TOBIAS PINSON – FOUNDER & CEO OF HOOP JUICE – EPISODE 379

Tobias Pinson

Website – https://hoopjuice.com/

Email – tobias@hoopjuice.com

Twitter – @HoopJuice_

Tobias Pinson is the founder and CEO of Hoop Juice Recruiting Service.  Hoop Juice helps female players distribute their talents to college coaches throughout the United States.

Tobias was an assistant coach of the women’s basketball program at The University of Charleston during the 2018-2019 season. Prior to Charleston, he has been an assistant women’s basketball coach at Winthrop University (D1), USC-Upstate (D1), Walsh University (D2), and Converse College (D2).

Pinson was named a Top Thirty Under 30 Assistant Coach by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) in 2018. This prestigious award was created to recognize 30 up-and-coming women’s basketball coaches age 30 and under at all levels of the game. Tobias has also been a speaker for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) at numerous Final Four National Conventions as well.

Tobias played collegiate basketball at Spartanburg Methodist College (JUCO) and Winthrop University (D1). The highlight of his playing career came during the 2012-13 season at Spartanburg Methodist College when his team finished 35-1 and advanced to the Final Four.

Don’t miss our free Hoop Heads Pod Webinar Series on Thursday nights at 9 pm EST.  If you miss a live webinar you can buy lifetime access to any of our previous webinars for $4.99 on the Hoop Heads Pod website.  If you’re focused on improving your coaching and your team, we’ve got you covered! Visit hoopheadspod.com/webinars to get registered.  Make sure you check out our new Hoop Heads Pod Network of shows including Thrive with Trevor Huffman , Beyond the Ball, The CoachMays.com Podcast, Player’s Court, Bleachers & Boards and our team focused NBA Podcasts:  Cavalier Central, Grizz n Grind, Knuck if you Buck, The 305 Culture and Blazing the Path.  We’re looking for more NBA podcasters interested in hosting their own show centered on a particular team.  Shoot an email to info@hoopheadspod.com if you’re interested in learning more and bringing your talent to our network.

Listen and learn from our conversation with Tobias Pinson, Founder & CEO of Hoop Juice.

Please note: We had some issues with Tobias’ audio during recording but cleaned it up during post-production editing as best we could.

What We Discuss with Tobias Pinson

  • Why his Dad tried to steer him into baseball as a kid
  • Choosing basketball for the action and the challenge
  • Loving pickup basketball as a high school player
  • The accessibility of gyms now compared to in the past
  • Walking on as a freshman at D1 Winthrop University
  • Traveling with the team to the Virgin Islands
  • Playing in a final four at Spartanburg Methodist
  • His first coaching experience while still a college student
  • Enjoying recruiting right from the start of his coaching career
  • How he planned out recruiting visits for players
  • It’s a long season when you’re losing
  • Building a network of high school and AAU coaches that you can trust to help build your list of potential recruits
  • Can a potential recruit help you beat the best team on your schedule?
  • Why he had players dribble full court with their left hand as he evaluated them
  • The types of questions he asks high school and AAU coaches about their players
  • His time as an assistant at Walsh University and also be the JV Head Coach
  • The origin story of Hoop Juice
  • Tough conversations with players and parents about the level they can realistically play at and why addresses that early
  • Why a good highlight tape is important
  • His communication process with players, parents, & coaches
  • Asking college coaches what they need and trying to find a fit for his players at Hoop Juice
  • Finding his player clients through social media
  • How he learned his video breakdown skills
  • Putting together a plan to help educate parents on the recruiting process
  • The challenge of expanding Hoop Juice and growing the business

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

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!
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is DrDish-Rec.jpg

As the first exo-performance company, ARYSE makes products that mimic and strengthen the way the body works. Human anatomy is an incredible machine; your gear shouldn’t slow it down. Your performance should never be limited.

THANKS, TOBIAS PINSON!

If you enjoyed this episode with Tobias Pinson, let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Tobias Pinson 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 TOBIAS PINSON – FOUNDER & CEO OF HOOP JUICE – EPISODE 379

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle. And tonight we are pleased to welcome to the podcast from Hoop Juice Recruiting Tobias Pinson. Tobias, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

Tobias Pinson: [00:00:13] Oh, thank you. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for that.

Mike Klinzing: [00:00:16] Absolutely. We are excited to have you on and get a chance to dig into what you’ve been able to do and build with hoop juice.

I want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid. Talk to us a little bit about your first experiences in the game of basketball.

Tobias Pinson: [00:00:29] We’re going way back there. I guess to start out, man, I originally started playing baseball when I was younger. my dad was a big softball guy when he was alive.

We use a basketball player in high school. I think he always had a baseball edge. So he tried to drive me towards baseball going up, but all of our friends were playing basketball and I was playing both in directly to middle school and high school. So I just kind of fell over the game of basketball and decided that.

[00:01:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:01:01] What is it about the game of basketball that ultimately made you choose that over baseball?

Tobias Pinson: [00:01:06] Good question. I would say really just, I mean, it’s more action. Like to this day. I really can’t even watch baseball for me personally. but, just the action of basketball and baseball I was really good, but basketball I wasn’t always wasn’t the best player.

So I felt challenged when I was out there as a kid. I was always tall, so obviously stuck in the post. At a young age, it’s always had a lot to work on my handling and my decision making. It’s also I think the challenges kind of drew me towards it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:01:38] So when you first decided that you were going to start to focus on basketball, what did that look like for you?

How did you go about improving your game, working on it? What did you do summertime in between seasons to try and improve the skills that you were just talking about?

Tobias Pinson: [00:01:56] A good question. I really [00:02:00] started working on my game, going into the summer of my ninth grade year. My dad was a very dominant personality traits of that.

and he really drove hard baseball on me, like really, really boosted on me. And I think he may have pushed me away from it a little bit. God bless his soul, but I think it’s an opposite of basketball. Whereas he wanted me to enjoy it, keep doing it, allow me to be coached by other people. So I’m really honest with you.

I started watching this guy named Gary Baldwin on YouTube, watch a lot of his stuff and  do some workouts and Antonio Hargrove. So  that’s where I learned.

Mike Klinzing: [00:02:39] It’s funny because obviously the era that you grew up playing basketball and being able to have those types of resources, when you talk about YouTube, being able to have a trainer I’m a little bit older than you.

So I cracked the 50 Mark this year, and for me, there was none of that. And that’s one of the things that I’m jealous about. Kind of the era that kids grow up in today is there’s [00:03:00] so many opportunities for you to get better. That’s through watching YouTube videos or access to trainers, and there’s so much more access to gyms.

