Ep 90- Crafting a Legacy in Family Business with Brian Birdy

Transcript

Transcripts are generated by machine learning, so typos may be present.

BTB (00:00):

Welcome to the Building Texas Business Podcast, interviews with thought leaders and organizational visionaries from across industry. Join us as we talk about the latest trends, challenges, and growth opportunities to take your business to the next level. The Building Texas Business Podcast is brought to you by BoyarMiller, providing counsel beyond expectations. Find out how we can make a meaningful difference to your business at boyarmiller.com and by your podcast team where having your own podcast is as easy as being a guest on ours. Discover more at yourpodcast.team. Now here’s your host, Chris Hanslik.

Chris (00:40):

In this episode, you will meet Brian Birdie, CEO of PMI, birdie Properties and a regional developer for Dill diners. Brian shares how he has built one of the largest property management firms in Texas and is set to launch an indoor pickleball concept by hiring the right people, which he has found by focusing on those with a positive attitude and a desire to work. Brian, welcome to Building Texas Business. Thanks for taking the time to come on the podcast.

Brian (01:14):

Hey, thanks for having me.

Chris (01:16):

So let’s dive right in and talk about some of the things that you’re doing as an entrepreneur and business owner and just introduce your companies to the audience.

Brian (01:27):

Sure. So I’m the broker and owner of the Verde Properties, which is a real estate company that specializes in residential property management. It has been in business for over 46 years. My dad actually started that business back in 1979. I’ve been running it and working at it and eventually running it since about 97 and have grown it to one of the largest residential property managers in south Texas. Learned a lot of lessons in growing that business. And the newest adventure is the Dil Dinker indoor pickleball, which I’m sitting in and I’m very excited that we’ll be opening our first location here in about a week and a half.

Chris (02:07):

Well, that’s great. So two full-time jobs it sounds like.

Brian (02:11):

Yeah, well the other one’s a family owned legacy business. It’s three generations deep. Like I said, my dad started it, my brother and I both worked in it. I’ve owned it and run it for 28 years, and currently all of my three adult children and my daughter-in-law all work there and do the heavy lifting With a little bit of guidance from me that gave me the ability that could run effectively without my daily requirement gave me the ability to actually continue that entrepreneurial spirit and try something completely different, which is indoor pickleball. I saw a true need in my city for this. There wasn’t anybody delivering it. I saw it as an up and growing and when I actually started on it, less people knew what pickleball was. In the last 18 months it has really come to the forefront and so I started riding the wave at the right time and I hope it just keeps rolling.

Chris (03:03):

Yeah, well it is certainly taken the last couple of years. It’s taken on a life of its own it seems like. So let’s go back to I guess birdie properties and maybe the unique part of what it’s like in a family business to do the succession from your dad. Who was the founder to you and your brother then taking over that business, what were some of maybe the pain points and lessons learned about doing that and what maybe advice you might give to someone that’s in the process or thinking about it of what to do or not do?

Brian (03:37):

Yeah, running a family business, it’s wonderful and it’s tough both hand in hand. The wonderful part about it is their name is on that business. Their future is tied into that business. Their commitment generally, if they really care about it is they’re a lot more committed than just an individual employee. But at the same time it’s problematic in that you can’t separate yourself from business. Family meals are filled with business. Taking an entire family vacation becomes almost an impossibility and then secession is an issue. I bought the business from my father and it was clearly me. I own it. So my brother continued to work there but was not in ownership of it that has its own problems. We found a way for him to actually build a business out of this, and he is actually gone out on his own, is specializing in short-term management and is running his own business now.

(04:28):

And so that was a way to kind of figure out how that could work. So he is the sole owner of Verde Vacation Rentals, but I’ve got three kids that work for me. Each of them have unique qualities. They all own a very important part of the business and they really can’t survive without them working together, which works great now, but it’s going to be wonder, I keep wondering and trying to figure out what is the best way to pass this on and I don’t have the right answer for it, but continuing to work at it, giving them all individual pieces that they can own and be the masters of. And then by doing that everyone needs each other kind of helps with that whole process. No one of them can survive without the others.

Chris (05:10):

Well that seems if that’s the case, that you’ve set it up well for success because that fosters that team environment and team mentality and love. Talking about culture, so obviously you have the unique relationship with your children. How have you tried to take that beyond the family relationship with the other employees so that they feel the same engagement with the organization and tied to the organization’s success?

