(upbeat music)

Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis Podcast

powered by Signature Tennis.

While you're here, please hit that follow button.

And after you listen, please share with your friends

and teammates.

Also, let us know if you have questions or topics

you'd like us to discuss, and we'll add them to our schedule.

With that said, let's get started

with 10 minutes of tennis.

- Today is 10 minutes of tennis.

With world renowned tennis coach Australian and Puerto Rico,

Justin Yeo, a mentor of mine.

I will throw that in there because we're gonna talk

about that today.

Justin was the head pro at the first country club,

and maybe club, maybe not country club club,

where I was hired as a tennis coach.

Somebody took a chance on a young guy like me.

And today we wanna talk about professional networking,

lowering the ego for the greater good,

which is gonna be a fun one, right?

We'll stick that right in the middle,

'cause that'll be fun.

And finding the right mentor.

So, Justin, let's start with professional networking.

- Wow, what do you start there?

I mean, I think I've just built my whole career in that.

When you grow up with middle class, blue collar,

and you don't really have much, the best thing you gotta do

is rely on the people, and the relationship you make.

I'd have to say, there's pretty much my whole career.

So, networking to me is probably the non-thing I do

every single day.

Even though I've moved from a little bit of the tennis

industry and the business development

and startup projects, it is all very much involving networking.

So, I think sometimes you're hitting number two,

which is the ego.

If you don't drop the ego, it's hard to network,

'cause some people don't wanna connect with you

or have a relationship with you,

if you believe you just know it all.

So, I think they go hand in hand both of them.

And then that obviously, we weren't gonna get into education,

but you tend to educate yourself more and learn more

out of the relationships if we can somewhat drop the ego

and believe we're all on the same playing field,

all in the same mission, we're all trying to enjoy tennis

and do tennis from a broad perspective.

- And before we get into the ego, which I think is the tougher

of the three concepts here, especially for competitive tennis

types, how did you do the professional networking?

In racket sports, is it any different than business

in other industries?

Because it's basically the same thing,

we just have to find it in different places.

- Yeah, we just, look, in tennis, if we've grown up with it,

we've grown up very independent, very individual,

as an op-ed on a court, relying on ourselves,

relying on our training, even our friends that we're really close

to, we've tried to kick their ass every single day,

we go on the tennis court.

So, we're really like, we're not as tennis-based built

for relationships, we're built to be stronger on our own.

So, if you look at a tennis player, that's how we're built.

But on the other hand, to grow as a tennis player,

to improve yourself and to grab Nick Bolotary

or any of these other coaches, you have to learn to be able

to drop everything, be humble, and learn wherever you can,

because that's how you grow as a tennis player as well.

So, it's a combination of both,

and then as you go into business,

you've just got to sort of try to weigh up the other way

than the other way.

I think, you know, I've been in the high performance industry

for a very long time.

One of the things that was downer in the high performance

industry is nobody seemed to want to connect heads,

work together, improve kids for the greater good of tennis.

They all want to improve their business,

didn't want to give up kids, didn't want kids to mix

with their kids.

It was all a little bit out of whack as far as I was concerned.

And then what we got used to is pros, which was said,

is that, you know, a kid would be doing this,

and then the parent would just pick them up

and take them to another academy,

and well, I'll get the best of this guy,

I'll get the best of this guy, I'll get the best of this guy.

But in the end, the athlete gets screwed up

because they've got all these agendas

versus just their agenda.

So that's where the ego, as far as I'm concerned,

needs a big checkup in the tennis industry,

because we're all got the same direction.

We've all got the same passion.

And eventually, the more we all get together,

which I think we're seeing more of that nowadays,

because of the Instagram and because of the videos

and people are following each other and people are sharing.

But yeah, as far as networking relationships,

that has a lot to do with making sure the ego is checked.

- Yeah, and that's the bigger issue.

I have found it to be more difficult

in the high performance niche of Racket Sports,

where the country club types are a little better

about, hey, you got a good employee,

you want to send one my way, I need somebody for this.

It's a lot more collaborative in the club industry,

even in the public parks, where employees need to have a fit.

Maybe we have a niche, and it's different from somebody else.

There's a lot more teamwork involved.

And it makes me think back to a recent episode

we did on the podcast talking about the team aspect

of tennis, the college type teams and the high school type teams

are good for tennis in general, especially the player,

because that teaches you to take an individual concept

and work it into a team.

And a bit of that is necessary.

The phrase I'm looking at now, which I appreciate,

is, in tennis, confidence is key.

But an unchecked ego can block collaboration.

And I think it's especially true in the high performance niche.

Yeah, and I perform a niche too.

It's sort of on their own.

When you talk about a club, the environment

is people are joined the club so they're not necessarily

going to move to other clubs because it costs them all money.

So in a club, once you've got your members,

they're really not going anywhere.

