pga professional

Welcome back to part two of our conversation with Cary Cozby, the Director of Golf at Southern Hills Country Club.  If you missed part one, be sure to head back to episode sixteen and take a listen.  We talked about his mindset when he heard his dream job was open and what steps he took during the interview process, and after landing the job how he’s managed to maintain his operation at the highest levels on a daily basis.

In part two we discuss, among other things the Oklahoma Sooners prospects of a national championship in 2019, what he looks for when filling Assistant Professional positions on his team, and how he handles the eternal question of the illusive work-life balance  Find out Cary’s opinion on that topic and more.

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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.

As young professionals working in the golf business, often times our focus is on developing the set of what I call “vocational skills” that are specific to our industry...the teaching, playing, merchandising and event administration skills, among many others that our jobs require from us.

But as our careers continue to evolve, success or failure can hinge on a new and different skill set.  Often referred to as soft skills, they should more properly be referred to as success skills.  These success skills include the ability to build and sustain relationships, developing emotional intelligence or EQ, learning how to lead and why that matters, becoming a mentor to your team, and many others.  I feel these are so important, it’s what motivated me to develop golfprofessionalgrowth.com to dig deeper into how to develop these skills.

Our guest in this episode has summarized these skills so well, I had to have him on to discuss this further.  Robert Sereci is the GM/COO at the renowned Medinah Country Club. You know Medinah from it’s storied history in major championship and Ryder Cup golf, but ironically Robert came to Medinah with little to no knowledge of that history.  And he’s used that to his advantage.  You’ll hear how being a “non-golf” guy has allowed him to view Medinah through a different lens that allows him to lead and strategize without any bias.  Robert is known as an intelligent businessman, a calculated risk taker and a mentor to many in our business.  The result for Medinah has been a thriving club atmosphere which is now a leader and innovator in the industry. 

In part one, Robert walks us through the first five of his “Top 10 Lessons They Didn’t Teach you in School”.  These lessons are universally applicable to golf professionals and general managers alike...and even if you’re not in a leadership or management position yet, you’ll want to take notes and know where you can begin to develop the critical success skills that will help you down the road.

Robert's Top 10 Lessons:

1. The difference between passion and purpose.
2. You don’t know what you don’t know
3. Understand that your success is determined by others.
4. How to manage and lead in a world of grey
5. Understand how your club keeps score
6. Understand that your success is determined by others
7. Your technical skills will become less important as you climb the ladder
8. Stop Coaching and start mentoring
9. Your club governance model is more important then you realize
10. It’s not about you. It never was.

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.

Cary Cozby, the Director of Golf at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is likely the most decorated PGA Professional you will ever find.  As a winner of 13 section awards plus the national Merchandiser of the Year award, his most unique and special recognition came in 2016 when he was named the PGA Professional of the Year, joining his father Jerry, the 1985 winner and the two became the only father/son duo ever to receive this national recognition from the PGA of America.  

But as you’ll hear, this humble Oklahoman isn’t in it for the awards.  His love of his job and the opportunity to call Southern Hills his home, where he walked the fairways as a kid at major championships and spent five years as an Assistant, are what drives him everyday.  

We talk about how to maintain your motivation each time you show up for work by using our natural competitive nature, and the mantra of “interviewing every day”.  

Also, in part one, we cover how Cary manages to stay on top of the sizable and active golf operation without letting anything slip through the cracks.

Cary Cozby's Awards and Accomplishments:

Director of Golf, Southern Hills Country Club: 2015- Present
Head Professional/CEO, Wichita Country Club: 2000-2015
2002 PGA Merchandiser of the Year
2003, 2009, 2010 Golf Professional of the Year, South Central Section
2009, 2011, 2014 Bill Strausbaugh Award, South Central Section
2002, 2007, 2010, 2014 Merchandiser of the Year, South Central Section
2016 PGA Golf Professional of the Year
2012 South Central Section Champion

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.

In this episode of the Getting Better Now podcast, we have the opportunity to learn from one of the most highly regarded sports and performance psychologists in golf today.  Dr. Bhrett McCabe is the founder of The Mindside and works with numerous athletes from the PGA and LPGA Tours, NFL, NBA, MMA, and also serves as the sports and performance psychologist for The University of Alabama Athletic Department.

In addition, he’s a golfer himself, a long time member at a private club in Alabama, a student of the game, and a former pitcher on a National Championship winning baseball team at LSU.  In a nutshell, he knows what we do at our clubs everyday and understands the challenges that we face as PGA Professionals at clubs when balancing our jobs with playing the game as well.

