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Rack 360.
It's an umbrella that encompasses
four different business units.
One of the business units is
Bracket Social Club, the one that
I'm leading and is the, the clubs.
All of them have paddle and some of
them have have other rack sparks.
Hey everyone.
Welcome to another episode
of Paddle Smash Academy.
Today we are interviewing one of the
trailblazers in the paddle world,
Patrizio, miss Ano, uh, CEO of, of
racket social and Miss Ano consulting.
Patricia, you're welcome to the channel.
So happy to have you back.
Thank you guys for having me.
I'm, I'm really excited to,
you know, talk to you again.
And hopefully soon, we'll, we'll,
um, we'll be able to, to visit
you in person down in Miami.
So first of all, when we interview you,
uh, you are now the CEO of Rocket Social.
So why don't we start a little
bit with Rocket Social and what is
Rocket Social and what do you guys
do and what is your, you know, your,
your day-to-day operations there?
So, rocket Social, we have
four different locations.
One, it's an outdoor location in Atlanta.
But what is Rocket Social is a,
it's, it's, it's a, they're clubs,
they're private clubs, series
of clubs, rocket Social Club.
It's a series of clubs.
All the clubs have paddle
courts and some of the co some
of the clubs have pickleball.
One of the clubs has tennis,
swimming, and platform tennis.
Some of them are indoors and
some of them are outdoors.
We have four locations, one in Denver,
which is indoors with four paddle and
four pickleball, and one in Atlanta that
we were leasing the space inside of a
big club and we had four paddle courts.
We acquired the entire property and now
that club became rack racket socials
club at Windward Lake and has 18 tennis
courts, six pickleball courts, two
blood from tennis courts, a marina.
And three swimming pools.
And we have two in Houston, one
in Willowbrook, which has four
outdoor paddle courts and two
pickleball courts and brand new.
As of this weekend on Saturday, we open
the Katy location, which is five indoor
paddle courts with 30 foot ceilings
and, and those, those are the four
locations that we are running today.
Uh, you just mentioned that because we
were the Alpharetta in Georgia Club.
You just mentioned that you guys
acquired the entire club or just the,
the, the, the, the courts, all of it.
Wow.
So the tennis courts
included and everything.
Yeah.
Tennis courts, swimming pool, the marina
121 slips and the, yeah, all of that.
The, the clubhouse.
So now when you walk, when you're
driving in the entire club is
RAC Social Club and we renamed it
RAC Social Club at Windward Lake.
Wow.
Now, did that originally
happen, uh, like recently or.
November, November.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
That's a beautiful facility.
We, we loved it.
It is.
I mean, we loved it.
Really?
It's precious.
It's really nice.
Very New England.
Yeah.
Very, very new.
Now.
I'm Or you're from Connecticut?
I'm originally from Connecticut too.
That's my home state.
Um, and you developed, um, one of the
first clubs there in Connecticut, right.
Sports house.
Uh, are you still involved with
Sports House or have you moved on.
So I started that and with three
business partners, and as of last
year, almost a year ago now, I
sold my interest in the club.
The club opened in October of 2023.
And I, you know, was part of, of
the group from the very beginning.
I was the one that, um, funny enough,
I was driving by and I saw a building
and I'm like, oh, I know this building.
I used to be for lease
and now it's for sale.
So, um, but prior to finding the
building, we were, we were looking for
our locations, but as of last spring, then
I'm no longer part of the ownership group.
Now, Patricia, what was the
motivation of selling your interest,
uh, in equity in, in that company?
Is it to move on for other,
you know, opportunities or.
Yeah, the Chloe is doing really well.
It's very successful.
It was actually from, from the get go.
And, but sometimes the, the
interest in how to move forward a
business, any business don't align.
And we decided to part ways.
They're doing very well.
And now I, yeah, as of, you know,
last year, even before I, I saw
my interest, I started pursuing
other and, you know, other, um,
avenues for me to move forward with.
You know, rackets and, and what I've
been doing for over two decades.
And one of those is Rack Social Club
and I've been involved with Racket
360 for, um, a year and a half now.
So yeah, we decided to park ways
and they're doing very well.
So why don't you explain a little
bit, um, what is Rugged 360?
So Racket 360, it's an umbrella that
encompasses four different business units.
One of the business units is
racket social club, the one that
I'm leading and is the, the clubs.
All of them have paddle and some of
them have have other racket sports.
Then Racket X. The, the big, um,
convention and trade show, the
first two years was in Miami this
year in a couple of, um, weeks.
Now in, in March it's gonna be for, then
the third business unit is Rocket Central,
which is an e-commerce marketplace
platform that sells parallel pickleball
and apparel, shoes and accessories.
The fourth business unit is the
National Paddle League, which is
the largest amateur, um, paddle
league in the country and also they
within the National Paddle League.
Besides the Inter Club League
that is, uh, endorsed by the USPA.
