Pickleball Fashion Wars, Smokin’ Ernie Bets & Standing Out | Smiley Riley

👀 Country club chic or party store raid? Pickleball fashion has two extremes, and we’re calling them out. From crisp visors to full-blown Elvis jumpsuits, where do you stand?

💥 Plus, Smiley Riley joins us to talk:

• How to stand out in pickleball—on and off the court.
• A $500 Ernie bet—who’s got the guts to take it?
• The wildest pickleball travel hacks (including one that made the news).

🚨 And in Dink or Destroy, we debate adults throwing birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese—fun or full-blown crisis?

🎧 Tune in, weigh in, and keep the dink soft and the energy BIG! 💥

#BigDinkEnergy #PickleballFashion #SmileyRiley #DinkOrDestroy

Chapters

• 0:32 Kitchen Talk - Hot takes, weird news, and what’s on our minds this week
• 6:48 Pickle Pals - Deep Dive with a Pickleball Court, Club or Influencer
• 32:09 Dink or Destroy- This-or-that debate: Love it or trash it?
• 36:21 Found, Heard & Learned
• 43:38 Wrap-Up & CTA - Final thoughts, shoutouts, and how to engage with us

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:01.154)
This is Big Dink Energy, the pickleball podcast that's half insight, half nonsense, and all entertainment. If you love pickleball, don't take yourself too seriously and think a little trash talk makes the game better. Welcome home. This is the place where life and pickleball intersect. We celebrate the chaos, call out the nonsense, and put the fun back in dysfunction. You're either in or you're out. And if you're still listening, you're in. So let's go.

Big Dink Energy starts now. And we're back. I've always wanted to say that from the Saturday Night Live skit with Jimmy Fallon. Listen, this is the BDE Podcast, bdepodcast.com. This is the podcast you come to for your mediocrity. typically what we open up with is a little table talk, a little kitchen talk, if you will. Steph, I think you had something when we were starting before I hit record. What did you, what was yours?

I think we need to talk about the pickleball fashion. So I feel like we have two different extremes. So we have the country club vibe. have an extra fridge for sparkling water type people. And then you have the, like, did you get dressed in a dark carnival tent wearing like all the flamingo Miami vice shirts and the dink socks and the wigs and all of that hoopla.

Battle Princess had a matching tennis outfit on yesterday. I wanna make sure that we point that out. Did she? Cause I noticed it. I did not. It was all black. Yes, I was matching. It was a skirt with a tennis top. Sure.

I'm talking about like the people who have like the tutus and like all of the eccentric stuff. So are how are we feeling about

Speaker 1 (01:31.662)
So.

Speaker 2 (01:41.966)
So obviously, you know, I have a style, which is whatever was cleanest on the closet floor by smell or look, either way. And let's throw it on and let's try to look as sporty as possible. So sometimes it's sweats, sometimes it's cut off camo shorts from my days in the army. I'm very, very much nostalgic about those.

Sometimes it's a tank top, sometimes it's a cutoff sleeve shirt. I don't know, I'm not the one to talk to about fashion because you know my mentality, I don't care. You all on the court should be happy that I have stuff on to begin with.

I think it's fun. I mean, what do you think?

It just depends on the situation. Like, if there's a specific event, like maybe a charity event, you know, like...

They had inflatable events. Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:33.046)
Okay, I'm down with that. With like 5Ks where they have specific themes and people wear their tutus and bright colors and fun stuff, that's the time and the place to wear that type of...

Like what?

Speaker 3 (02:44.568)
Like the overboards. Yes. Yeah.

I feel like if you're going to a country club type pickleball court, that's the time where you wear your expensive, fancy outfits with your visor, even if you're indoors kind of look, because that's the look that they're going for. For me, as long as it matches and it's practical, that's what I care about. I don't want to wear pants when it's 80 degrees outside because I'm going to be really, really hot. It just kind of depends on the situation and what's going on.

But there's no need to be all fancy. We're all just out there to have fun.

Yeah, like all the dress-ups and all of that. Like if I was playing against somebody that had like the Elvis with all the sequence, like I'm not worried about his serve. I'm worried about who's taking over his Vegas residency.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:34.72)
No, I'm in. now, now, okay, now I'm in. Now I'm back in. I was out, now I'm back in. I'm, I am all about the, the dress for impress, right? And I'm not talking about your pickable outfits, all matching tops and all that kind of stuff. I'm talking about attention grabbing.

they rated a party store.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I am all about that on the court. I think the game is fun. I think it's engaging. I think it's bringing a lot of the community together, a lot of different parts of the community together that necessarily may not intersect each other in a day to day. But yeah, if you're showing up in your sequin Elvis and you look like Elvis prior to the drug issues, I might be in. After the drug issues, not so sure.

mean, if you think about it, it's really hard to be serious when the people across from you are an inflatable dinosaur. Like, you can't be like...

