Pink Pickleball Raves & Christmas Traditions | Sydney Steinecker w/ Project P Events

We’re coming in hot with:
 🔹 Elf-on-the-shelf gets arrested
 🔹 Pink pickleball courts meet EDM and motor oil
 🔹 Holiday tradition: impersonate your own relatives

Plus, Sydney Steinecker from Project P Events joins us to talk quitting law for glow paddles and why pickleball needs more party and less prep school.

 🎧 Listen now before your court turns into a nightclub with parking spots.
 #BigDinkEnergy 

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Speaker 2 (00:00.408)
Pink courts, supercars, EDM raves, it's not exactly the country club vibe that most courts are going for. So what are you trying to prove?

I'm just trying to make thick law as unhinged as possible to be honest

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. She tied you to a kitchen chair. She broke your throne and cut your hair. And from your lips, she drew the hallelujah. Welcome to the Big Dink Energy podcast. I think it's the Christmas edition. Well, we'll say it is. Anyhow, if you're listening to this in the summer, sorry for you. Cold vibes. Listen, this episode is sponsored by the Pretty Pickleball Company. Listen, their Royal Collection and the Wretched Collection.

are officially at the lowest prices we've ever seen. That's not a lie. And if you've been eyeing them, now is your moment. Go, run, don't walk, don't delay. These paddles were built for women who play powerful but refuse to blend in. And I say, woman, that's whoa, man. It's T700 carbon fiber, original artwork, designs that show up and show out. No boring black paddles, no fading into the crowd, just confidence, color, and serious performance.

Speaker 2 (01:36.92)
Pretty Pickleball dropped a lineup that turns heads before you even take your first warmup dink. If you want gear that hits hard and looks good doing it, go check out them at the Pretty Pickleball Company. That's at the Pretty Pickleball Company for the full drop, the chaos in all the pretty coming your way. Because when you walk in the court with confidence, your paddle should match the energy.

And it sure does turn heads, I can tell you that.

yeah, you guys get tons of compliments on

So I was thinking for kitchen talk this week, since it is the tis the season. Tis the That we would talk about some Christmas traditions. Fun. That we do. And I'd love to know, you know, if our listeners have some Christmas traditions as well. So Paddle Princess, we'll start with you. What are some traditions you do for Christmas?

main thing is that we do like our presents and everything on Christmas Eve. don't do it Christmas Day. So Christmas Eve.

Speaker 2 (02:32.083)
Back for the baby Jesus.

Well, every Christmas Eve, my mom, it used to be my mom, my grandma, my sister, and myself, we would always go out and have a cocktail. And then we would come home and then my dad would take...

Drunkenly open presents.

It was just a time for us to get out of the house together before all of the chaos. And my dad would take the kids to go look at Christmas lights and Santa would come and then that's when we would open our presents. And before it used to be like a full formal event. Like you were in a full formal dress, full beat, full hair, everything. was glam to the nines. And then I got tired of that. And so we switched it up. So now we do pajamas.

And then on Christmas Day, we just do like a nice fancy dinner. That's when we dress up and we have like a goose or a ham or something along those lines. goose. Ours is a little different. heard that goose is have Christmas morning.

Speaker 3 (03:26.126)
Thanks

Speaker 3 (03:30.102)
If it's good for the goose, it's-

Great for the gander. You guys are German in your family. it Papa Noel? Is that the guy that comes to your house? Yes. Papa Noel. What about Belschnick? Does Belschnick come around and put stuff in the shoes and all?

That's interesting.

Speaker 4 (03:47.34)
We don't do that. We only had it a little bit when I was a kid, but I never transfer that tradition down to my kids.

I just think back now when I said those two, when you said goose and then I said Belchnick, I think back to the episode of the office where Dwight brings in a full goose and wants to prepare it. And then he dresses up as Belchnick. you have an assortment of houses, little houses. built a... Christmas village. you go. That's what I was going for.

Yes, my Christmas village.

So I have a tree that has three layers on it of all of my Christmas village pieces.

Built by the awesome husband,

Speaker 4 (04:34.222)
David built it. Shout out to him. At this point, I have run out of room. I have two more houses that don't fit on it. this... This upcoming year, David will be building a new one to accommodate more. So we'll see how far this collection grows. It's massive.

They're out in the country.

Speaker 2 (04:55.798)
Yeah, awesome. like that. Congratulations to you, David, for getting a project for Christmas. How nice that your wife does that for you, just keeps you going because you don't have a full-time job or anything. What do you got?

How nice.

Speaker 4 (05:08.75)
right?

