413: Leading with Loyalty: Inspiring Teams to Stay and Succeed w/ Greg Klemp

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 chatting with a genuinely good friend of mine, greg Klemp, gm over at Money Hill Club in Abita Springs, louisiana.

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Not only is Greg a friend, but he is a extremely talented and amazing club manager.

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We first got connected years ago, years and years and years ago down thanks to the godfather, lee Stahl down Pelican Chapter CMAA.

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And boy am I glad we did.

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I still remember Greg brought me in for a show after we met and he was so nervous he was just pacing the back of the room.

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And for this particular run of shows I brought my wife down then girlfriend, now wife down to Louisiana with me because there was a bunch of shows and Greg was so nervous my wife had to be like, hey, relax, he's going to be fine.

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And then, once the show started he was fine.

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He was so nervous, it was so cute.

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But I am so happy to have him on because he shares so much.

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From his journey managing cruise ships on the Mississippi to bringing Money Hill to an all new high, he's transformed the club into quite literally a powerhouse with a booming membership and a thriving culture.

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He's going to talk all about that.

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We're going to dive into the culture because he has this ability to really connect with people and his staff and build a team, build a family.

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He's built one so strong.

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He has his right-hand man, ron, who's been following him for decades now.

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So this is just a great episode.

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But right before we get to the episode, quick, thanks to some of our show partners Concert Golf Partners, Kenneth's Member Vetting and Golf Life Navigators, as well as myself, the Denny Corby Experience one of the best member event nights you will have.

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Hey, you know what?

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If you're wondering, just ask Mr Greg Klemp.

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If you want to learn more, dennycorbycom.

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But more importantly, I'm releasing the club entertainment guide soon and if you would like early access, my newsletter subscribers get early access before anybody else subscribe to the newsletter.

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Head on over to privateclubradiocom.

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Enough about that, let's get to the episode.

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I'm excited.

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Private Club Radio let's welcome to the show, mr Greg Klemp, my food and beverage director, ron, he and I and chef worked at Oakbourne Country Club together.

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So they're here.

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And then Ron and I, 30 years ago, worked at Southern Yacht Club.

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So we have been working.

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You know, the big three in clubs is Easter, mother's Day and Thanksgiving.

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Right, that's when we so we have worked Thanksgiving for our whole lives, basically our whole careers.

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We got here at Money Hill six years ago and we did Easter and Mother's Day and they said, you're not open for Thanksgiving, money Hill's not open for Thanksgiving.

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And we were like what Ron and I are strategizing?

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We're going to kill it.

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Look at what we did at Easter and Mother's Day.

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We're going to kill Thanksgiving.

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And all the managers that were here, they were like, oh, we don't want to open up.

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We said, okay, all right, we won't do it this year, we'll get them next year.

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Friday we got back at work and we're like, hey, this shit's pretty, this stuff's pretty good at it, this stuff's pretty good Not being, not being off work, not working on Thanksgiving.

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So so my Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful, giving it.

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The past six years.

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I've been off on Thanksgiving and your family hated it.

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They hate having you around.

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They're like, oh, why has he got to be here?

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No, no, no, it's it was.

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It was, it would spend a life full every year and I'm really happy for it.

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But you know, and maybe you want you may not want to tell other club managers that because, like I said, we've always worked no Easter, mother's Day, thanksgiving.

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Yeah, a lot of them.

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Now Maybe they have done it.

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It's just, I guess, being more vocalized, but they're taking turns on different holidays, so certain staff, so they just keep everyone just keeps switching, so you can be with family, different ones and it's not like every Christmas here.

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That is so cool, though, and I forgot.

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I don't think I realized maybe I just forgot that you and ron have been together, have been together.

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You guys have been together probably longer than your marriage, no, uh, but you guys, you guys have been together 30 some years, that's.

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Did you start on the on the uh, delta queen?

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wow, what a good memory.

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Um the um I I did.

