335: From Ledgers to Leadership: Breaking Barriers in The Club World with Grit and Grace w/ Nardimar Koch
Join us as Nardimar Koch, GM of Glen Oak Country Club, shares her inspiring journey from the Puerto Rican mountains to the heights of finance and club management in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
From Glenmaura, Ohoopee Match Club, to now Glen Oak Country Club.
Discover how mentorship, resilience, and embracing her cultural identity played pivotal roles in her ascent. Get an insider's look into the exclusive world of private clubs and the challenges of leading with integrity and innovation in a traditionally male-dominated field.
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00:00 - From Puerto Rico to Club Professional
05:33 - Career Progression in Accounting and Finance
19:00 - Exclusive Golf Club Ownership and Experience
29:57 - Navigating Challenges as a Female Leader
43:52 - Cultural Identity and Club Management
But when I was growing up, I mean I didn't see a computer until I was in Meriwood University. That's like how? Yeah, it was crazy, because I mean not only I'm from Puerto Rico, but I'm from the middle of the island, so I'm from the mountains in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2:
So it was, it was a cultural shock when I came here and everybody, welcome back to private club radio, your industry source for news, media trends, updates and amazing conversations in the world of private clubs. That's country club, city clubs, yacht clubs, golf clubs, all the clubs. I'm your host, denny Corby. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:
In this episode I get to chat with a club professional right from my own backyard here in Clark Summit, scranton, pennsylvania. Uh, I'm in Clark Summit, it's right outside Scranton, but most people know Scranton. But I chat with Nardemar Koch from Glen Oak country club. Now, not Glen Oak, that's a concert golf partner, shout out, one of our show partners. Uh, they have a Glen Oak country club out in uh, iowa, but this is Glen Oak country club in Clark Summit, pennsylvania. It's about, I don't know, two miles from my house.
Speaker 2:
So we did it in person, which made it even uh, so much more enjoyable for me. I get a lot more uh energy and enthusiasm from being, you know, with that person, having that, that back and forth. But uh, nardemar Nardi, is what an amazing story coming from literally the mountains of Puerto Rico and never really using technology, to going to school here, uh, in North Eastern Pennsylvania, uh, at in Scranton, pennsylvania, at Marywood, to uh getting into finance, to being the controller of Glen Mora country club, which is a great club here in the area, to then also going to run the Ahupi Ahupi match club, uh, which I did not know about until she told me about really cool, fascinating place. To now running being back home in Northeast PA, running Glen Oaks. In this episode you really learn about the importance of uh, resilience, thick skin and embracing your heritage, embracing yourself, your people, your culture, no matter who you are, where you are, where you came from. So I love chatting with her. I know you guys are going to love the episode as well.
Speaker 2:
So private club radio, please listen and enjoy. No, no. So when did you start in finance?
Speaker 1:
So I started, um my university in Puerto Rico. But Marywood University gave me a scholarship Gotcha. So I finished my um and the whole idea was like come to United States, become bilingual, go back home and get a great job. Because then you know, although Puerto Rico is part of the United States and we have the two languages, are, um official, you really don't learn English, just the Hishi it of it Um. And then when I was here, um, I was like liberal arts, I just didn't even know what I was going to do. So then I saw my first. My first accounting class was Dr Jones, um Montana, and she reminded me of judge Judy, but an accountant, and I, soon I took the class and she was just as stuff, just as beautiful and just as scary, and I was like what a combo.
Speaker 1:
Yes, and now, and the only thing that I could think of is like I want to be her and the next day I just like declare, I just want to be accounting. So I did my first internship with Gershaw Hawk in the area and then Dr. Smetana thankfully became my um mentor and um there was this other um internship that that was going to happen and um it was in an uh, in a accounting firm a local accounting firm and I was like Dr Smetana.
Speaker 1:
I already did my internship and she said no, no, no, you don't understand. If you survive here, you're going to survive anywhere. So my accounting um internship was a Robert Rossing company, which is funny because two of the main partners are now um my members. I always tell them if I cried, probably the straight, the first straight month, because then I did my internship, I finished my internship and before I graduated they offered me a job. So then, hence, I stayed in the United States. But there were so stinking, I cried and cried Um. But again, I tell everybody, if I would have not worked for them, I would have not been able to hold any of the jobs that I have had. I learned that much from them, wow.
Speaker 2:
Funny you brought up. Can you talk about your mentor a little bit more?
