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Private Club Radio Show
393: Charity, Community, and the Power of Giving Back w Colin Burns
In this episode, Colin Burns shares his behind-the-scenes journey of organizing the U.S. Open and what it takes to lead through high-pressure situations. He dives into the power of club retreats for building stronger teams, creating collaboration, and solving big challenges. Colin also highlights the incredible work of the Metropolitan Club Foundation, raising millions to support education and club employees in need. Plus, you’ll hear about his passion for the Gladney Cup, a charity event supporting adoption, and the life-changing stories behind it. Packed with leadership insights and inspiring moments, this episode is a must-listen for anyone in the private club world!
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show. The right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:In this episode with Colin Burns. I'm so stoked because I love chatting with really good humans, really good people. In the beginning of the episode we touch on when he and I connected a little bit deeper, which was at the NCAA conference for the National Club Championships, and he was chatting on how his club was hosting the US Open and the pandemic hit and they had us flip the script on everything, complete 180. And we talk about what goes into that. But then we pivot and we talk a lot about fundraising and giving back and being a person of service and really the importance of teamwork. Adapt Club Foundation has had on students, on people, on their community, on their clubs, and how much money they've raised and what they've done with it and he shares some stories of how his club has came together when there was a very tragic loss and what that meant to him and the club and just really shows what community is and what clubs are about. And then we also touch on the Gladney Cup. Colin's very involved in the Gladney Center for Adoption, which is a nonprofit that has helped over 33,000 adoptions since its inception and it was just a really great conversation and I really enjoyed my time speaking with Colin Burns.
Speaker 1:If you have not done so already, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter. Head on over to privateclubradiocom, just wait about five seconds and it pops up there. You can stay up to date on all of our latest releases and episodes as well. And also a big thank you to some of our show partners, which you're going to hear about a little bit more later on in the episode. But a huge shout out to kennes member vetting golf life navigators and our friends concert golf partners. Private club radio listeners. Let's welcome to the show. Colin burns, I really enjoyed your talk last year at the championship club conference, um oh yeah, that was yeah, that was a great conference.
Speaker 1:That was a really good conference. It was small, intimate. I love just everything about it. It was just like the people who wanted to be there wanted to be there. So it's like, even though it was maybe only what, like 20, 30 people, it was just like.
Speaker 2:I mean, tim Muesli came in from the Olympic Club in California, I was like wow, that's pretty impressive, and Kevin Posada was there from Augusta National. It was a nice collection and I agree it was really well done. Actually, you and I started hanging out talking a little bit, yeah, during the reception there.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. I think your big thing was it was the big tournament in 2020, and it kept getting pushed and it was all. It was chaos and you ended up making it happen.
Speaker 2:It was. It's funny, there was just a post, If you look up, a guy named David Atkins. He was a captain in the state police. He just posted a picture of himself holding the US Open trophy outside of the Wingfoot Clubhouse. And you know, we had to move it from June to September, and people don't realize that a big part of an event like that is the security element. So we're working with the governor's office, which controls the state police in New York, and so we had to basically take this plan, crumble it up, throw it in the garbage and then say now what are we going to do? And we had to set up a COVID testing site where we tested over 2000 people, sort of on a drive-by, drive-through basis. And so it was really a lesson, Danny, I think in teamwork, in believing that it could happen and working together to make it happen, you know we could have been wringing our hands going oh, you know, poor us. You know it didn't happen in June like we had planned, but instead we said okay, look, first of all number one, it's only the game of golf People. We were four miles from the epicenter of COVID. The ambulances were going nonstop, People we knew were dying and we said so let's first of all, let's keep this in context here, let's keep our perspective. And so that was number one. Number two we said look, let's just sort of incrementally figure this out. So we stopped production on all the, on all the tents and all the you know the. We sold forty five thousand tickets, so we stopped building the infrastructure.
Speaker 2:It was March 13th, we made the decision and then we basically went back to the drawing board and said how can we make this happen in spite of this worldwide epidemic? In spite of this worldwide epidemic? And we slowly, incrementally, kept chipping away at a plan and resubmitted, resubmitted, Worked with the USGA, worked with the folks in the NFL Augusta, because before you knew it, it was, you know, we'd gone from June. Next thing, you know, it was fall and we made it happen. It was really, it was a challenge, and yet it was an opportunity to work collectively and everyone sort of kept their egos at bay and it worked out really well. And we had. It was the first US Open.
