333: Serving Success in Tennis Leadership w/ Ed Shanaphy

Speaker 1:
0:00

because I think 2024 is going to be a great year, or a flat year. It may not go backwards, but I think that it's going to. Um, it could go one of two ways.

Speaker 2:
0:12

Hey everyone welcome to private club radio, your industry source for news updates, trends, conversations, all things. Private club, country club, city club, golf club, yacht club, all the clubs related, from marketing and branding, communications, leadership management, food and beverage governance. We got you covered here. I'm your host, denny Corby. Thank you all so much for being here. If you want to stay up to date on all the episodes and all the content that we're putting out uh, sometimes it's often more than one episode a week. Uh, make sure you sign up for our newsletter. There's no spam. There's no anything. One weekly email wraps up everything we have uh coming out and what has came out. So head on over private club radiocom, straight up on top. You know what to do. Name an email. We got you covered.

Speaker 2:
0:59

This episode I had to talk with Ed Shanofi from beyond the bay, from beyond the baselines consulting and management group, uh and beyond the baselines podcast great industry resource, a great podcast for the club world, and this episode is fun. We have a good chat. Uh we talk about you know, how outsourcing can be an effective strategy for uh managing and operating tennis clubs. Um, and allowing for, you know, specialized expertise and uh increased focus on the member services. He's lived both here and over in Europe. So we talk about the similarities and the differences, uh, in club management and club management between the UK and the US. We chat about, you know, the processes and how to build a strong team, um, in the challenges of building and finding that team and those people and making sure that we get the right people in the right roles, um, as we progress and move forward in our, in our clubs.

Speaker 2:
2:01

And if you want to know who he would have a friendly match with if he had the chance, I asked him if he can have one tennis match. That's a stank tennis. If you have one tennis match with anybody, who would it be? Listen to the end, you will find out. So welcome to private club radio. Glad you're all here. So let's welcome Ed Shanofi. Right.

Speaker 1:
2:23

Well, feel free to talk.

Speaker 2:
2:24

I mean you know.

Speaker 1:
2:25

I'm here for ever, right, yeah, but this is, but this isn't about me, it's about you, so you're not. You're not interviewing me, through me right now it's me and interviewing you. No, no, it's not this is unusual for me to be interviewed. So I'm, you know, I'm usually the interviewee, so or the interviewer, and now I'm the interviewer, so I can't even get the words right. It's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like it's like.

Speaker 2:
2:44

It's like. It's like we're each trying to do to each other what we're. It's like you're trying to interview me with an icy, what you're doing, that I'm trying to flip it. It's going to be the see either be the best or worst Episode ever, ever.

Speaker 1:
2:58

So number 344, whatever you're at, this is the last one. Here we go.

Speaker 2:
3:03

It just goes silent after it's just done. The next episode is like this this is this is Gabe. Uh, not sure how I got the show back, but it's. I hope you have a good editor.

Speaker 1:
3:18

All right.

Speaker 2:
3:21

So we have Mr Ed Shanifi. I said that right, right, Correct. Shanifi.

Speaker 1:
3:26

Okay Well done, it's one of those.

Speaker 2:
3:28

I knew how it, how it's supposed to sound, but always the last minute my like brain goes. I think we're going to switch it back. So but you have, beyond the baseline's podcast, a man of many talents. Um, worked in marketing over in Europe. Uh, went to Duke London school of business. Uh, school of economics, economics. Uh, don't want to mess up the credits, okay. Uh, club professional funny man. Uh, works anywhere from the floor to main seats. Um, if there we we tried to record a few few days ago and it just didn't work. And he's on the floor of a hotel. It was just a funny, funny moment. It gives you how to be there. I'm going to keep that. I'm not going to edit it out, but I I'm happy to have you on. I'm very happy.

Speaker 1:
4:14

Thank you, danny, thank you so much. Really pleasure, it's a pleasure to be here and I'm I'm glad I'm, I'm better prepared today and I'm at the at home, in the comfort of my home and, uh, not on the road trying to do retail for four clubs in the summer. So thanks for having me back and and I apologize for the first, first strike.