Yeah, and they're probably, if you're putting that on and stepping on the court, you're probably good. Yes. So, you know, and I'm all about also the two short shorts. I like my jeans cut off and the pockets hanging out the bottom. I'm in, I'm in. I was out initially when you were talking about like highfalutin, but when I can dumb it down a little bit, yeah, I'm all in on

Speaker 3 (04:28.782)
those T-Rex arms, how do you even?

Speaker 3 (04:48.238)
I think it's all fun and everything, but don't show up in a full-on mascot. Then we gotta call it. If you're showing up as a big mascot bear, it's too much for that.

The other thing I will probably bring back at some point is the John McEnroe look. Again, the two short shorts, and then I headbands and I want wristbands for sure when I'm out there. I be getting sweaty.

So like the fun Miami vice shirts, the fun neon socks, all that, that's all good I think. All right, pickleball fashion.

I like that.

I think it's

Speaker 2 (05:22.712)
Pick a ball fashion. Tell us what you think bdepodcast.com. You can go over there and chime in if we use yours, it'll be on the show and we'll give you a shout out. So go over bdepodcast.com and tell us what you think about Pick a Ball Fashion. I feel like this is a great place to talk about our sponsor, Dinkin' Balls. We are so necessarily, we're just fortunate to have a sponsor. I don't know who would want to sponsor this, but they do dinkinballs.com. You think your game's good enough for boring balls? Think again, Dinkin' Balls is here to spice up your court time.

They are USAPA standard, if that's something you care about, built for laughs, built for a little bit of time, and they're here for a good time. Designed for players who know the best games are about the fun and not the trophies. That's definitely us over here. Every purchase supports our military and first responders. They're giving checks to military and first responders on the balls that you purchase. Your ball should make a difference on and off the court. I know we play with Dinka balls all the time.

Stop playing with bland balls. If you wanna play with your balls in public, buy dinkin' balls and then they'll be your balls. Go to dinkinballs.com and get yours today. That's D-I-N-K-N balls.com. Dinkin' balls, play with confidence, even if you shouldn't.

It's time for Pickle Pound!

Speaker 2 (06:38.254)
How are you?

Great. Thank you. I love the name, by the way, the big dink energy. Yeah. Like gets you to alive.

Yeah, absolutely. We bring all the vibes to the podcast. this is, I just kind of set this up and some people, we're kind of new to it, but this is kind of the podcast for people like me, not like you. Not like you. No, I'm a mediocre player at best. Duper was something I had to look up, so.

I don't even think you even still know what duper is. You're like.

I'm a 1.5 I bet

Speaker 1 (07:31.086)
I don't think so. doesn't start that long.

see we don't know.

Yeah, it does now.

You've never seen a-

You have a new standard, you're grading on the curve.

Speaker 2 (07:41.742)
That's right. If the bar is low, can step over it every time. So let me ask, so Smiley Riley, now is that something you came up with, someone came up with for you or how did that go?

That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (07:54.958)
It'd be embarrassing if I named myself that for the record, but apparently, I mean, very short story. My parents said like right when I was born, I was smiling. And just as I grew up, I went by Smiley Riley and even like my middle school yearbooks. I just dug out, say like Smiley Riley. And more importantly, I'm kind of the OG of the name Riley. I don't want to like date my age, but there were no Riley's growing up.

Sure. And so it helps people know how to spell it because it just makes sense. It's just Smiley and then Riley. Just R. R-I-L-E-Y.

Nice, that's awesome. And then you really own it. And yeah, you're right. And like the middle school years, if you don't lean into something like that, then it's gonna get a tag that, you I'm in the same age bracket. really got, so I, you know, I'm gonna date myself too. There was a Sesame Street character called Guy Smiley. And so, you know, that would be brought up quite a bit when Sesame Street was a big thing when I was growing up. And so I leaned into it a little bit too. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, I guess.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:00.546)
No, no, could have been worse. I suppose but yeah, okay works my thing. It's okay

Yeah, I love it. know, pickleball is life, right? And so but what was life like? Tell us a little bit about your backstory before you became this giant, what I would call the pickleball ambassador. What was your life like before this?

Well, I'm a mom to three girls. I started playing. were probably gosh, I think they would have been like nine, 11 and like 16 when they lost my life to pickleball. Like all of a sudden, they're like, what are you doing and what happened to her mom? Right. I don't know. Yeah. You'll have to go look on TikTok. They actually did a pickleball intervention video. Oh, that's

So now kids have a drug problem, right? They're drug to every tournament and every court.

Smiley Riley. Pick a ball. It's a great one.

Speaker 1 (09:57.002)
I have heard that term. That's great. Yeah. You know what? Even better than that. My youngest is now started playing and she's on my competitive club team and she's doing awesome. So it's perfect. I know I love it. So they went from like loving it to hating it because I was doing all the time and then I did it for work to now they're loving it again. Right. Which is great. So yeah, prior to this, I was been a business owner my whole life. And when I got into pickleball, I was just loving it. And then all of I was like, wait,

I've been doing businesses since I was 21 and I loved it so much. was like, this is awesome. I can go into something that I really, really love. And I've been trying to figure out little ways to keep growing it and it's working.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, you have a tremendous following it and you're doing everything right on on that side of things. I do. I mean, I do have some concerns where you're creating this generation of pickleball players. Now you're going to create probably a dynasty, but then you're also creating a group of people who also don't have disposable income to but dynasty is awesome. love that.