Speaker 2:I think there were only two or three US Opens held in September to begin with, and it was the only Open ever held during a worldwide epidemic. And so we went from 45,000 spectators to zero spectators. And we had, you know, we had reserved hotel rooms, we reserved parking, we had done all I describe, imagine. So you're throwing this party for friends, right, For 200 friends, and you planned every detail and a month before you said, well, we can't do it. What are we going to do three months from now? It's going to be in a different season, right, June, September. Anyway, that was an interesting time.
Speaker 1:Limitations force creativity and you guys knocked it out of the park. Let's go back. Let's go back to in the very beginning. You were talking about what got you excited and you mentioned the fundraiser you guys are doing, and just the fundraising that you do at the Metropolitan CMAA. Let's talk about that more, like why? Why do you think you do more fundraising? What was there a maybe a tipping point as to like it wasn't a, it wasn't a collective, uh initiative, like what? What started that ball rolling with it? Did it just happen, naturally? Was it a focused thing? Was it like a conscious thing?
Speaker 2:I think it was one of those things where you have to give credit where credit's due. John Blatt, who was the long-serving general manager of Blind Brook Club, a very prestigious club in the area of Westchester, he felt that it was something we had to do. He had, you know he was you know, I think and I hate to use this term sort of the old timers had a different sense of charity. They'd lived through World War II, they had seen hard times, and he said you know, we need to do something. We all work in these very prestigious clubs and all of us are making a good living and our members are all making a good living. And so John had the idea to put together the Metropolitan Club Foundation, which started out as an idea, like so many things that come to fruition. And what will it be for? Well, it will be for education, it will be for good and welfare, the two primary purposes. So we got together, we formed a 501c3, and we began raising money. So we went from zero to today, where we have about.
Speaker 2:What year was this? You know it's funny, I just came across the file, let me see. So let's go back, it's gotta be. And you could ballpark it too. I got to Wingfoot in 1991. So call it around 1991, 1992.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. So like before, even like before, it was cool to be more hospitable and more, more giving and generous Even like before.
Speaker 2:It was cool to be more hospitable and more, more giving and generous. It was cool. And before, um, before and before, there's also this sense of FOMO. You know, we better do it because they're doing it. We just did it because we felt there was a need and and, and you know, at that point club management was really evolving from what was a pretty homespun kind of deal.
Speaker 2:As I said to you before, back then the typical sort of club manager was wearing the gray slacks, the blue blazer, the white shirt, the food stain tie, and they weren't really the administrators that we've become in today's world. So John Blatt who's still alive, I think John has run in like 15 New York marathons. He's an amazing man, he's incredible and he's Danish and he has this coif of white hair and he's just always wearing white shoes, blue double-breasted blazer very dashing and he's just a wonderful guy. And so he pulled together a group of us. I was a junior in the group back then, but I was at a very prestigious club and I had made a name for myself, and so we started out with basically zero dollars and today we manage about $3.5 million and one of the real turning points. I would certainly consider it a seminal moment was we had an employee at Wingfoot who had been stabbed to death upon his arrival at home. Nobody to this day knows what happened. His surviving spouse, rosa, and the two children, ariel and Paola, were babies and he was a very well-liked, beloved employee at Wingfoot. It was a brutal murder and it was something that shocked us.
Speaker 2:And this was the first time we really called on the Metropolitan Club Foundation to help from the good and welfare element of the pillars, the purposes, and we said clearly, this is a good and welfare situation. We raised so much money directly, indirectly. We had Wingfoot members donating to the foundation that was eventually used to help Rosa in her, basically in her survival, and it was one of those moments and we've used, matter of fact, we've interviewed the children, uriel in particular, who went out. You know, he went to a very prestigious boarding school. A brilliant young man went to Williams and he has actually spoken on our behalf. He changed their lives and that was one of those moments we said, wow, this thing really has tremendous value. Now, since then, you know, a local chef has passed away, somebody else's family member has passed away and we've always been there, so that's sort of the primary purpose.
Speaker 2:Second is education. So what we do is we will support the educational efforts of the Metropolitan Club Managers Association. So MCMA is here, mcf is here. There's some overlap with the boards, but we act independently. So MCMA will say you know, we really need to support young club managers. Let's create a scholarship program to send them to conference Boom. We'll do that where, thankfully, there have not been any significant welfare issues.
