496: The Nicey Effect w/ Hannah White

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 to the show.

0:31

In this episode, I am chatting with Hannah White Membership Experience and Communications Director at Sugar Creek Country Club about all things communications, fun, and social media. If you're on LinkedIn, you've definitely seen some of her stuff pop up, but she just does really cool, fun things with her, her club, her people, her members, and just showcasing the culture and what their club is about in a really great way. So we talk about how she got into clubs and her unexpected journey into event planning and how she w- wanted to start off as a dentist. So from dental student to member relations and communications at a club. What a, what a pivot, what a story. And what's neat is she came from a club where she didn't always have a lot of freedom or a lot of budget, so she had to do one of my favorite things, which is limitations force creativity. She had a s-- you know, a lot of scenarios were very low budgeted, limited funds to do things and accomplish things. And now she's at a little bit more of a bigger club with a different membership, and she has the ability to do a lot more different things and have more fun and more creativity and more freedom, but still uses that limitations forcing creativity, still uses that mindset and fun a little bit to help her think outside the box and do more with what she has now So it's that. We talk about creative strategies for her club and her and her social media, and we talk about what goes into effective recap videos for the members and for social media. So all in all, this has been just a fun streak of episodes all just about communicating in different ways.

Denny’s Events And Shameless Plug

2:17

And if you wanna communicate to your club and your members that you are fun and like to have a good time, have you heard about the Denny Corby experience? #shamelessplug. Who saw it coming? Hands in the air. You got 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. If you wanna learn more, head on over to dennycorby.com. You can see reviews and testimonials from over 350 clubs. You can learn more about the show there and reach out if you're interested. We can have a fun conversation. And while you're on the site, you'll see a little tab for something called Management in Motion, and that is my fun club event for club leaders. If you like leadership, education, and adrenaline, let me tell you about Management in Motion. It's a day of ripping up BMWs, M2s, 3s, and 4s, drifting, drag racing, Auto-X, high-speed laps, lead follows, go-karts, awards. And all within all of that, I have leadership and education for you by you from club managers to you club managers. I'm just the host. I, I just put on the whole thing, and I bring you guys together. We have so much fun. This year I have Ed Ronan from Bretton Woods and Alfredo Hildebrandt, Lakewood Country Club. And they're gonna talk about how and what their motion is and how they use that to lead every day at their clubs. It's fun, it's intimate, it's limited to 50 people. We're about halfway sold out. It is so much fun and such a cool experience and a great environment to really connect with other club managers too. All that and more, dennycorby.com. Enough about that though.

Hannah’s Accidental Club Career

3:54

We all know why you're here. "Private Club Radio" listeners, let's welcome to the show Hannah White.

Denny Corby 3:58

So how did you get into clubs? Did, or did you find clubs? Did clubs find you? Was it part of school? What... Was that when you found them? Give me, give me the rundown.

Hannah White 4:08

It was accident. It was an accident to do what I do now. In high school, um, all my friends were working at the country club down the street, and they were doing the childcare, and once we turned 18 they started bartending. They're like, "Hannah, the money's so good, you should try it." So I went and applied. I did bartending for a long time for, like, a summer job. Loved it, but that's nowhere... That wasn't on my radar of, like, what I was gonna do long. I went to school, um, for biology. I was pre-dental. I was gonna be a dentist. Um, COVID happened. I am not an online learner. I'm really bad at it. So I did terrible in a bunch of classes, failed organic chemistry twice, and I was like, you know what? I'm, I'm doing all this. Maybe I need to, like, change what I'm doing and how I do stuff. I've always loved party planning. I love organizing. I love making a flyer for my friends to come over. I love doing all that stuff. So my mom kinda, you know, "What have you thought about doing that?" So I switched majors. Um, COVID started to end, and my dad is a member at a country club down the street from our house for his business. And so I asked him, I was like, "Hey, while I finish school, uh, do you think you could ask them if they have any, like, bartending jobs?" 'Cause I knew how to do that. I went and interviewed, and the GM there, he had an... 'Cause COVID had just started ending. That member relations director role hadn't really come back yet, and so they were trying to bring it back, and so he was like, "Would you be interested in something like this?" And I was like, "I'll try it. I'll, I'll try it." So- Yeah um, I ended up doing a member relations director kind of role. I'd never done anything like it before. No one was there to train me, 'cause nobody was there doing it. Uh, so I, I taught myself how to do it. I figured out how to do events, and I've been doing it ever since. I now am at a different country club from that first one, but, uh, talk about self-taught.

