Welcome, Brace, and Guest Intro

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hi, I'm Shelly Mauer. And I'm Cher Emmerich. Welcome to Life Lessons from Pickleball. Where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_04 0:15

Welcome to Life Lessons from Pickleball, everyone. We're so glad you joined us. And for those of you who are watching on YouTube, you may notice that Shelly has a very serious brace on her neck because she had a very serious fall in the Swiss mountains while she was hiking. And we're so glad you're with us, Shelley. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. And we're also glad to have with us Riley Palmer, better known as Smiley Riley.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

You've spent five years pouring yourself into pickleball as a player, coach, mentor, USAP ambassador, traveling coach, and we can find you on yacht trips.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

And now you're launching the very courts you sourced and designed to play in Croatia. You're launching them here in the States and maybe other places. We're going to hear all about that. But we really love your heart for growing the game.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Thank you. That has definitely been my mission. So you just saying that like right off the bat makes my eyes watery.

Pickleball After Divorce: Finding Healing

SPEAKER_04 1:20

Yes. Well, we also know that your eyes might be watering because you have met a very cool guy that you knew before, and there's a story there, but you are in love. And we asked, would you share it? Because we know there's also a pickleball story there. So give us the scoop.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Okay, so I uh I was formerly married, and you can find little blessings in life. When I got divorced, I started playing pickleball like a lot of people. And pickleball has I that really truly is like why I have so much passion for this game, because um I use a term like I traded in court for being on court. So it made that process very easy, actually is painful after that long. Um, and so that's why I think I have so much passion when I'm on the court, when I'm coaching, when I'm talking about it, how I want to be incorporated and all the aspects of it. It actually truly came from heartbreak. Um, but my love came when I got on that court and it allowed me to just breathe and focus on getting healthy and meeting people and building, rebuilding myself like in my late, you know, my 40s, my late 40s now. So um, and through that blessing, I got to reconnect with a former classmate of mine, and his name is Ben, and Ben truly is great, but it was not always that great, so I didn't tell you that part. Um, we actually started dating about gosh, it

The Love Story: From Classmates to Partners

SPEAKER_01 3:00

was like six months after my divorce. And um he didn't want to play pickleball. That's no, I've been blunt. He he wasn't interested in it. And you know, this is we're talking like early 20, this is 2021. And he was under, you know, under the belief that this is not an active sport, and I don't, and he wasn't necessarily, he looks, he looks like he probably played professional volleyball. He did not, he did not do a ton of sports, but he just wasn't interested in it. And he had a lot of other things happening, like moving and he has a daughter and whatnot. So um I was kind of thinking, like, I want to give you like free lessons. Like, I'm a single mom, I'm not like throwing out free lessons. Like, people are like, Can you donate a free lesson? I'm like, uh, but I was like, Oh, I'll just teach you, like, just come to the park. And then I even tried, like, you should come to the park. There's tons of other young guys there too. Like, I'm like, can I can I told that aspect? Like, is anything? And he didn't want to. And so I didn't, I still don't really have a big TikTok channel at all. I just like all this other stuff is so much to focus on. But I made a video on my Instagram and TikTok, and it cracks me up because I had done hot yoga, I came home and I looked like garbage. Like I my face is still red, I've been sweating. And I also had this like epiphany. I wanted to make this video because I felt like things weren't gonna work out with us, and I was upset. And so I threw like this tantrum. I have like a plastic wine glass, and I'm sitting right where I am now, and I titled it when the person you want to date doesn't want to play pickleball with you. And I kind of stomp and I take the glass and I throw it and it bounces off the ground. I put my hand on my hip and I like shake my head and I posted it. And he like sent me a message. He's like, that kind of hurt my feelings. And I was like, I just want you to play pickleball with me. And it was really, really funny. So then, fast forward, so we kind of like things just kind of I needed more time in my divorce, and he had been divorced longer than me. I think he also knew I probably needed more time. Yeah, and so we reconnected two years later, and it went like this. Hey, would you like to take a pickleball lesson? Yes. When? Tomorrow?

unknown 5:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

And uh fast forward now it's been two years, and he played tournament with my daughter. Um, he comes and trains with me, and it's tons of fun.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

