491: 5 Things I Would In My First 30 Days As GM

Welcome And 30-Day Challenge

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the show where you get the scoop on life inside private golf and country clubs. I'm your host, Danny Corby, and each episode is a real conversation with club leaders, the pros, the people, and partners who help clubs thrive. We talk leadership, culture, food and beverage, member experiences, member engagement, marketing, governance, and so much more. If you want practical ideas, better teams, and a club experience members actually feel and talk about, you're in the right place. Now, welcome to the show. In this episode, I'm going to break down the five things I would do as a brand new GM in a club in the first 30 days. Now, quick context before we dive in. As you know, I'm Denny Corby. I just do a silly comedy, magic, and mind reading show, primarily for private golf and country clubs all over the country, performed for, I think at this point, well over 350, 400 clubs, ton of reviews, hashtag shameless plug. And on top of that, chatting with hundreds and hundreds of club leaders for here on private club radio. Over the years of doing clubs, a couple of times in conversation, some people have gone, like, oh, you ever think about getting into club leadership, club management, blah, blah, blah. Because I've done so many of the CMAA events. I've never done a BMI, I've never done any of that, but I have been to a ton of club leadership events and just been at and inside of and engaging with a ton of clubs, a ton of members, staff doing a bunch of things. And recently I was just trying to think of like, hey, if I was a GM, what would I do in the first 30 days? So I just thought to myself, at from my perspective, from my point of view, which is all of this is probably totally wrong too. And none of you are going to agree with me on anything. And I am totally fine with that. Uh, but I just wanted to share with you the first five things I would do in 30 days as a brand new club leader. This is no particular order. So this is not like a ranked one to five, five to one. This is just five things I would do within the first 30 days-ish. Oh, real quick, before this doesn't, and this does, you know, every club is different. Not all of these apply to every property, every club. And listen, this is me just having some fun and just sharing what I would do in the first 30 days. First thing is I would give the club a huge clean cleanliness, full scrub, top to bottom. I know I'm starting with the clean, but stay with me. I would just give the club a full clean once over. Well, obviously, then keep it maintained. But I think, you know, from coming in from a different perspective, one of if I am new leadership, if I'm a new GM and I want there to be, I don't want to say immediate change because I don't always think you should do a big, immediate, abrupt changes of things and firing and all like all that sort of stuff. But I think there are things you can do when you are new to a place that lets other people immediately see and recognize a good change. I think cleanliness and cleaning is one of those. And also, if I can just get on a pedal stool for one second, there's a, there's, there are some clubs. Y'all need we we can all just clean a little bit better. I will just leave it at that. Uh, so first thing I would do is just give the club a huge clean once over. I'd get the carpets taken care of, the walls up and down with a really good cleaner, change all of the light bulbs, make sure everything is nice and the and lit the way it should be lit, because everything should not always be super bright. I'd go to the windows inside and out, the window seals, the window ledges, where all of those bugs and spider webs are that people see but don't always pick up and do, and they have these events and people see them. Don't get me started. But cleaning and having the place look, feel, and smell nice. See if there's any maybe nose blindness. There's any spots in the club that maybe have a funk or an order odor. Can we get rid of those? Power washing is huge. Just doing the whole front area, the front door, the whole front concrete everywhere. Those, right? So when members show up, those first 90 seconds are super important. When they show up, it just looks, feels, and smells so much better. And also sends, I think, a bunch of other messages and signals that, oh, the club is well maintained and taken care of. Uh recently I was at a club and I thought they just had a renovation in the last couple of years. Turns out, no, they had it like 10 years ago. And it was just that well maintained and taken care of. I I was genuinely impressed at that point. And and why I'm uh this probably irks me a little bit more than it should is uh I come from the facility cleaning world, the facility cleaning background. Um, that was one of my family's businesses. So I, ever since I was 16, stripped and waxed floors, cleaned bathrooms, worked my way like all the way up. Um that's um so we have the paper supply company and the facility uh cleaning company. So I I did so much in that that I think when I go to public places or public, but you know, businesses, commercial buildings, I look for that. And then with that, clean your vents. So that's so, and that's also to me one thing high impact, relatively low cost could be done quick. Now, this next one I want to handle carefully because I do have a ton of respect, the utmost respect for all of club people. And I and I realize how difficult and how hard this job is, truly. Uh, but I think what I would handle or make sure is handled early is any staff chatter and attitude in member spaces. I have a unique perspective coming into clubs, being in a club, because I am I'm the fun guy. I'm the hired fun guy to be there. So maybe it's people are a little bit more loose around me, but I just hear and see things in more member public spaces that I think can be kept for more break room behind the scenes talk. Even some of that talk, the level is very loud. And I don't know if maybe we don't think our members have great hearing. A lot of our members are older, but hearing aid technology is stepping up. And I think the members are smarter and more keen and can hear more than they lead on. So I would just make sure anything that has that is not great positivity, is not hyping up members and other people. Like, let's keep that back, or even for in, you know, I don't even want to say the parking lot, but just like leave it for the bar down the street. Actually, you don't even want to do it there because you don't want the outside community hearing negative stuff. So I think it's just making sure that, especially that the members just don't hear it and track and cracking down on it and just making sure if it is being brought up. It's not at every club, but that would be a big thing for me is making sure staff chatter and attitude in and around member spaces is super, super tight. So, next thing, obviously, is I'm gonna be looking at the social calendar and the events. Obviously, that is my specialty, doing fun stuff for clubs. So I would look at the social calendar and I would just be looking at the programming. What are we doing? How many people are coming? Who's coming? Is it the same people? I'd be looking at the data of the members. Hey, who's coming out, who isn't, who hasn't been here in a while. I'm gonna