“The Horse’s Mouth with Tom McManus” is a unique talk show offering opinions and facts that come straight from the source. No gossip, no hearsay, no agendas; just topics straight from the Horse’s Mouth! His guests include top of the line, high profile figures in sports, news, entertainment, business and leaders in the community. He will tackle the hard subjects in society over a beer and laughs. Today our host, Tom McManus spoke with Laura Gainor and Coach Mark Duffner.
Laura Gainor
Founder & CEO at Pickleball In The Sun and Mahjong in the Sun
Website Address: www.pickleballinthesun.com
Short company description:
Pickleball in the Sun is a pickleball marketing agency and lifestyle brand celebrating the sport through travel, community, and storytelling. We connect brands, destinations, and players through experiential events, content, and partnerships that showcase pickleball as more than a game — it’s a lifestyle.
How do you define success?
I don’t define success by money. For me, success is being able to look back over the last six years and see how I helped bring pickleball into the media and marketing spotlight. I feel incredibly fortunate that when brands and businesses began searching for ways to enter America’s fastest-growing sport — even Googling “pickleball marketing” — I became someone people were encouraged to reach out to and learn from.
At the end of the day, I feel successful when people continue to call, collaborate, and trust me with their ideas and opportunities. And even more than that, success means my family is still deeply connected to what I do — being able to include them in my business, my travels, and the experiences that come with it.
That balance of impact, relationships, and family is what success looks like to me.
What lessons from sports have you applied to your personal life and career?
Pickleball has taught me the power of community and connection. It’s one of the most social sports out there, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been introduced to it in 2019 and eventually turn it into a business. After moving to Florida, I began playing nonstop, and through the sport I built both a close circle of friends and a professional network locally and nationally. Pickleball showed me how relationships grow naturally when people share an experience — and how opportunities can come from simply showing up consistently and being open to connection. It’s a sport I never expected would open so many doors for me, both on and off the court.
What strategies do you use to improve your performance?
One of my biggest strategies for improving performance is embracing new tools and constantly learning how to use them well. Lately, that has meant leaning into AI as a way to extend my capabilities — almost like adding another employee to my team. There’s still so much to learn about using AI effectively, and I enjoy experimenting, refining my process, and figuring out how it can save time, improve creativity, and help me serve clients better. I also see value in sharing what I learn with others, so they can use these tools to work smarter and grow their own businesses and ideas. Staying curious and adaptable is what helps me continue to improve.
Can You Discuss a Time When You Had to Work with a Team to Achieve a Goal?
One example that stands out is working on experiential pickleball activations with major brands like Smirnoff and Gainbridge. These projects required close collaboration with multiple partners and agencies, each bringing different strengths — from creative production and brand strategy to operations and athlete engagement. My role was to contribute pickleball-specific expertise and help align the sport authentically with each brand’s goals, while trusting and integrating the talents of the broader team. Together, we created immersive, large-scale experiences that introduced pickleball to new audiences at major cultural moments like the Super Bowl, SXSW, and Formula 1 Miami. Those projects showed me how powerful teamwork can be when everyone’s skills are aligned around a shared goal: delivering an experience that feels both on-brand and meaningful for the audience.
The Daily News Network, Buzz Tv News, and DAILYBIZBRIEF highlight business professionals, nonprofits, veterans and community leaders on over 40 TV Segments including The Horse’s Mouth, Legacy of Leaders TV, Veterans Buzz TV, Finding Your Frequency, and Buzzworthy Businesses.
Teal, The Agency, powered by Client Focused Media, offers marketing agencies a full-service white-label solution to scale their services without the cost or complexity of building large in-house teams. Tailored for small and medium-sized agencies, Teal specializes in relationship-driven lead generation, advanced CRM workflows for personalized client engagement, and end-to-end project fulfillment. With powerful integrations like HighLevel, Stripe, and Zapier, Teal simplifies your operations while optimizing efficiency—saving you valuable time and resources. While other tools on the market like Vendasta, RocketDriver, and DashClicks, may require contracts, Teal provides flexible, no-contract pricing, giving you the freedom to grow on your terms. Ready to elevate your agency’s impact and efficiency? Explore how Teal can help you deliver exceptional results and better serve your clients. Apply on BeTeal.com today to start your journey toward becoming a marketing powerhouse by understanding digital marketing strategies for agencies, SEO best practices for marketing agencies and scaling a marketing agency.
