JEFFERSON MASON & NICK BARTLETT FROM DR. DISH BASKETBALL – EPISODE 301

Website – https://www.drdishbasketball.com/

Email – nick@airborneathletics.com  jeffersonm@airborneathletics.com

Twitter – @drdishbball @nickbartlett12 @jeffersonmason4

Jefferson Mason is the partnership manager, training specialist, and product captain at Dr. Dish Basketball.  Jefferson is responsible for content creation, marketing, and partnerships at Dr. Dish.  He also attends clinics and events throughout the country representing the Dr. Dish Brand.

Nick Bartlett is the Marketing Manager for Dr. Dish Basketball. His day-to-day duties include managing the Dr. Dish website, content, social media, email, partnerships, as well as attending events and clinics.

Please make sure you subscribe to the Hoop Heads Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re currently listening.  When you do, each new episode will hit your phone immediately when it’s released.  Please consider leaving us a five star rating and writing a review as well.  The more reviews the show has the more discoverable it becomes for coaches out there who are looking to grow and improve.  We recently moved the podcast onto Captivate a new platform we’re very excited about as we prepare for some exciting developments moving forward. The first show from our new Head Start Basketball Podcast Network will be launching soon.  We’ll share more on that in upcoming episodes.

Have a pen and paper in hand as you listen to this episode with Jefferson Mason and Nick Bartlett from Dr. Dish Basketball.

What We Discuss with Jefferson Mason & Nick Bartlett

• The story of Jefferson & Nick’s first meeting while working for the Timberwolves
• How each of them found their way to Dr. Dish
• Their roles and responsibilities at the company
• How they work together to create great content for players and coaches
• The new Dr. Dish Home Machine
• The Dr. Dish Virtual Camp for players
• The opportunity for coaches and players to improve and get better during the quarantine

Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Subscribe to the Hoop Heads Podcast Here

Become a Patron!

• We’re excited to partner with Dr. Dish, the world’s best shooting machine! Mention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine!

• Coaches, we’ve teamed up with Coach Tyler Whitcomb so you can now purchase his exclusive new playbooks right from the Hoop Heads Pod website.  If you’re looking for ways to improve your team next season these playbooks blend affordability with the quality content that serious coaches are looking for.

Just visit hoopheadspod.com/store in and you’ll find playbooks from

• John Calipari of Kentucky
• Leonard Hamilton from Florida State  
• Mike Young of Virginia Tech

Check out these great resources at hoopheadspod.com/store

• Last year at the Jr. NBA Summit I came across an amazing company called iSport360 and its Founder Ian Goldberg.  Their youth sports app gets coaches, players and parents on the same page. Your team can set goals, share player feedback, training videos, sticker rewards, player evals and practice assignments.  All to foster healthy team communication and culture.  iSport360 is giving away its app all season long to every team that needs a virtual way to stay connected, stay active and strong: share training videos, practice assignments, sticker rewards and teammate chat in the virtual locker room.  Get your team set up here or you can request a demo for your club here.

Being without basketball right now is tough for all of us, so we’ve partnered with Pro Skills Basketball  to offer you a 50% discount on their Ultimate Shooting Guide & Video Program that will put players on a guided path to becoming the best shooter they can be. With ONE YEAR’s worth of workouts that include drills, games and competitions, players will gain access to a blueprint showing them what it takes to become an elite-level shooter.  If you’re looking to improve your shooting at home, this program can help.  Visit hoopheadspod.com/store to check it out.

Includes:

• A comprehensive 30-page e-book with tips on shooting form, body control and developing a shooter’s mentality

• A year’s worth of daily assignments

• Access to videos that explain daily assignment drills

• Email reminders helping players stay on track

THANKS, JEFFERSON MASON & NICK BARTLETT

If you enjoyed this episode with Jefferson Mason & Nick Bartlett, let them know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Jefferson Mason on Twitter!

Click here to thank Nick Bartlett on Twitter!

Click here to thank Dr. Dish on Twitter!

Click here to let Mike & Jason know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

And if you want us to answer your questions on one of our upcoming weekly NBA episodes, drop us a line at mike@hoopheadspod.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOR JEFFERSON MASON & NICK BARTLETT FROM DR. DISH BASKETBALL – EPISODE 301

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here this morning without my co-host, Jason Sunkle, but I am pleased to welcome back to the podcast from our partners at Dr. Dish, Jefferson Mason and Nick Bartlett. Guys, welcome.

Jefferson Mason: [00:00:11] Hey, how are you doing? Happy to be here.

Nick Bartlett: [00:00:15] Thanks for having us.

Mike Klinzing: [00:00:16] We are excited to have you guys back on dig a little bit deeper into how the two of you met and got connected at dr dish, and then talk about all the things that you guys have going now.

During this lockdown situation that we’re all in, and I know players are looking for opportunities to be able to get better, and you guys are putting a lot of things out there to help them do just that. So let’s begin by sort of telling the story, how you guys originally met, and then how you came to be coworkers there at Dr Dish.

Jefferson Mason: [00:00:45] Well, I’ll start off by kind of giving a little bit of background information of kind of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx Academy,  and how I got started. And I’ll pass it off to Nick to the exact, I guess, moment in when we,  you know, work together in our [00:01:00] first kind of camper clinic, but the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, they have a youth Academy in which they have former players like myself or current players that will come in direct camps during the summer or throughout the year.  and I had been doing that for quite a while, you know, several years when I was playing professional basketball,  directing different camps for. Well, you know, players like Zach Levine or Lindsay Whalen, and then oftentimes we would go to small cities all over the place in the Midwest, and we would host 50 to 60 70 80 sometimes even a hundred kids at each camp.

And at those camps we had a different coaches. And. And people that would direct and help run drills and so on and so forth. And oftentimes,  you know, you had a consistent staff, but you had a lot of people that would come in and out and help out in,  you know, bring their own flavor and style to the different camps we had.

