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
anyone seeking valuable insights and information on the latest trends and developments in the private club industry.
Private Club Radio Show
429: Storytelling Meets Club Culture w/ Greg Surine
Most club professionals come from hospitality, golf, or business. Greg Surine’s path? A little more… creative.
From radio host to live performer to working at Conan O’Brien, Greg has spent his entire career mastering the art of storytelling and audience engagement.
Now, as Communications & Engagement Director at Shelter Harbor Golf Club, he’s bringing that same creative energy to private clubs helping shape brand identity, member engagement, and the overall club experience.
In this episode, we dive into:
🎤 What radio taught him about club communication and branding.
📊 How Shelter Harbor Golf Club achieved a 73 Net Promoter Score and what that actually means.
📰 Launching a club magazine from scratch and why it’s a game changer for member engagement.
📣 How private clubs can use storytelling to build stronger relationships with members.
🎭 Behind-the-scenes lessons from working at Conan O’Brien and how they apply to private clubs.
Greg brings humor, insight, and a completely fresh approach to club communications. This episode is packed with ideas on how to engage members in a way that actually works.
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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. This episode I am chatting with Greg Serene, and this is a doozy. Greg is a phenomenal person, a great human, and from radio, from Conan and live entertainment to private clubs, and is now communications and engagement director at Shelter Harbor Golf Club, which is really cool because they're a fairly new club, like right around 20 years old. And I asked Greg what's the common thread with all of it? You know what he told me Storytelling, because Greg has spent his entire career figuring out how to connect with audiences, whether it's through the radio waves, through live performances or club communications. Now he's using those skills to build stronger engagement, better branding and a club experience members cannot stop talking about. We dive into what radio taught him about member engagements how Shelter Harbor is using storytelling and branding to shape its identity as a young-ish club harbors, using storytelling and branding to shape its identity as a young-ish club. We talk about how they created a brand new magazine, launching a club magazine from scratch, why it matters and how it deepens member connections just for them and their club, and how that is killing it and how they're thriving with that. The secret behind their 73 net promoter score and how they ask for and actually use member feedback. We also talk about the wildest lessons he's learned from working at Conan O'Brien and how they apply the club management. So in this episode Greg brings humor, strategy and a really good, fresh approach to club communications. I am super stoked for this. It is so so, so, so good. Before we get to the episode, though, a quick shout out, a quick thanks to some of our show partners Kenneth's Member Vetting Members First, and Concert Golf Partners, as well as myself.
Speaker 1:The Denny Corby Experience. There's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic, mind reading and comedy. Guaranteed one of the most fun and engaging member event nights. You will have hands down. If you want to learn more, head on over to dennycorbycom. But enough about that. I cannot wait to dive into this episode. Private Club Radio listeners. Let's welcome to the show, greg Serene. I'm happy to be doing this interview because your background is like a greatest hits album, mean you have radio, live entertainment, golf, even conan. Um what? What's the common thread that ties all all of that together, man?
Speaker 2:um, I'm trying to think of a good way to ribbon it, but like, basically, like you are who you are, skills translate if there's a cuter way to say it it's probably everything matters, like I've always, like I went from you know I could tell you, you know, the quick run through is, is, is the biggest skill or the biggest takeaway from each industry or each experience or each man. Maybe I went to a job, didn't learn a lot on the job, but I learned a lot from my manager. I went to a job, didn't learn a lot on the job, but I learned a lot from my manager. And you know, honestly, if you have one to three huge lessons that you learn a year in life, that's a lot. I think we're all lucky to get one big lesson a year.
Speaker 2:So, building off those successes, really benchmarking with yourself, creating goals, seeing if you followed up on your, on the previous year's goals and um, you know, and skills are transferable where, like you know, you know if you learn, if you learn in radio, um, I, I went into radio to build my ego and it did the exact opposite, like, I'm sure you know that, um, and nothing has humbled me more than being a personality man. You figure out what you really mean, like you could be on the radio and you know you. I'll save my stories for when we hit record, no roll them out, baby, roll them out.
