Pickleball, Moon Landing & Recovery | Evan Slaughter w/ Fit to Serve

We’re coming in hot with:
 🧻 A heated debate about how to hang your toilet paper
 🌕 Moon landing conspiracies we probably shouldn’t believe
 🩳 Pickleball advice from a guy in jorts (you already know)
 🕵️‍♂️ A surprise cameo from the actual Secret Service

Plus, Evan Slaughter aka Fit to Serve opens up about addiction recovery, discovering pickleball in rehab, and how humor, healing, and community collide on and off the court.

Listen now before the tinfoil hats come out. 

Big Dink Energy pickleball podcast is half insight, half nonsense, all entertainment.

Chapters

• 0:48 Sponsor Ad
• 2:38 Kitchen Talk - Hot takes, weird news, and what’s on our minds this week
• 9:32 Just The Tip - Pickleball Wisdom
• 11:12 Pickle Pals - Deep dive with our guest
• 35:26 Dink or Destroy- This-or-that debate: Love it or trash it?
• 42:03 News You Can Use
• 47:17 Wrap-Up & CTA - Final thoughts, shoutouts, and how to engage with us

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.552)
I agree that the moon landing happened. No. But it was filmed in a freakin' studio, y'all!

We knew it was coming.

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. The official podcast of Pickleball coming to your ear holes right now.

Well, before we get started on Kitchen Talk, because I have quite a different topic to speak about, I did want to bring in our episode sponsor, who is the Pretty Pickleball Company. Woohoo! You know what's funny is that people see my paddle from the Pretty Pickleball Company and think that I'm just here to look pretty. Yes, like it's gorgeous. It looks like it walked out of your favorite fairy tale. But also, this thing plays like a B. It's T-700 carbon fiber.

Speaker 1 (01:10.718)
A B E

It's USA pickleball approved. It's got tons of spin, power, and control. All things that let me win on the court when I can. Also, letting my inner princess shine. So yeah, it's pretty, but it's also pretty unfair once you start winning with it. Use code BIGDINKENERGY15 at theprettypickleballcompany.com, theprettypickleballcompany.com, to bring your beauty to the court and play like a beast.

And I used it to go get my duper rating. I used that paddle and it was legit. And the coach was like, that's a cool paddle. Nice. It's all about it. So I just want to put it out there. And I used it at a tournament, but let's not think the paddle gave me how I ranked in that tournament. That was more of just my duper score being real.

you were super duper as well

I was so excited when I got yours

Speaker 1 (02:06.338)
Yeah, I used my pretty pickleball paddle and at open play the other day, there was this little girl and she ran by the paddle stacking and then she came back and pointed at it and told her mom, look at how pretty that paddle is. was like,

That's the best in real time.

Shout it out there. It's not just a cute paddle. is legit and is so awesome to use.

Yeah, go find them. Go find them out there. Would you want to, you, you were talking about something before we started Paddle Princess. It was something about a hill to die on or something like that.

Okay, so this is what happened at my daughter's graduation party. We're getting ready. I'm having all of these people over at my house, many of which I don't want to be there and don't like, but I'm getting everything set up. And I am very specific about one certain thing and it drives me crazy, but to everyone else, they're just like, what are you talking about? To me, the toilet paper should always roll over.

Speaker 3 (02:51.342)
You know who you are out there.

Yeah

Speaker 4 (03:07.562)
and you should kind of like tuck it in. And my husband is just like all willy-nilly going in there and putting the toilet paper in however. Yeah, so.

Any old kind of way? What a savage.

upset like I don't like that.

rolling backward or over and I feel like the proper way for toilet paper is it should roll over instead of under it. To me they just I don't know if it's dirty when it rolls under it or what.

for our listeners, let me put this in context that you'll understand. Beard, not mullet, for the toilet paper. Beard, not mullet.

Speaker 1 (03:35.928)
beard.

Gotcha. Okay. I'm under, that took me a whole hot second. But anyways, it got me thinking about, okay, this is a stupid hill that I am absolutely willing to die I'm with you. I am absolutely like, okay, this is my hill. The toilet paper needs to go over and my husband wants to put it under. It doesn't really matter. Why do I care so much? But I know that other people have those kinds of things, like the one hill that you are willing to die on that does not matter to anyone at all.

How much time do we have?

All right,

I can go. Go.

Speaker 3 (04:10.69)
Go ahead. Crunchy peanut butter is superior to all other peanut butters. Yes. Yes. Don't bring your smooth butted peanut butter into this house. Nobody wants that. No, absolutely not. That's just like, it's baby food.

Okay.

Yeah

Speaker 4 (04:24.92)
Smooth butted.

Speaker 1 (04:30.432)
If it's crunchy, mean, it's not like I'm not gonna eat it, but I mean, I don't, would prefer, I prefer smooth. That's the hill you're gonna die on.

out of here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Have you ever put crunchy peanut butter or smooth peanut butter on toast? One's a party in your mouth and the other is diarrhea.

Okay. Alright.

Speaker 1 (04:55.266)
Your son likes crunchy too.

Hell yeah he does, he knows what's up. I'm getting extra nuts. I'm going for the extra nuts.

No, the extra nuts.

You're going for the extra nut.

When I'm putting it up on my toes and in my mouth, I want the extra nut.

