 Hey, what's up coaches welcome back to the channel today. I feature a very special guest. We have Christy hilly She is an amazing business owner. She started a three-on-three basketball league back in the 90s She's generated over seven figures within her league business today. She's going to teach you how she got started How she got up and running with this business the mistakes that she made all the things that she has done to create a successful career in this niche and She also has a free webinar. So if you go right below this video, she teaches Business owners all over the world now who are thinking about either starting or growing a three-on-three business So you can either click on the link. It's a webinar. You can go watch it. It's awesome I've gone through it and she also has a link right below that where you can get on a call with her You can chat with her ask her questions learn more about Starting this type of business. It's a very lucrative business. She has done obviously very well So she's gonna share her story. So I'll stop talking so you can listen to her. All right, so let's just try to Take it back to I guess the 90s, right? That's when That's when you started This business and one thing I'm really curious about and I know everybody else is is How in the world did you first? Get into the three-on-three business especially back then Yeah, well first of all it was not an intentional business like we weren't going about this as a business at all So my husband and I were pretty new into our teaching careers and coaching careers I coached volleyball. He coached basketball and We were just looking for a way to get the kids to stay in volleyball and basketball in the summer and have fun with it and keep them loving the sport and Getting better as well and we just were Talking to the kids that we had is that we're coaching and kids in our classes and saying what do you guys? What would be fun and actually The the start of it was to try to do this with volleyball to try to do smaller side Volleyball games, but that didn't work as well because for volleyball you need Equipment you need bigger space running a 20-minute volleyball game is not enough time Whereas a 20-minute running time basketball half court. That's that's enough kids get tired with that So it ended up working out really well for basketball and again We just talked to the kids and said what would be fun and they're like, we just want to play other friends We don't want to have coaches yelling at us. We you know, don't care so much about prizes and things We just want to come have some music playing and it just kind of evolved that way Like I said, this wasn't a business when we started It was just as teachers and coaches you do things for the kids to grow your program and Open up the gym and let them come and I think the first year We had about 32 teams if I remember correctly and we thought they're great. This is fun We've got 32 teams and and what happened was like then word of mouth the next year It was bigger and I think the third year we went over a hundred teams and people were driving as far as like an hour away They come to this league. Wow Yeah, and it just it had just kind of snowballed from there took a few years But finally some people started asking us will you come and run a league like this in our community and we're like sure I guess we could do that and then as that kept happening We just we're getting so busy running three-on-three leagues that we had to kind of switch and say wait a minute This is a business now. This can't just be we're doing this for fun and out of the goodness of our hearts and things like that So yeah, that's kind of how it all started very cool. And how many leagues have you run to date? I Actually don't know the exact number But for many years was just this one league and then we had a handful of leagues Um When we got intentional about this and said this is gonna be a business I think that next year we went from like five leagues to like 12 or 15 leagues or something I just want a huge jump when we said this is gonna be a business We currently are running 36 or 37 leagues this year in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. I Think we're over 350 leagues in total in our That's amazing and kind of going back when you guys made it like a legit business What what were some of the obstacles that you ran into I guess during that time because I know going from Something that you're like Passionate about to a business like things change But what were some of those initial obstacles that you guys face at the beginning of the business? Well, there's probably a lot of them I think first of all just the the mindset for us I think a lot of maybe your listeners are gonna agree to this when you're a coach and you're a teacher It's you're passionate about it and you're not necessarily always doing it for money You just love it so much and you love to help the kids and you want to give them a great experience So that mindset of Okay, now we're doing this and we have to think business-wise and we had no business background whatsoever, you know like So that that was a challenge for us is like, how do we think like business people? How do we set up a business? and as we were expanding We and running more and more leagues We really had to have a system so we could be efficient You know if you're running one league or two leagues You can be an efficient I guess and still manage it But when we started getting into the we're running 20 leagues a year We better have a system in place so that things are efficient and we can and do a good job At what we're doing and not lose our minds. So just creating that system that program of how things are gonna run so that we can keep expanding and scaling And in just being willing to change I think is a challenge because when we first started there really people weren't using the internet We didn't have a website like when we would put out our schedule We would call people and have to leave a message on their answering machine and say your games at 7 o'clock and 7 30 And that's how we started I know and people would write their