- 38:19 Anna Bright (AB) Introduction
- 39:43 What was your journey to pickleball?
- 44:39 What was your decision to go all in on pickleball?
- 50:46 Where do you stand in the business side of this sport?
- 55:39 Players from other racket sports playing pro pickleball?
- 58:20 Up and Coming Junior Pickleball Players
- 1:00:18 Personality Marketability
- 1:02:08 When is the next photo shoot?
- 1:13:42 Being one of the biggest faces in pickleball
- 1:16:11 Drilling vs Playing
- 1:18:52 Double The Money For Not Playing Pickleball
- 1:21:01 If tomorrow you could not play, what job would you want in the industry
- 1:21:57 Your business team
please write a Q&A article from this transcript.
write a title,sub title and introduction
Number each Question and include the time code in bold print
Write out the entire answer to the question from Anna Bright (AB)
at the end of the article create an article summary and descriptive time code list
Host=Dave Fleming
Event=2024 PPA Pickleball World Championships: Buisness Forum Morning Session
Time Code List
38:19 Anna Bright (AB) Introduction
39:43 What was your journey to pickleball?
44:39 What was your decision to go all in on pickleball?
50:46 Where do you stand in the business side of this sport?
55:39 Players from other racket sports playing pro pickleball?
58:20 Up and Coming Junior Pickleball Players
1:00:18 Personality Marketability
1:02:08 When is the next photo shoot?
1:13:42 Being one of the biggest faces in pickleball
1:16:11 Drilling vs Playing
1:18:52 Double The Money For Not Playing Pickleball
1:21:01 If tomorrow you could not play, what job would you want in the industry
1:21:57 Your business team
Transcript
let me bring up the next
38:25
two I'll always go ladies first one of the best players in the world and one of
38:32
my favorite Major League pickle ball captains to have to play against it's
38:38
not a lot of fun when the intensity of Anna brigh is on the other side but this is one fun player to watch and a very
38:46
talented athlete go crazy for Anna brigh [Applause]
38:54
please another winning captain in major League pickle ball champion and uh
38:59
podcast host himself in fact I was on it this week so uh great guy he'll have a
39:05
lot to say comes from a very interesting background give it up for Zane nael
39:15
please grab a mic guys welcome thanks Dave I'm so excited please on the couch
39:21
we'd love to have you you don't want to be close to me Zane
39:27
we're competitors in a in a couple weeks here that is true Rivals big rivalry
39:33
well welcome guys thanks for uh taking some time in the middle of uh the lap of plasty pickle ball World Championships
39:39
that we have going on I always go ladies first here so Anna brigh obviously we
39:45
just talked to a couple people that played highlevel pro tennis and jeie and Jack what was your journey to pickle
39:54
ball um so I started playing tennis when I was young just like jeie and Jack
39:59
obviously they were so much better than me and so so so much better than zaye
40:06
um um so I I was very good junior tennis player I ended up playing D1 at the
40:13
University of California Berkeley I had a really good college career there but knew that I was done knew that tennis
40:19
pro tennis in any capacity was not going to be a part of my future and I had known that for a while um and so after
40:26
college I spent a few months kind of just hiking and kind of doing my own thing and then I found pickleball
40:33
because my parents had been playing Just twice a week they were not fully addicted they have since become fully addicted but at that point they were
40:39
just playing a couple times a week at a local park and my dad had been telling me all throughout my senior year of
40:45
college that he thought I should play Pickleball he thought I might be better at it than I was even at even at tennis
40:51
um because I always had very good hands and I had pretty soft hands but I was
40:56
just not not as athletic as I needed to be to be like a star tennis player and and pickle ball that it still matters
41:04
especially in the singles game but doubles you know we're on a smaller Court it comes down more to how well you anticipate how good your your hands are
41:11
and uh your decision- making which is was kind of my best things in tennis so
41:16
I gave it a try there was a guy at the local park who was like you're really good you should go play at this other place and once I went to that other Park
41:25
that had some better players and had the stereotypical experience of losing to people who were you know a lot older
41:32
than me and I just I was so mad I was so angry I was like how is this happening
41:39
and that's when I went out and I bought the very next day I went out and I bought um the the Ben John's Franklin
41:46
signature paddle I think at the time it was every tennis player's token starter paddles only 100 bucks and uh that was
41:52
it for me I was totally hooked I I had a lucky life circumstance where this was around October of 2021 and I wasn't
41:58
going to start working until January of 2022 so I had about three months of just
42:04
all pickle ball you know I was playing playing six hours a day I was falling asleep watching pickle ball I have a bit
42:09
of an addictive personality and that really accelerated uh me getting as good as I have as quickly as I have I was
42:15
very lucky well we're lucky to have you so uh glad that you're here Zane I would love
42:22
for you to give our audience your actual like if you if pickle didn't exist what
42:28
you would be doing for a job now and then you had to make a decision not to keep doing that and it's not that close
42:35
to pickle ball yeah I well I share as hell hope I wouldn't still be an auditor
42:41
to be honest so I was working at deoe before I quit my job in 2020 and uh you
42:46
know this is a pickleball business Forum I was very good at the at the sport at that point and I've been playing for a
42:52
while but I actually quit my corporate job at deoe because of the business opportunities that were AR ing within
42:57
pickle ball it was a just a booming industry and I'd seen the trend since I started playing in 2013 and so you know
43:05
