Welcome to another episode of In Search of Excellence! Our amazing guest is Ben Johns, the greatest pickleball player of all time. He has been the No.1 player in the world in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles for most of the last 3 years.
On the business side, Ben is a co-founder of Pickleball Getaways, a vacation travel company that arranges pickleball vacations to Mexico, Portugal, Croatia, and other sunny locations. He is also the co-founder of Pickleball 360, an online instructional video subscription service that gives lessons on how to become a better pickleball player.
00:00 Introduction
Who is Ben Johns?
01:59 Ben’s background
Supportive, inspiring parents and 6 siblings
Encouraged to follow their own passion
04:15 Homeschooling of 7 kids
Mom used online resources and textbooks
Kids worked at their own pace
Personal responsibility
Social aspects of homeschooling
They pursued their interests, and social stuff happened naturally
08:59 Sports Ben played as a kid
Played baseball, tennis, table tennis, golf
Very eye-hand oriented sports
10:32 Ben's college experience
Switched majors from Business to Material Science and Engineering
How Innovators Think course by Professor Mark Wellman
Advice to people who don’t know what they want to do
Expose yourself to different things, experiment, research
17:24 Developing and innovating a new pickleball racket
Genuinely interested in how to make paddles better
Being genuine creates an opportunity in almost any area
19:27 Optimism and fear of failure
Optimism is important, but also confidence and work ethics
Do your utmost and put 100% of your effort
If you fail, learn from it
22:56 Ben’s first business venture
Pickleball had the stigma of an old person's sport
Wanted to make it more exciting
24:04 What is pickleball?
A combination of tennis and ping-pong on a badminton-sized court
Very easy to learn and very easy to play
27:19 The professional pickleball
The history of pickleball associations
The TPA and APP
The merging of 2 leagues
32:25 The ownership and worth of pickleball teams
The worth of major pickleball teams
Teams are part of venture capital groups
Who are the owners?
35:44 How do teams make money?
A revenue model
The vision is to make it like an NBA NFL type of league
No major TV contract but a rapidly growing fan base
Pickleball has fanatically engaged fans - a golden nugget for any investor
40:39 Pickleball statistics
Its popularity is growing among different groups
It has a great social component
45:43 The start of Ben’s professional career
First professional tournament - US Open in 2016
Won the US Open in 2017
Making money and covering expenses
Sponsors:
Sandee - sandee.com/
Bliss: Beaches - www.amazon.com/Bliss-Beaches-...
Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!
Website - insearchofexcellencepodcast.com
Instagram - / randallkaplan
LinkedIn - / randall-kaplan-05858340
25 июл 2024