Matt (00:05)
I grew up in Williams Lake in BC. Yeah, so like five hours north. wow. Yeah

Host (00:11)
Okay, I've never been, but I sold my motorcycle to a firefighter from Williams Lane. Nicest guy ever. okay, cool. what led you here?

Matt (00:15)
That makes sense.

It was construction When I moved here, oh no like 20 years ago probably ish 20 something years ago No, worked kind of at a couple mills and stuff did the whole timber industry that's kind of what Williams Lakes all about so did that for a little bit and went to school and got my first year for carpentry

Host (00:31)
Is that like right out of high school sort of thing?

Matt (00:46)
My sister-in-law was actually down here and she's like, there's a ton of jobs down here, so come check it out. Yeah. And I moved here 10 days later.

Host (00:53)
There you go. ⁓ It was your first time down and you're like, is it.

Matt (00:56)
We'd visited a couple of times, for the most part it was kind of come down to sunshine. ⁓

Host (01:02)
How interesting,

easy to get a job. How was housing back in the day?

Matt (01:06)
I lived on a couch for the first few weeks and then my girlfriend at the time, had a job and a house there. So I was just like, sorry, babe, we're moving to Kelowna. And I'm starting in 10 days. So off we went or off I went. then we slowly moved ourselves here. But the couch I stayed on, we actually ended up renting the basement suite there. And so it kind of worked out. And then we've been here ever since. And it's tough to leave once you get here.

Host (01:30)
Yeah, well, yeah. I was born and raised.

Matt (01:36)
okay. Opposite story for...

Host (01:37)
Yeah,

where you took everything for granted and it felt and especially back in the day. It was very much an old retirement.

Matt (01:46)
Kind of like Penticton.

Host (01:47)
Not a lot of youth not a lot of stuff happening and then I remember So my when my father when we were young we used to ride our motorcycles down to Southern, California every summer and We would take his brother lived down there So we would take like a different route every time to get down and I remember the one the one year we went like more rural roads, you know and

you'd pass these like town and the population would actually be population 23 and there's nothing like there's just desert and nothing i'm thinking this is ridiculous and then when you finally come over the crest and seeing the lake and you're just like

Oh my goodness, the valley is absolutely stunningly beautiful and exciting. Yeah, so you know it took us kind of leaving doing our walkabout to realize that people retire here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now, so now we're in the same boat. We're yeah, why would if you can stay why would you leave? Obviously there's a lot of factors that push

Kindra (02:32)
getting.

Matt (02:40)
This is pretty sweet.

Host (02:53)
push or pull people out of the city these days. So you came for carpentry, is that specifically, did you have a specific trade that you specialize in?

Matt (03:01)
Mostly framing for the most part. I got on with company that did custom homes. So I got to learn basically from the ground up all the way through, which was really neat to learn. I'm more kind of on the finishing side. Well, now I don't do construction anymore. I'm more into property management, but having all that experience really kind of ties into being able to do that and find those problems and stuff.

Host (03:22)
Yeah, I'm really

interested in that journey. So you came down for carpentry, your framing, and then what was the steps you took from that framing job to where are now?

Matt (03:32)
I

worked for that company for 15 years. Boy. Yeah. And then kind of learned everything through. And then I started doing a lot of the stuff. And then we got different guys showing up and I trained them how to do these different things.

Host (03:35)
you're loyal and

Are you talking

like concrete pouring as well?

Matt (03:48)
Yeah, and then finishing like tiling and yeah backsplashes and custom showers The whole nine yards and then I got to kind of a point where I was just like, okay Well, I'm doing all the work. I might as well do it for myself Yeah, so then I started my own can kind of renovation company. cool and did did that for a few years and then that kind of Slowly turned into kind of what I do now, isn't it?

Host (04:12)
What a really cool background to have to be specialized in all these things and not have to call in a tradesperson because you can just fix it yourself.

Matt (04:21)
It's quite beneficial, I'm not going to lie.

Host (04:24)
YouTube

like everybody's got YouTube but even with YouTube there's something to be said for the mastery of people's crafts and the trades that's just astounding what they do.

Matt (04:34)
Well, it's all the tricks. Yeah, like they're never gonna show you the ultimate tricks on YouTube because I mean, that's how they make their money essentially, but they'll get you enough just to get through the process. Yeah, and then get you started on the process. Yeah

Host (04:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, and then the networking you must have had through all those years of knowing which people are good and which ones you should stay away from.

Matt (04:55)
Yeah, then there's a lot of people you should stay away from but then there's also a lot that Are good at what they do and they're loyal kind of not loyal, but they're

dependable guys. Yeah people that are good around families and they're not they're clean. They're nice. They do a good job and Exactly. Yeah, they don't treat it like just any other job They treat it as their house and their home and yeah do the job as they would for themselves

Host (05:11)
Respect your property.

And it's

interesting the bond you get with your tradespeople. So the gentleman who did the floor, shout out to Bruce, we got him through a family connection. Bruce is really good. He ended up being my neighbor when I was a kid growing up, like in elementary school. And I was like, man, you look so familiar. He's like, Alison? I'm

Matt (05:37)
Wow.

Host (05:40)
Bruce and to this day like the he had this job he did on the stairs this is absolutely incredible and whenever we need anything I know I can just text him but Bruce and he's always so kind he takes care of my mom he takes care of everyone in the family and every once in a while I'll just be loving the floor it's been eight years I'm still up in the floor but um you know and when somebody does such a such a

Matt (06:01)
Yeah.

Host (06:06)
such a good job and they cared you just form this like or at least I do this connection with them that it's like respect you know

Matt (06:13)
Yeah, well you spend so much time together you kind of become friends. Yeah. Because you have to rely on each other and yeah, it's like a work friendship, I guess.

Host (06:22)
Same thing with

our plumber. We had like a geyser one year. The outside of the house just exploded off. The plumber comes, Rob, love you too. And ever since then, whenever we've had an issue, I feel like I really can't trust him. He just tells you how it is, whether it needs to be done or not be done. just honest, hardworking. And he'll look at like the minimal amount.

He's not cutting holes everywhere. He's like, we could go this way or we could go this way. The hole might be bigger, but then it's in a closet as opposed to smaller and outside the closet and just little things like that. You're like, ⁓ thanks.

Matt (06:47)
Yeah, we're tearing down this whole wall. Yeah.

And if they can't do it, they know a guy that can. Yeah. And that's the people you want to know. Yeah, it's all about who you know. ⁓

Host (07:07)
Yeah, it's Clona.

Kindra (07:11)
connections.

Host (07:12)
Connections. Tell me more about that. What do you think of when you hear of that?

Kindra (07:18)
I've always found it's who you know, not what you know in the city. So having good connections is important. And I make a point of building relationships just because of what I do as a profession. So I'm cognizant of it.

Host (07:34)
This

is a great segue then. Okay, so what do you do? ⁓ wow. How are your hands? Strong? Yeah. You're like,

Kindra (07:37)
I'm a massage therapist. I have been for 18 years.

Matt (07:47)
Good for gripping cornhole bay.

Kindra (07:50)
Yeah, sure.

here

in 2008. moved to the Okanagan in 97. I'm originally a transplant from Regina.

Host (07:59)
another Regina Yeah. in What brought you to like The open organ? Boyfriend?

Kindra (08:06)
What brought

me originally here? So when I was 14 years old, my mom was kind of estranged from her family and she wanted me to get to know her side of the family and they were, my mom was born and raised in the Coal Stream area and so she dragged me down here at 14 years old against my will.

Host (08:17)
Okay

for a month. What age is I was made? that's a tough year to leave your social.

Kindra (08:24)
My grade, my grade nine summer.

For

a month out of the summer? Absolutely. It was the worst fight we ever got into. It was the only slap across the face that I ever got and I deserved it.

Host (08:36)
Especially when you're 14 a month seems like a long time.

Kindra (08:41)
Well,

it was. I my first real boyfriend. didn't want to go. I didn't want to go to BC at all. So of course I had some choice words for her because I knew everything at 14.

Host (08:46)
my goodness.