He offers some terrific insight into how your mindset and self image will drive how you feel about yourself and your game, and is at the center of the results you’re able to produce on the course.  We also cover why it’s difficult to stay committed to doing all of the little things at work and in your game that can make the difference over time.  His knowledge and insight can be applied not only in golf and not only in sports, but can transform how you perform in your job and the results you produce in your everyday life.

I definitely recommend that you check out his book, The Mindside Manifesto, and listen to his weekly podcast called Exploring the Mindside.  Be sure to listen at the end when Dr. McCabe lets us know how you can work with him personally and how you can bring him to your facility to work with your members and students.

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.

Most of us in this business are in agreement that when working at a club, it’s important to place a special focus on your ladies program and for the ladies that are playing golf at your facility.  We also know that based on statistics, female golfers serve as a huge opportunity to bring players into the game both as beginners and as those that are interested in returning to golf after a long lay off. 

With this said, it can be a challenge to run new and innovative programs for your ladies that create interest, that develop their golf skills, and nurture their specific needs.  Our guest in this episode is an expert in this area and will help all of generate some new ideas to make our ladies programs stand out and be unique.

Gia Bocra Liwski is a Class A LPGA Professional that’s been teaching the game for over 20 years and for the last 10 years has been teaching at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, NJ..Gia has been selected as one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America as well as, a Golf Digest Best Teachers by State. One of Gia’s most unique experiences is that she was able to be the host of two separate golf, lifestyle and travel shows that only served to increase her love for the all of these areas and how things like travel, food, wine, and fashion integrate so perfectly with golf.  

Gia recently launched Golf Experiences For Her, where she personally creates a very special & sophisticated day for women centered around getting better at golf while enjoying some of the finer things in life.  She’s going to detail what goes into planning such a fantastic day for women and let us know some of the details we can all add into our ladies programs, to improve what we’re offering in 2019.

Gia’s available to visit your club and host a Golf Experiences for Her event for your members, or as a way to showcase your facility to potential members.  She could also be a great resource for you on a consultant basis, so if you have questions, you can find out more at trywithgia.com or find her on Instagram at trywithgia.

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.

Ever feel like you can't get away from your computer or phone during the day, because you're tied to an endless flow of email into your inbox?  In this day and age, communicating with our members, customers, students, and vendors frequently takes place over email.  Because of that fact, email can bog us down and keep us from getting other important tasks done throughout the day.  

In this episode, we detail six methods that productivity experts agree can reduce the strain...and stress... that email can have on you, while letting you break away and get back to doing what most important for you in your daily work.

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.

In this episode we kick off the new year with a throwback.  For the next 60 minutes, you’ll have the opportunity to listen as, someone who most regard as the most successful and respected Golf Professional of our time, Bob Ford, and one of his many ultra successful proteges, Steve Archer, (who’s put together a phenomenal career in his own right) take questions from GBN President and CEO,Patrick Seither, and other Golf Professionals on topics ranging from building your career, what it takes to get to a Head Professional position, training and leading staff, and many other valuable topics.

This was recorded in 2016 when Patrick had an opportunity to sit down with these two gentlemen at Ocean Forest Golf Club.  This wasn’t recorded to be a podcast, so I’ve done my best to improve the audio to make this work as well as possible.  Either way, turn up the volume, throw on some headphones, sit back and listen.  This is a unique opportunity that any Golf Professional won’t want to miss.  

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.

Leader.  

It’s a term thrown around so often that it’s almost cliche.  As PGA Professionals, we’re tasked with being leaders in the industry, leaders at our facilities, and leaders in our communities.  But even with all this responsibility to lead, how many of us have ever tried to actually define what that means?  How does being a leader fit into what we do everyday, and what do we have to do everyday to become the leaders that we all should be.

Michael Haywood has taken the time to define leadership for PGA Professionals.  In this episode we learn about the framework he created that takes a rather intangible subject and turns it into an system that we can refer to every day to develop into more effective leaders in our jobs.  As you’ll learn, Michael took the word leader, and created an acronym with the most relevant and important words that represent how a PGA Professional should lead.  He’s presented this concept to multiple sections throughout the country and continues to promote these beliefs to groups both inside and outside of the industry.  

