032 | That’s a Great Question

Morgan Evans:
It’s the Morgan Evans More or Less Pickleball Podcast coming at you in three, two, one, boom! Good day folks. My guest today is one of the founding members of Selkirk. He’s certainly in my top two favorite bands brothers. Some say he’s the backbone of the organization. And he’s here today to talk about Selkirk TV, an exciting new venture that is set to change how the world watches pickleball. Please welcome, Mr. Mike Barnes. Mike, how are you mate?

Mike Barnes :
I’m doing great, Morgan. How are you?

Morgan Evans:
Doing well, enjoying a good time of the season down in the desert here. How are things up there in the Coeur d’Alene part of the world?

Mike Barnes :
It’s pretty nice, actually. We’ve been having some sunny days and it feels like summer is coming, but you never know in our area. It seems one day it could be 80 degrees, the next day it could be snowing. So, we’ll see.

Morgan Evans:
Well I’m sure you’ll survive, as long as your pickleball game is still intact.

Mike Barnes :
Yeah, for sure. I’ve been playing a bit more. So it’s been nice getting out and playing outside on occasion.

Morgan Evans:
Good, I think people will forget that you too actually play the game. And you started out as players and saw a need for better paddles and went from there.

Mike Barnes :
Definitely, yeah. I mean, that’s why we’re in this sport. Is we started playing, it was actually at our local Kroc center and was just on a gym floor. I think there was… Those first few days, there’s 20, 30, 40 people playing on two courts. So it was a lot of fun, but… Yeah, sometimes it’s hard. When you’re in the industry all day long, it’s always fun to get out there and have some fun, and get some good competitive matches. And remember why we’re doing this.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah, good mate. So, now we are here to talk a lot about this new venture that Selkirk has embarked upon, Selkirk TV. This reportedly was your brain child. So I thought you’d be the best candidate for the job. Tell me, how did you come up with this? How long has it been in the making? Give us a few details of the backstory.

Mike Barnes :
So, Selkirk TV has been in the making for over a year, actually. So it was during the pandemic. And during that time, people were looking for… They couldn’t play pickleball, but they were still consuming pickleball content.

Mike Barnes :
And I’m sure you know with your platform, Coach.me and with all the YouTube channels out there, pickleball is very popular, not just to play, but also to watch YouTube videos, watch live streams, whether that’s the PPA, nationals, lesson videos, or even shows and podcasts. So we just saw there was a lot of content out there, but it was a little bit disjointed.

Mike Barnes :
So there wasn’t really a single place that you could go to find the best pickleball content. So there’s, you want to watch a lesson video, you might have to search for the best YouTube creators and see if you can find one that you’re interested in, or if there’s a live stream you have to remember, okay, which Facebook page is this on? What’s the name?

Mike Barnes :
Trying to find the right live stream. There just wasn’t a really easy, seamless way for people to engage with the pickleball community and with pickleball content. And so that’s where just looking into it and seeing that there was a need for a single destination for the best content.

Mike Barnes :
And we saw the best way to implement that was through TV apps and mobile apps. So rather than going into an app like YouTube or Facebook and trying to find the content there, there’ll actually be the Selkirk TV app right next to your Netflix app, right next to your Gmail app and your phone. And you just click on that and you have content right at your fingertips.

Mike Barnes :
So, for us with anything, if you can make it easier for people, people will do it more often. So if you can make it easier for people to find a lesson video, they’re more likely to watch that lesson video. And so, that’s how it all started. So, we’ve had the idea since probably May or June of last year.

Mike Barnes :
And so I’ve been working on it periodically and really ramped it up this year. And yeah, we were really excited. We think there’s a huge need for an app like this. And another benefit is, it’s 100% free. So we’re not charging for the content.

Morgan Evans:
Good, because that was going to be the million dollar question, that was coming up next. That’ll make a lot of our listeners very happy. So you’ve ticked the box there, good job. This is actually an interview on Shark Tank. I’m going to be sending it to them. I’m sure you’re going to get the job, don’t worry.

Mike Barnes :
Okay, awesome.

