April 7, 2025 • 39 mins
From wiping down ballroom walls as a kid to leading a thriving club community in the Lowcountry—Eric Bischofberger’s journey has come full circle.
In this episode, I sat down with Eric Bischofberger, CCM, General Manager & COO at Hampton Hall Club, to talk about what it’s really like to grow up around the private club world… and then choose to build a career in it yourself.
We dive into what it means to follow in your father’s footsteps, not out of obligation but out of deep respect and purpose. E
ric shares how those early memories shaped his mindset, and how he’s developed his own style of leadership, rooted in persistence, humility, and long term perspective.
We also cover
– How a few key failures taught him more than any certification ever could
– What it means to lead in a residential community, not just a clubhouse
– Why “making it” in this industry often comes down to showing up, over and over again
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club
Radio Show, where we give youthe scoop on all things private
golf and country clubs Frommastering, leadership and
management, food and beverageexcellence, member engagement
secrets, board governance andeverything in between, all while
keeping it fun and light.
Whether you're a club veteranjust getting your feet wet or
somewhere in the middle, you arein the right place.
(00:20):
I'm your host, denny Corby.
Welcome to the show.
In this episode, I am chattingwith Eric Bischoff-Berger, who
is a legacy in club management,because some people stumble into
the club industry, others areborn into it, and Eric
Bischoff-Berger is a secondgeneration in his family to run
private clubs.
(00:40):
Now, full transparency.
When I was recording theepisode with him, I thought he
was third generation and then hetold me it was second
generation, so I think Imisunderstood.
Either way, it's still reallycool to listen to his journey,
because it's more than justfollowing in his father's
footsteps.
It's about carving his own pathwhile honoring the lessons he's
(01:04):
learned along the way.
See, eric's dad immigrated tothe US from Switzerland, landing
him in New York with just a fewhundred bucks and a dream of
working in hospitality.
He climbed the ranks in hotelsand private clubs, eventually
running some of the top clubs inthe country and Eric grew up
watching his dad thrive in thebusiness.
Grew up watching his dad thrivein the business, but what
(01:28):
really stood out is his dadloved going to work and loved
coming home to say how much funand how much he enjoyed coming
home from work and that energywas very contagious.
Now Eric is leading his ownclub, bringing a modern
leadership style while keepingthe core values of service, hard
work and culture that his dadinstilled in him.
So we talk about the evolutionof club leadership, how
(01:52):
management styles have changedfrom old school to now new
school.
We talk about some HOA versusclub management, some of the
differences and which one hasmore drama and you probably
already know the answer.
We talk about the biggestmistake he's ever made as a
manager and how he recovered.
Eric's got great stories, realinsight and a deep passion for
leadership.
(02:12):
So this episode is so good.
I am so happy he came on, eventhough the real reason I brought
him on was I thought he wasthird generation, not second,
but I won't hold that againsthim.
But it's just a great episode.
He's a good human, a good dude,and cannot wait for you to dive
in.
Before we do get to the episode,though, real quick, I just want
to give a quick thanks to someof our show partners.
(02:32):
You're going to hear about themlater on in the episode.
We have Concert Golf Partners,kenneth's member vetting and
Members First, as well as myself.
The Denny Corby experience.
There's excitement, there'smagic, mind reading and comedy.
So much fun, so much crowd work, so much banter.
Your people are the real starsof the show.
The members are at the core ofit.
(02:54):
If you want to learn more, headon over to DennyCorbycom.
But enough about that, let'sget to the episode.
Private Club Radio listeners.
Let's welcome to the show.
Eric Bischoff-Berger, how doyou properly pronounce your last
name?
Slowly?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
That's like my corny joke that I share with you.
Know, I get a lot of eye rollswhen I say that Bischoff-Berger.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I don't know how I was saying it, but I don't think
it was like that.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Bischoff-Berger, but Bischoff burger, but just.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Eric, yeah, just, but just Eric.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Just Eric.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So so, third generation club manager, that is
that that's a first that I I'msure, I'm sure they're out there
, but the first that I'veencountered that's well, well,
well, danny, technically asecond generation club manager.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So my father was a was a club manager, not my
father's father.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Oh, never mind, this sucks.
