Private Club Radio Show
Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the industry's weekly source for education, news, trends, and other current developments in the world of private clubs.
Hosted by the talented entertainer and industry expert, Denny Corby,
the podcast offers a unique perspective on the private club industry, featuring expert guests, product spotlights, predictions, and more.
Whether you're involved in a golf club management, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, or business clubs, the Private Club Radio Show is the essential podcast for
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Private Club Radio Show
372: From Valet to GM: A Journey of Perseverance and Innovation w/ Joe Smith
What if starting as a 15-year-old valet without a driver’s license could lead to becoming the General Manager of a prestigious golf and country club?
Join us as we unravel the incredible journey of Joe Smith on the Private Club Radio Show.
Joe's story is a masterclass in leadership, perseverance, and the value of continuous learning. We'll also hear from Joe Smith, whose rapid ascent from parking cars to managing food and beverage services underscores the transformative power of dedication and attention to detail.
Navigating professional achievements and personal challenges is no small feat, especially when faced with a company bankruptcy during a financial crisis or family health crises.
We discuss the fluidity of work-life balance and how accepting life's inherent imbalance can lead to better harmony, drawing on advice from endurance coaches and personal anecdotes.
As member expectations evolve, so too must club management practices. We explore how creativity in hiring, offering diverse activities, and extensive renovations can invigorate a nearly 40-year-old golf club. From a $5.5 million golf course overhaul to an ambitious clubhouse renovation, this episode highlights the necessity of adaptability and continuous learning in the ever-changing landscape of club management.
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I just I think you know leadership's a privilege and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. I've been reminded of that in various ways over the last year and you know for those, if I could send one message to the industry or to peers of mine, whether general managers or, you know, managers at various levels, it's that leadership is a privilege and you know we have to treat it as such. We, as leaders, we hold the livelihood of others. You know, in our, in our grasp, and we have to, we have to be responsible.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome to the private club radio show podcast, the industry source for news, trends, updates and conversations all in the world of private golf and country clubs. Whether you're an industry veteran or just stepping into the scene, welcome. We are glad you're here. This is the show where we go over any and all topics related to private golf and country clubs and I'm talking with my friend, josiah Smith Joe Smith, as he likes to go by, gm, coo of Countryside Golf and Country Club down in Naples, florida. And what a journey from a valet at a very young age to a GM at a young age. And just we talk all about his wild career he's had so far. But you know, a lot of the focus that our chat is touched on is you know how the focus on employee experience is parallel to also the member experience. We talk about that as well on other episodes of the show. But how important both of those are because if one, if the scale isn't weighed not a good thing. We talk about how there is work-life balance, but also accepting that life is naturally unbalanced and it's okay to be fluid and to maneuver and to adapt and go the way life takes you, sometimes Finding comfort in the unbalanced and really I would just even say my big takeaway and I believe he says it at the end it's leadership is a privilege and with that carries the responsibility of positively influencing others' lives. Me and Joe really clicked as well because we're both big learners of personal development and podcasts and books and all of that stuff and continuous development and podcasts and books and all of that stuff and continuous development and learning and just getting different perspectives. And, as you know, I'm a big fan of getting different perspectives and learning about different people and in the industry, which is why, hopefully, you're here listening to the show as well. But we also have some fun show partners and with them they bring different perspectives and different solutions to different issues or different problems or whatever you might be going through for you, your club, a friend's club. So real quick, quick shout out to some of our show partners. We have Kenneth's member vetting If you want to find out who your potential members are, the applicants who are trying to be a members of your club. If you're trying to find more, if you want to learn who they are as people and as characters, because character is you know what do they say. Character is who you are. When no one's looking, they're able to find the stuff when no one's looking and it's fact-based member vetting. You're going to get a ton more value and a ton more information than just your average background check and credit check. And if you want to make a fully educated membership decision, head on over to membervettingcom, set up a call with Paul Dank or someone from the team. It's going to be awesome. And if you're a leader and you want a free book from our friends at Kenes Member Vetting, reach out to me, hello at privateclubradiocom subject book and we'll make sure you get a free book, no strings attached. Membervettingcom.