I was fortunate that I was good at the sport and was able to you know hold my own in the in the Pro game and um I just
43:12
wanted to be a part of the the industry and see where it would go um so I'm I'm
43:18
very very lucky that uh that I did decide to quit my job in 2020 my now
43:24
wife my mom they thought I was cra crazy and they're probably right but uh got a
43:30
little bit lucky yeah so what did you see because I think a lot of us saw it I
43:35
think you and I sort of came into the the pro side of the sport at about the same time and obviously different age
43:42
brackets but uh What uh what did you see and you know because all of us like I
43:48
did the same thing in a different way so I'm with you with like seizing and grabbing an opportunity to dive into
43:55
something that were both passionate about but what did you see to make you go hey this this can be more than me
44:02
just playing but be a long-term career here yeah well what I saw in pickle ball
44:09
generally was just kind of the retention right when I would bring one of my tennis buddies to to play the hardest
44:16
thing was to get them out there the the very first time and then once I did once it was 75 80% of people are like yeah
44:23
I'm in right and there's not too many other things that you try once and you're going to want to continue to do
44:29
most of the time right so um that's what made me confident in in pickle ball
44:35
continuing to grow during that period of time so
44:40
AB you're playing at the park I I can't imagine the intensity of you out there
44:46
losing to 60 and 70 year olds I wish I had video of this it would be amazing so
44:51
what was your decision then obviously Talent matters here or you know we all
44:57
have a dream but we got to work at it to say you know what I'm pushing all the chips into the middle of the table and
45:03
going for it too did you have the same parental like hey you have a degree you
45:09
went to a good school what was that mentality change for you um I did not have to go fully Allin
45:17
for a while so I played my first pro tournament in like February of 2022 I
45:22
got very lucky with Partnerships I actually played with Georgia Johnson um I think I think my path into pickall is
45:29
some of the luckiest honestly uh so I did very well there and I was I've been working at this point for two and a half
45:35
months as a project manager at a at a small fintech company um but I was lucky that Jill
45:41
Braverman and Steve who um Steve is a founder of duper Jill Braverman who's now a pro player but she
45:47
was the CEO of duper at the time they actually recruited me and were interested in my background and they
45:54
wanted me to work for duper so I did I quit the job I'd only been
45:59
working two and a half months in more of a quote unquote real job and I came on to duper and that was really really fun
46:05
it was very stressful and so I was playing a close to full-time and also
46:10
working for them and I did that for about six or seven months and then at this point the the stress of pickle ball
46:17
was a lot and then the stress of you know every day duper is still like in startup mode but they're doing so much
46:22
so the stress of every day having a bunch of emails was too much I had to pick one thing toess stress me out and
46:28
uh unsurprisingly I I chose the pickle ball route so this was around August or September of 2022 I think and so that
46:35
was kind of my path so I kind of dabbled into getting more and more Allin with pickle ball it wasn't like I had to just
46:41
flip a switch and make a super crazy decision like Zay I had been improving in my time with uh when I was working
46:47
with duper so I I was I was lucky I I'll say it a lot I was very lucky and life is about making the most of those
46:55
opportunities and uh you know just getting Partners getting in the cool kids club is the key to this whole operation here as far as uh the top end
47:03
Zane what Revenue angles and streams did you see and did you want to jump into to
47:10
be part of augmenting whatever you can make on the court but what did you see
47:15
all around it and how initially we'll get to modern day in a minute did you see opportunities and what did you go
47:22
after first yeah I mean you know there's kind of Limitless at this point there's every
47:29
every week I've got an idea for for another business so it's uh it's really staying focused and and you know
47:36
reducing it to core competencies and so you know I've dabbled in a bunch of different things and I've done lessons
47:42
I've done clinics I've got the uh the pickle pod I started working on a clinic Administration software
47:50
um YouTube channel all that stuff so um
47:55
Consulting for different brands as well it's it's uh there's a lot of opportunity out there which is which is
48:01
great um and I think over the four years that I've been playing professionally and doing pickle ball is my full-time
48:08
job it's it's actually been you know exploring these different things and then cutting things out and focusing
48:14
more on what what works best and what's most efficient for for my time as a
48:20
balancing Pro pickle ball and then also balancing the business side of stuff and trying to set myself up for not having
48:26
to go back to being an auditor at any point so um yeah just staying focused on
48:32
on the few different things exploring them and and learning about the industry in general uh has been fun it's been a
48:39
ton of uh learning opportunity and you know I'm somebody that likes to to plan
48:44
right I I had a whole career trajectory uh when I was got out of school and I
48:50
signed up at deoe and that's all gone out the window I'm trying to set myself up to be able to do whatever next
48:57
opportunity is post post playing I'm going to try and play for as long as I possibly can because it's fun um but uh
49:04
leaving options open because there are just so many interesting things happening in pickleball and new business
49:10
that's interesting starting almost every week I'm on the phone with somebody doing something cool so do you what's
49:15
your uh sort of filter for that is it you do you have a team do you have an
49:22
agent sort of help us understand hey as you mentioned there are possib ities
49:27