Speaker 2:
4:29

All good, all good, all good. If that's the worst thing that happens, it's the best thing that happens. I don't know that.

Speaker 1:
4:36

I don't know my mom always told me don't you know, don't be late for a date. Don't you know, don't miss anything on your calendar. And I was intent not to miss it, so I, I did the college Appreciate you, I appreciate you.

Speaker 2:
4:46

So rapid fire in less than three minutes. Who's Ed Shanofi?

Speaker 1:
4:53

grew up in New York state on a dirt road, lots of horses and uh and and and. My roots to the club started then. I was, my parents joined a club when I was seven. They joined walkabout country club. As my first job I was rolling courts walkabuck Good good Indian walkabuck, yeah, yeah, walkabuck. And rolled courts there when I was 14, started teaching little Little kids when I was 15 and then taught right through college tennis, talk tennis and learn from some of the best Gary Squires up there and New Canaan and Greenwich, connecticut, greenwich Field Club of Greenwich Country Club and Round Hill with Hugh Underhill. And then I went to college.

Speaker 1:
5:29

Well, I was in college, taught all through the summers in college and then I went to grad school in London, never came home for 20 years, lived over there kind of kind of got into advertising and marketing on a global scale, ran a $20 million company. We had offices in Sydney, ireland, london, and and one night it was really rough on the English Channel, sailing with my wife and I said, hey, honey, we don't have to be sailing in these wild winds of the English Channel. And she goes oh, we can move, you know, to Cornwall. I said, how about further west about Florida, and so, 2007, we started the process of a green card and moved here in December of 2007 and she turned to me. She said what are you gonna do? I said, well, I'm selling the company. I'm not there in London anymore, so let's sell it.

Speaker 1:
6:14

And Luckily, the local club here said hey, ed, we're here in town. You want to teach tennis again? I said career number two, here we go. So I started teaching tennis, just taught a camp for a couple weeks and then, believe it or not, they hired me full-time. Little did they know. And and now a member of that club, which is really a great story at Quail Valley I worked for Kevin Given there he's one of the best in the business as a general manager.

Speaker 1:
6:38

Sam Garcia, director tennis great guy, was there for almost five years and then I got Basically just tapped on the shoulder and said, ed, edgerton yaw club that you want to come work for us. I said I didn't apply for a job and they said well, you got it. I said what job? And so I went up to Edgerton seasonally and then ended up at Jupiter Island Club Down in Hope Sound in the winters and and now I'm still in the tennis in the summers, director tennis. It's a pecan tennis club in Marion, massachusetts on the south coast, but in the winters in the winners. Now I run this beyond the baseline consultancy and we manage four clubs.

Speaker 2:
7:14

Yeah, and you were tell me about that, tell me, tell me more about that. That is, that is fast, because I haven't heard about this. This is, this is a.

Speaker 1:
7:22

This is a trend in the industry and I'm glad you're letting me talk about it is a lot of clubs not a lot, but some are Are are. What they're doing is they're outsourcing their tennis or their kick, food and beverage to catering firms. And so the first club that did it really was the club on that in Massachusetts. They basically just said Ed, we do not want to be involved in anything tennis. You run it, you employ, you covered all the liability, you get the workers comp, you do everything. You buy the balls, you buy the carts, you do the demos, you own the shop every hundred percent. Just take it all. I mean they don't. They've basically talked to me once a month at a board meeting.

Speaker 1:
7:59

That's it and and, and I love that because I love running businesses. That's what I did in London. And so then one of those members said hey, ed, you know you could really help out at this club in Princeton I'm a member. And I said, oh god, what am I gonna do down there, like you could run it? So I went down, I consulted with that club. It's called pretty brick tennis club, it's in Princeton beautiful club.

