Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Built on Grit: The Picklr Empire

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

What would you do if you got laid off with five kids and a mortgage staring you down? Most people would retreat. Jorge Barragan doubled down. Out of desperation and vision, he co-founded The Picklr��now one of the fastest-growing pickleball franchises in the world, with 500+ locations sold and its 50th opening this year. In this inspiring conversation with Shawn French, Jorge shares how he went from unemployment to Inc. 5000 recognition, and why discipline, obsession, and resilience fuel his success. From maxing out credit cards to partnering with NFL legend Drew Brees, Jorge’s journey proves that betting on yourself can change everything. This episode covers: -The leap of faith that launched The Picklr during COVID -Scaling to 50+ locations in just 3 years -Why obsession (not balance) drives great founders -Drew Brees, major league pickleball, and global expansion -Hard lessons in resilience, funding, and staying present as a father of six Whether you’re a founder, athlete, or dreamer stuck on the sidelines, Jorge’s story will make you rethink risk, resilience, and what it really takes to win. Connect with me : https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA Jorge Barragan https://www.instagram.com/jorgebarragan23/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. You have this concept. Like, for me, it was my show. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I could turn this into something out of thin air.

It was an absolute obsession to a point where my wife at times would be like, can we talk about anything other than the business, anything other than the show? I'm like, I could be sitting there with my family and my children looking present as day. But in the back of my mind, I'm always running through scenarios. You know, sometimes I disappeared at the bathroom real quick and put that in my notes and then I can move on from it. But it was an obsession for me.

and it still is. There's no such thing as work-life balance. You just have to prioritize what's most important at that time. And if sometimes, to your point, is go to the bathroom for five minutes just to jot it down. Maybe at that point, that's the most important. If I have 30 minutes to watch a show with my wife, I've got to make that the priority,

and that's the most important, right? We have to allow ourselves to be obsessed with something because that's when true creativity happens. All right, everybody, I'm here with my boy, Jorge Berrigan. And this guy, man, let me tell you something. We want to talk about somebody who took a chance on himself and took a chance to build something successful, regardless of all the excuses he may have had,

five kids at the time, a mortgage. He decided to bet on himself. And so for those of you listening and watching, I want your eyes and ears wide open on this one because you are going to find some things that are going to help you propel to that next level of you, the next level of success and things that you want to create. So Jorge, man, welcome to the show, buddy.

Thanks for having me, Sean. And I'm glad you went with Jorge. Everyone knows it's George or Horan. Like, you'll know when it's Jorge. You'll know when it's George. You get to decide. Hey, man, listen, you know what? It was a gamble.

I figured why not, dude, you know? Because every time I say, hey, is it George or Jorge? And they're like, I don't know, man. Like, whatever one you want. I'm like, no, which one you prefer? But I, you know what? I went with it this time. So I love it.

I'm really, I'm really excited to have you on the show. you know, the pickler, you know, for those of you, they don't know it's an indoor pickup ball facility, they do multiple things there for entrepreneurs, for team building, you can get lessons there, you can get conditioning done there, you can go inside and play this amazing game that's taken America by storm. But the thing that I found very interesting, okay, was the fact that, you know, you didn't come in on the tail end when it was popular. You saw a need by going to your own rec center. So like, let's walk the audience through your origin story. So they could fully understand and then we could build from there. Yeah. Look, I think there's a lot to be

said when people say, you know, sometimes as an entrepreneur, you get lucky. And I think for me, I do feel very lucky that I found a game very early on. I always tell people, I hate telling people how long I've been playing pickleball because I should be better than I am. But I started playing in 2015. Like 2015, when you tell people that you're, I mean, back then, if you told someone you played pickleball you got me fun of it's like it's a sport for yeah my old people right like it was a sport that's being played at retirement centers but you know I was introduced to this game we were lucky enough to have eight beautiful courts in farmington Utah and I was working at a tech company at the time where a lot of us you know it was a it was a tech company that was thriving and to

just get out of the the day to day like just to get a little break from this fast-paced growing company It's like we played, we had ping pong, we had a simulator, but it's like, we want to get outside. And so we found pickleball and we started playing. I mean, we interpreted the game. We thought it should be played. There wasn't a lot of pro pickleball that you, I mean, how, man, if I, I wish I could go back and see how we played. We must have to look pretty funny. But, like, you know, I started to see habits of the millennials coming out and playing.

And then when wintertime came, it was like an addiction. I still have the portable net that I would carry around for. church to church to rec center. And, you know, I just, I just came to a realization one time. We were at a rec center. And there was 50 of us waiting during lunchtime for two courts, like waiting for our turn to get on. And I was like, I would never, I would never do this for anything else.

