Blake Rose and Brian Price (OLA Beach Tennis): Finding flow state and bringing beach tennis to the masses

creating those connections and watch people go from, where'd you meet? Oh, we met at Ola. And then having parties now and look around, like, oh, this is a lot of beach tennis people. And really just creating friendships from the ground up. - From the sand to the land. - That's our life slogan this year. - Trying to get people to connect in this very safe. Like people share and they do their best work when they feel safe. So it's like creating this really sticky container for them to show up. Not have to use their makeup or their mask or the car that they drove in. Like leave all that shit at the door. Who are you as a person and what do you want out of this group? 'Cause it's all here. So just like come grab it. (upbeat music) - Hi everybody, welcome to the more of that podcast. If you're just tuning in, more of that is an experience company created by myself, Meredith Baker, my co-founder Eric Dibbig. And we're really all about helping people do more of what they love with the people that they love in cultivating belonging. And today we have an amazing episode with your favorite organizers of your favorite beach tennis. You didn't know you needed in Los Angeles, Brian Price and Blake Rose. They've been besties since childhood in Ohio, which we're excited to get into. And are now bringing the famed beach tennis, which is going wild in Brazil to the shores of Los Angeles. Only founded in April 2022, it's now August 2023. They've already introduced thousands of people in Los Angeles and in Rio to beach tennis. So we're excited to dive in with you both. - Yeah, we're stoked to be here. Thanks for having us, guys. - Yeah, and these guys have also become really good friends of ours too. We'll get into bit of the origin stories of how we met and now they're really good friends. And they've been exploding with everything they've been doing. I mean, you guys had a tournament yesterday with how many people? - 88 people played, but probably three or 400 people were there. - So it's pretty epic spectacle on the beach. So we'll dive into the story of how that came to be, but I think it'd be great to start off with explaining what beach tennis is. - Yeah, Brian, you want to take that one? - Sure. So yeah, we discovered beach tennis on the beaches in Brazil. And I describe it recently as if bad, mitten beach volleyball and tennis had a child, had a baby. That's kind of how the gameplay is to against you. If you have any racket sport experience, it'll come to you naturally. And even if you don't, it's kind of like pickleball. We kind of call it the pickleball of Brazil where it's one of those. Give us 15 minutes, we'll have you up and running, having fun. So it's a super inclusive sport where if you have any racket sport, you're gonna be great. And if you don't, you'll have fun immediately. - Yeah, we're in the early innings too, which is exciting, because I think if you zoom out for a second, Brian's a data scientist as Eric, Susan energy there, and then Maranay show, share a love for Brazil, both speaking a little bit of Portuguese and live there. - Super legal. - Super legal, and went to a new mod. So there's some really interesting parallels that I just think are interesting to explore. I just wanted to say nobody's heard of beach tennis yet, so if you're listening to this podcast, it's all good, we know you haven't heard of it, but it's coming. And to get into the coming. - Yeah, that joined the wave, that's our slogan, and enter in the Anda in Portuguese, but I was just going to say, before we started even putting a dime into the business or any hours of our time, Brian ran all the analytics on Google and was like, we're early, like let's do this. And so it was just confirmation that using that, using Brian's data science background, and kind of looking at pickleball's growth, and then saying, wow, we're in the first wave. And if we strike fast, we think we can build, you know, a little bit of a mode, which is enough time, I think, for us to execute that, and some of that's manifesting with this tournament yesterday, so it's been super exciting. - Wow, I can't wait to hear more about the Google Analytics that you ran. It's like you're sitting on kombucha before it became popular. But the beach tennis adjacent, can you talk about where the name, Ola comes from or what it signifies or means to you, and then we'll rewind a little bit back to your origin story and the origin story of how we all met. - Yeah, Brian can take that one if you don't mind. So my wife is from Rio, and I've convinced Brian to come on far too many trips to Brazil. - Tough sell. - Not a tough sell. If you guys ever want to come to Brazil and they'll enter, come join us, we've got a great community there that we're looking to expand, but the whole point is that Ola, it's a multi-versal word, and I just made that up, so that's probably not even a real world, but it means many things, right? So Ola is hello in Portuguese, right? Many people see it and don't make that connection, but the whole significance is everybody's welcome. And then it shines through that little, that little spark girl of Brazil. And also if you look at our logo, it naturally creates a face, which Brian kind of ingeniously dooted on his iPad one time, and then we brought the little Ola character to life. So if you look at the wave as the eyebrows, the wave has become our like brand slogan, right? Like you have Nike, we have the wave. And we're very minimal in production of clothing and items, but the wave is central. Join the wave, there's momentum, there's water. So there's these different plays that we are kind of messing around with, which has been fun. But that's really Ola, you know, where it came from, and kind of a function of drawing the first logo and having it look okay, and starting the Instagram account at Sweet Green, right? Like on the wave from hitting golf balls and like this actually works. No one's taking Ola beach tennis, 'cause you have to look at a name and then say, is this domain taken? And it wasn't, so that was kind of the opportunity to open from there. - And then cherry on top, Ola in Spanish means wave. So, like when Portuguese wave in Spanish, it was kind of like the first idea when it hits, you're like, wow, we can move on to the next thing. - I think we can move on there. - Really on the spot. - Right, yeah. - Enter in the onda. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Wow, perfect though. Love it. - It's so good, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the logo is like perfectly simplistic and looks great on a little athletic t-shirt and everything too, you guys did a really good job with that. - Thank you. - I think from a brand perspective, this is something that I've learned a lot from Brian, and you learn things as you go, right? I think in terms of aesthetic, you know, my wife keeps me honest and decorates the house, but I'm first to put everything everywhere. And Brian, retaining that like being very convicted that the minute, like because when you're starting a business and you have no momentum and no gravity, you think people don't have contacts, right? Like it's just a little wave. Nobody's gonna know, and I'm thinking in my head, as a brand marketer, as a partnerships, you know, lead, it's all about getting the name out there. And so I wanted naturally the logo. And I think Brian leaned in early, was like, we're gonna keep it minimal. It doesn't matter if people don't have contacts. We're gonna do enough cool community events and build this and like people are gonna recognize it one day. And I think that's division, right? It's like, we're not there yet, but hopefully when you're walking around West LA and you see somebody with a little wave, you can make that connection. - I love that. I forget if I mentioned this in the intro, but I know that it's a big part of Ola's mission. Can you talk a little bit about how you're using Ola, not just to help introduce people to an undeniably amazing sport such as beach tennis, but also how it's about helping people enter a flow state, that state of, you know, feeling connected to self and presence and also how this is creating community for people who are craving it. - Yeah, I became aware of term flow state reading this book called Becoming Superman a couple of years ago where it was a study of athletes and performers and really how people were using flow state to achieve maximum performance so that getting out of their heads, not overthinking and really just being fully in the present. So whether it's playing sports or playing music or whatever, I'm always been kind of chasing that. I just didn't have the word. And then coming to West LA, I think everyone's so into their activities. And when we found beach tennis where like this might be the perfect collective flow state sport where four people chasing a ball, you don't only have time to think you're just reacting. So it's a beautiful moment where everyone's into this one single present. And it's really been powerful for building community because I think people, when they have a racket in their hand, they're not so nervous. They have an activity to build in that dialogue and make those connections. And it's really a safe place for people to come be inclusive in our environment. You just find a matchup, you find new friends, you find new opponents. And you're always achieving that kind of collective magic of being lost in the moment. And then afterwards your debrief, you're like, "Wow, that was incredible. I was diving for the ball. We were laughing, making these incredible saves." And yeah, it's just been a beautiful way for people to meet and find new activities in friends. - Definitely doesn't hurt being on the beach. - Yeah, being out inside. - Being by the ocean, that's a nice way to get into flow state too and with good fun people out there too. - I could just jump in here a second. I would also say that we learned something that's stuck with me since I've met you, Mayor, which is the playful state is the-- - Powerful state. - Yes. - So, I mean, that's huge, right? Because Brian and I joke around a lot, but we just remembered the days when we were at recess together. You know, it's saying Albert's back in Dayton, Ohio and used to play football, you know? And we would just compete in tackling each other and boys being boys, but like we were in flow state there, right? And I think as we get further and further away from our youth, we harden, we put on masks, We protect things that are painful for us and the more we take off those masks and realize that we're all kind of Kids at heart and we want to play and you know We used to knock on our friend's door and say hey can brike on play and I think we've lost a lot of that right You can DM but you're kind of fronting with this filter or that and I think everyone's kind of lost a sense of like Just being a kid and knocking on the door to ask someone to play And I think that leans a little bit into an event. We're doing Thursday. So shameless plug Brise leading a singles night and we're gonna get people out of their their heads and into