November 2, 2023 • 33 mins
Eric interviews Will Richards and Katherine Mooney from Dill Dinkers in this episode. They are dedicated to spreading the joy of pickleball and have created a welcoming and vibrant environment for players of all levels. At Dill Dinkers, you can enjoy fun matches, improve your skills, and connect with a community that shares your passion for pickleball. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a beginner, Dill Dinkers is here to elevate your pickleball experience to new heights.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hey, rock Stars, this isEric Pigero. In today's episode, we're
going to be talking to Will Richards. He is the founder and chief executive
officer of one of my favorite placesin the world, Dyl Dinkers. If
you're not a pickupball fan, thenyou wouldn't know what this is. But
if you are, you need toknow what it is and why you need
to be there, and I alsowant to encourage you to stay till the
(00:26):
end. I have a special bonusinterview with Katherine Mooney. She is the
director of Operation in sales at theNorth Bethesda Dill Dinkers location. She's not
only become a really good friend,but just a big supporter of what Dill
Dinkers offers to our community. Hey, Will, thank you for coming to
the podcast. First of all,congratulations on your two grand openings. They
(00:48):
were both a huge success. Ididn't make it to the first, but
I was there yesterday and it wasexcellent, So congratulations on that. Oh
yeah, we're really happy to haveyou in Montgomery County. As everybody knows,
I'm a huge pick a ball player, pickball fan, enthusiasts, whatever
you want to call me, butyou know I'm there and I am a
(01:10):
member of Dill Dinkers, a proudmember. Well, thank you outstanding.
Absolutely, you guys got a greatoperation. So I'm also a big fan.
So well, you are the CEO, and I want to say maybe
one half of the big vision ofBill Dinkers, would that would that be
right? Correct? My wife hasthe other half as well as our whole
(01:30):
team of folks. So let's startfrom the beginning. Were you a pick
aball player or are you an entrepreneurwho's on an opportunity in to the market.
So I have not been an entrepreneurfor a very long tournay. I
was working for a nonprofit company thatprovided people disabilities jobs, and my wife
and I started playing pick a ball, and even then I didn't really consider
(01:53):
anything until we went to an indoorfacility that didn't have heat or stream and
it was full and it is twentyeight degrees inside place where we were playing.
Oh God, and I just thought, this is such an easy thing
to make better. And when wegot back to Columbia from that trip,
(02:16):
I couldn't sleep. I was justlike trying to figure out how to do
this. And around the country therewas a few indoor places, but not
many, so we basically just developedit from scratch. I love it.
So how long ago was this?So we started thinking about it last February.
(02:39):
By November we had opened the firstfacility, so last where we opened.
So it was a six or sevenmonth period to bring it from just
the thought in my head and mywife's head to opening and coming to fruition.
And I kind of knew it acouple of weeks that we had to
(03:00):
fire by the tail and we neededto do something else with it because we
get We filled up very quickly andessentially maxed out the facility. And we're
talking about your Columbia facility right right, the first one. Okay, so
got the bug, you started playingpickaball, you saw a problem in the
market because, just for those peoplewho don't know, pick a ball country
(03:23):
is really out west. You know, that's where it started. That's where
you know all the major facilities are. And you know PPR or not PPR
sorry, Major League Pickaball. Everybody'sconcentrated out there, and over here on
the East Coast, with the exceptionof maybe Florida, we're left to our
own devices and playing on multi linedgyms and outdoors in the cold, right,
(03:50):
So you saw a problem and youput a solution to it. Now,
question for you, are you independentlyrich or you went and dug into
the four one K to make thishappen. Well, it was a combination
of our own resources and our initialgroup of investments with people that we played
(04:12):
pickleball with. We came up withthe idea and we had a little we
put together with black and we metwith our friends and we said this is
what we're doing. Do you wantto join us? And they did?
That is excellent. How much Iwould have loved to be part of that
one at the beginning right there,Man, talk about a missed opportunity.
We had a couple of people thatsaid no, and at this point,
(04:36):
oh my god, no, no. All right, so now we know
where that came from. And that'ssuch a good story to hear. When
you're doing business with your friends,you open up that first facility, you
guys just get inundated by players whoare just happy to have an indoor datacating
facility, which I will be honestwith you, I've never been to because
I hate traveling further than a fewblocks from my house. And when you
(04:58):
guys opened up here. I meanit was like a god send. So
well, thank you. Yeah,no, absolutely, and so I don't
have to travel very far if theColumbia facility looks anything like the Rockville or
the North because the facility they mustbe beautiful. Because these are a great,
state of the art facilities. Ohthank you. Our Finksburg location was
a tennis sparm, so it waspretty easy to convert to twelve courts there.
(05:26):
Okay, Okay, it might haveto make a track out there one
day. When you're talking about resources, right, these are full service facilities
in terms of you guys have andare putting up small little retail parts to
it. Right, So you've gotthe pickleball courts, you've got the registration
desks, and then you also havea small pro shop correct for lack of
(05:46):
a better word. Right, Okay, let's talk about human resources. How
many people does it take to runa facility. Well, that's part of
the secret sauce that we have whenit comes to our franchise offerings. There's
a couple of lanes in pick aball. There's a chicken and pickle model,
which is the big restaurant in thebig r and we decided not to
do that. We're just pickleball,and you know we have a vending machine.
(06:12):
Yeah, but we do that becauseyou know, in this day and
a la finding people to work.So what we found is our turnover is
zero. We every person that evercame on board with us is still working
for us, except for one.Monica pill Telly was our director of pickleball
and she got signed by MLP.All right, yeah, I know Monica.
(06:34):
Yes, so we lost Monica,but we don't really count that as
a loss because she got promoted contract. Yeah, no, fabulous. Yeah,
Monica was excellent. I remember playingwith her. She was at the
North Potesta one. That's where Imet her. Yeah. So actually,
congratulations, one of your kids gotpromoted. How about that? It was
(06:56):
great. Yeah, we're very Soyou mentioned that that's part secret sauces keeping
costs down by having a smaller staff. I know you guys are franchising,
and I'm going to ask you aboutthat in a second, but I want
to add something that you probably knowbut the audience probably doesn't know, is
that I think part of a secretsauce also is that you have a staff
of people who actually play pickable andhave a passion for it. Correct.
(07:17):
Sometimes, you know, we showup and maybe we have an odd number
of players, or somebody just didn'tshow up and we need an extra player,
and your staff just grabs a paddleand comes in and competes, I
mean at a high level. Yeah, so that's part of a team.
We attract football players, yeah,people that are retired, people want a
(07:38):
part time job, moms that wantsomething to do while their kids are at
school, and we treat them verywell, and they treat our customer as
well. It's just Bill Dinkers isall about community, and it starts with
our ambassadors, our front desk people, goes through our management team, and
it all flows down from my wife. I believe that she started the first
(08:01):
facility in this whole major sense ofcommunity which I've never seen in another business.
