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Podcast Notes: The Determined Society with Shawn French - Episode: Built on Grit: The Picklr Empire
Episode Overview In this episode, Shawn French interviews Jorge Barragan, co-founder of The Picklr, a rapidly growing pickleball franchise. Jorge shares his inspiring journey from unemployment to the creation of a successful business, emphasizing themes of determination, resilience, and the importance of following one’s passion.
Key Details
- Podcast Title: The Determined Society
- Episode Title: Built on Grit: The Picklr Empire
- Guest: Jorge Barragan
- Host: Shawn French
- Main Topic: The rise of The Picklr and Jorge's entrepreneurial journey.
Key Themes and Concepts
Transition from Employment to Entrepreneurship
- Jorge was laid off from his job while facing significant personal responsibilities (five kids and a mortgage).
- Instead of retreating, he pursued a vision for The Picklr, identifying a gap in the growing pickleball market.
The Growth of The Picklr
- Fast Expansion: The Picklr has rapidly grown to over 500 locations sold and plans for its 50th location opening.
- Market Insight: Jorge recognized the potential of pickleball early on, particularly among millennials, and adapted the sport for a broader audience.
Foundational Principles of Success
- Obsession Over Balance: Jorge emphasizes that true founders are driven by obsession rather than a conventional work-life balance.
- This obsession is crucial for creativity and innovation.
- Partnership and Trust: Jorge’s partnership with Austin was pivotal; their mutual trust and willingness to take risks together propelled their success.
Challenges and Resilience
- Jorge discusses the tough lessons learned during the entrepreneurial journey, including financial struggles and the effort required to maintain presence as a father.
- He highlights the importance of resilience and the need to adapt through challenging times.
Celebrity Influence and Expansion
- Jorge's partnership with Drew Brees serves as a strategic move for brand recognition and credibility.
- The discussion touches on The Picklr's plans for global expansion, emphasizing its potential to become a significant player in the sports franchise market.
Key Takeaways
- Defining Determination: Determination is about doing what others won’t, stepping outside comfort zones, and maintaining a relentless pursuit of goals.
- Self-Care and Leadership: Personal health and well-being are essential for effectively leading a business and supporting others.
- Courage to Follow Passion: Pursuing one's passion, even in the face of uncertainty, can lead to unexpected opportunities and success.
Quotes
- "You just have to be able to do things that people aren't willing to do in order to be special, in order to be great."
- "There’s no such thing as work-life balance; you just have to prioritize what’s most important at that time."
Conclusion Jorge Barragan's story is a testament to resilience, passion, and the pursuit of one's vision against all odds. His journey with The Picklr showcases the importance of taking risks and believing in oneself, inspiring entrepreneurs to embrace their journeys with determination.
For more insights and inspiration, visit The Picklr and follow Jorge on his entrepreneurial adventure.
Links
- [The Picklr Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jorgebarragan23/)
- [Shawn French’s Profile](https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA)
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This summary captures the essence of the podcast episode while highlighting the key discussions, lessons, and insights shared between Shawn French and Jorge Barragan.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Jorge Barragan:Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you.
0:18Shawn French:So did you hear about Dave?
0:19Jorge Barragan:Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you.
0:22Shawn French:Mmm.
0:23Jorge Barragan:So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. You have this concept, like for me, it was my show. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I could turn this into something out of thin air. It was an absolute obsession to a point where my wife at times would be like, can we talk about anything other than the business, anything other than the show? I'm like, I could be sitting there with my family and my children looking present as day, but in the back of my mind, I'm always running through scenarios. You know, sometimes I disappear to the bathroom real quick and put that in my notes and then I can move on from it.
0:58Jorge Barragan:But it was an obsession for me And it still is.
1:00Shawn French:There's no such thing as work-life balance. You just have to prioritize what's most important at that time. And if it's sometimes, to your point, is go to the bathroom for five minutes just to jot it down, maybe at that point, that's the most important. If I have 30 minutes to watch a show with my wife, I got to make that the priority. And that's the most important, right? We have to allow ourselves to be obsessed with something because that's when true creativity happens.
1:26Jorge Barragan:All right, everybody. I'm here with my boy, Jorge Berrigan. And this guy, man, let me tell you something. We'll talk about somebody who took a chance on himself and took a chance to build something successful, regardless of all the excuses he may have had. Five kids at the time, a mortgage. He decided to bet on himself. And so for those of you listening and watching, I want your eyes and ears wide open on this one because you are going to find some things that are going to help you propel to that next level of you, the next level of success and things that you want to create. So Jorge, man, welcome to the show, buddy.
2:00Shawn French:Thanks for having me, Sean. And I'm glad you went with Jorge. Everyone knows it's George or Jorge. I'm like, you'll know when it's Jorge, you'll know when it's George. You get to decide.
2:11Jorge Barragan:Hey, man, listen, you know what? It was a gamble. I figured why not, dude? You know, because every time I say, hey, is it George or Jorge? And they're like, I don't know, man. And like, whatever one you want, I'm like, no, which one you prefer. But I, you know what? I went with it this time. So I'm really, I'm really, I'm really excited to have you on the show. You know, the Pickler, you know, for those of you that don't know, it's an indoor pickleball facility. They do multiple things there for entrepreneurs, for team building. You get lessons there. You can get conditioning done there. You can go inside and play this amazing game that's taken America by storm.
2:46Jorge Barragan:But the thing that I found very interesting was the fact that you didn't come in on the tail end when it was popular. You saw a need by going to your own rec center. So let's walk the audience through your origin story so they can fully understand and then we can build from there.
