283: Creating an Unforgettable Golf Tournament Experience w/ Aaron James and Brittany Lucas
Find out how this dynamic duo took an idea sparked from our show about IV hydration and turned it into a game-changer for their event
Discover the behind-the-scenes magic of an unforgettable event at the Country Club of Asheville. In this episode, we dive into the innovation and creativity that Aaron James and Brittany Lucas brought to the club's member guest event.
And the surprising success of an IV hydration service - it's an experience you won't want to miss.
Listen in to learn about the various types of vitamin add-ons, the overwhelmingly positive response from the club members, and how Aaron and Brittany are transforming the club into a vital part of the local community.
This episode is a masterclass in pushing boundaries in the hospitality industry and is sure to inspire your own creativity.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio. I'm your host, Denny Corby, and in this episode we have a follow-up. We have a cool follow-up. So, going back to our episode with Aaron James, back at episode 264, the Future of Health and Wellness in Private Clubs, and we were just talking about really cool, unique, modern health and wellness programs that clubs are doing and just bringing in cool outside vendors, and I happen to mention IV or drip therapy, especially after a multi-day event where people may or may not be having some beverages and things. So they actually tried it. So I bring Aaron back on and his director of events, Brittany, and we just talk and they talk about their experience and how they took a risk and they tried and it turned out to be really good. So check out this episode from the Country Club of Asheville. We have Aaron James and Brittany Lucas.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about member guests. Let's talk about how this whole thing came about and how you just knocked it out of the park and then you tossed it into the last minute because of our conversation with Denny about the IV hydration and how much of a blast that was to have all the members and what that added to the event.
Speaker 3:Sure. So member guests, kato's an adventure. So historically our club kind of made it special but didn't really do a lot of extra stuff. So with my premier member guest and AJ's premier member guest, we really wanted to kind of make it super special and kind of show the membership what we can offer to them through our skills and experience. So I came up with this Viva Las Vegas idea and I just kind of ruled with it. We did a stag night where we had the guys come in and we brought the casino tables in and they all played Blackjack and Roulette and whatever else you do in a casino, and they drank and smoked cigars and they loved it. And then the next morning we had the IV hydration and little hangover kits available for them. So that was kind of, you know, our way of offering a cure for the pain that we might have. You know, I was suggested from the ice before, but anyways. And then we did, um, we kind of did a playoff of the neon, that's on the strip in Vegas, and we did a glow golf indoor cocktail party, um, where we had, you know, colored lights and glow sticks and flashing glasses and we had, um, a group called Glow golf which is out of Charlotte, come in and set up like an indoor putting experience and it lights up and everybody can kind of like play mini golf kind of thing. Um, drinks, house music, spouses were welcome for that one. So that was really a fun, a fun party and everyone kind of dressed up, you know, in their neon colors. Um, so that was cool to see. And then, um, again, we offered IV hydration the next morning, because if we're responsible for getting you drunk, we should also be responsible for getting you feeling better. The next morning was kind of where we went with that Um it's so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is such a caring thing. It's, it's.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we, we do what we can, you know, um, but then on Friday night everybody was. We suggested that they go enjoy Asheville on their own or maybe take a little R and R. So on Saturday we didn't offer them any kind of cure because we weren't responsible for that. So so that was part of your own risk. On Friday night, um, and then Saturday we did our reception. So you know, for me, you, there's no Vegas without a you know um, shotgun wedding and without Elvis doing it. So we had an Elvis impersonator who actually is ordained, and he did like impromptu vow renewals and then he did a performance later and there was a big hit. I felt like that was really a gamble. People were either going to really like, you know, sign on for that, or they were going to not, and they, it was a huge hit. I was very, um, I was very happy to see that, um, and, yeah, he performed. We had like showgirls and we did, you know, past champagne and hors d'oeuvres and food stations and it was just really a very fabulous soiree, um, so that's the gist of member guests.
Speaker 1:Damn.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was a lot but it was so worth it.
Speaker 1:No, and I I love to hear that I was just talking to a couple other profession, profession in the world, professionals, and uh, the big thing that we keep talking about recently is risk. And just so, when you said you know the Elvis was a risk, you know for you guys, you, you, you took the risk. And then what? The worst case, like worst possible scenario, what would have happened?
Speaker 3:Worst case scenario, we would have had Elvis just basically taking selfies of people instead of doing vow renewals, you know. So it really wasn't like a huge risk, but it was still. Like. You know, we set up this whole like balloon arch and had the microphone and we had a photographer come in and it was going to be a moment, but if it wasn't a moment, then they could just get their picture taken with Elvis and it was. You know, it would have worked just fine.