It's pretty phenomenal. I'll be honestyou I haven't either. I remember
coming in and I tell the storyto everybody. I'm a big promoter of
Bill Thinkers. And you know,I came in one day. I did
not know Catherine, you know,I didn't know she was a manager at
all. I walk in and shegoes, Eric, we got you on
(08:24):
court three and I'm like, Ilooked around, I go, who's she
talking to? She said, Eric, I got you in court three.
I've never even met her. Howdoes she know my name? You know?
It felt like that whole cheers thing, you know, uh and yeah,
and it's like, you know,everybody knows your name, and it's
just so much fun. It's sucha community. When we register to go
play, we look at see andwe see people we know automatically. You
(08:46):
know, I'm telling my friends,Hey, I'm there tonight. I just
got a text message not even twentyminutes ago from somebody says, hey,
we're playing this Saturday at North Ptesta. You come in. And then part
of it two is our memberships aregood at every building. So even when
we are franchising, which we've alreadystarted about, none of the other units
are open yet. A deal thinkersmembership is good nationwide. Wow, you
(09:07):
sign up in Rockville, you'll beable to play in San Antonio, You'll
be able to play into Charlotte.You know, you'll still pay the court
feet, you'll get half off ofthe court fees wherever you're at. And
so what we're seeing here in Marylandis if people see an event in Columbia,
they'll go play there. Somebody inColumbia will go play in Northesda because
there's some players that want to playwith or there's a higher level events,
(09:31):
and that's part of the way wewanted to build this out. We want
to have induialdinkers every fifteen minutes,every fifteen minutes away and we want yep,
that's the ultimate goal. And indoing that, the players really all
the community. There's going to bemore programming and more events. There's always
going to be something to do.So let's talk about that. So right
(09:52):
now, the facilities you have arecorporate owned, correct, Correct? You
want to grow it into a franchisemodel. You mentioned San Antonio and No
Count and Charlotte Nookoina. So arethese potential franchises you have right now actively
working to open. Yes. Sowe have sixty five units under develop how
many sixty five? Congratulations? Wow? And by we're thinking by Thanksgiving we're
(10:15):
going to break a hundred. Soso you guys are probably one of the
fastest growing franchises in the country rightnow. We're number two. Wow,
number two fastest growing franch It wasnumber one. I just I need to
know place called pickler Clear. Okay, I like the name Bill Dinkers.
We got to talk about that fora second. How did that come about?
That really came about because I cameup with a bunch of names and
Denise shot them all down. Shesaid, that's that's boring. A whole
(10:43):
bunch of reasons why that name didn'twork. And my daughter was home from
school and she doesn't even bluay pickleball. And I asked me a lot of
frustration, what would you call anend of a pickleball facility? And she,
within thirty seconds buildings, And Iasked the these what about this?
And she essentially said, that's it. Let's go with it. So let's
(11:03):
talk about franchising. I am eitherretired or I'm an entrepreneur. I love
pickleball, or I like what pickleballis all about. How do I get
involved? How can I get apiece of this? Well, you go
to our website. There's a franchisingtab and you fill out essentially an application,
very rudimentary information, and then thatgets funneled into our franchise department.
(11:26):
We partnered with a company called FranchiseWell and they run our franchise part of
the business. The owner of thatcompany is now part owner of our company
as well, and then you kindof go to one of our every days.
We just had one this past weekend. We had I think it was
over twenty people from around the country. They come and they visit our facilities
(11:50):
and see what we're all about,and we think out of this last is
every day, we're probably gonna timethirty or forty units out of it.
Because our our model is a littlebit different. You can buy one unit
or the territory for one unit,or you can buy a territory for ten.
When you have a unit territoriy,you only pay half of the royalties
(12:13):
and you can have franchisees under it. So like you buy buy a territory,
you have to build one unit andthen the other units in your territory
can either be yours or other franchisethese that kind of report to you.
That's how you can build it quickly. So would you consider this franchise opportunity
a low cost or a high costor somewhere in the middle type of franchise.
(12:37):
It depends on the location that youpick. I mean you can be
on the lower end. It dependson the location and what was in there
before, how much money you wantto put into it to improve the overall
aesthetics of the place. So wetypically don't look for the location where you
have to put a lot of moneybecause we want to get it open quickly.
(12:58):
We do have location in Manassas thatis taking a lot longer because there's
a lot more resources I have toget into it. It's at the Manassas
Mall. So we're anticipating opening thatthis fall, but because there's so much
work to do there, we're notgoing to probably get it open until March.
So that that's very interesting that youmentioned that at the Manassas Mall.
So is it one of those deadmalls or better yet where one of the
(13:20):
anchor stores maybe have left. Oh, no, it's it's a very vibrant
mall. Yeah, there's a Walmartthere, a home Home center. I
think their occupancy is around eighty eightpercent. It's a storefront. Yeah,
we're inside the mall near the entrancewhere the the indoor race can is and
they're actually building as a separate entranceso you can come and play when the
(13:41):
mall is closed. Well as weas we finish up this interview. By
the way, thank you so muchfor being part of this. This is
this is great information. Thanks forhaving Yeah, no, absolutely and I
know and I can go on andrave about it. You guys are definitely
adding to the economy, keeping thecommunity healthy. If people don't know it,
(14:03):
this is a great way to stayhealthy and active, and anybody can
get into it. What would youtell somebody who hasn't tried pick a ball
or wants to really look into havingthat second career or maybe even starting up
something. What would be your advice. My advice would be just to do
(14:26):
it. It was a little nervous. That was very nervous the first location
because I had a really good career, my wife had a career, and
we were just gonna ride it outuntil we're retired from the beach. And
this thing came out of left fieldand a lot of conversations. You know
that that first big least that youhave to personally guarantee. That's a little
(14:52):
bit I can imagine. I couldimagine, God, I could imagine,
And you know, I have towant to do some shout outs to some
people like Yola. They're based inRockville as well. They've been an amazing
partner with us. Whenever you seeI have a DC pickaball team hat on
(15:13):
very Monica. Paulcelli suggested to theDC pickleball team to train at one of
our facilities. So we weren't evenopen three weeks and we had the DC
pickleball team in our facility training andthen they came to North Belda when they
reshuffled the team and then Court reserved. They've been great for us as well.
