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Transcript

Sean Owen Of PKL Row in Starkville · Johnny's World

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Johnny's World Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's Johnny here on we have uh celebrating the return of my co-host BW.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: BW, welcome back to Johnny's World.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: The return.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's uh almost football season, Johnny.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm locked back in, ready to roll here.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Locked, locked back in.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we we haven't done I've done uh a few on solo and happy to have you back on.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: But uh we're really excited about the the guests we have on today.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Some new new business has popped up in Starville that's everybody's talking about, and you know how we like to have uh people on here, business owners, and kind of people just to hear uh different new new businesses coming into town and support local.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we like to do here at Johnny's World.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh thought this would be a great guest to get on and talk about the new exciting adventure that's in Starville, Mississippi now.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh uh Brandon, I'm gonna go ahead and bring him on.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sean Owen, welcome to Johnny's World.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: He is with Pickle Road.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have not been following Pickle Row on social media, go give him a follow and go swing by the store and talk about it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Pickleball.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: We want to hear all about it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: How did it end up in Starville, Mississippi and talk about the the craze of pickleball these days?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Man, it's uh thanks again for inviting me to be on.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it was a great time to talk about something like this.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, you're right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've kind of started with the bang this summer, and so sometimes in uh the as y'all know in the summertime the starvel can get a little sleepy, but it has not been uh for us.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really fun.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm one of five uh of the owners of a pickle row.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just been one of those things that kind of bubbled up about a year and a half ago.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one of the what we call the main one of the main owners, uh Brad Jones.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he kind of came, he's my brother-in-law as well.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of came to me and some others, and we just kind of talked about it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we were like, we've all been at Starbucks for multiple years, and we were like, hey, you know, we need something that kind of like anybody in Starbucks it's you know that wants to do it, but want to do it and be excited about it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but also pickleball, as you said, is it's just it's the national, international craze.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we also we also kind of felt like, but let's do more than that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be crazy with it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta let's do a big building and build community.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so that way you'll notice a lot of things if you're if you're following our socials and if you're not, start following it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have everything from like trivia nights to singo.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have cornhole leagues and tournaments.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a simbe that also does golf and arcade-esque games.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Mahjong ladies and men are in the in the building.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's all over the place.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's it's kind of but it's fun because it's you know, it's it's kind of like, you know, I know y'all talk about this a lot on your podcast.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what would you want to see in Star Wars?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want to do?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those kind of things.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of uh been a lot of the genesis of it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I I love hearing that because um I've been playing pickleball a couple of years, and uh there's a group of us guys, it started out just three or four of us, now it's it's about 12 to 15 if it's completely full.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: And we call it uh pickleball prayers and coffee.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So we get up really early Friday morning, we go play pickleball, then we go get coffee, and then we pray for each other.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's a community, and you know, it's even our wives have started the pickleball wives club.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so I mean, it's just like kind of a natural little thing that kind of flows into the community of it, and and you know, more and more people every week go, oh man, we need to meet you out there.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we kind of weed some people out because we go pretty early, but um there's been a couple times where we've had we play at a local park and um we've had like weather issues or whatever.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's a facility here called Pickleball 901 up in Memphis, and it's packed every time we go up there.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so there's definitely, you know, there's a community up there too.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty cool.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and that's kind of what we talked about a little bit even yesterday, because uh, you know, we were talking about doing leagues and what would that look like.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we were kind of saying, like, hey, I you you know, you could use the duper rating system, which is the rating system for like, you know, how you know quality you are as far as a player.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we're like, we're like, hey, let's not do that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we do like uh have a church league uh pick pickleball thing?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so then the way you put the you can put the Methodist versus the Baptist or you know, and see how that works out.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And like uh, let's do that, let's do some company leagues, and obviously the new college age as well.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that way it can kind of be again back to your point about community, helping people, you know, kind of find that space and place besides, you know, being locked up behind a phone or something like that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and and one thing too, I mean, I've noticed that at the parks around here, uh, in the evening time, uh, it's the old guys in the morning like us, and then the evening, it's the college-age kids.