408: Think Big, Dive Deep, and Keep Members Happy w/ Ed Ronan

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light.

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Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place.

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I'm your host, denny Corby.

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Welcome to the show.

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In this episode I am diving deep pun intended with a friend of mine, friend of the industry, mr Ed Ronan, ccm CCE, the big brain behind Bretton Woods Recreation Center, right outside of DC, and we talk about everything his club, his very unique club.

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We're talking about 35 years of private club leadership, innovation and really how he keeps his staff thriving while balancing a crazy life that allows him over 200 scuba dives a year is bonkers because when he's not running his 285 acre big club he's logging hundreds of hours, hundreds of scuba dives, or even building custom furniture and signs and things in his wood shop.

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He's got his priorities laid to perfection.

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When I asked him if he wanted to be on the show, he said would I?

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He said would I ever?

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But really this genuinely is a great episode, a great chat.

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I mean.

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We talk about how to build loyalty and culture with your members, with your team, and Ed's very big on his team with culture and team building and getting his team together and doing retreats and making sure that they're staying educated and they're learning and they're growing and, at the same token, making sure, you know, keeping the members happy and really embracing innovation.

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And Ed and his club they do a lot of unique out-of-the-box things and it's because they have the fun what-if conversations and they just don't keep it at that.

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They allow themselves to go a little bit more creative with it, go down that rabbit hole and think, oh, what if?

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What if?

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Oh, yeah, what if this, what if that?

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And then when they do come to an idea, they actually try to find a way to make it work instead of making it not work, especially when it gets the club excited and it helps the club grow and everybody grows, because when one grows we all grow.

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But if you know Ed, you're probably going to learn some new things.

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If you don't know Ed, you are going to want to learn more about him.

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Such a nice, genuine dude homie friend.

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Real quick, before we get to the episode I'm going to be releasing the Club Entertainment Guide soon, putting the final touches on it as we speak.

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If you would like early access to it, send me an email.

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Subject line entertainment guide or guide to hello at privateclubradiocom and I will make sure you get one of the early copy releases sent right to you.

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Big thanks to some of our show partners golf life navigators, concert golf partners and the tennis member vetting, as well as myself, the Denny Corby experience.

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There's excitement, there's mystery.

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Also, there's magic.

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It's a full evening full of fun for your members and their friends.

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Maybe, if you allow them to bring guests to this event, which is a really fun event, and if you do bring me in, you should allow guests at all times.

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Private club radio listeners.

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Let's welcome to the show.

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Mr ed ronan, were you always like this?

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Like this style, this personality, like?

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Was it so like?

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How did you somewhat?

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how'd you get to this place, though, like was it so somewhat adventurous?

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How'd you?

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get to this place, though, like you're in such a unique place.

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So I'm at a place now that probably going to.

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Where am I now?

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In Washington DC, bretton Woods.

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12 seasons ago, awesome right, I worked 13 years on Long Island at a little bit of a Jewish club on the North shore and built it.

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So now, denny, that was literally work and then work and then work.

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We had it was a Guggenheim estate that we developed into a private golf club.

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So one of our first projects was the golf course, then the mansion, so we had 15 hotel rooms.

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So I went to the board and my kids were teenagers young 11, 10, 12, whatever.

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Hey, they're going to come up for the summer.

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Well, the board's like, oh, that could be okay.

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And their line today is they came to New York for the summer and watched dad work, because it could be three months.

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We would go do some cool things.

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We would go to NASCAR races, we would go to Six Flags.

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Every year we would do some baseball.

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I had a really good friend with tickets, so we would do some stuff, but it was mainly work, work, work.

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High school and went to one of my board members I don't know vice president or something, said hey, listen, I'm going to take him out west.

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He was born in Vail, colorado.

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The boys and I are going to Colorado, then the family is going to catch up in Montana we're doing a dude ranch.

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He's like that sounds like a busy week.

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I said, well, it's kind of a busy two weeks.

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And you would have thought I was like quitting my job.