Speaker 2:I mean you pour your heart and soul into what you do on the air, day in, day out. Four-hour show on the radio, monday through Friday, and then you're pre-recording a weekend show for two stations. So I do seven shows a week, pouring my life, my heart and soul, my voice, my jokes, my stories, my humor, everything, my analysis, my personal music tastes. And people remember you just for the one time you messed up. They're like oh yeah, you're the guy that you know.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think of an example of so you're a communications and engagement director at Shelter Harbor Golf Club. What does that mean? What's that role entail and what gets you excited?
Speaker 2:Wow, so many good questions all wrapped into one. So being communications and engagement director at Shelter Harbor has been multifaceted. I would say branding has been a big part of it. We had to get our our brand up to speed. You know, our club is about 20 years old, so you know, think of it. Yeah, Think of a human being who's 20 years old. What would a human being be going through? You know they'd be trying to figure out who they are they'd be, you know, learning from things they did in the past, trying some new things, uh, but ultimately a lot.
Speaker 2:You know that's her. Um, yeah, I mean you'd start to figure out who you are, you start to cement some things, but you still have room to to grow and play with some other ideas. So one thing that we've nailed down is the branding, the brand voice, and one thing that we are still experimenting with is you know how do our members like to spend their time, what kind of events interest them the most, are there certain themes that work or don't work? And you know how do our members prefer to be communicated with. You know that, as someone who is adapting the radio format to a podcast, it's what someone's Instagram reel is someone else's five-day-old email. So how people interact with the information that we're delivering is very dynamic.
Speaker 2:So the day-to-day is all about putting myself in the member's shoes and imagining how they interact with the club and then customizing the best way that they want to receive that messaging. I want to make every member as informed as possible, because you kind of have to in the business believe that this is the best place they could possibly be spending their time. They should plan every social activity every weekend, every golf outing around the club. The club is the best place you could possibly be, so it's my job to try and deliver the information to them that empowers them to start with the club. If it's not a work thing, or if it's not a family-only thing, if it's their leisure time and their enjoyment, I want it to start at the club.
Speaker 1:What's been the biggest struggle? Trying to find and be that 20-year-old club, finding that brand. That's been what's been some of the struggles there.
Speaker 2:Because, because a lot of clubs and it didn't interrupt.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of clubs are, you know, are hundreds of years old, you know, 50 years, 100, and they're still struggling and trying to find it. You know, uh, I don't want to say maybe you might have it easier because you're a little bit younger, but like, what's been some of those struggles and how have you worked, worked through those as a team, and what's been the member feedback like?
Speaker 2:Ah, you nailed it, so feedback is for sure.
Speaker 1:I see what's in there, because the golf club.
Speaker 2:It's feedback is the culture of feedback we've created the club is unbelievable. So you know audra lucas, our general manager. She has opened us up and really embraced feedback to the next level, where, you know, every time they dine with us, they they have the opportunity to tell us how it went. Um, you know we're sending those automated. Uh, we send automated touches where, anytime they make a reservation, we follow up the next morning. Um, and you know the, the email is automated but the feedback's not.
Speaker 2:There's real people myself, you know, reading these surveys, seeing exactly how it went. You know there's an instant feedback form on the site that you can fill out at any time. You know, something as simple as hey, there's a door handle that's a little loose. Or, you know, I had a great experience with a team member I wanted to tell you about because they, you know, deserve a pat on the back. Feedback is a huge way that I've been able to tap into the mindset of each member.
Speaker 2:But then the challenge, like you mentioned, of a 20-year-old club. You know, not that long ago, you know, it was a pile of dirt and a trailer and they were building this thing from scratch. You know, they just had a vision and you know, I think, because it's so young. You know we all, everybody wants to shape it into the perfect club for exactly how they use the club. But not no two individuals are alike. So it's been a nice exercise to find out what we have in common. So it's been a nice exercise to find out what we have in common and you know, through the surveys, through the feedback, we do a big end-of-year survey as well on everything that's changed in the past 12 months.
Speaker 2:We try and measure year over year and the diversity of opinions we get is vast. It's almost every opinion is represented in some way, shape or form and it's a task to try and go through that and find out what the common themes are and really, really tapping into empathy and understanding, to say here are two people that have given you two completely different points of feedback. I think they're actually saying the same thing. You know, um, and there's other times where we try and cater. You know something that everyone's going to like and it, it, it's. You know, if we try a new event, someone thinks it didn't work at all and someone else says this is the best event you've ever had. You know, what do you do with that information? Um, it all matters. All that feedback matters.
