Mark Burik (00:00.92)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. My name is Mark Burik and I'm here with my main man Brandon Joyner and we are fresh off of our Punta Cana all-inclusive trip and it was fantastic. We're going to tell you all about that and we've got a crazy announcement from me personally. I, yours truly Mark, will be moving to Tampa, Florida.
Brandon Joyner (00:08.322)
Woo.
Mark Burik (00:27.896)
just east of Tampa in Brandon. And we're gonna tell you all about why, what that means for better at beach, for camps, for classes, and what it means personally for me and why I made the decision. Before we get into that, just wanna give you guys a couple of camp announcements. December 12th, we're in Houston at Third Coast Volleyball.
December 19th, we have four spots left for our women's intermediate camp at my Airbnb private court in St. Pete, Florida. if you want a vacation, by the way, in an Airbnb with a volleyball court, hit me up on Instagram, make sure that, you send me a message and you and a group of friends could just get in your BNB with your own volleyball court and, or hire out a coach from our network to give you some lessons or even a full camp.
January 23rd, we're going to be in Loveland, Ohio at Grand Sands volleyball. February 6th, we're at the Phil Dalhouser Academy in Orlando, Florida. February 13th, we're going back to Salt Lake City, but at their new place in South Bluffdale. March 6th, we're going to be at Boombox Beach in Oklahoma City, what I consider to be the best indoor beach facility in the country. March 20th, we're going to Long Island in North Beach volleyball.
And may 29th, we're going to be in Long Beach, Long Island. And that is historically our biggest camp of the year. Great town there in Long Beach. And we've got a lot more camps coming up. So just check out better beach.com forward slash camps. And just so you guys know, we are filling out our one on one rosters. So, Brandon works with club directors.
and coaches as well as players, but he's only got space for 10 total spots. And I think he's got two of them filled already. So that makes it down to eight. I have three spots filled for my personal one on one roster for players. So if you want to go through a full season with us at the helm, studying your film, reviewing all of your workouts and your practice plans and getting a high end
Mark Burik (02:45.272)
professional level of coaching and attention, please just DM us so that we can see if that spot is right for you. But if you want a high level of attention to your game and you're somebody who thinks that this is absolutely your year where you want to make big changes and get the best finishes of your life, we have proven that it works over and over again with our one-on-one players, many of who are signing up again.
depending on the program you get, you could also get a full year of camps all included with that. And our former one-on-one players take full advantage of that coming to six or seven camps. A couple of them have come to more in one year. So if this is your year, DM me at Mark Baric on Instagram or DM Brandon, whoever you want to talk to.
Brandon Joyner (03:41.952)
just a quick little snippet of the club consulting. And this is for tournament directors as well. Like pretty much if you have a community of volleyball players that you're looking to grow, we've, think, especially with Better at Beach, whether it's in-person classes, running a club, trying to just grow your personnel and your audience.
That's what we do on these calls is I hop on a call with the club directors, club coaches, look at their systems and what they're currently offering. Give advice on other programs and other systems that clubs can implement to hopefully make their club more successful. And then we also develop coaches. also work with athletes and hop on calls with them to kind of give little snippets and Q and A's.
it's, it's been really cool. Like I've worked with, couple of high school teams, that only have a finite, like a specific amount of weeks to work with their athletes and they want to get the most out of it. I've also worked with clubs that have started from the ground up and are now just like firing. And it's, it's really cool for us to kind of all the bumps and bruises that Mark and I kind of.
witnessed at the beginning of Better at Beach, we're helping a lot of clubs and organizers avoid that. So it's been really fun.
Mark Burik (05:10.242)
Nice. Yeah. Bumps and bruises never stop. It's just, there's always somebody who's got a better answer that's already done it, that can do it faster. It's why I keep a pretty tight network of real people who have done anything business, like for me, real estate. And you keep them in your corner. And then even when we go to the camps, you know, what I love about going to, especially the seven day camps and the six day camps, I love sitting courtside.
Brandon Joyner (05:13.618)
Thanks.
Mark Burik (05:40.434)
at the private lessons and saying, how is this coach solving this problem? Just to add something to my toolbox. Cause if you, you know, I came out of college, I was all high and mighty. Think I was like the top of the industry. and I would interrupt coach practices, coaches who have been coaching for 30 years without even asking them why they're doing a certain thing. and so I had
Brandon Joyner (05:42.594)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (05:55.01)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (06:10.534)
one and a half coaches of experience. so my toolbox was limited and I'm trying to approach somebody who's been coaching for 30 years. And it's like, well, there are other tools, especially when you're talking about individual athletes, like it seems like everybody needs to hear the same information in a different way in order to make it make sense for them. And that's what we found and why we started the online program. The way that we do it now is.