Speaker 2:Now here is something really cool, especially if you're in the Sunbelt region or in a warmer climate. We have Golf Life Navigators. It is Zillow meets eHarmony for serious golf enthusiasts. It's advertising without advertising, marketing without marketing. It connects you with golf enthusiasts who are looking for their ideal dream club and it allows them to discover experience and secure their club membership and golf community home. And you only get linked up with the people who link up with you, who only match what you put on the platform. So if you want to learn more about golf life navigators, see how you can get on this platform to be in front of these people who are looking for their dream home communities. And if you're in a place that has a lot of other clubs, it's hard for people to choose, so why not help them choose? A head on over to golflifenavigatorscom. Set up a call with Jason or someone from the team, see if you guys are a good fit. We have our friends Concert Golf Partners, boutique owner-operators of private golf and country clubs nationwide. If you or your club is looking for some recapitalization, concertgolfpartnerscom. Set up a call. See if you guys are a good fit, preserve your club's legacy, enhance your club's amenities and see your membership thrive.
Speaker 2:And lastly, myself, the Denny Corby experience. There's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic. There's magic, mind reading and comedy, crowd work. It is so much fun, whether it's just for the adults, for an evening night out or family fun, for the whole gang. It is such a fun experience. It's a fun immersive experience that's throughout the entire evening, starting the moment people show up to the time they leave. If you want to learn a little bit more, head over to DennyCorbycom or you can reach out to me, denny Corby. That's that Private Club Radio listeners. Please welcome our friend Joe Smith. You got. You start off in a valet as a club.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is wild.
Speaker 1:Actually I started out if you go back to the beginning. I started out parking cars in Chicago and I didn't have a driver's license. I had a learner's permit. Were they that short-staffed? I had a learner's permit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, were they that short-staffed? You know the long story. No, the short story is I go to this restaurant for homecoming with my date and they had this kid out front parking cars and I was like that looks like a really cool job. So the next day I call the number on the sign and this guy answers the phone. His name's Pat and he goes. I said hey, are you hiring valets at DeMarco's? He's like yeah. He says how old are you? I said well, I'm 15. He goes do you have a learner's permit? I said yeah, he goes. When do you get your license? I said next month. He goes. Can you get a ride to work? I said yeah, he goes. I'll guarantee you 10 bucks an hour. If you work five hours, make 40 bucks. I'll throw 10 bucks in my mailbox. You can pick it up on Monday. You can work Fridays and Saturdays. Just tell me what you made over the weekend. And literally for six months I never met the guy.
Speaker 2:Only his mailbox.
Speaker 1:And it was, I mean, and then from there I went to another. I went to another valet company and, uh, uh, I was finishing high school and I, that was a, it was a big company in the city and, um, we had some really, and that was a big company in the city and we had some really good accounts. And I did that until I moved down here, until I moved to Florida, and then again I had some odd jobs. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was I liked the service aspect of valet and driving the cars was pretty cool too, but I just like the service aspect.
Speaker 1:I liked being that, um, first point of, of of interaction for the customers, and I liked, I liked I used to watch the restaurant and I would try and have their car waiting for them before they came out to give me a ticket, like it was was a game for me, and I liked to see their faces when they came out and they're like, oh, how'd you know? And I was just like, oh, you know, I'm good, like I. I watched and that's what got my foot in the door in the club business down here. And when I started down here I was. I think I was 18 or 19. So that so you know, 15 years old through, you know, through graduating high school. That was my entry into hospitality, that's awesome, that's awesome, so, so and then.
Speaker 2:So, now 18 valet, and then you got F&B manager at 22. So you raised fairly quick in a short amount of time, fairly quick in a short amount of time, so so, so, so how'd you get out of then valet? And then, how did that? Then, where did the actual like club management and all all that start?
Speaker 1:so I was working for a developer, um, at one of the clubs. They were clubs and communities that they were developing. I was that, I was the valet and um, this is I don't like telling this story cause I feel like I'm I'm bragging but I get called in the GM's office one day and again I'm like the lowest man on the totem pole and his name is uh, his name was Alan Berube. He calls me into his office and he's like, hey, he goes, we need to talk, he goes. I just got our member satisfaction scores and they rated the valet service better than everything else at the club. It's like people are coming to the club to get their car parked and if they have time, they're staying for dinner. Like, what are you doing out there? And I'm like I don't know, I'm just like I'm just providing service. You know, and he was the one, he, he reached out or he was like Joe, why don't you come into the dining room? Whatever you're doing out front, see if you can do it in the dining room. And I I was, I have had this path of just saying, yes, yeah, I'll try it, why not? What? What do I got to lose because I literally, at that time I literally had no idea what I wanted to do with my career. None, I didn't want to go to college. I tried college, I didn't last. I didn't like it, like I had no idea. So anyways, he moves me inside, I serve tables, I bartend uh, if it was slow in the dining room I'd still go outside and park cars Like I just had this, like whatever. And then you know how it is. Is is a position opens up. It was like hey, do you want to be like a shift supervisor? Sure, I'll give that a try. Do you want to be an assistant food and beverage manager? Sure, I'll try that.