Speaker 1:So have you found? Have you found a? How have you found how to ask for feedback? Like, have you adjusted wordings and phrases? Like, have you, have you gone through that process and is there anything that you can share? Like, are there any like words that maybe you used to use but now you switch to a different word or a phrase and, like, the feedback has either been more detailed or better Like, have you experienced any of that? Definitely.
Speaker 2:I think you know how would you rate or what did you think about? I think we've moved away from those. If there's something that we want hard data on, we'll go with satisfaction, completely satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Or sometimes I just put neutral, or somewhat satisfied, or completely unsatisfied, or somewhat unsatisfied, completely unsatisfied. And then I found that open-ended questions. You know it takes a little bit more time to, uh, to go through open-ended answers, you know, but we just say how, how did you feel about it, you know, and that just opens the door completely wide and it's a lot more to go through. If everything was a number out of five, it would be a lot easier to go through. And there are great AI tools out there that, you know, like, sentiment, analysisize these things and, um, you know, put myself in their shoes to really understand what they were feeling, more than any machine could tell me. So, um, yeah, we pay attention to every piece of feedback we get.
Speaker 1:It was um, uh at CMA a conference. I forget the woman's name, but she's uh pretty much in charge of feedback at uh ocean reef club and that's her like only is like satisfaction and like surveys and was just it was a whole session just on that. Uh, it was like I think it was like a 90 minute or I think I made it like 30 minutes and I was like I'm gonna go check out something else just because, like there's so much other stuff I wanted to do uh and get. But it was like fascinating stuff just about how they, how they ask for feedback, what type of feedback they try to get, and just on the surveys and the data and the analysis and how you know it's not always that first round. It takes a couple times sometimes to get that feedback. One of the examples she gave was um, they have uh like one of their most popular restaurants. Down there is this one little spot. There's no reservations, it's very casual, fun, whatever, always top rated.
Speaker 1:And then in the surveys members said they wanted a Mexican restaurant. So they built and made a Mexican restaurant. People hated it Because they have so many Mexican people who work there. It was authentic. Then when they redid the survey afterwards. All said and done, they wanted text mechs. Text mechs was like the word, so they really wanted text mechs. They kept just saying Mexican, but when they gave them Mexican, because that's what they thought that they wanted, it was a huge flop. But then they flipped and now it's you know working. They wanted. It was a huge flop, but then they flipped and now it's you know working. Well, but it was just this whole thing about feedback. It was, uh, it was, it was really good. Have you had any of those type of moments or any of those types of things? Obviously, not to that scale. A lot of clubs can't just build a Mexican restaurant on their property, but anything similar.
Speaker 2:Definitely Um, and and to that point it always makes sense to go a step further. The beauty of our club, you know we have around 300 member families and you can just contact them and ask them. Luckily, we have relationships with our members where we can, you know, go a step further. What did you mean by that? Or you know what would this be like to you? You just send them an individual email. But one example of that is, you know, casual dining, like you said, there's. You know we have one dining room, one restaurant, and there's a big push now for casual dining and it was identified in a big survey we did a couple of years ago that our members, you know, have an appetite for more casual dining and we thought we knew what that meant.
Speaker 2:And maybe everyone kind of has a picture of casual dining in their mind.
Speaker 2:But casual dining for some is flip-flops and casual dining for others is just no jacket for men, and that's a big scope. And you know, being on the beach but not on the beach, you know there's different opinions of you know how we want to dress, what we want our dress code to be and how you want to sit down for a meal and having one dining room. It's a lot of tastes and preferences to cater to in one space. So we went a step further. We said what does casual dining mean to you? And we're talking food, we're talking dress code, everything. Lay it all out there. And it was at that point you know in this last year's survey, that we went a step further and we folks let us know exactly what that meant to them. So some, you know, for some folks it was the type of food we're serving, it's got to be handheld. For other folks it was just I just don't want to make a reservation Some folks it was really about the dress code and some folks it was everything.
