Jan. 8, 2024

315: Board Chats - A Balancing Act of Priorities w/ Mac Niven

Ever wondered what it takes to keep the elite world of private clubs spinning? Step into the fascinating sphere of club management with our special guest, master club professional McDonald (Mac) Niven .  We navigate the hidden complexities behind the scenes. Armed with anecdotes and insights, Mac unveils the challenges of a job where relationship-building eclipses all and how the bond between General Managers and club directors can mean the difference between a fleeting presence and a lasting legacy.

This episode isn't just about the hows and whys of private club leadership; it's a masterclass in the art of staying power within a notoriously transient field.  For anyone looking to rise through the ranks of club management or breathe in the rarefied air of the private club world, this conversation promises to be an invaluable compass in an industry where political finesse is just as important as business acumen.

This episode is brought to us by our friends Concert Golf Partners

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00:00 - Challenges Faced by Club Managers

14:09 - Manager Tenure and Political Savvy

23:34 - Improving Communication and Club Management

WEBVTT

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Hey everyone, welcome back to this episode of Board Chats here on Private Club Radio brought to you by our partners, concert Golf Partners.

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Boutique owner operator of luxury golf and country clubs nationwide.

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If you, your club, a club that you know, a club a friend might be a part of, is interested in recapitalization, head on over to ConcertGolfPartnerscom, set up a confidential phone call with Peter Nenula and see if you are a good fit.

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Since 2011, concert Golf has helped over 30 clubs elevate their member experiences while gaining financial freedom, preserve your club's legacy, enhance your club's amenities and see your membership.

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I'm your host, denny Corby.

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In this episode I chat with McDonald Niven Mac, mcm master club professional and a really fun guy to talk to you.

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Really interesting story.

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So around the year 2000, he was fired from Hague Point after six months and he thought he just sucked as a manager his words.

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But he reviewed his past performance and, learning from others, figured he might not be as bad at the job as he thought.

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He was visiting his daughter at Harvard in 2009.

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And he had a conversation with Professor Richard Hackman to which a college professor asked him what is the biggest challenge as a club general manager?

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Mac told him the relationship between the GM and the directors, and Hackman said why don't you become the expert in it?

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And that's where our story begins today.

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From meeting the professor Mac not only found inspiration, but also a mentor.

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Even though he didn't live for too much longer the professor Mac still with us.

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But after digging deep into research, mac began sharing his insights through publications all across the industry and pursuing the prestigious MCM.

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Master of club management, mac is a cornerstone here in the club management world, actively engaging in research and maintaining a robust network of managers and club professionals.

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He's a reservoir of real time, relevant knowledge, ready to share insights and spark discussions on topics that matter in the ever evolving world of private club management.

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So in this episode we are going to dig deep into the topic of why some managers rotate jobs more frequently, while others are able to maintain their places, their clubs and their employment.

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So everyone, please welcome Mac, donald, mac, nevin, ma, mcm.

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Who's Mac?

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Well, it's a good question.

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Mac's just a guy who stumbled into the club business by accident.

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I got in the old fashioned way I was a member of the country club and they said, hey, you've been in a restaurant business, why don't you run the club for us?

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I said, yeah, sure, we'll give that shot, and it turned out to just be a pretty good set.

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The issue I have is that I'm a bit of a business guy, so I failed to understand the important parts of the club business for about the first 30 years.

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And I was doing it.

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And then he definitely finally hit me when I was talking to a good friend of my, robert Carr, who was recently asked and it came to me.

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You know I've been doing this for 35, 30 years and I've been wrong.

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It's all about the director, not the club business.

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So anyway, that's.

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You know, I've been in the business for a while and we're on the country, run a whole bunch of different clubs.

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I have quite a network of folks that I work with to help me learn the business and hopefully I help share that with them.

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So that's kind of what I'm doing.

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And I liked what we were talking about, and it's the rotation of management, rotation of managers and the ability to maintain or not maintain their clubs and positions, which is it tends to be.

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What about a two to three year loop?

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for four years the average three years and it's been that way for decades, which was amazing to me because I would think that we figured this thing out.

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Unfortunately, we really haven't and it is.

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It is what it is, and you know it takes a toll on managers and their families.

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So it really is kind of a tough thing.

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You know income is pretty good, no question about that for the most part, but you know, taking the toll on the family.

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I talked to.

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You know hundreds of managers and you know it's.

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It's tough when you have to move continually and when you don't know it's coming.

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That's the only issue too.

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Because it can come pretty quick and sometimes as a surprise.

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You know it's funny because in one of the surveys I did, I had a certain.

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When I did my MCM survey, I had 563 respondents to it and I lead like 68 of them were directors, which is handy.

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It's hard to get directors to respond.

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But anyway, when I asked how long did you know that you were going to make a change, the director, the presidents, were saying yeah, we knew three, four, five, six months in advance that there was going to be a change coming, whereas the managers were saying now you're about a month.

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Well, that tells you the directors are planning and managers are getting kind of a change, kind of bright, a blindside.