And so,  during one of these kind of events in Kansas, when I really, really, truly first met Nick, and I’ll hand it off to him and kind of have him [00:02:00] run through that whole story on his end. Sure.

Nick Bartlett: [00:02:03] Yeah. So,  I think it was the summer of 2013, I believe.  and I was in between,  I guess my first and second year of grad school and just looking to, you know, do a summer job that included basketball and, you know, whether it was coaching, training, something like that.

And,  so yeah, being able, for me to.  you know, get kind of hooked up with the Minnesota Timberwolves and links and be able to put that on my resume. I knew this is going to be really cool. So,  actually a good friend of ours was, was working there,  at the time, Pat Freeman. And,  so he, you know, he got us set up with a camp up in kind of Northern Minnesota.

So we’re, we’re from, you know, the Minneapolis area. And he said, all right, I’m looking for a couple of guys to join me.  you know, it’s going to be whatever, three, four hour road trip up North, and we’re going to spend basically the week there and do this four day,  Timberwolves camp. And so I said, for [00:03:00] sure I’m in, you know, I,  I got nothing else to do.

And,  make some money, coaching, you know, coaching, training, basketball. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that. And,  you know, thankfully, I, I said yes. Jefferson said yes, and yes.  I think by the time we got up there,  we, we felt like we were, you know, the three of us were, were, were best friends basically.

And,  throughout that week, we, you know, obviously got to know each other.  had a lot of fun, you know, working with the kids and, you know, by the time we got back, I think we had a pretty close,  you know, friendship there. We did a lot of other.  you know, additional,  camps throughout that summer, got to know each other pretty well.

And, you know, after that, you know, I went back to,  you know, grad school down in Mankato, which is kind of funny. That’s actually where Jefferson finished up his playing career and was an all American there. So I was a part of the team and I got to see Jefferson’s of banner just about every day in the, in the,  you know, the facility there.

And,  in Mankato, Minnesota States. And [00:04:00] so,  after that, yeah, I mean, we kind of went our separate ways. We stayed in touch and stuff.  but,  yeah, that, that was kind of the, how we met. And,  little did we know that a few years later we’d,  end up working together.

Mike Klinzing: [00:04:14] All right, before we get to that, Jefferson, how’d you originally get connected to the Timberwolves?

Because obviously they’re, you’re more work on non,  I dunno, full time is the right way to say it, but you’re part of the, the traveling staff. So how did you get connected to the Timberwolves originally?

Jefferson Mason: [00:04:28] Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I have to go back and think, I really believe it was through one of my,  friends that I played basketball with.

And then also Pat Freeman.  you know, they kind of reached out to me and just said, Hey, we got some stuff going on. Would you love to,  we would love to have you come in and help coach and, and be a part of it. And I always loved kids and obviously basketball. So I went and helped out a couple of times in.

And had kind of a natural ability to, to work with kids and kind of lead,  [00:05:00] in, you know, after maybe a summer of doing that and really learning from, you know, guys like Pat Freeman and, and some of the other directors they had, I kind of progressed through,  you know, the Academy and became more of a director of camp.

So it was more one of those things where,  similar to, you know, the story with even dr , me jumping on there, I just kinda got an opportunity and. And it stuck, you know, somebody,  you know, gave me a chance and, and kind of ran with it. So, kind of weird how that happened.  but it, you know, we’re still connected with those guys and I had a chance to be a part of that for a very long time and really learn and hone my skills through the Minnesota Timberwolves, Lynx as a trainer, as a person, as a leader.

So I’m ever thankful for those guys over there.

Mike Klinzing: [00:05:46] Alright, so Nick, you get to Dr. Dish dish first. Talk about. Hey, how you got there? Just the brief story and then tell us a little bit about how you ended up getting chefs in to come over and join you.

Nick Bartlett: [00:05:56] Yeah, no, I,  it’s, it’s definitely a unique [00:06:00] story and I think,  kind of to what Jefferson was saying, it’s just crazy how small the basketball world is and how, you know, I guess just a few connections can really end up changing your life.

And I think a lot of coaches and players and trainers can certainly attest to that. So for me.  after I finished up grad school, I actually spent about a little over a year just interning in the NBA. So I was with the Philadelphia 70 Sixers during the 2014 summer, and that’s where they drafted,  Joel Embiid,  and they have like six other draft picks, you know, it was kind of trust the process days.

And then.  I went over to the,  the Portland trailblazers for, for a full year. And then,  actually our CEO, Doug,  reached out to me on LinkedIn and I was kind of, you know, in between this stage where I was interning, I was away from home.  you know, originally from,  you know, Minneapolis area. And,  you know, got this email from, you know, the CEO of airborne athletics talking about dr.

Dish. And to be honest, I didn’t [00:07:00] really know much about dr dish, but,  I thought, you know, this could be a really good opportunity for me to go back home, work in basketball and a full time, you know, hopefully stable position and then kind of explore my options too. Cause I had obviously a lot of connections in the, the area.

So whether that would be getting back into coaching or training or whatnot.  you know, and. So when I first started, I really didn’t know what to expect. And this is back in 2015.  and  so yeah, I, I joined onboard there and quickly kind of just fell in love with, you know, certainly the machines at dr dish, but just the culture as well.

And I saw there was just a ton of opportunity for us to grow and,  to really make an impact on, on the basketball world. And,  you know, about six months in, we actually moved,  our, you know, our headquarters, we were in somewhat of a, what a highlight to call a club. And we just didn’t have much space.

We were all, there was only about 10 of us at the time,  at the office. And we moved into where we are right now.  where, [00:08:00] where we’ve built the dish lab and it’s really a beautiful facility. I know,  you know, Jefferson can certainly attest to that and, but when we built that and we built this court, we thought, you know, we got to create,  a bunch of content.

