April 7, 2025

433: The Legacy Builder: Second Generation Club Management Wisdom w/ Eric Bischofberger, CCM

From wiping down ballroom walls as a kid to leading a thriving club community in the Lowcountry—Eric Bischofberger’s journey has come full circle.

In this episode, I sat down with Eric Bischofberger, CCM, General Manager & COO at Hampton Hall Club, to talk about what it’s really like to grow up around the private club world… and then choose to build a career in it yourself.

We dive into what it means to follow in your father’s footsteps, not out of obligation but out of deep respect and purpose. E

ric shares how those early memories shaped his mindset, and how he’s developed his own style of leadership, rooted in persistence, humility, and long term perspective.

We also cover

– How a few key failures taught him more than any certification ever could
– What it means to lead in a residential community, not just a clubhouse
– Why “making it” in this industry often comes down to showing up, over and over again

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00:00 - Welcome to Private Club Radio

03:34 - Eric's Family Legacy in Club Management

10:46 - Growing Up with a GM Father

15:32 - From Old School to New School Leadership

18:17 - HOA vs Club Management Dynamics

23:04 - Biggest Management Mistake and Recovery

36:17 - The Rewards of Club Management

WEBVTT

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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 Eric Bischoff-Berger, who is a legacy in club management, because some people stumble into the club industry, others are born into it, and Eric Bischoff-Berger is a second generation in his family to run private clubs.

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Now, full transparency.

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When I was recording the episode with him, I thought he was third generation and then he told me it was second generation, so I think I misunderstood.

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Either way, it's still really cool to listen to his journey, because it's more than just following in his father's footsteps.

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It's about carving his own path while honoring the lessons he's learned along the way.

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See, eric's dad immigrated to the US from Switzerland, landing him in New York with just a few hundred bucks and a dream of working in hospitality.

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He climbed the ranks in hotels and private clubs, eventually running some of the top clubs in the country and Eric grew up watching his dad thrive in the business.

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Grew up watching his dad thrive in the business, but what really stood out is his dad loved going to work and loved coming home to say how much fun and how much he enjoyed coming home from work and that energy was very contagious.

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Now Eric is leading his own club, bringing a modern leadership style while keeping the core values of service, hard work and culture that his dad instilled in him.

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So we talk about the evolution of club leadership, how management styles have changed from old school to now new school.

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We talk about some HOA versus club management, some of the differences and which one has more drama and you probably already know the answer.

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We talk about the biggest mistake he's ever made as a manager and how he recovered.

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Eric's got great stories, real insight and a deep passion for leadership.

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So this episode is so good.

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I am so happy he came on, even though the real reason I brought him on was I thought he was third generation, not second, but I won't hold that against him.

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But it's just a great episode.

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He's a good human, a good dude, and cannot wait for you to dive in.

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Before we do get to the episode, though, real quick, I just want to give a quick thanks to some of our show partners.

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You're going to hear about them later on in the episode.

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We have Concert Golf Partners, kenneth's member vetting and Members First, as well as myself.

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The Denny Corby experience.

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There's excitement, there's magic, mind reading and comedy.

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So much fun, so much crowd work, so much banter.

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Your people are the real stars of the show.

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The members are at the core of it.

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If you want to learn more, head on over to DennyCorbycom.

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But enough about that, let's get to the episode.

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Private Club Radio listeners.

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Let's welcome to the show.

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Eric Bischoff-Berger, how do you properly pronounce your last name?

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Slowly?

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That's like my corny joke that I share with you.

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Know, I get a lot of eye rolls when I say that Bischoff-Berger.

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I don't know how I was saying it, but I don't think it was like that.

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Bischoff-Berger, but Bischoff burger, but just.

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Eric, yeah, just, but just Eric.

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Just Eric.

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So so, third generation club manager, that is that that's a first that I I'm sure, I'm sure they're out there, but the first that I've encountered that's well, well, well, danny, technically a second generation club manager.

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So my father was a was a club manager, not my father's father.

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Oh, never mind, this sucks.

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We're shutting this down.

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We're shutting this down.

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I thought you said your grandpa was Now.

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my grandpa was in butcher houses and slaughter houses in Switzerland.

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My father immigrated from Switzerland because he thought that was gross and wanted to get into the people business and felt like America.

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You know he must've read something in a newspaper.

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America's got hospitality so he was coming to America.

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Got cut out of my grandpa's will by coming to America, only had a couple hundred dollars, slept at a YMCA for his first few weeks in the United States.

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In New York City I got a job as a doorman at a hotel.

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Worked his way up in the hotel business and then eventually made the switch over into private clubs.