Speaker 1:
Well, I have had actually few. So when I was a rubber Rossi and obviously I started in accounting finance, so the great thing there was that it was not like a big four that when you go to work then if you get in taxation it's only taxation and if you get an audit it's only audit. Um, we had at that point a partners and each and every one of them was an expert in something. So if I had a question of 401k, I'll go about this one, if I had a question about an audit, I'll go to another one, so forth, and someone so um. Eventually, even though I was able to do not only what you know, like the audits and um financial planning in taxes, then I kind of hone into small businesses, which is businesses underneath um $10 million.
Speaker 1:
Um, so again I was. I had especially a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little good debt and somehow a little bit of that money down the line. Hey, and if I had paid a güçü gadget in turn on it, I wouldn't sound like the money invested in um foreign business. You know what I would call this assist. Woodaling [(ologists thought of this ahead of time. I was um told that I was doing the Oui, cette Mais misinformation.
Speaker 1:
I felt I was trying toLittleAD nice, so that everything I know is the Then when I decided to transition and it was just because I had a baby at that time and my son then was four years old and working public accounting. He worked 80 hours a week period. So I transitioned to private accounting and it was a blind ad and it was someone that knew how to do general ledger in accounts payables, in accounts receivable, payroll depreciation, and I was like check, check, check. So I sent my resume and happened to be Lemar National and the person that hired me was James B McDonough. He's still till today. He's the treasurer, but he is a former CPA.
Speaker 1:
So when I got there I worked for Jimmy and I worked for Mr Perini. That he is the person that started Perini Randolph. It's just kind of like school continued at that time it was great. And again I had Robert Rossi was great. But then Mr Perini and McDonough, they were kind of like computers, like human computers, and they just I was only 27 when I did the Molfan became their controller and they just literally empowered me. Whatever decisions I made, as long as I was able to support them, they just went with that. And then they just always will say to me I remember I did many years ago.
Speaker 1:
I did an accounting entry and Jimmy called me to the office and I said no, and I explained the reason and behind that and it said when the audit comes, then you have to stand behind it. And I did, but he allowed me to do that and it was great. So after being in public accounting and I was on the other end, so obviously my goal was always not to have an finding. When you have a finding in an audit, it's like you did something wrong.
Speaker 2:
You need that.
Speaker 1:
You need the auditors to give you an entry, so I was very, very pleased that I never had a finding.
Speaker 2:
So you went from. What's it like going from? Did you know about clubs? No, Prior to that.
Speaker 1:
No, it was crazy because, like, when we started talking, okay, I come from a small island, yeah, puerto Rico now is just kind of like, yeah, I'm 100% an extension of the United States, but when I was growing up, I mean I didn't see a computer until I was in Meriwood University. That's like how, wow, yeah, it was crazy Because I mean, not only I'm from Puerto Rico but I'm from the middle of the island, so I'm from the mountains in Puerto Rico. So it was a cultural shock when I came here. And then, okay, so there was this marketing class and the teacher said that we needed to do a report and we needed to be in aerial font 10, not font 12.
Speaker 1:
And there was me and I raised my hand and my question literally was what's aerial? Because I've been reading the books and all this stuff and I'm like, then I had a friend that she was in IT and she was like I'll tell you later. So it was a lot. But then it's funny too, because then I obviously said okay, it's not only English that I need to take extra classes, I need to take extra classes in computers. So Dr Comstock, which is a member here now, was my professor of computers.
Speaker 2:
It all comes full circle.
Speaker 1:
It did. It all came full circle and I have these two boys here, are now in our junior program and everything. And when Dr Comstock taught me he was not even married, so he was great and he was really, really great. So, yeah, so it was different. And it was not only that, but in public accounting I did car dealerships, I knew governmental accounting, but I never, ever, was at a golf course. So I had a restaurant experience of doing accounting for restaurants. But when he came for the terminology and things like that, it was like the first time they told me like maintenance. When I just said, oh you know, jeff from maintenance, I really thought that he was the janitor, not knowing that he was the actual superintendent.
Speaker 2:
Can you come clean my trash and?
Speaker 1:
then the status bar was and this is a true story the status bar was that he said and then I looked because I was in accounting, so I mean, and we did everything in house, like I did the payroll, I did all the taxes and everything in house. So I'm thinking like what is the generous salary, this salary? I was so confused. It was very confusing the first year I was in a country club. Then I was like I better start learning at least the lingo. So I started from there.
Speaker 2:
So how long until you finally got your bearings?
Speaker 1:
I started to develop a very good relationship with older department heads because I understood the numbers but I didn't understand their departments per se. So when he came to Food and Beverage Phil Mahasky, he's amazing, he really truly that is his background and he became my boss. But his background is in Food and Beverage and not only that, it was just like the entire service that he's so great at it. Then, when he came to the Gulf, my first pro was Cliff Coldwater. And still when I close my eyes and I think of a Gulf pro, what it should be, should look, should act, should talk is like Cliff Coldwater.