That’s one thing we’re really lacking here at that doctor dish. We got to,  you know, get the. You know, the machine out there, see how different ways that you can use it,  and, and really maximize it. And so,  you know, I’ll try to be as humble as I can, as much as I know basketball. I don’t know if I’m the guy that,  you know, needs to be in front of the camera showing how to, how to use that.

So,  you know, Doug kind of, you know, asked me, well, do you know of anybody that,  you know, that could be, you know, really a good face for our brand who could really run through a bunch of drills and,  you know, and just be kind of our brand ambassador on a full time basis. And,  you know, at that time I was like, you know, thinking through and I had some ideas.

Then I remembered, well, wait a second. I [00:09:00] think Jefferson just wrapped up his playing career and I think he’s back home. I better reach out to them. And,  so I reached out to them and I mean, I guess the rest is history. We can kind of go through the details from that, but it’s, it’s pretty crazy how just that, that one camp, I guess that started back in 2013 where we just kind of happened to be paired up together.

 and you know, and a Timberwolves camp then kind of came full circle and we were able to connect again about three years later and, and here we are today.

Mike Klinzing: [00:09:28] Jefferson, when you think back to that time when you first came on board. What was the sales pitch and what did they tell you you are going to be doing?

What do you remember about first coming on board at Dr. Dish?

Jefferson Mason: [00:09:39] Well, I just remember Nick reaching out to me and actually being really happy that he did this. I remember, you know, back in when we were doing the timbrel scans together, how much fun I had with him.  and after kind of exchanging pleasantries, he just was like, Hey, have you ever heard of doctors basketball?

I’m over here right now as, as our marketing manager. And I said. [00:10:00]  the same answer basically that he said to our, you know, our CEO is just like, Hey, I’ve never really heard of them. Can you give me more background information? And so he quickly just gave me some information on, on the machine and kind of what it was capable and, and immediately,  based off of the excitement that he had in describing what these machines,  were already capable of doing and what the feature it looked like.

 you know, I was interested in for sure with that. And so,  I know I had a couple of conversations with Nick and then, you know, he was like, well, let me, let me get you over to our CEO. You know, he wants to chat with you and, and tell you a little bit about, more about, you know, potentially where you could fit in.

And.  you know, what we’re all about. And so I definitely agreed to it. I mean, at that moment in time, I was like, Nick said, finishing up my basketball career.  I was actually looking into getting,  into,  teaching as, as strange as that sounds, I see a lot of correlation with.  basketball training and teaching.

You know, you’re working [00:11:00] with a ton of kids. And my brother worked in the school system for eight, nine, 10 years. So he said, Hey Jefferson, give it a shot and see what it looks like. So I was in the process of actually trying to start a school gig when Nick reached out and you know, thank God he did. Cause I don’t know if I would have survived it, but,  you know, I met with Ducker CEO and immediately after meeting him I was like, this is, this guy is unbelievably charismatic.

He knows what he wants. You know? He’s already got Nick on the team, which I know he’s an amazing guy. I mean, he just told me, Hey, we have an opportunity to grow something. Absolutely amazing. Because of our products and if we can get the right people around it that want to work hard, that want to get the word out,  that want to build a brand, we can do that.

And, you know, they just felt like I had know good connections and obviously basketball knowledge,  from my time with the Tim Rose and obviously playing professionally in college. And in that we could try to expedite the process of getting our product out there and, you [00:12:00] know, making it more visible. And so, you know, when he.

Met with me a couple of times and we talked about the opportunity that was there. I mean, I couldn’t pass it up for me, just like Nick, it was an opportunity, you know, to stay home,  work in basketball full time, do essentially exactly what I love to do and really jump on early with a company that was growing, I could already tell growing rapidly, and that sold me enough to have me jump on it and be fully invested.

Mike Klinzing: [00:12:30] What was your job description like from day one? And has it changed over the course of time that you’ve been there? So was the vision at the time you were hired the same as where you are now, or has it changed slightly based on just differences and advances in technology and just as you’ve worked there for a longer period of time?

Jefferson Mason: [00:12:49] Yeah, I mean,  I think Nick would agree with kind of this answer. Both of our roles have evolved quite significantly, and I think there’s a lot more responsibility with. Of [00:13:00] what we do. Then, you know, maybe four years ago in the next case, five years ago when I first came on,  I remember meeting with Doug and he said, you know, kind of here’s a list of.

 things that you are going to do that kind of him and Nick actually came up with and there wasn’t one thing in particular,  that was like, Hey, this is your main day to day. And I can remember I came in,  in, in July of the summer and there was a few people out traveling for clinics and there was really nobody in the office.

Cause again, like they said, we only had. You know, nine or 10 people working there at the time, and I literally did not know what to do. I was like, what am I supposed to be doing today? Like, am I supposed to be in the gym and my supposed to be filming? Like should I be calling somebody? I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

And, and you know, after kind of figuring out the plan of where we wanted to go, I realized. You know, brand building was going to be a big part of it. I knew a lot of college coaches, high school coaches, trainers that I had worked with that I, I’d spent [00:14:00] so many years building relationships with that I knew I wanted to reach out to.

And then I started formulating ideas of how we could utilize the machine in unique ways. Like Nick mentioned on the basketball court. And shortly after that, you know, we started getting on the court every single day, you know, for several hours, just filming a ton of content, ton of content around the machine,  in showing the different unique aspects of it.

And so my first, I want to say year and a half or even two years, was really focused on. Creating content,  you know, building partnerships within the college realm,  in building that brand credibility. And so that was really what my focus was early amongst a lot of smaller things. But as time evolved,  and we started to partner of such great trainers.