Speaker 1:And at that point, when I had stepped into like entry level management so I was like 20, 21, 22. At that point I think I had pretty much decided that I wanted to make that a career. I liked all aspects of it and I was just working for this company. That was all about development and growing people from within and finding the right people and just putting them in a position, getting out of their way, but making sure they have the resources to succeed. And I was just one of those people who took advantage of all those resources and I wasn't going to fail and I had set a goal, for at some point I'd set a goal for myself to a career goal I wanted to be a GM before I turned 30.
Speaker 1:And I ended up working under a, under a guy who's still in the business down here. Bob Radins um sat with me and he took a GM job at the club I was at. I was the F&B director. I'd just gotten married and he's like well, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go? And I told him, I said I want to be a GM before I turn 30. And he goes. Okay, he goes, we can get you there. It's going to be hard work but we can get you there. We can get you there. It's going to be hard work but we can get you there. And next thing, I know I was 26 and I had a GM job at a yacht club up in Tampa working for the same company. And I just talked to Bob two days ago. I mean he's still like one of my mentors. You know he's grown. He's known me since day one, almost.
Speaker 2:Are there any things from at 26 that you learned that you're still using now?
Speaker 1:You know, the biggest thing at that time in my life. Well, it's twofold one professional, one personal. So the professional aspect was the company I was working with had filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. We were a home builder and this was in 2008, 2009. So the yeah, so we had gone through this massive downsizing. You know, we were on COD with our, with our vendors. Yet we were still surviving and the company did survive. We came out of bankruptcy, we went public again. It was, you know, it was a great story.
Speaker 1:But during that time, when I went up to Tampa, 26 years old, like wide eyed, like holy crap, like how am I going to figure this out? The experience that I gathered going through that at that young of age, I still draw upon Now. I drew upon my bankruptcy experience going into COVID, you know, and how, and all the, all the cost savings in the. You know cash, you know, you know manage your cash, like all of that unknown in bankruptcy I implemented here in the, in COVID, and at the time I look back at the time I felt like the world around me was ending, was ending, but you know that was whatever 15, 17 years ago. And going through COVID, I had a sense of listen. We can get through this. We're going to put some of these things in place. We can get through this so that, professionally, that was just an incredible experience that you would never get in a classroom.
Speaker 1:On a personal aspect, I moved away. I took that job in Tampa while my mom was down in Naples fighting cancer. She had been diagnosed in September. I took that job shortly thereafter and I moved away for eight months or so and she lost her battle within that time frame. So, personally, I say I try not to have any regrets. That's probably a regret that you know twofold she really wanted me to, she really want to see me be a GM, but doesn't matter, you know you can never get that time back.
Speaker 1:So, from a personal aspect, you know when people have things going on in their personal lives, I draw on that experience, you know pretty regularly, just in terms of like, the opportunities always going to come to you. In terms of like, the opportunity is always going to come to you and if it's in front of you right now and it's not the right time, for whatever reason, it'll come to you again. And in my case I ended up. The company brought me back down south so I could have some time with my mom before she passed. And I ended up as a GM a year later, at 27,. Again at a bigger property. So you know, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards, right.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the things where, again, going through that whole experience in hindsight, I was so laser focused but the opportunity to achieve my goal came back to me again and I and I did, I ultimately did. But those are, those are probably two of the biggest things that that you know, I remember. And then, mainly, in fact, I just had this conversation with someone today. In fact, I just had this conversation with someone today being in an environment where it is safe to fail, and that's the environment I was in through that period of my career, again being 26,. No college education like running a yacht club. I don't even know how to drive a boat Still I don't know how to drive a boat but I was in this environment where it was okay to fail as long as you learn from it. And that's an environment that I try and create and I create. I'm comfortable with that environment today only because I lived it in my 20s.
Speaker 2:So Yacht Club, how many people did you have staff?
Speaker 1:Employees. Yeah, that was a smaller one, I think about 50 there was a hundred marina all right.
Speaker 2:And then, at what point was shell point? Was that a shell point right after?
Speaker 1:no, shell point was um.
Speaker 2:Shell point was 10, 12 years later okay, and then what was in between that? Because at one point what you had? 400 employees that was. That was when I was at shell point yeah so okay, I was just trying to think of, like you know, how it goes from, like you know, yacht club to 400. I was like yo, that would have been a huge jump. Yeah, well there.