Speaker 1 (05:08.311)
I get it.

I'm sorry, I am the absolute opposite. like smooth? Yes. Me too. I like creamy peanut butter. I don't want it crunchy. No. The crunchiness is the toast. That's the crunch factor. You don't need additional crunch factor.

Like sm-

Speaker 1 (05:22.35)
Both

you go get your carpet squares and go to timeout because you're this is like daycare time type of food when you're getting smooth peanut butter.

See you.

So you're saying adult peanut butter is crunchy.

Adult peanut butter is crunchy. Yes. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (05:37.73)
Whatever.

Kind of an Ending Gertrude story.

Okay, so I may have missed the memo of how this was supposed to go.

okay.

Okay, so let's hear yours. I want to hear yours now.

Speaker 1 (05:49.43)
It's gonna cost me some friendship. But it's okay. I'll die on this hill. I'll bring my lawn chair and receipts and just sit up there by myself if I have to. I know there's at least one person in my close circle that agrees with me. I agree that the moon landing happened, but it was filmed in a freaking studio, y'all. We knew it.

lord.

Speaker 4 (06:12.622)
We knew it was coming.

Speaker 3 (06:18.311)
No, that's a whole nother topic.

That's a way to

I get that,

We will do weird ass conspiracy theories. That may be episode 20.

We need to have that a hold on.

Speaker 1 (06:30.082)
Y'all asked me, what hill am I going to die on? Okay. It is straight up. I will bring snacks. I will stay up there by myself. I'm telling you right now, let me give you this. One nine nine seven. Do y'all know what that is? That is my 10th grade pager code. If I can remember and find that, why can we not find these film? Why can we not find? Why did they lose it? NASA lost it.

1997.

Speaker 3 (06:59.394)
Yeah

my God, I have my pager number from 10th grade, but NASA does. I'm anyways. Here we go. I won't dive any deeper.

If we can put a man on the moon, why can't my printer work? I'm just saying.

No, I mean, why do we have to hold onto wires and flip? I'm just saying this is where I plant my seed.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. So we went from toilet paper being beard, not mullet, crunchy peanut butter, adult peanut butter, to one of the largest conspiracy theories.

Speaker 1 (07:30.594)
Well, y'all, y'all, y'all.

brain.

We were using 22 long rifle and you came with a .50 cal.

Y'all did not give me boundaries. Y'all did not give me. It's our

should know better. It is our fault.

Speaker 4 (07:45.678)
Okay, well next time we'll be a little bit more clear.

I'm so sorry y'all.

I love it.

We're gonna do it. We'll do it. We will do an episode on conspiracy theories because I have some too and

Okay, so I just want to say welcome to the inside of our brain. This is literally how our conversations go. We start off on one topic and we go deep dive into a whole other topic.

Speaker 1 (08:07.02)
was like

Titanic is going down.

I did it!

Or did it?

Or did it?

Speaker 1 (08:18.996)
I will die on those hills. So many hills I'm ready to dive on.

Yes, that's awesome.

I was so excited for this topic, I knew she was going to come with

if you're not.

banging the steering wheel in your car right now.

Speaker 1 (08:31.65)
your horn if you hate me hey I have tons of friends that disagree with me and they still love me all right

Or honk if you agree.

Now here you go, go over to thebdepodcast.com or go find us on Instagram and tell us, don't tell us your conspiracy theory yet. We will bring that up or maybe to go ahead and put it in there. But what is the hill you're willing to die on that really doesn't matter? Also chime in about the crunchy peanut butter. I know my peeps are out there. I need to find where you are and tell us what you think about your toilet paper. Send us pictures of your toilet paper if you want.

Are you an over or an under? Which way do you go?

I'm an over for sure. I'm a beard, not a mullet for sure. And just like Brenda Lopez did, Brenda, we saw you listening to us in your car. Brenda is with Cash Queen's Pickleball Tournament. She tagged us in her Instagram stories. You all be like Brenda, be more like Brenda and we will feature you on the podcast too. Or maybe we won't, maybe it'd be too creepy and we won't say anything about it. Either way, tag us in all the Instagram, all your stories, where and when you're listening to us and give us a shout out. We love it.

Speaker 1 (09:34.158)
Just the two

Quick pickleball wisdom you can use in and out before you know it. Just a tip is brought to you by that pickleball swag. Yeah, I said that pickleball swag because looking good shouldn't stop your third shot drop. We're talking court drip for days, bro. Tease that talk smack, towels that don't quit. And yes, a shark coochie board. So classy, it makes your paddle feel undressed. If your gear's boring, that's a you problem. Fix it at that pickleball swag.

that pick a boss way dot com

Look at these cute cups, we use them every time we do our podcasts, because that's the only time we drink.

gosh. Okay. Yes. We're telling lies early on in the podcast. So did you all know you can hit the ball with your hand? Yes. You can hit the ball with your hand. Rule seven H ball contact faults. A fault occurs when after the serve, the ball contacts a player or anything the player is wearing or carrying except the player's paddle, the player's hand or hands below the wrist that is in contact.

Speaker 4 (10:21.473)
No.

Speaker 3 (10:42.956)
with the paddle. If the ball strikes any other part of the player's body, clothing, or equipment, it is considered a fault against the player who was hit.