Why am I doing this for the silly game of pickleball? And then I saw two young kids on Christmas break that were tennis players and they were smacking the ball harder and they looked more athletic. And then that's when I came to the true, like, like realization that the game of pickleball wasn't being represented the right way, right? It's fast. It's hard. It's not a hobby.

It's a sport. And what was driving the growth of pickleball world was millennials that were, you know, resonating within and we were finding an outlet. And it just became fun and addictive, right? And so I started to develop a pickle around conceptualizing in 2018 that targeted younger demographic. That was a cheaper price point. At the time, pickleball paddles were $99. I was like, that is crazy. It's so expensive. But I'd be like a $50 paddle. Paddles are like the most expensive ones,

$333 now, which is insane to think about. But I just, I fell in love with a sport and I just, I saw a future where this game was going to get younger. It was going to get faster. you know and I don't know why I came to that realization but that's where my brain went I'm like this this sport is is sticky and people want to play it and we're all looking for places to play and then COVID happened right like COVID is what ultimately made this game boom right and I just happened to be ahead of it and came to that realization that there was a huge need, especially from the shortage of courts that were happening because of this boom. One of the things I really enjoyed is you're the co-founder, right? Your best friend was Austin, right?

Yeah, yeah. The thing that, you know, sometimes you need one of your homies to double down with you, right? And of course, you know, I did my research and I saw that you called him and before you got your sense out. He goes, look, man, I'm in. There's a large level of trust, obviously, that he had for, you, but like, there could have been a moment right then and there with you not picking up the phone to him or him saying, yeah, I don't know, man, let's wait on this a little bit than somebody else does it. And you're not here right now. So the question I want to ask you is, you know, what's special about you in Austin that executes an idea from Jump Street instead of listening

to all the reasons why it won't work? And we're going to take a quick break to hear from our powered by sponsor. We're proud to announce a partnership between. White Sands, Treatment Centers, and the Determined Society. With multiple locations across Florida, White Sands provides luxury, top-rated addiction treatment from medical detox and inpatient care to outpatient support and long-term aftercare. Their resort-style campuses, expert clinicians,

and holistic programs create real lasting recovery. Together, we're committed to bringing hope, resources, and healing to those who need it most. White Sands Treatment Centers. I told you before this call started that the age of 30 it came to realization that there were so much I want to accomplish in life

and I hadn't even started. Right. And I think for me, the wake-up call happened was like I was trying different stuff. I had bought into a license model where it was like a, you know, fogging system that eliminated mold.

I could care too less, I could care, you know, two cents adults. that, right? But for some reason, pickleball kept coming into the picture. And it couldn't have been a worse time. It was, it was COVID. I had just lost my job. You know, I had this idea of indoor pickleball where I envisioned people playing pickleball. And it's so happening that my partner in doubles with Austin, and he was my best friend and we were both entrepreneurs at heart. And I pitched him on this idea and you're 100% right. You're like, let's do it. I was like, well, let me,

It doesn't matter. But what it came to is we were both passionate about it. We both had each other's back. And you're 100% right. If you would have given me any reason to not do it, I probably would have backed out. And the crazy thing is the first lease that we signed, the day after we signed, the guy had probably five phone call that week for indoor pickleball. And so, like, that's when everyone started to come to realization is at the time, the

crazy thing is that no one was willing, they would see these large retail spaces and they would see the rent and they're like, I can't pencil these numbers. We didn't care. We didn't have a game plan. We didn't have a business plan. I think we were crazy enough to make the jump and we felt so passionate about it that we had the mentality that we will figure it out as we don't, right? Because we weren't the next burger chain. We weren't the next gym concept. We weren't, you know, the next pizza chain. This is a new concept of indoor pickleball and for us to sell it to our landlord and explain to him what pigable is.

He'd never even heard of it, right? And just say, hey, we're going to eat up 15,000 square feet of your brand new facility. You're going to take a chance on two dudes. And he didn't even know I was unemployed at the time, by the way. Like for some reason, he never did a credit check. He never checked our finances. We did a hand-stig deal. Paper came through and we signed it.

And, you know, knowing what I know about commercial real estate now, it is one of the hardest things to get. And yet this guy just did it on a win, right? So again, going back to right time, right place, being lucky. But at the same time, we were the ones that were willing to move. And he is my ride or die. Like Austin is the guy that is willing to be with you in the trenches. And it doesn't matter what it is, whether it be a difficult time or a fun time, you know, to have somebody on your side that has the ability just to power navigate through both those times,

it's pretty amazing. It's pretty rare to have someone by your side that's willing to do that. I love that, man. There's a word that's coming across in my mind. It's called discernment, right? So when we're all making decisions, and this is what I really want the audience to key on, when you have this concept, like for me, it was my show. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I could turn this into something out of thin air. And it was four years of struggle. But I had discernment. I was like, I know this is it. This is that burning desire inside of me.