Speaker 2:So the fund has grown. We've managed it very responsibly. We have a great board of all really in the area, well-known, responsible managers, and it's funny. One of the funding elements is the vendor show that we do every year. You should come one year. It's actually a lot of fun. And so we have vendors, whether it's insurance or people selling fish or whatever it is, and I was there last year. It was funny. Last year was the first time I was there as not as a club manager, but representing GGA Partners, which is the executive search for people services, that company that I now work for, and so it was a lot of fun being on the other side, and so we raise a significant amount of money every year. It's very well attended and the Westchester chefs all cook. They prepare dinner for us afterwards and there's 200 or 300 people, maybe 400 people at it and it's really a lot of fun and there's a lot of goodwill and a lot of money that's raised that goes into the foundation.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Are there any initiatives or things that the money was used for that you're very proud of, or just happy? I don't know how I'm trying to phrase it, but like there has to be something that you've been able to change lives with. Because of this that you must be proud of.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll go back to the story of Arturo, who had been killed. So the years had passed, so he was brutally murdered outside, right outside of his home, after leaving work and the family was really desperate. It was, this was just out of nowhere. It was horrible. We arrived at the house shortly afterwards and it was still kind of a mess, without getting to traffic, and so the family didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2:And I have to give credit to the Wingfoot Golf Club membership, the money that was raised I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it that went into the hundreds, to the point where Rosa, who recently passed away, leaving the two surviving children who were now adults, she never even used the money that was raised. She was very, very responsible and frugal, and so here, so fast forward. So the years go by. Uriel, who was a baby, is now in high school. My son is now attending and it's his freshman orientation, is attending that same school, a very prestigious school, and Uriel sees me, he goes, mr Burns, he comes over, hugs me and starts crying and he said I've never had the chance to properly thank you and the club and the foundation for what you did. I had not seen him. You know time passed.
Speaker 2:Give me the chills man. It was. I remember it like it was yesterday and the people from the school were saying, wait, wait, how does Burns, who's brand new to the school, know Uriel, who's you know, one of the destined to be the valedictorian of the school? What's the connection? And here he is on my shoulder crying. We're talking and I explained to the head of the school. I said I didn't realize, I knew Uriel was here, but I had not seen him as a young adult, this fully grown person, and I said so. Here's a story, without getting into too much personal information, but we we were very helpful in his, in his upbringing and I don't think there's anything from a charitable perspective that that I've done that really rivals that. I mean, it was really. It impacted their lives significantly.
Speaker 1:That gave me the chills. That, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was, uh, it was a tough time and yet, um, it was one of those things that really brought people together. I mean the, the members who were at the funeral, who were at the mass, who contributed money. I mean rush limbaugh, you know the old, the old radio host. Yeah, was a member at the time and he called me up. He said Colin, I want to donate. And I said how much? He said no, and then he gave me the real number. I misunderstood him and you know, rush had that booming voice and it was people like him and many others who really came to the call, responded to the call. So that was one of those. So that's, it's a little bit sort of depressing thinking about that, even though there was a golden lining, if you will, silver lining, to the story.
Speaker 2:I think, beyond that, you know, you'll see multiple young people at the national conference, at the CMA, a world conference. You'll see them there on scholarship on behalf of the Metropolitan Club Foundation. There'll be allied associations who need money. We'll give to them as well if they're trying to. There's some type of initiative and it's funny. So now you know fast, you know. So now, beyond our initiative, this past Monday I was at the New Jersey Club Foundation event Really well attended.