Build our brand out. You know, I’ve started to take a little bit more responsibility in a lot of different fields as far as making sure that we’re front and center when it comes to coaches [00:15:00] and parents and trainers. Really thinking about how we can enhance our machines.  feature-wise so that we can be front edge and innovative all the time and then continue to get on the court and, you know, do a lot of filming.

I work heavily with Nick every single day in all those aspects, but then also on the partnership side, you know, him and I have been very fortunate to travel to Europe and meet some of our distributors and in different partners in the country, and again, build our brand. So, you know, we started off with.  you know, Nick, I would say is different.

He kind of started and had like a million responsibilities cause he was like the first one to jump in. But, you know, my, my,  you know, growth within the company as far as responsibilities and ownership in different areas as has progressed and, and for me, I’m very, very thankful for that.

Mike Klinzing: [00:15:49] All right. Let me ask you about this.

Just going back to the beginning, when you first started filming content, obviously you have a lot of basketball experience, working camps, doing training, all that kind of thing, [00:16:00] but when you start putting that in front of a camera, how long did it take for you to get comfortable in front of the camera where you didn’t have to do 17 takes on a drill and do this and do that, and refilm how long until you felt like you were.

Feeling like you could be there in front of the camera and be yourself and not have to worry about, Oh, am I doing it right? Am I looking right? What am I going to say? How long did that process take for you?

Jefferson Mason: [00:16:23] You know what, it’s like a 50, 50 thing. And, and you know, Nick can talk a little bit about this too, because early on especially, he was always in the gym trying to help out.

And for me, I think,  You know, naturally I always did well in front of cameras or talking.  but the biggest thing that I, excuse me, I struggled with was the language around what we wanted to preach to,  everybody that was, or that was going to follow dr dish. And you know, Nick and Doug and you know, the rest of our team really strategically did a fantastic job of saying.

This is the [00:17:00] language we want to preach. This is what we want to stand by, and this is who we want to be. And so it took a little bit of time for me to really understand exactly how we were going to,  you know. Create this language around this fantastic machine and make it make sense within the basketball world.

And so Nick, you know, he was in the gym every day like, Hey Jefferson, I think that was good, but maybe try to add in this or Jefferson, you know,  I’ll give you a B minus on that. But I think to do better, you know, he was constantly in there trying to get the best out of me and really direct. We used to call them, kind of our director used to be in there literally just.

Really trying to make sure that I was standing in the right spot, that I was looking, saying the right things, making sure that I was talking about the right feature. So it took a little bit of time before I got really comfortable with,  having my tag phrases and jumping into the different drills and not necessarily worried about how I was looking on camera and making [00:18:00] sure I was being clear.

In a concise with some of the details that I wanted to. And again, a lot of that is, you know,  our filming guys, our other marketing team, team members, and then again, Nick, I mean, he really helped lead me through that and you know, maybe he has some more points on that. I mean, we had a lot of laughs and we have like this,  blooper reel from the first like year or two that I was there.

That’s just absolutely hilarious. It makes me look like a ding dong, I swear. But it’s super funny.

Nick Bartlett: [00:18:30] Yeah, it was, it was definitely a good time. We,  I mean, I got, I guess I got you up to speed and then now that now they’ve pretty much just,   officially kicked me out of the lab now and I can’t, I, I’ve provided too many, I think,  pointers there.

And a lot of times Jefferson would say, man, I would never say that word at all. Why would you, why would you. I suggest that. And,  so yeah, like you said, we’ve, we’ve had some really good times in there and,  [00:19:00] now it’s especially, it’s tough, you know, thankfully we were able to get back in the,  in the gym last week.

We had a kind of a local news feature, but,  I can tell you both me and Jefferson really miss being in the gym and being in the dish lab, and we’re looking forward to hopefully getting back soon. But it’s,  yeah, it’s been a fun process just to see how everything’s evolved with. You know, our machines and you know, different features.

And,  like Jefferson said, I mean, we’ve been very fortunate to work with some incredibly bright minds,  as far as coaches and trainers and,  yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s been an absolute blast though, to build out that content.

Mike Klinzing: [00:19:37] All right. Let me ask you this. From the content standpoint, and Jefferson, you talked about building a common language and as soon as you said that, I thought about it’s just like a basketball team when you are trying to build a program or build your team as a coach.

You have a certain language that you speak, you have certain names for drills that another coach might call something else, or you have certain things when you’re teaching a [00:20:00] fundamental skill that you may share with your team, you have, you develop this common language. So how did you guys go about Nick?

Thinking about developing the language or what you wanted the brand to stand for when you were putting it into your content? What was the process like for that?

Nick Bartlett: [00:20:15] Yeah, I guess,  it, it was definitely very fluid and it was definitely a team effort. You know, thankfully me and Jefferson, you know, have a lot of experience in, in, we’re both college players,  both, you know, kind of,  dabbled in coaching training.

So we had a good understanding of the game, but I think a lot of it just came down to, you know, simplicity and how. We can really,  enhance the, you know, our shooting machines in, in, in, make sure that people understand they’re more than just a rep machine. You know, I think we, you know, we grew up using, you know, different machines ourselves, and it was always just get up reps.

And so for us,  you know, I think it was just really trying to establish kind of our differentiators.  our competitive [00:21:00] advantages and,  but then also tie in legitimate,  you know, basketball training principles with it. And as much as you know, we want to talk about how amazing our machines are. At the end of the day, we want to really enhance and grow the game and help coaches get better help and then help them get their players better.

So.  you know, thankfully, I think, you know, Jefferson had already a pretty well built out just training philosophy just because of all the camps that he directed. I know, you know, he did a lot of,  you know, instill, does,  you know, individual and small group training.  so I think, yeah, again, bringing it kind of back to the basics,  talking about how our machines can certainly enhance.

 skill development.  but while not making it, you know, just a complete sales pitch was, I kind of really our overall goal there. And I think, again, it’s evolved quite a bit, but,  you know, thankfully we were able to lean on somebody who is really, you know, an expert in his field [00:22:00] and in Jefferson as far as, you know, his experiences.