And you had the same thing. And so did Austin, right? And there's a difference. So there's like an idea and there's just a burning desire. So it's like, how did you, I guess I'm trying to figure out how to word this question here. I'm just going to say it, you know, in a raw form. It's how did you, how did you in Austin discern the fact like, is this just a cool idea or this is, this is, damn it, this is it.

Right? Because I want the audience to understand what that looks like in real time. Absolutely. And I think you're spot on because I had that burning desire of figuring out. Look, I think from a very young age, I always felt that I was meant to create something special. I didn't know what it was or what it was going to be, but I knew from a very young age. And I think that's why when I woke up on my 30th birthday and came to a realization that I hadn't accomplished anything, I was more of like a disappointment where I knew that I was meant to create something and I had it, right?

And so I tried and I tried, but ultimately what it came down to was following something I truly loved, which was even something as weird as pickleball at the time, right? It's so trendy and popular in the fastest going sport now, but back then it wasn't. right back then we took a chance of something that was so new that could have you know in theory been been been a fad but i think knowing that i wanted to build something and then knowing that it could be something like i mean something that we were passionate about and we could see you know an upward trend in it it all just made too much sense not to do it right but we knew we knew how difficult it was going to be i think we first thought you know the mentality

had is, you know, it's so popular in Utah, build it, they will, and they will come mentality came. And that wasn't necessarily true, right? But, um, it's so much trailing there there. Um, but yeah, it just, it was just, it's just always been in me. And I think for a lot of us, um, there, there's, there's something within us that we just have to be able to tap into. But how do you get that out of, out of yourself, right? And, and discern, what is it? What is it that is going to get you to reach that next level and that next phase of your life? And it happened to be pickleball for me and for Austin. That's amazing, man, because when I think of this, you know, I think of yours and Austin story

of building this amazing company. And then I think of me when I built this. It was a, I don't even want to say borderline obsession. It was an absolute obsession to a point where my wife at times like, can we talk about anything other than the business, anything other than the show? I'm like, I'm so sorry. I felt like I was rain man telling her it was, you know, of course, Jeopardy starts at six. Like, Jeopardy starts at six. Like, it became that, it became that of a hyper-focused situation for me. And it still is. In the background of my mind, I could be sitting there with my family and my children looking present as day. But in the back of my mind, I'm always running through scenarios.

It doesn't stop. And I don't think it's a curse. I think it's a gift to be able to have that much go through your mind and still be present with your family, but also kind of break away when the kids are doing something, jot something down, an idea like in my notes. You know, sometimes I disappear to the bathroom real quick and, you know, go ahead and put that in my notes and then I can move on from it. But, I mean, it was an obsession for me and it still is.

Yeah. And, Sean, it's funny that you say that because this is something new that I've had to learn. Because it isn't an obsession, it's what do you do with that information? And how do you, like, so many sleepless nights and we've all had moments where I can't go to sleep because my mind is racing. I've had to teach myself, those moments, you know, I have this little iPad mini now with my pencil over the top. I pull that sucker out and I write it down. I write it down. And sometimes my execs will get a text message at 4 o'clock in the morning because my brain is racing.

But I have just learned that I am more at peace and there's more actual items and that creativity is happening because we are obsessed with how do we improve our process? How do we improve customer behaviors and experience and better conversion rates on memberships? And how do we expand this brand so it's more recognizable? Like our brains want to, want to create. And if we allow our obsession to do that, but to your point, it's like, I've also had to learn that there's no such sting as work-life balance. You just have to prioritize what's most important at that time.

And if sometimes, to your point is to go to the bathroom for five minutes just to jot it down, maybe at that point, that's the most important. If I'm at soccer practice with my kid, at that time, that's the most important. And if I have 30 minutes to watch a show with my wife, like I got to make that the priority and that's the most important. Right. But, you know, there's, we have to allow ourselves to be obsessed with something because that's when true creativity happens, right?

And I'm obsessed right now with, with letting, letting that happen naturally because our brains want to create. And when you create, jot that down and create actual items and act on it. because I think that's when special stuff starts to happen. You know, it's a good point. I have a lesson for the listeners and the viewers right now. A lot of people look at those sleepless nights like it's a con, like it's a bad thing or, you know, look at me,

I didn't get any sleep last night. I decided to, for myself, I thought of it like that because I, I sleep very well, brother. I, when I'm out, I'm out. You cannot wake me up. I'm good until the alarm clock goes off in the morning. but there are times where if I break a sleep pattern like at 11.30 p.m. and I wake up, now my mind's going. And instead of looking at it like, why is this happening to me? I can't sleep. Tomorrow's going to suck. I say this is a great opportunity. This is a great opportunity because,

you know, hey, God woke me up right now for a reason. So all these thoughts going through my mind, I put them down. And then once I put them down, I can generally get back to sleep. But these are great opportunities. And I want the audience to understand that not everything that doesn't go on with, you know, that goes on with you not sleeping. There's a reason you're up. There's a subconscious reason.