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His first club was at the Country Club Virginia in Richmond Virginia, where he was essentially the number two there, the director of operations for Skip Harris, who was there for well over 30 years.

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And then I did my internship at Country Club Virginia when I was an undergrad at University of South Carolina.

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It was big shoes to fill but it was.

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It was.

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There was a lot of pride there being able to walk the halls that my dad used to.

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That I ran as a kid, not knowing really the full extent of what he did and having that opportunity.

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And it was really cool because the team who was at Country Club Virginia they do such a great job with culture there and they have a hallway in one of the service areas at the West Hampton Clubhouse that has all these old pictures.

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I think they still have it.

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I should have asked Bill Keister about it but all these old pictures of past events and managers working there.

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And so, as I worked at Country Club Virginia, a nice surprise was they started putting my pictures in there, right by my dad's pictures, and that just you know you want to talk about giving you a purpose.

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Wow, that purpose was so strong and I didn't want to let my dad down Right.

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Even to today, my dad's 81 years old this year.

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I don't want to let my dad down Right.

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It's a bit of pride in there too, but it really serves as it's a purpose and it's special getting to follow my dad's footsteps and what he made his entire life out of going from a check with a couple hundred dollars to being able to put food on the table for a family yeah, and just, and, and just work that way up.

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And you know that's a phenomenal story and because you're, if your dad's, 80, so this was what back in the 50s, 60s.

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I'm horrible at math, so no, when he was at country club virginia, it was in the 90s.

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It was in the 90s, yeah, he was in the hotels and then he got into country club virginia yep, yep, clubs was a little bit later in his career, um, so it was in the 90s.

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Um and uh, and country club virginia, the mcgregor downs country club in raleigh, uh, to his last spot at porcelain club in columbia, south carolina, uh, where he retired there, and and he's happily playing golf nearly every single day and my mom is better half riding horses, so getting to follow the footsteps and in a very rewarding career, it's pretty cool.

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Yeah, and that story is amazing, especially in a time where where, like I feel like right now, we, we all, have access to so many resources and so many things and people still just complain and just don't go after or achieve anything.

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And he just came from and just built something, built a name and a career and a life for him himself and his family, where most people like nowadays it's like, you know, someone says something wrong to them and they're like I'm quitting life, I'm right, I'm not gonna go to work and it's just like wow, wow.

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I was talking to another gm at conference.

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He I mean not not, as you know, deep of a story as that, but he came over from france when he was, you know, late teens, early 20s, sold his car for a one-way ticket and just flew to colorado and hoped for the best.

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But it was a better life than where he came from.

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Just crazy.

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I love it because my dad actually ended up going to Colorado, so maybe there's something about the Europeans wanting to go to Colorado.

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I think he was attracted to the Rockies, he used to ski a lot, he used to actually be a heliski instructor and so going to Colorado I think was pretty neat for him when he got to get involved in the ski lodges and hotels out there.

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Well, I guess probably Colorado might passed down from Bern.

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Switzerland, where most of my family is even to this day, is in Soliturn, which is just north of Bern.

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Yeah, so what was it like growing up with a GM dad?

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Did he bring work home?

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What was that like?

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So, Danny, what a great question.

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It brings back so many memories to me.

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So what really originally interested me in what my dad was doing was I recognized my dad was excited to go to work as much as he was coming home from work, and that wasn't like anybody else's dads, right when I'd have sleepover at my buddy's houses, you know dads are like I got to go to work.

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You know, this sucks.

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And my dad's like, you know, he's got the Swiss yodeling music crank and he's like, yes, I'm pumped to go to work.

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And I'm like, yeah, right, something's got to be going on there.

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Right, I got to get to wherever he's going and figure out what's going on.

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So it must be like Disney World or something.

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And so I remember my first time actually going to work with him, and I remember it specifically because I got in trouble.

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And I got in trouble because I wanted to look like my dad when he was going to work and he had a briefcase.

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Right, I had the Sunday clothes, I could throw on a jacket, no problem.

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But I had to get a briefcase.

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And the only briefcase that I knew of that I could use was in our game closet and it was a backgammon briefcase that had all my mom's.

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My mom loved this backgammon set.

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And what did I do?

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I took the briefcase full of the backgammon stuff and I emptied it all out and threw all the stuff away that was inside of there and I just put some random papers inside this backgammon briefcase and I was ready.

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I was pumped to go to work too.

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I'm like show me what's going on at this cool place.

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And that's when he was at Country Club Virginia and I went to work with him and it was everything I could have imagined, and more man.

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This place had swimming pools, it had kids activities, it was big and beautiful and there was food and beverage all over the place.

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And oh, by the way, in my dad's office he kept all the candy bars in there.

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It was the coolest.