Denny Corby 6:15

Yeah. What was, what was, what was one of the first things you, you remember going, "I have to teach myself how to do what?"

Hannah White 6:22

Ooh. Well, it was all kind of at the same time. I'd never used Canva before, which that's my best friend nowadays, but I'd never used Canva before. I had never... Which these are, like, the simplest parts of this job is making flyers and stuff, but I'd never made a flyer. I had never had to, like, spell check a flyer, which ended up being, like, one of my biggest struggles in the beginning. I miss, I, I can take a video and talk all day long, but spell, spelling things correctly on a flyer just, it continued- It continues to be a problem for me, but that was super hard. I had never reached out to companies before for vendors, like just getting a bounce house to come out for a kids' night event or anything like that. So everything was a learning curve, but, um, I guess the biggest one would be learning how to price things. Everything else was like, once you figured it out, it was pretty okay. But creating P&Ls and figuring out what... Especially for a club that doesn't have a budget for member events yet, um, figuring out where that all fits in and how I can do it the most fun but the cheapest way possible, that was the hardest thing for sure.

Denny Corby 7:39

Yeah.

Hannah White 7:39

And having nobody tell me how to do that specific thing

Denny Corby 7:43

So how do you, what's your, what's your formula now? Like, what's your process? Like, how do you- Well- Like, how do you do that?

Hannah White 7:52

It's very different now. Um, at the club I was at prior, like they, again, they didn't have a budget for it, all that stuff. The club I'm at now, um, I have a very different, uh, different situation. So it's, it's more of it's taken me three years, but now, um, nobody really questions anything. If we're gonna spend an extra $1,000 on a backdrop, there's a reason. I have a, I have a reason. Yeah. Um, but generally, we are evolving every single day, so you know, I, what I had spent in prior years, I'll go back and look at it and think, "Mm, I can up that by a couple thousand dollars and make it better." So it's more of just- Yeah almost every event I go to my GM, "Hey, this is what I'm thi- hear me out." It's usually, it's a knock on the door, it's a hear me out. Um- It's And just please, like, I promise you if we added pony rides to this situation, it'd be better.

Denny Corby 8:48

But- Hear me out, though.

Hannah White 8:49

Yes.

Denny Corby 8:49

The ponies have carry champagne also. Then it's like, oh, well, why didn't you start with it? Like, it's

Hannah White 8:55

You, yeah. No, no. I, I'm already working on some donkeys. The donkeys that have the, the beer carts on the side, I want that to be at our invitational this year, and I know it's gonna h- I know I'm gonna have to just, please.

Denny Corby 9:07

What if you put, like, big-ass beers or something like-

Hannah White 9:10

What? No, the, they have those

Denny Corby 9:11

something funny? Like, we were- Like, something, like, on, like, the donkeys. Like-

Hannah White 9:14

Yeah

Denny Corby 9:15

oh, do you guys get some of that? Oh, that beer tastes like... Or I don't know. There's something. Yeah.

Hannah White 9:18

Oh, I want it so, I want them so bad. But yeah, it's,

Denny Corby 9:24

it's- Can they- Every time, gotta change can they do s- can they help with the grass? Can they help with agronomy in some capacity? Can, can we use them as a write-off? You know what I mean?

