Building the Next 100 Years of Racquet Sports Leadership - with Brian Dillman
Welcome to Racquet Fuel, where we launch into great conversations and share powerful tools to help you become a stronger rackets leader. Your hosts are Kim Bastable, a former all American tennis player and now the director of professional rackets management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, the USTA senior director of racket sports development. Today on Racquet Fuel, Kim and Simon talk with RSPA CEO Brian Dillman about the principles that drive his leadership and how he's preparing professionals to thrive in a fast evolving industry. Here are Kim and Simon. Welcome
Kim Bastable:to Racquet Fuel, Kim Bastable. We are so excited today to have Brian Dillman. Brian is someone that was somewhat unfamiliar to Simon and I just a few years ago and now feels like we've just really learned a lot about him, gotten to know him, have great respect. He's taken over the realm of the RSPA, which previously was called USPTA, which is one of his changes. And it's just been really exciting to watch Brian make change, just adapt, grow, innovate.
Kim Bastable:I And I think that's what we're gonna talk about today, Simon, and that's generally what we're intrigued by.
Simon Gale:Yeah. I've looked fondly upon Brian's few years in the in his role and and marveled at how he's he's engaged people. And I think one of the things we were just talking about is who's our customer and staying engaged with people, and I think he's done a phenomenal job at that, and really excited to pick his brain today and hear how he does things and how he operates in his role. So welcome, Brian.
Brian Dillman:Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Brian Dillman:Love to dig in. I love the industry, so it's always fun to to cuss and discuss and debate and see how we can all make it better.
Simon Gale:Well, let's start off with maybe not everybody knows who Brian Dillman is, which would be shocking to me, but maybe not everybody listening does.
Brian Dillman:Remember, we're in a pretty small industry in the in relatively
Simon Gale:True. True. So what kind of brought you into the Racquet Sports industry and and ultimately led you to being CEO of RSPA?
Brian Dillman:So I grew up a tennis player. Started took my first tennis lesson, I think, in in Shreveport, Louisiana from Lance Dreyer because I couldn't swim, and then moved to Dallas and had a unbelievable mentor, Noni Machilka, who not only did I grow up playing under and with, but then also she after finishing college, she encouraged and recruited me to be a tennis professional at the time. And part of the mandate was you must get certified by the USPTA. That was that was a non non discussion or, you know, nonnegotiable. John Ingram from Dallas, who is still active and thriving in our industry today, tested me, and and that I did that for about a year and a half.
Brian Dillman:And then but one of my ultimate goals was to work for Wilson's Sporting Goods, and and I was able to get that role in sales. So my wife and of now thirty five years in February, so she and I have been on this journey together. And we moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I took over a sales territory for Wilson at in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Ended up moving to Chicago, took a step backwards career wise, income wise, and became a junior junior marketing, you know, kinda grunt. And from there, kinda worked my way up and through the Wilson infrastructure.
Brian Dillman:And a year after that, I was given the opportunity to run the pre strong commercial tennis rackets, so junior rackets, you know, anything that was basically sold at Walmart, Target, you know, places like that, the under a 100, the recreational stuff. And then a year after that, I was given the opportunity to move to Europe and become the marketing director for Wilson Europe, which I think, you know, from an experience standpoint, from a learning, and from a leadership standpoint, became really one of the most influential and impactful things I've ever done, both from my wife and I living there, you know, being foreigners and living in a foreign country, but also, you know, engaging with multilanguage, multicurrency, multiculture, and learning how to adapt, assimilate, listen, and learn, I think, was just it's an incredible I I just cherish that time. And then I spent another few years with Wilson, ultimately was the GM of the Racquet Sports division, and then left the industry for a bit. But I've always stayed close to tennis, but I worked in fitness. I worked in bicycles.
Brian Dillman:I worked in apparel, but it's but it's interesting. Always with my heart in tennis. And I was volunteering with the USTA Chicago, was the board president for them for a couple years. And and during that time is when John Embry was retiring and announced his retirement. I remember coming home to my wife and saying, two pieces of news.
Brian Dillman:I can't remember the I still can't remember what the first piece of news was. The second one is Embry's retiring, and she just instantly said, oh, you'd be good at that. And then that was kinda it for about four or five months, and then the opportunity came along, and thrilled to be here.
Simon Gale:So my biggest takeaway, Kim, before you ask your question is, of all those things and achievements, thirty five years of marriage, and your wife told you you'd be good at that job, and that's what Yep. What inspired you.