And, you know, him being able to. You know, take nuggets from, you know, other, you know, coaches from his college, from his time and professional, and,  and, and then also just working with other trainers and getting their thoughts on things. And,  so we’ve been very fortunate to, you know, build a nice. Army there.

And,  I think again, it’s, it’s just been,  you know, kind of an evolution throughout these past few years. But I think,   you know, it hasn’t been perfect, but I think we’ve, we’ve done a really good job and again, very fortunate to have Jefferson kind of lead the way there.

Mike Klinzing: [00:22:35] What I love about what you guys do is clearly you’re a company that is working on selling your shooting machines, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of the content, a lot of things that you guys put out there are applicable even if you’re not necessarily a customer for the machine. And I think that’s where, from a strategy standpoint, you don’t come off. Whenever I talk to you guys, whenever I see your [00:23:00] content. It doesn’t come off as salesy because despite the fact that you are selling a machine, you’re also, as you said, trying to help grow the game of basketball and make the game better for the people who interact with your content, whether or not they own a machine.

And to me, I think that was a really great strategy. Was that something that you guys. Really consciously thought about and made a decision to do. As you started to think about how you were going to put together your content, whether it was obviously the video and most of those are with the machine, but a lot of your blog stuff, things you put on social media are unrelated directly to having to have a machine.

Jefferson Mason: [00:23:35] Yeah. Well let me, let me answer that cause I got to give a shout out to Nick on, on that one because I remember early on,  you know, obviously when you’re running a company or you’re a part of a company, you want to get sales, you need to make money. That’s, that’s just the way that the world works.  but Nick was very, very firm and strong on the fact that.

Our marketing was really truly going to be [00:24:00] about helping players in that if we were speaking the truth and we were putting out good content that people would buy our products and that people would understand how much it could help them in the basketball rounds. And Nick fought tooth and nail with, you know, at times, me, our CEO,  our sales managers at the time of, you know, when we are sending out a lot of these emails or we’re creating content, we don’t want to be salesy.

We want to be organic. And I think because of him, we’ve continued down that path of anytime we partner with somebody or we’re creating content, we’re very cognizant and aware of how we’re presenting that or what we’re filming. We don’t want people to join our team just because we want to sell products.

Obviously, at the end of the day, that’s how we make money, but we really want to work with people at that. Love the game of basketball that know what they’re talking about, that believe in our products, and when you have that, you come up with some really [00:25:00] organic things in nature. The other piece being that our CEO from the top, the number one thing that he always talks about in our Tuesday weekly meetings are Tuesday company, weekly meetings, and with us individually is that we actually truly want to help players.

And I don’t know if there’s a lot of companies out there that can truly say, Hey, we want to change. Players, parents, coaches, lives. We want to enhance their opportunity to be the best version of their selves. And that comes from the top. And so, you know, with Nick,  kind of being a guru in the, in the social media and in marketing world, you said, Hey, if we can get people to be a part of our brand by creating content that’s fun, that’s,  you know, gives educational information.

That also shows who we are as a company and who we’re working with, but doesn’t always push a product down her throat. We’re going to, we’re going to build a strong cult following, and you know, eventually when these people have the opportunity to get a machine or you know, they know [00:26:00] somebody else that has opportunity to get a machine or one of our products, they’re going to speak our name because they truly know that we want to help and we know what we’re talking about.

Mike Klinzing: [00:26:11] All right, so let’s hop from that, which I think is a hundred percent true. Like I said, that you guys have the best interest of the entire basketball world in mind when you go ahead and you create your content, but let’s jump forward and talk a little bit about some of the things that you’re doing specifically.

To this time or things that are especially relevant during this time when we’re all shut down at home. Let’s talk about the doctor dish home machine. Let’s talk about your virtual camp. I don’t know which one of you wants to start and which one of those two things we want to go with first, but I think both are really relevant in the world that we’re living in right now.

Jefferson Mason: [00:26:42] Well, and then I’ll let Nick take the machine and then I’ll talk a little bit about our virtual camp back to that perfect.

Nick Bartlett: [00:26:50] Sure thing. Yeah. So,  you know, for those that don’t know, I guess,  you know, we came out with a doctor dish home in kind of late in 2019. [00:27:00] And,  honestly,  obviously with the, you know, the pandemic happening right now.

 it couldn’t have been more, you know, perfect timing in that sense. And,  obviously we’ve gotten a ton of inquiries, you know, since, you know, players are kind of cooped up at home and, you know, you know,  gyms are closed,  you know, just around the world right now. So,  and, and obviously we didn’t foresee anything like that coming, but what we did see was that there was a tremendous demand for,  you know, a, a shooting machine at home.

And we actually have sold a ton of our, you know, what we call our commercial machines,  that we typically sell to high schools and colleges. We’ve sold a bunch of those machines to homes as well.  but the, the overwhelming feedback was that, you know, it’s, it’s, they’re not quite,  you know, affordable for most families out there.

And so that’s why when we really went to work and we thought, okay, how can we make a really purposeful,  you know, shooting machine, much like our.  you know, [00:28:00] commercial line of, you know, models, but have it specifically,  be compatible for a home and to, you know, certainly drive that, that price point down to make it a little bit more,  you know, reasonable and an investment that’s,  you know, a lot of parents and we’ll, we’ll be able to make, and so.

 we’re, we’re super excited about it right now. We, you know, we sold out of our initial beta units and, you know, we’re selling these things, you know, as Jefferson says, like hotcakes right now, especially during,  the, the, you know, the pandemic, we’re really excited to, to ship a lot of these outs. Our next batch will be shipping out in June.

 but,  you know, essentially the, the difference between the home machine and our commercial ones is that you actually run the home machine with our doctor, dish player app. And so on the player app, you can actually design your drills, whether it’s, you know, shooting, you know, five spots around the perimeter.