Hannah White 9:32

This- Generally, I have a lot of petting zoos. Our golf course supervisor does not love them. He'll go, "Oh, mm, another, another petting zoo." 'Cause the, you know, ev- the chickens, the goats, they're all eating at the nice grass that he puts so much work- Oh, I

Denny Corby 9:49

know. And, like, their fertilizer's different than what the grass is used to. It creates a whole-

Hannah White 9:54

Exactly. But then it turns out that one spot that they were in, oh, that part's growing, growing better. That's crazy. Hmm. It's

Denny Corby 10:02

the, it's the goat-

Hannah White 10:05

Mm-hmm. You're welcome.

Denny Corby 10:07

It's that donkey. That's

Budget Limits That Spark Ideas

Denny Corby 10:09

funny. So, so going back, you really had, like, it... So I, I kinda like that because one of my favorite things is limitations force creativity. So it's like one of those when you have those moments of like, oh, when you h- when you have to really buckle down, it really just helps your creativity, but then when you have, when you finally do have that budget or that freedom, it's like, oh, do I know what to do. Yeah. Or, or I think- Mm-hmm it also helps like you know when you're being, you know, when you're getting your chain yanked and when, you know, like- Yeah oh, I don't, like, I've been... I th- I can do this for whatever and get the same thing. I think you're pulling the wool over my eyes here. You know what I mean? Yeah,

Hannah White 10:46

I mean, for anybody that ends up doing a job like this, I don't think you could've gone a better route. I think, I mean, don't get me wrong, I was in the trenches, but, like, being in those situations where you have $500 and you need to pull off a full Halloween event for 300 people, how are you gonna do it? I think having to put myself in those situations to start just n- put me in the best mindset possible to do the things I can do today with, I wouldn't say an unlimited budget, my GM would hate that, but a much- Yeah bigger budget and being able to do more stuff, I can, I... It's, it really helps you think outside the box.

Denny Corby 11:27

Yeah. And, and I always tell people to do it even when you don't have to. Mm-hmm. Just like, hey, just as- Mm-hmm just e- just as a just dumb thing, just what if you had, like, if your event, whatever, let's just say you had 10,000. Let's just say, what if you only had five this year? Or what if you only had 500? Just, just to make it creative, right? Or what if you had more? What if you had, you know, 50,000? Mm-hmm. What would you do different?

Hannah White 11:53

Oh, yeah. Makes sense.

Denny Corby 11:55

Yeah. What, so what was it like transitioning from... 'Cause now you have, like, two, two big roles. What's been the, what's been the interesting part there for you?

Hannah White 12:08

Being in my, my adult, adult big girl jobs.

Denny Corby 12:12

Adult big girl jobs.

Hannah White 12:14

That's what I, that's what I call them. I still feel like I'm 15 sometimes, but I do have a director position. Oh It's, it's definitely interesting. I feel like I have had to change my maturity level for sure because everybody's been doing this job for 20, 30, forever, years and years and years. And so coming into it so young and being into these hu- big roles, um, especially for someone who hasn't done it before, it, it was a lot of sitting and listening and learning and asking a million questions and fi- 'cause these people who've been doing it forever, they know so much more than I do. Um, but I will say as time has gone on, I feel like I've learned and I, I do a lot on the side to try to, um, some additional education, um, so that I can sometimes, now I feel like sometimes I can teach some of these other professionals different things as well. So from the beginning it was a lot of learning, but now I feel like it's, it's really starting to become something that I can teach others as well. Hmm.

Selling Fun As Club Culture

Denny Corby 13:26

What, what's, what's some of the best things that you've learned?

Hannah White 13:32

Um, I think the biggest thing, and if you go on my LinkedIn, it's what I talk about most, it's having fun. Um, I think that showing your members that your club is a fun place to be and that not only will they have a good time, but their employees are also happy to be there, having fun, I think that's my most important thing overall at this point.