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You would have thought I was like quitting my job Two weeks.

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You know, this is the summer.

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And I was like it's kind of when kids graduate high school, sir, like it's his high school graduation.

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There's only going to be one of these.

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And that's how I rolled there for a long time.

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When I got to this club that's owned by the International Monetary Fund crazy interview process.

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I was at IMF World Headquarters in a boardroom Yadda yadda.

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Crazy interview process.

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I was at IMF World Headquarters in a boardroom, fast forward, and it was four interviews.

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It was kind of like I wasn't all that.

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So, denny, it's called you've been there, obviously, but it's called Bretton Woods Recreation Center.

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And a guy from CMA called me about it and I was like Ron, he's not even there anymore.

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I said I've been in golf my whole career.

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Like I mean, this is my 35th year as a GM, this year is.

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So I was like, yeah, and he said, no, it just seems like an interesting property Because I've always done construction and different deals.

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My deal in New York I owned a management company and had the contract with a town, so it was a different, you know, not normal.

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So I kind of looked into it and you know let's appreciate this because you're a year or two younger it was back in the day of there was no such thing as Zoom in 2013.

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My sons helped me get set up with Skype and I 'd never Skyped before and literally I live in the sticks of North Carolina, like I was on 60 acres like woods, right, and we tested it the night before and I remember it Well, my son's like, oh, dad, you get some red socks stuff, like I'm from Boston.

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So there was some paraphernalia.

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I tried to make my office very professional, whatever.

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A minute in I don't know if it was a minute their screen goes my view of them and I kind of had researched who would be in the boardroom and my brain was like, oh, I wonder if that's Denny or whatever.

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My screen starts spinning around like I've lost connectivity.

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I said, oh, wait a minute, I might need to reconnect.

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No, no, no quite, we see you.

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Just fine, we can, don't worry about it, we see you.

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So now my brain's like wow, man, this is a little stressful.

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So I'm staring at things spinning and then my picture goes out.

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So I had a third and they're very scripted people 30 minute interview.

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I email them, thanks, you know, under stressful conditions, you, you know, best of luck with your search.

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Yeah, it was trying times and like, and they were in another interview, I think, and he was like quite to the contrary, you will hear from us tomorrow.

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So it's an interesting journey.

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But my first summer I started in May.

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My first summer, my club president from France, who I could barely understand, was like Mr Ronan, where will holiday take you this summer?

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I said well, ma'am, it'll be at Bretton Woods.

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You know, I just started a month ago.

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She was like oh no, family is very important with us.

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And I was like what do you mean?

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Like right?

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I said oh, ok, and booked a week at the beach, my first season there.

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No one cared and it's kind of morphed from there.

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Christmas 12 years ago she said to me when will you be going home for Christmas?

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I was like you know, family's important.

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I was like oh yes, ma'am, first year, denny, I left December 15th which was like, wow, right, two weeks and it's gone from the 15th to the 10th to the 8th to the.

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I left November 11th this year.

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No one cares, but I have a tremendous team Fast forward.

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I have all new department heads tremendous, talented, dedicated, loyal people and have built a lot of trust.

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Right Like, I have tremendous trust with my board, which is not a member-owned club board.

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Right Like it's almost like a professional group of people.

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I make them a lot of money.

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We talk strategy.

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We're talking about a seven-year plan right now.

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We talk about how we're funding everything.

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You know we made 12% net profit last year, which no one really does that in golf, but that million two on about 10 or 12 million I'm putting right back into the property.

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So it's been an interesting run.

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And in 21, it was 20 or 21, I was done.

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Right Like, I had on a board agenda set and I do the whole agenda different you a whole different model, like the last item I knew where to put it succession planning and all my board meetings since February, since you came to Bretton Woods in February of 20, you remember that Valentine's Day I've never been back inside the IMF.

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I used to be there two, three, four times a month, twice a week for meetings.

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All my board meetings are Zoom.