their bodies and into the community And you know one thing that hit me over the weekend We did this big event this girl come up to me and she said I just want to thank you so much I deleted all of my dating apps. I was on rye and this and that for anybody who's not aware I've been married for seven years. I'm out of the game and I'm not aware of how these young kids are connecting these days Just kidding, but like she's like yo, I deleted my app because I meet enough people every Tuesday at your events and it's authentic and That was powerful and so we're leaning into that this year. We want to get people connected We really believe that doing things that you love It's going to track the right type of person and so building that community and having that strong ethos Hopefully like starts to connect people and we're gonna start to do lean into that a little bit more so I Love that you said that the playful state is the powerful state and what you guys are creating with Ola is so powerful Because like you said, it's an authentic place for people to be able to connect or you know We always talk about with more of that too like that feeling of like when you're in middle school and you walk into the cafeteria And you're like who do I sit with and it's like you've created such a warm environment where you can Come alone and kind of connect with people organically and not feel like that awkwardness or social anxiety that a lot of people feel Showing up to an event where they don't know anyone Exactly you guys want to explain what you guys are doing now like the Tuesday open play and And these events just to give a sense like we talked about what beach tennis is but what how is it coming to life? Yeah, so so right now well really last year Our whole idea was to get into people is kind of weekly rhythms and we're like well Tuesday night Tuesday nights, you know pretty usually open you're you got through Monday 10 years to be on when yeah, you're before a penmar Wednesday Thursday, you know kind of if he going into the weekends We're like Tuesday's a sweet spot. So we're like all right We're just gonna commit to every single Tuesday night Add it to your Google calendar. We're gonna be out there 5 p.m. So consistency was a was a trademark from the get-go and I think we've just seen that grow over time really steady It's not like we started with hundreds of people It was me Blake and we would text everybody we knew to try to get two more people and we got there and try to find a game and then Now we have two courts now we have three courts now. We're filling up all eight courts now. We're building more courts So it's just been kind of that Weekly cadence that built up over time and now we have the capacity to add Sundays so never doing two days and Sundays Tuesday evenings Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. So we we're now two days out of at a seven of the week and then On a monthly cadence we have larger events so yesterday was the most recent where we do tournaments More of a a wellness activations. We had plung ice bass A lot of CPG companies out there some of our favorite favorite brands. So really Bringing the West LA community to the beach to you know showcase the our favorite parts of it. I think scaling Thoughtfully is a really important lesson though So I would just say like there were a couple times where the Instagram ads were working too well and the experience was kind of dissolved and People came and they had to wait right so one thing that I would say it's really interesting in terms of entrepreneurship is like treating your community as a product So after every single Tuesday if it's the operations people that are setting lines or Brian I we we all have equal input and we say what worked and what didn't and you know just coming up with ways to be more efficient and really be very client-centric Having a having a client-centric mindset. I think it's extremely important because it's easy to you know Just say yes to everything and we think more is always better and we were pretty you know strong that we're gonna cut the ads this week until we figure this out Right because when people show up and the one person that says oh I went but it was kind of a bus because I had to wait 45 minutes for a game You know and I was on the level one player and I had to play like this pro and you kept like hitting the ball at me That's not fun, right? So we were very intentional about making a shift and scaling Efficiently and now all the courts are labeled right when you check in you get a wristband you can play at whatever level you want But you know that the level one players are generally on these five or six courts the level two players are here And if you want to challenge the level three we're not locking you into that but we're giving structure And so just like little things like that of treating each event as a you know product opportunity to iterate and never being complacent like this Japanese principle of Kaizen just continuous improvement It's important to us right yeah, and you told me that after after everyone like just how you put it into action just to You know share with the audience that like right after the Tuesdays you would huddle up right? Yeah, you can't wait because then you lose the best ideas exactly It's all it's all fresh and I like also that you went around the circle gave everyone a voice and said everyone from people that are checking it into you guys And and start with two things that were good and and a few things you can improve to those that's that's a really Nice way to get your Kaizen. Yeah, and I think we get our best ideas from that right because our beach tennis coaches We've just hired so we just hired terms of like hierarchy I think it'd be interesting to talk a little bit about evolving the brand and being very intentional with like starting of incubating and giving things away for free and doing it for a long enough time Until it becomes like okay, that's fun enough for me to pay for it And also like a function of advancing people up the ladder right because when everybody started they never knew like maybe your tennis player you like pickleball but inherently you know as you develop skill set you want more and Brian and I you know We played at decent level, but it's not this we can't go train advanced people right or we could but then our brand loses a little bit of Credibility so we hired two instructors one of them's the best Brazilian in America, you know top 200 in the world And now if you're an advanced player and you want to come out we have a level for you right? So we have a different skew and so it's just constantly staying agile Putting our ego out of the way that we hey we might think we're good at this but like there's levels to it and being humble enough to recognize that and get out of the way I think that's a really important lesson as well And I mean it sounds like you guys have such a dialed system now It doesn't sound like it you do and we haven't even talked about what you're doing in Rio yet But can you take us back to that very first one that you ever did and what that was like and first of that? Yeah, yeah, because I mean it's incredible. It's just been a year and a half ago And I think obviously with like your open feedback that you do every week you've been able to iterate so quickly But just for people listening who want to start that thing and here where you already are now And we haven't even gotten into like the 10 other things all I was doing Yeah, just to kind of wind back to like what was that first one like like Who did you text what was the setup for you know what I'm saying? Everything was on my team we played together in it and we played on volleyball and that's We it was Tuesday and Blake's wife Glenda was like I don't know why she thought it was like we're gonna throw an event We're gonna throw the first all event on Saturday. We're like oh god. It's like three days away So we're scrambling trying to figure this out. We're playing on volleyball and that's I remember I just like painted the olal logo on like a card board I just decided because she's like it's time. I'm just sick of you guys talking about it The action push you in the deepening on volleyball and that's the beach tennis net is high enough that it messes me up from the From the tennis stuff when I'm trying to hit an overhead to now I'm trying to remember that volleyball net because that would have been really trippy. It was all lobs and yeah, we had I don't know 20 30 people there. We just rallied everybody together. I mean our friends were so supportive this from the start Even if they they could see we were just kind of making up as we go But this was the first one with three days notice and we did a little single and elimination bracket on the beach brought out the whiteboard Did we have it made of DJ? Yeah, it was DJ Beachfall. That's right. Yeah, that's a DJ Beachfall Yeah, I mean, I think In terms of evolution, it's super interesting to look at like The price that you charge and then the people that you can attract to show up because when some like there's this price barrier I think like anything under $15 people are like It's free or it's like They made you like capacity of how many people actually attend right so as an example when you charge Lesson $15 for something the probability that there's no shows is like 50% in LA right and as we've climbed the ladder and start to add more value You know, we've realized that we naturally weed out the people that didn't weren't fully like a fuck yes I don't know if I can curse in this process Sorry mom But like you know really though that's been a function of Making like a reiteration of the community that wants to be there right because if you're gonna pay 30 40 $50 or whatever It is you're a little bit more committed. You're gonna go to but you're not gonna go out drinking the night before because you're gonna want to compete and play and I think that a lot of times were fearful of Am I that valuable? Is that really what people actually pay is this whole term it gonna be a flop right the ego goes in But we invest everything back into our events right and every dollar that we take from tickets We you know we get we hand out pizzas right that we don't tell anybody about it We just like buy 15 pizzas from Whole Foods We know it's not a light you know people get hungry right and we're like if you're in on us and you're in your taking that risk We're gonna bet on you and we're gonna keep investing in your experience and that's never gonna change right love that And so what was the evolution just in terms of like pricing structure was it free at the beginning and then yeah What were those inflection points that that caused you to to shift? that as you saw the different value thresholds were being met. I think that we started with $15 to play or something just because we were running a $2 or $3,000 deficit and we were like, "How do you capture back a couple hundred bucks and make sure that people have a good time?" Each event that we did, let's say that there was 30 people. The next event, there was 50 people and there were 75. This one that we just did, I think was probably close to 