Brian Dillman:I love that. She's a much better judge of character and and things like that than I am, so thank goodness that she's we're you know, we're still a team and a really good team.
Kim Bastable:It's funny that was your big takeaway. My big takeaway is that Brian can't swim.
Brian Dillman:The shocking thing, it was an individual medley rate race that I was doing, and I literally had to stop in the middle of a butterfly. Got out of the pool, walked over to the tennis courts, and said, I'm gonna try this.
Kim Bastable:Most of us stop in the middle of a butterfly.
Brian Dillman:It's the worst.
Kim Bastable:Most of us mortals. Okay. Alright. That's good. So we got to you got to USPTA, and I think that's a body of work, by the way, Brian, that's quite impressive.
Kim Bastable:I love the Europe part, but I didn't mention that. Where in Europe did you live?
Brian Dillman:I lived in Munich, Germany four years, and the nice thing was, you know, you get a car and and a gas card, so we drove everywhere, experienced as much as we possible. I think we you know, if there was twenty four hours in a day, we used twenty three and a half to to just experience and kinda soak it all in.
Kim Bastable:I love that. Love that. Okay. So great body of work to get to to USPTA, which at the time you arrived, it was USPTA. So tell us how you determined your priorities in in entering that role.
Kim Bastable:And, you know, what was your approach as you as you take on a a new role?
Brian Dillman:So I the process of the inter or the interview interview process was was good. It was a good structured process, and the final meeting was a presentation. And I put together a presentation with kind of status quo, where we are, and then what I would do, and then that included a hundred day plan. And that plan included a name change. It included upgrading the website.
Brian Dillman:It included all Racquet Sports. What I didn't know at the time is that that conversation had been going on since 2022 with the board and the executive committee. So the convergence of that and and I don't know whether that was, you know, what pushed me over, you know, to get the role or not, but but I had a pretty clear vision from the outside seeing what was happening with Pickles, seeing what was happening with I mean, I was a platform tennis player for, you know, fifteen, twenty years. So knowing that all Racquet Sports were important to the facilities and important to the growth and the future of what the the industry looked like, that was kind of the the vision I had coming in, and that just you know, it met with where the board and the executive committee was. But what I think is interesting is I think in the beginning, they talked about a name change, and I think what evolved is a rebrand.
Brian Dillman:And I think those are two different things. I mean, you can you can change a name, but you can but changing a brand requires you know, it requires culture. It requires buy in. It requires just a lot more deep dive into who we are who we are today and who we actually wanna be. So I think that was that was a great process too.
Brian Dillman:And the exercise we went through, you know, we included the entire board. We included the executive committee. We brought together a task force, all all working together to bring this new brand of the Racquet Sports Professionals Association to life.
Kim Bastable:So how else? Just a little bit on the office work. And, you know, you walk into that office in Lake Nona, which is beautiful, by the way. What was the culture? How did you get to know the staff?
Kim Bastable:A little bit on that. How how did you reform what was going on day to day?
Brian Dillman:Well, the first thing I did is I met with everybody one on one, gave them as much time as they wanted to share whatever they wanted to share, and and that was pretty incredible because I think that was a good, not only eye opener, but, you know, it showed me almost, you know, if you're gonna put it on a scale, what their passion scale was, you know, starting with is it a job all the way to is it a calling. And I think there was a lot of people who were on that it's more than a job spectrum. And my goal, once I did that, was to really make sure we get more people who are in the it's a calling spectrum versus it's a job spectrum. And I I made this comment yesterday too. I think we're at about 90%.
Brian Dillman:Like, I I really feel like people do this because we believe in what we do. We we believe in the cause. We believe in the industry, and we believe in the membership. So I think that's, to me, that's the that's the telltale sign that we're doing something right.
Simon Gale:Brian, one of the things that I hear a lot in conversations with current leaders or people especially new to leadership or have a leadership aspiration is handling difficult conversations or making tough calls and and the process or thought process that goes into that. Could you share maybe an example of a tough decision you've had to make or how you approach handling tough calls or making those difficult decisions?
Brian Dillman:So what's interesting is I was working on the bicycle business in Canada, and the company was in financial distress. And so we had to literally pull a trigger and sell the company to this big Dutch group, the Pond Group. And it ended up being a good thing for the company. But one of the things, the Pond Group, we knew there were gonna be immediate changes. And, you know, we had recommendations.