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And that's one of the things I'd always heard too people saying, yeah, you know you're an idiot if you don't see it coming.

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That's not so much.

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How do you see it coming?

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Well, you can.

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You can see if they are actually planning over a long period of time to let you go.

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Sometimes you can see, because they'll still stop talking to you.

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They'll kind of avoid you.

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You know, you know, stop, yeah, right.

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Well, it's yeah, they're still paying you for the most part.

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But what the problem is is that the group dynamics at a club is particularly strong.

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Group think that's a big deal, because I've seen them turn very, very quick when they get into that.

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Because, again, like I mentioned earlier and my brilliant daughter once said one time, you know the table stakes are too low.

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It's not a big deal to.

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It's more about their personal relationships than anything else.

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You know, again, it's that cell actualization, part of the pyramid that they're in.

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So really isn't about the business.

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And besides that, as we all know, wealthy folks do one thing really well and that's get what they want.

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You know what I mean.

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It ain't about money, it's about whatever they're wanting.

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And with the club business, it's more about their emotional tie and their self actualization and how they feel about themselves.

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So you know, I talked to managers about this too and a couple of things you're interested in.

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Manages across the board say, yeah, if it comes down between me and a president and his friend, they're going to go with a friend pretty much every time.

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That's just the way it works.

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So you got to be careful about who you're getting in between each or get between anybody.

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And no, by the way, that's not a good thing to do, you know, pushing back and getting in between members and directors, it's not not a winning solution.

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The other thing I asked is in one of the surveys was on a scale of one to 10, how important is it managing the fragile egos of the directors?

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That came back as an eight, and that's the point.

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You got the egos.

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The better man is going to.

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I'm looking through the CCM book.

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I don't.

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I didn't see ego management in here, right.

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And that's that's kind of part of my.

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My problem is that we seem to setting ourselves up for failure because First we want to the CCM All right, certified club manager.

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Okay, you're, you're an expert.

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Now you can tell your folks, you're the expert, you're CCM.

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And then they went to a CEO concept, chief operating officer.

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And then they went to the CEO concept.

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These are all labels of people.

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Have read it out.

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I got news for you.

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Just to care less what you call yourself.

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Okay, they really don't.

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So we're kind of setting ourselves up for failure because we're being told by our own professional group leaders hey, you're the expert, you got to tell them how to do that.

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Oh man, I don't work Because you start making people mad because they have fragile egos and it's just natural, it's.

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It's not like they're all great people and they're all very successful, and that's what the best part of the problem is that they're very successful in their own business.

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They've been doing their own business for 30 years.

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They're successful enough.

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They could pluck down 1015, 100, 500 grand, whatever to give you a club, and their club business is different.

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So, as a director, all of a sudden they get thrown into this thing and they're going in their own back of their mind.

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They're going.

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What the heck is going on?

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What is all it's not saying?

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You know I got people complaining to me about you know their stake on Friday night.

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I'm the CEO of a major company.

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What's, what kind of crap is this?

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But that's what happened.

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So then the default to what got them in their business got them successful, which is normally digging in into details, and that's where my chromatic comes from too, and that's the number one turnoff for pretty much anybody, particularly for manage.

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You know they'll leave because of the micromanic, but that's, it's nitro.

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That's what people do when they default.

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You get smart people who are, you know, a types, hard pressing.

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You know why be successful.

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They're given a situation they don't understand.

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They default to where they used to be, and that causes problems.

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But that is what is and again, it's a real natural thing.

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Now you've, you said the average is about three years.

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You've, you're, you've done.

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What about nine year stents, like you do about triple the average?

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No, no, I had, I've had a couple of nine year stents, but I've had a six month stint, a couple of six month stints I'm oh, yeah, I've had, well, and that's where six months.

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I don't mean to ask, but what happened then?

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Well, the first time it happened to me was because it was a really odd situation, because the entire board turned over and the new board that came in said hey, we don't want the GM concept anymore, we're going to go back the old way, we're going to run it from committees, we don't need you, you're gone.

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That was, that was what it really stung me that way.

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But what's going on here?

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You know what I mean, because it was on an island.

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I bought a house on the island and set up a real estate company.

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It was just, you know, just a whole combination of things.

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I'm going, you're kidding me, I said to the president.

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I said, by the way, you've killed me.

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I've been here six months and you're letting me go.

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You've killed me, I'm on my way out, I'm done.

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He said, yeah, well, all right, good luck.

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And so I was gone and pretty much the same thing happened.

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The other six months spent was again in an eight-year-old situation.

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That was a situation where, when you go in what class of people I'd be careful of when you go to a club that says we want change, we want to go to the next level Right now, that should be a concern for you, because clubs don't change rapidly.

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So you get a hard driver coming in to say, oh okay, I got the direction.

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We're going to make a bunch of changes.

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People ain't following you.

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You know, you got the old guard who really likes where it was, and that's when things gets it stirred up.

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And that's what happens when there are several things you got to be careful of when you try to headlock Jevvie, and one of them is what kind of club you're going to.

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That's really important.

