Brilliant Ideas

#15: Start Before You're Ready: How Evan Kuterbach Built a Thriving Pickleball Brand

• Alyssa Bellisario • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Evan, co-founder of Canyon Pickleball, shares his journey from corporate employee to entrepreneur, revealing the mindset shifts, automation systems, and tough lessons he learned along the way. His story demonstrates that success often comes to those who simply push through the "valley of despair" that all entrepreneurs face.

• Leaving the corporate world means accepting there's no safety net, guaranteed paycheck, or PTO
• The transition from idea to real business hits when you receive your first order and must deliver
• Having a co-founder provides someone to bounce ideas off of during stressful times
• Being vulnerable about your struggles is one of the strongest characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
• If you're doing something more than once, it probably needs automation or a template
• Use Toggle to track your time and see where you're actually spending your energy
• Follow the "three rule": write down what you're good at, what you want to learn, and outsource the rest
• Start before you're ready – confidence comes after taking action, not before

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Evan:

And I forget who it was that said this, but it's like, the successful entrepreneurs and small businesses and solopreneurs that do well are the ones who just made it out of the valley of despair.

Alyssa:

Welcome to Brilliant Ideas, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of some of the most inspiring digital products created by solopreneurs just like you. I'm your host, alyssa, a digital product strategist who helps subject matter experts grow their business with online courses, memberships, coaching programs and eBooks. If you're a solopreneur with dreams of packaging your expertise into a profitable digital product, then this is the podcast for you. Expect honest conversations of how they started, the obstacles they overcame, lessons learned the hard way and who faced the same fears, doubts and challenges you're experiencing, from unexpected surprises to breakthrough moments and everything in between. Tune in, get inspired and let's spark your next big, brilliant idea. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Brilliant Ideas Podcast, where we talk about smart strategies to building a digital product business online.

Alyssa:

I'm your host, alyssa Valcerio, and today I'm thrilled to introduce Evan, a co-founder of Canyon Pickleball. Evan's story proves that a growth-focused mindset, the willingness to learn from each mistake and a drive for scaling ideas into real revenue is what it takes to grow a thriving brand. We're going to be talking about the mindset shifts he had to make and the tough lessons he learned when challenges hit. If you ever wondered how to step off that corporate ladder and onto the path of building your own empire. This episode is for you. Let's get into it. Welcome to the show, evan. Thanks for being here.

Evan:

Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Alyssa. I'm really happy to be here.

Alyssa:

Yeah, and I was really struck by your story, mainly because the theme of this whole podcast is what if this idea could actually work? And some of my listeners are out there right now building their brands. I think others maybe you know they're still waiting for their next big break, wondering if there's something out there that they can do that's better than where they are right now. So this thought really made me curious about how you've navigated the mindset shifts from working at your typical nine to five to becoming a co-founder of a fast growing brand of pickleball gear. So tell me more about that.

Evan:

Yeah, yeah, it's a really great question and honestly, I'd be lying to tell you if I like have fully navigated that shift, because I'm still navigating that shift. I'm actually coming up on my two-year anniversary here, which will be in April, of leaving the corporate nine-to-five grind and going out on solopreneur entrepreneurial journey. So I'm really excited about that. But for me, really the biggest shift was realizing that there's no safety net. I think that is one of the hardest shifts and I'm sure some of the people listening are thinking the same thing. Right, there's no guaranteed paycheck, right, no PTO.

Evan:

I just got back from a cruise and I just took the days I needed off and did what I needed to do. So it's really all on you and I think that was a massive, massive shift. So I think knowing that you have to own every decision, knowing that you have to own everything that you're doing in your day to day now, is a really big shift. And so, honestly, you know there was a it's a funny story I had when I first got out of the nine to five where I had like job applications up in one window on my screen like thinking maybe I would go back to it, and it's really hard to get out of that mindset. So, honestly, navigating that, that mindset shift, is really just about being open and vulnerable, that this is hard and just kind of living in it that it is going to be chaotic, it's going to be messy, it's going to be rough, but you will get through it. You just have to keep going.

Alyssa:

Yeah, that's a really cool story, you know, even with all the risks and unknowns. I think if we just push past that fear and I think that is that fear of like I don't have a safety net. I don't have a safety net, I don't, you know, there's no paycheck coming through every week and so but if we can get past that, then we can get to a place that I think takes a certain level of bravery and courage to go for it and just like step outside your comfort zone, which is really funny, because I have always known everyone who knows me knows that I am a very cautious person, that I don't do anything without thinking like 10 steps ahead or like planning ahead. But a funny thing is like I'm actually very reckless in my business. I'm like the complete opposite. I am a risk taker.