Galore here so what help us understand sort of how you process what could be
49:32
good for me and what can't yeah so definitely get a a good amount of incoming requests whether it
49:39
through the through the website or um or just comments uh people reaching out I
49:45
have a I have a team that that helps me and they normally get on an initial call to discuss things and they help me
49:51
filter and if there's something that is that is interesting that they find interesting uh that's generally when
49:57
I'll take a call with with somebody um and you know they've got a pretty good sense of that one of a couple of the
50:02
people that have worked or that work with me are uh are former Professionals in their in their own right another
50:09
accountant uh is is my uh business manager so we work very closely and she's got a great sense of what is what
50:15
is interesting she's a pickleball player herself understands the the business phenomenally and you know from there
50:21
I'll I'll talk with somebody you know I have an an agency that helps me out as well um but just generally kind of
50:28
following my own curiosity when it comes to either either business or even things
50:34
like when we get on the pickle pod together I generally just ask you questions that I'm interested in and
50:39
hope other people uh find it interesting as well um so yeah just kind of uh following
50:45
curiosity so Anna where are you in this journey from obviously you're one of the
50:50
best players to ever hit the court is that everything or is there a lot going
50:56
going on the background that we're not seeing because you being a sponsored
51:02
athlete's really important to you where do you stand in the business side of this this sport today um first I just
51:10
want to say that once maybe a year ago I actually asked Zayn if he would coach me and he thought about it and said no so I
51:16
guess I wasn't worth his time correct there's too much going on
51:22
too much going on to help me out um I would say I'm a lot earlier in kind of
51:28
delving into the business side I think Zayn is much more developed I or I don't know if developed is the word but but um
51:35
I have a lot of ideas and I know there's a lot of things that I could be doing and I'm kind of starting with that like
51:41
I have I finally got a website up and running and I'm doing some online coaching now uh which has been fun I
51:47
really really enjoy coaching I I kind of get a little bit of that with the major league pickle ball side I I think I see
51:52
myself delving into that world one day maybe compete against you Dave is kind of a GM coach I think that would be
51:57
something I would really enjoy so kind of starting to do a little bit more coaching and I need to get a YouTube
52:04
channel ofen running I need to start doing everything zaye is doing but right now I would say my main focus is is honestly on the playing uh I'm I'm very
52:11
young and I'm really getting better and I feel like even though I'm one of the best women in the sport there's still
52:16
there's still kind of that pedestal that is Anna Lee and it's kind of like I don't know if I'll ever be better than her but I kind of feel like if I see her
52:22
doing something you know I want to add that to my game so I'd say that's kind of more more so where where my focus is
52:28
on right now is kind of on playing and yeah so thanks to the journey of what
52:36
the carvana PPA tour now put together with major league pickle ball Pro pickle
52:41
ball player is a career path now and that's exciting and and it's a thrill
52:47
for me to be part of that with the broadcasting side of it Zane when I am
52:53
asked I know the answer I give to people that want to become that that that think
52:58
they have the potential when you're asked what is your answer to somebody that might be 15 20 25 30 and you know
53:06
maybe they're 150 in the world in tennis whatever it is what's your message to people this is the job I want what do I
53:13
got to do yeah I would say the first question is do you really want it right there's a
53:20
lot of people that might be coming off of a of a pro tennis career or finishing
53:25
up college tennis and they've seen a bunch of people who were much weaker tennis players than than them succeed at
53:32
a pickle ball I would be a perfect example of that like I played division 3 tennis and uh I'm proud of it I had a
53:39
great time I was not a a super special tennis player but um you know I've been
53:44
playing pickleball for a long time and I really really enjoyed it so the first question is do you want this as a living
53:51
or do you love pickle ball and if the answer is you just wanted a living it's probably not the the right thing for you
53:58
I think you have to be obsessed with this game because you do have to practice somewhere between the amount of
54:03
tennis player practices and a golf player practices right golfers are out on the course drilling every single shot
54:10
they're probably hitting six seven hours of balls on a given day tennis players are probably playing you know multiple
54:16
sessions and maybe three hours a day when they're really in uh training I think pickle ball is probably somewhere
54:22
in between you know a lot of the time I was playing for hours per day uh when I
54:28
was starting out um and doing possibly two a days as well so you have to figure
54:34
out first if you're obsessed if they're obsessed and they're willing to do what it takes which probably means uprooting
54:42
themselves from wherever they live and going to a pickable hot spot like like Austin Texas where I live now or down in
54:49
southeast Florida where uh where Anna lives um or just you know anywhere where
54:54
there's a good core group of players you have to be willing to go completely all in and take the game seriously enough
55:02
and and respect it enough you know Jack and and jeie came up here and they they mentioned like yeah if you don't respect
55:08
this game it doesn't matter how good you were at tennis There's You Know Jack sock is I think a perfect person to
55:16
transition from tennis to pickle ball his skill set in tennis I think translates better than almost anybody
55:23