Brian Dillman:Here's what we should do. Here's what we should do. And that was a bit part of a bigger conglomerate of other bicycle companies. So there's a lot of redundancy once you do a merger like that. So one of the things that I had proposed, which I said, I think we need to, unfortunately, cancel and fire all of our distributors across the world because we already have distribution.
Brian Dillman:And the hard part was I knew all of them personally, and I they they were good partners, and they were long term partners. But in three days, I had to fly to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Sydney to effectively fire five distributors, and I met them all in the airports. At least I was coming from a position where, you know, this is happening because of a merger. But but making that decision was the best long term for the business, and they understood that because they were you know, they're commercially minded. But the funny thing was by the time I finished the first meeting in London, the guys in Paris knew what was happening and, you know, so but but, again, we we did that from a position of this is the best for the business.
Brian Dillman:Unfortunately, when you're thinking about business like that, sometimes that, you know, the right decision isn't good for everybody. But but that was a it was a tough one because it was back to back to back, and and you're talking to partners who were great, but, you know, just didn't fit in the the new system.
Kim Bastable:So let's let's go back to you went back a bit when you told that story, but how about young Brian? Maybe high school Brian or or I don't know. Where did you find out that you had some level of leadership gifting?
Brian Dillman:It's funny. When when you when you ask that question, I go back to my sophomore year in high school. I was nominated, and I'll I'll be funny to see your faces if you've heard of this. I was nominated to go to the Hugh O'Brien Leadership Seminar. And Hugh O'Brien was a marine, an actor, and had spent time with Albert Schweitzer.
Brian Dillman:And Albert Schweitzer said, you've got a gift. What are you gonna do with And so he created this foundation of leadership seminars for kids, high school sophomores, and the message is teach these leaders how to think for themselves. And so I went to that as a sophomore, and then I got invited back as a junior to be a counselor. And I think that was a pretty monumental part for me to kinda open my eyes, see see other people in that same realm, other people that had been nominated by their schools, you know, to, you know, rub shoulders with people like that. And from there, I went on to be student council president in, you know, my senior year and and that kind of stuff.
Brian Dillman:And I think it just gave me confidence, and I think that confidence is really what helped build the kind of leadership skills you have and started really I think it really started there.
Kim Bastable:So I see two things in that. I see first you were identified, and then you got trained. Do you think that was the which one of those is impactful, or are they equal, or more? Because the identification, where maybe you didn't see that on the radar at all, it can be very powerful. What are your thoughts on that?
Brian Dillman:I think you're right. I think the identification's more impactful because when you when somebody chooses you or pulls you out of a, you know, a sea of nine or 10, know, 900 or a thousand people, yeah, that that is very, very meaningful. And, you know, from there and you know what's really funny? There are a lot of people that applied for my role today. Again, for me to be chosen in that role, it it still kinda blows me away that, you know, they entrusted and and and picked me out of a group of very, very qualified, you know, list of candidates.
Simon Gale:We hear this a lot, those moments where I was identified or or you talked about your mentor that you worked for kind of recruiting you into the industry. And so many of our success stories, Kim, come from these these moments where somebody grabbed them and said, you would be good at or you should think about versus I chose to go down that path. And we hear that a lot with a lot of the people we speak to.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's something I I do a lot with the students that I am able to chat with, and I'm sure Brian does it with membership as well. I think that's, yeah, that's how leaders can can impact the future. But I love that story, Brian, that you you were impacted, but you also I do not know that organization.
Kim Bastable:I wonder, the Hugh O'Brien leadership still in existence?
Brian Dillman:Oh, they've done it. They've trained over a half a million kids. I just I looked it up this morning because I was curious to see if they were still around, but seems like they are.
Kim Bastable:Excellent. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about how you're shaping coaching through RSPA, and you you made that big decision. I'm interested in the process behind that decision, how you have discussed this with members going back to Simon's difficult conversations. Probably had several people who told you you were nuts and you needed to go somewhere.
Kim Bastable:And so walk us through the process and how you slept before that announcement.
Brian Dillman:So in February '24, we hired an agency to help us. And what we started with was a strategic plan, knowing that the end result was we wanted to we wanted to rebrand the association. And that agency, you know, we and we got a task force together, which included the board, which included our executive committee, and and I I wanna make sure we're crystal clear on this. This was not a my decision. So it was it was a massive we, and it continues to be a we.