Speaker 1:Well, there was a club in between. So after I was at the Yacht Club I was with the same developer. I got brought back down to Naples and I ended up at a massive community in Fort Myers Pelican Preserve. It was an 1,100-acre 2 55 plus community. I had 100,000 square feet of amenities, 27 holes of golf, everything you can imagine. I had a wood shop, I had a sewing room, I had community garden plots, butterfly garden, like everything you can imagine, and that's where I finished my career with that company. So I was there for, let's see, seven years. I was at that property and that was big and I had anywhere between 100, 150 employees at that property. So I got recruited to Shell Point from that property.
Speaker 2:So there was an in-between. How do you prepare going from managing 100 to 400 people? There has to be a mental game, or were you just like buckle up?
Speaker 1:bud, we're going to do it. A lot of it was buckle up, but, again, you're never managing every employee, right? You know the? It doesn't matter, it's just a matter of scaling yourself. Whether you're managing, you know, 10 people or or 400 people, you're always managing your direct reports and if you are managing them the way you want, the way you expect them to manage others, it'll trickle down.
Speaker 1:You know, and the biggest thing for me, especially when I, when I was at Shell Point with you know again, 400 people, I tried. I never, I never, met everybody that was under my leadership. It was just, it was impossible met everybody that was under my leadership. It was impossible. But I always tried to make a point through the week, to have lunch in the employee break room and talk to my people to get a sense if how they interact with me is how those that reported to me directly interacted with them, directly interacted with them. So that's how I would try and scale my style and just try and build a, you know, congruent sense of management through, you know, through that many people In that situation. I only had four or five direct reports, but again, we had all these layers that trickled down. You know, and it's always about, like I said, whether it's 10 people or you know a thousand people. It's how you, you know, scale yourself through your direct reports, but it was overwhelming. I mean no question.
Speaker 2:To be at the forefront of that many people? Probably a bit of imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1:Probably a bit of imposter syndrome Still to this day.
Speaker 2:I don't think it ever goes away forefront of probably a bit of imposter syndrome, probably a bit of imposter syndrome, still to this day I don't think it ever goes away. No, no, it doesn't. So are there any? I don't know if the word strategies are the right, but you know you've done a really good job at member experience and ensuring high levels of member satisfaction and retention. Any strategies for that or things that you try to implement in your teams and the way that you lead and manage?
Speaker 1:It's going to sound cheesy and too simple but, it's the truth, and when this board recruited me, I told them flat out like I don't serve members and they're like their jaws dropped, they're like what? Like I don't serve members, I serve those that serve members, and I see the employee experience and the member experience as parallel, and whatever effort or initiatives or all the work we put into the member experience, it needs to be parallel and identical to what we put into the employee experience, and the rest takes care of itself. I'm not perfect at it, by no means, and I don't think any company is, but that is something that is at the forefront of my focus, and always has been, is we should be putting forth and having the same, wanting the same experience for our employees as we want for our members. And as long as, as leaders, we can put the focus on that, or keep that at the high, you know, at the top of our priority list, everything else falls into place.
Speaker 1:I truly believe that there's nothing that I do that is like that. I would sit here and say it's revolutionary. It's just, you know, knowing, making sure that your people know they're appreciated, that they look forward to coming to work, that they, they, they know they can talk to you at any point. They know they're not in the way of your day or they're bothering or they're bothersome to you. Just again, just they need to feel like they are just as important, if not more important, than the members. It takes two parties to create a club it's the membership and the employees.
Speaker 2:That's good. That's good. You're a busy dude, you do a lot, you work a lot. We can go on about. You know which we have prior to conversations and endurance, sports and bikes, and both motorcycles and regular bikes. Um, hip replaced at 40. That that's crazy. But what was it? One hip or both? Just one just working on my um both, just one, just one um wearing that thing down.
Speaker 1:How do you, how do you, how do you balance everything? Uh, that's a great, that's a great question. So I have given up on work-life balance. Um, I don't think it exists and I think I believe that balance in your life comes from accepting that life is naturally unbalanced. So my last endurance coach I really took this away from my experience with him. Former pro Ironman, he actually swam in the olympics for germany in like the 90s or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, real intense guy oh yeah he, he would say, like he had this, this theory of like, think of it as like the three-legged stool. That's your life and you just need to be fluid and with where your attention goes Right. So for me, like, perfect, like two years ago, my attention was you have, you've got, you know, three or four areas Right Work, family, faith and then yourself, right when, whatever that is, you know, maybe it's fitness, maybe it's reading. You know whatever you're doing for self-improvement is you know, maybe it's fitness, maybe it's reading. You know whatever you're you're doing for self-improvement, you know, um, and at various times of your life, cert, those areas are gonna need to require more of your attention and you just need to be able to acknowledge that and gravitate towards it. You know there may be.