That would have been a fun road trip, hey? sit and walk in the whole time? you flew. Yeah, no, we flew.

Kindra (08:55)
And

we hung out with my grandma for a month and a weekend to our trip my mom felt bad for me and I grew up with a set of girls that moved to Castlegar and my mom got really close with their mom and so She felt sorry for me and she called up Christine's mom and had a conversation with her and sent Christine down to hang out with me for a week because we were staying my grandma's complex which was senior living and I'm 14 years old boring as crap and so she sent

Host (09:20)
and

Kindra (09:25)
Christine down to hang out with me and that very night we met a bunch of people and had a great time and I fell in love with the Okanagan essentially that summer. And so I came back the next summer and the next summer and so grade 11 summer I was like I'm moving to BC when I'm done school. So two weeks after high school I packed my bags and I moved to the Coldstream area where I moved in with my friends parents.

Host (09:50)
Yeah.

Kindra (09:52)
That's how

I landed in the Okanagan originally. So I stayed in the Vernon area. I did a little bit here and there. Armstrong, Lumbee moved like one year periods of time away from Vernon. I lived in Lake Louise for a year and then I moved to Caribbean right after I finished college from massage therapy. I moved to Caribbean for a year and then when I came back, Vernon just wasn't the same and I wanted something different. And my college girlfriend was pregnant with twins, calls me up one day.

Host (10:14)
Yeah.

Kindra (10:20)
And was like, she's like, I'm pregnant with twins. Do you want to take over my part-time clientele? And at that time in my life, it fit. So I started taking over at part-time, moved to Kelowna and bought a house a year later and the rest is history. Yeah. I've built a business and life goes.

Host (10:39)
That's so cool. That's really neat. Yeah. It's amazing how that like just think that that one night you didn't meet people. Yeah. the T.S. intern. I like that. Yeah. so how did you two meet? Cornhole. What did you meet through cornhole?

Kindra (10:49)
Oh, it was a pivotal, it was the TSN point. Yeah, it was though.

Matt (10:59)
Thank

Yeah, I started the league here in, I guess it was 2020 kind of went back and forth trying to find different venues, trying to promote the league, but I never started a sport before, let alone anything else.

Host (11:13)
Yeah,

we got to back up here though, but what like were you into sports before before Cornwall? Were you a sports guy or?

Matt (11:20)
Kind of a little bit. Like I wouldn't say I'm a sports guy, but I played, I guess I play softball. I played baseball and grew up playing a few sports, but always camping and stuff. We always had cornhole. Backyard games. Yeah. We'd go camping all the time. Somebody'd have a set of cornhole boards or I'd bring a set of cornhole boards and we'd be playing. And then it was one, I'm pretty sure we were camping one time.

Host (11:35)
Well that's the connection.

Matt (11:47)
no, we weren't camping. Sorry. I was sitting on the couch flipping through the sports channels essentially and cornhole was on TV and I was like, there's the ACL. And that's when I kind of learned about the American cornhole league. And I was like, yeah, and if this is on TV, there's gotta be something in Canada. There has to be. And so sure enough, I Googled it and I found cornhole Canada. And then, I sent him an email saying, Hey,

Host (12:02)
It's quite the thing, hey?

Matt (12:14)
Like, what's this all about? Can I be part of it? And it turned out I was the very first person to kind of email them. They just got everything started. So I was essentially the first league to sign up to Cornhole Canada.

Host (12:26)
that's that's actually kind of cool.

Matt (12:28)
Yeah, and the part like the coolest part is they started in ontario And their first league was almost as far away as you could get from them in ontario Yeah, and so it kind of gave them the confidence of okay. This might be a thing. We might be able to get

Host (12:42)
Now they can say they're kind of like to the coast, you know? Off the bed. OK. So then what was that journey? Like, what does that mean to be a part of? All right. I have so many questions. How come you felt to go and be a part of the Canadian league instead of just starting something local independently? What did you feel you gained from that? ⁓

Matt (12:45)
Coast to ⁓

⁓

Kind of the ⁓

What's it called? What am I looking for? When you're playing against better people to try and grow the experience? No. Commodity. That, but it's... ⁓

Sportsmanship. Yeah, I think all these things but competition competition. There it is. There's Because I mean obviously I didn't know anybody else I played cornhole because I was playing into my backyard So yeah, I figured if we signed up to cornhole Canada, maybe there's a bunch of other leagues across Canada I had no idea when I signed up. I was the first one. Yeah, but yeah, I was kind of just looking and then trying to find the rules of how you actually play the game and

Host (13:27)
Yeah, okay.

Matt (13:48)
kind of that side of things.

Host (13:50)
Can you walk us through kind of the rules of the game and what your layman person, backyard player wouldn't is there something that would surprise them about the rules?

Matt (13:59)
Well, the biggest thing that surprised me is the board's got to be 27 feet away from front of the board to front of the board.

Host (14:06)
27 feet? that's a significant... wait a second. Our house is only 30 feet wide. That's a signi... That's quite a ways.

Matt (14:14)
Yeah, it is because usually you put them like a few I don't know I used to take like three four paces and yeah, this is good. Yeah, we go and then when I learned the 27 feet I was like, oh my goodness and then All the bags are one pound. They're six inches by six inches by one pound And that's a regulation bag so it's not like your ones that you buy a Canadian tire that are kind of a little or lighter ones and Off you go

Host (14:40)
Thank you.

Matt (14:42)
That's the legitimate bag. I ordered some from actually Legend Cornhole was the first one that I got because they were also affiliated with Cornhole Canada. They were kind of their these are the guys we use kind of thing. And so I got my first set of bags. I built my first set of legitimate boards and I was like, this is not the game that I've played. This is way harder.

Host (15:01)
That's

a long distance. Is there rules around you say one pound, but does it have to be a particular stuffing?

Matt (15:10)
Yes, and no, I mean you can kind of play with anything as long as it kind of weighs in at one pound. Okay, but It's Essentially, you're gonna want a bag with kind of a resin fill. They're smaller beads not like a corn That they used to use there's I don't know there's got to be 50 different fails that people have Yeah, and there's got to be I don't know how many different bag companies across the states and I think we officially have

three or four in Canada that make them in Canada. Not in BC yet.

Host (15:40)
Because you could see, you know, that you'd have a lighter fill, but then it's more full, like stuffier. A heavier fill, but then it's more airy and then it would fly differently and how it lands and pushes and.

Matt (15:45)
And that's exactly

And the different bags because you have all these different strategies. Yeah so every bag kind of has a fast side and a slow side. Really? Yeah so then strategy comes into it where you can throw blocker bags or push through different bags. Sweep bags off and so it's almost like curling in that sense where you could throw things in the way to mess people's game up.

Kindra (16:07)
bags.

Host (16:16)
Yeah.

Matt (16:17)
And so that's where the two different sides come in because if somebody throws a blocker bag, you could go fast side and try and push through that bag and sync them both and then clean up the board. roll. Or roll if you're really good. Yes. Yeah.

Host (16:29)
I mean, like the bag's actually rolling.

Kindra (16:31)
rolls over another bag that's landed as a blocker, will roll right over top of it and ideally go into the hole.

Host (16:39)
now is this is the regulation for the surface? I know you said the like surface area, but does have to be a particular gloss or friction efficient?

Matt (16:49)
No, necessarily. You want it fairly slick so that your bags kind of slide up into the hole. but every board kind of plays different. It depends on if you're playing outside, if you're playing inside the humidity, all that kind of stuff plays into it. So a lot of times like we have our league boards and if we're in an indoor event, they start off really like fairly fast. And then if you have a lot of people in that room,

As the night as the day goes on they slow right up then your bags get more humid and Then the game kind of changes as you go through the day too and the bigger tournaments

Host (17:23)
the curling analogy.

Kindra (17:25)
Easy to play,

hard to master.

Host (17:28)
OK, this is blowing my mind. then I take it, I've never seen somebody overhand throw it. Does it have to be? there rules around how you throw it?

Matt (17:38)
Yeah, the rules are you have to have an underhand throw.