Well, I know, like, for my sister and I, we go Black Friday shopping, but not really Black Friday shopping. I kind of talked about that on another episode. So we go out and mostly just have fun and shenanigans. judging. Yeah, we just do. And we always end up with, so many inside jokes, like so many. I don't even know what they mean half the time. But we started doing where we gave each other ornaments for the year that had to do with Black Friday. And so...

Kind of like how you're in general.

Love the ornaments that you give me that are have something to do with the year Yeah, like I was unpacking all of our ornaments this year and I was like, kids This is when this happened. So I got to share those stories with everyone as we were unpacking it. Yeah

That's like one of my favorite things to do is to give people ornaments that have to do with something that happened between us. So my sister and I have been doing this for years. And when we go and put up our ornaments on our tree, we pull them out and I'm like, I'm reading some of these inside jokes and they're from like 10 years ago. I love that. And I can't, I can't always remember what they mean. But this last time I just laughed so hard because there was one of them, because we ran into this guy at Bath and Body Works and

Speaker 3 (06:25.782)
something happened and he was like, I literally cannot. I love that. So that was one of the things and I just laughed. And so we have tons of, I wrote her a poem of like all of our stuff throughout the year and put it in this ornament. So that's just something we do. You know, it's fun and it's every year when we pull them out, just brings back more laughs, more memories and it's been fun.

We also at our house, we do the pajamas as the Christmas Eve gift. Every year the kids get pajamas. They're getting progressively bigger in larger size pajamas. Yeah. And so we do that, right? That's one of our traditions. don't open up, we're not savages. We don't open up gifts on Christmas Eve. Sorry. Other than the pajamas. We do have a family gathering. Yeah. The family comes over. But you do. We have a theme too.

organization.

Speaker 3 (07:13.016)
Yeah, so last year we started doing where we dressed, we dressed up as one of the other family members. We all drew names and that was hilarious. Like when I won, was so good. When everybody showed up, it was like on par. It was so awesome. And then this year we're doing emo Christmas. Get ready for those photos. I can't wait to see that. But Guy, you do something that you started three years ago that I think is really cool for the community.

emo Chris.

Speaker 2 (07:42.326)
Yeah, so out of my police office, for those of who don't know, I'm a cop still and I run an office. And what we started was Operation Bad Elf. Essentially it's for those parents who are just overwhelmed and cannot figure out what the heck to do with their elf on a shelf. So I give you at least one day of December for you to figure it out. And that's you drop it off at my office, there's a special elf drop box, you drop it off in the morning and then at night in the cop car with all the lights and everything, uniform.

I bring the elf back to the house, back to your kids. know. Yeah, yeah, little tiny handcuffs are in the back seat. I got a booking sheet that I fill out and give to you with a coloring page on the back. And it really, for me, it is really more for me than anything. I get so much out of it because it's this time of year when you start to see maybe the Christmas spirit waning. It's less and less. And especially for kids, because I think they get around other.

little handcuffs on it it's so cute

Speaker 2 (08:35.306)
a-hole kids, if you will, that tell them, Santa's not real. Why do you believe in that?

Yeah, and social media like TikTok.

And so at least for that one night, that one time, you're going have to wonder, how the heck did this cop that I've never seen before get my elf and know where I was and bring it back to me? So I mean, we've had kids as old as 15, 16 in there.

You had an adult once, too. Someone did on there.

It was weird, they invited me in, had to do a little dance and it was...

Speaker 4 (09:07.691)
I was like, ladies, put some coin on the loin. Put a tip on the hip. They're like, please put your clothes back on, sir.

my

My

Speaker 4 (09:18.104)
That is not why we called you here.

So yeah, I absolutely, I love that.

Yeah, OperationBadElf.com if you want to go look is his website.

That's really awesome.

for extra money operation back up dot com

Speaker 3 (09:30.154)
Yeah, so I thought that was a really neat tradition you started for the community and the kids have loved it each year We do you do you probably deliver last year you delivered over a hundred and eighty

Yeah, first year was 150. I don't know how many this year. And also if you see it on TikTok, they got it from me. I was the originator. And we do it for organizations, schools and stuff like that too, that want it.

Yes.

You were. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:53.806)
preschools and stuff. did it our preschool.

And most kids really enjoy it except for my son. When Guy pulled up to my house, my son freaked out and just started throwing his friend under the bus. And was like, Isaac did it! Isaac did it! And he ran down the hallway and hid. I was like, you've known Guy for eight years, but you're still... Okay, I don't know what's happening here. I know we need to figure that out.