Denny Corby 13:55

Yeah. When, when you, when you got into your current position-

Hannah White 13:59

Mm-hmm

Denny Corby 13:59

was, how do I phrase it? Were, were you the type of person, personality and what they were looking for? Is that what ha- Like, so w- were you in the position and then you were like, "Hey, can I be more fun and get more fun and creative with the social media and all of the communications?" Or was the club looking and then brought you in because they kind of wanted that and wanted to change a little bit?

Hannah White 14:22

So, um, I didn't really have that fun aspect, especially with social media, at my prior club. Um, I hadn't really delved into that yet. I was still working on creating good events with small budgets and everything. I've always, I've always had this personality don't get me wrong. Right. But the club, it do- it was super fun and everything, but as far as, like, what they were putting out, it hadn't gotten to that point yet. So it took me, it took me a little bit of time of, um, building up to what I do now, and I tell people this all the time 'cause I talk to a lot of other people in my position, and they're like, "I could never put, like, post that at my club." And I tell them, like, it, it doesn't happen overnight. Unless you're at that club already has that stuff going on, it doesn't happen overnight. You gotta start small and build up, and of course, every club's different, every brand's different. You might not be able to do what I do and run around the club with a pickle costume on, but there there's levels to it. Um, but when they hired me, I don't think they knew exactly what they were getting. Um, but- But they do love it now And now they're past the- Oh

Denny Corby 15:31

90 days, so they are locked

Hannah White 15:32

in. Oh, yeah, 100%. But I think they love it, and our members really love it. It's a way to connect with them because now not only are they connecting on social media, but now when they come into the club, they have something to talk about. When I post silly little videos with the golf director, now instead of just going out to play their round, they come into the golf shop, and they, they wanna chat it up. And I just think, like, building that community is so cool.

Denny Corby 15:58

Yeah.

Hannah White 15:59

Mm-hmm.

Early Content That Stayed On Brand

Denny Corby 16:00

Do you remember, what were s- what were some of the first videos that you posted? Do you, do you remember- Um, for, for this- the first pieces of content that were really fun?

Hannah White 16:07

For this club specifically, I started off, which here's how you keep it tame. You do I did a, a trivia. I remember it 'cause I, I hadn't done much video editing yet, and so I remember it being really hard. Um, but I just did trivia. I said, I went in the golf shop, and I made a little board. And I said, "When was the club founded?" And I gave them some answers and had them guess, and I posted. And I just put them all together and posted all of them, all the wrong answers, all the right answers. And it wasn't It was still on brand for the club. It wasn't anything crazy, but the members loved it. And then people were commenting, "Oh my gosh, you didn't know it was 1972?" And all that cool stuff.

Denny Corby 16:46

Starting fights because of people not, members not knowing.

Hannah White 16:49

No. "Can

Denny Corby 16:50

you believe Beverly did not know the origin dates? I- she's- Mm-hmm not allowed to mahjong." Sorry.

Hannah White 16:56

No, no, it's crazy that what comes from such silly videos, like it really creates a lot of buzz around here.

Denny Corby 17:05

Yeah. Yeah. What, what are some of, uh, ha- have you found, or, or... So first question is, how long have you been doing these videos for, and have you started to, uh, track the data and follow the trends of like what your people tend to like?

Hannah White 17:20

As far as the fun videos go, I've been doing them for probably three years or so. I've been doing video recaps since the beginning of my time, uh, working in clubs, which I highly suggest for everybody. Videos are always better than pictures. Um, but as far as what tracks for our club specifically, even when I do try to track what does well, our members are so just, it is a wave. Sometimes what goes really well is like the really silly, trendy videos or, um, voiceovers and stuff like that. Um, and sometimes those do really poorly. Sometimes, um, a hard hat chat will do really well where we're just talking about construction, where I'm like, to me, that's a little more on the boring side, but they loved it. Um, so I will try to redo videos sometimes, um, or do the same kind of format of ones that have done well, even though they didn't do that well in the past, because no matter- It's cyclical. So no matter what, some people are gonna like it, some people don't. And with clubs, there's such an age range that so you kind of have to hit them all so that there's something for everyone too, so-

Denny Corby 18:36

Yeah

Hannah White 18:36

even, even when I try to keep doing the ones that do well, sometimes they go back down.