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So I had succession planning and said guys, you know, we had a good run.

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Covid has been really brutal.

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It's just been really hard and I think we're still in a good space.

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And I'm thinking another year and it was like a funeral and no one knew what to say.

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How much holiday do you want?

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They kind of worked on me.

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The president finally came.

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My staff too was like oh no, this is the worst thing possible.

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So when I'm away, the staff works a little harder.

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It's not like, oh, where's Ed?

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I don't know, they'll be like Ed's in South Africa right now.

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It's not like, oh, where's Ed?

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I don't know, they'll be like Ed's in South Africa right now.

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There's no hiding it and it just works right.

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And when I got divorced seven years ago it'll be eight this summer I needed another hobby.

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Yeah, I needed another hobby and I just started diving man and it's morphed from.

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I probably have 400 in the last three years Like so a crazy amount of diving.

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What In 2023, I horribly missed my.

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My goal was 200 dives, 200 hours underwater, basically an hour dive.

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I only made 193.

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So, and the year before I came up in the 80s.

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This year I'll be close to 100.

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I'm in the 90s right now.

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I don't know how much I'll dive in Isla Mujeres when I go there.

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So that's crazy right.

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That's bonkers, that's so cool.

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So add into the equation.

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You know I've always lived 360 miles from the club.

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I'm in North Carolina today.

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Well, I bought this property.

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It was an illegal marijuana grow operation that had been seized so it was trashed.

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The shop I've sent you a picture of my shop was just a tore apart metal building, no electricity in it, and now I have a wood shop, the house.

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We thought we would burn down when I first bought it, but it turned out to be structurally good, so it's brand new floors, walls, ceilings, windows, electric plumbing, heating.

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Over a seven year, six year period I've rebuilt the house.

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So it's been an interesting journey, and rebuilt is like.

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I'm the chief tile installer.

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It's a wall-to-wall tile floor.

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I thought that would be cool.

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I installed it.

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The kids and I have done all the carpet.

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We do a lot of carpentry with my shop, so it's an interesting place to escape, to Escape, work, whatever.

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I have plenty of Wi-Fi.

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I have Wi-Fi all over the property which keeps you connected.

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Yeah, you also make stuff for the club too, right?

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Yeah, I've made Like some cool pieces.

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Six or seven.

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Well, we've gotten into desks Like I'm sitting at a.

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I'm sitting, not standing, today, at my desk, but it's a.

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We do a lot of L-shaped, solid inch and a half, two inch thick wood this one's walnut my sons are engineers.

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They have hydraulic legs so you push a button, it goes from a desk to a standing desk.

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So those are in most of the offices.

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I have a full CNC shop.

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So we've made all the.

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We're transitioning from wood signs because we're very nature at the club, but woods are wood from a maintenance and just longevity sustainability standpoint doesn't work.

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So we've been doing a lot of plastic signage.

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Rebuilt entryways with rock walls and three quarter inch, three quarter thick inch HDPE engraved signage is what one of my other projects I do while I'm home.

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Like while I'm home now I'm going to build two podiums for the club.

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Like we want some good solid oak podiums.

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Sounds like something to do.

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So, yeah, a little bit for work, but we do some cabinetry.

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Like there's not enough hours in the day.

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So it's a good hobby, though it's a good way to just.

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I was in there at 6 am this morning cutting and figuring and I'm building five tables right now for a condo for someone.

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Oddly enough, they're down in Isla Mujeres.

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No.

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No, they're in Sanibel Island, a place that was destroyed with a hurricane.

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Good thing you did not send those desks out.

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No, we were there in August and drywall was hung, not finished, and it has flooded twice with those last two hurricanes, so it's delayed a little bit.

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Maybe around conference, tampa, february 2025, maybe it'll be ready, so not a high priority there what I?

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I got a question for you.

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I've I've noticed with like you and other people in different clubs and different things what does it mean when somebody has?

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And I'm asking you, and I'm reason why I'm asking you, this too is you've you like drink the juice hard in terms of, like the management world?