Yes, you have the videos. Yes, you have a curriculum. But without that feedback of you saying, are you doing it? Are you really doing it? You know, you might think that you're doing something. And I know this from watching my own film in volleyball and then in tennis thinking I'm hot stuff. And then you actually see the film and you're like, man, I'm not even close. How do I fix it? And then a coach comes along and gives you the easy fix. So that's what I love about like the
private lessons at campsite. Anytime I get an extra minute to sit courtside at a private lesson, I'm like, let's see how they solve this problem.
Brandon Joyner (07:09.538)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (07:18.06)
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, especially at our, at our camps, all of our coaches are so experienced, like, and they all coach pretty differently. which at the beginning, think both of us were like, all right, like we got to stick with like the better at beach model. And then I realized like, okay, as long as they're giving the keys and like, now I look at it, I was a positive, you know, like when I go.
Mark Burik (07:25.806)
Mmm.
Mark Burik (07:31.459)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (07:38.67)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (07:47.458)
to a camp and I go to DJ's court, I go to JM's court, I go to Ali's court, I see them coaching and I'm like, okay, these are drills I haven't seen before, which is awesome because now I get to add those drills to my repertoire. But at the same time, just the way that they get players to get to the same end goal with a different process, but it's still under the same theme, it's...
Mark Burik (07:57.902)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (08:15.22)
become really cool. And I think it's fun because it takes the pressure off us a little bit of being like, all these coaches have to be doing the exact same thing. It's like, no, they just have the same end result and it's okay to have different ways of getting there.
Mark Burik (08:30.866)
it's, we had to create the model so that when people came in for the first time, right? Like we know it works with adults. We know it works on having multiple skill levels on one court sometimes. and then saying, okay, this, this base drill, how do we elevate this base drill? Once the players are accomplishing it, like what's, what are those finer chops?
Brandon Joyner (08:39.435)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (08:58.09)
Levels to go level one level two level three level four of the same drill and it was so important for us to be able to grow to that because when we had coaches coming for the first time And the second and the third it's like, okay. Well, you've only coached college athletes who are Super capable, right? Like you can do these complicated Random rotations, which I've grown to absolutely hate Rotations. It's like do one skill
and do it for 20 minutes until you've mastered it. Then you can set a ball, right? Like be a passer hitter for 10 minutes. Then we will rotate the groups and we'll do a setter. So there's things that we found along the way that absolutely makes sense where the athletes can focus on volleyball instead of where they have to be next. Like, okay, there's the whole like brain situation, like, well, you can engage them better if they're paying attention on what touch is next.
It's like at what, at what point in a volleyball game do you have to wonder like how many touches you have and then what the next spot you have to run to is. So I don't really believe in that model. I believe in letting people problem solve one thing at a time. And if they're worried about passing and they're worried about what the next place they have to be in, in rotation, you're losing the point of your entire practice.
Brandon Joyner (10:04.674)
Thank
Mark Burik (10:27.31)
Like Logan was telling me this earlier. He feels like no one has the ability to pay attention to one drill anymore. Whereas me and him when he first came out, we would sit there for an hour in the same two on zero, like a two person practice with no coach doing the exact same thing until we hit the same spot, you know, 30, 40 times. And he's like,
It feels like everybody just gets into this practice and they do one drill for five minutes, get bored and try to flip the drill. It's like, what have you mastered in five minutes? Have you actually improved at that? And so yeah, we were having a pretty deep discussion on the level of focus. And we talked about this at gold medal squared, where listen, bumps that spike.
Brandon Joyner (11:01.74)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mark Burik (11:20.45)
Bumps that spike is just every drill and coaches get bored before players do of being able to pass a ball, set a ball inside out. Like that is mentally engaging enough. So if you're out there wondering how many drills you could fit into a practice, number one, we've got practice plans already built for you. We have our 50 practice plans on the website.
Brandon Joyner (11:31.671)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (11:50.222)
that you can get into, but dude, girls, do debts. Do one drill to max capacity until you've done it, let's call it 100 times perfect, or you've hit the same spot 100 times, and just don't leave. If that's your two hour practice, then that's your two hour practice. If it's one hour until you get to that, it's one hour, but you don't need nine different drills in one practice.
And a drill can be chopped down so that it becomes the same drill. And that's how I build my practices. I always start with the base couple of touches and then that those same touches just elevate into gameplay. So that no one has to remember a different rotation or a different spot to be your different responsibility. I think, I think people coaches, and players who are trying to do it on their own, they get too bored and they're trying to look for the next fancy object, fancy drill. When if you.
Brandon Joyner (12:19.02)
Right.
Mark Burik (12:47.704)
Bumps at spike and you have specific targets. That's the drill.
