Grit.org Podcast Episode 44 - Josh Reason

In this episode, we interview Josh Reason. Josh tells his story of growing up in a boarding school, playing collegiate tennis, meeting his wife, getting into domains, becoming an entrepreneur, and his schedule as a current professional pickleball player. Brian met Josh through the domain industry and they also discuss the recent domain deal they did together.

Let us know in the comments your favorite part of the episode. Enjoy!

Intro: Welcome to the grit.org Podcast with Colby Harris and Brian Harbin!

In these episodes, they speak to top achievers in athletics and business to understand the habits and mindset they apply in order to build more grit.

[I can. I can. I will. I will. I'm going to. I'm going to.]

Colby Harris:  Hello! 

Welcome back to the grit.org podcast!

My name's Colby Harris. Alongside me is Brian Harbin, and we're here with today's guest, Joshua Reason. Joshua, thanks for being here today.

Josh Reason: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me!

Colby Harris: Definitely. Do you prefer Joshua, or is Josh Cool?

Josh Reason: Josh is cool. 

Colby Harris: Cool! Sweet, Josh! So Josh has a background in tennis, pickleball, the domain industry, is an entrepreneur, has three kids. Today, we're going to dive into his story of grit and growth and really just share all the interesting things he's done and what he's learned along the way. Go ahead and start us off with your upbringing. I noticed the accent when you came in today. I actually didn't know that before we were prepping for the show. 

So tell us a little bit about where you're from and the early experience you had that really shaped who you became today.

Josh Reason: Yeah, so I'm originally from England. I left home when I was 13. But for the first 13 years growing up in the UK, I was very active in various sports. I played soccer growing up, played a little bit of golf, but predominantly what won out was tennis. So I would travel around the country playing loads of junior events. My dad, to be honest, that was literally the only relationship we had. At the beginning, it was just tennis, tennis, tennis. And interestingly, not until I left, our relationship kind of expanded beyond that. But it was, you know, a lot of sport, and predominantly, in the end, a lot of just tennis. 

And, yeah, my brother is autistic, so he kind of needed attention from my parents as well, which was one of the – Not the reason why I ended up moving to a tennis academy offshore, but it was a reason for it because that way my parents could give a little bit more attention to him as well. So, yeah, I moved to Barcelona at 13, went to a tennis academy there, and, yeah, from there, I would say the path to where I am now, that's where it kind of got started.

Brian Harbin: And where would you say the love of tennis came from? You know, obviously, you know, in England, you've got deep roots of tennis with Wimbledon. I know growing up, for me, Boris Becker was my favorite player. Loved watching him play. But for you, how did you know that tennis is the one that you kind of wanted to go all in on.

Josh Reason: You know, I think as a young kid, most people, most kids in England, they play soccer. And I was certainly more into soccer from like, when I would go out on the playground and whatnot, we would play soccer. It's not that easy to go out and play tennis, but I started playing tennis after school and some after school activity. And there would be like this award that they would give at the end of every week to the kid that did the best. 

And I just remember that I would always win it and I would take it home and I would feel really great about it and it just made me want to play more. So I would say that's kind of where it got started. And then from there I joined a local tennis club, did well, started to get some lessons, started playing some local tournaments, did well in those. 

Ended up, I think, you know, I just remember going to a place called Millfield and playing against one of the top juniors in the country. Slightly younger than me, I think a year younger than me at the time, but kind of like everyone knew him, he was playing these national tournaments and under twelve s or whatever and I remember beating him and it was like one of the first events that I'd ever played. And I think at that time my dad was kind of like, oh, like, we should take this a little bit more seriously and we did.

Colby Harris: So, yeah, and tell me a little bit more about the decision to transition to Spain, where you went to your tennis academy. Cause obviously that's a big decision. And, you know, another thing I mentioned too is like, you know, if there were just no opportunities in where you were at to be exposed to such a culture like that, or like, really just, again, what, what drove that move to go over to Spain?

Josh Reason: Yeah, so a lot of it comes down to being able to train with the best possible players in the UK at the time. So the association would look after the absolute top players, but I was a little bit late getting into it. And by late I mean like ten starting to get serious at that time, while, you know, a lot of the top players at that time, at that age would have started a lot earlier. And they get picked up by the LTA, which is the lawn Tennis association, and they get picked up early and then they get support both financially some of the time and in terms of getting into high level performance training groups and that kind of thing. 

So I think the idea was, okay, I'm a little bit behind here, let's see if I can go and make up for lost time. By training with the best possible players that I could train with. It wasn't, you know, free. It was pretty expensive to go to this academy. It was a lot of money for my parents at the time, but I went there for, I would say, like a trial in, for two weeks in a summer the year before. 

Had a great time. Felt like I came back and learned a lot going away at that, because at that time I would have just turned twelve and just spending two weeks by myself was a learning experience in itself. Not having your parents around and basically spending the entire day on core and fitness and all that kind of thing. And I loved it. 

I just, I kind of liked having that responsibility. And my parents decided along and, you know, I was happy with the decision that it was something that we would try full time. So I went to an international school there called Schiller International School. They run on the American system and a lot of what they try to do is prepare or the athletes that they have for college. That wasn't necessarily my plan when I went there. My plan, I wanted to, I wanted to play pro, but we could talk a little bit about that. 

But basically, as I spent five years there from 8th grade to 12th grade, and as I kind of got further down the road, I realized that it was probably going to be a better path for me to go to college as opposed to try to make it on tour. I played futures events, which are basically the lowest level pro events that you can play in tennis. Spain is literally the hardest place that you can play futures events. The US is pretty tough as well. 

Won some matches, had some good results, but in order to really push up the ranks, you need to qualify for these events. And if you're not top 3400 in the world, you basically have to play qualifying in most of these, even at the lowest level. And then you have to consistently do well in the main draw in order to push up to the challenger level, which is kind of where players 100 in the world to 300 in the world play. 

And even then, you're not making an amazing living by any means. You don't really start to make a great living in tennis until your top hundred. So I just wasn't quite good enough to be able to say, okay, this is going to be my career path. I think if we were wealthier, if my parents were wealthier and they said, hey, listen, we can just bankroll you great. I think I probably would have tried for a little bit longer. That wasn't, unfortunately, that just wasn't possible. So, you know, take the tennis scholarship, get my, get my school paid for. 

