Epicsode 73 PPA Challenger Series at Zero Zero Two: Fort Collins Pickleball, Event Growth & the Story Behind the Fracas

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Christana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Feeling tight after pickleball, workouts, or just everyday life? It's time to experience the Stretch Zone Effect, a science-backed approach to assisted stretching that helps improve mobility, increase flexibility, and keep your body moving at its best.

[00:00:24] At Stretch Zone, trained professionals help your body stretch further than you can on your own. Move better. Recover fast-ick. Play longer. Check it out today at StretchZone.com. Hey, Christana. Hey, Mike. How are you? We're out here at another event, right? Yeah.

[00:00:52] I mean, pickleball, pickleball, pickleball. Pickleball, pickleball. Yeah. And we are at Zero Zero Two up in Fort Collins. Oh, yeah. This is the one where you were like, what's that mean? No. No. I didn't say what it means, but an aha moment came on. I'm like, oh. I wonder how they came up with that crazy name. You know what? Sometimes your brain just does not. I get it. I actually get it because when I first looked at it and I play a lot of pickleball, I was like, oh, that's a neat name.

[00:01:21] I mean, I didn't register it in my head either. I pretend like I know everything. I think we've been hit with too many balls in the head or something. I think the paddle end ball or something. I need to start wearing a helmet. Oh, I do hit you with the paddle quite often because you deserve it. I probably do. But this is a beautiful, you know, I didn't get to see the facility because you came up. Yeah. Because I was tired of you. Right? I know. I was just like, I'm going. Yeah. See ya. Let's get some stuff done. This is, yeah. But this is great. Oh, it's beautiful.

[00:01:49] And you haven't even got to see the tour yet of the place. No, I need to. I know. You got to see the place. But the, you know, to have the PPA here, that's a pretty big, significant, you know, to have them here having a tournament. Oh, definitely. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And the owners here, they are just, they are awesome. Mike and Neil. Yeah. They're really, like, so very friendly. And, you know, when you guys come up here, if you've never been here, you just probably got to look them up and come say hi to them. Do you ever want to ask them? Because they kind of look like brothers. Oh.

[00:02:19] Like, they actually are family. But I didn't ask. Oh. And it's just, do you think that too, when you looked at them? Yeah, kind of. Yeah. They kind of look similar. Yeah, they do. Yeah. But it's probably as we all look, as we get older. Yeah. We all look the same. Bald and gray. Well, they're not old though. Oh. Oh, yeah. You started that whole thing. Yeah, I did do. I took myself right into that. I'm going to let them know what you said. Yeah. That was my own fault.

[00:02:47] But a busy, busy facility. I think there's over 300 plus players here today. Yeah. Good players. Oh my. I mean, the players that are playing here are just, I was here yesterday for the singles, again by myself, but that's okay. Just checking it out. We didn't do much with the podcast, but I mean, the singles players. I didn't know if I was watching pickleball or I was watching tennis. Really? Like they stayed at the back line until somebody took the chance to try to get to the, to the,

[00:03:16] because they hit so hard with so much topspin and moving each other across the court. It was crazy. I mean, there was, it wasn't like years ago or time ago, not too long ago that, you know, you're, you're a king of the court. If you got to the front, even in singles. But this time, I mean, you would watch rallies for a minute that were just stay back until somebody would make that big, that, that big move. You did a video of Kyle Yates. I did. He's our, you know, he's Instagram since we're Colorado. Oh, look, yeah. Look at me. Do something.

[00:03:45] You did something for once, but, uh, Kyle Yates is our guy. I mean, he's, he's, you know, he's the guy that's facilitated a lot of what's happening here in pickleball. You know what I mean? Honestly, he's the guy that got a lot of trophies and awards and didn't, and he's a hall of famer. I mean, he did get that. Yeah. But he never seen the, the mula. How do you do? Um, he did pretty well. He, the sad part is he came, he's coming in off of a cold. And so he was, he was struggling with that a little bit, but he's Kyle Yates.

[00:04:15] Yeah. He's just the funniest player ever. And, uh, he just, once he wraps in your head, what you do or who you are, he don't care how good or what pro you are. He just understands people's body language and they're how, you know, and he knows that I've talked to him a million times. Yeah. They're consistent. Once he figured out what you're going to hit that same shot and then he's going to use that again, like take that shot away from you. So, and that's how he wins. And not just, he's good. I mean, it's not like you just, you know, find some shot of wins.

[00:04:45] He's, he's a very good player. Yeah. Oh yeah. I like watching him. I like, yeah, he, he, and he's, he's intense, right? It's funny playing doubles. Did he say, I don't know if he is. I haven't seen him today here, but this place is packed. I mean, we're it's, you know, you can hardly walk around. The courts are full, but again, a great tournament. We just wanted to jump on here before we're going to get some good interviews today. We're going to get some pros on. We're going to talk to a Neil and Mike. What do you mean? I'm already on here. Yeah.

[00:05:11] We're going to put you behind the banner and they're going to come and talk. No, I am no pro like they, I would not want to step on the court with a lot of these guys. I would just feel stupid. I would be like, uh, like I never played. That's how you would feel with these players. Like you, you might as well just not even open the gate. You might not even watch them. You might not even watch them. You might not even understand what they're doing. Right. I'm just kidding. Well, um, yeah. So we're going to have some good ones, right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:40] We have, I'm really excited if we can get this one on. He's with proton proton proton. I know. Um, he is sponsored with them and he's 16 years old. His dad's here. Uh, his daughter plays, but his son is moving up in the ranks at 16 years old, which is pretty, really cool. I think I can't wait. I hope you can get him on and you guys can hear that. Uh, a bunch of other great players. I mean, there, there's just, this isn't a beginner when you're in the PPA.

[00:06:07] I'm not saying that they don't have, you know, some fun challenge, you know, uh, ones, but this is actually the challenger. So these people are trying to move up in the ranks of the PPA. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Well, great. So we got a lot coming. You guys got to stay tuned. Stay tuned. And I got to go get some food cause I'm hungry. You look hungry. I feel hungry. Thanks. Campbell chiropractic, your path to wellness.

[00:06:37] Your path to wellness starts here. Our services include chiropractic care, laser therapy, and custom orthotics. We also provide personalized nutrition plans, rehabilitation, and sports physicals. Visit us at castlerockchiro.com or call 303-663-8365.