Brandon Joyner (12:54.575)
Yeah, and your athletes need to prove to you that they're ready to move on. know, like, they're, a coach, it's not about completing the drill. It's kind of like reading, you know, like when a kid's in first grade, they're reading a first grade level book. You know, we're not giving them a high school level book just because it's like, see, we gotta keep progressing.
Mark Burik (12:58.734)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (13:20.61)
You know, it's like when the kids in first grade, they're going to read first grade level books until they graduate and then they're going to go to second grade. Same thing with drills is like, and I always say this at our camps is cause we'll do our passing portion or setting portion and then we'll go to review and I'll tell them just like I would to my kids is like, Hey, we can move through this as quickly or as long as it takes because I'm waiting. I just need to see that you guys can do it.
Mark Burik (13:26.968)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (13:50.378)
Once you show me that you can do it, we can move on to the next drill. But yeah, I think a lot of coaches, they, they create those lesson plans and they have the minutes next to them of like, I'm going to do this drill for 10 minutes. But if they can't accomplish that drill and 10 minutes is up, you can don't move on. Yes. Stay in there for another 10, another 20, whatever it is. Because, and that's where good coaches really do come out because that's where.
Mark Burik (14:07.918)
Stay in there for two weeks.
Brandon Joyner (14:19.266)
communication and really holding your players accountable. You can still make it fun and allow those kids to focus through that challenging point instead of just kind of throwing in the towel and being like, you know what, now we're just going to play. Yeah, yeah, so I agree.
Mark Burik (14:35.97)
And the good question of, hey, who wants, who feels like they've gotten better? Who wants to work on this longer? And who is ready for a little bit game play? And then you just use the second quarter, second half of the court. And you're like, okay, you guys who like really want to stay focused on that, cause you don't feel like it's bitten yet. You guys stay on this and on this side of the court or on the other court, we're going to run into this.
Uh, we're going to like move it up to game player competitive. And it's such a simple ask that lets somebody, you know, the whole like public school system where you're in a classroom with 30 kids and you're like, everybody understand. And nobody raises their hand to, look like the dummy and say, Hey, I don't quite get it yet. And so you move on before some of the students, some of the athletes are actually ready and then they start falling.
Brandon Joyner (15:26.048)
Right.
Mark Burik (15:35.01)
really behind. Like coaches have the opportunity to segment using different parts of the court, different stations. and if you're lucky enough to have multiple courts, yeah, you can let the people who aren't, who don't feel confident yet, gain more confidence and perfect it. And the people who have elevated like, okay, great. Not everyone has to move together at the same time. If you're, if you're a quality coach.
Brandon Joyner (15:42.818)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (15:59.606)
Yeah. And I think an easy way to do that, especially if you have multiple courts or if you just have space next to it is like, it's okay to be running two drills at once where you have, like I did this in Oklahoma city where I was working with a women's group that had a couple of players that were maybe the group had nine players total and like three of them were like pretty high level. three were like in the middle and then three were beginners. And so I had an area.
Mark Burik (16:17.774)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (16:27.016)
One court that was just playing little mini games, we do five before three. So the defensive side has score five point or three points before the receiving side scores five. So you're allowing a little bit of focus, a lot of reps in that situation. And then I would pull three people at a time to work with me. And so those three people, I was able to elevate the drill based on the level. So with one group, the high level group, they were doing nice pass set, like finding a location on the court.
Mark Burik (16:36.238)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (16:56.064)
My beginner group, I was just tossing balls to them so that they could work on their like hand contact and location on the court. But yeah, I think a lot of times coaches when we go through these progressions, the gameplay portion is like, okay, my job's done. Now the kids are playing, I can kind of sit back and be a mediator kind of thing, which is less energy, but.
Mark Burik (17:16.302)
.
Mark Burik (17:21.219)
Maybe.
Brandon Joyner (17:23.926)
You also, you got to remember that that's not the point. The point is to develop them. so finding those kind of unique ways to make sure that you're working with all of your players is really cool. We did this in the Dominican as well, like you and I, especially we were roaming and a lot of the first couple of days, like whether it was somebody who was a beginner or somebody who was really advanced as we were pulling them off the court toward with us one-on-one.
and you're able to really have those good conversations while the rest of the group is still working and learning. But it's definitely a skill that you have to learn how to do because you're letting some of the group have a lot of freedom where you have to make sure that that court maintains a level of focus and idea, but at the same time, you're able to put your information and energy into like, okay, I have four minutes to help this person understand this simple idea.
Mark Burik (18:21.793)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (18:23.094)
finding that simple idea is the important part.