registration on a paper form and give us a check and mail it to us and Just being willing to change and say, okay This is how we've always done something but We need to now do an online registration. We need to create a website You know like even things like using social media that didn't exist and you just have to be willing to change and evolve and and take those challenges on right And let's kind of go into it. So if you're running 20 leagues in one year How many moving pieces are there like because I know it's you and your husband, but like Who else is involved in that? Okay, so After we decided to make this a business my husband left teaching and coaching to focus on this full time and I'm still I'm still full time Well, I'm part-time teacher right now, but I was still full-time teacher um We did that for a while and we could manage with him being full-time me being Uh full-time teaching and working on the business, but then a few years into it then we did hire our first full-time staff member who Then we took another big jump and we added like another seven or eight leagues because we had that that next person helping So those are like the main people we have but then you've also got to manage We can't obviously be at all the leagues that we're running So we have to have people that we trust to go and be the site director for the different leagues and So we had to develop some training to make sure that those people are out there running our events the way we want them to be done and Yeah, so those are kind of the main people and then obviously staffing the league with officials Is another piece of that right? So you have the site director and I guess they manage the refs And then everyone registers online through y'all's website. So you guys have that system like just rolling and I know one of the questions that people have asked me this is before You and I ever got connected. They would be like Ben, you know How do you start a three on three business and I would just be like I mean, I don't know like That's not something I'm an expert at because I I've been involved with three on three businesses, but I haven't like started one But people have asked me that all the time and Like now with your experience is you're helping a lot of people start and grow three on three businesses What do you find is like kind of the most challenging thing for someone who's starting that Maybe they're asking you if they're beginning your help or Just, you know, what's something that you feel like these people need to break through with at the very beginning of starting the business It's gonna vary depending on what their experience is coming into it so You know, just do you have a business to begin with do you need to start up a business? Some people just need some help with how do I even get a business registered and Do those things a lot of people are coming into this They have some sort of basketball business or sports business and they want to add this So they're maybe a step ahead now and and they're looking at more like how do I promote? How do I get people to sign up for this event? That's that's a big thing and then I think the biggest thing is that you don't know what you don't know So like these people that are like, oh, I can I can run a league and they've got a lot of pieces to make it happen and a lot of Skills and knowledge, but they don't necessarily know what they don't know and they're going down the path and then they're in hindsight saying Oh, shoot. I should have done this first or so I think just the the Timeline of all the tasks that need to to be done And when you should be working on which thing is is a challenge for people the first time they're going through this and that's what I'm trying to help people with We just really had a lot of people start reaching out to us maybe I don't know 10 years ago and saying how how are you guys doing this and I had no way to help people I was really I didn't have the time. I didn't have any I couldn't talk one-on-one that went have been enough And so yeah, then I just had to really think about how can I help people? I'm a teacher and what we're doing here Can be done by other people if they know what to do and so that's where I've wanted to spend my time the last few years is Helping people get on the right path to to be successful with this right right and that's That's awesome because I mean as you know like a lot of people who start businesses they they don't know what they don't know and If they had the right help they can avoid so many problems and Like they'll just stay away from a lot of mistakes that they would normally make If they were doing it on their own just finding out all the problems on the go and And I used to kind of be that way when I started my businesses I would just kind of wing it And once I got around my first mentor I realized like no you can't You can't run a real business that way. You can't just like wake up and figure out It's like you need a plan and you need to execute on that plan And How important because I know this is something you and I talked about maybe a couple weeks ago But how important is it for someone who's starting this type of business? As far as like being connected locally with other parents and and kids like if if someone is Not connected at all like how much more difficult is this business for them initially? Um, I think that adds a challenge to it for sure Um, it just really depends on what you're willing to do too. So, um, you know, I'm working with somebody who Wasn't super connected with the basketball world an entrepreneur And he has just thrown himself into this. He's volunteer coaching. He's running like basketball clinics and things now He has over a thousand people or he has like 1200 people on his Email list when he started with zero and he had no basketball people on his list And so he's found ways to just get out there in connect himself to the right People to get them on his list and he's he's run six leagues. I think since he started and that's awesome He did start with really nothing. So it depends on what you're willing to put into it, right? And I love that