Morgan Evans:
So now you mentioned, this was a starting around the birth of the pandemic. Occurs to me that obviously it was a great time for people to be watching pickleball, but also from a organizational standpoint for you, it’s not a time where you could have all your employees in a factory; however, programmers and whatnot, they tend to be able to work from anywhere. Was that part of the decision-making and the timing of when it was time to could put a lot of eggs in that basket?

Mike Barnes :
There were some benefits in terms of, we have a little bit more time on our hands in some ways during the pandemic to brainstorm on how to achieve things. It also was a bit of a difficult time because we didn’t have the ability to travel and to film content. So everybody was staying home.

Mike Barnes :
So there wasn’t a whole lot we could actually execute on with Selkirk TV. So we didn’t execute much last year. We really started executing early this year. We’re working with creating our own content, working on shows, and also working with other content creators and curating some of the best content.

Mike Barnes :
So with Selkirk TV, it’s not just about Selkirk content. Not everybody’s going to be using a Selkirk paddle. It’s not all of the teachers are Selkirk sponsored players. We’re just looking for the best content. We really seen this year is when people are more available and we’re really able to ramp up the production of content and working with our own production team, as well as other production teams.

Morgan Evans:
So in that sense, it’s going to be a little bit like when sort of Netflix came into the market. They were outsourcing a lot of their content to start with, but as they grew over time, they started building more of their own content. And now there’s hundreds of different Netflix originals.

Mike Barnes :
Yeah, exactly. That’s a great analogy. Well, so that’s what we’ll be doing. We’ll be doing a little bit of both. Over time with anything that our company does, we try to take an agile approach. So we’re putting out some great content to start, working with some great content creators. And then over time, we’re going to start building it out.

Mike Barnes :
We have a lot of exciting things down the road that we’re going to be launching content-wise and new creators. So long-term, we won’t have this to start, but the long-term goal is to be able to have unique content during prime time. So the most common times for people to watch TV and watch content is actually Monday through Thursday, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mike Barnes :
And if you look at live streams and current content that goes out there, those aren’t the times that they’re typically appearing. So the long-term goal is to be able to have a lot of unique content, matches, shows, lesson videos that you can tune in to your TV when most people do, which is in the evenings and actually watch unique content right there.

Mike Barnes :
So we’re going to have a lot on, demand content. You can log in on your app or your TV, find the podcast, listen to the latest episode or whichever episode you want to listen to. Maybe it’s one that was recorded a year ago. You can do that. Or there’ll also be a TV section on the app, to where you can log in, go to the TV section and something will be playing for you right away.

Mike Barnes :
That way you don’t have to make a decision. Sometimes people are like, well, I don’t know what YouTube creator I want to watch today. I don’t know if there’s a new video out there, but with Selkirk TV, you can log in, go to the TV section and unique content will be playing for you immediately. That way you don’t have to make the choice and you can just engage right away.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah. That’s nice. It’s taking out that burden of choice that the consumer has to make.

Mike Barnes :
Exactly.

Morgan Evans:
And I often like when I click on a TV, you’ve got 12 different apps you could open, but sometimes you just want something else to make the decision. And then I ended up clicking on 18 TV and sure enough, there’s bloody corn hole playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mike Barnes :
Right, right.

Morgan Evans:
So, obviously the game has grown so much in recent times. And professional pickleball is enjoying its biggest boom yet. Selkirk TV will be helping to add more eyes to the game. Can you tell us a little bit about how are you going to be developing live streaming in professional pickleball?

Mike Barnes :
That’s a great question. And that really is our goal with Selkirk TV, is to broaden the community that’s engaging with the sport, pickleball. So right now there certainly is a very passionate core community of pickleball players that are following every live stream, they’re following and watching all the YouTube content that’s being pushed out.

Mike Barnes :
For that, that’s a very core community and pickleball hasn’t done a great job at this point in expanding to the broader community. So I think there’s 4 million plus pickleball players in the US right now. And if you look at the numbers on YouTube, Facebook, live streams, as well as other content, it’s not being engaged with as much as it should be for how many players are out there. And we think a lot of that is because of, there wasn’t an easy way for people to access the content.