(15:37):
We just have amazing partners that arehelping us through this journey and it's
all to the benefit of the peoplewho play there. Like I said,
wonderful facility, very cohesive team,and just a great community. And again,
I can't thank you enough for comingto h to Montgomery County. We
absolutely needed it. Well, Iappreciate that it was it was number one
(15:58):
in our radar listen that we wantedto go to next Well, it's a
pleasure. Thank you so much.It was wonderful meeting your wife and the
rest of the team yesterday at thegrand opening. If there's anything that we
can do for you from the Chambersperspective, please let us know. We
are a very tight team at theChamber and it's a community just like you
(16:19):
could see yesterday outstanding. Thank youso much. All right, So don't
go away just yet. I wantyou to listen to this interview I had
with Catherine Mooney. She is thedirector of operations and Sales at the North
Bethesda location of Dill Dinkers. HeyCatherine, Welcome to the podcast. Hey
(16:42):
Eric, thanks so much for havingme on. Absolutely, I'm so excited
to have you here because, asyou know, I'm a member full disclosure,
I'm a member of Dill Dnkers,a very proud member. I have
so much fun going there, andyou and I get to talk and spend
time together at Dylldnker and so andyou guys make a great atmosphere. So
(17:03):
it's so exciting to have you onthe podcast. Yeah, thanks so much,
and even more exciting to have youas part of the of the Chamber.
Welcome to the Chamber. Yeah.Thanks. It's been really great so
far. Times of support from theother members, and you know, we're
working on attending some other events andstuff, so it's been great to connect
with the business community in Rockville.Tell us just a little brief overview of
(17:26):
the history of Billdinkers and how toget started and you know, how'd you
get here? Yeah, absolutely so. Billdinkers started in November of twenty twenty
two. So we are still avery young company coming up on one year
of business and we currently have fourlocations in Maryland and are working on our
(17:48):
expansion across the country through our franchisepartnerships that we have. So North Bethesa
was the third location to open andwe have been opened since July twenty second
of this year, and it's it'sjust been a really fast roller coaster and
a great quick process of getting thefacility up and running and having it looked
(18:15):
great for our members and welcoming folksinto the facilities. So you know,
our owners and founders knew that theywanted to grow this business and have really
taken the reins opportunity. That isfabulous right there. So you said how
many facilities so far? So wehave four as of today and hopefully plans
(18:38):
for a fifth corporate location in Virginiain early twenty twenty four and then working
on the franchise expansion as well.That is beautiful. So right now,
the original one was Columbia, Columbia. Yeah, that's correct, Yeah,
that's the area that Will and Denisestarted the business, and then we opened
things for so Coombia open in themember of twenty twenty two. Fatsburg,
(19:02):
which is in Carroll County, openedin May of this year. We opened
in July, and then our fourthlocation, Rockville, just opened in mid
September. I love it. Ilove it. So I started off as
a member with North POTESDA and nowI go between North POTESDA and Rockville,
which is a great thing. Realquick, before I go there, I
(19:25):
just got to tell you you mentionedtwo things. You wanted to make it
welcoming and you wanted to make itbeautiful, and you guys are batting one
thousand percent right there. They're verybeautiful facilities. The staff is extremely welcoming,
and I love the fact that youall play pick a ball? Is
that a requirement that you guys gotto play a lot of people have asked
me that it's not a requirement,but it is a huge plus because one
(19:49):
we get to jump on the courtsand fill in when there aren't enough people,
which is super fun. And twoit's just great to have that knowledge.
I'll say, people ask questions orthere's new folks that come in and
so it's not a requirement but definitelya fun perse a benefit, right,
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sothis is a great segue to the next
question is what are the different typesof memberships that you guys have. Yeah.
(20:11):
Absolutely, So we have a annualmembership commitment that folks can make,
and then you can always come inas a non member or a visitor as
we as we call those folks.So the membership options I think are best
students to those who are going toplay at Dil Drinkers any of our corporate
locations, all for you have accessto when you become a member one to
(20:34):
two times a week. The reasonfor that is that you're going to get
the most benefit out of what you'repaying for the membership by being there a
couple of times a week. You'regoing to pay lower court fees and event
fees when you come in as amember. You're also going to have lower
fees on things like leagues and clinicsand classes. So it really does behoove
(20:56):
you if you find that Buildinkers isgoing to be your main space for playing
indoor pickleball. And then of coursewe always welcome folks that have not committed
to the membership, and you canalways come in as a non member.
You'll pay slightly higher fees, butit kind of all evens out depending on
it. You know, if you'reonly going to be there maybe once a
month or a couple of times amonth, then coming in as a visitor
(21:21):
is a great option. But allof our events are open and welcome to
any any individual who chooses to comeinto Tiltinkers. So the membership is a
twelve month commitment, and then weoffer two payment options. You can either
pay for it monthly or pay aone time price to pay for it an
only. So try to make itas accessible as we can. Absolutely,
(21:41):
and all that information is on thewebsite because you know, right now,
I know you guys are just openingand there's some promotions going on. So
I guess the best thing is togo on the website and take a look
at that because it is a changingthing. Yes, yes, most definitely.
Yeah. When you visit Tiltinker's Pickleballor when you at buildinkers dot com,
there's a compare membership's button right atthe top and click that and then
(22:04):
take a look at the different locationsand choose which location you would want to
join, which I would say,if ever, when you find are going
to be at the most, Ithink join that as your primary. But
we'll make sure you have access toall four of the corporate locations. Beautiful.
Now, you mentioned instructions and clinicsand stuff like that, and I
know personally that you guys actually notonly have on staff, but also team
(22:27):
up with professional coaches, not andI hate to say this word, but
gypsy coaches, anybody that's not certified. But you guys have people who are
professional coaches and giving quality instruction there. Yeah. Absolutely, so we are
very fortunate to have a teaching proon staff. His name is Sam Morris.
(22:47):
He is our director of Pickleball Operationsand his role is too in partnership.
You know him and I work togetherin partnership. But his role is
really to drive the programming and theevents that we plan for the facility,
planning great classes and clinics that arereally going to tailor to the pickleball community
and what they're looking for. Sohe's super creative. He's really well connected
(23:11):
in the community. He actually ranhis own company on the side, running
pickleball clinics and leagues while he wasworking as a teacher full time for Montgomery
County Public Schools, so we're verylucky to have him. We also work
with other PPR certified professionals as well. We've got a few in our rolodex
(23:32):
that run clinics and classes out ofour location as well. So it's really
important to us to have high qualitycertified teaching professionals to really ensure folks are
getting the best possible instruction that theycan when they come in and then they
can really walk away knowing that theylearned something and hopefully they'll come back and
play and get back out on thecourts. But we really want to ensure
(23:53):
that that experience is positive for everysingle person who's come in and taking the
class with And when you talk aboutevents, you also partner up with folks
like myself that are entrepreneurs and lookingto do events and stuff like that,
Like, for example, I havea tournament coming up that we're actually having
(24:15):
it there at Dealdinkers in North Bethesda, a beautiful facility. And you partner
up with folks to do tournaments.How many tournaments a year do you do?