They also run, um, corporate
events and corporate leagues.
And why don't we talk a little bit
about also Miss Internal Consulting.
What, what, what does that do?
Yeah, so Miss Internal Consulting is for
the most part, taking a pause because my
day to day is 99.999% rank social club.
So I, I'm not taking new clients.
And that was one of the, the agreements
we had when I took on the, the role
that I wasn't gonna take new clients,
which is not fair to Rocket Social Club.
So I, I'm not doing that.
And, but.
I've been prior to working full-time for
Rocket Social Club, I've been advising
and consulting with entrepreneurs and
help and connecting folks that were
looking to raise money with some other
ones that were looking to invest.
And reviewing business plans, reviewing
projections, helping with club design, and
anything you can possibly imagine that it
is a part of the process of opening a club
or adding paddle to a current facility.
I was involved in all of it.
When I built the sports house, I was
involved in a lot of it now that we
opened some clubs with Rocket Social.
And yeah, that's, that's what I did.
And besides, um, that type of consulting,
I also, last year I put out a, a
report about the state of, so I, I
took 20 plus years of experience in
everything rackets and, and particularly
this last few years more involved
with and paddle and pickleball.
And that's why I, I did what
I'm external consulting.
I was gonna ask you something.
You sent me a message, uh, a month ago
about something that I saw was pretty
amazing, something very interesting.
Okay.
It's, uh, it, it seemed like, and,
and correct me if I'm wrong, that
you created a platform with a lot
of analytics and data, uh, for.
Club owners, entrepreneurs, or anybody
really who wants to invest, uh, or get
involved in, in the paddle industry.
Uh, is that true?
And is that out and, and can you talk
to us a little bit more about that?
Yeah, so I'll, I'll start before I
get to answer your question directly.
So, I started collecting data and what
I mean data, I wanted to know how many
courts there were in the US because
everyone's like, oh, there's 200 court,
there's 300 court, there's 400 courts.
First of all, I wanted to know
because no one knew, and it was,
you know, everyone is guessing.
And second, I was advising folks that
were investing hundreds of thousands
of dollars and millions of dollars.
And if you don't know what the market
looks like, I didn't feel like I was doing
my job by advising on a business that
no one really knew what it looked like.
Okay.
I got a question.
This could be a trade secret.
Trade secret.
How did you scrape that information?
Okay.
A lot of hard work.
At the very beginning, still hard
work, but I, I actually did it.
And, you know, um, some internet searches,
phone calls, text messages, some AI agents
that are giving me some information.
And when you combine it all together,
then you have the real data.
And so, and at the beginning
when, let's say you have.
500 courts.
It's not that hard to do the
research to find 500 courts.
Now, if, if I have 500 courts
and then I know there's 10 or 20
or or 30 that open up in 1, 2, 3
months, it's so much easier to add.
And, and I started with this smaller size.
I started with, okay, I know
how many in Connecticut.
I know how many in New York.
I know how many.
And then you continue one.
You know one, one more,
one more, one more.
And then.
I think I, I'm pretty close to having
a hundred percent of all the courts in
the US and so, lemme ask a question.
I mean, we used to know every single
club that opened up all the time, but
there's so many clubs opening up, it's
hard to keep track without some type of,
you know, logic or that is proprietary
that can scrub that information.
Because I mean, every month,
every two months you're gonna have
to go back and, you know, make
calls and that's a lot of work.
Do you have something like that work?
I did a lot of the work that way, and
then there's some, I mean, I'm not
an expert in technology and I know
there's some other people that are way
smarter than me that actually have a
lot of AI agents that can buy all this
information and do it automatically.
So I have some of that.
But the rest is just look, you know, on
Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Google and
Google alerts and then phone calls, and
then a lot of people call me and then
ask me, Hey, did you hear about this?
Did you know about that?
Then they feed me the information.
I don't have to go and
find it all the time.
And now it's much easier because
anyone that opens up, especially with
the, the, the paddle clubs or paddle
or you know, or pickleball clubs that
paddle to it, is so much easier because
they promote it and it's everywhere.
And, but the, the ones that are a little
bit harder are all the country clubs.
That don't really promote
that they're adding.
Yeah, but I'm, I've been working for like
20 years in the country club and world, so
I have a lot of connections and contacts.
So I do find out about those and
then I get calls from sometimes,
you know, managers that ask me.
Or director that ask me, Hey, do, what
do you think about, you know, adding
one cord, two cords, three cords?
Or who should I contact
to install the cord?
So then I know when
they're installing them.
Gotcha.
Now, do you have any, so do you have
any other data there besides that or
information or, and to answer your
question, when you were asking me about
the, the platform, the dashboard that
I built, so with all this information,
what I did is I put it all, not me.
I hired someone to do it.
But we, I have an an online interactive
dashboard that has all the data from
all the, how many courts, how many
are indoors, how many are outdoors,
all by state, by sitting by seat
code and how much they charge.