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You know ccm, cce, abc, you got all the all oh boy but but so um.

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So when it comes to like you know, you'll see a, a club, someone's general manager sometimes it's general manager and coo, ceo and GM.

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What does it mean when they have those extra little things on?

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I would probably be a COO.

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I'm not a big title guy but as the GM COO named the position, I just replaced my chef.

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It's been the fifth or sixth time I've done this, but with a rock star, but it was my process.

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I ended up using a search firm, a culinary search firm.

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Not many people know that specializes and we made the decision, like me and my leadership team that are going to work with this guy.

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It wasn't a committee or it didn't have to go sit with six board members.

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He may have spoken to a board member, probably not.

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I think I'd have him to have him speak to my life coach, like they'll interview some of my senior candidates and hear what they pick up, but which we might not.

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I think that's different.

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You know, denny, it's just all governance right, like it kind of comes down to whatever title you want.

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But if you've got to ask, I'd rather ask forgiveness and just do it right Than permission.

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But they don't.

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But when deep down inside they don't want to be making these decisions or this or that, you'll let us take the hard decisions and when we fail, we fail.

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It's not like, hey, look at how great, but as long as we win more than we fail and learn from it, then they stay away from you.

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If you make a lot of failures and people start complaining to the powers to be, then they're going to get more involved.

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If your financial statements don't look good like if you can't make money, they're going to start getting involved, and that's not a good thing.

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Financial statements don't look good Like if you can't make money, you probably don't.

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They don't want like, they don't understand they don't.

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They're going to start getting involved and that's not a good thing.

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So my thing with my leadership team is you keep the members away from me.

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Keep the members happy.

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I'll keep the board.

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And committees are at an all-time low at my club, like, we probably have 1.3 committees, two pool committee meetings a year, two tennis committee meetings, maybe eight golf, but they're not.

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There's a clear document.

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This is what we need from you.

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Give me some ideas.

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You're not involved, you have no money.

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Say so again, that kind of works.

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And the board no one would ever go to my leadership team with complaints from a board level.

00:17:48.394 --> 00:17:53.125
Say that Members sure, not all the time, but of course they're going to.

00:17:53.125 --> 00:17:54.811
Members complain nonstop.

00:17:54.811 --> 00:17:56.411
Yeah, but again, fix it.

00:17:56.411 --> 00:17:57.625
Yeah, but don't just.

00:17:57.625 --> 00:18:04.614
You know, if it's a repetitive complaint, they don't want it to get to me because I'm going to be like what the you know?

00:18:04.614 --> 00:18:07.298
Fix the change what you're doing, you know.

00:18:07.357 --> 00:18:10.361
So we're huge on innovation.

00:18:10.361 --> 00:18:12.569
I mean, you were there kind of in the winter.

00:18:12.569 --> 00:18:19.678
I mean, yeah, during COVID, after you left, after you ruined our economy February 20, when you were at my club.

00:18:19.678 --> 00:18:27.627
You know that summer we built our third zip line, a second archery range and a mountain bike trail.

00:18:27.627 --> 00:18:30.073
Like what the Like, who would have done that?

00:18:30.073 --> 00:18:36.134
We also embarked, in the fall of 20, on a new clubhouse and it turned out.

00:18:36.233 --> 00:18:37.857
Boy with what happened with the supply.

00:18:37.857 --> 00:18:38.986
We got lucky.

00:18:38.986 --> 00:18:39.287
You know.

00:18:39.287 --> 00:18:39.906
We had money.

00:18:39.906 --> 00:18:41.169
We were going to do it.

00:18:41.169 --> 00:18:46.115
None of my board was like, oh, I don't know if this is the right time, the world's coming to an money.

00:18:46.115 --> 00:18:47.417
We were going to do it.

00:18:47.417 --> 00:18:50.863
None of my board was like, oh, I don't know if this is the right time, the world's coming to an end.