else and you know he's had good results and he's had bad results right and if he doesn't get obsessed with pickle ball
55:29
he's not going to be number one right I think he would tell you the exact same thing so to answer that question I would
55:35
just ask him are you obsessed AB anything to add to that I'm sure you're asked the same
55:43
question yeah I personally feel like you know we haven't seen too many people from other racket Sports transition over
55:49
to pickall I think that that'll be really interesting when that when we start to see that um but I feel like
55:54
above a certain threshold of tennis ability it really comes down to your talent for pickle ball so someone being
56:02
you know ranked uh you know 200 in the world in tennis versus someone who just who played uh at at a decent level in
56:09
college I don't think the pro experience is a huge predictor of success uh of
56:14
course like Jack sock I agree with Zane like perfect skill set athleticism explosiveness to translate to pickle
56:19
ball but it's not a one andone and I feel like a lot of people think it is and and you know that's not true um
56:29
yeah and like zaye said the the addictiveness pickleball is such an adct an addictive game that's why it's exploding so fast that's why the
56:35
retention rate is so high that's why you know my grandparents are playing even though I feel like they're getting injured every other month there's a new
56:41
there's a new muscle pulled there's something else but they're still out there it's something so special and I feel like I have some friends who have
56:48
asked me about it who play tennis at a high level and they're kind of asking me because but it's because they don't want
56:55
to work you know it's kind kind of like they don't want to work a typical job it's kind of like they view Pro pick ball as something easy and something as
57:01
an escape and pretty much everyone that that is you know regularly being shown on pickleball TV we're all addicted and
57:07
and even if that addiction has waned to an extent like when you start you have that full on addiction just like you
57:13
know all the people playing here at Nationals or or at Worlds right now so I think that's really a a requirement and
57:18
then of course you have to have a certain level of talent but uh you you've got to really be Allin it's it's
57:24
not as easy as uh as people think it is it's it's an easy it's an easy game to have fun with to play with your friends
57:29
to play with you know your kids your grandparents people who don't come from racket sports but to really get to the
57:35
top level it's it's definitely not as easy as a lot of as a lot of people think yeah to piggyback on that point
57:40
I've seen a ton of people who would say to themselves oh I beat Anna Brighton
57:46
tennis and she's you know number two in the world in pickle ball like this should be easy for me and that really
57:52
isn't even necessarily correlated to how they're going to perform in pickle ball and so that's a that's an interesting
57:57
point I've I've seen that discussed and I've I've I've heard it discussed plenty
58:02
of times but it it really has no bearing on how you're going to be at pickleball
58:10
yeah and what I'm am excited about we talked about this a little with with jeie she played a couple of youngsters
58:17
yesterday in doubles 14 and 15 year olds and the background of the of the you
58:23
when this forum happens in 10 years is going to be a couple of kids that probably never hit a tennis ball that is
58:30
exciting what's your perspective on that Anna oh I I saw a bit of those highlights that got posted of of their
58:36
match and I know jeie was up here she said she she hardly looked like she took a breath all match and that's about what
58:41
it looked like to me those those girls were very very good and I did not envy them having to Envy uh Genie and Caitlyn
58:48
having to play them but it's truly so exciting you know I I I think what the PPA tour is doing with the the Juniors
58:54
is truly so important and uh and just and just great to see the junior turnout I I feel like in the last year it's
59:00
really really improved and we have so many kids who are going to be so good I
59:06
think that's kind of the advantage that that Annalie Waters has over the rest of the female field it's just she's kind of
59:13
a she's played some tennis but largely she's a pure pickleball player all of the the patterns and kind of the the
59:18
pickleball IQ is just so developed cuz you know when you're a kid you learn everything the best uh so yeah I totally
59:25
think we'll see that I've seen a few Juniors I think elely Jones's daughter is is very very talented she'll be very
59:30
good and and uh she has a partner she's played with I think who's left I think her name is Ellie I'm very impressed
59:36
with her and uh uh it's it's going to be really really exciting you know they'll continue to be these you know tennis
59:41
players who come in but these pure pickleball players I really think will generally generally be the future it's
59:47
also kind of cool like I'm now on an MLP team with Hayden Patrick and Gabe tardio
59:52
and I played my first ever mixed tournament with Gabe tardio and after the tournament I think we were talking
59:58
and he was like you're not going to you're not going to want to play mixed with me anymore like you're you're too good right um but then you know I just
1:00:04
asked him to play mix so it's kind of a different trajectory right coming over from college tennis I kind of have a big
1:00:10
spike in level and then you have these these kids who kind of it's it's much more gradual thing but they'll get there
1:00:15
right so it's it's really exciting it's really fun so obviously marketability of
1:00:21
the players is critical obviously your talent has to be there your personality
1:00:27
is beloved by many fans and is this something that you are conscious of is
1:00:35
this something you're trying to do or is this just AB being freaking AB out there
1:00:41
I'm just really funny honestly the the people just love me like what what can I say um but no it's it's definitely you
1:00:49
know you definitely play up some of the parts of your personality that that are good for for TV right like I'll I'll try