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Uh, right out of college I actually started on a cruise line called clipper cruise line and then I did that.

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Then I jumped to the delta queen steamboat company which did the mississippi yeah voyages all the way up to saint paul's, down to louisiana, and that's what brought me down here.

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That's because you, you were there for a while, right.

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Seven years I did cruise lines and then I went to work at Southern Yacht Club, where Ron and I met.

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He was the maitre d' and I was the assistant GM.

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And then it's.

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That's when I was young and good looking too, and thin and then it's that's when I was young and good looking too and thin.

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Well, that southern hospitality and, uh, cooking, can, can do that.

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Um, that's it, no.

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So so what, what was that like?

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So, was it was it an actual like cruise cruise line like?

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Was it run like a cruise ship, or was it more of a casino ship?

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no, uh, both cruise lines that were gone.

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They were overnight passenger, full-blown cruise lines okay, and they just did the mississippi the the clipper did the east coast and the virgin islands and the uh delta queen did the whole mississippi river from st paul's and they had different segments.

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They didn't yeah, they would do.

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They would 14, and there was an actual 28-day cruise.

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It's impressive.

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Yeah, that's where I learned the phrase Mark Twain said.

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After three days, family and friends are like fish they start to smell.

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That was a Mark Twain quote.

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You're like to be clear that is Mark Twain, that is not me.

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I just do what I always do.

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I'm a recipe stealer.

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That's funny.

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That's funny.

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What were some of your learnings?

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How am I trying to phrase it?

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What was it like working for the cruise line back then and then coming into?

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So what was it like working for them cruise line back then and then coming into?

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So, like, what was what was it like working for them?

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Like, what did you learn?

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And then what were you able to take away?

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And then how did you get into the clubs?

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Like, was it like somebody?

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Like, were you like looking to get out?

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Was it like an opportunity you saw?

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Was somebody like, hey, I'm you know.

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If you like boats, how about you can run other people's boats?

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No, uh, so so, like, like cause?

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Like, was it like a conscious thing to go from cruises to like the yacht club?

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Like, or is that?

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Was that just like a weird fluke that you went from like water to water?

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No um, it was a fluke to go Um get it a fluke.

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a fish, another water joke.

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All right, I'm done.

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I was after college.

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I'm at my parents home, you know, the phone rings.

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I'm in bed at the crack of noon, right, and my mother comes in and says it's your roommate, drew from school, from college, right.

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So so I roll out of bed, crack a noon, get him.

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He said, hey, get down here.

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He was working in the office of this cruise line.

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Get down here.

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They're looking for bartenders.

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I bartended in college.

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So next thing, you know, I'm on the cruise line.

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But the basis of that which I thought was so good, it's, you know, cruise line.

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You just don't pull over to the grocery store if you run out of case of beer or bread or whatever it is you gotta.

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It is so organized and so system driven that that really was a good basis for me in my career early.

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And then, of course, I went from, you know, like I said, started as a bartender all the way up to hotel manager.

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Through the seven years I did it and and then being able to come and apply those principles to the club has really been.

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I was really glad to have that good.

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I would call it like a military base.

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Yeah, now isn't I think I'm wrong?

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Yeah, now isn't I think I'm wrong.

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Isn't like the hotel director managers, aren't they almost like the highest level of a cruise ship, like minus, like the captain and stuff, like isn't like the?

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Or maybe that's just like certain certain cruise lines or something.

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Maybe the chef, the chef the chef.

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I'm joking, oh my god oh my god, I was like wait, like you just blew my mind.

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I was like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, like this is too early.

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Why do we do this so early in the morning?

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look some, some people.

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Some people may swim on the cruise.

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Some people may go on shore tours.

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Some, they all eat.

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So yeah, driving the boat man, anybody can do that.

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People may go on shore tours, they all eat.

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Yeah, driving a boat man, anybody can do that.

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And now it's all computerized.

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So you just got to look at the numbers.

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They actually.