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Some of the major things like that you've learned throughout this whole process because you're also a MCM, which is kind of a big deal.

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Not really.

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No, I'm seriously.

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Well, it depends.

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I mean the CMA I'm not sure what they're doing for for NCM's.

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Maybe it's just me, but I get no deference for being an MCM or a CCM or whatever.

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It doesn't really matter.

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And I can tell you this right now that the membership at a club and leadership could care less.

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They don't know and they don't care Really, don't I tell them on the NCM and they're going yeah, what?

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And I explain a little bit to them and they go, yeah, okay, good deal, you know, hey, I need to get a drink, you know?

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So that's, that's the way that works.

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So I went and finding out about the manager tenure.

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I could get technical.

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So let's be careful.

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Like, if I get ahead of you, just slow me down.

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Okay, let's roll, baby.

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Okay, let's roll.

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So here's a technical issue.

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There's really two facets to longevity.

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Okay, manager and the club.

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Are you with me so far?

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Oh yeah.

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Okay.

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So I tested the managers.

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I said, okay, I wanted to find out how people did things differently.

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We had a whole series of questions and I had like I had, uh, I think, 107 responses.

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So I had a pretty good response to the survey and I asked questions like you know, do you walk to dining room?

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Do you have relationships with the membership?

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Do you do things in personal level than never.

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She's awkward.

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The stuff like pretty much everybody's about the same when it comes to technical aspects.

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So then I went back and I interviewed a bunch of them uh, 32 of them interviewed.

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I'm sure it turns out that what really amounts to is is the political savvy that people have, is being aware of what's going on and in particular, there's a couple of folks who are really really good.

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Mitchell Platt at uh Cosmos Club was an issue character because he spent like 30 years at one club and moved to the Cosmos Club and he's been there for 15, 20 years, whatever.

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I think he started in the business when he was about 12, but at any rate, that's different.

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Lots of times what happens is a guy who's been at the club for 25, 30 years based in grass, his greener, goes to another club and then all of a sudden he's like, okay, but no, you're on a two, two, three year rotation and it's all gone On the same talk in a club that hires somebody after they've had that three year manager does the same thing.

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But at any rate I digress there.

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So so, so people do the same thing.

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It's a political savvy.

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And the one guy who really interested me too, uh, was at San San Antonio Coach Club.

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Marvin is the general manager there and he said to me one time that you know he was at the club and there were factions, and that's a problem when you have the wing of boards split and you have factions.

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You have the old garden, you've got the new guard and his key was he basically played both sides but he played him with neutrality.

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You know he would.

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He would keep everybody informed of what's going on and what's the general theme was.

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So when the new guard took over, he wasn't just booted, which is the normal process, is one of the new guys can make your guard, and it didn't Smart enough to figure out how to play both sides and be neutral and have the winning hand.

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And he's been there now for, you know, I think, decade.

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That was pretty good to play a trick on his bar.

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So anyway, my point is from a manager standpoint the technical aspects once you're in the job is you've got to be politically static, which I think is funny, because when I took BMI one way back in the nineties um, they were talking about none of those.

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Stay out of politics, do not participate in politics.

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That's a big mistake.

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You've got to be aware of politics.

00:15:55.450 --> 00:16:00.182
So the second facet here's the clubs and basically what's it?

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No, their brand are going to be good to work for.

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You just kind of know what you're going into when you go into that club, because they they will appreciate longevity.

00:16:11.357 --> 00:16:12.913
You know they generally have managed.

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You've been there for 15, 20 years and they're looking for somebody to follow suit with that.

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One Problem you'd have with clubs is when you go to a club, as I said, you want to go to the next level.

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They want to make change.

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You know they don't really know their brand yet and they're searching for stuff because you've got so many members who like the club just the way it is and then you've got the new guard who wants to make the change.

00:16:32.889 --> 00:16:37.457
So if you're not politically savvy enough to understand the difference and to work through it.

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You know it's going to be a short duration.

00:16:39.509 --> 00:16:42.029
The other thing is you can tell right off the bat if you got a.

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If you're talking to a club and they've had three managers in 10 years, that's the first question I asked how many managers you've had in the last 10 years?

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You've had three.

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You know that's the way they are.

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Culture is what culture does.

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If you've been rotating, you're going to continue to rotate unless something occurs that makes them, the club, want not to do that.

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They have to make a tremendous change to make that adjustment.

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Otherwise it's going to be a three year rotation.

00:17:11.836 --> 00:17:12.500
This is what they do.

00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:14.772
So that's the two classes.

00:17:16.596 --> 00:17:21.548
The word change when you say I'm just trying to expand a little bit.

00:17:21.548 --> 00:17:24.525
So you know you're talking about bringing in change, all this change.

00:17:24.525 --> 00:17:26.121
What does that change mean?

00:17:26.595 --> 00:17:32.900
So when you're talking about this change, well, there lies the point is that most of them don't know what change is.

00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:36.778
It's, it's out there, it's a change.

00:17:36.778 --> 00:17:38.483
Well, yeah, we want to change, we want to get better.

