The XP League Revolution: How Local Entrepreneurs Are Transforming Youth Gaming Culture with Cheryl and Mark Chambers

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:36Hi there, and welcome to this episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I'm Bill Gilliland, your host. I'm also the principal partner in Action Coach Business Grove Partners and in the WNC, I'm sorry, the Icefield Business Summit. The website is WNCSummit.com. You're going to want to go out there now and get your tickets for September 23rd for the big Asheville Summit this year. It is going to be bigger and better than ever. We look forward to seeing you there. That's WNCSummit.com. Hey, today, I'm super excited. I've got Cheryl Chambers from the XP League as our business spotlight. Welcome to the podcast.

1:19Tell us what the heck XP League is. Sounds good. We get that a lot. Yes, so I'm Cheryl Chambers. My husband Mark and I opened XP League Asheville in August of 2023. And XP League is a youth league of esports for kids 7 to 17, which esports is another word that we usually need to define. It isn't necessarily just Madden or playing sports on a computer, but it's playing competitively games that are typically played on a computer. So for us, that means we bring kids into our center to play in person on coach-led competitive teams in games like Minecraft. Which most people are like, how do you play Minecraft competitively?

2:17But there is a format called Bed Wars where you can compete four versus four to get to the other team's island and destroy their beds. So it's a little version of Capture the Flag in the game of Minecraft. But we play that competitively. Fortnite, Trios, Apex Legends, Rocket League, Valorant, and Overwatch 2 are all titles that we play in XB League. And then we also have Marvel Rivals and a Roblox Club. And so the goal of all of these titles and what we do is to help kids use those games as a vehicle to learn traits that we all want them to learn, like teamwork, sportsmanship, having a positive attitude, having a growth mindset, which I'm sure you can relate to, that they can learn that it's okay to make a mistake, just learn from it and move on.

3:20But also some of the issues that Mark and I did not love about video games with our own kids and some of the problems that we were trying to solve, we could see that this league would help solve those problems like being isolated. so playing on a team and coming together into a community is one of our key values um but also some of the negativity where people um yell at each other in the game or like give each other a hard time and say negative things when their teammates mess up um and teaching them that they can use positive language with their peers and um and have a better more positive environment around them.

4:08So, um, trying to solve some of the problems that parents have found as their kids are playing video games. Um, one kid at a time right here in Western North Carolina. Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. Let me switch gears a little bit and ask you about business, some business questions. So you guys started the business. If you had to do it over again from square one, what would you do differently? That's a really interesting question. So we, XP League is a franchise that has 40 locations around the United States. The original founders started actually in the triangle area, research triangle area in 2020.

4:56And when we found it and saw how many of our own family problems that solved. We jumped on the train and I think one of our most successful things we've been able to do is when we work with schools, um, because I mean, that's where the kids are. Right. Um, and so I think one thing that we would have done sooner would be to, um, do more partnerships with like the PTO at a school or things like that. Cause we've done more of that this past school year and found it to be really successful. And we wish we'd have been doing it longer. So. Yeah. I love that. Definitely more time in schools. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's from a macro standpoint, it's like who are the strategic partners that you can work with?

5:50In your case, it's the schools or one of the strategic partners you could work with. So I think that that's, you know, getting involved in that earlier. That's an awesome thing to say. So what have been some of your learnings as an owner and an employer? As an owner, we actually learned things a lot faster than we anticipated. Right after we signed our agreement to open XP League Asheville, and that we signed that agreement in April 23. In May of 23, the lady who had already opened the Greenville location asked if we wanted to take over Greenville. And so we went from like, oh, we're just new owners.

6:34We're going to learn things as we do them. We took over her location with 40 members already at it and they were doing things several times a week. And so we had to jump in the deep end of a pool and learn right away payroll, the reminders to the families how to enroll a new student all those things happened like in the first week that we were owning instead of getting to learn all those things gradually along our process and so I mean probably one of the biggest things was learning the part about having employees in those things. We've done other side gigs and had other things that were our own responsibility, but neither one of us had ever had employees.

7:27And so learning all the things that come with onboarding and payroll and all those kinds of things was one of the first tricky processes that we had to figure out real quick. As far as like learnings as business owners, I think at the beginning, we were trying to use the community of other owners because it was a franchise, the customer already existed to find out like what were some of your best practices and what should we do that you've done? But we still threw a whole lot of spaghetti against the wall that didn't stick.