Speaker 1:
8:18

Five outdoor courts, one indoor, two squash, two paddle, and they outsource everything. They outsource their food and beverage to a catering firm. They out there, it's a smaller tennis, old original tennis club. And they and so, as I'm consulting with them, their GM Resigns and they said Ed, you want to be the GM? I was like uh-huh, so I became a GM.

Speaker 1:
8:35

I I went back and forth from Florida, new Jersey, for like four months, ran the search for their new GM. Unfortunately, that GM didn't work out. The second one did, but they kept me on as the rackets director. And so my company, all the rackets instructors are the second one it's director. And so my company, all the rackets instructors are our employees. We carry all the insurances, all the liability, we do all the programming, do all the reconciling and they just enjoy the club.

Speaker 1:
9:04

And so the board there is a smart, you know. They don't really have to get into the day-to-day, which is kind of nice. I'm having a meeting with them later this month and just update them. We, our head pros got a back problem, so we've had a, you know, make make changes and that's where, like, outsourcing, is great. Hey, ed, we need another pro, our pros hurt. So you know, we have. Fortunately we had a full-time pro there for the first time, this winner as an assistant, so we had two on duty and we've gone to surrounding clubs and brought in a paddle pro from a surrounding club and just Made that work for the winner and knock wood, our head pro will be back for April. But then again, now I've just got another couple clubs on Come and come and saying they want the same thing, a couple of HOA's. So what we do is we manage these clubs Remotely. We put in a lead, we call it a lead pro or a head pro or a director, but they all are employees of our company beyond the baselines.

Speaker 2:
10:02

Love that Outsourcing. I think a lot of people Sometimes see it as a negative thing, but outsourcing, when done properly, is phenomenal and it can really and it sounds like you have a. You have a great board. Who? Who Doesn't want to be too involved, so they just want to make sure things are running. It's one of the same thing with that. We all just want everything's running normal. People are happy, healthy, taken care of, no one's messing up and if they do, it's taken care of.

Speaker 1:
10:32

Taking care of. That's my job. But you know I mean the boards do want to be involved. They want to, but they don't have to be involved in my new shy. You know they don't have to go get the workers comp, they don't have to get, you know, good prices for cases of tennis balls, they don't have to. The biggest one is the hiring. You know, and that's specialty is the networking, for hiring is Really where it's at. You know, like trying to find these positions and saying, hey, I've got a spot for you for for nine months but then I'm gonna shift you over to Colorado for three kind of thing. So it does work when you know when somebody goes down. Unfortunately, people get hurt in this business or get sick or move or have families. Changes happen and that's our responsibility.

Speaker 2:
11:14

Now flipping it a little bit. You've had Tremendous you, you've worked everywhere. No well, you know overseas UK in here, both with like a ton of experience, what has been? I would say probably maybe we'll start with key differences of, of management and member expectations. Maybe, for you know, uk vs US like, or maybe just talk about that like difference. And I think because I'm just a little hype now too, because I had on John McCormick from a club benchmark, club benchmarking Over in Europe, so I was just talking with him, so like I'm like fired up with like some some UK spirit now.

Speaker 1:
11:55

So Take it away. You know, uk is a little different. I don't think they're quite as it sounds crazy. I don't think there's quite as formal as we are at the club level really. Yeah, I mean, some are. I mean, as I mentioned earlier, when I was lying on the floor in the hotel, my wife and I got married at the Royal automobile club. We were, we were members here and that's what separates, I think, me from a lot of people is like I'm a member of like 12 clubs and that club is formal. Right, it is very formal. But the tennis clubs over there, some of them, a lot of them you know John Lloyds are corporate and you know they're not as Member-centric maybe I should say as they could be.

Speaker 1:
12:37

You know, americans, I have to say, we, we are really good and we pride ourselves on customer or, in this case, member service. And I think the British are catching us, the English, british, welsh, irish I got to be careful Scottish, my wife's English, so, but they're catching us, but I don't think they have. You know, like, for example, you take St Andrews, right, the epitome of golf, right, the home of golf, and it's a it's, it's quasi public. I mean you can go there and play, right, you can't play at the country club here in Boston. No, you can't do that, you need to know somebody. So it's different there.