500 in and out throughout the day. We had close to 100 players. I think the ticket was around $60 a person, but we learned from you guys as well. In other companies, you have to start with lots. You can't just have the same value of ticket the whole time because people in LA naturally just buy it two days before and if for headcount and capacity and all these other reasons, you need to sell it out in advance. The last two events we've sold out almost a month in advance. We give them incentives to do that. If you want to come play in the tournament, you're going to save $10 or $15 and as it gets closer to crunch time, standard pricing and Brian used to run all the analytics at stuff up to do the ticketing. If you got hit with those fees, those were Brian's algorithms. We're a little simpler. We're dealing with $5 change, $10 change, but it's important in the way that you market it, the way that you communicate it. I think reciprocity and just cognitive biases when it comes to pricing and packaging are important and you can leverage them. If you're a business owner, that's some advice. The price is $48. If the price is $48, maybe market at 50 and tell people they have a $10 discount and give them a code and make them feel special because they want to be in that community. They want to feel heard and who doesn't love a discount. Right? Love that. Walking all the way back since we're kind of like Benjamin butting these questions, tell us how you guys discovered each tennis. You were like, "Yeah, we should bring this to LA." What was missing here for you that you wanted to bring this here and what was that aha moment with beach tennis? I think let me start that. I don't want to hand it to Brian to talk about the evolution to LA. I vividly remember I was at this party in Rio with my wife. We went down in November and Brian joined in mid-December. We were with one of my wife's best friends. He's an international businessman. He's got various companies. He was telling me, "Hey, I'm investing in this thing called beach tennis." I looked at him like he had three heads. One, I'm a golfer and I like tennis but I never went out on my way to play. When I heard the word beach, which is one of my favorite things in tennis, which I was directly interested in the same sentence. I was very curious. It's a very stimulating two words together. I thought it really made me think like, "What's beach tennis?" I just had no idea. I think many people don't. He actually had a court at his house. We did a vacation there for a week in Angardos Haste, which is a couple hours outside of Rio. That's where I first found the game. Didn't really realize the opportunity set until we came back to LA and Brian, one of my best friends from childhood, and we lived together in the Bay Area and played a lot of golf together. We're always searching for flow-stay together. I'll let him finish the story, but he moved to LA and let's just say something tragic happened on the first day. I moved from Austin, Texas, last February, actually for the Super Bowl, Bengals fan, Huda. The first, it was a great first day I met Meredith and Eric. That was on Saturday. My third day in LA, I went to Meredith's yoga class and that morning I was like, "This is so great. I'm in the right place. Right time. Life is magical right now." I went in Blake and I went and played basketball at Equinox and I dislocated my shoulder reaching and trying to make hero play, of course. After an ER visit, my arm was in a sling and I had a two month recovery and Blake was just so mad at me. He's like, "Dude, you just moved here. We're supposed to do all these things and now we can't do anything." I literally wanted him to move to LA because I needed a buddy to go play sports. He was my activity friend. Now you're clearly in this conversation going on. Just joined the country club. He was ready to take him out there. He's like, "Oh, can't play. I'm out for two weeks." Anyway, so my left arm was in a sling. I'm ready and I grew up in a tennis family. I was always tennis adjacent. It was a baseball player but it could hang in and Blake's like, "Well, we could play beach tennis." I was like, "What the hell is beach tennis?" We were just going out, Blake and I was like, "Fabulous. Super windy." We were just playing on a volleyball and that just rallying and I was like, "Shit, this is pretty fun." Where did you get the paddles from? I just amazoned them. I think anyone else does. Right? You're just like, "Give me the cheapest beach tennis thing that's out there." Like, "I don't care." Sure. Yeah, I'm a tennis player and I'd lived here for nine years at that point and I had never heard of beach tennis. And their courts that are set up. But we didn't even know. We didn't even know their records four blocks that we were playing on volleyball. Or four beach tennis. Four beach tennis specifically. Eight in Santa Monica. Eight in specific. Before you guys started a goal. Yeah. So it was kind of like one of those, right? Well, I think we have to start this. Who said those up? A set of Brazilian company that set up work with the city of Santa Monica. And they just did really run it. have feet down into the ground, 10 foot poles, all regulation ITF courts where we build each time. So, Santa Monica City, if you're listening to this, we need some more beach tennis courts. Oh wow, are you in touch with the Brazilians that built those initial Santa Monica courts and are they like, wow, thank you for reinvigorating the spark here. So they're actually a partner of ours, right? And I would say co-opeters, but they were there first, right? And we pick different days. And it's known that they run their communities on Wednesdays and Saturdays and we're like Tuesdays and Sundays, but we're bringing a bunch of new people into the funnel and I think they value and they see that. And so they're appreciative for it because as we get more people into the game, the price pools goes up. And in general, like everyone who's in early on beach tennis wants a beach tennis to win. It's kind of like joining a company and getting equity. Like if the company gets better, everybody makes more money and everybody has more fun. And you know what I mean? So I think it's like-- Rising tide raises all boats. Right. And like this is an interesting potential transition into Brazil. Like it's the opposite in Rio. Right? It's very established. Every single post, you know, for here, I told you we have 16 courts tomorrow night when we come out in Rio when we built our school there. We got one court and we like half rigged a second, half of a second court. And we were running our school with one and a half courts, but there are fights on the beach every day for real estate. And it's very competitive and the beach isn't as big. And so LA is very prone and natural to like having more space, which is great. But it's a very competitive market in Rio. So the business is more mature. So you have a little bit of a first mover advantage in LA right now. Yeah. I want to touch on the Brazil thing in a second, but I want Brian to finish a story of going out and playing paddle tennis in a sling and like where you started having the conversation of turning it into a thing. Yeah. Beyond like just a hobby. Yeah. I think Blake and I have always been entrepreneurial. So you're always viewing kind of trends and ideas that could be a thing. And I'm like, well, if my life turned into playing this game a lot, I think that'd be a success. And then we, I think slow rolled it out to friends. Everyone's like, well, shit, this is really fun. I think it goes before that though, because I've been more of an entrepreneur like building out teams inside of a bigger tech company and building out like a partnerships division, right? And that's so funny. That entrepreneur was like an introverted entrepreneur. No, it's like, you said it. It explained it. Yeah. I mean, I think like I'll give Brian that. It's like Brian started like a couple businesses, right? And he's chased his passions. And like, I think ASAP yoga was your second company, right? You're in a yoga company. Yeah. It's like 15 minute audio progressions of yoga on Spotify. I'll send you the link. Wow. So it's like learning about branding and design and like registering in LLC or, you know, just in general, getting something off the ground. And I've always been like one, like a one-to-be entrepreneur, right? A little bit of imposter syndrome. Like when to got my MBA, take all these MBA or took all these entrepreneurship classes, but like never started anything. And I was like, and then Brian coming off, like starting a couple companies, learning different things. It was just a very natural synergy of like, hey, yeah, like let's put this out into the air. It just has a little fun side thing. We like to play anyway. And really it was an emergence of not having the tools that we wanted to leverage, right? Because if you look at the marketplace of each tennis, there's the $30, $50 rackets that you get from China. And they serve the first purpose, right? Getting out in the sand and trying it. And then there's the $400 Italian brand. And as someone who is brand conscious and wants to make sure the rackets are manufactured in a reputable factory. And the branding is minimal. And like it looks cool. There's like, there's nothing in the middle in the middle ground, right? You have like 10 and two and one and two. And like, there's no brand hitting the five and six. So that was really the business, but along with the Google Analytics, if you look at the word, how many times beach tennis has been Googled geographically as well. It was kind of like, let's do it. I love that you guys took it from a hobby to like, let's go on Google and see what the white space of the market is. But it's so smart. It's one of the reasons like you're. insatiable curiosity and desire to build community coupled with these kind of very pragmatic ways of doing things. I've just made it the perfect storm in the best possible way to bring Ola to the huge tsunami that it is today. I think it was defending the ACH wires out of our joint checking account to fund this new thing with my wife. We're buying a house soon. What are you doing? We're going to have a family like what Ola? Like, Blake, show me the business plan. And so Brian and I to defend what we're up to. I'm like, "SEM rush." Yeah. All right. Hear the numbers. But shout out to the go, "No, she's like, no. If you're going to do this, don't have acid." So Brian comes with this whole dashboard and we're like, "Damn, I love that. Oh my gosh." But it must give so much ease also being co-founders building a team, building community around it, like kind of knowing what the North Star is while still kind of having fun on the ground in the moment as you're building community. I think if there's one lesson, it's that think about what you love to do and go build something and who cares what happens because you could say you did it. And we don't know what's going to happen with Ola. And it's really more of a concept that it's evolving and people are buying it today, which is great. But there's no ego and there's no expectation, which is why I think it's working. It's all