How Dallas Took Team Canada Experience and Built DK Softball Into Something Bigger

Dallas Kipfer has lived every side of the game. Three-time Team Canada alumni, long-time coach, and someone who’s spent years right in the middle of high-level softball.

In this episode, Dallas walks through his path from dropping out of college and framing houses to building DK Softball, coaching at Conestoga, working with the Mo Bearcats, partnering with Rawlings Canada, and still competing at the national level.

We talk about what actually drives long-term athlete development: confidence, mindset, consistency, and building good people before great players. Dallas shares how he earned his spot with Team Canada, why he stopped chasing analytics in content, how he creates a culture athletes want to be part of, and what he wishes more coaches and parents understood about standards, failure, and growth.

If you’re an athlete, coach, parent, or anyone building something that requires discipline and leadership, there’s a lot in this one.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:00

Dallas is a three-time Canadian national team alumni, a longtime coach, and someone who spent years right in the middle of high-level softball. He's currently the head coach at Conestoga, Director of Player Development with the Mo Bearcats, and works closely with Rawlings Canada. But what really stood out to me is how much of his work goes beyond the wins and losses. A lot of what Dallas does is about developing people, not just players, the confidence, mindset, consistency, and helping athletes understand who they are on and off the field. In this episode, we talk about his journey through the game, what he's learned from competing at the national level, and how he approaches coaching today, and what he thinks actually matters when it comes to long-term athlete development. If you're an athlete, a coach, or just someone interested in leadership and growth, there's a lot in this one. Dallas, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 0:57

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 0:59

Yeah. I feel like we've worked together in the past, and all of our conversations have been around just content, marketing, business, and it would go on forever. And we always said like it'd be so cool just to have a podcast to be able to talk about this stuff. It's a full circle moment.

Speaker 1 1:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:18

And so I kind of want to start at the beginning and kind of just tell everyone listening who you are and kind of where you started.

Speaker 1:26

Yeah. Started in a more of an unauthentic way, I guess, or an unnatural way. If you told me when I was in high school that I would be running my own business, specifically like in softball, but even just running a business in general, I probably would have laughed in your face. I had zero interest in school in general. I was not a good school, I wasn't a good student, sorry. That's not how I I learned. So if you told me I was running a business, I would have just laughed. Out of high school, I went to college for a year, zero purpose whatsoever, just to say that I kind of did it. Jropped out three-quarters of the way through my first year. Went and started framing houses with my brother. My brother could tell that I wasn't very happy with what I was doing. And he said, if you're ever just kind of sick of it, just let me know. We'll always, we'll always tag you along. And best decision I ever made. I learned more in three months of how to build a house than I did in school. It's just how I learn. I need to be hands-on. I need to be, I need to be demonstrating, I need to be failing on the spot and learning on the fly. I can't sit and listen to somebody talk for three hours and have to write down notes. I just can't. So did that, moved on to my carpentry apprenticeship after that. About two and a half years into that, I tore my labrum in my hip. I was trying to work through it. And then one day my boss saw me trying to work and he was like, All right, dude, like you're done. You need to stop for you and for me, because if you really get hurt on my job site, I'm screwed. So he said, You need to go take a break. So he gave me a leave for however long I needed. When I was in high school, I worked at a baseball and softball facility called Playball Academy, and I started doing lessons there, and I really got the niche for it. Like I really, really liked it. Kind of stopped doing it after COVID just because nobody could even touch each other, let alone be in the same room. So during my layoff, I guess, or my medical leave, I did lessons on the side because I was extremely bored. For anybody listening that knows me, I can't sit down for very long. So I started doing it again. I wasn't supposed to, don't tell anybody. And one session turned into three, three turned into five, five turned into all day to turn into every day. And that was four years ago now. And here we are.

Speaker 2 3:44

When you were building houses, were you still playing softball? But you weren't coaching yet?

Speaker 3:52

Not a lot. No. I did a little bit. It was kind of that COVID period. So before COVID, I started like my own brand a little bit. Started an Instagram account. My mentor that I had at Playball, Trevor, he started his own Instagram account. When I got back from Australia, he gave me the title of like director of softball development at playball. And then it was like 12 seconds later COVID hit. Okay. So I started the brand, started everything, and then it just went dead silent. And it was silent after it as well, because it was obviously everybody remembers how on and off COVID was. There was no consistency in it whatsoever. And then I kind of I didn't lose the passion for it, but it's it's hard to maintain momentum when you it just always gets taken away. Yeah, totally. So I just kind of stopped, and then one team reached out from a client that I worked with at play ball, and then it just spiraled from there. To help them coach their team during the off season. Yeah, I would train I trained their one team like once a week for two hours. And then one person walked in and saw me working with their team, and then it was kind of word to mouth from there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 4:58

So when you started, I kind of want to go back to when you started your account, kind of building a personal brand. Was it DK softball then too?