And at that time in 2010 it was starting to become a little bit more common for, I mean, I know in most sports, particularly here you go to college and then go pro afterwards. It's quite common in tennis. It wasn't really like that. It was, you know, you're going pro at 16, 17, 18 but it was starting to become more commonplace to go to college, play even four years and then try and go pro afterwards. So that was the idea. Again, it didn't turn out that way but that, that was the idea.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And I think, you know, there's definitely some benefits to that versus, you know, you see the kids that go pro at 16, 17. There's a lot to take on. I'm curious. So looking back over those, you know, four or five years and the Tennis academy slash boarding school it sounds like what were some areas that looking back were very noticeable areas of not just obviously your tennis development but just life and just personal development over that time period.

Josh Reason: Yeah, I think from a personal development standpoint I would say it was absolutely critical for me just being who I am today. I think that my values, my personality formed at an earlier age than most people. I would say. I kind of went through a lot of the things that a lot of people would go through in college normally. 

So I went through those a little bit early. You know, talk about grit and discipline and these kind of things, you know, just small things that you maybe don't think about like, you know, I had to do things on my own accord. Like I didn't have my parents to tell me, you know, you need to do your homework or you need to not eat candy all night or, you know, that, you know, I had, I had the option myself and it doesn't mean that I always took the right path. I certainly didn't. 

There were lots of things that I did that I shouldn't have done but by having those experiences I was able to kind of come to the conclusions myself on what I should be doing, what I shouldn't be doing, what was helping me, what wasn't helping me. And, you know, like I said, I was by no means perfect. Like, if I could go back, there are a lot of things that other people at the academy did better than I did but being able to look back and realize those things or understand while they were happening helped me, you know, just be who I am today.

Colby Harris: And I'm curious too. Like, I know you said you were, you were winning a lot back when you were still at home before you left, you're really on a roll just in your progression and really had, like, high hopes to keep moving. I'm interested to hear a little bit about that transition. Just like, for you mentally, as you went into that, you know, new area with a bunch of kids that are, you know, just like you, they're all competing to do the same things, just as serious training, just as hard. How do you think that impacted? Just like, the overall culture and then also you personally going into that environment to train?

Josh Reason: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so one of the, one of the things, you know, you mentioned culture, instead of competing against, you know, all the top players in the UK, I was now competing against a lot of the top players from all over Europe. People come from America, South America, everywhere, all over the world. 

And, you know, I got the chance to play with people like Kriego Dmitrov, you know, have you heard of Dmitrov? He's a top tennis player. He was at the tennis academy at the same time as me. Plenty of other, you know, really, really good players like that around me. So I was able to see what it took at a tier above what I was used to when I got there for the first year, I would say it was a little bit of a shock in terms of my level compared to what I saw around. 

I think that was probably the toughest year just from getting acclimated to all kinds of different things being away from home, but especially the tennis. And I thought my ability was compared to what it was in reality, so didn't do that much winning in my first year. And I would actually say that I didn't play a lot of tournaments either. At the beginning, it was a lot of training, and then I would say there were more tournaments towards the latter stages of my time there. Yeah.

Brian Harbin: Was there ever a time period where you hit a wall and said, I don't know if there was a certain match where it's like you just hit rock bottom, and then how you kind of overcame that?

Josh Reason: Yeah. So after my first year there, like I said, it was kind of expensive, and I think it's fair to say that it was more. It was like a, we'll see how this year goes, and I, if it goes well, no, we'll run it back. And if not, you come home and we'll just lead the life of every other kid that is in my area. So I go home for the summer and play all these tournaments in the UK, and obviously the idea is do a lot better than what you were doing, what I was doing the previous year. 

So I traveled, played maybe two or three tournaments in the summer. And the first few, I think I probably underperformed relative to what my expectations were. I wanted to go there and win these tournaments. I had a couple of like, I remember tight losses against players that I probably would have lost to before, but I kind of felt like I should be beating at this point. 

And then we got to my county closed, which is basically, it would be like southeast Florida closed tournament for. And I played the under 16s or, no, maybe under 14s and under 16s of that event. You got, you could play two h brackets. And it was kind of like, okay, before I left, I'd won the lower age racket, like under twelve or something like that, right before I'd left. So I knew that, you know, and that was at the time that was like a very good, that was like a great result for me. It kind of like solidified that, hey, okay, he should go off and you know, take this year and see if we can get better. 

So I needed to do well in that tournament, and if I didn't do well in that tournament, I basically win it. It was probably going to be like, eh, this isn't going to work out. But I ended up winning both brackets, 14s and 16s. And the winning of the 16s bracket against guys that were much older than me was enough for me and my parents to just be like, okay, yeah, we can continue going, we can continue doing this. 

And I would say that was the one time where things, and at that age group I was pretty fiery as well. I'm not going to say I broke a few tennis rackets, but I definitely broke a few tennis rackets. And, you know, those kind of things didn't sit very well with my parents. And I think that's fair. You know, that's completely fair. So that was an important, that was an important time.

Brian Harbin: No, listen, no judgments there. I grew up playing tennis as well and I had a thing about thermal racket and it was just, you know, it's, it can be a stressful game. There's no doubt about that.

Colby Harris: Yeah, no, I was gonna say, I don't think, I think it's one of those things like, you kind of have to have it these days if you want to keep up. Like you better have something in you that's like, you know, get angry. I mean, like, don't just be getting p***** off in the middle of the bout, but, like, you, you're going to have to get an edge. I mean, the best guys in any realm these days are the guys that, like, they carry that anger, they carry that energy. It's about, like, how they apply it 100%. It makes them so good. 100%. 

Some of the best kids that we've ever coached with, like, flag football or camp or anything, it's the kids that are so serious. They're, like, coming at your neck on every play. It's that level of seriousness these days. It's like, that's what you gotta have.

Josh Reason: I mean, the important part, and I would say, is that it shows, at least, at the very least, that you care. And unfortunately, that is not always the case. And I would say that a lot of the guys that I grew up playing tennis with, not a lot, but a good amount of the guys that I grew up playing tennis, that simple thing was missing. Like, if you don't care if you win or lose, you lose, basically. I mean, it really. You need to have a certain level of fire in you. But then what. How you control that is gets. That gets a little bit more complicated. That's harder.

Colby Harris: Yeah, we'll have to talk about, too, as we get farther into, of course, like pickleball. Cause I know you play now, but, like, being such a gentleman's game, you really have to monitor that. As I learned when I first started, like, no chirping, no slamming, no cussing. Like pickleball, it's like all hands off deck for the most part.

Josh Reason: There's a little bit of chirping in pickleball.