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You have officer ranks, like when I became the bar manager, they call that the bar steward.

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When I became the food and beverage director manager, they call that the bar steward.

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When I became the food and beverage director, they call that the chief steward.

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And you have in the in the hotel operations and of course, the captain is he's number one right um, he's the four striped officer.

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The chief engineer is a four striped officer, but the and the name is hotel manager is a four striped officer also.

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That's, that's what I thought in ranks.

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It's captain yep, chief engineer, then me, yep, hotel man yep, okay, no, it was one of those.

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I I would that, that's what I thought, but I was like that it's either one of those like because it, when I was first told that, I was like, oh, toad, toad, well, first, toad, that, uh, no, when I first learned that, I was like, oh, my goodness, like that's, like I didn't think about, like I would have never guessed.

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Um, because it was when I, when I did you know cruises for a hot minute, they were like, oh, like the, the, the hotel.

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I'm like okay, and they're like, no, that's the one you gotta like, really be nice, like the captain, every.

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But like I was like, oh, okay, um, right, that's, that's boggling.

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What was it like?

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Pretty much holding court for an entire ship?

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That's got to be a little bit stressful.

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No, I'll tell you this, it's a single man's game.

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You know, saw a lot of married men come on.

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That didn't work out too well.

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That weren't didn't work out too well, but um, it's a.

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It's a.

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It really drives.

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In my humble opinion, which is all I have uh, it really drived a sense of teamwork you know, yeah, it was.

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It was a real.

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I mean, you lived, you would work an average of 12, 12, 13 hours a day, every day of the week, and we were strictly there for pastor.

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You've been on Cruises Pastor Service and you really became so dependent on everybody doing their job.

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And it was minimalistic too.

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It's not like, you know, if somebody got sick it really hurt.

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You really had to pick up the slack and and we had a a mentality about our, about us that you know we would go like one time we docked this is in the virgin islands and, uh, the our linen factory or something blew up or something and we had to go and we had to throw linen all the way out.

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And I was the british virgin islands, from the truck and all all the crew, everybody from the captain on down.

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There wasn't one person on that boat and we were throwing linen bags.

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You know, you know, hand to hand to hand, and then we reorganized down on the dock, down on the dock, and it's just a real, and there wasn't no, come on, man, let's hike it up.

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That was our phrase.

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Let's hike it up.

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It was a very, it was a great experience I had to.

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You know, we always say what would you do if you snap fingers?

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Do it over again.

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I do that exact same thing.

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And then how'd you find your way into clubs?

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I uh a girl I met.

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I met a girl.

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Um and uh, there was a job opening as assistant general manager at Southern Yacht Club and I applied, interviewed and suckers.

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Was there any?

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What did you take over from?

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You know working on the cruise line to now AGM of?

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Systems, systems management, just like I said from and again I did all the jobs you know, bar well, bar steward, bar manager, food and beverage controller.

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That was purchasing agent, food and beverage director.

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I mean I'm glad I did all those jobs and were able to use those systems.

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Like I said back then, it was the amount of food we purchased equated to back then a 10 million dollar restaurant annual restaurant.

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So we purchased a lot of food and, like I said, you just can't pull over to kroger and go get two cases of number 10 cans of x.

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Yeah, so that bringing those systems into play really helped our efficiency of operation and I really loved found out, I loved training a lot of these managers who had no idea it's just reactive management oh, we ran out of Tito's Vodka, we're under the store and it was just par levels, bar pars, storeroom pars.

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I mean just really good systems.

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One of our Commodores who was a member of Southern Yacht Club was also a member of Past Christian Yacht Club.

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They came and got me to be the GM as my first GM job was Past Christian Yacht Club.

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I forgot about that.

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Yeah, so that was my very first step into it and it was a great.

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I loved it yeah, and then and then you, then you got an actual club.

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Then you went from there to trafunctor right and and you were there for a minute, you were there for a while 14 years yeah what a run.

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What was it like?

