506:Let's Get Curious

Welcome To Private Club Radio

Denny Corby 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 in a club experience, members actually feel and talk about. You are in the right place now. Welcome

The Curiosity Challenge For Staff

Denny Corby 0:30

to the show. In this episode, I have a little challenge for you, uh, your leadership team, and really anyone on your staff who interacts with members, AKA everybody. And that is, I want you to get curious. Let's get curious. Not in, like, a weird, curious way. Not like, "Hey, I found your vacation home on Zillow and noticed you replaced the kitchen countertops. Curious, how much did it co-" No. Uh, like, this is not, like, background check. I mean, like, genuine curiosity. Curious about who your members are, what is happening in their lives, what do they care about, what are they excited about, what makes them tick as humans? Cause a lot of clubs, a lot of staff, a lot of people know so much about their members. You know their names, their member numbers, what they like, what they don't like, what they drink, their preferences, which tee times they like, and what tee times they want, and exactly how angry they become when someone else has it, But how much do you really know about them? And I think more importantly, when was, when was the last time you learned something new? And that is just the challenge for, for a night, for a weekend, for a full week, whatever it is, chal- a month, challenge your team to learn one or a few new interesting things about a member or as many members as they can. And not something from the member profile, like, not something everybody already knew, but something, something real, something they can start doing something with. Like maybe they're training for their first marathon, maybe their daughter just opened a business, maybe they collect watches, maybe they're, you know, learning how to cook, maybe they're secretly an incredible cook, maybe they just restored an old Corvette, maybe they just bought a new car Maybe they've always wanted to learn magic, in which case you know a guy.

Turn Member Details Into Connection

Denny Corby 2:16

The goal is not, you know, simply to... It's, it's not just to gather facts. The goal is to create better connections, because the more you know about your people, the more opportunities you have to connect with them. And the more you know about multiple people, the more opportunities you have to connect them with each other, which is exactly the whole point of a club is to be a part of something that's a belonging, that brings people together, that makes them feel like they matter, that they are important I don't know, you're talking with a member who just bought his first Corvette. He loves it. He absolutely knows just enough to be dangerous about a car, and then you remember, oh, Bob, who's also owned many, many, many Corvettes for many years, I never really saw them chatting or connecting, but he restores them and knows everything mechanics from the inside and out. Um, I should maybe link them two up Whether they know each other or not, whether they know of each other or not. You know, I think we forget how Much, you know, if we don't know sometimes enough about our members, maybe they don't know enough about each other either. So I think it's almost a duty and obligation to make these connections, to make these things happen, to bring these connections together, to pull some of this information, to pull these things out of our members and then connect them. I think that's part of it. That's part of the reason they join clubs, that belonging Especially if they've already know of each other, right? They already recognize each other. Maybe they may have even played some golf or h- had a drink or something together, but never knew about that little connection, that little spark, that little moment, that shared connection But you do, and you get to connect those dots That's a little hospitality hocus pocus, right? That's a little club magic. It's not cards, it's not smoke machine, right? It's none of that. It's just knowing enough about two people to create a relationship that might not have happened without you And that is one of the most valuable things a club could do. Yes, people join for the amenities, the golf, the dining, the tennis, the pickleball, the fitness, the events. And you know, if your club does some really cool events and you're looking for something really fun to do, #shamelessplug, you have the Denny Corby experience. There's excitement, there's mystery. Also, there's magic, mind reading, and comedy. A ton of laughs, gasps, and holy craps Performed for well over 400 clubs at this point. If you wanna learn more, see some testimonials, see some clips, head on over to DennyCorby.com. We are now booking a few more fall dates left, but well into 2027. Let's chit-chat. DennyCorby.com But underneath all of those things, right, people are searching for belonging. They wanna feel known, they wanna feel connected, they wanna feel like there's people who notice them, remember them, and understand why it matters to them And curiosity helps create that So here are a few ways that you can turn this challenge into something fun with you and your team.

Make It A Team Game

Denny Corby 5:19

And that is, you know, challenge number one, just, just learn a new thing. Every staff member has to learn one new thing about a member before the end of a shift, a weekend, a week, a tournament, what- whatever it is. It could be something funny, meaningful, surprising, or something totally random. And at the next staff meeting, everybody shares what they learned. And maybe you can give out a couple funny awards or just funny things for the most unexpected, the most unusual, whatever it is. Uh, make it fun. But also, please make sure And this is all, right, we're not trying to do, go negative or anything bad. Make sure it's all good, fun stuff, right? We're trying to create belonging. We're not trying to launch, uh, like a, like a club gossip podcast, right? This is not about talking smack about a- anybody Challenge number two is, uh, ask your team to maybe identify, this is like after the first step, is identify two members who have something in common but may or may not know it yet. A hobby, a hometown, a profession, favorite teams, shared experiences, right? W- w- whatever it is. Uh, find a neutral way to connect some of your members whatever it is, you're just trying to find a neutral way to introduce them. And now, and, and not every connection will be a lifelong friendship or an amazing spark or whatever, and that's okay. You're simply just creating the opportunity. Maybe like a last challenge, something else, is just to go a little bit deeper with