1:00:56
to give a funny interview you know I'll I'll have some funny things to say planned maybe with my women's Devils partner Rachel rorer we we just have a
1:01:03
good time and in our interviews I feel like we hardly answer the questions half the time we're just kind of doing our own thing thanks yeah you can ask
1:01:10
whatever you want Dave we're going to say whatever we want uh so definitely it's a part of it but I I feel like you
1:01:15
know things translate is the most genuine when you are being yourself you know to the extent that you can be when
1:01:20
you have cameras on you so I'd say for the most part you know just Just Born This Way
1:01:27
saying same question for you as far as connectivity I think we'll go down that
1:01:33
road a little bit differently because there are fans that are youngsters I mean watching people run around and want
1:01:39
to get the autographs of you guys and seeing that and seeing the youngsters yesterday doing some of the celebrations
1:01:46
and the mannerisms of the pros that they aspire to be all the way up to we have
1:01:52
tons of people that started this sport for us and they're 60s 7s are you
1:01:58
conscious of how you need to connect to all audiences or what's your mentality
1:02:03
there so that you can grow all of those streams that we talked about earlier it's a great question Dave but first I
1:02:09
have a question for Anna I've lost control I'm not nervous or anything when's the next photo shoot
1:02:17
oh yeah oh my goodness I don't know there's been so many knockoffs why haven't you done a knockoff I'm not talented enough let me
1:02:24
just interrupt here just so everyone knows uh Anna brigh and her partner Rachel rora Bacher did a photo shoot
1:02:32
that you must go find on the internet if you haven't seen it epic photos of the two of them unbelievable so since zann
1:02:40
took over this interview that's which is fine let's let's go into that for a second how in the world did that happen
1:02:48
and and was that like what what did we want to accomplish with
1:02:53
that um it was Rachel's IDE idea Rachel asked there was kind of a trend on Tik Tok of just you know people taking these
1:03:00
very awkward deliberately awkward photos uh but being very serious about it and as soon as Rachel proposed the idea to
1:03:06
me and sent me some inspiration photos I was 100% Allin um and it was really fun
1:03:13
to do kind of the behind the scenes was hilarious we were laughing the whole time but trying to be trying to be
1:03:18
serious for the pictures and I don't know we just thought it'd be something funny it was kind of surprising how uh
1:03:24
polarizing it ended up being to an extent right I think the the reaction on
1:03:29
Instagram say was very different from the reactions on Facebook you know kind of different different people perceived
1:03:35
it differently but it was really fun you know it's just just kind of us being ourselves and I think it's it's like
1:03:40
like I said earlier it kind of you know as uh it's still strange to think of
1:03:46
myself as kind of someone in the public eye and and you know in our world to an extent but it it's best if someone has
1:03:52
an opinion of you whether good or bad right indifference is kind of what you don't want so I think that a lot of
1:03:57
people loved it some people were probably confused but hey they know who we are now so so that's something okay now back to our regularly
1:04:04
scheduled programming yeah so back to your your question on you know I am I catering what I say to to an audience or
1:04:11
trying to appeal to a certain person um I probably maybe should but I I don't um
1:04:18
I try to follow what I find to be interesting and I think that you know if we held this business forum five years
1:04:26
ago we would have been in a spot where you have a more traditional sort of
1:04:32
influencer that tries to be everything to everyone and now I think that people are smarter and and seeing through
1:04:40
somebody who's overly polished and trying to be everything to everybody you can't right and so you know on our
1:04:47
podcast we've talked about a while for a while like it you you can be a the bad
1:04:55
boy or the bad girl of pickle ball or tennis right you're my bad girl of pickle ball thank
1:05:01
you but I mean think about somebody like John mackenro John mackenro was probably hated by at least twoth thirds of of
1:05:07
tennis players and just loved by a third and he was one of the most probably the most marketable tennis player of that
1:05:13
era you don't have to even be liked by a majority of people but if you're a polarizing figure you're going to have
1:05:20
that core group of people that really resonates with you and if you're thinking about it from a business perspective as a player like like Anna
1:05:27
said the indifference is the is the worst thing people love you hate you but you have more eyeballs on you Nick
1:05:32
curios is probably the most hated tennis player and probably the most loved at this point as well and nobody sells out
1:05:39
stadiums like Nick curios so taking that a step further you know I've heard like the WWE like you
1:05:46
know have these characters would you advise someone to
1:05:52
shape themselves into something like this as they're trying to make their way
1:05:58
into the sport or what would your take be if they they asked you I think if that's the type of person that you are
1:06:04
naturally like go for it but I also think people see through BS yeah I agree with that totally so
1:06:11
anab bright you do have some sponsorships with some bigger companies I know you said you're focused on that
1:06:17
so when people want to get to be a part of the anab bright
1:06:23
experience do you have a team do you have agents how do you work through that
1:06:29
are you saying hey I would really love to have a pick a uh particular brand or
1:06:35
particular service whatever are you are you to that point where you're thinking
1:06:40
in in that terms and if not how do you aspire to get there if that's important to you yeah absolutely so I I have an
1:06:47
agent I started working with him uh at the start of this year and I'm um really really enjoying that our relationship
1:06:54