Brian (05:39):

So we’ve gone through lots of that and growing and basically anybody who works for us can see that. I mean their last name isn’t Birdie, they’re not in the succession plan, but we treat everyone within our business as if it was a big family. We believe in family, we believe in quality time. Individuals who work for us, we want them to do a great job for us, but when they need time, when they need something, they know they can ask for it, they can get it. And just building that kind of culture has allowed us to have number of people who have worked for us for 15, 13, 12 I think is my current people that are out there have been here for a very long time. They’re part of the family even though they’re not their last name doesn’t say birdie on it, but we work really hard in building a core that can.

(06:25):

Property management is a tough business. I’ve said all along, one of our core values is that we’re going to have fun. And so one of the things we’ve always built is if we can have fun doing the worst part of that business, then we got it made. So we have a lot of fun when we’re doing the fun parts of the business and when we go out of our way to make sure people are going to have fun, but we also find ways just to have fun and to really own that there are tough parts of that business also.

Chris (06:50):

Sure, well true for any business, there’s always the piece that you don’t enjoy doing, but you know have to, right? It’s a necessary piece, but it may not be the most fun. I think you’re right. If you can bring joy and fun into that, then the rest should be easy, right? Because it’s the stuff you like to do and want to do.

Brian (07:09):

And as I think about, I’ve been doing that for 28 years and I love going to work there. I love the people that I work with and even though it’s in a very tough and stressful, I mean at times I have to evict people from their homes. I mean that isn’t something that’s fun, but it has encouraged me that I’m waiting to see how much fun is running a pickleball facility going to be where we have a core value of bringing joy to everyone through the sport of pickleball. And I’m like, if I can have fun doing property management, I think I should find it a little easier to have fun running a pickleball facility. But I don’t know yet. We haven’t opened our doors yet. We’re going to find out. But I mean it feels like it’s going to be fun, but I don’t know what I don’t know yet. So

Chris (07:58):

Going back to Birdie, because property management, is anything innovative or how has technology or innovation helped you be more efficient in what you do and maybe more profitable?

Brian (08:11):

So we have challenged ourselves to chase technology. If you go all the way back to probably, I mean, and we’ve done this for a long time and we’ve had a website since 19 and 98 when it didn’t do anything and most people didn’t have it. I mean we have a five letter URL, I mean we are www.birdie.com and people have wanted to pay a lot of money to buy that name, but it’s just something, fortunately my dad said, I think this might be something someday. Let me just get our name now. He was lucky he did that. But from that we’ve continued to chase the changes. Every business has had major changes. I will tell you that coming out of the oh 7, 0 8 mortgage industry collapse and all the problems that happen, property management got brought way up into the forefront. And technology of course coming on strong at that time saw this as an open lane that nobody was in and they have been chasing after us like crazy.

(09:12):

And we have said all along, if we want to continue to be relevant, if we want to be a hundred year old business, the only way we’re ever going to get there is we have to embrace technology, embrace change, figure out the ways to do that, race to it, understand it, and apply it however that is. And so we’ve dramatically changed our business from where we first, I mean when we first started, everything was on paper. It was all in a folder. The folder was in a cabinet, you met people face to face. I mean everything has changed. And at our last national event, the big thing that was there was all AI driven. Not only have we used technology and we used computers and we’ve automated some things, but now we’re having the computers starting to figure out what can they really do for us in the industry.

(09:56):

And I see that being big changes coming forward as to what can it really do for us Coming out of covid, we learned we can do a lot and we don’t really need an office to do it anymore. We can have remote team members, we can do a lot on Zoom, we can do everything with computers. I think AI is just going to push that and that even runs into this business. Bill Dingers has changed a lot and it’s only a couple of years old, but it’s incorporated on court cameras that film the session sessions for the players and now that company has built in ai, so it’s going to be able to tell them automatically some statistics from their match counting things for them. And so again, very early stages, open landscape that technology and AI development is just stepping into and I’m just curious and excited to see what can that take us to because that’s the future of our business, all of our businesses.