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Because, because you, you came to my show there.

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Um, was it last this year?

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Was it this year?

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Yeah, oh, my god, time is going weird.

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Uh, hanging out with the mac campaign, what's it like?

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Because it's been what?

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About 10 years since, since you've been there, what?

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Oh, that's got to be a little.

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That's got to bring back like butterfly.

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It's got to be a feeling kind of like going back there no I I have a tremendous amount of friends there yeah I mean I, I, I don't.

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I don't know if you saw, but you know it was like I had some you were the mayor coming up.

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Oh dude, you were big tables there.

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That was that that was shaking hands and slapping asses.

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You were kissing babies the girls that was there.

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I did did her wedding, you know, and she came and gave me a big bear hug and all that.

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So it was.

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It was delightful seeing those people.

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What?

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What shocked me is how few of the old members that I had when all of the this is.

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You saw how young that was so, but anyway it was.

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I absolutely love that club.

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One of my dear friends lives right across the street from it.

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Their daughter worked for me in the pro shop for five years.

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I went to her wedding.

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She has three kids.

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Their son was a lifeguard for me.

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I mean, I just yeah I maybe godfather my children was on my board you know, I mean, maybe, maybe butterflies was phrased the wrong way, but just like that, like excitement oh, it's been so long Like it's.

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Just like you know that, like who?

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Like I don't know, it's like you're I can't, it's like a.

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It's like a, like a performer, feeling almost like oh man.

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Well, denny, I'm going to tell you this man, I hate to admit it, I didn't see your show.

00:17:01.828 --> 00:17:08.755
I got up to go get another drink in the bar, I got confronted with Rick Flick.

00:17:08.755 --> 00:17:10.056
He owns Banner Ford down here.

00:17:10.056 --> 00:17:11.237
He grabs me.

00:17:11.237 --> 00:17:13.218
Come here, let me introduce you to Greg.

00:17:13.218 --> 00:17:14.960
This is the best manager we ever have.

00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:20.663
And I started talking and I spent I was having a couple of cocktails and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:17:20.663 --> 00:17:23.112
The next thing I know Lee's dragging me out of the bar.

00:17:24.949 --> 00:17:29.266
So I'm sorry I missed your show me out of the bar.

00:17:29.266 --> 00:17:30.848
So trust me, I'm sorry, I missed your show.

00:17:30.848 --> 00:17:32.892
You don't have to tell me you didn't see the show.

00:17:32.892 --> 00:17:33.393
I did my show.

00:17:33.393 --> 00:17:35.517
I knew you were there, like I.

00:17:35.517 --> 00:17:36.858
I was there doing it.

00:17:36.858 --> 00:17:38.888
I, I knew well I.

00:17:39.128 --> 00:17:42.345
You were doing your show in the dining room, I was doing my show in the bar we.

00:17:42.726 --> 00:17:45.391
We're all there for the same reasons to make the members happy.

00:17:45.391 --> 00:18:00.512
So so how do you get, how do you have that bond, that friendship with Ron, to have somebody follow you for almost your entire career Cause you, you, you.

00:18:00.512 --> 00:18:06.676
You hear about it sometimes and you know it's always cool to hear you know when it.

00:18:06.676 --> 00:18:08.247
You know I've had friends who've done like you know similar friends.

00:18:08.247 --> 00:18:09.228
You know it's always cool to hear you know when.

00:18:09.228 --> 00:18:10.669
I've had friends who have done like you know similar friends.

00:18:10.669 --> 00:18:13.092
You know people who are now considered friends in the industry, who have done like similar things.

00:18:13.092 --> 00:18:13.633
That people are like.

00:18:13.633 --> 00:18:18.598
You know when somebody moves like you know two or three of them are like all right, I guess we're going to what's.

00:18:18.598 --> 00:18:20.180
That's got to be cool.

00:18:20.180 --> 00:18:21.020
How did that happen?