Speaker 2:Hamilton Farm, beautifully done, and they've raised a bunch of money. And there they are writing checks for a local camp supporting children with particular challenges, autism being one of them. And so it's. And again, they did that not some sense of FOMO. They did it for the same reason we did because we just, you know, we're very privileged to work in these environments. We're very privileged to be able to be around people of such privilege. We work in a clean, safe, comfortable environment and, yeah, we have our difficulties dealing with committees and boards, but in the scheme of things, I think all of us in the club industry realize how really lucky we are. And how do you not give back after being blessed with these jobs that we've been given?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I didn't, yeah, that was yeah.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, so it's been, it's been one of the highlights of my life. You know the other thing that it not, that it's, it's, it doesn't relate to well.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't say that it does relate to club management. You know I'm on the board of the Gladney Center for Adoption what's called the Cup, and the Cup is a biannual event that we host at US Open venues. The Gladney Center for Adoption started in the late 1800s. They've been responsible for about 33,000 adoptions. People like Hugh Jackman, vera Wang, hoda, the Bush family have all adopted through the Gladney Center. The Cup is something that we started and was literally. This will give you chills as well. The first Cup was held one month after September 11th. The buildings in Wingfoot where I worked for 31 years is 45 minutes from Manhattan. Yeah, buildings are burning. The person who sponsored the event at Wingfoot was one of the first killed at Cantor Fitzgerald, a guy named Billy Minority, whose family we just honored this past year when we held the event at Paul DeSroll and Stephanie Minority. His wife had not been aware of the progress we had made with the Gladney Cup. And so it's a month after September 11th and we host the first Gladney Cup and since that first event we've raised $13 million on a net basis. We've been at Wingfoot twice now. I think it's three times now, now that I think about it.
Speaker 2:We were at Shinnecock, we were at Baltus Roll, the country club, and what's interesting is that there were club managers who at first said what's this thing? Gladney it's kind of an odd name but Edna Gladney was a woman who started it post-Civil War. There's a whole book that's been written about it, called the Orphan. Basically it was the orphan train that ran from Georgia to Texas. It was the orphan train that ran from Georgia to Texas. And so we've approached my very dear friend and beloved colleague, david Shagg, up at the Country Club, or Nick Conlon, who's at Shinnecock. These are people who you really should know. They're wonderful and when I first approached them, you know they're like you know what is this, you know what is this thing. And I would always have to say, by the way, we're paying, it's not a freebie, because you have to get that, because their eyes start to glaze over. And then they'd say, well, you know, it really doesn't, it's not a local charity. And, denny, every time the manager would say, well, they'd sort of put us on hold, they'd go back to their board and invariably there was somebody on their board or somebody within their club community who had adopted. Through Gladney, I mean 33,000 adoptions connects everybody.
Speaker 2:So this year we're going to Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. We try to move it back and forth across the country and so we'll be at Riviera. The Watanabe family was very supportive of our being there and we will sell out at a very high number, by the way, at $30,000 a foursome. We will sell out in 24 hours. It's a weekend event.
Speaker 2:It's spectacular and talk about a joy fest when you have 200 or 300 hundred people, sometimes four hundred people in a ballroom and all the gladi babies, no matter how old they are. They're called gladi babies and they all stand up and I get choked up thinking about it. I mean it's the stories of young women in particular who had really suffered in their childhood, had ended up pregnant unwanted, and the success that their babies have gone on to achieve and what it's done for them as well. It's really very moving. You'll have to look it up. As a matter of fact, on Good Morning America there was a male gay couple. They were featured on Good Morning America. They watched something on adoption. Next thing, you know, they're contacting Gladney and so the two gentlemen whose names I'm forgetting now and their beautiful Gladney son were on Good Morning America. Really. So that's my other real passion when it comes to charitable things is the new charitable giving is the is the Gladney Center for Adoption. You should look them up. It's a great group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm going to, definitely going to after this and I'll put a note to it in the show notes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what else do you want to talk about?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know this is. I think there's going to be one of those fun episodes where I'm just going to say Colin and I were just, I hit record and that was it no?
Speaker 1:I think that was just. I don't even know. I think I just wanted to talk to you. It's been, it's been a minute now, so so I think actually just that I think I'll leave it at that, okay, or meaning like that'll be just like a quick little, just like talking about the foundation, just giving back. It's a cool thing. Tell me about GGA part and this is, this is off. Yeah, tell me about GGA partners now and and when it comes to like what separates GGA from KKW and every other consultant out there.
Speaker 2:Now who does this? You know it's. I think one of the things that distinguishes us is the the depth of the practice. It's not just executive search, it's people services, it's strategic planning, master planning. You know it's a former, it's a group of former KPMG people who formed the company, so they have a very data-driven approach to things, very analytical. We recently hired Dr Eric Hutchinson, another guy. He's absolutely he is priceless.
Speaker 1:I met him at the NCA show, isn't he fabulous. He's a who.