Michael’s involvement, awards, dedication to the golf industry, the PGA of America and charitable causes is almost too long to list.  During 21 years as the Director of Golf at Tuscon Country Club, he’s served on 23 Chapter, Section and National Committees, including as a candidate for national secretary of the PGA.  He’s a multiple section professional of the year and Horton Smith Award winner as well as being recognized as an award winning, teacher, coach and clubfitter.  All of this coming after he served our country for four years in the United States Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

There’s a ton of information packed into this episode as Michael delivers advice that can benefit anyone out there, no matter where you currently stand in your career.  

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.

If you’re in a leadership position at your club, or aspire to be one at some point in your career, what if I told you there was one specific area you could focus on that would guide the thinking and behavior of the people on your team?  One point of emphasis that’s effects would be felt throughout the entire operation.  That would guide decision making, customer service, attitude, motivation and more?

What is it?

As we find out from our guest in this episode, that one thing is culture.

John Eades is a Leadership coach and educator and the CEO of LearnLoft.   He’s was also once an aspiring professional golfer after putting together a successful amateur career where he played in 3 US Amateurs as well as fantastic career at the University of Maryland. 

So being around the game and around clubs, John knows what we go through and has seen successful Golf professionals throughout his career.   I’m excited to apply his knowledge to our situation so everyone can be more proactive about creating a positive culture at their club, no matter your position.

John wasn’t here to pitch anything or to sell anything, but I encourage you to follow him on LinkedIn where’s he’s putting out really beneficial content almost daily about how to be a better leader.  He’s also the host of the Follow My Lead podcast, which I hope everyone will tune in to.  

Follow John on LinkedIn Here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngeades/

Find out more about LearnLoft Here: www.learnloft.com

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.

One of the phrases we hear all the time as Golf Professionals is something to the effect of “to meet or exceed expectations in every interaction”.  It’s an admirable goal and certainly a worthwhile mantra if we want to succeed in our positions as Golf Professionals.

But how many of us have taken the time to find out exactly what those expectations are?  What questions should we be asking during an interaction to get clarity on what our members, customers, bosses, and club leaders really want from us?

In this episode, we find out.  And it starts with a very powerful, but challenging phrase to use consistently...tell me more.

Charles White, of White Ridley, is an executive leadership coach who, during a long and successful career, has coached company presidents, corporate executives and CEO’s to improve their performance on the job and create positive outcomes for their organizations.  He coaches his clients to build a culture of integrity, where leaders do what they say they will do and clearly define expectations and results.

All the while, he’s been a golf junkie and an active member of multiple high-end clubs on the east coast.  He’s a friend, mentor and coach to multiple golf industry professionals and understands the challenges that we face and where our opportunities are to build a successful career.  If after listening, you’re interested in working with Charles to become a better leader, find out more and contact him by heading to whiteridgely.com.

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.

Jim Smith, Jr. is the Director of Golf at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Flourtown, PA.  A Past President of the Philadelphia Section, Jim has been awarded that sections’s Bill Strausbaugh award twice, the Merchandiser of the Year award, as well as Golf Professional of the Year in 2005.  

Jim has become a “go-to” guy for career advice and operational insight.  He has successfully guided many of his staff members on to their own Head Professional positions and continues to recruit and train at a very high level.

In this episode, Jim shares his keys to staying organized and succeeding in such a high volume and fast-paced environment.  As well as his experiences in coaching Assistants through the Head Professional interview process.  

He also explains his model for collecting feedback from his membership so he can be responsive and keep his finger on the pulse of the club...it’s a simple system, but as you’ll learn, it takes a consistent commitment.

And as promised in the title, we also go into his background and the “non-traditional” path he navigated to land as the Director of Golf at a Top 100 Club.  I think that may be the most valuable insight in this episode for many of you out there that may fall into the same situation.

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.

Have you had trouble attracting interns to your facility?  If so, you're not alone.  The market for seasonal labor at such an affordable cost is very competitive.  If you're like some facilities, you might have just stopped trying.

This episode has the potential to put you back on the right track to developing an attractive internship program at your club.

We’re talking with Brian Soule, Assistant Director and Internship Coordinator at Penn State’s PGA Golf Management Program.  Since Brian speaks with each of his 100 students that go out on internships every year, he has direct knowledge of what facilities are doing well, which helps attract interns for the future as well as maximize the interns contribution to your operation, but he also hears what makes for a bad internship experience and how that can kill your aspirations to utilize interns on a regular basis.

Enjoy.

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.

