Jan. 6, 2024

313: Club Camaraderie w/ Tom Wallace pt 2

Have you ever wondered what truly glues a community together? My conversation with Tom Wallace peels back the curtain on the private club industry, revealing a world where mentorship and genuine friendships aren't just perks—they're the foundation. As we delve into the anecdotes and laughter that color our experiences, you'll come to see how the bonds formed in this niche can shape careers and change lives. We share tales that celebrate the spirit of camaraderie, illustrating how members and staff come together, forming a tight-knit family unlike any other. And if you're curious about my whimsical take on a restaurant influenced by culinary legends, you won't want to miss what I've cooked up.

In the heart of every private club, there lies a commitment to the community that often goes unnoticed. We shine a light on the philanthropic endeavors, debunking myths about club members and showcasing their pivotal role as local benefactors through initiatives like the spirited charity competitions for the United Way in Naples. Moreover, we discuss the changing landscape as new generations bring fresh expectations to these storied institutions. Listen in as we explore how maintaining a balance of exclusivity and inclusivity can reinforce clubs as pillars of community, and learn why fostering a culture of mutual respect between staff and members is crucial for a flourishing environment. So, grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and join us for an episode that celebrates the heart of private clubs—where every handshake has the potential to become a helping hand.

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00:00 - Club Industry Relationships and Camaraderie

08:08 - Club Members

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Hey everyone, welcome to private club radio.

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We go over all the things private club related.

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This is part two With my chat with Tom Wallace.

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I'd say this part it just summarizes, cut it.

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It's all about camaraderie.

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We, we continue the conversation.

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I ask him, you know, what he thinks sets the club community apart from all the all the other industries?

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And we, we have a.

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We have a good, we continue a good chat.

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We, we laugh a lot and If you want to listen to the end, you will find out what my restaurant name for or what what the restaurant name would be if Gordon Ramsay and John taffer were to create a Establishment together.

00:00:45.442 --> 00:00:50.098
What do you think sets the club community apart from other industries?

00:00:50.098 --> 00:00:53.128
Oh, man.

00:00:53.168 --> 00:00:56.359
Well, friendships, you know I look at my life.

00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:06.072
I think I've shared this with you on your show before is that you know If my dad was either gonna give me a job at a dry cleaner or a country club shining shoes, and he picked right.

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But I just think about all.

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I think about the amount of people, one of the things that is sad about our business but is all it is we get to bond with so many incredibly incredible members.

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You know I've had two or three members that were just just so important to my life passed away over the last Four or five years, but it's because when I was a young man coming up, they were 65 and I was, you know, 20.

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So that it's the circle of life.

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But I would.

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You know the friendships, you know I look at what, how much we share nobody in the club space.

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I've had my toe in around the Ritz and four seasons.

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They're less likely to share things between restaurant groups and hotels, but club met, club employees and members are so generous and sharing their knowledge.

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So what separates us is, I think, the friendships and mentoring that you can get.

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I mean, not only was I mentored by great older Managers, I was mentored by great CEOs of my community that took a liking to me because I knew their drink and I smiled and I Conversated with them.

00:02:13.343 --> 00:02:21.563
You know one of the people, bill McDonald, was the president of Ohio Bell, which I couldn't tell you what that was when I was 14, because I was I.

00:02:21.563 --> 00:02:32.891
All I did was try to pass high school and wrestle and play football, but and but he took a liking to me and then he was a, became a lifelong friend.

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And Larry Warner at Oakmont and just I think of all the Bill Griffin at Oakmont and just people that Just took the time and said tell me a little bit about yourself.

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And these are people that probably within their organizations there are people in desk outside their office that would kill for 15 minutes with their boss and these people would take hours and talk to you, take you to dinner, tell you about their career.

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I could call them.

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These are there, were.

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There were members I called when I was making career decisions and you know for their advice.

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There was old managers I called for career decisions and friends like Dick and Kurt you know Dick and Kurt are I work with now and they're my work partners, but they're like iconic and I Used to be like that's Kurt Kebler, and you know I'm not gonna say anything to him because I'm not.

00:03:22.234 --> 00:03:27.205
I'm pretty sure he doesn't know I am, but I know who he is and I, you know I've.

00:03:27.425 --> 00:03:41.000
One of my favorite stories is tell that when, years after I joined the firm, I told Dick I said you remember when you came to Cleveland I, we drew straws who got to pick you, pick dick Copeland up at the airport and bring him the Canterbury.

00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.688
I was at country at the time and I said I picked you up.

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We had a great conversation and I and then, after you did the education, I drove you back to the hotel and he goes.

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I don't remember that and I'm thinking, oh my god, I go.