00:18:50.863 --> 00:18:51.804
We were ready to go.

00:18:51.804 --> 00:18:52.265
We got a permit, boom.

00:18:52.265 --> 00:19:02.893
So we built from like October of 20 and opened it in August of 21, which turned out to be an unbelievable time.

00:19:02.893 --> 00:19:07.108
It was a little more painful than that because it was nine months of permitting Before we could get started.

00:19:07.108 --> 00:19:11.249
There was a lot of pre-work that was done, but no once we got started.

00:19:11.249 --> 00:19:13.394
It's only a 5,000-square-foot building.

00:19:13.454 --> 00:19:19.457
It's nothing huge, but it's down at where tennis and soccer and fitness, so smaller clubhouse.

00:19:21.625 --> 00:19:26.685
But again, if you can keep them out of your way, which I think as a COO, that's what you have to do.

00:19:26.685 --> 00:19:38.416
I mean, if you're dealing with, if you've got to go ask the board, I don't know, I haven't asked an operational question Well, how could they give me advice?

00:19:38.416 --> 00:19:43.711
I mean in a nice way, not in a logical way that they really can't.

00:19:43.711 --> 00:19:50.618
I mean I had one member in my first year or so here was like and it's obvious he said it aboard me.

00:19:50.618 --> 00:19:52.000
I have a very respectful board.

00:19:52.000 --> 00:20:00.030
It's obvious you've forgotten more about running a business like this than we will ever learn.

00:20:00.030 --> 00:20:02.336
But most members would never bring themselves to say that to you.

00:20:02.336 --> 00:20:04.132
But mine's a little different.

00:20:04.132 --> 00:20:07.454
They're all economists so they know they couldn't run a business per se.

00:20:09.205 --> 00:20:14.872
You talk about your staff a lot and you do have a really cool like you do retreats with your staff.

00:20:14.872 --> 00:20:23.637
You spend money on them, you invest in them as individuals, as a whole, as a group.

00:20:23.637 --> 00:20:29.885
Did you always do that?

00:20:29.885 --> 00:20:30.047
Was it?

00:20:30.047 --> 00:20:30.669
You've always maybe wanted to?

00:20:30.669 --> 00:20:34.828
And then when you got to this position, like this club, and they were all about it like how was the progression with that?

00:20:34.828 --> 00:20:36.914
Like were they already doing it before you got there?

00:20:36.914 --> 00:20:39.209
Did you have to fight to get it?

00:20:39.410 --> 00:20:42.174
No, very interesting, Great question.

00:20:42.174 --> 00:20:49.210
So I got here and you know, once you're older you just go a little slower too, right?

00:20:49.210 --> 00:20:52.987
Like back in the day I would have come in and changed, fixed everything.

00:20:52.987 --> 00:20:54.871
Now there's no rush, right?

00:20:54.871 --> 00:21:00.833
So my first season I literally I told the board I'll find out where all the bathrooms are, I'll find my way around.

00:21:00.833 --> 00:21:01.816
It's a pretty big property.

00:21:01.816 --> 00:21:09.227
But again, just kind of take notes and observe, because if you run in and they're like you know, denny, why are you doing this wrong?

00:21:09.227 --> 00:21:10.169
It's like you're an idiot.

00:21:10.169 --> 00:21:12.255
I had plenty of idiots working for me.

00:21:12.255 --> 00:21:23.076
But again, I remember one time in a leadership meeting saying, and they all looked at me, I said it's obvious to me, this place has been screwed up for a while, so there's no rush, but we will fix this.

00:21:23.076 --> 00:21:33.511
And I said, let me tell you one phrase that is going to come up in this room and you'll learn to never say again is it's always been done that way, right?

00:21:33.511 --> 00:21:36.117
So we started off on a good foot.

00:21:37.885 --> 00:21:48.550
So one of the first things I kind of spent a lot of time with the staff, spent a lot of time with some of my board members and, you know, thinking more strategically or just the business.

00:21:48.550 --> 00:21:50.332
There were like four.