Yeah, that makes sense. I've hit I've used I had my hand on my paddle and hit it below the wrist and it's hit my hand and of course these always be hitting always be in.

Yeah, the talents that you have.

Speaker 1 (11:10.844)
It's time for Pickle Pals!

Speaker 3 (11:16.44)
All right, our guest today on Picklepals is Evan Slaughter, AKA Fit2Serve, Fit2Serve1 on Insta. He's a US Army veteran, recovering addict, and a guy who somehow built a brand around Burpee's brokenness and a dad bod vulnerability he's got going on. This man has lived through war zones, withdrawals, and wads. And now he's out here spreading the gospel of growth while rocking mid-thigh shorts in a midsection that says, yeah, I've probably done a couple pushups. So Evan, thanks for being on today.

Man, it's a joy to talk to you and man, listen, I really fully thought we were coming into this interview with no shirts on. I'm just going to tell you right now.

Well, I was prepared to have the shirt off. I mean, as you can see, I'm outside. So I was thinking, is this an environment where I should have my shirt off or?

Is there ever an environment where you shouldn't have your shirt off?

That's the question. That's the question.

Speaker 3 (12:06.316)
Yeah. Yeah. And if you go over to Evan's Insta and his Facebook pages and all of his websites, you'll see Evan is not a shirt owner of any sort. That one is probably actually borrowed. So you run this thing. Yeah. Thanks so much for doing that. Shirting it up for us. So you run this thing called Evan's Laughter. Is that right?

Evans laughter, that's it. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that because people all the time ask how I spell my last name, which I didn't think, you know, slaughter. That's a pretty common word. A lot of people know, but I guess it confuses people when they hear it. And I learned one time when I was playing Little League baseball, the S on my jersey in the back, you couldn't see the shirt was kind of over it. So it just said laughter.

And so, you know, my parents are sitting back there watching and they see it and they told me afterwards, you know, they're like, oh, it said laughter on your shirt when you're up there to bat. And so I remembered that and I was thinking, well, that's how I tell people to spell it now. Just spell laughter. Most people know how to spell laughter and put an S in front.

Well, I mean, I don't know. You were in 11 Bravo, so I'm not quite sure laughter would be one of those things if you told them 11 Bravo just spelled laughter. They still would look at you like a dog who just heard a big word. You know what I mean?

It is a long word.

Speaker 3 (13:26.99)
It is and the Marines would never get it. They'd be too busy chewing on crayons to get anything like that for sure. So you spent, man, you spent a ton of years trying to control how people saw you, right? So I got to ask, what's the dumbest thing you did to impress someone before you just learned to stop caring and leading into everything you're doing now?

That's

Speaker 2 (13:45.144)
Gosh, I would say I bought a BMW 3 Series when I had no money to do so. And this was back just right in the thick of the addiction. So I was making a lot of bad decisions, but I thought, you know, think about my ex. was like, man, I wonder if I can get her back if I impress her and show her how good I'm doing. Now I have this car, now I have this, you know, and I was completely delusional. So I bought this BMW. I think the interest rate was

14 % and yeah and didn't make a payment on it and they repo'd it about three months later. Why? And then I went to rehab. Yep.

great soldier interest rates right there.

Speaker 3 (14:26.482)
That's what happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. they're there. And you bought the three series too. So you were like, I want to impress her a little bit, but I can't go all way to five or seven.

Yeah, this is all I can afford. can't even afford this. This is all they'll approve me for. Let's go with the three series.

full send on it, right? Yeah, you definitely bought it outside of military base.

I ended up paying for it actually now that I think about it because even though I didn't make a payment for it in the first three months and they repoed it, when I got out of rehab and I was turning my life around, I sold my house and I had to pay a bunch of debt back and fortunately I had the money to do so. So I ended up, they ended up winning big time on that.

yeah. Yeah. They, mean, they know what they're doing. They know what they're doing with those interest rates and the contracts. So man, you you call your, you call your brand fit to serve. love it. If I, if I had one, it'd probably be fit to nap as an older, old army guy. So, but what, at what point in your life did service stop being survival and then stop, start being the mission for you?

Speaker 2 (15:29.582)
That's a good question. know, they, for me, in the beginning, whenever I came up with Fit to Serve, and I don't know if I've told too many people this, but I'd gotten out of the military. You know, I'd been really active most of my life. I was personal trainer for a while before the army. I studied, you know, exercise science, so I'm in college. And I liked fitness. I liked helping people get into shape. So I start Fit to Serve, and this was actually...

This was actually, yeah, I'd gotten out of the army. I was looking for something to do. I was sober at the time, not addicted. I'd kind of gone in and out of addiction issues. But at the time I was sober, doing fine. And I thought of fit to serve, thinking that we need to be physically fit in order to serve other people. You it talks about in the Bible that we're called to go and go out and serve. And so that was my mindset. It's like, how can we go?

if we're not physically capable. So I think, you know, I'm going to help people get in shape with the, you know, intentions of it being a way of us being able to physically be physically fit to go and serve other people. And so I started this little workout group. It was on Saturdays. It was free to anybody that wanted to come. And after a while, you know, I kind of stopped doing that. And then I get back into struggling with addiction issues for hopefully the last time. And I go through this other little time period where I was, you know,

struggling. And so when I got sober this last time and I came back to my Instagram and everything, well, I'd already had fit to serve as my handle. So I just kept it that. But my mindset changed and it changed from we don't have to be physically fit in order to serve. And I started thinking, you know, but in my old mindset, if a requirement was being physically capable in order to go and serve, then how could someone who's handicapped?

go and serve? How could someone who's paralyzed go and serve? How could my buddy that lost his legs in Afghanistan be of service? So that conception changed for me. Now, obviously, I think it is important to be physically fit, but my mindset now is behind it. Fit to serve for me means that we're all fit in some way. We're all capable. We're all equipped in some shape, form, or fashion to be of service. And so what does that look like for me? I find comedy as a way of being of service.