00:17:38.483 --> 00:17:39.365
What's better?

00:17:39.365 --> 00:17:40.380
Well, I don't know.

00:17:40.380 --> 00:17:48.199
It's like talking about compensating in giving the manager, the general manager, some forward and sent him.

00:17:48.199 --> 00:17:50.204
And sent him on what?

00:17:50.694 --> 00:17:52.301
Because the club business is so subjective.

00:17:52.301 --> 00:17:55.522
You know, there is you a objective major to the club.

00:17:55.522 --> 00:17:56.325
It's all subjective.

00:17:56.325 --> 00:17:58.864
It's it's how the members like it, how the members like you.

00:17:58.864 --> 00:18:00.780
So that's the thing about changes.

00:18:00.780 --> 00:18:03.240
People want to change, but they really don't know what it is.

00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:04.442
Do you want to make more money?

00:18:04.442 --> 00:18:08.844
Well, all right, most clubs, private clubs you're not trying to make money.

00:18:08.844 --> 00:18:13.152
It's the value of the profit is in member satisfaction.

00:18:13.152 --> 00:18:13.974
Well, how do you measure that?

00:18:13.974 --> 00:18:17.775
Okay, you can do the KPIs and do surveys and stuff like that, and that's a good thing.

00:18:17.775 --> 00:18:21.035
It depends on what kind of year he is and who's taking the surveys and all that.

00:18:21.035 --> 00:18:22.255
That's probably the best way to do it.

00:18:22.255 --> 00:18:25.326
But your point is well made, which is change.

00:18:25.326 --> 00:18:28.104
They don't even understand what change is.

00:18:28.104 --> 00:18:29.414
Therein lies your problem.

00:18:29.414 --> 00:18:32.095
You go in, they want to change, and everybody's going oh, what's the change?

00:18:32.095 --> 00:18:36.688
We really don't know, but you're going to figure it out and if you don't, well, we'll fire you.

00:18:36.688 --> 00:18:37.734
Bring somebody else in who can figure it out.

00:18:37.734 --> 00:18:39.303
That's what happens.

00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:43.994
Politics and communication Right.

00:18:44.938 --> 00:18:50.374
And there lies the part of the problem with with leadership trying to figure out what to do.

00:18:50.374 --> 00:18:55.307
Okay, first of all, the the noring is a year for a president.

00:18:55.307 --> 00:18:57.469
First of all, it comes in.

00:18:57.469 --> 00:18:57.974
I know what's going on.

00:18:57.974 --> 00:19:00.174
In six months, we still don't know what's going on.

00:19:00.174 --> 00:19:04.934
By the end of his term, he doesn't know what's going on, but he's expected to to to make this change.

00:19:04.934 --> 00:19:06.154
Nobody really knows what it is.

00:19:06.154 --> 00:19:07.653
It's a very difficult situation.

00:19:08.282 --> 00:19:14.733
Well, and then you're very, I was very, I was going to say then you have the manager, who's new there also, cause they, they're only going to be, they're only old, then they're two years, they're still learning.

00:19:16.862 --> 00:19:22.095
The blind lay in the blind, yes it is, and the manager is just doing his thing, going about his business.

00:19:22.095 --> 00:19:28.775
But the other thing is a lot of business at the club gets done away from the board meeting for sure.

00:19:28.775 --> 00:19:34.179
A lot of decisions get made, you know, at eight o'clock a night over cocktails in the bar, that's.

00:19:34.179 --> 00:19:35.990
That's difficult too.

00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:36.654
Managers don't know.

00:19:36.654 --> 00:19:38.230
I mean, I'd been in a whole bunch of fights.

00:19:38.230 --> 00:19:42.124
I didn't know I was in cause.

00:19:42.124 --> 00:19:45.733
It was all going in around the background and nobody's talking to you because they're uncomfortable talking to you.

00:19:45.733 --> 00:19:46.134
I'm not used to it.

00:19:46.134 --> 00:19:47.480
How do you, how do you try to?

00:19:48.065 --> 00:19:48.487
change that?

00:19:48.487 --> 00:19:49.734
How do you try to fix that?

00:19:49.734 --> 00:19:51.289
You you know you said it took you what?

00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:52.994
30 years and what were some of like the clicks?

00:19:52.994 --> 00:19:57.150
What are some of the changes that you made to move that needle forward?

00:20:00.924 --> 00:20:02.314
Well, as my good friend Calvin Boling at uh, angelic Club.

00:20:02.314 --> 00:20:04.375
The club told me it's about relationship building.

00:20:04.375 --> 00:20:09.164
You know, you really have to build a relationship, so you have to.

00:20:09.164 --> 00:20:10.394
That's that's the key is is communication.

00:20:10.394 --> 00:20:13.154
I've had people call me.

00:20:13.917 --> 00:20:29.615
Well, I think I mentioned to you about a club that Peter Nellah put me on and the first thing when that guy, when they get called me, I said, hey, look, let's talk about this a little bit, cause oftentimes it's just a communication failure to communicate between the directors and the GM.