Host (17:41)
to be underhand. Can

you do two hands?

Matt (17:43)
I've never seen it, but I guess you could. mean, 27 feet to do double underhound is going to be pretty tough. That's true,

Host (17:49)
Yeah

Kindra (17:50)
That'd be an interesting skill set all in its own.

Matt (17:52)
That would be but in saying that there's people that have no arms that throw with their feet I've seen play in the ACL. Yeah, all different kinds of stuff. Yeah

Kindra (18:02)
That's the greatest thing about cornhole is it's such an inclusive sport because you have people from all walks of life and all dynamics of life that all come together and play the sport, which is incredible to see.

Host (18:13)
how does the point system work? it just You get a point if it bagels through the hole or can you get our different throws or different slides worth more than one point?

Kindra (18:22)
It's one point on the board and three points in the hole. That is the basics of it.

Host (18:27)
So no matter how they go in. So if you had one where you slid one in, if you got two in one shot, it just be six points. ⁓

Kindra (18:33)
Correct. Yeah,

you betcha.

Matt (18:35)
And then

the bags cancel each other out. So if one person gets six and then it gets four, then they get two points.

Host (18:42)
Just easy

to yeah wait So if you hit if you throw a if you throw a bean bag on the board and it's one because it's on the board And then it gets slid in is that an additional three or just three total? Okay. Yeah, so you kind of count at the end after all the correct big Smith ⁓ and you get how many bags? four bags

Kindra (18:54)
three.

You get four bags.

So essentially the top points you can get is 12.

Host (19:06)
And how do you decide who goes first?

Kindra (19:09)
It's a spin-off. So we typically will do a seam line because there's seam line on every single bag So if the seam line the seam line is pink ⁓ pointed towards your component or you that's who starts first wherever it's closest

Host (19:23)
Kind of the shuttlecock in badminton. Yeah. What are some of the wildest shots you've seen?

Kindra (19:25)
essentially. So you spin it to decide.

Host (19:32)
No,

like in real life, in real life. Not your Tia Sins highlight hair. Not the highlight hair.

Matt (19:37)
I

don't know the other weekend kindra had three bags all piled up at the hole And her fourth bag she threw and sunk all four of them in one throw That was pretty good

Host (19:46)
No way!

Kindra (19:48)
I swept

them all in. believe all the stuff happens. That's the fun of it. That's the fun of it. Cheers. And I would consider myself a pretty average player. Like, I'm not really good. I'm also super not competitive. I love the idea of the game, and I like building things. That's why I do what I do.

Host (20:07)
So you mentioned like competitiveness and I feel that with any league that's structured does it bring out the worst in some people? Like are there hyper competitive people in Cornhole? What could that possibly look like?

Matt (20:19)
There is. The

wonderful thing about cornhole is you don't have... It's like pickleball players. You kind of find like there's a certain... You find a certain person will play pickleball or play cornhole or really be into cornhole. Yeah. And so once you find that group, it's pretty exciting because you're all kind of the same geeks. And so everybody seems to jive. If you're really competitive...

you, kind of just want to help everybody else out. It's one of those things. It's such a new game almost every time we go out, we find somebody that's like, there's a Colonna cornhole league. Like, are you kidding me? This is a thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then they find out about provincials and nationals and they're just like, no way.

Kindra (21:02)
And

they find out that it's worldwide too. Like that blew my mind. Yeah. It was like, who knew? I went to Italy last year and was like, I could play if I wanted to.

Host (21:11)
Wow. And you know, you're talking about how it's such an open sport for all kind of abilities, but it's also a sport you can play quite a long ways in a life, I would imagine.

Kindra (21:22)
We have a wide range of leaders that are early 20s to in their 60s and 70s. So that's also very neat to see the community that that brings and the growth of that community is pretty awesome to watch.

Host (21:38)
Yeah,

what if the bags like

half in like, it's just one point, even if it's dangling. Yeah, I could see that. And then is there a specific angle to the board?

Matt (21:43)
It's still worth one point.

Kindra (21:49)
That's a lot of people's questions.

Matt (21:55)
Yeah, I believe it's 12 degrees but I can't say that 100%. The front of the board is supposed to be between three and four inches off the ground and the back of the board is supposed to be 12 inches off the ground. ⁓

Host (22:08)
Okay, and

then the length of it's a standard length. then that would be,

Matt (22:12)
Two

feet by four feet. Yeah with a six inch hole six inch bag And then there's mini cornhole which is played on a one foot by two foot board with four inch bags

Host (22:21)
by two foot. that's small. not 27 feet apart.

Matt (22:26)
No,

those ones are usually around 14 feet. Okay. So they're more of like an indoor kind of cornhole. I play that with my kids all day long in my living room. My wife loves it.

Host (22:37)
I can

hear the sarcasm right when you began it, you got the okay from to be a part of the National League and all that, whatever, whatever it is. And then what was it like? Cause you're kind this is not your background marketing or doing any of this. how, what was that like to try to now, find people and find locations?

Matt (22:46)
Yeah.

And that was my toughest thing because I was doing it all myself. So I didn't have a team or anything at that point. So I went around to different businesses and just tried to sell myself, which took a lot like to, hey, can I come play cornhole in your business? And they're just like, corn what? What are you doing? The beanbag toss game. And they're just like, no, I think we're good. We're OK. We don't need this. And so.

For the first few years, I didn't have a lot of luck. I actually joined up with the Kinsman Club in Kelowna and they host a bigger cornhole tournament. So I was a part of that and I kind of brought in the score Holyo, which is the app we use for scoring and kind of the whole feel of more of a organized sport as opposed to just a kind of random cornhole tournament. And so I grew with them for a couple of years and then it was...

Host (23:47)
Yeah.

Matt (23:52)
Last year when Kindra came on last year. Yeah, last August is when I met Kindra then we kind of started to build a team from there and she's been an amazing help with trying to get venues and the name out there and the promoting of it, I guess. And because that's definitely not my strong suit.

Host (24:11)
Do

you have do you do much promoting for your massage therapy? Like where did you know this? ⁓

Kindra (24:15)
I do none.

literally work on a word of mouth. have this business etiquette where I believe in reliability and consistency. And those are the two things you can best do to promote business. And that's always served me. So I've also been self-employed and own my own business for, well, close to 20 years now. So I just bring all the stuff that I have from that forward into this.

Host (24:39)
what's your experience since? How long did you play it before you became more involved? A year.

Kindra (24:44)
Oh, I've only been... Maybe. I

like building things. That's kind of my thing. Yeah. So building businesses, I've built a house. I like building things. Not by hand. No, no, no.

Host (24:52)
You had mentioned that earlier.

You've built your own house too?

But you are like the general manager or what do call it? The foreman? Yeah. Arranging all your people.

Kindra (25:04)
General contact is what you call it.

Matt (25:10)
Yeah. All the different trades. Yeah.

Kindra (25:12)
Yeah, I didn't know what I was doing there and I didn't know what I was doing here.

Host (25:15)
And did you have connections to your course? But like before you started, you knew of professional.

Kindra (25:18)
Yeah.

I an idea. I an idea. I had some help for sure. In this regard, I just, I don't know. just, I don't know how to explain it. I just know what needs to be done. So you put forth the effort and it's never failed me yet. So I'm just going forward with that.

Host (25:40)
There

you go. Just vibing. You just feel it. You just go with it. There you go. That's pretty cool. So what do you do specifically to advertise it and all that?

Kindra (25:49)
It's all socials and then you have to build relationships. That's a huge part of anything. You build relationships in your personal life, in your professional life, and so you just do that. And that's what I work at and it's been fruitful so far.

Host (26:03)
That's cool. So how many days a week do do the league?

Matt (26:06)
The league's going to fire up in September and we're going this will be our first year doing two nights a week. The Tuesday is on the Thursdays.

Host (26:12)
Okay.

⁓

Kindra (26:13)
We

started a year ago at one night a week which was Tuesday night. We started at Rebelry for the first season and the second season we were over at Ramada. And then now we've secured a contract with the Ukrainian Hall to do two nights a No, the Ukraine Hall on Barley Road.