Yeah, I mean

Speaker 2 (10:14.568)
Plus, I don't know what's Isaac up to. Isaac, you still okay, buddy?

Yeah, so what are some of your traditions for Christmas out there? If you have any, make sure you leave them in our YouTube comments or find us on TikTok or Instagram. Speaking of that, we got some fan mail, guys.

We have some fan mail. Lila Ditchin, Lila Ditchin on YouTube is a super fan. We love all her positive comments and engagement. Thank you, Lila, for getting inside there and commenting. We love that. We love to read that. It gives us the energy we need to keep on going. And it's free for now, so get it while you can. Also, I got to shout out Pickleball Nikki. Go find Pickleball Nikki on the social media side of things, on Insta.

She has some amazing things coming out that you will not want to miss that we're going to be a helper on. But you're going to want to keep an eye on her pages and go see that. So give her a follow. Pick a ball, Nikki out there.

just the two

Speaker 2 (11:13.752)
Just the tip is powered by Dink and Dash, the pickleball app built for people. Find Pickle Pals, keep your Dink diary, earn badges, follow at Dink underscore and underscore dash coming soon.

Just the tip, quick pickleball wisdom in and out before you know it. Today's tip is don't rush the firefight. When the pace picks up, keep your elbows close. Shorter swings give you faster hands.

Yeah, I'm managing a T-Rex with a paddle in his hand.

Speaker 2 (11:46.632)
It's time for Pickle Pals!

Speaker 2 (11:52.376)
Today's guest once called pickleball the Fisher price of racket sports and has built an entire media empire around making this sport cool. Isn't it already? She's the author of two books, hosted basic dink podcast. Go check that out. Not while you're doing this. Got a cease and desist from what we'll call big pickle and throws warehouse parties in LA with pink court, supercars and EDM raves. Started playing in 2020 with zero racket sports experience like all of us out here, normal people.

Went from beginner to touring the country by 2021, became content manager for some of the biggest in the league, now runs Project P events, making pickleball the hottest thing in LA. Why shouldn't it be? Currently, other than being a guest on our podcast, which is her biggest flex to date, her next biggest flex is that Sophie Rain follows her and she's on Little Tay's Close Friends story. If you don't know what I just said, go ask your kids. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Pickleball Barbie herself, Sydney Steinecker. First off, how?

Dare you call pickleball the Fisher Price of racquet sports?

Okay, first off, wait, hold up. Before we get into that, can you be my pitch guy for all my brand deals and everything moving forward? I just need to take this clip and I'm gonna just put that as top of my media kit moving forward, because you just hype me up.

Let's run it. Yep. It's a match made.

Speaker 1 (13:06.018)
I'm so obsessed. my gosh. Well, first off, thank you. Yeah, Fisher, pickleball is a Fisher price of rackets. I actually just came to me yesterday when I was caffeinated in petty and I was like, why are we getting so worked up over pickleball? Like I keep on like, because of the season, this is that happened recently. I'm like, we're getting worked up over plastic whiffable. Like, are you serious? Pickleball is so not serious in my opinion. Like I've always like.

gone to it because it's so much fun. it's just, it's a quirky sport. I mean, I'm quirky myself and yeah, mean, tennis is so serious. Padel is even so serious and then we're the partiers, you know, over here. it's like, it's like, honestly, it being the official price of rocket sports, like that's a flex.

I think so. I think so. That's what the vibes are all about, especially for me. I'm a solid 1.5 duper every single day. Duper has not come out with that score yet, but when you're ready, duper, you come hit me up. I'm there for you. Now these warehouse parties, right? This is making pickleball cool, which it already is. We know that. Pink court, super cars, EDM raves. It's not exactly the country club vibe that most courts are going for and facilities are going for. So what are you trying to prove here?

I'm just trying to make the law as unhinged as possible, to be honest. And here's the thing, I knew I always wanted to go into the pickleball event space after like parting ways with like the pro tours. And I was like, cause I've had like five years of knowledge of like throwing like events, do that space. And I don't know, I was like, I was, I was coaching out here in Los Angeles. I'm like, okay, I got to throw like pickleball events and people kept on telling me how to do it. But I was like, but I don't want to be just like every other pickleball. Those events, like what's going to make us stick out.

what's gonna make us different. I've always loved glow pickleball. like back in Austin, when I was living there last year, like I literally bought like a thousand dollars worth of like LED, like black lights. And I made my own like glow pickleball party for my friends. And I would just like randomly just like set them up. Didn't really work well in Austin because of all the bugs. they would all come to like the black lights. And then you would like have like hundreds of dead like flies on your.