Yeah.

Yes, their parents are like, wait a second. This is an expensive sport all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (11:07.992)
Hey, listen, it's not horseback riding, right? I mean, let's be thankful. Yeah, or cheerleading.

my gosh, hockey and cheerleading. Like, can't even know what those sports are.

great. That's great. So, you know, talking about your brand, you have a strong, really strong brand. So I know some of our listeners are going to be wondering, like, what's your advice for average players who want to turn their passion into a recognizable brand like Smiley Riley? What are some advice for that?

Well, I think a big part of it is just being a business owner for so long is really putting yourself out there, talking with people, getting to know people, really finding out what your clients are and what they like. I spend, when I'm not on the court and I'm not doing administrative part and I'm not planning trips, I'm constantly reaching out to the people that I coach and work with and seeing what are they looking for? What do they want? And trying to add credibility by learning.

as much as I possibly can about the sport, about the industry in general, the growth, getting involved with like, I'm involved now with the global pickleball federation. So I think it'd be part for me was I've had people just look lessons that moved here and they said, Hey, I just need to learn all things pickleball in the Valley. And I feel like you might be able to direct me in the right space. So I used to be nicknamed Jeeves. You remember ask, Jeeves. Now it's just ask Alexa or ask Chad GBT.

Speaker 1 (12:35.8)
So I used to be called G's because I like to have like a wealth of information for people. And so I think that that's kind of like my brand came through as it really is genuine. And I think when it's something you're really passionate about, it makes it really easy to get other people interested in it.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. In a past or current life, on the side, I do some safety and security consulting. And I've always said, kind of like the ass Jeeves, I want to be that the utensil or the tool like the Swiss Army knife that just has everything in it. And if you have a question, I've got the tool for you, right? And so I absolutely love that idea. there's, you know, one of the big things with pickleball, there's no gatekeeping, it seems like. I mean, if somebody's got has some has figured something out.

then we give that away freely and I love that about the community.

Yeah, I know I've had so many conversations in the last week where someone starts to say like well I want to tell you this but we have this idea I'm like you're in a safe space. Yeah, like we're all just here to watch this sport grow. Like I'm too busy I can't go make a paddle Tell me what do you have? want to hear about it

That's right. Yeah. And so, and I do some public speaking and what I found with public speaking and one thing that is unique to it that people wouldn't understand is that for every one hour of talk I give, there's 10 hours of prep that goes into that, right? And so for like your brand, do you find kind of like the percentages are, you you're out there and you're doing the videos and you're shooting a video or something like that, but then the prep side or the admin side, you maybe would call it, how much of that, what's the breakdown for people?

Speaker 1 (14:12.102)
my gosh, I'm so glad you asked this because it is a huge part of the business. And a lot of times, like when people ask like coaching and coaching rates, they don't realize that I don't just like walk up to a court. I don't just hop on, give a lesson. Like my work does not end. My work starts at six in the morning because I started planning. Like I'm going through looking at videos, creating like an ideal lesson plan.

I'm getting on tour, but it's the scheduling, it's the following up, it's the marketing, it's the website. And then on top of it, it's the travel portion is almost like a full-time job. I think it's honestly, people will be caught off guard, but I would say it's a close to like a 40 % administrative. Just if you're going to do this right, there's a lot of people who just get certified, they wanna come out and just coach like on their own schedule and just make extra income, but to build a business from it, there is a tremendous amount of back work.

and software and programming and branding.

In the money side too, mean people miss that I think sometimes when you want to be a worldwide brand like Smiley Riley, it's not, you show up and you do the 30 second clip or the one minute clip and there's so much that goes into that.

That iceberg. No one knows what's all underneath.

Speaker 2 (15:27.692)
Yeah, yeah, or it's the duck. It's the duck, right? You don't see all the paddling going in underneath the water. You just see the duck gliding across the water and it looks great.

So fun little story, Riley. We went on a cruise two years ago, and a little over two, and we did not know about pickleball. And to this day, we are so pissed that we missed out on- There were courts on There were courts, and we walked past them, and we were like, what the hell are these people doing? What is this? What is this? And we look back and we're like, my God, we missed out on 10 days of fun.

It reminded me of this because I see that you're doing all of this travel stuff and I would love for you to let us know and our listeners know. Tell us about this pickleball paradise stuff.

You guys, this stuff is so exciting and this is a true big part of my work right now. So I think I grew up, my mom's been a business owner her whole life and she chartered trips. And so I went on a yacht trip in Croatia four years ago with her and I had the opposite situation. I was in paradise on this. I mean, if you watched below deck, it really is like a below deck situation.