8:15And I think some of our learnings have been like, okay, what really works for us, either for our own personality or for the area where we are? Maybe things that other people did at other locations was great for them, but it didn't really work in Asheville. And so finding some of the things that have worked at schools in particular has been great for us. The other learning that we are getting is how effective the word of mouth is.

8:55and we love to give referral credit to people who send us somebody who ends up signing up as a member and some of our best customers have come from some of our best customers because of that loyalty factor and and they're just talking about how much their kid loves it so So then parents talk about what their kids love. And that's been some of our best growth. Yeah. Love that. I love that. So what are some common misconceptions about running a business?

9:33I think maybe how much time it takes is one. I don't know if people think that it takes a little bit. When we talked to the lady who had the Greenville location and kind of got an idea of how much time she was spending, we're like, oh, okay. And then that makes sense. But then since we took over hers and we're doing ours, initially there was a lot more that we thought than we thought that went into it.

10:17I think, also, I think there's a misconception around franchises in general, because we did have, you know, a business model laid out for us, and there were a lot of things for us to follow.

10:36But I think I misunderstood even about franchising and getting the word franchise and chain, maybe misconstrued because people think of like, oh, a chain restaurant and a big corporation and blah, blah, blah. But the one that's in your account is probably still owned by an individual, particularly if it's a franchise. And that individual still has their own family and their own bills. And they are running this business locally for their community as an individual. And so I think maybe some misconceptions around franchising and chains being like, oh, it's just this big corporation, but we consider our, you know, Asheville and Greenville just family owned and family run, even though we had a model behind us, because we're it.

11:27Like if you call the phone number on the website, like you get my cell phone. It's me. Right. Yeah, I agree with you. I think a lot of times franchises are that people don't understand that. And you do have, I mean, you have a model, you have a concept, you have a prototype that you're taking out. But the reason franchises work is because the prototype works. And so, yeah, and the idea is that you can have local ownership of a concept. It's a good one. So what do you attribute your growth to?

12:10I think part of our success has been finding something that parents need and filling that need.

12:27almost everybody has at least one of their kids that plays video games. And maybe if they have three kids, like one's really into soccer, one's really into baseball, but this one just loves Minecraft. And I don't know what to do with that. Like, I don't know how to help him, you know, get outside of his comfort zone and make new friends and everything. And so I think having that need that we can fill and helping families, I hope the part of our secret sauce is us because we really care so much about what we're doing. And we, I mean, we have our own kids. Our boys are 14 and 11. So when we started this, the birthdays hadn't happened yet.

13:10They were nine and 11 at the time that we started our journey. and um and we felt strongly about it because it mattered to our family and we were able to pass that passion on to other people so part of it has been um our passion for what we're doing and wanting to help other kids um and then like I said another part of the growth has been people sharing what they love with other people and then jumping on the train with us. Yeah, I mean, all I know is most of the kids I know play soccer, baseball and some sort of video games. I mean, it should be part of the package, I think. I mean, they're all the ones I know.

13:56I mean, my kids did or do probably still. So even though they're grown. So yeah, it's crazy. How do you balance the personal life with the demands of the business life? For us, we're partners in this business, but we're partners in life. We've been married almost 21 years now. Congratulations. Thank you. We decided to start to do this together. and at the beginning the balance part was pretty tricky like i don't know if we even did it very well yeah it was pretty consuming but we did fall into some rhythms where um at our actual location right now we we haven't had anything on tuesdays for a while and then we did have a season where We had things on Tuesdays, but our coaches covered it.

14:56And we just like, Tuesdays were always home and were always off. The kids didn't have a different activity. XB League wasn't open. So we weren't even going to get like a call that somebody was sick and needed a sub. So Tuesdays have always been our family night. Sunday afternoons and evenings are pretty relaxed at our house. and we try to keep those pretty sacred. And I think I heard somebody explain once that balance doesn't just mean equal time in equal places. It doesn't mean that you spend equal, but it does mean that when you say it's family time, it's 100 % family time. And when you say you're working, you're 100 % in on it and your focus is over here.

15:57And it also might mean that there are seasons that feel out of whack, but then you need to have a recovery from that back to the middle. And so I'm 100 % on board with that concept that balancing family and work doesn't necessarily mean it's always going to feel just like this. It might mean that it feels like this for a minute, but then like we come back to the middle. And we work really hard. An example this summer was our big XP League Nationals tournament. And our family was part of the team that was helping set up for it. So we went down to Florida and instead of being there for three days.