Speaker 1:
13:16

I mean there are clubs over there that are really member centric, you know, but in a lot of them are in London. You know, the eating clubs, home, house, soho, house, those are, you know you get stopped at the door. You can't just walk in and have dinner, can't? You know, can't use a tennis court or whatever, but a lot of them are corporate or quasi public and and a lot of that has to go back to. You know, we're gonna go all the way back to how England and and Britain was founded, you know, with, with duchies and and leaseholds and freeholds, and so a lot of those leases of those clubs are leased from the Royal Family or Duke or Duchess, and and those leases, like the one at Blackheath, required you to have certain numbers of members certainly be open to public at times. Things like that are in those original leaseholds which go on for thousands of years. So I there is some overarching Differences between the two countries.

Speaker 2:
14:11

What similarities when it comes to.

Speaker 1:
14:17

Similarities. Let's see, you know it, to be around a social, to be social, to be around a social network. I think that's what I mean. That's what clubs were founded about, right, founded for, you know, the Queens Club there in in London, with the grass which is the week up to Wimbledon, it's a social tournament. I mean the players are walking through the bar to get to the green room, to get to, to get to their locker room, and the members, you know they'll watch a lot of times but then they're in the back bar, you know, having fun having their pins. So it's, it's a social gathering and that's what the club in both countries is about. It's it's about being social and networking and meeting people. And and in here in America, I think maybe more so than in England, it's now becoming more familial. It's becoming a family event. You know, used to be men would go play golf from at 7 am and come home at 3 am, at 3 pm, and that's not happening anymore. 3 am, yeah well, some.

Speaker 1:
15:17

But but I think here in the States is becoming very family oriented. Clubs You're reaching out especially since COVID and I think they're gonna have to keep doing that going into 2024s Is reaching out to the families and get the entire family there. Yacht clubs are getting you know, family sailing. Tennis clubs are getting you know family cardio tennis. Golf clubs are doing a lot of family events. You know fireworks on the fourth. Every club is trying to do things like that. So you know bounce houses on the fourth, rather just for the, the, the, the families of, just for the couples, but the families involved too. Right, I think that's different.

Speaker 2:
15:51

Britain's not as Family oriented as we are yet yet yeah, yeah, with your background and experience from the tennis and then also from you know direct marketing, e-commerce. When it comes to Clubs and club management and the members, what strategies would you say, from from your point of view, are most effective in growing the club memberships and retaining members at clubs? Because you, you have a very unique point of view and have Different access points, so I want to hear your, your thoughts on that.

Speaker 1:
16:33

Well, first thing is any department head or any manager, gm or membership chair has to write. You have to write, you got. I mean, you know everyone's talking about AI but you got to give AI Good you got feed, a good info before you get some info back. So I think writing is really important and that can take any sense of any, any direction. So, to keep you get to three prong question there, danny, it's a tough one because you asked about getting new members, retaining members, and you know that's two different things right there. But in general, what I would say is that To get new members, you got to look at it as a branding exercise. You've got a brand, the club. I mean you said earlier TCC. Well, anybody in our business may know that, but somebody on the street of Back Bay where you went to school may not know what TCC means. So you've got to get the logo going. You've got to get out in the news. You've got to get the PR releases to get new, new folks in, right. So that's a branding exercise and that's writing, pr writing right for member retention and getting them to use the club, which is what it's about. If someone's not using their club, they're not going to renew, right, that's basically it. So to get them and their family is using them again. It's writing, it's kind of, it's communicating, and so, for example, that could be a three-pronged attack right there.

Speaker 1:
17:47

Texting, I think is is is prevalent now. Any club we go to, really we start a Google voice text you know Sean's probably gonna kill me for from members first, but we use that Google to text the members. So like, we'll set yeah, don't tell them, but we'll like set up a Google account and load all the members phone numbers in there and we can group text like crazy. Right, and members hate group text. But man, they work because in marketing they say what, eight times before someone acts right, they have to see it eight times. Well, if eight people text on one group text, they just saw it eight times. Yeah, there we go. But texting.