Like, just write something. Start writing how you feel. Something's going to come up. You never know what you're going to create in those moments. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well,

and, you know, I have a Steve Jobs poster here that has a quote. that, you know, really has truly changed the way that I have started to listening to my inner voice and started listening more directly to things that I think because, well, and I'll just, I'll just show us with you, right? You know, Steve Jocelyn, your time is limited. Don't wish your time living, living someone else's life.

Don't get trapped in the dogma, which is living the results of other people's thinking. And I said, don't let the noise of other opinions draw on your own. own inner voice and most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow really know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary, right? And so it's amazing when we start to have the courage to listen to ourselves, right? Because our inner selves and our intuition, it truly knows what we want to become. And nothing else matters, right?

Nothing else matters in having listening to other people's opinions or being down. on yourself, like if you truly believe in yourself and you allow yourself to, you know, to have the courage to follow that, dude, the thing that as is human beings, and I always tell people, it's like, we are meant to be resilient as human beings, right? When the difficult times happened, somehow, some way, you know, I was a, a church leader in my congregation for, for four years. And I, and I, I live in a low-income home, right? And there was, there was, there was times where I had to say no to financial situations and helping someone out because it's just prolonged too long. And sometimes I'd say, look, people are meant to be resilient. I guarantee if I

cut this person off this month, they're going to figure out a way to make their mortgage or they're going to figure out a way to get a job, right? Because as human beings, we're meant to be resilient and we are meant to figure things out on their own. And I challenge anybody that's going through difficult time to allow yourself to listen to yourself and to figure out how to navigate to those problems. And I think you're going to surprise yourself how often you come up with a resolution that's ultimately going to help you with whatever it may be at that time. Well, look, man, I mean, you said it, right?

This intuition, this burning desire, that's spiritual. Yes. Absolutely. You know, in the audience listening, they could believe a multitude of different things. But at the end of the day, we're spiritual beings. And when you listen to your inner dialogue of what you want to become, see, I always knew. Real quick, let me back up. I grew up playing baseball.

I played baseball at LSU. Played in the College World Series in 2003. And my dad always said to me, and I love my dad, you know, we've had our moments. But now I see as a 46-year-old man what he was. was really trying to build in me, right? He says to me, what's going to happen when you don't make it in baseball? You don't have any skills with your hands. Like, he says, hand me a crescent wrench, and I'd hand him a hammer.

You know, like, you know, those moments with your, with your pops, you got the car getting yelled at, right? Because you don't know how to do Jack, right? I said, I have a really good personality. I mean, he's like, what are you going to do with that? You can't get paid on conversations in your voice and your personality. and at the time I believed them, but as I grew my frustrations in corporate America. Now, corporate America built me.

I want to be very clear. Like, listen, I was an entrepreneur. I called the reverse entrepreneur. I took all the principles that I did when I was a top 20 sales rep out of 2000 for paychecks. Then I went to the medical industry and helped build somebody else's company and help patients and their outcomes to feel more comfortable. But I took all those principles into this. into this.

Like, listen, I had no business starting a show and it getting this big. But I took those principles and I applied them here. And now the thing that we've created is like almost outgrown my actual support level. So now we're like scrambling like, oh my God, like we've got to add this. We've got to do this because of the vision was so big. And I never said, hold on a second. Hold on. We're not ready for that.

I said, no, pedal down. Let's figure this thing out because I was listening to my intuition, my spiritual being part, knowing that I wanted to have conversations that brought value to the people. And here we are. Amazing. Amazing. I see so much of your experience and your stories that really resonates with me, right? Because that was my career path, you know, being fortunate enough to work in, you know,

the software space in industries where I was able to be a company, I went through an IPO, I was able to be, you know, in multiple acquisitions. But for me, it was, you know, I'm a college dropout. School wasn't for me, but I wanted to learn when I was pounding the phones and, you know, answering inbound leads or trying to find, you know, doing call calling for an accountant, executive I was tied to. I didn't just want to do it because, or I didn't just make a phone call to make a phone call. I want to understand what took a person to click on this free trial. What was it on

the website that got them to click through, fill out the information, ultimately, you know, get a phone call, set up a demo, and get to the point where it closed. I started to ask questions in marketing and marketing options. You know, what are you guys doing when you're creating certain ads to create customer behaviors, right? And so for me, I started to take those skill sets and started to figure out, you know, how can I apply this to my life? Why do we use this piece of technology for communication

or why do we use the CRM and create certain automations in order for us to help us close deals, right? And so, you know, and I applied that at the Pickler now, right? We run our company like we are a software company creating top of funnel, understanding conversion rates, understanding what is it that's going to get someone to ultimately pay us a membership fee and keep them there from a retention standpoint, right? And so, but it's funny that you say that because all of that stuff that I learn,

I apply it here, but then it's like, how do you grow from there? Right? A year ago, the CEO that I am today, I wasn't the same person. All that stuff I learned was amazing. But it's now like, how do I grow now? be in the position. So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to?