about the experience of the customer. It's not about us. It's just about really the North Star is connecting others. And so putting others first and always thinking about the experience and just like removing the ego of if somebody shows up to the event and doesn't have a good time, it's like, "No, you can't think about that." You have to think about executing. Yeah, I mean, you guys know that we love that as well. And at the end of the day, also, right? You guys get to build a really cool brand and play Beach Tennis and bring people together. Like that's what Meredith and I think about when we are creating this and sharing stories of people like you and creating our events too, that at the end of the day, like we're having fun doing it, and we're creating a lot of impact. And it's this awesome, we live one life. Like why not go do something interesting with our time? We could think about how we can build wealth just through our jobs and go in the traditional path. But if we don't take this time here and now to go pursue our interests in a big way, why not? Totally. And I love, yeah, of what you said, it's like all four of us have, you know, day jobs. And it's really coming from a place of passion and that's ultimately like, not only what drives us, but I think what magnetizes other people, that genuine feeling of like, this is so good, I want other people to experience this. And I want to spend my free time doing this. Like it's not, it's almost not work at times because you're like, oh, I could hang out with my friends and go to dinner. I could spend my time hosting beach tennis for, I mean, Brian's living it up. He won the last tournament. He's not just a spectator. Oh, he's playing in it. We watched the last two. Yeah, we had FOMO. So we're like, we're getting back in here. It's a living our brand. It's a bigger thread because it's like working in the business first, letting the business run, and kind of like, you know, that's a really an interesting concept that I like to take into for a second. Like many people start businesses and they were, they're required to show up and be there every day. Being in tech, it's always about scale, scale, scale, scale, scale. And so the way we think about Ola is like, if Brian, Iron, Brazil, or I'm going to be in Japan next week, how does Ola run without us? Because once again, it's not about us. It's about the community. And I think that's been interesting because when you outsource things, you want to protect the experience. So then I think it's really important to communicate and document. And that's like a really tough thing to get right. And it's something we're learning how to let go. It's like our child. Our child is growing up. One other thing that I'll share is one of my first mentors told me starting a business is a lot like having a child. You know, within the first year or two of the formation, you have to change the diapers. You have those sleepless nights. You're up all the time. You don't get a lot of sleep, right? And then the child mature is in three, five years old. Daddy, can I come wash the floor, clean up the carpet, right? So the business starts to take care of you and help you in a little way. And then the business matures and gets older. And if you look at a 30 year old business, right? The business starts to take care of you. People live off their business. They don't do anything. The business just prints off, you know, cash flow and it supports people. So if you look at a business as a function of age, I think we're in what? We have a toddler. We're coming up on one and a half. And you can put it in daycare. How other people run it while you're in Japan. Exactly. That's the idea. Right. Speaking of that and running it in another country, I think it's time to dive into what you guys started in Brazil. And where is that going to go this winter too? Because it's pretty cool that your wife is obviously Brazilian and you're dragging Brian along to dragging in terrible place. Not beautiful. Not real. God. Brazil. For years. What did you guys start there? And what's going on with it? What's the update? I haven't even heard the latest update from you guys. I'll go out and come this time with the gauge. Perfect. And now. And now, I'll speak English. But I think I'm curious to hear Brian's perspective on this as well. And maybe like some context first and then Brian can jump in is like, we went to Brazil opportunistically to escape the winter. Like we are trying to envision this perpetual summer. So when the sun goes down early in November, December, we don't have the same sort of like vibe or level of energy. And we're like, how do we like switch it up a little bit? So we started by just doing a week or two in Brazil and we're like, whoa, it's summer here. Like there's so much going on. There's parties. There's everyone's working out. Everyone's like, you know, energized. Like kind of what's been happening in the last couple of weeks in LA, right? And so how do you kind of like chase that summer? I think that's where it started. And then, you know, we started in LA, but we realized like, hey, we found a community there called Baby Sports, which is near post of nine and 10 in in epinema. So like one of the best areas in the world is like my heart. So beautiful there. But the woman who runs it, she's from Peru and she was a professional tennis player and she built a CrossFit community there. And they set up on the beach every single day. Like they do the do-classist group community. Kind of like dominate in LA, right? They do they use the beach and they have this amazing vibrant community of good humans that are connected. And so we kind of like plugged in there and became friends with them a few years ago. But it's just like anything else. It's time under tension. So the second year we knew them already and then we became really good friends with them and then we said, hey, let's do a joint venture because we recognize that in the afternoons their classes were intended as well. And it's a whole set up. So they have to come out with like a hundred of these foam giant puzzle pieces. If you can imagine they load in like a giant semi truck, takes three hours to set up and they have to pack it down at 10 a.m. and go do it again at four, five and six. So the owner was like, I love beach tennis. It's all over. We have two posts. They rents. Our class tennis in the afternoon like isn't quite there. And that's kind of where you came down and we started to build. Right. So I think we said three days a week instead of their their crossfit and the evening will plug in beach tennis. And I think see if we can develop a hybrid between beach tennis and kind of workout to what Blake said earlier. If people can come to this achieve their workout and beach tennis in one, you get two tubers, one stone, Eric and I are sold. We're all about making sure we can get the work out in when when we play group sports. I mean, so you should talk a little bit about that because we haven't actually taken that to the LA market. Right. Well, because it's somewhat tricky because in Brazil, everyone's somehow amazingly fit even though they eat bread and cheese all day. And everyone's jacked and beautiful. I don't understand that quite yet. But it's in the water. Everyone there is has helped and I'm getting a workout. So we did 20 minutes to start and allay that our partner at baby sports. She's like an amazing athlete. So she would help us lead that where everyone's doing little drills, agility drills, bands, whatever that kind of correspond to beach tennis moves and then go into a more traditional beach tennis class. So that was kind of our our new invention that we were we were testing with baby sports. Like in contrast, tell them a little bit about like what the normal experience was for beach tennis class. Yeah versus beach tennis. As we found it was a little bit more of an older demographic, a little bit slower. You know, you you work on the basic ball. It's not as intense. It's one hour. Right. You might go one hour fast. You might sweat, but it's like we're doing kind of the fundamentals versus young people. Let's be efficient. Let's do it fast. Let's get more out of this one hour and pack it all in and you know, our goal was just to see how many things we could do in an hour. So everybody was like, holy shit, like that was an amazing workout. I got a lot better beach tennis and I met some amazing new friends during this class, which we've we've picked up. I'd say most of the components in our LA iterations this year, we've rolled out group classes in LA, which I think the the feedback has been amazing of of meeting new friends and kind of building community through that class. But there's a there's a balance here of how intense people want to be. It's like, oh, we're just kind of hanging out. And this is fun versus other people want to be really intense. So now we're we're getting smarter at building different class types. So people can be more specific about what they want. I would just say like the the North Star as well, because when I was in was I was in Rio. I had a chance before Brian arrived to like basically take a few classes at every single school. And there's like 12 of them. And there was such a dynamic loss of community. Like I was an outsider and I showed up and then yeah, I speak conversational Portuguese. I just didn't really feel like I was home or I found my people. And I didn't want newcomers to the game to feel that way as well. So when we start our classes, you know, we were where we broke every mold of beach tennis instruction that people told us that we should do, right? You can't have more than four people in a class. The class can be more than an hour. You can't do workouts and mix it with beach tennis. We flipped everything and we were like, no, we're doing 12 people classes. We'll retain like a five to one, six to one instructor, so we'll hire two instructors to teach the same class instead of bifurcating it and having two separate classes. And at the beginning, we'll go around and what we're really implementing here is like, your name where you're from and like, what activity do you do to get into flow stay or what are you letting go of this week? Like some sort of little connection piece so that we get grounded on the way in, right? And it's not just about the beach tennis class. It's about building a community. It's about meeting new people and then throwing that in with a workout so that you don't leave the class and you're like, yeah, I did the fundamentals of beach tennis, but like, no, I got a great workout. You know, people are burning 900 to 1400 calories within an hour and then we switched it. And we're like, you know what, we're rushing this. Like, we're gonna make these an hour and a half and we're gonna pay the instructors more. Like, many people were afraid, like, nope, that's too expensive. We're like, it's not about the money. It's about building something new and an experience. And over time, the comfort, like, if you do it, the money will come. - Yeah, I mean, talk about flow just like you when Brian moved L.A. And you're like, god damn it, why'd you hurt yourself? I wanna hang out with you. Like, we love