Speaker 1:I was at a time in my life a couple years ago where I could put a lot of my intention into training, and I was. I was still working 40, 45 hours a week, I was training 20 hours a week, and I was. I was bringing my family into the training aspect. So you know, when I was training, on the weekends my wife and daughter were meeting me with nutrition and it was a family affair. You know. Now I'm in a time of my life where, you know, I've had to gravitate away from that somewhat and my attention is more at the club and we're going into the renovation, we're renovating the facilities and we're planning to reopen and restructure ourselves. And you know my dad's required a little bit more of my attention, so more energy goes, you know, towards that. You know, as he he needs some assistance in his, in his age and you know so I don't, I've given up and I, for the longest time I was, I would preach like work, life balance, work life balance.
Speaker 1:I don't think it exists and I think we spend so much time trying to find it and it's so elusive, especially in this business. But we need to be able to find comfort in being unbalanced, because that's what life is, you know. So it's really just a matter of you know, obviously you want to put the effort into yourself as much as you can, because you, I, I mean the only tool. I have to deal with everyone else, but you need to be able to also just get comfortable splitting your time and bringing your attention to where, where, where life needs it at any given, at any given moment. So I don, so I'm not balanced and far from it.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. What are some ways you keep learning and growing personally and professionally?
Speaker 1:You know I love. I mean there's so many books out there and I don't like to read. I have a hard time sitting still and reading. But you know I love podcasts. I've gotten into podcasts big time, especially when I was training so much I had so much time, you know, either on the bike or on a run. You know I could bang through some podcasts like you know. Like no, tomorrow I still make a point. But really I've enjoyed more, most recently interacting with other general managers and club managers.
Speaker 1:You know I've really made a point over the last year and a half or so to get active, more active on LinkedIn and really become more active in the CMAA and attending conferences and just having conversations with people. You know really put myself out there. I had someone say to me a couple of weeks ago we were having dinner and we were just talking about some of the content on LinkedIn and it's another local general general manager and she said I think you, we like interacting because you say so much of what we're thinking, like the rest of us are thinking and as soon as you open the door, it's just nice to interact and know that we're all thinking the same thing and we can have you know some back and forth on it, so that stuff like that helps me, helps thinking the same thing, and we can have you know some back and forth on it, so that stuff like that helps me, helps me learn, you know, and I, I mean I truly think that we can learn something from everybody, no matter what you know, regardless of who the person is. Everybody has something to share. And I'm still working on my CCM. One of these days I'm going to get it. Wait, you still don't have it. I thought you had it already. One of these days I'm going to get it. Wait, you still don't have it. I thought you had it already. No, Actually, I am going to test for it in November this year. I'm like two credits short. Oh, so close, yet so far. Well, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:The CMAA. You know, again, I've been in the business a long time. I've really only been active in the CMAA the last 10 or so years and I only started going to BMIs five or six years ago. The content in the BMIs is absolutely incredible. It is so incredible I've learned I mean, I've just I've learned so much and I've met so many people, and more so than what you learn in the classroom. I've met so many people that I've learned and continue to learn from that. To me is just that's been so rewarding.
Speaker 2:What do you think has been some of the biggest takeaways from the CMAA or from the BMIs? I know it might be difficult, but what would you say is maybe like one thing you've like learned like ah that was a great nugget, you know.
Speaker 1:One that's just constantly recurring for me is, regardless of the club, regardless of the stature, the level of club type of member, we all deal with the same exact things. Literally we all deal with the same exact things. Um, literally, like there's not a gm or a f and b director or a club man, like there's nobody that I've spoken to where I'm like, oh, I I've never dealt with, like we all deal with the same things. And that, to me, is always a good nugget because, um, you know, sometimes, especially when you're going through tough stuff, you're like why me, why am I dealing with this? And it's nice, it's comforting to know that someone else out there in the industry has dealt with it or is dealing with it, and that, to me, that comes back to me over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:That comes back to me over and over and over again. You're looking at yourself, your 18-year-old self. What do you tell them? You know the 18-year-old person who's working the valet at a club. What do you tell that person who's just doing it and figuring things out?
Speaker 1:This too shall pass. Keep going.
Speaker 2:Any trends you see in the club space, in the hospitality space, in the management space that you are keeping your eye on.