Speaker 1:No, that's, that's so good to hear, because I think oftentimes, and you know, people think of like the worst case, like, oh, what, what if no one does it, and then they just don't end up doing anything Right, and it's like, oh, but you know, if you just see, the best side is regardless. If it's like you, you're so right, vegas theme Elvis being there, and it's not like you just set him up and said, oh like, let's do vowel renewals. You took that little extra step, put in the little extra effort and got the balloons and the photographer, so it made you want to. It wasn't just like you know, elvis in the corner.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Just waiting for you, like you want your vowels.
Speaker 3:Nobody puts Elvis in a corner. Come on.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you said it, I was thinking it. Thank you, brittany. Oh, it was good that was very good.
Speaker 1:That was very good, that was very good. Did not expect you guys to come come back at me like that, wow, okay, that was aggressive. So you know, I and I just want to know from your point of view, if you could, just what. What was the response like for the IV? Like, did you tell people so I'm also interested in, like how people set things up? So did they know in the morning that was going to be there, or did they just show up and is like, oh, this is like legit. Like can you walk me through a little bit what that little process was sort of like?
Speaker 3:Sure. So I actually listened to you two doing your previous podcast and when you were talking about the IV treatment, I was like inspired. I was like, oh my God, like that is, we need to figure out if we can do that here, right? So you know, we started doing our research and we found a company that actually they're mobile and they work. You know they're a satellite IV hydration company and once they signed on to do it, we started to kind of advertise to the members that were participating in the member guest tournament. I did a lot of word of mouth. We had a couple of events leading up to member guest people that were playing in the tournament. So I would like mention them. Hey, are you playing? You know, I can't wait to see you. By the way, we have this going on, and they were just like what, that's sweet, you know like, oh, we'll be there, you know. So they the membership was very excited about it. So they knew, but I don't think that they knew exactly what, like how it was going to look, until they got there and essentially how we did. That is, we do have like a big port-a-cache outside of the entrance to our clubhouse and the IV company just came in, they popped up their own tent, they set up their chairs and they ran bags and that was perfect.
Speaker 1:And this is just like a side like, do you think members felt like, do you think it was worth it in terms of you know, it's just one of those like I think sometimes, like I just talked to random people or you know talk to a bunch of people and you know you always hear like, oh, that's all be as, it didn't work for me, but I have people who like live by it. What were the members responses like after? You know? Like, did it help? Like were they happy that they did it? Like did they feel like a little bit better to continue the like week? Like, what was the?
Speaker 3:So I'm going to let AJ take that question, because I was eyeballs deep in decor the entire weekend so I didn't get to kind of participate in the feedback aspect. But I think AJ might have spoken to some folks.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I would. I would go out and if there was an empty chair I'd sit in the chair and people were hung over and by the time they got their IV they were 50% better and by the time they teed off they were like this is great, let's do it again. I even had my superintendent who, you know, a superintendent's job during member guest is nonstop. He's working 18 hours a day. He sat down and got it. I mean, everybody was feeling good. The nice thing was they had hangover and they also had just hydration. We did ours, our member guest, but it read them before to July, late June, early July, and the Carolinas is hot. So we had people who were just I need some hydration and to get set up for the next step. But what do I do? And I think next year we'd probably expand it we did it all a cart, so people had to pay for it out of pocket. It wasn't part of the entry fee and we still sold out every day. Yeah, so everybody was trying to do something and everybody understood the value of it and that's really I remember guest. The average agent I remember guest was probably about 40, 45. Yes, we had some younger members who, of course, that generation understands the need for wellness and understands the need for how do I recover and get my body back into shape? And that's what they want. They want to be able to play. I mean, never guess is so competitive these days. I want to play at my best while drinking heavily. So how do we do it? Just like Vegas, just like whatever else we're trying to do. You put a bunch of young professionals in a room. They're going to want to drink and play at the best, and if they're going to get mad, so we try to put it all back together for them. Like Brittany said, the joke of the weekend was we get you drunk. We're going to make sure you put you back together.
Speaker 1:That's funny, that's so.
Speaker 3:I love that and something that was really cool about the IV treatment is that, like AJ mentioned, it was a la carte. So basically what the company did is they had like vitamin add-ons, so like you could pick a hangover cure drip or just a standard hydration dip but you could drip, but you could also add like magnesium or torene or B12 and vitamin C and like antioxidants and things like that. So people were able to really curate what they knew their body needed. Like AJ was saying, we did have so many people participating that are kind of in tune with the wellness and what their body does need, so they were able to kind of ask for okay, well, I know that I need vitamin C because look at these bags I don't know if that I am not one of those people that knows that stuff so I need vitamin C because my, I have bags under my eyes or something. I don't know if that correlates at all, but what's that, Brittany?