going and doing these active things with people that we know and we're closer to so that powerful moment of having people actually connect with each other beforehand, which many workouts, I mean, especially in L.A. Like, that doesn't happen. - It doesn't exist. - Right, right now. I mean, frankly, sometimes you're having a busy week and you wanna be in and out. But like you said, if you're going to on the beach, like going to a class, it kind of sucks if you just go there and you feel excited. - Well, me and you. - So, I mean, it's like, you guys know where fans are. - I think especially in the remote work era, like I work remote. And it's like, if you're gonna do something in the evening, like I used to go to gyms, I won't name them. I'm just like, you know, air pods in, hour, and I'm like, well, shit, I didn't talk to anybody in real life today. - I didn't see them all day. - I'm zooin' all day and then I'm into my own little bubble that will work out and I'm like, well, shit, it's eight o'clock. I'm gonna have dinner and, you know, wind down. Versus, you go to our group classes and yeah, we have this icebreaker, talk about your flow state. People are like, oh, I guess we're getting deep. You know, they get a little nervous at the beginning and then by the end they're like, wow. - You know, we play more like, what's your number? You know, people are all connecting and it just feels natural. - And I think like the macro environment as well with interest rates where they're at, like gyms, especially that are over leverage in real estate, like they're hurting right now. They're looking for authentic community. Like every name it, big name, gym, they're struggling with retention. Because to be honest, when discretionary income, you know, when you have interest rates going up, discretionary income starts to get clamped and you see people get laid off. And what's the first thing realistically if you're looking to budget that you can cut? Well, you don't need the $400 a month membership you can go to your back yard. If you absolutely need to, right? So I think that it's been interesting to see some gyms pay attention to what we're doing and want to be a part of it, even though, you know, we're little ol' a lot of that's two people in a garage still and these like, these global fitness brands. So Brian and I always talk about it from an entrepreneurship percentage, but like, gaining leverage and trying to punch up, you know? So like when we're doing community events and activations, trying to work with brands that will put a lot more on the map. And it's not to say we wouldn't do a deal with a smaller brand because we were there and we're still there, but it's always being thoughtful about where are the leverage points, what's happening in the macro environment, and how do we, you know, without the funding, how do we create leverage, right? 'Cause we don't have a $100 million or your balance sheet like an X-Gym would have with all this real estate. We're just a couple of people trying to build a community. Totally. And it is so true what you say, especially in LA, like everyone, I mean, LA is one of the MAC's of community in the world and still when you go to a workout class in a studio and they just shuffle you out for the next class. And you feel like open and energized and like, you know, you've just like released in Dorfins and it's such an opportunity to connect and drop in with others, which is yeah, why we love doing our best morning ever where we do yoga and connection. And we're excited to have Ola collaborate with us on September 18th and two weeks. And could you share some of like your favorite stories that you've heard from people this last year and a half, whether in Brazil or in LA that they've like told you about what Ola's meant to them or maybe it's something that you witnessed in watching people interact. - I've got a couple of O'Brien Cures, anything to have in mind for you. I just have like two of my now best friends in LA, Sam was walking past this early, early, early days, probably last May and just was like, what's this game? And he's a tennis player so we walked out, felt comfortable. We played a game, kind of instantly became friends. And then my other friend Cody, we met through his community building app called Act Live. And now those two, they live together, they're building a business together. They're investing in some property and malibu to create like off the grid property. But I think just creating those connections and watch people go from, you know, where'd you meet? Oh, we met at Ola and then like having parties now and look around like, oh, this is a lot of each time to see people and really just creating friendships from the ground up from the sand to the land. That's our life slogan this year. It's trying to get people like to connect in this very safe, like people share and they do their best work when they feel safe. So it's like creating this really sticky container for them to show up, not have to use their makeup or their mask or the car that they drove in, like leave all of that shit at the door. Who are you as a person and what do you want out of this group because it's all here. And I think converting people from the sand to the land, which is like we're experimenting with doing a singles night. But we're now doing community mixers before every tournament. Once again, like iterative feedback, well, operationally and being selfish, it helps us to check people in and advance because we know who can no show and who's dog got sick. And you know, if we get 60, 70% of the people checked in with their color coordinated wristband, the morning of runs really smooth. But it also has this like organic touch point where we support local businesses. It's a shout out to June Shine for hosting us. But like getting people in their street clothes and actually having formal conversations outside of being sweaty on the beach together, which once again, is great. But if you really want to build a relationship with someone and you're looking for a friend, a business partner, you know, a life partner, you got to see people in different venues, right? And then that starts to help you determine whether if this is a suitable partner or not. Totally. I love that you brought that up because I feel like, was it our first anti-networking event that we met you, which is for many listeners, probably don't know, because we've only done it twice, an event where you're not allowed to talk about what you do for work. And you're just supposed to meet people and do these like different ice breaker stations. And it's so funny that yeah, exactly what you said that-- Can we run that back again? Because that was like my to-the-stay favorite event, like ever. People can't talk about what they do in LA, try people nuts because they just like-- And it weeds out all the bad actors. Is everyone that shows up is like they're here for it, you know? Yeah, it's also so funny watching people try to interact because they're like-- They catch themselves-- Oh my god, to-- They're like saying something about their job. And they're like, wait, I can't say that. What else can we talk about? Who am I? I'm not sure. Yeah. It's so funny. It's not real that real. It's like every time I see a mountain in nature, I'm like, who am I? And where did we come from? Right. You guys remember? I don't have it personally. Oh, man, I'll send it to you guys. You better DM me now. Yeah. But it is so-- I'm the DM. I'm the married man. But it is so funny because it's like you can tell-- or it's like selection bias of people who really crave it and who want it and who are open to that would come to an experience like that, or the kind of experience you create at all of where. It's like you get to meet people as a human first. And then that networking or those businesses do happen. But they happen organically from this root of deep trust that you've built with people over time where that's not the intention or all the intention is just to connect and get to know somebody and what makes them ticker, what they find. Interesting. Or what their flow state is outside of work. Yeah. You also hope that when you're doing that selection bias, those people that are down to do it drag their friends along too. It's the same thing that happens with Ola. Like somebody will drag their friend along that's uncertain. But when you host these things that are different, like the anti-networking networking night, actually that's my favorite part of hosting and creating is getting the people who are on the fringe. Exactly. We're curious about doing something different. Who their friends are kind of already open to this different things. And they pull them into it because those are the people that really need it. They really need your transition. They close their world open. And then they go and-- How did it go? It's always, yeah. So it's always the people being like, no, tonight, I'm just going to watch. I'm here with my friends. I don't know what this is. Then I'm like, come on, just get a racket. Just try it. And then by the end, they're like, oh my god, every Tuesday, every Sunday, I'm here. That's the most rewarding. So I wanted to play a question back to you guys because whether you know this or not, you guys were a lot of the early inspiration from a community building standpoint. And I'm just curious to anti-networking networking. That is so creative. And I have attended every business seminar, gone through the MBA route, blah, blah, blah. Never seen anything like it. And you guys, I think, put people into groups. And you did the Eeky guy. And then you had another group say, 10 different people. If you're going to design your own music festival, be very specific. Where would it be? Who's playing? What's the vibe? What are they serving? And I was with 10 other strangers that I've never met. And I'm like, these people are crazy. But this is my people. I love this. I feel like a kid again. I'm Chris. I'm thinking outside the box, right? 'Cause everyone just wakes up, you do your routine, you check your phone, you take whatever it is for you. Right? So you guys are throwing a complete curveball, and I just appreciate you guys holding that space, but I was curious, your inspiration. 