Brian Dillman:But and and what's interesting is the toughest the toughest discussions have actually happened since then, but we'll get to that in a sec. We, you know, we we did a lot of diligence on this. We had a lot of conversations. We had a lot of identifications of who is it industry what's the industry gonna look like? What role do we wanna play in that industry?
Brian Dillman:And, you know, the the entire time, tennis was always at the forefront because it's the biggest, most mature, most comprehensive sport, and we all came from tennis for the most part. I mean, I still think, you know, if you look at our industry, it's 95, 90% of people come from tennis. So it so we really positioned it as tennis plus, and and we talked about tennis plus and and just that we wanted to do more, and that more became more Racquet Sports, more professional development, more advocacy for our industry. I mean, that really was part of that strategic plan. We went through numerous versions of what the name could be, what the logo could look like.
Brian Dillman:I mean, that was a really kind of fun process. And what's really cool, and that's why I wanna make sure this is, you know, it was a we, the couple that I thought we were the direction we were gonna go on name and and logo, I I got outvoted. And and the XCOM and the and the task force led that and I think made a really, really good decision. So I think that was a really key role in this. Everybody who who was in that task were participated in a really meaningful way.
Brian Dillman:And the great thing about that was once they were part of that decision, it was easier for them to help sell that and communicate that as we expanded that broader and broader. The laughable thing is we did a lot of prep for the launch. We did a lot of prep on the timing. And what we thought through was, and this goes back to my days at Wilson and and launching products, we treated this like a product launch. And we did it in a way where we had new materials printed, we had banners, we had everything read, but we didn't reveal that until actually during the presentation, we locked everybody in the room, and when they walked out of the room, the whole, you know, the whole thing was rebranded.
Brian Dillman:But, you know, the night before, I slept great, mostly because we had done a lot of planning, and our team had done just an amazing job of thinking through all the details. And but they did laugh at me because they wanted me to do a dry run-in the presentation. I said, if I do it, it's gonna sound it's not gonna sound right. So I did not do a dry run as they requested. Still not sure if that was a good or not good decision or not, but and and ultimately, after that, the the conversations with people who were upset about it was either they weren't there, didn't hear it, or didn't maybe understand it, so maybe that was on us that we didn't explain it well enough.
Brian Dillman:And we still have people who are, you know, angry and dissenters and that, and that's okay. We didn't expect, you know, a landslide is only 51%. So but but I think we got a really high 9090%, you know, acceptance on what we did.
Simon Gale:So, Brian, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about coaches. And I don't think anything I say here is is not something that's been talked about before is a lot of us fall into leadership roles, whether that's a director or management role, and maybe aren't prepared for that. And we've been great coaches, one of the best, most popular coaches, and we get thrust into this leadership role. What advice would you give to to leaders in coaching roles, especially those who are aspiring to be directors or managers in the future?
Brian Dillman:I think by definition, if they're aspiring, then they at least are open minded to learning and to being and to being open to coaching, which which is a great first start. Because if they're if they just want it for the title, then they're they're in the wrong role. But the number one thing I learned, I think, or what I've seen work really successfully is manage up, manage sideways, and manage down. And that managing up is get involved with the entire staff. If you if you're at a club or if you're at a commercial facility or if you're at a public park, you you know, if you're at a public facility, get to know the city manager.
Brian Dillman:Get to know the mayor. Get to know the people that are involved in that. So if and when you need something from them, you can ask, but also ask advice. You know, they say if you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.
Brian Dillman:But I think the idea is ask advice all along the way. And then, you know, the other thing is as you manage sideways, make sure you help other people succeed in what they're trying to do, and that will come back to you in spades. So even if food and beverage is not your realm, or even if the nursery at a commercial facility has not anything to do with you, you help those people succeed and make them feel good about what they do and show that you're willing and care about that, about them, you're gonna see that come back to you when you need it.
Simon Gale:Well, when we talk about the next generation and feeding the pipeline of coaches, which we're all in that industry, it doesn't matter what your title is. We're all trying to feed that pipeline. The Gen Zs and Gen Alpha's coming right behind them, and we just interviewed Tim Elmore, who's a generational expert, and that was fascinating to listen to. I keep asking the question, and it's not a knock on our industry, but are we appealing to that next generation? Are we falling short with how we're adapting and evolving to make us an appealing long term career?
