Braydon Unsicker shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Braydon, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I’m currently walking a path I found and enjoy, but there are times I let myself wander to help me find the path I want to walk on. If we don’t experiment and wander at times, we unintentionally find ourselves on a path we never wanted.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Braydon Unsicker, and I’m the founder of Pickleball Effect. I run an independent pickleball paddle review program that’s data driven and focused on helping players find the right paddle for them and why their gear performs the way it does. What makes it unique is that I personally test and measure everything, breaking past marketing claims to explain who a paddle is actually for. Right now, I’m focused on how to be ai search. Ai search has severely dropped my website views and reach. This has happened to a lot of review type companies that rely on website traffic to grow their audience.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Growing up, my dad was an entrepreneur and was always building something. I respected him a lot and admired his lifestyle, even though there were downsides to being the child of a busy entrepreneur. That mindset and way of living always stuck with me. He built many companies over his lifetime, with both successes and failures, but despite that, I was encouraged to take the traditional path of education and a steady job. I did, and it led me into a marketing role without much intention behind it. While I didn’t hate it, it wasn’t where I was meant to be. I wanted to build something and own something, but that’s hard to do, and it was only by chance that I found a different path that suits me much better.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
My youngest brother battled cancer for ten years and passed away when he was twenty. I don’t talk about it often because it feels sacred to me, but it’s such a defining part of my life that I believe what I learned from it can inspire others, as it did me. Those ten years were long and grueling, especially the last few. Even now, my throat tightens as I write this.
He had every reason to complain, but he never did. He was always more concerned about the people around him and moved through life with a smile and a joke. I try to live like that. Nothing matters more than the people around us, and there is always something to be grateful for. I love my people more deeply because of him, and when I find myself in a bad mental place, I think of my brother and it resets my perspective.
I don’t think I’ll ever be healed from his passing, and I don’t want to be. I want to feel that pain and remember him. But I’ve learned from it, and I carry that with me always.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
This one is easy for me: family, gratitude, and humility. As my business and wealth have grown, so have the demands on my time and the temptation to believe I got here on my own. That’s not true, and I can’t let it become true in how I live. I have to make time for what really matters to me, my family and relationships, and stay humble and grateful for the work that got me here. Those values are what built this life, and they shouldn’t change as it grows.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I think they would miss the connection I had with the community through my content and products. I’m a member of the community myself, and my work reflects what the community genuinely cares about and needs. I’m not just here to make a buck.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pickleballeffect.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickleballeffect/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braydon-unsicker-159a379b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pickleballeffect
Image Credits
Pickleball Effect
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
