? I love planning events.
That is something I love to do regardless of the role I'm in.
Want to plan special events thatI think are really fun and
really cool and hopefully peoplewant to go to them.
(03:40):
Let me ask you a question because as a former student
myself who used to live on campus for a period, I remember
a lot of the activities the RA planned, planned.
They felt very forced. You also get that sometimes in
the corporate world where sometimes there's fun activities
or there's supposed to be fun, but really, how fun are they
versus we're putting on a face because they're mandatory, you
(04:01):
have to show up and participate,but are they actually really
fun? Yeah, I think they wanted to
come to the events. Especially at the last
university I worked at, Texas Tech, we had learning outcomes
that we wanted to get out of theevents that we are doing.
So we had to be really creative to make sure that we got those
(04:23):
learning outcomes. But people actually wanted to go
to them and enjoy themselves. So hopefully they kept coming
back. Some people came because they
liked me as a person, some people came because the event
sounded fun, and other people came because we might have had
free food. Yeah, full gamut of.
Reasons why people might come tothe events.
It's always a catch all you're going to get people because
(04:43):
there's. Free food and pizza or.
Whatever do you have when you'replanning an event, regardless of
who it's for? Do you have a philosophy or a
model that almost like a rubric that you use when you're
creating an event? I want to keep these few things
in mind. Yeah, I look for planned things
for the event, but also opportunities for people just to
(05:05):
relax and get to know individuals as well.
So structure, but not too much structure where it feels
regimented. I want to make sure that I'm
having fun as well, so not planning something that I think
is gonna be boring, something that I wouldn't even want to go
to. I want to make sure the event is
something that it sparks that interest so they want to check
(05:27):
it out. Do you think a good event has to
cost money? I don't think so.
In my major, we had to plan a lot of events and working with
nonprofits, recreation facilities, we don't have a lot
of resources. So oftentimes we would be told,
here's a supply closet, plan something, whatever you could
(05:48):
think of. Yeah.
So I always just look at whatever those resources are.
How can we make the best out of limited resources that we have
and still be able to provide that space for people to have
fun, get to know each other and hopefully learn something.
That's just the icing on the cake.
So that burned out really quickly.
(06:09):
And as I was job searching I waslooking for higher education
jobs as well as nonprofit jobs because while in school my minor
was nonprofit administration andreally enjoyed that.
Had a phone interview with Goodwill in Austin, TX. 1 phone
interview. I was offered a position so
(06:30):
decided to I moved from West TX to Austin, TX for this new role.
My first role at Goodwill it wascalled Career Advancement
trainer. So I worked with a bunch of
different people who were going to Goodwill for assistance in
finding a job. So I would do classes with them
(06:52):
on how to do your resume, how todo interviewing, but also soft
skills as well. We had communication classes, we
had dependability classes, time management, a whole bunch of
different soft skills. So depending on the person, they
would get assigned these classesby their career case manager and
(07:15):
they would go to the classes andsometimes they were just going
to them because they were forcedto.
But I would try to make the classes the same with the events
of fun, enjoyable time, get to know the person as a person,
hoping that they would have a good time where they would want
to come to future classes even if they didn't have to.
So I really enjoy that role. I got to help a lot of people
(07:38):
finding a job that they loved going to.
I was in that first role at Goodwill for about a year before
I was promoted. Even when I was promoted, I
still wanted to help people withresumes and interviews, so I
still snuck in some classes whenI had the opportunity to.
Yeah, that's nice. There is a very strong
connection, like you said, between planning events as an RA
(07:59):
or event coordinator in residentlife and creating opportunities
and making meaningful gathering events for this.
Role Yeah, I definitely think so.
I always was connected to individuals at Goodwill because
most of them, many of them were adults who for whatever reason
were looking for a career changeor for whatever reason didn't
(08:22):
have opportunities to education.And I've been really fortunate
with opportunities that I've been given.
So want to help other people be able to get education training
that is aligned with what they want to do with their lives.
Really enjoyed that work. How do you figure out how to
help somebody explore the options that they might have and
(08:44):
what might be most meaningful tothem?
So a lot of reflection. We would do career inventories
with them where they would do a survey and answer a bunch of
questions and the survey would tell them these are what your
skills aligned with. Sometimes it made sense for the
person, sometimes they didn't agree with it at all.
But a lot of people came to Goodwill because they knew we
(09:07):
would help fund training that they were looking to do.
So some people are interested inbecoming a truck driver.
Some people are interested in becoming a nursing assistant.
So a lot of them came in knowingwhat types of jobs they might
want to do. But some of them were still, I
don't know what I want to do. And then we would do that career
inventory, try to find somethingthat they might be interested in
(09:31):
based on the skills they currently have and their hopes
for the future. Do you find yourself using your
own background and skills doing this and finding your next
opportunities? I think so.
So I have had a bunch of different opportunities that
have been presented themselves to me.
But a big overarching thing is trying to find work that is
(09:54):
meaningful for me. Being able to work with people I
genuinely enjoy working with. I have always said I could do
any job if I like the people I'mworking with.
The job that I was in the longest ever was at Dairy Queen
and I worked there from freshmanyear high school up until senior
year of college just because I like my boss.
(10:16):
So I'd always keep going back toDairy Queen.
She still owned a Dairy Queen byme.
I was still at work there and then while I was in Austin every
Halloween I was there. I worked for this husband and
wife that owned a Halloween store and I would work there
just because I like them. I didn't necessarily need to
work there, especially after I was promoted at Goodwill, but I
(10:37):
like that was people. I wanted to see their business
succeed and wanted to spend timewith them, so I kept working at
the Halloween store. I could do anything as long as I
like the people, but it's just is even better when that work is
meaningful and I'm connecting with people I'm working with as
well. Yeah, it's hard to go through
tough situations or difficult situations.
Those are always going to come up at work at various times, but
(11:00):
they're a lot more palatable, even potentially enjoyable, when
you're doing it with the right people.
Oh, I totally agree. Good people will follow you.
The good leaders and and the people that reported up to them
will follow them, will follow one another.
Vice versa, both ways, because people want to work with
individuals that they get along with, that they that they like,
that they admire, that they respect.
(11:22):
How long were you in that role at Goodwill?
I was in that role for a year and then I was promoted to what
was called, it was a grant project supervisor.
That role. I oversaw some of the grants
that we had at Goodwill. So I had two grants for
(11:42):
individuals who had justice involvement, so one for adult,
one for youth, and then one grant specifically for
individuals with disabilities who were looking for internship
and work experience. That role was a lot of data, a
lot of budgeting and things I probably wasn't very good at
(12:04):
when I started. But the great part about my
first two career paths, higher education and nonprofit, the
great part for me was they had alot of turnover, which meant I
was given a lot of opportunitiesI probably wasn't ready for
because I needed somebody to do them.