Chris (10:54):

Oh, for sure. I mean technology’s not going anywhere. I think I had someone tell me one time and never bet against technology. Technology always wins. Eventually it continues to evolve and you may not be an early adopter, but you better pay attention and learn how to integrate it sooner rather than later or you’re going to get left

Brian (11:12):

Behind well, and it’ll show you ways that we can manage more properties with less people because of technology. We can have individuals working for us now all over the world. And we have embraced that for a long time. And we’re about a 50 50 business. Half of our employees are here in town. The other half are all remote team members and primarily in Mexico because I’m in south Texas, so I need people that can speak Spanish and what greater way to have somebody work for me, primary language is Spanish. So that part has been a significant change in the property management side of it is just, and that comes with technology, right? Because they have a computer, they can do everything. They have a phone line. So you call my office and you hit the phone, it’s calling them because phone is now what a computer. Everything is a computer. If you can learn how to adapt the changes in your business to automation, you find ways to grow and to make money when you’re doing it right.

Chris (12:11):

So you mentioned the oh eight kind of market crash. What were some of the lessons you learned because I think that’s pretty important or severe impact on your business and we always learn kind of through some of those crisises. So what were some of the things that you learned maybe about your company or more importantly about yourself that kind of helped pull the company through to continue on a path of success?

Brian (12:34):

Well, if you think about it, most people saw that as a crash, as a problem. In my world, it was actually a good thing besides the fact that people were losing their houses to foreclosure, that was certainly a negative. That didn’t help me at all. But what came behind that was investors and investors were buying those properties and turning them in to single family rentals and they needed management behind it. People who wanted to hold onto their house but had to leave them could not sell them again. Another thing, we were ready for growth. We were prepared for growth and we were not scared to grow as fast as we possibly could In those years. We doubled in size in both oh seven and oh eight and I think a lot of that was we were preparing for growth and then something happened that we didn’t expect, but we were ready and I don’t think anybody else was. So we benefited from that. We exploded over about a two or three year business and really skyrocketed us up that we’ve never lost that position since.

Chris (13:31):

That’s amazing. So you talked about you were preparing for growth before those events happened. What was it you were doing to be preparing yourself for that growth?

Brian (13:42):

Making sure I have the right staff. All my training, all my processes, systems, policies and procedures. When you first start and you’re an entrepreneur, you have this great idea, you know how to do it all in your head, you make sure it can work. What a lot of entrepreneurs aren’t great at is writing it all down, systematizing it all and teaching people how to do it. And so as you’re growing, you’re just throwing things, trying to fill in these holes and you have to learn. There’s got to be a better process to your business and growing your business and an individual who is forward thinking and really crazy ideas and just really interested to go do all these wonderful things can come up with some great stuff, but they’re not the person that’s going to carry it the, and so understanding what you’re good at, learning who you need around you to fill in those pieces where you’re not.

(14:31):

And luckily for me, I have children who are from me but not really like me and they’re not really like each other. And so collectively, the four of us and others that we’ve built into that start to create more of a complete package and we learned and we’re continuing to learn. We are forever changing and we are forever growing. It never stops. And I think at that time what we wanted was I wanted to grow. We were talking about growing and I was trying everything to be visible because remember, technology hadn’t taken over. People weren’t finding you online. You had, I was still paying for ads and newspapers in the yellow pages. I wanted people to find me, but I found technology earlier than anybody else. I found a program called all property management.com when it first opened, and it was the first marketplace for property managers on the internet and I raced to it.

(15:27):

I was the only one there in 2007, and that’s when everyone started freaking out, what am I going to do with my property? They looked and they found me and that was a big part of, so just the little steps that was not, I mean that was an investment. I was paying money to do that, but I thought there would be a payoff. I didn’t expect the tremendous payoff I got, but it really was a lot about just making sure you know what you have around you. And a lot of times what happens is we don’t hire for growth, we want growth, then growth happens and then we get squished by the work. Everyone gets overworked, everyone gets stressed, nobody’s happy. Culture starts to get hurt and you can’t sometimes can never hire fast enough to catch up to train them all. So knowing your business, watching closely, investing in growth by investing in your people, those are some of the lessons I learned because I did all that wrong at first and I suffered because of it and I’ve learned to do it differently because of that.

Chris (16:26):

Yeah, that’s a beautiful point. I mean to your point about if you start to grow, you haven’t, excuse me, hired for it, then you start making hiring decisions out of desperation and that’s a recipe for disaster as opposed to being able to follow up processes. You mentioned that process is in place that you stick to, that you follow, that you’re always looking to evolve and change and tweak as times change. But if you’re behind the curve if you will, then it’s hard to catch up.