Speaker 1:So what was the major consensus or what did you take from that data and what are you using with it and what's the game plan with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're looking at. Is the dining room at our club always going to look the same? Should we do a bit of remodeling or is there some expansion we should look towards for the future? Know, do a bit of remodeling or should we? Is there some expansion we should look towards for the future? And if I had to boil every single comment, we got into one sentence it would be.
Speaker 2:Casual dining means to me that I roll in right off the golf course in a pair of shorts, no reservation, just my spouse and I. We sit down, we have a game on television and we enjoy a handheld meal. That's basically it. They want a burger, they want to watch the game. They don't want to make a reservation. So that's what it really all boils down to. Now you know some again. Some folks would love to walk up in their, in their bathing suit, right off the beach and flip-flops and maybe enjoy a drink out of a pineapple. Will that ever be a dining room? Maybe not, but hey, who's to say. Maybe we'll run a drink special or a theme night. If there is an appetite for something outside the box, we're always looking for ideas. We're not going to be the tiki bar, that's for sure. But if we could bring elements of that into something we already do and have some fun with it, that's another great place for that feedback to get put into action, even if it's not the consensus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was checking out your LinkedIn and in your 2023 net promoter score as 73. Oh yeah, what does that mean?
Speaker 2:Net promoter score. It's a very good industry standard to measure satisfaction. It's one question one to 10, how likely are you to recommend this brand to a friend or family member or colleague in some cases? So if you rated a one out of 10, you hated the experience. 10 out of 10, you love the experience. You would recommend your friends and family. And then it gets broken down further. So a nine and a 10, those are considered promoters. Those are people that their satisfaction is very high.
Speaker 2:If someone said, hey, you know, my wife and I are moving to the area we're looking at golf clubs, they'd be like, oh man, do I have a club for you? That would be those folks. Passive is between six and seven. So these are folks that you know we have a great experience there. Here's one or two issues we've had over the years, but overall it's a great place. We love it. I'd be happy to connect to you, but that's that's what we call a passive promoter.
Speaker 2:And then between one and six, these are folks that have a gripe. You know, maybe the club doesn't, for whatever reason. There's something about the club that doesn't serve them in the exact way that they would want to be served, and you know it doesn't mean that they're and maybe some of those folks are, you know, adding their name to the resignation list, and maybe other folks just lost a golf tournament last year that they're still upset about. I don't know. But you know, certainly in that, in that bucket, are legitimate concerns, and you know you don't want to ignore anyone. I mean you want to reward your promoters, you want to further engage your passive supporters to see, hey, you know, what could we be doing a little bit better? Because I see that you're having a good experience at the club, but clearly something's missing if it doesn't come to the top of your mind when someone you know is looking for a similar experience that you could connect them with, and if they're a detractor, we certainly want to know.
Speaker 2:You know what's going on, you know what's what's going on. You know what is it about this experience? It's falling short of your expectations in some way. So every piece of feedback is useful. Um, and then the score is calculated by you take the percentage of respondents that are, uh, sorry, you take the percentage of respondents that are promoters, so those nines and tens, and then you subtract the percentage of detractors. So that's, that's where the net comes from. And so what percentage do you have left If you take all your promoters, ignore the passives and subtract the detractors? We were at 73.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how are you getting, how are you getting that number? Are you like doing like secret bribes, like for extra tee times, like what do you, I do?
Speaker 2:my best. There's only so many very popular courts, there's only so many tee times to dole out. You know, now we do. We do an annual end of season survey and we just simply ask that question how likely are you, how likely are you to recommend Shelter Harbor Golf Club to a friend or family member? From one to ten? And then do the math.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're big on storytelling, do you have?
Speaker 2:any creative ways to get your members engaged. I'm starting to. So I've written a few articles for our in-house magazine, the cupola, um, and it's definitely focused on sort of the team member experience. It's. It's done a lot of highlighting our staff, um and what's so special about them, and now I'm trying to rope in, trying to rope in our members.
Speaker 2:So, uh, so we have a group at Shelter Harbor Golf Club called the Clowns and the name it's a men's league that's sort of self-organized, self-promoted, and they've called themselves the Clowns because it just came from a bad round of golf.