And you guys knew each other from seventh grade.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah. Oh my god. And I had a crush on him back then too. We still have our yearbooks that we signed each other, and oh that is so cute.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

Thank you for sharing that. That's really heartwarming, and I love your video. I mean, I think that would go viral because everybody gets that. It's like, I want somebody who plays pickleball.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

I should replay it because I posted it in like 2021, and a lot's changed since then. You should play it. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna, I will. You just remind me to do it, but I have to make sure he knows. Like space space, it's just old footage. Um, but it was very raw. It was like a true, and I took like what was actually weighing heavy on me because I felt like, don't you want to play pickleball with me? And turned it into

Becoming a Coach and Entrepreneur

SPEAKER_01 6:30

like kind of a joke, sarcastic moment.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

So that's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

So how did you get into coaching?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Uh well, I started getting coaching. And the more I started getting coaching, you know, I started doing a lot of tournaments, and just like almost everybody I know that's in pickleball, we basically are like mouth vomiting to everyone we know about how much we want them to come play pickleball. Like, I was just like, you and you, and you and you, you should be doing it. And I um started just teaching people how to play for free, and which I enjoyed doing, but I have been an entrepreneur pretty much my entire life. Since I was 21, I started my own company. And then uh in 2012, I started my own jewelry company where helped design, manufacture, stores, um, and it blew up into a huge international with Canada, Puerto Rico, um, and the United States and Mexico being all sales territory. So I was taking this time between my divorce to kind of like figure out what do I do. I had my daughters most of the time. I have three teenage daughters, and I was like, why am I not charging? Like, my time is valuable. Why don't I get certified? And when I do something, I don't go small. Like I wanted to work hard. So I started looking to coaches that I found that I was watching online, and I started just like following their videos. Like, if they could report like a stalker for how much time I spent on like Mark Price's videos, um Zayn Avertal, like all of those videos, I just was like, I couldn't get enough of it. But then I reached out um to another coach, uh, Matt Payne Gasser, who just wrote the um entire training for the Pickler. He was running pickleball, cabo pickleball. And I went down there and trained under him and coached the multi-day clinics, and it was fabulous. Like I just couldn't stop taking in more information. And I looked to the best coaches. We have Vicky Foster out here, who I do think is one of the best female coaches. She's um works with Sarah Ansberry for the PPR, and I just wanted to be one of those coaches, and I wanted to be a better player, and all of those things were working together, and so as I was building my playing career, I was building my coaching career, and I wanted to build it into a business, and I didn't know quite what facet, and I'm still doing all of that, so that's uh it's the entrepreneur in me that thought, like, Audie Shucks, like this should be what I'm doing for work right now.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Wow. What a great way to turn your passion into career. I mean, that's

Croatia Connections and Early Events

SPEAKER_04 9:20

everybody's dream is to be able to say I'm not working a day in my life because I love what I do. Good for you. And as an entrepreneur and innovator, you have designed and created the most fascinating court. So tell us about your floating court. How what even inspired the idea and how did you do this?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Sure. So I um I have to give some credit to someone named Zogomir, um, who uh owns a company called Via Croatia, and they have a yacht charter company in Croatia, which I had gone on a trip to Croatia. My mom, first of all, loved her to pieces. She's my best friend. Uh, admire her. She has been a charter agent for years and running like 30-person trips all over places. And so she's done these yacht charters, and she was kind of teaching me the ropes. So I went to Croatia, and prior to going, I did what any pickleball player would do is I searched who plays pickleball in Croatia. How can I find you? How can we be best friends? Where can I play? And um, it put me in touch with someone named Ivan and someone named Mirjana, and they were literally the people that, in my opinion, that put Croatia on the map for pickleball. They she is dual citizenship in Canada, and she played here, and she was like, I want everybody to play pickleball in Croatia. Um, geographically, Croatia is very long, and then it kind of comes in. There was just courts indoors in Zagreb at the time. And so I was like, Can can I please play with you guys somewhere on my itinerary while I'm there? Like, I will have withdrawals. Or I'm like worried if I don't play for two weeks, I'm gonna come and not know how to hit a pickleball anymore. And so um I went there, they hosted uh Croatia's first ever pickleball competition. There was about 30 of us there, someone from Italy, England, Belgium. Um, I got to meet them. It was at a facility called Apfel Arena in Markaska. They had news, it was on the cover of their news. Oh, it was very, very cool. And I would like to point out they just opened Europe's largest pickleball facility. They have the largest pickleball plane almost in all of Europe. Oh my gosh! It's a golf work facility, absolutely beautiful. Check it out on my Instagram. Um, and Ivan is running it, so it's like very near and dear to see the explosion over there. So