Speaker 5:13

Yep, that was the original, the original name, that was the original logo. Everything is still everything is still original from that first day that did it.

Speaker 2 5:22

That's crazy because I feel like a lot of people starting their own thing. They spend so much time thinking about a name, a brand, colors, fonts, and everything, and it always ends up going back to like the first thing they thought of. But for you, you just DK softball and that was it.

Speaker 5:43

It was something that when he when Trevor talked to me about it, it was just I'm like, okay. And I probably sat down for like an hour. I thought of the name, I thought of the logo, I thought of everything. Like if my email at the end still has PB at the end because it was for play ball. And I just I don't want to switch it. Like it's just there's something something about it that it only took me an hour to figure out something that like you mentioned takes some people days, weeks to like figure out. Years for me. Yeah. It just something natural about it makes me not want to change any of it. Like that is also like authentically me. Yeah. Like I kind of pride myself in being a person that doesn't overthink small things and just kind of attacks it in that way. And that's kind of what the brand start was as well was do you want this title? Yeah. And then I just ran with it.

Speaker 2 6:45

Was your vision the same from the start of did you always know that you were gonna coach and help teams, or was it a little bit different?

Speaker 6:56

I think if you so I started it when I was 18. Started it when I was 18. If you told me if you asked me that question when I was 18, I probably would have told you I wanted to coach at the Division I level in the in the States at some point. And yeah, that's not the case anymore. The more I do it and the more personal I am with the people here, the more I want to stay home. So yeah, my vision's definitely changed. And I would say the scale is the same. Like I want to be as impactful here as D1 Division I coaches are there, which is why I work in so many different avenues in the sport right now. So I would say like the the scale of what I was anticipating is the same, just the the path is different.

Speaker 2 7:41

Cause you I remember when we used to work together, you talked about wanting to be at that level. But now it's more from what I see, it's more of like you helping the athletes get to the college level.

Speaker 7:58

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's more or less I I realized a couple years ago that I thrive more when it's personal. When I know the people, when I'm working with them one-on-one, when I'm working with them in small groups. It means more to me helping a young athlete get to their dream than it is me coaching somebody's dream. Does that make sense? Yeah. Like it means more for me that we I'm sending athletes down, playing division one and division two, and they're going out to live their dream by themselves as independent humans. And knowing that I had a part of that I really enjoy. Rather than being the one at the helm. It just, yeah, I like the personal route more than the your everything is revolved around program success. It's it's the why behind why you why you do it. Correct. And if anybody's listening to this knows me, I'm a huge why guy. Yeah. I'm a huge why guy.

Speaker 2 8:58

So we talked about this last podcast too. Beautiful. And on a on a video specifically, talking about if someone was starting a personal brand, and it's very overwhelming with just how much information is out there, but you just always have to go back to your why, why you're creating content in the first place. Exactly. Was there a transition point where you realized coaching and leadership mattered more than you, more than competing?

Speaker 9:27

It goes in phases. Because I still compete at a high level, depending on when somebody listens to this. Like I leave on February 16th to go play with the national team. And what was it, February 11th? So it kind of goes in phases. And to be honest, that is the biggest challenge that I have as a business owner. Is not only am I a coach, not only am I instructing and helping people, but I'm also still a high-level athlete. So it's really hard to balance that way. So when I'm in my slower season of being an athlete, um, coaching and and leader being a leader and mentoring, that is my absolute main focus. But when you get the call to be on the national team, it's not like the kids are obviously pushed to the side, but I have to make sure that my athletic pursuit is the main priority. And then from there, the athletes come next.

Speaker 1 10:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:21

I want to talk more about Team Canada and what it took to get to that level. Um, because I also think it plays a huge role in the credibility that you've built through your platform too, and just the trust that you have with the parents and the coaches and the athletes themselves.

Speaker 10:39

Yeah. I mean, some of the stuff I'm gonna say is pretty cliche, but it's the cliche for a reason. I would be in high school. So my first time with the national team, I was 15 trying out for the U-19 team, and I made it to the the last camp. I had really no idea what level I was at until that camp. I was the last cut for that team, and that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I think if I made the team as a 15-year-old for the first time, I would have thought I was the best player on the planet and probably wouldn't have worked as hard. But that was the first time I've been cut from anything, and it hurt a lot. And I used that as motivation for the next two years because I knew that the next camp, I knew exactly when the next camp was, I knew exactly when everything was. I had a pretty legitimate schedule that I would worked on all the time. So like I mentioned, I worked at Playboy Academy, so I was there a lot. Like a lot. A lot of I I don't like the saying sacrifices because it's not a sacrifice, it's what I wanted to do, but I didn't spend as much time with friends as possible. I would show up to parties at 11 p.m. on a Friday night, not 9 p.m. Because I would work until 9, practice until 10.30, and then shower change, go to the party. At the time, it seemed like it kind of sucked because I would show up and people be like, oh, here he is, late again, or whatever. But now when I'm, you know, 10 years or even 12, 13 years removed from that, people don't remember that. Yeah. So that was that was the biggest thing was waking up early before school, getting stuff done, staying late after work, getting stuff done there. I think my biggest thing was I was a sponge being at play ball. I was so spoiled with the people that I was surrounded by, and I learned so much. But it it was a lot. It was a lot. But when I showed up to that neck next national team camp, like I'll I'll say it with my chest that when I walked on the field, I already knew I was on the team.