00:18:21.020 --> 00:18:25.272
Like like, did you and Ron just like instantly, like hit it off, like what was?

00:18:25.272 --> 00:18:26.536
What was that friendship like?

00:18:27.278 --> 00:18:30.367
Is it like I am?

00:18:30.367 --> 00:18:31.491
I am blessed.

00:18:31.491 --> 00:18:33.489
I will tell you.

00:18:33.489 --> 00:18:45.311
There is a, there is a comfort and a feeling of strength when you know what that guy's going to do and he knows what you're going to do.

00:18:45.311 --> 00:18:51.570
And I not only have that with chef Ron, my golf course superintendent.

00:18:51.570 --> 00:18:55.548
I worked in another club, the director of rackets, my pickleball.

00:18:55.548 --> 00:18:57.613
He worked, he worked with me at your functor.

00:18:57.613 --> 00:18:59.536
I mean you're bringing every.

00:18:59.615 --> 00:19:00.617
Oh, you're bringing everybody.

00:19:01.298 --> 00:19:05.489
We you know I'll date myself, you know, know it's Van Halen get the band back together.

00:19:05.489 --> 00:19:10.265
But it is, I say, blessed.

00:19:10.265 --> 00:19:21.050
It is very nice to have those people and I always tell, I always tell when members are looking to join.

00:19:21.050 --> 00:19:29.031
We have three clubs over here, you know Jafonta, money Hill and Beauchesne, which, by the way, we're the second largest on the North Shore, now Moved up from Perth, yep.

00:19:29.031 --> 00:19:33.269
But I always tell people when they're looking.

00:19:33.288 --> 00:19:36.955
I said you always want to ask when you're, especially our young executives.

00:19:36.955 --> 00:19:42.171
We no longer use junior, we young executive, new member Always ask of a club.

00:19:42.171 --> 00:19:46.814
You know how's your infrastructure and I call the infrastructure the management team.

00:19:46.814 --> 00:19:50.554
You know how's your infrastructure and I call the infrastructure the management team.

00:19:50.554 --> 00:19:53.884
You know and I say make sure if you got a good 10, good tenured management team that tells you something.

00:19:53.884 --> 00:20:05.353
And you know the right hand knows what the left hand's doing and we go, we're ambassadors for one another and we go through brick walls for one another and that is our motto and we're proud of that.

00:20:05.353 --> 00:20:13.733
Like I said, it's a comfort and it's a strength in the management of and I'm the caretaker of the culture of this club.

00:20:13.733 --> 00:20:19.454
I couldn't I, I couldn't do that without this wonderful talented team that I have.

00:20:19.454 --> 00:20:23.384
I just ride on their coattails, quite frankly.

00:20:23.384 --> 00:20:25.348
Yeah, actually I.

00:20:25.348 --> 00:20:28.426
As soon as I get done with you, I'm going to start drinking and probably take a nap.

00:20:29.088 --> 00:20:32.885
I, I, I, I've, I've seen the cot.

00:20:32.885 --> 00:20:42.766
No, yeah, yeah, behind you is it's not actually a bookshelf, it's one of those beds, you know, the beds that come down from the wall.

00:20:43.808 --> 00:20:49.001
Well, like a Se from the wall.

00:20:49.001 --> 00:20:53.030
Well like uh seinfeld, uh, george had it under the desk right or I and I, I nicknamed my my area.

00:20:53.151 --> 00:21:02.002
I call it booze and snooze you've you've worked uh, all the other clubs you've worked in were member owned.

00:21:02.002 --> 00:21:05.203
Now you're at a privately owned club, right, how?

00:21:05.203 --> 00:21:06.126
How has that changed?

00:21:06.126 --> 00:21:07.730
Been good, good, bad, unique?

00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:32.094
Denny, this is the best job I've ever had in my whole career and the owner who I work for is, without a doubt and no offense to my past board members, as you one of them's godfather my children but without a doubt she is absolutely wonderful.