I'm on this yacht and paid like $3,000 for the week. And I'm like, how am I even doing this? But there was no pickle ball. And I'm like, how am I going to do that? Like it is a situation.

Speaker 2 (16:55.054)
Being in a corner smoking cigarettes and shaking.

Did you have live footage of me? That's amazing. Other cameras everywhere. But no, what I did do is I pre-did my work ahead of time. I reached out to anybody in Croatia. I found a website called, or a link to Pickleball Split. And I reached out to the people there. I was like, how can I play pickleball when I'm there? And they're like, good luck, it's difficult. But they arranged to have their first ever pickleball tournament while we were there. And that was about.

18 people at it and it made their it made their news cover of their news. We were there. I should send you the picture. That's it was really pretty cool. And so I did get to play one day when I was there. And then, of course, I just like hit against a wall. I'm not even joking. I did. I hit against a wall. Sure. So I had this idea of like, why should I not? I've always wanted to travel. I would rather travel and drive a minivan than like have a really nice car and not travel. If I I have

exchange so I'm going to pick it. So I was like I need to create an itinerary like this on a yacht that is affordable where most people can't do a yacht trip themselves and have pickleball.

we're so in. are. Yeah, we're in.

Speaker 2 (18:09.784)
We're definitely in on

Yeah, guys it was absolutely last year it takes a lot of planning but we had a floating pickleball for built Yeah, we could play yeah if you were to picture like a paddleboard yeah, and it's a court it likes harder surface amazing

I saw that.

Speaker 2 (18:26.796)
For you all that are not picturing it, go to Riley's Insta and you can see that. And you can also see what may be the only Ernie into water that I've ever seen also.

Don't f*** him, fool you. You have no idea where the Ernie is.

Well, he, I know he was with Bert.

It's not

It's not Bert Nerdy, you read a title.

Speaker 2 (18:46.028)
I read it.

Yeah, what do you think an audience?

Yeah, I do. Yes. It's a straight. It's a straight down. Yes, you're returning a shot straight down the line and you're stepping over the kitchen into the into the outside. What? What?

Okay.

I am like so taken back right now.

Speaker 1 (19:08.63)
Okay, I will make a deal with you right now. Okay, so in Croatia, we have that port in Greece. We have a port on the yacht. But if you come to Croatia and you can do a better Ernie than my friend Brad, I'll give you $500.

Wow, that is a challenge I will probably fail at, but I would love to try for sure.

second question have you ever done an Ernie guy? No, no of course not. You've never even done a surf right?

I've never served with two hands.

It's well to and I could train you and Ernie shots prior to going that anybody who watches if they come and they do a better one I'll put up like a side-by-side boat and people can vote and if they G Brad's I'll give them $500 that

Speaker 2 (19:42.466)
Yeah, it's it's it's out of

Speaker 2 (19:57.102)
is the best because it was kind of like a little dive with it too. So he was he was on it. Yeah. So I think what this leads us to then is is for your next marketable thing. everything is green, right? We've got to be green. So now we need if we're going to be on the water, we're going to need pickle balls that don't get stuck in turtles noses like straws. And so they're going to have to be biodegradable when they hit water. So I think you've got a little road ahead of you on that for sure.

You know, the great, know, did you read the comments? OK, OK, so first of all, let me just say like no small animals were injured during a plane. We didn't kill any of the land that's underneath the floating for it. It's only there for 24 hours and pickleballs float. And there was no poor sad person that was paddle boarding or jet skiing that was forced into the labor in the Adriatic to go and pick up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:41.143)
god.

Speaker 1 (20:53.39)
Nobody miss her. No tears or sad.

my God.

It's so ridiculous, you when you get out into the social media world like that, that just the people that feel like they can comment on your life, right? And bring some negativity. I had some little bit of success on TikTok a long time ago for one of my other jobs. And the amount of comments that were just negative, shouldn't you be at work? Or this is our tax dollars at work? I was a police officer. Yeah. know, okay, yeah, I'm not building a community. I'm not, you know.

None of the great stuff that's going on from this, but all the negative for sure.

love the one that's like, my gosh, this looks like my own personal hell. was like being on a yacht in Croatia, floating around, swimming. I was like, man, I want to be, see what your life is like on a daily basis if this is it.

Speaker 2 (21:42.908)
Yeah, no kidding. These are people that eat mayonnaise from a jar.

I did that as a kid. I'm sorry. did it with a... I might have done that.

Yeah, I may have had some Manny's sandwiches growing up on the other side of the tracks, as they say. So let's get back to pickleball instead of Manny's sandwiches. Boy, if we clip this and just do that, are maybe people are going to tune into that. They're just going to resonate with.

I just want to simply play you could clip if I want to put that I would put ketchup in the mayonnaise and just a hot dog today

Okay, I see I would amp it up with a little hot sauce. I mean, yeah, I feel like this we could turn into a weird cooking show at any point. So this is awesome. That's right. So let me ask you how so you build a huge community around pickleball. But for the beginners out there, and this is this is one of the reasons we started the podcast to is I want I feel like everybody should be playing pickleball, right? So I don't want someone showing up to a court or in a community or

Speaker 1 (22:22.466)
Pickles, pickles, and berries.