Speaker 2 (17:53.49)
I can remember being in rehab and just, and even Afghanistan, you know, in the environment where it can be tough, it can be challenging. And we, you know, you've got the guy that makes everybody laugh, right? Of service, you know, and you're down, you're sad, you're thinking about home, you know, whatever, someone comes and makes you laugh, genuinely laugh. I think that's kind of a way of being of service. figured out that, you know, I think that we're all.

Yeah. that's being.

Speaker 2 (18:19.694)
equipped in some way we're all capable. You you think about the school teacher who teaches kids. Yeah, I couldn't do that, man. I couldn't be in a classroom with third graders all day trying to teach somebody. So that's a gift. You know, that's a way of that person being of service in my mind. So that's where it kind of came from. And that's where it ended up with Fit to Serve. And I think the meaning for it now for me is really what is going to stick.

Yeah, and that's something that, you know, I'd say 1 % or maybe less than 1 % of the population will ever understand is that gallows humor, right? Bombs are going off, bullets are flying around us. We're in the worst of the worst, but somehow someone like you will crack that joke and break the tension. We'll all, you know, realize, okay, we're all in this together. We're all going to get through this together. We're going to lean on one another.

And I think, you know, as our society, I don't think we do that anymore where, we lean on one another in the virtual world. Thoughts and prayers, you know, we always see that, but we don't do it in person necessarily anymore. You'd see someone sooner, you you take a tumble, you see someone sooner pull out their phone than the pull up next to you and try to help you, you know. So, yeah, I can see where a lot of that comes in and being able to make jokes and crack jokes and have fun in those situations.

Obviously to a bigger stage where there's not all that stuff going on man You're bringing it on all the screens that you're on everything that I've seen that humor comes right through Everything that you're doing

Well, I appreciate it. Yeah. It's something I feel like has just kind of been naturally something I've had in my life. You know, always been the funny one. I think when I was younger, my mom would, you know, she would refer to it not as humor, but as being a smart ass probably. So yeah, it's got its, you know, yeah, it's got its downside at certain times. But now the way I like to see it is I think it's, you know, I think it's a way of bringing some light to the world and, you know,

Speaker 2 (20:14.2)
trying to reach people through comedy. That's a big thing. Comedy, I think, breaks down a lot of barriers. You look at this past election and Donald Trump was going on a lot of different podcasts, right? Well, they were comedy podcasts. Joe Rogan, Theo Bond, Listen With The Boys is more of a sports one, but it's still comedic in its own way. And that's because comedy has no, it can break down those barriers and reach people. And so that's kind of what I figured out with my pages.

I was making people laugh, especially with the fitness stuff and everything. But at the same time, I was getting messages from people talking about how much it was helping them. And I didn't see that side of it. You know, I'm sitting here making funny videos about myself trying to get back in shape. And I have people that are genuinely reaching out and sending me these messages saying like, hey, you know, I know this is funny, but just so you know, you're really actually helping me to find the confidence to get back and go to the gym. You know, they see me taking my shirt off and

running around acting like an idiot and it helps them in their own way find confidence to go back to the gym.

And then you combine it with pickleball, right? Which is the weird cousin of tennis, you know? And so there's comedy in that as well. Pickleball gets clowned on so much, but I love it, you because the community is so amazing. I think you found that too, right? So you found pickleball as sort of a therapy mechanism for you, is that right?

Yeah, 100%. You know, it's actually funny because I learned pickleball in rehab. That's one of the shirts I sell my own merch that says, learned pickleball in rehab. And that's true, you know, because that's where I first learned it. And I had people that were there, know, guys that I met that became friends, some of the people that teach some of the classes there, they would come out and we would just play pickleball. And it was a way to socialize and to mingle again and to laugh again for the first time in a while. So.

Speaker 2 (22:01.954)
Pickleball for me has been very therapeutic in its own way and I think it's done that for a lot of people. Of course you have the downside to that where there are people, there are crowds in groups that take it too serious. And that's not what it's about. It's just really about having fun I think and that's what you don't get with tennis so much.

Yeah, yeah, pretty pretty snooty out there in the tennis world. And so I brought this up on another podcast and we talked to, I want to say Dink Doctor or something like that where, you know, pickleball is a therapy and maybe there's something for us down the road because I do think there is in the military world and I'm in law enforcement now and I think there's something there, right? That it is allowing you to connect to something bigger, to a community.

and people who will actually put their arms around you when you're having dark days and dark thoughts, right? So I've always thought about that, how I can get involved in bringing that to, because like faith, right? You don't see a ton of cops in the pews. And I wish there were more, I really do. But sometimes the job doesn't allow you to, and sometimes it's, you you had bad experiences or trauma at a church one time or another.