Speaker 1:That's a tough one. I think the industry is really shifting in terms of the member expectations, not only in the club atmosphere and the environment. I think it's starting to, and has been for some time, but continues to casualize. You know just the nature of a club and I think that leads into how members interact with employees and what their expectations are in the club. And then I think, the big thing that we see down here in south florida you know a lot of our clubs are tied or located within communities, so they're truly like lifestyle amenities.
Speaker 1:Um, and again, I spent 17 years with a developer and we folk, our whole business model was developing lifestyle golf centric communities. The last five years I was with them, we started to shift to more. It's not all about golf, it's about, you know, our member, and still I see this today the new members are yeah, golf is important, but I only want to play two days a week, not five days a week. What else is there? So it's a matter of um. Looking at your club, whether it's standalone or within a housing development or a gated community, is more well-rounded Like what is the total package? What is the variety of offerings? And it's not, it's not just about golf anymore. So that, I think, is really important and that continues to. I see that trend continuing to unfold and for us as managers especially you know I'd say managers my age or even older we need to put more effort and be more intentional about accepting that and being open to new requests or new trends or, you know, new sports or events or whatnot. I mean, I had members come to me 12 years ago about pickleball. I'd never heard of it before and I was like this sounds so stupid, like what is wrong with you people, and I had a full court basketball court in this community. They took me out to another community, showed me pickleball. We converted the basketball court into three pickleball courts and today I think they have like 16. And we're getting ready to put it in here. You know, and again, you know, 12 years ago I was 30 and I was like that's, that's ridiculous, you know, and now it's the fastest growing sport in the nation. I think stuff like that's going to continue to happen, as our members you know, the age of our members trend lower and their expectation is more is broader.
Speaker 1:One of the things we do here is we implemented it a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:We've started to put a lot of effort into events outside of our gates. So, like, what can we do? How can we get members thinking about countryside when they're not at countryside? So let's plan events. Let's take them kayaking and bring them lunch from the club. Let's take them to a football game on a bus and and do a tailgate and have the countryside branding and they book it through the club. It's something they would probably do on their own, but let's try and do it for them, to connect them, to keep them thinking about the club. And it's just. It added another tool to our toolkit for us to say oh, it's not just golf and dining, we have golf, we have tennis, we have bocce. We do off events outside of our gates. We're adding pickleball, we've got the resort pool. Like that, to me, is a trend that's been happening, uh slowly, over the last 10 or 12 years and I think that's just going to continue like that's the golden nugget straight at the end is that it?
Speaker 2:no, I don't know, I'd land this plane oh no, I was. I was just looking at the time. It was like, oh, that was just good though too, that's interesting too. So with that, how do you see the what's the vision, what's the landscape for club management? And then how do you see that evolving?
Speaker 1:Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Nope, no, no, so so here's what else you don't have to I got, I got, you, I got it, don't worry, I'm going to make, I'm going to edit this.
Speaker 2:So it sounds nice, or or maybe not, cause that was just funny.
Speaker 1:I'm all about. One takes um. No, honestly, I think um look for so long. Club management, especially general managers, came from one of two areas, right, your pga or your food and beverage guy. I think we need to be continuing to attract people who are just good people and creatives.
Speaker 1:To me, one of the best qualities you can hire for is creativity, like how different, how willing is someone to try something different? You know, does this person have blinders on or or not? How curious are they? Curiosity, to me, is so important in the, in the fact of like, is someone curious enough, curious enough to try something totally different? You know, do they think that way? Are they not your typical? Well, you know, I'm an old school food and beverage guy and we do a member welcome back, and we do a spring fling and we, you know you do all the New Year's Eve five course, 125 bucks. You know, and you know the traditional PGA thought process, and I'm not knocking either of those. I was, I came up through through one of those areas. But I just think, as we move forward, we we need to, we need to be aware of curious people and creative people. I think that is so important and that mold of. I'm not. I like to say I'm not your typical general manager. That mold of this, like you know, stuffy, tight, tight tie, you know like, call me Mr Smith. I think that's got to go by the wayside. We need to be able to connect more with our younger staff, be willing to extract the ideas from our staff, especially the young ones, the kids in their 20s, and your servers and your bartenders.
Speaker 1:What do you guys think our members want? What are you seeing out there? I just had lunch today with a former mentor of mine. He's a retired CEO of this developer and he's building food truck parks now as his business and it's the coolest concept. And one of the things we talked about at lunch was this past season at my club, clubhouse was under renovation. We were doing again. Just a creative thought that came from one of our employees let's do parking lot parties. So we literally brought in food trucks. We had members come down with beach chairs. 20 years ago, members at a club would be like I'm not sitting in a parking lot. Are you kidding me? My people are asking for us to continue this. After we finish our clubhouse our $14 million clubhouse Can we have parking lot parties? I'm like you guys know you're going to have a really nice clubhouse right Like that's a perfect example of just something so different off the wall.