Matt (26:16)
Yeah.

Host (26:26)
the street.

Okay. Okay. Where's Barley Road?

Kindra (26:34)
Essentially halfway between Spall and the mall. So it goes Spall, Ambrose, Barley.

Host (26:37)
Spawn.

I know where it is. Yeah, okay.

Matt (26:43)
I in view I think it's called in view that kind of apartment building has all the Businesses and stuff in the bottom too. Yeah, it's right right on the corner of Springfield and barley

Kindra (26:54)
Yes.

Kind of. Yes.

Matt (26:57)
We're still getting used to it because we haven't been there a whole lot. Yeah. It's been a whole lot of planning to try and get it to the Thule or two nights a week. And we ran out of room kind of essentially at the Ramada because we were so limited to time and space. And with one night a week, who do you let play? Who do you not let play? We wanted to have new members. So that's kind of what drove us. ⁓

Kindra (27:18)
on the amount of people that can play per event due to time restraints.

Host (27:22)
And then you're talking about reliability, consistency, ⁓ sucks if you come out and then you can't even play. Then they're not going to come out. Yeah.

Matt (27:31)
They're probably not coming back if you turn them around.

Kindra (27:34)
The next step was creating an opportunity for two nights a week so we can build.

Host (27:39)
Yeah, and are you allowed to have some babies when you're there or is that an eat or is that?

Kindra (27:45)
In our first year, absolutely at Revoli, Revoli was super kind to us and hosted us and they provided food and beverage and that was amazing. It was a great relationship. We did well there. We grew out of that space. So we moved over to Ramada, which again, Ramada, Ramada, Ramada handed us the same thing. They provide food and beverage for us. We worked with some amazing people building relationships there, but we just essentially couldn't grow there. And so.

We lucked out finding the Ukraine Hall because it's actually pretty tough to find a space that's big enough to house us because we need a minimum of 40 by 40 as well as a 10-foot ceiling. ⁓ There's not a lot of places and then when you think about rental costs as well, we're a non-profit society so we don't have thousands of dollars to hand off per night. So that also creates a barrier for us.

Host (28:21)
That's a large... Yeah.

Kindra (28:37)
And so we came across the Ukrainian Hall, which is nonprofit. When we first looked at their schedule, we were like, there's no chance that we're going to get in because they were very consistently busy. Because again, these spaces are limited and people eat them up. And it just so happened that the Ukrainian Hall, they had somebody that was not rebooking in the fall, which opened up an opportunity for us. They cater to adult

what's the word I'm looking for, adult activities. Like they do wrestling matches, they do taekwondo, they do sports stuff. we fit into their, what they would want to be in that. so thankfully we got that opportunity, which was super cool. Super, super cool. I'm thankful because I don't know what, if we would.

Host (29:15)
mission. That's right.

Kindra (29:27)
Stay at the remote and then we'd still be really limited. At the Ukrainian Hall, we can do five lanes as opposed to four, which opens up at least another dozen people in the same timeframe. Like that extra lane just opens up stuff.

Host (29:41)
Yeah. Do you play 1v1 or is it 2v2 or what is

Matt (29:46)
For the most part, we do partners. probably 80 % of the time we play a game called Switchholio, which randomly partners you with a new person for every single round. that's cool. And when I started this in 2020, I seen that the app had this Switchholio thing and I was just like, what better way to get everybody back together, talking, cruising around, than having a different partner every time? Because if you go to something with a partner,

I mean, even in cornhole, you don't stand with your partner. You stand across from your partner. So you're kind of essentially forced to meet people anyways. when you're playing with a new partner every time, then you're cheering for somebody new. You're like.

Host (30:22)
brings that builds that community.

Matt (30:24)
Yeah, for

sure.

Kindra (30:25)
And quickly, you'd be surprised. It's been really neat to see.

Host (30:29)
That

is cool. Yeah, it's just totally human nature where we, you see this in the classroom all the time, where you sit in your spot and then you naturally gravitate towards your spot. You always sit because that's your comfort or in the staff room, right? Where you work, like people always go to the same place and then you hang around the same people and you don't, you need an impetus to like connect to each other. So that's cool. I like that.

Matt (30:55)
Yeah, was a really, it's a really neat kind of way to do it. And then, and when it comes time for playoffs, we usually, we roll a dice so that you can't really, sandbag. So like if you're the best player, a lot of times we'll match you with the lowest player to make all the teams even, but you can do the top of the top. You can do just fully randoms. So we always kind of roll the dice at the end of the switch holio that we ran so that nobody

knew what the tournament was going to be like. Nobody knew who you were going to be paired with depending on what you were doing throughout the round so that kind of yeah well in every sport has to be that one guy or girl or whoever that person that they're going to be that that one and you're going to have it no matter where you go.

Host (31:27)
is. ⁓

In every sport, the

that little competitiveness sneaking up and

Matt (31:44)
That's

right. And then we try and throw it with a dice. Get out of here. ⁓

Kindra (31:49)
That's so

Host (31:49)
⁓ I love it. Cool.

And so, okay, so you're playing twice this year. It starts in the fall and it goes all the way until...

Kindra (31:57)
We do a fall league and then we do a winter league. So our fall league we do 12 nights. So we usually yeah Yeah, then we wind up usually at the beginning of December because December is obviously a crazy month for everybody So we try to wind up at the beginning of it and then we start up again in January and we go for another 12 weeks and we usually end up the beginning of April because a lot of our leaguers tend to be ballplayers as well so it's a good transition to have winter sports

Host (32:15)
Okay.

you hoping that it'll be different people on the Tuesday and the Thursday or is it the same crew and just two nights for them?

Kindra (32:31)
Ideally in my idealistic brain I would love to see Tuesday be more people who are more serious and more competitive to come out on Tuesdays and then Thursday be a little bit more fun night because then you only have one more day of work you don't have to worry about staying out maybe a little bit later or things like that so that in my ideal

Host (32:43)
This.

Kindra (32:53)
world. That's what I would like to see unfold. But people are people and that's unpredictable. So we'll see how it turns out.

Host (33:00)
Oh, and is it adult only? Like is it plus 18 or 19 or can he be?

Kindra (33:04)
Due to ⁓ we're applying for our primary liquor, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out in details. Essentially, it should be fun for all ages because we we have young people who want to come out as well and fathers and sons, kids come out with their parents. Chris brings his kids all the time. Brad, another leaguer of ours, he brings his children and it's fun to watch them throw bags.

Host (33:31)
I was thinking that there's not, I was trying to think of how many activities that the whole family can, well as soon as you can throw it 27 feet, like the whole family can do, that you all can participate in, where you're actually being a little bit active.

Kindra (33:45)
essentially I'd love to have a youth league. Yeah. That would be ideal. We're just not quite there yet to open up that night or have the availability to do that. But that's all in time. That's something on the agenda for sure.

Host (33:58)
Yeah, and that's coming from a school district background.

Matt (34:03)
We're trying to get into the school district.

Kindra (34:05)
One of our leaguers actually, she's a teacher and so been working with her as well as I have friends in Saskatchewan that I work with. That's kind how I got into cornhole myself. they already have.

Matt (34:18)
their own facility.

Kindra (34:19)
They have their own, one of their teachers created a...

When you build a platform, what's that called? Sort of almost there. It's almost Curriculum, that's the word. Yeah. Yes. So Saskatchewan already has that built. So and we have a teacher here that I would like to sit down with, but it's just a matter of timing. Yeah, we all have full time jobs and we all have different agendas and.

Host (34:31)
⁓ as in it's actually one of the sports they do in the club.

Kindra (34:47)
Yeah. doing what we're doing. that's something on the agenda. It's just a matter of time of when it happens.

Host (34:53)
It's also something that is a very easy access point for people to get into. this is not an expensive...

Kindra (34:59)
know it's affordable. We intentionally try to make it affordable. It doesn't serve us well as a nonprofit or to pay our bills, but we want people all the same. So.

Host (35:12)
Yeah.

So you got it right to the packs of the school.