Speaker 2:You know you need vitamin.
Speaker 3:I need something. I'll look tired.
Speaker 1:Can I get a torene shot for these bags?
Speaker 3:Yes, so anyway. So that was a really cool kind of thing that they did for us at the Renew Asheville.
Speaker 2:It also gave us another avenue, because member guests are supposed to help build your business. It gave us another avenue and a business and a partnership that we can create down and cultivate down the road to give our members another opportunity to utilize their membership throughout the community. They're not just at the clubhouse using it. We can partner up now with IV hydration and say, okay, what are we doing in the community too? So we're becoming a community partner and that's really what. What I believe Brittany's done very well and since she's taken over she's, she's found the way to how do we involve the community in what we're doing? And it's awesome, it's awesome to see and maybe we'll get behind it too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is so. It's like one of those. It's everything is just coming full circle. It's like you understand the game almost of like what a club's about what is supposed to do? Well, you know, it's just so nice to hear this and so many different areas. This is so good. Happy for you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yeah, we were. I've been at our corporate conference all week and these are the things we were talking about. How do we involve the rest of the community, how do we build, how do we become the innovators, the people in the, in the community, that are pushing the game forward? And this is one way we're doing it. I'm lucky that I have a Brittany at my side who can say AJ, what about this? Well, I go to her and say Brittany, what about this? And there's oftentimes the best student, don't do that, what? But still, I still, every now and again there's the oh, that's a good idea, I didn't think about that, and that's that's how this idea came about. And Brittany texted me literally while she's listening to the podcast, going what do you think about this? Like, oh, I didn't even think about it, even though we talked about it. Let's do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do make a really good team. There's a lot of like a lot of constructive brainstorming that we do here, Like you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a nice way to put it.
Speaker 3:It's great because there's so many different perspectives, Like even just between myself and AJ. We look at things kind of from a different angle, so we're able to cover so many bases, and that's that's really the goal. I mean, not every member is it's not a cookie cutter, you know. So we want to make sure that we're doing things that kind of stimulate everybody that's here, not just like one niche of people Niche, niche, niche.
Speaker 1:I said something really funny and I was going to, and no one said anything. But you were like, oh, I want like a shot for, like you know, bags under my eyes. I was going to say, yeah, it's called Botox. Like it's definitely not like B12s. It's like next I get a B12.
Speaker 2:It's next we get the injectables.
Speaker 1:You know what's weird this is total side note, this is definitely getting taken out but I feel like people like there's weird, like how people combine certain stuff. Like what I'm trying to say is there's a dentist in my area dentist and they focus, you know, they do all the dental work, but then they're also big on like the teeth whitening stuff, and now they're also starting to offer Botox and to me I'm just like sort of get it, but I don't know, like the dentist part is, and then Botox and like I don't know. That was just like a weird, like I-.
Speaker 3:I guess it's like I'm not gonna put all of this work and effort into making your teeth look beautiful and then you have saggy skin all around it. So let me offer you that service to tighten her up.
Speaker 2:I mean, but Botox, botulism Toxins, is doing so much now too. I mean, people are using it for migraine relief. They're doing it for and they're they're putting it straight into the forest. People are using Botulism Toxins for migraine relief. They're using it not just for to look younger, but there's there's so many different things, and the teeth are one of the are connected to the brain and the nervous system so tightly that sometimes we're leaving using the Botox to relieve some of that stress. You can actually do more work. You can actually have a better smile. You can actually do things to help relieve the pain that is going down and radiating into the teeth by using Botox.
Speaker 1:Are you serious?
Speaker 3:Look at Denny's face.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's like the last time we talked. I talked about concierge medicine, we talked about injectables, we talked about all these things. Botox is one of them. Here they come.
Speaker 1:You know, it's one of those. I'm just a really sarcastic person and if someone says something like that that sounds a little crazy, I'll just roll with it and keep going. So I was waiting to see if you were going to be like I'm just kidding and I was just like, oh no, like the more you talked I was like this is serious, like he's not double talking, he, this is.
Speaker 2:I get, I get the worst migraines and I and I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 3:That's wild. Interesting.
Speaker 1:This is definitely one of the strangest episodes I've ever done, but but I like it. Hope you all enjoyed that episode. If you have not done so already, we appreciate a like review, any and all support. Until next time, catch on the flip, flip, flip.