But I think that Pickleball is that community that really could help someone with their PTSD or their trauma they going through. So I'd love to be looking at something like that down the road.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's great. You talk about church and for me, I'd grown up going to church and when I really started, church is great. Church is someone like my brother who's a lot different than me, never struggled with any addiction issues, never struggled. He's really active in his church, he serves in his church, he does all this stuff in his church. And then someone like me that struggled with drug addiction, that struggled with all these things, struggled with PTSD issues from Afghanistan, struggled with a, it's like,

Speaker 2 (23:57.23)
man, I found real help, you know, it wasn't in a church, was at, you know, rehab, was with someone around me, it was in an AA meeting, it was someone around me that had been, you know, real life experience with drugs as well as me, you know, it was someone I could relate to, know, someone that, you know, they swore, they cussed, they talked like this, they did this, but they were talking about real stuff that really, you know, was of help to me, and I think there's people that need that too. So it's like,

Where can you reach these law enforcement officers? Where can you reach these people that were in the military? Where can you reach these drug addicts? know, maybe doing something like that, playing pickleball or somewhere out in the streets and we're out in public, out in real life, you know?

Yeah, we can take off that ego, take off that trauma, set it aside for a little bit and just be in the moment. And you look at Jesus and it tells you, numerous times, he didn't hang out with guys who are saved. He hung out with notorious sinners, right? The worst of the worst because he needed to reach those people. And I've always said, if I was gonna start a motorcycle club or a gang, it would be notorious sinners. think that...

I think that'd be awesome. there's gotta be, when they're listening to the podcast, there's a guy or a girl scrolling right now, listening to the podcast, watching your videos. What's the one thing you hope they hear between the flex and the algorithm and all that? What's the one message you wanna make sure you carry through?

Yeah, that we're all capable. We all have a purpose outside of our everyday job, our everyday life. We all have a purpose and we're all capable of fulfilling that purpose and being of service to other people. And I think a lot of people forget that. And I know for me, it was easy to forget. Struggling with addiction issues, struggling with these different things, you feel like, I've lost it all. I've got nothing. I've got nothing to live for. I've got nothing. And there's no hope for me. There's no...

Speaker 2 (25:49.87)
bright future ahead and that's just not the case, you know? I never would have imagined I'm doing what I do now and reaching the people that I'm able to reach now. You know, I could never have predicted that. I could have never have seen that. But if I'd have told myself, you know, and believed that that's never gonna happen or I'm never gonna be able to do anything like that, you know, then that's not a good way to live. You know, it gives you no motivation to continue on in life.

And so I think the thing is just to not give up, you you got to keep pushing. have to keep, you have to believe that there's more, that there are good things for you, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've gone, no matter what you've experienced, there is something good. There is something better than where you're at now. If you're not in a great place, you just have to do the work to kind of find that, you know, and you have to set everything else aside and just say, Hey, I'm going to focus on fulfilling my purpose. What does that look like?

What is my purpose? How do I figure out what my purpose is? Well, what are you passionate about? What really are you passionate about? Are you an artist? Are you passionate about music? What is it that you're passionate about? And then how can you use that to serve other people? I never thought comedy would be a way to be of service to other people until I started experiencing, I started doing comedy. I started making funny videos and then God showed me like, you're doing this, but

the real purpose is this, you know? Like, you're making people laugh, but here's these people messaging you that are really, you know, finding help from your videos. They're really, you know, you're changing their life in a way that you didn't foresee changing their life just from making a silly, funny little video. What's real purpose? No, I didn't run away from it. I embraced it whenever it started happening, but I would say that I didn't...

Did you kind of run away from that or?

Speaker 2 (27:41.57)
That wasn't the intent whenever I started this. I wasn't thinking, I'm gonna start making these funny videos with the intention of reaching people in order to be of service to them and help them. That honestly wasn't like my thought process whenever I started making funny videos. It just happened that way. And so I think definitely didn't run away from it more of like I discovered it, realized what was going on and then embraced.

I got you. So you didn't need to be swallowed by a whale and carried over to another country to figure out your purpose,

Yeah, maybe in my own way. Maybe the well was rehab for the fifth time, you know? Three months of rehab was my way.

Yeah, I could see that for sure.

Yeah, like let's get it done. Okay, let's let's be done with this We're gonna drop you here in Nineveh and you you guys start doing some good things. Yeah It's awesome. So I've seen you elbows with celebrities and everything like that. I'm sure you get recognized now You have tons of followers anybody you haven't met yet that you really want to meet

Speaker 2 (28:28.142)
That's right.

Speaker 2 (28:39.342)
Ooh, I would say Shane Gillis. I always have liked Shane Gillis. I love his comedy. I love what he's doing. I've had some people that I know that I've met him. So I'm thinking him or Joe Rogan maybe. Yeah, I would be cool.

Yeah, he's right in my neck of the woods. We're here in Texas. He's right down the road from me. Yeah. Hey, Joe, shout out if you want to have me on your podcast. I'm all about it.

Do it, do it.

So, you know, with all the fit to serve stuff and I mentioned you getting recognized, how was that set on you? know, because a long, long time ago in another galaxy, I had like a couple of videos on TikTok go viral, right? And so in the local community, I got noticed a couple times, but at your level now, I mean, you've got to be noticed everywhere. How is that kind of set on you? Is it overwhelming at times for you?