So as of right now, we'vegot I think including RRS we've got
three on the calendar before the endof the year. One of the great
things about the North but as thelocation is our ability to host tournaments and
(24:40):
events and things like that. We'vegot tons of social areas. It's a
really big space, so it's reallyopportune for those that want to host events
and things. So we partner withfolks like Eric in the community. We
also partner with nonprofits who are lookingto host tournaments to benefit their organizations,
or with folks who are running eventsthat are benefiting a charity. So we
(25:03):
really try to give back in thatway and you know, offer them a
safe, welcoming space to have theirevent. So we do probably a couple
of private events a week, sometimesa couple of day and tournaments are included
in that. So we're really happythat we can be a great community space
to host everything from kids' birthday partiesall the way to you know, high
(25:23):
level events like what Eric is hosting. So what are some benefits of playing
at Deal Thinkers versus the say goingoutside or playing in a different facility.
I think it all starts from walkingin the door, you know, creating
that warm and welcoming environment which wehave really worked hard to do through our
staff members, creating a clean spacethat has nice amenities like nice restrooms.
(25:48):
We also have a fountain machine thatwe offer free beverages on, so really
trying to make it feel homey again, tons of areas to hang out.
I think one of the things thatis really special about pickleball is that it
has created such a community of peoplethat they may have never met if it
weren't for pickleball. And I wouldhave never met Eric if it weren't for
(26:10):
pickleball, and even other people thatI've interacted with, and so I think
that that community aspect is really important, and we wanted to foster that within
our space and allow people to sitand hang out while they're playing, after
they're playing, beforehand. So thesocial areas really do tailor well to or
cater well to that. And alsowe have really what I feel are great
(26:36):
courts. They're good quality. It'san outdoor surface. We provide outdoor balls,
and so I think the outdoor surface, you know, it's a dedicated
pickleball surface. So whereas a lotof times if you play outside, like
I just played outside, it's sadto say for the first time this past
weekend at a tournament, and itwas it was a tennis court that had
(26:57):
lines on it, and so thatwas very new to me. I had
never played outside and it was notI was really only used to Stil thinkers
have been very privileged to play there, so, you know, having dedicated
courts that you don't have to worryabout, you know, basketball lines or
tennis lines. They're all fenced inso you're not stressing about someone walking across
your court, about balls flying intoyour court or whatever during games. We
(27:21):
have great nets that we use throughYola. We've got music and TV screens.
So we've really tried to create anenvironment that gives you everything that you
need to have fun, play ina safe environment, and really to kind
of help spread the joy of pickleball, which is will and denie our founders
(27:41):
their goals. So I think weand I think on top of that,
we really strive to offer unique anddifferent programming that you may not be able
to get in an outdoor environment.Things that are structured where you know you're
going to play with players who arewithin your same skill level, which really
does make a big difference if you'rea pickle like Eric and I are,
you really know the difference between youknow, playing with folks that are kind
(28:04):
of on your skill level or maybesometimes even a little better compared to to
not so offering that environment where youknow, you can get some really good
games and be challenged and have fun. I think it's really important as well.
So that's really where we've tried toset ourselves apart. That is fabulous
and I so agree with you.It's funny because I've made friends who live
(28:27):
in Frederick, who live in Virginia, but they come to Dildinkers to play
and we look for each other.I mean we sent texts. I'll give
you an example. Last night,this one group out of Frederick. They
were coming down, but they wentto play in Rockville, right, And
she says, Hey, we're inRockville, her and her husband, her
brother in law, and sister.We're going to Rockville, four of them.
(28:48):
Right. And when you select theapp, you know this, you
can see how many people are goingbetween certain hours. So I'm like,
I'm there. I told my wife, I said, hey, pickaball tonight,
you know, from eight to tenRockville. She goes, sign me
in, I call my buddy.Next thing we know, we have twenty
three people show up. Oh mygosh, that's awesome, just because this
(29:12):
one group from Frederick is coming downand everybody we all wanted to play together,
you know. And that's just oneI mean, I'm on other washaps,
I'm on all kinds of stuff,and we're trying to all be together.
I say that I have close tomaybe four or five hundred friends that
we all play pickaball at one pointduring the month together, you know.
(29:33):
So it does create a community andit's so much fun. You talked about
forming a community, forming almost likea family feeling. Well, that's what
the Rockfille Chamber does as well.And I'm just so proud. I've been
a member for several years now.I think Margie does a great job of
creating that family atmosphere. And oneof the things that we try to do
is that we try to help eachother, you know, grow our businesses.
(29:56):
You want to see what that Rockvilleis thrive. It's a fun place
to live, work and play,right. Absolutely, What kind of challenges
are you guys facing right now thatwe can help as a chamber. Yeah,
I think that one of the interestingthings about Montgomery County is that the
pickleball community has been around for sometime, is very well established, and
(30:17):
there's a lot of places to playnow, there are a lot of outdoor
places to play, So we're hopingthat as the weather starts to turn and
gets colder, that people will lookat Buildinkers to be their kind of new
spot. But I think it's reallyjust getting the word out and sharing why
Bildinkers is a great place to play, why they might want to consider it
as their new kind of home basein really you know, helping people to
(30:41):
kind of understand the benefits of beinga member or just understand the benefits of
coming into the facility. So there'sstill so many people that don't even know
what pickleball is, which is justmind modeling to me, but that's still
the case. And so finding thosegroups of what we like to call new
v beginners, folks that haven't beenexposed to the game are there just starting
to get started, you know,letting them know about build Thinkers that can
(31:03):
come in and get some good instructionand get some good lessons and get an
opportunity to learn the game. SoI think it's really just awareness exposure,
you know, helping us to beseen in the community and you know,
see why we can be a greatpartner for organizations across the board. You
know, we'll do whatever we canto support you know, organizations in the
(31:26):
community, so that you know,philanthropic piece is definitely really important to me.
I know it's very important to ourowners and the company as a whole.
So I think that's really just youknow, change management is hard in
any way, and so I thinkit's really helping people to see why we
could be you know, why weare a great choice for them to come
and play Pickaball, because a lotof people have their kind of Pickaball routines
(31:49):
of where they play, who theyplay with. So it's kind of starting
to help make that make that turns. I think the exposure is really huge
for us. Well, Kevin,I want to thank you for being part
of this. I want to thankyou for being part of the chamber.
I want to thank you guys forbeing in Rockville again. I was I
was very yeah, I was veryexcited when you guys opened up in the
(32:09):
fact that you open up two facilitieswas really a bonus for people like me.
I was stuck playing in the winteroutside or playing on the gym with
ten thousand lines, you know,and people walking across my court. So
yeah, no, I'm very excited. I go there more between your facility
(32:30):
and the Rockville facility more than twicea week, so I really get my
money's worth exactly. And I willtell you that I'm a big supporter.
I joined before you guys opened,and I will continue to be a member.