3:04Shawn French:Yeah. Look, I think there's a lot to be said when people say sometimes as an entrepreneur you get lucky. And I think for me, I do feel very lucky that I found a game very early on. I always tell people I hate telling people how long I've been playing pickleball because I should be better than I am. But I started playing in 2015. Like 2015, when you tell people that you're, I mean, back then, if you told someone you played pickleball, you got made fun of. It's like it's a sport for my old people, right? Like it was a sport that was being played at retirement centers. But, you know, I was introduced to this game.
3:42Shawn French:we were lucky enough to have eight beautiful courts in Farmington, Utah. And I was working at a tech company at the time where a lot of us, you know, it was a tech company that was thriving. And to just get out of the day-to-day, like just to get a little break from this fast-paced growing company, it's like we played, we had ping pong, we had a simulator, but it's like we want to get outside. And so we found pickleball and we started playing. I mean, we interpreted the game. We thought it should be played. There wasn't a lot of pro pickleball that you, I mean, man, if I wish I could go back and see how we play, because we must, we must have looked pretty funny.
4:16Shawn French:But like, you know, I started to see habits of the millennials coming out and playing. And then when wintertime came, it was like an addiction. I, I still have the portable net that I would carry around from church to church to rec center. And, you know, I just, I just came to a realization one time we were at a rec center and there was 50 of us waiting during lunchtime for two courts, like waiting for our turn to get on. And I was like, I would never, I would never do this for anything else. Why am I doing this for the silly game of pickleball? And then I saw two young kids on Christmas break, um, that were tennis players and they were smacking the ball harder and they looked more athletic.
4:56Shawn French:And then that's when I came to the true like realization that the game of pickleball wasn't being represented the right way. right it's fast it's it's it's hard it's it's not a hobby it's a sport um and what was driving the growth of a pickleball were us millennials that were you know resonating within and we were finding an outlet um and and it just became fun and addictive right and so i started to develop a pickleball paddle around conceptualizing in 2018 that targeted a younger demographic that was a cheaper price point at the time pickable paddles were 99 i was like that is crazy it's so expensive but it'd be like a 50 paddle paddles are like the most expensive ones 333 now which is insane to think about but i just i fell in love with the sport and i just i saw a future where this game was going to get younger it was going to get faster um you know and and i don't know why I came to that realization, but that's where my brain went.
6:00I'm like, this sport is sticky and people want to play it
6:06Shawn French:and we're all looking for places to play. And then COVID happened, right? Like COVID is what ultimately made this game boom, right? And I just happened to be ahead of it and came to that realization that there was a huge need, especially from the shortage of courts that were happening because of this boom.
6:26Jorge Barragan:one of the things I really enjoyed is you're, you're the co-founder, right? Your, your, your best friend was Austin, right? Yeah. Yeah. The thing that, you know, sometimes you need one of your homies to double down with you. Right. And, um, of course, you know, I did my research and I saw that you called him and before you got your sense out, he goes, look, man, I'm in, there's a large level of trust, obviously that he had for you, but like, there could have been a moment right then and there with you not picking up the phone to him or him saying, yeah, I don't know, man, let's wait on this a little bit.
6:59Jorge Barragan:Then somebody else does it. And you're not here right now. So the question I want to ask you is, you know, what is what's special about you and Austin that executes an idea from Jump Street instead of listening to all the reasons why it won't work? And we're going to take a quick break to hear from our Powered by sponsor. We're proud to announce a partnership between White Sands treatment centers and the Determined Society. With multiple locations across Florida, White Sands provides luxury, top rated addiction treatment. From medical detox and inpatient care to outpatient support and long-term aftercare.
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7:53Shawn French:I told you before this call started, at the age of 30, it came to the realization that there was so much I want to accomplish in life and I hadn't even started, right? And I think for me, the wake-up call happened was like I was trying different stuff. I had bought into a licensed model where it was like a fogging system that eliminated mold. I could care two cents a dollar, that. Right. But for some reason, pickleball kept coming into the picture and it couldn't have been a worse time. It was, it was COVID. I had just lost my job. You know, I had this idea of indoor pickleball. I were envisioned, um, people playing pickleball and might happen.
8:35Shawn French:So happened that my partner, uh, in, in doubles with Austin and he was my best friend and we were both entrepreneurs at heart. And I pitched him on this idea and you're a hundred percent, right. You're like, Let's do it. It's like, well, let me tell you, doesn't matter. But what it came to is we were both passionate about it. We both had each other's back. And you're 100 % right. If he would have given me any reason to not do it, I probably would have backed out. And the crazy thing is the first lease that we signed, the day after we signed, the guy had probably five phone calls that week for indoor pickleball.
9:12Shawn French:and so like that that's when everyone started to come to realization is at the time the crazy thing is that no one was willing they would see these these large retail spaces and they would see the rent and they're like i can't pencil these numbers we didn't care we didn't have a game plan we didn't have a business plan i i think we were crazy enough to to make the jump and we felt so passionate about it that we had the mentality that we will figure it out as we go, right? Because we weren't the next burger chain. We weren't the next gym concept. We weren't the next pizza chain. This is a new concept of indoor pickleball.