[00:07:05] We're here at 002.pro, 002 in Fort Collins. We're here with Mike Zervas and we are here with Bree Seifert from Visit Fort Collins, Colorado. How are you guys? Good. Thanks. It's exciting to be here today. We're doing great. Thank you. It's great to see you guys. Oh, we love to thank you for inviting us. This is such an honor to be here with all these athletes. I mean, it's incredible. The play here is nuts. Nuts.

[00:07:35] I'm laughing because I told Mike earlier, we were talking, I said, I get inspired watching these players. They're amazing athletes and amazing players. And at the same time I have the thought of, I'm going to get better. I go, I should just quit. They're that good. I'm going back to the rec center. Yep. We talked about they're going to kick guys like me and Mike out of the system. Take away your ownership. Yep. You got to sell your place. Sorry. You're not, you're not at the qualification. They are, they are unbelievable.

[00:08:03] And Mike and I were also talking that one of the things we've noticed and it's very readily apparent at this tournament is the level of athleticism in pickleball has just increased exponentially. And you guys either disabuse me of that notion or confirm that I'm not being. Absolutely. It's crazy. It's amazing. Like we were just watching the ladies. I mean, same thing. I don't want to get in the court with these ladies. I do not. No. Cause it would be embarrassing. They are so good. Cause they would just take me to the cleaners. Yeah.

[00:08:33] They would. Hey, hey. Hey. Well, and we're here for the PPA challenge. So what levels are here? Um, well, this is the PPA Challenger series and it was, um, really brought to us by Visit Fort Collins. It's brought to the city by, uh, Visit Fort Collins. Who's been a unbelievably and important partner to make this happen. We have about 325 top, uh, players from around the world. Uh, and I'll tell you about that in a second.

[00:09:02] It's crazy. But, um, this level is anywhere from five, five to, uh, low sixes. Yeah. It's, it's crazy. And, um, so that's just a little better than your average player you're going to run into on your local pickleball. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Mike thinks he's a six. Oh, yeah. I'm a six. So when nobody's watching, I was, what is the top? What is the top score? Eight, eight. Eight. Thank you. And there's the, and Ben John is the closest to that right now. But nobody's an eight. Nobody's an eight.

[00:09:30] He's seven, eight, seven or something. Seven, eight. Seven, eight. Seven, eight. So he's almost there. Yeah. But, um, what is, what is that? He uses his fingers or something? He goes and has lunch while he's playing. I mean, what is that? Well, we've all watched him play. He's, he's pretty, uh, you know, I think the difference between the lower players and the upper players is, um, obviously it's consistency. It's, they hit every shot.

[00:09:56] And then when you get to this level, they hit every shot and every shot that we can't imagine. If they just hit those crazy shots less frequently than that next level up of the Ben Johns and, and the Johnson brothers and those kinds of guys. But still here, every game you go, whoa. Yeah. Yeah. There's no, there's, and the volleys are, you know, minutes, you know, it's not like just one, two, three, or it's not like yours where it's like one. He was not pointing at me or three. Sorry.

[00:10:26] Mike, this is an audio media. I forgot. You can't, I forgot. It's not like, it's, you know, like smell of vision. He was not pointing at me or three. Yeah. Okay. So he's pointing at me. She, she came in when she came into the podcast and started, she was, we call her 2.0 or best. She just started. So we've gave her a hard time ever since. I've never played before. So I don't even have a score. So I, well, I, I'm not even officially have a score, but you know, I could score myself.

[00:10:55] But isn't that the beauty of the game? It is. It really isn't that exactly why we all love it is because your rating doesn't really matter. It's accessible to all of us, right? We can play. And this is just the pinnacle. Um, but we also have about 20% of the players here are amateur. Yeah. And so that's down to four or five, which is still a very high level player. Well, just four or five. You know, what's scary Mike is that I feel that, you know, I'm just finally passing, getting that four plus, you know, level.

[00:11:24] And now I'm going to, the four is not like the three again. Yes. I mean, I'm kind of sad. I mean, you got there and I got there. Now it's like, Oh, well start again. Good luck. Yeah. That's exactly where I'm at. I'm wearing the same spot in terms of my ability. And I feel very like, Oh my word. I was trying so hard to get to this. This is nothing now. No, no. It's because of the growth. We were here yesterday. I was here and we were watching the singles. Now that was a whole other game. It was crazy. I didn't know if I was playing.

[00:11:51] I didn't know if I was watching tennis or pickleball because they played so they hit it so hard and they stayed at the back line so long, longer than I've ever seen them stay back and they cover the core. Oh, my God. Tennis players. Yeah. A whole thing. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. And so, you know, the journey here has been pretty remarkable to get this event here has taken us. How long, Brie? Two years, I heard. Two years. Two years.

[00:12:18] So then Brie's the one that kind of orchestrated a lot of this. Yeah. Brie, I'll let you tell how we met and what you did to get us met and then tell us how you put this together. Because it's part of what makes her remarkable and what makes Fort Collins so great. Oh, well, thank you. It's been a fun road. It's really exciting to see it here. Honestly, we were just laughing about it upstairs. I was talking to him. I was like, you know, I originally reached out to Neil, Mike's partner, and I saw it in the newspaper.

[00:12:49] Well, it was probably online, let's be honest. But it was Pickleball facility, future plans. You know, it was like a neighborhood get together to make sure that they could, you know, talk to everybody if they could build here. Nice. And I reached down, I called him, introduced myself, told him what I did and said I'd love to meet with him. We were supposed to go to lunch and then I show up and then Neil like the day before the day of was like, I can't make it, I'm sick, but my partner Mike's gonna go.

[00:13:15] And so sit down, I meet Mike for the first time and we were ordering drinks. This is great. I want to see how you get through this. I know. Not alcoholic drinks. We both ordered... Lemonade and iced tea, which... Arnold Palmer. Arnold Palmer. Neither one of us can pronounce that. Oh, that's funny. And so we both wanted to order it and she was like... And I went...

[00:13:43] We looked at each other and we're like, oh my God, really? You can't either? You can't say the word? You can't say it either? And she said no. And I go, either can I. And so I immediately got my daughter who heckles the heck out of me for not being able to say that. I got her and... Filmed me. Filmed Brie trying to say it and I say, see, I'm not the only one. I'm not wrong. And so... Within the first five minutes this happened and then from then on... We were best friends. Yeah, best friends. So how do you say it? Arnold Palmer. Well, I say iced tea and lemonade please.