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, they're out there late at night playing every night.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: You go out there, you can't hardly get a court.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so definitely, you know, young and old playing.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's been a really good thing.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh even recently, some of the Mississippi State athletic teams have uh done some, I guess you would call it team building uh days there.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've had uh, you know, we've had uh men's basketball there.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: That was kind of interesting to see uh Chris Chris Jans and them out there.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: We had uh soccer, um, you know, and so it's I think softball's coming and tennis, and so it's it's kind of be, you know, it's it gives something for all of them to do, but you've never lived until you see somebody that's like six foot ten trying to handle a pickleball paddle.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't bet that was interesting.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, Sean, tell tell us how you got into pickleball.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: How long have you been playing or what got you into it?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's again, I think, you know, maybe as father time kind of gets going and turns some calendar years, maybe your court coverage on a tennis uh court uh diminishes.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, as opposed to like, and I've always played golf and been athletic in general.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I played soccer back in college in the day, way back in the day, if you want to say that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so I always like to be that.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But um I think this you can get out on a pickleball court, as y'all know, and you can get there and spend as little of time as you want or as much of the time as you want, and you can get done and still have fun doing it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you can say, hey, I'm gonna go give an hour.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us can probably carve out an hour of our time to do something.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, if you find the right courts and the right people to play with, then it doesn't really uh matter, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: As far as how good you can do.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think all of us have uh we can trash talk with the best of them, right?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So like you can do that a little bit, and that's kind of that's kind of fun too.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's kind of that's kind of how it did it.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it was I never thought I would find myself in the place like this until like like I said, until some of the owners we took kind of talked it out, and then I said, Yeah, I think I'll do that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And but mainly, like, and I think all I'm echoing what all the owners think.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to do something for Star Well and their surrounding community.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was kind of the genesis of it, is like, yes, it is something that's very popular, and it is something that starble needed, but you know, it was also could we wanted something that families could go to.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and like I I even think about one of the first few weekends, one of the owners' wives looked at me and said, Um, so this is what you were talking about.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what do you mean?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, We've got all ages.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: You had like um the athletic director uh and his family were on a court, to you had, you know, older people on another court.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was basically it looked like the world was out there on the courts.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's and I said, Absolutely, that's exactly what I wanted.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that way, and we've even tried to price it that way because Brandon and you know, I think as y'all know, um, if you look at our membership plans, stuff like that, they're a lot more uh budget friendly, even though some people might not think so all the way, but they're pretty budget friendly as compared to some of the other places around the South East.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: They are.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: The place up here is I was looking at y'all's, I was like, man, I wish y'all were up here.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of did that intentionally.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: We we do not, you know, we're trying to obviously want to keep the lights on.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh as y'all know, the uh heating and cooling is not cheap.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Those bills uh you gotta pay the bills.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we tried to do it in a way that even with our student memberships and things like that, um, it it was something that you could do.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, and also doing a thing like if you can only drop in once a month and that fits your budget, then great.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's come join us, you know, let's do it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna do the same thing with the leagues.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I told somebody the other day that was actually uh I worked on campus and they were they said, Well, I don't know if I would do pickleball or whatever.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, do you throw a beanbag in a hole and like to drink a beer?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: They said, I like doing both of those things.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Then guess what?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're the place for you.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so tell us about like the people, I mean, do you have to talk talk about the memberships?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, can you come in with a guest or how how does that work?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have to be members to come in or what?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: What's the deal with all that?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there is, there is not, um, you can come in and there's drop-in rates, so you can come in, you don't have to have a membership to come and play with us.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have um we have paddles that you can rent out, and so that's that you so you can basically that's another thing too.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You come in equipment poor and not know what to do, then we can kind of we can kind of get you to the right uh place.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of a nice thing too.