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By the way, in my dad's office he kept all the candy bars in there.

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It was the coolest.

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I loved it.

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I mean, I couldn't get enough.

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I was like, when can I come back to work with you again, dad?

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And he's probably, you know.

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And I'm like running down the halls of Country Club Virginia and you know, she's probably like, oh gosh, I don't know, it's probably going to be a while.

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But luckily, you know, my persistence and keeping wanting to come back led me to a point where that was elementary school, right.

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As I got into middle school, it was OK.

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Now I'm going to put you to work, right, I'm going to give you some things to do now.

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Here's a rag, here's a bucket.

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You're going to go in this ballroom and you're going to go around and scrub all the walls after this event and let me know when you're done, right and so doing that wasn't as fun as my first experience, but I started to learn there's so much work that goes into this and there's not enough hours in the day to get all this stuff done too.

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How are we ever possibly going to get to accomplish all of it?

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And so I started to see, too, his leadership style.

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You know the teamwork that goes into it and it's like wow, all of this does get accomplished, but it's by many hands and very capable hands, passionate hands, people who are really excited to be there and and see all of this come together and make this experience for the members.

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And it just resonated with me.

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It set something off in my heart that I want to be a part of that.

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And again, going through the actual work, I saw that it was a lot more than I could have imagined First times.

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Going there in elementary school, it was like, yeah, my dad.

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All he does is kiss babies and shakes people's hands.

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Right, you start peeling back that onion and seeing the amount of work that goes in to make this beautiful train run.

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It's a lot and it's hard work and it takes a lot of time and you start giving up on your weekends.

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Right?

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If I want to go to work with dad on Saturday, I'm going to be sacrificing something my time with my buddies, you know, playing football in the front yard.

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I'd rather go to work with my dad, right?

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I'd rather be part of something bigger than you know, getting some bruises and going home.

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I want to be part of making people's days.

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I want to be part of that happiness that people feel when they're around my dad and around that kind of culture.

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That's what I want to be a part of.

00:13:31.539 --> 00:13:35.606
It sounds like that high came from, like the Clorox that you were taking in from.

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Oh yeah, Still there, Still there oh yeah, I think that even just says a lot, just how he had you clean the walls.

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It sounds so dumb, but I can be very fortunate to have been able to go to so many clubs to perform and entertain, whatever and there's a lot of dirty clubs and I think just having him just, just you just say that, having having you clean the walls is making sure his place was nice, it was clean, clean.

00:14:03.945 --> 00:14:08.431
I think that just says so much to his, his leadership style.

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If, if, if, if you were to both sit down how do I want to phrase this?

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Is there what's the biggest change in management since he started?

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Like, if you were, if you were to both sit down and chat, what do you think is the biggest change in club management since maybe he started and now that you are doing that?

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I would say the change is from the leadership style right, going from an old school style of don't ever make mistakes to embracing mistakes.

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And I would say in that same sense too, my dad was ahead of the curve on there.

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I recognize that right, because my dad was constantly trying to uplift people and recognizing if a mistake was made it wasn't a gotcha, it was a okay.

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This happened.

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How are we going to learn from this?

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How are we going to improve from this?

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And I didn't see that with others.

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He was kind of a trailblazer in that because he saw that that worked.

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I don't know if that was a trick in the bag from Switzerland or what, but it worked and people gravitated towards that.

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They wanted to follow that kind of leader right.

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They wanted to follow someone who they didn't feel like they had to walk on eggshells and I feel like that was the feeling.

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That was management.

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Back there was I'm going to light a fire under your butt.

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And now what do we do?

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We don't talk about that.

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We talk about lighting a fire within people.

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We talk about how do you bring out the best in people, and it's not by pushing them over the edge and breaking them, it's by lifting them up right.

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It's by modeling the way, inspiring that shared vision right.

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We challenge the process, but you encourage and you enable people, and so, while I think that was the biggest change, I think that he was embracing that early on in his career and it was a major part of the success that he saw too.

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Does he?

00:16:07.225 --> 00:16:11.081
Does he ever critique the way that you run your club or your your?

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style what I left out.

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Denny is after.

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After, uh, after wiping down the walls in the ballroom, he would come back around and say Eric, good job, but you missed these areas.

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You got to go back around again, you got to hit all of them.

00:16:27.048 --> 00:16:37.148
The attention to detail there and that really stood out to me too was if you're going to do it, make sure you do it right, make sure you give it your best.

00:16:37.148 --> 00:16:40.129
Doesn't necessarily have to be your all, but give it your best.

00:16:40.129 --> 00:16:44.629
So that really resonated with me too, and that was special.