Speaker 2 (15:12.248)
Kids and everything, yeah.

I was like, I feel so bad. I'm literally like hurting mother nature right now in the process. Like this is so not like eco-friendly. So didn't do that again. But then out here in LA, I was at actually Jamie Foxx's like glow party that he had. Like, wait, that sounded really unrelatable. I'm so sorry. Wait, no.

That's a little whiplash, but we're there, we're there.

I was at his glow party and then I met these glow people there, his vendors that he used and they were like, oh my gosh, we follow you on social media. Like we just totally do a glow party. And I was like, oh my gosh, like that would be so sick. Like let's do it. But then I was like, okay, everyone does glow pickleball. So like, how do we up this a little bit? I saw this group out in LA, they're called Loomiverse. They're in downtown LA. They have this downtown LA warehouse that is like pink rollout pickleball courts that they bought off Amazon. And I saw like one day on social media that they posted about like,

them bringing their cars in, because they're all car guys, and they're parking them on the pickleball courts, and they're like doing donuts on the pickleball courts. Which is like, I will say like, it looks so cool, but also it like, you were true, because the thing is like, they're still learning about pickleball, and I'm like, you know, you really can't be doing like donuts, like on the pickleball courts. And I remember the first time I went in there, they were like wiping oil off the courts. Like for sure. And I was like, okay, we gotta fix this.

Speaker 2 (16:11.635)
my gosh.

Speaker 1 (16:34.482)
Anyway, they like one day were like, hey, like we still party together. And I was like, yo, I've always wanted to throw a project X style pickleball party. Like not just like so unhinged, so for the plot, like one where there's no rules, no one to tell you what to do. Cause that's one thing I've always struggled with like in pickleball is like the restrictions, the rules of like people saying, you're too loud. you can't like, you can't do this. You can't do that. Like, and I was like,

No, we're gonna have a night where there's no rules. We're just gonna party full-time by the plot. So I just posted on IG, I'm like, yo, throwing a party in downtown LA at Lime Reverse, gonna be like Project X inspired, Project P. And I was like, I'm invited basically, I went out. think I had like 500 people RSVP, which is crazy. Wow. A lot of people started reaching out and they're like, like day out and they're like, hey, we're a little worried that this is gonna get too rowdy for us. And I was like, respect that, I respect that. mean, downtown LA, will say, is not the safest area.

No, no, not any

Especially this area that where this event was at it's it's gonna be really like you walk outside and like you'll see like some really gnarly stuff I will say yeah So anyway, we did have a pretty good turnout. I had about like 150 people overall, which isn't terrible And yeah, I mean I think is I was like bummed because I was like damn I really wanted to throw the biggest party in make wall history. Yeah, the day reached out about it and everything and

yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:56.014)
I don't know, was was a little bummed at the end of the night, like I was just like, damn, it's like I could have been so much bigger, but it is what it is and.

think you're gonna do it. I think you're gonna do it. No doubt, no doubt. And you're saving Pickleball from itself, because it's so, I hate to use the word stodgy, but some of it is where it's hoity-toity, it's people just showing up in their proper gear and doing the proper things. And we gotta break that mold. If we want this thing to grow, and it is, but there's gotta be that side of it. I mean, that's why people graduate to the MLP versus PPA. I wanna see people in the stands with...

riding pickleball on their naked chest and beer hats and all that.

That's where we come in with Project P. It's like we are the most unserious like pick-a-ball company like there is like especially when it comes to events. Like we're really trying to prove we aren't tennis. We're trying because the thing is one thing I learned when we were like working for like the Pro Tours was yeah, we became everything that tennis did they wanted to copy and every like that was our marketing was like this channel does this we do this they do this at Wimbledon we do this and it's like why are we trying so hard?

to be like a sport that literally hates us. Like tennis players hate pickleballers at the end of the day. Like even though we have a lot of like tennis converts like coming over to pickleball, most they are trying to move away from tennis because they don't like the tennis culture. And by us trying to chase that, like it's, we're losing our appeal and we are, if we differentiate ourselves from tennis and show that we aren't them, we're probably gonna get them to like us a lot more.

Speaker 2 (19:27.042)
Yeah, I think so.