[00:14:12] And make it quick. I'm not gonna put myself there. I struggle through it and I actually try because I, you know, I don't give up. She doesn't quit. I'm gonna say, Arnold Palmer. See? Arnold. She just did it wrong. Arnold. Arnold. Arnold. That's good. Iced tea and lemonade. That's good. I like it. And so then Brie, you know, we talked a little bit and she kind of tried to understand our scope and not too long after that she says, hey, would you guys be interested in bringing a tournament here? And I'm like, what?

[00:14:43] That... What? PPA tournament. I started with, hey, do you want to bring a PPA tournament? Yeah. A PPA tournament. I'm like, I don't think I was... Yeah. I was like, really? We haven't broke ground yet. Yeah. We're... The city's still like looking at us, right? The neighborhoods haven't even signed off on it yet. And she's ready to go. I'm ready to go. She's got us here two years ago in her head. Which is crazy. Right? We were talking about it off air and saying, how did you do that? Because they are really meticulous of where they play and when.

[00:15:10] And they usually want to come see the courts, meet the owners, like measure everything. Like it's nuts. And you're already... She's got you in the door before you even open up. She's already talking to me about doing a facility on the moon. Oh my God. I don't know how she does it, but I just... She points me in a direction and I go, okay, well, let's get the bulldozers. Let's get it happening. Let's get going. Um, she did a really good job of, uh, helping them understand the value, the power of the city and everything that we have to offer from resources.

[00:15:37] And then, um, visit Fort Collins stepped up in a major way to help logistically. And, you know, as you run into those bumps and cracks, they kept smoothing things over for us. And so we were just running parallel tracks with really, Bree helping drive that while we were trying to get this facility up and built. Um, and quite frankly, we had, um, as we had numerous challenges building like anyone does, we, uh, we got delayed.

[00:16:04] We were supposed to have this tournament last September. Wow. And our opening got delayed by six weeks. And so PPA was gracious enough to say, we want to hang out with you guys. We love the visit Fort Collins. We think this is going to be a great venue. And they moved their schedule around to accommodate us to today, which was amazing. It's a mate. Well, yeah, it's all about relationships. It really is.

[00:16:31] Once you build that and people just understand, um, they, they know how hard you work and they trust you. And from then on it's, it's like, okay, we're going to be honest with each other. And that's the one thing that we said from the beginning, we said, Hey, this is, we're, we're building this. This is, you know, not something that is up and running yet. And, um, if you're willing to partner with us and go along this journey, like we want you here. And, uh, PPA were just understanding of that. And we, you know, talk to them through the whole time and we said, we will let you know

[00:16:59] if we ever feel like we're not comfortable and if we need to move this. And, and unfortunately it came to that, but then now, you know, fast forward, we've built that relationship even, even further. Now I still connect with them quite a bit at different shows throughout the year. And it's just really exciting to see it come to fruition. All the hard work in the back end. And it runs, they, I mean, they, they do a really good tournament. I mean, it just runs. These people here are used to tournaments, so they really understand. Um, the reffing is awesome.

[00:17:28] You, you see, if somebody has a problem, those refs jump in there and they take it over. I mean, it is really good. We saw that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yes. Go get the ref. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, um, and PPA, one of the things that I really liked about this particular series of events that they run is that they're kind of a small tight knit team. And so they're very flexible. Yeah. And they're creative.

[00:17:54] And so when you run into these problems, um, we immediately called them up and said, we're not going to make the date. Um, their first thing that they said to us was, thank you. Wow. Don't run us to the end. And yeah, that creates a lot of problems. You know, and we just, we're not going to lie to you and try to just make it in by the whisker. And they rewarded that with loyalty and you guys can see this place is packed. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. It's packed. Yeah. And so it's been, yeah.

[00:18:20] So, um, you know, I say it a lot, but I mean it, you know, I think I told you guys this on our last time we were able to chat, but, and I mentioned visit Fort Collins, but if you think about it, you know, we had, we had the PPA partnering with us. We had visit Fort Collins, we had Bree leading the charge, right? And then we had our own ecosystem of our own pickleball fanatics in this neighborhood. And in this area who have been supporting us all along the way, we had a issue where we

[00:18:47] had a, um, had to do a, uh, environmental study because there's a, there's a little nature preserve behind our facility here. And so two of our, uh, two of our members who were professors of environmental sciences at CSU said, we'll meet the city out there and we'll talk through them. And they came and walked through and everything just was, oh yeah, I guess you don't need to do a giant study. We understand it now. And they presented research and it was like things like that. Right.

[00:19:17] And so that's what makes this so wild to me. It's like all these things had to happen. All fell in place. Yeah. Right. Yeah. To make it open. But I always said Fort Collins is, it's its own place with a, being a college town, but the people here and people have been here for a long time, they come together. You know, you sometimes places down towards Denver and areas. It's, it's not as a get together, you know, it's not tight yet. Yeah. They are here. And I really think that you being here, I'm really forecasting because I know what's

[00:19:47] what I've been taught. We talked to colleges and stuff and we know you're in the right place because those teams need a place to practice to be in a lot of this pro tournament series. And you're right at the right place. And it's a, you built a beautiful facility. Come on. This is gorgeous. Well, thank you. Um, I think that, um, you know, and, uh, visit Fort Collins works with, uh, CSU and we're building relationships with CSU. And so we're excited to see if we can help launch that college program and catch up to

[00:20:16] the rest of the, some of the Southeast where they're already got this thing bumping in and boiling. But I think, uh, there's a good opportunity. There's a coalition of the willing in this community. And I think that if we can start there. Yeah. It's, it's a good bet. It's coming for, this is four months and you're a liquid. Look at this place. Wait, what? It's packed. Yeah. It's only been four months. I feel like it's been years. Wait, we, it's been a little bit longer. We open, sorry. No, you're close though.

[00:20:46] We opened, um, officially we had a soft opening, uh, in the first part of December, but really we consider our first really was January. Yeah. So we were doing soft opening, trying to work out the kinks, right? Let people through, but all, you know, how we had this didn't work and people are flowing this way, we should think about this. And so really it's been since January, which is only five months. Yeah. Not too far off. It's nutty. So I mean, this place is packed wall to wall.