Brian (16:53):

You also have to change with times. I mean when you can be hiring, when you don’t need to hire someone, you’re not in a hurry during your interview process, you don’t settle for, okay, this person’s good enough. You’re like, if none of them are good enough, well then they keep looking, right? But if you’re in a hurry, if you’re in a need, then anyone close you’re going to take and it may not be a good fit for you. And I would tell you before you had people in the large numbers applying for jobs, but after covid, that changed dramatically and it became a point, I mean I used to say if I could get 10 people to interview, five of ’em would show up or maybe six and one or two or three potentially could be good opportunities there. Then you’d be able to windle it down to possibly one good quality candidate after Covid. You were lucky if one person showed up, and I don’t think that’s really changed dramatically even yet today. The

Chris (17:46):

Amount of people, that would be my question. It feels like in the last say 12 months or so, there’s starting to be a little bit of a, maybe it’s slow, but a swing back towards people realizing you hear the bigger companies saying five days back in the office and that, well, we had the quiet quitting going on and 21, 22. It seems to me there’s a little less of that and it’s coming back. There are maybe more people out there and you hear that new college graduates are having really difficult times finding jobs. It seems like it’s tightening a little bit.

Brian (18:22):

Well, luckily I’m in a season in which I’ve not needed to hire and I’ve got everything placed outright. And so I hope when I start hiring again in that space, I do see that change. Noticed a big difference there and even had to change my whole process of what’s really important when I interview people, I mean I have put the number, there are two things that are at the top of the list and that is an overwhelmingly positive attitude and an undeniable desire to work. And if people come in with those two things, I can take ’em from there with anything else because I can’t give them either one of those. I can’t culture that to anyone, I can’t teach that to anybody. They have to have those two things if they have those two things clearly. And you can figure that out pretty quick.

Chris (19:06):

Have to identify with that because the words I use are we look for effort and attitude and I like desire to work that you would think that would come natural, but you and I both know it doesn’t. Interviewing people that just want a job sometimes or a paycheck and they don’t really have a desire to work or work hard. So I agree, you have to have an interview process that can kind of figure that

Brian (19:27):

Out. That’s true. And that’s something you have to learn and experience and get through and continue to tweak because as you think you have the best experience, your market of applicants change, and then you have to change and adapt with them.

Chris (19:45):

Hello friends, this is Chris Hanzlik, your building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations, and business leaders. Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm@boyermiller.com and thanks for listening to the show. So we kind of look at the landscape out there. What are some of the headwinds that you either are dealing with now or that you think may be coming around the corner that you’re trying to prepare for to not let ’em slow you down?

Brian (20:29):

I think that in the residential property management space, when times are good, we do well. When times are bad, we do even better. So generally making sure that we are running the best business that we can, that we’re providing what people need, figuring out a way to be being better. Everyone wants to say they’re better, but being better doesn’t really necessarily draw anyone’s attention anymore because it’s like, are you really better or you’re just saying you’re better, but when you’re different and you can show someone why you are different, that’s what really changes it. And so we focus on how are we different? Why are we different? How can we be different and what differences are going to be important in the next five years that may not have been important in the last five years.

Chris (21:14):

That’s really good. Yeah, I could see where, and I would think even the lots have been written about it, how difficult it is for people to purchase a home now, right? Interest rate’s one thing, but maybe the lack of accumulated wealth for down payments because of the lending markets. I can see where that would boost your business.

Brian (21:33):

I would tell you that in 2024, nationwide, the market said that rental market should have been skyrocketing and doing well, but for a variety of reasons it was not the best year. 2025 has started out as a much better year. Last year was a rough year on most residential property managers, and when we look at that, it came back to tremendous amount of apartment complexes that were built coming out of Covid that opened and it drew a lot of the market space away. People not buying, not moving families coming together in one location, which reduces. But we’ve seen a big change this year at probably one of our busiest first quarters in a while, so we’re hoping that just continues.

Chris (22:12):

Very good. So shifting gears a little bit, it sounds like company that you love, you said love to have fun doing it. I guess we’re in it for most of your life, bought it from your dad, all things going well, kids are in it, kids are thriving, and against that backdrop, you decide to step out and take on the pickleball business, which there’s certainly some competition there. Maybe San Antonio’s market was a little lacking, but there’s all kinds of people doing pickleball courts now. So what was it that inspired you or drove you to make that decision and take on that risk?