Colby Harris: Well, that's why. See, it's who I'm playing with. I guess. I got in trouble really quick. Cause I love to chirp. I think it's, like, part of whatever you're doing. Golf, pickleball, basketball, surfing. We could be playing cornhole and, like, I'm a church. 

But anyway, I want to circle back to that. I do want to talk a little bit about, like, the next step. So you did say earlier that you decided you were going to go the college route. You went to University of, University of Auburn at Montgomery to further your athletic career in your education. Tell us a little bit more about that decision landing there and then kind of that transition into college after what you've been doing at the academy.

Josh Reason: Yeah. So I looked into a few different options for going to college. I was close to going to a few different places. We looked at FAU. FAU was kind of, like, high up on the list. Campbell University was another one, but Fau. It looked like I was going to try to go there, but at the time, I really needed to get as much scholarship as possible. And I think it might have changed now, but when I was going to. 

When I was going to college, there just weren't that many scholarships available, especially in D1. Like, I think you get. You got like three and a half scholarships and, you know, there would be like ten guys on the team. So unless you were playing one, you're definitely not. You like, definitely not getting a full ride. 

So I ended up going to AUM, which at the time were had an incredibly good tennis program. I mean, one of the best tennis programs in the country, but they were NAIA, they're NCAA D2 now, but at the time, Nia didn't have a clearinghouse. So you would just get, like, all these guys that played like, pretty good pro level, like, and the team was just so good. I mean, we would play. We played like, exhibitions against Troy and Auburn, like the Auburn Auburn D1, and our team would like, wreck them. It was. But they wouldn't have that on record. 

So at the time, it was a really good tennis program. And like I said, I really wanted to go somewhere where I could get the best possible tennis because I still wanted to play pro. So I went there and got a great scholarship from them. Although all my tuition was paid, the only thing that. And I got partial housing, so there was not too much of an expense, and I got to play with players that were better than me. I wasn't going to go and play like one or two on the team. 

So first year, I ended up playing number three, doubles. So you get there's one, two, three doubles and six singles. I ended up playing three doubles and six singles. And we had a great year. We lost in the final of nationals or semi final nationals first year. The year before I came, they won it, so got a lot of great experience playing. The adjustment to, you know, having school and tennis was minimal because that's what I'd been doing the whole time. So it was a pretty natural progression from what I'd been doing to what I was doing then. 

And yeah, second year did really well as well. Ended up playing three and three singles and I think one doubles. That was my best year. I had a really good second year. It's also when I met my now wife. She was an undergraduate assistant for the soccer team. She was a very good soccer player. She got recruited by Bayern Munich women's team to go and play for them. Unfortunately, she tore ACL multiple times, so her soccer career was kind of cut short. But meeting her and having someone that understood sport and loved sport the same way that I do was great. 

Yeah. And then, you know, I would say that towards the end of my college career, I was playing well, but there were a lot of things. There were a lot of other things going on. I was starting to think about, you know, money started to be something that I would think about a lot more at that time, especially in the last two years. And thinking about going pro and money, the two just didn't really connect. 

And also, there's quite a lot of other things that you're thinking about at that time, 2021 years old. And I simply decided that I didn't think that I was going to be good enough to make a good living from tennis, which is, you know, I think that at the time is kind of hard to come to terms with because you've spent so much time putting, you know, so much effort into that sport. And, you know, being able to recognize where you are is not always the easiest thing. 

But I think that over, you know, over those first two years in college, I kind of realized that there are a few things that I just didn't do well enough to be at the top of my tennis game. And a lot of that, honestly, it's not all physical as well. What I find in sport in general is that for me at least, it's the mental side of the game. 

The mental side of the game, just for me, was a little bit too up and down. I think the people that are able to stay a little bit more even keel, meaning the highs maybe aren't so high, but the lows are not, you know, nearly as low. I think I fluctuated a little bit too much. And if you fluctuate as much as I did, I think that, you know, getting to a high, high pro level in anything is almost impossible. You have to maintain some level of consistency. 

And I think at the time, for me, it just wasn't consistent enough. And that might be that I just had too many other distractions going on. But my attention turned to other things, and essentially my attention turned to making money. How can I make money? Because I didn't have much money. My parents weren't giving me money. 

When I was in college, I had to work in the grounds department in the mornings before going to training, which was miserable, absolutely miserable. Would wake up at go and do landscaping for the grounds department at AUM for three or 4 hours to make some money and then go off from training. You talk about grit. That's kind of gritty. I would say that's kind of gritty. I didn't enjoy that much, but I didn't do it for long because I decided I was going to figure out different ways to make money. 

So what I used to do is I used to go browse through Craigslist and try to buy undervalued items, whether it be phones or computers and whatnot. And then I would sell that for a profit. That was how I ventured into my first little bit of entrepreneurship.

Brian Harbin: I love it! Well, and, you know, I know, like you said, it's a really tough decision having, you know, spent so much your life, you know, dedicated to tennis. But I'm sure now looking back, and this is so important, I think, for young people and understand about sports is like, you know, sure, you didn't make it to the pro level, which was your goal, but, you know, looking back, it helped you get a great education, you know, brought you to the United States where you met your future wife, and then not to mention all the things along the way that you developed in terms of perseverance, hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and really, you know, laid a great foundation for, and, you know, shoot, even laid the groundwork for pickleball, which we'll get into here in a little bit as well. 

So, all right, so you guys graduate college, and then, so tell us about that next decision for you and your wife, like, where to move, what to do next.

Josh Reason: Yeah, so, I wasn't, you know, I was kind of happy with why I was – I wasn't necessarily thinking about where we were going to move, what job I was going to take. I was kind of enjoying the hustle and bustle of what I was doing. I was teaching. I was teaching lessons on the side, and now we're – This is in,  like, in my senior year when in Montgomery. Yeah. I was, like, teaching lessons in the side, doing quite well. I had, like, a, had, like, a good group of Koreans in the area that, and just, like, networked out from there. Like, all the kids were coming to me and starting to make, like, some pretty good money.

Colby Harris: That's probably the most lucrative coaching industry there is in sports, is tennis coaching?

Josh Reason: Yeah, it was good. I had this one junior in the area that was probably the best junior in one of the top ones in Alabama, and I was traveling with him to some tournaments and getting paid. I don't know, $150 a day or something like that, which was nice, all expenses paid. I was doing that on the weekends and so. 

And then, plus I was doing quite well with, like, flipping stuff off Craigslist. Like, at that time I thought I was making a lot of money, so I wasn't really thinking too much about finding a job until my coach used to send out or forward emails that he would get from, like, recruiters because it was around the time where recruiters would start reaching out to coaches and saying, like, we want student athletes. Here's a job opening, and whatever. 