The Floating Court Idea Takes Shape

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I decided I want to do a pickleball trip themed the next year, but there were no pickleball courts like by the coast at that time. They opened two and broch at this point. Now they do, but other than that, there wasn't anything at the time. So as I was working with Zavomir and trying to really help, he didn't know what pickleball was, nobody had a clue. Trying to explain to him, like, pickleball players want to play pickleball. He's like, but this is Croatia, like it's the prettiest country, it's the safest country, like they're gonna want to go. I was like, I know they do, and they will, but they also need a certain amount of pickleball injected into their bodies during this trip. We learned, like, if I could show you our text exchange, like at some points they were heated because I was like, no, you don't, like, you don't get it. He's like, you don't get it. You know, I was like, but they need it. So as we're trying to come up, because we had to tape all these courts. I mean, we are down on the ground taping tennis courts, sweating, um, you know, third world style. He had he had proposed me, he said, gosh, what if we could have something float? And I was like, oh my gosh. So I started sending him over schematics and what we would need and how it would play, and you know, how could this possibly work off of this shit? How thick would it need to be? How would we contain the balls? And so, you know, we kind of as a team at that point, you know, he he came to me. How do we work this problem out? We figured out how to work this problem out, and I was nervous as all get out to get on that court the first time. I thought, what if this is just very novel, very dangerous, and it was novel, not dangerous. In fact, it was the opposite. I have like this client, Debbie, we call her lipstick because she always has perfect lipstick. She went down, I mean, she went into the split. She is 70-something years old and was a dancer her whole life. I mean, you could move. You if you fall, it doesn't matter. You get back up. There's all this give. But it ended up being so fun, and we had so many competitive points. Um, and we ended up playing on it. It stayed up during the day, then overnight to the next day. You want to see friends get a little sassy, don't like they're like, my paddle was here, my paddle was here. Like, we played on that thing for like 18 hours straight. And it was a blast. And so when I did the trip the next year, the company I was going with didn't have a court. And so I worked with a redesign, the things I wanted to enhance from the first one, what I thought could make it better, sourced um a manufacturer, built a relationship, and now I've just designed my third generation of them, which I'm very excited. So, what's changing?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Oh, you don't want to say.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

No, no, no, no. I I mean I can tell I can tell you some of it. So um, well, we have uh increased the thickness on them. So the first thickness, I mean, we've increased it by 10 centimeters. So it's like the it's kind of like a paddle board, so it's not a surface that's flappy or anything like that, it's very solid.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Um, so the one that we had to rent it in Washington is the first generation. So this one now is 10 centimeters thicker. Um, we have changed.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

Which hang on

First Plays, Safety, and Real-World Tests

SPEAKER_04 15:30

just a minute. So the 10 centimeters thicker. So we so maybe it'd be good to first describe what it is right now. So right now there's netting around. Uh it it's it's a solid surface, it may go up and down with the water, but when you step on it, that doesn't make it move.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Only if you're like you can do that for kind of a for fun, for effect. So there are definitely times where we would try to do this to make it kind of move and make it hard on like the server. Um but yeah, in in Washington, it's actually so in the bay, the waves just kind of go and they're gone. In Washington, it's a little different because they hit against the wall and then they kind of come back again. But everybody we interviewed, they're like the ball bounces the same as it does on land.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