[00:21:14] And when I came here a few weeks, a month ago, it was probably about a month ago. That's right. And we came in, it's full people playing, you're over there helping people. He's, I'm finding them on a court, you know? I mean, I'll get a, yeah. Yeah. That's the, uh, that's been the weird part of this is that, um, Mike and I talked about this is, um, Bray and I were just saying the same thing that, um, she hasn't been in here to play yet. Yeah. I've been in here a lot. Great. She's in here a lot. We're meeting here. We're doing stuff. We're not playing.

[00:21:42] You and I talked about the fact that, you know, I'm not playing. You guys didn't play when you guys didn't play. No, we didn't even get a ball together. No, we didn't even have a ball. So I think we got to kick some of these pros off and go play. I'm not doing that. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. It'll be embarrassing. Oh my God. What did that, what are those two guys just do? What happened? Did you see the one guy fell on top of the other? They both just started crying. It was funny and embarrassing at the same time. They were crying before. It wasn't good. Yeah. That's not happening. But we're actually going to change something.

[00:22:12] We're going to start doing our meetings like I did with you and dinky meetings where we go and dink and talk on the court. So we get to play a little bit. I love that idea. And then video it. What do you do with it? You got to just do. We have a little mics. Yep. We're going to have a little mics and we're going to dink and have video. That's great. At least I get to hit a ball, you know? And you get to hit a ball, you know? I'm in, bro. That's our new thing. We got to just come up with a reason, some kind of newsworthy reason for you to come back up here and have a dink and talk. I'm coming back. I like you. Am I a Seabree?

[00:22:42] Yeah. People like me. There are some people that do like Mike and Mike. Mikes and Mikes are good together. We're trouble, but we're good. Trouble. Oh, you're trouble. Yeah, there's a lot of trouble. I am one of them that likes you. Oh. Oh, look good. We work well together. Okay, so this is weird. We could be brothers. I know, this just got weird, right? Yeah, it's so weird. It's so weird. So we have a question for you. Yeah. Is Neil related to you or friends? Who? Neil. Oh, Neil is... You got that partner up here? I thought you said Noah.

[00:23:12] Noah, yeah. You know, the last time we talked, you started talking about Jesus. Remember that? Yeah. So I'm watching you all the time. Like, what's coming? Yeah. Is she speeding it up on me? No. I did take her to the hospital after that. You know what I was talking about about Jesus, right? I knew it. Okay. I was listening in and I knew. And I was like, oh, I feel so bad. I wish I could be there to help Christina out. Yeah. You need to help me. She was fine. I was lost. We were lost. You guys are always lost. Oh, crap. I know. Yeah. She's like, do you guys look at the wall? Blah, blah, blah. Not the wall.

[00:23:40] Do you ever see those pictures that you're supposed to see like Jesus or something? Like, it's kind of like that, right? Well... We went back to it. Well, in case it came up again, I brought it just for her in case it came up. Oh my gosh. That's Paul Claire. In case you could see it. You got a little gulm Jesus. I just brought her a case just in case she needed it. That doesn't know? That way we could see if she really sees Jesus. I have a few of those at home. It's a little freaky look. I do. Yeah. So, Neil is not my brother. Okay. Neil is my business partner.

[00:24:09] But people do think we bear some similarity to each other. Mike said that. I said the same thing. I think they're kind of good friends. You can just tell they're family. Yeah. Neil's a great guy. He's a gifted marketer. He works with a lot of Fortune 500 companies in his other life. And he brought a lot of the branding and vibe sensibility that you feel in the club. He built that brick by brick. There he is.

[00:24:38] And there's Big Bad Neil right there. And yeah, he built that brick by brick. Yeah. That's awesome. It was an important part. And so we both have overlapping skill sets, but some different skill sets too. And so it's kind of a... My experience has been you don't want a partner that can do all the same things you can. Right? We are not the same. Well, it's good though. Thank goodness. I am so happy. It works well. That's why it works, right? And Bree has... I'm the nice one. He's the mean one.

[00:25:07] And Bree has much better organization and tactical skills than I do. She can keep track of all the moving parts. I'm more of a big picture thinker and trying to put the deals together and structure things and create the environment to make it happen. So I'm lucky because we work very well together in that way. And we can lean on each other when we got to negotiate contracts. Or she's like, Mike, did you remember to get pickle balls for the tournament? And I go, no. No. Why would you do that? And she goes, well, I did.

[00:25:36] Here's a truck. And I'm like, God bless you, girl. That's awesome. I do want to talk a little bit about that because I do a lot of tournaments here in Fort Collins. And what has set this one out is working with Mike and Neil in this facility. And it's like none other that when they get involved in everything that goes behind the scenes, I just completely trusted them. Like there's a lot of effort that goes into this event. And there's times that I'm thinking about a million things.

[00:26:04] And honestly, I just had to cut that in half because I knew half of it was taken care of. And yes, there were still times it's like we're bouncing back and like, oh, did you do that? Oh, did you do that? But that happens no matter what. Yeah. But to actually have the load, like the mental load lifted is a whole nother just ballgame. And it really you see it come through not only today in this tournament, but just our relationship and how much that, you know, moving forward. There's this is not this is the beginning. Like this is not the end.

[00:26:33] We're excited to grow. Yeah. Not only this tournament, work on other tournaments together. And I could not be more thankful for for this facility and for Mike and Neil. Well, you know what people don't understand what happens at a tournament like this or one you put on. It's an experience. Right. That's the end of it. It's a community and that's right. And if those two don't come together by you two or whoever's putting us together, the people don't come back. That's right. And, you know, and we've we've you know, we've been on a few that were just they happen to go bad.

[00:27:03] And it's just terrible because the whole vibe changes, the whole everything changes. So it's really good that you and you guys have this partnership to help do that. What do you what do you think makes them go bad? What is the thing that is it that they're poorly run tactically? It's just they don't think about the organization organization, maybe too many chiefs. You know, not enough of the people kind of they too many doing the same thing. Yeah. And then, you know, or not enough communication. Yeah. The programs, the whatever just didn't get put in it or they didn't try it.

[00:27:32] They they had they came up with a new idea and they were going to try it with a seven or eight hundred tournament, 800 people tournament. It's not good. Yeah. So I mean, and again, sometimes it just goes bad. I mean, it's not always people. You can't make them happy either. I hate to say that, but there's people doesn't matter how well you do it. They're going to have something to say bad or they have a they had, you know, they were with somebody that had bad energy. I mean, you can't fix everything, but the more you can be organized, the better they're going to have a good experience. Yeah. You know, that's like you say here. You don't even feel like this is a tournament.