Yeah, if you wait until you're ready to do something, you've
(12:28):
probably short changed yourself by some amount of time that you
probably could have been in it ramping up and learning on the
job. Waiting too long also has its
drawbacks. Yeah, I agree.
I, there are a lot of other grant project supervisors who I
learned from because I was not very good at it when I started,
but was able to learn from them,was able to become better at
(12:52):
managing money, was able to become better at looking at
those goals that we have for theproject and how can we make
those goals happen? How could we make those happen
but also make sure we're having those positive impacts on those
individuals in the program. I really enjoy that role.
I gained a lot of skills in looking at data, a lot of skills
(13:15):
at budgeting because those aren't skills that are natural
to me. But being thrown in that
position had to use a different side of my brain that I was used
to using. But it was good to be able to
gain those skills in those areas.
Without that role, I probably wouldn't look at data the same
now decisions that I'm making. I'm looking at those numbers.
(13:38):
I'm looking at the budget that'sgonna take to be able to reach
those goals. What's the potential return on
investment? Because prior to that it was all
about whatever my gut was telling me.
So I feel this is the best decision.
But I didn't necessarily have the stats to back it up.
But because of that rule I'm nowfeeling it but having the
(13:58):
numbers to back it up as well. While working at Goodwill.
They are very data-driven, budget driven because you really
had to be a non profit because you have limited resources to
try to do as much great things as possible.
I think it even when I'm not a nonprofit now, I'm using that
data to make those decisions in the roles that I'm currently
(14:21):
doing. How long did you stay in that
role? And then where'd you go from
there? I stayed at that Goodwill for a
little bit longer. I was promoted again to manager
of intake. I supervised the people who were
the front door of Goodwill, so the people who assess people to
see what programs might be best for them and then took on our
(14:42):
internship programs where we were able to place people in
work opportunities. So a lot of these people had not
never worked before. So youth putting them in
internship programs and then other individuals who had been
incarcerated for a while, so putting them in internship
programs to show that they're ready to get back to work.
That was my last job at Goodwillin Texas.
(15:06):
Then I was had an opportunity tomove over to a Goodwill in
Virginia and was Director of workforce training.
So I oversaw all of our workforce programs at that
Goodwill, overseeing the people in a role that I used to be in,
sharing with them about the budgeting and the data being on
(15:27):
the other side of things, which was a great opportunity.
I was in that role for a couple years and then moved to Indiana
to work for another Goodwill andthat Goodwill, I was the
director of career and technicaleducation.
It was definitely data-driven, definitely numbers driven, but
allowed me to get more into thatprogramming, that event
(15:48):
planning, because my role was wewant to train a bunch of people,
we want to create these trainingprograms for them, and we don't
know what we want to do. So you helped determine what
training programs were gonna do.So had the opportunity to build
a construction program, automotive training program,
(16:11):
different IT programs. How do you decide what new
programs you wanna explore? A.
Lot of conversations with peopleand first thing I do when I
start any job is just talk to asmany people as will talk to me.
So I'm meeting with everybody. I'm asking them about the
organization, to learn about theorganization, but also for that
(16:31):
specific position. I was talking to people about,
OK, what trainings do you think?So I was getting a lot of
different answers. I got somebody who said Goodwill
should run a tattoo training program, Goodwill should be
pilot license. So I was getting a lot of
different things. So I was looking at specifically
(16:54):
what are, because we're not gonna be a Community College,
we're not gonna be a four year institution.
So what can we be in the betweenhigh school and a two year
degree? What are some opportunities that
we could come about? So we landed on construction, we
(17:15):
landed on automotive, we dabbledin a little bit of healthcare
and did some IT trainings as well.
So my goal is always to be that stepping stone between high
school and college. And if they do a program with us
and they want to continue on to a two year or four year degree,
(17:38):
that would be another opportunity for them.
So we did a career plan just like we did with all the other
programs, but in that career plan, letting them know where
goodwill fell on that career plan and how they could continue
their education at IV Tech or atanother school after that.
(17:59):
You're exploring a bunch of different potential
opportunities for internships and people to learn on the job.
How do you know when an idea is a bad idea and not one that you
should be pursuing any further? Yeah.
So looking at a bunch of different things, especially
when we're looking to place participant in an internship or
(18:20):
working with an employer partner, because we had employer
partners connected with the different trainings, our
construction, our automotive training.
So we're looking at, does this partner align with our values?
Because we don't want to place aparticipant at an employer who's
going to treat them poorly or isgoing to treat them less than
(18:44):
what we treat them at our organization.
So a lot of it is seeing if our values align together because
the worst thing that we could dois place a participant in a
terrible work environment because a lot of our
participants have gone through alot of rough things.
And we want this to be that light at the end of the tunnel.
(19:08):
We want to make help them reach those goals and don't want to
have any additional setbacks, especially ones that we could
help prevent. So a lot of it was looking at do
our values align and if they do,we can partner.
If they don't, then this isn't agood partnership opportunity.
Yeah. You want that first stepping
stone of an opportunity to be a successful one, and for that
(19:30):
success to compound them to feelthe determination and motivation
to continue moving on and progressing, whereas a bad
experience might lead to completely adverse reactions and
results indefinitely. Oh, definitely, yeah.
That's a lot of responsibility. Yeah, it was fun though it was.
Did you feel that pressure? I didn't really feel it.
(19:50):
I really like just being given free reign to do what I think is
best and not being able to make every decision of course, but
being able to explore opportunities, connect with
people. Hear from them what their
perspectives are. So it took a while to figure out
what trainings we wanted to landon.
(20:11):
But the trainings that we did land on are still going on
today, still seeing graduates from the automotive program,
graduates from construction program.
So it's really cool even when you leave the role, to see all
that's going on after because the worst thing that could
happen is developing something and have it not continue after
(20:33):
you leave the role. So yeah, I really enjoyed it.
I think of the roles that I've had in the nonprofit world, that
was probably my favorite one just because it was I was the
first one. So really got to make a lot out
of that position. And you're seeing the results of
your hard work. It's your legacy that lives on.
Oh, definitely. Yeah.
(20:53):
I love seeing all the automotivegraduates, all the construction
graduates, and yeah, and they'recreating lives for themselves,
lives for them, their families, whatever role I'm in, want to
make sure I love the work that Ido.
So being able to help other people find love and enjoyment
and their work was a really great opportunity.
(21:15):
Does anybody reach out to you still keep in touch?