It's just you have to, it is a core workout, like you probably burn 20% more calories doing it because you do have to stay a little bit lower with it. Okay, so there's more movement in Washington than in Croatia because the bays are pretty calm. Oh, so it has a um, it's a full-size court, full size court. What's around? It's only like 30 by 60. Wow. So it's big, and then um it's actually a rectangle, but then the barriers come around the sides, and you can either do like a tube that's I think it's two and a half feet, and so now you're already you're getting pretty high up there. That goes around the side as a barrier, or there's ones that has the netted walls, and they're on panels, so you can remove the panel wherever you need to remove the panel. Okay, wherever you need it, and then we added in some straps that hold the nets on both sides. Uh-huh. So we added D rings, we added extra inflation ports so that you can get it inflated quicker and deflated quicker.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

And um, extra hinges for when you're weighing it down with anchors. So um, and we've added in other ways for logoing and colors and branding. Like if you have a company and your company's colors are this palette, or you need a design, we can custom all that into.

SPEAKER_04 17:43

Is the court itself we've heard about pop-up courts where they come and they kind of snap all the squares together to create. Yeah. Is that what you have on top of your um inflatable base?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

No, it just if you had played on like a um, or sorry, if you've been on a floating paddle board or you've seen it, it is that same kind of hard base. Oh, okay. And

Gen 3 Design: What’s Improved

SPEAKER_01 18:10

then it actually has a kind of non-slip, even though you still can slip as you. I mean, that's part of the fun. You can literally dive for the ball. You do. I mean, that is like one of the most fun parts is diving for the ball. But it has a non-slip like UV base to it. I'm gonna show you right here. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, so yeah, you can kind of see it. It goes on the side, or it can go to a port, or it could go into your dock, whatever. Is it attached to the boat? This one is, it's just tethered on both sides of the boat. Um, and then it kind of has like this over area so you can jump on and off.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

Um so an ATP, you do an ATP and you jump in the water and hit it around the uh around the post.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, have you not seen that video? Is honestly what led me um to do all of this was because uh my friend Brad went to Croatia the first year, and someone we were filming like a live stream, and people are like, oh my gosh, that looks like so much fun. Like, we dare someone to do an ATP. And so my friend Brad, I'm not gonna lie, I tried to do it, but I'm too sure. I like felt like it pushed me right back into the court. I didn't make it, and so he's like six feet tall, six feet four. Wow, and we're like, okay, let's have Brad do it. So then Brad does this ATP. Hang on, this is kind of fun.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

ATP, by the way, for those who might not know, is hitting the ball around the pole of the net rather than over the net. And as long as that goes in the court on the other side, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yes, I'm trying to see if this is the one that has him do it. Oh, it's not. Well, so Brad does this ATP and it goes completely crazy viral, and it's over 25 million hits on it, and so I'm just like, this is crazy. And people are just responding like, how do I buy that? I want that for my lake house, and this looks like so much fun. Cedric the Entertainer show reached out and all these job magazines. And so I was staying with one of my good girlfriends. I've been involved with the business world and networking, and I was like, I wish I could just like sell these and let people play on them and have so much fun. And you know, I'm like, that would just be great. And then we um she called me that night and she's like, Can you come over tomorrow? And I was like, Yeah, and we just have worked side by side, um, amazing friend, amazing business partners, her and her husband.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

So wow, and so you you did the your first one in Croatia.

How It Plays on Water vs Land

SPEAKER_04 21:00

Sorry, Shelly, did you start to ask a question?

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Oh, I was just saying, wow, because that was my question, is what made her want to start selling them? And that was an incredible story. That was it. The ATP and it went viral, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah, just that interest that was garnered from it. I thought, like, I'm just all of a sudden, all I can see is like lakefront properties, and you know, people are talking, like, I'm looking at video, I'm like, wait, is that a lakefront property? Like, I'm looking and I'm thinking hotels and um all these opportunities where it's not only exceptionally fun to do and play on, it really also is like a floating billboard. So there's just monster opportunities for companies to um put their signage on these and sponsor events and have so much social media shares. Like in Renton, uh, just a guest that was eating at the Dockside Harbor posted a video. She only had like 600 followers, and to date has like 280,000 people that have watched it. It's been shared like 3,400 times, it's been bookmarked, and like their lodging has all gone up. I bet just like now, all of a sudden their hotel and resort just got put on the map. It's a kind of small little place off of Lake Washington. Um, so yeah, I mean, there's a lot of opportunity for it outside of just the personal use or the rental, and you can put it on the ground, like you could take it, inflate it in an hour and a half because it just stays inflated, it's not a constant inflator. Oh so you could literally put it on the ground play and you have a built-in boundary already around it, and it's it's ready to go. So, but that it's heavy, it weighs a lot because it's very it's industrial grade.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Sure. That's what I was gonna say. How did you what did it look like getting it to the hotel in Lake Washington?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Um, it looked like something I didn't have to see. But I it does come in like it comes in a wooden crate. Oh, gets shipped in a wooden crate. We got some cool logo stuff going even on our crates because my partner Jamie is very fancy like that. Um, so it takes a team to get it out. It it wasn't as difficult for them though, because you could inflate it on the ground and then put it in. When you're doing it like right off your boats, it's tougher because there's certain logistics and it has to be a crew that handles like putting out large equipment like slides and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