Speaker 1:
He was not only a great teacher, he was a great merchandiser. He was really, really good and I learned a lot from him. And when he came to the Gulf course which then is funny because he became my husband it was Jeffrey Koch and he's really, really knowledgeable and little by little, yeah, he's the one that taught me all the things about the cultural practices on the Gulf course. So now I'm kind of like I could be at least textbook, I can be at least an assistant in that area. Oh, snap.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think that's why the challenge accepted. Whoever is listening, we have a challenge. So you were at Glenmore about 10 years, 13., 13. And then you went to Sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint.
Speaker 1:
Sprint, Sprint, Sprint, Sprint, Sprint. I mean, I think after the number three year. I really liked it At the beginning it was only until my son was older. Then I wanted to go back to public accounting because I love accounting and that's really like my passion, or was at the time. Then I became from the controller, then I became the CFO. And the CFO then you have other responsibilities. You're more into not only doing the books but also thinking strategically short term, long term plans and things like that. And so with the progression, then Glenmore is amazing, Then the country club of Sprint is bigger. So there was the opportunity to go there and I started at the CFO, the country club of Sprint.
Speaker 2:
Wait, this country club of Sprint is bigger than Glenmore.
Speaker 1:
Yes, so from 18, glenmore has 18 holes, country club of Sprint has 27. At that time I had 417 families versus 650. So, yeah, it's bigger.
Speaker 2:
Gotcha. See, I just assumed Glenmore was bigger than Sprint Country Club. No, no.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's not only more holes, but the bigger membership is just the property is bigger and the club house although Glenmore went to an amazing renovation now and expanded the facility, the country club of Sprint and the old farmhouse, so to speak yeah, at that time it was bigger. It was just kind of like a progression on that end.
Speaker 2:
And then from Northeast PA to a Hoope Georgia, or not a Hoope Georgia, but a Hoope yeah. And I never heard about that and I tried doing research prior to our chatting. And they are so secret I thought maybe my web browser wasn't loading everything, so I was trying incognito windows. I went from Chrome to Safari. Are there something I'm missing here? Are they purposely secretive?
Speaker 1:
Yes. So I didn't even know about a Hoope and I was not looking for a job. It was kind of like fate, because I get this KKW, which is huge.
Speaker 2:
Tom, what up T yeah, so they're huge in our industry, as you know.
Speaker 1:
So one, michelle Ricklin, which works at KKW, sent me a LinkedIn message and it was like you know, we're doing a search for this awesome golf course. If I knew somebody, and I was like I don't know anybody right now that it's looking, but I can give you my resume and I did. And, oh my gosh, it was fate because I didn't even know, I just did it, just because I wanted I have through Greg Bore, which was my GM at the Contra Club of Scranton, the one that hired me. He had gone to Baltimore through KKW. So then our GM that I got, I was the interim GM there for six months and then Joe Brown came, and Joe Brown came through KKW. So I was already. I knew their process but I was never part of the process. Only on the other end Got you. So they made the entire staff when they're bringing someone into your team very much part of it, because they want to be a good transition and they're very much about team building and things like that. So I always just wanted to be part of it and to learn and so I started it and that was at the end of August and by September it takes two. It took two months. I mean, you have to go to a background check, you have to take some tests, some assessments. They go. It's a very, very detailed process that they have and I think they it was, I think, eight candidates that they presented. They narrowed it down to four and the first time that I was ever in Georgia was that, because they flew me to Georgia and then I stayed in Savannah it's about a hundred miles from Savannah and that was my first time in Georgia. My second time in Georgia was my second interview. I made it to the first round and it was between me and another person. That second time I had to stay on property and it's impressive. So OJP started. It only opened in 2018.
Speaker 1:
In, michael Walvrath is the only owner. He's that one owner Is this billionaire Techie that really wanted to build a match club for him to be able to play with his friends, and at that time, it was the only match country club or match golf course in the country and when you think about it, when you go and play golf. That's why, unless you are, like you know, in the PGA, you do match play. So it's 22 holes and it's designed by Gill Hans and Gill Hans then became one of, or is one of, the founding fathers and they designed this club in the middle of nowhere in Georgia, but it was strategically it's Coptown Georgia, but Coptown Georgia is only 25 minutes from the Delia and the Delia, the Videlia onion that's what the town gets the name of. So actually the entire town pretty much is owned, or the Farms are owned, by Bill Gates, and the Videlia onions that they produce and things like that. You know everything that is owned by Bill Gates go to one of his foundations of feed, whomever he's feeding.