because It a lot of people think that you know, if I'm going to start something I have to have Contacts and the reality is like everybody kind of starts at the same spot, which is zero clients And you know, what are you willing to do to get in front of people and volunteering? coaching like I think it's so possible for anyone to build an email list like that Like pretty quickly depending on the level of effort that they put into it and I know just with the setup that you guys have obviously you guys have like Sponsors and t-shirts like you have everything set up But what is if you had to kind of just dial it in what is like the number one I guess marketing Tactic that you guys use to get parents to sign up. Is it flyers? Is it just word of mouth? Like what's like the number one way you guys are building these leagues? um I think I would probably say email Because we control You know when the list of people right not whether they open it or not, but you know They might not see a social media post if we do media um Because we're established though and and we're serving 14 15 000 kids every year I think our biggest thing is the word of mouth. So kids come to our league. They have a great time They're out in doing their daily life. They're wearing our shirts They're at basketball camps and they're talking about this this league was super fun I think we get more from that We make sure that they have a fantastic experience. We run that league. It's organized People love it now the next year you're gonna grow it and grow it and like I said our first league We had 32 teams and a couple years later. We had over 100 So I think that that is not because we're emailing or flyers It's because we put out a good product and then that does the work for us Yep, good products always win and and I like what you talked about with the emails because That is something like when you own that information You're in direct control of how often people see your marketing message Because I know it's social media. Even if you have a big following They're gonna limit what people see not everyone's gonna see it With an email that's gonna hit everybody Same day same time Which is amazing and I know this is something I kind of just thought of because like I've seen Coaches that I've talked to that have tried to do leagues And people do it different ways to where like In the league there's like a a championship and there's one team that wins And then some people do it to where like they're not really keeping score. They're not keeping You know track of who wins every game. How do you guys set that up? I love that question. Um, okay, so when we first started out We we were coming into this with our we were high level collegiate athletes. We were very competitive We had the mindset of everybody is like this. They want to be in a tournament. They want to win We want to see the standings. That's how we ran our first league. We kept standings. We posted it We um, the last night we would run a tournament And we thought that was amazing. We thought that was great But what we found we were dealing with was people calling us They couldn't email us back then we didn't have email Calling us and saying the scores were wrong the ref reported it wrong the standings are wrong Well, that team had someone that wasn't on their roster and that kid's a great older and You didn't do the brackets right and we're like, this is not what we want to be focusing on our time on this is ridiculous like And then I think it was maybe about three years in I said Mike. What if we didn't have a tournament It's like what yeah, what if we didn't have a tournament? Oh, this could go away People wouldn't have to worry about what the record is and let's just focus on the kids coming here They know who won the game, but then it's not posted anywhere and there's no prizes And what that did it just removed all that ridiculous stuff that we had to to deal with and just the tone and the gym just Comes down because nobody's getting a prize and you're just literally playing basketball for fun and so um, we did we chuckle about this we probably did have a few people say to us Where's the tournament we want the tournament Those were the people that were eight no or you know 10 and no They missed the tournament, but nobody else, you know Half your teams are losing so if you're gonna make it fun Because you're winning half your teams aren't having fun now So let's just not worry about that and let's focus on having fun playing So what we did instead then is our leagues Are usually four or four or five weeks long no tournament. No standings We keep track of the records because that helps us schedule and and do the Competition, but that's not public. That's not posted and then we do offer three One day three on three tournaments during the year So that those teams that want to be more competitive and win something They have that opportunity got to see you so you have that as like its own thing the the tournament Okay, is that a one day tournament or a multi-day tournament? Yeah, we don't do outdoor multi-day tournaments. We do just one day And and those are really fun to do there. They're a little more intense, you know, obviously People get a little bit more amped up about it, but it might run from nine o'clock to four o'clock And we've made anywhere on a small tournament. You might make three thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars Running out a one day Event that's amazing That's really cool. And I think about the psychology too with the kids If there's like a standings like and there's you know, they can rank the teams and they can see that they're in the lower half I could see how those kids if it's that competitive how they won't want to do it the next year And then that affects y'all's business And then then it's only four kids that are, you know, love winning and you know Want to be really competitive which not every kid is like that. You guys are reaching the mass which you know, which is really smart and I guess at this point, you know, you guys are running multiple leagues every single year What is If you don't mind sharing like what