So my friend who was on the team at the time, we went through all four years together, he saw one of those emails and he said, oh, there's this job in LA for a finance company in sales. I'm going to apply for it. You just look over my resume real quick. So I did. I looked over it and I was like, yeah, it looks good. And I was like, I'll just throw mine. Throw my – Throw a resume together. I'll throw. Send it as well. If he's doing it, why wouldn't I do it? And I think he had a higher GPA than me and whatnot. 

And I got word back from the recruiter and they're like, yeah, we would love to talk to you. He never got anything back, but they were like, yeah, we'd love to talk to you. So I went through, all the way through the interview process and I still had some classes I needed to finish and I was not sure when I was going to finish them. I was planning to finish them in the fall, but I went through all the way, all the way through this interview process and they eventually were like, yeah, we want to offer you the job. And I was like, okay, when do you want me to start? And they were like, as soon as possible. 

So I finished all my classes in the summer instead of the four and convinced Christine, my then girlfriend, now wife, to start looking for a job in LA. And unfortunately, she's got this incredibly, like, likable personality where she just, it's very easy for her, it was very easy for her to get a job. So she got a job almost instantly, I feel like. And we were like, okay, let's move out to LA. 

So I moved out to LA for the sales job. Had really no idea what I was doing, to be honest. I signed a deal. Making, like, a base salary of $24,000 a year in LA doesn't get you very far. Like, you can't even pay rent with that amount. But fortunately, with the salary that she was getting as well. We kind of figured out how to make it work. 

And this job that I took, let me tell you, was another, just another step into the process of basically becoming who I am today. Extremely difficult. And I felt like I had pretty good exposure to difficult things in the past, but this might have been one of the most difficult things I've ever done. This was a startup company and they were extremely cutthroat. 

Most of these sales reps that they would hire, their whole strategy was hirever people, like student athletes from far away outside of California that would commit to moving across country and then be kind of stuck there without too many options available and thus having the grit that was needed to make it work. 

So it was the kind of situation where I would be making like 300 calls a day, just like, you know what type of sales job I'm talking about. And I would get there at like 04:00 in the morning, be staying until 08:00 p.m. just doing everything you can to both, you know, perform well from a sales metric standpoint, but also show the people in charge that you wanted to do whatever it took to be successful. 

And I would say the first six months of that were just so difficult. I was constantly worried, worried about not hitting targets because the targets were so outlandish that it just felt like I was never going to hit them. And the training was just very brutal. They were very, like some of the stuff that they would say just, it wouldn't fly. 

Today, I feel like it just wouldn't fly. And I hated it at the time. I told Christine, I was like, I don't know if I'm not going to quit, but I feel like I could be fired at any point, which was crazy to me because I was putting so much effort in and I felt like I was very capable of doing the job, but the metrics I had to hit just seemed so unattainable. I was working 12 hour days at least. But anyway, I got through it and we built the company. And at the time when I joined, there was probably 20 employees, grew to over 100 employees, and ended up getting equity in the company, ended up going up the ranks to becoming VP of sales and then VP of strategy, and it eventually sold to private equity. 

So there's a lot of stuff in between there. I don't need to bore you with it. But it was one of those situations where it just gave me a lot of tools, both in the sales world and just like business and mindset and just gave me a lot of tools in order to be successful. And while I was doing that, at the same time, I was trying to figure out ways to make money with domain names, which I had first stumbled upon as I was moving out to LA, just because I was thinking about how I can make supplemental income because I just wasn't making much money at this job.

Brian Harbin: I'm curious to ask you about that. Okay, so tell us the date of when you move out of California. So this is 20__? 

Josh Reason: 2014. Yeah.

Brian Harbin: Okay, so that's about the same time I was getting into the domain industry. So what was kind of your introduction about, you know, what's a domain or how these things are valuable?

Josh Reason: Yeah, I think I stumbled across domain names from the forum namepros dog, and I just saw people flipping these domains and making $50 here, $100 here. At the time, there was a big rush for everyone to get these four letter dot coms. So when I first got into it, there were actually a few that were available to register still. But what was happening was the Chinese were coming into the market and they liked these short.com domain names. So the three letter dot coms were getting way more valuable. They were buying up four letter dot coms and numeric domains. And there was just a lot of the dynamic. It was becoming like a liquid market. 

So there was a lot of trading that was happening, which was attractive. And I thought, okay, you know, I think I can do this. I think I can flip domains. I think that, you know, if you have a little bit of hustle bustle and you have like a little bit of sales in you, if you have the ability to monitor what's available, a lot. I mean, a lot of, a lot of success in these kind of things comes down to, have you got eyes on what's available? Like, how are you, if an opportunity arises, are you there to take advantage of the opportunity? I would spend a lot of time browsing, looking for deals. 

So when opportunities did arise, I felt like I was in a good position to jump on them. That's where I got started in the domain space. It wasn't super easy at the beginning. I didn't have. Definitely didn't make a lot of money in the beginning, probably net negative, but it was something that I did see other people doing well, and it's something that I believed in and I decided to continue to pour more time and money into.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, no, that's really cool because, yeah, I came in around the same time and, yeah, basically in China, they're trading domains like shares of stock and it was very fascinating. And it sounds like you did that kind of the five years since you were also working in the finance company. Right? And very similar overlap too because I was in the same, I was working in insurance and kind of got exposed to domains in 2014. 

And I remember I would get, you know, two hour block of time, I'd go sit at Starbucks, I'd bring like this pad of paper and I would just watch domain Sherpa after domain Sherpa and just learn about this industry. And so I can appreciate too, just like, you know, you used your sales job, you know, not used it, but I mean that's your career that supports your family. 

But then you had this other thing that hey, this is super interesting, kind of like a hobby, but then the deeper you dive into it, hey, this is a great financial opportunity for you as well. And so I'm guessing over, and this is kind of where soaring ventures, you kind of started kind of building a portfolio of domains and then started just acquiring domains.

Josh Reason: Yeah. So I would say like in those beginning years I'm still like trying to build up a bankroll for me and my family and so that we can, you know, live a little bit more carefree in the pretty expensive city being LA. So I would say the first 2014, 2015, 2016. What I'm really doing as opposed to building a portfolio is more buying and flipping. Buying and flipping, buying a name, trying to sell it on Flippa. 

At the time, Flippa was the big thing, which isn't the most profitable way to be successful in domain names. The buy and hold strategy over a longer period of time is certainly more lucrative, but it just simply wasn't an option for me. I needed to be able to get back that capital in order to reinvest it. 