Speaker 2 (22:43.15)
ever feeling like, no, I've got to stand on the outside. I can't get in. Until they hit that first ball, right, they don't realize that it's such a welcoming community. So what are some of the things you do for those beginners or the sideline people that are just standing there wondering if it's a sport for them?

You know, I go out to the public court. We're so lucky in Arizona. We have a lot of kickball courts that are public. I personally will go to the courts that I grew up learning to play. And any time I see like routinely, I'll see people standing outside the gate and they're just like looking around. I'm like, Hey, do you have a question? I do the same thing with people at Costco because I want to be a Swiss army knife. Right. I'm like, what are you looking for? I let me lead you to the poppy probiotic soda.

Let's go get out a $1 hot dog.

Yeah, yeah, yes. So I will, like, I can identify those people quickly and I'm like, come on in, let me show you this is how you do the paddle position. But anytime I have beginners, like, I always offer to go and do like an on court, like public lesson. Like I put it like half the price because I just want them to get out there and have fun. So I'll bring them out. Like there is a court etiquette. Sure. A lot of times people just like walk behind someone serving and they almost get hit.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:55.846)
or about how to call the ball when it rolls onto someone's court. Cause if they don't, someone might get hurt. So I'll go to the court with them the first time, play in with them, like show them how it works. but I do think it's like the most welcoming community. That's where I mean, I just as a tiny spigot, when I started playing, I was getting divorced. I was married 21 years and getting on that court and not knowing anybody.

felt really great too, because none of those people had any idea like what was under the surface. And when I got to head court, people were like, come on in, come in, come play. And I was like, I'm not very good. And they were like, it's OK, we'll teach you how to play. that was like my life. That was my changing moment. Honestly, I thought like, this is awesome. I can come here and play. that's why I want to learn and be better, because I want people to want to put their paddle in with me.

Right, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, once you get to the park and like you see all the people you know and they're like, hey, I'm set my paddle with you. You're like, I have arrived. I've made it.

Yeah. So that brings me to a great question then. So you've got some skill, obviously, your your duper score is way up there. So have you ever been like a sleeper and like you knew this pickleball snob was going to was going to be on the other side of the net and they underestimated you and you just crushed him?

Speaker 1 (25:12.814)
I kind of have it a lot of times. Let's just, say my deeper went, I had it like a little drop after an injury. So I need to get it back up here again. one of my favorites was when I was in Idaho with my daughter and we just went to some random courts. It was just two years ago. So at the time she was 12 and these two guys that went to Boise state came out. They're really, really nice kids athletes and they're playing. And I tell my daughter, I'm like, okay, let's play with these two guys. She's like, no.

No, she's looking, she's like mad at me. She's like, text me, like, I hate you. I am not playing. And I'm like, no, we're going to go play. And so we get on the court with them and we're just very unassuming. And I was like, hey, can we play? And they're like, okay, sure. We, we spooled that.

What's this sport? Can you show us? Sure.

Do I have a racket? Do you have any extra racket? Yeah. Like, how does this hit? Right. And so we got out there and I think we beat him like 11-3. And at the end they were like, do you play this? I was like, I actually coached it for a living and they were laughing so hard.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because I watched, I watched Agassi play the other day. And he was, I mean, they were all good players on the court for sure. But I, but you know, I remember Agassi with the hair and all that kind of stuff. And now he's bald. And I wondered, he could just probably walk onto a pickleball court in a little bit of disguise and just start crushing people. And so that's, that's all.

Speaker 1 (26:40.278)
Yeah, no, where I do that the best though. I will tell you is at the foosball table table I like to walk in Yeah, like I go to top golf and i'm a really bad golfer. So like i'll sneak in to the foosball section There's always like teenage boys and hey, can I can I go ahead and play with you guys and they're like, yeah Sure, not a problem. Don't have and i'll come in And just smoke up. Nice like I just put money on it and they're like shocked

yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2 (27:07.47)
Yeah. think there's a point before here in a little while before Topgolf starts adding a couple, figuring out how to add a couple of pickleball courts, whether they take away from the parking lot or not. think that's a new natural evolution for them.

No, it'd be smart. One thing I want to point out too, speaking of like building and evolution is that this sport, we're going to Greece and they're building their first ever like dedicated like pickleball court facility. It's going to be exciting. They're adding it to their Pradal and tennis and all that.

That's awesome. Yeah, we're seeing right. We're seeing so many. We have some questionable courts out there that why are these basketball lines still, can I see them through the paint that you put out here, right? But I mean, I love it because even rec centers are realizing, okay, we're going to get more people here and through our gate, so to speak, if we can just adopt some of these courts that aren't being used in the pickleball courts. So it's awesome. It's growing. So speaking about growing, where's the Smiley Riley brand in five years? What's the...

100%.