Mark Burik (18:26.146)
And those are the light bulb times where you can like dive in. They ask questions, you ask questions, and then you, and then you see them like, okay. You know, that's, that's what we're trying to do. And then for coaches of clubs, coaches of high schools, club directors, this is, this is that time to use your assistant coaches, like not just, not just park them as drill feeder on the other side, but Hey, Tony.
Brandon Joyner (18:35.061)
okay.
Brandon Joyner (18:54.252)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (18:56.544)
Take Larissa, you guys go on the side, you guys work on this together, and then you can fill her back into the drill. And if you don't have those assistant coaches, there are the parents that come to the practices and watch. And if you get the agreement from them that they'll only talk about the things that you want to talk about, or they just shut their mouth shut their mouths the entire time and they just are a tosser, like let that
person work alone until they feel better about it and then come back. don't, I know that not enough coaches utilize parents who do want to help or could help while they're there. And then the community gets like more engaged, feels more involved. You just got to be careful about the parent that you select and then how much authority you kind of give them. But yeah.
Brandon Joyner (19:50.156)
Yeah. Right. Heard them horror stories.
Mark Burik (19:56.066)
But you've got an extra set of hands and people who can at least like toss a drill so that then you have the ability to have stations. I think stations or separate dividing your courts into gameplay and main drill versus like private tutoring session is it's underrated and it's not utilizing.
Brandon Joyner (20:17.228)
Yeah, I agree.
Mark Burik (20:19.8)
So real quick, I want to go Punta Cana first. What do you want?
Brandon Joyner (20:20.084)
so I want to, I do too. but before we do that little shout out time, this past weekend and the pompano futures event, we have a former coach, Camilla Tan, a girlfriend of avid listener, Ben Chessing. yeah. Well, how they did.
Mark Burik (20:42.062)
who get a shout out and it seems like every episode, by the way, you owe them an ice cream. They found me at the Christmas tree lighting in Hermosa beach.
Brandon Joyner (20:49.666)
All right, I owe him an ice cream. But Camilla walked away with a gold in the futures of it. So big, big kudos to Camilla. Yeah, we love it. She I mean, just as far as one coaches that we've had in Hermosa, we've had a long, long list. But Camilla, she wears her heart on her sleeve. She has been working pretty hard this year. So
Mark Burik (20:57.655)
sick.
Mark Burik (21:01.292)
Another medal for a Bab Coach?
Brandon Joyner (21:17.698)
to see her accomplish her goals is really cool. And then our top affiliate, Sandcast or slash Travis Maywearder coming out of retirement with Miles Partain to take another gold, just pretty fun. Travis is not only a good friend to us, but he is a big supporter of what we're doing over here at Better at Beach. And so it was cool to show that one of the old heads can still hang.
Mark Burik (21:28.59)
praise.
Brandon Joyner (21:46.184)
and take it home. So big congrats to those two.
Mark Burik (21:46.336)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (21:50.21)
Yeah, that was, that was cool to see. see us retired folk can we still got a shot so long as you stay in shape.
Brandon Joyner (21:56.3)
See? Yeah. The dino is calling our name here soon.
But Punta Cana, Punta Cana. Alright, I think what I want to do is I'm gonna put you on the spot here and I want to hear your two favorite things from the Punta Cana trip. I'll go first. One of my favorite things from this past trip was I left my room every day at 7, 7 15 a.m.
I did not go back to my room until 6.30 PM. yeah, 12 minutes to shower and then get back out there and go have dinner. But I think it just kind of goes to show like how amazing our community is. The people that we get at these camps, I feel like I'm on repeat every time I talk about it because I'm always surprised, even though I shouldn't be surprised of how cool the people are that come to our camps.
Mark Burik (22:38.702)
12 minutes.
Brandon Joyner (23:02.784)
But whether we're out there playing, hanging out, playing with the campers, running a fun tournament in the afternoon, I always found myself around somebody that made me want to stay at the beach. And I think that that was one of my coolest realizations this past trip of like, people were like, Brandon, do you need a break?
go in the AC for a little bit, go grab some food. And I was like, no, I'm actually good. Like I want to be here. I don't want to be anywhere else. And so that's my first number one.
Mark Burik (23:37.9)
And it wasn't too hot. It wasn't too hot. It wasn't too cold. I slept on a lawn chair at the end of one night. like that. I was just like, the temperature couldn't be more perfect. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to nap here. And so I now I was like, I'm going to have to wake up to pee anyway. And that's why I'll go back to my room. I just finished a call with my wife and I was just like, this is perfect. And it's been a long time since I've slept outside at night, which is like a big childhood thing for me.
Brandon Joyner (23:39.778)
Yeah.
Hahaha!
you
Right.
Mark Burik (24:07.456)
So decided to sleep on the lawn chair out there and just listen to the waves for a couple hours. yeah, the weather was perfect the whole time. We had a windy first day, for the ball control day. And it's crazy what I think that did. Usually we see that big upgrade in ball control on the second day, especially the third day. But like when everybody had to be so strict with their technique on the first day, it made the rest of the week.