So over that period of time I was doing some brokering as well. And still to this day, I probably do one or two deals a year from people that I just know that come to me because they don't know anyone else in our industry because it's so niche. But I would do a few brokerage deals and yeah, there wasn't that growing the portfolio wasn't really happening too much. 100 names, 200 names. Obviously sometimes you would buy names that you couldn't sell or you didn't want to sell for the price that you could get. 

So you would end up adding more names to your portfolio that way. But it wasn't until I moved up the ranks at the company was called currency and started to make more money and have more disposable income that I started to buy domains with more of a long term view. And I did that for two years, pretty aggressively, just building a portfolio to the point where I was starting to see more retail sales just start to trickle in. 

I would say by, I think 2020 was when the company that I was working for got bought out by private equity. Things got a bit weird. I got offered to stay with the company, but in a more of a sales type role, which I was like, no, I'm done with this. I worked really hard to get out of this role. I'm not going back and doing it. 

Prior to that, I was managing a team of 50 sales reps, and fortunately, for the previous two years, I had been building up this portfolio that was now starting to spit off a pretty good income. And that was at the point where I decided, okay, I'm just going to go full time with this. I know the formula. I know what I've been doing recently is working. I have some disposable income that I can continue doing this with, and me and my family can keep living the way that we're living. Let's just make a bet. Let's just make a bet on this now. And that's what we did. And it was worked out. Worked out perfectly.

Colby Harris: Yeah. And having your other business, Dnwe.com, domain name wholesale exchange. Tell me a little bit more about that. Was that in the early stage? Did you start that as an opportunity to be a platform to sell these domains that you were acquiring, or just a little bit more about that?

Josh Reason: So, yeah, I kind of built it because I – A lot of, like, the wholesale trading that happens, happens on, at least used to happen on the forum called Namepros or just like personal interaction, just like networking. Selling at wholesale is not really conducive with what's available on the market. A lot of people, when they're trying to sell something, they put it on GoDaddy or something called Afternic, which is basically like GoDaddy and various other venues, but they're putting that on the market with the intention to sell it at a retail price tag. And if they lower that price to something that's more appealing to an investor like me, anyone can buy it. 

So what I wanted to have at that time was because I'm still thinking about cashflow at this time. I built DNWE here, 2019, 2020 kind of time, I think, which was right around the time that currency got bought by private equity and I was just like, I've got a little bit of time here. I don't feel like things are going to continue much longer at currency. I'm going to build something within the domain space that I think is needed. 

So the idea basically behind it was I would like to have a platform that I could list my domains at a liquid price that I think other investors would pay, but while also having my domains listed on all the public marketplaces for a retail price, that I bought the domain with the intention to sell at that price. 

So the idea was basically then you have this platform, DNWE, that hopefully you can get liquidity from if needed, without, you know, forfeiting your chance, your chances of selling it for, you know, a higher price. That was basically the premise of why I developed it. And, you know, it's good. It's, you know, since we, it's not like a big money maker for me, but, you know, since we built it, we've done millions of dollars in sales on there, which is really cool just because it's helpful to a lot of people within the domain space.

Colby Harris: Still active?

Josh Reason: Still active. Actually, we've relied heavily on a platform called dan.com, which handled basically the fulfillment process of transferring the domain and taking payment for the domain and the disbursing the funds. We didn't want to be involved in that because I just didn't want to spend a lot of time on it because I knew that it wasn't going to be a big money maker for me. 

So they got bought by Godaddy and Godaddy's going to be retiring that product, which is kind of unfortunate because it was very easy. But we haven't, we have a pretty natural replacement lined up already, which is, I think, going to fill the void perfectly. We'll see. But yeah, it's something that I don't spend any time on. So me and my partner, we don't spend any time on it. And basically what we do now is that all the funds that DNWE takes in, we then invest them in domain names as like a partnership. So it's like another domain portfolio for me.

Colby Harris: Real quick, Brian, for your next question, one thing I want to ask is you had mentioned that in that company that you were in for the sales and then you moved up the ranks, that you were actually got to a point where you got equity in the company. Obviously that's like the golden goose egg of a career to have an exit was that a pretty awesome moment for you? Do you feel like perspectives changed again at that point after you had a chance to leave the company?

Josh Reason: And so the short answer, I would love to say yes. The short answer is no. So the equity portion didn't turn out to be very much for me, and that's not because it wasn't a good exit for the founders, it was, but there are lots of different classes of shares that you can get and still pretty young at the time. I think for me to get a more meaningful exit, I needed to negotiate an equity deal earlier on as opposed to when I did, which was towards the latter stages before they got bought out. 

Honestly, it was something that I struggled with mentally for a while because I felt like I deserved a lot more from it. I would say that when you're negotiating and you're in the early stages of a company, when you're negotiating for equity, be pretty mindful of what type of shares you're acquiring and also whether or not it's worth negotiating harder for shares as opposed to just getting as much cash as you can from the company while it's available. 

I'm not overly upset because I got a decent amount of money while the company was going and good salary, good commissions, and I decided not to take less of that in order to get more equity. And I'm glad I did because I would say the chances of getting, unless you're the founder, the chances of getting enough equity where it moves the needle to an amount where you want to sacrifice the upfront salary or commission or just compensation in general, it's somewhat dicey. I've got a lot.

Colby Harris: It's a gamble.

Josh Reason: Yeah, it is a gamble. I've got a lot of friends that have gone the startup route in so many in Silicon Valley, especially in LA as well, they've gone the startup route and they've been really focused because they hear all these stories. They've been really focused on getting equity, getting equity, getting equity. But then we all know that a lot of the time these companies just fail. So what they end up doing is they're sacrificing money on the front end for equity.

Colby Harris: Something that won't exist in five years.

Josh Reason: Yeah, not getting really anything. So.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, yeah, no, I can definitely relate to that, too. I worked for the insurance company. I worked for a long time. They get bought out and, you know, you have all this, you know, stock and the vesting schedule and the vesting schedule was fine, but it was, the issue came in with before the company sold what they value their own stock at is going to be a lot different than the actual sale price because, you know, when you get bought by a billion dollar company, it's like they're going to squeeze and try and get it as cheap as they possibly can. 

So what people think is worth this amount on paper? The hard reality is, hey, when that check gets cashed in, it's a lot smaller. Based on, you know, like you said, a multitude of factors. So weren't asked to. Okay, so you guys made the big decision too, to move from California to recently to Florida. And I know obviously, you guys had your first child in California before y'all moved.