[00:28:01] Just feels like people are coming off, playing, off, playing. People are eating food. Good food, too. Oh, man. That steak chur, chimichurri, your churri, churri. Can you say that, Mike? Yeah, I'm doing that. Uh oh. Uh oh. Uh oh. The steak with the bread, please. I can say that one. Chimichurri. Listen, I'll order that sandwich if you order the drink for me. Yeah, there we go. How do you say it? Yeah, chimichurri. A chimichurri. No, that's not right. No, it's not it. What is it? Oh, goodness. Oh, my God. Chimichurri.

[00:28:31] That's it. Chimichurri? It's me. Chimichurri. It's very good. Yeah, it's a pretty great sandwich. We got there. And they're Italian. We recruited him out of Texas. He moved here from Texas to run this for us, not just this tournament, but that cafe. His name is Thomas Griffin. He's amazing. He's really creative. He's got a lot of experience.

[00:29:00] And he's, as you know, he's really personable. And so he makes, he's part of that what makes this the experience. Yeah. Because when you interact with him, it's fun. It's, he's accommodating. He's creative. And so, yeah, he's been great. He's only been with us for three and a half weeks. Well, it's great. He's pulling this off. Well, when I came, I just came when he got here and he made me a pressed coffee. That's right. Remember? It was a pressed coffee. Yeah. Like, I was like, coffee's fine. No, it's a pressed coffee. So it was awesome.

[00:29:28] But everything about this place is great. Thank you. You can tell in this energy here, this is awesome. Yeah. It was a great event, guys. Yeah. And we pick a ball together. Like when we first walked up, you said, I know you. I know you. Yes. A few years ago. Yeah. Cause I do. I'm the pro for Hilton's and Inverness. So I help teach and really do parties and stuff. I didn't. Yeah. Tiny, tiny world. It really is. It really is. I was there for another event and we played together. We it's for a golf event, but I wanted people to be on the pickleball court.

[00:29:58] So I brought some people down there to play. And Mike was the pro that was, was there. He introduced me to a few pickleball paddles and yeah, we played. I got played. I make it fun. And that's what I do for people. That's I know that's why the experience is good. Cause I got thrown into this business. Yeah. And when I did, they said, Oh, here's 11 courts and have a party. What do I do? I realized at that point that you have to have it organized and don't let people think, right? Just let them, if they get, they're coming for that experience. That's right. Cause we know Mike does. I don't think so. It's really difficult.

[00:30:29] That's the other Mike people. Oh yeah. Yeah. We can clarify that. There's two Mike. Mike. There's one who thinks and one who doesn't. But I love the energy that you bring here, you yourself. And then what you've done here. I mean, in Fort Collins, and this is just a beautiful facility for everybody here and they needed it. There is nothing here, but some outside courts and your, your, uh, rec center, you know? Yeah. So, and I'm not saying too bad about rec center where it's where I'm going, I guess that's

[00:30:56] where we're heading, but yeah, back there. I mean, is that next month? Hey, it was needed. And you know, Fort Collins is a beautiful place. And that's what we do here with these tournaments. We bring them in, but we want them to visit as well. And we know not everybody coming in is going to be able to go to the restaurants and go to the activities, but we want to have that as an offer. Right. And we want to showcase, Hey, when you're here, stay an extra day, go up and see horse to go for a hike. Um, enjoy yourself, go out for dinner, hear a few suggestions, play some pickleball, play

[00:31:26] some pickleball. Um, and then, and get out and about around town because it is a special place. And most people, when they get up here and see it, they fall in love and they can't wait to come back. And, uh, that's just the charm of Fort Collins. It really is. It really is. It's, it's just different than anywhere. It really is. You just have to experience. It's an experience. It is. It is an experience. Yeah. When you come to Fort Collins, the hope is, is that you'll have an experience and doing,

[00:31:52] you know, there's a vibrant downtown community, arts, music, there's an abundance of outdoor activities and fishing and hiking and climbing and art art there. It's just, it's crazy. And so, yeah, the hope is, is that they come here, they get a taste, they come back. Yep. Um, and they kind of understand this hidden gem that, uh, we all have here. So, um, we appreciate you taking the time to let us talk about how great Fort Collins is. No, it is how great you guys are.

[00:32:21] Well, that's where this starts really is the people that started, you know, and we're noticing that. And I'm not saying again, we, we have too much information about pickleball cause we're in it. We go to a lot of facilities. I kind of like the more individual people that build their own than more of the franchise part. And I don't mean that any bad way. That's like any franchise, right? I mean, one can be really well and one might not do as well, but this one, when they, when they're done by the heart and hard work, this is what you get. Thank you. It comes through. It does. Yeah. It's been great.

[00:32:51] What did we learn today? Mike, we learned that Mike's are awesome. And I can't say humble. I can't say cherry, cherry, cherry, cherry, cherry, cherry, or ice tea and lemonade. Yeah. So we've learned some things. Not going to embarrass myself. How will you say, how will you actually order your sandwich? He doesn't like onions just so you know. That's fine. I got you. We both can say onions. Onions are good. Can you say onions? I can say onions. He barely can say my name.

[00:33:19] So we learned that we're, we're doing what we're the best thing we're doing is bring a community together. That's what pickleballers next door is, is to bring, we tell people they get to live vicariously through us because they don't know. Everybody doesn't get to be here. There's people all over the world listening to this. And then when they get here, they say, Hey, we heard these crazy podcasters, Mike, the greatest one. And that, uh, to come to Fort Collins, you know, there's a pickleball place there. Yeah. You know what I mean? We appreciate it. So, and we're going to be around more. I mean, we have a lot of, we're already doing some more stuff up here in Fort Collins and

[00:33:47] we're going to bring that here because we support the clubs. You put a lot of money and time and people don't realize they don't do anything. It's just a warehouse that you pop up and throw some ports in. It's a lot. The lighting, the heating though. When you were in construction. Oh yeah. I understand. And I know the cost of what this costs. It's almost, it's where our budgets are now over $400 to open this place. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, so we support the clubs cause people need to understand how, why it's beautiful. You're not using an outhouse.