Denny Corby 18:41

That generational fun

Hannah White 18:43

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Denny Corby 18:45

does the data metrics matter at all? Like, is that, like, a, a thing of con- 'cause meaning because, like, I, I, it's like it goes back to that Gary Vee stuff style where it's like, you know, it shouldn't matter 'cause, like, it doesn't. But, like, obviously you do track to a point, but, like, is it important? And, like, do you guys track and do you do anything with that data?

Hannah White 19:04

I think for general brands, yes, I think it's important. But as far as how country clubs run, and it depends. E- every country club's different. For us specifically, it doesn't, I don't, I don't make it a huge priority because, again, because it's such a wide variety of people watching. Right. It's gonna hit a different group each time. And so I- Even when I do track it and try to do things to go along with it, it doesn't, it doesn't change- Yeah anything for me, so I kind of- Yeah eh, it's okay. I'm just gonna do what I think they're gonna like and think it's fine.

How To Shoot Better Recap Videos

Denny Corby 19:41

Yeah. I, I wanna go back. What, what makes... Y- you said you've done three years of video recaps. Mm-hmm. What makes a good video recap, or what have you found off your three years of doing this, what makes a good video recap o- uh, and then maybe, like, how do people get started just if they've never done a video recap, what's the first steps to getting started?

Hannah White 20:03

So vid- as far as video recaps go for events, I've been doing those for a minute. That's been about seven years of learning. The fun videos are about three years, but the video recaps, I've been doing those a minute. But what I have learned are the most important things are before the event starts, think of, like, five key things that you want in, in your video. The first one, which I think I've only really gotten into this the last year or so, is the intro video. 'Cause you forget, like, you need an intro shot, and then once you're editing, you're like, "Oh, crap, none of these are really standing out." Um, so that's a big one. Um, mine, what I use a lot are kids. Uh, my last Easter video, I fou- I pre-found the song, I found the song beforehand, and it had, like, a one, two, three, four, and I had kids do it for me. And so there, done. Intro video done. So intro videos I feel like are the biggest one. The second are keeping it short, um, taking, like, three-second long clips throughout your event because at the end you only want your recap to be a minute to a minute 30. People st- Which, actually, I do track this metric. That's- I look to see how long people watch the videos, 'cause the longer the video is, people don't, they're not gonna watch it Um, and then, um, I use-- So me personally, I know a lot of other people use a lot of really cool equipment to take their videos. I w- I will die on this hill. You only need your phone and CapCut. CapCut is an app I use to edit all my videos. Um, I think that I can still make really good quality videos with just those two things, and it's, it's still okay. Um, and then also not being afraid to ask members to do things. Because in those, like, five shots that I pre-think of in my mind, I think, "Okay, I want..." For, like, for Easter, for example, I wanna make sure I get kids picking up eggs. I wanna make sure I get parents holding their kids and smiling, all those things. So some of those you have to go up and say, "Hey, would you mind posing and waving," and all that stuff. 'Cause I promise you, members don't mind, and they actually, the more you are on social media and stuff, they get excited to see themselves. And so when you ask, they're, "Of course, I'd love to be in your video." And then hopefully they'll also watch it a little longer looking for themselves.

Denny Corby 22:32

Worst case, they say no, and you go, "Okay."

Hannah White 22:34

Yeah. Yes, I-- That, yes, 100%. What's the worst they say? "No," and you move on.

Denny Corby 22:41

Yeah.

Hannah White 22:41

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Video taking is a little bit of a rejection therapy, I will say, especially during golf and, uh, tennis tournaments, 'cause everybody's, like, thinking just on what they need to do. They don't wanna be in a video and all that stuff. But, uh, you just have to be ready for a little rejection.