You guys are fabulous, So thanksagain, Jack, Yeah, thanks,
thanks for being a member and appreciateyour support, and I appreciate the
(32:52):
oppicternity to share a little bit moreabout that on our facilities. So thanks
so much, absolutely, and I'llsee you this weekend. Take care,
Hey, rock Stars, this isEric Pigero. In today's episode, we're
going to be talking to Will Richards. He is the founder and chief executive
officer of one of my favorite placesin the world, Dyl Dinkers. If
you're not a pickupball fan, thenyou wouldn't know what this is. But
if you are, you need toknow what it is and why you need
to be there, and I alsowant to encourage you to stay till the
(00:26):
end. I have a special bonusinterview with Katherine Mooney. She is the
director of Operation in sales at theNorth Bethesda Dill Dinkers location. She's not
only become a really good friend,but just a big supporter of what Dill
Dinkers offers to our community. Hey, Will, thank you for coming to
the podcast. First of all,congratulations on your two grand openings. They
(00:48):
were both a huge success. Ididn't make it to the first, but
I was there yesterday and it wasexcellent, So congratulations on that. Oh
yeah, we're really happy to haveyou in Montgomery County. As everybody knows,
I'm a huge pick a ball player, pickball fan, enthusiasts, whatever
you want to call me, butyou know I'm there and I am a
(01:10):
member of Dill Dinkers, a proudmember. Well, thank you outstanding.
Absolutely, you guys got a greatoperation. So I'm also a big fan.
So well, you are the CEO, and I want to say maybe
one half of the big vision ofBill Dinkers, would that would that be
right? Correct? My wife hasthe other half as well as our whole
(01:30):
team of folks. So let's startfrom the beginning. Were you a pick
aball player or are you an entrepreneurwho's on an opportunity in to the market.
So I have not been an entrepreneurfor a very long tournay. I
was working for a nonprofit company thatprovided people disabilities jobs, and my wife
and I started playing pick a ball, and even then I didn't really consider
(01:53):
anything until we went to an indoorfacility that didn't have heat or stream and
it was full and it is twentyeight degrees inside place where we were playing.
Oh God, and I just thought, this is such an easy thing
to make better. And when wegot back to Columbia from that trip,
(02:16):
I couldn't sleep. I was justlike trying to figure out how to do
this. And around the country therewas a few indoor places, but not
many, so we basically just developedit from scratch. I love it.
So how long ago was this?So we started thinking about it last February.
(02:39):
By November we had opened the firstfacility, so last where we opened.
So it was a six or sevenmonth period to bring it from just
the thought in my head and mywife's head to opening and coming to fruition.
And I kind of knew it acouple of weeks that we had to
(03:00):
fire by the tail and we neededto do something else with it because we
get We filled up very quickly andessentially maxed out the facility. And we're
talking about your Columbia facility right right, the first one. Okay, so
got the bug, you started playingpickaball, you saw a problem in the
market because, just for those peoplewho don't know, pick a ball country
(03:23):
is really out west. You know, that's where it started. That's where
you know all the major facilities are. And you know PPR or not PPR
sorry, Major League Pickaball. Everybody'sconcentrated out there, and over here on
the East Coast, with the exceptionof maybe Florida, we're left to our
own devices and playing on multi linedgyms and outdoors in the cold, right,
(03:50):
So you saw a problem and youput a solution to it. Now,
question for you, are you independentlyrich or you went and dug into
the four one K to make thishappen. Well, it was a combination
of our own resources and our initialgroup of investments with people that we played
(04:12):
pickleball with. We came up withthe idea and we had a little we
put together with black and we metwith our friends and we said this is
what we're doing. Do you wantto join us? And they did?
That is excellent. How much Iwould have loved to be part of that
one at the beginning right there,Man, talk about a missed opportunity.
We had a couple of people thatsaid no, and at this point,
(04:36):
oh my god, no, no. All right, so now we know
where that came from. And that'ssuch a good story to hear. When
you're doing business with your friends,you open up that first facility, you
guys just get inundated by players whoare just happy to have an indoor datacating
facility, which I will be honestwith you, I've never been to because
I hate traveling further than a fewblocks from my house. And when you
(04:58):
guys opened up here. I meanit was like a god send. So
well, thank you. Yeah,no, absolutely, and so I don't
have to travel very far if theColumbia facility looks anything like the Rockville or
the North because the facility they mustbe beautiful. Because these are a great,
state of the art facilities. Ohthank you. Our Finksburg location was
a tennis sparm, so it waspretty easy to convert to twelve courts there.
(05:26):
Okay, Okay, it might haveto make a track out there one
day. When you're talking about resources, right, these are full service facilities
in terms of you guys have andare putting up small little retail parts to
it. Right, So you've gotthe pickleball courts, you've got the registration
desks, and then you also havea small pro shop correct for lack of
(05:46):
a better word. Right, Okay, let's talk about human resources. How
many people does it take to runa facility. Well, that's part of
the secret sauce that we have whenit comes to our franchise offerings. There's
a couple of lanes in pick aball. There's a chicken and pickle model,
which is the big restaurant in thebig r and we decided not to
do that. We're just pickleball,and you know we have a vending machine.
(06:12):
Yeah, but we do that becauseyou know, in this day and
a la finding people to work.So what we found is our turnover is
zero. We every person that evercame on board with us is still working
for us, except for one.Monica pill Telly was our director of pickleball
and she got signed by MLP.All right, yeah, I know Monica.
(06:34):
Yes, so we lost Monica,but we don't really count that as
a loss because she got promoted contract. Yeah, no, fabulous. Yeah,
Monica was excellent. I remember playingwith her. She was at the
North Potesta one. That's where Imet her. Yeah. So actually,
congratulations, one of your kids gotpromoted. How about that? It was
(06:56):
great. Yeah, we're very Soyou mentioned that that's part secret sauces keeping
costs down by having a smaller staff. I know you guys are franchising,
and I'm going to ask you aboutthat in a second, but I want
to add something that you probably knowbut the audience probably doesn't know, is
that I think part of a secretsauce also is that you have a staff
of people who actually play pickable andhave a passion for it. Correct.
(07:17):
Sometimes, you know, we showup and maybe we have an odd number
of players, or somebody just didn'tshow up and we need an extra player,
and your staff just grabs a paddleand comes in and competes, I
mean at a high level. Yeah, so that's part of a team.
We attract football players, yeah,people that are retired, people want a
(07:38):
part time job, moms that wantsomething to do while their kids are at
school, and we treat them verywell, and they treat our customer as
well. It's just Bill Dinkers isall about community, and it starts with
our ambassadors, our front desk people, goes through our management team, and
it all flows down from my wife. I believe that she started the first
(08:01):
facility in this whole major sense ofcommunity which I've never seen in another business.