[00:34:17] You're using a beautiful facility. You've got food here. You got drinks. You keep this place cold. I got a little chilly out the courts. I've heard that. And then, and then if we raise the temperature a little bit, guess what the players say? You'll hear it. Yeah. You're cooking me in here, man. All right. You gotta take care of the players first. But they all cost money. And then, so we, that's the support is come play here. Come play here. You're going to love it. You're going to get treated like Kings, Queens. It's you're going to love it. Great. Well, thanks for having us on you guys. Well, thank you. We appreciate it. Thanks for having us here.

[00:34:47] Thank you. It's our pleasure. Thanks again. Thank you. Take care. Bye. All right. We're starting to wrap up here today at the PPA and at zero zero two. We have a real special guest. We got Neil buffet. Belfay. Yeah. Did I say that right? Or did I? I thought you said buffet. Buffet. You like the buffet. I was reading.

[00:35:16] I figured a buffet. Yeah. Actually Mike has buffet on his brain. I do have a buffet. Yeah. You know what? I got to tell you something though. The food, this, this gentleman is doing your food. Oh my gosh. It is. It's really good. I mean, it's not something you expect here. I know. You expect a hamburger or some hot dog that's been on the little grill for about two hours. And Thomas, he's only been here about a month. Oh, he's doing a phenomenal. But he's like a food mad scientist. Oh, I was watching him make the onions and add all the seasonings and, but that's really awesome though.

[00:35:45] Like that changes, that makes it different. It totally does. When we first opened this place, the idea was, Hey, it's a pickleball venue. People might get hungry. We'll provide them some food, but we weren't looking to go over the top. And then, um, we hired him and he's like, no, we're doing amazing food and we're going to draw people in from the neighborhood because they want our sandwiches and our And then they'll play pickleball. That's right. And it, it's like I said, he's only been here a short time, but man, oh man, that chimichurri is like, Oh my gosh.

[00:36:15] It's so good. I don't even tell me. I can't say chimichurri. It's kind of like the, uh, Arnold Palmer that they were talking about that. Your partner. Yeah. And then Mike can't say the, uh, whatever, chimichurri. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You start to regress when you get older, you know, there's less words that you can say. You notice how he said when you get older there? Yeah. That's cause I'm one of them. That's why. Yeah. I know. I have a little ways to go on that one. But then you have simple stuff too. I love like the peanut butter and banana sandwich.

[00:36:45] I mean, that's like a, that's a stable food, right? That's something. Yeah. Especially if we're playing. It's great energy. A lot of people were ordering the peanut butter and jelly when, yeah. Yeah. You know, I think he brought that one in specifically because you come off the court. Yeah. You're not going to want a steak sandwich. That's awesome for spectators. Yeah. But that peanut butter and jelly with a banana in it. Gonna get your energy back. That's just like jet fuel to go back out there. And the Italian's really good. I had that one. Yeah. That is really good with the sauce. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, we got off track. Sorry about that. No, it's all right. We're talking about food.

[00:37:14] Give us a little background of her, how you got into pickleball. How you even got into this. How you got involved together. Well, like a lot of people, it was sometime around COVID, but it wasn't really COVID driven that I got into it. My wife and I, I have been for very many years an avid mountain biker and was really into it. And she has been for most of her life, a pretty serious runner. And both of us were like, you know, for me running is like, you might as well chain

[00:37:43] me to a bumper and drag me around. Yeah. She loves it. But I'm like, I'm never going to do that. She's, she's a really petite little woman. And she's like, I'm not, I'm not getting on a mountain bike. I'll too breakable. And I like to run too much. So I don't want to be, you know, wiped out and a broken arm and not be able to do something. So we said, well, let's find something we can do together. And she went out, she found Fort Collins pickleball club, took a beginner class. She's like, this is awesome. It's fun. You got to come do this. So she kind of drug me out there.

[00:38:09] And I played tennis in high school, which was like in the late 1800s. But it was, you know, it felt kind of natural to me, some of the swing path and stuff. So we got addicted really quick and the mountain biking went away pretty quickly for me and she still runs, but it's like, it's very secondary for her.

[00:38:26] I think it's, you know, the whole aspect of pickleball where you can be competitive as you get older and older and whether your athletic skills are still there or not, you can find people at your level to compete with. And that's what's, I think draws a lot of people to it. It's the culture in terms of the community and the competitiveness where, you know, when I was younger, I played basketball a lot. I couldn't go out there and compete in basketball at this point. It's just, you know, it's too physical.

[00:38:54] But you could this, there's all levels, whatever you want. Now this, this, this level you have here today, PPA. Yeah, I wouldn't be competing in that. What level are you? I'm just a little bit over a 4.0. So I play well enough to feel pretty good when I'm playing. And then I watch this and I'm like, that's a different game. It makes me feel like a 3.0 again watching this. Oh my gosh. It's nuts. Yeah.

[00:39:18] The shots that they get, the way they dink, the way they control that ball, speed that ball up from the bottom of the net up. It's just nuts. And I was just watching, I don't know, you guys. Kyle, yeah. Yeah. The semifinal with Eli and Kyle playing against a couple of guys. They beat them in the first game. And then these guys had to claw their way back. But the stuff, like the speed ups that they hit and they counter three or four times, even as a spectator, I'm like, I don't, I didn't see the first ball go off. Yeah.

[00:39:46] And it's, they're getting it back to each other and placing it where they want it. And it's, it's incredible. When I'm calling a ball, like they hit that. Oh, that's done. And then they get it. They get it from their feet. They get it from back. They pop it over. Like it's crazy. Now, Kyle Yates is just a, we, we, we've been around him for, since we started the podcast. Yeah. And he's just an incredible man. I'm, you know, he started, he was in this. Yeah. He's been a long time hall of famer. Now he started when you got a trophy and a little medal. Yeah. Now there's millionaires being made in pickleball. I know it's crazy.

[00:40:15] And, uh, people like that, that were part of the sport early on and played at a high level and helped really make it something. Yeah. You know, it's, uh, the reason we're here today is because people like that popularize. Yeah. You wouldn't open this, uh, this type of a club. No. Now I got to say what you opened here in Fort Collins, they needed it. I think you're at the right place. I'm going to tell you just from outside looking in, you know, uh, business. It's a beautiful club. I think that you're out here where the college is getting really big in this. Yeah.