We're shutting this down.
We're shutting this down.
I thought you said your grandpawas Now.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
my grandpa was in butcher houses and slaughter
houses in Switzerland.
My father immigrated fromSwitzerland because he thought
that was gross and wanted to getinto the people business and
felt like America.
You know he must've readsomething in a newspaper.
America's got hospitality so hewas coming to America.
(04:21):
Got cut out of my grandpa'swill by coming to America, only
had a couple hundred dollars,slept at a YMCA for his first
few weeks in the United States.
In New York City I got a job asa doorman at a hotel.
Worked his way up in the hotelbusiness and then eventually
made the switch over intoprivate clubs.
(04:43):
His first club was at theCountry Club Virginia in
Richmond Virginia, where he wasessentially the number two there
, the director of operations forSkip Harris, who was there for
well over 30 years.
And then I did my internship atCountry Club Virginia when I
was an undergrad at Universityof South Carolina.
It was big shoes to fill but itwas.
(05:10):
It was.
There was a lot of pride therebeing able to walk the halls
that my dad used to.
That I ran as a kid, notknowing really the full extent
of what he did and having thatopportunity.
And it was really cool becausethe team who was at Country Club
Virginia they do such a greatjob with culture there and they
have a hallway in one of theservice areas at the West
Hampton Clubhouse that has allthese old pictures.
(05:31):
I think they still have it.
I should have asked Bill Keisterabout it but all these old
pictures of past events andmanagers working there.
And so, as I worked at CountryClub Virginia, a nice surprise
was they started putting mypictures in there, right by my
dad's pictures, and that justyou know you want to talk about
giving you a purpose.
(05:52):
Wow, that purpose was so strongand I didn't want to let my dad
down Right.
Even to today, my dad's 81years old this year.
I don't want to let my dad downRight.
It's a bit of pride in theretoo, but it really serves as
it's a purpose and it's specialgetting to follow my dad's
(06:13):
footsteps and what he made hisentire life out of going from a
check with a couple hundreddollars to being able to put
food on the table for a familyyeah, and just, and, and just
work that way up.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And you know that's a phenomenal story and because
you're, if your dad's, 80, sothis was what back in the 50s,
60s.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I'm horrible at math, so no, when he was at country
club virginia, it was in the 90s.
It was in the 90s, yeah, he wasin the hotels and then he got
into country club virginia yep,yep, clubs was a little bit
later in his career, um, so itwas in the 90s.
Um and uh, and country clubvirginia, the mcgregor downs
country club in raleigh, uh, tohis last spot at porcelain club
(06:59):
in columbia, south carolina, uh,where he retired there, and and
he's happily playing golfnearly every single day and my
mom is better half riding horses, so getting to follow the
footsteps and in a veryrewarding career, it's pretty
cool.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, and that story is amazing, especially in a time
where where, like I feel likeright now, we, we all, have
access to so many resources andso many things and people still
just complain and just don't goafter or achieve anything.
And he just came from and justbuilt something, built a name
and a career and a life for himhimself and his family, where
(07:41):
most people like nowadays it'slike, you know, someone says
something wrong to them andthey're like I'm quitting life,
I'm right, I'm not gonna go towork and it's just like wow, wow
.
I was talking to another gm atconference.
He I mean not not, as you know,deep of a story as that, but he
came over from france when hewas, you know, late teens, early
20s, sold his car for a one-wayticket and just flew to
(08:03):
colorado and hoped for the best.
But it was a better life thanwhere he came from.
Just crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I love it because my dad actually ended up going to
Colorado, so maybe there'ssomething about the Europeans
wanting to go to Colorado.