Speaker 1:
18:25

You know, in this day of age of fast communication, email is great. I don't think it's as strong as it once was. But you know, and, and a lot of times, the templates are very stayed for for for member marketing or member Communication. So I like to change that. You know I get my hands lapped by those clubs that outsource my business. We change the template. What do you do you change the template, what do you? Oh, you gotta keep it fresh. Let's put some pictures in there. Yeah, come on, you can't mess with our green and white template. Yeah, what's your? What's your click rate? People are gonna notice.

Speaker 2:
18:57

Yeah, what's your open?

Speaker 1:
18:58

rate. What's your click rate? Let's look at that. You know so the what writing is so important, and and so I'm trying to answer your three-prong question there in.

Speaker 2:
19:08

Oh yeah, I Didn't give you three, three minutes. You, you put that on there yourself.

Speaker 1:
19:14

Sorry, I Three minutes was for the first question.

Speaker 2:
19:17

You're your back. Sorry, I got three minutes in my head.

Speaker 1:
19:21

Yeah, it could have been so. So I think it's really important. You know writing is important and then, and how many times you're in front of them, you know Through through and it's gotta be from every attack. You know Instagram is is for the younger folks, or the families, for the kids. You know, all the way through to Facebook and I gotta have a Facebook group got it. You know, and, and I've been doing some podcasts where people are saying they're they're putting stuff on LinkedIn. Hey, I mean, linkedin works.

Speaker 2:
19:47

You know those huge, it's huge LinkedIn is that's, that's a big opportunity. Big opportunity and I in it's a different approach because To me it's it's you're you're not going after the thing. Like that LinkedIn approach is about finding and getting in front of the professional who's in your area who Would want to be a member of the club. Like it's a very specific like game for that, but I think for the right, but there's a big opportunity on LinkedIn for people to get members in their clubs.

Speaker 1:
20:20

And staff. See, what I'm seeing a lot of on LinkedIn is a GM will say hey, the food and beverage Just just today, food and beverage staff killed it last night at the Valentine's dinner and they've got pictures. And as someone has a maybe an assistant clubhouse manager looking through LinkedIn, hey, I'd like to work there. That looks great, you know. So I think it's it's important for staff as well. We have to remember that every communications probably read by staff members.

Speaker 2:
20:45

If that staff members good and and to make to make Sean happy, so we don't get get criticized. He and I were just talking and speaking of of. We were talking about TCC because it came up in conversation with somebody else. Somebody reached out to us here at private club radio for some help on some things. But we brought up TCC because, for how private they are, they have such a, they have a fantastic website that gets their brand across, and so we were talking about their found foundation page. So it's all about there, like their, their foundation and giving back to the local community.

Speaker 2:
21:23

But then on the back end, there's more that they give and more that they do, but you don't see it from the front. You have to be a member to see, to see that from from, from behind. And then if you go to their careers page, they have a whole it's this, it's all on brand about their careers and their people and I Believe it was them. They also have a private Instagram page just for their staff. So, just for a little f TCC, they have their own private little Instagram page just they could shout out do it out, you know.

Speaker 2:
21:54

So it's that this nice little Closed community that they can be a part of. They can highlight certain member or certain, like you know, staff members and certain things that you know might not be relevant to do to like the main you know, the main pages and stuff before their little, you know, community Of staff right, I wouldn't put it past them. And they've got what they called the squirrel squad, that's what they call their?

Speaker 1:
22:14

Yes, work for it, yeah, squirrel squad, and, and you know, they just went through a director of tennis change they.