What is the maximum, the minimum for pick
time for off peak, indoors, outdoors.
What is the, the price distribution.
What booking platforms they have
and in which, you know, what
type of facilities they are.
There is a paddle facility, paddle and
pickleball and rackets, country club.
And so I put all this data and when
they open, so I have the, also the,
the graph that shows the growth of
paddle and it's all interactive is
you, if you wanna select indoor in
indoor paddle only in Miami or in
specific parts, then it shows you that.
But how do you, how do you, how do
you keep that, uh, how do you keep
that updated every single month?
You know, uh, if people change your
prices, uh, p new, new clubs open,
or let's just say somebody puts a
new top, uh, you know, so it's kind
of indoor, but kind of not h how do
you, I mean, is it manually done?
Uh, it's not a hundred, but some,
some of it does automatically.
So there, there are some scraping tools
that you can, you know, once you add them
in there, I don't know how to code, but,
you know, you pay someone who does know.
And then it does it automatically
update the data and then it
shows up in the dashboard.
Right.
Now is this, who is this for?
What, who, what, who could
use this information?
I mean, who, who are you targeting?
Who's your market target?
And is this free and open, or
is this kind of a SaaS type
of uh, uh, uh, uh, platform?
Yeah, it, it behind a paywall,
and first of all, I wanted to
use all the data that I compile.
To write a report so the report is free.
So there, and the report has
some, uh, some of my analysis
of what the data means.
Okay.
But I wanted to write a report
based on, on hard facts.
I didn't wanna write a report on what
I think that the market looks like.
Now, all this data then is in, is in this
dashboard that I was explaining earlier.
Who should be looking at this?
I think anyone in the business of parallel
from, I don't know, the ettes of the
world, the Wilsons of the world, to, you
know, any business that wants to open
multiple locations across the country, to
someone in the apparel world that wants
to know what the market looks like, how
many players there are, what are the
locations where, you know, you get more
and more in courts and, and one of the
things that I did see throughout this,
you know, keeping all track of this data,
because I know when the clubs opened.
Even prior to me starting the research
is that the number of indoor courts
is on, is getting closer to 50%.
Wow.
Wow.
And, and in 2021 it was 22%.
We're not there at 50, but
that is a significant change.
Yeah.
And, and the growth of courts
over the last five years.
It's 37% average.
Wow.
So in the last two years it was over 75%.
Wow.
Um, but yeah, it's starting
to accelerate some.
But I wanted to know, number one, because
I wanted to know, so when, when, when I'm
talking to someone, when I'm talking to my
boss, you know, at the Rocket 360, or when
I'm talking to, you know, a colleague or
when I'm trying to speak to a company, so
they become the sponsors of all the racket
social clubs, I wanna have this data.
So who is the data port?
Anyone who really wants to, you know,
to, to understand what the market
looks like and where it's going now.
So, um, where, where do
you see the market going?
I mean, you, you, you said, you know, 75%,
you, you saw that that trend keep going
up or it's gonna hit a flat line and then
readjust and I, so I can see the future.
But I definitely see that at least
in 2026, it's gonna continue the same
growth as 2024 and 2025, if not quicker.
And sometimes because it takes so much
time for a project to actually get through
the finish line, then it takes a little
bit longer to say, oh, you know, another
market is small enough that, you know, if
you open five clubs in in one month and it
does affect and all these percentages, and
eventually it's gonna be less and less.
But I think 20 26, 20 27 is gonna
continue, at least at the same rate.
And then, and I see more and more
indoor clubs so that then it keeps,
you know, going in the right direction.
I think because the sport, when you're
thinking about a business plan and
how you can predict how much revenue
you're going to get, well with an indoor
building, either like a huge storm like
this last weekend, when you can't get
out of your house in, in the Northeast,
then you don't need to worry about.
Rain and rain or, or even especially
in, in like areas like Miami gets
really hot in the summer so people
don't play unless really early in
the morning or, or later at night.
So when you have an indoor building, you
don't need to worry about any of that.
So, as a business owner, it just
gives me so many more, um, you know,
guarantees that I know there are of
the 365 days, 260 are gonna be open.
Gotcha.
So now you said this was behind a paywall.
Uh, what type of pay structure is it?
Is it a fee per certain information or
is it, is it a SaaS and how much is it?
Um, so it's in for a year.
So I do a one one year agreement, uh,
one year, like, you know, um, commitment,
commitment for, I, I think it's 4
95 per person or, or two, or 1995.
And for a company.
Okay.
That's not bad.
It's very reasonable.
Do you see, what, what
else do you see in there?
I know you have this information,
but in the future, near future, uh,
what other information or data do you
think you're gonna, uh, uh, put there?
Uh, look, when, and I went to the
website of every single cloud on
that platform, so have 158 clubs.
So I, I did a lot of research and I
wanted to see what clubs are doing
well, what they're not doing well.