Speaker 1 12:42

Yeah.

Speaker 12:43

Like I knew that I was gonna be the starting second baseman on that team. There was no if, ends, or buts, but I built a ginormous stack of proof for two years before that that I know that I'm gonna be. So yeah, it was a it was a lot of a lot of again, I don't like to say sacrifice, but it was a lot of time away from friends, family, um, just me and my dad just grinding.

Speaker 2 13:05

Yeah. I remember one of our earliest conversations, it was talking about like your day-to-day with being at the turf house, how you would get there in the morning, work out, you'd practice for yourself, you'd have your trainings with athletes throughout the afternoon into the nighttime, you'd go back to practice for yourself. Yep. And then you'd get home at like 11, 12 p.m. at n midnight. Still the same.

Speaker 13:30

Yeah. Still the same. Like when I got the call for this national team process, I started it. I'm a big routine guy. Wake up every day, 6 30, go to the gym, practice for an hour and a half, go home, have to do like the administrative stuff for for DK that takes me to like one o'clock, shower, eat, change, and I work three till ten, get home at 10 30. Yeah. Rinse and repeat.

Speaker 2 13:56

Yeah. I feel like I'm the same way going back to this like how how you kind of had to remove yourself from going out and friends and kind of just solely focusing and going all in on your training. Same thing kind of with me too. I feel like when I kind of fully decided just I'm doing this, I just lost so many friendships because I was just so committed to making this work. And so I can relate to that a lot.

Speaker 14:28

I would also I would say too though, that if you lose friendships in those processes, they weren't actually your friends.

Speaker 4 14:33

True.

Speaker 14:34

That's your friends are happy for you, whether you're seeing them eight times a week or you're seeing them once every three weeks. If they're loo if they're doing that, then they're not your friends. Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:46

And I think that is a great transition to like you're not only coaching athletes with their technique and their swing, but you're also coaching them through like mindset and their how they approach the game, right? Because I think you've you've been in it, you're still in it. I think that translates to the athlete a lot more than someone who is just teaching the technique side of it.

Speaker 15:14

Yeah, I think my biggest strength as a coach is relatability. Like I can think of examples in the summer where a client would would text me or call me on a Sunday night saying in a full panic, like, oh my god, I had the worst weekend ever. Like, I need to come in on Tuesday for a lesson. Like I feel awful. Like, okay, cool. She comes in on Tuesday and she's and I played that weekend as well, and she doesn't know that. And she comes in on Tuesday, she's like, Oh my god, like I went like I only went like five for 20. And I'm like, okay, like how many times did you strike out? And she's like, four. I'm like, okay, how many times did you walk? Like, three. All right. Like, did you hit the ball hard? She's like, Yeah. I'm like, sounds like you had a softball weekend, dude. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, I went 0 for 12 on Saturday. Like, life is hard. This game is hard.

Speaker 1 15:59

Yeah.

Speaker 15:59

So I can relate to them on the successes and the failures.

Speaker 1 16:02

Yeah.

Speaker 16:03

They don't care about the success. I mean, the successes help the resume and the credibility and whatever for sure, but the failures is where you really get to connect.

Speaker 1 16:12

Yeah.

Speaker 16:12

I was with the Bearcats last night, and I just for no reason, I could see the room is kind of dead and they were kind of like disconnected a little bit. So I just told two really embarrassing stories about myself.

Speaker 1 16:24

Yeah.

Speaker 16:24

And all of a sudden they were just locked in. Yeah. It's just the relatability. Yeah. Right. I feel like nowadays, the more deep I get into this, the less I am a skills development coach and the more I am like a mindset lifestyle coach. This generation's different. Yeah. I saw a quote a couple years ago that times have changed, but the standard hasn't. Yeah. And nobody's setting the standard for these kids. That's a good quote. Yeah. Nobody's been setting the standard for these kids. So I'm okay being that person for them. Because I had a lot of people in my life that set the standard for me. Yeah. Other role models positively. And there is negative role models as well, like people that show you what not to do. You have to connect with that as well. So yeah, I think it's for the most part, it's the relatability side allows me to get in their head and get them to trust me. And then once that starts, they turn into a sponge.