Speaker 1:
And so this Farm that was for sale through whatever their friends or whatever Michael knew about it. He bought it and he had this idea of building a golf course. So is 22 holes. We had the championship route and we have the whiskey route. The only difference is that instead of four of the holes when you do the whiskey route is a bcd, and then you have there's a little box and they are. Inside of the box there's the whiskey. You have to take a shot of whiskey and that's the beginning Golf and the whiskey route.
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:
And it is super cool.
Speaker 2:
That's fun, that's an experience. It is, and can anybody go there and play?
Speaker 1:
No, no, you is, we only. Well, by the time, I left only 70 members, and it's my invitation only, and in reality they're only 15 members the founding fathers. The other ones they're called like annual members. So every year you get a letter and if you get the letter, that is your Invitation that you're. That's what we call the annual membership, that you can be a member All the years you have always. I mean, again, they're handpicked and selected by the owner, so everybody have always been re-invited, but except for the founding fathers is is my invitation. I mean everyone is my invitation only.
Speaker 2:
That's one of the only things I found. If you researched it, it was the website, which has nothing, and then there's like a rate sheet which talks a little bit about it, and then there was like a because they have some, some rooms. You can stay there, right? Yeah, you're talking about it a little bit earlier, but it was because you can pay, was like 1400 bucks, and now you get like a room, all your food, you can golf, which seems pretty, pretty fun.
Speaker 1:
Oh it is. I mean so, first of all, when you go through it and you have to find it and you have to follow the onions, because if you look at it, the design is a vedelia onion, but if you actually look at it are three indigo snakes intertwined making the design and what you think that is, the, the roots of the onions, are the heads of the indigo snakes and what you think is the top of the onions are the tails. So if you really look at the design, so it's really, really cool.
Speaker 2:
I like stuff like that.
Speaker 1:
So when you find all these little onions because it's not advertised then you get to a little shed that is the, the gar shed, and your name will be there if You're invited. And then it takes you two miles from when the gar shed is to get to the clubhouse and All the terrain is sand base, so is a little harsh. So that's you know, when, in the process of you, you're Driving those two miles, when you look to your right is what we call the savanna and, strategically located, there is Big enclosure. You never see the enclosure from the golf course but we have Zebras, wilderbeast in African animals. So when you were, you were actually on your round of golf. From the golf course, from two holes, you look towards the savanna and you see free-ranging African animals. Yes, and then you continue to drive and then you get to the clubhouse and then the valet service will park your car and we'll take it from there.
Speaker 1:
So cool, and you were there for three years three years, three and a half years, three and a half years, three and a half years. I was there. The main reason what I call and Pat warsham, which was the GM that hired me, is because they use the system. Jonas and I've been with Jonas software for a long time and I reached what they call the super user, so I was able to Set up. You know it was. It was a brand new Country club and by the time I left it was already 37 in the world and second in the state. Who's the number one in the state?
Speaker 2:
Augusta.
Speaker 1:
Got it.
Speaker 2:
So not not a bad Competitor.
Speaker 1:
No, it's okay to be number two.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
It was okay to be number two, although the year that I left. I have to say that our pro one merchandiser of the year. I forgot about Augusta, so we did get that one from them, but it's okay to be take that suckers, no.
Speaker 2:
So and then now you're northeast PA back.
Speaker 1:
Yes, and then through again, full circle again. Actually, tom Wallace and Tyler Bloom. They worked together at a club many, many years ago and and Tyler was looking for I did the north and the south, my family still in the north. We had a house in the south, a whoopee only opened for nine months out of the year, the three hottest month of the year, so from June 15 through September 15. They closed so I was able to 100% work remotely Come north.
Speaker 1:
But at the beginning and again, my tenure at a whoopee was even COVID, which Everything obviously changed. Everything into us was we exploded, all the members and their friends, I think, especially because the location they just wanted to be in the middle of nowhere. So they all took refuge into, into, into our golf course, which was great, but it was. It hindered the time that I could come home. So, except for those three months and Tyler bloom was looking or is doing a search for a GM, and I think for the last year and a half or two years I I started to do other things because I wanted. I'm thinking, okay, after whoopee was my next progression In and my husband was one of the things that you should start thinking about, maybe just running a club, and I'm like maybe he in, I don't know, within five months. It was just another search and another head hunter that reached out to me and I started the process and and I got back to northeast.