A lot of the clubs don't actually
show pricing on their website, which
to me is like having a restaurant
without prices on the menu.
Mm-hmm.
So that is something that
I hope everyone changes.
Yeah.
And because you can get a, I mean, it's
very hard for anyone to, especially new
players to say, I'm gonna play Paddle if
they don't even know how much it costs.
So that's number one.
Uh, and the other one is, and I
don't know why people don't do this.
And, but they offer the same
pricing peak or off peak time, which
again, doesn't make sense to me.
Right.
Uh, they not have the reasons, but I think
it's a lot more valuable to play, you
know, from 6:00 PM until 10:00 PM right?
Than from, you know, 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Uh, not everyone can play at that time.
So the, the ones that are
not having dynamic pricing.
Like that, that offers different
pricing based on the time of the
day or even the day of the week.
Then I think they're, they're leaving
some money on the table and I, and
I hope that Playtonic play by point
or server, whoever, and comes up
with the feature that allows for
the price to change based on demand.
Like hotel rooms and airlines, and
that's gonna change the whole industry.
I'm, I'm waiting for someone to do it.
Right, right now.
Uh, if, if somebody was interested in,
and, and, you know, in getting that
information and where can they go to?
To, uh, if my website, internal
consulting, they can do it all
directly there and I don't,
you know, it's already set up.
So, and if you have any questions,
they can contact me, but it's pretty
self-explanatory what you get.
I mean, you get access to
the, the, the dashboard.
The dashboard is pretty fun because you
click on different parts of the dashboard.
Then it updates and yeah,
it's very interactive.
So Patricia, um, let me ask you, how
important is the component of, you know,
current tennis clubs or country clubs
adding paddle to the growth of paddle?
Where, where do you see, you're in the
northeast, we know that a lot of the
clubs, the, the typical traditional
tennis clubs are adding paddle.
How important is that growth
into the paddle world?
I think it's, it's, it's very important.
So a, a lot of the growth people think
that is gonna be by new facilities.
I think a lot of the growth now is
actually from clubs adding paddle to
their current facilities, whether it's
a country club or a tennis club, or even
pickleball club that are adding battle.
And I, I know many that are, and
looking into adding pa. Number one,
because they see it very similar, uh,
you know, in terms of how social it
is and how easy it is to, to learn.
And number two is because in
the similar real estate space,
they can charge a lot more.
And they like that part, especially
for the, the pickleball and clubs and
then all the, let's say all the country
clubs and there's thousands of clubs in
the US that they tend to have more real
estate and already a facility that is.
Up and running.
It's much easier for them
to install 2, 3, 4 cords.
I think the gloves that start
with one are making a mistake.
The ones that start with two.
Okay, that's better than nothing,
but, and, and I like the number four
as a good way to start, or three
with a plan to add at least one more.
Yeah, definitely all the tennis, tennis
clubs and country clubs are gonna be
how the, the sport continues to grow.
So now, now let's move into the rugged
social, um, you know, CEO position and you
went from Denver, Houston, uh, Georgia.
What are the cha the main challenges
because each state, I'm sure is like a
different country, you know, what, what
were the main challenges in between
going from Denver to Texas to to Georgia?
Uh, I'll tell you, for me, my biggest
challenge is not being there at the club.
Talking to the staff.
Talking to the players,
my personal challenge.
So I do travel some, but, but it's
not the same as being in person.
And the key, having the, the right
person leading the club and creating
the right community and, and
understanding what players need locally
because all the clubs are different.
Even the two clubs that we have
in Houston are very different, are
in two different parts of Houston.
One is indoors, the other one is outdoors
and, and in different, you know, parts of
Houston that are different neighborhoods.
So you have to have someone
who really understands.
The, the idiosyncrasies of the
people that are gonna go and
what the, the market looks like.
And with the Houston, there are
very different clubs in Georgia
and Alpharetta, it's, you know,
north of Atlanta, it's different.
Denver, it's not in downtown.
So you have to have someone
who really understands.
This, the, the people who will be
within the, you know, 20, 20 to 25
minute, um, driving distance radios.
So now let's move back two
steps back, you know, from this
construction, construction aspect.
You know, I know one is indoors in
Houston, the other one is outdoors.
What were your major challenges
while constructing those clubs?
For me personally is that I was not
part of the design, so I had to.
Do what, what we did with the
design that was already there.
And, and it's, this is always, you know,
for any club that is trying to open is to
have the right team in the right place.
And, and some of it is that the local
municipalities sometimes don't, don't
understand what the, the sport is about.
Then they need to come back so
many different times to do more
inspections and that, you know,
you have to schedule an inspection.
Okay?
They come and now you have to
schedule another inspection.
And that takes time.
And before you realize
that you lose two months.
If you're lucky, it could be war Yeah.
Schedule just to schedule two
inspections and for them to come and
then they're like, okay, you need to
move this, I don't know, this little
piece of whatever and hardware here,
and then schedule our inspection.