00:21:32.094 --> 00:21:34.615
It's a great.

00:21:34.615 --> 00:21:35.537
It's a great marriage.

00:21:35.537 --> 00:21:47.864
It is just and we just got approved, I'm happy to announce uh, monday we had a board meeting and they just approved our three and a half million dollar renovation to the clubhouse we're doing this year, I mean 25.

00:21:48.125 --> 00:21:49.826
Very nice, very nice.

00:21:49.945 --> 00:21:50.707
Very excited about it.

00:21:50.826 --> 00:21:52.448
Yeah.

00:21:52.607 --> 00:21:55.830
So when you come next time, you'll have a big, beautiful ballroom to perform in.

00:21:56.171 --> 00:22:00.354
I was going to say are you guys finally going to make a ballroom and have proper space?

00:22:01.315 --> 00:22:07.669
Oh yeah, in fact I don't know if you know Mike Holtzman, yep, yep, he's doing our kitchen.

00:22:07.669 --> 00:22:09.827
We're gutting the whole kitchen and expanding it.

00:22:13.324 --> 00:22:18.634
It's actually not a horrible price to redo the kitchen at a ballroom.

00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:20.989
Well, we had Chambers come in and do it.

00:22:20.989 --> 00:22:22.605
It's an $8.5 million.

00:22:22.605 --> 00:22:24.767
We're doing it in phases.

00:22:24.767 --> 00:22:27.148
We're doing three and a half of the $8 million.

00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:31.801
Gotcha Eight and a half million dollar.

00:22:31.801 --> 00:22:34.147
We're doing in phases, we're doing three and a half of the eight million dollars gotcha eight and a half.

00:22:34.167 --> 00:22:34.670
I was gonna say how'd you?

00:22:34.670 --> 00:22:36.755
I was like you could do three million just on a kitchen, easy, like where did you?

00:22:36.755 --> 00:22:38.619
Yeah, mike, mike is done, he's amazing, he is, he is amazing.

00:22:38.619 --> 00:22:42.023
I'm gonna send this to him so he can hear me plugging him.

00:22:42.023 --> 00:22:48.010
I want a commission check, yeah what?

00:22:48.250 --> 00:22:52.036
um, because you, you've helped turn the club around.

00:22:52.036 --> 00:22:58.261
You, you helped do some big stuff for the club and the club is in a really good place and you've you've done some tremendous stuff.

00:22:58.301 --> 00:23:00.523
Yeah we um.

00:23:00.523 --> 00:23:08.133
I'm not big on self-aggrandizement but I am proud of when I got here.

00:23:08.133 --> 00:23:11.737
They have never made a profit in 25 years.

00:23:11.737 --> 00:23:18.326
I am unconventional.

00:23:18.326 --> 00:23:21.953
Most club managers don't do membership incentives or drives I do.

00:23:21.953 --> 00:23:24.743
We went from 363 members.

00:23:24.743 --> 00:23:29.854
We're at 630 now and we are very profitable.

00:23:31.861 --> 00:23:34.143
So why do you?

00:23:34.143 --> 00:23:38.827
So I am OK.

00:23:38.827 --> 00:23:39.848
What do you mean?

00:23:39.848 --> 00:23:41.651
A membership drive, Can you?

00:23:41.651 --> 00:23:42.511
Can you describe that?

00:23:42.971 --> 00:23:47.336
well, I hate the word membership drive, um, but I call it a membership incentive.

00:23:47.336 --> 00:23:53.412
I did it at chiffonza country club also and when I left there they were profitable.

00:23:53.412 --> 00:23:56.444
You know we're in the dues, but you know the finances club, we're in the dues business.

00:23:56.444 --> 00:24:04.890
You know, um, I mean I want you to buy all the beer, all the golf balls, all the burgers, but that doesn't pay our light bill.

00:24:04.890 --> 00:24:17.676
We're in the dues business and no manager wants to walk out to the pool and look at Mrs Jones sitting in a shredded lounge chair and say sorry, I got no money to do something about that.