Brandon Joyner (24:07.788)
thanks for your old ways.
Mark Burik (24:34.055)
make everybody look like rock stars, either that or just really high quality coaching. Who knows?
Brandon Joyner (24:38.646)
Yeah, and it was really cool because we had a you had to run out of camp a little early because of your exciting news coming out in a little bit but on the last day we had similar wind to the first day and just for the morning but the the gameplay looked awesome like
Mark Burik (24:49.454)
Hmm.
Mark Burik (24:56.025)
really?
Brandon Joyner (25:03.66)
people were able to like the difference between people passing on that first session versus that last session and the conditions were pretty similar. Everybody at camp looked like different players. so that like every all the coaches were talking about that a lot. Now, this is pretty cool to see too.
Mark Burik (25:21.154)
I think thinking about my favorite part was a little less obvious, but the amount of repeats that we have and then seeing their second, third, and sometimes like 10th time, seeing that they are ready for the community aspect right away. And then that pulls all of the new campers into like,
Brandon Joyner (25:38.178)
Thank
Mark Burik (25:50.668)
We're, we're really here to have a good time and enjoy each other. Like not, not just get better, not just hardcore training camp, like that's built in, but the fact that everybody was just high five central and the ones who were returning. They fully embrace that as if like almost we've indoctrinated them into positivity. You know, so, that was my favorite part to see how.
Brandon Joyner (25:54.754)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (26:14.06)
No. Yeah.
Mark Burik (26:20.744)
easy that community and fun and supportive vibe really came out immediately. And I think it's strengthened by the returners. That was a big part like Anthony Castellano, just him walking around hunting down, making friends with all the hotel staff and then like ordering 12 drinks and bringing them to everybody on the court. Even Mike was awesome. Just
Brandon Joyner (26:40.053)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (26:49.824)
everybody who was like there for each other and they understood what it was, what it's supposed to be about, which is good times before like hardcore worrying about yourself getting involved. And then some of the ones that I was like kind of worried about initially, they're, they just totally bid in to being like, yep, it's here's about good times and, and volleyball's built in.
Brandon Joyner (27:13.9)
Pina coladas will help that. But yeah, was actually, I had a moment with, at one point, I think it was Wednesday night, we did a little karaoke night and it was starting later than my body wanted to be awake for. But I was like fighting through it. I was like, I mean, it's hard to leave. It's hard to leave any social setting when you have cool people around. And so.
one of these nights I was at the bar and I was kind of standing there and I think I looked like I was half asleep and Anthony comes over to me and it's like him and a couple of like returners that are standing near me. He's like, Brandon, you look exhausted. I was like, I am exhausted. And he's like, go to bed. And I'm like, well, yeah, but also like, I want to be here for everybody. And he looked at me and he was like, Brandon, go to sleep. We got this.
And I was like, you know what? You're right. Like you guys do have this. Like you and, that's like such a cool, that was a really cool feeling for me because you know, you and I were so attached to this and we want to make sure that everybody has the best week of their lives. And it was really cool in that moment to realize that like, Oh, wow. It's not just you and I making sure everybody has a good, good week. It's like, it's everybody else that has kind of bought into the system.
of what we're trying to promote, we're trying to make everybody feel really welcome. And the fact that our returners have kind of led the charge on that now, it's really cool to see.
Mark Burik (28:50.302)
And Jorge, another camper turned now mandatory staff person. So he came to the first camp last year, his energy just being so positive and really high level and he coaches at home. And so, you know, we invited him this year as a, as a volunteer coach and he absolutely crushed it. He was everywhere engaged with campers, giving really good feedback. then
Brandon Joyner (28:58.53)
no.
Mark Burik (29:19.616)
organizing the boat trip on his own, like.
Brandon Joyner (29:21.666)
We went to like the disco the last night he organized. I think every person at the camp got a Pachata lesson from Jorge, including me. Yeah, he was an MVP for sure.
Mark Burik (29:38.382)
So that was, this time we had three former campers who were on staff. Is that right?
Brandon Joyner (29:47.863)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (29:48.11)
Alex Bryant, Jorge. Yeah. Yeah. So this time we had a three former campers. So guys come to a camp. might end up on staff and getting free trips to the Dominican Republic.
Brandon Joyner (29:51.154)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (30:03.606)
You know, and I think we kind of go back to this moment a lot where a couple of years ago, we had all these post campers that wanted to come back and just be a part of the camp. we were like, you know what, come on back. Like we'll find a spot for you. And like those coaches have become so important in our like practice design because they're one, they're willing to do anything. So if you.