No, it's been great. I think for me, when it starts happening, it is like, like, whoa, this is different. This is new. This is interesting. You kind of never know. It started making me learn to be a little bit more aware, aware of what I'm talking about. I'm trying to be authentically me and everything, but I'm also trying not to be offensive to anyone at the same time. Because when you have a little bit of an audience, like those are things you kind of have to think about.

Speaker 2 (29:59.406)
And so it's definitely made me a little bit more aware, but it's something that I thoroughly enjoy. I love meeting people. I love when people come up and talk to me and say, hey, and, you know, share their experience with how or why they like my videos. This is cool. This happened the other day, actually. This might be one of the, yeah, I've had some cool interactions. had like Drew Brees tell me that he's a fan of mine, you know, one time at the Super Bowl, which was really cool.

But the other day, gosh, it was probably Thursday, I think this past Thursday, CMA Fest was going on here in Nashville. And that's a big weekend where, you know, really all week it's something going on and everybody comes in from out of town. All this stuff's going on. think President Trump even was talking about CMA Week on some video. So it's a big, big thing. outside my apartment, I noticed all these police officers, a SWAT truck.

you know, all this stuff and I'm like, something's got to be going on, man. Well, I walk out and as I'm walking out and then I do have a good amount of law enforcement and everything and firefighters that follow my page and love my content and everything. usually whenever I... Someone are coming there. Usually someone will say, hey, and so this SWAT guy was all decked out and all this gear comes up and...

firefighters are only following you for the most

Speaker 2 (31:23.246)
He's standing in the lobby of my apartment, because this is going on right outside my apartment, which is downtown in Nashville. And he comes up and says, hey, and says he loves my stuff. And I was like, oh, cool. So I walk outside. There's all these people standing out there. And then finally find out that vice president is in town. Oh, nice. And he's actually, the vice president's there. And Kid Rock opened a restaurant right across the street from my apartment. And it opened last week. So it just opened. So they're doing this little grand opening thing. And the vice president.

was doing Theo Vonn's podcast and they're recording it in Kid Rock's restaurant right across from park. This was going on. The vice president's out there. So we're standing there, you know, and there's a little small group of protesters and there's, you know, there's people all over the place. Well, there's Secret Service, you know, decked out wearing their suits. You know, I think one even had a vest on that said Secret Service and I'm standing there and I see the Secret Service people like pointing at me and talking, you know.

I'm not

Speaker 2 (32:20.782)
And I'm sitting there with another guy and I'm thinking, crap, what's going on here? What do they know? But one of them walks up, yeah. And he comes, he comes as close as he can. There was like a barrier that was keeping us back. And he's like, I just want to say, man, I love your content. This is secret service guy, know? And I was like, and I was like, he was like, let's take a selfie. Well, he turned around. was, he had to be like still like 15, 20 feet away as close as he could get. And he kind of walks out to the street. I think he was trying to do this without

Did you get a comment?

Speaker 2 (32:50.798)
saying anything because he didn't want people to not see him doing his job or something. But he was like, let's take a selfie. So I had to kind of like turn around from a distance with him in the background waving. It was pretty cool. I was like, dang, the Secret Service, this dude's like right there with the vice president every day. I wonder if the vice president, he's probably showing the vice president.

Well, how different would it

Speaker 3 (33:13.826)
So Evan, what's on the horizon with you? Any partnerships coming up or anything you can reveal to us that maybe people don't know yet?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of good things going on. know, the influencing piece is how I make a living. It's what I've been doing full time for about three years now, which is crazy to say, but it's been a lot of fun. You know, it allows me to do my comedy thing and make videos and then, you know, allows me to do that for a living. So I have a lot of fun with it, but it kind of been a little bit slow starting out this year, you know, with the new president and some changes and people talking about tariffs and all this kind of stuff. It just had slowed down a lot of work for everybody.

But now it's picking back up. we have a lot of cool things going on about five or six new deals starting this month. So that's good. Do a lot, you know, with the fitness space and clothing and everything. So of course I got Chubby's clothing that I'm still working with and Valer pickleball, you know, paddle company and everything, but we got some new ones coming. So bulkhead energy, I'm not going to be drinking this Red Bull anymore. I'm going be drinking bulkhead, veteran owned company. He actually.

has two companies, Bulkhead is the new energy drink company, which you'll be able to find on a lot of military bases. He's a former Marine, so there's a lot of Marine, I think they're in all the Marine bases right now, trying to get into the Army. PX's, I believe, is what's coming next, but he owns also Savage Tactician's clothing companies. So if you're familiar with Savage Tactician's, it's pretty sweet. I kind of think of it like the Chubbies of the veteran clothing space. I'm excited about that.

That'd be cool. So let's give out all your social handles so everybody can find you.

Speaker 2 (34:47.67)
Yeah. Yeah. So if you search fit to serve pretty much on any platform, I should pop up Instagram. It's fit to serve one. But if you search fit to serve, you'll still see me. Then of course, Tik Tok and Facebook's fit to serve as well. And I actually, I'm doing some stuff on YouTube and trying to grow the YouTube page. So some long form videos will be coming out soon. And that's a fit to serve as well.