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That was one of the most important.

00:03:53.949 --> 00:03:57.794
That was one of the most important days of my life, meeting you and you.

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He was couldn't have been nicer.

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He was very nice game cell phone, but I go.

00:04:02.162 --> 00:04:06.832
You don't remember meeting me goes, no, and I was like, well, I go, well that I guess that was.

00:04:06.832 --> 00:04:08.883
So there's a lesson to be learned there.

00:04:08.883 --> 00:04:10.687
But I didn't have the impact I thought I did.

00:04:10.747 --> 00:04:13.533
But all those people are just people.

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That's what separates our industry.

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You can call on former employees, former members and they're there to take care of you.

00:04:20.564 --> 00:04:21.425
You could call.

00:04:21.425 --> 00:04:42.817
One of the things I'd learned late in my management career was Don't push the committees and the members out of the, out of the club business, but you have to find an appropriate level to bring them in and figure out who's helpful, who wants to micromanage and who wants to be helpful and and work with the people that want to be helpful.

00:04:42.817 --> 00:04:53.656
You know most successful people have a lot to offer you, but just because they're you know they're brilliant and run a hedge fund doesn't mean they know how to run a club.

00:04:53.656 --> 00:04:58.434
But if you have some financial questions or if you're in doubt, there is no reason.

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As a club manager, you shouldn't be able to handle just about any problem that comes at you as a professional issue, because you have access to all these brilliant members and hopefully you have access to a brilliant team around you as well.

00:05:11.889 --> 00:05:17.202
So there's a lot but relationships, the network, the tightness, the family.

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I think what separates us is you know it's a brotherhood, a sisterhood, a family.

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You know people I work with.

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I have a group text with everybody from country.

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I have a group text with everybody from Oakmont, I have a group text with everybody from Meditara and I have a group text with everyone on the KK&W team.

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And we're tight, you know, and I like that and I think KK&W team is a good family because even though we're all over the country, we all came out of hospitality more or less.

00:05:48.089 --> 00:05:53.894
So we have that want and need to be close with, because that's how we're used to.

00:05:53.894 --> 00:05:56.139
You know, we were raised in that environment.

00:05:57.189 --> 00:06:00.737
So what would you say are some common misconceptions of the private club industry.

00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:14.237
Well, I think you know communities sometimes tend to look at the clubs as the blue blood folks on the top of the hill and the you know in the gated community or the gated club.

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I would tell you that I have never worked at a club or met been at a club and I've been in hundreds and hundreds over the years that their membership is an incredibly philanthropic and isn't caring about their employees.

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Every great club that has greatness.

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One of the key underlining factors is how much care the members have for the employees.

00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:51.598
I also think if you ask a group of club members hey, this high school wants to play their matches here, that this high school wants to do this event here.

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The community would love to have access to our fireworks on 4th of July.

00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:58.699
They will almost always try to make that happen.

00:06:58.699 --> 00:07:21.589
Sometimes there's things, for obvious reasons, you can't do, but I do think the giving power and the care that club members have is pretty incredible and I think it's easy, if you're not one of those people that was raised in a club or and maybe you're on a different side of the tracks, to see that as something different.

00:07:21.589 --> 00:07:30.120
But at the end of the day, they're all great, hardworking, successful people and they're almost always willing to do anything they can to help out in their community.

00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:40.913
I mean, when I got to Metaterra, one of the cool things in Naples is the clubs would compete with each other who would give more money to the United Way and I was like what?

00:07:40.913 --> 00:07:42.920
I was like that's the coolest thing I've ever heard.

00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:43.750
I go there.

00:07:43.750 --> 00:07:58.790
It's not only ego, but now it's ego that's giving to something really great and powerful, and we would have these big events and we would hear through the grapevine like, oh, bray Oaks is ahead of us, so we've got to donate.

00:07:58.790 --> 00:08:02.540
You know, we got the members, we got to get more money and they took it very seriously.

00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:15.603
And so I think the common misconception is that the members don't care about the community and well, the employees and the community around them, and that that Could be farther from the truth.

00:08:15.603 --> 00:08:20.153
The the most philanthropic people in your community usually are members of the club.

00:08:20.153 --> 00:08:27.014
But take it, you know, take the advantage of that and know that if you have something that you really need.

00:08:27.014 --> 00:08:41.440
I Look Joe Cren has done a beautiful job of building synergy between his membership and his community Down at Farmington Country Club and I think young, smart managers are getting our understanding that there has to be.

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I learned that at Oakmont, which was there was no, there was no separation between us at all.

00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:52.029
I needed my, I needed the fireman, I needed the policeman, I needed, I needed the road workers.