I think I missed out on and kids missed out today on some of the playground basketball that I get to play, but I think there’s a huge benefit to kids. Being able to find things they can work on and improve and have access to trainers and have access to videos. And you can learn from some of the best coaches and trainers in the world.

Just by going in and going on your computer. So when you got it started taking the game more seriously, what were some of the things that in high school you remember in terms of your favorite memories of playing high school basketball?

Tobias Pinson: [00:03:37] So that’s a deep question right there. I do a bunch of different ways today, all the way back from playing travel basketball.

This is when the AAU nationals was a big thing to go to . So went to that three times. high school basketball. So they’re all that really close to the final four. Never credited got there twice my [00:04:00] sophomore year. yeah, I just, I school basketball and just really playing pickup basketball. They really can’t find it.

I graduated 2011. so I would say probably two or three years after they really didn’t bother me because that’s all outside, I should say. I really, really enjoyed that to this day. I say I’m from Greenville, South Carolina. So. I just to put a specific method on that, but yeah, really just playing pick up basketball.

I just missed the games with all the guys who are a little bit stronger with that, we’ve had to think my way through things.

Mike Klinzing: [00:04:31] So. Let me ask you this as a younger guy. Why do you think, what do you think has led to the demise of playground, pickup basketball, outdoors? Why do you think it’s gone away?

I’m just curious

Tobias Pinson: [00:04:43] A good question. I honestly think, I think there’s more accessibility to gyms now. I think around 2010, 2011, that’s kinda, we had that mistake, YouTube air and got a lot of high school coaches and there’s honestly a lot more money involved in travel basketball. So. More [00:05:00] opportunity to open up the gym for their guys too.

Try to get people in the program. So honestly, I think just more open in general, obviously out before then, but yeah,

Mike Klinzing: [00:05:10] There’s no doubt about that. That the amount of gym access I think about when I was a kid and it was almost impossible to get into any gym, even with your high school coach, Jim’s just were not open.

And so you were kind of left with, I got to play in the driveway or got to go find a playground somewhere where I can play against good competition. Whereas now. Whether you’re a high school player. A lot of times high school coaches are open up the gym, not only for their own players, but even for the junior high middle school players and their community.

And then you think about all the travel basketball and AAU. And as you said, the fact that it’s become a business has motivated the adults who have the keys to the gym to open those gyms up because it’s become clearly a business for everybody. And it’s one of the things that I’m. I’m sad about it. I think there’s a lot of positives to kids being able to have access to gyms and trainers and all those good things that come along [00:06:00] with the system today.

And yet I still, I still feel bad just like you said, how you miss that playground basketball and getting out and plan. I feel the same way and not even so much for me cause I got to experience it, but I think. Kids today missing out on that. It’s one of the things that forget about what it did for you as a player, improving your game.

I think the bottom line is when you think about playing basketball on the playground, it was just, it was just fun. And that’s what I miss more than anything.

Tobias Pinson: [00:06:27] Oh yeah. A hundred percent man. Awesome. Thank you. Build a competitive edge. This one, the different neighborhoods, you and your girlfriend, your neighborhood, trying to take over the court at eight.

and then, like you said, the gym access was different. Back then in 2011, we out them all down. We had a recreation center, they would always put up volleyball nets and the half courts.  We’d offer to take it down to the back of your eye, follows, whatever. Never would get looted. So obviously I think nowadays that would not  fly.

Mike Klinzing: [00:06:57] Yeah. That would not fly anymore. If there’s, [00:07:00] let’s put it this way. If you have, if you are the owner or a school district and you have a gym and you’re not utilizing that to sort of fund your athletic department, you’re probably missing out on a great opportunity because again, there’s so much demand as you know, for youth and AAU basketball and people trying to go out there and improve and get better and help kids get, you know, improve their stock.

And. Maybe get an opportunity to play college basketball, which leads me to my question about your experience in high school. And when you started thinking about the opportunity to play college basketball, when did that get on your radar as a realistic goal of something that you wanted to do?

Tobias Pinson: [00:07:35] Oh, I think probably, you know, our, when I was in seventh and eighth grade, something that always stayed about thought about, because I grew up in given government housing.

So college was always something I knew I have to get you to be my ticket out. And other than basketball. Okay. I’m solidness. I got a lot of areas improve are who all this I can get there. And then going into  high school, my senior year, I had one [00:08:00] division, two stops of offer from Anderson University, but I also knew I didn’t want to go to a school that I feel comfortable at yet.

and then with the coach and staff of the program, I see myself being happy there and being able to complete four years, I didn’t want to be a dropout. So I’m actually going to, went to Winthrop University and I was just going there as a regular student. got to the institution started because it was a gym, obviously thought I was done with basketball, but started playing with the team.

And I’m like, man, I’m not too far behind that. I can hang with themm. Then I got, well, actually they invited me to their private open gym in that arena. Started playing in there. And then, you know, I found my way to talk with the coach in that opportunity to walk on my freshman year.

Mike Klinzing: [00:08:48] That’s cool. Did you have to go through a tryout process?

Cause I’m always curious about, I love talking to guys who walked on at a division one program and just hearing the different stories of what the tryout [00:09:00] was like for the walkouts who were attempting to make the team.

Tobias Pinson: [00:09:02] Man. Awesome. Awesome. Got it. My first year I wouldn’t talk to the coach. I would sa  for me, six-five. I could drive a little bit, you know, provide some value. Whether it was in practice, I didn’t play a lot. But my first two weeks it was just me running the team conditioning in the morning and lifting weights.

I didn’t know individuals, no basketball stuff. I’m just sitting there and watching the basketball stuff. And then, you know, I didn’t understand that, but now I was in that beautiful house though. She was just testing me to see if I really wanted to play. So I went through two and a half weeks of strength, conditioning and lifting weights, and I was having to do basketball stuff on my own as students, you know, just the main thing that some of the time came for me to go through some dribbling drills and drills.

I was ready. So had handled that in a way. I found a team I made the [00:10:00] team was our issue date. The manager, Joe, I think it’s domain intestine. He ended up, you know, he used to pick us up and drops the price and stuff. Cause those had a car, especially, he was like, yeah man.  like, nobody, nobody gave me anything yet.

So yeah, it was a  pretty interesting data. So excited for me. And I saw my name with my picture, applied it on a locker in my hometown. So, so reaching that.

Mike Klinzing: [00:10:30] That’s awesome. I’m assuming since those guys had kind of took you under their wing and brought you in to the open gyms that they were having in the arena, I’m assuming that your relationship with the players was pretty good since you had a previous relationship with them kind of heading into the tryouts.