Alyssa:

Like people are scared when they see me taking these big financial risks because they're like, what are you doing? But I experiment and like I do these really you know extreme things, because I look at like I'm not tied to a nine to five, so I'm not tied by their rules, and my business is literally a playground. But having said that, what I'm also noticing is that it's not just in fun, fun and games. Like I wonder if there's moments where you felt very overwhelmed by your business. Like talk to me about, like the real lessons in business. Like when did things start to get really serious, where you took it very seriously and then you realized, wow, this is actually a real business and now I'm actually scaling this company that you've created and all that added stress that comes with having such a big responsibility how do you navigate that?

Evan:

Yeah, yeah, that's another, another heavy question. Um, that again, I think we're still navigating and you know, I I think I can probably speak for every entrepreneur and entrepreneur that if they say they have they have it all figured out, they're lying. Um, none of us have it all figured out. So I would say that's one big piece. To anyone listening that is trying to think that, like I haven't figured out or anyone hasn't figured out, we don't. Now to your question.

Evan:

What I will say has really helped with some of that and where I've realized, like this is real. And let's just kind of take my brand, Canaan Pickleball, which we're kind of chatting about right now. When we got our first order, I think that was when it really hit me because it was like, okay, I now have to deliver a product, right, like I now have to package it up. I am an actual business, I now have to deliver a product. And now, really, the ball is rolling. Right Now we have to, you know, start on. You know, make sure we're capturing customer info, making sure we're doing all of our email sequences, making sure we're trying to get reviews right.

Evan:

It's all those little pieces of running like an e-commerce brand, right. But if you're just running a business, I think again whether it's that first sale, whether it's that first time you're, you know, you have a portfolio and you and you, you know, get your first gig or something right. It's like now you have to perform, and I think that's really where it turned from an idea to someone gave me money and now I have to perform, and I think that is like a really big shift that, honestly, like you know, again, I've been doing jobs for years but to have it be your own baby, your own thing, that you're now getting paid for, it's kind of surreal and you almost kind of that part was intimidating to just collect the money.

Alyssa:

Yeah, the pressure to perform. Yeah, the pressure to perform. That's interesting. And so how did you navigate, like I can just imagine, when the like one sale, I can imagine, okay, like one sale, yeah, you deliver it. But then the, the sales started coming in more and more, like I would assume. How do you, how did it happen, like, how did you start to handle the big types, like the big quantities that you were starting to deliver and ship out? Did you ever run into any issues with that?

Evan:

Yeah, we did and honestly, with Canyon Pickleball specifically, I would say that really the biggest piece that was kind of like the foundation for us was the fact that I had a co-founder. And while I don't say that you need to have a co-founder to start a business or anything like that, I've got other businesses that I run that I don't have a co-founder, which I'm my own solopreneur, but for Cane and Pickleball I do have a co-founder. So, from an e-commerce standpoint, having someone else just to bounce ideas off of and bounce kind of some of the stress and problems was really, really helpful. But I think, going back to your, one of the points you made earlier, Alyssa, was the idea about like being really honest with yourself, and I think vulnerability is it.

Evan:

For me it's it's one of the strongest characteristics of a really good business owner and entrepreneur is knowing, like, when you're struggling, knowing when you're going through something hard and kind of living in that, knowing that this is a hard time and you have to just keep moving forward. So, um, yeah, you know when the order started coming in or we're dealing with some manufacturing hiccups or whatever the case may be. You kind of just have to realize that, like you know, nothing lasts forever, even the bad Um, and I think that's just a really good idea to kind of roll into, you know, as a business owner.

Alyssa:

I love that.

Alyssa:

I know when I was growing really quickly a few years ago, like I felt like I, you know, when I was starting to like really start to work with a lot of clients, like I had to do more, be more available, and I pretended for so long that I wasn't struggling but I totally was like I had reached my capacity of like what I could do, totally was Like I had reached my capacity of like what I could do.