'Cause these are very creative events that you're hosting, and we'd love to collaborate and bring our community with yours and start to co-host this, once again, back to the slogan from the sand to the land. And I'm just curious, where's your guys in spoke come from? - I mean, for that one specifically, I've been consulting in tech world for most of my career until I started doing more creative stuff, and now I feel like I have a really good balance of doing creative and still being in that world. But I would always go to the happy hours or networking events, or frankly, even go out to the bars with my coworkers, and a lot of people would be surprised about this who know me now, that I get a lot of social anxiety in those situations. And for me, in a traditional happy hour, you really have to work to meet and connect with people. And then the conversations end up being so bland and blah, because level one conversations are the worst. - Right, and especially if you're working a 50 plus hour week job, which a lot of people incorporate in tech are, it's not a nine to five, it's like a nine to eight. All that's on your mind is work. And so it's so easy to default to going and talking about work. And I just, it just is so easy to go and change that. And I was just creating the space that I wanted to see, where you just give people permission to talk to each other, and you do something a little bit more interesting, and I had met Meredith through subletting with her, and she was doing her storytelling potlucks, which was a really cool way to bring people together. And we both just loved getting super creative of, if we bring people into a room and they can't talk about work, what do they do? And how do we then design a rotation schedule so that people meet as many people as possible? - And you did that, by the way, because I met a lot of really good friends through that. Like George Eumann is the founder of Hioh, played a lot of golf with him. Has that happened to be a member of my country club, so we brought him out a few times. Like you meet the right people that you're supposed to, when you say yes to things that aren't always like center of the fairway. - I think that created that. - That event was actually designed off of, I was in a business dorm, my freshman year of college, and I led the welcome week for the same business dorm. That my year was the first year that it was, and I was the president of my floor, and then the next year they needed people to lead the welcome week, and I designed basically a very similar type of rotation that I got to bring back, and I'm a sucker for bringing back old things and putting them into a new place. - It works. - Yeah, and seeing, like, take people out of an environment that's like a school or a job where you're, like, quote unquote, supposed to meet new people, and bring that to a place where people wants to meet new people, but they don't always communicate that because we get in our patterns and our rhythms. - And Mary, how about you? - Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I think for myself, community has always been, or I've always lived between many different types of worlds, since I was growing up, and in college, I was a journalist doing human interest stories in different countries, so love kind of moving to a new place like Rio, or Cape Verde, or Liberia, and having a host family, or going to the local music bar, and learning to play with the other guitarists, and finding entry points into connection with other people, and, like, my whole ethos, being like the more we learn about others, the more we learn about ourselves, but me being an extrovert, and still getting kind of, like, shy new situations, was like, I want to create containers of, like, you had said a lot before, safety and permission, so people feel, like, they have an invitation to come and connect, and you make it stupid, easy for people who are introverted to be able to enter a space, maybe not knowing people, but you have a question handed to them, so they know exactly what they could ask somebody, or somebody could ask them, and I think something big that we always do at our more of that events, and it sounds like Ola is very good at doing as well, is just being super conducive to, like, rotating different people, so you also never get stuck with just one person, and sometimes, like, that's amazing, like, especially if you're having authentic connection, it's amazing, but sometimes the conversation runs, it's a natural course, and then it's, like, kind of, awkward to exit, so that's why also with, like, anti-networking, we love getting to, kind of, like, give people permission to rotate, you, kind of, like, you know, light the spark between different people, and then get them rotated again, so they feel like they have met a few different people, and you follow up with the ones you want to follow up with after. - And this really works because I think you create that container for people where they feel safe, and if the conversation isn't, like, fully there, then it's, like, you know, there's no ego involved, you're like, okay, cool, we didn't resonate, and then the next three conversations, you have your, like, do you want to go do crotty on the grouch, you know? You guys haven't seen "Sept-Rothers", it's fine. - Well, let's do a collab. - Yeah, so you guys, so let's put this, like, you know, I'm a big believer in taking action, let's get you guys out there tomorrow night, or next Tuesday, and, like, let's just beta test, but maybe we can start with having a prompting question, you know, like, when you go to Catholic gratitude, and they have a question of the day, - Totally. - What are you grateful for? - Yeah, like, you guys can start to prompt that and activate with us and have your booth and table, or whatever you'd like to activate, and let's get people, you know, prompted, let's be more intentional. - And I was thinking too, we're in for that, for sure. You guys are coming to Best Morning, Ever. And then, let's go from the sand to the land, and, let's do a version of an anti-nauerkin networking. - And we'll bring it back. - We kind of shifted it into Spark Social, which is basically the same thing. And we'll combine the forces. - I mean, nice. - Yeah, we'll get all the, we got some good venue ideas. We got all the good sponsors. - And we can't talk about beach tennis, that's the key. - Brian, I don't know. - Brian, I don't know what you guys have. - You guys have a cop out because it's not the day job, so you technically could, but it's okay if you know. - You can get the whole beach tennis grew out there. You can't talk about beach tennis, and you can't talk about your job. - Right. - No, I mean, sell the game. We love it. Our ego's filled up, but we go to places where pen and we're like, oh, you're like beach tennis, but actually there's more than many lives in beach tennis. Let me tell you about my view on this, or my favorite color, whatever it is. But I'm like, I think that this would be a good event to not talk about beach tennis. - Yeah, it's so interesting. - We'll hold you to it. - Yeah, so it's so interesting how people, it's just fundamentally easier to put somebody in a box and make it easier, but we're massive advocates for live multiple lives, live different things. My favorite people tend to be the people that don't make sense, that are an analytics person with a beach tennis company, or don't label me, bro. - Don't call me a boss. - Do whatever you want. - I go to a yoga class, it's about manifestation, okay? - Yeah, and then we're all paying to go watch the Barbie movie. I saw your Instagram, Brian. - Yeah. - That's so you did, I need to see you. - I need to do that, yeah. - I'm inspired. - I've seen it, yeah. - Let's do it, let's go. I'll be in Japan for that. - That's a smart move though, if you guys are like, we love what this message stands for for women, all the girls who just play. - We just invested in a lot of pink apparel. - So, a pink bucket, it's subtle plug, olabeachtennis.com, pop up pink bucket, DM Callie, Fiorca for the discount code. - I'm kidding. - So I think we had two more things we wanted to touch up on, and then we'll wrap up. I could talk to you guys all night, by the way, so you're gonna have to cut this cord, because this is what I'm doing. - I know, I know. - We could do it. - We might need to do it all up part two. - We might have to run this back. - Yeah, you know what, it'd be fun. It'd be fun to do like a live event idea jam. - Yeah, so we actually had a blogger. - I set up at our event yesterday. Did you see that? - Yeah, I authorized it. - I missed that on the YouTube. - That was your social person. - That was Maggie, shout out. - That's a new Maggie. - We're trying to learn TikTok, right? - To testimonials. I'm 30, I feel like a boomer on TikTok. - Oh, you can definitely tell that you guys have your own roles in Ola. - Yeah, but we could record live from the event next time that would be cool. - I love that. - We said that to be intense and, we just pull in people and that'd be fun. - Set them down, ask them some questions. Here's some nuggets of wisdom. - All right, I wanna touch on corporate of the events that you guys have been doing. And then Blake and I, you wanna talk about a little bit the brain science of paddle. So pick up which one of those you wanna do first, and I think. - I have one last one too, so. - Okay, great. One of the one, Meredith is infamous for one last thing, which turns to 18 things. - Okay, so let's start if you don't mind. Let's start with the kind of neuroscience of Racket Sports, and where I think that there's like common ground and interest, and then let's talk a little bit about corporate events because I think the vibration of the universe is up leveling, and we want to help with that shift, because we think the days of spending 2800 on the corporate credit card at the bar and talking about these level one work conversations are over, and we're here to change that in a meaningful way. So I wanna talk a little bit about that, but the why is important. Like why beach tennis? What do you mean neuroscience? Like what are you talking about Blake? Let's zoom out for a second. So when you play Racket Sport, there's this part of the brain that gets out. activated. It's called the cerebellum, right? And it's in the back part of the brain. It's only 10% of the mass, but it has 50% of the neurons. And so when you're playing a sport that requires object orientation and coordination, it's just firing up, right? Like lighting up like a firework. And you're training that part of your brain, especially in LA, like yesterday it was a bit windy. The ball starts here. It ends over there. Your brain is making these mathematical calculations in real time, and you're reacting, and it's a really healthy thing. Because the cerebellum also has a part of it that's responsible for coordination, as I've mentioned, but it's not just coordination of movement, it's coordination of thought. So there is a bit of a correlation between people that are really good at racket sports and longevity. And that's where the science is emerging. And so it's just super exciting to know that the North Star we have of connecting others through flow state is also permeating into something bigger than that, which is like longevity and just healthy humans. Because I think there's a lot of brands in the world that profit off making people unhealthy, alcohol, tobacco, candy, whatever it may be. And so being a part of a business that's actually supporting longevity, health, mental health, it's really important for us. And so there's your little science corner. I love that. I love that. That was making me think of. Napple facts. Not snapple facts, but maybe that's what you were thinking about. Maybe a phrase with a couple of lots of sugar. I was thinking about all the retired people in Vietnam that play "Bad Men." There you go. And it's a very similar thing that I never put that together. Yeah, that actually helps them be more. have more vitality through that neuroscience too. That's a really cool culture. I went for a run and actually fun little travel story