Tobias Pinson: [00:10:47] Oh yeah. Relationship was awesome man. All the guys are helpful. Everybody’s working hard. One thing I didn’t know, animosity to me and yet they were clearly at any scale wise, I was just happy to be there. no, my first time [00:11:00] to fly out country, but I got to go to the Virgin islands. I mean, I’m going a lot of places.

My freshman year. I never had a chance. I would have never had anything to do in my life.

Mike Klinzing: [00:11:08] What was your favorite place you went,

Tobias Pinson: [00:11:10] During that season? definitely the Virgin islands. Like we, we went the week before Thanksgiving break and then he had the whole Thanksgiving break off after that and I’m sure to post scheduled to design it like this, we practice.

Right. So it’s like great and good.  said they really, obviously I was a private school here, so I really didn’t have no gang responsibility. So I was having a good time.

Mike Klinzing: [00:11:32] Yeah, it’s amazing. I say that’s one of the things about having a college basketball career. I think about some of the places that I got to go and play and places that, you know, you’re not sure if you ever, you know, if you ever get back to, and I know, like I went to, went to New York city when I was playing in college and I haven’t.

Unfortunately, I’ve been back since I’ve been to a lot of places around the country, but haven’t been back to New York. And the other place that I went that really made an impression on me was Boise, Idaho. So kind of two sort of completely different ends of the country, but to places that [00:12:00] were very unique in their own way.

And again, as you said, they’re experiences that you just don’t get a, if you’re not having an opportunity to play college basketball. So after you get done and you play it Windsor, he had an opportunity to play a little bit at Spartanburg Methodist as well. So. Tell tell us a little bit about that. Cause I’m assuming they’re you, that you had an opportunity to play a little bit.

Tobias Pinson: [00:12:24] So, you know, offering me, he informed me that kind of previous of world, but I had that right.

We’ll see what I can do to like be too low or something. So I ended up going to Spartanberg Methodist to play for vehicles, that routine. and we had a loaded team, man, super, super loaded team went 35 and one. So what happened was we made the final four and ended up, and the final four of the national part of it.

And the way it [00:13:00] causes that itself is if you lose that final four game, you can play for third place. So we actually ended our season on a win and that pushes up extra, win 35 and more for view. So it was a miracle run from a small junior college, as far as we’re talking

Mike Klinzing: [00:13:15] about. So when you’re in school, what’s your thought in terms of career direction, what did you want to do when you got to college?

Did that change at all? As you went through college and then just talk a little bit about the process where you got to where you are today in terms of staying involved in the game of basketball.

Tobias Pinson: [00:13:36] So at Methodist, I didn’t have a super great numbers and I was just looking back at it.

We were playing more of team ball, like we’re at a four year. so I ended up, I had a chance to go to a lot of small colleges in South Carolina and I asked him more trial options with nothing that I really wanted to go do. And I kind of said that [00:14:00] same month for my grades.

Letting us play basketball. So I ended up going to University of South Carolina, Upstate, and I had a chance to be a practice player for Converse College at the time, an all girls school. They introduced the to girls basketball. So I was practice player, my junior year of college, not playing that long, did that for a year.

Then my senior year, commerce, I was hired at new coats, I believe in best foods or, and. Prior to her coming to college, she had coached at Butler university teaching years, you pay close, got fired, and that’s just part of the industry, but she ended up going to Converse college and all that, man. I really think, think I may want to be a coach at a school.

It’s a good opportunity to kind of be an Asian Linehan or so I just, yeah. I asked her one day early, early in the preseason, like, Hey, I want to do after school. And then I, okay. We have a system for moving out anyway. She said, yeah, come any time. What. So I kind of like [00:15:00] I’ll come in every day, basically full time volunteer assistant for all of that.

Every game, lo learn the basics of me that sitting in Osama her solver toss,  throw it on canvas stuff. Look, the house, she ran her program. So that was my first start as a full time. And my senior year of college.

Mike Klinzing: [00:15:23] Were there things about coaching once you got into it that you didn’t, that you didn’t expect in terms of some of the job requirements of the job description, things that you were doing, that when you were playing, you may have had no idea that coaches had to do.

Tobias Pinson: [00:15:39] Oh yeah. A hundred percent, man. Just, I mean, pretty much the whole industry, anything on the basketball court, obviously the politics that’s in everything you do. It’s how you go about. No build a network of people, obviously, you know, looking for different jobs,  how to become better as a person.

Like I told you, you got to [00:16:00] develop all the time and remain relevant in basketball, always shifting and changing. And so really just the professional relationship was big for me. I didn’t understand that. So I got it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:16:11] Yeah, I think that’s one of the things that it’s interesting that you were able to recognize that early, because I think a lot of times, especially with somebody who’s played the game before you kind of come into it and you think, well, I know, I know a whole lot about this, the fact that you were kind of able to step back and realize, Hey, there’s a lot for me to learn.

What part of it did you enjoy the most that first year? What, what aspect of that first coaching job did you say? Boy, I really enjoy this.

Tobias Pinson: [00:16:39] I’ll probably leave now said all the on campus recruiting, just taking the, taking the kids through, yeah. Campus kind of how we did it, how we mapped it out.

She’ll either shoot you there with option. We do it. I never realized how much of a strategy it was. And so that first year we do it. How many different ways you can do it right way to do it wrong. [00:17:00] Yeah. That was probably the most intriguing part for me.

Mike Klinzing: [00:17:03] What were some things that in your mind, what makes it, what makes for a good recruiting visit on campus and what makes for a bad recruiting visit?

Tobias Pinson: [00:17:13] Good question. I really think it’s about figuring everything out. Like if you know, you’re going to the dorms, go there and make sure it’s a lot. If you know, you’re going to show different buildings, visuals a lot. I don’t kind of put everything on a whim, have everything that out from the day, everybody notified multiple times during the week got everything’s lined up.

You want them to feel like everything’s in order, obviously making them feel wanted and obviously recruiting changed over the years. So any personal life such as you can make that score unquote legal, I would say that.

Mike Klinzing: [00:17:49] How difficult was it in that first year to learn those rules, to make sure that you were following the protocol, how did you learn?

What was it? Was it permissible as you [00:18:00] were going through and putting together a recruiting visit for somebody?

Tobias Pinson: [00:18:03] A good question that I would say, I’d say the recruiting tests. I didn’t know much about that, but I ended up passing the first trial with three hours. We didn’t have like a huge budget, so we weren’t like super creative, but I was always good on the computer.

So. I ended up putting together a slide for that we do, and then we’re always gonna change it and author. So really

fringe part. I was just asking her, like I said, previous to that, she, I mean, she had been  so she thought I knew to do.

Mike Klinzing: [00:18:38] Yeah, I got you. What about it? Was there some aspect of that first year of coaching that you were like, man, this is a part of coaching that I could, that I could do without that maybe you didn’t enjoy as much.