is your role in the business and in your husband's role? Are you guys kind of working on the same thing or are y'all doing different things Well, we overlap a little bit, but we each have our strengths and we each have our things that we like to do or don't like to do So he is the scheduler And we have a really good way of scheduling now. We don't just put it into a machine that spits it all out Like we're just saying those teams that never win We don't have that happen. We look at scores and we figure out Who do these teams need to play so that they can get a win and Our goal is on that fourth week of the league The scores are as close as they've been because we're finding the right teams for everybody to play They might not be playing their grade level So so he is the the genius scheduler. He puts a lot of pride into that and then Let's see and he is the one that's going to pack up all of the supplies that have to go to each league Because you've got a couple of bins of things and he'll print the score sheets and everything that needs to go He gets that set up for the the people that pick it up to run the league I'm more of the Person that is innovative and tries to think of what else should we try? Um, he he would still be collecting the the checks by mail if it was up to him He doesn't like to change how we do things. So I might be the one that's doing more of the social media or trying different marketing Things like that What am I missing with that? Uh, really not not much. I know so you said you guys brought on somebody else Is what what is their role? Well, he was an interesting person to bring in because he trains kids Um, he he runs camps. He actually was working with the timber wolves and running their their youth academy and then Came to work with us. So he loves to run our camps. He's the the person that's super connected in the community He knows every basketball person in the state. He remembers every kid's name. So he's the one that will talk to The different groups we might work with so when we run a league We're often partnering with a a group that might be fundraising and we're putting money back into their program He builds a lot of those relationships with the the basketball people and then Just he's at a lot of our sites because kids love to see him and he remembers all their names So he's very much In the the leagues and in the community and building those relationships, right? That sounds like a perfect person to have because That's like automatic marketing anytime. He's around anyone. That's that's great and when you think about We'll kind of take a couple steps forward now. So like present day, you're you're running that and you're also helping a lot Of business owners, you know start this type of business Um, and you're not just doing with basketball, right? You have other people and other sports that have reached out to you that you've worked with, correct? Yeah, that wasn't intentional. I just happened like I'm in minnesota and there's a collegiate football coach Who had seen what we were doing with three on three basketball and He was like I want to do this with football. So we got on a call and he's like well your system work for football I'm like, I don't honestly know like I it works for us like I can't promise But let's just see what happens and um, so he's a couple years into his Um football program three on three football program and it's going really well It's I mean, I think that'd be really fun for kids How many football players don't get to ever be the quarterback or the receiver, right? That's awesome You know and now they're they're getting to do that So that's working for him too and you know, let just a lot of the principles and the philosophy behind what we're doing And the system will work for other sports as well. Yeah. Yeah, and it's funny because when I was I think I was six years old long time ago, uh I played in my first ever three on three soccer tournament And it was with a company called three on three live. I don't know if they're still around but I remember those were one day tournaments And I just I fell in love with that because it was like I got the ball so much more than I normally would in a game And it was all just it's so much one-on-one because on that smaller field And I did that I think till I was 12 or 13 And that was probably my most fun memories of Playing soccer like I love doing that way more than anything I did in club soccer or high school soccer And I saw how big it was back then and I'm assuming it's probably a lot bigger now in soccer And when you think I'm gonna try to put you on the spot here, but when you think about Since you started helping you know business owners with their three on three leagues like what is the Kind of the story that stands out the most of a successful student that you've had that has joined your program That's gotten your help that you've seen they've just gotten amazing results. Could you kind of describe once just one example? One okay two pop to my mind. Um, I kind of already alluded to john though and what he's done So I won't talk about him. Um, but nick who I know is one of your clients too. So he um He's he's doing really well with this too. He already has a basketball training program And he he modified this to work for him like when we're doing this We're having 150 teams 180 teams at some of our leagues. They they get really really big Yeah, but he's tailored this for his niche for his You know his people and he's running like on a wednesday night a girl middle school girls three on three league And it's a couple hours a night and he fills it and it he's just targeting That group and then thursday night might be boys and I've kind of been Snooping on his page and I see he's selling out his leagues and stuff and that's you know It's an addition to what he's already doing Now he didn't take it on as a focus of his business like we are he's just adding it to something that he's already doing and Offering his current people something new and different and he's doing really well really well with that too. Yeah, and I'm seeing I'm seeing this becoming a Really big piece