Joe Sexton began his journey in franchising during his time at the University of California, San Diego. As this Sacramento, California native recalls, this was a space he fell backwards into. One that began with a part-time job meant to help him pay his way through college but slowly morphed into a world he was intrigued by and inquisitive about. Upon graduating from UC San Diego, Joe began his career in support, operations, and training for the first few years before transitioning over to franchise development in 2009. This was only the beginning. He then had his first opportunity with a blue-chip, franchise brand in Mathnasium Learning Centers in 2012—where he led development from around 400 locations to approximately 600 locations over the next two years—before joining Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Parks in Early-2015. Experiences which, as he shares, not only strengthened his knowledge on building successful franchise brands and systems, but also highlighted his interests for franchise start-ups. It was only up from there. After spending four years in the franchise start-up world with an agency based out of New York City, Jay Diederich—Founder and CEO of Ace Pickleball Club—reached out to Joe with the idea of bringing pickleball indoors. The rest is history! Partnering in this new venture, they have since opened several indoor pickleball franchises across the country. Committed to creating—as Joe highlights—"the optimal experience for pickleball players of all ages and skill levels," Ace Pickleball Club is a trailblazing franchise ready to revolutionize the industry and continue to grow the game of pickleball in the years to come.
Take us back to that journey early on! What were some of those challenges that you faced as you became immersed in the world of business operations and franchising? How did you work to overcome them?
I think the hardest part, honestly, is that it's not where I wanted to be. I don't think I knew where I wanted to be at that time. I didn't have a direction. I got a degree in sociology, which could be applied in a ton of different spaces—there's no real, clear direction where you go with that degree. So that was the biggest struggle. You know, (you) also kind of have to fake it till you make it. I mean, I remember one of my first business trips…I had never been to the East Coast, and I was sent out to New Jersey. It was snowing, I had never driven snow, I got there, and my job was to help these business owners with their whole business. I got there and I thought: “I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know why I'm here.” You know, that imposter syndrome. It was just a wonderful experience (though). Of course, there was a bit of faking it till you made it; but ultimately it gave me the confidence to go on that next trip and get better at what I did every day. There was a lot to learn. There was a lot of stuff that I thought I knew that I didn't, and I had to learn to work through.
What were some key takeaways or lessons that you learned from those ventures that you have carried with you as you've embarked now on this journey with Ace Pickleball Club?
Yeah! I think that systems are extremely important. There's a lot of different personalities that you're managing in franchising, right? If you go to a McDonald's or a Subway, they all look the same. They all feel the same. They all taste the same. When you think about franchising, you kind of think of the franchise owners as robots. It's like, “Oh, they're replicating the same output so it must be the same person.” But no, there's so many different backgrounds, and so many different personality types that you really have to manage. Some people need more hand-holding than others. Some want to be left alone. But, the critical piece is: if you have the right systems in place, the right processes in place, and you uphold the standards with everybody—even though you're managing those different personalities—, that's sort of the critical factor for scaling. I would say that that's probably true not just with franchises, but even with (the) development of a small chain or regional chain that is not a franchise-based concept. You're gonna have GM's that you have to manage. So the systems are really key to it all.
Diving into Ace Pickleball Club, what was the inspiration behind creating this franchise of indoor pickleball clubs?
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