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Yeah, I think we probably touched on it, but is there anything that you've learned from your dad that maybe you couldn't learn from as you were getting your CCM or any leadership books or courses that, like nothing else that you could have been taught, that you picked up from him, or watching, or just being around him?

00:17:08.500 --> 00:17:09.988
I'd go with persistence.

00:17:09.988 --> 00:17:16.172
If you're told no, or if you don't get something, that's not the end.

00:17:16.172 --> 00:17:21.306
You can either go another path or you can learn from it.

00:17:21.306 --> 00:17:29.805
Right, the persistence that he taught me has helped me in not just my career but my life.

00:17:29.805 --> 00:17:33.753
I wouldn't be married right now if it wasn't for persistence.

00:17:33.753 --> 00:17:37.007
You know, my wife didn't see me and say, wow, that guy's good looking.

00:17:37.007 --> 00:17:38.932
Yeah, that wasn't the case.

00:17:38.932 --> 00:17:40.643
I had to battle.

00:17:40.643 --> 00:17:43.509
You know I, it wasn't easy't easy.

00:17:43.509 --> 00:17:47.623
Um, but I think that was um, that that was really big, was the.

00:17:47.623 --> 00:17:52.721
He taught me persistence and I I never learned that in contemporary club management.

00:17:52.721 --> 00:17:55.288
Um, love the book, right, and it's only getting better.

00:17:55.288 --> 00:17:58.080
Um, but yeah, I didn't learn that in school.

00:17:58.080 --> 00:18:05.694
Um, the persistence that he taught me I use every single day and I'll I'll never stop using it.

00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:07.262
Yeah, you've, you've.

00:18:07.262 --> 00:18:09.368
You've had quite the career as well.

00:18:09.368 --> 00:18:13.507
You've worked at a lot of different places, a lot of different, unique places.

00:18:13.507 --> 00:18:16.353
Was that intentional Was?

00:18:16.353 --> 00:18:18.147
Were those moves lateral moves?

00:18:18.147 --> 00:18:19.413
Were they intentional moves?

00:18:19.413 --> 00:18:20.660
Were they progressive moves?

00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:23.124
What was with some of those moves?

00:18:23.124 --> 00:18:29.250
Yeah, it's funny because you were following your wife.

00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:29.992
She wouldn't leave you.

00:18:29.992 --> 00:18:32.648
I think she followed me.

00:18:33.612 --> 00:18:34.314
I got lucky.

00:18:34.314 --> 00:18:42.334
I would say a lot of them were intentional, but some of them were not so intentional too.

00:18:42.334 --> 00:18:44.919
So I'll kind of give you some examples.

00:18:44.919 --> 00:18:49.866
Starting off with internships working for my dad at Forest Lake Club.

00:18:49.866 --> 00:18:53.134
Working at Country Club Virginia extremely intentional.

00:18:53.134 --> 00:18:56.470
I wanted to learn from the best leader I knew, which was my father.

00:18:56.470 --> 00:19:01.769
I wanted to go to one of the best clubs that I knew, which was Country Club Virginia very intentional.

00:19:01.769 --> 00:19:08.550
After finishing the internship at Country Club of Virginia, going back to be a manager in training extremely intentional.

00:19:08.550 --> 00:19:17.086
Continuing from there and going to Colleton River Club that level of progression, very intentional.

00:19:17.086 --> 00:19:25.164
Where it hit kind of a bit of a curveball on me was really at Colleton River.

00:19:25.305 --> 00:19:38.615
When I came back a second time, tim Buckles great mentor, great leader, great friend he was crazy enough to hire me back at Colleton as assistant general manager, had a great three and a half years there.

00:19:38.615 --> 00:19:44.134
I wanted to be the next GM there, but I wasn't ready and I wasn't what they were looking for either.

00:19:44.134 --> 00:19:53.336
They needed a CEO, they needed Robert Cerecci, right, I wanted to be that person, but I wasn't ready yet, and especially because I didn't have the HOA experience.

00:19:54.526 --> 00:19:57.292
Did you know that you weren't ready, or did you think you were ready?

00:19:57.292 --> 00:19:58.717
And how did that feel?

00:19:59.826 --> 00:20:09.175
I think I knew I wasn't ready, but I wanted to be ready, right, I was ready to fake it, to make it if I needed to, but it wasn't happening.

00:20:09.175 --> 00:20:12.664
You know, I was reading the stars and it just wasn't happening.

00:20:12.664 --> 00:20:20.027
I needed to get that HOA experience, and what not a better place to go than Latitude, margaritaville, are you kidding me?

00:20:20.027 --> 00:20:32.384
I mean, first off, love the vibe, right, right.

00:20:32.384 --> 00:20:32.987
I mean who doesn't?