Speaker 2:Hey, we're playing like clowns out here. The name kind of stuck and it was a completely organic men's group that you know goes out on Thursdays and so I won't. I won't reveal his name, just in case he wants to have some mystique there. But you know I'm interviewing this member for the next edition of the cupola and you know everyone's known that this group has been there for years because it's their tea time on Thursday afternoons. But unless someone takes the time to ask, plays a round of golf with one of the gentlemen that plays in the group, you probably don't know the story of how it originated, how to get involved, what kind of format they play. So, taking a moment aside, outside of our necessary communications, our newsletters, our monthly, our weekly, our website, taking a step to write a magazine article, do an interview, go a little bit deeper and tell some of the stories that are just right below the surface waiting to be told and, you know, tapping into our amazing network of members that we have, and this magazine is different from the newsletter, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the magazine comes out twice a year spring and fall. Spring is designed to get us excited for the season ahead, and the fall it's sort of a look back and a celebration at the year we just had, and it's all feature stories. It's unique in that it's not right next to the calendar of events that we want you to sign up for.
Speaker 1:It's totally different.
Speaker 2:The call yeah, there's the call to action is really just love your club. It's just meant to instill some pride, inspire that good feeling and tell the stories that are existing right below the surface. So we on purpose. It's completely separate from our normal messaging of information and ways to engage with the club. Now it's engaging because you're learning more about your club and hopefully you ask the team member or the fellow member I had no idea that you started that group. I had no idea there was a garden, you know, behind the teaching center in the first hole. I didn't know that produce from Shelter Harbor won. I didn't know that we had the best green beans in Washington County, rhode Island, grown on property. How was I supposed to know that Did?
Speaker 2:you really we sure did.
Speaker 1:That was the episode title Best green beans in the biz.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Kat when did the idea for the magazine come from, where did that start and what was the process like? It takes people a lot of work just to do a damn newsletter, just to put out that. So this is just another bigger undertaking. So where did that idea come from and what was the process to get that started and what's been the member response to it?
Speaker 2:That's a great, great avenue there. So I work very closely with a board member who's had a long successful career in communications and he really challenges me to. You know he knows my backgrounds in journalism, he knows I have a little sense of humor, a little knack for storytelling and you know I think pride in the club is a huge goal for both of us. I mean, as soon as I got to the club, if you've ever been on property which you know, hopefully we get to do someday it's first of all, it's breathtaking from the moment you step on property. It's just such a cool place. But, like anywhere, if you spend every day there or a lot of time there, you get used to anything and I think having that perspective of what a unique place it is, all the members we have, all their life stories, their career experiences, the families they've raised, the place is just rich with storytelling. So we knew that the idea originated when there were three or four ideas that were just floating around the club that were like this has to be, like we could bring ESPN 30 for 30 here. You know, um, you know, like talking there, there was a story of you know of a member who, um, you know whose child had cancer and and you know they took time away from their, from their career to spend time with their child. In the process, you know, built a uh, built a simulator room in their home, you know, so that they could stay sharp on their golf game while they were attending to family duties. And um ended up coming out and like winning a big event and you know for how, how that, how that family time and how that you know time where everyone had to pull together in their household, how they brought that to the club, and that's a story that everyone can be touched by. And we're like there's got to be a way to tell stories like this. And it's not the only story. I mean we have every year there's an event called Crush Cancer where we raise money for the local cancer center at the Westerly Hospital, and there's a million of these stories that deserve to be told.
Speaker 2:And, like you said, there's so much else going on with um. You know your newsletters and your, your schedule of of communications all over the place where to just take some time, and you know it doesn't have to be 50 page magazine, you know you can. You know just 20, 25 pages, even with cover and table of contents and all that, some nice photography in there, and all of a sudden you've, you've got yourself a cover to cover, source of pride for for being a member of the club, and it just it just deepens the engagement because somebody you might, may have seen a hundred times and you know, maybe you shared a drink with at the bar and you know, maybe you were partnered up in an event a few years ago and but it just never got that deep because it's it's just recreation and it's it's a platform to tell the stories that, um, that deserve to be told.