Kindra (35:16)
Yeah, it's on the agenda. Again, all in our first year. Yes, yes, it's our first. We're just finishing our first year. So which we've accomplished a lot in our first year. So not sorry about any of that. No.

Host (35:32)
don't know. You kind of get excited thinking of the future and what it could become.

Kindra (35:37)
what it will.

Matt (35:39)
⁓

Yeah, well, like not even the schools and stuff with we've been doing, ⁓ we did a couple of team building events this year, just with like local businesses that want to get their people out and have some fun. So we've thrown a couple of different events for them instead of going like bowling or whatever else. Cornhole is the newest, coolest thing coming up. So yeah.

Host (35:58)
That's a great promotional thing because business owners are always looking for team-building things. And the whole way how it's set up is a natural mix and match and all that.

Matt (36:06)
Anybody can play, anybody can win.

Kindra (36:10)
Yeah, forces,

conversation and camaraderie and.

Host (36:15)
Yeah. I mean, like rent rent this equipment out.

Matt (36:13)
And then the competition as well.

Kindra (36:19)
That's what we do with our team building events. We provide a service. We're a hired service. We'll show up and provide two or three hours of entertainment with a tournament. And it's easy for organizations to hire us for team building or private events.

Matt (36:37)
We did a private event.

Kindra (36:38)
Fundraisers

as well. Fundraisers as well. Because it's easy. The fundraiser, they literally just have to provide the prizes and the food and beverage and we just show up and entertain everybody. So it works out really well.

Host (36:52)
That's really it's nice to see you take this like what is it would you consider it a passion or just a fun thing you did?

Matt (37:00)
No, it's like No ridge like it started out as a passion. Yeah, it's continued to grow and then now once you put so much time and effort into something you just want to see it. Yeah, it's a hundred percent like your baby Yeah, you're just like let's build you bigger. Yeah

Kindra (37:01)
Did

Host (37:15)
Yeah.

Kindra (37:16)
It's

a 110 % passion project for me.

Matt (37:18)
Because especially as a non-profit there's literally nothing in it for us but just to see everybody's face and to see what we've built and Where we're going and kind of keep trying to push everybody to kind of grow With their game and then get them into provincials and nationals Yeah, like it's That's probably one of my favorite parts is actually sitting back and watching them Get excited about how how much better they've got from

Kindra (37:34)
things.

Matt (37:44)
the first week to the sixth week to the 12th week. Like you see your game grow and we get to see their game grow. And that's part of the excitement, I think for me for sure. And I think probably Kindra too.

Kindra (37:56)
That's one of them. For me, the biggest excitement is watching a community grow and sitting back on the sidelines and just watching people enjoy one another and enjoy the entire thing as a whole. That stuff fills my cup. This is why I do this. That stuff fuels me to continue on because it takes a lot of work and sacrifice at that.

Host (38:18)
And all those smiles and all the laughter and all that community in that moment in that space is there because you two created it. If you didn't create it, it'd be an empty spot right there. That's neat. Yeah, that's something that's really cool. And it gives so much back to the community. It's just another thing that adds to the city.

Kindra (38:39)
How many

things can you say that you can be whatever age you are, whatever capacity you are, you can go joy? Exactly. Which is pretty special. Yeah. Like you can't play pickleball without like you can't have bad knees and play pickleball. You. Right. You can't curl and have bad knees or a bad rest or things like that. And Cornhole, you can probably manage a majority of that. I've seen people in wheelchairs and in knee braces and all sorts of. Yes. Yeah.

Host (38:53)
Not really.

Do you have any other things that like kind of stick out?

Kindra (39:11)
Chris, me, Jenny, Kevin, Marnie, Nicole are all going to nationals, which is in Helpe, Beaumont, Alberta. So a small little town outside Edmonton, if you will. And usually

Nationals and provincials and things like that are usually held at curling rinks because that's big enough to house us because there's usually 20 courts set up to be able to hold the tournament and provincials usually last three days and nationals last five days.

Host (39:41)
Okay, wait, so if you're in a nationals, that means you qualified in provincials?

Kindra (39:45)
Yes, yes. It's a point system. So, provincials doesn't necessarily require a point system, but nationals does.

Matt (39:55)
Okay. Anybody can play the provincials.

Host (39:57)
Do to win provincials to get to national?

Matt (39:59)
No,

Kindra (40:00)
No,

it's a system. So it's not about winning and losing or those those type of things. It's a matter of points that you accumulate through play through them. That's correct. exactly. So every night that you play, you accumulate points that go towards your provincials and nationals and where you rank in Canada. So if you're a eager beaver or you're from Saskatchewan where they can play seven days a week.

Host (40:09)
season ⁓

Kindra (40:23)
You can go ahead and rack up points and then you're going to be in more elite levels just because of your point level.

Host (40:28)
it's not an average to the number of games you've played.

Kindra (40:31)
No.

Matt (40:32)
How good you play. So the way that we kind of base your tiers and stuff on is by your PPR. It's called points per round. so it's your average of how many points you score in every round that you've played.

So I like there's people that have played like 30,000 rounds and so they've obviously have a better idea of where their PPR is. But as we play throughout the league and stuff, that's how we find out where we have our kind of better players and lower players. And that's how we base everything. okay. And that's how you

Kindra (41:01)
are on different

like different numbers. How do you say that percentage? It's not percentages. It's more your PPR, whether you have your average, if your average is six points per round or whatever, then you're you're in tier blah, blah, blah, because of the amount of bags you can consistently get on their scoring that you can consistently get. so then it puts you in either tier three for. Thank you.

Matt (41:28)
or five.

Host (41:30)
Yeah. Okay, so it is per... it's kind of like a golf handicap, yeah. Yeah, okay. So... interesting.

Matt (41:33)
Yeah, the same kind of thing.

And then we have different divisions. Like there is a singles division. Then there's a mixed doubles division. There's an open doubles division. There's I think we have a men's doubles this year and a ladies doubles this year. Nationals. ⁓

Host (41:51)
But you don't

have to like travel to a provincial tournament to go to nationals.

Matt (41:56)
Not necessarily if you have to play in the league basically.

Host (41:59)
Yeah,

okay.

Kindra (41:59)
That's

where you collect your points and you can travel to other leagues and play like there are people who will travel just to play cornhole with other competitors

Host (42:08)
I could see that, that would be fun. Like you're on the coast for family vacation and you go find a night.

Kindra (42:14)
Exactly.

went to Regina at beginning of May to play in a ladies tournament that was the first ever cornhole tournament for just Pierre Ladies and it was all across Canada. So there was a hundred ladies from across Canada that came together to play in a tournament called Lady Boss of the Toss. It was in Regina, Saskatchewan and it was a good time. It was super cool to see because I went to Nationals last year and that was my first year of ever doing that. So it was super neat to see those people back and

continue developing those relationships with people from all over Canada. It was really neat to do.

Of course you do. Sure, sure. And then there's tournament jerseys and provincial jerseys and yeah, yeah. You show up like we have for BC, Saskatchewan, well, all the provinces do basically the same thing where when you go to nationals, people will wear their provincial swag and to show. you're yeah, you're representing. Yeah. Yeah. So, OK, it's pretty fun. And then seeing those people year after year.

Matt (43:11)
BC here.

Kindra (43:17)
I got into Cornhole because of my best friend who's in Saskatchewan. We've always, because I moved out here in the Okanagan in 97, but my best friend, I've had her since I was 10 years old. And we've always found over all these years ways to stay connected. And so I went to Saskatchewan a couple years ago, well, I guess it was three years ago, four years ago, maybe. And I have a big thing because these are my people and I just, don't want them to change their lives when I come to visit. I just want to partake in your

It's a big deal for me. Don't stop what you're doing. Just take me along. I just want to see what you're up to. I want to be a part of you. And my best friend, her name's Crystal. And so she was going to play cornhole one night and I was like, what is this? Like I grew up with her as a bowler or a softball player or things like this. this is my first rodeo following Crystal around playing sports.

Host (44:10)
I'm sorry.