Speaker 1:
Now, here we are here we are again, another full circle.
Speaker 2:
I know at a club. A mile and 1.5 miles from my house is amazing.
Speaker 1:
I know it's funny and he's like what? Three miles from my private club, my prior club, yeah the one thing I have to say I do miss a whoopee. Obviously it was beautiful, but I drove an hour and ten minutes one way. An hour and ten minutes Because cuptown Georgia is in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing else to do except if you're gonna visit the golf course. So all the managers we lived in Savannah, um, and that's how far it took us to go to wow every day.
Speaker 2:
So now it's three minutes and and Was that what most of the employees also around there it?
Speaker 1:
was, um, maybe mid managers and all the department heads we live for. That was another challenge of staffing the golf course because, again, like my housekeeping staff, my road maintenance staff, my green staff, they were kind of local. But maybe because actually I don't know why, because I was surprised but there's a big Hispanic population in that area. So that was another good thing, because Spanish is my first language so they spoke zero English so I was able to translate for everybody. But when it came to the maintenance staff, the housekeeping staff, they were all local and, again, the majority they were Hispanics, mid-level, they all travel.
Speaker 2:
I want to bring it back to Glen Oak now, which is funny because there's like five other Glen Oaks in the country.
Speaker 1:
There's actually another Glen Oak country club and it's so confusing. Yes, there is other Glen, but there's another one exactly with our first name Wisconsin. Yes, it's so confusing.
Speaker 2:
Yep, I was chatting with, so Concert Golf Part. So that's a owner-operator course owned by Concert Golf Partners who's a show partner for this private club radio here Shout out Concert Golf Partners. But they're a Glen Oak also and they're director of Agronomy, one agronomist of the year. So we were chatting. He's like we get mail, like I think it's the wrong Glen Oaks.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes, yes, we get that all the time too, and they have their logo is totally different.
Speaker 2:
so, yes, it's a little confusing One or two others also, which is even funnier. But so you stepped into a unique position and I just only know from being in the industry it's like my home club, perform. I've done stuff here and I have friends and family and clients who are members. You stepped into a position that's very difficult. What was it like going into a club that had a general manager who's been there for so long and not only taking over and being a new face, but also being a very strong female lead with an accent? Like that's just to me in Northeast. This is a small town. It is a very small town. For people who don't know, scranton is like, I don't wanna say, hickish a bit. I went to the Griffon Pond Animal Shelter. They had a Gundon Roses Bingo where you either won a purse or a gun, like I don't know anywhere else. Really that where you would have, but it's a little bit behind in things and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:
They always say no. They always said that everything comes to Scranton.
Speaker 2:
20 years later, yeah, so what's that? Because what's that been like? There had to be struggles. There had to be.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, absolutely. There were struggles and, like you said, and I replaced an older manager that was a manager at the club for 14 years and prior to that it was a long-term manager. So I think it was kind of like when you have a divorce and then people took sides. But I knew that going into it and I knew also that the club was looking to have new ideas to elevate the service, to be a little bit different, to shake things up, so to speak. I think the one, the one Jimmy McDonough, my old boss, called me and he said not anymore, do not take things personal, click it does. Yeah, and I mean, and he knows, because at the beginning I mean I do what I do because I love what I do and I take things personal because I put my entire self into what I do. But that is something that I definitely needed to learn. And again, once again, I've been very fortunate of the people that I do have by my side.
Speaker 1:
Since the get-go, the board of directors, especially the executive committee here I have had their own wavering support and they put so much faith in me that it made it possible. And even through the huddles because they were huddles and not everything was smooth. I had their support and that is a total game changer because we went into it together and they were very, very clear and very, very transparent through the interview process and, to be honest with you, I'm used to it. I'm in the golf industry and, as it is, it's a male-dominated industry. We know that. But less than 5% of or I think it's 3% of the general managers are female. So I had that against me and I'm not. I'm Latin, so I'm a female Latin and I'll come in into the Northeast Pennsylvania. So yeah, it definitely was a.
Speaker 2:
Like managing a club it's just old white men. Like it had to be a struggle. But then as soon as because I had this question in my head and as soon as we started, I knew the answer to that question is from your very first position.
Speaker 1:
I have always been surrounded by men.
Speaker 2:
Well, that, but also you worked, like that was your. You said like what you cried your way through, like your first week or whatever, but like that and that's it.
Speaker 1:
And I went to home and then in even my first board of directors at Glamora, one of the very prominent members made a very rude comment alluding the fact that I was a woman and that my English. That was the first thing in a board of directors.