[00:40:44] And I know, you know, I know there's a lot of talk, but I think it's coming. You know what I mean? I think, I think the colleges are going to see the money. Yeah. Right. I mean, all their sports are going to see that the, Hey, pick while now does have money. There's lots of sponsorship and that's going to bring money to the college. And I bet you, Bree may help with that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Or need that to, for you guys. Yeah. I mean, this has been an incredible partner for us. She, I don't know if you guys have got to spend much time with her, but she's a powerhouse.

[00:41:11] Like she tons of energy, passion for Fort Collins and bringing people in here to see what we've got. Cause it's an amazing town. And, uh, she's just been an incredible partner, the whole, you know, visit Fort Collins team. Well, the funny part was that she walked up and she says, I know you. I'm like, okay. A lot of people. I mean, I, we know a lot of people cause we go out. Right. But she actually, I'm the pro for Hilton and Inverness in Denver and the Denver tech center. Nice. And they had a, uh, a, uh, an event and they came down and I teach them how to play pickleball and all that. So it was like small world, you know?

[00:41:41] Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. That's, I mean, one of the things about that pickleball community that's glue like that is that you, you run into people in different places and connect and you, as you see them again, because events like this draw them together and, uh, you know, kudos to the PPA as well. Just, they've done an amazing job organizing this. It's like run smoothly. Oh yeah. No complaints. Doesn't even feel like a tournament. No. It really just feels like you have open play here with a lot of people having fun. With superstars. Yeah.

[00:42:10] So, I mean that you have, I have to give them that credit and you're in the facility, I mean, the facility makes it this too. Thank you. So, yeah, we've, uh, I think I told you guys, this is, facility is a serious labor of love. I mean, it was just neither Mike, myself, you know, our wives are deeply involved with this. Um, both of our sons are actually investors and involved in the business. Oh, that's nice. And, um, putting this place together, um, like any, you know, big construction venture

[00:42:37] like this, it was definitely a bear. And there were multiple times along the way where we were like, are we sure we want to do this? What are we doing? Yeah. Because this is not, you know, we didn't, we didn't set this business up because we're like, Hey, let's pay for our retirement. That is not what this is doing. No, but it was kind of, we were passionate about the sport, passionate about the community. And I will say, I don't know if Mike told you this, but we had 150 founders who stepped up to the plate 18 months before we opened and plunked down either a year or two years

[00:43:07] membership in advance. Wow. Just to say, Hey, we, we were behind you. We believe this. And so if it, if it hadn't been for that, we'd have never done this. Well, I mean, in Fort Collins, I mean, that tells you about what a great town Fort Collins is. And they've showed out today. I mean, the crowds that were here today. Yeah. I think that's what shocked me the most. I knew there was going to be a lot of players here, but the number of spectators and like how into it they are. And you see the semi match. Oh my God.

[00:43:34] You can even walk because there are so many people all the way up the stairs. I mean, for the sake of the fire department, you could walk through. Yes. Yeah. That was funny. Yeah. That's true. But you know, that's why we're here. Pickleball is next door. And we do a lot of this stuff at the clubs because we know how hard to what the cost is. Cause I thought about doing this. And when I looked at the numbers, that line, when you look across that line, it's not a big lineup and it's not a, it can be a line down, you know, for sure. And so we support the club.

[00:44:02] Like we love PPA and all that, but we're here for you. Yeah. We greatly appreciate it. You guys have been awesome partners to us as well. Love what you guys are doing. It just feels really like ingrained in the sport and very, I don't know, like, grassroots, I guess is the way I'd put it. Well, we wanted something different. We didn't want people. We, you know, when we looked at, when I looked at podcasts, I listened to a lot of different podcasts. They were out of a basement. They were in a shop somewhere. We're like, why can't we just do the podcast right here?

[00:44:31] Why can't we be where the people are? Such a cool idea. And it changed the dynamics of everything we did. So we opened up most of the clubs or we work a big, we get in part with them and help them grow and they help us grow. And where do we want to be? This is where the actions happen. I know. I don't know if you told your listeners this, but we're literally sitting in the middle of our lobby. There's a hundred people around us. There's music thumping and the tech guys have amazing things. Yeah. We're getting to YouTube and video. Cause that's our nest. The younger ask. Right.

[00:44:59] We want to watch you guys, not listen to you guys. Yes. And I'm like, well, I'm going to have to get some makeup. Do you have that plastic surgery coming up? I'm going to have to get some of that going on. Listen to this. And then she wonders why I'm mean to her. It keeps you sharp. It does. Yeah. I mean, because your age and everything, you know, I have to keep them going. You need to pull the ideas out. You have to ask them like questions and everything. Yeah. Especially his age. I got you. It keeps them really sharp. You sometimes just jot little things down for her. Yeah.

[00:45:30] Like zero. We're at zero. Oh, she's bad. She's so bad. But if we pulled her idea out, you'd see who's older. Oh, no. We just wanted you on. And we're here. We're here for the long term. We have some other people up here in that we've already talked to about bringing some events here to your to Fort Collins. And again, we just I like you. I mean, it's I love I met Mike. And then you guys, we thought you were a family. We were guessing.

[00:45:58] But you guys are because you guys kind of have the same demeanors. Yeah. And builds. You get that a lot. Yeah. And like you guys, our love language is sarcasm and poking at each other. So like when you showed up and you I heard the podcast that you did with him, I was like, oh, yeah. Sometimes people think we're married. We're not. Just so the listeners know, I am not married to Mike. We were. We weren't sure. We were guessing maybe family or good friends. Yeah. Yeah. Good friends.

[00:46:25] And ironically, it was my son that got us together. So my son was playing with Michael first. And my son is one of those people. He's 30 and he's got a couple of small kids now. So he's slowed down a little bit in his pickleball progression. But when he first started, core athlete just jumped up, you know, and so he was playing with Mike and at my level for a very short period of time. And then suddenly he's like he's blasted off. So, yeah, it's been fun to see.

[00:46:54] But well, we thank you so much for having us here. And we are here to support you. We've shouted out the people. And we do love the fact of private own club owners that put this is a big deal. This and this isn't little. Let's tell you. Yeah. You have is it 17 or 18 courts? We have 17 courts. Yeah. Seven indoor and six out. Yeah. And you just did it different, too. And I love the story that Mike was telling me that you guys actually traveled to go ask people like what they liked and didn't like.