Brian (22:48):

Well, so I started playing pickleball for the first time coming out of Covid in 2020 when our mayor said, okay, you can go and gather, but it has to be outside. And so there was a tennis place that had converted on a tennis court, still they converted and made these makeshift pickleball and I went out and said, Hey, this is a lot of fun. Eventually Chicken and Pickle opened in San Antonio. I went inside to that and I thought, Hey, I really like this. And started playing there quite regularly. My wife and a non pickleball related injury broke her ankle and we were out for about a year. When I came back one year later, everything had changed. It was almost impossible to book a court. The age of the players had dropped 20 years in a year. It used to be forties and fifties.

(23:32):

And I walk in and now it’s twenties and thirties, and I was like, okay, something has really happened here. So I did a lot of research, looked at all the numbers, and then I started saying, okay, we don’t have enough courts and we don’t have any indoor courts. And I was like, I think we could do a good job at this. I was first trying to find a place to go play, and what it led me to is there’s a need. Maybe I can solve that need. And then in researching it in the state of Texas, San Antonio was lacking in indoor courts in the country, we’re doing awful. Houston was the only city in Texas, even on the radar for the number of pickleball courts and the number of indoor pickleball courts. They have more than anyone in Texas. They have more than almost any other city in the country.

(24:10):

So that city had figured it out and I’m like, we hadn’t yet. And I’m like, Hey, if you’re going to do something and you’re going to be different, one of the greatest ways of being different is be first, because if you’re first, you’re different. There’s nobody else. And so I dove in, found a great Zrich is a national franchise, and I believed in what they put together. And so I’m one of their first franchisees. I’m going to be opening up my first club here in about 10 days here in San Antonio, and I’m a regional developer, so I have the right to develop up to 20 clubs, whether I open them or help somebody else who wants to run their own pickleball location here, I will be supporting them and getting them open and I can open all of my clubs, other entities can open all theirs.

(24:52):

There will not be enough pickleball. I only if I fill all my clubs up, all 20 clubs open and they’re all completely full. But that would only represent a fraction of 1% of the Bexar County population. And so there’s room for everybody and there’s room for growth. And that’s kind of one of the reasons why I got into this is that I’m like, Hey, plus I love it. I have so much fun and I’m going to tell you what, running a property management business has been a lot of fun, but I really hope that running a pickleball business is going to be even a lot easier to have fun. We’ll see, I don’t know yet.

Chris (25:24):

In 10 days you’ll start to figure it out.

Brian (25:26):

Well, that’s free. That’s free week. Everyone’s coming for free. So they’re going to love me for at least a week for sure. We’ll see what happens after that.

Chris (25:34):

Good strategy there. Yeah, I know. Look, we’ve worked with some entrepreneurs and developers here in the Houston area doing this, right? Developing pickleball venues with the bars and the food service, and that’s where they did the market research. And even in Houston, it is interesting to hear your numbers on the covered courts in Houston leading all cities, but they’re like there is a lack of courts in light of the demand, especially certainly private clubs have taken converted attendance courts or extra space where they’ve put in pickleball courts, but if you’re not a member of that club, you don’t have access. And so for the general public to have access, things like what you’re doing and chicken pickle, et cetera, and some of the maybe non-national brands, just one off local things, there’s still a ton of demand for that.

Brian (26:23):

If you look at it, lifetime gyms and LA Fitness have both decided they’re going away from basketball and they’re going all in on pickleball. And I talked to their national developer and I said, why are you making this change? And they said, well, basketball has led to altercations and fights and problems and pickleball equals new membership. And so they’re all in and you can see most of them are converting them. I have a couple of Gold’s Gyms in San Antonio that have converted into pickleball in their courts. It’s just there’s such a need. There’s such a desire. A lot of people say they find a way to play, they’ll play anywhere. A lot of people haven’t played because they say it’s too hard to find a place to play. So we’re hoping we can be part of the solution to that and start giving lots and lots of options for people to come out and play and see how easy it is, how fun it is. The community that’s built around this is unlike other sports. It is a unique game in which it is the most gender equal and age equal. I can go out on any given day and lose to an 8-year-old or an 80-year-old, and both of them could be a male or a female. It doesn’t matter because this is the equal sport amongst all sports.