I think he was attracted to theRockies, he used to ski a lot,
he used to actually be a heliskiinstructor and so going to
Colorado I think was pretty neatfor him when he got to get
involved in the ski lodges andhotels out there.
(08:30):
Well, I guess probably Coloradomight passed down from Bern.
Switzerland, where most of myfamily is even to this day, is
(08:51):
in Soliturn, which is just northof Bern.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, so what was it like growing up with a GM dad?
Did he bring work home?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So, Danny, what a great question.
It brings back so many memoriesto me.
So what really originallyinterested me in what my dad was
doing was I recognized my dadwas excited to go to work as
much as he was coming home fromwork, and that wasn't like
(09:27):
anybody else's dads, right whenI'd have sleepover at my buddy's
houses, you know dads are likeI got to go to work.
You know, this sucks.
And my dad's like, you know,he's got the Swiss yodeling
music crank and he's like, yes,I'm pumped to go to work.
And I'm like, yeah, right,something's got to be going on
there.
Right, I got to get to whereverhe's going and figure out
(09:49):
what's going on.
So it must be like Disney Worldor something.
And so I remember my first timeactually going to work with him,
and I remember it specificallybecause I got in trouble.
And I got in trouble because Iwanted to look like my dad when
he was going to work and he hada briefcase.
Right, I had the Sunday clothes, I could throw on a jacket, no
(10:10):
problem.
But I had to get a briefcase.
And the only briefcase that Iknew of that I could use was in
our game closet and it was abackgammon briefcase that had
all my mom's.
My mom loved this backgammonset.
And what did I do?
I took the briefcase full ofthe backgammon stuff and I
emptied it all out and threw allthe stuff away that was inside
(10:31):
of there and I just put somerandom papers inside this
backgammon briefcase and I wasready.
I was pumped to go to work too.
I'm like show me what's goingon at this cool place.
And that's when he was atCountry Club Virginia and I went
(10:52):
to work with him and it waseverything I could have imagined
, and more man.
This place had swimming pools,it had kids activities, it was
big and beautiful and there wasfood and beverage all over the
place.
And oh, by the way, in my dad'soffice he kept all the candy
bars in there.
It was the coolest.
By the way, in my dad's officehe kept all the candy bars in
there.
It was the coolest.
I loved it.
I mean, I couldn't get enough.
I was like, when can I comeback to work with you again, dad
(11:13):
?
And he's probably, you know.
And I'm like running down thehalls of Country Club Virginia
and you know, she's probablylike, oh gosh, I don't know,
it's probably going to be awhile.
But luckily, you know, mypersistence and keeping wanting
to come back led me to a pointwhere that was elementary school
, right.
As I got into middle school, itwas OK.
Now I'm going to put you towork, right, I'm going to give
you some things to do now.
(11:34):
Here's a rag, here's a bucket.
You're going to go in thisballroom and you're going to go
around and scrub all the wallsafter this event and let me know
when you're done, right and sodoing that wasn't as fun as my
first experience, but I startedto learn there's so much work
that goes into this and there'snot enough hours in the day to
(11:56):
get all this stuff done too.
How are we ever possibly goingto get to accomplish all of it?
And so I started to see, too,his leadership style.
You know the teamwork that goesinto it and it's like wow, all
of this does get accomplished,but it's by many hands and very
capable hands, passionate hands,people who are really excited
(12:18):
to be there and and see all ofthis come together and make this
experience for the members.
And it just resonated with me.
It set something off in myheart that I want to be a part
of that.
And again, going through theactual work, I saw that it was a
lot more than I could haveimagined First times.
(12:39):
Going there in elementaryschool, it was like, yeah, my
dad.
All he does is kiss babies andshakes people's hands.
Right, you start peeling backthat onion and seeing the amount
of work that goes in to makethis beautiful train run.
It's a lot and it's hard workand it takes a lot of time and
you start giving up on yourweekends.
Right?
(12:59):
If I want to go to work withdad on Saturday, I'm going to be
sacrificing something my timewith my buddies, you know,
playing football in the frontyard.