Speaker 2:
The very first like, oh like my first board of directors, nice, to meet you them bang yeah.
Speaker 1:
And it was horrible and I just you know, whatever.
Speaker 1:
And I remember me going to the bathroom clean like crying, wiping my face, put a makeup back on and going out. And I think that comes from my mother. My mother is very, very smart and she always, when I was, you know, here and I started studying, and it was like kind of my last year in college and things got a little tough my mom told me you are, you know, when you're swimming at the beach, you get those like the division. There's the divider. I don't know how to say that in English, but you know what I'm talking about. So we called him La Bolla and my mom said you are there already. You just like it's a little sprint, you just have to. You cannot let yourself, like you know, suck right now.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And it was like that and um, and when it comes to yeah, it's our all white men club, like you said, like that's, you know, Northeast PA, my club in Georgia, they're all guys. I was the only female Even all members are guys. They're not female members. So I have always been surrounded, and you know, by those, my partners. At my first job they were all males.
Speaker 2:
And.
Speaker 1:
I go to a board of directors and I'm trying to end 20 males Then I have always been like that. So the good thing is like I'm a girl but that.
Speaker 2:
You've built your armor Like I feel like every place is like knocked you a certain way, that's like built it back up. You got that muscle like a little bit more bulletproof. So like at each step you're just like I've been there before. I've heard worse comments.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I was one here, like something whatever. Someone said something and I know one of the one of my board of directors said oh, she's tough, I'm like yeah.
Speaker 2:
What? How do I phrase this? How, as the leader of this ship, if the leader of the club, a member, says something rude, what's protocol? Like how? What's protocol for that?
Speaker 1:
Well.
Speaker 2:
Like that's, like that's, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:
It is crazy, but you have to understand. There are people too.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
You know, and one of the things that I don't think things personal, because you don't know what is anybody's plate Except you know there's the saying nobody knows what's in the pot except the one stirring it. So I just think that you give what you have. If you ask me for $100 and I only have 20, I cannot give you $100. So sometimes they just give exactly what they have and if they don't have, goodness for whatever personal experiences that are happening in their lives, they're not going to be able to do it.
Speaker 1:
But I mean, at the end of the day, world people and what I tell my team is like starting from a dishwasher or from my girl that cleans and she's amazing all the way to me that I'm the general manager. It's just like an organism. We're all important and I mean my chefs will not be able to put the food out without having those dishwashers cleaning and, you know, doing the dishes and pots for them, and I will not be able to do what I do or to serve my members without any single one of them. So when it comes to the members, I always tell my staff if they're rude, just walk away and call me. I rather me put in the face on.
Speaker 2:
I just don't want them to call how do you handle that Like? What do you like, what's like? What's like is. I would assume every club is probably different Every club is different. Like what's, what's your method for handling situations?
Speaker 1:
I loved when I was at a hook beat. There was only one rule Don't be an asshole and the second one don't forget the first rule. That's the only, and they are. The members were so amazing and that's what I think. I mean. Michael had done a great job handpicking those members, because we did have a nutty list. But people that they're not allowed to be back at the club and you get into this black black buck we call it.
Speaker 2:
Sorry to go back for the club. Did you say that every year your membership has to be?
Speaker 1:
Reinvited.
Speaker 2:
Oh so, if you want, if you violated the first rule and second rule, you're not.
Speaker 1:
You're not invited, so, and they have always been invited back, and the people that are in this black book are people that are on a company guest, so so it never tends to be the members.
Speaker 2:
It tends to be more of the.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and then um, yes, because me, if you, I'm the member, if you come with me, then you will, you know, behave according to you coming with me. There's certain people that when the member or for whatever reason, they just didn't Um, and that they are at a Hoopie, michael did put a lot of emphasis that the employees are the biggest asset of any company. So to me the employees are the biggest asset of Glen Oak and in that it was very, very. I hear it's different, because it's not that, okay, you're not going to be a member anymore, um, but um, at least the majority of the members here are amazing. They really are. I mean that 95% of them are great and you always going to have that 5% that they're going to complain, but that's in every single place that you go to and it's okay.
Speaker 2:
How do you stay, how do you, how do you keep your team, you and your team motivated?
Speaker 1:
My team has um. Well, how can I say this?
Speaker 2:
It's a. It's a it's a two part of question.
Speaker 1:
How do you keep?
Speaker 2:
yourself. So we'll start with like yourself, how do you keep yourself motivated and continuing on, even despite those hard times? And then how do you also pass that onto your?