Kindra (44:11)
sitting there and I'm like watching this and I'm like watching the people and the joy that they have and the camaraderie and just the fun of it. And I was like, I think this is something I can be a part of. I'm a massage therapist. So I gave up my contact sports or I gave up softball and ultimate for as B I can't do anything contact because it's not worth risking my body. And so I came back and going, I can probably do that. That'd be an excellent way for us to stay connected because you travel with it. It's one way for us.

to see each other more than once a year, because we have a deal. Either I come to her one year or she comes to me the next. It is. Yeah, it's pretty special. And so this gets, we still have this commitment that we owe each other. You're either coming to me or I'm coming to you. But these are all bonus trips where we get to go and be together and see each other and share it. And I'm not competitive. She is, which is fine.

Host (44:45)
This is such a cool relationship.

Kindra (45:06)
I went to nationals last year, not because I thought that I was worthy of it, but I got to hang out with her. So it was wonderful. Exactly. Yeah, it was wonderful. It was a great experience. That's kind of how I got into it. So it's pretty neat to see stuff grow and see her do stuff in Saskatchewan, because like Chris mentioned, they have the only venue in Canada, which they started with other people. And so it's like a it's like a

Host (45:12)
In the middle, right?

Kindra (45:33)
a map for us doing it here. Okay. So I have all the connections I need of how to build what they've done because that's the goal. That's the end goal. Yeah.

Host (45:42)
So do you get, does your whole family go with you when you go to nationals?

Matt (45:46)
no. My wife and I go, we leave the kids at home for nationals. That's our one kind of week a year that we get to go do our thing.

Host (45:50)
nice.

Well, Kizzie

said you brought your kids along, so I wasn't sure if they participated in Nationals.

Matt (46:00)
No, so in the league they've my son's seven and he started really This year was the first year really started throwing and every time we host the tournament He's like dad. Can I play can I play dad? Come on? Can I play and I it's right there because I kind of feel bad Teaming him up with somebody that's also new and it's not something that I can kind of choose So I kind of and he's my son so I put some

Host (46:23)
Yeah.

Matt (46:27)
pressure on them to be a little bit better. And once you can hit the board every time, then of course come on out. But the other side of that, I mean, I don't think anybody really cares if he's there missing the board. Yeah. So.

Host (46:42)
Well, I feel like your description of the folk or they would just be like ecstatic that there's young blood who's interested and wanted wants to partake. That's that's the vibe I'm getting like.

Matt (46:52)
Yeah, it is. But it's a long night for him too, because we start at six. We to about ten. So he could play a few rounds and then he's got to leave.

Host (47:01)
is that okay to like bring your kids and then skedaddle halfway through?

Matt (47:05)
Yeah, you can come and play and leave.

Host (47:07)
It doesn't mess up the night or?

Matt (47:10)
Well,

it kind of messes up with the way that the app works, but the more that we work with the app and score holio is amazing. They have people, they have a whole team that's basically just waiting in case something happens. ⁓ really? So we pay for a subscription so that we can have somebody kind of at our back in need. Like, my goodness, I just screwed this up. Can you fix it? And in a chat and they're just like, yeah, boom, boom, here you go. Get back to it. It is really.

Host (47:35)
That's pretty cool,

Matt (47:38)
And it's it's the only well not the only way but it makes running the cornhole tournaments so much easier All the tablets connect everything's connected to the app so we can have all the scoreboards up on TVs we can Essentially kind of do anything with in the app and then it's yeah, makes everything run so much smoother. That's cool. All the scores on a little

Host (47:45)
can imagine, yeah.

Matt (48:03)
Tablet that we have Punching the scores and it keeps track of how many points you have like how many bags you've had on the board How many bags you've had off the board? All the different stats and stuff that it can come up with is just unreal

Kindra (48:12)
average.

Host (48:16)
I think I might bring my eldest to check it out because that was my hesitation is it's so late at night on a school night you're like ⁓ but if you can leave halfway through yeah she's nine she could she could probably throw that bag far enough yeah yeah that'd be fun okay

Kindra (48:27)
Sure you can.

Matt (48:31)
100 % she could.

It's a lot of fun and we do have the odd weekend events during the winter. The summertime is more kind of weekends park play like more for fun just to try and promote try and promote build the game Get people to understand that there is a league in Kelowna

Host (48:50)
Yeah, and be visible. That's right. Because you have your side. You look professional. It's like, yeah. Well, you got the board. Some of you had your jerseys on last night. It looked pretty cool.

Kindra (48:54)
and see you.

Matt (48:57)
We try to.

Yeah, I think we bring a pretty cool kind of vibe and it's when people see one of the tournaments that we run It changes their whole idea of cornhole because they're like, okay, this is legitimate. This is a competitive thing like ⁓

Host (49:20)
do you all get together for, what did you say it was in the States? American ACL? Yeah. Do you all get together for like the championship ACL and watch?

Kindra (49:31)
Well, that's provincial. ACL. Yeah. ⁓

Matt (49:33)
we're all ccl

Host (49:36)
But it is CCL on TV though. That's what I mean. Like, you know, you get together, watch the Super Bowl. Yeah. Not yet. Bowl of your sport. You can all have a barbecue and all get together.

Kindra (49:40)
Not yet.

⁓

Matt (49:49)
We have live feeds on Facebook.

Kindra (49:51)
So I actually this weekend, this past weekend on Thursday night, I watched Crystal playing Saskatchewan, my girlfriend. watched her play on Thursday. They were doing Saskatchewan's doing their preventals this past weekend. So I watched her play in doubles on Thursday and then I watched her play in singles on Saturday morning because of live like Facebook feed on live. So I got to watch her. Yeah. sent her message. I was like, I'm super happy to watch you, but I also kind of feel like I'm creeping you.

Host (50:18)
How'd you miss that shot? You said she was really competitive. I could totally raz her. I'd imagine getting upset probably is not the... You probably want to be more in a zen mode.

Kindra (50:20)
Well, I know her. Yeah, she is.

I did a little bit. Yeah.

Matt (50:37)
⁓

it's like golf. If you're in your head, your game is totally gone.

Kindra (50:41)
Yeah,

there are people that play with earplugs in or their own music and don't talk during their focus. Absolutely. That's not uncommon to see at provincials or nationals because people who are serious about it want to stay focused because that's that's our game. Yeah, yeah. And that's fine. That's cool. That's fine. They're all walks of life.

Host (50:56)
edge.

Matt (50:56)
That top is it

Host (51:01)
Yeah.

I love.

Matt (51:02)
And then you can have a random just walk up and take everything out of nowhere.

Host (51:06)
Like your kid just had upside cider. ⁓ wait, upside. Yeah.

Matt (51:11)
Yeah, was upside. Yeah. And they were a family that I don't think it had ever really played before. So they kind of just seen the poster up there and came out. And I think they were just out for an afternoon. But.

Kindra (51:16)
I don't think

Host (51:24)
That's a cool little place over there, And they got that old Nintendo 64 or Nintendo game. Wait, not 64. Isn't it? Super Nintendo they got with all the games.

Matt (51:26)
Upside is beautiful.

Super Nintendo

⁓ It's a cool vibe there and the spot that they have beside it is just it's set up for cornhole

Kindra (51:42)
It

is. Perfect spot. Yeah. It's a wonderful venue. Very grateful, very gracious hosts as well.

Host (51:43)
Yeah, it is.

Matt (51:51)
So hopefully, yeah, this year, the league will grow and we can. I mean, our idea is eventually we're going to have our own space to host all these team building events and all that kind of stuff so that we can call it our space and that's around and.

Host (52:05)
Actually, then you'd be renting out your space for other startups, right?

Kindra (52:09)
That

would be great. There you go. Exactly. Which it would bring back to the community, which is then.

entire purpose of this as a non-profit is to bring something to the community and give back to it. So that would be great. If we can't do it monetarily, it'd be great to just be able to facilitate a space because Kelowna definitely lacks in that. To find affordable places and large enough places for people to do what they need to do. That's a thing. Yeah, it is a thing. We've, well, Chris spent spent four years before.