9:50Shawn French:And for us to sell it to our landlord and explain to him what pickleball is, he'd never even heard of it, right? And just say, hey, we're going to eat up 15 ,000 square feet of your brand new facility. You're going to take a chance on two dudes. And he didn't even know I was unemployed at the time, by the way. For some reason, he never did a credit check. He never checked our finances. We did a handshake deal. Paper came through and we signed it. And knowing what I know about commercial real estate now, it is one of the hardest things to get approved. And yet this guy just did it on a whim, right?
10:25Shawn French:So again, going back to right time, right place, being lucky. But at the same time, we were the ones that were willing to move. And he is my ride or die. Like Austin is the guy that is willing to be with you in the trenches. And it doesn't matter what it is, whether it be a difficult time or a fun time, you know, to have somebody on your side that has the ability just to power navigate through both those times. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty rare to have someone by your side that's willing to do that.
10:56Jorge Barragan:I love that, man. There's a word that's coming across in my mind. It's called discernment, right? So when, when, when we're all making decisions and this is what I really want the audience to key on, when you have this concept, like for me, it was my show. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I could turn this into something out of thin air and it was four years of struggle, but I had discernment. I was like, I know this is it. This is that burning desire inside of me. And you have the same thing. And so did Austin, right? And there's a difference. So there's like an idea and there's just a burning desire.
11:31So it's like, how did you, I guess I'm trying to figure out how to word this question here.
11:37Jorge Barragan:I'm just going to say it, you know, in a raw form. It's how did you, how did, how did you and Austin discern the fact, like, is this just a cool idea or this is, this is dammit, this is it. Right. Because I want the audience to understand what that looks like in real time.
11:53Shawn French:Absolutely.
11:57Shawn French:And I think you're spot on because I had that burning desire of figuring out. Look, I think from a very young age, I always felt that I was meant to create something special. I didn't know what it was or what it was going to be, but I knew from a very young age. And I think that's when I woke up on my 30th birthday and came to the realization that I hadn't accomplished anything. It was more of like a disappointment where I knew that I was meant to create something and I had it, right? And so I tried and I tried, but ultimately what it came down to was following something I truly loved, which was even something as weird as pickleball at the time, right?
12:34Shawn French:It's so trendy and popular and the fastest growing sport now, but back then it wasn't, right? Back then we took a chance at something that was so new that could have, you know, in theory been a fad. But I think knowing that I wanted to build something and then knowing that it could be something like, I mean, something that we were passionate about and we could see, you know, an upward trend in it, it all just made too much sense not to do it. Right. But we knew, we knew how difficult it was going to be. I think we first thought, you know, the mentality had is, you know, it's so popular in Utah, build it, they will, and they will come mentality came.
13:15Shawn French:And that wasn't necessarily true. Right. But, um, it's so much trial and error there. Um, but yeah, it just, it was just, it's just always been in me. And I think for a lot of us, um, there there's, there's something within us that we just have to be able to tap into, but how do you get that out of, out of yourself? Right. And, and discern what is it, what is it that is going to get you to reach that next level, that next phase of your life. And it happened to be pickleball for me and for Austin.
13:49Jorge Barragan:That's amazing, man. Because when I think of this, you know, I think of yours and Austin's story of building this amazing company. And then I think of me when I built this. It was a, I don't even want to say borderline obsession. It was an absolute obsession to a point where my wife at times would be like, can we talk about anything other than the business, anything other than the show, I'm like, I'm so sorry. I felt like I was Rain Man telling her it was, you know, of course, Jeopardy starts at six, like Jeopardy starts at six. Like it became that, it became that of a hyper-focused situation for me.
14:28Jorge Barragan:And it still is in the background of my mind. I could be sitting there with my family and my children looking present as day, but in the back of my mind, I'm always running through scenarios. it doesn't stop. And I, and I don't, and I don't think it's a curse. Um, I think it's a gift, um, to be able to have that much go through your mind and still be present with your family, but also kind of break away when the kids are doing something, jot something down, an idea like in my notes. Um, you know, sometimes I disappear to the bathroom real quick and, you know, go ahead and put that in my notes and then I can move on from it.
15:03Jorge Barragan:But I mean, It was an obsession for me and it still is. Yeah.
15:09Shawn French:And Sean, it's funny that you say that because this is something new that I've had to learn. Because it isn't an obsession, it's what do you do with that information and how do you... So many sleepless nights and we've all had moments where I can't go to sleep because my mind is racing. I've had to teach myself those moments. you know, I have this little iPad mini now with my pencil at the top. I pull that sucker out and I write it down. I write it down. And sometimes my execs will get a text message at four o 'clock in the morning because my brain is racing. But I've just learned that I am more at peace and I, there's more actual items and the creativity is happening because you, you know, we are obsessed with how do we improve our process?
15:53Shawn French:How do we improve customer behaviors and experience and better conversion rates on memberships and you know how do we expand this brand so it's more recognizable like our brains want to want to create and if we allow our obsession to do that but to your point it's like i've also had to learn that there's no such thing as as work-life balance you just have to prioritize what's most important at that time and if it's sometimes to your point is go to the bathroom for five minutes just to jot it down maybe at that point that's the most important. If I'm at soccer practice with my kids at that time, that's the most important with, if I have 30 minutes to watch a show with my wife, like I got to make that the priority.
16:35Shawn French:And that's the most important, right. But it, you know, there's, we have to allow ourselves to be obsessed with something because that's when true creativity happens. Right. And I'm obsessed right now with, with letting, letting that happen naturally, uh, because our brains want to create. And when you create, jot that down and create actual items and act on it. Because I think that's when special stuff starts to happen.