it's a it's kind of a high of you know Brands reaching out and then also me having you know interest in particular
1:07:00
Brands and kind of our own Outreach uh I think my my first year and a half or two
1:07:05
years as a pro it was I was partnering with a lot of brands that I maybe didn't truly have kind of an intrinsic interest
1:07:12
or connection with fully and and it kind of some of my promotion of them did feel
1:07:17
a little bit superficial and like like we said I I think people I don't know see through is exactly the right word
1:07:23
but it just didn't feel as authentic to me it's why I'm really excited about all the brands I'm with now like particularly Yola I've worked with them
1:07:30
pretty much since I started playing pro and they're doing some really really great things really exciting things
1:07:36
obviously I love their paddles um I would say they're the best you know definitely pushing some limits but
1:07:41
definitely uh probably the best on the market and it's just very natural right and so kind of looking for those
1:07:47
opportunities and to work with brands that where it feels like there's a natural partnership a natural kind of
1:07:53
give and take and it's not like I'm being uh inauthentic at all in in my promotion so I'd say that's kind of
1:07:58
where I'm at now with looking with the brands to partner with but I think having an agent is super super helpful
1:08:04
kind of for for pros as you kind of go further and further in the game because it is growing fast right and it's like
1:08:10
jeie uh said earlier so many companies are so so interested in the pickle ball
1:08:15
space right now because there's obviously the pro game and everything but there's just the main area where pickle ball is growing right there's
1:08:21
like over 3,000 amateurs at this tournament many who have traveled from all over the country even the world and so um yeah companies companies know
1:08:28
about pickle ball and it's exciting to see kind of where it all shapes out so Zan I think you have a great perspective
1:08:34
of the landscape here and what you and I and others have seen evolve within it
1:08:40
lots of people are watching this right now in this room this is going to be posted for a lot of people to watch and
1:08:45
learn that's why we're having it what would you say to smaller companies that
1:08:51
have the passion to get involved in it in whatever way way what would you tell them to do should they get a player
1:08:58
should they do something different what would your advice be to companies that want to get to be a part of the sport we
1:09:04
love are you talking paddle companies or any company no I would say not a Paddle Company yeah um I would say you know you
1:09:13
just have to have have some sort of of product that that resonates with people I mean I don't I don't know if that's a
1:09:19
phenomenal answer that's a pretty basic basic answer how do you want to get involved um you know I do think that um
1:09:28
YouTube is a very underrated social media at this point for for pickleball
1:09:34
you know I I look at my own channel and I'm getting a half a million views per per month and these are I think these
1:09:41
are higher quality interactions than social media than than uh than other social media right like Instagram you're
1:09:48
interacting with somebody who's scrolling past your page for 10 seconds you know the average view time on some
1:09:54
of my videos can be 10 10 minutes and so if I have an advertisement in a YouTube
1:09:59
video I think that person is far more likely to take action on that than if
1:10:04
they were to scroll and see my clip of using a you know a ball machine a lobster ball machine on on Instagram or
1:10:12
or Tik Tok so I would actually say like players are are great people to to have
1:10:18
and great people to create content but I think uh I think Anna should start that YouTube channel because uh it is you
1:10:25
know if I'm looking up you know how to do X Y or Z I'm going on YouTube to do
1:10:31
that and then if if my face or Anna's face is there uh promoting a uh product
1:10:37
as part of an instructional video I think people are more likely to interact with that so if you're starting a
1:10:42
company and you have a good uh good idea a good product I would I would Market it
1:10:48
through pickleball YouTube so that takes work though man Zane like you want the
1:10:54
easy way out what's I know exactly so the the players that I talk to that
1:11:00
haven't gotten to half million views it's the commitment so how do you
1:11:06
balance your time you're wanting to play and I think just describe your content
1:11:13
is primarily though not entirely uh instructional that people
1:11:19
have gravitated to so they are all of us want to get better so I I get that in
1:11:24
the to idea of YouTube has been a huge part of it across the board all of us still like oh something happened to the
1:11:31
faucet okay well there's 88 guys that have figured out how to solve that so
1:11:36
how do you make sure that you have the content that now you're building an audience and a lot of people build it
1:11:42
and then they just it Peters out because they just didn't keep after it how do
1:11:47
you make sure that you're going to be able to sustain this yeah I guess once again just kind of following my own
1:11:53
interests so I was teaching a lot of clinics and I was thinking about the
1:11:59
best ways to explain different instructional pieces and so I did a bunch of instructional videos kind of
1:12:05
got pretty burnt out of that and I still do it at a at a slower Cadence but now
1:12:11
I'm focusing more actually on the the entertainment side of things we have the series where uh myself and other pros
1:12:17
from Austin will play against good 5 players and Pro Qualifier players but
1:12:23
we'll give each other some sort of of Nerf some sort of disadvantage to the pros so recently we had a video where
1:12:30
myself and Jack Monroe had to alternate shots and you know this just comes from
1:12:36
again my own curiosity we'll have these discussions of could me and Jack actually beat a Pro Qualifier team if I
1:12:43
couldn't hit the ball twice in a row I have to hit and then Jack has to hit and so honestly I I try to keep myself