00:21:50.332 --> 00:21:55.576
The staff had an opinion, the leadership team thought something, the board had another idea.

00:21:55.576 --> 00:21:56.917
So I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:21:56.917 --> 00:21:59.799
So in my first year I went to my president.

00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:02.382
I was like, listen, we have got to get some synergy.

00:22:02.382 --> 00:22:17.215
And we did a retreat then, just with the board, and my board has only met at my club in 12 seasons 2.5 times, maybe three at the most, because we always met at the IMF.

00:22:17.215 --> 00:22:18.598
I did an all-day retreat.

00:22:18.598 --> 00:22:25.778
If there's any old people that watch this, jack Sullivan, who's with KKNW, might be retired by now.

00:22:25.778 --> 00:22:32.358
But Jack came in and we really organized and put together mission, vision and values.

00:22:32.358 --> 00:22:35.384
That still hangs in my office.

00:22:35.384 --> 00:22:36.971
It hangs in the club room.

00:22:36.971 --> 00:22:37.794
We teach it.

00:22:37.794 --> 00:22:41.151
We just modified it on one of my leadership retreats.

00:22:41.230 --> 00:22:43.655
So what also came up in our retreat?

00:22:43.655 --> 00:22:54.529
I said one thing that's interesting is in reviewing our financials you have zero in development, like in staff training and anything.

00:22:54.529 --> 00:22:56.013
You know nothing.

00:22:56.013 --> 00:23:01.006
And lo and behold, danny, I'm not making this up.

00:23:01.006 --> 00:23:08.691
I think that weekend Kevin McDonald, who's now a lifelong friend, 11, 12 years ago, called me and said, hey, I'm going to be in.

00:23:08.691 --> 00:23:12.614
I'd met him at a KKNW summit, at the PGA show or something.

00:23:12.614 --> 00:23:14.855
That year I heard about his program.

00:23:14.855 --> 00:23:23.201
I attended like a webinar, you know, zoom or whatever, and since then he's been, you know, on staff per se.

00:23:23.201 --> 00:23:25.163
He's been at the club a number of times.

00:23:26.125 --> 00:23:33.118
I then started sounded hokey at the time, but all my leadership meetings ended with a win of the week.

00:23:33.118 --> 00:23:36.034
So you know, there's like business, business, how's it all relate?

00:23:36.034 --> 00:23:39.388
And then go around the room what did you?

00:23:39.388 --> 00:23:41.434
What's your best thing that happened to you this week?

00:23:41.434 --> 00:23:42.911
Which at first people like what?

00:23:42.911 --> 00:23:47.865
But it ended up being.

00:23:47.865 --> 00:23:48.386
At first it had to be.

00:23:48.386 --> 00:23:53.838
Oh, we had the most covers in the restaurant and then, as we got a little tighter, it was, oh well, my son's baseball team, so it became personal.

00:23:53.838 --> 00:24:08.369
Then I started doing monthly dinners with 10 to 15, however big the team was then which again, we would do top golf, we would do bowling, we've done any kind of activity, or just a dinner.

00:24:08.369 --> 00:24:14.173
But again it gets the superintendent with the restaurant manager talking about the weather, whatever.

00:24:14.936 --> 00:24:21.972
And then, once I started doing leadership retreats, I choose Orlando because airfare is cheap.

00:24:21.972 --> 00:24:23.496
The housing, denny.

00:24:23.496 --> 00:24:25.839
We get like 13 bedroom houses.

00:24:25.839 --> 00:24:30.217
Oh, you remember Gutenplan came a couple of years ago to one of them three or four years ago now.

00:24:30.217 --> 00:24:34.432
So, like this year, I have two 13 bedroom houses in the same neighborhood.

00:24:34.432 --> 00:24:40.974
You can't buy hotel rooms and we're there for you know we do some cool stuff that we'll do.

00:24:40.974 --> 00:24:43.348
A travel day, a free day, go do whatever you want.