Speaker 2:He is fabulous. He's a who. He is fabulous, he's brilliant. He's a riot MBA, phd and a riot on top of it. So he brings a lot of. He brings an analytical approach to when we do executive search.
Speaker 2:And the critical thing with executive search is finding the right fit. A kid like you can find 10 men and women who check all the boxes. They know how to do this, they know how to do this, they know how to do that, they know how to do this. But what's the fit right? It has to be the right cultural fit, it has to be the right feel, and that's one of the things we really drill down on. And besides that, I think it's a group of really I mean talk about feeling old. I mean it's a group of really smart young men and women who you know they've all worked. Some of them have worked at some major consulting houses, they've got advanced degrees. They're just, I mean, they're just really, really smart and sharp. And, as a matter of fact, I was just participating in a strategic planning session down in Manasquan River Golf Club then South Jersey, and one of the young men presented and at first I was like you know, I have to tell you I was blown away.
Speaker 1:Is that Ryan Brennan's club?
Speaker 2:Yes, Matter of fact, ryan is. Ryan has a position. I'm not sure if he's the president, but he spoke at the New Jersey Club Foundation event, so he must be. I don't know his position. I love Ryan. I don't know what his position is, so, yeah, it's Ryan's club he's a really great guy.
Speaker 1:Performing there next month, I think. Are you really?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's sort of my hometown, is it?
Speaker 1:Have you been to the Jersey Shore? It's been a minute, it's been a few years, probably three years. It's the best we should grab lunch or something before you should come to the show.
Speaker 2:No, no, I will come down. I have any excuse to get on the Garden State Parkway, get to exit 98. I know exactly where it is, you know. I always say, you know Bruce Springsteen. The most famous song Bruce Springsteen didn't write is called Jersey Girls. It was written by Tom Waits. And I always say to people one of the lyrics is down the shore everything's all right. And you know, you cross over that Manasquan Bridge, right where the golf club is, yeah, and it just takes on. I don't know. Life takes on. That salt air starts coming and people are barefoot. You see the sign for Jersey Mike's and you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's different than the Hamptons, it's cool, it's relaxed, it's very nonjudgmental. You can dress up, dress down, do what you want. It's a very you know. We went out to dinner. I stayed at oh what was? The baron's cove and we went to dinner and it's, it's the only place where they're. You know, it's like one of these. It's in Sag Harbor where $60 for a bread basket and it's, you know, shrimp cocktail is, you know, $38. Oh my.
Speaker 1:God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's the Hamptons. The shore is not like that, and so, yeah, I'll see you down there for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Let me see one of that. That's is Manny, a part of GGA.
Speaker 2:Manny's a part of GSI. I happen to love GSI. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, no the wrong G. All right, yeah, yeah, no, no the wrong G.
Speaker 2:So there I am with my youngest son, stefan, who I just dropped off at Indiana University, october 24th oh good, I'm around. I'll be back from France. I represent a club in France, by the way, called Vita Bon. That's another story. It's beautiful, ha ha beautiful. It's owned by a very wealthy, very kind individual and I organized some guest invitationals for them. It's in Provence, it's pretty special. So we're down the Jersey shore having dinner, stephan and I. Who do? We run into Manny and his family. So he's a really nice. He's a true gentleman.
Speaker 1:I like manny a lot yeah, I connected with him uh, I don't know if I invited him or sean did when we did our little poker thing at conference last year, but he loves poker, so we just like we. Oh, he like he. He drinks the juice hard, as do I. Uh, loves poker, I didn't know. Yeah, he, he and I bonded a lot over over poker instead, um, but yeah, so that's uh, he's, yeah, he's, he's yeah, I.
Speaker 2:I, I like him a lot. He was there, his daughter was there, his daughter's going to I think she said Kentucky, she, she, uh, he's an aspiring equestrian, I think, but anyway, it was great to see him. He's one of those people who, dude, you have competitors in life, right, and some of them they're competitors and you may not like Manny. The minute I saw him I said to Stefan, I've got to go say hello to Manny. Big hug, what's going on? He's a very old-fashioned Italian guy. I love that about him. He's got that, he's got this the way. Yep, yep, yep. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. But I'm very happy.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if you've come across Henry Delosier. He's sort of the dean, of sort of the club industry and he was the reason I joined GGA. I just I was always I would go to his talks and he just had this professorial, erudite way, very calm, and I said you know what I said, I like this guy. So, as I was looking around for things to do after, um, you know, after, uh, my, my 31 years at wingfoot ended, um, I talked to henry. You know I'm going to join this firm because I like him.