I'd rather go to work with mydad, right?
I'd rather be part of somethingbigger than you know, getting
some bruises and going home.
I want to be part of makingpeople's days.
(13:21):
I want to be part of thathappiness that people feel when
they're around my dad and aroundthat kind of culture.
That's what I want to be a partof.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
It sounds like that high came from, like the Clorox
that you were taking in from.
Oh yeah, Still there, Stillthere oh yeah, I think that even
just says a lot, just how hehad you clean the walls.
It sounds so dumb, but I can bevery fortunate to have been
able to go to so many clubs toperform and entertain, whatever
(13:52):
and there's a lot of dirty clubsand I think just having him
just, just you just say that,having having you clean the
walls is making sure his placewas nice, it was clean, clean.
I think that just says so muchto his, his leadership style.
If, if, if, if you were to bothsit down how do I want to
phrase this?
(14:12):
Is there what's the biggestchange in management since he
started?
Like, if you were, if you wereto both sit down and chat, what
do you think is the biggestchange in club management since
maybe he started and now thatyou are doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I would say the change is from the leadership
style right, going from an oldschool style of don't ever make
mistakes to embracing mistakes.
And I would say in that samesense too, my dad was ahead of
the curve on there.
I recognize that right, becausemy dad was constantly trying to
uplift people and recognizingif a mistake was made it wasn't
(14:53):
a gotcha, it was a okay.
This happened.
How are we going to learn fromthis?
How are we going to improvefrom this?
And I didn't see that withothers.
He was kind of a trailblazer inthat because he saw that that
worked.
I don't know if that was a trickin the bag from Switzerland or
what, but it worked and peoplegravitated towards that.
(15:16):
They wanted to follow that kindof leader right.
They wanted to follow someonewho they didn't feel like they
had to walk on eggshells and Ifeel like that was the feeling.
That was management.
Back there was I'm going tolight a fire under your butt.
And now what do we do?
We don't talk about that.
We talk about lighting a firewithin people.
(15:38):
We talk about how do you bringout the best in people, and it's
not by pushing them over theedge and breaking them, it's by
lifting them up right.
It's by modeling the way,inspiring that shared vision
right.
We challenge the process, butyou encourage and you enable
people, and so, while I thinkthat was the biggest change, I
(15:59):
think that he was embracing thatearly on in his career and it
was a major part of the successthat he saw too.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Does he?
Does he ever critique the waythat you run your club or your
your?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
style what I left out .
Denny is after.
After, uh, after wiping downthe walls in the ballroom, he
would come back around and sayEric, good job, but you missed
these areas.
You got to go back around again, you got to hit all of them.
The attention to detail thereand that really stood out to me
too was if you're going to do it, make sure you do it right,
(16:35):
make sure you give it your best.
Doesn't necessarily have to beyour all, but give it your best.
So that really resonated withme too, and that was special.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, I think we probably touched on it, but is
there anything that you'velearned from your dad that maybe
you couldn't learn from as youwere getting your CCM or any
leadership books or courses that, like nothing else that you
could have been taught, that youpicked up from him, or watching
, or just being around him?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I'd go with persistence.
If you're told no, or if youdon't get something, that's not
the end.
You can either go another pathor you can learn from it.
Right, the persistence that hetaught me has helped me in not
just my career but my life.
(17:29):
I wouldn't be married right nowif it wasn't for persistence.
You know, my wife didn't see meand say, wow, that guy's good
looking.
Yeah, that wasn't the case.
I had to battle.
You know I, it wasn't easy'teasy.
Um, but I think that was um,that that was really big, was
the.
He taught me persistence and II never learned that in
(17:51):
contemporary club management.
Um, love the book, right, andit's only getting better.
Um, but yeah, I didn't learnthat in school.
Um, the persistence that hetaught me I use every single day
and I'll I'll never stop usingit.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, you've, you've.
You've had quite the career aswell.