Chris (27:39):

Yeah. Well I’ll say given the timing when you’re opening and the fact that we’re in Texas being covered courts is going to be a nice added bonus because I don’t think you want to be in the middle of the summer outside on a pickleball court for too long.

Brian (27:54):

Well, they’ve been doing it for years. What I have to do is get them in here so they can see. And that’s the thing about being different. So some things that are different with us is we have pro cushion courts, they’re all individually fenced. We have special LAD court lighting that’s designed specifically for pickleball. Of course, it’s not windy in here. There’s no rain, there’s no heat, there’s no humidity. And as you can see behind me, all the walls are black in the playing surface. And that’s so when you’re standing on your court and your opponent hits the ball pops, it’s coming outside, you don’t see that you’ve got wind, you’ve got heat, you got sweat, you got movement, you got craziness. And so that’s where we’ve dove into being different and we’re hoping it’ll pay off.

Chris (28:36):

No, all true. I mean, having played myself, you’re right. If you’re outside of it, depending on where the sun is, it’s sometimes hard to see the ball.

Brian (28:44):

Yeah, true. Not in here. Perfect lighting, perfect temperature, perfect courts. And the one thing I get annoyed, I’m a spoiled, I’m a pickleball snob now. I cannot stand playing on a court where the court right next door is not separated and their ball keeps coming into mind. I’m like, I can’t even play that way anymore. I’ve become a pickleball snob. I expect to be able to get on my court and play my game and not be disrupted by anybody else.

Chris (29:08):

There you go. As every man or woman should have a right to right.

Brian (29:11):

That’s right.

Chris (29:13):

So you kind of bit this off as a franchisee. Let’s talk a little bit about that. What are some of the things that you learned about that process that maybe you weren’t expecting that you could share with some listeners that maybe a lot of people look at franchise opportunities?

Brian (29:28):

So I tell people all the time, so I’ve been involved in franchising in a couple of other ways. I went for about a four year period and worked for a nationwide property management franchising company called Property Management Incorporated. And I was up at the corporate level seeing, so I learned about franchising itself and people would go, why are you doing this? Why should I do this? And I would give them reasons why. If you’re already running your business, you already know what you’re doing. You don’t need a franchise. When you’re starting out from brand new and you have no idea what you’re doing and you’re not really sure how you’re do it, you have to consider that anyone can do the business on their own, right? Even me, I could have opened this on my own, but do you know how much stuff I didn’t know about pickleball that I learned from my franchise organization and the attention that it has drawn me?

(30:10):

You have to figure out when that might be right for you. I think that there’s been a lot of benefit of doing that, but you got to examine them all. I went and looked at every existing franchise when I started to do this. Now since then, there are five new pickleball franchises available and I’m sure there’ll be five more in the next six months. So there are a lot of choices. I looked at them all. I checked into their history. I interviewed expect what they needed to do, and then I went and did a Discovery day and Columbia, Maryland to find out what was Dil Dinker all about. And a big part of it is who is the leadership? Who’s going to be guiding you? Who are you going to be working with? And I absolutely loved the people that were involved and that’s a big part of this.

(30:50):

You’re going to be in business with them at the same time. And so this made a lot of sense for me. They were structuring in a very smart way of doing it, and they’re the fastest growing pickleball franchise that’s out there, and they’ve sold 27 regions across the country. They’ve made great strides at improving everything that we do. The place I cameras that we talked about earlier with the AI involved, that’s something that’s new. The proc courts, that’s new from when we first started. And now all of our pro shops are powered by Pickleball Central, which again is also something new. So when you look at a franchise, it’s like, yeah, they exist, but what are they doing to evolve? What are they doing to be different? Because you’re going to rely on that and work with them to show them how else they can be different.

(31:31):

I decided this was the way for me to go. And by being a regional developer here in town, I have my first one opening. I have my second one already under construction, and I’ve got 18 more to go, but I’m probably not going to open all 18 of those. So there are opportunities right now, and the way deal diners is they have your corporate staff, but I’m the local representative. I’m here to help develop anyone locally. So anyone who wants to open one here has me helping them. And I’ve already gone through all the pain and suffering of what does it take to open a place? I know what you need to do to have it happen. They taught me what they knew. Now I’ve experienced here locally in San Antonio, I know what’s going to happen here. Those are some of the advantages when you start looking at franchising and say, Hey, I want to do a business. I don’t want to do it alone. I don’t want to start. And it’s tough. There’s things you’ve got to know to be successful right out of the gun and you may not know everything on your own.