that is one of my favorite ways to travel. I went for a run in Hanoi through all the retired people playing "Bad Men." And I just really wanted to play. Because you guys love the racket sports. I didn't speak any Vietnamese. They didn't speak any English. But I was just waving my hand back and forth. They knew exactly what I knew exactly what I would want to be. They put me in coach. They put me in. And they loved watching me play so much that they wouldn't let me actually keep trying to sub out. But they wouldn't let me sub out. Are you just serving kids? And then I come back the next day and play again. Then you exactly thought I was. There was one person spoke half English. And then they took me over after we played before work. I was working for Uber at the time. And they took me over to get beer and noodle soup in the morning. It's just their like that. You were in the community. You brought them in the community. They have this whole community in this thing. And there was this dude that had a shirt off that was just a rip in six. And he would not let my glass of beer be anything but full. He was just ready to see. He just wanted to welcome him into the community. Right. It was a beautiful, like it was a beautiful space of like playing "Bad Men" in the morning. And then having beer and noodle soup was probably like five, six beers a day. And then the next day, I went to the community. And then I went to the community. And I comfortable suit and tire whatever it is. Is a higher leveraged expense. And so I would value those exercises at like an eight to ten multiple. We're going to the bar. Sure you get comrades. Sure you can build friends. But have you ever played in a beach tennis tournament with your boss at one? Which builds trust and memories and creativity. And to be in like you said, the flow state together is invaluable. And the thing is from a relationship standpoint, like Jay Shetty always talks about this. So my wife and I have different date nights where we surprise each other. But you have to build intimacy over time. Like you can't just be in a relationship and never put in the work. As an example, you know, if I, you know, we surprise each other, but it has to be events that neither of us have familiarity. So the cool thing about beach tennis is because we're in the early innings. This is a new experience for people. And when you do a new experience with people, you do bond. Like if you go as an example to a normal tennis or basketball, you'll still get a great experience. I'd argue that's better ROI than going to the bar. But if you do something novel and new, you learn something about each other. And because beach tennis is so new for many people, it really creates that like ultimate effect that the happiest, healthiest couples have, which is they surprise each other with new events that neither of them have experience. So a good example going to a comedy night, going to pottery if you never do that. Like I couldn't take my wife to go play golf because I already know how to play golf. Right? I'd have to do something that I have no skill set in. And through these conversations and through these experiences, we strengthen our bond. Right? And so that's to bring into the corporate event. But I think, you know, bribe from your perspective, working for a startup, you know, working for a bigger company like stuff of curious to hear your experience with corporate events and like, you know, how you've brought that to a lot as well. Yeah, I think to the same point, like the bar scene is just kind of outdated. And then the existing other options of throwing axes or whatever else pops up. It's just like, some people are good, some people aren't, some people are into it. It gets competitive and beach tennis is kind of the perfect forum for everyone to start from scratch to your point. Everyone's going to be like, beach tennis. Like, what is this? And you get there like, all right, this looks pretty fun. And then like I said, 15 minutes, you're like, all right, I want to win. And then you, we pair people up randomly. Let's say you, you know, don't just grab your friend from the office or if it's a remote company. Like line up by your birthday or do it silently, line up by your birthday. So it's a communication effort to get into line and then you're paired randomly. And like Blake said, now you're playing an tournament with your boss and you're building these memories and bonds and team building skills and communication skills where it's like, you know, you have to call ball and know where the other person's going. And you have to be in sync with somebody. And I think it just builds those intangible connections that a team that you can't quite put a, you know, price tag on necessarily. But it's like, hey, we all left and now we feel, you know, more together, more aligned, right? And I think, you know, just for anyone who's listening, we're really early in this. But like if your company's interested in building a package with us, like we will dial it in for you because it's about your experience. Like we have experience working with global brands in the CPG space. Won't name any specific names, but like a lot of firms are reaching out and they're awake. They're awake. They're ready for this, right? They need to be educated on the concept. And this, I think there's an opportunity for us, Mary, which is like, I realize we're not thinking big enough because it's a three hour beach tennis activation to Brian's point. It's a great eight to 10 multiplier on dollar spent in terms of camaraderie and strategy and fun. But that's not enough, right? We had a brand recently that reached out and they're like, no, we don't want four hours. We want to do the whole day, right? And they just made me think like we're not thinking big enough. I want to be able to host an offsite for a week in Costa Rica and help educate companies to get their employees to be more high performing. And that's obviously lofty. But just imagine like coming out to the beach at 8 a.m. doing a sound healing experience to start the day with like asset fresh, like in like coconut water waiting for you. So you're investing in your employees and then breaking out to do the strategy offsite in this like big cozy chic tents and then bringing mayor and to do a leadership icebreaker. And then having a nice catered lunch and then after that getting into maybe even another strategy session with the team instead of being in your corporate attire in the office and the air conditioning everyone's totally in their thumbs and looking at their phone. They're engaged and then closing out with the beach tennis as like the cherry on top which is the fun bonding which is the fun bonding right. productive, let's have fun. Yeah. So I love that so much. And these kind of experiences, which manifesting side of you so many more with you guys all across the world, is cool because people leave with a personal insight about themselves through something like the sound healing or breathwork or meditation that they don't just take back to their work life, but also their personal life. And as we know, everything's interconnected and then getting to share these different insights with each other on top of how I can show up as my most powerful self for the vision of the larger company. It's just like the perfect blend of everything to not only have, like you said, companies investing in the people, but the people really leaving feel like they're a more empowered version of themselves, both at home and at work. Speeding our best version, right? Yeah. Calling that out. I think that there's a couple types of relationships, right? There's the Coca-Cola relationship, which you drink it and it's cold and it kind of tastes good at first, but you're thirsty after, you know? It doesn't fully satiate you. And then there's the coconut water relationship, right? Which you drink it and you just can't get enough. It just hydrates you. So I think saying yes to those coconut water drinks. Harmels Harvest, if you're listening. Yeah. There you go. Come on, I'll bring some product out. We'll have to do another pod where we can dive deeper into the partnerships world and kind of bring out brands and there's some fun stuff to jam out, but we don't want to go too long. I know we've probably already been going for an hour and a half at least, but this has been great. We can talk about so many things. Yeah, just to capstone the corporate stuff before we ask our rapid fire questions. I know you had mentioned a give back vision in Rio. Could you guys just kind of list off some of the things that are the future, the future of what you want to build next with all of what's on the horizon? Yeah, do you want to take the global expansion aspiration and I'll hit on the the electric one? We're going to Mars with Elon and they're only bringing beach tennis equipment on the Starlink. I mean, I did go to a space party and meet a guy that's starting a space soccer league. So nice. Wow. Yeah, I think they're all the spaces. Right. The expansion. The space is limited. I mean, start with doing corporate stuff or SpaceX and then you'll be aligned for the online piece. Yeah. Yeah. I think the global approach, you know, we did the Rio. We have LA. And the beautiful thing about beach tennis is it's a derivative of tennis, right? And tennis is a very global sport. So South America is already rich with beach tennis. That makes sense. And then we want to go to Europe. I think Portugal, Spain, Italy, where the birthplace of beach tennis would be natural. It really ultimately we're trying to find communities that align with us, right? So in Rio, we found a community that already existed, which is always easier than creating one from scratch. But you have to have an alignment of openness and loving flow states and being down for a little breath work and icebreakers to start. So I think finding communities across the world that are right for beach tennis and that human connection is what we're interested in. And if those happen to be beautiful places that we want to go to, I think that is the perfect approach. The prerequisite has to be sunny and on the beach. Australia. Australia is very intense. The idea is that you can travel. You can show up to these experiences and your community expands. If you think about, I don't know who's done this well, maybe like Soho House, because if you're in New York or you're in LA, you can calibrate to some level of exclusivity. Just as an example, not saying that I agree with what they're doing, I never really spent much time there. But as an example, if I go to Rio and I'm an LA beach tennis player at Ola, if I know I can fly into a location and plug into a community that's going to welcome me, which includes social scene workout, where to buy food, I'm going to be able to cure it in my trip and have a great time without putting a lot of effort in. I think that's the global vision, which is get a bunch of people resonating at the same frequency, have some sort of interconnected, whether it's a Slack channel or a Facebook group or what's up depends. People will be speaking different languages, but imagine being able to go to a place where you know your home