[00:47:22] And you didn't ask tell anybody why you were doing it. No, you brought those things back and implemented them into your into your facility. Yeah. We went and visited a lot of clubs and just kind of got a feel for what was really working, not only from our own perspective, but while we were there, because, you know, the pickleball community is pretty easy to connect with. Oh, yeah. We were just able to walk up to players and like, hey, why are you here? What do you love about this? What's working for you? Yeah. And a lot of themes came out of that. You know, I mean, the basics are really clear, right?

[00:47:51] You got to have good surfaces. You got to have enough space around them that people can hit ATPs and they can move around. But then there's a lot of stuff like that you got to look for in between the lines and the idea of like having some space where people can hang out or even a small cafe, which doesn't cafes don't work for every space. No. You have to have it's a combination of things where people want to spend time there after they're done. And that's not about whether they like the club.

[00:48:19] It's just have you set it up in a way where it's like, yeah, it's a it's a space where I feel comfortable to hang out. An atmosphere. Yeah. My wife's not a pickleballer, so I can trick her. Hey, let's go get a couple. I got this really good sandwich at this place. Yeah. And she'll know once I get close to it. But yeah, there you go. Just invite her and invite up. Yeah. Come on. Why is your paddle in the back of the car? In case. It's always in the back. Yeah. I got a hundred of them in there, you know? Yeah. But I love the place.

[00:48:49] I also I love how you brought the inside out or outside in. Thanks. Because it's different than anyone at any club we've ever seen. And I love it's for soundproofing. It was for lighting. I guess you had to block some light shining through. But it's really neat. I mean, it makes it like feel like you're a little bit outside. Yeah. And I shout out to there's a club in Atlanta called the Painted Pickle. And that's the inspiration for much of this. They have some of this.

[00:49:16] It's actually owned by a super talented restaurateur. It's indoor only. But they really did it up right. And it was one of the clubs that I happen to go to. When we were traveling and I was just like, wow, they this really feels great because there is something about the outdoors that you miss when you go indoors. You do. You know, winters, wind, rain, because we had rain today just came down. Yeah, that indoors is good to have.

[00:49:45] But trying to make it feel like you're kind of in a park atmosphere was important to us. It does. I swear you got it at 60 degrees in here. If anybody. I know. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. If you're not playing, it feels a little chilly. I told him that. I said, I'm a bear. I'm a polar bear. And I said, I feel. You know, so this is I love it. I mean, everything you've done, the lighting, very. I love the colors. I love the pink. Thank you. Thank you. Pink is good. We got pink on. Yep. You know, it's a funny story about that.

[00:50:14] We, when we initially launched, we were my background and Michael's as well as in branding and marketing. And we were like, hey, we got to get a website up and we got to, you know, this is before we even had the building secured, but we needed like a color template. And we're like, we need something not only that stands out, but that kind of, excuse me, indicates that mix of like, hey. Neutral. Neutral. Yes. And men and women equally represented equally.

[00:50:42] And so that idea of the deep blue and the pink was kind of like the classic, but the way we mixed it. And then we were going to do something else when we went to the permanent brand. But our membership was like, do not get rid of that. And so we were like, okay, it's a good feeling. Yeah, it is. It's very calming. It's very, it looks good. I like the shirts. I want one of those shirts. We'll get you one. I like the hot pink up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll hook you up before you go. When you walk in, it's just inviting. You got somebody right away taking care of you.

[00:51:11] You got a beautiful little pro shop. I mean, you know, you walk over here, you can just go sit in lounge, hang out or the wife can, well, I play a few people. There you go. Have a little alcoholic drink. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys do mimosas? We don't yet. We actually are just, so we have a permit for this, an event permit for this weekend. Okay. Um, we're actually working with the city council to secure a permanent alcohol license. Nice. We haven't had that yet.

[00:51:38] So, um, that's going to be another area where our mad scientist Thomas mixes up some fun stuff. Nice. That would be fun. Well, we thank you so much. Thank you. We didn't meet your wife. I'd love to talk to her. Yeah. I'll send her over. She's so sweet. She's actually playing today. How is she? Is she doing? Okay. You know, I don't know because they got rained out. Oh, so I gotta, I gotta go catch up with her and see how she did. And if her game got cut off or if she's still in it. Well, everybody a shout out. These guys are at their club most of the time. So you come in, they're very inviting.

[00:52:08] They're going to help. They live here. I mean, you know, I'm, I'm sure like we always talk, like you'd wish you could play more pickleball. Even when you own a club. Yeah. That's the funny part. That's the theory. Yeah. But you're supposed to be that way, but it never works. I tell you what I get, I give them there's, we got a core of members that are like such fanatics about pickleball. I give them a hard time sometimes because I feel like I'm here a lot. Yeah. And I see these people multiple times a day. I'm like, you are not supposed to be here more than I am.

[00:52:37] I work here, but we got a lot of really committed. Well, deeply, you know, focused people who love the game and love this place. And I'm just super grateful. Good employees too. Everybody's very happy and inviting walking around. Yeah. We got a good crew. Yeah. And then you have to cover people if they do get needed, want to work on injury or get stronger. You have that. She's Olympia Olympic swimmer, right? Olympic. We've got a woman named Dee Mahoney. I know. Olympic softball coach. Uh oh.

[00:53:04] And she is, she was awarded last year, coach of the year. And she's a really great pickleball player, but she's got deep expertise in body mechanics and movement. And so where she really shines is sort of like, what are you doing on the court? And how is it affecting, you know, your joints? How are you? And are you keeping limber enough? And that kind of stuff, you know, our average age here is probably mid fifties. Yeah. You get to a point where it's like, you got to pay attention to that stuff.

[00:53:34] And she's, she's really exceptional. Well, and I set an appointment for you right away. So. I don't think she does anything over or under. She doesn't work with the young folks. I got an appointment. I will be. They built the actual facility for her. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. You actually built a place for her. Yeah. So we just like tell people, cause we, we call it the people get to live. They live vicariously through us. Yeah. So they don't know that we get, they get, we get to tell them these things. So it's really wonderful. So. Well, we really appreciate you guys.

[00:54:04] You've been great partners. Fun. Just to get to meet you. You know, fun people. Love the dynamic. Thank you guys have together. And just wish you all the success in the world. You too. You too. And we're here to support you. You'll hear. You'll, we'll shout out all the time about you. Awesome. Thank you. Bye. Tired of the same old, same old discover a sweet sip. Nano CBD sparkling sodas.

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