It feels like the summer season has flown by, although as I reflect on everything I did from June-August, I really did do a lot. Most notably, I planned out a big trip back up home to Breckenridge in July, which I didn’t realize might be my last one for a while with the family moving back down to Austin. It’s been fun having everyone close together again, but it definitely is bittersweet to officially (hopefully temporarily) separate from Breck.
June – Music and Pickleball Win Streaks!
In early June, I got last-minute tickets to finally see The Black Keys at the Moody Amphitheater. I’ve listened to their indie-rock music for over a decade now, and it was cool to see their songs performed live.
On the 14th, I played in a doubles charity pickleball tournament at Eastside Paddle Club with my friend Enoch, which was our first time teaming up this year! By now, we’ve played dozens of tournament matches together, so we’ve really learned to play well together. Charity tournaments are always fun, but can be hit-or-miss in terms of competition and format, and this one was a good example of that. Enoch and I ended up winning by a very large margin in every match, and as a result, we received a two-month membership to Eastside!
That same week, we partnered again for a more official tournament hosted at Austin Pickle Ranch. We started off strong, winning our first few matches. A couple hours in, I was gassed, and we ended up losing our fifth and sixth round-robin matches before I was able to come back (with the help of an 8-minute nap in between courts) and help win our seventh match, putting us into the semifinal bracket. We came out swinging in the semifinal, and beat the team 15-3 we had just lost to in the round-robin. Carrying the momentum into the final match, we closed out the tournament with a 15-10 win to secure the 4.25 doubles gold medal and some cash!
At the end of the month, my friend Sam Hall came down from Tyler to play an Independence Day-themed pickleball tournament with me at Eastside. It was his first tournament ever, so although we didn’t do very well in 4.0 doubles, he qualified for the 3.75 singles semifinals after round robin play. We ended up wearing some funny US-flag shorts after running around trying to find themed athletic clothes, and it was a good time overall.
July – Leading Interns and Colorado Travel
Over a couple weeks between the end of June and early July, I got the opportunity to manage a team of college interns who were working at the VC studio. While they were primarily working on supporting the wider venture capital investment pipeline for Palm Venture Studios, I was offered to have them work under me for the last couple weeks of their internship. I had done the same thing last year with another group of interns, and it had gone really well, so I was excited to see what I could get out of this year’s group!
The first week, I had them source leads for my sales pipeline, before giving them some basic sales training on how I do cold outreach. I didn’t like just giving out boring work, though, so the following week I had them do some cold calling with me, which was a lot more fun for both me and them! I celebrated every small win they got, and as a result, they were able to give me several interested business owners to follow-up with. I also wrote this blog article recently about pipeline management and sales follow-up, spurred by my own sales experience and working with the interns this summer. Check it out here if you’d like!
On the 16th, I flew up to Colorado for a trip back home. The annual Pickle in the Peaks tournament was scheduled for that weekend, and the Keystone Tennis Tournament the weekend after that, so I was excited to spend a couple weeks back home and also play some competitive pickleball and tennis. I’ve been fortunate enough to see my family close to at least every other month over the last several years, but it had been four months since all five of us were together, so I was eager to spend some time all together in Summit again.
My friend Enoch committed last minute to fly up to play doubles in the pickleball tournament with me, so I was pretty confident going into men’s doubles! I also played my first mixed doubles draw with our good family friend Suzy Martinek.
The whole weekend was fun hanging with friends, watching everyone play, and after ending 5th in mixed doubles, I finished out the weekend going undefeated on Saturday and winning the men’s 4.0 doubles draw with Enoch, making it our third straight tournament win! We had family and friends cheering us on the whole time, so I was glad we were able to perform well. The following weekend’s Keystone tennis tournament was fun as well, but I was unfortunately unable to defend my win from last year and lost in the singles final.
Outside of playing tennis and pickleball, I made sure to make the most of my time back in Summit with hikes up to Blue Lakes, lots of walks around Main Street Breck, the marina, and Lake Dillon. Summit is probably my favorite place to be in the country, and not being there full-time does make me appreciate what a special place it is even more. Towards the end of my trip, it became clear that my parents were moving quickly to get everything in order to move from Breck back down to Austin, so there was definitely some sentimentality in “saying goodbye” to all my favorite places while I was up there. I’m planning on spending some time up there this winter though, so it won’t be for long!
August – Bouldering League and Family in Austin
August was filled with a lot of climbing for me, which has quickly become one of my new favorite sports over the last year. I signed up for Austin Bouldering Project’s bouldering league with my friends Kai, Page and Liberty in July, which was a good challenge! We ended up tying for third place, and got invited to compete in the finals on the 21st – My first climbing competition and a really fun event! Even though I only topped one out of the four boulders during the timed final, climbing with a crowd and hype music around me was a great experience!
That same night, Mom, Dad, Isaac and Jadyn arrived in Austin after packing up and driving down from Breck! I had spent some time getting their house ready in the weeks before they arrived, and now that they’re here, I’m grateful that I’ll be able to see them even more regularly and spend time together in Austin!
I’ve also been spending an increasing amount of time down in San Marcos with a great group of new friends I met through my friends Aleks and Kelleah in early August, climbing at Armadillo Boulders, running at a run club event, swimming at Barton Springs, and a lot more. The people I connect best with have always been cool, engaging people up for fun adventures with little-to-no notice, which has been true of the majority of friends I’ve met down there.
As the temps start to go from triple digits every day to “slightly more bearable” here in Austin, I’m looking forward to another great fall season filled with lots of closed deals, tennis, and adventure before snow arrives in the mountains and I start to plan out as many snowboarding trips as I can.