Speaker 1:So how long from idea to creation did it take, like what, like how long? So once you finally, like you had the idea, how long until it was actually like you had the first one in hand. And then how long does each one take now? Because I'm sure it's only two a year, so I'm sure it's probably becoming a bit of an easier process, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, this is our first year doing it, so the idea has been around since I got here in 2023. Here in 2023, and you know, I would say, putting it together the first time, you know, on and off among my other duties, took a good, you know, eight or nine weeks and, um, you know, some, some extracurricular time for sure, and elbow grease went into those. And the second time around I figured out a way to weave it a little bit closer with my, with my normal duties and, uh, you know, now the third time around, it's the muscles gotten a little bit stronger and, um, it's also a good avenue now to, I know, like I can start laying out the page. If I have a story I know I want to tell that day, I can lay out the page and, and you know, start start putting some photos and words to paper, uh, so that there's there's less heavy lifting to do down the line.
Speaker 2:But it is a, a big undertaking.
Speaker 2:It's, you know, if you think every word has to be aligned and fit around the photographs and you know it's like no, no amount of chat GPT in the world can, can get the exact word count and phrasing to still work and there's like little things, the beauty of it and to go down the rabbit hole of making a magazine. Um, it is really a three-dimensional puzzle, maybe four-dimensional because it's text and words. So it's like you know when one paragraph is ending and you have to go up to the next column and you're like it's an awkward jump for this point in the sentence. So I'm like I get that fine with it and go through with the magnifying glass and I have to like splash the water on my face and like oh, it's not that big a deal, no one's gonna notice, but I love that kind of stuff. And uh, it all goes back to just putting myself in the shoes of our members and like what's gonna, what's gonna matter to them, what's gonna be important to them, and you know what will they want to take.
Speaker 1:It's an actual physical, printed thing, all digital we're saving the environment here.
Speaker 2:We've had requests to print it. People are like you know. I want to put this on my coffee table. I'd love to pick up a copy on the way in. So you know, maybe, maybe we'll officially publish it on paper soon and I'll send you a copy, mr corb.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say then, then that gets nitty. Because it's like what's the feel, what's the texture, what's the because? I'm sure, like you know, you have some magazines like this thing, but I'm sure you've picked up some. You're like, oh you know, like the Rob report. You're like, geez, this thing is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll have to give that out to the golfers. The Golfers Journal is a big inspiration for me. I mean, what they've done with photography and storytelling in the golf world is it's unbelievable. You know they're. They're telling the stories. They're telling the stories that exist two layers below the surface. I remember reading a story in there I want to say it was Cypress point about a caddy who was living in the bushes after his loops for like two years and no one found out. And like the only reason that they were able to tell the story is because so much time had passed. It kind of had become a running joke at the club. But those are the type of stories I'm interested in. You know, a few extra layers below the surface. So storytelling like that. I keep going back to the golfer's journal and what they're doing there. So big shout out to those guys where's?
Speaker 1:uh, because I know you, you've you've done radio hosting, you've done stuff for conan. Um, any of that, any of anything, any skills from their transition over to clubs that you never thought would transition over, like where you're, like, oh my, like this skill, like I'm actually using this skill, but like I never thought I would transition from what you were doing with those over to clubs.
Speaker 2:It's a good question. The biggest skill I learned at Conan was research. I was in a video research team at Conan while I was an intern there and just being prepared. It's as simple as that. You know, you learn that you think, wow, how does Conan know exactly what he's going to ask? You know he's got the perfect questions and the guest has the answers ready to go. How can it flow this? Well, you know, and personally I prefer this world a little bit more. It's a little more raw, a little more long form, but you know when you're, when you have to cut to commercial in 90 seconds, you have to wrap up a story. You need these things planned out and ready to go, and that's what goes into the production at a show like that. So is that?
Speaker 1:is that your way of saying that this show sucks? That you haven't done? Your homework Clearly you have Per my last email is that the corporate F you?
Speaker 2:No, it's a compliment saying that you don't have a laugh track. There's no sign that flashes for the audience to start laughing. That's what I like about this show, that it's. You know, if I'm bombing I'll feel it because you're just silent. That's what I prefer. I like the raw energy, no, but the prep and the research that goes into a show like that. It's no accident. You know that. It's no accident. You know you have. You know to prepare for those kinds of. Whether you're putting on a new event, a golf tournament, you know a new communication, like a magazine, anything. If you do your research and you're prepared, it just shrinks that margin of what can go wrong. You know stuff is always going to go wrong, but the more prepared you are, the more research you've done, you'll just be that much more prepared to deal with it and the margin of what can go catastrophically wrong will be that much thinner. What?