00:24:43.348 --> 00:24:48.172
Some will play golf, some drive to Tampa, go to a casino, some might go to the theme parks.

00:24:48.172 --> 00:24:50.471
Then we have two full days.

00:24:51.184 --> 00:24:52.832
I just talked to Sarah Mueller today.

00:24:52.832 --> 00:24:54.592
Sarah Mueller was with me last year.

00:24:54.592 --> 00:24:58.053
I have your girlfriend, passion Graham.

00:24:58.053 --> 00:24:59.056
I'm very excited.

00:24:59.056 --> 00:25:01.413
Passion's doing like two sessions.

00:25:01.413 --> 00:25:06.134
Jody with Jody Cunningham, kk and w?

00:25:06.134 --> 00:25:09.189
Uh, you know her, she's kind of on her own hr.

00:25:09.911 --> 00:25:12.737
I don't know kevin mcdawn, I'm like overbooked with who I could use.

00:25:12.737 --> 00:25:13.306
I've been three.

00:25:13.306 --> 00:25:14.887
And jackie carpenter I had the?

00:25:14.887 --> 00:25:18.734
Uh, the who was that the mastermind?

00:25:18.734 --> 00:25:19.436
And the?

00:25:19.436 --> 00:25:21.119
Uh monk, a few.

00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:22.969
I don't know a great list.

00:25:23.390 --> 00:25:24.952
But what comes out out from that?

00:25:24.952 --> 00:25:26.897
There is some nuts and bolts.

00:25:26.897 --> 00:25:35.328
Like two years ago we redid my mission state Like we'll work on actual business stuff but more importantly we try to help them develop.

00:25:35.328 --> 00:25:48.047
But what that has really done is again the bonding and trust and like the accountability between each other has gotten much stronger as far as culture and it's probably.

00:25:48.047 --> 00:25:50.295
We're doing budgets right now.

00:25:50.295 --> 00:25:50.807
It's probably.

00:25:50.807 --> 00:25:51.932
You know it's an investment.

00:25:51.932 --> 00:25:54.411
It might be 50 grand, I'm not, you know it's somewhere.

00:25:54.411 --> 00:25:55.670
It's not a little one.

00:25:55.670 --> 00:25:58.054
By the time you pay some speakers and you have meals.

00:25:58.054 --> 00:26:03.778
And last year we did like really pretty cool go-kart racing.

00:26:03.778 --> 00:26:05.308
We're going to an Axe bar, I think.

00:26:05.308 --> 00:26:12.698
This year like different stuff, right, so that I think, from a culture and gist.

00:26:13.666 --> 00:26:26.494
And last year was interesting, when Sarah was talking we were talking about emotional intelligence and I looked around the room we were talking about developing people and when she finished I said Sarah, wow, what a topic you just brought up.

00:26:26.494 --> 00:26:29.894
I said I'm really proud that there's 21 people here today.

00:26:29.894 --> 00:26:33.775
Seven of these people have been promoted to current positions.

00:26:33.775 --> 00:26:37.615
So that has bought, or I don't know bought.

00:26:37.615 --> 00:26:42.098
That has created, you know, like a lot of loyalty and they've learned together.

00:26:42.098 --> 00:26:42.805
You know what I'm saying.

00:26:42.805 --> 00:26:49.599
And we just promoted two more from within because staffing the mid-level management right now is very hard to attract.

00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:51.492
You see the job openings and whatnot.

00:26:51.492 --> 00:27:09.320
And we're like fully staffed because my staff brings staff, like even one of the cooks brought me a mechanic recently, you know, for the grounds Game recognize game and when people see and know, it's like, oh okay, they okay, yeah, come on, come on, so that has helped.

00:27:09.422 --> 00:27:15.741
It's not an exact science and I'm in a place where, I mean, the minimum wage is 1715 this year.

00:27:15.741 --> 00:27:17.806
We're expecting it goes up every year.

