dean kandle

It’s not often that we get to hear a conversation on the issues facing our industry directly from the leaders at the PGA of America.  In the summer of 2021 I had the opportunity to record a conversation with Don Rea, the current Secretary of the PGA, and feel this conversation was definitely worthy of releasing again.  

This was a wide ranging discussion that covered the challenges of recruiting in our industry today as well as goal setting for your future, while profiling Don’s unique rise through the industry to one of the most influential positions in golf today.  If you’ve ever wondered if it’s possible to go from cleaning carts and picking the range to becoming the owner of the golf course, you need to hear this conversation!

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GBN is the leading private network for today's most successful PGA Professionals. Exclusive events at premier facilities, vendor partnerships to grow your business, education to increase your knowledge, and access to the top Professionals in the industry are just some of what membership in Golf Business Network will get you. Go to www.golfbusinessnetwork.com to find out more and become a member.

Spend more than a few minutes in a room with a group of Golf Professionals these days and you're bound to start hearing about some level of "burnout".  The affect of the pandemic on golf and the labor shortage have come together to put even more pressure than normal on today's Professionals.  

In this episode, we cover the 5 reasons we can feel burned out and go over practical solutions to address this issue.

In this episode, we flip the script as Dean takes questions about his career, the development of Golf Professional Growth, how he actually left the golf industry while in college, and much more! 

Thanks to Ricky Potts, host of the Wednesday Match Play Podcast for the opportunity to share my story.  Be sure to check out Ricky's show and subscribe HERE

With the record numbers we're seeing at courses throughout the country, Golf Professional's are now faced with the challenge of often having to say no to their members and customers.  No there aren't any tee times, no there isn't any space in that event, no we can't host your outing...and so on.  This is new for many of us since we've been trained to say "Yes" and to constantly seek out ways to grow rounds and revenues.  

As I found out in a conversation a few years ago, knowing how to say no and tell someone something they don’t want to hear, is literally a science.  Experts in behavioral psychology have studied the tactics that are most effective at delivering your message in a way that diffuses angry situations and will limit the push-back you get from our now disgruntled members and customers.  

Our expert that we’re learning from is Richard S. Gallagher, author of “The Customer Service Survival Kit”.  Some of the critical lessons we’ll hear from him are: being nice and polite is great, but it doesn’t help an upset person feel better, leaning into criticism is much more effective than explaining “why” or playing defense, and the key to diffusing a difficult situation begins with acknowledgement.

How you manage your time has never been more critical.  It’s no longer a “nice to have”.  You see, time management is really not about managing time.  You can’t manage time.  There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, no matter what you do.  

Time management is actually priority management.  It’s how you take the items that are most important to you and put them on your task list and your calendar to make sure you’re getting them done on time in order to serve the people around you.  That’s it in a nutshell.

And in the end, the payoff at being better at this is that it allows you to accomplish more.  It allows you to work with a calm confidence mindset that is willing and able to take on more, because you know you can handle it.  

It’s not enough to just keep saying “yes” to every new opportunity or every new task, you actually have to produce results.  There’s nothing worse than saying yes, and then failing to hold up your end of the bargain.  Pretty soon the people around you will lose their trust in you.

Your ability to advance, to make progress, to achieve your goals will be limited.

Don't make these time management mistakes!

Have you checked out Golf Professional Growth?  Head to www.golfprofessionalgrowth.com for tons of great info on how today's Golf Professionals can "Work Smarter. Live Better."

If you're going to be in a job search anytime soon, Golf Professional Growth has premium content from experts in the career space to help you stand out and land the job of your dreams!  It's GPG's "Career Accelerator".  Over 3 hours of insight on interviewing, resumes, and getting noticed in a crowded space.   Get the info, and get ahead! 

Go to www.golfprofessionalgrowth.com/careersummit!

There’s no doubt that if you’re a listener to this podcast, you’re familiar with Golf Genius.  In fact, there’s a very good chance that you’re a user of one of their products.  

As the last decade progressed, Golf Genius eventually emerged as the leader in tournament management software.  Their client list is well into the thousands and spans the entire globe and at this point, there isn’t anyone even close to being a true competitor.

But what you may not know is how this all started.  The humble beginnings took place in the Philadelphia suburbs when a retired software exec wanted to write a program that would make planning the annual golf trip a whole lot easier.  So Golf Trip Genius was born.  As it became evident that Golf Trip Genius wouldn’t scale at a level to sustain a business, it’s founder, Mike Zisman, targeted golf leagues at public courses and eventually recruited a local PGA Professional to help get his foot in the door with Golf Genius at private clubs.  

As one of the first customers, I remember seeing this product for the first time.  No doubt the TV leaderboards and the event portals were a cool feature, but it was going to take some time before this little company could take down the bigger names in tournament management.  

Little did I know the level of determination, skill, and valuable experience that Mike brought to the table.  And thanks to that, and the efforts of 39 PGA Professionals, and the entire company, Golf Genius sits on top.  

Yes, Golf Genius is a sponsor of this show, and I’m proud to have them as a partner, but I invited Mike on the show because I wanted to learn more about his story, more about his leadership philosophy, and how he plans to keep Golf Genius in it’s current position.  As one of the innovators in email technology in the late 70’s, Mike has seen the entire internet age come to life.  From the outside looking in, it’s been a privileged career but not without an incredible level of hard work and dedication along with more than his fair share of adversity.  

Have you checked out www.golfprofessionalgrowth.com? 

If you're in search for a new position in the golf industry and looking for secrets to get ahead of the pack, go to Golf Professional Growth's "Career Accelerator" for insider info from leaders in the golf search space.  Go to www.golfprofessionalgrowth.com/careersummit

Welcome to the first episode of The Golf Professional Growth Project!  What is this show all about?  We're going beyond the traditional skills that we usually focus on (teaching, playing, merchandising, tournament ops) and diving deeper into the real skills that it takes to have long-term success in the golf business.

The GPG Project is here to help today's Golf Professionals "thrive at work and succeed in life".  Leadership, organization, communication, and more.  All in the context of the golf industry and for you, the Golf Professional.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Seth Godin- Tribes

David Allen- Getting Things Done

Are you using Golf Genius for your event management and in your Golf Shop?  Why not?  Go to www.golfgenius.com to find out why you should be.