Alyssa:

But at some point and at some point all of us reach our capacity of like what we can do ourselves comfortably. Before we need to either outsource or find or do some systems or automation systems or find some kind of solution so that we can scale even bigger and bigger and just make it maintainable kind of solution so that we can scale even bigger and bigger and just make it maintainable. So my question for you is what kind of automation systems do you do in your business or tools that you use that you find really helpful, that help you kind of stay on top of things in your business, not just not just like the everyday, but like maintaining a level headed company where no one's like burning out, and then also also like how do you continue growing it using those systems? I know it's a heavy question there.

Evan:

No, no, no. That's a good question and, honestly, like I think again, that's another piece about being an entrepreneur, being out of the nine to five, that is really different is like not, not everything is urgent. I think you, you know, you have to realize that, um, and really protecting your energy, right, Burnout is real. It's not just real in the corporate world, it's also real as an entrepreneur and I forget who it was that said this, but it's like the successful entrepreneurs and small businesses and solopreneurs that do well, are the ones who just made it out of the valley of despair. Right, we're all going to go into it. Right, you get really excited, things are going well, and then you dip into the valley and it's like you just got to keep pushing. So the burnout is real, protecting your energy is real. So, from an automation standpoint, yeah, we're, we're huge, not just in Canyon on automation, which I'll kind of break down, some of those things there, but also just in my own, like personal, professional life outside of Canyon there's, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a big believer that if I'm doing something more than once, it probably needs some sort of automation, if it probably needs some sort of template, it probably needs some sort of um you know thing that I can do. That's going to take a little bit of legwork on the front end, but it's going to pay dividends in the long run, right? Whether it's something I'm using for, you know, AI and it's helping me write something, or whether it's, um you know, using obviously, when we're using Claypeo for email marketing, that kind of stuff. But even furthermore, to like an automation standpoint, I think it's just starting to realize that just because you have control of your day and your time doesn't mean that you just need to be flying by the seat of your pants, right, I think you need to have a schedule, you need to write things down and early on.

Evan:

One of the biggest tips I tell for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs is using a tool like Toggle or something to track your time, see where you're spending your time, right, every single thing you're doing. I did this for probably three or four months when I first started and I left the corporate world was I used Toggle. It's a free app. It plugs right into your computer on your browser and you can just start it when you're working on a task, and it categorizes everything you're doing. And so if I had therapy, it was here's an hour for therapy.

Evan:

If I went for a walk, I did 20 minutes for a walk. I did everything. So at the end of the week I can say where did I actually spend my time, where was I actually spending my energy? Right, and I started to realize, wow, I was spending more time doing this than I thought. I was not taking enough mental space. So I think that's a really early. It's not necessarily an automation piece, but it's more of just like a how can you be more efficient and how can you really be getting the most out of your journey as an entrepreneur?

Alyssa:

That's great advice. I love that. And so when you were setting up this is a good question when you were setting up these systems in your business, did you do them yourself, did you learn how, how, or do you think that people should outsource this kind of stuff?

Evan:

That's such a good question. I did this myself. Do I recommend it? I don't know. Maybe you know I'm a big believer of like, kind of like the three rule and I just made up as it's called the three rule, but basically it means write down what you're good at, you know, write down what you want to learn and then outsource the rest. So if there's something that you're not good at and you don't want to learn, well, then you probably need to look at outsourcing it. Right, like, I'm not a graph designer, I'm not designing a logo, I don't want to learn how to be graph designer, so I'm going to outsource that.

Evan:

You know, we got our graph designer on Upwork. We now have a long-term relationship with our graph designer. She's great. She designs a lot of our logos, designs a lot of our designs, so that's great. So I think that's kind of a good rule. And so, from an automation standpoint, we're also now at a point where we have scaled, where we probably need some sort of automation expert to come in and really who just lives in the weeds of marketing automation. So, yeah, I think it's a fine line and obviously, like budgetary concerns, you know Fiverr and Upwork are great for those. But yeah, I think if you don't have an interest of learning it and you don't know how to do it, you should probably look at maybe outsourcing.

Alyssa:

No, that's a good idea too as well. And what types of automation systems do you have in your business? Like if you just list off on top of your head.

Evan:

Yeah, yeah. So I mean we use Shopify for e-commerce, we use Klaviyo for email marketing, we use CapCut for editing all of our socials or for our videos and everything. We use Canva a ton. We've become kind of Canva pros. We've done a lot of trainings on Canva. We use Notion for kind of tracking ideas, projects, things like that.