Speaker 2:You know, it wasn't, it wasn't very well researched. I had other opportunities. Yeah, it's been great, and he and I did a matter of fact, we, he and I, did an off-site because I like him, it wasn't very well researched. I had other opportunities. It's been great, and he and I did an off-site retreat, a board retreat, and it was boy. Just, you know, it's fun watching somebody who's really good at what they do and it was fun. I mean I participated, but really it was watching him and he's really good. So if you're ever at a conference, whether it's NCA or the big conference, cmaa, you should definitely attend some of the sessions.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely for sure. Are you going to be in Tampa?
Speaker 2:What's in Tampa?
Speaker 1:CMAA in February. Okay, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, but I'm going to see you in October.
Speaker 1:Oh, of course. Well, yeah, I just meant in general.
Speaker 2:I still I enjoy, I look for me. There's a lot of you. That's one of the beautiful things about this industry. It's made up primarily of really nice people who really do. I mean you've been to conferences now. I mean people really get along well and they like each other and it's a. It's a real. It's a real community which I'm still very happy to be a part of. Yeah, yeah, and you're lucky to be a part of it and we're lucky that to have you as a part of it.
Speaker 2:I still represent this club in Florida called Apogee. I'm not sure if you've heard of it. Yeah, so I was a COO immediately after Wingfoot, but I really didn't want to live in Florida. So I told the ownership group. I said, look, I'll continue on as an advisory role, doing membership basic introductions. And so I contacted a club I'll tell you who it was Anglebrook, which is in Westchester. It's privately owned, and Matt Sullivan. So I, who's the GM there. I said you know, we'd like to my colleague Greta and I would like to visit and oh, yeah, that'd be great. We'll sit down, we'll have lunch with the pro.
Speaker 2:The email he sent me brought tears to my eyes. He said I had forgotten. You know it's almost sad I had forgotten. I'm going to tell you right now I had forgotten that I'd met him. Hold on one second, hold on, matt. I had forgotten that I'd met him. I'm just going to tell you quickly.
Speaker 2:During my days as the editor-in-chief of Lynx Magazine a high-end golf, I know it's a high-end golf travel publication I found myself with access to some of the most intensively private clubs in the world, places I never dreamed that I'd have a chance to play. I started taking notice of what I was calling, by the way. This is kind of a cool. I like the way you put this the guy in the tie at these amazing clubs, places like National Golf League, garden City, pine Valley, augusta National and, of course, wfgc Wakefield Golf Club. He said during my first visit you were so kind and welcoming to me that it planted a seed in me that private club business is something I should take a look at and a way to make a great living. Several years later, 25 years later, you remain one of the handful of people I remember as keying my second career. Consider this a belated thank you. And then he went on to send me a separate text and I said first of all, embarrassed enough, I didn't remember meeting him, but I was always the guy on the floor. Danny, I was always.
Speaker 2:If you came to Wingfoot, I was in the middle of the grill room, I was at the front door. I had times where I had my office work, but then I had my. I wanted to be in the scrum of, I wanted to be in the middle of everything. And so he then sent me another note. He said the stability I found in my life, the career that I was able to make for myself. And I went, wow, make for myself.
Speaker 2:And I went, wow, I mean, that was really, but I love the way you put it the guy in the tie. I said that's a title for something, I'm not sure what. But the guy in the tie, and, and I was really, you know, it's like the young lady who's who's Molly is Molly, yeah, um, who's managing the, the, the beach club. You know, you, you touch people sometimes without even realizing it, and and so here it is, a 20, a belated 20, a 25 year belated, thank you note. And so we went up there yesterday and it was just, it was kind of, kind of a cool feeling that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so cool, it was fun, that is cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, it was fun. That is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:No, no go.
Speaker 2:I always just believed in being kind. I could be a very tough person to work for and work with. As a matter of fact, I just visited my former assistant general manager and I swear to you this is what it is. I go there up at Brooklawn Country Club it's a golf club, by the way, they have eight bowling lanes still. So I get to the front door and I've been to the club, but I always went through the golf shop. I get to the front door and, as I always do, I look, I look it is immaculate in order.