Is it, we could buy a house in Touloum? Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart. that I am and continue to show value in the position that I'm in. And I think ultimately that takes a lot of growing up within this specific role within the company

to be the leader that your employees expect you to be as well, which has been really fun to see myself grow as an individual of someone that I've always felt was a normal guy that only had cell skills, right? Now leading, I don't know if you saw it, but for me this was, this was, one of the the craziest thing that has happened to me in my career at this point to be ranked number 43 and 8,000's fast and growing companies. Which, yeah, like, some just, I didn't have any advantages than, then Joe Schmo, right? My parents were immigrants to this country.

But I never, I never let me be in a Mexican-American. I felt like for me, I took it as, hey, you have more opportunities because you are Mexican-American. I never took it as my, you know, as a downfall or woe as me because, you know, I, you know, the color of my skin or whatever may be, right? I took it as an opportunity to prove people like, the way people see you, they see, you know, the culture of Mexicans is hard workers. Go show that, right?

Go show how charismatic and great and, you know, your people are, right? And so for me, it's always been, I was lucky to have parents that were immigrants because they taught me at a very young age, that immigrant mentality, right? What hard work looks like. And I carry that moving forward and everything that I do.

And the professional that I've become, I'm very proud of because I can say that my dad and my mom are proud of where I've gotten. And it's been really cool to see as an individual that didn't have advantages of you know, a high caliber degree or whatever it may be, get to where I'm at, right? And we continue to fight and we continue to show what we can achieve. And I'm excited to see what the growth of the pickler looks like.

This is exciting to me because, you know, you talk about our stories kind of paralleling each other a little bit, right? Of course, we're doing two opposite things. But, you know, the reality of the matter is, you know, I didn't have those resources either. Everybody talks about starting a business And one of the biggest things, the reasons why businesses closed down is because undercapitalization.

I mean, there was times like, dude, we didn't start getting capital until this year. And it was a top 20 show. You know, but the fact of the matter is like, we didn't stop. I didn't stop. And, you know, I'm assuming, I'm going to assume that day one,

you didn't have a bunch of people knocking on your door to, here's three million dollars to start this. Like, it doesn't matter. For the people listening, it doesn't matter. You have a dream. You build that thing. You become that man, that woman, until people are knocking on your door to give you that money. Now it's a different story, isn't it?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, man. It's, yeah, no, it's, it's, you're 100% right. And look, I will never, ever give this advice to anyone. But look, I just got laid off from a job. It was the best, the best year of my career that I had ever had. went through an acquisition.

I was a very expensive sales guy, you know. And but the reality is, is like I took a chance on myself. I maxed out every single credit card, every penny in my savings account, 401Ks, got drained to start this. I just told, come on, man.

You know, I just told someone this last week, you know, and I'm getting emotional thing about it. I just paid off my last, I first started this business. this after four years, right? Like, like,

like, for me, thank you, thank you. Like, it's, people don't realize, like, what kind of chances

sometimes you, you have to take when you're so passionate about what you believe in and, and, like, look,

have we made it? Absolutely not, right? Like, to your point, we, like, when I was in,

in roles at companies, like, where's my leadership team? Why am I never seeing, these people were trying to figure out how to keep this, well, even if it's fast-paced,

you get, all the flashy awards, like, you know, until you hit a certain sweet spot, like, you're always thinking about how am I going to make it to next payroll, how am I going to keep this thing afloat? How are we going to continue to do the right things for the people that believe in us, our franchisees, our investors, our employees? Like, it's a constant battle of what you're trying to figure out. But my first $2 million was a completely different than my next $2 million that I raised, right? Like my first two million I raised for this business, over 100 phone calls.

I can't even imagine how many hours did I spend to pitch on what I was doing. We just acquired a, you know, a business called Vulcan pickleball, which is a paddle in its official ball of we call of pickleball. The next two million took me two phone calls, right? Like the difference that when you start to prove what you can accomplish in your value and how you see how you see businesses moving forward and how you integrate them together. Like it really was that quick.

I was oversubscribed, right? Like, it's amazing. It's amazing what value you can show within, you know, the small amount of. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information.

That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. Time frame from year one to year four, you're a completely different business venture, but now you've got people that believe in what you do, right? It was pretty cool to see. Well, I mean, not only that, I mean, look, you did that year one through four, right? And now you're part owner in a major league pickable organization.