Speaker 2 (28:06.658)
what's the goal or even maybe one year, you know, the lofty goals that you have.

Well, I kind of have, I have so many ideas and I think it's like, it's bittersweet because my brain is always like going back and forth on things. I have this, I kind of would love to be in like the consulting of Pickleball world. And it's right along those lines of what you're talking about, like helping these activity centers learn how to utilize this vacant spaces. but I would love to kind of be.

in the consulting aspect of like, do we grow Pickleball? What does my community need? And that comes from, that's what I'm trying to like learn as much as I can. I have an amazing opportunity next week. I'm on the main stage speaking at RacketX, which was pretty exciting. think there's like 55 speakers and 12 of them I think are women and I got to be one of them. So I'm really excited.

Congratulations, that's amazing.

That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (29:03.564)
Thank you. Yeah, huge opportunity for me. I was very honored to get the chance to do it. So I think if I could be the person just as it scales and grows, I would love to do it. I'm trying to grow internationally. So we have the Olympic Committee members coming to Greece on the trip with us. and we have Connor Cardo, the owner of the PGA is coming to Greece.

That's awesome. Yeah. So many wonderful things that you've got going on with Smiley Riley brand and for yourself. And listen, when you get to that consulting stage and for all the big names, if you, if you need some help with the 1.5 of us down here at the bottom, I feel like we need to capture some of that. So just hit us up. We'll, we'll make sure we speak into that for you. how can everybody find Smiley Riley? What's all the tags? Do want people to go see?

Fair play.

Speaker 1 (29:51.692)
kept it very basic. So it's pretty much smiley Riley pickleball across the board for Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. I do have smiley pickleball travel. I pulled the Riley out of it. That's my main travel part. Okay. And my website is smiley Riley pickleball and then find me on LinkedIn. I'm constantly trying to like see who I can network with and and we can help each other grow in whatever aspect that is. So

Yeah, that's a different space. I think, you know, entrepreneurs like you and like us, we'll find more and more room in there for us. Especially if we throw the elbows a little bit right now and say, hey, you know, this is something that is actually a business. so, you know, we've got business acumen as well. So listen up, right? So, okay, one of the questions I ask everybody, and I hope you have this one already loaded up.

The Smiley Riley theme song or walk-on song when you're walking on the court.

my gosh, the smiley Riley theme song I walk on court. It's gotta be guess who's back.

Oh yeah, it's little Slim Shady. All right, all right.

Speaker 1 (30:59.95)
I am a huge M &M fan. Yeah, for sure. it's always there.

and George Michael, right?

Well, I'm George Mo-

I my George Michael crush, definitely.

I was gonna wear jeans and stand facing away from the camera today. Yeah, that's right. I couldn't find the hanging cross earring so...

Speaker 1 (31:14.773)
Sunday like this.

Speaker 1 (31:21.806)
put it! No, I was out. Dang it! I know. my gosh, yes.

Well, that's hilarious. Thank you so much Smiley Riley, Riley Palmer for being with us. And if you're going through Scottsdale, If you're going through Scottsdale on any of your trips or you live out there, please go find her. She will definitely teach you. Or if you need to be schooled, she will definitely school you. That's right. She's got and she can clean your gutters too. Don't miss out on that. She's got all the gutter proper equipment for that.

Yes, you got it.

Speaker 1 (31:46.016)
Either way, I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (31:54.926)
A stick and my slipper.

And if you're wondering what I'm saying, go see her on her Instagram right now. So smiley Riley, Riley Palmer. Thank you so much for being on the Big Dink Energy podcast.

All right, see you guys. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (32:14.414)
Dink or destroy

you

I just like hear myself in the mic like that. But Dink and Destroy is this part of the episode where we talk about something dink. Yes, it's a thumbs up for us that we thought about, or it's a destroy and it's a thumbs down. Nope, not for us. And we want to hear your thoughts on this as well. So make sure you're going over to bdepodcast.com. And there is a way to scroll down where you can leave a voicemail as well, bdepodcast.com. So here are Dink and Destroy. I came across this and it really, it impacted me in a certain way. So there are adults having birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese.

My thing is, like, we finally have money now, as adults. Yeah. This is the ultimate place to go. Unlimited pizza, unlimited drinks. You could go in and jump in the ball pit if they still... Now they have trampolines there. Really? And so much cheaper than, like, a Dave & Buster's, like, why not? I mean, I guess if you're the mom that brings her kid for the party and is like, what are all these 40-year-olds doing over here? I could see that, but I mean, I feel like...

Why not? I think the nostalgia, I mean, and now it's like, I don't have to be all sad with my three Tootsie Rolls and a spider ring. I have the money now to upgrade if I want to buy a different prize. I want the Xbox, please. And I'll just fork out the cash for it. So I mean, I feel like I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:18.94)
So you're in it for the nostalgia.