In the independent world, because I know Atlanta very well,

that's a tough one, because you might have a bunch of ladies teams

and you've got your book and you've got your regular income

coming in.

As a guy opens up next door and they all move to him.

And he can't do anything about it because there's no contract.

There's no sign.line that they're all required

to be staying with that coach.

So that's probably where it's tough.

But on the other hand, I used to say the GPTA meetings were great,

because you could actually go meet some of these other pros

that are doing well, asking what they're doing.

And then see if you can add that to your own program, which

then hopefully you'll grow--

this is plenty to choose from.

There is definitely plenty of cherries to pop,

or pretty to pick, sorry, in Atlanta.

And there's definitely ways of growing your business just

by growing yourself.

So that's pretty much what I continue to focus on.

In business and in tennis, it's the same thing.

You just keep growing yourself.

Things are going to continue to grow for you.

When I like the plug for the GPTA, because the GPTA

has recently become the American Racket Sports Association,

focused on professional networking.

And even if you're the competitive type,

getting into that professional networking,

getting to know the other coaches,

and the other types, getting together, finding collaboration,

potentially being able to expand and work together

is really what that organization is promoting.

Because this collaboration is better than competition

in our opinion when our business niche.

When we zoom out to the overall niche of Racket Sports,

we do a lot better working together.

And that leads me to the mentor concept, which

is difficult to find for some.

You find it again.

In the club industry, where there is a business,

there's a corporate ladder sometimes,

even if I follow going from head pro to director,

and being able to move up and see a career path,

they're a little bit better about it.

Public parks, not as good about it,

but it's still there can be a similar moving up

in the company kind of idea.

But we've got maybe 50% if not more of our coaches around,

especially in the Atlanta area, are independent types.

There's no corporate ladder to follow.

You really-- you are that island out there,

and you need to really, in my opinion,

connect with the other islands to help.

Yeah.

And again, we're all very busy in the tennis world.

You're either on the court or running the club.

We've got 1,000 members.

You've got to make happy, a general manager above you

that's relying on you to improve things year by year,

or they drop you out.

And next guy comes in, which we've

seen a lot of rotation and management.

It is a tough road to have the time to be out of mental,

someone.

But my belief is we need to, as we grow as an industry,

we're going to need to do that.

Because what I've learned in the executive vote

and the business world, the charity

really do try to make time for people

that seem to be passionate, want to learn the industry

a little more, and they make time, whether it's an hour

or a month, or whatever it is.

They'll say, yes, I'm willing to help you,

because I've seen how much you've

want to grow in this industry.

So I've been very fortunate to met a lot of great mentors

in the executive world versus the tennis world.

But mind you, in the tennis world, I got a lot of mentors.

They're all good friends.

They're all great people.

But again, you got dropped.

And I met them, and I talked with them.

And the more you do that, the more they actually just

want a relationship, which in the end

can be a mentorship in itself.

Yeah, and it becomes potentially a long-term friendship,

as yours and mine has, and others, I've

had some mentors that, you know what,

when we stopped working for the same business,

we moved on and didn't reconnect.

But that doesn't mean you don't learn a lot.

That doesn't mean you don't mature for having

had that relationship, which I think is extremely helpful.

I'm hoping the American Rackets Sports Association

can help with some of those things, because again,

no man is an island.

If you're out there on your own, my suggestion is network.

Get to know those around you.

Don't just close in and assume that everybody around you

is trying to take your piece of the pie.

Let's get together and grow the pie.

Yeah, and I'd probably just be on the last night.

I would just say, explore yourself,

find out who you are.

Because sometimes I think tennis players

they're just in the job for the making of good and living,

and they do something they love and they're outside,

and they're trying to stay healthy, and they're

taking care of kids, and it's enthusiastic every day.

But maybe there's another element in the sport

that they could fall into, where there's tools they have,

they just haven't taken the risk or explored it.

And I think right now, there's a great moment for that,

for the reason that when I'm watching all these tennis

channels and all these talk shows and all these Instagram

podcasts, and there's a lot of people in this industry

that aren't really got a massive tennis following background,

but have loved the game and have the personality to do well

on the screen or online.

So it's good advice.

I like it, Justin.

I appreciate your time.

This has been 10 minutes of tennis.

We will see you again next week.

Thank you, Sarah.

I appreciate it.

Cheers, mate.

Well, there you have it.

We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio

and signature tennis for their support.

And be sure to give us a review in your podcast app.

We can't give you a direct link, but I'm sure you can find it.

For more Racket Sports content, you can go to LetsGotennis.com.

266 00:11:37,140 --> 00:11:39,660 And while you're there, check out our calendar of events,

great deals on Racket Sports products, apparel, and more.

If you're a coach, director of any Racket Sports,

or just someone who wants to utilize our online shop,

contact us about setting up your own shop collection

to offer your branded merchandise

to the Atlanta Racket Sports World.

And with that, we're out.

See you next time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(bell chiming)