16:45We were there for eight. But the first day was a family day. I mean, actually a family that we visited and hung out and we had a fun day. Then we worked several days. Our kids were part of the work, which was kind of nice. They learned some new things by being part of the work. They got to be behind the scenes and all those kinds of things. And then we finished the tournament and we went to Epic Universe for a day. You know, it was a working vacation, but we all had a good time and the work got done and we played really hard at the end. Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. So, so BEPIC is a acronym.

17:24So I'm going to give you the, the, the, what the letters stand for. And you just give me a sentence or two, sort of a quick fire round on what you believe and how it applies. So the B stands for bring the energy. So what are your thoughts around that? I think the best way you bring your energy is when you do what you're passionate about. I love it. Love it. How about the E for education? Oh, school is never out for the pro. We always need to be learning something new. School is never out for the pro. Love that. I love that. How about P, planning?

18:03Planning. I think planning hard and planning in advance for the work and the fun is what makes that balance come out. Love it. Love it. Yeah, you really do have to plan vacations and book them and book days off and book date nights and book those sort of things. It just never happens. Yeah, it just doesn't happen. Plan the fun too. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. You'll get caught up. Yeah. If you don't plan it, you'll just work. Or at least some of us will. Yeah. I have to, you know, give myself things. So I is inspiration. Inspiration. I think it goes along with the passion. When you're inspired, it's easy for other people to catch the inspiration from you.

18:54So we're passionate about what we do, and we've actually helped a lot of other people become passionate about what we do. And I think that's kind of the root of inspiration is passing it along. Yeah, I think it is. I think you can catch inspiration. You know, like, yeah, it's good. C stands for commitment. Yeah. Wow, it does all fall in together. but commitment is I think more than just passion I think passion sometimes you feel it but commitment is the locked in piece of that you don't get to a workiversary you don't get to a wedding anniversary you don't get to any of those things without commitment and and commitment comes I mean commitment is what keeps you there even if you don't necessarily feel like it today and that's super important um that we don't just always follow our feelings or whatever but the commitment keeps you going um love it when our fadings feel yeah love it you got it you can have you can be passionate about something but if you don't put in the work you're not going to be successful so you've got to be committed to the whole thing i love that yeah so what words of advice would you give to other business owners who are looking to grow?

20:26If it's not coming to you at the moment, if the growth or whatever,

20:35stick with the commitment. And the feelings do follow. I think when you, like you started your business, obviously, I mean, hopefully, because you were passionate about it and because you were inspired by it yourself. I mean, you stay committed to it. Those feelings of passion and inspiration that you started with can help keep you going and will keep in line with your commitment. it's not all sunshines, roses, unicorns, all that in business ever. And in two years, we've been through some, some seasons where it feels trickier, it feels difficult. And then we get, you know, another Google review where somebody just raves about how their birthday party was their kid's favorite one ever.

21:32Or we get a message, a text message, like about these two kids who are playing together and they met in XP League and the parents are just so happy that XP League helped their kid find this friend that they're, you know, really connected to. And you still know like, okay, we're still in the right place. We're still doing what we're called to do. And it does help us renew our commitment to get those encouragements along the way. Yeah, no, I love that. Hey, and lastly, what's the best way for someone to get in touch with you? Oh, yes, to get in touch with us.

22:14We are XP League Asheville on Instagram and Facebook. And you're always welcome to call the business number. It's 828-761-0516.

22:29And when you go to xpleague.com and you can search for the Asheville location. So it's xpleague.com. Yep. And then search up your zip code. And, you know, for somebody who might hear this and they don't live in this area, you're obviously always welcome at XP League Asheville or Greenville. But there are locations all across the U.S., and we would love for people to get connected to the XP League where they live because part of the secret sauce really is getting to meet in person and make those real-life connections. Yeah, I love how – I mean, one of the things I've – I mean, I've known you guys the whole time, I think, pretty much.

23:10And one of the things I loved is you're taking an online experience and bringing it offline and making it wholesome in a way and healthy and taking all the knocks on gaming out of it. And I just love that. So thanks for what you're doing and really appreciate you being a part of our community and for all you're doing. And I know that this thing is going to continue to blow up and be a success. Thanks, Bill. I appreciate you having us on. Yeah. Hey, and until next time, all the best.

23:58Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

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