Speaker 2 (33:36.27)
So you are an adult now and I'll just let you know there's a thing called Temu and you can get a thousand spider rings Probably tootsie for cheaper than getting in the Chuck E Cheese

I get it. know, but it's only like $12 a person for a party, getting 90 minutes playtime, like it's fun. But I don't know, I'm straddling the fence.

Paddle, Princess.

For me, it's a destroy. I think that Chuck E. Cheese should be left for the kids and the adults can go to Dave and Buster's. I don't want to bring my kids to Chuck E. Cheese for a kid's birthday party and then there's this group of... Yeah, in there drinking their beers and hogging all of the games that the kids just want to go and have.

random

Speaker 3 (34:11.726)
No.

Speaker 3 (34:18.488)
That is so true. Like, I totally agree with you. I think, what a great idea, because you feel like, Chuck E. Cheese, that's where we used to go. Now, if Chuck E. Cheese would do an adult after midnight, five nights at Freddy's style party, I would be so, so, like, kids there. Like, that's where it would be cool. Like, let's do this animatronics come to life and chase you stuff.

be fun.

I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (34:47.596)
like that.

That's a different. You're also not getting up at midnight to go anywhere. I'm just, I'm let her know. I'll just know that.

think that is. So we're not telling that.

Speaker 3 (34:55.796)
Maybe if they offered like an adult time where kind of this kind of that like serve both.

Yeah, like after eight.

Speaker 2 (35:03.793)
I see the nostalgia side of it, but I also see this as poor decision-making. It's at least questionable decision-making. It's set up for kids. mean, why do I have a bunch of 45 and 50-year-olds fighting over Skee-Ball tickets? You know what I mean? I love Skee-Ball.

It's my favorite too. I will play skee-ball all day. It's not for the pizza. It's just nostalgia. And I think that that's probably where this is coming from. But nowadays we do have the Dave and Busters and we do have like the Smash Park. my gosh. Smash Park, we did an interview with them and they are the Chuck E. Cheese for adults.

See, and that's fun. I think that that's a lot of fun. But it also comes down to the economy as well because Chuck E. Cheese is so much cheaper than going to Dave Investors.

So

for kids. I mean, none of those video games are set up for adults.

Speaker 3 (35:51.726)
Yeah.

That doesn't

So I'm gonna go with destroy unless we're five nights at Freddying this.

Mine is destroy. Leave it for the kids.

Yeah, I'm destroy all about it. It's not for me. Tell us what you think bdepodcast.com. You can scroll down and leave us a message or you can just send us an email and what you think. And we'll share it on the podcast. So bdepodcast.com is where you'll find all that.

Speaker 4 (36:19.0)
found, heard, and learned.

All right, this brings us to the part of the show that I really like where it's something we found in our week or our last couple days or even yesterday. So somebody has the found, I know that.

I have found, and this is not a product, but I found that the best players really don't brag. And I have found that the best players are the ones that want to be helpful. The best players I have found are the ones that say, come play with us. I will teach you. I will help you learn. I will laugh with you. I have found that the best players are humble. And the people who are

over the top Karens and are throwing balls at your face. Just think they're local legends or something. I don't know, but I have found that the people who are amazing are so humble and giving and gracious.

Yeah, and you know, that leads me into a part of my life that isn't on the podcast, but you can go seek it out. it is, its capability breeds humility, right? So when you're more capable, when you're good on the court, when you have good backhands, when you have good forehands, when you have the skills, then you're a lot more humble about the sport. And I think this sport does lend itself to on the job training, so to speak, where, hey, if you're good, teach me why you're good. Bring me up to your level and not talk down to my level.

Speaker 3 (37:43.874)
Right, totally agree.

So here's something that I came across that really resonated with me. Not that I'm quite up in this age bracket yet, but I understand where this man is coming from. Calm down. So there's a 71 year old guy named Chuck Abbott and he's arrested for drawing pickleball court lines on a gym floor at a local rec center with a sharpie. Love the energy he's bringing to it. He got fed up with the lack of proper courts in his area, took matters into his own hands.

Obviously the cops had to be called out for something like that. So I'm thinking, rec center, a rec center. And coincidentally, maybe not coincidentally, the guy is known as Mr. Pickleball in the community. So I think if anybody's bringing a Sharpie to a rec center, a basketball court and drawing a pickleball court on that court, let's listen to the guy.

a community center?

Speaker 3 (38:37.772)
I feel like there has been probably some town hall meetings and that he was not listened to and he had literally just had enough.

Yeah, hey, I know my passion for the game. I know I'm,

But I also know as a business owner how expensive those floors are.

first thing that pops into my head is why didn't he use tape? Like why sharp?

to prove a damn point. He's at that point. There has been some un-listened to requests for sure, I need to know the full story on this.

Speaker 2 (39:08.886)
Yeah, so, well, you I look at the tape and that's easily stopped, right? A 71 year old using a roll of tape. I'm gonna come out, hey, hey Chuck, calm down just a second right here. But no, the Sharpie is like immediate. This is happening. The Savage. Yeah, this is awesome. I love Chuck. Chuck, you're my people. If you wanna be on our podcast, let me know.