Speaker 2:He comes to the front door and he and I had a tough relationship. Working for me was never it wasn't always that fun because I could be very difficult and he walked through the doors coming out of the clubhouse. I said to him I am so proud of you. I said look at this. And he turned. He turned to his left, my right, he goes. You know, the rocking chairs are not exactly how I'd want them to be. I said, oh, I noticed, because they're a little bit. We go inside. It is immaculate. When I say immaculate, denny, it was as clean as a gorgeous estate home that had just been. And I said to him. It's all about the detail, because as you focus on the detail, everything else sort of lines up.
Speaker 1:I mean anyway, no, was I was when, was this? That was? Uh, no, I get what you mean because I so. Uh, one of my dad's companies is a facility cleaning company. So he has like 300 employees all over the country. It may I don't even know how big it is uh, like facility cleaning. So like that's part of my like background, like I grew up like, ever since I was like 16 stripped and waxed floors, clean, boom, boom, one of the first things I do. Actually, I did an episode on it and and that actually hurt, it was still one of like the lowest listened to episodes, but it was just, it was. It was a, it was a psa to club saying clean your vents.
Speaker 1:I don't know, if it's clean your vents, I think it's from going into like so many places and having to like count the vents for, like you know, the proposals and stuff. But I hate dirty vents because all it takes is is a, is a is a wand. Yeah, so it was clean your vents, especially when you first walk in like how, uh, but I actually take a photo of it. No, I didn't, I was going to, but it was a club, uh, did I? No, it was just like. It's just like in like the corners, in like wherever. It's just like there's dead flies or there's just like whatever. It's just like no one sees this. No one can take half an hour, an hour to do a little like detail work.
Speaker 2:I'm going to show you something. I'm not going to tell you where the club is. Look at this. That's their front door. Can you see it? That's disgusting and I don't know how to approach the manager, but I need to. And he's an old colleague and I'm saying to myself how does he not see it? He's taking all this pride in the club. I said to my colleague who I travel with, I'm like my head's about to explode because I love the guy. He's a great guy and I don't know. I mean, how would you approach that?
Speaker 1:Let's let me if he's a good friend, I think you just tell him like, hey, bud, hey, just a heads up. I love you, Don't take it the wrong way. Get a pressure washing crew in here. Pressure, what less than a thousand bucks makes the world of difference. I forget who was I talking to. Uh, it was a while ago, but it was talking about how, um, I think they were like interim managers could have been lee stall, I don't remember, yeah, but basically, like going in, especially like a new gm, fixing the most obvious things like the lights, the paint, the stuff that immediately people can like see when you come in, like I know, like, oh, I have so many pictures and videos of like going into clubs, like I'll like open the doors and like you know that that entrance. Or just like dirty mats, like get, get like a cintas account, or have like 10 different mats, like one per month.
Speaker 2:So your background right, doing that for your, for your father's business, sensitize you to it. We, we had a family restaurant that was on a holiday. We would do 800, a thousand people, three stories it was. You always saw, my grandparents were there. Bruce Willis worked there when he was in college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were telling me, and, and it was, I remember being with the, with the guy who was with the board of health, and he said to me this bathroom is cleaner than most restaurants kitchens. My grandmother, I push you the royal, the red royal vacuums. I was pushing one of those when I was I don't know, it was bigger than me, I was six years old. I have have four brothers. We used to clean the Tiffany style lamps with ammonia. I mean, I can still remember it was very. By the way, osha would have had a field day, right, we got, you know, we have five underage kids spraying ammonia and bleach and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:But it was such that was so ingrained in my head Like today I can't get the. You know there was a stain on the menu and it's still. I keep seeing it, even though it was a couple hours ago. So, anyway, so that's what the staff. So I would walk in, and this is what the staff hated and, by the way, this is another topic for you that may have some appeal is the female workforce, now the female GMs. I worked with two Latinas, one of them from Peru, one of them from the Dominican Republic. Both have gone on to have really good careers. Their work ethic, their style, their grace, their elegance.
Speaker 1:That is the future. There's something females and foreigners, uh, who? Uh, um. Oh, alfredo hildebrandt, do you know him? No, so you don't have to like, listen to them, but these are just like episodes that I've done.