Mike Barnes :
Most people in tennis don’t access tennis content through Facebook or YouTube, they access it through the tennis channel. And this is a pattern we’ve seen. And you see repeated often in industries, is there’s certainly a core community, but really the industry opens up to the world and to the broader community when there’s easy access.

Mike Barnes :
And so for tennis, there was the tennis channel. Similar thing with golf and the golf channel. The food network really popularized a lot of food trends. And so that’s something we’re hoping that we can do with Selkirk TV as well. Is make it an easy experience that anybody can access content. And really broaden the community. So more people are watching live streams, more people are watching the top players and trying to get better with their game.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah.

Mike Barnes :
So, that’s the end goal. And that’s what we’re really excited about Selkirk TV. And from the feedback we’ve seen, we think there’s a big opportunity there. So far with all the content that we’ve been publishing, sort of snippets on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and such, we’ve received 750,000 impressions.

Morgan Evans:
Wow.

Mike Barnes :
So there definitely is a wide market out there for this content. And we’re excited to engage with them. And specifically on your question with live streams, we’re going to be working with the PPA as well as the USA Pickleball Nationals to air a live stream on Selkirk TV. So, when you want to watch PPA match, or you want to watch the nationals this year, just log into the Selkirk TV app, go to the TV section and the best pickleball play will be there for you right away.

Mike Barnes :
As well as working on exhibitions. We think there’s a big opportunity with exhibitions. And this is an interesting thing that we’ve talked with nationals and other tournaments about is, part of the problem with being able to engage with the community is people are looking for certain stars. They want to watch certain people, and they want to know when they can watch those pro players. But the way tournaments are currently structured, there isn’t a good way to do that.

Mike Barnes :
Some of them like US Open nationals, they’re trying to put medal matches at specific times, which is great because it allows people to plan and say, okay, I can watch Tyson McGuffin at 2:00 PM Sunday, or whenever that medal match is playing.

Mike Barnes :
And that’s a big part of tennis. So we work with the Indian Wells team for nationals and in tennis they have the advantage of being able to say, hey, we’re going to put Serena on court one at this time. And we know we’re going to sell tickets for that court. We know people are going to tune in to watch Serena at that time, and you don’t really have that in pickleball yet.

Mike Barnes :
So we think with exhibitions we’ll be able to sort of capture some of that where we can say, okay, instead of having a live stream, Saturday 2:00 PM, which is the absolute worst time to air content, because on Saturdays, people are out doing things.

Mike Barnes :
We’re able to say, okay, we’re going to air this content Monday evening, Thursday evening, when people actually tune in to watch content on their TV. And we can promote the players, promote what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen and people can plan around it and actually engage with the content there. So we think there’s a lot of opportunities with PPA, with nationals, as well as exhibitions, to engage more people with the pros and with the topic of all play.

Morgan Evans:
We’re going to hold it just there with Mike. For a quick tip from our sponsor, CoachME Pickleball. Practice makes perfect, right? My name is Morgan Evans, and I have to tell you that practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes progress. That’s why we’ve created CoachME Pickleball. At CoachME Pickleball, you’ll find an extensive and growing library of lessons on topics covering every aspect of pickleball for every level of player. For one small monthly fee, you’ll get access to every video in our library, with new content added every month. Check out, coachmepickleball.com to sign up for a free seven-day membership.

Morgan Evans:
All right, let’s head back over to Mike, and learn a little more about Selkirk TV. I’m sort of seeing a real parallel between pickleball as a game and how the gateway to play and to enjoy the game is so simple, so easy, versus something like tennis or, and other racket sports that takes a lot more work and effort to enjoy.

Morgan Evans:
That side of things hasn’t happened yet in the media side of pickleball. And it looks like you guys are looking to make that gateway that much easier to get through. So more consumers can enjoy a wonderful sport. So seems like a good step in the right direction mate.

Mike Barnes :
That’s the thing about pickleball. It’s such a unique sport. It’s such a great sport with so much potential still. I don’t know if you saw recently, the Chicago Cubs team was playing pickleball in the bullpen. It’s starting to blow up and it’s such an easy sport for anybody to start in.