Tobias Pinson: [00:18:49] Ah, good question, man. So it was like my whole life had been apart when he programs it. She ain’t got there at school that more than I think, like four or five games in the season they’d been around for a long [00:19:00] time. So we went through, that was my first time going through a losing season with a program that was going to be rebuilt.

She had just got it. That was her first year. So that was probably the toughest part. Just losing all the cost basis without most control of, if that makes sense.

Mike Klinzing: [00:19:16] It makes total sense. How did you guys, as a staff, what do you go about doing to try to, to try to turn that thing around and then what’s, what are the conversations like in the coaches office after practice, after games, when you’re going through a losing season, how did you guys cope with that?

Tobias Pinson: [00:19:35] Oh, really, you know, we didn’t try to harp on this stuff. We did it wrong. All the games would always try to feel the players up and try to keep them bought in and doing practice. Obviously we weren’t like super super town teams, so we don’t want to go so far talent-wise so we would throw different strains out there and just really try to develop the players.

But really a lot of the focus was on recruiting and just building up the culture and the marshal of the program. [00:20:00] So spent a lot of times doing that and not necessarily focusing on.

Mike Klinzing: [00:20:04] All right. So obviously the recruiting side is where you’re going to end up at some point here in the journey. So talk to me a little bit about how you went about putting together your initial list of recruits.

Cause that’s one of the things that I’m always fascinated, fascinated by when I talk to college coaches is where do you get that initial list of players that you should. Consider is that done through your connections with local high school coaches? Is that done through scouting services? How do you go about as a college coach at the level you were coaching?

How do you put together that list of recruitable players that you’re considering?

Tobias Pinson: [00:20:44] A great question. So I’ll start kind of what I felt like I was writing for. I started off the way I did when I first started, it was different than the West started. so I would say the way I ended was I had a few network of travel focuses and, wash off [00:21:00] any and every politics that would send to me. But I used that with network, withcoaches up and down the East coast, Midwest West coast. And I had a big enough pool of people to say, Hey, this is what I need, what you got does that sense.

And also I thought I was from South Carolina now. East coast as far as coaching wise. So I would always include a region that out from South Carolina knew about all those kids. That’s on the girl’s side at that time, probably three or four years ago. It wasn’t as popular as it is now. A lot of those kids and the North Carolina region.

Mike Klinzing: [00:21:33] So once you had that initial list, what was the process like for going out onto the road or watching tape? What are some of the things that you were looking for? Both from a skillset standpoint, and then also, maybe from an intangible standpoint, when you’re having conversations with AAU coaches or high school coaches or the players and their parents, what are the things that you’re then using to narrow down that list of who you really want to zero in on.

[00:22:00] Tobias Pinson: [00:22:01] For talent. it’s just being a very important player. Myself, always look at the top team in our conference and I’m like, can this kid beat the top team? If not, then no, we can’t. We can’t get anybody to yogurt. Obviously, circumstances, you got to go deep in your list, whatever. But yeah, the date, we got a thought for you.

So that was kind of when I was looking at the top team that we played, I’m like, can this hang with those dudes or whatever the other eight years.

Mike Klinzing: [00:22:30] Yeah, that’s a really good way of looking at it. I’ve never heard anybody say that, but it makes a ton of sense. If you think about if I’m a middle of the road program or I’m a program at the bottom of my league, and I want to get up to the top of that league and beat the teams that are up there.

And I got to compare the players that I’m recruiting to the players, that that team is currently putting out there on the floor. Makes a lot of sense, using that as a barometer of trying to figure out who you need to bring in. How did you, this is a question that. I think a lot of coaches. And it’s one that I’m, [00:23:00] I’d like to ask the people who have coached the college game or currently coaching at that level.

When you start thinking about balancing your evaluation between watching a player, play AAU basketball and watching a player play. High school basketball. How much do you weigh what they do in one versus the other. And then when you’re watching a high school game or at AAU game, are you looking for different things depending upon which one of those two situations that they’re in, in other words, when you watch their high school game, are you looking for one thing out of them?

And then when you’re watching an AAU game, are you all looking for something else? If that question makes sense.

Tobias Pinson: [00:23:37] No, it definitely does. I didn’t really look for anything different for the game. I’m mostly watching the player. Like for instance, when I was at university of Charleston, when we bring kids in for a workout and this may sound kind of basic, but we would have them push the ball up from one end of the floor, to the other with their left hand, multiple times to see if they can actually do it.

That makes sense. Like a lot of kids [00:24:00] can maybe take one or two drills with that left hand, but it gets real, when you say push it up full speed with your left hand. That makes sense. So in a game or watching for that stuff, they’re driving. Right. And he was strong when it goes to the left and the balls, like fast and the bow, their head are falling off.

They’re near the two dribbles that’s way. You can do it with your left arm. See if you can pull up left and right. No, I’ve seen it. What do you do when you get to the thing? Are you going to try to pull it off from somebody or are you going to floater Europe? So really just seeing, if you make the decision, there really didn’t matter the level of who you’re playing against.

Oh, I can kind of judge. I was always good to speed. Yeah, I feel like it would translate over to what we were doing in college.

Mike Klinzing: [00:24:40] What kind of questions would you ask of a high school coach or an AAU coach when you’re recruiting their players, where you, where you’re talking to them about work ethic, love of the game and tangibles.

What are some of the things that you would ask those coaches

Tobias Pinson: [00:24:53]  Good question. I never really asked them their opinion on talent. Cause I feel like that was up to [00:25:00] us as a coaching staff to make a lot. We don’t need your pain based on what I saw, if that makes sense. what I was like is a kid, a gym rat that she got any trouble and she, she now back and she a quiet person, you know, what is, what do you think is next and her development?

really just how some of those personal questions. So we know what type of key, kind of what we’re. Well, I have to deal with bill build up in kids. They didn’t

Mike Klinzing: [00:25:25] care. All right. Talk a little bit about some of your other stops as an assistant coach. What you learned at each one of those along the way.

Tobias Pinson: [00:25:33] It’s a good question. So I went from Converse college to be a GA at Walash university. really didn’t realize that I’ll walk into at a time when I walked into a really, really good program on the coast, real and. I ended up getting the chance to be the GA of Scott. I did all the dirty work, but also that would be the JV.

Head coach. So that was my first time being the head coach of the JV team. really not a lot of pressure to win games. It was really, it’s [00:26:00] more for a written thing. but we ended up, I mean, we ended up winning like four out of eight days or something like that, but it was super fun, but they would have won.