Speaker 1:
So, first of all, I don't do this because it's my job. I don't do it for a paycheck. I do it because I really love the industry. I think it's amazing and I think it's very rewarding. So when you do something that you love, you like coming to work every day, and I want my team to want to come to work every day.
Speaker 1:
If they look at us a job, I mean, that's what those old models of governing by fear, it doesn't work. It's just, it works for a little bit and then just gets worn out. So I want whoever wants to be part of my team, I want them to want to be here. But I also know that it's not for everyone. So, meaning that when I came, ian, it was a big transitioning period for the club. So my first 60 days, all I did was observe, and when I start executing or changing things, it was very clear. I said this is the way that things are going to be handled from now on, and then it was a choice. It's like if you guys want to abide to it, that's great and we're going to work together. If not, then that's okay. I will wish you well and I will want someone that wants to be part of it.
Speaker 1:
I will never ask any of my staff to do something I'm not willing myself to do, from bossing a table to running whatever, because if we're busy I'm the one cleaning after them, but if I'm not beneath any of it, then again I know that I will never ask anyone anything unreasonable, because that's just. We're not that type of people. I think that I'm building a great team. I mean, I actually have a brand new director of the clubhouse and he's amazing. I love working with my chef. My chef has been here for 12 years, but Pat is really, really good. I'm very excited we have a brand new golf prop.
Speaker 2:
Nice, congrats.
Speaker 1:
Kyle Fares. He comes from a biterman, a very, very good club, and he is just young and full of excitement and new ideas. And one of my old bosses, Joe Brown, always said Nardi, just surround yourself with talent and let them do what they do best. So I'm just doing that. I'm just surrounding myself with these awesome people and let them do what they do best, and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2:
Looking back to your 20 year old self. You're at Marywood or you're starting your career. What would you tell yourself?
Speaker 1:
Now or back then.
Speaker 2:
Your self now? What would you tell your earlier self?
Speaker 1:
Not to worry, I'm such a warrior, I was such a warrior, everything I would just. I think I worried to death For more than 50% of my life. I said not to worry, everything will work out. Not to worry, I think. Yeah, I think, and you know what.
Speaker 1:
It's funny that you said that because, in what we've been talking about, puerto Rico is part of the United States. But there is this mentality that because we're not see, I'm a US citizen, because there's not such a thing as Puerto Rican citizen. Now I live in the main island or the main land, like you said, the main land I'm able to vote. If I'm in Puerto Rico, I'm not able to vote.
Speaker 1:
So, unfortunately, my culture and my island, there is this mentality that we are one step above all the other Latin American countries because we're not part of Puerto Rico. I mean United States and we're Puerto Rico, but then we're below United States because we're not United States. So it's just kind of in between limbo type of thing, and I think that gets in green within you. We have our biggest castle in the island, es El Morro, and I always thought that the stork left me in the wrong place, that I did not belong there, and because all the people in the island, they don't see beyond that, beyond the castle, beyond El Morro, there's just water, which to me was like I want to come here but I want to come here to learn English.
Speaker 1:
I want to come here to have a great job, I want to come here to do all these great things. So when I start coming here, everybody and maybe there's a lot of negative I don't know stereotypes and it was like no, not everybody comes here just to be in welfare, nobody comes here just to have work at a factory. That was not me, but yeah, so that was kind of like the mentality back then and I always my 20 year old self was always worried that I was never gonna be able to break through.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, what would you have the same answer for, let's just say, a young, hungry female looking to get into the industry, or somebody younger getting into the industry? What are you, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:
Just to go for it. I mean, I remember a lot of people gonna tell you you're not gonna make it or it's just to go for it and not to take things personal, because I mean that first four directors like I was questioned whether I knew accounting and whether people were able gonna be able to understand me. That was the question he said in front of everybody.
Speaker 2:
Do you really know accounting?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, wow, so, yes, so that was. I have been in my other country club, in the country club of Scranton. I was the CFO and a member of the board came in to us.
Speaker 1:
We did a protocol because of ARs and the ARs were getting, how are we gonna do the collections and things like that? And I wrote it all down. I just wrote all the protocols and the steps that we're gonna take. And I got someone coming into my office and saying, and that when he came back to talk to the members, or calling the members back, not to do it myself because they're not gonna be able to understand you. So it has been like I can tell you dozens of, or a member saying to me a female member that I don't like you because you're pretty and the guys might look at you. It's just kind of like I think I have heard it all.
Speaker 1:
Wow, and it's just kind of like, yeah, you take it with a grain of salt.
Speaker 2:
Thick skin.