It's pretty phenomenal. I'll be honestyou I haven't either. I remember
coming in and I tell the storyto everybody. I'm a big promoter of
Bill Thinkers. And you know,I came in one day. I did
not know Catherine, you know,I didn't know she was a manager at
all. I walk in and shegoes, Eric, we got you on
(08:24):
court three and I'm like, Ilooked around, I go, who's she
talking to? She said, Eric, I got you in court three.
I've never even met her. Howdoes she know my name? You know?
It felt like that whole cheers thing, you know, uh and yeah,
and it's like, you know,everybody knows your name, and it's
just so much fun. It's sucha community. When we register to go
play, we look at see andwe see people we know automatically. You
(08:46):
know, I'm telling my friends,Hey, I'm there tonight. I just
got a text message not even twentyminutes ago from somebody says, hey,
we're playing this Saturday at North Ptesta. You come in. And then part
of it two is our memberships aregood at every building. So even when
we are franchising, which we've alreadystarted about, none of the other units
are open yet. A deal thinkersmembership is good nationwide. Wow, you
(09:07):
sign up in Rockville, you'll beable to play in San Antonio, You'll
be able to play into Charlotte.You know, you'll still pay the court
feet, you'll get half off ofthe court fees wherever you're at. And
so what we're seeing here in Marylandis if people see an event in Columbia,
they'll go play there. Somebody inColumbia will go play in Northesda because
there's some players that want to playwith or there's a higher level events,
(09:31):
and that's part of the way wewanted to build this out. We want
to have induialdinkers every fifteen minutes,every fifteen minutes away and we want yep,
that's the ultimate goal. And indoing that, the players really all
the community. There's going to bemore programming and more events. There's always
going to be something to do.So let's talk about that. So right
(09:52):
now, the facilities you have arecorporate owned, correct, Correct? You
want to grow it into a franchisemodel. You mentioned San Antonio and No
Count and Charlotte Nookoina. So arethese potential franchises you have right now actively
working to open. Yes. Sowe have sixty five units under develop how
many sixty five? Congratulations? Wow? And by we're thinking by Thanksgiving we're
(10:15):
going to break a hundred. Soso you guys are probably one of the
fastest growing franchises in the country rightnow. We're number two. Wow,
number two fastest growing franch It wasnumber one. I just I need to
know place called pickler Clear. Okay, I like the name Bill Dinkers.
We got to talk about that fora second. How did that come about?
That really came about because I cameup with a bunch of names and
Denise shot them all down. Shesaid, that's that's boring. A whole
(10:43):
bunch of reasons why that name didn'twork. And my daughter was home from
school and she doesn't even bluay pickleball. And I asked me a lot of
frustration, what would you call anend of a pickleball facility? And she,
within thirty seconds buildings, And Iasked the these what about this?
And she essentially said, that's it. Let's go with it. So let's
(11:03):
talk about franchising. I am eitherretired or I'm an entrepreneur. I love
pickleball, or I like what pickleballis all about. How do I get
involved? How can I get apiece of this? Well, you go
to our website. There's a franchisingtab and you fill out essentially an application,
very rudimentary information, and then thatgets funneled into our franchise department.
(11:26):
We partnered with a company called FranchiseWell and they run our franchise part of
the business. The owner of thatcompany is now part owner of our company
as well, and then you kindof go to one of our every days.
We just had one this past weekend. We had I think it was
over twenty people from around the country. They come and they visit our facilities
(11:50):
and see what we're all about,and we think out of this last is
every day, we're probably gonna timethirty or forty units out of it.
Because our our model is a littlebit different. You can buy one unit
or the territory for one unit,or you can buy a territory for ten.
When you have a unit territoriy,you only pay half of the royalties
(12:13):
and you can have franchisees under it. So like you buy buy a territory,
you have to build one unit andthen the other units in your territory
can either be yours or other franchisethese that kind of report to you.
That's how you can build it quickly. So would you consider this franchise opportunity
a low cost or a high costor somewhere in the middle type of franchise.
(12:37):
It depends on the location that youpick. I mean you can be
on the lower end. It dependson the location and what was in there
before, how much money you wantto put into it to improve the overall
aesthetics of the place. So wetypically don't look for the location where you
have to put a lot of moneybecause we want to get it open quickly.
(12:58):
We do have location in Manassas thatis taking a lot longer because there's
a lot more resources I have toget into it. It's at the Manassas
Mall. So we're anticipating opening thatthis fall, but because there's so much
work to do there, we're notgoing to probably get it open until March.
So that that's very interesting that youmentioned that at the Manassas Mall.
So is it one of those deadmalls or better yet where one of the
(13:20):
anchor stores maybe have left. Oh, no, it's it's a very vibrant
mall. Yeah, there's a Walmartthere, a home Home center. I
think their occupancy is around eighty eightpercent. It's a storefront. Yeah,
we're inside the mall near the entrancewhere the the indoor race can is and
they're actually building as a separate entranceso you can come and play when the
(13:41):
mall is closed. Well as weas we finish up this interview. By
the way, thank you so muchfor being part of this. This is
this is great information. Thanks forhaving Yeah, no, absolutely and I
know and I can go on andrave about it. You guys are definitely
adding to the economy, keeping thecommunity healthy. If people don't know it,
(14:03):
this is a great way to stayhealthy and active, and anybody can
get into it. What would youtell somebody who hasn't tried pick a ball
or wants to really look into havingthat second career or maybe even starting up
something. What would be your advice. My advice would be just to do
(14:26):
it. It was a little nervous. That was very nervous the first location
because I had a really good career, my wife had a career, and
we were just gonna ride it outuntil we're retired from the beach. And
this thing came out of left fieldand a lot of conversations. You know
that that first big least that youhave to personally guarantee. That's a little
(14:52):
bit I can imagine. I couldimagine, God, I could imagine,
And you know, I have towant to do some shout outs to some
people like Yola. They're based inRockville as well. They've been an amazing
partner with us. Whenever you seeI have a DC pickaball team hat on
(15:13):
very Monica. Paulcelli suggested to theDC pickleball team to train at one of
our facilities. So we weren't evenopen three weeks and we had the DC
pickleball team in our facility training andthen they came to North Belda when they
reshuffled the team and then Court reserved. They've been great for us as well.