Matt (52:40)
trying to find a space or build the name or like because most of the spaces they want 500 bucks for an evening because it takes about a six hour

Kindra (52:47)
minimum 500 bucks. Yeah, had quotes on 2600 bucks a night. Yeah. So to find affordable spaces for a nonprofit is a big deal. It's really a big deal. And they are few and far between, especially for the amount of size that we need. You can get halls that have eight foot ceilings and they're 20 by 20. That's

Host (52:50)
That's all.

Kindra (53:12)
doesn't suit us, right? Yeah. it's a feat to find those places. They are rare.

Matt (53:19)
And then even the sponsors to try and find sponsorships and stuff around town for a sport they've never heard of. Yeah.

Kindra (53:24)
Yeah.

Host (53:25)
I can see that being challenging, ⁓

Kindra (53:28)
It's a thing.

Host (53:29)
Yeah, I was looking at you got Power Vac, you have a couple of them on your

Kindra (53:33)
B &L freight, have the dollar store.

Matt (53:37)
with more.

Mickey's and Ramada kind of sponsored us last year.

Kindra (53:41)
Yes,

did. Yeah, they gave us a fair amount of sponsorship for sure. What's the electrical company? Thank you. Wes Canna is in there too. got sponsorship from. It's electrical company. They do larger projects. I believe they're involved in the Parkinson Rec Center project. So they do large projects. That's within the interior. Yeah, yeah.

Matt (53:48)
West Canada.

Host (53:52)
What is Westcombe?

Hey

Matt (54:06)
Leave

the amount of ground they open.

Host (54:08)
When

you come down like Bernard to Birch and you and it opens up like because I went from beautiful fields and then all of sudden one day you drive by and you're like, ⁓ yeah.

Kindra (54:12)
⁓ Yeah.

Matt (54:21)
And you can believe they're not even putting in a cornhole space in there. I know. Yeah, what's up with that?

Host (54:26)
Very

rude.

Kindra (54:28)
We have an inside connection because he plays cornhole and that's basically when I talk about building that the relationships those are some of them same with any sponsor that we've had has been a cornhole player that is self-employed or somewhere in the ranks that has the ability to bring that forth to the business and that's how we've gained some sponsorship in our first year we were super successful

We had their first season where we had Kinsmen who they helped us out. they took all the financial responsibilities and all the things, which was very wonderful, but super helped us to be able to put our feet on the ground. And then once we got our nonprofit and our business opened, essentially our business account opened, then we could take that over. And then Kinsmen still supported us along our way to be able to gain funds with sponsorship and stuff like that to accumulate all our own equipment.

So on our first year, we were able to spend, think, I think it was somewhere over $6,000 in equipment buying because we bought our own boards, we bought cameras, we bought tablets and stands and all these things cost money, right? So we were able to take that. We did not roll any sort of profit by any way, or means, but we were able to accumulate some, some of our own stuff to move forward. So we're very thankful for all the, the

kindness we've gotten a long way from Kinsman, Revelry, Ramada, the Mickey's Pub, all of those people were key components to that as well as our sponsors.

Matt (55:57)
Yeah, because Kinsman provided us with the boards right off the bat. Yeah. Played on the Kinsman boards. bags.

Kindra (56:00)
Yeah, did. Yeah. our bags.

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're still they're still still helping us. They have volunteers that come out and do whatever they can to help make the game go well and the night to go smooth. And Scott from Kinsman still builds our posters for us for promotional stuff, which is great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're super grateful and super lucky to have

Host (56:04)
Thanks.

Did he make your logo too? You made that logo? That logo is awesome. He did that? He that. my gosh. He got some skill. I like it. Definitely looks like a pro made it.

Kindra (56:29)
Chris made our logo.

Matt (56:32)
Thank you.

Kindra (56:33)
Yeah.

Matt (56:37)
I wouldn't go that far. thank you.

Kindra (56:43)
fun.

Matt (56:44)
I like I kind of took the Rockets kind of logo because I wanted everything I think if you're in a city all your logos should kind of relate to the same kind of thing like I mean obviously the Ogopogo here yeah but like kind of that vibe I just makes it I think it makes you feel more a part of the community maybe I don't know I just wanted to have it kind of thing and so I rolled with that it took me

Kindra (57:07)
See you.

Matt (57:11)
This was the second logo. The first logo was pretty basic. It just kind of had a board and a couple of bags. And then, of course, looking on Facebook and Instagram and seeing all the different leagues throughout the states and then more and more leagues firing up in Canada and how cool their logos were. was like, all right, we've got to step this up.

Host (57:26)
Gotta up my...

Well, you did a really nice job. Well, is there anything else you want to touch on or? Can't thank you enough for coming on.

Matt (57:30)
It looks good.

Thank you.

Kindra (57:38)
for having it. need more.

Fall league, we definitely need more participants. It's what's going to keep us surviving because we do have a space and we do have to pay for it. And we have a budget, obviously. Play. Well, yeah, or either or or just come check us out because it's something fun to do and easy enough to do. It's affordable to do.

Matt (58:01)
Where else can you go in Kelowna for five hours for $25?

Host (58:06)
I was going ask how much is it? and drop. Drop is 25. And what is it for the?

Matt (58:08)
Top it is 25.

Kindra (58:12)
The season it's 180. That's not Yeah. So it's under 20 bucks to come play a night. can't even, you can't even do a drop in a gym for under 20 bucks.

Host (58:21)
⁓ yeah, that's pretty any and it's a long night. get a good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

Matt (58:26)
Solid fun time.

And that's kind of one of our, like Kindra was saying, we want to keep it affordable to people because we don't want it to be a thing where, well, I would come if I could afford it.

Kindra (58:42)
Financial barrier, I don't want to see. I'd rather have you come talk to me and have a conversation and let's talk about something. I I'd rather see that and you play and show up and bring something to the table than you not be able to.

Host (58:50)
Yeah.

Matt (58:58)
Bring a couple friends in next week and that makes up for it.

Kindra (59:00)
Yeah,

Host (59:02)
Be a

part of the community. Exactly.

Kindra (59:05)
if you're serious about it, absolutely come have a conversation with me if you can. If you can house a conversation with me and then you're with it.

Host (59:10)
You're an easy one to talk to. I feel like... did say don't mess with you. So I do feel the other side of you that could come out.

Matt (59:11)
Probably.

Kindra (59:15)
You'd be surprised. ⁓

Depends on them, not me.

Matt (59:25)
What's

it say on your cornhole card?

Kindra (59:27)
Do have a name? What is it? Wrangler of the herd. I think that's my official title. yes, it is. Yes. I rally everybody. ⁓

Host (59:28)
car. ⁓

Matt (59:32)
Yeah, I think so.

Host (59:34)
laughter

Matt (59:41)
keeps

everything moving forward instead of just in every direction. No, we're like this. We're just all over the

Host (59:44)
Instead of idle.

I

like you wrangled the herd.

Kindra (59:52)
I wrangled her and out of everybody, think I have the most business sense and the experience with it. So I bring that forward and what I do.

Host (1:00:00)
Yeah.

Matt (1:00:01)
Yeah, because we have a lot of crazy ideas and she's like, okay, but step one here

Kindra (1:00:07)
I'm just

Host (1:00:08)
Hey.

Kindra (1:00:09)
gonna navigate.

Host (1:00:11)
She was wrangling earlier in the podcast, think, with some of the ideas.

Kindra (1:00:15)
It happens. It happens. I do it in board meetings too. do you? Of course I do.

Host (1:00:20)
You

Matt (1:00:21)
I lead the meetings when she's out of the picture.

Kindra (1:00:23)
Just gotta rally it back in otherwise people go off just like we are right now

Host (1:00:28)
point of a podcast.

This is the fun part. The laughter and the just shooting the you know what.

Kindra (1:00:33)
We

love what we do though. It's been really cool meeting people and finding my sense of community too. It has been a mind blowing for my life and I'm ecstatic about it. Yeah. Yeah.

Host (1:00:46)
Very

cool.