Evan, thanks so much. Evan Slaughter being here with Fit to Serve. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule, Evan. Love the content you're putting out. Keep doing it. If there's stuff for us to do down the road, please hit us up and let us know. We'll be right there for you, my man.

Heck yeah, man, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (35:30.948)
CONDESTRO

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That's how theirs is born out of the same thing.

Exactly. So make sure you use big dink energy 10 for your code at paddlehand.com. That's singular hand.com to save 10 % and follow them at underscore paddle hands, plural, and bring the fun.

love it. I'm looking forward to those.

Speaker 1 (36:20.226)
So for Dink or Destroy today, we have unsolicited advice from open play people. So we're either going to dink it like, they're just trying to help, or we're going to destroy it like, hey, we didn't ask for a TED talk. So you just missed like a shot and suddenly like a guy with his sketchers on comes on over.

thumbs up, thumbs down.

Speaker 3 (36:43.731)
And he's... on New Balance next? Sorry, Skechers, we still want you as a sponsor, also you, New Balance.

was gonna ask that.

Speaker 1 (36:49.39)
And then they just give you like a full on coaching session like you didn't ask for. Are we like for that or are we are we thinking or are we destroying? Are we looking at their outfit first? Is that how we're going to determine whether this judgment?

they're wearing jeans shorts.

Speaker 3 (37:04.398)
is a judgment.

This is completely situational.

Are you in the fitness realm? Like you're fit looking.

Agree.

Speaker 1 (37:15.736)
I don't think that has anything to do with it.

No, mean, yeah, but I mean, I don't want some corpulent person out there either.

I've seen tons of people that are bigger boned. I'm bigger bone. I'm just saying that I don't think that has anything to do with it. I think it's how they approach it.

bigger bone. What are they, brontosaurus?

Speaker 4 (37:36.974)
Absolutely. That is what matters.

Because we almost everybody when I play open play that has is like, you know, scoot back a little bit or scoot forward. always do it with like a great attitude. And it's like a quick it's like just the tip. Like, if you did this or turn your paddle this way or, know, if you serve with it like this, it will help. But there has been probably a time or two where I'm like, STFU, like, like it just means hi, no, thank you.

I

Speaker 1 (38:09.518)
it at that at that that that at at that that that that

STFU.

So I'm totally, I'm looking at your outfit, I'm looking at you, I'm looking at, if I saw you playing already, you know, I mean, there's some people that are standing there watching us and I'd rather trust like a dog with one leg than this person with their Dollar Tree paddle, you know what I mean?

Sometimes I feel it's and I hate the word mansplained. Oh, I don't like that word, but I feel like it's like pickable, splayed. However you want to say that. Pickle splayed. Like there's a way of giving advice that doesn't make you sound like a D bag. A D bag. a D bag now. Okay. I'm like, don't be douchey about it.

Go ahead and say it.

Speaker 4 (38:58.126)
No, completely understand. feel like it's the energy that you give off. Right. Like if we're playing and you're my partner and you're just like, hey, scoot up. Hey, this is what you need to do. All right, cool. We're doing this, you know, and you have good energy throughout the thing. if you're like, you need to go over here, you need to do that.

If you hit

ball from the bottom it spin.

At that point, I'm hitting you with my paddle and I'm walking off the court. Like, just don't talk to me like that. Everybody has enough stress in their life. The last thing that they need is somebody that they just met, putting them down and speaking, like barking at them over something.

Or it's like, Hey, I'm a duper five. Do you want my advice? No, not if you approach me like that. Did you say do sure. Yeah. mean, I am all about learning. have learned so much from so many gracious people at open place that have just shared their knowledge in such a fun way. I, that is literally, that is literally how I have learned so much pickleball is just playing with other people and then being gracious with their, their knowledge.

Speaker 4 (39:36.52)
I don't- Did you say-

Speaker 4 (39:49.391)
Are they awesome people?

Speaker 1 (39:58.894)
And then I like to pass that on to people too, but I think it's just the way. So I'm a huge dink for unsolicited advice if it's done quick, casual, and with a cool vibe. If it's done in a douchey way that just, you know those people that just like to hear themselves talk and like, oh, look at me, you know?

Yeah, has a shirt all his Hawaiian shirt all open and he's wearing a pickleball pendant necklace.

Yes, that kind. That's pretty specific. Miami douche. Yeah. So are the people that get conferences that raise their hand and like just repeat. They repeat something into a question. much I know. Yeah. That I am a destroy. But other than that, I'm open minded to it.

This is to be heard.

Speaker 4 (40:40.12)
I feel the exact same. It's a complete dink for me if you're doing it with a good heart and you have good energy and you're just out there having fun and like, hey, like try this, this will help you. If your intentions are good, then that's gonna come through in your energy. If your intentions are just to be an asshole, then don't talk to me because I'm gonna match that energy and it's gonna turn out bad.

Yeah, I'm gonna, there's gonna be some eye ro-

Stephanie just turns and looks at me and gives me this look and I'm like, okay now I know I know something's happening and I need to just keep it up

out on that court. I'm not being pickle-splained too.

Right. Click explain. Ooh, there's a good one. Like it. Yep. There we go. I don't like Pickle Richard.

Speaker 1 (41:15.956)
Pickle Richard.