17:01Jorge Barragan:You know, it's a good point. I have a lesson for the listeners and the viewers right now. A lot of people look at those sleepless nights like it's a con, like it's a bad thing. Or, you know, look at me, I didn't get any sleep last night. I decided to, for myself, I thought of it like that because I sleep very well, brother. When I'm out, I'm out. You cannot wake me up. I'm good until the alarm clock goes off in the morning. But there are times where if I break a sleep pattern like at 1130 p.m. and I wake up, now my mind's going. And instead of looking at it like, why is this happening to me? I can't sleep.
17:40Jorge Barragan:Tomorrow is going to suck. I say this is a great opportunity. This is a great opportunity because, you know, hey, God woke me up right now for a reason. So all these thoughts going through my mind, I put them down. And then once I put them down, I can generally get back to sleep. But these are great opportunities. And I want the audience to understand that not everything that doesn't go on with, you know, that goes on with you not sleeping. There's a reason you're up. There's a subconscious reason like, like just write something. Start writing how you feel. Something's going to come up. You never know what you're going to create in those moments.
Read the full transcript
18:15Shawn French:Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and, you know, I have a Steve Jobs poster here that has a quote that, you know, really has truly changed the way that I have started to listening to my inner voice and started listening more directly to things that I think because. Well, and I'll just I'll just share this with you. Right. But, you know, Steve Jobs says, your time is limited. Don't waste your time living someone else's life. Don't get trapped in the dogma, which is living the results of other people's thinking. And I said, don't let the noise of other opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
19:01Shawn French:They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary, right? And so it's amazing when we start to have the courage to listen to ourselves. right because our our inner selves and our intuition it truly knows what we want to become and nothing else matters right nothing else matters in in in having listening to other people's opinions or or being down on yourself like if you truly believe in yourself and you allow yourself to uh you know to to have the courage to follow that dude the thing that as as human beings. And I always tell people, it's like, we are meant to be resilient as human beings, right?
19:42Shawn French:When the difficult times happens, somehow, some way, you know, I was a church leader in my congregation for four years. And I live in a low-income home, right? And there was times where I had to say no to financial situations and helping someone out because it just prolonged too long. And sometimes I'd say, look, people are meant to be resilient. I guarantee if I cut this person off this month, they're going to figure out a way to make their mortgage, or they're going to figure out a way to get a job, right? Because as human beings, we're meant to be resilient and we are meant to figure things out on our own.
20:20Shawn French:And I challenge anybody that's going through a difficult time to allow yourselves to listen to yourself and to figure out how to navigate through those problems. And I think you're going to surprise yourself how often you come up with a resolution that's ultimately going to help you, you know, with whatever it may be at that time.
20:42Jorge Barragan:Well, look, man, I mean, you said it, right? This intuition, this burning desire, that's spiritual. Yes. Okay. And the audience listening there, they could believe a multitude of different things. But at the end of the day, we're spiritual beings. And when you listen to your inner dialogue of what you want to become, see, I always knew I real quick, let me back up. I grew up playing baseball. I played baseball at LSU, played in the college world series in 2003. Like, and my dad always said to me, and I love my dad, you know, we've, we've had our moments, but now I see as a 46 year old man, what he was really trying to build in me.
21:23Jorge Barragan:Right. He said to me, what's going to happen when you don't make it in baseball. You don't have any skills with your hands. Like he says, hand me a crescent wrench and I'd hand him a hammer. You know, like, you know, those, those moments that with your, with your pops, you're at the car getting yelled at, right. Cause you don't know how to do Jack. Right. I said, I have a really good personality. I mean, he's like, what are you going to do with that? You can't get paid on conversations in your voice, in your personality. And at the time I I believed them. But as I grew my frustrations in corporate America, now corporate America built me.
21:58Jorge Barragan:I want to be very clear. Like, listen, I was an entrepreneur. I call it the reverse entrepreneur. I took all the principles that I did when I was a top 20 sales rep out of 2000 for paychecks. Then I went into the medical industry and helped build somebody else's company and help patients and their outcomes to feel more comfortable. But I took all those principles into this. into this. Like, listen, I had no business starting a show and it getting this big, but I took those principles and I applied them here. And now the thing that we've created is like almost outgrown my actual support level. So now we're like scrambling, like, oh my God, like we've got to add this.
22:40Jorge Barragan:We've got to do this because of the vision was so big. And I never said, hold on a second, hold on. We're not ready for that. I said, no, pedal down. Let's figure this thing out because I was listening to my intuition, my spiritual being part, knowing that I wanted to have conversations that brought value to the people. And here we are. Amazing.
23:02Shawn French:Amazing. I see so much of your, uh, your experience and your stories that really resonates with me. Right. Because I, that, that was my, my career path, uh, you know, being fortunate enough to work in, you know, the software space and industries where, you know, I was able to be a company, went through an IPO, was able to be, you know, in multiple acquisitions. But for me, it was, you know, I'm a college dropout. School wasn't for me, but I wanted to learn when I was pounding the phones and, you know, answering inbound leads or trying to find, you know, doing call calling for an account executive I was tied to.
23:47Shawn French:I didn't just want to do it because, or I didn't just make a phone call to make a phone call. I want to understand what took a person to click on this free trial. What was it on the website that got them to click through, fill out the information, ultimately, you know, get a phone call, set up a demo and get to the point where it closed. I started to ask questions in marketing and marketing ops. What are you guys doing when you're creating certain ads to create customer behaviors? And so for me, I started to take those skill sets and started to figure out how can I apply this to my life? Why do we use this piece of technology for communication?