Speaker 1:is harder managing member expectations or waking up at 4.30 am to host a morning show wow, wow, those tell you what.
Speaker 2:When there's a foot and a half of snow on the ground in northern new york, 438 feels a little bit worse, because to even get your car out of the driveway you have to uh, you know, break your back shop so that really becomes 345. And then you have to hope that. You know all the news sites didn't have a snow day and you know all the news that you need to produce your show is there when you need it. So, man, those 430 AMs were tough and no, you know what. We're blessed with a membership here. That is really grounded.
Speaker 2:And I haven't been around too much, you know, I've been to a handful of clubs and worked at only a small number, but our members really get it, man, they're they, really, they're grounded. I think it's a new England thing. You know you and I I'm from Pennsylvania, I know you're in Pennsylvania and you know folks in Southeastern Pennsylvania will tell you exactly what they think. You know they will, yeah, they will tell you. You've got mustard on your face as you're walking through the door they're holding open for you. That's kind of like Philadelphia, and folks in New England are pretty similar, you know, maybe, maybe a little more polite than they are in Philly.
Speaker 1:No, way, no way, way, no way, no way. And I say this not to interrupt is because I went to school in boston and boston people are a different. Okay, so maybe, if we're talking the difference between new england and boston, it might be different, but they are a different breed. Uh, so I, I will, I will fight you on that one a little bit.
Speaker 2:The quote I heard about folks in Massachusetts is you know they will berate you for getting a flat tire as they're driving you, picking you up and giving you a ride home. It's very good natured in New England but yeah, they'll let you have it for sure. But there's caring folks Like you know, when the snow gets a foot and a half deep, like you got to stick together, especially. You know, like when I was doing radio in northern New York, man, the folks you really have to like community matters and the smaller the town, you really got to stick together and I found that spirit in New England for sure. Now one thing we have up here is we lose a percentage of the population in vacation land here. Not to steal vacation land from Maine, we're certainly not. We have a great year-round contingency at the club and even just in town here. But you got to stick together in New England and Philly too. Go Eagles together into England and Philly too, go Eagles.
Speaker 1:Finish the sentence. The key to making a private club truly feel like a community is blank.
Speaker 2:Caring, you can skip out on a ton of work, a ton of empathy on a ton of work, a ton of empathy, knocking the experience down a few pegs, if you just don't care or if you care about the wrong things. It depends what you're in it for. I think the reason I Going back to when I started in this industry as a caddy which I did on and off for six years at golf mills in Philadelphia I just wanted to play golf. That's why I started, because you get golfing privileges on Mondays and then, through so much time spent in the industry, obviously you know if you build it, they will come. If you've got a great golf course, you know you're going to have a nice club, you're going to have the ingredients for a great club.
Speaker 2:And then, as you spend more time in the industry, it's all about the people, and the more it's like it'll get you, the more people you meet, the more families you meet, the more you know grandma and grandpas that you shake hands with and see at these events year after year, the more you can't help but care.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's it's all. It's all about the heart and and connecting people too, cause it shouldn't just be me If I know something, if I'm able to connect with a member on a deep level, it shouldn't just be me that gets to hold onto that information. I need to find a? Um, a polite, respectful, uh and and not too intrusive way to share this with everybody, if I can, or at least a few people that it's going to matter to. So being it's being a communications director in a club is a great position, where you know you get to know folks on a on a deeper level than you know. I am the storyteller, so if there's a story to be told, you know I'm hopefully the one that sniffs it out and, you know, maybe it ends up in an email, maybe I'm there at the perfect moment to take a photograph, but more often it's just hearing and listening to stories and connecting two members face to face.
Speaker 1:Now amen to that. I'm a big connector so anytime I can link people up, it gets, gets, gets me jazzed. I was doing it so much at conference to God, like you know, just so neat, just like, oh, like just you know, two opposite, what seemingly opposite people, and it's just like bank, it's like. But you just know the common thread and sometimes it's fun to make that known in the beginning and other times it's fun just to link them up and just watch. It just happen, naturally, and you're like there, it is, there, it is. Yeah, who's your, who's your dream foursome, wow.
