Building a Career in Pickleball

What does working full-time in pickleball really look like?This week on 99% Pickleball, Mari Humberg and Nikki Maldonado pull back the curtain on the very different careers they've built around the sport.Mari breaks down what life as a professional player requires beyond tournament weekends, from daily drilling and gym sessions to coaching, clinics, travel, sponsorships, content creation, and finding time for a life outside the sport. She also shares why she moved to Florida for pickleball and how she manages a career where training, competing, coaching, and traveling constantly overlap.Nikki shares the other side of the industry, including building a career through content, media, commentary, and community while navigating the pressure that comes with making social media part of your job.Together, they get candid about creating opportunities in a young sport, diversifying income, building personal brands, finding work-life balance, and what they hope their careers look like next.It's an inside look at what happens between the tournaments, posts, clinics, and podcast episodes, and the unconventional careers being built as pickleball continues to grow.