Mike Barnes :
You don’t need lessons like you do in tennis, but what’s also great about pickleball is there’s always room to improve. There’s always sort of that sense that I can get better, I can play better, I can improve my game. I could move up in the rankings. And that’s really what makes it, I think, addicting for people and sort of that ease but also that challenge.

Mike Barnes :
With that, pickleball five years ago, it was known as a senior sport because pickleball did blow up in the senior communities five, six years ago. But we really see it transitioning into a younger, more athletic sport. And that’s where it’s important for us and for pickleball in general to put forward the best athletes and the best pickleball players.

Mike Barnes :
So we’ve seen a ton of engagement with highlight videos that we’ve been posting. We went on TikTok, received 75,000 views. And just reading the comments, you see young people being interested in the sport and wanting to start playing the sport because it’s actually cool, it’s actually fun, it’s actually athletic.

Mike Barnes :
And if they’re engaged and they’re interested, and they actually go out and play they’ll realize it’s also easy to get started. And then there’ll be a pickleball player for life. So, that’s really the goal. Our goal is to help pickleball and grow the pickleball world through Selkirk TV.

Morgan Evans:
Honestly, I’m still just a little taken back. I had no idea we were Tik-Toking. I really thought Emily Waters was the only pickleball TikTok person on the planet, but I’m glad to hear we’re getting that many views, no matter what it is.

Mike Barnes :
That goes with some of the women’s doubles matches [crosstalk 00:15:43] actually. Yeah, yeah. That’s another, just a unique thing about pickleball. And I think we’ll see a large amount of engagement and acceptance of the sport, is women’s doubles and men’s doubles are very, both very exciting to watch.

Mike Barnes :
So in other sports there’s been a lot of controversies on equal pay, understandably, and I don’t think we’ll have those controversies in pickleball because women’s doubles is very exciting to watch. It’s very fast paced. A lot of our best highlight videos are actually from women’s doubles. So it’ll be exciting to see that grow as well with the sport.

Morgan Evans:
Excellent. So obviously this is a pioneer ground for the sport in general. Being the first to offer high quality content in an app. It gives Selkirk, that’s what’s called, the first movers advantage. I mean, any industry, the first person into the space often has an advantage in that they can develop quick brand recognition and loyalty. However, to a large extent, Selkirk already has that, but it has a paddle company. Do you expect consumers to apply your existing paddle credit, so to speak? To an assumed quality that you will have in the media world?

Mike Barnes :
Yes, we hope so. We definitely have developed our brand in the pickleball equipment space and that will help us jumpstart Selkirk TV as well. We already, even before the launch of Selkirk TV, we’ve been very engaged on social media and publishing content. I believe our social media page has more engagement, more people engaging with the content than all of our competitors combined. So-

Morgan Evans:
Wow.

Mike Barnes :
We’ve really focused on media from the start, and this is just an opportunity to really ramp things up. So because we already have a very engaged community, that’ll allow us to jumpstart Selkirk TV and get it going. And like you mentioned, it is important to be the first mover. It is important to just get something out there and then run with it and improve it over time. So for example, with Selkirk, the first paddle we ever launched, wasn’t a Vanguard.

Mike Barnes :
The first time we ever launched, we called it the 208 First Run because we knew there’d be some problems. We knew there’d be hiccups, but it’s something that we’d fix over time. So continuous improvement is a very core principle to our company and something that we’ll be applying to Selkirk TV as well.

Mike Barnes :
So we think we’re going to have a lot of great content. We’re going to have must-see videos from a variety of creators. We’re going to have pickleball shows, which previously pickleball shows were not… Specifically video shows have not been extremely popular on YouTube and Facebook, but we think with a platform like ours, we’ll be able to really spotlight them and get them additional audiences and also previous matches.

Mike Barnes :
So we’re going to have a lot of great content to start, but what we have to start isn’t where we’re going to be six months from now. So we’re really going to start ramping things up, building things out, especially based on customer feedback. So if we see certain content doing very well, that’s where we’re going to focus on, so that we bring what people actually want to watch on the platform.

Morgan Evans:
And luckily the app’s free to download. So it’s not like the average viewer has to gamble and agree to a $9,95 payout for an undisclosed amount of content. So that’s good.