1:12:50
entertained and uh and as a result of that people have have gravitated towards
1:12:55
the podcast they've gravitated towards that that uh series I think they've gravitated towards watching me play
1:13:02
because I'm I'm doing it for for my own entertainment and um and obviously like
1:13:08
you know thinking about what people want to see but you know if somebody wanted to see something that has zero interest
1:13:14
to me it's not going to be authentic and it's not going to be something that's repeatable and sustainable for me um and
1:13:21
something I'd probably get burnt out of doing so again just following some of my own interests and I think whatever
1:13:29
you're producing is going to be better when you're following your own interests yeah you've talked a lot about content
1:13:34
and I think whatever it is that you do content whether whether it's crazy photo shoot uh tricking up the rules over
1:13:41
there Anna you have a extra responsibility and maybe you do or don't
1:13:47
see it that way as one of the top players you are a representative of the sport just through osmosis because of of
1:13:55
where your skill set has taken you do you carry that around as a as a badge of
1:14:01
honor and an opportunity do you see that do you feel like I need to be a great Ambassador for the greater good that's
1:14:09
here what's your mentality there as someone who really can have an impact across multiple touch points here in our
1:14:17
sport yeah it's it's like I said earlier it is still odd to think of myself as kind of you know one of the the biggest
1:14:24
faces in in our game but um yeah it's definitely is a huge badge of honor it's
1:14:29
it's definitely a responsibility and an opportunity as well um it's very exciting anytime you know obviously
1:14:34
being on pig ball TV being on YouTube is great but anytime there's you know a big TV block I'm a little extra excited for
1:14:40
that kind of opportunity to play because you know the the turnout when pickle ball has gotten on you know ESPN CBS
1:14:47
whatever it may be is really good people are tuning in so it's uh it's really exciting and it's it's interesting I'm
1:14:53
starting to get recognized more more and more kind of just going about my daily life right like getting recognized in
1:14:59
airports maybe leaving or going to and from pickleball tournaments that happens but even just randomly right I'll be at
1:15:05
a random coffee shop and some say oh you're Anna bright I'm like oh uh yeah yeah I am hi um so yeah it's it's
1:15:13
something very exciting and I I feel like how you carry yourself matters and it's definitely something that I could
1:15:18
do a little bit better at I definitely get a little too angry sometimes when I when I'm practicing at home you know if
1:15:24
people people see me on my local Court sometimes I get a little a little more Rowdy there but uh it's it's really
1:15:29
exciting and it's it's already sometimes a lot but is as the game grows I think it's
1:15:36
something that more and more of us are going to have to get used to and probably more media training will be needed and everything but it's yeah it's
1:15:42
it's very exciting and you know if if we should get a big TV deal soon everything
1:15:48
is just going to really explode it's going to accelerate fast so folks uh if someone would like to ask question of of
1:15:56
these two fine folks we'll get a microphone anyone okay there's there's
1:16:01
right over here uh yeah we we are recording this so sir just tell us your name and uh what
1:16:09
what what what's on your mind hey my name is Kevin Burke I appreciate you guys' feedback no BS how much time do
1:16:15
you spend actually drilling versus playing uh I would say that I am
1:16:22
drilling 70% of the the time to playing games probably 30 between 2/3 and 3/4 of
1:16:29
the time is probably typical for me and how much time total is that in an off week when obviously you're not here at a
1:16:37
tournament uh it depends definitely if if I am just coming off a tournament
1:16:43
I'll or a long stretch I'll take a couple days off or not playing much but I'd say I'm typically
1:16:49
playing two to four hours a day is is probably typical and so most of that
1:16:54
will be drilling uh and and then I'll play I'll play some games too so I've I've tried to actually
1:17:02
change it up a little bit this year and what I found has really been working well is uh my buddies and I will drill
1:17:08
for an hour before we play for about two hours and so we can get some very focused hitting in on some different
1:17:15
things that we want to work on and then actually go Implement them when we play so I'm at a I'm at basically a one to2
1:17:22
ratio of play of drilling to playing so not not the same as Anna kind of something to add to that is
1:17:29
just when people think of drilling I feel like when you're newer to the game you just think of you and one other person and kind of the the typical like
1:17:35
dink up the line dink crosscourt dink crosscourt but there's really a lot of variations to quote unquote drilling
1:17:41
like I'll I'll do that with one other player and then I really enjoy doing drills with three people so you'll have
1:17:46
one person alone two people on the other side and you'll kind of rotate and work on specific skills and everyone can be
1:17:52
focused on their own thing but I think that that is really underutilized and then also I'm lucky enough that my dad
1:17:59
was my tennis coach and he's very he's very happy you know to to get to to spend time with me and we like talking
1:18:05
about pickle ball and so he'll he's about probably a 40 uh but he'll feed me balls and we'll work on specific things
1:18:11
like that so I'd say there's a lot of different things that you know drilling looks like for me um that that are all
1:18:17
like very valuable and really contribute to like me getting better it's not just kind of what what you think of just one other player and the other thing I'd add
1:18:24
to that is gamify because the word drill just sounds terrible like what I just got to go hit a thousand balls like that's not
1:18:31
fun put a scoreboard make it make it more fun because uh that just will
1:18:36