How much does it weigh?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yeah, I think it's 1400 pounds.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

It's heavy. Do people need certain permits to be able to put something like that on the water?

SPEAKER_01 23:44

So it depends on where you're at. Like in uh the hyatt, they got through city permits, and this is interesting. They did it actually. If you see like your little hospitality tax that you pay um when you stay somewhere, the state

Virality, Demand, and Business Model

SPEAKER_01 24:00

uses that money for grants for places like this to put out something that brings attention to the cities, by the way. So they're kind of on board because of the promotion for their city to build.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Um, if you are in a private community, you have to kind of look at what rights you have. The other thing I will say, it is interesting, and I pointed this out to Jamie when we went to Washington and played, or Seattle, is the noise of the ball is drowned out by the absorption of the ocean. Like we had people go stand right where the dockside restaurant was, and you can't hear the ball the same as if you're on a concrete surface in a building or all on the park where it's a concrete jungle per se. Um, so that's interesting and a huge bonus. It's not like you're hearing click, click, click, click, click. It's absorbed in that area and around it, which is a huge blessing.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

That is that's really good to know because that would be something that people would say, oh man, having that w noise on the water and all. But yeah, I can appreciate that that would totally absorb that sound. Yeah, I do love that sound. And when you're on the court, you hear it, but you just don't hear it when you're not on the court. Yeah. Could you even use your court, your inflatable court on land as well as absolutely, yeah, and that's one of the cool parts.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

I mean, if you wanted to just be able to put pop it up, like I've done convention center events, and they brought in the plug-it one, and they have to build it and they take it apart, and then they need to bring in boundaries. So this is just like you bring it in, inflate it up, and it's ready to go. And it does have a lot of, it has some give in it. So people are like, oh, that would break my ankle. It's actually the opposite, like those jarring movements don't happen the same. Uh, and then the people will say, like, well, does it play the same as on the ground? It doesn't play the same on the ground. Um, that what would be the it wouldn't be, it makes it different. It makes it a little bit more lighthearted and fun. Um, but we had some serious rallies. Um, actually, Chris Haridine coached a trip this summer. Um, if you don't know who Chris is, he's a great person, but um he is Colin John's coach. Him and Colin Johns own a coaching company together. He does their pickleball getaways, he does U.S. pickleball camps, and he was like, This court is amazing, like so much fun to play on. Yeah, how you ladies need to play on it. It's so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Yeah, yeah, go down to the rent and court. Yeah, and can people play on that court if they're not staying at the hotel?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can just book it right through their website. I think it's coming down for the season, it's about to come down, and then it will be back uh in like May, something like that.