00:20:29.615 --> 00:20:32.064
You know, let me see if I can work this out.

00:20:32.064 --> 00:20:34.882
And the guy said, yeah, no, we're not doing that, we're moving on.

00:20:34.882 --> 00:20:40.041
I said, oh well, all right, okay, then we'll talk about whatever I can do, for there were some other issues going on there.

00:20:40.041 --> 00:20:48.747
The fact is, I think communication is is a big deal and next, in building your relationship, you have to be open and honest and talking to folks as much as possible.

00:20:49.575 --> 00:21:05.067
The bottom, the problem is that's that doesn't save you, because what can happen is they're still going to talk to their friends and, as I mentioned earlier, a friend to a president has got much more sway than the GM president.

00:21:05.067 --> 00:21:08.863
That's just the way it works so you can create all the relationships you want.

00:21:08.863 --> 00:21:15.799
I think I mentioned a person I won't name him, but who is just like that Perfect manager, just a great manager, executive of the year.

00:21:15.799 --> 00:21:20.727
Next thing you know you're asked to leave because the new guy comes in and doesn't matter.

00:21:20.727 --> 00:21:22.125
That's the way it goes.

00:21:22.125 --> 00:21:42.923
So, unfortunately, in all the research I've done and all the managers I'm talking to, there are certain things that can give you a really good chance of having longevity, but the bottom line is there's nothing that's going to save you for certain Most managers that I know could squeeze out at some point in time.

00:21:44.955 --> 00:21:55.145
And speaking of being saved, if your club is looking for recapitalization, one way to be saved is by calling Peter Danula in Concert Golf Partners.

00:21:55.145 --> 00:21:57.502
They are amazing at helping with that issue.

00:21:59.077 --> 00:21:59.579
Well, he does.

00:21:59.579 --> 00:22:02.682
That's exactly right and I think he's growing.

00:22:02.682 --> 00:22:04.800
I talked to him back when he had 20.

00:22:04.800 --> 00:22:08.564
Now he's over 30 clubs now because people are getting it.

00:22:08.564 --> 00:22:22.719
Clubs are not that difficult to run and I thought it was interesting that his criteria basically was a certain volume number and the fact that it was run by membership, because that's what happens again.

00:22:22.719 --> 00:22:29.406
And one of the first clubs I went to there was a real club with lots of committees.

00:22:30.154 --> 00:22:31.259
I was sitting at a committee meeting.

00:22:31.259 --> 00:22:32.539
It was a golf committee meeting.

00:22:32.539 --> 00:22:34.939
It was six hours long.

00:22:34.939 --> 00:22:37.641
My eyes are glazed over.

00:22:37.641 --> 00:22:38.980
It was in the last of the fifth hour.

00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:45.551
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd stopped taking notes hours beforehand and I'm in a daze and I hear the.

00:22:45.551 --> 00:22:51.247
I hear the chairman say okay, all in favor, say aye, and it passed.

00:22:51.247 --> 00:22:53.981
He said, okay, this motion passed, but we're not going to tell anybody.

00:22:53.981 --> 00:22:58.282
I said, wait a minute.

00:22:58.282 --> 00:23:00.587
I didn't quite understand what did you say?

00:23:00.587 --> 00:23:03.307
I said, yes, the motion passed, but we're not going to tell anybody about it.

00:23:03.307 --> 00:23:12.625
I said, okay, no, I'm just saying that's what I'm saying the group dynamic there, that things can be done, that just you go, and what the heck?

00:23:12.625 --> 00:23:18.894
They would never do it in their own business and I know every manager I've ever talked to it's had that situation.

00:23:18.894 --> 00:23:20.926
We're going, what are these people doing?

00:23:20.926 --> 00:23:22.095
How do they belong here?

00:23:22.095 --> 00:23:23.920
Because that's what happens in the group dynamic.

00:23:25.795 --> 00:23:38.902
That's been some of the fun conversations I've had is just you have these amazing, extremely successful people who are killing it and you bring them into this setting and this all function just goes out the window.

00:23:41.087 --> 00:23:41.993
Just God.

00:23:41.993 --> 00:23:46.866
I was at a club meeting with all the who were they?

00:23:46.866 --> 00:23:51.386
They were the chairman of the golf committee and all this kind of stuff.

00:23:51.386 --> 00:23:55.922
So there was a couple of chairman of the golf, chairman of the house committee, with general managers, and it was lunchtime.

00:23:55.922 --> 00:24:04.907
So I'm going to get lunch and I'm going to sit with somebody I don't know and I see these two people, mature adults, members of a club, in animated conversations.

00:24:04.907 --> 00:24:07.762
I mean they were just focused on what they were talking about.

00:24:08.795 --> 00:24:25.045
And I went and sat down and listened for a moment and I almost coughed up a lung because the guy was a CEO of a major international accounting firm and the woman was an attorney and they were just just, I mean, intense on this conversation.

00:24:25.045 --> 00:24:35.461
It was over where to put the hooks under the bar for a woman's purse to hang on, but there was important to them, it was hugely important.