Well, and practice, I think it was like once or twice a week, all year, not to be a mean guy. That would be super fun, but it’s not about personality and we just play a game. So that was fun, you know, to kind of set up all those systems from all practices, you know, get getting my feet wet. And that nature also got to do a little bit of recruiting there.

that was more just like stationary works and it also kind of learning organization of. The including, then I ended up going to university of South Carolina, Upstate, and that’s kind of what I think I was able to get free rein of those Tammy drawers kind of threw me out of the role. They’re like, Hey, go find me some kids.

This is what we need. so that was probably my first upstate was part of my first time getting my feet wet. From there I went to university. felt pretty seasoned [00:27:00] when I got there, I was there for it year, and then I ended up going to the university. I’ll just find one of my favorite coaching stops and I got to do yeah.

And everything. Therefore, scheduling is fruiting too.

Mike Klinzing: [00:27:20] Did you have an idea as you were going through this, that at some point in your career, did you have a goal in mind of being a head coach at some point?

Tobias Pinson: [00:27:29]  I would say, yeah, I did want to be a head coach for really. I wanted to coach, I wanted to coach it would be an assistant just to. No being the lead, being in the big leagues with, with the top of mine in school, the quote, quote, unquote, top minds and basketball, even though we all know there’s great bonds at the lower level suit, just to me, that’s where I want it to be.

Or obviously once I got through with Charleston, I definitely could have saw my  at the time.

[00:28:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:28:00] How do you end up making the decision that you do and where does hoop juice come into the story?

Tobias Pinson: [00:28:06] A good question. So I’ll hit the university of Charleston in Charleston with you. I’m not sure if you’ve been there, but there’s not a lot in the city or town, not a lot to do.

Mike Klinzing: [00:28:17] I’ve driven through there many times. And when I was younger, I think I stayed at the guy, stayed at a hotel in Charleston, West Virginia on my very first trip to, to Hilton head as a kid. So yes, I bet I saw I’ve been there. I can vouch for the fact it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot going on

Tobias Pinson: [00:28:31]Yeah. Yeah. Not, not a, not a super great place. The school is nice. The arena is nice. The AD was nice. The boss is great. all my family was down in South Carolina. That’s where I’m from. So. I just kinda, I saw a gap, you know, including world. I know there’s a lots of media outlets and stout services for guys basketball, but you can probably count on your hand, the actual legitimate women’s basketball scouting service slash recruiting service there that are out [00:29:00] there.

So I looked at that also saw ACW transfer for who you should introduce in October, 2018. And I saw that as a major shift and problem for high school kids. And obviously at that time, it’s his moves are, are they as now you have the transfer division, one division want to sit out, but obviously we all know that’s going to change at some point where kids can go, do you want to be one, without sitting now.

And that’s obviously going to be a few huge change improvement for high school kids. So I know there’s a lot of kids that need help. I know how to find kids that nobody is watching they’re scene. so I turned it into so business in so many words, I’d say college placement, which is the biggest thing. I don’t, I try not to identify myself too much as a recruiting services.

I don’t do like you write up some random fees. I really focus in on the kids. A lot of clients are the parents who ever thought he was getting it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:29:56] Alright. So just to make it clear for people who [00:30:00] maybe aren’t as familiar with what a recruiting service actually does and you kind of hinted at it there. So.

When you are going out and you have, and you talk about your clients, you have somebody that you are helping them with the process of transitioning from high school, basketball to college basketball, trying to get them the opportunity to have that. Whether it’s a scholarship or just an opportunity to play, what are the things that you’re doing for a player when they become a client of hoop juice?

Tobias Pinson: [00:30:32] good question. so we’re talking about my full cost placement service. First thing I do is I evaluate them. So if I said, Hey, this is the level that I think you can play it. And before they even sign it to the cloud and you have to be agreed upon that, they’re okay with me pushing them toward that level.

Obviously, a lot of kids have big dreams. I’m going to do UNC, you know, wherever that like. You’re not, that’s just not where you at right now.,

Mike Klinzing: [00:30:59] All right. Let me let me interrupt you [00:31:00] there. Cause I think that’s, this is a great point that you’re about to make, and I just want to put some emphasis on it. How.

Tell us about those conversations, what that conversation looks like, because we all know anybody who’s been out on the youth basketball, AAU circuit knows that there is a ton of overinflated opinions about what players can and can’t do and the levels they can and can’t play at. And. Very oftentimes there is a disconnect between reality and what the player thinks they can do just as you just described the player who thinks they can play in the ACC, but really they should be focused on trying to be a division three player.

So just tell us your approach with having those, what I’m sure at times are difficult conversations for players and parents to hear.

Tobias Pinson: [00:31:53] Good question then. So honestly, it’s not too much of a difficult conversation for me cause it’s addressed in the beginning. so I I’ll, I’ll [00:32:00] say, Hey, senior high tech, let me watch it before we talk to me, how I can help you, what I can do and what you know, why you need to plan.

I said, Hey, this is the level. I think you can play it, you know, are you okay with me pushing towards that level? If they say, no, I think I’m better off that. They’ve made me food. Food is probably not you, but you, the changes in the future, I’m always here and someone will say, okay, can you explain to me why you think they’re like, Hey, I’ll send them some video out here, a visual one.

How many little player is Ericsson, 20 something in high school, do you think? And they’ll say, no, I’ll send them a division three player. Here’s a hot tip I did for a kid. That’s where they went.  yeah, I do. Well, there you go. So.

Mike Klinzing: [00:32:43] Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. I think being able to see, cause I think that’s something that I’ve talked to some other coaches about that, and maybe not as much on the girls side, but certainly on the boys side where you’ll have a player that.

Thanks. They’re a division one player, but really they’re probably more [00:33:00] suited to be a division three player and they may have never even scene a division three games in their life. And so they have no idea what the quality of play is at that particular level. And I think it’s opening for players and parents.

To be able to see what each one of those levels looks like and for you to be okay, we’ll put that together and say, Hey, look, here’s a player who’s playing at the division three level. Compare yourself to that player and let’s put it this way. You gotta be pretty darn good to identify as being a lot better than a division three college basketball player.

If you’re the ad, if you’re an average high school player, that’s out there trying to think about being recruited

Tobias Pinson: [00:33:38] Oh, yeah, not always word it like this to other, everybody develops different things. If you go look at the top player roster and some of the top programs, they’re probably mid made a little player.

At that point, I found that scene. They come in as D3 level players. They leave more than likely as a low [00:34:00]maintenance place. It’s just, everybody gets their face at time.

Mike Klinzing: [00:34:04] Yeah, no question about that. I think that’s a great point. How did you go about when you first had the idea, how do you take hoop juice from a thought in your head to an actual business?

What did that process look like?