Logistics, Permits, and Noise Benefits

SPEAKER_04 27:00

When the weather gets nice again. Although it's still pretty nice right now, I have to say. Knock on wood, we're all in Seattle area, so that's what I hear is that it's been really nice.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

So still nice, and we are still really hot here. I know you're in uh Scottsdales, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

My son's Phoenix. Yep, it's hot there. Jeez. Yeah. So are where are you? Are you selling all over the world yet?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Uh well, I've had people reach out from different areas in the Caribbean. Um, I had someone reach out in Poland and Venice. So definitely like people are kind of curious. Like, how does this work? Um, what I can say is there's a lot that goes into designing. It kind of seems easy. Like, um, we actually ordered one from a company that was like using my photos, and we wanted to see what it would, and they had it priced at some price. I was like, how is this possible? Um, so I kind of want to see what you would get and what you got. We took pictures of it. You're gonna get kind of what you pay for. So it's kind of fun to know that you know, I've worked to make sure that's kind of what my my sales part is, is that this is not just made by like an inflatable company that makes bouncy houses and does this for business. This is made by someone who plays the game, loves the game, wants it to be accurate, wants it to, you know, play how I would want to. And so that's the biggest difference for it. So um, I'm excited. Like, I want to go to like when I have my jewelry company, I remember I was in Orlando at um Disneyland, and the girl next to me was wearing one of my necklaces. Oh I looked over and I was like, that's so fun. And of course, it had the logo on the back of it, and I was like, This is my jewelry company. So I'm hoping I would love to be like when I went to Renton, I was like, Oh, this is so fun, it's great.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

So yeah, that has to be very rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, I was that's what I'm hoping to get to see is like the joy and watching people laugh and have fun out there.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Well, I can't wait to play on one. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

I was gonna say we could go to Croatia. You saw the yield, those are beautiful trips.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Oh, have you always had this entrepreneurial spirit even as a kid?

SPEAKER_01 29:25

You know, I I don't know if like as a kid, I wasn't the kid who was like out doing lemonade stands. I mean, I did. I don't know if I did them well. I didn't like my oldest daughter, she was a hustler. Like she'd have a lemonade stand, but then she would color like this really, sorry, Maddie, but she colored these like really ugly pictures. And she's like, if you get lemonade, you get to take a piece of my artwork. And then my my other daughter, Bryson, she is working at an ice cream shop and she put a note like, if you tip, I'll sing a song. And then she had like a note that says,

Global Interest and Build Quality

SPEAKER_01 30:00

I'm Brighton, I'll sing a song. Like it's been in the family genes, but I definitely like had a work ethic. We still, you know, it was like for me, starting work at 14 was just what we did. Wow. And so I kind of had that instilled in me. And then once I got a taste of working for myself, I was like, this is hard to go. I worked in technology in the Bay Area for a long time. I'm like, this would be very difficult to change it. But obviously, when you have your own company, there's a lot of work and you know pressure that comes in that as well.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

So being your own bus is wonderful, but boy, you're wearing all the hats too. So big thing. So man gosh, what an amazing life you've had. I love that you're in love right now and that you've found this person that you've known have a shared history with, and he plays pickleball now and loves it too. So what are some of the lessons, life lessons that you've learned? Maybe you learned it while you were on the court. Playing, coaching on the water, or life lessons that you learned in life that you find yourself using on the court. What are some life lessons you can share?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Well, I think definitely like it's never too late to start. Like it's never too late to start um finding your passion. I think I absolutely have like loved, I one of my favorite things in life has been being a mom. And I was lucky that I had a I had time to be heavily involved, like in their Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout troop leader for like 14 years. I was a Sunday school teacher, um, their young women's teacher for a very long time, you know, going PTO, running the school festivals, um, and to a fault almost, because when you start to, you know, when you when you get divorced and you have to restart and you're kind of thinking like, this is who I've been. Like even my my voicemail used to say, hi, you've reached um the mom to show like I kind of like had lost a little bit of like who am I? And I loved where I was. But it was that reminder of like our job is to get them to flick the fly, right? Like my oldest is now uh 21. She lives in Boise and she's a farm to table girl, she's got a garden, and and she sells her sunflower seeds, and like I mean, to see the joy and like the fact that I was able to launch that child and have her do that, it became very apparent to me like I can't put everything on them. Like, I'm gonna have to find myself and like what makes me happy because I can't pressure them to make me happy because they're gonna stop doing sports and most things are gonna change. And so I think like learning that we don't have to feel guilty or selfish for wanting to like find something that brings