Josh Reason: First and second. Okay, first and second. So I think so 2020 is when I decided to go full time in domains. At that point, I no longer need to be in southern California. It's also around the time that COVID is kind of cropping up. 

So when those two things happen, I, you know, it wasn't really something that I'd been actively thinking about more. So it was something that just cropped up one day and I was like, why wait? Like, why do we need to live here? Because my wife worked remotely anyway. My son, my middle was now about nine months old, and I in the space of about 60 days from that kind of like, what are we doing? That little epiphany, I was just like, okay, we're out of here. Like, we're moving to Texas or Florida. I'm pretty confident in my ability to do well as an entrepreneur now. Not that keen on paying state taxes because I think that I'm going to just end up paying more and more and more over the coming years. 

So why not, you know, it's time to move now. Family was growing and we needed a bigger house anyway. Getting a bigger house in Orange county was virtually impossible because prices were also starting to skyrocket. And most of our family were this direction. Mine, obviously, over in Europe, which is still a lot closer than California, if I moved to Florida. And her family, she actually had her brother, who she was very close to, lived in Atlantic beach. 

So I visited a few places. I went to Texas, I went to Houston, I went to Dallas. I wasn't just, I just like, wasn't quite right. And then flew over here and met up with her brother. And we just, I was just like, there, this is the place. And my wife, who hadn't been here at all, she was like, okay, I trust you. So within, like two weeks, we were moving.

Brian Harbin: Oh, wow, that's quick!

Josh Reason: Yeah, yeah.

Colby Harris: Florida's the best. I've traveled a decent amount, and every time I leave, I'm ready to come back. Like, we've lived here the last decade, and I'm pretty much grown up here at this point. And just every time I leave, and there's no plans, really, of going anywhere else, it's like the lifestyle on here is just solid. Good people, good energy, so many things to do.

Josh Reason: 100%. So one of the things, recently, I've been looking at real estate a bunch, and it's been something that I've been looking at for a while. But again, I'm kind of, like, going through this process of looking at it recently and thinking to myself, where are the best places to invest? 

And I know that the market obviously has gone up so significantly here over the last three, four years, but when you zoom out and you just look at all the options that are available and what's desirable from a family standpoint or a vacation standpoint, gosh, just this area just hits the nail in so many ways that, I don't know, I think that I'm going to end up investing in property here. I think that's my next thing.

Colby Harris: Yeah, there's a – So I actually grew up on Amelia island. It's like hour north if you don't know.

Josh Reason: If you've been up there yet. I peg off that all the time.

Colby Harris: Yeah. I was gonna say, good pickleball scene. Great place to take the kids, whatever. So, anyway, that's where I grew up. But Fernandina beach on Amelia island is the 12th most profitable short term rental area in the nation.

Josh Reason: Really?

Colby Harris: Yeah. So ever since I was helping a gentleman, like, do some really manual labor on his Airbnb property. And he was the one that sent me the link to that article, and I read it, and I was immediately like, the math doesn't lie. It's right there. This is one of the greatest opportunities for investment, and it's right in the backyard of where I live, really. So it's a growing area. I always say to everyone, it's like, it's not getting any cheaper. I'm currently getting my real estate license. 

So I talked to a lot of people in the game and people I talked to around the country. When I tell them, oh, yeah, I'm in Jacksonville, Florida. Oh, man, you gotta be kidding me. You're in the goldmine. Like, I've been trying to come down there for years and do work. It's like, everyone knows. It's like, if everyone that's talking about investing is wanting to invest here. You might as well leverage it being, you know, where you get to live as well. 

Yeah. So on that note, though, I want to talk a little bit more about, obviously, you're wearing your selkirk hoodie today, and we didn't. We've been kind of foreshadowing this whole pickleball career that you've launched. So I want to dive into that a little bit of, like, you know, would professional pickleball players that like a proper play?

Josh Reason: Yeah, I mean, I travel around and I play pro events.

Colby Harris: Tell us a little bit. Yeah, tell us, like, kind of how you got into it, sparked this whole thing.

Josh Reason: Yeah, I think so. It's pretty important to preface this by saying, you know, I'm not earning a, you know, living currently from playing pickleball. I'm playing in, you know, pro events, and I'm playing against people, some people that are, you know, and, you know, I'm getting some good results here and there, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. You know, I have, you know, sponsorship with Selkirk. They support me on, you know, some tournament costs and apparel and paddles and all that kind of thing. 

But, yeah, basically, when I moved here, I hadn't really played anything too competitive on the tennis side for six years because I just didn't have time. And I think what I never really mentioned is that when I lost tennis, I channeled a lot of that competitive spirit into being the best that I could possibly be at work. And I would obsess over being the best sales rep because I needed something else to focus on and be good at and be competitive in. 

If I don't have competition in my life, I'll be honest, I get really depressed. It's miserable for me not having some kind of meaningful competition. So I'm always trying to challenge myself in that respect. 

So when we moved here, I had been playing. I had started to play tennis a little bit prior to moving and started to enjoy that part of it. But, you know, at my age, and you're never gonna be, like, super competitive in tennis again. And for me, like, going out and being all the guys at the club, like, that's not that fun. Like, I don't care about that.

But I moved here and I started looking for tennis clubs to join. I couldn't really find anything that made sense, and I didn't really know what to do, but there was all these pickleball courts around. I'm like, what? Like, what is this. It looks kind of fun. One of the things that you do in tennis a lot is you play, like, you'll warm up and play, like, mini tennis. And, like, sometimes we played just games for, like, hours on, like, various different touch tennis things that were just so fun. 

And so I saw pickleball, and I was like, it's like touch tennis. So I went down, I went over to the courts, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna try and join in some of these games. What looked like a bunch of old people, right? And I was like, I'm just gonna go and whoop all of their a****. And I started playing with them, and I was like, oh, my God, these guys are, like, good.

Brian Harbin: Exactly.

Josh Reason: How are they doing this? This doesn't make sense. Is this not just small tennis? I should be crushing these guys. And I think that a lot of tennis players, particularly have this misconception that pickleball is tennis. And if you're good at tennis, you're good at pickleball. Now, it's certainly helpful, right? It's certainly helpful, but it's a totally different game. It really is a totally different game. Very different rules. 

And to be very, very good at pickleball is completely different skill sets as well. So I started playing it, and I was like, this is really fun, and I'm enjoying playing with people that I wouldn't have thought that I would enjoy playing with anyway. I played for a little while, once a week, twice a week. And then I started to get pretty good at it pretty quickly because that's the one advantage I did have, is that I had the racket skills already. 