Mike Barnes :
Right, exactly. It’s zero risk.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah, that’s great. Paddle customers, of course will be… There’ll be happy that Selkirk is expanding. However, some of them might be a little curious how Selkirk contends to deliver the same quality paddle now that your attentions are in the media world as well. What’s the plan there? Just devil’s advocate.

Mike Barnes :
Sure. So, I think there’s a few ways to tackle that. One is, there are three partners in the company. So there’s myself, my brother, Robin, our dad, Jim. We all have different roles and abilities and skills. And it’s worked out really well for our company because not everybody is good at everything. And so we’re able to apply what we’re good at to our company.

Mike Barnes :
We’re definitely going to be focusing still on product. My brother, Rob is still driving R and D [forward 00:19:43]. We’re very excited for this year. There’s some products and initiatives we’ll be launching this year that we think will be very interesting to the community and really put our R and D efforts on display in front and the center.

Mike Barnes :
So we’re still very excited about everything we’re working on with R and D. And really our company, our slogan is, we are packleball. We’re trying to, as our mission statement says, feel the pickleball obsession found inside every player. We want to do that any way we can. So we’re going to do that with having the best equipment and the best R and D, but also with Selkirk TV, the best content, so that people can engage with the pickleball world and put their best foot forward and pickelball overall.

Morgan Evans:
Excellent. So just to start to wrap things up a little bit, I’m curious if people are out there and they think their content might indeed be good enough to go on Selkirk TV. What should they do? Is this a don’t call us, we’ll call you deal? Any thoughts towards those players, those people?

Mike Barnes :
Great question. I mean, we would love to hear from any content creators. What you have going on or what you’d like to do and definitely reach out to us. So just reach out to us via email and send us maybe a sample of what you’re thinking and we’re open to posting content.

Mike Barnes :
So, it’s one of those things, especially in this pandemic world, it sort of opens up a lot of opportunities with production so that we’re willing to look at a lot of content, a variety of content, especially anything unique and creative and run with it on Selkirk TV, as well as our Facebook, social media, YouTube. We have a large reach and a growing reach. So we’d be excited to work with a lot of content creators.

Morgan Evans:
Fantastic, great. So you heard it here first folks, if you want your 15 minutes of fame, Selkirk TV could be it. Who knows?

Mike Barnes :
That’s right.

Morgan Evans:
So for people who haven’t downloaded it yet, what’s it available on? How do they get a hold of Selkirk TV?

Mike Barnes :
Yes. So it will be available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, iPhone, iOS apps, Tablets, and Android apps as well. So the way the system’s designed, you’re able to download it on your Apple TV or your smart TV, and also on your mobile phone. And it’ll sync the content you’re watching, your favorites and you can engage whether it’s on your phone or on your TV.

Morgan Evans:
Sweet, nice. All right. Well, I’m excited. By the time this airs it’ll be out. I’ll be probably watching it while I’m listening to this podcast.

Mike Barnes :
Right, yeah. You can listen to this podcast right on Selkirk TV.

Morgan Evans:
Beautiful. Well, Mr. Mike Barnes, I got to say, I love having you and your brother on, not just because… Well, you’re decent humans for sure but you always say, great question. It doesn’t matter what I ask. It usually comes, a great question and I think it just makes me feel better about the questions I’m asking. Because I don’t know if they’re all great, but hopefully at least three or four were interesting.

Mike Barnes :
Hey, well you’re one that said great question too. Those were the good ones.

Morgan Evans:
Those are the good way, everything else was… I’m not sure about that one. All right, mate. Well, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you coming on the show and telling us about this new venture. Selkirk TV, get it while it’s hot.

Mike Barnes :
Thank you, Morgan.

Morgan Evans:
Pleasure, thanks mate. Take care. This podcast was powered by Selkirk. This podcast is also brought to you by the next generation of Selkirk paddle, the Vanguard. Well, that’s all we’ve got time for today folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed our time together. As always I’m Morgan Evans and this has been pretty much, pickleball. No, wait, More or Less Pickleball, that’s it. Yep. Got it.