Speaker 1:
22:19

They went through the process very quickly because there was a bunch of director changes in Boston and I think their staff, their members, were worried that they were going to get caught out and they move fast and they communicated quickly to those candidates. But I have to say they, they are really good. Tcc. I went there and here's a, here's a good point where you have to communicate. They hosted the US Open. What in 2022 was it? Yeah, 2022. They had to change the whole course. You know. They went back to they have a, I don't know, I think they have 27 holes of golf. They moved the golf course around in such a way that it Required them to close the course. Their members knew that because they said, ed, we're going to book tons of tennis lessons down the South Coast because our club is closed. So they communicated that early. They put it through, you know, every which way they could through social media, through email, through texting. But those members knew and they, they made their summer different because of the US Open at the TCC.

Speaker 2:
23:15

And then, even weirdly enough, I was talking, talking with Jackie from TCC Last week just just talking about some stuff randomly and like some of some of that came up and we were talking about and I want to get her on to talk about that experience of you know what it's like bringing that giant event. She was saying like 20 hour days, she lived at the club for two weeks, just ridiculous things. Yeah, I've had Colin Burns on the podcast and I mean the work they do for the US Open, they're unbelievable, I mean.

Speaker 1:
23:43

And then membership has to be so giving because it takes over your club for basically a year. I was, where was it? Was the hold on? Let me find it, it was. I was at the championship club conference that NCA put on last year.

Speaker 2:
23:57

I See if I can find it, but I just have notes from Colin's talk because he was talking about you know, that hole when he was doing the the championship and then you know the pandemic and just how that just affected everything wild, the stories and the things that even though you know wild stuff is going to happen and you're not going to expect it, but just like the unexpected things that came up, like how in the like you can never anticipate that.

Speaker 1:
24:33

Yeah, and and he. They were so lucky to have him. Oh my god. You know they were lucky because if you had a slightly less experienced club manager in that role during covid, it would have failed. You know, I think that's the biggest club manager in that role during covid. It would have failed. But he did, yeah done. Unbelievable. He's the best, he's one of the best, one of the best and that's just unbelievable. Gracious with his time as well, and mentoring and being part of this industry.

Speaker 2:
25:01

Yeah, he's, yeah. And what he's done to help max orland With that whole story thing is what? Yeah, he's, he's a, he's an absolute animal. What are my favorite questions to ask? And it's. You can take it as however many parts you want. You can answer it however you would like, since you Will challenge me on it from you know you. You're very unique. You have a ton of different positions. You lived all over the world in 2024. How are you managing balancing tradition and innovation?

Speaker 1:
25:41

Yeah, that's a great question because I think 2024 is going to be a great year or a flat year. It may not go backwards, but I think that it's gonna. It could go one or two ways. So last year to me was a flat year 2023 because people got to get the travel bug. They went out of the country, they went and saw families, they had weddings that they had to catch up with after COVID, they had memorial services. Unfortunately, they had to catch up with this year.

Speaker 1:
26:11

Either we are going to, as an industry, engage our members again and bring them back even you know better or we're gonna lose an opportunity. So I started the year saying how are we gonna innovate? And that's basically what you're asking me and for me personally, I'm I'm looking for Two things. One is with staffing. I'm looking for the elder states person being assisted by kind of a crazy wild younger generational type person, and and what I'm trying to do is mix it. So if you have and it sounds, it sounds nuts, but if you have someone that's stayed and reserved and mature, they'll, they'll, they'll get the paperwork done and the administration done and they'll put the hours in, but they're also going to mentor that younger person To better understand that we're in the hospitality business.

Speaker 1:
27:04

Part of the problem I'm seeing and that's one of the biggest challenge for 2024 is is COVID gave us three years off. You know, and you and I know we're old enough to remember what it was like to work. But 18 to 21 year olds they got out of college and I'm not saying I'm not blaming them, but they, you know, they, they haven't seen it. You know, hey, I want to work remotely. Well, we never had that option, right? You know, growing up I couldn't work at home. So it there's a there's a balancing act and you've got to have somebody who's mature mentoring to understand that balancing act and yet keep the Productivity high and the hospitality Fantastic, because some of the generational people coming in are saying, hey, why do I have to serve somebody at the TCC? Or why do you know, I don't? These people just come in with their families and they play tennis. Why do I have to be so good? You know, they Look, this is our business. If it's not right for you dry, another business, right? So that mentor position, but at the same time, you don't want to hold people back and the young people have so much energy and so much passion and so much enthusiasm and different ideas. And that's where we can, as a Kind of melding, that what I'm doing is trying to look at it from staffing, right, I'm also looking at it from programming. We've got a lot of new ideas out there and we've got to try them. We've got to test them.