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When we had a national championship, it was Oakmont, the club, the community, the members, the putting on a national championship for the rest of the world.

00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:04.264
We, you know everybody what it was.

00:09:04.264 --> 00:09:13.460
That's one of the things I loved about Oakmont was the members would be there at six in the morning filling up ice buckets so that there was water on the first tee for the players.

00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:18.878
So I always said that was the best bonding between the staff and and the members.

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The members are like, well, this is hard work, and the bartender would say, yeah, this is what I do every day at 6 am.

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You know it is hard work, but Sometimes that having the members seed see the other side of it is lens to the appreciation for the team.

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But I think that's changing.

00:09:36.659 --> 00:09:44.100
I think I think people won't belong to clubs in the future that aren't giving back to the community, that aren't a pillar of the community.

00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:54.990
I don't think young people, I think young people want to be a part of something that's that is, you know, next wrong, next level high-end experience.

00:09:54.990 --> 00:10:06.547
But they also want to know that it's it's giving back to the community and doing good for the world that they live it's about finding that balance of Exclusivity and inclusivity.

00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:11.969
That's right, perfectly said, perfectly said.

00:10:11.969 --> 00:10:22.533
They want exclusive, but they they don't want anyone around them in their sphere to feel like they're not welcome or yeah, and I think that's a there's a power in that.

00:10:22.533 --> 00:10:24.039
I talk about servant heart.

00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:27.466
Maybe they don't have servant heart, but they are caring people.

00:10:27.466 --> 00:10:28.830
They are a caring generation.

00:10:28.830 --> 00:10:43.246
They don't want anyone to feel Ostracized or outside of the big circle, and that's that's something I could say, gosh, that that's much different than the generation I grew up in, and probably you as well, I think kids are.

00:10:43.246 --> 00:10:46.658
They're still crazy, bullying and stupid stuff like that.

00:10:46.658 --> 00:10:47.120
That goes on.

00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:51.071
But for the most part, grown people that are millennials are.

00:10:51.432 --> 00:11:09.589
They really want everybody to feel a part of the world that they're in and I don't know if this it's, I feel, is that they don't put up with as much BS from people and if they don't like somebody, or doing it, if they just think you're like not a good human being, they're not afraid to say something and be like I don't want to be around you.

00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:14.149
There's like no, no, you're right.

00:11:14.149 --> 00:11:16.177
You're right, I think I think.

00:11:16.177 --> 00:11:16.879
Well, it gets to.

00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.769
You know member behavior and employee behavior.

00:11:19.769 --> 00:11:28.259
You know employee behavior is usually not an issue because when you have it it's dealt with swiftly and they're usually no longer part of the team.

00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:30.547
But member behavior is, I.

00:11:30.547 --> 00:11:44.342
I think it it's Really focused and it's been spotlighted because I think as the generations get, get younger and that are working In the in the club space, they don't tolerate the nonsense.

00:11:44.342 --> 00:11:47.971
They're not going to tolerate being verbally abused by a member who's had too much to drink.

00:11:47.971 --> 00:11:50.826
They're not going to tolerate those kind of things.

00:11:50.826 --> 00:11:54.080
No, I think you're right and I think that will make for a stronger team.

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One of the things I love about a team and how you know you have a good team is they push out the loose ends on the team.

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You know you might hire, you might make a couple bad hires, but the team usually lets you know when somebody's you know not gonna make.

00:12:09.549 --> 00:12:11.394
You know not gonna make the cut.

00:12:11.394 --> 00:12:15.700
You know, there I always think of that Yellowstone line.

00:12:15.700 --> 00:12:28.779
I think he was like I'm gonna make a cowboy out of you yet or they, or they throw you off or they take you on that long, that long ride and throw you off the cliff, but Not quite that violent as Yellowstone.

00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:38.027
But I always think you know when there's something in a person and if you're a good person you can tolerate their, their, their little things until you could.

00:12:38.027 --> 00:12:39.812
You know polish, that diamond.

00:12:41.211 --> 00:12:42.220
I think you're dead on, though.

00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:48.958
I think younger people, if you're not, if they don't enjoy being around you, I think they'll kick you out pretty quick.

00:12:48.958 --> 00:12:59.621
But I also think that puts a lot of pressure on you as an employer to make sure that you're a good, fun place to work and that they feel it right away Like you don't have as much rope to say give it a few months.

00:12:59.621 --> 00:13:02.008
They're not gonna give it a few months if they're uncomfortable.

00:13:02.008 --> 00:13:05.072
That's what you know I look at, think of my daughter.

00:13:05.072 --> 00:13:09.214
If she's uncomfortable it's like five minutes and she's ready to pull the plug.