You can do elbow to elbow, you can do five star shooting where,  you know, you go [00:29:00] kind of out of order where it’s not, you know, a sprinkler pattern. So you can design that directly on,  the player app. And then the player app will, you know, keep track of your stats and you can also then train alongside all of our.

You know, trainers that we’ve partnered with, you know, guys like drew handling, DJ Sackman, Jordan, Lawley, and Jefferson, obviously, and you know, keep going down the line there. You’re actually able to,  you know, get that video instruction from them. And,  and then. Actually execute those drills that sync directly with the machine.

 and so it’s,  you know, it’s been really cool just getting that feedback and seeing people,  actually being able to, again, train outside of just shooting too. And that was one thing too, we, we’ve been very purposeful about is we want to be much more than just a shooting machine, just a rep machine.

So, you know, we’ve kind of infused ball handling drills in there, a strength and conditioning agility drills in there as well. From some, you know, some [00:30:00] experts,  you know, specifically who, who know, I guess a lot more than us on,  you know, kind of that performance side of things. And so, again, we’re, we’re really hoping to, you know, build complete players with that.

And yeah. Currently too. We are,  you know, running that doctor, dish home machine at 29 95 and we’re really excited here in the next couple of weeks.  you know, I guess kind of a spoiler alert, we’re going to be introducing a financing option with that too, so you can actually, you know, pay that in installments.

 you know, going forward. So there’ll be more information with that coming out. Maybe by the time this actually gets published, that’ll be. I’m available, but we’re super excited just about,  you know, providing a little bit more feasible, you know, and,  product for those to really execute at home. And again, the response has been amazing so far and we’re really looking forward to, you know, continuing to add to that training library.

[00:31:00]  and, and just really making sure that,  you know, again, during challenging times like this, or even without though,  you know, that players can have an outlet to get better, faster at home. I know when I was, you know, growing up, if I would have had some like this, I mean, it could have been a complete game changer for me.

I, I, you know, I love shooting around and I loved, you know, pretending I was in game seven of the finals. But as far as purposeful training and, you know, getting up, you know, hundreds of reps and, you know, in an hour or so, I mean, that was not how I trained. And so,  Jefferson and I, we joke all the time. If we would have had something like this growing up, I mean, we probably, we, we’d both be in the league right now, at least he would be, for sure.

I probably wouldn’t be. Yeah, so we’re super excited about the doctor to show him.

Mike Klinzing: [00:31:46] That’s awesome. I’ll just say we’ve come a long way since I guess nine or 10 year old, Mike was out on his driveway with a wooden pole and a fan back board and some U clamps that my dad hooked up and his rubber basketball.

Nick Bartlett: [00:31:59] We’ve come a long way since [00:32:00] that for sure. For sure.

Mike Klinzing: [00:32:01] It’s amazing. Alright, Jefferson, give us the rundown on what’s going on with the virtual camps. I know that’s something that, again, like we talked about a few minutes ago, that people can take advantage of, even if they don’t have a machine in front of them.

Jefferson Mason: [00:32:12] Yeah, definitely. Well, we noticed that, you know, there was some issues in the basketball world, obviously with the quarantine and social distancing again, and players not being able to work with coaches or trainers, a one to one directly necessarily. And what we wanted to do at dr dish was not only catered to,  you know, our loyal customers and in our base,  we wanted to make sure that every single player out there had the opportunity.

 you know, to get a curriculum that they could work on at home. And so what we did is we developed our virtual 10 day camp in your driveway, which essentially can be done with or without,  you know, our shooting machines. And the reason why we wanted to do this was obviously make sure that we encompass all the different players out there.

 by also letting [00:33:00] them know too, like, Hey, if you do have a machine, you’re gonna be able to maximize each one of these drills. You’re going to be able to do more reps work.  twice as hard as you want to, but if you don’t have a machine, because maybe my interiorly your family isn’t there or you know, your situation doesn’t fit, you can still learn and get better.

And so we took a step back. You know, myself, Nick, our marketing team and all, you know, all the rest of the group members at dr noose basketball. We said, what do we want to present?  you know, to these players, parents and coaches. And what we realized is that there’s a lot of trainers. There’s a lot of people out there.

That are doing one off zoom sessions, or they’re sending one off workouts, which is great. What we wanted to do is kind of become a hub,  in general for basketball. So. If I come in now to this 10 day virtual camp, what can I see and what can I learn? Well, you’re going to get your motivation every single day.

We’re going to send you a quote and a video that’s going to get you pumped up and ready to go. We realize that kids are kind of down right now. They’re worried [00:34:00] about graduation in, are they going to play basketball next year of school? We want to get them motivated and then we also wanted them to progress through the day or,  the camp for that day.

 like they would maybe if they were with a group of other players or a whole bunch of coaches, we wanted them to get into agility and, you know,  warmups in ball handling and then obviously shooting. And so what we did is we took all the content that we have from,  some of the top trainers in the world, like Nick said, to handle it.

DJ Sackman, you know, my done Jordan lolly.  you know, you can go on and on myself, you know, Emily steams or Brittany,  experience. You know, we wanted to take all the content that we’ve created, ball handling, shooting, conditioning, and we said, let’s make it purposeful in this virtual camp. And so each and every day.

The players are going to get a text and email and say, Hey, this is what your plan looks like. For them to get out there and get motivated. Work on your ball handling, work on yourself as a, as a person [00:35:00] and get better. And if you don’t have a shooting machine or you don’t have a hoop, you’re in the drills that you can do.