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: You don't actually have to have to do things, and then uh it's a big building, it's 35,000 square feet, it's got 12 courts, one's a championship court with bleachers, and so that's kind of leading up to we're gonna do obviously some charity tournaments, but we've actually been working with the mayor a little bit about doing kind of like a citywide tournament where we incorporate the public park and us, and so there's a little bit of that, but yeah, that's the biggest thing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can come in and do that, and like you can also just come in and like we have what I like to say the largest video wall in Starpool, Mississippi, uh, that's 18 feet wide, I think, and about 12 feet tall.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we have sporting events on there and things like that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So come in and just watch it for a while.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So watch it for free.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we have full-on Wi-Fi, and you you can actually get cell coverage through the lot you know in our building.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh do that and come co-work.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so bring your laptop in and hang out and do a few things, check some email, and uh watch something on the big video hall.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's kind of but that yeah.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the idea is you can come in if you want to play, and we we have beginners clinics and things like that, and so you can sign up for those and just kind of learn to kind of at your pace.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, we're not trying to be.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know sometimes when people talk about membership plans and they say, Oh, you're being uh exclusive, we're trying to be as as inclusive as possible.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you've never picked up a paddle, you're you we're still the place for you.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Come on in, let's do the drop-in rate and do the deal.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you one thing we I kind of run into is my my 10-year-old boy and my seven-year-old boy like to play a little bit, but if you go somewhere where there's kind of open play going on, you can't really get on the court and they don't really want to play the open play.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so the place here, if you're a member, you can reserve a court for an hour.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so you could go out and play, you know, as a family and and do it, you shouldn't have to worry about the open play and all that kind of stuff.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that y'all kind of have something similar where you can kind of reserve a court and and do some of that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you go to our website, we use something called court reserve as far as like the court and membership management of the whole deal.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so for that, and that's kind of what we tell people, you know, because we we try to do a lot of open play, and and again, I think you can speak to that we don't even charge for open play being on there.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the benefit of your membership, which is kind of unique uh to us and our pricing.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people do the same thing.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't want to wait in line and what they call paddle in and wait for my turn.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so for that, yes, we will we have courts that you can do reservations up to two weeks in advance, so you can basically block out the time that works for your family and or your friends, and so you can have a block of time where you can that's yours and nobody else's.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was one of the things that's kind of been a little bit of an education piece this summer to the members, is uh they go like, hey, well, these courts are open.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, we're doing that and protecting those to kind of get you used to um reservation courts and open play courts because as y'all know, when the student tsunami comes back in in literally a week a week or so, uh it it will uh you know, those courts will be a premium.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so like you just want to make sure that everybody has a chance to get those courts.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So well, I was just curious, kind of just like reverting back.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so did y'all y'all had the concept about a year and a half ago, and then you did you find the land and and built it from scratch, or was it an existing building?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Or tell me a little bit more about you know how it was.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that was the that was the interesting thing.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: I still remember we were at a restaurant in town when the brother-in-law talked to me about it.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, have you heard about this franchise that's kind of all over the place?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see it a lot out in Texas called Chicken and Pickle.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, That's a really awesome place.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: It has a little outdoor and indoor and has a restaurant and all that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I said, That's awesome.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We ought to do that here.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, You ought to, that'd be awesome.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'd love for you to do that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I was like, uh, food and starboard is scary to me, uh, as far as like those kind of things.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but and then he we had another conversation.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, What about not doing the food?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we do something like food trucks and things like that.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, now you've got me more intrigued.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so we went down the road of trying to do something in one of the buildings here in town, um, the old Flexteel building.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: We tried to go there and work that out, and and we actually looked at a couple of other buildings that kind of popped up during that time frame around in 2024, and it just just logistically just didn't work.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, either like we found a building and the lease was right, and you know, pickleball, you had to have a it's there's a ceiling height kind of minimum requirement kind of deal.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so it just couldn't work in some of those places, and then we just couldn't get the numbers and everything to kind of work out in trying to go in the flex deal thing, which we were kind of hopeful that that would work out, because you know, sometimes if you're the trailblazer and something, then others follow.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I could have seen where the bigger place that's 160,000 square feet could end up being occupied by a lot of creative things, but just didn't happen.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so we still started thinking about it more.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're all five individuals that we like to fail forward, and so you just kind of keep keep moving down the line, you know.