And it's not like, you know, you're
building walls and putting the
roof up and No, it's almost like
sometimes no progress because.
The folks that are in charge of
all these inspections and reviewing
what you've done, the work you've
done, they don't understand.
And so that, that's a big challenge.
Um, at least for us in
Katy now we're open.
So, but it was, it was a
little bit of challenge.
We've been pretty much ready to
go, you know, before Thanksgiving
and we opened this last weekend.
Wow.
It's been out.
So what would be the recommendation
or advice you will give to, uh.
Upcoming club owner, the do's and
don'ts, or, you know, what would
be the, the, the, the advice.
So do all your research in terms
of who is the right person who is
going to make the right phone call
to the right person and pay them.
So meaning in the, in the municipality.
No, no, no.
Pay your, you not Miami buddy.
I'm not meaning to bribe anyone
or no, anyone right here.
We're not bribing anyone.
This is not Argentina.
So, I mean, yeah, I'm not a part of that.
The right expert hire the,
the land use attorney.
Hire the engineer, hire the
architect who knows who they need
to call and what the process is.
So you avoid wasting all this time.
So now sometimes they don't because
they've never built, uh, a paddle club.
You know, I've had that situation
myself, and I very understand it.
It's like going to an attorney and let's
say you need a real estate attorney.
This one does specializes in,
uh, you know, uh, injuries.
You're not gonna go to that one.
But Pago is so new and sometimes it's hard
to find the right, you know, contractor
or person who, who has done it before.
It is hard.
Um, so the Sports House was the first
club in all of New England with clubs
open to the public in, in New England.
And so how many land news attorneys,
you know, have opened a ballot
club in England, like no one?
Right.
So we, we were, I guess, lucky that
we found the right land news attorney
who knew the person who would make the
decisions and who would tell us before
we, uh, you know, submit an application
for whatever what we had to do.
And then we also had a very good civil
engineer who, um, would also know when.
The Landis attorney wasn't available.
She knew exactly who to call,
what to say, who to ask.
So if you're gonna spend some, you know,
a, a lot of money building a club, then
be smart and spend money finding the
right person who's gonna get you there.
That's great advice.
Yeah.
That will be the first step.
And then, like you say, going back to
your original, now you, the club is built,
having the right person to run the club.
And, and let's talk about those
challenges because, you know, there
are three different locations,
four different locations.
I mean, yeah.
How do you find that right connection.
And what were your, what was your
experience and what would you change
or recommend to these new club owners?
So one, so it's it's heart.
In a way, first you have to
know the structure that you're
going to use for your club.
You know, having a general manager
is one thing, having a director of
paddle, director of instruction,
however you structure it.
You know, if you have paddle only,
a director of Paddle, what is the
director of Paddle going to do?
So you need to know exactly what
their responsibilities are and
what the manager is going to do.
Can that be the same person?
Okay.
If it's the same person, how many
hours are they gonna spend on court?
10 to 15, more than 15, that
they cannot run the business.
Okay?
When they're on court, who is going
to be the right, you know, hand
person helping them with what?
With the financials, with the marketing?
So you have to think about all these
little details before you start.
Because if you start thinking
about these details, once you're
open, it's not gonna work.
It's not gonna work.
Having this, the, the team that is
going to support your director, your
manager, you know, front desk staff,
you know, you have to train them.
And then yes, on court you have to have,
you know, good high quality coaches that
are certified who know what they're doing.
And one of the most important things
that people sometimes don't under,
don't, don't, don't understand so
well, is that, you know, the best
player might not be the best coach.
You know, a really good player
could be an amazing coach.
For a specific type of players, uh, and
in the US and, and I'm gonna take Miami,
you know, out of the, this, the, this
conversation, most of the other states
don't have a lot of really high level,
high quality players, and those players
may or may not take that many lessons.
So the coaches are going to, most of the
time work with beginners, intermediate,
low, intermediate, and maybe some, you
know, low advance or high intermediate.
So you have to have
someone who, as a coach.
Is good on the court, good
communicator, but they can connect.
So finding the right team that you know
that, that you know, it's going to make
the entire club work is not that easy.
And you have, first you need
to know who you're looking for.
If you know who you're looking for, then
you can start trying to find that person.
And yeah, there's not enough
coaches in the US that's a problem.
That's the most common
question that I get.
Where can I get a coach?
Where can I find a coach?
And I wanna include myself.
So I've been only coaching for three
years paddle, which is nothing.
But I have 20 plus years of
coaching other racket sports.
So that actually does
translate to an extent.
And I grew up playing paddle
very different, but in
the late eighties, 1980s.
So I've been involved with the sport
for a long time, but there are not
that many coaches that have a lot of
experience coaching the sport from the us.
You have some international coaches
that, you know, mainly from Spain
or Argentina, that have coached
before, but that's also, uh, it's a
challenge not for, for racket social.