Life Lessons from the Court

SPEAKER_01 33:00

a lot of fun and joy and healthy benefits to us was you know, that was a huge thing. I felt guilty about wanting to all of a sudden find what I had. And I have watched it happen in a tremendous amount of my clients that are coming from loss, loss of a child, spouse, um, addiction, recovery, divorce. Um, I've also seen people in their second marriages, which I'm like, aha! Second time's a charm. I don't know, I don't know. See. Um, and so I think um just a you know, that's a reminder to me of like it's not too late. Take time to like know who you are because at the end of the day, like if we're healthy, it just makes us just better in general. So I think that's definitely been like a huge takeaway for me. And then just watching it happen in other people's lives. I mean, I've I have a lady who came to me, she's been divorced for about 15 years, she's hasn't played tennis in 30 years. She um is out of shape at the moment, and she just said, I just want to get myself back. And within the first lesson, her strokes were coming back, and she had this big smile on her face, and then her next lesson, her smile is even bigger. I actually need to have a video of her and I like she's giving me this big hug at the end, and she's out there, like she's restarting herself and refinding, like, okay, she's close to my age, like she wants to be healthy and active. And I told her, I'm like, if you feel good right now, in an hour, your dopamine's gonna kick in and you're gonna be counting down until your next lesson because you're gonna feel even better then. And so, you know, being able to find I feel a bit like Phoebe from Friends. Yeah, I don't know if you saw the episode where like she feels guilty because like she feels good doing things for people. So she decides to let a bee sting her because she's like, Oh, if I let the bee sting me, it feels good, but then I don't feel good, but then she realized bees die after taste, and she's like, shoot. But I do tell my clients a lot, like I feel kind of selfish because I get so much joy out of seeing you guys have such great experiences.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

So that's it's very fun to be able to have that opportunity too. Well, people are so lucky to have you in Scottsdale.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

So lucky, so lucky, yeah. And so have you as a guest and to share your stories and your incredible creativity and your amazing floating court. So, how can people find you? You mentioned you are on social media. So, how can people find you and then how can people learn more about your courts?

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Sure. So, my hand I try to keep things simple. My handle's smiley Riley Pickleball. Nice, that's on Instagram. Um, on LinkedIn, it's going to be Riley Palmer.

Where to Play, Book, and What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 36:00

You're not gonna see this. Smiley Riley, you'll see it uh across things, but not right there. And then my website is smileyrileypickleball.com. And then my the floating court site is floatingpickle.com. And you'll see there, there's uh we're bringing in like a court builder where you'll be able to put and see what it looks like before you get it. But it's got all the great pictures on there, um, the different designs, and so there's multiple places. If you can't find me, so very sad. Hopefully you can.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

And what about where will we find out about the Croatia trips?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

So I'm planning for 2027. Um, I as of this point, I may end up spreading to 2026, but I've been um told that I need to work on focusing on this right now, and I know I need to. And the trips take so much planning um to do. So I'd be looking for 2027, probably at least two trips. Um, probably gonna pop in a couple trips that would be in the states as well. Um, I'm looking for up your way. I know of a great place you guys might know of it. That's a barn area up there. And um, then also looking here in Arizona. We have so many great facilities here. So kind of running some here, and then I'll do any reason to go down in Calvo and coach some pickleball down there again, too. So um, but uh Croatians definitely has my heart when it's comes to that.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

Thank you so much, Riley. Oh, you're really inspiring on so many levels, personally, professionally, and the fun and the joy that you are bringing to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

That was very kind. I I love our mutual friend Ruth. She's actually one of my most favorite people. I'm so glad you put me in touch with you, ladies. I had the opportunity to speak with you today.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

Yeah, we are really grateful to Ruth too. And we're grateful to all of you

Links, Trips, and Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_04 38:00

who've been tuning in and subscribing and liking and commenting. We really appreciate you. And hey, what a fun idea. Go play pickleball out in the ocean. Why not? Have fun. Exactly. Why not? Why not? And we look forward to another conversation next week. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Bye. Bye bye. If you love our podcast, we'd be so grateful if you'd take a few seconds to follow or subscribe to Life Lessons from Pickleball. This ensures you'll never miss an episode and helps us continue these wonderful conversations.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, go to the show page and tap the follow button in the top right corner. And on YouTube, click the subscribe button under any of the episodes. Thanks so much. Hope to see you on the court.