(15:37):
We just have amazing partners that arehelping us through this journey and it's
all to the benefit of the peoplewho play there. Like I said,
wonderful facility, very cohesive team,and just a great community. And again,
I can't thank you enough for comingto h to Montgomery County. We
absolutely needed it. Well, Iappreciate that it was it was number one
(15:58):
in our radar listen that we wantedto go to next Well, it's a
pleasure. Thank you so much.It was wonderful meeting your wife and the
rest of the team yesterday at thegrand opening. If there's anything that we
can do for you from the Chambersperspective, please let us know. We
are a very tight team at theChamber and it's a community just like you
(16:19):
could see yesterday outstanding. Thank youso much. All right, So don't
go away just yet. I wantyou to listen to this interview I had
with Catherine Mooney. She is thedirector of operations and Sales at the North
Bethesda location of Dill Dinkers. HeyCatherine, Welcome to the podcast. Hey
(16:42):
Eric, thanks so much for havingme on. Absolutely, I'm so excited
to have you here because, asyou know, I'm a member full disclosure,
I'm a member of Dill Dnkers,a very proud member. I have
so much fun going there, andyou and I get to talk and spend
time together at Dylldnker and so andyou guys make a great atmosphere. So
(17:03):
it's so exciting to have you onthe podcast. Yeah, thanks so much,
and even more exciting to have youas part of the of the Chamber.
Welcome to the Chamber. Yeah.Thanks. It's been really great so
far. Times of support from theother members, and you know, we're
working on attending some other events andstuff, so it's been great to connect
with the business community in Rockville.Tell us just a little brief overview of
(17:26):
the history of Billdinkers and how toget started and you know, how'd you
get here? Yeah, absolutely so. Billdinkers started in November of twenty twenty
two. So we are still avery young company coming up on one year
of business and we currently have fourlocations in Maryland and are working on our
(17:48):
expansion across the country through our franchisepartnerships that we have. So North Bethesa
was the third location to open andwe have been opened since July twenty second
of this year, and it's it'sjust been a really fast roller coaster and
a great quick process of getting thefacility up and running and having it looked
(18:15):
great for our members and welcoming folksinto the facilities. So you know,
our owners and founders knew that theywanted to grow this business and have really
taken the reins opportunity. That isfabulous right there. So you said how
many facilities so far? So wehave four as of today and hopefully plans
(18:38):
for a fifth corporate location in Virginiain early twenty twenty four and then working
on the franchise expansion as well.That is beautiful. So right now,
the original one was Columbia, Columbia. Yeah, that's correct, Yeah,
that's the area that Will and Denisestarted the business, and then we opened
things for so Coombia open in themember of twenty twenty two. Fatsburg,
(19:02):
which is in Carroll County, openedin May of this year. We opened
in July, and then our fourthlocation, Rockville, just opened in mid
September. I love it. Ilove it. So I started off as
a member with North POTESDA and nowI go between North POTESDA and Rockville,
which is a great thing. Realquick, before I go there, I
(19:25):
just got to tell you you mentionedtwo things. You wanted to make it
welcoming and you wanted to make itbeautiful, and you guys are batting one
thousand percent right there. They're verybeautiful facilities. The staff is extremely welcoming,
and I love the fact that youall play pick a ball? Is
that a requirement that you guys gotto play a lot of people have asked
me that it's not a requirement,but it is a huge plus because one
(19:49):
we get to jump on the courtsand fill in when there aren't enough people,
which is super fun. And twoit's just great to have that knowledge.
I'll say, people ask questions orthere's new folks that come in and
so it's not a requirement but definitelya fun perse a benefit, right,
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sothis is a great segue to the next
question is what are the different typesof memberships that you guys have. Yeah.
(20:11):
Absolutely, So we have a annualmembership commitment that folks can make,
and then you can always come inas a non member or a visitor as
we as we call those folks.So the membership options I think are best
students to those who are going toplay at Dil Drinkers any of our corporate
locations, all for you have accessto when you become a member one to
(20:34):
two times a week. The reasonfor that is that you're going to get
the most benefit out of what you'repaying for the membership by being there a
couple of times a week. You'regoing to pay lower court fees and event
fees when you come in as amember. You're also going to have lower
fees on things like leagues and clinicsand classes. So it really does behoove
(20:56):
you if you find that Buildinkers isgoing to be your main space for playing
indoor pickleball. And then of coursewe always welcome folks that have not committed
to the membership, and you canalways come in as a non member.
You'll pay slightly higher fees, butit kind of all evens out depending on
it. You know, if you'reonly going to be there maybe once a
month or a couple of times amonth, then coming in as a visitor
(21:21):
is a great option. But allof our events are open and welcome to
any any individual who chooses to comeinto Tiltinkers. So the membership is a
twelve month commitment, and then weoffer two payment options. You can either
pay for it monthly or pay aone time price to pay for it an
only. So try to make itas accessible as we can. Absolutely,
(21:41):
and all that information is on thewebsite because you know, right now,
I know you guys are just openingand there's some promotions going on. So
I guess the best thing is togo on the website and take a look
at that because it is a changingthing. Yes, yes, most definitely.
Yeah. When you visit Tiltinker's Pickleballor when you at buildinkers dot com,
there's a compare membership's button right atthe top and click that and then
(22:04):
take a look at the different locationsand choose which location you would want to
join, which I would say,if ever, when you find are going
to be at the most, Ithink join that as your primary. But
we'll make sure you have access toall four of the corporate locations. Beautiful.
Now, you mentioned instructions and clinicsand stuff like that, and I
know personally that you guys actually notonly have on staff, but also team
(22:27):
up with professional coaches, not andI hate to say this word, but
gypsy coaches, anybody that's not certified. But you guys have people who are
professional coaches and giving quality instruction there. Yeah. Absolutely, so we are
very fortunate to have a teaching proon staff. His name is Sam Morris.
(22:47):
He is our director of Pickleball Operationsand his role is too in partnership.
You know him and I work togetherin partnership. But his role is
really to drive the programming and theevents that we plan for the facility,
planning great classes and clinics that arereally going to tailor to the pickleball community
and what they're looking for. Sohe's super creative. He's really well connected
(23:11):
in the community. He actually ranhis own company on the side, running
pickleball clinics and leagues while he wasworking as a teacher full time for Montgomery
County Public Schools, so we're verylucky to have him. We also work
with other PPR certified professionals as well. We've got a few in our rolodex
(23:32):
that run clinics and classes out ofour location as well. So it's really
important to us to have high qualitycertified teaching professionals to really ensure folks are
getting the best possible instruction that theycan when they come in and then they
can really walk away knowing that theylearned something and hopefully they'll come back and
play and get back out on thecourts. But we really want to ensure
(23:53):
that that experience is positive for everysingle person who's come in and taking the
class with And when you talk aboutevents, you also partner up with folks
like myself that are entrepreneurs and lookingto do events and stuff like that,
Like, for example, I havea tournament coming up that we're actually having
(24:15):
it there at Dealdinkers in North Bethesda, a beautiful facility. And you partner
up with folks to do tournaments.How many tournaments a year do you do?