Sometimes. Sometimes I still get people
reaching out to me about just asking perspectives on different
things. After Goodwill Grant and I, who,
you know, had to move to Indianapolis, I landed at a
nonprofit that focused on individuals.
(21:36):
It was very similar to Goodwill,where we had a high school
equivalency program. We also had a bookstore
component that helped to fund the programs that we had.
So I oversaw all of our programsat that smaller nonprofit.
So that nonprofit had a lot lessresources than Goodwill, which
is just a juggernaut of resources.
(21:59):
Really had to focus on that budgeting that making sure every
decision is data-driven because every year I was there, we are
in the red. So we were, we had, we're
scraping by so we couldn't make any poor budget decisions
because that would mean having to lose staff or having to have
(22:22):
less programs. I think one of the pros for the
smaller nonprofit was we could make decisions a lot quicker
because we didn't have a lot of layers to go through.
Yeah, in making those decisions.But on the flip side, we also
didn't have our own IT department.
We had a contracted IT firm. We didn't have a dedicated human
(22:48):
resources person that was part of their many other job
responsibilities that they had to do.
I liked it because decisions gotto be made a lot quicker, but
also we didn't have as much support from those support team
members as I was used to workingfor that larger nonprofit and
Goodwill. So definitely pros and cons for
(23:09):
both. Yeah, if I had to work for a
nonprofit again, I'd probably want something about in the
middle, maybe not a gigantic one, but also having the needed
staff to do the work that we're doing.
Just enough resources to supportyour ideas and opportunities,
but not too much to restrict your own autonomy.
(23:29):
That's a cowboy answer, but I'llaccept it.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate.
That's all I got. What I'm noticing is a
commonality, working early in your career at a university, be
it public or private, and then moving into nonprofit work at
Goodwill and beyond. The through line seems to be
mission driven education and community building and gathering
(23:52):
and advocation for individuals and giving them resources and
support. This seems to be a massive
through line in your career, thebeing mission driven, working
for an organization that has a mission.
I think I've always been missiondriven, specifically working
with adults who are looking for those education opportunities
(24:14):
within those nonprofit roles. My dad, he dropped out of high
school and went to serve in Vietnam.
So he was a non traditional student when he came back from
war and he didn't earn his high school diploma until he was in
(24:36):
his 30s because my mom forced him to.
So just seeing that and having alot of educational opportunities
that I've been lucky enough to have, I've just been really
drawn to helping individuals figure out what they want to do,
but also helping them navigate and find that training to be
(24:59):
able to connect them to a job that they like going to every
day because it makes such a difference.
And working somewhere that you like to work at versus working
somewhere that is absolutely your worst nightmare you hate
working at. So being able to help people
find that was something I love doing.
That's awesome. Yeah.
(25:20):
It's mission driven. There's nothing worse than being
unemployed and maybe after that maybe underemployed or in a job
that feels like you're dying inside.
Oh, I totally agree. How did you know at this point
that it was time to move on? It was time to move on.
When my work and my supervisor weren't connecting anymore.
(25:43):
So I had never quit a job beforewithout having another job lined
up and I decided to just becauseit wasn't a good opportunity for
me anymore. We weren't connecting, we were
not on the same page, and I justwas not liking to go to work
anymore. And that's something that I
(26:05):
don't want to experience becauseit not only impacts me as a
person, but I didn't want it to impact my team either.
I want them to still love the work that they're doing, and if
I'm not having that same love, Idon't want to negatively impact
them either. When I left the role, thankfully
I was also teaching on the side.So I was teaching at 2
(26:27):
universities and decided to see if I could teach a couple more
classes with each of them. While I was looking for another
job. I was filling my time playing
pickleball, playing pickleball everyday, job searching on the
side, and during one of my open plays that I went to, one of the
pickleball pro said, hey, we just lost another instructor.
(26:51):
I'm like you did. So I sent an e-mail to the
person who oversaw the facility.I'm interested in teaching here
if there's an opportunity. We connected.
He hired me on. He helped pay for my pickleball
certification so was able to start teaching pickleball and
(27:11):
I'm teaching at 2 universities as well.
During my role in Virginia, I started to get my doctorate
because I had the goal of teaching on the side, was able
to continue that in Indiana and also when I left my position at
nonprofit, I was just able to bum U the classes that I was
(27:33):
teaching. Something that I've always
valued just throughout my own life and helping other people as
well is looking for ways to grow.
Having that growth mindset, evenwhen I like my job, still
looking for different opportunities to grow, earn my
doctorate because one thing thatcan't take away from you is your
education. Want to make sure I have that
(27:55):
education to back me up to be able to do things that I want to
do, which was teaching. I'm a pickleball pro as well as
teaching at universities right now.
What was your doctorate in? My doctorate was in leadership,
specifically focusing on community organizations.
When I started earning, my doctorate was hoping to continue
(28:17):
working in nonprofit after it and also teach.
No longer working in nonprofit, but still able and connected to
that role by teaching individuals who are potentially
looking to work in nonprofit. I feel like every single one of
those stops along your career journey has been preparing you
for that doctorate. All of it was about helping
(28:37):
others, training, quality of life and and work and community
gatherings and experiences. So it feels like your doctorate
you're, you're living it. You're quite genuine and
authentic to fulfilling your vision.
Yeah, I think so too. Yeah.
I loved being in a doctorate experience and thankfully that
role many years ago where I had to look at data and numbers was
(29:01):
very helpful in doing the research.
Which when if you would have asked me when I was in grad
school if I would ever get a doctorate, I probably would tell
you no because I wasn't the model graduate student.
But roles that I was afforded innonprofit allowed me to gain
skills and that budgeting that looking at numbers, because if I
(29:26):
weren't wasn't given that opportunity, I probably would
have struggled a lot more in my doctorate work without that
experience. Do you think having your
doctorate before the earlier roles would have served you well
in those opportunities and the jobs that followed?
Or do you think it's more that you succeeded in your doctorate
(29:46):
because of the role roles that you've had that preceded it?
I think I started my doctorate right at the right time, just
because I was able to pull from those experiences I had already
learn from. And so my research was focused
on millennials who supervise people who are older than them.
(30:09):
And if I wouldn't have had my own experiences supervising
individuals from older generations, I probably wouldn't
have landed on that research topic.
Being able to see my work, working with individuals who are
older than me, and then being able to see the work of other
millennial leaders and their work with individuals who are
(30:32):
older than them. Just because regardless of the
generation, they always get bad stereotypes by the older
generations before them. So it's really cool to see all
the different skills that they were using in their work with
those individuals they were supervising because, and I
probably wouldn't have landed onthat topic if I hadn't had those
(30:55):
leadership opportunities. What an interesting dynamic of
research the millennial supervising an elder generation.