If you do here, you can go, here’s our guidelines. This is how you can get better in each one of those days is going to include a video of. You know, Jordan, lolly or Mike Dunn or myself, you know, talking about the drew, really explaining almost as if they were there in person on how you can maximize that drill, how you can learn and how you can be better.

And every day you’re going to get something new, fresh and cool and sprinkling a few challenges here, there,  which also keeps the kids engaged. So it’s a really cool thing. It took a lot of time for us to put together, but we’re very excited about it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:35:37] What kind of feedback have you been getting so far from people?

Jefferson Mason: [00:35:40] I think it’s been great overall.  you know, it’s very difficult sometimes as a trainer or a person when you’re not working directly one to one with a player to satisfy everybody. So what we wanted to do is say, Hey. We had a lot of kids that reach out that are eight, nine, 10 years old that wants something like this.

We also have [00:36:00] college and professional players that will talk about,  being a part of something like this. And so you gotta make these drills and these skills doable for a kid that’s 10 years old, but then also as a college athlete. And so what we’ve done is we set a lot of different guidelines within each day of, Hey, you know.

We recommend you do this many reps, but if you’re a college pro player, you can do this. Or you can challenge yourself a little bit better. If you’re a younger player, maybe you take a step back, but you can still learn. And the biggest thing about it is, is being able to allow the players to challenge themselves.

So the feedback has been great. We’ve had a lot of people that say, wow, this is absolutely amazing. I absolutely needed this. You know, we’ll have some people that will say, Hey, I wish we had this in there or that. And that’s great because as a trainer, personally, myself and what we stand for, doctor, just basketball, we want to be better every day.

So overall it’s been fantastic, but we’re always listening into the comments or things that, you know, players want differently or what they need because that’s what’s gonna make us better. That’s what’s going [00:37:00] to truly allow us to help players

Mike Klinzing: [00:37:02] Tell people where they go to get find out for the virtual camp.

Jefferson Mason: [00:37:05] Nicky B!

Nick Bartlett: [00:37:07] Sure. Well,  for one, I mean, on our social media, it’s,  you certainly can,  like it’s our pin tweet right now on Twitter. So if you go on at dr dish B ball there,  on, on Instagram, if you click the link in the bio there. There’ll be a link for the virtual camp. Also, if you just go on our website, it’s a actually at the top of our website right now as a persistent little banner that,   allows you to, to sign up.

So, yeah, I liked Jefferson said it’s been a blast. I know, you know, I think back to, you know, when Jefferson and I were playing, we, we joke about it all the time too.  You know, when we were in middle school and high school and we had, you know, no sense of really actual skills training. I mean, we went to maybe some camps and stuff, but otherwise we just kind of just played and we just shot around and we just kind of played around doing,  you know, some, some ball handling drills here or there.

But yeah.  nothing [00:38:00] was very purposeful and nothing. There was no curricul there were no skills trainers. There was no social media for us to,  to lean on and say, Oh, okay, this is how I structure a workout. You know, we just went out outside and we, or we went to the park with our friends and we just kind of shot around and played.

And so it’s, it’s cool. And I think obviously, you know, we’re, we’re proud of what we’re putting together, but there’s just so much really good stuff out there as far as,  you know, trainers and.  you know, coaches providing resources and, and these actual curriculums that kind of, again. Go through each skill and, and,  you know, so we’re, we’re certainly proud of that.

And we’re hopeful that, you know, kids really do take advantage of this time and,  you know, and, and get better all around. I think there’s just a lot of kids out there that just don’t know, without basketball, structured basketball practices structured,  you know, open gyms even, or a U or anything like that.

They just don’t know what to do. So again, coaches, if you’re listening to this, hopefully this can be a resource that you can pass along to [00:39:00] kids. And,  you know, we’re really excited about, I mean, we’re, we’re approaching 3000 signups here.  you know, and I think we’re going to continue. Again, it’s an on demand,   camp so you can sign up tomorrow.

 and you can sign up a month from now and it’ll still be the same camp.  and again, 10, 10 days of purposeful content there.  so I mean, we look forward just to seeing how that can evolve and,  you know, take that feedback like Jefferson said, and then just continue to, to make better and better content going forward.

Mike Klinzing: [00:39:33] I think that’s a great way to set it up where  a kid, no matter when they sign up, they can progress through those 10 days, kind of at their own pace and at their own time whenever they discover it. So let’s shift gears though for a second from players and let’s just focus on what you guys are doing for coaches, just in general, and then maybe specific to this time, and then we can wrap things up after we talk about that.

Jefferson Mason: [00:39:54] Yeah, definitely. I think the biggest thing,  you know, with me, I’ve, I have [00:40:00] had a lot of opportunity to talk with many different coaches,  not only on, on podcasts, but just one to one. And you know. Oftentimes coaches are similar to players when there’s a lot of downtime and they’re not in their day to day routines, they kinda kind of get lost and they don’t know exactly what they want to do.

My advice to players and then also it’s been the coaches is, is self evaluation. During this period of time, you know, we get stuck in our daily routines of.  you know, for coaches, for example, coaching and, you know, analyzing and looking at the data and thinking about the next day and the next game, and, you know, this player’s issues and that player’s issues and what next year’s going to look like.

And we really don’t have an opportunity to really sit back and look at ourselves as coaches or trainers and say, what can we do to be better?  and I think that this. Quarantine is social distancing and what we’re dealing with is a great opportunity [00:41:00] for coaches and players are really looking at themselves and say, who do I want to be moving forward?

You know, what can I bring to the table, to my team when I have the opportunity to do that? You know, what can I do right now to be a leader in motivation? The kids that I work with doing this tough time, and how can I stay positive moving forward? You know, if you’re not coming out of this quarantine with two or three things better that you can do, then you wasted your time.