Speaker 2:They have to accept parking lot parties as soon as they were doing trunk or treating, when they were allowing their kids to go trunk to trunk to get candy from strangers. I think that's when they were like, okay, yeah, we can tolerate a parking lot party at the club.
Speaker 1:It's just a different mentality.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's literally about, I just think everything, including the style of management, is shifting from that formal I hesitantly say stuffy atmosphere to really something more fun and relaxed and creative and, you know, different than what I mean, those of us. I mean, when I started in the in the industry, the club I was at was jackets and ties required. You know I you can't find that today down here anyways.
Speaker 2:Well, you're well, especially Florida, I mean. I'm sure there are still some, but there are even far fewer and further between as people are getting older, younger people, getting older and less. Well, and you know I've had the conversation on here and with other people. It's like you know, then also the conversation Some of the members' pair of jeans cost more than the suit and the tie and the whole combo.
Speaker 1:Do you know Robert Cerecci? Yeah, okay, so you know, robert was at Medina for like seven years. He left there, I think last year. Anyways, I was up in Chicago three, four years ago for Christmas and Robert's a friend of mine, so I'd reached out to him and I was like, hey, can we, can we meet up? And he hosted my family and I at at medina. We had lunch with him and of course I grew up not far from medina and I'm very familiar with the club. First question, robert was um, you know slacks and and collars, right, he goes, joe, he's like we, we allow jeans. Like times have changed, so come relaxed. Like times have changed. And that literally blew my mind. I hadn't even at the time, I hadn't even gotten them to accept denim here at this club. We do really we do now.
Speaker 1:But tasteful denim like yeah, no rips, no, no phrase, no tasteful denim one of my favorite lines.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tasteful denim. What else you got cooking? What else you got working on? What else has got you excited?
Speaker 1:oh man, um, a lot of my time right now is is, uh, is is in the club and planning for for where we're going here. You know it's a big project for this community, so tell us about the project.
Speaker 2:What you got cooking? How long has it been in the works? What's? Uh, you guys doing soup to nuts. What are we? What are we talking about?
Speaker 1:So this community is 37 years old 1,133 homes, 1,133 members. When I got here in 2018, they had just approved a $5.5 million golf course renovation. So I took them through. That project Turned out wonderful. I mean, it was really. It was needed.
Speaker 1:I mean, the golf course was nearly 40 years old and you know, greens were struggling, tees were struggling and we renovated the entire thing new irrigation, new drainage, the whole thing. We did a handful of odd and end renovations, um, but not small by any means. You know we spent a million dollars on our golf course maintenance facility um, sometime in like 2020, 2021. Um. We dealt with covid through that um, but beginning of 2020, we launched our study for what we're in the middle of right now this clubhouse renovation. So again, club was nearly 40 years old, same struggles that a lot of clubs have. You know. Kitchen was undersized, volume had increased. The chef that I brought on has been doing some incredible things. So, of course, the member engagement has been increasing. But you know we hit our capacity with what we were able to do in the kitchen and then you're you know you're at the peak and start trending towards the valley with satisfaction and it really all comes down to facilities.
Speaker 1:The building was aged. So we went through this two-year study on really what the members would like to see and what was palatable budget-wise and we landed on basically a full-fledged clubhouse renovation. We're adding about 8,000 square feet to the club. We've gutted it end-to-end. Every remaining concrete block wall, we've cut a hole in some former fashion and we've torn the two ends off the building. We've torn the two ends off the building. So at one end we're going to have a new indoor bar that'll 40 seats around the bar with a nice outdoor covered terrace, and on the other end we'll have an outdoor open air bar overlooking a resort pool.
Speaker 2:Oh, that'd be nice.
Speaker 1:So it's a big project. It's a milestone for the community and very much needed. My team and I are going through this exercise. We have been for the last year of really looking at every area of our operation and asking ourselves if we're doing it as effectively as we can be. And I've been telling them, you know, this is our chance Like this is a blank slate and we've got one chance to do this and let's. Let's be in this phase of questioning everything Like why do we-.
Speaker 2:From the, from the member on board, to every single part of-.