It's always odd or maybe even uncomfortable when you have a
manager that is noticeably younger than the people that
report up to them. It's another thing to be given
life advice and career advice from that person.
(31:15):
Very interesting area to research and study.
Is there anything that stood outduring your research that was
interesting to you, that you nowintegrate into your life that
you're constantly thinking about?
Yeah. So my research focused on
situational leadership theory. So that's the idea that you're
looking at each individual person, each individual job
(31:39):
responsibility, and choosing howto supervise that person based
on those things. So really focused in on how they
were choosing to supervise thoseindividuals from older
generations and not feeling likethey had to be that
stereotypical manager, but utilizing those individuals for
(32:01):
mentoring opportunities of younger team members.
But also we found the reverse mentoring.
So having younger individuals mentor the older individuals on
like new technology, things of that nature.
I really enjoyed learning about that situational leadership
theory because that's how I always saw my leadership and
(32:24):
looking at each individual person as an individual,
choosing the best way to work with them based on that.
And it was cool to finally figure out what it was called by
doing that research and see thatother millennials were doing the
same. To be able to look at each
person as an individual and choosing the best way to work
(32:45):
with them based on that. So it was cool to see all the
cool things that they were doingin their work and just the
overarching theme was looking ateach person as individual, how
to best work with them based on that.
Very cool, very interesting stuff.
How long were you playing pickleball before you were able
(33:06):
to become an instructor and a pro?
Not very long. So I started playing pickleball
on a regular basis in December and in January quit my job and
decided to become a pro in February.
So I hadn't been playing for a long time.
(33:28):
But growing up I was a tennis player and I found love for
pickleball just like I found love for tennis.
So a lot of those same skills translated over had to learn of
course, new strategy, new rules for pickleball, but I was able
to utilize a lot of those skillsthat I gained in my tennis
(33:49):
background. Do you still play tennis at all
or is it just pickle all these days?
Yeah, I haven't played tennis ina while, so I really like
pickleball because it is a social sport.
It's really become that new Golfwhere people go play pickleball
because they like the people andthey're making business deals
(34:09):
with people on the pickleball court.
I really like it because of thatsocial aspect.
I haven't played tennis in a long time, but started playing
pickleball just because it seemed like everybody was.
That's why I first started in December and then like a lot of
people, just fell in love with it and just kept playing a plane
because of that. And it really found me at the
(34:33):
right time because I was going through that change in career.
And if it wasn't for pickleball,I probably would have found
another nonprofit job and may ormay not have liked it.
So really glad that I found pickleball at the right time.
Are you in this early stage in your Instructor Pro experience?
(34:54):
Where do you see this going? What do you want to accomplish
within pickleball, and how wouldyou describe why you think
you're a good instructor? Yeah, so I've, I really enjoyed
it. So I've had the opportunity to
work with a lot of people and it's just like my other roles
and building those relationships.
That's been key. I'm just not supervising the
(35:16):
people now. I'm just providing that
pickleball instruction. So really love working with
somebody in that intro class andthen having them continue on
into future classes as well and seeing their skills just
blossom, helping them find that love for this sport.
I've utilized a lot of skills that I use in nonprofit, in
(35:38):
pickleball by relationship building, building curriculum as
well because I'm not just winging it every day that I go
there. I have a curriculum that built
out, so I want to continue growing.
I want to continue growing the amount of classes that I do that
not of people that I work with. And I hope to become a director
(36:03):
of pickleball at a pickleball facility.
So that way I could work with other pickleball pros and help
them develop curriculum, help them build their clientele, and
just the overall programs that we have in the facility.
You should live in be well for avery long time.
The stage you that you're in right now, you seem to have come
(36:23):
full circle in the way you describe going from essentially
being in the RA into resident life coordinator.
You're now in charge of the Ras and the events in the
programming and the full experience.
And you did this as a pickleballplayer and then instructor.
You played, you got into the position, and now you're at at
the pro level where you're teaching.
(36:44):
Eventually your goal is to become the director so you can
do the same kind of work that you were doing as a resident
life coordinator, but now you'reinfluencing the community at
large in this sport. Yeah.
I haven't thought of it like that, but thank you for putting
that together for me. Yeah, I have loved it.
I love the facility that I work at currently and I just want us
(37:07):
to continue growing. There are a lot of pickleball
places in Indianapolis and I want us to be the best 1 and I
think we have the people and theability to do.
Also, one of my strengths, but also some people might be
considered to be a weakness, is I always get competition as my
(37:29):
number one strength whenever I do like Strengths Quest.
So I'm a very competitive personand wherever I'm working,
whatever I'm doing, I want to bethe best at it.
So want to be the best pickleball pro that I possibly
can be, but also want the facility I'm working at to be
the best pickleball facility that is out there.
(37:52):
Yeah, those are great goals and great values.
It's clear to me that you're somebody will hold yourself to a
standard, that you want to keep pushing yourself and growing at
every single chapter in your career journey.
And so far, it's all been about learning and then doing for
others and helping and supporting a community.
I expect you to continue growingin meaningful ways, and I'm
(38:12):
excited to watch that happen from the sidelines here.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Absolutely. It's been great having you.
Thank you again for being here. Yes.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
I want to thank Grant Merrill for recommending Trent as
today's guest and to you, our listeners, for joining us on
this episode of Transferable Skills.
Remember, the skills you've gained can take you anywhere.
(38:34):
Until next time, keep exploring those transferable skills.
Transferable skills, skills, skills from Cackle Media.
This is transferable skills. I'm Noah Michigan.
Today's guest is Trent Merrill who shares his skills journey
from resident life coordinator into pickleball pro.
This is a first for the show, having the spouse of a previous
guest on as today's guest for this episode.
(00:20):
I hope you enjoy Trent. It's great to have you here on
the show. Yes, thank you so much for
having me. Tell me about your career
journey, what have you been up to?
Yeah, so I've always had just a lot of different interests and
that's always been the case, even from a young age.
It took me a long time to figureout what college I wanted to go
(00:41):
to and ended up going to school for recreation administration.
So had opportunities to really planned community events,
planned different like youth events, things of that nature.
Really enjoyed it. While I was in college, I got
involved with residence life. I became an RA and then a couple
(01:04):
of years outside of grad school as well.
I was a residence life coordinator.
Can I ask you a question about being an RA?
For those who don't know what anRA is, a resident assistant, if
usually as a student yourself, whether it's undergrad or
Graduate School, you are in charge of students living on
campus in housing. You're kind of like a camp
(01:26):
counselor, right? That's exactly it.