Speaker 2 17:26

Yeah. I've noticed that you've built a pretty strong community on your platform too. And remember back to our working days, you said that your athletes like want to be in the videos because it is just so fun and engaging and it's more conversational, but you're still adding elements of coaching into it too. And it honestly, from me looking at it, it looks like a fun time to be there. Can you talk more about how your content started and kind of where it's at now? Yeah.

Speaker 18:00

I've I've had a multiple athletes over the last couple of years, they'll walk in on their first session, their second or their third session, and be like, are we gonna mic up? And they're ask it all nervously or whatever. Sometimes I do. It's very personality-based, right? Like, you know, a 12-year-old girl sometimes is very quiet, timid, especially with a 23, 4, 5, 6-year-old man in the room. Sometimes they're a little bit more timid, but yeah. My cont like honestly, my biggest thing was I wanted to just be authentic. I wanted to advertise what goes on in my lessons, and I just did that the best way I thought. So I film an hour straight of content and I just chop it up.

Speaker 1 18:44

Yeah.

Speaker 18:44

If there's an educational bit in the middle of it, perfect. If it's just jokes, perfect. Because that is part of it. It's creating a positive community with it. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually recently I had an athlete say that she went to a camp at a c at Canadian college and she was recognized by like four girls from my Instagram account. Oh, really? She was like, You work with Dallas, right? And this girl was like, Yeah, who are you? And she's like, Oh, I've seen you on the videos, like, they're so funny. And that for me, I was like, okay, that's really cool. Yeah. Like, they don't know each other. This girl was like two years younger than the girl that was recognized. So she's kind of like looking up to her, like, maybe I would like to be able to do that one day. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's people that don't like the content. There's people that don't like me because of the way that I coach or whatever. Like, you can't please everybody, but that's not my job. My job is to please the people that think like me, act like me, move like me.

Speaker 1 19:47

Yeah.

Speaker 19:48

It's definitely changed. When I first started it, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I learned how to edit videos by editing videos and posting them. I didn't look up how, I just did it, did what I knew best. And then when I saw the audience start to grow and I saw the view start to grow, I kind of stuck with what was working.

Speaker 1 20:09

Yeah.

Speaker 20:09

And then I just tried to make it as more professional looking as possible from there. And that's when I reached out to you about trying to like color schemes and blah blah blah blah. And then I've been set on it for for a little while now, which is good.

Speaker 2 20:26

Has are you pretty big in like the analytics side of it and like looking at what works well, what performs well, what doesn't work so well?

Speaker 20:36

I was, and then what I realized was it was in my head rent-free, and I started to become unauthentic with what I was doing. Yeah. Trying to chase the views. Correct. Yeah. And then I realized that like I was editing videos that I didn't want to edit. Yeah. I was creating content that I didn't want to create. And I was like, that back to your what you mentioned before, the why. I want to promote what a lesson with me is. Yeah. That's fun, engaging, educational, all that stuff. Started to deviate from that a little bit, chasing that, like, oh, I got this amount, it got this amount. Like the engagement was here, the analytics and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember the last time I looked at it. I honestly don't. I post what I want to post with the people I want to post it with. Again, if there's an educational piece in it, great. If it's just jokes, great.

Speaker 2 21:30

Again, just trying to stay authentic. It's going back to creating more than you consume. Are you when you want to create something different, like a different format, maybe it's educational or just different different different format of a photo or carousel or video? Are you looking for inspiration? Are you just coming up with the ideas yourself? Are you going back to what's worked in the past? How do you come up with the ideation of creating content?

Speaker 21:58

Yes. All of the above. Sometimes I'll see a video and I'm like, man, that was really cool. Like maybe I can, you know, do that when the time is right. Yeah. I am not I'm not an influencer. You know what I mean? Like I don't chase the trends. I don't s do what everybody else is doing. But sometimes I do see like softball influencers doing something like, man, that's really cool. Like maybe I should hop on that. But for the most part, I try and keep it on brand. Yeah. And as on as authentic as possible. Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:30

You're pretty consistent too. Like you post quite a bit when you're very active. You talked about how you'd shoot an hour-long training session, cut it up, take bits out of it too, and post those. What does that process look like from start to finish? Is it very selective on when you're recording? Do you have specific days or you just kind of start filming whenever you want? And then what does that look like when it comes to editing it and posting it? Do you schedule it?

Speaker 23:03

So usually the first, the first week of the full, like the full-time off season is like the first week of November. And I know I have a lot of like returning clients that I know are either like good in front of the camera or don't like know the camera's there and they're just being themselves as well. Yeah. And I'll handpick those athletes and I'll film the first week, or sometimes the second week, because sometimes the first week's just we're just chatting about just softball. Yeah. Which is good, obviously, but you have to build that foundation with them first. Yeah.