Simon Gale:What do you think we need to change or improve to attract them and and keep them in the industry?
Brian Dillman:Well, you know, I I came into this role thinking three things, and and three things that needed to really happen. Number one is we need to raise the profile of our profession as a profession, because that, we don't sell it well enough. We don't publicize it well enough. We have 70% of our of our network is not on social media. It's not on LinkedIn.
Brian Dillman:We don't promote our profession as a real job. Number two is we don't educate enough. We don't promote the idea of continuing education enough throughout our industry. And the number three thing is we don't recruit well enough. And that recruiting comes from, I think it's this, in some regards, it's the selfish nature of where professionals are, is they're commissioned salespeople.
Brian Dillman:Just like lawyers, just like, you know, plumbers and that, you get paid hourly, you're gonna behave how you get paid. But in talking to some some of our members recently, we talked about this. If you identify people in middle school, and all you have to do if you're a coach and you're coaching a middle school team, and I had this conversation literally yesterday with one of our members, I said, how do you what do you do with your middle school team? He said, I asked the question, who can help me with a clinic tomorrow? The five people that raised their hand, I identify that could potentially be coaches.
Brian Dillman:But you have to do it in the middle school, because if they get to high school, or if they get to college, they've already decided they wanna be an accountant, or marketing, or they wanna be, you know, an influencer, or whatever that is. So I think it's identification earlier in the process, and you see it's like what you said before, Kim. If you come up to somebody and say, man, you know what? You really have some leadership skills on the court. This may be something you might think about, but I don't think it's it's overselling him at that point, but it's just including them.
Brian Dillman:Hey, I'm gonna do a clinic on Saturday. Would you mind helping? Those those kinda things are gonna help identify who those next leaders are gonna be. But it goes bigger than that. We have an unregulated industry.
Brian Dillman:And so with an unregulated industry, if I'm a parent or you guys are all parents, you think, well, do I want my kids to be in this industry? Well, where's the professionalism? Where are the benefits? Where's the career planning? Where's the progressions?
Brian Dillman:We don't have that. We have so many fragmented acronyms that it's hard to really get a feel for, well, how do I get in this industry? What do I do first? I mean, you have great commercial facilities in these bigger clubs like the Lifetimes and the Midtown. They are professional organizations with professional careers.
Brian Dillman:But, you know, Bob's Tennis and Swim Club is not. And but Bob's Tennis and Swim Club needs a professional, needs somebody to run their program, there's you know, and and so that's a need too. This unregulation doesn't help us. So consolidating or having some more unified planning in this, plus that earlier identification, I think will help make this a much more desirable career. But we're also not promoting it as a career well enough.
Brian Dillman:You and I are not, know, we're not all shouting from the rooftop. This is the best place to be. Because when we grew up, I wanted to be. I I was looking up to the pros in my area. I wanted to be what they were because they were helping people.
Brian Dillman:They were they were working for a living, doing what they loved and were passionate about. So I I think it's less a personal opinion. I'm not a generational expert. But I think you really hit it, Kim, is when you identify people early and tell them they might be good at something, it's in their head. It becomes a process.
Brian Dillman:They start thinking about and considering. But but I think, generally, as an industry, we've gotta get some sort of unification of regulations together. You know, because with half of our industry teaching out of a basket with no certification, no credential, no background check, no safety, no nothing, it's the Wild West. And now let's get into pickle and paddle and platform and and other sports. It's even less regulated.
Brian Dillman:So that's kind of in the back of my mind is that for us to recruit into this industry, it's gotta be a legitimate and thriving career path.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. That's that's a fair fair answer and something we all need to be passionate about.
Brian Dillman:Simon, you're doing this every day. What do you think?
Simon Gale:Yeah. Look, we deal with all generations in our team and and started the apprenticeship program for part of this reason to to help keep people in the industry and and develop new leaders. But I've always said I think it's known as a cool job until you get a real job. And how do we, once they've got the cool job, show them a pathway where they see longevity and a career and are exposed. One of the things we've learned about these apprentices we have here is just understanding the scope of the industry.
Simon Gale:You're in the resort business. Well, did you know there's three or four other avenues you could take? And those do have benefits or don't have benefits, but they pay more but have this and understand what their options are. They're not educated on what those options are, and that's not a a fault of RSPA, PTR, USDA coaching, anyone. I think it's just all of us showing them and saying, do do you know what the future could look like?