You're usually assigned like a number of rooms, a floor, but
you're in charge of an area of the dormitory and the students
that are living there. Help me understand the
difference between your responsibilities or the
experience being an RA versus maybe a resident Life
coordinator. Yeah, so I was the professional
(01:50):
staff member of the complex, so I supervised all the Ras.
We also had a 24/7 front desk, so supervised the individuals
who worked at the front desk, who were also students during
the school year had the college students.
And during the summer we would have camp camps and conferences.
(02:11):
So had a lot of different peoplecoming in for those camps and
conferences. So we had youth coming in, we
had high school students, college students, adults,
sometimes for the camps and conferences too, school year
college students and then camps and conferences, a whole mixture
of people. In that role, as resident life
(02:33):
coordinator, you're essentially managing all the events that are
taking place and you're coordinating the Ras and the
activities throughout the 12 months of the calendar year,
correct? Yeah, it was a lot because a lot
of these college students haven't been away from home
before. So we did had a lot of like
culture shock for those college students, had to counsel a lot
(02:57):
of different roommate conflicts that occurred.
And just because college life istough, also had many students
who were depressed contemplatingsuicide.
So just a lot of different issues that you might not even
think of in working in the rest of this hall that you have to
(03:18):
deal with just because people are people and people have
different things come up that they need support in navigating
through. What attracted you to that
position? I love planning events.
That is something I love to do regardless of the role I'm in.
Want to plan special events thatI think are really fun and
really cool and hopefully peoplewant to go to them.
(03:40):
Let me ask you a question because as a former student
myself who used to live on campus for a period, I remember
a lot of the activities the RA planned, planned.
They felt very forced. You also get that sometimes in
the corporate world where sometimes there's fun activities
or there's supposed to be fun, but really, how fun are they
versus we're putting on a face because they're mandatory, you
(04:01):
have to show up and participate,but are they actually really
fun? Yeah, I think they wanted to
come to the events. Especially at the last
university I worked at, Texas Tech, we had learning outcomes
that we wanted to get out of theevents that we are doing.
So we had to be really creative to make sure that we got those
(04:23):
learning outcomes. But people actually wanted to go
to them and enjoy themselves. So hopefully they kept coming
back. Some people came because they
liked me as a person, some people came because the event
sounded fun, and other people came because we might have had
free food. Yeah, full gamut of.
Reasons why people might come tothe events.
It's always a catch all you're going to get people because
(04:43):
there's. Free food and pizza or.
Whatever do you have when you'replanning an event, regardless of
who it's for? Do you have a philosophy or a
model that almost like a rubric that you use when you're
creating an event? I want to keep these few things
in mind. Yeah, I look for planned things
for the event, but also opportunities for people just to
(05:05):
relax and get to know individuals as well.
So structure, but not too much structure where it feels
regimented. I want to make sure that I'm
having fun as well, so not planning something that I think
is gonna be boring, something that I wouldn't even want to go
to. I want to make sure the event is
something that it sparks that interest so they want to check
(05:27):
it out. Do you think a good event has to
cost money? I don't think so.
In my major, we had to plan a lot of events and working with
nonprofits, recreation facilities, we don't have a lot
of resources. So oftentimes we would be told,
here's a supply closet, plan something, whatever you could
(05:48):
think of. Yeah.
So I always just look at whatever those resources are.
How can we make the best out of limited resources that we have
and still be able to provide that space for people to have
fun, get to know each other and hopefully learn something.
That's just the icing on the cake.
So that burned out really quickly.
(06:09):
And as I was job searching I waslooking for higher education
jobs as well as nonprofit jobs because while in school my minor
was nonprofit administration andreally enjoyed that.
Had a phone interview with Goodwill in Austin, TX. 1 phone
interview. I was offered a position so
(06:30):
decided to I moved from West TX to Austin, TX for this new role.
My first role at Goodwill it wascalled Career Advancement
trainer. So I worked with a bunch of
different people who were going to Goodwill for assistance in
finding a job. So I would do classes with them
(06:52):
on how to do your resume, how todo interviewing, but also soft
skills as well. We had communication classes, we
had dependability classes, time management, a whole bunch of
different soft skills. So depending on the person, they
would get assigned these classesby their career case manager and
(07:15):
they would go to the classes andsometimes they were just going
to them because they were forcedto.
But I would try to make the classes the same with the events
of fun, enjoyable time, get to know the person as a person,
hoping that they would have a good time where they would want
to come to future classes even if they didn't have to.
So I really enjoy that role. I got to help a lot of people
(07:38):
finding a job that they loved going to.
I was in that first role at Goodwill for about a year before
I was promoted. Even when I was promoted, I
still wanted to help people withresumes and interviews, so I
still snuck in some classes whenI had the opportunity to.
Yeah, that's nice. There is a very strong
connection, like you said, between planning events as an RA
(07:59):
or event coordinator in residentlife and creating opportunities
and making meaningful gathering events for this.
Role Yeah, I definitely think so.
I always was connected to individuals at Goodwill because
most of them, many of them were adults who for whatever reason
were looking for a career changeor for whatever reason didn't
(08:22):
have opportunities to education.And I've been really fortunate
with opportunities that I've been given.
So want to help other people be able to get education training
that is aligned with what they want to do with their lives.
Really enjoyed that work. How do you figure out how to
help somebody explore the options that they might have and
(08:44):
what might be most meaningful tothem?
So a lot of reflection. We would do career inventories
with them where they would do a survey and answer a bunch of
questions and the survey would tell them these are what your
skills aligned with. Sometimes it made sense for the
person, sometimes they didn't agree with it at all.
But a lot of people came to Goodwill because they knew we
(09:07):
would help fund training that they were looking to do.
So some people are interested inbecoming a truck driver.
Some people are interested in becoming a nursing assistant.
So a lot of them came in knowingwhat types of jobs they might
want to do. But some of them were still, I
don't know what I want to do. And then we would do that career
inventory, try to find somethingthat they might be interested in
(09:31):
based on the skills they currently have and their hopes
for the future. Do you find yourself using your
own background and skills doing this and finding your next
opportunities? I think so.
So I have had a bunch of different opportunities that
have been presented themselves to me.
But a big overarching thing is trying to find work that is
(09:54):
meaningful for me. Being able to work with people I
genuinely enjoy working with. I have always said I could do
any job if I like the people I'mworking with.
The job that I was in the longest ever was at Dairy Queen
and I worked there from freshmanyear high school up until senior
year of college just because I like my boss.
(10:16):
So I'd always keep going back toDairy Queen.
She still owned a Dairy Queen byme.