I think pickleball is something that you can make it whatever you want it to be. Most of the people that I've met out here in Los Angeles that do play, like they just want to have fun and they just want, they don't even know pro pickleball exists. most of the people I coach are actually like, they're all in the entertainment industry and most of them have no idea like pro pickleball is a thing. Like when they think pro pickleball, like they even think like I'm like the Annalee of like LA. Like, cause they're like, oh, you're so pickleball. And they just think like someone like,

Matt Menasse, they're that's like their Ben Johns out here in Los Angeles. They don't really have a reference point, cause like they don't care to watch Pro Pickleball on TV.

It's gotta be fun. It's gotta be, you know, people, it's kinda, I like to think of it, it could be like the Adam Sandler golf movie, you know, Happy, or Happy Gilmore, Happy Gilmore, yeah. Where, you know, we're doing the horse dance with our paddles around the court and stuff like that, you know. It's just gotta be a lot more fun. People are gonna pick it up when it's more fun. So you got, we're not gonna talk too much about it, but it's awesome that you got a cease and desist from what we call Big Pickle.

And I like to think of a Godfather kind of scenario when I'm thinking about that. But you famously said already that doesn't give you street credit in LA because that's almost like nothing.

Speaker 1 (20:44.3)
Unless you get one from like the big studios or like that's, even then they're like, it's not even a flat. It's just like, it's one of those things that they're like, why would someone in like, if you're trying to grow something, they're like, why are you trying to like prevent people from speaking about it or posting about it or using their content? They're like, they should be giving that out to everyone for free. If they're trying to get their name out there, like they need to like have everyone like be posting about it. They should be like,

here you go, like here's all these free clips for you to use. But the thing is, I'm not doing that because they're just trying to control all of it. which is, mean, if I want to do that, be it. But like the problem is it's at the expense of the creator or people that have helped them in the past. And that's like the reason why I even spoke up against it. And like when I did was because these are people that we all like helped them grow. And if anything, it's getting more eyeballs on the sport. We all have like,

people that recognize us and they love our content. And they like the fact that they're trying to prevent like creators from being able to grow like the sports and like, I don't know, it's just that for me, I just can't grasp that logic. just because like I was the one that created the influencer program for like Big Pickle. And I kept on telling creators like the whole time, like my, when I was working with creators and every time I would pitch like ambassador program, my thing, well how I wanted to,

what I envisioned for it was I didn't want to give him a script. I didn't want to say like, hey, this is what you have to say. Because I know as a creator myself, when I receive a script from any brand or something saying, hey, this is what you have to say, I immediately lose interest. Yeah, you lose that authenticity and you really want people to reflect what their experience was. You want people to talk about, my gosh, this is like what happened, this is why I had fun.

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (22:34.494)
And there were some creators that they did such an amazing job and they're like, thank you for like letting us just kind of like speak the way we wanted to and we're so grateful for this. Then things like this started happening with Chris Kelly. I don't know, I was so upset by that.

Yeah, I saw you come out in support of him and that was fantastic. Absolutely the right thing to do for sure. Yeah. Now I got to talk about your trajectory because I don't think this is in any life planning for anybody, but so a state planning law, information security analyst, then pickleball influencer. That's the trajectory I don't think is broadcast anywhere. So when did you realize like I'm going all in on pickleball?

Actually, it was when I got called into HR for my loss. I was an information security analyst, I will say. It was at a time when I, cause I, when I like was doing that, I was also like on the road. was dating someone like in the pro space and I'd be traveling with him and I was still working remotely as an information security analyst and also growing my social media following on the side by making my funny TikToks. And like the HR kind of pulled me in one day and they're like, and the thing is like, they always knew I was pickleball obsessed and everything, but they're like,

They're like, we could see like you are like so in love with this pickleball thing. And, but the thing is, they're like, you like, cause I mean, it wasn't a typical like eight to five job. Like there was times that like I had to stay a little bit later for work and it was like, well like I can't because I'm playing like in a tournament or I was signed up for singles on this like, and or something like that. So it kind of started interfering with work a little bit and they're like, you kind of have to make a decision. It's like, do you want to pursue pickleball? Do you want that to be your full-time thing or do you want

this to be a full-time thing. I really had to think about it. yeah, ultimately, like, it had to be Pickleball. Like, just, my heart was telling me Pickleball, even though there was so much uncertainty in it.

Speaker 2 (24:24.396)
Yeah, so you kind of have to do it, you had to do it scared, right?

A little bit, yeah. And that's kind of like with everything that I've done out actually in the pickleball space. It's always been, there's never been like a planning for it. It's always just kind of been like in the moment, okay, how do we pivot from here? And I've always been like, I wish I could be more like planning for things, but I tend to be more like your reaction type of person where it's like, okay, this is something happens. Okay, how do we react? How do we like pivot? So that's where, so I pivoted, went straight into pickleball.