00:24:35.461 --> 00:24:38.597
I couldn't believe it, but that's what happens.

00:24:38.597 --> 00:24:43.282
Because it's important, they're focused, they're any type of personalized and by guy they're going to solve that problem.

00:24:43.282 --> 00:24:44.957
I thought that was a good one.

00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:46.281
That's a good one.

00:24:46.281 --> 00:24:51.703
I've heard of like many things, from like burger buns to like dressings.

00:24:52.005 --> 00:24:53.488
That one's good, that one's good.

00:24:53.488 --> 00:24:55.116
I'm adding that one to the list.

00:24:55.116 --> 00:24:58.605
Purse hooks yeah, purse hooks, purse hooks.

00:24:58.605 --> 00:25:01.000
That's hysterical.

00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:03.661
What advice do you have?

00:25:03.661 --> 00:25:11.066
So you know I'm Joe manager, you know I've every club I go to it's two, three years.

00:25:11.066 --> 00:25:18.576
What are some actionable steps that I can take as a professional to change To?

00:25:18.576 --> 00:25:24.776
You know, start moving my own needle forward and making a better progression, just like you did Like.

00:25:24.776 --> 00:25:27.345
So basically, you know, how do you improve the communication?

00:25:27.345 --> 00:25:28.980
How do you take that step to?

00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:35.434
I don't want to say becoming that better leader, that better manager, but sort of no-transcript.

00:25:35.704 --> 00:25:37.075
Well, it's a more savvy manager.

00:25:37.075 --> 00:25:38.080
Savvy leader, I mean.

00:25:38.080 --> 00:25:39.445
Managers have to be good at what they do.

00:25:39.445 --> 00:25:40.388
That's the bottom line.

00:25:40.388 --> 00:25:42.070
First of all you have to have fun and medals.

00:25:42.070 --> 00:25:42.594
Be a good man.

00:25:42.594 --> 00:25:43.400
That's the first.

00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:43.701
I mean.

00:25:43.701 --> 00:25:47.000
If you can't manage, then you know there's not much you can do for it.

00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:52.625
But I'm talking about people who know how to manage a club and the communication is quite simple Just tell them what you're doing.

00:25:52.625 --> 00:25:54.901
You know, I mentioned Robert Carr Again.

00:25:55.242 --> 00:26:09.814
We lost him a year ago and he told me that Bernie Ham Kutchkiel, when he was there he would come in at two o'clock in the morning to inspect the security and he'd call and leave a message on the president's phone and say, hey, I'm in here, I've checked in out, everything was good, no problems here.

00:26:09.814 --> 00:26:13.191
He keeps them in contact and he stayed at Birmingham for quite a while.

00:26:13.191 --> 00:26:18.212
Interestingly enough, he left and went to other clubs and then kind of got on that rotation again.

00:26:18.212 --> 00:26:20.660
But the point is communication is important.

00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:23.150
Creating relationships is really really important.

00:26:23.150 --> 00:26:29.700
But I think even more so is be careful about leaving a club because you think the grass is greener than the other side.

00:26:29.700 --> 00:26:34.140
Having longevity is important, so trying to stay at the club is is valued.

00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:45.659
The other thing is, I think the most important one is selecting the right club and not getting suckered into going to a club but you think you're going to flourish and change things for them.

00:26:45.659 --> 00:26:52.539
Again, be careful, understand how many managers they've had the last 10, 20 years, because that's going to be their, their type of, that's their tactic.

00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:57.200
If they've been turning rotating managers, you're not going to change that unless something happens.

00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:01.940
I think I mentioned to you earlier about McCarthy down there at Addison Reserve.

00:27:01.940 --> 00:27:14.336
When he got there 20 years ago they made the commitment as a, as a club, to do away with the committees, become a run like a developer, own club, and he has flourished in that environment, done a tremendous job down there.

00:27:14.336 --> 00:27:14.819
Everybody loves him.

00:27:14.819 --> 00:27:19.498
He's you know, he's a mentor to many, many managers.

00:27:19.498 --> 00:27:19.940
That's an oddity.

00:27:21.087 --> 00:27:21.818
Most clubs don't get there.

00:27:21.818 --> 00:27:26.694
They they talk about it but then it doesn't really happen because, again, the rotational nature of the board of directors.

00:27:26.694 --> 00:27:32.200
So the critical piece is when you go to a club, do your research, pay attention to it.

00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:34.451
The clubs that are good and successful can help.

00:27:34.451 --> 00:27:35.616
You are the ones that have the strong brand.

00:27:35.616 --> 00:27:40.834
They know who they are, they know what they want to manager and don't try and fool them.

00:27:40.834 --> 00:27:42.798
You know that's not going to be good.

00:27:42.798 --> 00:27:45.458
Don't try and fool them into into pretending you're what they want.

00:27:45.458 --> 00:27:47.731
You got to actually be what they want.

00:27:47.731 --> 00:27:48.660
It's like getting married.

00:27:48.660 --> 00:27:51.412
You better pay attention, you know.