You partner with Super Bowl champions like Drew Breeze. Like you've built this, man. So, you know, walk the audience through that because that's a pretty cool thing, man, to have that much notoriety that Drew Breeze is partnering up with you guys. You know, you guys have done some pretty massive things, you know, of recently. In fact, you have your 50th location opening by the time the show comes out. It'll be already out. but this week your 50th location is dropping.

Like 50th. Yeah. And I think when you build something that you're so passionate about, I mean the brand from the Pickler logo, right, to the way that we design hats and design the look and feel of the courts, everything is so intentional. You know, when people complain that it was too loud, It's like, what kind of sound baffling?

I hate having the thing, the tile on the wall, looks cheesy. We came up with a concept that goes over the cords, that integrates with the lighting that looks beautiful, that dampens noise by 40% intentional. Holy black walls. How can I have players complaining. I can't see the ball because it gets lost in the white walls. I'm like, holy crap, I've never even noticed that.

We painted half of it black. It's great. Start. But now in the second half I'm losing the ball. Let's paint the whole freaking box black. So now we're intentional, right? All of these things that we've created from the look and feel. Drew Breez recognizes it, recognize it early on, right?

He is a very savvy entrepreneur. He himself invested in pickleball early on. He saw the opportunity. But we are his seventh franchise concept, seventh or eighth franchise concept that he's invested in, that he's acquired licenses for because that is one man that has been very smart in what does life look like after football, right? He's a Super Bowl champion for a reason, but he is winning in life after being a football for a reason, right?

He's understood how to leverage his operations team, his name and brand, and easily integrates into a franchise system, right? And so for us to bring on Drew Brees, someone that has the reputation that he has, the man that he is, like I call, I can call Drew Brees right now, he picks up.

And it's like, because he knows that I'm usually calling him with a question, a concern, and I value his, his expertise. We can text each other about, you know, life and business.

And he's been a great mentor from, from that aspect. But it's been amazing to see people, again, winners and losers, someone like Drew Brees that has reached the top of the food chain, like how he's done it. And he values what,

he brings to the table, right? And so, you know, but we had to show a long, through a long way, what does this brand look like and how we differentiate ourselves and how we become the leader. Now that at 50 locations, when I think about franchisors that are out there, how many of them actually get to 50 locations, right? I think it's only 11% of franchisors out there ever get to 50 locations. That's wild, man. Crazy to think about. It is crazy. that statistic, right? And we did it. We've only been franchising and I think we're, so we're almost to year three, right? Like we did it in three years. And by the end of the year, you know, we're going to have 70 locations open. And then we're going to Japan, Australian,

New Zealand, Canada. Like that is, that is unheard of, right? And so I think, I think, you know, as we approach those 50 locations, for me, it's such a milestone. Because I remember month number three of opening this business, we were running so much many transactions through Venmo business at the time. I don't know if you were a call four years ago. If you were a business owner, no one wanted to pay taxes on their money. So they were taking Venmo payments on their personal accounts and Venmo came out with this product. And I think it was like if you get more than 600, I can't remember what it was. But, you know, we're like, oh, okay, we're going to do this the right way. We'll do open a Venmo business accounting. We were doing

open places. And so hundreds of transactions were happening. And at the time, they were trying to build a case study of why people should give them with business and so happy we're doing pickleball and hundred of the transactions we're going and I just remember thinking in that interview to ask me where to see yourself in five years and we're going to dot the country with

picklers right and seeing that start to happen now you know it's just it's just been a dream come true to see this happen the way that it has and there's so many uphill battles and we're having our first uh franchise

I Z convention in a couple of weeks. And I was looking through all the pictures through the last four years. I went eight months without receiving a paycheck, right? That's why I had to, I had to finance this thing. You know, Austin at the time, had a full-time job. You know, I took a chance on trying to figure this out. And having my fifth kid, I think we mentioned that I had just had my fifth kid at the time. But just the struggles, man.

But the rewards that happened when you figured stuff out was amazing. I made that phone call to a mortgage company. I wasn't going to be able to make my mortgage payment. And then the funding, my first two million hit where I was able to get paid. And they back paid me for that month. And I made my mortgage payment. Right. So just so many cool things that happen, you know, 50 locations is a milestone.