Speaker 1:
28:21

You can't do more in one year, but you can do them a lot. You know you can do a lot, you can try a lot of different things. So, for example, I mean I'm just trying up up at different places, like I Forget the word. I'm trying to think of triathlon, like let's put golf, let's put tennis and let's put swimming. One competition, one day, 30 families right, you choose the summer, you choose the player, you choose the golf, swinger, right, right, who's gonna, who's gonna run the relay, dad or little Mikey? So you know things like that. Funny, right, gotta choose who, right. So you're gonna have. So it's kind of like what you take.

Speaker 1:
28:57

I took that from UTR because Universal tennis rating.

Speaker 1:
29:00

I don't know, a lot of people don't know UTR, but it's just new.

Speaker 1:
29:03

It's not new now, it's like 45 years old, but it rates everybody globally, right. So my daughter, who's a aspiring division one tennis athlete. She's a UTR of a five, say, she's just below a five, right, but she goes to a tournament and there's a five there, but that five isn't gonna be in a rage group. That five could be a 40 year old gent. So she's playing a 40 year old who's also rated the same as she is. So, for example, if I go to UTR tournament, I'm gonna end up playing like a 17 year old high school kid who's, like you know, a seven. So, unfortunately, I can still beat my daughter, but it's not not for many days left, but you know it's. Those are the things I'm trying to think of is how do you get the whole family involved, how do you innovate and how do you get the staff to be on board, mature and immature and bring them together. Why's not experienced? Bring them together? Interesting, you're looking at any like here. Go ahead.

Speaker 2:
30:00

No, no, no. I'm trying to see where I want to go with it now. So, do you have? What's the? So now, what you're bringing? You want to bring in these, these, I guess, bring together generational connections with the from two different employees, so to speak. Have you started doing that and what's been the? I don't want to say the return, but what's what's been the outcome?

Speaker 1:
30:26

So the outcome has been great and so far I've I mean, you know we only run four or five clubs so I don't have a huge universe to test but I've done it up in a bit Marion in the summer. I mean I guess I'm the wise, wise and old, you know, experienced mentor and I didn't have. When I first started there. I used to have a second wise mentor. I haven't had that. In the last three years I've had all 18 to 21 year olds, most of Europeans or Latin Americans, working, and boy we have our differences.

Speaker 1:
30:59

But you know, one's working for me here in winter, in the winter now. She worked for me two summers ago up in Massachusetts and now she's down here in Florida and the and the change since her first day of work for me is insane. It's the. She's just so much better a club employee and understands how to greet members. And her first day with me she cried. A member got under her skin. She said I can't understand you, you talk too fast. These are college drills, not club drills. She came into my office crying and I said hold on. She said she was going to quit. Second day she came and she was still teary. I said hang on, this is a long road. Your second day and now. I mean she's the most popular pro here and people love her and they're like, where'd you find her? I said she worked for me two years ago and I brought her down here, you know, after two years.

Speaker 1:
31:45

But you know, yes, I think it has worked in New Jersey. I have a pro there. The lead pro has been there for I don't know 14 years. I inherited him. He's a fantastic guy, does a great job and we slowly been bringing in full-time assistants for him and they're going.

Speaker 1:
32:03

So his assistant from last two years is a wonderful woman who's a Russian and is over here on a master's. She's now going to one of the best clubs in the country, hianna's Port, with Spencer. So she's learned her trade under Corey, under me, and you know she was up till four in the morning the first year going to the US Open. I'm like you can't do that. You've got to be 100% the next day. You know kind of thing.