Evan:

We've been starting to kind of dabble a little bit in like Zapier Zapier for just like automating small tasks and things, but not a ton yet. And so, yeah, we're starting to, we're starting to really kind of hone in a lot of that, because before it was like I had some automations that I was doing individually, my co-founder did as well, and then we were using some of the ones on like within the business. So now we're really trying to build out that whole automation system, but we're, I mean, new things are coming up every day and so, honestly, it's it's hard sometimes to keep up with, like the latest AI innovation for, you know, automation and so yeah, I've got some like shiny object syndrome where it's like a new AI bot comes out and I'm just like, ooh, I want this.

Alyssa:

And then what happens is that you sign up and then you're thinking to yourself at the end of the year like what did we spend our money on? Because we got to cut some apps or some subscriptions and like refine our tech stack and what we're using and what is really important, like I think that's a good conversation to have with your team as well.

Evan:

Totally, totally. And we're also like we've done, even from an automation standpoint, from like, let's say, like social content, like we've we've you know we had an agency working with us for social content for a little bit, where they were, you know that was an automation obviously move the needle for you the most, and so that's why I tell people all the time is like you're gonna have to try some things and see if it works right. It's not, it's not going to be a perfect. Like you said, like everyone's tech stack is gonna be different. Like if I googled you know best automation tech stack for e commerce, there would probably be hundreds of results from different people and so many different software. So eventually, definitely, Awesome, yeah.

Alyssa:

So now we get to our next segment, which is the brilliant bite of the week, and you did. You said something about protecting your energy, so I'm thinking that this would be perfect for this segment. This is where the guests share like an insight, a mantra or like a takeaway that helps my listeners kind of take action, something that they can do today, that'll help them grow their brand and their business. And so what could you share with us today?

Evan:

Yeah, um, I love this question, um, and I actually just wrote this in, I want to say, one of my newsletters recently, but it was the idea of start before you're ready and then figure it out. And I think a lot of people really believe that you have to, like, have confidence first and then take action. But a lot of times confidence comes after taking action Right, when you take something and it's messy action and it's imperfect action that is going to build confidence. Right, if you are waiting to have confidence to start right, to start the thing, start the idea to start connecting with people, to start building on something You're never going to start right, you need to just start. So I always say right, start before you're ready. Right, I was never 100% prepared for starting Canyon, for leaving my eight to five. Do I recommend people go my exact path of you? Know what I did? Probably not. It was a little more challenging than it probably could have been. But perfection isn't the goal. Right, momentum is so.

Alyssa:

I love that. That's really great advice. I mean, I'm the same as well. I mean I still do part time, I'm a professor part time. But I worked for a decade in corporate and then decided you know like I'll take, I'll, you know, try my own business. But you have to do it before I wasn't really ready. But you have to do it before I wasn't really ready. I didn't know what I was doing, I was completely lost. But you learn as you go and I feel like you learn by practical, like by doing the thing every single day and working and making mistakes. And I always used to feel bad about making mistakes and like I should have known better. But it's like through those mistakes I've learned how to be better.

Evan:

Totally yeah and like, unless, unless you know, someone listening to this podcast right now is striving to be a surgeon or, you know, a firefighter? Right, and mistakes are obviously not encouraged in most worlds. Right, like, like. It's exactly like you said. Right, like, mistakes are going to happen and we're not, we're not curing cancer, we're not trying to, you know, operate on someone, so mistakes are okay. Right, it's a learning process. And yeah, just start, just start.

Alyssa:

That's great advice. So, as we conclude this episode, I just want to thank you, evan, for joining me today and for sharing all of your insights with us.

Evan:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was great.

Alyssa:

And if you do play pickleball and you want to check out Canyon Pickleball Evan was so generous to our community of listeners you do get 10% off any paddle on Canyon Pickleball. Is that right, evan? Yep.

Evan:

That's correct.

Alyssa:

Okay, yeah, so just go to the websites and the show notes by using the code in all caps. Brilliant, so make sure to take a look at that. I love all your pedals, by the way, thank you so much.

Evan:

Yeah, that's some really good gear.

Alyssa:

So thank you, Evan, and for everyone. I'll catch you next time on another Brilliant Idea. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Brilliant Ideas. If you love the show, be sure to leave a review and follow me on Instagram for even more insider tips and inspiration. Ready to bring your next big, brilliant idea to life? Visit AlyssaVelsercom for resources, guidance and everything you need to start creating something amazing.