But what it took to get there, man. It's been crazy. that's that's the attractive part to me about the pickler and my show and all the other entrepreneurs with their companies out there see my buddy eric thomas i i was at an event um in june and he you know was a speaking event and i was there and he was talking about everybody in this room wants to be a speaker a famous motivational speaker you want to be on stage but you're not respecting the stages. And so when I'm when I'm listening to you, I'm hearing process. I'm hearing stages. Like you have to respect where you're currently at. And it's hard because I was just telling my

team before today. I was like, man, I'm just going through this mode where I'm really frustrated of where we're at. And it's not bad at all. I mean, dude, we had 760,000 listens in August. Like, that's a lot on an auditory platform that is not a celebrity that is not a celebrity, that is not pushing marketing like crazy. We're building it, but I'm like, man, like I'm really frustrated. But as I'm listening and having this conversation with you, it's like, this is part of the story, man. And the almost missing the mortgage payment and making that phone call, that's a stage.

That is part of the process. And that's how you build something so massive. Because if you can stay calm and strategic and intentional in those times and don't go off the rails and do something stupid, what you build. is infinitely larger than anything you could have possibly imagined if you, if you, if you, you know,

had fallen into the disparity and the, you know, those types of energies, man. Yeah, absolutely. This is why I keep going back to, as this human means were,

we're meant to be resilient. Tough times, we figured it out. We continue to figure it out, right? And, and you get creative. If this is where you get tested and, you know, you really start to figure out,

you figure out a lot about yourselves and a lot about your employees and who wants to be, you know, with you during the downtimes because the good times, it's easy. It's easy to be a part of something. But, man, do you learn a lot about yourself during the downtime? But those are the moments that make you. Let's be clear with the audience, right? Absolutely. The moments of that absolute emotional and that can also turn into physical pain.

when you wake up in the morning. People don't understand that. Emotional pain ties to physical pain in the morning if you're constantly worried and constantly struggling. But those moments, man, those are the moments that I feel most people during the test you're talking about.

That's where they fail. They're being tested. They let off the gas. They say, you know what? I can always go back to this. And for me, in clearly you're the same way you and Austin is,

there is no retreat. It's like the Hernan Cortez. We're going to burn those dang boats. And the only way we're leaving this island is in their ships. Set ours on fire. We're going to go conquer right now. And that's the mentality you have to have when you're building anything of significance. Absolutely.

It's those moments. It's those moments, man. Look, and I said, if this year fails, I'll try again. Like, I want to do again. This is just who I am now. Like, this is, this is a, but it, you know, it takes time to come to that realization of who you are and you start to act different and feel different and do things different as you get hopefully a little bit wiser based off of the difficult

times right like look at the way that I operate now compared to four years ago it's completely different right there's certain things I prioritize like my health you know if you go back look at some of the picture during the middle of this and the way I look now like I'm taking care of myself. I go to sleep. I make sure of a clear mind. I make sure I'm eating, right? I make sure because the reality is, is people need me. People need me right now more than ever. My employees need me. My family needs me, right? I love coaching soccer. You know, my teams need me, right? And so when I was a church leader, you know, my congregation needed me. And so I have to make sure that as an individual or a human being that physically, too, I'm able to withstand those

things, right? I didn't, I didn't prioritize taking care of myself for a very long time. And it came to a realization, like, I have to take care of myself before I can start taking care of others. And look, man, it's, it's, it's been amazing just to see when you just put a little bit of emphasis on your health, too, how much more you can, you can accomplish. This is a hot button for a lot of people, dude. You know that, right? Like, I mean, like, let's be honest. There's a lot of, you know, out of shape CEOs and there's, you know, But I think it's different for everybody, right? I think some people can operate.

But for me, nothing happened until I got in great shape. And this started back in December of 2024. Like my journey started and by March I had funding because I was displaying that determination, that discipline that I talk about on my show in my actual life. And when that happened, it raised the bar for me. and it made people look at me different, not because of the way I looked. I want to be clear.

It wasn't because I was leaner and, you know, I was finally below 190 pounds, you know, from all the way up from 230. It wasn't that. It was, what did it represent? If I go into business with Sean, what is he going to give me? Is he going to give me, you know, exhaustion?

Is he going to lay off the gas pedal? A team always tells me, like, dude, you're running 100 miles an hour all the time. I'm like, how are you doing? It's because this is who I am. And if I'm not at the best me, then I can't be there for my executive team. I couldn't be here for you right now, dude. If I skipped my run today, so I'm training for a Spartan race.

My production team is a bunch of A-holes. Okay. They're making me do this damn Spartan race in November. And I pushed back on it for so long. But this is iron sharpens iron, man. And I've been, you know, lightly training for it. And then my buddy Jamie, which is the CEO of my production company, on Saturday, he goes, here's your training plan.

Oh, okay. Starts on Monday. Okay, cool. When did that? And then I did my run today. I'm fully present because I'm taking care of all the other things that make me a more effective communicator. Because let's face it, man, people want to know who they're getting to bed with, you know,

figuratively speaking when they're going into business. What do you represent? are you going to cave under pressure or are you going to fight? And I truly feel taking care of yourself and being selfish about you is the most important because, you know, man, like ever since I got selfish and I don't take time away from my family to do what I do. Like I don't. They're at school.