Speaker 2:Do they have to be dead or alive? No, it does not have to be offers.
Speaker 1:Nope, it's your dream foursome.
Speaker 2:One person that I'm dying to meet is Reggie Watts. I don't know if you know Reggie Watts. He's a comedian. He I think Reggie Watts is is capable of tapping into the extraterrestrial, like I think he's pulling knowledge from another galaxy. He, he's. He's unbelievable his singing comedy and his improvisation. So I'd like to stick him on a golf course and see what happens. You know, reggie, if you're listening, we'll make it happen. Man, I'm going to go. I'm going to go. Nick Sirianni, ariane, nick, nick, you're welcome anytime, come on up.
Speaker 2:I love his quote. You know that everyone on the Eagles is now repeating he can't be great without the greatness of others. I think it's a little corny, but it's so true. It's so true. We all like to think that. You know, and that's why every award speech, someone is, like you know, giving credit to someone else, whether it's you know who they believe in, their religion or their family or someone. It's. It's all. It's all about our connections to others. So that leaves one more spot. And, danny, you can come golf. Okay, we, danny, you can come golf with me?
Speaker 1:okay, Get off the show. We don't need any brown nosers on here anymore.
Speaker 2:No, oh man, it would all be comedians. Oh, I know Well, dead or Alive, john Prine. You know John Prine.
Speaker 1:Name sounds familiar.
Speaker 2:John Prine is a songwriter. Unfortunately, he passed away during the COVID pandemic. He had some health issues, but he's one of the most brilliant songwriters that I've ever listened to. He can bring you to an emotional place that hits you. You know when a car goes by and then you feel the wind a couple seconds later. His lyrics are a lot like that. It's spoken in such plain english. He, he sings the way people talk, uh, and then the message behind it, um, hits you a moment later and you're like, wow, so I would check out john prine if you, if you're a fan of folk music I am not, but I will check him out because of you, thank you.
Speaker 2:I'll send you some.
Speaker 1:Send me like a good one.
Speaker 2:If I were to put a common thread between my personal life and my professional life, we all not even we all, I always thought that communication was about self-expression, thought that communication was about self-expression and those who believe in your message or resonate with it will just naturally flock to you. And it is just that that's just self-expression. So communication is a two-way street. It's about being a good listener, it's about knowing your audience, it's about empathizing and it's about connecting. It's a different goal altogether. So you know, if I you know in my personal life go write a song to just tell everyone how I feel, that's great and hopefully they resonate with it.
Speaker 2:But if I write, some of my better songs that I've written are about other people and just I've had friends go through things that I don't think they had the words for and privately or publicly I've I'm like I just I had to write a song to talk about what they're going through and I like those songs way better than than you know any other song about my personal experiences. Those are the best ones. And you know, as a communications director it's. You know, I can tell you all the club's information 10 times to Sunday, um, but until I tell it in a way that you connect with um and until I know what it is you want to hear and how you want to hear it, um that now we're halfway there and I haven't even said anything yet, just because I've understood you a little better.
Speaker 1:So I feel like that was a good line for for a song I'm gonna go back and, uh, we'll have a challenge. Who can write it first wins I am not a songwriter, so that is all you, homie. Uh, you're right, joe, you write monologues come on, it's different, you've got it.
Speaker 2:It was different I'll put music to it. You write the lyrics, I'll write the music in a.
Speaker 1:in a previous life I may or may not have drummed for a rapper in boston, so I will leave it at that. Let's see what I. Greg, thank you so much for coming on. I truly appreciate it. Thank you for sharing. Thanks for all you're doing for the club world and communications for your club, for all club people Appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I hope that this makes the digital club world a more connected place. I'm excited to maybe connect with some people I haven't before because of this, so thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. Greg, thank you so much for coming on and sharing so much about yourself and the club. I know people definitely took away a couple of things from here. So if you did get a couple of things, make sure you share it. Share the episode with some friends, some colleagues, with people you like, you don't like and, while you're at it, give it a five-star review with a rating, give it a nice little title and talk about it, why you like the show. It means the absolute world and costs nothing, and guess what? That's this episode. Until next time, I'm your host.