Kevin Muldoon is the Director of Golf at the Jupiter Hills Club in Florida. During a successful stint as the Head Professional at the Country Club of York in Pennsylvania, Kevin was likely in a position that he could have remained in for years, maybe for his entire career.

But as he tells us, his desire to continue his career progression and to expand his experiences, lead him to seek more. So, what was he doing to prepare himself for this new position where he’s doubled his levels of responsibility and is now leading twice as many team members? And what challenges was he facing as he stepped into this job?

Find out in this episode and learn what you can do to help keep your career moving on the right trajectory.

In addition, if you're an Assistant Professional, check out what Kevin looks for in hiring new team members and where you can focus to make yourself attractive to future employers.

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.

When something goes wrong and you're faced with an unhappy customer, what do you do? More often than not, we explain why the situation happened, or tell them we understand that they're unhappy, or worse...we defend our actions and tell them that they're wrong.

And how does that usually turn out?

What about being polite and professional? That usually helps diffuse the situation, doesn't it? As it turns out, politely proving that you're right and the customer is wrong doesn't make him feel any better. So as it turns out, there’s a better way. There are actual skills and techniques you can learn so that even when you’re faced with that member or customer that just wants to get in your face and make your life difficult, you can flip that situation on its head and turn it into a positive.

Once we understand that acknowledging the plight of the customer is paramount to an acceptable resolution, we can truly become an advocate for our customers rather than an adversary.

This episode has the potential to change your career for the better. Learning and mastering these customer service skills will limit the chances of a disgruntled member talking badly about you to others...or worse.

Our guest in this episode is Richard S. Gallagher, the author of the "Customer Service Survival Kit: What to Say to Defuse Even the Worst Customer Situations"

From Amazon.com: "The Customer Service Survival Kit explains how to use the right words to turn volatile scenarios into calm and productive customer encounters. Anyone can learn this delicate art with the book’s blend of clear techniques, lessons from behavioral science, case studies, situation-specific advice, and practice exercises. Readers will discover:

• The power of leaning into criticism

• Trigger phrases that can make bad situations worse

• The secret to helping people feel deeply heard in a crisis

• How to use the divide-and-conquer approach to safely deliver bad news

• Indispensable problem-solving tools

• How to become immune to intimidation

• How to wrap up transactions so that customers are happy

• And more!

Best yet, learning to handle worst-case scenarios has the spillover effect of boosting the skills and confidence needed to deal effectively with ANY customer—the key to radical improvements in every organization."

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.

In this episode, we finish our interview with Tony Pancake, the Director of Golf and Operations at Crooked Stick Golf Club. 

In Part II, we discuss Tony’s path to Crooked Stick and learn his advice for young Professionals to set themselves up on a positive career track. We uncover the moment that he can pinpoint that seemed to set his career on a successful track, as well as how his definition of success has evolved over time. And at the end of the interview, he has some great advice for aspiring Professionals on the one thing you should do set yourself up on the right path.

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.

In this episode, we finish our conversation with Patrick Seither, the President and CEO of the Golf Business Network. He tells us what's happening with GBN and what services he's providing in the network to help solve some of the challenges that PGA Professionals face everyday.

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.

Do ever feel like the constant ping of email and text messages are keeping you from getting your most important work done each and every day? Ever feel like it’s the only thing you do and that as a Golf Professional, your job is too centered around a computer screen and a cell phone? I know I do.

In my conversation with today’s guest, Tony Pancake the Director of Golf and Operations at Crooked Stick Golf Club, we learn from a 30+ year Head Golf Professional how he’s managing the expectations of the digital age. He outlines how his mindset was forced to change as he became busier and busier, and how he’s learned to delegate in a way that benefits his staff and himself.

A decorated PGA Professional, he is a 2-time PGA Section Junior Golf award winner, 2-time PGA Section Horton Smith Award winner, 2-time PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year, PGA Section Merchandiser of the Year, and PGA Section Bill Strausbaugh award winner. An accomplished player, playing college golf at the University of Alabama, in 2014 Tony won the Indiana State Senior Open.

As a mentor to many, Tony has helped develop over 30 former Assistants and Interns into current Head Professionals. His knowledge and experience is valuable to any Golf Professional.

Enjoy!

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.

Welcome to the Getting Better Now Podcast! In the first episode, we talk with Patrick Seither, the President and CEO of the Golf Business Network in part one of our two part conversation. Patrick talks about the route he took to end up in his current position and why he's passionate about helping his fellow PGA Professionals enhance their careers and their lives.

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.