is, no matter what you can find your home. That's super exciting. I think the philanthropic arm is not lost on me. It's something that's really woven into what the vision of the company is. We're not going to go there and consume the land and not give back. We see so much opportunity in Brazil specifically, because as I mentioned, we're lucky here in California that beaches are huge and we can play for a pretty reasonable price, but in beach tennis, in Rio it's very expensive. There's not as much real estate. The rackets, it's the government of Brazil has 100% import fee when we try to import our rackets to Brazil. It's a whole other subject. They want to charge 100% of the value. I think being able to share the game there is hard because it's expensive. The idea is that for every racket we're going to sell in Brazil, we want to have a give back. We've discussed different partnerships and haven't solidified anything with the ideas. For every racket we sell, we can provide a system, which is like this rice beans food for a month for a family. The way that they get access to that is by recycling because in the favelas, they're never trained on how to recycle, so a lot of times unfortunately people just leave trash. It's education from a ground roots level, which leads to a bigger purpose. Ola is literally just a vehicle to help the community evolve. We can't just be in the community. That's not enough. These are just ideations, much more to come, but the idea is, Tom's did it best, but if you're building a business in 2023 or four and you don't have a social cause, reach out and chat because there's a huge opportunity if anybody has ideas for us in the communities that we end up landing in, we'd love to explore them. Totally. I love that. Also, yeah, it's just this beautiful, like kind of like circular economy of everything feeding each other and it really creates this beautiful ripple effect where everyone gets to rise together, which I love. Then the last thing on your vision, or maybe it's already happening, but you're doing some apparel clubs or some brand clubs. Yeah, we are. You were gracious enough to host yoga with us. We've partnered with a company called Live, Livey in Portuguese, if you're wondering how to pronounce it, and they're a sustainable clothing brand. This is really big in Brazil. They've come to the West Coast in a meaningful way with the new store. At the Century City Mall, they just opened up in San Diego as well and they saw what we were doing with the community and what's a better way to get your brand out there than to connect with a vibrant, growing community. I think it's very, you know, synchronistic, the fact that we want to print merch and clothes that have a very sustainable, you know, fabric that is professional. They're going to hate me for saying this, but the way I explain it's people that have never heard of the brand is that they're the aloe yoga of Brazil and people are like, oh, I get it. But nobody's heard of the brand yet because it's really from Brazil and it just came here. We did the third iteration of the contract with them, which was the summer sets turned into a week. I was said yesterday and they co-sponsored and, you know, a lot of the events that we run, they give out clothes for our participants and it's like athletic wear fabric that you feel really good about wearing because it's nice that the planet as well. And so more to come there. We're going to have to do some more yoga classes at their store. Concertes, isn't it? I love that you say it's lively. When I was in Rio, people didn't say Meredith, which is my name is, any of you know, they'd say, "Metody Tee." I love that. Or like, "What's your face boogie?" When I say a face boogie. Everything's a little bit more fun to say. Yeah, it's more fun for sure. Okay, so we've made it, I mean, to the end of part one of who knows how many we could talk to you guys for ages two, but we've come to our rapid fire questions, so we'll ask a question, give you both each a chance to answer the first thing that pops to your head. All right, let's do it. We've got five questions for both of you. What's one simple actionable step that someone listening to this can do to bring more belonging or community into their life? I'll take that one. Say no to things that distract you from doing it. Love that, Brian. Yeah, I mean, let's say maybe say yes to the thing. Go try new things. Say no to say yes. That was the intent to know more of that today actually. I think putting yourself out there, right? So, I mean, LA, we're pretty fortunate. There's so many clubs. Everyone's always rolling their eyes on another club, which we take for granted, but there's so many opportunities to connect. We mean clubs by like sound like our events, communities, communities. Yeah, there are clubs. There are a lot of clubs in LA too. We're not in West Hollywood. It's been 20, 23 post-alcohol club is like PRC. Like the club, tennis club, meditation club. So, yeah, we're fortunate. Say yes and say no, but say no to what allows you to say yes to the things for you. Say no to open space. That was good. Be selective. Be selective. What's one thing that keeps each of you grounded? My wife and my dog. That was two, but we'll take it. They're a package. Sorry. You know, when you pick someone on the team in high school or grade school, and we're coming together in my rocks. Yeah. I mean, this is cliche based on our conversation, but like flow state activities. Like I play guitar playing beach tennis, where I can be a kid, play, and get out of the hustle and bustle of a career and trying to figure everything out. And act like I know everything. It's like, eh, the end of the day I just want to play. Oh, I didn't know you played guitar. We'll have to jam. It's another club. Okay, another club. I know we're just fighting. Let's go right down. Okay. So outside of your community and ours, what other communities do you love, or what other community do you love or draw inspiration from? Golf. I play golf too. What else do I do? I mean, I've been going to a lot of yoga communities and Venice, every yoga instructor is incredible and has this like meditative component to it and self-growing. So I think just dipping in and out of yoga classes has been really powerful because you get kind of an all in one. Yeah, we sat each other and chat it after before yoga this Saturday. So I need to do more yoga, invite me to more of your classes because I need to get up my chair. I think you just answered the next question, which is what's something you want to do more of in your life? For me though, I would say it's traveling. No, not yoga. No, I think there's levels to it, right? Like if you're really looking like what, because every time I go somewhere, like we wouldn't have beach tennis if we didn't go to Brazil. Every time I go somewhere, I learn something new and it helps me as an entrepreneur, as a husband, as a friend. Like I just learn so much from when I've traveled in May, I'm so jealous of all the countries that you've been to. I travel for comfort a lot, which I don't feel great about. I think there's a lot of unlock for me and prize down these trips to Africa as well, but like not necessarily picking the nicest place and going, but like going to give back and going to learn. Yeah. I want to disconnect more and go out in nature. I just moved to LA last year and I feel like I'm just like, we immediately dove into a lot, which has this, like we said, this weekly cadence. But I think getting out of nature, getting off our Instagram notifications and DMs and just kind of get it turned into notification. Come on. They're off, but I just check it regardless. You know, I'm always in for the nature. And what is something that you want more of in the world? Balance. Yeah, I think, I think to your, one of your, one of your slogans, I think people seeking discomfort, like the, like keeps calling it level one conversations. Like the people just being like, yeah, let's get weird, right? I think comfort and discomfort and pushing conversations with learning each other beyond the surface level. It's not easy to do when you guys have done an amazing job facilitating that. But those conversations just give, you know, everyone's so much energy and it's just like, can we have those all the time? How many levels of conversation is do we think? I know, we just talked about level one and two. I think there's just two. There's probably a third. Yeah. There's like, there's like, there's like the surface level work thing. I think it's the, there's the, there's the, you get into your like, your, like, hobbies, hobbies, and then you, and then you like dive deep into the insecurities and vulnerabilities. Right. So I feel like there's two way. There's probably a fourth dimension where you're also talking about like, you know, transcendental things in life and existentialism. We're being creative, I think, is level. Throw you. Yeah, we're collaborating, writing a song. You're adding a lot of levels. Right. Then you're, then you're expanding your brain, you're communicating in a different way. You don't have to communicate using your voice. You're creating things that don't exist. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I feel like we've gotten, that might be like a, like a level X. I feel like we're been in level two a lot tonight, but when we come back, we're going to just go right into level three then. We're going to write a poem together. Oh. That's not going to make me mean it. No, but in all seriousness, I love what you say. And it's something that definitely we do in the West Side a lot and it's still super needed here, but something that was when I was doing human interest stories and developing countries, one of my bigger goals and still is eventually with more of that to create common ground, especially between unlike groups of people and I think in a macro scale, America and how polarized we've become has needed that more than ever. Being able to listen to each other and stuff and, yeah, being a liberal Texan, like I see it when I go back home as well. So yeah, all of us to say I love that answer and more of that. More family say yes to more family, more community, more connectivity and more balance. And here for it. Here for it. Well, thank you, Blake and Brian, all of beach tennis. This was such an amazing level to, if not, higher conversation. And we will link to how people can find all of beach tennis, get involved, join the movement in our show notes. And unfortunately this will come out after the Thursday singles event, but we'll have it out there before the next one. So yeah, all in good timing. Thank you guys. Yeah, amazing. We'll see you on the sand. Thanks for hosting us. Thanks for having us. I know what you're thinking. How can I get more of that? Well, if you liked this last episode and you want to be up to date on the most awesome people doing rad things in their communities, be sure to share and subscribe to this podcast. And if you want to connect to our online community and be up to date on our biggest, baddest, weirdest, coolest, in real life events, you can follow our Instagram at more.of.that. We hope to see more of you soon.