take all the members who haven't been here in a while. Is there any commonality between them that I can see based on the data from what the club has? And maybe just from asking some questions. And maybe we do a special event just targeting them, right? Maybe we try to do something just focus on them. So, because obviously it's gonna be easy for me because this is all the episode of me, first 30 days in the club. I want to get to know as many people and as and as many members. I know I'm gonna see the popular members, the ones who go to everything, but what about the ones who maybe don't? So, how do we get them using using the club more? So I'm gonna be looking at that. I'm gonna be also seeing what other things do our members like? What types of things and maybe doing nichier events, maybe not always doing, you know, huge turnouts for events, something that's, you know, a little bit of more of an unpopular uh opinion is, you know, not always going, you don't always need two, three, four, five, you know, you always every event does not need to be a blowout and a sellout. As long as those members coming and people are happy and you're breaking even or close to it, boom, that is a win. So nichier events, doing things that smaller groups might enjoy and getting them to engage a little bit more. Cause also that's to me, fun is how do you get different groups of people together and interacting and engaging who may or may not have done that before. Which, another shameless plug, is why I started Management in Motion, my little team building club leadership day at the Montecello Motor Club in New York. Um, had a great opportunity. I had the GM U Nell on, and we had a great conversation. I said, Hey, it'd be fun to do like a leadership here thing where I bring in club managers and have other club managers do the education because it's already like a niche event and he was like, done. So did it last year, doing it again this year, limiting it to 50 people. Uh we're halfway sold out. If you want to learn more, head on over to dennycorby.com. It's called Management in Motion. It is so much fun. We rip up BMWs, M2s, threes, and fours, drifting, drag racing, high speed laps, auto X, go-karts. It is all with education mixed and woven in. It's so much fun. If you want to learn more, head on over to dennycorby.com slash management in motion, or just look right up at the top. And while you're there, if you want to look at hiring me for a really fun member event night at your club, reach out also. There's excitement, there's mystery, also there's magic, mind reading, and comedy, a ton of laughs, gasps, and holy craps. If you want to learn more about management and motion or the show, head on over to denycorby.com. So yeah, I'm gonna be doing and looking at the events at the club and trying to create moments in those events as well. Because when you can create those moments of when people expect X, but they're given Y and Z, uh, it makes such a big difference. Uh simple things, welcome drinks are always a great way to do that. Just as you're creating, as you're brainstorming, as you're having these meetings with your team about how do we, how do we, you know, excite and surprise, surprise and delight. How do we, as Will Gadera says in unreasonable hospitality, how do you make it nice? How do you give it that little extra detail, that that little extra something that lets them go, ah, they were, they were thinking. So I'm gonna be looking at ways to do that. I'm also gonna want to get a real pulse on the membership. So the events can do that. Surveys, yes, can do that. Focus groups, yes, um, having a dedicated dinner and cocktail hour, you know, meet the G, yes, all of that can do that. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely yes. But I'm gonna add something here that comes from my personal background and it doesn't translate to every person, but I think you will understand where I'm coming from. And that is so I if if I were to be a new GM in a club, first three days, I'm coming in the club from a per as a from a uh performer's point of view, right? So that would be my perspective. So what I would do is if I want to really connect with people, I'm gonna do it the way that I know best. And that's by doing what I know best, which is performing. So I'm gonna do a show for the members, but I'm gonna make it the most epic, fun, customized, personalized show that is let me engage with them, let's them engage with me and really get to know each other, which obviously they should have known that before they hired you for the anyway. You you're picking up what what I'm putting down. That's how I would get to know them. But here's the thing: you, as the new GM, or maybe as a new department head or just a new position in the club, you may not do magic, but there's something else you can do that allows you to connect with the members. What skill do you have? What are you passionate about? What really gets you excited? Can you teach something? Can you showcase? Can you see, right? Can you host a whiskey tasting? Can you do a cooking class? Can you run a golf clinic? Can you lead a book discussion, right? Something what, and I know it might be stepping on other toes in the club, but that's not what it's about. It's just about engaging with the members. And woven into all of that is is that member recognition, right? Just getting to know and learn about the people that you're gonna be around. So uh that's what I would do. And I'm gonna Google and research the club deeply. And I mean deep, multiple, multiple searches, multiple ways to search. And when Google even says, hey, do you mean this? Or, you know, when you start typing something, I'm gonna look at all of those things in the bottom that it is recommending because those are things people have searched or hit enter on. And not, I'm not just and I'm not just talking about internet. I am going deep. I'm gonna go into the community. I'm gonna go to the bars, the restaurants, the I'm going everywhere. And I'm gonna be bringing it up in conversation. Not, hey, I'm the I'm the GM, but I'm gonna try to be more low-key stealth. I'm gonna try to figure out what people are saying, what's the perception in the community of the club in terms of the food, the value, the membership, the staff, the culture, the golf, the amenities, everything. I wanna know what the difference is between what is thought and what is what the club thinks is being said and told versus what is really being seen and heard and told from the community. So, so that's it. That's the first 30 days. Weird episode. I know, just something that came up in a thought, and just, you know, looking back on just different conversations I've had with different people and just going, hey, if I was GM at a club, no rules, no anything, what would I, not not no rules, but you know what I mean. What would I do the first 30 days to really get a grasp of the club, the membership, the people? And I and I know there's so much more to do in 30 days, right? There it's it's it's it's the long game. It takes, you know, three, six, four, five months plus to really sometimes get into it. So this was more just a fun, fun exercise. Um, and if I can just say anything and hope, you know, you got a little nugget from it. Hope you all enjoyed that. That's this episode. I'm your host, Denny Corby. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity flip.