We have actually a very
good team right now.
But in general, it's a, it's a,
it's a challenge for all the clubs.
So, and what would be, because we, we talk
to club owners all the time, and sometimes
they think, oh, I'm gonna bring a coach
from Argentina, or a coach from Spain.
What, uh, I mean, we have our own personal
opinions here, but what, what is your
opinion on that and what are the risks?
Because we think it's a risk to bring
someone who don't know the community.
We don't even know if
they speak the language.
So what, what, what is your
recommendation on your advisor?
The condition would be, uh, a, a, a club.
Let's say that the area
is unfamiliar with paddle.
You know, it's not like a Miami
or anything like that, which I'm
sure you have that issue in Katy
or Denver or, you know, yeah.
And the, the number one, um, challenge
is I think if they don't know the
area, they're gonna miss home.
That's my number one.
Uh, and whether it's someone coming
from Miami to Houston or from Miami
to Denver, it it's not that easy
especially, and I'm gonna guess that
most of his coaches are gonna be
probably in their twenties or thirties.
Maybe they have a family
or maybe they don't.
If they bring their family, it's gonna
be a little bit easier because they
have someone that they know already.
If they don't have a family, it's not that
easy to just, you know, transport yourself
from one area of the country or from a
different country and then go to another
place where you don't know anybody.
So that is the, the thing that is,
you know, the most challenging.
That's one.
Two is how are people in that area?
You know, I grew up in Buenos Aires and
very different than Wilton, Connecticut.
And, and actually I moved from,
from Buenos Aires to Bismarck, North
Dakota, which was very different.
Mm-hmm.
And, and I didn't go back, but, and
it's, it's, it's a, that's a very,
you know, hard challenge to get
past for someone moving from one
area to to, to another new area.
The language is another one.
And then knowing how people are, you
know, and I'll give you an example.
I would go to take a lesson in
Argentina and then you kiss your, you
know, your coaches in on the cheek
and that's normal, you know, whether
it's an adult, he's in the, the kids
when they come to take a tennis lesson
or a pilot lesson, and that's normal.
So if a coach does that in Connecticut,
you know, they, they may put 'em in jail.
I know.
So.
No, but it's culture.
Culture there.
It's culture.
Yeah.
So, uh, and tell us what were
your challenges now to fill
these clubs with coaches?
I mean, where'd you get 'em from?
Uh, I, a lot of it, you know, I reach
out to a lot of people with emails,
like, you know, Hey, and I posted online
and, and then I forward that post.
To, um, to people that
I knew from that area.
And he said, Hey, do you
know anyone in this area?
Like I need, you know, a friend of
mine in Houston, it didn't work out,
but I said, do you know anyone in
this area who might be interested?
And I did that over and over again.
I posted on LinkedIn, I sent emails,
and then eventually some were good.
Um, you know, luckily in, in Denver,
funny enough, I hired someone.
I made an offer.
He accepted and three
days later he said no.
And then I hire the second
guy who is unbelievable.
He is one of the best hires I've ever
done, so I'm so glad that it works.
Do you see a, a big turnover in
coaches, like the, you know, they get
into the job and the quality as well?
It's a big turnover and the quality.
How, how, how you see that?
Yeah.
You know, you have to, there's,
it's very hard to find the perfect.
Coach slash manager or depending
on their position and, but I always
think that, you know, people can
learn if they have the right attitude.
So I rather hire someone with the right
attitude that I can coach as a coach than
having someone with a lot of experience
who doesn't have the right attitude.
Suddenly willing that you're able to mold.
Right.
And they are willing to learn.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If they're willing to learn,
they have the right attitude.
And those are the best people
in any position, whether it's a
coach or front desk or manager.
And in terms of turnover.
And in Atlanta, we had, uh, one coach
that left and he was actually good for him
because he was, um, living really close
to bad house in Atlanta and he made more
sense for him to go to pal house than
to drive 45 minutes to come to our club.
So, uh, and whenever someone
leaves, uh, I never get upset.
Because look, if you, you are better
off with someone who is, who is not very
good leaves, then if they stay and if
someone is very good and they live good
for them, you know, so when someone moves
on for whatever reason, it's, it's fine.
I, I, I tend, yeah, I may get
upset for a little, but then,
you know, I understand it.
So what do you see in the
future for record social?
Is, are you guys gonna keep growing?
Are you planning, do you have any juicy.
News that you can share with us.
Uh, are there more clubs coming?
Uh, what is the vision Cheese Me?
Yeah.
And not nothing juicy.
And, you know, we have the, we
wanted to open the, these four
clubs and the four clubs are open.
There was a big transition with me coming
in with the aqua, you know, with the
acquisition of the club in, in Atlanta.
And that was still a big, big undertaking.
You know, having a, a club that big.
And, and then opening Katie.
So now, and we opened Katie
very successfully with a hundred
members, which was unbelievable.