Speaker 2 23:34

And it's more more personal about just them specifically. Totally. I think if you got someone in right away for day one and you pulled out pulled out a camera, I think that would kind of take away jump scare the reason why they're there in the first place. Correct. Yeah. You can't forget the whole point of like you're here to get better and not just sit in front of a camera.

Speaker 23:52

So yeah, I'll I kind of handpick personalities, like a mix of personalities, but also skill levels. Like I want, like I have a uh 18-year-old that's going division two. I have a grade nine that kind of the sky's the limit for her. Sometimes I'd shoot with like 11-year-olds just to kind of get the whole vibe of what I do day to day. Yeah, set up the set up the tripod on the side, mic them up, and I just shoot straight.

Speaker 2 24:21

On your iPhone?

Speaker 24:23

Yeah, just on my phone, 4K, as big as possible, like the pretty big files.

Speaker 2 24:28

Are you filming for like reels, like Instagram sp specific?

Speaker 24:33

Yeah, more or less just Instagram reels.

Speaker 1 24:34

Yeah.

Speaker 24:35

Yeah. Depending on the depending on what's going on and the angle and stuff, it's usually in 0.7 just because the the cage is so kind of so small. Yeah. So I have to do it in 0.7 just to make sure we get a bigger, a bigger frame. After that, typically it depends on how much I have. So last year I actually filmed way too much. Like I had probably 200 hours of unused footage. That's crazy. Yeah. I filmed way too much. Yeah. So this year I've tacked like been more intentional with when I'm filming. So I just honestly just airdrop it directly to my MacBook and they're just on my MacBook and I put it into Canva, the whole thing. Okay. Proxy it and then Interesting.

Speaker 2 25:20

Edit from there, man. Okay. Yeah. Just raw. Yeah. Have you tried any other platform to edit on, or do you find just Canva works for you? I think I started with iMovie.

Speaker 25:31

Okay. In like 2018. Which is great. Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:35

It's crazy. I think I started on iMovie in like 2017.

Speaker 25:37

It's crazy. No, man. I've been cap cut since day one. Damn. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 2 25:43

Do you when you edit a video and it's done, do you post it right away? Or do you schedule it out? Do you have stuff like in the pipeline of what's kind of ready to be posted?

Speaker 25:55

Schedule everything. Sorry, that's a lie. Schedule all my reels. Yeah. I usually do every other day, depending on the duration of time that I'm gone or how many edits that I have to do. Sometimes it's every third day. But if I'm posting like my monthly, daily, weekly availability, as soon as I edit it, I I post it right away. I don't really there's no wrong or right time to post your availability. People are gonna see it at some point. Then I add that to my story and I'll send it to certain individuals and like email threads and stuff too. So I know people are gonna see that. Okay. I'm a little bit more intentional with and consistent with the reels. Okay. Yeah. Every other day during the week, I usually post it around 6 p.m.

Speaker 4 26:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 26:41

Okay. I'll either leaving their training sessions, going to their training sessions. But also what I've noticed with people too is that even if they do have a session from six until eight, when they get home at 8 30, 9 o'clock and they open up their Instagram, if they're active with me, the first thing they see is my post. Right. So because I'm consistent with it and they see it all the time, like the first thing that pops up is mine. So even if they don't go on their phone until 10 and I post at six, it's there. And then the weekends I try and post in the more in the afternoon because I think more people are down low in the afternoon than they are in the evening on the weekends.

Speaker 2 27:15

So are you there's two parts I want to take from this. I want to talk about your channels of distribution with like emails, newsletters, social media. But I also want to talk about your audience. Are you targeting the athletes themselves or are you targeting parents too? Yes.

Speaker 27:35

Both. Yeah. I have to do both. Yeah. You can't connect with 11-year-old on Instagram, but you can connect with the mom and the dad.

Speaker 2 27:42

Because the 11-year-old isn't necessarily reaching out to you. It's the parent or the coach.

Speaker 27:46

Yeah, correct. Yeah. With that being said, I do think my Instagram connects more with 14 Plus. Yeah. And then some parents as well.

Speaker 2 27:56

It also that athlete might see that video of you and then share that with their parents too.

Speaker 28:02

Correct. Right? Yeah. I think content is more or less getting my voice, my lesson vibe out there, showcasing my athletes, giving them a platform to showcase their skills and their personality and stuff. When it comes to connecting with people and getting new clients, nine times out of ten, it's word-to-mouth.

Speaker 1 28:26

Okay.

Speaker 28:26

I do think sometimes it does stem from Instagram.

Speaker 2 28:30

Yeah. I think it would start from Instagram because you're building that credibility and trust. And it's not like you're posting nothing either.