And yeah, it's actually one thing I don't really talk about. used to work for Minor League Pickleball. Yeah, Minor League Pickleball was like how I got my big break. And then that was under Duper. I remember that's when we went under Duper. And then when we went under Duper, then they started like cutting stuff and everything after that. then Brooks Wiley from MLP Major League Pickleball was like, hey, do you want to work? He asked me, he invited me out to, was MLP Daytona.

I'm out.

Speaker 1 (25:19.864)
And he said, hey, do you wanna do blogging at MLP Daytona? Cause he knew I had written two pickleball books. And he was like, hey, like you love writing. I love your writing style. He's like, do wanna do blogging, like live blogging about matches? Like you know what's happening. And this is back when MLP had like those big budgets where four courts going at once. And I would go and I would blog about what was happening during the matches. And it would be like my hot take. And it would be on the MLP website.

And I loved it so much. Like I would just sit there, courtside and just like write about like Pickwall and like what was happening. That's awesome. Yeah. And then they invited me out the next month to MLP St. Clemente. Then they invited me back out to the draft. And I was a contractor this whole time. And then after like, I was like a three month trial period, they were like, hey, you want a job at MLP? And I was like, yes. And like so grateful. I definitely had to like,

to them what I was capable of. they, I mean, I was still working like a full-time employee in those three months. it was, yeah, it was one of those things. Like you really had to show your loyalty to working to the organization. And because when they saw me, like they're like social media creator, some, like they didn't really understand, like can understand the dots. Cause these were at the time, like everyone who was being recruited for Major League Pickleball, these were all people coming from like Major League Baseball. these were-

coming from these huge organizations. Everyone had their huge roster of their great resume. And then there was Lil' Ol' Me. And then they're like, wow, she actually is an asset. She's that relatable pickleball player that's... Yeah, kidding. Because a lot of them didn't even play pickleball. They just had knowledge of the sports world. because just having knowledge of how the pickleball world works is such an asset in this space.

And I've come to realize that with even like facilities popping up all over the country, they like reach out to me, they're like, hey, we're thinking about doing this. And I'm like, wow. I was like, I really should be doing consulting for all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (27:20.386)
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. So I saw a recent video. Are you a Potterhead?

I am. What is the brand deal? I have a very efficient media as a creator. that's like, honestly, when they like slid into my DMs, I thought it was a joke. When Harry Potter was in DMs, I was like, there's no way. I thought that this was just like, I'm like, there's no way. And I went to my, remember I was at home, I was like visiting my mom and I like went to a room screaming because I was like, mom.

When

Speaker 1 (27:51.714)
Harry Potter is in my DMs. want me to post for them. I was so honored. literally, I was like, they asked me for my rates and everything and I sent them over and I was like, I was like low-balling them. was like, I just like, I don't care. I just want to have this on my page. And I was just, yeah, it was a blessing and it was an honor to be able to do it. And yeah, I'm actually still talking to them, so.

That's awesome. So if you all know what I'm talking about, go over to her Instagram, Sydney's Instagram, see exactly what I'm talking about. So I'll give you 50 points to Gryffindor right there just for that.

I'm a hippo pathology.

I'm so well, so sorry to hear that. At least you didn't say Slytherin,

No, it's still so-

Speaker 1 (28:36.3)
I do have Slytherin tendencies.

Well, I'm just I'm so glad pickleball is getting into that space because so many of the colleges were doing quidditch games as a sport and I was like, okay, I can kind of see it. But let's let's step it up a little bit with some pickleball. Yeah.

I will say though, if anyone does want to do a Harry Potter tournament or something like that, please be careful with trademarks, licensing, all the things. They are so strict about that stuff. even like me, like I can even use their music, like the Harry Potter music in my video, because that's like a whole other licensing issue. So make sure if you are going to do any Harry Potter tournaments like or anything, just make sure it's inspired.

These where things start. So let's look five years into the future, right? What is Sydney doing? What is the Pickleball Barbie doing? Is she still throwing warehouse parties with pink courts or you moved on to something even crazier and bigger?