Denny Corby 23:00

Well, and with CapCut, and same with Edits too now, like they have templates. So even if you don't know what to do, you can just search something or whatever, and literally it's put this here, and it's color-coded. Like it's, it's fairly, fairly user-friendly to walk through.

Hannah White 23:15

Extremely. So- Extremely. And it's really good for if you haven't posted in a week and you're like, "I really need to, like, get something out there," but you haven't taken anything in a while. If you-- Which I do this personally, and I suggest everyone should. But all the videos you take over all these events, archive them somewhere. And then those days you don't have anything to post, you can go on CapCut and look at their millions of templates and pop a few to, of the old videos you've used, and th- now you have a cool, like, sum-up video of your club.

Denny Corby 23:47

Look how much fun we have.

Hannah White 23:49

E- exactly

Denny Corby 23:50

Coke or Pepsi? Um- Neither,

Hannah White 23:52

actually

Denny Corby 23:52

Interesting.

Hannah White 23:54

Mm-hmm. I am a, I am a water, coffee, or alcoholic beverage type of gal.

Denny Corby 24:01

All or nothing, I gotcha.

Hannah White 24:02

Mm-hmm.

Welcome Drinks And “Niceys”

Denny Corby 24:04

Welcome drinks are my love language.

Hannah White 24:06

Welcome drinks?

Denny Corby 24:09

Like, anytime you go somewhere and they're like, "Bev," you're like, "Oh my God." Yeah. Like, "Thank you."

Hannah White 24:12

Yeah.

Denny Corby 24:12

That is just-

Hannah White 24:13

I call, I call those niceys at our club. I, uh... This is also something that's taken a while for us to get into, but I, I have to remind everybody, you know, our members are paying to be here. Every once in a while it's okay to like, instead of free stuff, I say, "Let's throw in a nicey. Let's throw in a nicey something." And so our whole, my whole, I got my whole team on it. They say it now, but like a welcome drink or something, I, I'll say it in our meetings like, "Hey, if we just threw in a drink as a nicey," they really like it, 'cause such small things like that really like, it's like, "Wow, okay. That's nice."

Denny Corby 24:51

As, as Will, Will Guidara says, "How do you make it nice?" Um, my, uh, club I used to belong to, uh, y- a couple years ago, uh, there was like an extra fund, excuse me, the GM would, um, it, they'd, they'd hit the members, I wanna say twice a year for like 150 bucks, so an extra three, 300 bucks a year went into this, into this, like, separate just like kitty. And basically what it did was he was able to almost make... It was like, just like a weird separate side fund he can pull- Mm-hmm like almost like a nicey fund, so to speak. Right. Um, so he could just like pull, pull from it, but like from that he was able to offset like almost every event he would do for the club. The, there was open bar or like, you know, or at least, uh, beer and wine minimum for, for the first hour because he wanted, he wanted people to come to the club, and when they get to the bar, ha- have their first drink, the interaction not be, "Oh, and what was your member nu- Oh, you were Mr... What was..." It was just so, so that at least that gave also the, that bartender time to go, "Hey, who was that again?"

Hannah White 25:56

Mm-hmm.

Denny Corby 25:56

So now when they come back, like, "Oh, Mrs. Smith, would you like another..." Mm-hmm. So it was like a nice touch but 'cause he wanted it to feel like home, not like a transactional place.

Hannah White 26:03

Yeah, I, I love that. I might have to ask for a nicey fund now. What an idea. He's gonna love

Denny Corby 26:15

it. Do you know how Ben, Ben Loren- uh, Ben, Ben Loren- Ben Lorenzen does, uh, Fireball for, for his club?

Hannah White 26:23

Mm-hmm. On

Denny Corby 26:24

the, uh- You guys should- on

Hannah White 26:25

the drones?