24:29Shawn French:Or why do we use the CRM and create certain automations in order for us to help us close deals? And I apply that at the Pickler now. We run our company like we are a software company, creating top of funnel, understanding conversion rates, understanding what is it that's going to get someone to ultimately pay us a membership fee and keep them there from a retention standpoint. But it's funny that you say that because all of that stuff that I learned, I apply it here, but then it's like, how do you grow from there? A year ago, the CEO that I am today, I wasn't the same person. All that stuff I learned was amazing.
25:11Shawn French:But it's now like, how do I grow now to be in the position?
25:16Jorge Barragan:So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to?
25:22Shawn French:Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum. Get optioning those options.
25:30Jorge Barragan:We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at FINRA.org slash trade smart.
25:44Shawn French:That I am and continue to show value in the position that I'm in. And I think ultimately that takes a lot of growing up within this specific role within the company to be the leader that your employees expect you to be as well. which has been been really fun to see myself grow as an individual of someone that I've always felt was a normal guy that only had sales skills right now leading I don't know if you saw but you know for me this was this was uh one of the the craziest thing that has happened to me in my career at this point to be ranked number 43 and eat 5000s fastest growing companies um it which yeah like some just i i didn't have any advantages and then joe schmo right my parents were immigrants to this country but i never i never let me being a mexican-american um i felt like for me i i took it as hey you have more opportunities because you are mexican-american i never took it as my you know as a downfall or what was me because it's you know i i you know my the color of my skin or whatever it may be, right?
26:55Shawn French:I took it as an opportunity to prove people like the way people see you, they see, you know, the culture of Mexicans is hard workers. Go and show that, right? Go show how charismatic and great and it, you know, your, your people are right. And so for me, it's always been, I was lucky to have parents that were immigrants because they taught me at a very young age, that immigrant mentality, right? What hard work looks like. And, and I carry that moving forward in everything that I do. And the professional that I've become, I'm very proud of because I can say that my dad and my mom are proud of where I've gotten.
27:31Shawn French:And it's been really cool to see as an individual that didn't have advantages of, you know, a high caliber degree or whatever it may be, get to where I'm at, right? And we continue to fight and we continue to show what we can achieve. And I'm excited to see what the growth of the Pickler looks like.
27:53Jorge Barragan:This is exciting to me because you talk about our stories kind of paralleling each other a little bit, right? Of course, we're doing two opposite things. But the reality of the matter is I didn't have those resources either. Everybody talks about starting a business. And one of the biggest things, the reason why businesses close out is because of undercapitalization. I mean, there was times like, dude, we didn't start getting capital until this year. and it was a top, it was a top 20 show, you know, but, but the fact of the matter is like, we didn't stop and stop. And, you know, I'm assuming, I'm going to assume that day one, you didn't have a bunch of people knocking on your door to here's, here's$3 million to start this.
28:35Jorge Barragan:Like, it doesn't matter for the people listening. It doesn't matter. You have a dream. You build that thing. You become that man, that woman until people are knocking on your door to give you that money. Now it's a different story, isn't it? Absolutely.
28:50Shawn French:Absolutely.
28:50Jorge Barragan:Yeah, man.
28:52Shawn French:It's, uh, yeah, no, it's, it's, you're a hundred percent right. And look, I will never, ever give this advice to anyone, but look, I just got laid off from a job. It was the best, the best year of my career that I had ever had. Went through an acquisition. I was a very expensive sales guy uh you know and but the reality is is like i took a chance on myself i maxed out every single credit card every penny in my savings account 401ks got drained to start this i just told come on man you know i just told someone this uh last week you know and i'm getting emotional thinking about it i just paid off my last first started this business for years right like like But for me, thank you.
29:40Shawn French:Thank you. Like it's, people don't realize like what kind of chances sometimes you have to take when you're so passionate about what you believe in. And like, look, have we made it? Absolutely not. Right. Like to your point, like when I was in roles at companies, like where's my leadership team? Why am I never seeing these people were trying to figure out how to keep this. even if it's fast paced, you get all the flashy awards, like, you know, until you hit a certain sweet spot, like you're always thinking about how am I going to make it to next payroll? How am I going to keep this thing afloat?
30:16Shawn French:How are we going to continue to do the right things for the people that believe in us, our franchisees, our investors, our employees? Like it's a constant battle of what you're trying to figure out. But my first$2 million was a completely different than my next 2 million that I raised, right? Like my first 2 million I raised for this business over a hundred phone calls. I can't even imagine how many hours I spent to, to pitch on, on what I was doing. We, we just acquired a, you know, a business called Vulcan pickleball, which is a paddle and it's the official ball of, we call it of pickleball.
30:51Shawn French:The next 2 million took me two phone calls, right? Like the difference that when you start to prove what you can accomplish in your value and how you see, how you see businesses moving forward and how you integrate them together, like it really was that quick. I was oversubscribed, right? Like it's, it's amazing. It's amazing what, what value you can show within, you know, the small amount of. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know, your choices matter. You're the expert. Because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at GoodToKnowFacts.org.
31:35Shawn French:No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit GoodToKnowFacts.org. timeframe from year one to year four, you're a completely different business venture. But now you got people that believe in what you do, right? It was pretty cool to see.