00:27:51.412 --> 00:27:52.220
Don't try and fool.

00:27:52.579 --> 00:28:03.366
I was just having a little bit of a conversation with the manager, just having this conversation about clubs and how the clubs that take everybody that applies for membership gets in.

00:28:03.366 --> 00:28:09.893
It's like I thought clubs were supposed to be a place of having some some sort of identity.

00:28:09.893 --> 00:28:14.960
And I think the same thing when you, it's the same same for a manager, it's the same for the employees.

00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:20.107
It's you know, you're, you're I was just talking to somebody else like you're, you're, vibe attracts your tribe.

00:28:20.107 --> 00:28:20.830
However you want to.

00:28:20.830 --> 00:28:25.519
You know whatever wording you have, but it's you know every manager shouldn't be for every club.

00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.980
Every member shouldn't be for every club.

00:28:26.980 --> 00:28:28.686
Every club shouldn't be for every manager.

00:28:28.686 --> 00:28:31.703
And you know it's it's same thing.

00:28:31.703 --> 00:28:34.144
Courting, you know having that, you know, date a little bit.

00:28:34.144 --> 00:28:40.339
You know making sure that that you are the right fit and not just taking any position because it's open or because because they they want to.

00:28:40.862 --> 00:28:42.526
Well, that's not, that's not you've.

00:28:42.526 --> 00:28:46.327
You've said it for a point, which is how is the club attracting new members?

00:28:46.327 --> 00:28:59.184
And if they're reaching out to pretty much anybody who can come in, it's a problem too, because then you've lost your brand and you don't have that, that exclusive, homogenous nature of a club.

00:28:59.184 --> 00:29:00.705
Then you've got a whole bunch of different people.

00:29:00.705 --> 00:29:02.708
It's hard to, it's hard to please everybody.

00:29:02.708 --> 00:29:03.964
So that's another thing.

00:29:04.500 --> 00:29:11.458
And the problem that clubs faces the club business model is not like the normal economics model.

00:29:11.458 --> 00:29:14.568
All right, you cannot, you can, you can cut your.

00:29:14.568 --> 00:29:16.576
Well, see, you can't cut your later prosperity.

00:29:16.576 --> 00:29:17.259
We all know that.

00:29:17.259 --> 00:29:21.191
Okay, you can cut your way to solvency, and then floods have to do that.

00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:31.251
But a club that starts cutting their services and stuff to try and save money, that's not going to work, because the people who are trying to attract they have money.

00:29:31.251 --> 00:29:45.724
It ain't about money, it's about the value you bring to them and because, again, it's a self-actualization level of the hierarchy, they don't care about the money, they care about how impressive it is for me to be at this club, how prideful is it.

00:29:45.724 --> 00:29:49.619
And if you're at the bargain basement, it's not going to be successful.

00:29:49.619 --> 00:29:51.130
It's very difficult to be successful.

00:29:51.130 --> 00:29:54.740
So that's what clubs do and that's how they get themselves into that downward spiral.

00:29:54.740 --> 00:29:56.748
And it's very hard to get out of that downward spiral.

00:29:56.748 --> 00:30:00.088
So you can't, you can't cut your way into being a sensible club.

00:30:00.088 --> 00:30:01.940
You got to do the opposite.

00:30:01.940 --> 00:30:03.467
You have to really add value.

00:30:04.540 --> 00:30:05.083
That quote.

00:30:05.083 --> 00:30:06.366
So I was just making a note on the time.

00:30:06.366 --> 00:30:07.982
You can't cut your way.

00:30:07.982 --> 00:30:09.065
I like that.

00:30:09.065 --> 00:30:10.950
It's a really good line.

00:30:10.950 --> 00:30:11.550
I like that a lot.

00:30:11.550 --> 00:30:14.130
You can't cut your way there, and it's it's a.

00:30:14.130 --> 00:30:16.182
This was like a sales thing, I was taught back.

00:30:16.182 --> 00:30:20.227
When it's like, you know, when value exceeds price, that's when, that's when people buy.

00:30:20.227 --> 00:30:23.601
So the same thing when you were just, you know, talking about trying to cheap it's.

00:30:23.601 --> 00:30:32.912
It's when you know as soon as that that price value that you know teeter totters the wrong way, when people aren't feeling they're getting their, their value is worth.

00:30:32.912 --> 00:30:35.546
That's when, uh, what's true here?

00:30:36.548 --> 00:30:44.387
It goes on and what happens is the leadership is trying to save that bottom 10% who have trouble afforded the club anyway.

00:30:44.387 --> 00:30:45.539
They're going to leave you any out.

00:30:45.539 --> 00:30:52.391
But what happens is when you're trying to save that bottom 10, you're losing the 10% of the folks that really do have wealth who would come into your club.

00:30:52.391 --> 00:30:56.588
So it's just it's unfortunate that they're doing these backwards.

00:30:57.111 --> 00:31:05.032
Yeah, prado or Prado, there we go, the 80, 20, 90, 10, however you look at it.