Once I started to understand some of the components that made pickleball pickleball. I was getting better quickly, and I started to get to know more people in the area that were good. So I got introduced to better players and started playing with better people and then introduced to some of the tournaments and started playing with better people again. 

And then over the course of, like, a year, so from maybe 2021 to 2022, I kind of just met more people in the area and was playing with some, basically the best people in the area. In Southeast, well, basically southeast Florida and northwest Florida and northeast Florida, like, all those areas. And so from there, I was like, okay, I think that I want to play some, like, APPs, PPAs, which is basically the professional tournaments, and they have various different brackets for, like, different levels. But I was like, I want to play at the highest level possible. 

So I think I played my first kind of tournament. I played and I was like, wow, these guys are really good. I don't think it went that well, but I started to play a lot more just because I had time and I was enjoying it. So I started to play almost every day here. And then I started to play with basically the three other best people within a 200 miles radius of us. 

And the next time I went to a tournament, which was about a year ago, a year and a half ago, it was in Daytona, it was a pro event. And we, me and my friend John Davison, who's, you know, he's been playing a while, good player. We qualified for the pro event. You know, I think we won two or three matches in Qualys, and then we played against the number one team in the world, which is Ben Jones and Colin Johns. And there's like this big. There was. It was basically one of the biggest crowds that have ever been, like a pickleball match because we played a really close match with them. 

So we lost game one and then we won game two. And after we won game two against these two guys, who were literally considered to be unbeatable at the time, the whole place got completely packed and we were up in game three, we had a pretty good chance. I felt like, I remember turning to him at five three in the third, and I was like, dude, I think we can win this. We can win this match. 

Now, probably not the best thing to say at that time. We ended up losing, but that was the time where I was like, oh, this is just so much fun, being able to compete at the absolute highest level of a sport. I don't care that it's pickleball. I understand that. It's not football. It's not tennis. It's not considered to be the most athletic sport in the world. I actually have a few things to say about that because I think. I actually think it's much more athletic than people give it credit for when it's played at a very high level. But I hadn't had that feeling of competing at a really high level in a really long time. 

And ever since that day, I've just been addicted. And it's not necessarily that I'm addicted to pickleball. And you'll see a lot of people say you're addicted to pickleball, but what I am addicted to is the ability, at my age still, to be able to continue to get better at something and compete at the highest possible level in a sport that I enjoy. And from then, I've started to try to play more tournaments, basically, and that's the brunt of it. I was in Minnesota recently, played the national indoor.

Brian Harbin: Are those doubles?

Josh Reason: Yeah. So I play doubles, singles, men's doubles, singles, and mixed doubles. So you typically try to go and play three events.

Brian Harbin: Do you get to pick your partners?

Josh Reason: Yes. Yes. So that's one of the biggest struggles right now with me trying to get the results that I want to get is a very, very competitive landscape over the last two years. Definitely not an OG in the sport by any means. So it's something like, in order to get the best partners, you need to be able to produce good results with maybe not the best partners, which takes time, a little bit of luck, and you got to play a lot of tournaments, and you also need to be really good at the networking side of things.

Brian Harbin: The business politics side, right?

Josh Reason: Yeah, the politics side. I mean, I'm trying to play more tournaments. I went to Minnesota. In Minnesota, I met, I mean, I get the opportunities. I'm getting opportunities to meet people that I didn't think I would meet. Like, you guys know Sam Query. He was a tennis player. He made semifinals of Wimbledon, beat Nadal. He's playing pickleball now and met him, went to dinner with him. 

So just, like, networking outside of what I would usually be doing and, you know, meeting new people and hopefully being able to find new partners and, yeah, basically that's what I'm doing right now. I'll try and try and play one tournament, sometimes two, if I'm lucky, a month. Like, I can't do it as much as I would like. Like I said, I would love to go to tournament week in, week out, but I just can't do that with, you know, like we talked about, I've got three young kids, wife, who, you know, probably wouldn't appreciate me being away for that long. 

And to be quite frank with you, I'm just, I'm very, very fortunate that she's so supportive in the fact that, you know, enables me to go away for the time that I do. So, you know, I'm not making a living out of it, but I'm fortunately in a place where I set myself up over the last, last ten years where I don't need to make a living out of it right now. I can just go and I can just try and compete with the best at the highest level, and for me, that's more than enough.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, well, and there was something you recently interviewed on the ICA, which I was listening on that, which, well, on a side note, too, we just did a pretty big deal together. I had a college buddy that reached out that said, hey, I need you to help me acquire this domain. Reach out ends up being you, and then we get that deal done. And so. 

Josh Reason: Yeah.

Brian Harbin: But, no, one of the thing, two of the things that you said, you said a healthy me is a happy me, which, again, it's not even just the physical aspect of it, but it's also just that level of competition, kind of that being challenged mentally, knowing something that you're really going for it, and the fact that you put in the time and effort. 

I mean, I think you mentioned in this interview you do, you know, 4 hours a day, between working out and playing pickleballs, you're really putting in the time to get better and, you know, dive deep and, you know, it's fun. I turned on the TV maybe a few weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago at this point, but it was Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff playing against John McEnroe. And was it Chrissy Evert and Pickleball? And it's just been really cool to see because I know the tennis world kind of pushed back initially a lot to pickleball. 

You know, they're taking their court space and everything else, but it's been fun to see, you know, them embracing, and it's kind of evolved in the way that, you know, a new generation is getting into a version of the sport that is still very competitive and fun.

And, you know what I like about it? It's a great equalizer game, just like you said, you know, on a tennis court, you know, a guy, you know, that's 25 pounds overweight with a knee brace wouldn't be competitive. But, hey, in pickleball can give you a run for your money, you know?

Josh Reason: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Like, so, like, I'm still playing singles right now in pickleball, but singles, it's tough. You know, the court looks small, but to cover, but you also have less time to react and whatnot. So I'm trying to play singles for as long as I possibly can, even though I would say that I'm probably on the side of not, like, maybe slightly too old and not in good enough shape, but I still get decent results in singles. 

I think I'm just about still there, and I've got the mindset that I'm getting in better shape right now, because I will say this. When I was in California prior to when I wasn't taking any kind of sport any seriously at all. I wasn't out of shape. But when you don't play, when you don't, you know, work out a high level, you know, may not look out of shape to the, to the, to the naked eye, but you certainly are not able to compete in, you know, the way that you would want to. 