If you are interested in becoming a coach at Better at Beach, just being flexible and understanding, we're going to need you in different parts at certain times. This weekend, Brian and Alex and Jorge, all three of them, they were in charge of running a court on their own. They were also teaming up with campers and playing in drills and doing stuff like that. But the thing that I love about those guys is
every single time that you, myself, Maureen, or anybody walked up to them, the answer was, what can I do? You know, and like that just means so much to us and it makes us realize the value in those people. And so yeah, kudos to all of them.
Mark Burik (31:06.99)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (31:21.006)
All right. So, um, this week we're scheduling next year's, uh, next year we're going to do custom jerseys for everybody who signs up before a deadline. So, uh, just be ready for that announcement. We'll have a couple of early birds. So jump on it. Just be ready for the next, next year, right after Thanksgiving, as well as, um, of course, a couple other camp dates. And if you do want to get involved because you feel like
Brandon Joyner (31:22.166)
Yeah.
Yep.
Mark Burik (31:50.25)
you are the most positive person in your town. We probably want to have a conversation.
Brandon Joyner (31:56.482)
I love it. Yeah. mean, just one last little thing about the Dominican is like, is something different about these camps. You know, we are three day camps. They're fantastic. You're going to get a lot better at volleyball in those three days. If you're looking for something that is like life-changing and truly want to understand what we are doing as a company, you have to come. The, the
Mark Burik (32:07.501)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (32:26.26)
level of coaching that we bring is fantastic. The opportunities to play are great. You get to like go to all these social events. The resort is beautiful. Like if you haven't seen the resort and you sign up and you show up, I guarantee you the second you get off that shuttle and start walking into the resort, your jaw is going to drop. The sand is perfect. Yeah, it's.
Mark Burik (32:32.098)
Nonstop.
Brandon Joyner (32:54.354)
We've gotten lucky in finding a home there. So it's been pretty awesome. I'm excited for us to continue going back there.
Mark Burik (33:01.504)
And 30 private lessons, like aside from all of the coaching tournaments sessions, 30 private lessons in a week, which that was cool to see that outside of the practices, people are getting the extra help, extra attention. and big thanks to our coaches who it's a work week. It's
Brandon Joyner (33:04.737)
Wow.
Brandon Joyner (33:15.138)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (33:25.922)
It's exhausting.
Mark Burik (33:27.22)
It's a work week. And you're the spotlight is on the whole time. And everybody fully bid in everybody was out each night hanging out DJ said he'd never been Dominican Republic. He was like, this is the best I've ever been treated as a coach. Most opportunity I've had. And so he came over to the house yesterday. And he was like, dude, I just want to thank you for that. Like it was so much fun. And Marine was actually a little pissed that she had a tournament.
Brandon Joyner (33:42.594)
Yeah, that's cool.
Mark Burik (33:53.324)
because she wanted to stay and like keep enjoying herself.
Brandon Joyner (33:53.538)
Yeah, she's like, it's so bittersweet. Like, I'm excited I get to go play, but also this is just so much fun.
Mark Burik (34:07.361)
And then,
Brandon Joyner (34:07.382)
Alright, let's get into some news from you. What's good? Yeah.
Mark Burik (34:10.466)
Final topic of the day. been working on this, it seems like for three years, but, now it's happening and me and my family are moving to the Tampa area. I know that, along the way, some people had thought I had moved to Florida, but I just got, you know, the real estate investments and a couple of Airbnb. and, yeah, we're making a move and.
There are few reasons. there's, there's a few like, typical questions that I'll, that I'll cover and then maybe Brandon, if you have any unique ones, shoot them my way, reasons. one, like the easy one is financial, like as a, as a baseline, just for taxes, it's saving $20,000 a year, like baseline, then lower cost of living definitely helps.
paying rent here is gonna be the same as my mortgage except here I'm in a four bedroom apartment and there I have 1.1 acres with a screened in pool, 100 year old oak trees in the back and over time gonna start building out my little personal playground with a court or two in the backyard and maybe even a tennis court back there. So got the space to live what has been my
dream for my whole life. I don't know when it started, but ever since I was a kid, I wanted to live on a sport complex, like a place where I could work out, play every sport that I want. And so now it feels like I finally got the opportunity to really do it. And I'm so excited for that. I'm excited to have a yard for my kids. And the argument is like we have Hermosa Beach, the world's
biggest yard possible. but to be able to open the back door and let the kids go run in this big, you know, fenced in yard, hop in the pool. I think there's something really special about that. I've never had a yard in my whole life. I had a driveway in New York. I lived on a farm in Sweden when I was playing pro there, but that's the extent of yard. So
Brandon Joyner (36:25.984)
Wow, that's crazy to think about.