31:57Jorge Barragan:Well, I mean, not only that, I mean, look, you did that year one through four, right? And now you're part owner in a major league pickleball organization. You partner with Super Bowl champions like Drew Brees. You've built this, man. So walk the audience through that, because that's a pretty cool thing, man, to have that much notoriety that Drew Brees is partnering up with you guys. You know, you guys have done some pretty massive things, you know, recently. In fact, you have your 50th location opening. By the time the show comes out, it'll be already out. But this week, your 50th location is dropping.
32:33Jorge Barragan:Like 50th. Yeah.
32:35Shawn French:Yeah. And I think, I think when you, when you build something that you're so passionate about, I mean, the brand from the Pickler logo, right. To the way that we design hats and design the look and feel of the courts, everything is so intentional. You know, when people complained that it was too loud, it's like, what kind of sound baffling? I hate having the thing that the title on the wall looks cheesy. We came up with a concept that goes over the cords that integrates with the lighting that looks beautiful, that dampens noise by 40%. Intentional. Holy black walls. How can I, I had players complaining, I can't see the ball because it gets lost in the white walls.
33:21Shawn French:I'm like, holy crap, I've never even noticed that. We painted half of it black. It's great, start. But now in the second half, I'm losing the ball. Let's paint the whole freaking box black. So now Now we intentional, right? All of these things that we've created from the look and feel Drew Brees recognizes it, recognize it early on, right? He is a very savvy entrepreneur. He himself invested in, in, in pickleball early on. He saw the opportunity, but we are his seventh franchise concept, seventh or eighth franchise concept that he's invested in, that he's acquired licenses for, because that is one man that has been very smart in what does life look like after football, right?
34:02Shawn French:He's a Super Bowl champion for a reason, but he is winning in life after being a football for a reason, right? He's understood how to leverage his operations team, his name and brand, and easily integrates into a franchise system, right? And so for us to bring on Drew Brees, someone that has the reputation that he has, the man that he is. I can call Drew Brees right now and he picks up because he knows that I'm usually calling him with a question, a concern, and I value his expertise. We can text each other about life and business. He's been a great mentor from that aspect, but it's been amazing to see people, again, winners and losers, someone like Drew breeze that has reached the top of the food chain, like how he's done it.
34:56Shawn French:And he values what he brings to the table. But we had to show through a long way, what does this brand look like and how we differentiate ourselves and how we become the leader. Now that 50 locations, when I think about franchisors that are out there, how many of them actually get to 50 locations? I think it's only 11 % of franchisors out there ever get to 50 locations.
35:25Jorge Barragan:That's wild, man.
35:27Shawn French:Crazy to think about that statistic, right? And we did it. We've only been franchising. And I think we're, so we're almost to year three, right? Like we did it in three years. And by the end of the year, you know, we're going to have 70 locations open. And then we're going to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. Like that is, that is unheard of. And so I think as we approach those 50 locations, for me, it's such a milestone because I remember month number three of opening this business. We were running so many transactions through Venmo business at the time. I don't know if you recall four years ago, if you were a business owner, no one wanted to pay taxes on their money.
36:07Shawn French:So they were taking Venmo payments on their personal accounts. And Venmo came out with this product. and I think it was like, if you get more than 600, I can't remember what it was, but we're like, oh, okay, we're going to do this the right way. We'll do open up Venmo business accounting. We were doing open place and so hundreds of transactions were happening. And at the time, they were trying to build a case study of why people should use Venmo business. And so it's so happening. We're doing Pickleball and hundreds of transactions were going. And I just remember thinking in that interview to ask me, where do you see yourself in five years?
36:40Shawn French:and we're going to dock the country with picklers, right? And seeing that start to happen now, it's just been a dream come true to see this happen the way that it has. And there's so many uphill battles and we're having our first franchisee convention in a couple of weeks. And I was looking through all the pictures through the last four years. I went eight months without receiving a paycheck, right? That's why I had to finance this thing. Austin at the time had a full-time job. I took a chance on trying to figure this out. And having my fifth kid, I think we mentioned I just had my fifth kid at the time.
37:25Shawn French:But just the struggles, man. But the rewards that happened when you figured stuff out was amazing. I made that phone call to my mortgage company. I wasn't going to be able to make my mortgage payment. And then the funding, my first 2 million hit where I was able to get paid and they back paid me for that month. And that made my mortgage payment, right? So just so many cool things that happened. You know, 50 locations is a milestone. But what it took to get there, man, it's been crazy.
37:56Jorge Barragan:That's the attractive part to me about the Pickler and my show and all the other entrepreneurs with their companies out there. See, my buddy, Eric Thomas, I was at an event in June and he was a speaking event and I was there and he was talking about everybody in this room wants to be a speaker, a famous motivational speaker. You want to be on stage, but you're not respecting the stages. And so when I'm listening to you, I'm hearing process. I'm hearing stages. Like you have to respect where you're currently at. And it's hard because I was just telling my team before today, I was like, man, I'm just going through this mode where I'm really frustrated of where we're at.
38:39Jorge Barragan:And it's not bad at all. I mean, dude, we had 760 ,000 listens in August. Like, that's a lot on an auditory platform that is not a celebrity, that is not pushing marketing like crazy. We're building it. But I'm like, man, like I'm really frustrated. But as I'm listening and having this conversation with you, it's like, this is part of the story, man. And the almost missing the mortgage payment and making that phone call. That's a stage. That is part of the process. And that's how you build something so massive. Because if you can stay calm and strategic and intentional in those times and don't go off the rails and do something stupid, what you build is infinitely larger than anything you could have possibly imagined.