I wonder if Chuck would go to Chuck E. Cheese and have his birthday. I'm just saying, that was a good one. I need to know the full story. need the lore, as the kids say.

and good

Speaker 2 (39:38.318)
Yeah. Who's got our herd this

I do. So something that I heard recently is that there is this ongoing trend of people coming home from work and sitting in their driveway in their cars for around 15 minutes and just sitting there decompressing before they walk into the house. Heck yeah. That's something that you would do.

yeah, I'm told, well, so.

Not in a closed garage because you'll be there longer than 50.

I don't know we've met our kids. I let it go for about 10 minutes and I open the garage door now. But so for me, for my outside job, my non-pickleball related job, I'm in law enforcement. And this is important to me. I've done this for most of my career, is take that pause at the front door, take that pause in the garage and put my baggage down from what I just experienced for eight to 12 hours, leave it there so I don't bring it into the house. I definitely thumbs up on this one. This is...

Speaker 2 (40:33.42)
something that resonates so deep with me.

I think it's just, it's a new version of the threshold method where anytime you walk through the threshold of your, know, where you go to work, when you pass that threshold, now you are at work and your brain is there, your mind is there, your body's there, you know, and the same thing when you come home, so you're not bringing home all your baggage from work and all of that kind of stuff. But I also think, you know, especially when I had younger kids, it is, it's just kind of like in between 11 o'clock at night and.

one in the morning is really the only time you have, especially as a mom, to just like look at your phone or just sit there or do nothing, if anything, you know, so just capturing that little bit of extra time.

Yeah, for nine o'clock hour, we used call it getting our life back time, right?

Yes, get our life back. It's time to get our life back.

Speaker 2 (41:22.286)
Yeah, and this kind of plays into, there's a show on Apple TV called Severance. I think we watched a couple episodes of it. It's got Ben from Parks and Rec in it. It's so slow. Yeah, it is. Where he goes into the work, as soon as he gets in that elevator, wipes his memory of the elevator. Right, and then when he comes out of the elevator, then his outside world comes back and he doesn't remember his work life.

I could only watch like one of them.

Speaker 3 (41:40.02)
I do remember that.

Speaker 3 (41:47.126)
that's kind of cool. Is it Why do we stop watching it?

It was kind of like Paddle Princess said. But I'm thinking about picking it back up again just because we talked about it now because it does kind of resonate with me and it's quirky enough where, yeah, I'm in, let me see where this goes.

as well.

Speaker 3 (42:04.396)
Yeah, and I think, you know, back to just, you know, this sitting and decompressing, I think it's important, especially if you have a stressful job or, you know, you have small kids or in my case, kids with you all the time. I mean, why not? For me,

My commute home is about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the people that get in front of me who like to go 55 and a 75, which drives me nuts, but that's another rant. But for me, that's my drive and my drive is mainly highway. So I mainly just going the entire time. I'm on cruise control. I'm just going. And by the time I get home, I want to get in my house. I want to change my clothes. I want to get in my pajamas and I want to get something to eat. And I want to just.

Ugh, like release everything for the end of the day. So for me, sitting in my car for an extra 15 minutes would just be annoying to me. I'm like, I just want to get home.

Yeah, if you have a long commute, can see that. So do you take your 15 minutes, like when you get in, like go in your room and shut the door and nobody can talk to you? Absolutely. Okay, so you take your 15 minutes.

thing that I do. Walk straight through my house. put my stuff down, go to my room, shut my door.

Speaker 3 (43:12.852)
Do it, just not in the car.

But you had your 30 minutes there too, so you're not.

You your 30 minute drive too.

Right, and that's when I listen to my podcasts and things along those

You listen to this podcast?

Speaker 2 (43:24.46)
Why wouldn't you? This is awesome. Mediocre podcasting at its best. Yeah, so tell us what you thought on the found, learned and heard section. If something resonated with you, please tell us. Also something you can do, you can hit our You've Been Served segment. You want to serve up some trash talk to one of your friends, one of your partners. You've got something to say, but don't want to be the one to say it. We'll do it for you on our You've Been Served.

We're fantastic.

Speaker 2 (43:47.188)
Ultimate way to dish out the truth, whether it's calling out a partner who is always just a little late and reminding a friend that the kitchen violations are real or simply delivering a message with a side of sarcasm, we'll serve it up for you. Submit your messages now. Go to bdepodcast.com in the upper right. Click You've Got Served. We accept all kinds of nonsense, not just pickleball. We'll record it. We'll put it on the show at some point. The more ridiculous, the better. That's it for this episode. Unless you've got something to say, think we got it wrong? Have a better take? We want to hear it.

Find us at bdepodcast.com or at bdepodcast on the socials. Drop us a message. We might just feature you in the next episode. If you had a good time, well, same z's. If not, maybe try again. We grow on people. So you know the deal. Follow the show, tell a friend, and leave us a review. Or just pretend this never happened. Until next time, keep the dink soft and the energy big.