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so yeah, I think one of the owners found the a piece of land uh that we're at right now and said, Hey, this is open, and I think we can make this work.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of looked at it and we said, Yeah, why not?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's that's basically all it took.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, Well, let's build.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we just went after it and did it.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: But uh we're so grateful now because as y'all know, like there is pain in building a house or anything else that's involved.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you do it, you get to choose things in the way that you want it to be done, and you can be a little more purposeful about it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the things like the cool things, like uh we call our lounge area and where the video wall is and seating, and then even the outdoor patio and the kind of the bar area, we call that the hangar, and we did that because we're on airport road, but the outdoor patio it faces this the sunset.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So like you get if you come out to our place, you can watch the sun go down and like hang out underneath there, which is kind of nice.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: We got roll-up doors, you know, so you can do all the things, and so that's just kind of something that's uh unique and you know wouldn't have happened if we would have you know gone a different way.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Echo ball and sunsets.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not it's not a bad deal.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a bad deal.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's it's it's fun, and and uh because of what we've done, we already are doing a lot of like events and like you would expect in a place like that.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've got I've already had quite a few birthday parties, more birthday parties are happening, but we also have you know um corporate and fraternities who are already in athletic uh events as well, so where they can do anything from a very small portion of our place and to a bigger part.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So some are gonna, you know, like I think basketball took over six courts because you know, those are big individuals and they need six courts to spread out, and and so it just ranges.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's yeah, so it's kind of been fun, kind of almost falling backwards into the place we're in right now.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do y'all have room to expand as you grow?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that is kind of we've we've again we always try to like vision forward, and so we've kind of talked a little bit to the powers that be with the land that kind of is adjacent to us between us and more, you know, one of the Mississippi State buildings, it's the advanced composite institute.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've kind of uh you know preliminarily discussed if that was ever an option, would that be something where we could get just a portion of that at least?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there is definitely some openness if that day comes to doing something like that.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because ideally I think it would really be nice if uh I know y'all have seen a lot of those places, if we could almost have a little bit more of an outdoor area, like you know, that was maybe turfed or whatever, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And had some things and some more family-friendly outdoor games, maybe some room for uh my my my thought is like I'm even thinking of like outdoor stage area where you could have somebody on acoustic guitar or something like that kind of deal going on.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Would kind of be a good uh vibe for Starvall if we could pull something off like that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we're even thinking about we were actually talking to a few people that have reached out to us about six are the we would call the north courts, six are on the north, they're permanent, fencing, permanent nets, stuff like that.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then the south courts, uh, there's six of those, and they actually have temporary nets and fencing, and so we could actually slide all that away to the side to the perimeter, and that's 11,000 square feet that we can do whatever we want to with.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so and so we've even talked about like, hey, so you what if we put somebody inside at nine o'clock at night when pickleball has gone away?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, would somebody show up?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then people said, Yeah, we would show up, sure.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Sean, I know I know Major is a huge thing right now in the community.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of taken over.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know you mentioned y'all have that.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: How does that work?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: That do you do people come in to do you have to be a member to to play there, or do you kind of come a guest, or how does that work with it?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you can come in, you can come as a guest, uh, and and that's that's something that we've what we've done this summer, especially, is let it be a slow build where it's like it's almost like the you know, it's just like the pickleball community, that's its own little community as well.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right, exactly.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and so we've kind of let that kind of organically grow to a point where I think that's gonna end up being a thing as much where they'll have beginners' clinics and stuff like that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that's a thing where you follow us on social, we'll push it out as far as like, hey, you can show up and do.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that there's openness for more people to join in.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we've even already preliminarily talked about like what if we hosted like, because we're gonna obviously host pickleball tournaments, we're gonna host uh cornhole tournaments, which will be crazy fun.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we're gonna do things like uh hopefully as it grows, we want to do mahjong tournaments as well.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and kind of do do the thing.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we're already like working through this, the I guess the logistics of like with our golf simulation bait doing some simbe tournaments as well.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be fun.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that one's kind of yeah, that's just I would say it's arguably as strong a community as as the pickleball in this world.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I mean, and so that's kind of gone where it's been like, oh, this is people are coming.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, more people are coming.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so now we basically have we have pickle roe branded mahjong mats on the table and things like that.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So things things you would never see uh, you know, or think you would see uh doing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But um, like I said, that that's kind of been the thing.