Tobias Pinson: [00:34:17] A good question. So I kind of started mapping it out in January. in the spring, doing  Christmas break. I had a little downside from the season. I started mapping it out on paper inside of it, see all that stuff that goes with it. but also I had a couple  past and let him know that transferred and they’re going to need some help in the fall, whatever this in relationships I have with parents.

So all that man did opportunity to get life. It just came out a bunch of coaches that had no log in, nothing falls off. So. not. So those initial two kids [00:35:00] helped him out though, you know, as success stories. I mean, I guess you could say you, but I ended up getting the post office to go elsewhere. it was kind of a, Whoa.

Mike Klinzing: [00:35:10] So what is it look like when you onboard somebody as a client? So the first thing you do before they even come on is you make sure that you guys are on the same page in terms of what the level is that you’re looking to help them get to. So once you’ve determined that. What are the next steps in the process?

What is it that you actually do to help them get to where they want to go?

Tobias Pinson: [00:35:35] A good question. So I’ll start with a lot of the kids. I have to reconstruct the holiday. They made some people go have me. so I’ll, I’ll rebuild the higlight tape myself. you know, you can take your poverty games, and I’d like to get an officer.

They file a date at all. A lot of legal that you can get you a scholarship on

[00:36:00] but that’s that’s all for another day. But I was put together an officer base holiday, and my thought was, you know, I can teach you this when you get there. You’re somewhat athletic. I really don’t have some teaching you office. So that’s why I put together often some face politics. And also I sending it around to my network of coaches.

And then I ask as they get fitted, I get feedback. Hey, give me some full games. I’ll have two full games or YouTube. Raise the send out as well. Obviously I had everything around it. I use a little bit of Twitter, a little bit of email, a phone call, a fixed. so they’re not, and I let the parents know up front.

This could be a two month process or it could be a full year and a half off. You know, I can’t put a stamp on it. Every policy you do. They all raise everybody’s process. So I make sure that’s known early in the process as well as it is by father.

Mike Klinzing: [00:36:55] So what does the communication with the parent and the player look like [00:37:00] as you’re going through and you’re doing this?

Tell me about what you’re, how you’re keeping them informed about sort of what you’re doing. In other words, if you’re sending tape to six coaches, are you letting them know all the places that those tapes are going out to? Are you discussing with them? Hey, do you want me to reach out to this particular school?

How does that piece of it work?

Tobias Pinson: [00:37:19] Ah, good question. So I initially do a onboarding with them. They’ll fill out a form and about, I’ll say probably about 30 or 40%. So to go back to the very first year off, say what schools have emailed you, call you, text you, and then a communication that’s very year. And I’ll say, Hey, give me 10 schools.

As you can see, based on the level that you just said, that you’re a good fit. More thoughts are used though. That was the school that had a name, you know, all numbers. so that’s kinda how I attack it. I don’t necessarily send them a list of people on contact them because I know they’ll get

it’s approximate even sometimes when I send [00:38:00] the film to a coach and not necessarily check it out right away. It’s the long term followup game that I play, to do the focus.

Mike Klinzing: [00:38:08] So what does that look like? So you send them the initial tape and clearly. In some cases, they’re coaches that you have a relationship with prior where they trust your judgment and your evaluation.

And they’re going to take what you give them. Let’s say a little bit more seriously. What about if you’re reaching out to a school or a coach that maybe you don’t have a prior relationship with? If you don’t hear back from them, what’s the followup look like?

Tobias Pinson: [00:38:33] Oh, yeah. I’ll usually give it a week. and you said a new quote for

Mike Klinzing: [00:38:37] Like somebody, a coach that you maybe didn’t have a prior relationship with who you’re kind of, you know, you’re sending them a tape. Maybe it’s somebody that just got a new job, somebody that you haven’t had a chance to work with in the past, you send them a highlight tape of a, of a player that you’re working with and you don’t hear from them after a week or two what’s the followup look like.

Tobias Pinson: [00:38:58] A good question, man. So I think one [00:39:00] thing that helps me is I never blind send. Like I’ll ask them what they need before I send them something. Gotcha. And try to try to build some rapport. So they say, I need this. I like what you for. And if I don’t add that type of player at the time, like for instance, in the 2021 class, I don’t have any point bars on my other, my service at this point.

Does anybody ask me for a point where I don’t have anything for you if you don’t need, I have that. So if I don’t hear back in a week or two, I’ll reheat them in the same media that I talked to me, whether it was Twitter, DM email, well, Paul, I don’t get a response and I’ll also I’ll work my way through the focus after one person.

I’ll get back to me, I’ll go to the next person and kind of through it. All right. So

Mike Klinzing: [00:39:44] how do you go about making connections with the players that ultimately end up being your clients? Are you doing that through social media? Are you doing that through being onsite on the ground at high school [00:40:00] games and AAU tournaments?

Are you doing it through your website? Are you doing it through word of mouth or some combination of all those? Just talk a little bit about, I guess, Maybe from a business standpoint, we could call it your marketing plan, but how do you find your clients?

Tobias Pinson: [00:40:15] Good question, man. Honestly, a lot of this being social media, it’s funny for me.

So anytime I have a success or one of my kids getting stops, we bought from her. I’m always posting that stuff or posting a highlight tape post, have a lot of like brooding tips, just random food tips, for parents to see. So I’ve heard a lot of followers in that. let’s say I have. A lot of kids, I have kids other than my food cost customer service.

And I also have kids just, you know, I would say for me, like there’s a us, the division wants to try to pick up like open a load. Mid-major kids who, I mean, kid, they’ll post my videos and stuff up. I have my company logo and stuff on there. So, you know, get a wide of wide array of kids.

Mike Klinzing: [00:40:56] all right.

So how’d you learn how to cut up the video and work? What [00:41:00] service do you use?

Tobias Pinson: [00:41:01] So I learned, really got good with video during my, I lived with her. And between that time I was looking for a job for one, for all concerned about three and a half months. I was like, shit. All right. I was like, man, I got to get good at something that a lot of people don’t have other than videos and graphic design.

So I really just sat down and taught myself. Again, via YouTube, how to do all that stuff and just got better with time. As far as the programs I use, I use a little bit of Photoshop and stuff, people out the there,

Mike Klinzing: [00:41:46] isn’t it amazing that that’s free.

Tobias Pinson: [00:41:48] Yeah. I mean, you got the Canva pro and then it pays for itself. Fair enough like you, but the free version on top of that is just as great.

[00:42:00] From one year, but I haven’t forced them to know how to use canva.

Mike Klinzing: [00:42:36] Yeah, go ahead. That’s a good plug. Yeah. I think being able to, being able to put together the right videos and understanding what it is that coaches want to see how much tape you said, you’re looking at about five to 10 game tapes reach player, and that’s what you’re pulling the highlights from.