I'm, I'm so proud of the team
that, you know, we, we did a
lot of hard work to get there.
And now since all those, you know,
players and members and even some
non-members have started playing in the
last few days and are, are trusting us.
So now we need to show them that.
When they're gonna come, they're
gonna have a great experience.
Um, and that's what you know is happening
for us, you know, creating the best
experience possible in all the clubs and,
and constantly adjusting, adapting, and
making the, the, you know, the paddle,
the tournaments, the events, the clinics
better, that that's what we wanna do
for people to come and enjoy their time.
And feel like, you know, they're
getting their minds worth and then
they cannot wait to come back.
And so that's, that's
the goal for this year.
Um, we're always looking and open to
opportunities, but there's nothing that
is happening in the next few months.
Yeah.
Patricia, I have a question for you.
Um, and I know you're consulting
and involved in the industry.
Uh, you know, there is two big
platforms, right, that do the
processing of credit cards and
transactions and also the scheduling.
Is there an alternative to that?
You know, an alternative for a
club to avoid, let's just say
high cost of pro, of processing.
Uh, you know, this is like anywhere
from three to 4% gross on their revenue,
uh, which, which can be a lot of money.
Is there an alternative to that?
I've been thinking about this for the
last year and trying to figure it out.
I, I may have a couple alternatives, but
those platforms have a lot of amenities.
That people may not wanna pull away from.
Um, but some big clubs, you
know, are paying, you know, over
five, eight, $10,000 a month.
Yeah.
And look, it's, it's, in a way, it's
the, it is the cost of doing business.
And when you get close to, you
know, anything above 3.5%, I
think it's on the higher side.
And, but as your.
If your revenue increases, then you can,
you know, negotiate a lower percentage.
And I was able to negotiate at
the time, you know, less than 3%.
And that, at the end of the
day, makes a difference.
Um, but they're not gonna give you
a lesser rate if you don't show
them that the revenues are high.
But yeah, it's the concept of
doing business to an extent.
You see another alternative, you
know, uh, then using those platforms.
There are a lot of alternatives,
uh, and in terms of, you know,
using that is liable for club.
Yeah, there, there's a lot of them.
I, I did so many demos and there's a
lot of them, and the one thing I'll
say for anyone who wants to listen
and maybe you'll get a and two views
or a Android or a thousand, I don't
know about whoever is watching this.
If, if you're thinking about choosing
one platform, I think it needs to be,
and I'm not, you know, pushing one
or the other, I just think that it
needs to be the platform that support
your business another way around.
So if you know what you wanna do
with your club, with your business,
then try to find something that
is going to help you do that.
And a lot of times what happens
is, at least it happened to me, I
had these amazing ideas and thought
I saw and thought, I thought that
those were great ideas, but then
they could not be implemented.
So you have to look for a solution
that actually supports your vision and
not you adjusting your business to a
platform, because then it's probably not
what you wanted to do with a business.
And, but there's a lot of, a lot of,
um, different, um, platforms out there.
So Rocket Social, what
platforms are they using?
What are using in Houston?
Play Dominic, for both clubs.
In Atlanta and Denver, uh,
we're using play by point.
Why is that?
Why not centralize everything in onto one?
Um, for many different reasons.
And we thought that the Houston on
Community was gonna benefit from using,
uh, Playtonic more than play by point.
And so we do a things a little bit
different there in, in, in Houston,
um, the Denver and the Alpharetta.
Um.
Locations use play by point, and it's
not, you know, you can say, oh, it's
much easier to use one, but we don't
have a crossover from players in Houston.
We do that.
Use both clubs now.
I think we will.
And, but we don't have members from
Denver who go to Atlanta to play.
So you can actually run them in, in,
in know, independently from China.
Yeah.
But for you guys, or especially for
you, going back to the analytics, you
have to dig into, learn two complete
different platforms and how to go into
the analytics and read them and understand
them instead of just having one.
Okay.
I am gonna tell you a little bit
of a secret, so I do go into the
backend of both and I understand
them, but we have our own dashboard.
So we pull all the data from Playtonic
and play by point, and we build our own
dashboard with data that we wanna see.
That is not necessarily the data
that Playtonic or Play by Point
show because you know, that's,
that's what you use both, right?
We all it.
I used all of it, but what we did is,
you know, I wanna see specific data and
play Atomic shows it in one way and play
by point shows it in a different way.
So we pull all the data.
We have someone that is putting all
of this information together, and
then it fits into this, um, dashboard.
Then I can go and then play around with
it, and I, and I look at it every day.
And we also have some, you know,
QuickBooks and Stripe transactions
that pull directly into there.
It has our CRM, um, platform.
We don't use the CRM from Play
by point or, or platonic, so
it's a different platform.
That also fits all this information
into one place, tracks all the paid
media, all the analytics, all the email
marketing campaigns and and whatnot.
So yeah, it's all in, in one place.