39:25Jorge Barragan:if you had fallen into the disparity and those types of energies, man.
39:36Shawn French:Yeah, absolutely. This is why I keep going back to, as a human beings, we're meant to be resilient. Tough times, we figured it out. We continue to figure it out, right? And you get creative. If this is where you get tested and you really start to figure out a lot about yourselves and a lot about your employees and who wants to be with you during the down times, because the good times, it's easy. It's easy to be a part of something. But man, do you learn a lot about yourself during the downtime?
40:11Jorge Barragan:But those are the moments that make you. Let's be clear with the audience, right? Absolutely. The moments of that absolute emotional and that can also turn into physical pain when you wake up in the morning. People don't understand that. Emotional pain ties to physical pain in the morning if you're constantly worried and constantly struggling. Absolutely. But those moments, man, those are the moments that I feel most people during the test you're talking about, that's where they fail. They're being tested. They let off the gas. They say, you know what? I can always go back to this. and for me and clearly you're the same way you and Austin is there is no retreat it's like the Hernan Cortez we're going to burn those dang boats and the only way we're leaving this island is in their ships set ours on fire we're going to go conquer right now and that's the mentality you have to have when you're building anything of significance absolutely it's those moments man look and I said
41:12Shawn French:if this sea ever fills I'll try again Like, I want to do it again. Like, this is just who I am now. Like, this is, this is a, but it, you know, it takes time to come to that realization of who you are and you start to act different and feel different and do things different as you get, hopefully, a little bit wiser based off of the difficult times, right? Like, look, the way that I operate now compared to four years ago, it's completely different, right? There are certain things I prioritize, like my health. If you go back and look at some of the pictures during the middle of this and the way I look now, I'm taking care of myself.
41:51Shawn French:I go to sleep. I make sure I have a clear mind. I make sure I'm eating right. I make sure because the reality is people need me. People need me right now more than ever. My employees need me. My family needs me. I love coaching soccer. My teams need me. And so when I was a church leader, my congregation needed me. And so I have to make sure that as an individual, as a human being, that physically, too, I'm able to withstand those things. I didn't prioritize taking care of myself for a very long time. And it came to a realization, like, I have to take care of myself before I can start taking care of others.
42:30Shawn French:And look, man, it's been amazing just to see when you just put a little bit of emphasis on your health, too. how much more you can accomplish.
42:40Jorge Barragan:This is a hot button for a lot of people, dude. You know that, right? Like, I mean, like, let's be honest. There's a lot of, you know, out of shape CEOs and there's, you know, but I think it's different for everybody, right? I think some people can operate. But for me, nothing happened until I got in great shape. And this started back in December of 2024. Like my journey started and by March I had funding because I was displaying that determination, that discipline that I talk about on my show in my actual life. And when that happened, it raised the bar for me and it made people look at me different, not because of the way I looked.
43:23Jorge Barragan:I want to be clear. It wasn't because I was leaner and I was finally below 190 pounds from all the way up from 230. It wasn't that. It was, what did it represent? If I go into business with Sean, what is he going to give me? Is he going to give me, you know, exhaustion? Is he going to lay off a gas pedal? My team always tells me like, dude, you're running a hundred miles an hour all the time. Like, how are you doing? It's because this is who I am. And if I'm not at the best me, then I can't be there for my executive team. I couldn't be here for you right now, dude. If I skipped my run today, I'm training for a Spartan race.
44:01Jorge Barragan:My production team is a bunch of a-holes. Okay. They, they're making me do this damn Spartan race in November. And I pushed back on it for so long, but like this is iron sharpens iron, man. And we've, I've been, you know, lightly training for it. And then my buddy, Jamie, which is the CEO of this, of my production company on Saturday goes, here's your training plan. Oh, okay starts on monday okay cool i went and did that and then i did my run today i'm fully present because i'm taking care of all the other things that make me a more effective communicator because let's face it man people want to know who they're getting to bed with you know figuratively speaking when they're when when they're going into business what do you represent are you going to cave under pressure are you going to fight and i truly feel taking care of yourself and being selfish about you is the most important because you know, man, like ever since I got selfish and like, I don't take time away from my family to do what I do.
45:04Jorge Barragan:Like I don't, they're at school, my wife's at work, you know, or I'm in the gym super early in the morning, but I'm being selfish because if I don't do this and I'll take care of me, then I can't build something and I can't be there for other people.
45:16Shawn French:Yeah.
45:17Jorge Barragan:It's a hot button dude.
45:19Shawn French:Yeah. Look, I didn't realize it was a hot button but i just i just came to that realization on my own right because i i felt sluggish i was like how am i supposed to how am i supposed to have the energy to do all these things when you know i'm going to bed at 2 a.m and i want to sleep in and i'm eating all this crap food and i'm not taking my my sleep serious like my my kids need me the the pickler needs me more and everything And the reality is like, I own a fitness concept. Do I want to be the face of, of this is what fitness looks like? Like, you know, I have to represent the right way. Right.
45:57Shawn French:And, and I have been able.
46:02Jorge Barragan:When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th.
46:18Shawn French:And never miss a meme or milestone.
46:20Jorge Barragan:All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp.
46:24Shawn French:Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. I would accomplish so much more this year because that is a priority, right? I treat going to sleep like a job now. I clock in, clock out when I'm supposed to. I wake up to go to the gym, right? I feel so much better and visually like I can just see so much better what my day is going to look like, how I can navigate. And it's so funny because I this stupid little ordering, you know, I'll look at my stress levels. I'm like, today was meant to be super stressful. But yet it's telling me you had a pretty restorative day. I was like, how did I navigate through that?