I was still at work there and then while I was in Austin every
Halloween I was there. I worked for this husband and
wife that owned a Halloween store and I would work there
just because I like them. I didn't necessarily need to
work there, especially after I was promoted at Goodwill, but I
(10:37):
like that was people. I wanted to see their business
succeed and wanted to spend timewith them, so I kept working at
the Halloween store. I could do anything as long as I
like the people, but it's just is even better when that work is
meaningful and I'm connecting with people I'm working with as
well. Yeah, it's hard to go through
tough situations or difficult situations.
Those are always going to come up at work at various times, but
(11:00):
they're a lot more palatable, even potentially enjoyable, when
you're doing it with the right people.
Oh, I totally agree. Good people will follow you.
The good leaders and and the people that reported up to them
will follow them, will follow one another.
Vice versa, both ways, because people want to work with
individuals that they get along with, that they that they like,
that they admire, that they respect.
(11:22):
How long were you in that role at Goodwill?
I was in that role for a year and then I was promoted to what
was called, it was a grant project supervisor.
That role. I oversaw some of the grants
that we had at Goodwill. So I had two grants for
(11:42):
individuals who had justice involvement, so one for adult,
one for youth, and then one grant specifically for
individuals with disabilities who were looking for internship
and work experience. That role was a lot of data, a
lot of budgeting and things I probably wasn't very good at
(12:04):
when I started. But the great part about my
first two career paths, higher education and nonprofit, the
great part for me was they had alot of turnover, which meant I
was given a lot of opportunitiesI probably wasn't ready for
because I needed somebody to do them.
Yeah, if you wait until you're ready to do something, you've
(12:28):
probably short changed yourself by some amount of time that you
probably could have been in it ramping up and learning on the
job. Waiting too long also has its
drawbacks. Yeah, I agree.
I, there are a lot of other grant project supervisors who I
learned from because I was not very good at it when I started,
but was able to learn from them,was able to become better at
(12:52):
managing money, was able to become better at looking at
those goals that we have for theproject and how can we make
those goals happen? How could we make those happen
but also make sure we're having those positive impacts on those
individuals in the program. I really enjoy that role.
I gained a lot of skills in looking at data, a lot of skills
(13:15):
at budgeting because those aren't skills that are natural
to me. But being thrown in that
position had to use a different side of my brain that I was used
to using. But it was good to be able to
gain those skills in those areas.
Without that role, I probably wouldn't look at data the same
now decisions that I'm making. I'm looking at those numbers.
(13:38):
I'm looking at the budget that'sgonna take to be able to reach
those goals. What's the potential return on
investment? Because prior to that it was all
about whatever my gut was telling me.
So I feel this is the best decision.
But I didn't necessarily have the stats to back it up.
But because of that rule I'm nowfeeling it but having the
(13:58):
numbers to back it up as well. While working at Goodwill.
They are very data-driven, budget driven because you really
had to be a non profit because you have limited resources to
try to do as much great things as possible.
I think it even when I'm not a nonprofit now, I'm using that
data to make those decisions in the roles that I'm currently
(14:21):
doing. How long did you stay in that
role? And then where'd you go from
there? I stayed at that Goodwill for a
little bit longer. I was promoted again to manager
of intake. I supervised the people who were
the front door of Goodwill, so the people who assess people to
see what programs might be best for them and then took on our
(14:42):
internship programs where we were able to place people in
work opportunities. So a lot of these people had not
never worked before. So youth putting them in
internship programs and then other individuals who had been
incarcerated for a while, so putting them in internship
programs to show that they're ready to get back to work.
That was my last job at Goodwillin Texas.
(15:06):
Then I was had an opportunity tomove over to a Goodwill in
Virginia and was Director of workforce training.
So I oversaw all of our workforce programs at that
Goodwill, overseeing the people in a role that I used to be in,
sharing with them about the budgeting and the data being on
(15:27):
the other side of things, which was a great opportunity.
I was in that role for a couple years and then moved to Indiana
to work for another Goodwill andthat Goodwill, I was the
director of career and technicaleducation.
It was definitely data-driven, definitely numbers driven, but
allowed me to get more into thatprogramming, that event
(15:48):
planning, because my role was wewant to train a bunch of people,
we want to create these trainingprograms for them, and we don't
know what we want to do. So you helped determine what
training programs were gonna do.So had the opportunity to build
a construction program, automotive training program,
(16:11):
different IT programs. How do you decide what new
programs you wanna explore? A.
Lot of conversations with peopleand first thing I do when I
start any job is just talk to asmany people as will talk to me.
So I'm meeting with everybody. I'm asking them about the
organization, to learn about theorganization, but also for that
(16:31):
specific position. I was talking to people about,
OK, what trainings do you think?So I was getting a lot of
different answers. I got somebody who said Goodwill
should run a tattoo training program, Goodwill should be
pilot license. So I was getting a lot of
different things. So I was looking at specifically
(16:54):
what are, because we're not gonna be a Community College,
we're not gonna be a four year institution.
So what can we be in the betweenhigh school and a two year
degree? What are some opportunities that
we could come about? So we landed on construction, we
(17:15):
landed on automotive, we dabbledin a little bit of healthcare
and did some IT trainings as well.
So my goal is always to be that stepping stone between high
school and college. And if they do a program with us
and they want to continue on to a two year or four year degree,
(17:38):
that would be another opportunity for them.
So we did a career plan just like we did with all the other
programs, but in that career plan, letting them know where
goodwill fell on that career plan and how they could continue
their education at IV Tech or atanother school after that.
(17:59):
You're exploring a bunch of different potential
opportunities for internships and people to learn on the job.
How do you know when an idea is a bad idea and not one that you
should be pursuing any further? Yeah.
So looking at a bunch of different things, especially
when we're looking to place participant in an internship or
(18:20):
working with an employer partner, because we had employer
partners connected with the different trainings, our
construction, our automotive training.
So we're looking at, does this partner align with our values?
Because we don't want to place aparticipant at an employer who's
going to treat them poorly or isgoing to treat them less than
(18:44):
what we treat them at our organization.
So a lot of it is seeing if our values align together because
the worst thing that we could dois place a participant in a
terrible work environment because a lot of our
participants have gone through alot of rough things.
And we want this to be that light at the end of the tunnel.
(19:08):
We want to make help them reach those goals and don't want to
have any additional setbacks, especially ones that we could
help prevent. So a lot of it was looking at do
our values align and if they do,we can partner.
If they don't, then this isn't agood partnership opportunity.
Yeah. You want that first stepping
stone of an opportunity to be a successful one, and for that
(19:30):
success to compound them to feelthe determination and motivation
to continue moving on and progressing, whereas a bad
experience might lead to completely adverse reactions and
results indefinitely. Oh, definitely, yeah.
That's a lot of responsibility. Yeah, it was fun though it was.