So as of right now, we'vegot I think including RRS we've got
three on the calendar before the endof the year. One of the great
things about the North but as thelocation is our ability to host tournaments and
(24:40):
events and things like that. We'vegot tons of social areas. It's a
really big space, so it's reallyopportune for those that want to host events
and things. So we partner withfolks like Eric in the community. We
also partner with nonprofits who are lookingto host tournaments to benefit their organizations,
or with folks who are running eventsthat are benefiting a charity. So we
(25:03):
really try to give back in thatway and you know, offer them a
safe, welcoming space to have theirevent. So we do probably a couple
of private events a week, sometimesa couple of day and tournaments are included
in that. So we're really happythat we can be a great community space
to host everything from kids' birthday partiesall the way to you know, high
(25:23):
level events like what Eric is hosting. So what are some benefits of playing
at Deal Thinkers versus the say goingoutside or playing in a different facility.
I think it all starts from walkingin the door, you know, creating
that warm and welcoming environment which wehave really worked hard to do through our
staff members, creating a clean spacethat has nice amenities like nice restrooms.
(25:48):
We also have a fountain machine thatwe offer free beverages on, so really
trying to make it feel homey again, tons of areas to hang out.
I think one of the things thatis really special about pickleball is that it
has created such a community of peoplethat they may have never met if it
weren't for pickleball. And I wouldhave never met Eric if it weren't for
(26:10):
pickleball, and even other people thatI've interacted with, and so I think
that that community aspect is really important, and we wanted to foster that within
our space and allow people to sitand hang out while they're playing, after
they're playing, beforehand. So thesocial areas really do tailor well to or
cater well to that. And alsowe have really what I feel are great
(26:36):
courts. They're good quality. It'san outdoor surface. We provide outdoor balls,
and so I think the outdoor surface, you know, it's a dedicated
pickleball surface. So whereas a lotof times if you play outside, like
I just played outside, it's sadto say for the first time this past
weekend at a tournament, and itwas it was a tennis court that had
(26:57):
lines on it, and so thatwas very new to me. I had
never played outside and it was notI was really only used to Stil thinkers
have been very privileged to play there, so, you know, having dedicated
courts that you don't have to worryabout, you know, basketball lines or
tennis lines. They're all fenced inso you're not stressing about someone walking across
your court, about balls flying intoyour court or whatever during games. We
(27:21):
have great nets that we use throughYola. We've got music and TV screens.
So we've really tried to create anenvironment that gives you everything that you
need to have fun, play ina safe environment, and really to kind
of help spread the joy of pickleball, which is will and denie our founders
(27:41):
their goals. So I think weand I think on top of that,
we really strive to offer unique anddifferent programming that you may not be able
to get in an outdoor environment.Things that are structured where you know you're
going to play with players who arewithin your same skill level, which really
does make a big difference if you'rea pickle like Eric and I are,
you really know the difference between youknow, playing with folks that are kind
(28:04):
of on your skill level or maybesometimes even a little better compared to to
not so offering that environment where youknow, you can get some really good
games and be challenged and have fun. I think it's really important as well.
So that's really where we've tried toset ourselves apart. That is fabulous
and I so agree with you.It's funny because I've made friends who live
(28:27):
in Frederick, who live in Virginia, but they come to Dildinkers to play
and we look for each other.I mean we sent texts. I'll give
you an example. Last night,this one group out of Frederick. They
were coming down, but they wentto play in Rockville, right, And
she says, Hey, we're inRockville, her and her husband, her
brother in law, and sister.We're going to Rockville, four of them.
(28:48):
Right. And when you select theapp, you know this, you
can see how many people are goingbetween certain hours. So I'm like,
I'm there. I told my wife, I said, hey, pickaball tonight,
you know, from eight to tenRockville. She goes, sign me
in, I call my buddy.Next thing we know, we have twenty
three people show up. Oh mygosh, that's awesome, just because this
(29:12):
one group from Frederick is coming downand everybody we all wanted to play together,
you know. And that's just oneI mean, I'm on other washaps,
I'm on all kinds of stuff,and we're trying to all be together.
I say that I have close tomaybe four or five hundred friends that
we all play pickaball at one pointduring the month together, you know.
(29:33):
So it does create a community andit's so much fun. You talked about
forming a community, forming almost likea family feeling. Well, that's what
the Rockfille Chamber does as well.And I'm just so proud. I've been
a member for several years now.I think Margie does a great job of
creating that family atmosphere. And oneof the things that we try to do
is that we try to help eachother, you know, grow our businesses.
(29:56):
You want to see what that Rockvilleis thrive. It's a fun place
to live, work and play,right. Absolutely, What kind of challenges
are you guys facing right now thatwe can help as a chamber. Yeah,
I think that one of the interestingthings about Montgomery County is that the
pickleball community has been around for sometime, is very well established, and
(30:17):
there's a lot of places to playnow, there are a lot of outdoor
places to play, So we're hopingthat as the weather starts to turn and
gets colder, that people will lookat Buildinkers to be their kind of new
spot. But I think it's reallyjust getting the word out and sharing why
Bildinkers is a great place to play, why they might want to consider it
as their new kind of home basein really you know, helping people to
(30:41):
kind of understand the benefits of beinga member or just understand the benefits of
coming into the facility. So there'sstill so many people that don't even know
what pickleball is, which is justmind modeling to me, but that's still
the case. And so finding thosegroups of what we like to call new
v beginners, folks that haven't beenexposed to the game are there just starting
to get started, you know,letting them know about build Thinkers that can
(31:03):
come in and get some good instructionand get some good lessons and get an
opportunity to learn the game. SoI think it's really just awareness exposure,
you know, helping us to beseen in the community and you know,
see why we can be a greatpartner for organizations across the board. You
know, we'll do whatever we canto support you know, organizations in the
(31:26):
community, so that you know,philanthropic piece is definitely really important to me.
I know it's very important to ourowners and the company as a whole.
So I think that's really just youknow, change management is hard in
any way, and so I thinkit's really helping people to see why we
could be you know, why weare a great choice for them to come
and play Pickaball, because a lotof people have their kind of Pickaball routines
(31:49):
of where they play, who theyplay with. So it's kind of starting
to help make that make that turns. I think the exposure is really huge
for us. Well, Kevin,I want to thank you for being part
of this. I want to thankyou for being part of the chamber.
I want to thank you guys forbeing in Rockville again. I was I
was very yeah, I was veryexcited when you guys opened up in the
(32:09):
fact that you open up two facilitieswas really a bonus for people like me.
I was stuck playing in the winteroutside or playing on the gym with
ten thousand lines, you know,and people walking across my court. So
yeah, no, I'm very excited. I go there more between your facility
(32:30):
and the Rockville facility more than twicea week, so I really get my
money's worth exactly. And I willtell you that I'm a big supporter.
I joined before you guys opened,and I will continue to be a member.
You guys are fabulous, So thanksagain, Jack, Yeah, thanks,
thanks for being a member and appreciateyour support, and I appreciate the
(32:52):
oppicternity to share a little bit moreabout that on our facilities. So thanks
so much, absolutely, and I'llsee you this weekend. Take care,
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