00:20:32.987 --> 00:20:35.171
That culture, that escapism, that fun, just a really neat learning grounds from that culture aspect.

00:20:35.171 --> 00:20:39.226
But also closing anywhere from 50 to 80 homes, not a year but a month.

00:20:39.226 --> 00:20:50.166
I mean we're flying through homes Minto, doing a phenomenal job as the builder there for service, who I work for as the senior director overseeing the day-to-day operations there.

00:20:50.528 --> 00:20:56.529
And then that third entity, margaritaville, which really injected in that marketing, that fun, that culture.

00:20:56.529 --> 00:21:04.450
I got that great experience and that set me up to be ready for that GM job.

00:21:04.450 --> 00:21:09.038
When Hampton Hall became available it was a little bit earlier than I thought it would be.

00:21:09.038 --> 00:21:23.429
I thought I'd probably be at Latitude for a couple more years, but when the opportunity's knocking, you got to go for it and I put my name out there and I'm fortunate to be here at Hampton Hall now for coming on a year and a half, two years now.

00:21:23.990 --> 00:21:24.810
That's awesome.

00:21:24.810 --> 00:21:27.513
Any wild homeowner complaints that you had to deal with.

00:21:30.317 --> 00:21:32.619
Oh gosh At Latitude.

00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:41.508
Margaritaville, yeah, or any of them, but yeah there, yeah Gosh, there's a lot.

00:21:41.627 --> 00:21:43.588
I'm sure that, for how well that.

00:21:43.588 --> 00:21:48.672
I'm sure that attracts a certain personality.

00:21:48.672 --> 00:21:51.554
Yeah, it's not just like any, like it's Marguerite.

00:21:51.554 --> 00:21:54.576
I'm sure that attracts some unique people.

00:21:54.655 --> 00:21:56.317
Yeah, I'd say.

00:21:56.317 --> 00:22:02.141
And every club is quirky in its own way, right, I feel like.

00:22:02.141 --> 00:22:06.403
And every club has the noise too, right?

00:22:06.403 --> 00:22:15.866
There's always that percentage of members who are just against everything, for whatever reason, just as there's that same to be said about members who are for everything.

00:22:15.866 --> 00:22:17.250
Right, they just love you.

00:22:17.250 --> 00:22:18.913
Whatever you're doing, I love it.

00:22:18.913 --> 00:22:21.430
Don't even tell me what you're doing, I'm sure it's great.

00:22:21.430 --> 00:22:23.759
And the opposite holds true too.

00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:29.008
And I'd say the craziest stories probably come from those who are just against everything.

00:22:29.008 --> 00:22:30.750
And it's like what you know?

00:22:30.750 --> 00:22:31.871
Are you serious?

00:22:31.871 --> 00:22:43.181
You know you're complaining because there's, you know, a survey line that's going across your yard, like you're the one who put it there.

00:22:43.181 --> 00:22:44.442
Why are you upset about that?

00:22:44.442 --> 00:22:45.106
What's?

00:22:45.468 --> 00:22:46.570
what's what's hard to deal with?

00:22:46.570 --> 00:22:53.096
Uh members who complain about like a bad meal, a bad steak, or homeowners who complain about their neighbors like Christmas lights.

00:22:53.984 --> 00:22:54.246
So.

00:22:54.246 --> 00:22:57.051
So, danny, to go back, I can't help.

00:22:57.051 --> 00:23:01.567
But my dad's in my mind about this right now and that is, um I.

00:23:01.567 --> 00:23:07.257
I do my best not to think of them as complaints, right, I try to think of it as it's always feedback.

00:23:07.257 --> 00:23:13.413
And my dad would always tell me the best gift you can ever get from anyone is feedback.

00:23:13.413 --> 00:23:17.249
And of course, earlier on I'm like, no, that's not true, I like money.

00:23:17.249 --> 00:23:18.673
You know, a car would be nice.

00:23:19.233 --> 00:23:26.438
The best gift you can get is feedback, and I truly believe that, especially in private clubs, Because silent members.

00:23:26.438 --> 00:23:27.186
You think about it.

00:23:27.186 --> 00:23:33.557
If they're not telling you, you know what their perspective is, whether it's what's going right, what's not going right.

00:23:33.557 --> 00:23:36.069
That hurts you pretty bad.

00:23:36.069 --> 00:23:44.910
So you know the gift of feedback is fantastic and you know, when it comes to you know the craziest.

00:23:44.910 --> 00:23:47.315
You know feedback that you get.

00:23:47.315 --> 00:23:48.798
It's all over the place.

00:23:48.798 --> 00:23:55.827
You never know right, and I think that's one of the attractions in being a club manager is you never know what your day is going to bring.