Did you feel that pressure? I didn't really feel it.
(19:50):
I really like just being given free reign to do what I think is
best and not being able to make every decision of course, but
being able to explore opportunities, connect with
people. Hear from them what their
perspectives are. So it took a while to figure out
what trainings we wanted to landon.
(20:11):
But the trainings that we did land on are still going on
today, still seeing graduates from the automotive program,
graduates from construction program.
So it's really cool even when you leave the role, to see all
that's going on after because the worst thing that could
happen is developing something and have it not continue after
(20:33):
you leave the role. So yeah, I really enjoyed it.
I think of the roles that I've had in the nonprofit world, that
was probably my favorite one just because it was I was the
first one. So really got to make a lot out
of that position. And you're seeing the results of
your hard work. It's your legacy that lives on.
Oh, definitely. Yeah.
(20:53):
I love seeing all the automotivegraduates, all the construction
graduates, and yeah, and they'recreating lives for themselves,
lives for them, their families, whatever role I'm in, want to
make sure I love the work that Ido.
So being able to help other people find love and enjoyment
and their work was a really great opportunity.
(21:15):
Does anybody reach out to you still keep in touch?
Sometimes. Sometimes I still get people
reaching out to me about just asking perspectives on different
things. After Goodwill Grant and I, who,
you know, had to move to Indianapolis, I landed at a
nonprofit that focused on individuals.
(21:36):
It was very similar to Goodwill,where we had a high school
equivalency program. We also had a bookstore
component that helped to fund the programs that we had.
So I oversaw all of our programsat that smaller nonprofit.
So that nonprofit had a lot lessresources than Goodwill, which
is just a juggernaut of resources.
(21:59):
Really had to focus on that budgeting that making sure every
decision is data-driven because every year I was there, we are
in the red. So we were, we had, we're
scraping by so we couldn't make any poor budget decisions
because that would mean having to lose staff or having to have
(22:22):
less programs. I think one of the pros for the
smaller nonprofit was we could make decisions a lot quicker
because we didn't have a lot of layers to go through.
Yeah, in making those decisions.But on the flip side, we also
didn't have our own IT department.
We had a contracted IT firm. We didn't have a dedicated human
(22:48):
resources person that was part of their many other job
responsibilities that they had to do.
I liked it because decisions gotto be made a lot quicker, but
also we didn't have as much support from those support team
members as I was used to workingfor that larger nonprofit and
Goodwill. So definitely pros and cons for
(23:09):
both. Yeah, if I had to work for a
nonprofit again, I'd probably want something about in the
middle, maybe not a gigantic one, but also having the needed
staff to do the work that we're doing.
Just enough resources to supportyour ideas and opportunities,
but not too much to restrict your own autonomy.
(23:29):
That's a cowboy answer, but I'llaccept it.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate.
That's all I got. What I'm noticing is a
commonality, working early in your career at a university, be
it public or private, and then moving into nonprofit work at
Goodwill and beyond. The through line seems to be
mission driven education and community building and gathering
(23:52):
and advocation for individuals and giving them resources and
support. This seems to be a massive
through line in your career, thebeing mission driven, working
for an organization that has a mission.
I think I've always been missiondriven, specifically working
with adults who are looking for those education opportunities
(24:14):
within those nonprofit roles. My dad, he dropped out of high
school and went to serve in Vietnam.
So he was a non traditional student when he came back from
war and he didn't earn his high school diploma until he was in
(24:36):
his 30s because my mom forced him to.
So just seeing that and having alot of educational opportunities
that I've been lucky enough to have, I've just been really
drawn to helping individuals figure out what they want to do,
but also helping them navigate and find that training to be
(24:59):
able to connect them to a job that they like going to every
day because it makes such a difference.
And working somewhere that you like to work at versus working
somewhere that is absolutely your worst nightmare you hate
working at. So being able to help people
find that was something I love doing.
That's awesome. Yeah.
(25:20):
It's mission driven. There's nothing worse than being
unemployed and maybe after that maybe underemployed or in a job
that feels like you're dying inside.
Oh, I totally agree. How did you know at this point
that it was time to move on? It was time to move on.
When my work and my supervisor weren't connecting anymore.
(25:43):
So I had never quit a job beforewithout having another job lined
up and I decided to just becauseit wasn't a good opportunity for
me anymore. We weren't connecting, we were
not on the same page, and I justwas not liking to go to work
anymore. And that's something that I
(26:05):
don't want to experience becauseit not only impacts me as a
person, but I didn't want it to impact my team either.
I want them to still love the work that they're doing, and if
I'm not having that same love, Idon't want to negatively impact
them either. When I left the role, thankfully
I was also teaching on the side.So I was teaching at 2
(26:27):
universities and decided to see if I could teach a couple more
classes with each of them. While I was looking for another
job. I was filling my time playing
pickleball, playing pickleball everyday, job searching on the
side, and during one of my open plays that I went to, one of the
pickleball pro said, hey, we just lost another instructor.
(26:51):
I'm like you did. So I sent an e-mail to the
person who oversaw the facility.I'm interested in teaching here
if there's an opportunity. We connected.
He hired me on. He helped pay for my pickleball
certification so was able to start teaching pickleball and
(27:11):
I'm teaching at 2 universities as well.
During my role in Virginia, I started to get my doctorate
because I had the goal of teaching on the side, was able
to continue that in Indiana and also when I left my position at
nonprofit, I was just able to bum U the classes that I was
(27:33):
teaching. Something that I've always
valued just throughout my own life and helping other people as
well is looking for ways to grow.
Having that growth mindset, evenwhen I like my job, still
looking for different opportunities to grow, earn my
doctorate because one thing thatcan't take away from you is your
education. Want to make sure I have that
(27:55):
education to back me up to be able to do things that I want to
do, which was teaching. I'm a pickleball pro as well as
teaching at universities right now.
What was your doctorate in? My doctorate was in leadership,
specifically focusing on community organizations.
When I started earning, my doctorate was hoping to continue
(28:17):
working in nonprofit after it and also teach.
No longer working in nonprofit, but still able and connected to
that role by teaching individuals who are potentially
looking to work in nonprofit. I feel like every single one of
those stops along your career journey has been preparing you
for that doctorate. All of it was about helping
(28:37):
others, training, quality of life and and work and community
gatherings and experiences. So it feels like your doctorate
you're, you're living it. You're quite genuine and
authentic to fulfilling your vision.
Yeah, I think so too. Yeah.
I loved being in a doctorate experience and thankfully that
role many years ago where I had to look at data and numbers was
(29:01):
very helpful in doing the research.
Which when if you would have asked me when I was in grad
school if I would ever get a doctorate, I probably would tell
you no because I wasn't the model graduate student.