Speaker 28:38

A trend that I've noticed in the last couple years is a like a word-to-mouth transaction will happen. And then depending on the age and their how much they're on social media and stuff, that person will look at my Instagram page, see what I'm about, see the bio, see everything, and then like, okay, this guy's it's the first It's the first point of connection.

Speaker 2 29:05

Yeah. They're not looking at Google anymore, they're going straight to your Instagram profile to see who you are.

Speaker 29:12

Which is crazy that that's how the world is now. Does that change the way you create content? No, because I want to make sure that I'm posting me. I I don't want to post an un unauthentic version of myself, and then they show up and they're like, well, this isn't as advertised. Yeah. Right? Like I've had a lot of people tell me that like I'm exactly as advertised. Yeah. And that's what I want. Like I want people to show up to a lesson with DK softball for the first time and be like, oh yeah, that's exactly how that girl explained you you are. Right. Obviously, I'm not perfect and some days I'm off, or some days I'm more quiet or reserved or tired or whatever. But like on the grand scheme of things, like there is a I don't want to say it because the girls use this term way too much, but like there's like an aura around who I am that I want to maintain. Okay. Like I want to, I want people to know that I'm stern, but I'm fun.

Speaker 1 30:14

Yeah.

Speaker 30:14

And I'm fun if you can handle the stern. Because at the end of the day, my job is to make you better. And if you're improving and you're enjoying the process and you're having fun with it, we will be best friends. And if you don't, we won't. And I think I've kept up that reputation for a while now. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:33

I think one of our earliest conversations, I go back to our all of our conversations we used to have at the turf house just because everything you're saying is kind of relating back to our old conversations. Creating content is kind of creating an opportunity for you too. And that has led to partnering with Rawlings Canada. Yeah. Growing a team, having access to a turf house, and having your own branding in that turf house too. Yeah. Can we talk about everything about your partnerships, your team, the turf house, and that how that just started too? Because I think that's really cool and makes it makes creating content for you a lot easier for because in the summer, you don't have to go to a ballpark, you don't have to be outside. You have a place people can come to you directly and have one-on-one time with you. For sure.

Speaker 31:27

So starting with the relationship with Turf House, during COVID, Playboy Academy closed, like many businesses did, which was kind of the only facility at the time that was around for baseball and softball. There was a couple other ones. After COVID, the Kitchener organization kind of threw together their own facility. A person that I worked with at Playball, she posted that she was at that facility. I reached out to her. So I was like, yo, where is that? She told me where it was. I met with the president of the organization. I was like, listen, like, and this is kind of when I started getting back into lessons and stuff. I said, This is like who I am, this is my resume, this is blah, blah, blah. Like, can we use your facility? And she was, she turned out to actually be a family friend that I didn't I didn't realize at the time. So that relationship? Yeah, exactly. That relationship really helped as well. But she was the best. She gave me a key to the facility, and I just met her. Wow. I think the resume helped a lot and just building trust, and then I'm not gonna just steal your stuff. And she also believed in what you were doing too. Yeah. So I started that and then I started doing lessons there literally every single day. And then I would go to them with like a an off-season like proposal, like a business proposal, like this is what I'm gonna do for the turf house, this is what I need, this is the time I need, stuff like that. And we did that. We would sit down every October and figure out what our plan from November until April would be. Very transactional. Like, if you do this, and or if I can do that, I'll do this for you. Yeah. Just to kind of help build the organization, my brand, the facility, stuff like that. And that's been phenomenal. I helped them get new turf on their facility. The only thing I asked for in return was that I would get my logo on the turf. It looks pretty cool, too. It looks sick. Really good for the branding and like in videos and stuff. Like it's always in your face, which is which is good. For the Rawlings thing, I've been a Rawlings and an Easton guy my entire life. I've never not used a Rawlings glove. Oh, wow. I've never ya not used an Eastern bat. So the relationship is extremely personal for me. Like that's all I use. So you've been building that relationship for a while then. Yeah. I've always used it. And then again, it's something cliche, like you never know who you're gonna meet and when you're gonna meet them and how impactful they're gonna be on your life. So I did a lesson with a baseball boy in like 2016. One of my first clients I ever had at play ball. Okay. His mom got hired at Rawlings as the marketing director. Okay. Wow. And it was her job to build the Rawlings brand on social media. And I was one of the first people she thought of. Nice. I hadn't talked to them in eight years. I always reached out to Rawlings every offseason saying, like, this is my brand, this is what I could do for you. Crickets. It's a huge company. Yeah. Right? But you always gotta shoot your shot. Always, you never know who's gonna respond. You never know what email's gonna connect. Yep. And then one day I got an email from Steph. Shout out, Steph. Love you. She she saw something in me. Well, I mean, she saw me also live in action with her with her son, and what I did for her son shout out to Noah too. He's a beauty. And yeah, she was like, you know, we want to partner with you and we want to grow a relationship. Like, we want to help you grow your social media, but in terms that also helps our social media grow. This is my five-year plan. Do you think you can help with that? And I'm like, hell yeah, dude. Let's get it done. So that's two, two years, three years? Three years now, I think. Nice.