00:27:17.806 --> 00:27:21.549
We're expecting it to be 1780 in 2025.

00:27:21.549 --> 00:27:23.912
It's not set yet, but it's a crazy number.

00:27:23.912 --> 00:27:30.479
When I'm paying, I have a staff of 300 and all the lifeguards, the camp counselors, you know all those kids.

00:27:30.479 --> 00:27:33.481
You know we're paying waiters like $20.

00:27:33.481 --> 00:27:38.741
So we have a dishwasher at $20 an hour, which is crazy, but he comes to work.

00:27:38.741 --> 00:27:39.805
You know what I'm saying.

00:27:39.825 --> 00:27:40.345
Consistently with a smile on his face.

00:27:40.345 --> 00:27:40.324
Well, you know what I'm saying.

00:27:44.054 --> 00:27:46.001
Consistently with a smile on his face.

00:27:46.001 --> 00:27:53.359
Well, my best dishwasher just got recruited from a line cook and she's probably a 50 year old woman who will outwork you and I, honestly, all day.

00:27:53.359 --> 00:28:00.473
So I don't know, man, it's not, it's just a little people.

00:28:00.473 --> 00:28:02.392
It just takes people to have good people, I guess.

00:28:02.946 --> 00:28:06.881
And the board now sees the value in what you're spending on all that.

00:28:06.881 --> 00:28:08.487
They don't really fight you on it, or?

00:28:08.487 --> 00:28:10.352
Or is it still a battle Cause?

00:28:10.352 --> 00:28:12.537
I mean really like let's just even call it 50.

00:28:12.537 --> 00:28:14.352
That's, all things considered.

00:28:14.352 --> 00:28:16.584
That's not bad for professional development.

00:28:16.765 --> 00:28:19.828
So, but do you think there's a line item that?

00:28:19.828 --> 00:28:23.193
So mine again, I have a different governance model.

00:28:23.193 --> 00:28:28.625
I show them my people would die Like.

00:28:28.625 --> 00:28:30.993
My board doesn't get full financials.

00:28:30.993 --> 00:28:32.164
They don't have time to go through.

00:28:32.164 --> 00:28:36.532
My financials are 45 pages, my budget's 108 pages.

00:28:36.532 --> 00:28:38.712
The finance committee doesn't see that.

00:28:38.712 --> 00:28:41.413
They don't need to see every nuts and bolts.

00:28:41.413 --> 00:28:51.296
So that's just that's baked into leadership development, education and seminars, which is obviously a big number.

00:28:51.746 --> 00:28:54.054
I mean every single department head.

00:28:54.054 --> 00:28:56.008
I mean I just came.

00:28:56.008 --> 00:29:02.891
I'm a different animal, but I just came back from CMAE in London, club Managers Association of Europe.

00:29:02.891 --> 00:29:04.391
I have a great affiliation with them.

00:29:04.391 --> 00:29:06.951
I spoke when they were over in the States last time.

00:29:06.951 --> 00:29:08.556
They'll be in New York in.

00:29:08.556 --> 00:29:10.127
We should get you then.

00:29:10.127 --> 00:29:20.953
They'll be in New York in September 2025 for their international CMAE's international, and I came back and worked like a week or two maybe man.

00:29:20.953 --> 00:29:28.756
And then I just came back from BMI International where we were in Switzerland, cma sponsored, you know, event.

00:29:28.756 --> 00:29:37.345
So my assistant GM will do a conference and a BMI Phil's six years in eight years working for me.

00:29:37.665 --> 00:29:38.770
Phil has not left yet man.

00:29:38.770 --> 00:29:43.413
He's holding on like a he will be certified brother.

00:29:43.566 --> 00:29:44.295
He'll be certified this year.

00:29:44.295 --> 00:29:44.983
He'll be certified this year.

00:29:45.907 --> 00:29:47.093
He's my AGM now, yeah.

00:29:47.904 --> 00:29:50.453
So you have to invest.

00:29:50.453 --> 00:30:01.237