So I know the car pillar is kind of confusing for most people. Part of Project P, that's like, we have three pillars, Pickleball, cars, EDM. The car thing is really what I'm trying to focus on right now. One thing I don't really talk about is that my dad was a huge car guy and I lost him. We're coming up on the three year anniversary, four year anniversary this year. basically adding that car element to Project P is kind of like my

Speaker 1 (29:56.366)
like owed to him in a way. It's like my way to I love that. We used to go to NHRA drag races growing up. And I like remember one time when I was like, I think I was like five or six years old. I put together a PowerPoint presentation as to why I should be allowed to drag race. And I remember going down to the dinner table and I had this like little laptop and I sat down at the table and I was like, father, I'm going to be a drag racer. And he's like, you will not, but I'll hopefully take you to the drag races.

which he did, and he just kind of made that like our annual thing. And he always like loves like sports cars. I remember, like he always was all about like, he was a finance guy. So he was loved like trading in his cars. I remember one time I spilled Dairy Queen all over his Porsche. He was very angry about no. no. Things like that. But anyway, so yeah, I mean, I feel like I grew up at car dealerships. We were going like literally every weekend.

and that was always something I was surrounded by. So yeah, it's my way to like connect with him. ultimately, like I really want to partner with NHRA, National Hot Rod Association. I want to partner with NHRA. I still, I'm thinking about F1. At first I thought F1 is a goal, but the more I see F1 culture, I don't know if that necessarily aligns with pickleball, like ultimately. Like I know that's like Pickler has done their F1 activations in Austin and everything. Miami Pickleball Club, think does something for Miami.

I don't think the two mesh well right now.

I think it's more of a a NASCAR right I want to see some beer bellies and some butt cracks right

Speaker 1 (31:27.95)
I was saying like I literally was telling my mom the other night I was like why I'm like we should go for NASCAR like let's do it like let's try and make this a thing at NASCAR events where I'm like heck yeah my brother was a huge Jeff Gordon like fan when he was little kid so I'm like yeah let's go back to NASCAR like honestly like Tell a Daga Nights like I quote that movie like all the Yes. I'm like that's so on brand for like me and like also just like yeah I'm like also for Pickleball I mean what's more American than NASCAR and Pickleball?

Yeah, I don't know what do with my hands. So how do people get in touch with you? How do people find you? How do they follow all your content? You got the podcast going on. We didn't even get to talk about that, but how do people, where are people finding the Pickleball Barbie?

I'm gonna...

Speaker 1 (32:11.448)
So my handle is Sydney Stennacher across all platforms. So just my first and last name across Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. Like it's, that's my handle. And then if you want to follow Project P, it's Project P events across all platforms. And you can get connected with all the emails are in the bio. If you want to get in contact with me, just email the email in the bio and yeah, we'll see if it's a good fit. I will say right now I am Sands Paddle sponsor. That's a recent development.

Get out there, paddle sponsors.

There is a company that is interested in cars pickable on EDM. like, I mean, I can't really be that problematic if I'm getting Harry Potter brand deals. I just want to throw that out there. Yeah. Yeah. I keep on like, that's why I'm like, why are paddle companies like, whoa, we don't want to work with her. It's just like, I'm like, I'm still getting just as many brand deals from like big corporations that still think I'm totally fine to work with. Like if they're okay with it, you should be okay with it. Granted, I mean, I like definitely like to talk on social media, so you'd be okay with that. like, hey, I will never be.

like poorly about sponsors, so.

Well, Sydney, thanks so much for spending time with us on the Big Dink Energy podcast. Love everything you're doing. I know we're gonna be connected for a while. You all that are listening, go follow all of her social media right now. Thanks again, Sydney, for being on.

Speaker 1 (33:25.87)
appreciate you. Bye everyone.

Speaker 2 (33:34.882)
Dink Destroy is sponsored by Dink Rich. Pickleball brand not converting. It's your messaging. Get it fixed in 48 hours. DMrescue at dink underscore rich. That's DMrescue at dink underscore rich. Now Dink It Destroy is that thing that we go thumbs up on, dink it over the net. It's for us or thumbs down destroy, not for us. This is, what is this? Rapid Fire Kitchen.

is rapid fire Christmas edition. play along with us in your car or while you're folding laundry or yelling at your kids or whatever you're doing right now. So are you ready? Okay, number one, matching Christmas pajamas. Dink. Dink. Dink. Ooh. Yeah. All right, number two, elf on the shelf. Destroy. Dink. You're at destroy?

Ready.

Speaker 2 (34:21.262)
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (34:26.036)
From a parent point of view yeah, it was the best when our son found out because then he could keep it going for our daughter

Yes.

Speaker 4 (34:32.462)
I I was just horrible at it and then I would forget for like three days and the kids would be like, the elf hasn't moved.

Then you had to make up some lie. It's because you've been bad.

Santa was sick. Santa had to go.

He is the whole thing. I hated it.