00:24:17.676 --> 00:24:18.840
No manager wants to be in that position.

00:24:18.840 --> 00:24:31.243
So having more members, it gives you a much better flexibility to provide a better experience, and that's what we're in the experience business.

00:24:31.243 --> 00:24:37.335
In fact, I'm going to make a proposal before I retire in five years that we change our title from GM to EM.

00:24:37.455 --> 00:24:45.991
Instead of general manager it should be experience manager, I feel like you're at a club, that you can do that and they would be okay with it.

00:24:45.991 --> 00:24:58.646
Yeah, well, I would say, because I was actually going to make a note about your membership titles.

00:24:58.646 --> 00:25:01.314
So the fact that instead of a junior member, you have your, young executive.

00:25:01.394 --> 00:25:06.750
Yeah, that you can easily give yourself the experience manager title.

00:25:06.750 --> 00:25:07.262
Yeah, I mean I would.

00:25:07.262 --> 00:25:08.994
You can easily give yourself the experience, you know, manager title.

00:25:08.994 --> 00:25:09.417
Yeah, I mean I would.

00:25:09.417 --> 00:25:11.865
Um, but so so would you say a membership drive?

00:25:11.865 --> 00:25:25.729
Do you mean like, like, like, a sale on membership, like, or just pretty much just trying to get people in because you know you're, you're, you're in the dues business and so what was it a good sorry no, no, I was to say that two things.

00:25:25.788 --> 00:25:29.315
I hate the word drive, I hate the word sale or deal.

00:25:29.315 --> 00:25:37.590
Yeah, and here on the North shore, and I and I just I just presented this to the board on Monday when they approved it.

00:25:37.590 --> 00:25:44.944
But I, you know, we all have markets, right, okay, now down here, you know Bobby's over at new Orleans country club.

00:25:44.964 --> 00:25:51.234
To to and we Now down here you know Bobby's over at New Orleans Country Club and we always send spreadsheets of what your initiation fees are and dues and all this stuff.

00:25:51.234 --> 00:25:56.545
We're all sharing this information back and forth all the time and I don't think I'm letting the cat out of the bag here.

00:25:56.545 --> 00:26:00.770
To get into New Orleans Country Club is $61,000.

00:26:00.770 --> 00:26:04.375
Why is it not $161,000?

00:26:04.375 --> 00:26:05.923
It's not their market.

00:26:05.923 --> 00:26:11.465
So here on the north shore and remember in the back of your head, we're in the dues business.

00:26:11.465 --> 00:26:20.671
Here on the north shore our market is uh, boshan is five thousand, chifunctus ten, we're seven.

00:26:21.332 --> 00:26:30.453
Okay, and I've always held the contention of if your initiation fee is south of ten thousand dollars, you're monkeying with what you're real.

00:26:30.453 --> 00:26:33.549
That's the steel door to your dues business.

00:26:33.549 --> 00:26:34.701
$10,000 isn't.

00:26:34.701 --> 00:26:37.931
If you get a job change to Chevron in Ohio, you're gone.

00:26:37.931 --> 00:26:39.339
You don't care about $10,000.

00:26:39.339 --> 00:26:42.867
You're you know they at the higher level.

00:26:42.867 --> 00:26:51.779
In my humble opinion, yes, that might get you to continue to pay dues and not leave, but not $7,000 and $5,000.

00:26:51.779 --> 00:26:55.130
You know you pay, that you're gone.

00:26:55.130 --> 00:27:01.859
So that's why I don't mind doing membership incentives and the incentive is this Go ahead.

00:27:02.721 --> 00:27:11.711
Does that happen quote unquote frequently in that area Is there's a lot of management sort of change and people kind of come and go and they stay for a few years.

00:27:11.711 --> 00:27:14.188
So is that where you're kind of going with it?