Speaker 2 35:25

I think when we you were building a team, and I think Ronx gifted them like an entire bag of just equipment. Yeah. Which is pretty cool to have that relationship. Yeah, and it wasn't a small bag.

Speaker 35:36

No. It was not a small bag.

Speaker 2 35:37

No, it didn't look small. No. For athletes and coaches, for athletes who want to be seen by the right programs, how should they be thinking about content and just their personal brand?

Speaker 35:55

Like athletes trying to get to a college. The next level. Next level. Boots on the ground. You gotta get there. Yeah. As a college coach, especially during signing season, I'm getting flooded with emails. It's not hard. You need to stand out. And the easiest way to stand out, like it, I'm it's it's it's human instinct. When you see a face and you know a name, and then that name pops up on your screen, it's way easier to gravitate towards it. So if there's an athlete that I've worked with in the past has come to one of my camps, yeah, been on a team that I've worked with, if they email me, it's really easy for me to recognize that name. If an athlete that I've never heard of emails me, it's a lot harder for me to connect with that name. So you gotta get boots on ground. Every girl that I work with that plays or plays in the States now or wants to play, they always ask me, like, should I go to this camp? I'm like, Yeah, why are you even asking? Yeah. Off course. The coaching community as well is also a lot more tight-knit than I think people think people think. Like we we help each other's programs as well. Like in the OCAA, like if an athlete wants to come that's interested in Conestoga, for example, but we don't have that specific program, I'll tell them which which ones have. Because I want at the end of the day, like program success is important. But we're trying to build good people.

Speaker 2 37:18

Yeah, we like we even skipped past that all talking about like the opportunity of how you were the assistant coach for Conestoga and now you're the head coach and you had the entire team basically pulling for you. That was completely skipped over. Yeah. And that is so cool to to know that the coaching community is also tight-knit too. So I assume you're getting a lot of emails and calls from coaches too about players as well.

Speaker 37:44

Yeah, especially now, like this is the time of year where like we have our first practice on Saturday, today's Thursday. The last two weeks I probably got 25 emails of just, hey, I'm coming to Conestoga, I'm interested in Conestoga, I want to come, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Yeah. How I started at Conestoga was also like a you never know who you're gonna meet, when you're gonna meet them, and how impactful they're gonna be. It was his name's Rob. Shout out, Rob, absolute beauty. He uh he coached a team. So at play ball, we did we called them KMBA nights, so Kitchener Minor Baseball, the entire organization would come in on like a Monday for like four hours, and we would work in stations, and he was one of the coaches after COVID. Obviously, kind of disconnected a little bit, but he got the head coaching job at Conestoga, and I just he he posted it on Instagram. I just DM'd him and was like, dude, man, congrats, man, that's awesome. Like, if you ever need any help, just like let me know. He's like, Well, do you want to be my assistant coach? No way, yeah, sure. Cool. I didn't even hesitate. I was like, obviously. We coached together for two years. He unfortunately got let go from Conestoga. Position was open. I want to say seven girls on the team were like, Can you be the head coach? And I said, Absolutely not. I had way too much on my plate. I don't want to deal with at the time the administrative stuff, I was like, nah, it's not for me. I don't want to do it. I asked him like the boots on ground, helping you get better. But there was a couple genuine conversations I had with a couple girls, like, no, like, can you please be the coach? Like, fully being genuine, like so it came from a place of me not wanting to disappoint people that I care about. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and I applied, yeah, got the job, and here we are.

Speaker 2 39:36

It's going back to you just sending a quick text to Rob, I think one of the things that holds a lot of people back from like initially reaching out is it just being scary and overwhelming and putting yourself out there. I've been doing this pretty recently of just saying, Hey, thanks for the follow on Instagram, just to like initiate conversation.

Speaker 4 40:02

Yep.

Speaker 2 40:03

And then that is typically turning into a full conversation around how we can create better content for them. But I think if I'd never reached out to them in the first place, they'd still just be a ghost follower. And it's literally just simply as sending a quick congratulation text to a coach. That's it. And him being like, You want to be my assistant coach? Yeah. That's crazy. We're gonna wrap up this pro this podcast, but I do have a few more questions because I think we covered a lot about just your path as an athlete, your becoming a coach, and everything that has transpired from creating content and your brand. There's three questions I have. Yeah. What's something you believe strongly about development that you wish more people understood?