Okay, number three, White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Speaker 2 (34:49.474)
Yankee swap? I'd go dink on that.

Dink.

I'm a dink like Michael Scott, I'll bring an iPod. We sure talk about the office a lot. Okay, number four. I already know where this is headed. Christmas chacutery boards shaped like trees.

You're welcome, Harmony.

Speaker 2 (35:08.568)
Dink. Don't care. Dink.

Definitely a dink. And Paddle Princess, she makes some good dink.

She is a shark coochie master.

The shark koojee master for sure. The one you made with the little bread and all that, that was really.

my gosh, That's the only reason we invite her.

Speaker 3 (35:25.422)
Well, you know from couple past episodes He does have a lot so go check out her lunchable chacouterie episode. Okay, so number five holiday sugar cookies Dink I love sugar cookies

She does have a lot to make up.

Speaker 4 (35:38.702)
Destroy.

You talking the Walmart ones that have that they're half baked and have the frosting on them? good too. Are those, but those aren't sugar cookies. It's cookies. dink then. Yeah. For sure.

Yeah, those are sugar cookies. But I like, I love sugar cookies and decorating them.

the act of decorating eating? No.

No. wow. Okay. That's a surprise to me. Okay, number six. All I want for Christmas is you on repeat.

Speaker 4 (36:05.698)
Dink.

Mariah Carey? Yes. No. Destroy.

It's a dink for me because that's how like my Spotify playlist, that's the first song. Same. And when I say, play Christmas music. If it doesn't start with that song, the kids are like, that's the wrong playlist. Because every year that's the, that's the very first song.

They know now.

I think it's still like she makes 500 million a year.

Speaker 4 (36:28.556)
It gets me in the spirit.

one time a year, five million dollars.

Hey. OK, number seven, ugly sweater parties. Think your. Your ugly sweater is really good with like it looks like he has bare chest. How funny that was a good one. OK, number eight fruitcake. Destroy. No. If I want cake, I want like without fruit like I want chocolate.

And I will dance.

Speaker 4 (36:38.082)
Ding.

Dink. I usually win.

Speaker 4 (36:45.676)
Here each has.

Speaker 4 (36:51.682)
Destroy.

Speaker 2 (36:55.212)
Don't be bringing your fruitcake around.

Speaker 4 (37:00.721)
Good cake.

If you mean chocolate chips as fruit, yes.

Number nine, secret Santa at work.

Bink.

Yeah, I think it's Christmas spirit. think it's dink. With spending limits. Spending limits.

Speaker 3 (37:10.999)
I think it's a Christmas tree.

Yeah, I agree. Cause I mean, you don't want some people to feel obligated. Right. know, but it's like, it's a, think it does get people in spirit. And I think if you, especially if you do it like, where you draw names or whatever, sometimes people get people they're not quite familiar with and they have to learn a little bit about them. So. All right. And number 10 outdoor Christmas lights starting in November. I would put them up in October.

That's what I like.

Speaker 2 (37:38.114)
Yep, dink. Absolutely. That's why we're doing permanent lights, because I'm going to be the first in the neighborhood.

Ha

Speaker 3 (37:49.486)
You

can use

Speaker 3 (37:57.902)
So I learned this from Marlena on TikTok at Pickleball Marina. I love her name because it's like the last of her name with Pickleball. So it's kind of like ballerina. go find her on Pickleball or for her pickleball tips. She does a lot of pickleball tips. So she posted this video about she was at a tournament and she said that the refs were checking for core crushing.

And I was like, I don't know what that is. So she had explained it. Yeah. So core crushing is when the inside of your paddle collapses. So the core loses stiffness. The ball stops popping off the face and you start feeling those like dead spots. So it can happen because of poor manufacturing or just like normal wear and tear. But here's a couple of ways that you can see if you have core crush.

You can check me for stiffness.

I'm gonna check you. The tap test. The tap test, so dull or hollow sound. The bounce test, dead zones where the ball barely rebounds on your paddle. And the press test, you feel the paddle give in the center. I know. Core crushing won't launch a ball like delamination, like it won't. Delamination. Yeah, delamination. What did I say?

Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2 (39:05.134)
You usually have to pay extra for all those.

Speaker 2 (39:14.584)
Yeah, delimitation. No. Your paddle face coming off.

Yeah, but it absolutely like kills the performance. destroy. Anyways, if your paddle's losing power, feeling mushy or developing dead spots, the core is probably crushed. Crushed. And it's time for a new one.

The Grinch,

Speaker 2 (39:33.102)
What happened with those wooden paddles? saying. 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.