So getting that back over the last, like, year and a half has not been, it's not been that easy either. And I'm still trying to figure out, you know, I'm still trying to get there. I've got, you know, I'm going to the gym. I've got a personal trainer that is working with me. But the challenges are different today than what I have been used to in the past. Like, I go into the gym and if I've had a hard session the day before, I feel terrible. It's just the recovery process for me is extremely difficult. 

And I'm doing a lot of these things because I want to keep playing singles. I want to keep playing all three events. But, yeah, you're right about, you know, if I was just to play doubles, you can play doubles at a very, very high level. 50s, you know, there's a guy on tour that is very good. He's 51 years old and he's still competing at the highest level. As long as the reactions are there. Yeah, you can be good.

Colby Harris: Yeah. No, I can definitely agree. My first time playing was quite a journey because I have two older brothers, so I'm the youngest, and I grew up just getting talked to the face, like, talking trash, going each other's throats on every play. 

And then we start playing pickleball and we bring that same methodology of, like, you know, we're just constantly talking, talking trash and saying backhanded comments and whatever, getting fired up, you know, and I remember, like, we were, I was winning my first game, and then they started using it against me of, like, you're breaking all the rules. Like, this isn't even a real game. You can't play like this. And I'm like, this is sports. Like, this is how I play sports. 

So kind of had to rein it in, but I've, I've. I really enjoy the game, especially when we play during summer with camp or me and my girlfriend like to play singles. It's such a good game to just, like, get out and go play. But I want to ask you, because we could, I could do this all day. This has been like, I feel like every time we maneuver into a new area of your life. We're learning something new. 

But after this whole conversation, like, one thing I want to ask you, because I think one thing that's super fascinating that I always like to like, like to ask our guests, is, you know, navigating this process. Right? Like, I'm sure when you were graduating from this school in Spain, like, you never could have imagined what's transpired now. 

So I just want to ask, like, what, what would your advice be based on this. This path you've taken, the things you've gone through to other people that are trying to figure it out, whether they're fresh out of high school or they're the 40 year old guy who just lost their job and try and figure out something new.

Josh Reason: Yeah. So I think one of the things that Brian said initially, more towards the beginning of the podcast, is extremely important when you're thinking about developing, and especially when you're developing in the sports world, is that I think oftentimes when you're playing a sport at a higher level, you can get a lot of pressure, both internally and externally, from parents or other family members, even friends, that make things sometimes difficult and can cloud your perspective on various different things and vision. 

But you don't have to be a pro. You don't have to go pro. You don't have to end up making a living from whatever sport that you're focused on. That might be the goal, and for a lot of people, sure, that should be the goal, but it's not necessarily end all and be all. The amount of, like Brian said, the things that I've got from sport, I could go on forever. And a lot of the successes that I've had today are directly as a result from playing sport at a high level and being focused on those things. 

So I was talking to my wife just the other day. For me, it's going to be incredibly important for me to shift my focus away from myself and onto my kids and developing them as human beings. But I would like them to play sport. And it's not going to be a, I want you to play sport because I want to live vicariously through you or whatever. I want you to play sport or do something along those lines, because I know what it brings to the table from a growth standpoint and an opportunity standpoint in the future. 

So, yeah, I think that the main piece of advice is be disciplined and keep doing what you're doing, enjoy the sport that you're doing, and it's going to open up various different avenues for you, even if that's not professional.

Colby Harris: Definitely agree. Brian, any more questions over here?

Brian Harbin: We're good.

Colby Harris: Cool! Yeah. So the last question that we ask all of our guests, I know you've got in front of you right now, the grit creed is made up of twelve principles that we really, Brian, has put together to build grit.org upon. So we ask all of our guests, what part of the great creed resonates most with you and why.

Josh Reason: Yeah, kind of like I mentioned to you guys at the beginning, it's the, I don't find an excuse, I find a way. You know, all of those things on the great creed are, you know, great things to live by and great things to look at on a daily basis if you, if you, if you want to really focus on the right things when you're doing anything. But I know firsthand I have to sometimes rapple with this myself, is that it's very, very easy to find excuses and everyone does it. 

And, you know, when you've got some, when there's something wrong and you feel like, you know, you're not able to do something because of X or because of Y or because of Z, you're not the only one. And I think that sometimes we kind of feel like, oh, I've got, you know, this issue. And that's why I wasn't able to do or complete the task that I wanted to complete. 

But what you need to consider is that the guy sitting next to you, he also could have an excuse. He also is challenging himself with various different things or obstacles that might be in his way, but he's going to do it and he's going to find a way. So whatever it might be, I think the best perspective to have is there are other people that have harder things, harder issues than you. No matter what it is, it could always be worse, and there's always a way. So, yeah, I constantly have to remind myself of that one.

Colby Harris: I think that's the coolest part about life experience. The more things you do, the more people you meet, the more you're exposed to of how much other people deal with, too. It just kind of calluses that for yourself of like, whether it's feeling better that, you know, that everyone else is doing it, or I, or if you're feeling better, noticing that, hey, everyone else has got problems, but they're not, they're not going to act on it. Like, this is an opportunity for me to be the guy to go, not make the excuse, like, find a way to get through it.

Josh Reason: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, it comes. It's not just when you're doing something. It's when you're reflecting on things as well. Right? And, you know, I used to. I'm always reflecting on results. Right. Always reflecting on results. And I'm always very tempted to give an excuse as to why I lost this match. 

And to be quite frank, none of the excuses are really important. And I'll come to that conclusion, maybe not immediately, but after a little bit of reflecting, I come to that conclusion by myself, and I think that it's important that when you don't have the result that you wanted, that you look for a way to change it in the future so that you get that result as opposed to making an excuse as to why the result happened.

Colby Harris: Definitely agree. Well, Josh, this has been a pleasure having you on today. We really appreciate you making the time and coming on the show today. Real quickly, I know, like, you have a bunch of different things going on, but, like, if you have a social media or website, is there anywhere, like, if someone wanted to support you or keep up with what you're doing right now, shout yourself out if there is anything or.

Josh Reason: I'm not sure what my Instagram handle is because I don't spend much time on that. It's kind of like all of the pickleball people are all on Instagram, and that's how they kind of, like, find, like, communicate with each other. And I kind of use it more as just a family like thing, and I'm kind of combining the two. So I'm not sure what that is, but my Twitter is where I talk business, and that's Josh.co. J-o-s-h.C-o. 

Colby Harris: Cool. Perfect! All right, well, you heard it from the man himself. Thank you for tuning in!

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