Speaker 1:
Thick skin yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Thick skin, but again, I love it. And those are the minority things. There's so many other good things and you have these members that you become part of your extended family and when things don't go, we all gonna go through those highs and lows in life and they come shoulder to shoulder with you, like you said, oh my gosh, like you never realized that how special or what they thought of you. Or you get to celebrate all their kids, especially Ben's, and I just did a Taylor Swift party, which was amazing and they were so stinking cute they really. We had a performer that she impersonated Taylor Swift and the Little Girls. Everybody thought she was Taylor Swift. They scram like they were on the party.
Speaker 1:
And so you get all the good stuff too. You know what I mean. So it's a balance.
Speaker 2:
When you love what you do, it makes the highs higher and the lows not as bad.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly Exactly. It's like my husband. He loves he's in the industry too and he loves what he does. And he actually does a lot of things in house that he should not be doing. But he knows his father is a carpenter and he's the one that taught me that.
Speaker 1:
Because at the beginning I was like why are you doing that? That's not your job, that's not your job and I'm like I don't do it for them, I do it for me. And that was awesome. I'm like when you don't do, you do something because, like I mean, I love the club to look nice. I just look at it because I just I spend a lot of time here and I want all my members to think this is the extension of their house, so their house is beautiful, so I want them to come to a beautiful, clean club. And that actually was the first thing that they noticed when I started working here. We didn't have a cleaning lady, we had a cleaning company that came one and a half hours, six days a week. There's an impossibility of cleaning the entire club.
Speaker 1:
The entire club.
Speaker 2:
An hour and a half.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, six days a week, not even seven, and it was crazy. And my first thing that I hired, my first hire, was cleaning lady and then a person to help her, and just by that it was such a big response, a positive response, because it's like, oh my gosh, this place is clean. It's just, it's amazing, it smells good.
Speaker 2:
I forget who it was. I was chatting with some manager and that was like one of his things is going in and he goes first thing, like first week, first day, any lights that are out, he goes, even if I have to grab the ladder and put he goes because because People don't like change. You know change is awkward. So to have a new GM come in all of a sudden people have like sometimes they're like defensive. But if you come in now and all of a sudden like oh, new GM and oh, it's brighter in here, like you just use these little things, like oh, I didn't know the place can smell clean or like yes, it was like that, or you know, or the and um, that was um.
Speaker 1:
Actually, that was the second, because the first one was when I came for my interview, the flag, the flag was free, and I'm thinking those are flags, you know when you go to a country club. So, um, my first week, that was the one, one and only thing that I changed in 60 days was the flag. And then in, um, within 45 days, I have hired somebody to clean in house, and then I hire a second person.
Speaker 1:
That's right Um yeah, and that was the only 60 days, or the only two things that I changed. I use this app to observe because this is my fourth club. Every single club has a different culture.
Speaker 2:
Yep.
Speaker 1:
And, um, I love and I respect so much the history of this club. Um, I don't know if you know that we're a Jewish club. We started to Jewish club and the reason? Uh, what? The founding fathers here. We actually don't own the club, we don't own the land. Um, this family's got together and put money together and bought this land and made this golf course, so Jewish people would be able to be at a country club because they were not allowed to be in the other country clubs in the area.
Speaker 2:
And one of which you work.
Speaker 1:
And when you think about that it's just kind of yeah, like it's. It's funny that I work now, that I've been struggling at times to even where do I fit in, and the reason why Glen O came to be is because they didn't fit in anywhere. So for to be in perpetuity, um, these founding members created a company or created this organization and has shares, and then their sons and daughters and grandkids have this year's now. So, um, wave Oak is actually the owner of the property in Glendale country club. We lease from them. So in the bylaws, we will never be able to sell the land. I cannot even cut a tree on property without asking permission to Wave Oak, because they're the actual owners of the land. And, um, no matter what happened even though now is 75% of our members are Gentiles the Jewish committee community will always have a place to belong. So I love that. It doesn't get any better, yo that was a perfect ending.
Speaker 2:
Oh, my God, that was so good. That was so good. No, that was. I don't even know how to go past that. That was, that was good. That was real good. This is great, thank you. Thank you. No, this was really good. Uh, I didn't have to really look at my iPad. That was awesome. Uh, no, that was, that was good, thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:
Hope you all enjoyed that episode. If you enjoyed the episode, you know what I'd like for you to do. Please share, subscribe, give a review to the page, share the episode with a friend. Anything you can do to help move our station forward means the world. You can also sign up for our newsletter, where we send you all the episodes that we release weekly and one nice email down over to privateclubradiocom. Sign up for the newsletter right on top Until next time. Catch you on the flippity flip.