Brandon Joyner (36:33.612)
is eight feet of snow.
Mark Burik (36:37.698)
That's going to be cool. We needed to be near an airport for Janelle to continue doing stunts when she recovers from the birth. We have a son coming in April. So being near an airport is important for me to get to camps, for family to get to us, and us to get to family. And the potential, you know, we've had a few starts and stops on getting a facility.
Every time I go there, it's like a six day, seven day trip. And I can see, you know, three or four facilities or pieces of land that might become a facility. And it's always like, you realize when you're in person looking at commercial real estate, that it has saved you 10 hours of scrolling through a loop net, which is a commercial real estate site.
And once you're in person and you can actually see where the pillars are, how high the ceilings are, what the entrance looks like, what the parking looks like, it's like, then you can make fast decisions. those are, those are our big main reasons, a little bit of financial, little, little bit of, kids being able to have a nice big place. And if we love it, we stay there. If we don't, we go somewhere else or we might head right back.
but I started to feel a little stagnant as if like my days were on repeat and I've got a good life. I do what I want, I make my own schedule and I get to work with people who are consistently happy. But I did start to feel like I'm kind of on repeat and I wanted a new challenge, new adventure. And so the attempt at building a facility out there and then growing.
a whole new community, is exciting for us. So that's where we're at. So in Brandon, just East of Tampa and in St. Pete, since I'll be about 45 minutes from our Airbnb, if you guys are in the Southeast, if you're in Florida, I will be starting some volleyball and fitness communities out there. So if you think that you're around the Florida area and you want to get some
Mark Burik (39:00.174)
longer big weekend lessons and then some during the week. Get in touch with me quick. I want to build a really good strong community. know St. Pete Beach has a really good volleyball community out there. We're about 45 minutes away from that. So I'm going to try to grow sand volleyball in Brandon, Florida. And that was one of the things too. The fact that we're in Brandon and my mother-in-law's name is Cindy.
So the fact that it was Cindy Lane in Brandon, Florida was like, is the universe really steering me towards this house? So.
Brandon Joyner (39:38.722)
But yeah, man, think it's kind of been fun. It's been really fun to see you going through all this. I know we've talked over the years of the move and everything like that and it being a potential and now the fact that it's happening. I think for me, I just want to say I'm happy for you, I'm proud of you for making the leap. It's been...
It's kind of funny because like a lot of people have been asking me when they found out about the move, they're like, well, how are you going to do? Like, what are you going to do without your best friend here? And I'm like, well, you know, like we've been apart before. We've made it. We've made it work. But it's, it's, it's been really fun for me the last couple of years, especially getting to see Mackenzie grow up and.
Mark Burik (40:24.536)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (40:38.33)
she is and then knowing like your real reason behind doing all this I think a lot of it is family you know and so it's been really cool for me like from I'm not leaving Hermosa just so everyone knows that I will be staying put and we have a lot of really good things going out here and I think that that helps a little bit too you know I think seeing that
your baby of the Hermosa stuff isn't going anywhere and it's only gonna continue to get stronger and you always have a place to come home. I think that's another really cool component of this. It's kind of what I felt like when I was in Virginia was like, yeah, I live in Virginia but if I ever wanna go out to California, all I have to do is pick up the phone, text you and say, hey, I'm arriving this day at this time, can you pick me up in the airport?
Mark Burik (41:11.662)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (41:33.198)
you
Brandon Joyner (41:35.478)
And the answer was always yes. And so I'm happy that you and the rest of the family get to experience a little bit of a different life and see how goes.
Mark Burik (41:45.23)
Yeah, it's a weird, sad and happy because we're not leaving something we don't like. It's not like, man, it stinks here. we're stuck here. Like part of it that you're stuck in is purchasing a house here is astronomical and just not something that we were in love with. I could have sold off all of my investments and done it that way, but
wasn't something that I really wanted to do. And then opening up what could be the next chapter for better beach or a whole new whole new community with leagues and classes. The potential is there. I'm going to slow roll it in the beginning. Just do some some private lessons and get a couple of classes going. See how it develops. But also got a very busy next year since we're going to have a new baby. So don't want to.
overwhelm my family, especially since we're away from family. we're removing ourselves from the majority of our support. I just got to figure out the next best move. And with our online programs and my one on one players, like I've created the ability to not need to coach in person and still have a massive effect on the on the volleyball world. So whether it becomes
hardcore facility, a couple of classes here and there, or I just go full, full, full time online coach. We'll see, I'm thinking every day about which direction I wanna head full steam in, and then some people are like, well, you've been doing everything up until this point, why not just continue doing everything? Yeah, maybe.
Brandon Joyner (43:37.612)
We had that conversation a lot too. We're like, what if we just did it all? Yeah, so guess that would be one question that I think a lot of people would have is like, what is better at beach going to look like with you not being in California?