Yeah, so you're a dink. You're a dink in the right way. I'm also a dink if it's done in the right way. But if you're a d-bag, as we said out there trying to... Yeah, a dink bag. like that.

dink bag.

kinds of terms tonight.

like it. I was afraid to say douche. Now I've. So dink bag.

Speaker 4 (41:34.272)
Yeah, I don't know if we can say that. Well, we're saying it.

We said it twice.

Dinkbag and Pickle Richard and what else do you say? Pickle Splained. No more Pickle Splaining. No more Pickle Splaining. Didn't you already do

Speaker 3 (41:51.086)
Thank you much.

Get

Dink.

Speaker 1 (42:00.302)
News you can use.

from the live news desk pre-recorded podcasting.

You

All right, guys, so I wanted to share something that I read this weekend, and it is called Pick A Ball For A Purpose. And I don't know if you've heard of this football player, Gronkowski.

yeah, he's four-time Super Bowl champion, Rob Gronkowski.

Speaker 4 (42:29.92)
Yeah, he was joined on the court by former Patswide receiver Julian Edelman. Edelman, Am I saying that correctly? Rob Nikovitch. Nikovitch. Nikovitch. former safety Patrick Chung. Yep. As well as his brother Gordy Gronkowski Jr.

You are?

Speaker 3 (42:42.606)
hats.

fans.

Speaker 3 (42:50.388)
yeah, all the Gronkowskis, there's like four or five of them. They're all.

or heep

played three seasons in minor league baseball. So that's pretty awesome. So Gronk's foundation, Gronk Nation Foundation and the foundation, the Jimmy Fund came together and basically did a big fundraiser with this pickleball game. So they had different levels. So they had like different teams try to raise different amounts. The top, like the top couple tiers, like you got to play a game with Gronk and the other Pats players.

and you got to do a meet and greet with them and you got to do all of these great amazing things, but everything went towards the two foundations. So they had the two different foundations and the Jimmy Fund supports adults in pediatric cancer care and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. And then half of the funds that were raised by the Pickleball for a Purpose were used to build a playground in Boston. So this is high profile people.

That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (43:52.15)
with high profile foundations that they're using pickleball as a way to raise money for them. So I thought that that was really awesome. I thought that, you know, it's bringing pickleball into other sports, every community. It's like, okay, you've never heard of pickleball before. Do you want to meet Gronk? Donate some money and go play with him. Figure it out, you know?

their sports.

Speaker 4 (44:16.011)
It's not like your typical fundraisers. And what it looks like is going to be like an annual thing, which I'm kind of hoping it is because I feel like it's a great purpose.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I think it is an annual thing. think I read something about this. awesome. But yeah, and they raise a ton of money and they did that playground. And I love that celebrities are getting involved in pickleball, you know, because the money's there. I mean, there's there's a ton of money in this sport, but the celebrities bringing it to the forefront is what's going to propel us in this sport even further. So yeah.

I checked it was they raised $81,040. Wow. That's awesome. And I think that like their, I think their goal was 150 grand. Yeah, absolutely. And so they had a couple different tiers with their things so that you got, you know, photos, drinks, but the top ones got to go and actually play. That's cool. Pickleball with them.

You can still go give.

Speaker 3 (45:08.684)
Yeah. Hey, Gronk, come on the podcast. So how many pickles is too many pickles?

Yeah, we'd love to have you on.

All right.

Speaker 1 (45:16.236)
What, to eat?

This is some of your water cooler talk tomorrow at work. how about 11 pickles in a burger? Too many?

Two pickles, I could eat two pickles.

Like are they the whole pickles? Slices? Slices, No, that's a lot.

So Burger King's Pickleball Burger in honor of the Japan Pickleball Federation, Burger King unveiled the Pickleball Burger. Shout out to my niece, Reagan, over there. And 11 pickle sandwich between two specially made rice patties. You can get it for a limited time. You also have to get on a plane and go to Japan because it's the only place it is. Fast food franchise signed a sponsorship deal with the Japan Pickleball Federation.

Speaker 1 (45:32.532)
Japanese?

Speaker 1 (45:41.132)
Hey, Regan!

Speaker 3 (45:57.472)
the new partnership is stepping into the spotlight this June right now at the PJF Pickleball Japan Open and Sasebo Japan. Then rolling through Tokyo's Auriaki district for the Burger King Cup in August.

Yeah, I sent this to my niece. Yeah, I saw it and I was like go have this burger go get for us over there teaching English to first grade Japanese students So anytime I see stuff and when I saw that it was pickable and it was Japan I sent it immediately to her. think it's so cool. So I told her go eat one and take a picture

That sounds like a massive

Speaker 3 (46:34.422)
Yeah, absolutely. So we'll put that up on our Instagram when she does that. We might have to send her money to do that.

Plus or hard? Is it yen? Yeah. I got it right. Yeah.

feel like that's gonna be massive though.

Yeah, so it's three patties and 11 pickles. mean, that is...

It looks, it looked amazing. Did you see the photo? It looked really cool. So I'm game. They should bring it here. Rice paddies sound really cool.

Speaker 3 (47:00.674)
Yeah, better than those sesame seed buns.

For sure. Bring it to America. to America. Good lord.

I that right.

Speaker 3 (47:09.486)
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.