My wife's at work. Or I'm in the gym super early in the morning. But I'm being selfish because if I don't do this, I'll take care of me. Then I can't build something. and I can't be there for other people. It's a hot button, dude. Yeah, look, I didn't realize this is a hot button, but I just came to that realization on my own, right,

because I felt sluggish. I was like, how am I supposed to have the energy to do all these things when, you know, I'm going to bed at 2 a.m. And I want to sleep in, and I'm eating all this crap food. And I'm not taking my sleep serious. Like, my kids need me.

The pickler needs me more. everything. And the reality is like I own a fitness concept. Do I want to be the face of this is what fitness looks like? Yeah. You know, I have to represent the right way. Right. And I have been able to. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp.

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I would accomplish so much more this year because that is a priority, right? I treat going to sleep like a job now. I clock in, clock out when I'm supposed to. I wake up to go to the gym, right? I feel so much better and visually, like, I can just see so much better. what my day is going to look like,

how I can navigate. And it's so funny because this stupid little ordering, you know, I'll look at my stress levels. I'm like, today was meant to be super stressful. But yet it's telling me, you had a pretty restore of day.

I'm like, how did I navigate through that? But it's just a different mentality now moving forward. It pushes you to build more resistance in certain areas, man. Absolutely. You can keep your, You know, at the end of the day, Jorge, it's about keeping your word to yourself.

Yes. And that's how you build something special, man. That's how you build something special. Dang, man. Look, man, you know, we're winding down here and I feel like I could do two hours with you. Maybe we'll have to have you back sometime in the near future when you guys, you know, get to your set. Yeah, yeah, 70th location. Let's do it.

You know, I want to do it on site, though, next time. That'd be kind of cool. Have you ever come out to Utah? No, but I will. I mean, that's simple. Just teach you some pickleball. They fly there. Yeah, let's do it, man.

You know, watch me fall all over myself. It's so funny because I, I, you know, my hand-eye coordination is so good because I played baseball. But if you see me try to serve a pickle and pickleball, I look like a baby deer. I'm just, I'm stuck on stupid. We'll teach you the ways. We'll teach you the ways. Teach me the ways, Mr. Jedi. Teach me the ways.

You can be my pickleball. ball Yoda, but one more question, man. And we've glanced over it throughout the whole interview, but I would like for you, since the show is called The Determined Society, what is your definition of true determination? That's a great question. I think determination comes from being able. You know, I keep going, I think I reference this.

You know, my kids are starting to see normal people, able to achieve great things, right? When I think about Tom Brady and when he says, you know, the reality is, is you don't have to be someone that's extra special or someone that was born naturally gifted, you just have to be able to do things that people aren't willing to do in order to be special, in order to be great, right? So the termination comes from having the ability and the want to do the things that most normal people do not want to do.

Get up early, right? Get, you know, workout. And we're talking about sports right now. Go get that extra, you know, gym session, practice outside of practice. But all of that can be applied in everything that we do in life, whether it be an entrepreneur at work. What are you willing to do outside of what is considered normal? Right.

And if you can, and if you can go outside of what the experience. expectations are, the termination gets created, and then that's when you become special. And I think that's what excites me the most. That's my love language, maybe. That's my love language. It's very simple, right? It's very simple. And it's so funny because it's like, what are you willing to do repeatedly?

And the thing that drives me crazy about determination is the misdiagnosis of it. A lot of people lump it into the hustle culture. did at the very beginning. You know, team no sleep. It doesn't matter. Do it freaking anyway. But to me,

man, it's like, I want to think about the person that's on the other side of this experience of our conversation right now. It's, guys,

it's not do something at full throttle all the time. It's doing what you can. Even if it's one phone call that day, you just, there's no zero days, man. Like zero,

you can't have a zero day. You have to find a way to move forward in your mission, no matter what it is. You can't move because you're too sore to go work out. Then go for a 45-minute walk. Like, do something. Like, do a little thing, man. So I really respect your answer because, you know, it's in line,

obviously with my brand. It's just like, hey, be willing to do things that people aren't willing to do. And sometimes that's lose in public. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, and that's okay. Yeah. And that's okay.

Absolutely. Dude, dude, thank you so much, Jorge. I had a blast with you, my man. I can't wait to see how this turns out to get this out there. And hopefully one day soon,

get to meet you in person. You were one heck of a conversation, man. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Sean. Thank you. No, thank you. Absolutely. For the audience, man, listen, guys,

go check out the Pickler, go check out my boy, and see what they got going on. If you're traveling around and they've dotted that map going, there for a session and and see what the buzz is all about. But more than anything, guys, until next time, stay determined. Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way.

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