47:05Shawn French:But it's just a different mentality now moving forward.
47:11Jorge Barragan:It pushes you to build more resistance in certain areas, man. Absolutely. You can keep your, you know, at the end of the day, Jorge, it's about keeping your word to yourself. Yes. And that's how you build something special, man. That's how you build something special. Dang, man. Look, man, you know, we're winding down here and I feel like I could do two hours with you. Maybe we'll have to have you back sometime in the near future when you guys, you know, get to yourself. Yeah, yeah. 70th location. Let's do it. You know, I want to do it. I want to do it on site though. Next time. That'd be kind of cool.
47:45Jorge Barragan:Have you ever come out to Utah? No, but I will. I mean, that's, that's simple. Let's teach you some pickleball. They fly there. Yeah, let's do it, man. You know, watch me fall all over myself. It's so funny because I, I, you know, my hand eye coordination is so good because I played baseball, but if you see me try to serve a pickle and pickleball, I look like a baby deer. I'm just, I'm, I'm stuck on stupid, man. I can't do it. We'll teach you the ways. We'll teach you the ways. Teach me the ways, Mr. Jedi. Teach me the ways, man. You'd be my pickleball Yoda. But one more question, man. And we've glanced over it throughout the whole interview.
48:20Jorge Barragan:But I would like for you, since the show is called The Determined Society, what is your definition of true determination?
48:32Shawn French:That's a great question. um i think i think determination comes from being able you know i i keep going i think i referenced this you know my kids are starting to see normal people be able to and achieve great things right when i think about tom brady And when he says, you know, the reality is, is you don't have to be someone that's extra special or someone that was born naturally gifted. You just have to be able to do things that people aren't willing to do in order to be special, in order to be great. Right. So determination comes from having the ability and the want to do the things that most normal people do not want to do.
49:23Shawn French:get up early, right? Get, you know, work out. And we're talking about sports right now, go get that extra, you know, gym session, practice outside of practice, but all of that can be applied in everything that we do in life, whether it be an entrepreneur at work, what are you willing to do outside of what is considered normal, right? And if you can, and if you can go outside of what the expectations are, the determination gets created, and then that's when you become special. And I think that's what excites me the most.
50:02Jorge Barragan:That's my love language, baby. That's my love language. It's very simple, right? It's very simple. And it's so funny because it's like, what are you willing to do repeatedly? And the thing that drives me crazy about determination is the misdiagnosis of it. A lot of people lump it into the hustle culture and I did at the very beginning. You know, team no sleep, it doesn't matter. Do it freaking anyway. But to me, man, it's like, I want to think about the person that's on the other side of this experience of our conversation right now. Guys, it's not do something at full throttle all the time. It's doing what you can, Even if it's one phone call that day, you just, there's no zero days, man.
50:47Jorge Barragan:Like zero, you can't have a zero day. You have to find a way to move forward in your mission. No matter what it is, you can't move because you're too sore to go work out. Then go for a 45 minute walk, like do something, like do a little thing, man. So I really respect your answer because, you know, it's in line obviously with, with my brand of just like, Hey, be willing to do things that people aren't willing to do. And sometimes that's losing public. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, and that's okay. Yep. And that's okay. Dude, dude, thank you so much for a, I had a blast with you, my man. I can't wait to see how this turns out and get this out there.
51:30Jorge Barragan:And hopefully one day soon get to meet you in person. Um, you were one heck of a conversation, man. Thank you. Thank you for your time. time, Sean. Thank you. Absolutely. For the audience, man, listen, guys, go check out the Pickler, go check out my boy and see what they got going on. If you're traveling around and they've dotted that map, go in there for a session and see what the buzz is all about. But more than anything, guys, until next time, stay determined.
52:00Shawn French:Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way.
52:07Jorge Barragan:CarMax Instant Offer. So fast. Wanna take a sec to think about it.
52:13Shawn French:Or like a month?
52:13Jorge Barragan:Wanna keep tabs on that instant offer.
52:17Shawn French:With OfferWatch.
52:18Jorge Barragan:Wanna have CarMax pick it up from your driveway. You wanna get it, touch it. You wanna do it. So, wanna drive? CarMax. Pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply.
From the publisher
What would you do if you got laid off with five kids and a mortgage staring you down?
Most people would retreat. Jorge Barragan doubled down. Out of desperation and vision, he co-founded The Picklr—now one of the fastest-growing pickleball franchises in the world, with 500+ locations sold and its 50th opening this year.
In this inspiring conversation with Shawn French, Jorge shares how he went from unemployment to Inc. 5000 recognition, and why discipline, obsession, and resilience fuel his success. From maxing out credit cards to partnering with NFL legend Drew Brees, Jorge’s journey proves that betting on yourself can change everything.
This episode covers:
-The leap of faith that launched The Picklr during COVID
-Scaling to 50+ locations in just 3 years
-Why obsession (not balance) drives great founders
-Drew Brees, major league pickleball, and global expansion
-Hard lessons in resilience, funding, and staying present as a father of six
Whether you’re a founder, athlete, or dreamer stuck on the sidelines, Jorge’s story will make you rethink risk, resilience, and what it really takes to win.
Connect with me :
https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA
Jorge Barragan
https://www.instagram.com/jorgebarragan23/
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