Chris (32:27):

It makes sense. And I said, the franchisors has got to show that value, the why you’re going to be making payments and getting the benefit of some of their things. It occurs to me too of the advantages, at least to what you’re doing with these indoor courts and just kind of looking behind you is that you could take advantage of some of the big box locations that have been abandoned, that every city has those where there was some store that has either now gone to a bigger complex but left that space behind. It looks like that’s what you can kind of take advantage of from a real estate perspective.

Brian (33:01):

And I figured with my real estate background that this was going to be a piece of cake. Well, let me just tell you, San Antonio is a healthy city. We don’t have big boxes just sitting around empty. Finding the location was the biggest challenge for me, and that isn’t true everywhere else. That’s why I’m franchise number one, but I’m not the first franchisee to open because there are people who found it much quicker. The gentleman up in Pennsylvania went on his very first visit and found two locations and has opened both of them. One of them has 17 courts inside with 75 foot ceilings and no columns. I think it was like an aircraft hanger at some point. It was an indoor soccer facility for a while, and it is like the perfect layout for indoor pickleball. But he found it in one visit, found one landlord, signed two leases and opened them both up. I have been to hundreds of places because I have to have the right height, I have to have space between columns. I got to have air conditioning, I got to have bathrooms, and I got to figure out what’s it going to cost to convert the place. And in San Antonio, we don’t have a lot of space just sitting around empty.

Speaker 1 (34:08):

Well, that’s a good problem.

Brian (34:11):

It’s good for the city. I mean, I found this one and I’ve found my second one, and I’m continually looking and there will be more opportunities and there’ll be, I think the strange thing in my city is we have the most vacant space in our city is industrial space. There’s industrial warehousing all over and it’s all empty and they don’t want to talk to me yet, but one day they’re going to say, you know what? I’m tired of being empty. Maybe we should talk to these pickleball guys because it’s the perfect layout, giant empty buildings just sitting around empty one day. When I can start turning them into pickleball, then the life’s going to be real good.

Chris (34:43):

For sure. So just real quick though, I want to ask about you kind of just as a leader, your leadership style and how you think that’s evolved over time and what you’ve learned maybe about yourself and about leadership in the process in that journey.

Brian (34:59):

I learned leadership pretty young. I mean, I go back and think about it and say my dad was in the military. I was in military brat. We were all part of scouting. You start learning leadership in scouts. I joined the Air Force myself. I served time in that. And the leadership is pretty well defined there. I mean, you can grow into being a good leader through that process, but in the military, leaders comes with rank, whether you, sometimes you don’t really haven’t earned it, but you get it because you wear the rank. And there’s a difference in just knowing and understanding. And in that I learned, I’m like if I want to be a leader, I’ve got to earn the right to be the leader of other people. As I started growing my own business, the challenge was I know I want everything done. I like it done a certain way.

(35:40):

Most entrepreneurs are type A personalities. We got an idea, we’re going to run with it. We want to do it, and no one could do it as good as we can. Well, you’re going to be awful lonely and awful small if you think you’re going to grow business all by yourself. So lesson you have to learn is how do I surround myself with people who make me better, who fill in the gaps of the things I’m not, and how do I let go and let them lead? So I’ve learned to invest in my staff and invest in them being leaders and letting it go. And remember, if you get from point A to point B and it doesn’t cost any more money and it isn’t illegal and it doesn’t use up any more time, does it really matter if they got their different than I would’ve?

(36:20):

And honestly it doesn’t. But that’s a lesson I had to learn. I was not very good at it. My wife and my kids pulled things out of my gripped hands because they were like, you got to let this go, or we were never going to grow. And then you look back later and go, wow, I’m so glad I did that. I mean, they’re doing a better job at it than I ever did. And then you just have to make sure you’re continually watching over what you’re doing, right, building good systems, checking on what you’re doing, investing in your people, which means spending money on them, spending money to educate them, spending money for them to go out and try things. And also don’t be scared to try something. It’s probably one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned. Don’t be scared to try something new that no one else has tried because they’re not all going to work. And I can tell you some of mine that were absolute failures. You figure it out, you go switch back, we’re done. But the ones that didn’t work grew the business, made me money, made us more efficient. And not being fearful to just change, adapt and be different is a big part. And when your staff sees that you’re willing to do that and you’re encouraging them and you’re investing them and you’re giving them the ability to lead, you’ll be surprised what they can do for you.