So when you do that, what, what things are you looking for? What do you do? You [00:43:00] personalize it for a specific coach when they say, Hey, I’m looking for a big who can do this, or I’m looking for a wing who can do that? Do you then personalize the highlight tape for that particular coach? Or do you more look at trying to highlight the strengths of that particular player?

What they do really well.

Tobias Pinson: [00:43:18] Good question. I liked the particular strengths of the player for I’ll make, just do too hard. It takes work on the summer and one from their high school season, you know, two years. So they’ll get basically two a year all on it with the service and all that sort of holiday stress, everything often surveys based.

So what I, what I do is while I’m watching the highlight tape, I’m just really looking at offensively. I’m looking to evolve a few baskets. Well, I see the ball through the basket. All we want is slightly and see who made shot. That’s my feet operated up and I have a

I look at the main backseat and also look at who do this. Missy was one of my friends, so probably [00:44:00] play-making section and I’ll have obviously made shots and they’re broken down. They both.

Mike Klinzing: [00:44:07] How long does it take you to go through those five to 10 games and put together the highlight tape?

Tobias Pinson: [00:44:14] it probably takes me about, I’m probably to get to a full game in about 15 minutes based on what I made the holiday. zoom in I’ll probably make like 20 to 25 year old. So. Oh, well, I’ve got pretty quick in doing the evolve. Obviously it’s still a time consuming task and it wasn’t about seeing games, making sure, I mean that, that, that product you’re looking at, it’s going to get a kid, a source of opportunity.

So I make sure it’s right. I’m not, I’m not skipping set up and do that. My clients and my people. I’m making sure it’s right. So I get the word out for 15, 20 minutes. I can get through things.

Mike Klinzing: [00:44:52] Yeah, it’s amazing. I think how. Much better you get at things like that. The more you do it. I [00:45:00] know that Jason I’ve talked about here on the podcast, you think about the editing process for getting an episode to sound good.

And we think about what that was like in the first, let’s say 50 episodes where we really had no idea what we were doing and it would take hours to go ahead and. Get the sound quality to sound pretty bad. And now we can do the same thing and a half hour and make the sound really good. Just because again, you get more experienced with it, and that allows you to be more efficient with your time as you’re working with your clients.

What is. What’s the relationship like that you build with them player on their parents as they’re going through the process with you. And then what’s the followup with them. Once they’re out the school, where you helped them to get a scholarship or get an opportunity to play, how do you maintain or do you maintain, is there a need to maintain that relationship with the player?

Once they’ve secured their opportunity to play college basketball? [00:46:00]

Tobias Pinson: [00:46:00] good question. honestly, the kids don’t get me up too often and if they get stuck on a textual oppose, what do I say here? Now? What question can I ask them to talk to the school bias or any of those sports and the players have most, for the most part they’re pretty relaxed.

It’s really the parents that ask all the questions. And what does this mean with including shutting down with September 1st day? Why didn’t I get a call? No, all that, all that stuff. I get a lot of stuff with parents, but as far as when they get to school, know what they’re signing on their name or that’s what it is.

It’s it contracts, it’s clothes life. I’ll do some followup urgencies, but, once that, once that list to that, that kind of closed the relationship yeah. About the parents and savior being referenced. I’m more than happy to do that. So I’ll use those that know what I did from here, their daughter, and they’re willing to bounce a lot half as well.

[00:47:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:47:02] gotcha. What’s the funniest question that a parent’s ever asked you?

Tobias Pinson: [00:47:07] Wow, good question. I mean, some, a lot of the conversations are very repetitive. I get a lot. I get a lot of calls once July is over and take room.

Mike Klinzing: [00:47:23] So you said, do you think when, when you’re talking to people and they’re going through, and they’re trying to decide whether or not they’re going to go through the process and they’re gonna hire you and they’re looking to get this opportunity. What does it look like when you sit down and you’re having these conversations with parents, you’re having these conversations with players.

When you talk to them, do they, what percentage would you say of the players are realistic? And when I say players, I’m including their families in this at what, what [00:48:00] percentage of them agree with your assessment of what level they should play at? If you could throw a percentage on it. So out of, out of whatever, a hundred conversations, how many times do you, and they agree about the level where you think where they think that you could play.

Tobias Pinson: [00:48:16] I would say probably about 65% of the time. Cause I’ll kind of lay it out for them. They’ll talk to me late. And I was like, well, the reason you probably have you been going through the long weekend on the wall, loves food and I’ll lay out a player very similar to them. They came to me with the situation sitting over there.

This is what they were doing at first, before they got means what shouldn’t be. I got another example under my belt. Now I can find a relatable situation to any transfer kid at any level in 2021.

Mike Klinzing: [00:48:53] So in your opinion, how important is it for a player to. Get on the quote, right [00:49:00] team and make sure they’re playing in the right tournament’s to be seen by the level of college coaches that they’re capable of playing for. How much advice do you give out in that area?

Tobias Pinson: [00:49:12] Good question, man. So may sound crazy, but I think nowadays is to see if possible basketball they wanted to and just like travel basketball, which I obviously don’t do that, but that’s how big travel basketball, I suppose the thing is on the, on the women’s side.

Yeah, a lot of negative tournaments. And then I said, you’re talking to 30, a hundred more tournaments, or even a lot of these at once in the summer. Whereas during the high school season that a parents, that coaches are in their own programs and they found that in the main thing, that job. So they got to worry about the kids.

They got to worry about David in the summer. For the most part, the kids they’re the only, the fortunate time so they can focus on their day.

[00:50:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:50:00] Yeah. That makes sense. When you think about the future of hoop juice, have you thought at all, I know most of your connections at this point, because your coaching experience was on the women’s side.

Have you thought about expanding at any point to the men’s side of the game? And working with high school, male players, just doing the same thing that you’re doing, but just doing it on the other

Tobias Pinson: [00:50:21] gender I actually have. And when I first started with this, I was doing guys and girls didn’t get a lot of guidelines, but, I’ve narrowed my niche down and just stay focused and living to the so big.

I mean, a lot of people probably don’t notice, but when the side on the division one level has 15 scholarships. Or that 13 more now

I’m going to stay focused on the women’s side. And I think one thing for me is I finally get away from the straight up college placement where it needs to be. You get [00:51:00] more of an education standpoint of out parents. Can you not use a recruiting services? If you start earlier though, and this is what the process looks like.

If don’t want to use the service, this is what you gotta do.

Mike Klinzing: [00:51:15] Yeah, to me, I think that would be tremendously valuable because especially if you’re a parent who it’s your first child, or maybe you’ve never had a kid who, which in most cases, this is going to be true. If you’ve never had a kid who is recruitable as an athlete.