Go Deeper With One Member

Denny Corby 6:41

one member. Maybe this is as a leadership team, right? Maybe this is you as just like your own personal thing. But maybe choose a few members you see often but, but maybe really don't really know. Or maybe it's been just a few years that you really connected with somebody. Or maybe it's somebody you, maybe you don't really enjoy. Maybe it's somebody you don't click with. Maybe you try to find that mutual bond, that mutual connection, right? Is there-- Where's that shared experience, that shared thing that you can maybe find some commonality, a better common ground on? Maybe sometimes it's just a member or just someone you've just never really gotten past, you know, the, "Hey, how are you?" Followed by like, you know, "Living the dream," you know? Right? We have to find a chance to have a real conversation, a real connection. What are they excited about r- right now? What are they working on? What, you know, originally brought them to the club? Are they still excited to be here? What part of the club matters most to them? What would make their experience better? Right? Those are like surface level. You can go... I think there's, there's a, there's an art to like the conversation, right? It's not about just interviewing them with like a clipboard, right? This is, that's not what this is about. It's about having a genuine connection and interest and wanting to learn and engage with them. You don't have to interrogate them. You don't have to bring them into like the boardroom or something, right? This is just like, just ask thoughtful questions and listen to the answers Then I guess the last part is sort of turning the, turning this curiosity, taking what you've learned and putting it into, into action

Use Notes And Callbacks Well

Denny Corby 8:13

And this is where I think it becomes great, useful information, right? We have CRMs, we have all of these things that we can use to take and document notes and keep track of anything and everything. So use what you learn and keep track of it. If a member mentions their grandchild is visiting and loves baking and is thinking about going into pastry school, maybe bring them back to the kitchen with the pastry chef, or maybe they come hang out for a night. I don't know. If someone's nervous about joining their first golf event, maybe you introduce them to another newer player. Or maybe you then have the golf pro personally reach out or help them out or maybe gives them a, a pro bono lesson or a little, a little 15-minute thing before-- I don't know, r-right? It's just about meeting people where they're at, understanding, learning about them, and using that as ammo and things for later on. You don't have to use it immediately. It's the art of the callback, right? It's how long can you think about it and let that slow burn happen It's not always about the immediate satisfaction or immediate gratification of something, right? This, it's, it's things that could be used and should be used later on Phila-philanth-phil-philanthropic-phil-philathrop-philanthropic. You know, s- we, members are s-, they, they all enjoy their phil- philanthropic, I can't... Philanthropic endeavors. So if you can connect members who maybe have not even the same cause, but adjacent or parallel or similar causes that maybe they might be able to overlap and maybe they can have like a similar base a little bit that maybe they can pull from, that maybe they could help do a different cool fundraiser together that, um, helps engage and brings two kind of like-minded groups together. I don't know Doesn't need to be-- This, this is not about being elaborate. This is simply just, you just need to prove that, you know, you have to prove that, that somebody was listening. That is what people remember Kind of went off on a couple tangents and stuff, but just as, as an overall challenge, just in life in general, for the ne- i- in heaven f- if it's, if at a minimum the next day, but as, as, for as long as you live, just ask you and your staff and just, just try to learn one thing. Remember one thing, connect some people, and then come back together and share what happened Even as something as simple as what did you learn? What surprised you? What connection did you create? And what little moment happened because someone on your team decided to get a little bit curious?

Belonging Beats Amenities Closing Thoughts

Denny Corby 10:57

Great service is knowing why people celebrate What they're worried about, what they're excited about Who else is similar to them in ways that they did not know? And as we all know, the clubs that create the strongest sense of belonging are not always the clubs with the fanciest places or the nicest amenities. It's the ones where the people feel seen. The-- And, and the people feel seen when someone is curious enough to truly get to know them. So this week, let's get a little bit curious. You might learn something interesting. You might create a friendship. You might solve a problem. You might help someone find their next friend. You really do not know In an absolutely worst case scenario, you have something better to talk about than just the weather and how fast the greens were. And really brings it back to s- it's been some of the episodes and just some things I talk about. It's just be more interested than interesting, and curiosity solves most problems. One of my favorite episodes here on Private Club Radio with, with Ed Chapman. Great podcast too, by the way. Check it out, Behind the Gates Well, that's this episode. Have some fun, get curious, connect some people, learn some things. Have a great week Management in Motion. We're getting close to being sold out. If you wanna learn more, head on over to DennyCorby.com/managementinmotion. Enough about that, though I'm your host, Denny Corby. Until next time, catch y'all on the Flippity Flip