Simon Gale:And there's a lot of that involved too is are we investing in them to say, here's what you could look like in ten years' time. Did you know you could make 100,000 a year in this profession?
Brian Dillman:300 and didn't even know. When I tell that to people that what the upper, you know, the upper salaries are, people are blown away, and they and they fail to realize that we're a serious and legitimate industry. And I think, you know, the other thing is we keep throwing more badges and pieces of paper out there to say, hey, I'm a coach, and we don't respect the meaningful work that a lot of our professionals have done through actually going through a credentialing process and going through continuing education and taking it really, really seriously, that doesn't help our industry. It doesn't help and and I I know I know where you guys are, you know, where where we are here, but it doesn't help that I can be a coach tomorrow by signing up for free, and so can my twenty year highly credentialed, highly educated professional who's down the road, and now they're considered equals. It's just not a good look for our industry in that regard.
Kim Bastable:Well, think it's a challenge. Perception is important, and I as I've always said, I agree with you when I was young and I looked up to my coach, I thought it was awesome, and that's kinda what I wanted to be. But I also think we don't show enough about what that coach's life is like. It does seem to be that all they do is feed balls and and do lessons. And if there could be more exposure to the event planning and the management aspects and the pro shop and maybe innovation and all these other ways we we would maybe paint a broader picture of what that pro's day to day life is because I feel like there is that, you know, I want the real job when I'm tired of feeding balls.
Kim Bastable:And it has so much more potential. One of the things that and this is not on our agenda, is that I thought was an interesting, and I'll let you weigh into it culture wise, is someone made the point we know from research that people thrive most when they have a best friend at work. And that's something that there are environments out there that are fairly competitive, and there are five pros that work at a facility, but they're not best friends. They're actually competitors with each other, and the culture isn't there. So could you speak to how that might we might defend against that?
Kim Bastable:Because that best friend at work building team, it's really important to, as you say, maybe any lifetime Midtown bobs, swim, and tennis. I mean, all of them.
Brian Dillman:I think that's fascinating because I as you said that, I just kinda reflected back on, you know, the multiple roles that I've had, and the the best time I had, not necessarily the best results, but it ended up being the best results, is when you had colleagues that you thrived together. And actually thriving together made you feel like you're part of something bigger, and I believe we're doing that right now at the RSPA. Like, I enjoy every single person that I work with, and that culture is starting to come through, and that includes our board, our executive directors, because we're also like minded. And and when you're like minded, you you know, the work itself doesn't feel like work. But I think you're onto something there too.
Brian Dillman:But again, that goes back to that culture of if you're a commissioned salesperson, just like selling cars, just like, you know, anything else, you know, if if Simon's in my way, I'm gonna elbow him out so I can get that lesson. It's not the right spirit, but how do we change that part?
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I I think you've got you brought up some good questions, and I think we are we haven't solved all the issues. You've only been at RSPA or UST PTA for
Brian Dillman:how long? Two years yesterday.
Kim Bastable:Come on. Let's get on it. I know it. But I I I think you've made so many innovative changes and ideas, and so I think I'd just like a quick reflection on you and your leadership journey. How have you grown personally that you could speak to?
Brian Dillman:Man, I think what's what's humbling is this role, and it's humbling because you think about the history of it. I mean, it's ninety eight years old. You wanna talk about, you know, awesome responsibility, but also nerve racking responsibility as well is it's not only that, is you want it to last for another hundred years. So what we've done over the last, really, twelve months is we started a series of lunch and learns, really talking with our staff, both our national headquarters and our executive directors, about hospitality and what really hospitality means and how, through the idea of hospitality, we can serve our members better. And if we serve our members better, they'll serve their members and their clients better, etcetera.
Brian Dillman:So we came up with this concept we call win as one. And win as one is ultimately this and I think this applies to our industry too, is that when any of us succeeds in our industry, we all win. And when somebody succeeds in our in our on our staff, we all win. So celebrating wins but realizing that an individual win helps the greater the greater good and the greater group. And I think that helps in the industry too.
Brian Dillman:I mean, what you guys are doing with your podcast is is celebrating wins in our industry and digging in deep and learning, and I think that helps the entire industry. I think a lot of what USDA coaching you know, raising the awareness of coaching has helped our industry. I think a lot of what we're doing on adding other Racquet Sports is making our industry bigger, which makes it more desirable. But I think this concept that we've really leaned into is the greater good, the greater whole is so important, and everybody plays a role in that. And and I think that's kind of the what I've learned that we need to do, especially as a, you know, a non for profit.