00:23:55.827 --> 00:24:05.196
And then, when you throw in the HOA element in there too, it's like now you really never know what your day is going to bring, and that's exciting, that's fun.

00:24:05.196 --> 00:24:08.070
So I enjoy that and I appreciate that.

00:24:08.070 --> 00:24:13.093
I always try to find the golden nugget within that feedback too.

00:24:13.093 --> 00:24:23.157
It may be totally wrong, but it's right to them right, it's their perspective, it's their reality to listen to them and let them feel heard.

00:24:23.157 --> 00:24:34.634
At the very least, it's a payoff for them and it's enjoying to them and that's to some of them, it's an amenity, right, being able to complain about things.

00:24:34.634 --> 00:24:40.113
Right, I never see them, but they love giving that gift of feedback, right, it's an amenity to them.

00:24:40.232 --> 00:24:44.426
So to me, the challenge is the balance of time.

00:24:44.426 --> 00:24:46.470
I only have so many hours in a day, right?

00:24:46.470 --> 00:24:48.132
We need to be intentional with our time.

00:24:48.132 --> 00:24:56.349
So it's great to hear all the members and right now, 944 properties in Hampton Hall it's a big place, right?

00:24:56.349 --> 00:25:02.308
So if I'm spending all my day listening to just a handful of members, I'm missing out on the bigger picture.

00:25:02.308 --> 00:25:09.632
So it's important to listen, but it's important to really be intentional about that time and get them to the right person too.

00:25:09.632 --> 00:25:14.788
Yes, you know, let me, let me, let me stop you right there, cause, yes, I, that is very important.

00:25:14.788 --> 00:25:19.506
Um, I can, I can feel your passion about it, but I'm not the right person.

00:25:19.506 --> 00:25:20.768
Who's going to help you with this.

00:25:20.768 --> 00:25:23.431
Let me get you to the right person, right.

00:25:23.431 --> 00:25:28.117
I don't need to be the savior right, and if I do, I'm just going to.

00:25:28.117 --> 00:25:30.181
I'm not going to use my time wisely.

00:25:30.181 --> 00:25:33.192
So getting them to the right place, too, is really important too.

00:25:34.256 --> 00:25:40.659
All right, Don't have to go into detail, but HOA meetings versus club board meetings which one has more drama?

00:25:42.424 --> 00:25:44.693
Definitely HOA like hands down.

00:25:44.693 --> 00:25:50.156
Any HOA managers I'm sure would 100% empathize with that.

00:25:50.156 --> 00:25:54.387
It's because there's so much more emotion right, you think about it.

00:25:54.387 --> 00:25:58.297
In HOAs these members, there's more skin in the game.

00:25:58.297 --> 00:25:58.857
They're buying it.

00:25:58.857 --> 00:26:05.277
They got a house right, the biggest asset that potentially they're ever going to have in their entire lives.

00:26:05.277 --> 00:26:07.751
There's a lot of emotion behind that.

00:26:07.751 --> 00:26:14.856
Whereas in clubs, if you're upset, see ya, right, whereas in HOAs it's the emotion comes out.

00:26:14.856 --> 00:26:16.807
And then also the vetting process too.

00:26:16.807 --> 00:26:20.276
Right, traditional private clubs, there's a membership committee.

00:26:20.276 --> 00:26:22.310
Right, I'm going to vet you out.

00:26:22.310 --> 00:26:24.118
I'm going to make sure, yep, you fit.

00:26:24.118 --> 00:26:25.505
You check all these boxes.

00:26:25.505 --> 00:26:28.292
You're going to play dice in the sandbox, come on in.

00:26:28.292 --> 00:26:28.954
We love it.

00:26:28.954 --> 00:26:32.310
Whereas HOAs, you got the money to buy that house.

00:26:32.310 --> 00:26:33.172
You're in.

00:26:35.135 --> 00:26:35.696
Yeah, that's got it.

00:26:35.696 --> 00:26:41.317
Yeah, yeah, were there any, because you're a very open person as well.

00:26:41.317 --> 00:26:59.509
Was there anything that you learned the hard way as a GM, a mistake that really stuck with you, cause it sounds like you've had so much experience working with your dad and working out at these amazing places, but was there anything that you learned the hard way and it just stuck with you now and it's just how you, how you function.

00:27:00.711 --> 00:27:05.740
I would say um, complacency, don't get too comfortable, right?

00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:09.055
I think when you get comfortable, that's when you make mistakes.

00:27:09.055 --> 00:27:13.192
You got to find ways to continually be uncomfortable.

00:27:13.192 --> 00:27:16.428
You got to find ways to constantly push yourself.