Speaker 40:54

Create good people and good people become great athletes. That's it. Yeah. It's you need to instill work ethic. You need to instill like con like consequence is okay. Failing is okay. Like you need to be okay with that. Stop babysitting, stop hand holding, stop being a helicopter. Like just let them throw them out into the world and let them fail. Like I work with a lot of people. Not one high-level athlete that I work with is a bad person. Not one. Not one of them is bad at school, not one of them is bad at communicating, not one of them is rude to their parents. Yeah. Not one of them talks shit about people. They're all the same person.

Speaker 2 41:44

Yeah. I think the same personality traits all athletes, business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches have the same personality trait of like, I'll just figure it out. If shit hits the fan, it's okay. Let me figure it out.

Speaker 42:03

I think sport, sport is so important. I saw a stat, I might butcher the percentage, but it's like 80% of women CEOs played sports. Wow. That's not a that's not a fluke, and that's not a small number. That's not a small number. Like it's important to learn that stuff, and I think what's happening now is we're just in this coddling era where as soon as they fail, it's like, oh, it's okay. Like, don't worry, but like, no, it's not. You've been failing the same way for five straight weeks. Like, that's not okay.

Speaker 2 42:33

This goes back to the very first thing we talked about of coming up with a name, just throwing yourself in the deep end and figuring it out later. If you need to change it, you change it. If you don't, you don't. It's not that deep. No, just figure it out. Yeah. Last question. Actually, two more. Okay. If content disappeared tomorrow, what would still matter most in how you coach and lead?

Speaker 42:57

My relationship with the people.

Speaker 1 42:59

Yeah.

Speaker 43:00

That's at the end of the day, that's the most important thing. Connecting with them, caring about them, them knowing that I care about them. Because you're the same Dallas off-camera than you are on camera. I would like to think so. I think some people don't think that. I do tell people that I'm way more quiet when I'm not working, and people don't believe that at all. But obviously, it's my job to talk. It's my job to be the center of attention at times. But when I'm out in the real world, I do not want to be the center of attention. I'll like when I go to your house, man, I'm just chilling. Chilling on the couch watching Team Canada. That's it, man. That's all I care about. It's just vibe of chilling. I don't want to be the center of attention. No. It's no, it's my relationship with the people, man. Like there's a lot of people that I've worked with that started out as a 14-year-old athlete that I just met who are now like genuine like friends of mine that like I care about and watch grow.

Speaker 1 43:51

Yeah.

Speaker 43:52

And that's what I care about the most.

Speaker 1 43:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 43:55

What does success for what does success look like for you five years? Years from now, on top of the teams you coach, the athletes you coach, the opportunities you have, the connections you have, what does DK softball look like? What does it look like for you in five to ten years?

Speaker 44:17

I don't want to sound like I'm content. But if I'm doing exactly what I'm doing now in five years, I know it's kind of contradicting to what a lot of people say of like if you're doing the same thing you did five years ago, you're not evolving. But on just on the grand scheme of things, not like my day-to-day life and my whatever, but if I'm doing what I'm doing now in five years, I will still be a very happy man.

Speaker 1 44:43

Yeah.

Speaker 44:44

Working the hours that I work, working with the amount of people that I work with, the high-level people that I work with, having all different branches of what I work with, Bearcats, Conestoga, GK, national team. Like if I'm doing all these things in five years, just with different sets of people in different ways, I'll be a very happy man.

Speaker 2 45:02

And like you have so much on your plate that one person has a very hard time doing all of that at the same time. Yes. And I it takes a village and a community behind you to achieve that all. 100%. And you've built a team. I think, like you said, if everything stayed the same, but st systems improved, your content improved. Correct. Yeah. And made your life a little bit easier. Yep. That is the best best case scenario.

Speaker 45:32

Exactly. I think if my my brand and my vision and everything stays how it is, but everything underneath that umbrella is improving with that growth. And that growth is not forced, it's authentic, it's it's happening while it's happening. That's I'll be a very happy man. Yeah.

Speaker 2 45:54

Dallas, thank you so much for coming on the pod. Like I said at the very beginning, we've been wanting to do this. I'm sure there's going to be a round two at some point in the future. But thank you. I was very excited about this podcast. Every time we talk, it we talk forever about content and just business and how we can better ourselves. So I'm really excited for athletes, coaches, just anyone listening to this. And we have to catch a Team Canada game now. So we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up.

Speaker 46:28

Yeah, thank you for having me, man. Like I got if I got five hours left to talk about this, so we can do part two, three, four, five, six, seven, whatever you want. But yeah, I really appreciate you having me and being able to talk about my journey and stuff. And uh yeah, go Team Canada go. Predictions for the whole thing or just today? Just today. Playing Czechia, first game, jitters, vibes. I'm gonna go four two Canada with an empty netter. Okay. It's gonna be a lot closer than people think. They're a good hockey team.

Speaker 1 46:58

Okay.

Speaker 46:59

We'll see if it happens. I hope it's 10-0.