Denny Corby 26:25

Yeah. Mm-hmm. You guys should do Nice For What by, uh, Drake.

Hannah White 26:30

That's a I have to s- um, yeah, I'm gonna steal that. That's such a good i- You know, though, you know, they won't let me fly the drone. I have asked. Um, because I, I went to Ben's conference last year, the Creative Summit, and he was teaching us how to fly the drones and everything. I'm like, "This is easy. Come back to my club. Ask our golf superintendent, 'Hey, I learned how to do it.'" He's absolutely not. No. They

Denny Corby 26:56

almost- I

Hannah White 26:57

want-

Denny Corby 26:57

They, they, they fly themselves. It, it goes up,

Hannah White 27:00

it flies

Denny Corby 27:01

itself If

Hannah White 27:01

I, yeah, if I hit a tree, I hit a tree. But I'm gonna get good content.

Denny Corby 27:07

Oh, well, and I'm gonna use it, and I'll get the insurance, so.

Hannah White 27:12

Something along those lines. I haven't asked to buy one for myself yet, but I'm, I've been considering it.

Denny Corby 27:19

You should.

Hannah White 27:20

Mm-hmm. I do, uh- Or it's,

Denny Corby 27:21

it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, so maybe just put it on the club card and

Hannah White 27:26

Ooh.

Denny Corby 27:27

Ah. Oh, did I I thought I added it to cart. I didn't, I didn't realize it was just-

Hannah White 27:32

That, that just gave me anxiety Am-

Denny Corby 27:33

Amazon.

Hannah White 27:35

Oh my gosh. They would get me. But, uh, I do, um, my nicey f- the Here's another video, uh, suggestion. I do offer p- I give peace offerings, um, as my niceys. So if it's a golf tournament going on and I really need content, I will go out there with a bottle of Fireball and little shot glass. I'm like, "Hey, if you'll take this video, I'll give you f- like, Fireball shots." Works w- it works like a charm. However, they have come to expect it, so if I'm out on the course and taking videos- they're like, "Well, where's the Fireball, Hannah?" "Ooh, I didn't bring it."

Denny Corby 28:15

Yeah. You know, th- there, there is something, there, there is that art of, of the ask though, right? Like, if you're gonna ask for something and then you know you're gonna be needing, like, a lot from somebody- Mm-hmm you gotta, you the, the, the art of the ask, you have to either make it feel like it's- Yeah bigger than what it is, or you have this extra like, "Hey."

Hannah White 28:36

Y- exactly. Exactly. And-

Denny Corby 28:38

Have you- Let's

Hannah White 28:39

just Go ahead. Sorry.

Denny Corby 28:40

No, no. Um, have you seen... So it's these little, like, clamps for cameras.

Hannah White 28:47

Okay.

Denny Corby 28:48

So you clamp this onto Onto a glass with the camera here Mm-hmm and you go up and you cheers people. So the point of view is, is your, is the ca- Yeah is the glass and their glass, and it, and you cheer. I'll, I'll find it and send it to you so you can see it. But y- you're gonna... It's like, oh.

Hannah White 29:12

Oh, I would love that Oh. I tri- Let me find it you know, last year for our invitational tournament, I tried to, uh, duct tape the, my phone to the Fireball, uh, bottle so that I could, like, pour it in people's mouths and stuff. Uh- And it just, I, I had a vision. It didn't work out, but I had the vision. So that could replace that this year.

Denny Corby 29:35

Yeah. Yeah.

Where Her Content Ideas Come From

Hannah White 29:37

Mm-hmm.

Denny Corby 29:37

Where do, where do you find your creativity? Or, like, where do you, where, where do you maybe tend to lean to find your stuff for-

Hannah White 29:46

For videos and stuff Where do

Denny Corby 29:47

you find humor? Yeah

Hannah White 29:48

Um, I will tell you it is all over the place. Um, I know people like joke around like, "Oh, I'm on TikTok for work." I'll tell you, even though it might take me a few videos to get through, I- it is very helpful. You look up other businesses and stuff, and I, I, I also tell people all the time that there is no shame in like copying what other people are doing. I think people copying you is flattering. Um, the best ideas are from other people sometimes. Um, so scrolling on Tik- Modeling

Denny Corby 30:22

the masters.