00:27:16.428 --> 00:27:43.080
When you get comfortable and you live in complacency, you start to more mistakes and careless mistakes start to happen, whereas when you're uncomfortable and you're pushing yourself, you make the good kind of mistakes, the mistakes that help you grow and get better, whereas I feel like when you become comfortable, that's not a place where you want to be, especially not if you want to thrive.

00:27:43.661 --> 00:27:46.962
Can you go into any more specific detail?

00:27:47.603 --> 00:27:55.038
I'll give a specific one, and this is an interesting one, but it kind of brings me back to some earlier managing days.

00:27:55.038 --> 00:27:57.064
I got really comfortable with the schedule.

00:27:57.064 --> 00:28:02.576
I was responsible for the schedule for the entire food and beverage team and I got comfortable with it.

00:28:02.576 --> 00:28:13.093
I wasn't going back through and double-checking everything, I wasn't going back through my banquet event orders and making sure that I had everything covered, and I'm just putting schedules out.

00:28:13.093 --> 00:28:30.326
Well, one day we had a big event that was happening within a couple hours and I'm cruising into work and you know, just getting the day started and then I start to wonder where is everybody started?

00:28:30.326 --> 00:28:31.688
And then I start to wonder where is everybody.

00:28:31.688 --> 00:28:35.978
And then I look at the schedule and I realize, oh my gosh, I didn't schedule for the event that's about to take place.

00:28:35.978 --> 00:28:38.607
Nonetheless, it hasn't even been set up yet.

00:28:40.171 --> 00:28:52.273
That was like so scary to me, and just a couple hours Yo so, coming from like a like performers point of view, that is my ultimate fear and nightmare.

00:28:52.273 --> 00:28:56.460
Is someone going hey, where are you at Right, right, oh my God.

00:28:56.460 --> 00:28:59.571
So, oh man, I'm getting itchy just thinking about this.

00:28:59.571 --> 00:29:00.654
Go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:29:01.144 --> 00:29:18.673
So, so freaking out, right, having a, having a panic attack, right, and my boss, my GM at the time, Eric, you all right, I'm sweating I'm always warm, but I'm really sweating bullets at this point and I'm like, yeah, I'm okay, everything's fine.

00:29:18.673 --> 00:29:20.972
I didn't admit my mistake.

00:29:20.972 --> 00:29:24.976
I felt the pressure that I had to figure it out on my own.

00:29:24.976 --> 00:29:30.548
In hindsight I wish I would have raised my hand and been like, hey, can you help me?

00:29:30.548 --> 00:29:34.696
I made a mistake, right, and kind of tag team it.

00:29:34.696 --> 00:29:43.726
Luckily I had a really phenomenal team there that I could count on and I'm like texting like crazy hey, can you please get here?

00:29:43.726 --> 00:29:47.432
I screwed up, I forgot about this event.

00:29:47.432 --> 00:29:51.079
Need you here, need all hands on deck so we can get this going.

00:29:51.744 --> 00:29:53.770
Luckily, everything got taken care of.

00:29:53.770 --> 00:29:55.997
We were able to get enough team here to make it happen.

00:29:55.997 --> 00:30:01.897
But I'll tell you that to your point, danny, that that feeling I still think about.

00:30:01.897 --> 00:30:10.460
I can still remember, like the pen I was holding in my hand when I'm like shaking about nobody's on the schedule.

00:30:10.460 --> 00:30:14.311
So big learning moment there, right?

00:30:14.311 --> 00:30:15.954
Don't get comfortable.

00:30:15.954 --> 00:30:18.547
You know, double check, triple check.

00:30:18.547 --> 00:30:22.936
Make sure that you're doing things to the best of your ability.

00:30:22.936 --> 00:30:24.046
When you're comfortable.

00:30:24.086 --> 00:30:41.636
You're not doing things to the best of your ability yeah, oh man, oh, I cannot, like I am itchy right now like I, I wake up from night, make I I have woken up like, like you know, thinking I missed a flight or something too, or just, oh my goodness oh, I don't want to itch anymore.

00:30:41.656 --> 00:30:43.711
It's from those chemicals from the ballroom cleaning.

00:30:43.711 --> 00:30:48.088
You know just, you don't itch anymore, you don't feel too much anymore, those sensory rods.

00:30:48.088 --> 00:30:56.490
Oh it's funny that is funny.

00:30:57.192 --> 00:31:01.044
Um, yeah, no, that that.

00:31:01.044 --> 00:31:02.867
Oh you, you, you threw me for a loop there.

00:31:02.867 --> 00:31:03.869
I didn't even wow.

00:31:03.869 --> 00:31:06.122
Yeah, that has to be what.

00:31:06.122 --> 00:31:07.444
What was the event like?