to the puzzle now with a lot of people that we work with Is like they already have an audience. They already have kids that they're training and one of the things that Those kids lack is like, yeah, they have the training, but they want to play more And so the easiest thing to do and if you have a business that's focused on training is Have this extra league setup For your clients so they can just naturally come into this league and now play more and then it's I think with the marketing too, it's It's great if you have that base because then you can just go to the parents and say hey Like we want your whole team to come up And now you have you know 12 kids out there and you have three different three four different teams Where do you see that going like do you do you see That industry just getting bigger and bigger over the next, you know 10 plus years As far as you know kids that play club sports And they're they're trying to you know play more and get more training get more Games and like do you see that just continuing to get bigger over the next decade? I I do. Um, I mean I just look at the The path of our business and how it just keeps doing this um, I think that You know and and we went through this as a family We have three kids that played high level sports where we were doing them year round and you travel and you got the hotels and You know you got three kids going different directions and we did the color coded calendar like who's taking which kid to which practice That we lived that right and I think that's a it's a huge burden on families time the time commitment Like it's it's a lot for a parent to do that for their kids and it's expensive It's really expensive and so I think what we're what we're offering to people in a smaller sided sport Lower commitment. They're not having practices. They're not traveling out of town. There is no hotels There's no meals you have to purchase you just come all your kids all if you've got three basketball playing kids They all come to the same gym you get to watch all three of them. We don't charge admission fees so there is really nothing in our community that Parents can sign their kid up for basketball and get what they get in our program and they don't have to be elites high level players they can be Soccer might be their main sport, but they like basketball and they can go and play basketball And I think that this there's so many things about this but parents love watching those small sided sports so much more Like you said you loved playing it. I bet your parents loved what you were in all the action, right and Yeah Sometimes kids are on a basketball team and their their role is to set a pick and they might get one shot a game and that's what they You know not in three on three that doesn't happen. So parents love it. It works in busy schedules. It's affordable It's a low commitment. So I just see this being something that's more fun for families to have their kids do whatever sport It might be Cool, I think it's gonna grow. That's what I think cool. Yeah No, I I'd love all of those those benefits because When kids Are more active and you know getting the ball more Taking more chances. They they become more confident. They like the sport more Right after they start You know, what do you think is going to be one of their bigger challenges in this specific business? Well, the initial one is going to be getting that firstly up off the ground And that that's a big hurdle to make that happen So once you get that first league off the ground, then I think your your big thing is you got to make sure you do that first one Well, yeah If if you if you are lucky enough to get that first league and you've got 50 teams there and you are not prepared and you do A crappy job of it. Right. Everything just did. They're not coming back. You know, it doesn't matter So you have to make sure that that first league you are prepared, you know the The the challenges or the the weird things that might happen like how do you solve it if a team doesn't show up You know, what are you gonna do if people are complaining about refs? What are you gonna do if there's an injury? Like you have to pre be really prepared for everything so that When that league ends, that's your next big biggest marketing tool is everyone just loved it so much and they want to know What's next So I think that's your biggest challenge out of the gate is doing that first one well And then after that, I think it becomes easier that part of it becomes easier and then it becomes more of developing that system so that you're efficient And that you can scale what you're doing Um and going through it that first time you'll learn so much about what you need to to Have in place to scale Right and that's really what you provide now right for business owners. You have a step by step course and program That is world class. It's designed for people that want To start this type of business And I know at this point you talk to people That are interested in the program, right? Yes, okay, cool And and one thing that we'll do is we'll we'll drop there's going to be a link under this interview so people can if they're interested in talking to you they can Uh click on that and get on a call with you and then tell us just kind of briefly about the webinar that you have because I know you You have a webinar that Is really good. I've gone through it, but it's probably easier if you talk about it Just briefly tell everyone what your webinar is and and What's the intent of it? Sure. So the webinar it's about 90 minutes and I give a little bit of background On how we got started how we're doing what we're doing in minnesota and um Anyone who's curious if you want to see what we're doing our business is called midwest3on3.com So you can go check that out and see what we're doing Then in the webinar, I go through the seven Steps that you need to go through in order to make this three on three league happen So we go through all that is training on those seven steps And then I also explain what my program is that people can enroll in to get even more support Beyond the webinar if you're looking for more help Cool. Awesome. And I'm going to put you on the spot. That's my last question So let's say that Back in the 90s. So what was the exact year you guys started the business? 