Mark Burik (43:52.824)
The exact same.
Brandon Joyner (43:54.394)
Yeah. I mean, you just need to be said that like, you're still going to see, yeah, we're still going to see Mark at all these camps. Still going to be running on the walk-on stuff. Right.
Mark Burik (44:05.068)
It just means more camps in Florida, like more camps, more lessons in Florida, which, we can help some people out there, even though there's a few very good schools, already out in the St. Pete area, will be east of Tampa. So we can feed off the, like the Sarasota Bradenton and, Tampa doesn't really have things that.
that they don't have to go over the bridge for it because they have to go to St. Pete for a lot of their volleyball. So maybe those people on the north and east side of Tampa will come over our way. But the majority of our work together is through online meetings and everything like that. Anyway, we've got those systems and then we've got our bank of coaches here in California. So I think the only difference that people will experience is, if I want to work privately with Mark,
instead of flying to California, now you just come to Florida. And if you wanna work with Brandon and Logan and DJ and Marine and all those crew, then yeah, you come to California. So just depends on how long you wanna fly and what exact type of weather you want.
Brandon Joyner (45:14.914)
Exactly. Yeah, so the real answer is we're just taking over the US. Now that we, because before we were so close to each other that yeah, we got to have the occasional chilly night together, but now we got some opportunities in California. If you're on the West Coast, we got some opportunities in Florida on the East Coast. We're we're trying to make you guys happy of like trying to get you guys closer to us. So now there's really no excuse for anybody to not train with us.
Mark Burik (45:19.022)
You
Mark Burik (45:43.566)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (45:44.258)
There's a cheap flight waiting for you.
Mark Burik (45:47.694)
So excited for that. then like the, again, the ability to run very small camps, but more consistently at the Airbnb property where people can stay for three or four nights or maybe even two. And then we can get the private training going there. So again, if you guys want those opportunities, if you're looking to get out of winter, the easiest way is really just to hit us with a DM on Instagram.
And then you can choose your vacation spot, California or Florida.
Brandon Joyner (46:17.367)
Now I.
Now I have even a reason to come out to Florida to see you guys now. So, that'd be great. So do you have a locked in move in date yet?
Mark Burik (46:24.802)
That's right.
Mark Burik (46:30.57)
we closed on the house. so it's officially hours. but we're, yeah, that was.
Brandon Joyner (46:37.794)
I know that was an up and down roller coaster. I haven't heard you talk in the form of failure and then the next text excitement and so long. So I know that was a big roller coaster of emotions for you guys. So I'm happy that's over with.
Mark Burik (46:41.035)
A nightmare.
Mark Burik (46:51.47)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (46:58.624)
It's something that like a lot of entrepreneurs go through. you know, I haven't been able to pay myself a full-time salary, but the business also covers a lot of my life. And so when a traditional lender looks at that, they're like, you don't really have an income. I'm like, yeah, but I've got eight investment properties. So like, you've got to know that I'm somewhat intelligent, like being able to hold all this up and still keeping it in.
So this is, this is crazy because it's my 10th real estate purchase. It'll be the ninth one that we own. well, my companies and holding companies own them. but I think being entrepreneurial and having to figure things out. And even if you're like a manager or COO, you know, that you have to problem solve and
there's walls, there's obstacles, and this was just one of those lending situations where we had, it seemed like infinite obstacles. my body and soul held me up just long enough to get across the finish line to where like we closed. And then the next day I got so sick. was like my body was like ready to get me through the fight. And as soon as I crossed the finish line, he's like, we're done completely. Boom.
Brandon Joyner (48:07.682)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (48:18.14)
you
Mark Burik (48:24.362)
And like I got sick for two days after the finish line. I told you it's like, you know, Janelle's like, you should be excited. Like, shouldn't you be happy? And I was like, I'm about as happy as the person who crosses the finish line after an Iron Man can show how happy he is. Like they show that they're happy by lying on the floor and panting, you know, and asking for ice bags. And that's how I felt after this. So.
Brandon Joyner (48:51.106)
That's awesome, man. Congratulations again. It's an exciting time.
Mark Burik (48:53.538)
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Exciting, exciting and scary, which is always, you know, the best times in life when you're excited and scared at the same time.
Brandon Joyner (49:02.722)
We wouldn't have it any other way. I think if you're you or I that's how we were built
Mark Burik (49:06.016)
No I wouldn't.
All guys, we gotta head to the online meeting to work with our players. So hope you enjoyed the episode. If you are in the Florida area, hit me up quick because we're gonna hit the ground running once we get out there.
All right, from us at Better at Beach, we'll see you guys on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (49:28.514)
See y'all.