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you're just trying to build something for Starbucks around the community.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so like having the openness of like that is is kind of our the way we kind of, you know, that's our weather bane for everything, you know.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I've been seeing people uh wearing merchandise around around town.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do y'all sell that or what?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that for members or what?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's for anybody, and and we're really trying, and that you know, that's we and honestly, uh us us guys and well in our lives, uh we we go like we're wanting, we we design merch of something you want to put on your body, put on your head.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so like, so it's it, I mean it's literally everything of all the colors, but then you have like the Mossy Oak branded t-shirts and hats and things like that.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, you could come in and do it, but then we also have an online store as well.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I mean, it's literally everything from like short sleeved shirts to long sleeve to you to hoodies and you name it.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I would challenge you to come by and do that again.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's no cost to come in, and and you know, I think one of the things that we say is if you will if you come in and you don't walk out and say that's the friendliest staff in Starwell, then we've done something wrong.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of our other thing, too, is we want to make sure, almost like the old Cheers bar where we do know your name.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We want to know your name and know that and and we're and let you know that we uh authentically are glad that you came in and decided to spend some time with us.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And again, doesn't matter if you're just doing there to do some work, say, hey, I'm I'm just doing some work, I'm gonna get a load of tea and hang out, do great.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and but yeah, it's um it's kind of been this uh just kind of a great uh roller coaster ride to where we are, but I think it's only just gonna keep going up from there.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just uh just taking the cues from the community, so it's gonna yeah, community sport, that's the main thing.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: And and when you have community sport and you got the people coming coming together and joining during the college, you can't go wrong.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So props to y'all for doing that and getting the word out, and uh we'll we'll spread the word out to everybody we know, share this and let people know to come out there.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm sure when football season comes along and all those TV video boards talking about a lot of people want to be coming in there and watch college football games, I'm sure, and NFL games too.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that'll be exciting.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's gonna be really fun.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really I I am excited.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think we all are excited for football season and and hopeful.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're in that hopeful stage of the right, right?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've got that going on, and and like uh I think even right around there, we're gonna kick off.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we have black lights in there, so we're gonna do some glow-in-the-dark pickleball events and stuff like that.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be that'll be fun too.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in October, I'm coming to town and I'm bringing three Crimson Tide fans with me.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And uh one of them, they're big pickleball players too.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we may we may have to check it out and and maybe have to uh see if we can find some people that can beat them and and uh you know get them used to losing that that day first and so they don't go home to the body.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's let's warm up.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's warm them up to it and get them again.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the hopeful stage.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like we're gonna uh if anything, I know I can count on one thing.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna score points this year.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's right.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's right.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be uh it'll be a good time.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd I'd be glad to host y'all and come on and do it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: So well, Sean, tell us tell everybody who's out there listening uh where we can find y'all on social media, how to get involved, uh to find out updates on what's going on at Pickle Road.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say the easiest way is we're both we're on Facebook and Instagram, but honestly, so you can you can search for PKL R O W on either one.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go to www.pklro.com, that has links to the socials and membership plans and all the good things.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say go there and we're we're pretty active on on all three things, but uh yeah, go there and kind of check us out a little bit.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like I said, we like to take advice from people, and so feel free to come in, check out the place, tell us what you like, what you don't like, and we'll just get better from there.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I sure sure looking forward to checking it out when we're there in October.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: And Johnny, you need to go over there and check it out before that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: I need to get the ball in.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Check it out.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I need to start it up for sure.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: But uh man, Sean, I can't thank you enough for coming on.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I hope we can get the word out and get you awesome.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: People are coming over there.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks for doing this.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a big asset to the community.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, everybody working together and and and something fun for you to do, you know, especially during the summertime where the students, it's been kind of quiet.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's something to do.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then when students come back, y'all gonna be booming with business.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: So uh really excited for y'all, what y'all got going on, and thanks for joining us today.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the invite, and it was uh it's a pleasure coming on.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, go dogs.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.