you'll get more out of it that way so definitely do that as well yeah Kevin you ever heard of butts
1:18:43
up no but I've seen what you guys have done that's a great way to gamify your drilling yeah is it ever I'll let I'll
1:18:50
let the audience look that up we have a question way over here
1:19:05
if somebody were to double your earnings and tell you you can no longer play you
1:19:11
can only manage or or do something with pickle ball but no longer play would you take
1:19:18
it um you're thinking about it
1:19:25
as of right now probably not I feel like through playing and kind of other things I can kind of get that Improvement or
1:19:33
double my earning say on my own I'm also I really really like my life right now I love playing I play a lot more
1:19:39
tournaments than I need to play uh I get massive uh fomo or fear of missing out
1:19:44
whenever there is a tournament if I'm not participating in it uh I watch I would say I probably watch more pickle
1:19:51
ball than there couldn't be more than like a couple Pros who are watching more pickle ball than I am like I follow the
1:19:57
MLP Challenger League very closely I am truly very obsessed so as a at the
1:20:02
current stage in my life I don't think I would take it if you ask me the same question in you know three years I I would probably say yeah sure uh but
1:20:08
right now I really really enjoy playing it really uh fills my cup and uh so yeah but I I also do think that I I could
1:20:15
really enjoy a life without playing like I said I think I'd really enjoy being an MLP like GM coach but where I'm at now I
1:20:22
really love playing I really love competing and I would not want to to let that go it's an interesting question I like
1:20:29
that question U it's not something I've really thought about before this this moment um but uh I don't know I think I
1:20:37
think a lot of us are currently making enough right enough for a very nice
1:20:42
living probably better than we deserve and um I'm enjoying everything and I I
1:20:47
wouldn't trade it so I'd probably I'd probably say no to that one more anyone
1:20:58
I mean yes okay wait ma'am yes let's add to the question if tomorrow you could no
1:21:04
longer play what job would you opt for in the industry I would I would want to be a GM
1:21:12
and coach of of an MLP team kind of maybe even do more like running the team
1:21:17
like even more front office stuff if if a team would give me that much trust uh but I think that'd be something that I
1:21:23
would really enjoy and and and uh be pretty good at and still kind of scratch the competitive itch right you're still on the sidelines going crazy very
1:21:30
involved um yeah that that's what I would want to do maybe coach a player or two that I saw a lot of potential in as
1:21:36
well uh so yeah that's what I would do I think I would do the exact same thing but also take Dave's
1:21:43
job yeah so keep making balls dude did you have a question sir right here okay
1:21:49
one one last I will I will I will ask one one more here thanks let's get Z off
1:21:55
this panel quickly thank you um you you're on the road you know
1:22:03
two-thirds of your life what what's the team around you that allows to run your businesses your marketing everything
1:22:09
else when you guys are drill and practice and playing um all all the
1:22:15
time um for me Zay Zayn definitely has a lot more going on than I do in the
1:22:21
business side and everything but for me having like my my trainer is huge you know my my parents I'm always calling
1:22:27
them after every match win or lose either I'm like elated or I'm like oh my God I'm so bad um so having that and
1:22:34
then also my agent I'd say it's all it's all very important it's kind of having people that you can talk to is important
1:22:39
that you're very close with that you trust because we do travel a lot and and I would say I really love it and enjoy it 70% of the time but then 30% of the
1:22:46
time I'm tired I'm burnt out uh winning definitely helps with those feelings but
1:22:51
when you have a stretch when you feel like you're not playing well you're not playing to potential maybe you feel like you let your partners down that's or you
1:22:58
know if I make the mistake of signing up for singles I will also usually not be very happy so it's uh it it definitely
1:23:05
takes a community I think and I feel like this year I've been very lucky that I've kind of become better friends with
1:23:10
some of the people that I am traveling with all the time Zayn and I rag on each other a lot but I do really like Zayn
1:23:16
I'll text Zayn sometimes and maybe he'll be nice to me maybe he won't but but kind of finding some some people you
1:23:21
know because we are kind of a traveling circus to an extent right you have largely the same people at every event just at a different spot you know every
1:23:28
every week or two so having a few very good friends and people that you enjoy spending time with it it does
1:23:34
help yeah I mean that's that's something that's interesting about the the pro tour is you it is tough at home right
1:23:41
like you can't most of the time we're gone on weekends and if you have friends back home that aren't part of the the
1:23:47
traveling circus it's it's tough to make them right um so fortunately for me I've got uh I'm married I've got a wife that
1:23:54
we've we've been together for for 11 years we have two dogs now so I'm never somebody that uh that goes from
1:24:02
tournament to tournament I will go back home even if it's for like 18 hours uh I
1:24:07
just I I have to and so that uh that definitely grounds me as well because
1:24:13
between you and me and the rest of this room and YouTube my wife doesn't really care about pickle ball it's a great way
1:24:19
for me to to make a living but we don't have to talk about pickle ball at all when I get home and that's very very
1:24:25
refreshing we can talk about anything else you know most of my day is thinking about talking about pickle ball and so
1:24:32
coming home and having my my wife and the dogs uh to just completely distance
1:24:39
from pickle wall after five o'clock is is great all right folks give it up for
1:24:45
Zane and An
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