But roles that I was afforded innonprofit allowed me to gain
skills and that budgeting that looking at numbers, because if I
(29:26):
weren't wasn't given that opportunity, I probably would
have struggled a lot more in my doctorate work without that
experience. Do you think having your
doctorate before the earlier roles would have served you well
in those opportunities and the jobs that followed?
Or do you think it's more that you succeeded in your doctorate
(29:46):
because of the role roles that you've had that preceded it?
I think I started my doctorate right at the right time, just
because I was able to pull from those experiences I had already
learn from. And so my research was focused
on millennials who supervise people who are older than them.
(30:09):
And if I wouldn't have had my own experiences supervising
individuals from older generations, I probably wouldn't
have landed on that research topic.
Being able to see my work, working with individuals who are
older than me, and then being able to see the work of other
millennial leaders and their work with individuals who are
(30:32):
older than them. Just because regardless of the
generation, they always get bad stereotypes by the older
generations before them. So it's really cool to see all
the different skills that they were using in their work with
those individuals they were supervising because, and I
probably wouldn't have landed onthat topic if I hadn't had those
(30:55):
leadership opportunities. What an interesting dynamic of
research the millennial supervising an elder generation.
It's always odd or maybe even uncomfortable when you have a
manager that is noticeably younger than the people that
report up to them. It's another thing to be given
life advice and career advice from that person.
(31:15):
Very interesting area to research and study.
Is there anything that stood outduring your research that was
interesting to you, that you nowintegrate into your life that
you're constantly thinking about?
Yeah. So my research focused on
situational leadership theory. So that's the idea that you're
looking at each individual person, each individual job
(31:39):
responsibility, and choosing howto supervise that person based
on those things. So really focused in on how they
were choosing to supervise thoseindividuals from older
generations and not feeling likethey had to be that
stereotypical manager, but utilizing those individuals for
(32:01):
mentoring opportunities of younger team members.
But also we found the reverse mentoring.
So having younger individuals mentor the older individuals on
like new technology, things of that nature.
I really enjoyed learning about that situational leadership
theory because that's how I always saw my leadership and
(32:24):
looking at each individual person as an individual,
choosing the best way to work with them based on that.
And it was cool to finally figure out what it was called by
doing that research and see thatother millennials were doing the
same. To be able to look at each
person as an individual and choosing the best way to work
(32:45):
with them based on that. So it was cool to see all the
cool things that they were doingin their work and just the
overarching theme was looking ateach person as individual, how
to best work with them based on that.
Very cool, very interesting stuff.
How long were you playing pickleball before you were able
(33:06):
to become an instructor and a pro?
Not very long. So I started playing pickleball
on a regular basis in December and in January quit my job and
decided to become a pro in February.
So I hadn't been playing for a long time.
(33:28):
But growing up I was a tennis player and I found love for
pickleball just like I found love for tennis.
So a lot of those same skills translated over had to learn of
course, new strategy, new rules for pickleball, but I was able
to utilize a lot of those skillsthat I gained in my tennis
(33:49):
background. Do you still play tennis at all
or is it just pickle all these days?
Yeah, I haven't played tennis ina while, so I really like
pickleball because it is a social sport.
It's really become that new Golfwhere people go play pickleball
because they like the people andthey're making business deals
(34:09):
with people on the pickleball court.
I really like it because of thatsocial aspect.
I haven't played tennis in a long time, but started playing
pickleball just because it seemed like everybody was.
That's why I first started in December and then like a lot of
people, just fell in love with it and just kept playing a plane
because of that. And it really found me at the
(34:33):
right time because I was going through that change in career.
And if it wasn't for pickleball,I probably would have found
another nonprofit job and may ormay not have liked it.
So really glad that I found pickleball at the right time.
Are you in this early stage in your Instructor Pro experience?
(34:54):
Where do you see this going? What do you want to accomplish
within pickleball, and how wouldyou describe why you think
you're a good instructor? Yeah, so I've, I really enjoyed
it. So I've had the opportunity to
work with a lot of people and it's just like my other roles
and building those relationships.
That's been key. I'm just not supervising the
(35:16):
people now. I'm just providing that
pickleball instruction. So really love working with
somebody in that intro class andthen having them continue on
into future classes as well and seeing their skills just
blossom, helping them find that love for this sport.
I've utilized a lot of skills that I use in nonprofit, in
(35:38):
pickleball by relationship building, building curriculum as
well because I'm not just winging it every day that I go
there. I have a curriculum that built
out, so I want to continue growing.
I want to continue growing the amount of classes that I do that
not of people that I work with. And I hope to become a director
(36:03):
of pickleball at a pickleball facility.
So that way I could work with other pickleball pros and help
them develop curriculum, help them build their clientele, and
just the overall programs that we have in the facility.
You should live in be well for avery long time.
The stage you that you're in right now, you seem to have come
(36:23):
full circle in the way you describe going from essentially
being in the RA into resident life coordinator.
You're now in charge of the Ras and the events in the
programming and the full experience.
And you did this as a pickleballplayer and then instructor.
You played, you got into the position, and now you're at at
the pro level where you're teaching.
(36:44):
Eventually your goal is to become the director so you can
do the same kind of work that you were doing as a resident
life coordinator, but now you'reinfluencing the community at
large in this sport. Yeah.
I haven't thought of it like that, but thank you for putting
that together for me. Yeah, I have loved it.
I love the facility that I work at currently and I just want us
(37:07):
to continue growing. There are a lot of pickleball
places in Indianapolis and I want us to be the best 1 and I
think we have the people and theability to do.
Also, one of my strengths, but also some people might be
considered to be a weakness, is I always get competition as my
(37:29):
number one strength whenever I do like Strengths Quest.
So I'm a very competitive personand wherever I'm working,
whatever I'm doing, I want to bethe best at it.
So want to be the best pickleball pro that I possibly
can be, but also want the facility I'm working at to be
the best pickleball facility that is out there.
(37:52):
Yeah, those are great goals and great values.
It's clear to me that you're somebody will hold yourself to a
standard, that you want to keep pushing yourself and growing at
every single chapter in your career journey.
And so far, it's all been about learning and then doing for
others and helping and supporting a community.
I expect you to continue growingin meaningful ways, and I'm
(38:12):
excited to watch that happen from the sidelines here.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Absolutely. It's been great having you.
Thank you again for being here. Yes.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
I want to thank Grant Merrill for recommending Trent as
today's guest and to you, our listeners, for joining us on
this episode of Transferable Skills.
Remember, the skills you've gained can take you anywhere.
(38:34):
Until next time, keep exploring those transferable skills.
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