Speaker 1:No, um but so so alfredo I, I randomly just messaged him because he just had the biggest smile on his face on his LinkedIn and he came over from Peru at 13. And he's like I got into clubs. He's like I knew. He's like the whole story just about in there kicking ass, being successful, not taking no for an answer, and just this like and it's that it's it's foreigners and females who have this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna start killing it. You're not gonna stop me. And here it's especially for like for someone else to, with that mentality, to come into our country like good for you, like that's what it's about, like that that that came out the wrong way, but like no, I got it you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:like, like, that's what it's about, and you have people here who yeah but their work ethic.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about work ethic, yeah, just, and they were fearless and they, they, their sense of hospitality second to none, um style talk about. I mean, I, my wife would laugh. She'd come to, my wife, would visit the club every once in a while. And there's lily little audrey hepburn, peruvian hair pulled back straight and a beautiful, you know, little size two. And then iliana, sort of the hoochie mama who, who the members adored you would think that the women would have their claws out with sort of the hot Dominican. Yep, they would line up to talk to Ileana because of this internal, this grace, this goodness that just emanated from her. So, the two queens of the castle this wing foot looks like a castle the two queens and I would be in the background somewhere, because who the hell wanted to talk to me? The short, fat Irish guy? They wanted to see the two and if they had to work 14 hours, they worked 14 hours and they were tough, tough on both the men and women who worked there.
Speaker 2:No question, when Ileana told me this story about how she was raised literally doing laundry on a riverbank with her mother beading clothes, because one day I said to her, somehow doing laundry, she goes. I hate doing laundry, I go. That was kind of a I go, she goes. This is how I was raised. I was six years old on a riverbank in the Dominican Republic and for days on end we would sit there beating clothes, washing them in a riverbank I go, no problem, I got it. And so you take that person, put them in a club environment boom, future of club management. And you'd have fun with some of the ladies in club management on the show.
Speaker 1:Have fun with some of the, some of the ladies and club management on the on, you know, on the show, oh, but it's. But it's these young, it's these hungry, like females and foreigners who are, I think, now seeing and I think clubs are seeing too like, oh, they're hungry and they're going to work harder and they're not entitled and they're not entitled?
Speaker 2:wow, no, they're. They're not jaded. You know what's funny we had? So we hired the first. I mean, I'll make a long story short we hired the first female woman of color executive chef in any Top 100 club and at the time so she'd been working there. She was a sous chef, she was, you know, she had various positions chef de cuisine and the executive chef left.
Speaker 2:I said to the board you have no option here. You have no option for several reasons. Number one you can't overlook her. She's a viable internal candidate. She is beloved by the members, gorgeous, she is Jamaican. She is a very talented cook. We look at she's, you know, 5'10". My wife adores her. And oh, here's, this is a fun picture. Here's the two of us. Oh, it's great. Yeah, I mean that's and that's. That's not posed. That's her and I. Just that's awesome, get it up, as we always did. And the board was a little bit stunned, like we're not going to do a search, we're not going to. I said no, you have to. It's the right thing to do. You have to give her the opportunity. She was covered by every industry magazine because of who she is, the faith that we had in her, and she's still at the club. We talk probably once a month and so between the two Latina queens, chrissy and Drake, my administrative assistant, carolina.
Speaker 1:Suma, who is the daughter of John.
Speaker 2:Suma, you, and at the club I was like you know, I said I'm just going to take a backseat here to the ladies, and it was. They bring so much to the workforce, I'm telling you you would, actually, you'd probably increase your following. Having, you know, having more women, I mean it's such a to me it's such a hot topic and I'm a big, big, big proponent. I really am. I think you know the old, fat white guys. You know not that they I mean we're, as we leave, they're going to fill our shoes, they're going to fill our shoes.
Speaker 2:And it's funny, when we do, when we do, executive search, unless we are explicitly told, because of the dynamic of the club, you know, unless it's a men's club, we'll say we will be including women in the search. There's no, we will be including women in the search. And it's funny how you gauge their response and some of them give a watch, you know, and you know that they're like, yeah, but we're including women and, by the way, we're also going to include African-Americans in the search. We're going to include people based upon merit. But they've, you know what they've, what they've done so far in the industry. They're bonafide and that's it.
Speaker 1:Hope you all enjoyed that episode. If you're enjoying the content, a like, share, subscribe, five star rating. Anything you can do to help move our channel forward means the absolute world and cost nothing. That's this episode. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity flip.