00:13:09.214 --> 00:13:10.563
You know let's get out of here.

00:13:10.563 --> 00:13:11.913
I'm like we just sat down.

00:13:13.818 --> 00:13:18.539
Yeah, and she's gonna let her and her friends know it too, oh yeah, she's gonna go right.

00:13:18.580 --> 00:13:19.140
Yeah she's.

00:13:19.140 --> 00:13:22.206
She's gonna give a yell for you and all those things.

00:13:22.206 --> 00:13:26.038
There will be feedback.

00:13:26.038 --> 00:13:33.328
That's one thing about that, that my daughter and son's generation they feel like everybody wants to know how they feel about everything.

00:13:33.328 --> 00:13:34.850
I'm like are you sure people care?

00:13:34.850 --> 00:13:36.038
Oh, yeah, they want to know.

00:13:36.038 --> 00:13:38.225
I'm like I'm sure they don't, but okay.

00:13:39.375 --> 00:13:40.096
I think it's.

00:13:40.096 --> 00:13:51.748
Sebastian Maniscalco has a really funny bit about about that, about how people going out leaving these these crazy, crazy reviews three stars in two paragraphs about the asparagus.

00:13:51.748 --> 00:13:52.568
He's like me.

00:13:52.568 --> 00:13:58.745
My wife is go man, probably not gonna come back Like it was just really funny bit on it.

00:13:59.777 --> 00:14:01.480
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly.

00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:03.445
Yeah, we're just guess what.

00:14:03.445 --> 00:14:04.807
We're not coming back exactly.

00:14:04.807 --> 00:14:08.238
It was not right, they want to know, they don't really want to know.

00:14:08.238 --> 00:14:12.542
Yeah, that train chef really doesn't want your eighteen year old opinion on their show.

00:14:12.841 --> 00:14:13.602
I'm just guessing.

00:14:13.602 --> 00:14:15.725
Sometimes people do get a.

00:14:15.725 --> 00:14:17.385
I think I'm just so jaded.

00:14:17.385 --> 00:14:21.210
I love Gordon Ramsey and John taffer so much.

00:14:21.210 --> 00:14:26.062
Like there's such bad shows, but they're so good yeah.

00:14:27.875 --> 00:14:28.437
Well, it's funny.

00:14:28.437 --> 00:14:35.124
I love those shows because you know a big part of being a club manager is the food and beverage in the kitchen dynamic.

00:14:35.124 --> 00:14:39.268
You know the every kitchen and service dynamic is.

00:14:39.268 --> 00:14:45.438
Even if you get it to be in great synergy it takes time, but there's so many things you see and learn.

00:14:45.678 --> 00:14:51.868
As you know, my I was fourteen until I was fourteen years old when I started in club them and I've seen it all.

00:14:51.868 --> 00:14:59.317
You know plates flying, knife flying, all the things, words I learned all kinds of and a whole new vocabulary when I was fourteen.

00:14:59.317 --> 00:15:03.341
Club dictionary in the kids yeah, exactly.

00:15:03.341 --> 00:15:06.946
But I also saw the passion, I also being mesmer.

00:15:06.946 --> 00:15:19.302
I literally remember being mesmerized watching a chef make fresh mozzarella like Just blew my mind because, you know, at that point in my life I'd never seen, I'd seen mozzarella.

00:15:19.302 --> 00:15:29.562
I had no idea how it was made and how fresh mozzarella tasted so much more, so good compared to the stuff at the store in slice, and I was like wow.

00:15:29.562 --> 00:15:39.128
So yeah, you see a lot of passion, but passion with Colorful language or passion with unbelievable culinary results what one of the other?

00:15:41.376 --> 00:15:44.804
I want John taffer and Gordon Ramsey to do a show together just called.

00:15:47.376 --> 00:15:49.520
Yeah, why did you call it that?

00:15:49.520 --> 00:15:51.985
Really, if you had to ask, you don't know these?

00:15:54.018 --> 00:15:57.275
Only available on peacock that's.

00:15:57.275 --> 00:16:04.078
I really hope that they come out with either a TV show or restaurant Just named after.

00:16:04.078 --> 00:16:07.638
That Kills me.

00:16:07.638 --> 00:16:10.485
That's part Two.

00:16:10.485 --> 00:16:20.610
We're going to continue next episode, part three, where we discuss kind of the key strategies for achieving excellence in club management.

00:16:20.610 --> 00:16:22.518
I got the keys, keys, keys.

00:16:22.518 --> 00:16:29.610
So part three going to continue that key strategies for achieving excellence in club management.

00:16:29.610 --> 00:16:32.118
See you over there.

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Until next time.