In this case, a basketball player, when they haven’t gone through the process, I’m sure you found, and it’s the reason why you’re putting together what you’re putting together. The fact that. Parents are very, very uneducated about the recruiting processes. So I would think that if you were able to put something together that parents could utilize as a resource in order to become more educated, that would be tremendously, tremendously [00:52:00] valuable.

So just talk a little bit about what that’s going to look like as you put that together.

Tobias Pinson: [00:52:05] A good question, man. and it’s something I’m actually mapping out now. The whole, it’s a launch in January of 2021. But it’s really going to be everything basically to get through it. Also people how to make their own highlight tape is really a couple of simple functions that you need in the program of the other main hall.

I take what they put in there would not put it in there and just pretty much how I do it from this is the program you can use. I’ll explain the whole recruiting calendar. I was learning how to use different social media outlets and not only how to use them, how to use properly. One thing, a lot of people don’t know this when you’re using these social media outlets, not using linked to social media outlets, social media outlets.

We give more love than the post. Show it to more people. If the video is of all video file is posted on the phone, not YouTube, social media platforms. [00:53:00] Don’t want people leaving their, They’re their platform that sort of doesn’t want you to offer both the raw videos? No. So just those small tips since list, it’s pretty much any and everything.

We were approving, breaking down. What is academic athletic money division one at all? Athletics. Three is no athlete Ivy league. This is this and this and this. they also want inspiration to other sports as well.

Mike Klinzing: [00:53:32] How many of the parents that you’ve worked with over the course of the existence of hoop juice, would you say had a pretty good handle on all the things that you just described in terms of understanding the recruiting process? Is there more than a handful that really fully understood it?

Tobias Pinson: [00:53:50] now some parts about 10%. so maybe strong in some areas and some may not be, strong others. Like I see a lot of parents like running kids, Twitter [00:54:00] profile nowadays, which is funny to me. And then I guess they think coaches all realize that we know how kids we buy. They don’t talk about themselves.

Right. Parents kind of do so with just really coaching them through like how often you should use social media, what should be on there? you know, out of, out of post your game, blow him out of show, other people that share yourself that they may have connections that you don’t have.

Mike Klinzing: [00:54:28] So have you had conversations with parents about the things that they themselves put on social media or their.

Behavior at games. Cause oftentimes I think in today’s society, when we think about sort of the parent gone bad type of thing, where their behavior in the stands or the things that they’re posting on social media may. Decree detract from a college coach wanting to recruit them. If you had to have any of those conversations, maybe not specifically with a parent because of something [00:55:00] you saw, but is that something that you kind of talk about with the parents of the girls that are part of your service?

Tobias Pinson: [00:55:06] Not necessarily their actions in games. A lot of my clients, I never meet in person, but I’ve got kids. I live in Georgia, in Florida. First year IO and get out, we’re going to last year, your faith is wherever. And, I see that in our lives that he, this is, you know, you can act how you want, this is what you’re doing to baby girl.

so that’s kinda how I often do it. And I would say I do, I feel are supposed to be cleaned up. And I also know how to do with medicine, eating, searching, and searching on profiles. Yeah. Cuss words and things about sex or anything. That’s just. Out of left field and needs to be taken down the process, the food.

Mike Klinzing: [00:55:49] Yeah, it’s amazing. I think how important social media has become in the recruiting process and just when you think about being a college coach and having to manage that, I think if [00:56:00] kids can hear from someone like yourself early about, Hey, these are the things that. It’s good to use social media for, and here’s some things yeah, you should try to avoid.

I’m sure that although that helps them in their recruiting, I’m sure that when they finally get on campus, I’m sure that their college coach appreciates the fact that they’ve already sort of been trained for lack of a better word they should. And shouldn’t be doing on social media.

Tobias Pinson: [00:56:33] I have all the players.

Mike Klinzing: [00:56:55] Yeah, absolutely. You want to make sure you get that before it becomes a problem, and it ends up [00:57:00] impacting that young lady’s future and their opportunity to play college basketball. As you start to look ahead to bias at what you want to do with hoop, choose in the future. I want to ask you a final question here just about.

Where you see hoop juice going in the future, and what’s your biggest challenge moving forward. And then what’s your biggest opportunity that you see to continue to grow your business. So the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity that you see going forward.

Tobias Pinson: [00:57:29] Great question. I think the biggest challenge for me that was the running joke.

The most Randy, that I got to hire. Some people it’s a soul man band right now. Not operating the most efficient way I can with I do the highlight days marketing. No, I’m doing everything. So, working on hiring a small, small team around me that I can also have some, some stuff too. That doesn’t necessarily my, [00:58:00] I can just review it.

so the first thing would be, I guess, getting the team around you. And the biggest Avenue that I see for growth, actually during the pandemic, I saw a lot of tournaments and stuff. He canceled in a form to Kansas that all really well. That’s helped a lot of kids with pennies on the dollar to  Columbia,  soccer, and a lot of my home area.

And I had one down here because I ended up getting probably about 70 to 80 kids total. and I ended up doing more free lashing for all the kids. I got free access to the games. That can be insane as you get a taste of that. Oh. You know, but, posted up close level, social media saying that he went to college.

so I think he turned out to be a great admin. So I think that would be something I found like two different States, both and down the Southeast, and try to go. Help about kids. And like I said, he did work for me at one of the Warren house plays and stuff more about [00:59:00] education. The time as though she is on the man since called to my stuff.

Mike Klinzing: [00:59:04] Yeah, that’s great. I think that’s a really good ideas to be able to sort of increase your impact by being able to put something together where even if somebody is not working with you directly in person, instead, they’re still able to benefit from the expertise that you can bring. Before we wrap up to bias, I want to give you a chance to share where people could find out more about what you’re doing.

Share your websites, share all your social media contacts, just let people know where they can find out more about hoop juice and more about all the great things that you’re doing.

Tobias Pinson: [00:59:34] Oh, yeah, a hundred percent man. first place you can find me at  HoopJuice.com lays out my phone number, email, find stuff I’ve been doing with clients.

so the first place, the spot for me. So @HoopJuice_ just converted my IgE page from my personal one to a business one. So that’s brand new and that’s at juicy fruity. I’m also on LinkedIn and [01:00:00] Facebook are my main devices. We also have a Facebook.  Search my name on any social app and it will pop up.

Mike Klinzing: [01:00:11]. Awesome. Fantastic Tobias. We cannot thank you enough for spending an hour of your time with us tonight. We really appreciate it. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know you and learn more about the services that you’re providing to young ladies who are trying to get a college basketball opportunity.

So we really appreciate that and it’s everyone out there. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.