00:31:05.032 --> 00:31:12.445
So my my dad told me years ago business isn't difficult, people make it difficult.

00:31:13.933 --> 00:31:16.317
She right, yeah, that was a wise guy.

00:31:16.560 --> 00:31:22.751
So when you were like this, I was like, ah, clubs aren't difficult, the people make it difficult, but you need the people for the club.

00:31:22.751 --> 00:31:26.228
No, it was funny, covid.

00:31:26.308 --> 00:31:27.759
COVID, everybody wants to know like COVID.

00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:38.339
When it was COVID first hit and it was scary and I got on a call with the board of the records and they were all panicking and I said, guys, slow down, slow down, slow down.

00:31:38.339 --> 00:31:44.180
Let me tell you something right now You're going to make more money during COVID than you're ever going to make when you're older.

00:31:44.180 --> 00:31:54.242
Okay, because you got to do is revenue, communities, culture, cost out and that's exactly what happened when everybody backed up and that's not going to cost.

00:31:54.242 --> 00:31:58.061
I gotta tell you something COVID was like the best thing that ever happened in country clubs.

00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:18.269
I mean, it's an unfortunate thing, no question, but as far as the finances go, wow, clubs got a big benefit from that and the ones that needed help got it, like the ones that were failing, because then everyone went in the club, so it doesn't matter how good of a club you were, you were having a wait list.

00:32:18.269 --> 00:32:24.548
So the bad ones got that boost and that's when they should have been able to go.

00:32:24.548 --> 00:32:26.247
Okay, back to square one.

00:32:26.247 --> 00:32:28.406
We're level now, let's continue.

00:32:28.406 --> 00:32:32.587
That's when they get comfortable again and go back to their old ways, old habits.

00:32:32.587 --> 00:32:37.741
And then that's when so the good ones really utilized it properly and continued.

00:32:37.741 --> 00:32:41.126
The ones that just needed some help got it and continued to grow.

00:32:41.126 --> 00:32:46.147
And then there were a lot that just well.

00:32:46.169 --> 00:32:58.865
The other thing is, even those clubs who were on the margin, at the lower end and I know I was at one just recently the ERC money, the government money, wow, that was a game changer for those clubs because all of a sudden they get infusion.

00:32:58.865 --> 00:33:03.210
You know, I'm six $700,000 to a club that's broke.

00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:06.588
Wow, now, all of a sudden you can do some stuff, take a breath.

00:33:06.588 --> 00:33:08.124
So it was big all the way around.

00:33:08.124 --> 00:33:14.147
The other thing you really want to add is you know I created the website nivincc.

00:33:14.147 --> 00:33:17.003
It's open source.

00:33:17.003 --> 00:33:20.284
It's got just a ton of stuff on there from other managers.

00:33:20.284 --> 00:33:27.346
It's got all the papers that I've written, all the research I've done, all the articles I've written that have been published on that website.

00:33:27.346 --> 00:33:31.684
So if anybody wants to just go and look at stuff, it's open to everybody.

00:33:31.684 --> 00:33:36.045
It's nivin, anna's Nancy, I B's Victor and Anna's Nancycc.

00:33:36.045 --> 00:33:39.244
I've counted on CC Open source, use stuff.

00:33:39.244 --> 00:33:41.182
If you use it and change it, just let me know.

00:33:41.182 --> 00:33:42.742
We'll put it back up for other people to use.

00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:44.242
Love it.

00:33:44.242 --> 00:33:46.344
I'll make sure to put a link to that in the show notes.

00:33:46.344 --> 00:33:49.588
Sir, it was so nice to meet you and great to chat.

00:33:49.588 --> 00:33:50.585
I look forward to chatting more.

00:33:50.585 --> 00:33:56.891
This is a really good conversation, but have a fantastic day and thanks for being on.

00:33:58.500 --> 00:33:58.942
You as well.

00:33:58.942 --> 00:34:00.125
Thanks so much, appreciate it.

00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:06.486
Hope you all enjoyed that.

00:34:06.486 --> 00:34:07.383
Thanks again, mac.

00:34:07.383 --> 00:34:20.286
If you would like to learn more about him, head on over to nivincc where you can see a lot of the resources and papers and that we were talking about in the episode.

00:34:20.286 --> 00:34:34.927
This has been another amazing episode of Board Chats here on Private Club Radio, brought to you by our friends, concert golf partners, because it's not just about a business, it's not just about another club.

00:34:34.927 --> 00:34:44.125
It's about preserving and enhancing your club, keeping its values, keeping its membership, keeping its roots, its story.

00:34:44.125 --> 00:34:52.346
So to learn more, see some case studies or to contact Peter, set up a phone call, head on over to concertgolfpartnerscom.

00:34:52.346 --> 00:34:55.346
Hope you all enjoyed that episode.

00:34:55.346 --> 00:34:58.588
As always, like share, subscribe.

00:34:58.588 --> 00:35:04.581
Anything you can do to help our channel move forward costs nothing to you, means the world to us and our industry.

00:35:04.581 --> 00:35:06.025
Until next time.