00:27:14.188 --> 00:27:22.051
It's hey, because you know they're here, they almost know they're there, for potentially you know they want to be there as long as possible, hopefully.

00:27:22.051 --> 00:27:27.732
But maybe they know, or maybe your members you know, hey, a lot of people come because they're, they work for X Y Z company.

00:27:27.732 --> 00:27:28.442
They're going to come here.

00:27:28.442 --> 00:27:30.548
They're going to be here two, three, four, five, six years.

00:27:30.548 --> 00:27:36.893
So just to throw a couple of grand at a club to be, it's not as big of a deal when they leave.

00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:52.731
Correct, the New Orleans you know we're, new Orleans is our big area down here in Baton Rouge we're on the North Shore shore and to have three clubs, one of them has two courses on the, on our and I'm gonna say, little north shore even though we've grown.

00:27:52.731 --> 00:27:57.566
Yeah is is there's a lot of golf to be had in a small community.

00:27:57.566 --> 00:28:04.564
But the other thing is is that my biggest resignation or reason for leaving is moving.

00:28:04.564 --> 00:28:06.709
So we are are transient on the North shore.

00:28:06.769 --> 00:28:07.009
Yeah.

00:28:07.550 --> 00:28:10.445
So, um, but the other.

00:28:10.445 --> 00:28:13.269
The other key to my incentive is money.

00:28:13.269 --> 00:28:18.205
Hill has, without a doubt, one of the best courses in the state.

00:28:18.365 --> 00:28:18.886
It's gorgeous.

00:28:19.808 --> 00:28:21.913
And I'm and and I love my Jifanta.

00:28:21.913 --> 00:28:25.926
You know that, but they got a, a bad track.

00:28:25.926 --> 00:28:28.147
In fact they're trying to improve it and I hope they do it.

00:28:28.147 --> 00:28:32.528
And Beauchesne same thing.

00:28:32.528 --> 00:28:38.507
They were small fairways, postage stamp greens, but I really hope that.

00:28:38.507 --> 00:28:53.307
You know, in flat Louisiana you just don't find the undulation we have and we got a 225-acre golf course, which is a pretty big size, 35-acre driving range.

00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:58.270
I was saying the whole property is what like 10,000 acres or something silly, 6,500.

00:28:58.290 --> 00:28:59.093
Yeah, it's massive.

00:29:01.005 --> 00:29:03.859
And you're big on preserving your land.

00:29:04.502 --> 00:29:09.643
So it's part development, but you're also big on like preserving and having amazing.

00:29:09.663 --> 00:29:13.710
That's correct foliage, fawn and foliage.

00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:15.512
What's it called fawn and flora?

00:29:15.512 --> 00:29:16.974
I hate that phrase.

00:29:16.974 --> 00:29:26.082
I had a, I had a mc a thing and I was like fawn of floors, like I was like I'm sorry, I cannot say these words.

00:29:26.082 --> 00:29:28.349
I was like this is going to flow off the tongue.

00:29:28.349 --> 00:29:30.707
I was like that is going to, I'm going to.

00:29:32.280 --> 00:29:34.306
But I just loved chatting with you brother.

00:29:34.365 --> 00:29:36.471
I know it's so much fun I am.

00:29:38.762 --> 00:29:43.329
I am like I'm just blessed to have been in this business so long.

00:29:43.329 --> 00:30:02.282
I am blessed to have such a chapter of fellow managers that you know, in fact, lee's going to be here doing santa claus next week, oh no way, so send me pics and he's I mean to to be in this chapter for 30 years and have him and bobby and everybody else yeah and that's really you know.

00:30:02.463 --> 00:30:11.539
I should write bobby crefasi big-ass check, because I have called upon him so many times for advice, and Lee too, and I tell him that all the time.

00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:16.969
Well, hi, bobby, you know I'm not emailing you to check to see how your family's doing.

00:30:16.969 --> 00:30:17.770
I have a question.

00:30:17.770 --> 00:30:18.512