Chris (37:34):

Right. Well, so first, thank you for your service. And second, yes, I think part of that for me is you can’t be scared to fail. So if you don’t take any chances, you won’t learn, you won’t grow. So you’ve got to be willing to do that and be observant of, is it going well? Is it not? Do I need to pivot? Do I not for your business and for yourself.

Brian (37:55):

And you have to listen to your staff around you because at certain point, when you grow a business effectively, you start to get out of the day to day. And so you’ve got to check on it, you’ve got to hear from them, you’ve got to build on it. And you’ve got to give them the ability to tell you, maybe it is time to pivot. Maybe we need to do something different. Maybe there is a need out there even though you didn’t recognize it. They need to know they can bring it to you and you’ll listen. Doesn’t mean everything’s going to change, but you give them a chance to speak it up and then it’s out there and then you talk about it. And we do that regularly and it really changes the business when people have the freedom to bring up ideas and not be afraid of it.

Chris (38:35):

So let’s move from the business side of things to just personal. Tell me what’s your favorite part about San Antonio and why you decided to call it home?

Brian (38:43):

I moved here with my dad. He got stationed here when I was 13 years old, and this has been my hometown almost ever since I joined the Air Force. And I did leave here and I missed it all while I was gone. There’s something about the community here in San Antonio, the people, the events, the city that I missed, I’ve lived in other places. I don’t think I ever missed not being there as much as I missed being here. And so this is truly my hometown. I love the city all that we have going on, the fact we continue to grow and get big, but we still feel like a small town never. And there’s something for everyone. There’s everything you possibly could want to do. You can do it here. I mean, we’re in the middle of Fiesta. It’s been going on forever, but there’s still something in Fiesta that I still probably haven’t even done as many times.

(39:28):

I’ve gone out and done things and it’s exciting just to be involved in that. I’ve been a Spurs fan since I moved here. I actually saw the Spurs as soon as I came back. We were coming back from Italy, moving to San Antonio and the Spurs. I was 13 years old. The Spurs were in the Eastern Conference finals against the Washington Bullets, and they were up three games to one, and I watched them lose the next three games, and then I followed them and we didn’t make it back to a conference championship for 20 years in 99. And then the next 20 years was a good payoff. We had a lot of fun and won a lot of games. So this was my town. I love my city. I love all that we do here.

Chris (40:11):

Yeah, well, it’s definitely spent enough time there to get a feel, a very unique and welcoming culture and vibe. You mentioned Fiesta, but I don’t see any badges on you.

Brian (40:21):

They’re on sale at the front counter.

Chris (40:23):

Gotcha. Yeah. Well, I actually was in,

Brian (40:25):

Hey, we made one. We’ve made one. We’ve traded some. A few people have bought them, and it’s fun part to be part of that when you run a business in San Antonio.

Chris (40:35):

For sure. I’ve had the benefit of being there for a week on business during Fiesta and learned the whole thing about the badges and the trading and still have ’em with me. That’s a lot of fun.

Brian (40:45):

Yeah. Last weekend, one of my managers took them all, went down and was down there handing out badges and also handing out flyers about our business and just getting the word out and getting connections to both people and other businesses. It’s a unique time when everyone’s just willing to talk to you and get face-to-face, and everyone wants everyone else’s metals. The Fiesta Metals are kind of a cool thing.

Chris (41:08):

Yeah, for sure. Okay, last question. Do you prefer Tex-Mex or Barbecue

Brian (41:13):

Tex-Mex for sure. I’ll tell you this, in traveling the country, there are other places where you can get barbecue. Maybe not quite the same, but there’s some good barbecue out there. There is no good Tex-Mex anywhere except here.

Chris (41:27):

Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s pretty accurate statement. Well, Brian, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story, both on the property management side and pickleball. Good luck with the grand opening coming up and look forward to seeing you guys succeed in that industry as well.

Brian (41:45):

Alright, well hey great. Thanks for having me on. Great conversation.

Chris (41:49):

Alright, take care.

Brian (41:50):

Alright, bye.

Chris (41:51):

And there we have it. Another great episode. Don’t forget to check out the show notes at boyarmiller.com/podcast and you can find out more about all the ways our firm can help you at boyarmiller.com. That’s it for this episode. Have a great week and we’ll talk to you next time.