Matt (1:00:46)
Well, it is neat like for my kids especially because I mean I'm obviously the running stuff my wife's kind of all over the place too and that the whole community comes together my sister comes she plays in Kamloops she'll come up with her son he's just over one years old year old like random people come up and hey I'll hold them while you play like

Host (1:01:05)
I love that. It's your village, right?

Matt (1:01:07)
Full.

Kindra (1:01:08)
all

need villages, not just children. All of us need a village. Yeah. big believer in that.

Matt (1:01:13)
And then as

they grow up, they know all these people and all these people know them. And then it's kind of your eyes in the city on your kids with the community and everything. in a big city, well, big city like Kelowna. But there's always there's always somebody that knows your kid because you know him from Cornhole and even countrywide. Like I have people in Ontario that.

The very first Nationals was in Ontario and I met a bunch of people over there when we went. And to this day, I see him once a year, if once a year, and it's like you've never left. that's such I've hung out with him in person for like all of maybe 10 hours. Yeah. ⁓

Host (1:01:49)
you got that connection, right? Yeah.

this is cool. This is really cool. Yeah, they've definitely inspired me to take the family out.

Matt (1:01:54)
Yeah, it's pretty neat. I'm not gonna lie.

There.

Hey, if we get one out of this.

Kindra (1:02:03)
We'll take one by one by one. That's the whole I that to Chris at the beginning when I was like, okay, well, after we finished our

Matt (1:02:07)
You're

Kindra (1:02:13)
League play, I was like, this is we're hammering hammering promotional stuff. If whatever we do, if we get one at a time, that just means we have to work twice as hard to accumulate enough people for fall because we did well last year. But when you're opening up two nights, people have to decide if they're going to come one night or two nights or whatever they're going to do. So you need to grow. And so you have to put yourself out there. You have to push it just like you've seen last night in the park. We had one person off of Facebook show up.

where there was supposed to be three, one girl texted me, said she got a last minute work thing so she couldn't come, but one did. And I was like, well, if that's what that was, then it was worth it all.

Host (1:02:52)
every once in a while, that one will then bring in a couple more. It's like the podcast growing. One at a time.

Kindra (1:02:58)
If you've lived in Kelowna for any period of time, understand it is a word of mouth. Kelowna is very much that community. So you have to harbor it and embrace it or you're not going to survive it as far as I'm concerned.

Host (1:03:12)
I've definitely learned though is that if there's one thing that's for sure is through the podcast is how much support there is for each other's little small businesses. It's incredible.

Kindra (1:03:23)
Yes, it's

full of it. So they all want to promote each other and be a part of it. I went to a thing at Okanagan Lifestyles. Is that the brand? Is that the brand? Yeah.

Host (1:03:38)
Are they the ones that say like like Okanagan style?

Kindra (1:03:41)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I went to an event there where they were doing... I'm probably going to mess this up, but they were doing like a collective...

How do I say that?

It was a number of events where it's based on ideas and they do talk. So they collect three or four people who are willing to do a talk on stuff. And so I went to this event that was talking about community and vulnerability essentially. And it was really neat to see and all these people that participated in it. It's an open concept. I can't remember the app, but

You get to participate through an app and it's all anonymous. And so they'll ask the audience questions and you can go ahead and be your vulnerable self with an anonymous post. And then it shows up on the screen with the 40 or 50 people who are answering, but you don't know who's saying what, but it's neat to see a collective of people talk. And it was, it was a really cool experience. And I went with my girlfriend who

She drags me to all sorts of random stuff and she had to leave and I fully said at the beginning of the night, I was like, I'm going to leave with you whenever you go, let me know. And then she looks at me, she's like, okay, I'm ready to go. Are you? like, no, actually, I want to stay here. No, it was just a really cool event to be a part of and participating in this community of people. And you don't have to worry about being judged based on your vulnerable.

Matt (1:04:54)
I got seven more questions in.

Host (1:05:04)
You

can be truly honest, but live, honest and live.

Kindra (1:05:09)
Yes,

and it's collaborative because it's not just you who's answering this question. It's everybody in that room. It doesn't matter who you are, but it was neat to see that my vulnerabilities or my insecurities are the things that I answered in honesty, that I wasn't alone in that. So.

Host (1:05:25)
And you're probably looking around thinking, ⁓ I might be the only one. course.

Kindra (1:05:28)
And of

course, which that's life in a nutshell. Essentially, you think you're alone in this theory or you're alone in this and then you meet this community like cornhole and meet people that are like minded and have this passion too. And so to me, that was just a really neat way to see how another thing it all intermixes. And when you find your people and can collaborate that stuff matters.

So grab your people and do that.

Host (1:05:59)
That was beautifully, beautifully put. Thanks.

How do we go from there? Do you have an elegant tangent you'd like to add to the evening?

Kindra (1:06:05)
Go on, Raps.

Sorry.

Matt (1:06:14)
No, not so much.

Kindra (1:06:16)
Sorry. ⁓

Host (1:06:17)
Do not apologize. That was awesome. I loved it. Now I'm like, what was this event? I want to go to it.

Matt (1:06:23)
Remember I said at the beginning, kindra, cornhole.

Host (1:06:25)
you did too. sat down. Which there's irony there because you're the wrangler to keep us.

Kindra (1:06:33)
There is serious irony in that. Sure. I just love the journey it's been and all these little pieces that's got me to be where I am today and meeting the people that I have and enjoying the experience. I'm thrilled to be able to share it. Yeah. I go on tangents because of that.

Host (1:06:35)
Crap.

Matt (1:06:38)
That's all.

Host (1:06:52)
And that's what the podcast is all about is sharing your journey of and it kind of ties into what you were saying where you don't you don't realize like the other people in the room and they're feeling the same thing and the big thing with the podcast is all these journeys you you walk by these businesses you go into these businesses and every it feels like everybody's just got it all together you know and they're just ⁓ they were meant to do this but then when you hear their

story in their journey you're like you're like everybody else you know where yeah where they came from and now they ended up coming to Kelowna or maybe they were born here but all these jobs they had and how their life unfolded to get them to where they are this is so cool you know and it really makes you feel more appreciative of of the business

Kindra (1:07:31)
The Matrix of Life.

And knowing your community too. Yeah. all have a story, especially being small, self-employed people or small business people. Yeah. We all bring a story forth. absolutely. is just mine and that's just his and that's just yours. Yeah. But it's neat to be able to share it with people and so that there's a grander understanding about people, right? Yeah.

Matt (1:08:00)
It kind of personalizes it too. you know something about a person, you're going to be like, oh yeah, I'm going to go eat at his restaurant or I know all about you. Like we're best friends right now.

Kindra (1:08:02)
up

Yeah, or relate to it or

Host (1:08:12)
I'm ⁓

Kindra (1:08:14)
That's

the way the world has turned, for sure.

Host (1:08:17)
But it is very true. Even when I went to go pick up the beer, originally I went to a liquor store. And now that I've had a few on the podcast, like, well, have to. I know them now. But a lot of them don't have it canned in the store or whatnot. But there definitely was. None of these other beers mattered. None of them mattered. I'm like, need to grab a beer from some. I've met these people.

Matt (1:08:27)
Gotta support that.

Kindra (1:08:44)
And I want to score.

Matt (1:08:44)
I know them. Yeah!

Host (1:08:46)
We're

best friends now. No, but you know the journey behind the beer, right? And you're like, ⁓ there's this pull. There's this love that you want to support them directly, right?

Matt (1:08:58)
Well, it's like when you watch a famous person on TV or you watch a whole series and then all of sudden, I know this happened on Big Brother a few times where you see him in Cologne and you're just like, hey, oh, you don't know me. I just know you.

Host (1:09:09)
So true.

Matt (1:09:12)
I mean, I've never done that, but I've seen other people.

Host (1:09:15)
I feel like the way he just relived that moment, he might have done that. No, it's been really cool. Anyway, should we wrap it up? Okay. Well, thank you again for coming on. I appreciate

Kindra (1:09:21)
Get

Yeah.

Matt (1:09:32)
Thanks for having us. It's been great.