Brian Dillman:Our job and I and I truly believe we're the we're the single, solely focused association that truly cares about the careers of our professionals. I know you guys can argue there's other people out there that do that, but myopically, I feel like that is our role in this industry. We believe in the professional careers. We believe it's in our best interest to do the best we can for them.
Simon Gale:If you could leave listeners with one kinda action item or or or a key takeaway you'd like to pass on, what what would that be?
Brian Dillman:Advocate. Advocate. Advocate for yourself. Advocate for your people. Advocate for your team.
Brian Dillman:Advocate for your industry. I think one of the biggest reasons that pickleball took tennis courts out is because they went out and advocated for it as we've never seen in our industry before. That is a lesson we should all learn, and I know that there's a lot of good work. I know USJ Florida's doing a lot of good work with advocacy. I know we're trying to do a lot of good, but, I mean, whether that's industry wide or you professionally, advocate.
Brian Dillman:And that doesn't mean be obnoxious, but it means do it in a in a respectful, professional way, but advocate. When when you're a professional at a facility, doesn't matter where. You gotta advocate to the city manager, hey. We need to resurface the courts. And you but you gotta do it with data, and you gotta back it up with with the reasons why.
Brian Dillman:Listening shows you care in such a big, big way. And I think, as I kinda described, even when I had to fire five countries in three days or when I, you know, went to Europe and and learned about cultures and cultures, currencies, and people, it's just a ton of listening. And, you know, you you can't you can't understand or really empathize with somebody if you're doing all the talking. And so that's one that served me quite well. And the last one is, and and I have said this many times before, I as a weirdo, when I would drive between Dallas and Champaign, Illinois back and forth to school, most people would be listening to music.
Brian Dillman:I listened to Zig Ziglar tapes, and, you know, his his mantra was, you can get anything you want in life if you help other people get what they want. And that's just served me really, really well and continues to.
Kim Bastable:Wow. That's pretty wise. Simon, what's your reflection on that?
Simon Gale:Well, Kim always asked me, Brian, what my key takeaways were, and I had them written down, then you just added three more to them, so
Brian Dillman:there's a
Simon Gale:lot here, but I love where we went with this today. I think one of the big things was just the importance of recruiting and advocating for our industry. Those who have been in it for a while need to to take that seriously and and develop the next generation. And I really like the philosophy around getting buy in from your team on a on a decision, especially when it's a decision that's gonna impact a greater group of people, the we, not me concept. And I think if you get that buy in, you're unified in where you're headed, and you've got the support you need to be successful in your leadership role.
Simon Gale:So I really appreciate your insight, Brian, and your time, and hopefully, we can circle back and do this again in a few years and all celebrate how wonderful our industry is.
Brian Dillman:That would be fabulous. Listen. The more we advocate, the more we have these discussions, you know, hopefully hopefully, the other leaders in the industry will hear it and and take it to heart and and make some and and make some differences and take some risks. I mean, our industry needs to take a few risks here and there to to make sure we change it up a little bit.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I love that. It's inspiring to to hear your your leadership and your vision, your excitement, your energy. I I always feel like you're positive when you walk into the room, the smile, the just the enthusiasm. And I just love that.
Kim Bastable:And I think that's such a good look for the way we all should be. The person who's hanging on their cart, you know, in the seventh lesson of the day and doesn't look very energetic, we've all seen. And that's not the banner we wanna show for the career, but I just think you in leadership provide such energy and enthusiasm. And I guess I would use the word hope that we have yeah. We all know there's some problems, some things going on, but the energy and the positivity, and let's let's hope you know, we believe the next ten years are gonna be better than the last ten, and it's because we're gonna put in a lot of lot of effort.
Kim Bastable:And I I just commend you for for what you've done for for USPTA slash RSPA and the direction that you you've put the energy behind it. So it's an exciting legacy that you're leaving, and thanks for your time here today to inspire other people.
Brian Dillman:I hope so. That at the end of the day, if we if we get one or two other people to do something and act, then then then this has been a success. So really appreciate you guys having me as well and and appreciate the platform.
Kim Bastable:Absolutely. I agree. It's, you know, one at a time. We just need to get people moving forward, being excited. So thank you so much.
Kim Bastable:We'll speak to you next time on Racquet Fuel. We hope you have a great day.
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