00:31:07.444 --> 00:31:09.569
How were you able to pivot like?

00:31:09.569 --> 00:31:17.481
How were you able to like, like, run me through, I just for, because now I'm like hooked, like so what was the event and how much time did you really have to like?

00:31:17.602 --> 00:31:19.545
oh man it was like the whole.

00:31:20.185 --> 00:31:25.054
It was a uh, it was a lady' luncheon and it had a good bit of decorations.

00:31:25.054 --> 00:31:26.174
That had to be done too.

00:31:26.174 --> 00:31:32.332
Luckily, the decorations were done because the event manager was on it.

00:31:32.332 --> 00:31:34.949
She was doing her best.

00:31:34.949 --> 00:31:37.465
She was on it.

00:31:37.465 --> 00:31:38.825
That was all ready to go.

00:31:39.059 --> 00:31:41.707
It was really the manpower of.

00:31:41.707 --> 00:31:43.392
We've got to get all these tables up.

00:31:43.392 --> 00:31:46.519
We've got to get all the right chairs around the right tables.

00:31:46.519 --> 00:31:47.965
We got to get the linen on.

00:31:47.965 --> 00:31:51.068
So it was a hurry on that point.

00:31:51.068 --> 00:31:57.267
But it was great because, as I'm waiting for all the team to come in, I'm just mapping it out on the board.

00:31:57.267 --> 00:32:00.348
You know, so-and-so silverware, so-and-so linen.

00:32:00.348 --> 00:32:06.041
I'm going to be busting my butt on the tables getting that set up because you know that's on me.

00:32:06.041 --> 00:32:11.563
I need to be, I need to be really showing that I'm sorry about this and get the skin in the game there.

00:32:11.563 --> 00:32:15.699
But yeah, luckily it was close, but uh, but it all worked out well.

00:32:15.699 --> 00:32:19.368
I'm sure I was like completely drenched in sweat when they came in.

00:32:19.368 --> 00:32:23.868
They're probably like what's going on, but the room looks nice was it?

00:32:23.909 --> 00:32:24.028
what?

00:32:24.028 --> 00:32:24.250
Was it?

00:32:24.250 --> 00:32:31.346
Like one of those like as soon as like the doors open, like that, like the last bit of silverware was like being placed and they had like no clue what I'm what just?

00:32:31.426 --> 00:32:36.873
I'm pretty sure I was like trying to schmooze them for a minute so they couldn't see like the last water glasses going down.

00:32:37.556 --> 00:32:43.895
Oh yeah, that one sticks with you oh oh, man, man, man, thank you for sharing that.

00:32:43.895 --> 00:32:44.979
That man, thank you for sharing that.

00:32:44.979 --> 00:32:46.482
That's, yeah, thank you for sharing that.

00:32:46.482 --> 00:32:50.420
Absolutely All right, as we're wrapping up, finish the sentence.

00:32:50.641 --> 00:33:05.425
The biggest misconception about being a GM is the biggest misconception about being a GM is that it's easy, because I had that misconception right Early on, watching my dad.

00:33:05.425 --> 00:33:06.740
I thought it was easy.

00:33:06.740 --> 00:33:09.247
I thought it was kissing babies, shaking hands.

00:33:09.247 --> 00:33:10.249
And it's not easy.

00:33:10.249 --> 00:33:15.069
And I find that the most rewarding things in life aren't easy.

00:33:15.069 --> 00:33:19.903
Right, a career in club management, a career being a GM COO?

00:33:19.903 --> 00:33:21.586
Granted, this is my first one.

00:33:21.586 --> 00:33:23.849
That path, that journey, o O.

00:33:23.849 --> 00:33:25.112
Granted, this is my first one.

00:33:25.172 --> 00:33:27.596
That path, that journey, that is not easy.

00:33:27.596 --> 00:33:33.542
It is tough and it's anything but a straight line.

00:33:33.542 --> 00:33:33.903
It's a zigzag.

00:33:33.903 --> 00:33:36.148
At times you know you're trying to get to here, but to get there you gotta.

00:33:36.148 --> 00:33:39.016
And then you go down and it's tough.

00:33:39.016 --> 00:33:40.801
It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

00:33:40.801 --> 00:33:47.102
It takes some long days, some long nights at times, but it is so rewarding.

00:33:47.102 --> 00:33:52.814
It is so rewarding when you love what you do and you find purpose in what you do.

00:33:52.814 --> 00:33:56.787
So, being a GM, it's anything but easy.

00:33:56.906 --> 00:34:06.903
That journey getting there, but how rewarding it is and the path getting there, as you look back it's like man, those were great times, although they were so tough.

00:34:06.903 --> 00:34:20.891