You can sit and look at plays and you know, different things that,  you know, people are doing out there. But if you’re not evaluating yourself as a coach in, in trying to be better in that aspect, then you’re wasting a lot of time. Because at the end of the day. Coaches know the players that they’re working with directly one to one.

And so if a coach comes to me and they say, Hey, you know, coach Mason, I got this kid and they’re dealing with this and whatnot, I can give them the advice that I think would fit and work in their, in their system or their situation. But at the end of the [00:42:00] day, they got to know who they are as a coach, what they’re doing, how they’re communicating.

And how they’re trying to get the best out of that player. And a lot of times, I hate to say it, coaches don’t do that. And so right now is a perfect time when schedules are a little bit different. There’s some downtime. Coaches aren’t traveling or necessarily running all around to really be with their family, figure out who they are, and then really kick it into another drive when that opportunity comes to meet with their players.

Mike Klinzing: [00:42:28] I think there’s no doubt that people during this time who regardless of whether you’re a player, you’re a coach, you’re not involved in the game of basketball at all. Just as a human being. I think the people who are going to come out of this the best are the people who are doing exactly what you said, and just going back and putting it all together and thinking about it and really taking it as an opportunity to grow and look at what they’re doing and analyze and reflect and try to figure out how can I grow and get better.

And to me. That just speaks to [00:43:00] the growth mindset that people who are ultimately going to be successful are going to have. And that doesn’t matter whether you’re a coach or you’re a player. And I think what you guys are trying to do with everything that you have going on during this time, just in general as a company, is to provide people with the tools.

To enable them within the basketball space to be able to grow and continue to improve. And so I think that as you look at where we are sitting here today, and it’s may the eighth and everybody’s still trying to figure out, well, what does it look like when basketball comes back? And I think Jefferson, what you just said is wow, by having people get prepared for when they do finally come back by really going through and having time to self-reflect that the people who have done that, the people who have worked during this time.

And have it looked at it as a setback, but instead of look at it as an opportunity, I think those are the people that are going to come roaring back when basketball and everything else in society kind of comes back to whatever our, whatever our new normal ends up looking like.

Jefferson Mason: [00:43:56] Yeah. It’s about, it’s about opportunity.

You know, I look [00:44:00] at it myself and what I preach to my kids and coaches every single day is that you have to be ready, and this is a perfect example of. At any moment in time. You never know what can be taken away from you at your graduation, your next basketball game, your relationships with your friends.

The ability to even communicate with people the way that you used to and you have to be ready for when that next opportunity, you know, comes to you. If I hadn’t put in the work.  you know, prior to my basketball career and during my basketball career and after my basketball career, then I might not have been of value to a guy like Nick Bartlett or Doug Campbell.

They may not have ever reached out to me to be a part of this wonderful thing called Docker, just basketball. But because I was ready for the next opportunity, I was blessed when it came and I was ready. And I tell coaches and parents and players that every single time is that you never know when your opportunity’s going to come.

But you don’t want to not be ready for it and then have it [00:45:00] passed by and never get another one of that magnitude. And so even though right now you’re not playing games, you’re not directly in front of your coaches, you know, maybe there’s not a lot of accountability on your end. This is a time to really show who you are as a person.

Get better in a lot of different ways. Become the best version of yourself, and undoubtedly an opportunity in your life in general will present itself here in the near future, and if you’re ready, you’re going to be able to take full advantage of it. Couldn’t agree more.

Mike Klinzing: [00:45:31] That was very, very well said. I want to wrap things up, guys, by giving you one more opportunity to just share.

Where people can find out more about what you’re doing, talk to players, talk to coaches, share all of your social media, let people know where they can find out more about what you’re doing. And then if there’s any final point that either one of you or both of you would like to make before we get out, you guys can go ahead and do that as well.

Nick Bartlett: [00:45:52] Yeah, absolutely. Well, I’ll kick things off. I mean, I think the best place that you can find us [00:46:00] is our website, dr. Dish basketball.com. You know, we have a ton of,  you know, information on our machines on there and resources, drills,  you name it. So between there and then obviously social media at dr dish.

Bebo.  happy to, you know, welcome anybody to our community there.  we’re always trying to put out, you know, contents and,  even share, you know, other content though that is, is, is really purposeful and we just want to grow the game that way. So,  any questions that you have regarding, you know, our machines.

 you know, for sure, feel free to give us a call as well. You know, our, our numbers on the website.  but we have, you know, sales reps,  you know, just that, that kind of represent the entire country, entire world that are,  you know, more than happy to talk to, you know, coaches, you know, parents, trainers, players,  during this time.

So,  you know, I think as far as, you know, me and Jefferson, you know, we’re more than happy to, to, to help anybody,  as well. You can reach us. Pretty simple. Just [00:47:00] nick@drdishbasketball.com Jefferson@drdishbasketball.com. So any questions you guys have,  you know, we’re, we’re going to be more than happy to help and we’re just thrilled to be such a,  you know, even just a small part of the basketball community and, you know, just to help grow the game.

And,  yeah, we’re,  we’re, we’re just, again, very fortunate.

Mike Klinzing: [00:47:26] Right guys. I really appreciate it. We are excited here at the hoop heads podcast, Jason and I to be partnered up with you guys. We feel fortunate to be able to associated with a brand like dr dish that’s doing so many good things in the basketball world that I think, although we’re going at it in different ways, I think the, the ultimate goal,  both on your end of it and on our end of it is to grow the game, make the game of basketball better for players, coaches, and for everybody who’s involved.

And I can’t, thank you. Jefferson and Nick for jumping out with us this morning. It’s been a lot of fun. Kind of going through and hearing how you guys both got [00:48:00] to dr dish and then talking about some of the things that you’re doing during this unique and challenging time that we’re all living through here in the world in 2020 so thanks a lot guys for spending some time with us this morning.

Really appreciate it and to everyone out there, we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.