So you have another team that
works only on the CRM portion,
because that's a very crucial, you
know, uh, aspect of the business.
Yeah, we do, we have email automations.
We have an email marketing team that, you
know, it works on the, the communication.
Then all the automations and all
this data, it gets pulled from
platonic play by point, and then
we use the CRM and then that CRM
data then feed into this dashboard.
So very complicated.
I am, I didn't put it
together, but I used it.
But the, but the challenges with the CRM,
it's, it's each community, each state has
a different, complete different needs.
So, so you have a, a, a team for each
community or how, how do you do it?
Because Texas will have some needs.
Denver will have different
needs, same thing as Georgia.
So we have a marketing team, and
then the club director of each
location is the one that communicates
directly with the marketing team.
Tells them exactly what we need
in that location, and then the
marketing team puts it together.
Wow.
That's, uh, so you're working 26 hours
a day, eight days a week, pretty much.
Yeah, I do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I can do, I can do all of this.
So I, what I did, a lot of the things that
I did is putting together all the systems.
Yeah.
And then coming up with,
you know, the process.
So then the club director submits,
you know, two emails a week, one
middle of the week, one on weekends,
you know, and 48 to 72 hours before.
The, the schedule, you know,
release date of that email.
It needs to be, um, proofread
and designed everything.
You know, we test it and then it goes to
the marketing, the, you know, they put it
together in the CRM and then it goes out.
But I, I don't do that, but I did tell
them when it needed to be done by,
and, and you know, what information
and how to structure the emails
and, you know, things like that.
Are you guys implementing,
um, AI in any system?
Yeah.
We, we are developing
some really cool tools.
Um, some of them are already, you
know, the, the WhatsApp, um, um, AI
chatbot that we have on our side.
And, but yeah, we're working
on some, some new things.
Yeah.
Anything else that, anything
else that you'd like to add, you
know, to to the, to the podcast?
Do you wanna talk about something else?
Um, yeah, I wanted to actually thank
you guys for, because you know, you were
telling that I was like a trailblazer.
Well.
I look at both of you as a trailblazers.
Oh, thank, thank you.
No, but you know, I'm not, you know,
I'm no, no jokes or anything like that.
You guys are, you are like the
first, at least that I knew in
the US to start in talking and
putting content out there for bad.
And yeah, that's what
we've been working hard.
And, uh, spending a lot of his money.
Money, yes.
Time, time, time.
Endless time.
And, and, and building the team, like same
thing that, that you are doing, you know,
go going from what, four clubs in Miami?
Yeah.
To now like the whole country Yeah.
Knows about battle and now we're happy,
we're reaching almost about to hopefully
the half a million subscribers in YouTube.
So we're the number one.
Yeah.
Battle YouTube channel in the
world in English and Spanish.
So that's, that's, that's only hard work.
And, and we're on the same
ecosystem and we're trying to help
each other, you know, so Yeah.
I know.
It's, it's a, it's a small community
and, uh, yeah, I, and I still see it in
a way that for a while we all have to.
Each other, other, and I don't see
as someone, if they were to open a
club next door and we actually do it,
for example, in, in, um, well in Cton
and in Denver, uh, I know the club
directors are both at those locations.
They're in constant contact with the
other clubs and trying to collaborate
and then helping, you know, to get
their sign up for their USPA events.
So there's one, one USPA event
in then where we, we held our
first one, the first one in, in
the state of Colorado in January.
We had 38 players, which was, I
thought it was incredible that we
had so many, especially the week
after New Year's, which was a top
week to promote prior to that.
So now we're trying to get the, the other
clubs that have an event now, our players
to go and participate in the USPA event.
You know, I see that, you know, we need to
grow the community, more players involved,
and then there's gonna be a time for more
competitive and, you know, atmosphere.
But even then.
People are gonna come and use
your services, use your club,
participate, you know, in your events
if you offer them a good service.
Yeah.
If you provide a good experience.
And that's, that's on us.
So, yeah.
Well, thank you for,
for starting the trend.
Yeah, of course.
Re well, I mean, thank you so much
for taking the time to, to talk to us.
I think this is gonna be so helpful
for the, the new upcoming owners.
Yeah.
Huddle Club, you know, entrepreneurs and.
We're trying to bring the awareness
there and, and the challenges that
you are having managing four clubs
and, and the whole ecosystem of,
you know, people and all that.
So, but thank you so much and,
and hopefully we'll see you.
Are you coming to Rocket XI, yes.
I'm gonna be there for a few days.
I think I'm arriving a day before.
Hopefully I can play some parallel
the day before and, and I may play at
maybe one match and in the XCL event.
That the NPL is running with, uh,
clubs during Rack X. So I think
I'm gonna play one match, probably.
We'll see.
Great.
Well looking forward to seeing you in
a couple of weeks and, uh, keep up the
great work and keep sharing the, uh,
love for paddle to, to our community.
Patricia, congratulations
on everything Congrat.