1997 Cool. 97. So let's say in 1997 The internet was the way it is right now, and I know it wasn't back then but let's say You saw an interview with someone who'd been in the business for 20 years And they're now teaching people how to do start a you know, three on three league business How beneficial do you think that would have been for you at the very beginning When you started that business Well, I told you it took us How many years six seven eight years whatever until we started running more than one league? So it would have You know if our intent was to make this a business out of the gate We would have saved five or seven years right there with Learning how to do more than one league a year So shave off seven years And just you know, we've made mistakes We've you know, we've had to try different things and learn different things and what if you could skip some of those mistakes What if you could not make a shirt ordering error that costs you $500 like whoops, you know Or spending money on something that's not going to work with advertising or buying supplies that you actually don't need Like just so many things that we got to fumble our way through Um sometimes cried about it Um, I can imagine You skip some of those things, you know And then just have the confidence that you know When you show up at your league that you are prepared that you didn't oh forget something I forgot to do something Just that that anxiety Of there were many nights where I would not sleep Because you just keep going through everything like did I do everything I needed to do? And I just wanted to I know everything that you need to do now So if you want to run a league and you don't know everything, you know, I got that for you So you can sleep that night and you're working on the right thing at the right time Yeah, and to me because I thought very clearly about this with Like programs that I've invested into and I've invested into a lot of stuff over the past Especially seven years um And one thing I always think about when I make that type of decision is Is this going to help me save time? And is this going to ultimately help me make more money? Like I think anyone who thinks about investing into something if If those answers are yes, like if I'm going to save a lot of time then to me that's That's almost the same as like well if it's going to take me five years to do something like and I could do it in Six months. It's like I'm saving four and a half years of time which equates to a lot of money right And and that's where like having a you know a coach and a proven system to follow It's so important and it's important to not just like Do it but to execute on the information which I know is like that's probably the most important part About your business is like you have the steps and as long as people execute That's where like the results are going to come and I know you've You've worked with a lot of people at this point like and I know you're branching out into to more sports um I'm really excited about what you're doing because I I feel like Having these leagues set up in different cities It makes a really big impact on the community and the kids love it and the parents love it and And I think that's a really cool thing and is there anything else that you want to try to add before before we leave You know, no, I think we talked about a lot of good things. I just want people to know that Right now. This is my passion is to share It's the teacher in me. I think just to share the success that we're having and what we have learned and and support people and As I'm working with people and finding out the things that are roadblocks to them I'm trying to build in other things to help those specific roadblocks So I've had people that they're they're moving along and then they get stuck because they they don't have a website And then they sit there for three months because they don't have a website So I'm I'm pulling in some different things to help them in two days Now you've got a website because I've I've found this for you so And I'm going to keep doing that. That's just my passion is, you know, I've got a few people that are a couple years into this I just met with them a couple of them right before I talked to you. I'm just like, what are your What are your roadblocks right now? You're two years into this? What are your problems and what do you need from me to help you keep going over that next hurdle and That's that's what I'm I'm doing. I'm trying to find ways to help other people do what we're doing Because I think it's so great for kids. It's been a great business for our family Um, you know, it's just it's been a lot of fun. So I'm I'm here to help people That's awesome. That's awesome. And yeah, what we'll do is right below The video any coach who's watching this you guys can click on The webinar link or there's a contact form right that you have where people can fill it out and talk to you one on one Okay, perfect. Awesome. So we will get that right below this video. Thank you so much for coming on this interview Thanks for having me. It's a lot of fun. I know this is going to help a lot of people. So thank you so much You're welcome. Thanks for having me All right coaches. I hope you really enjoyed that interview with christy I know she shared so many tips so many nuggets on how to get started Um growing the business and her story. So if you want to take advantage of her free webinar Go right below this video. You can click and put in your email. Go watch the free webinar. She has it's awesome And if you want to talk with her one on one over the phone I also have a link right there right below the webinar link. You can click on that Fill out the form chat with her. She's awesome. I really trust her We've had coaches at this point that I work with that have started working with christy and they've seen awesome results So go ahead watch the webinar or get in contact with her. Have a great day and I'll see you soon