Speaker 1:
32:27

And I don't know if she'll go to the US Open this year or the Labor Cup or wherever it may be, but she's at one of the best clubs and I'm really proud of her and happy for her. So I think it has worked. And what I'm doing out West is I'm just trying to put that team together now and I'm trying to figure out do I put a young whippersnapper you know who, do I handle him with what kind of person? And then a more mature pickleball pro. So it's, those are the fun ways of trying to figure out how you're going to make that program stand out and how you're going to service the members best.

Speaker 2:
33:08

No, but that I like that a lot too because you have that ability and flexibility of having these clients, these clubs. You can play and work that, whereas if a club sometimes might not just have their own, they don't have that flexibility or that ability to make as many changes or see what's working, what's not. But you have the ability with your four you know four, five, six clubs and growing. You know you can have fun with that and track that a lot better. If you can have a friendly tennis match with any tennis pro in history, dead or alive, who would it be?

Speaker 1:
33:48

That's a I don't know dead or alive. You know what I'd have to say? I'm a huge Mack and Roe fan, not just because of the tennis, but what he's done for the sport. And I don't know if you saw his Netflix biographical documentary. Go watch it. It paints. You know, you don't know Mack until you know Mack, and I've never met him, but I know several really close friends of his and he's just an interesting, interesting character. He's so smart. I just love to have dinner with him, cause I think it's, and he just says it as it is. I mean, I'm watching a tennis match and I'll be like, hey, how's he getting away with that? And before I even have the thought, mack and Roe's going, what the hell did he get away with that? You know, or how do you hit that back in? He's just so on top of it, and so I'd say Johnny Mack, yep.

Speaker 2:
34:44

Johnny Mack, and out of all your travels has there been a club or a facility that has stood out to you the most?

Speaker 1:
34:54

I'll give you one in each country. The country club for the US Open was phenomenal. It was so special a place. I really enjoyed being there on the last day when Fitzie won it and seeing it from the inside. I was, I was, you know, one of the VIPs. It was fantastic and it's rare that you get into those kind of clubs and I will thank my he knows who he is. I'll thank who invited me.

Speaker 1:
35:22

Second, on the other side of the coin, in the UK I think everyone will say Wimbledon. You know, for tennis, the Queens club is a special place. The stadium court is so intimate. You know I served there as a line. I was an ATP chair on fire and I served there as a lines person my first tournament ever and the lines people shared dressing rooms with the players and so I was showered, changing and Edward dropped his Rolex watch into my bag. I was a student at the time and he's like I think I dropped my Rolex into here. It was just. It's just a special place. You know really history again, that they have more history over there than we do if they're older yeah, we're only 250 years old, but the history, the tradition, the grass and the intimacy of that club is really spectacular.

Speaker 2:
36:16

Thank you so much for being on the show. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1:
36:19

Thank you so much, danny. Thank you for all you're doing for our industry. It's really every week, no, every week. I love tuning in and you have great guests and they're from every little different part of the industry. And thank you for asking me. I'm truly honored.

Speaker 2:
36:33

You are more than welcome anytime. We had a blast. I know it's one of those. I know we can just keep going and going and going and then it's going to be even a bigger nightmare to edit.

Speaker 1:
36:42

So I was like let me just stop here, we could always come back again. I hope you have a laugh editing it, because that's the best part is, if you can laugh when you're editing, it's great.

Speaker 2:
36:54

Oh, there's been a few times I was like what are you listening to? I was like my podcast, like it's been like a funny moment. I forget somebody said something. It just cracks me up. But thank you sir.

Speaker 1:
37:08

You're welcome, most welcome, thank you.

Speaker 2:
37:11

Hope you all enjoyed that episode. If you did, you know what we want you to do Share it like it, blast it out, reshare it. Your support means the absolute world. If you have not done so already, or if you are not, make sure you listen to Ed's podcast. Be On the Baselines. Great show, great content. So that's it. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'm your host, denny Corby. Until next time, catch you on. The Flop it If Live.