Speaker 1:Now's our chance Question it all. Why do we do this like that, why do we do that like this? Um, so a lot of kind of hypothetical discussions and and planning for the future. And you know, I just I want us to be successful and and it takes a lot of effort to do that. So it took a lot of effort to get us to where we're at with this project and it's I mean, it's really it's gonna. I believe, I truly believe, that this is going to put us on the map here locally, which is just great for the community.
Speaker 2:And you broke ground in March and you're hoping to have it finished when.
Speaker 1:We actually broke ground in November and we'll have it finished in March of 25.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's that Gotcha. Oh, that's, that's not too too bad.
Speaker 1:No, not bad, Not bad, no, but yeah it's, it's exciting. I've gone through a few, a few renovations and and some new construction.
Speaker 2:Um, but this is, this is a big one yeah, no, we'll have to do a follow-up and let us know how, uh, how, it all went. So now, so you're about, so what? You're about halfway there-ish. I'm going to go with math and visualizing things, but what's been good, bad part of the process? Now? What's it been like going through issues and things with renovations that were going on a year and a half ago, two years ago, aren't so relevant. Now, what's it been like for you and how do you keep it running as smooth as possible?
Speaker 1:You know, one of the biggest challenges for us, specific to construction, was some permitting delays and a lot of that's just due to all of the development that's happening down here in this area, collier County. So that's been a hurdle. With a building of this age. We had some structural surprises that we didn't know about when we started opening up walls. We expected some surprises, obviously, but you don't know what to expect. So there was some extensive pivoting that we had to do through the demo phase. But I mean, aside from that, it's you know it's gone fairly smooth on the construction side.
Speaker 1:On the operation side, you know, pulling together our temporary operating plan and what type of experience we were going to try and provide for our members, that was a hurdle and I'll tell you that my team here we came through our first season. We're going into our second season in the temporary facilities. They performed better than I ever could have expected. I mean we were, we were pulling off concerts for six, seven hundred people in the in the parking lot. You know we're bringing in food trucks. We're on top of serving lunch and dinner out of a, you know, a 28 foot kitchen trailer. Um, it's really a lot to be said for for what everyone's accomplished here.
Speaker 2:So and something they're all really excited for what's what's going to come?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, the community and the employees. And again, going back to what I was saying earlier, you know that, parallel with the members and the employees, you know you put all this effort into the club and most times 90% of the conversation you're having is what is it going to do for the member experience. But you know we put just as much effort into what is this going to do for the employee experience. Do we have break room facilities? Is the kitchen going to be set up right for them to do their jobs to the best of their ability? You know, are the bars set up right for our bartenders to be successful? You know it's the same. You know you've got to put in the effort for both parties and my employees. I can confidently say they are just as excited, if not more excited, than our members.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I'd like to hear that.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I've really enjoyed meeting you.
Speaker 2:Oh, edit, take that out, get out of here. Get this guy out of here, get him out of here.
Speaker 1:No man. This is great. I think leadership's a privilege and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. I've been reminded of that in various ways over the last year. One message to the industry, or to peers of mine, whether general managers or or you know, managers at various levels, it's that leadership is a privilege and you know we have to treat it as such. We, as leaders, we hold the livelihood of others. You know, in our, in our grasp, and we have to, we have to be responsible with it.
Speaker 2:Do you elaborate on that?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean member again, our members and our employees. You know we we have we have the ability to grow people, um, to influence people, influence their lives, good or bad, depending on how you interact. And nobody's perfect I'm not perfect by any means but we're all just people, we're all carrying things around that nobody realizes. You know, we've all got our demons or traumas or whatever we deal with outside of work and being in a leadership position to um, you know it's a privilege to have so much influence on the lives of others. It's not something to take lightly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when did that start hitting home for you, or have you always sort of felt that way?
Speaker 1:I always, I've always felt that way because I was just lucky enough to work with leaders who exhibited that type of mentality. You know, I I had so many experiences that were inner, you know, personal experiences that were intertwined with my professional career, as I was essentially growing up at one company and I was, I mean, I was shown so much empathy at various times. I was, I was, I mean, I just I just had, I was just surrounded by so many leaders who truly cared not only for my well-being personally and professionally, but just that I was okay, Are you okay? Everything okay, and that just you know, it just hit home. I just think. I think, as leaders, we have a duty to pay it forward.
Speaker 2:That's good. Thank you so much for being on, really really appreciate it, thanks for having me. Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. If you're enjoying the content like share, subscribe. Anything you can do to help move the channel forward means the world. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, head over to privateclubradiocom. Sign up for our newsletter and get early access to episodes and other things that we release. That's this episode. I'm your host, dan Korn. Until next time, catch on with Flippity Flip.