Hannah White 30:23

Y- exactly. Um, scrolling on TikTok, you just get like really good ideas of like what other people are doing in your space at least, what's like funny and stuff. I also, no shame in the game, I use ChatGPT a lot. If, if I can't think of something funny, I'll go on ChatGPT, and I also suggest people should get an account so that it can remember everything about you and your club, 'cause I'll type in, "Hey, help me think of a video for National Pickleball Day. It needs to reflect the club and be funny and blah, blah, blah." And sometimes I get really good stuff, sometimes it's meh, but other times you can get something where it's like, "You know what? That's pretty good. I can tweak this to what I need to it- what I need for it to be."

The Invisible Work Of Comms

Denny Corby 31:07

What's the hardest part about your job that nobody sees?

Hannah White 31:10

The, the hardest part, which it's not hard at my club 'cause everybody's such a good team player, but I think for most people they might have this issue as well, is being in this role, it's kind of like you are an internal communicator as well for everyone. 'Cause I need to promote golf, I need to promote tennis, I need to promote fitness, I need to promote F&B, everybody, membership, everything. So keeping everyone in the same loop and organized and making sure that if we're gonna have a new special for this week, I need the chef to make sure to tell me by this date so I can make sure to have it out and so the membership knows. And so keeping everyone on the same path and everything can be challenging sometimes, 'cause everybody has their own stuff going on. So the golf director forgets that, you know, oh, this tournament's going on. I'm worried about getting our members signed up and where the sponsors are gonna be and da, da, da, da, da. But for me I'm like, "Oh, well if the members don't know, how are they gonna sign up?" So make keeping everybody on the it-- I need to know everything and be this like internal, um, booklet of knowledge can be tough sometimes. Um, especially we started doing a quarterly newsletter. Uh, I've been doing it for about a year and a half now. Um, and making sure that everybody gives me every single piece of information can be challenging, too. Um, but luckily I have a gr- How do you stay

Denny Corby 32:40

organized? Sorry, sorry, sorry. Go

Hannah White 32:41

ahead. Ooh. Uh, no, no, you're good. Um, I have a very ADHD brain. I don't think that my organization is, um, for everyone. 'Cause it's like my head is like a, one of those people that you're like, "Here's my dirty room. Does it look dirty? Yes, but I know where every single thing is." So- So do

Denny Corby 33:04

you have like a, do you have like a, like a, like a, like a Monday.com or anything like that that you use that keeps track to organize?

Hannah White 33:12

Well, no, I tried a few of those things. I then, to me, that ended up being another task I had to do of putting those items in there. So my biggest things are my Apple Calendar just on my phone. I have-- I don't have my office right now 'cause we're under renovation, that's why I'm just in one of our banquet rooms. Um, but on my wall I have a big 12-month calendar. So I just pop stuff into there like, "Okay, I know I need to post our specials on this day and then this day." So having it visually in front of me is my best technique. And I- Yeah I still write stuff down in my notebook of like to-do for today and all that stuff. But I generally have to have it, like, open in front of me or I will forget.

Denny Corby 33:54

I like that.

Wrap Up And Where To Learn More

Denny Corby 33:55

I like that. So Hannah, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it.

Hannah White 33:59

Absolutely. I, I really enjoyed talking to you today.

Denny Corby 34:02

Hannah, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for all you're doing at your club and all the fun stuff you're doing on social media. Keep it up. Thanks for sharing with us here on the channel. And before you go, if you want to learn more about the Denny Corby experience or Management in Motion, head on over to DennyCorby.com. That's this episode. I'm your host, Denny Corby. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity flip