You've worked at a lot ofdifferent places, a lot of
different, unique places.
Was that intentional Was?
Were those moves lateral moves?
Were they intentional moves?
Were they progressive moves?
What was with some of thosemoves?
Yeah, it's funny because youwere following your wife.
(18:29):
She wouldn't leave you.
I think she followed me.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I got lucky.
I would say a lot of them wereintentional, but some of them
were not so intentional too.
So I'll kind of give you someexamples.
Starting off with internshipsworking for my dad at Forest
Lake Club.
Working at Country ClubVirginia extremely intentional.
I wanted to learn from the bestleader I knew, which was my
(18:56):
father.
I wanted to go to one of thebest clubs that I knew, which
was Country Club Virginia veryintentional.
After finishing the internshipat Country Club of Virginia,
going back to be a manager intraining extremely intentional.
Continuing from there and goingto Colleton River Club that
level of progression, veryintentional.
(19:17):
Where it hit kind of a bit of acurveball on me was really at
Colleton River.
When I came back a second time,tim Buckles great mentor, great
leader, great friend he wascrazy enough to hire me back at
Colleton as assistant generalmanager, had a great three and a
(19:38):
half years there.
I wanted to be the next GMthere, but I wasn't ready and I
wasn't what they were lookingfor either.
They needed a CEO, they neededRobert Cerecci, right, I wanted
to be that person, but I wasn'tready yet, and especially
because I didn't have the HOAexperience.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Did you know that you weren't ready, or did you think
you were ready?
And how did that feel?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I think I knew I wasn't ready, but I wanted to be
ready, right, I was ready tofake it, to make it if I needed
to, but it wasn't happening.
You know, I was reading thestars and it just wasn't
happening.
I needed to get that HOAexperience, and what not a
better place to go than Latitude, margaritaville, are you
kidding me?
(20:20):
I mean, first off, love thevibe, right, right.
I mean who doesn't?
That culture, that escapism,that fun, just a really neat
learning grounds from thatculture aspect.
But also closing anywhere from50 to 80 homes, not a year but a
month.
I mean we're flying throughhomes Minto, doing a phenomenal
(20:43):
job as the builder there forservice, who I work for as the
senior director overseeing theday-to-day operations there.
And then that third entity,margaritaville, which really
injected in that marketing, thatfun, that culture.
I got that great experience andthat set me up to be ready for
that GM job.
(21:04):
When Hampton Hall becameavailable it was a little bit
earlier than I thought it wouldbe.
I thought I'd probably be atLatitude for a couple more years
, but when the opportunity'sknocking, you got to go for it
and I put my name out there andI'm fortunate to be here at
Hampton Hall now for coming on ayear and a half, two years now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That's awesome.
Any wild homeowner complaintsthat you had to deal with.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh gosh At Latitude.
Margaritaville, yeah, or any ofthem, but yeah there, yeah Gosh
, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I'm sure that, for how well that.
I'm sure that attracts acertain personality.
Yeah, it's not just like any,like it's Marguerite.
I'm sure that attracts someunique people.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, I'd say.
And every club is quirky in itsown way, right, I feel like.
And every club has the noisetoo, right?
There's always that percentageof members who are just against
everything, for whatever reason,just as there's that same to be
said about members who are foreverything.
(22:15):
Right, they just love you.
Whatever you're doing, I loveit.
Don't even tell me what you'redoing, I'm sure it's great.
And the opposite holds true too.
And I'd say the crazieststories probably come from those
who are just against everything.
And it's like what you know?
Are you serious?
You know you're complainingbecause there's, you know, a
(22:37):
survey line that's going acrossyour yard, like you're the one
who put it there.
Why are you upset about that?
What's?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
what's what's hard to deal with?
Uh members who complain aboutlike a bad meal, a bad steak, or
homeowners who complain abouttheir neighbors like Christmas
lights.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So.
So, danny, to go back, I can'thelp.
But my dad's in my mind aboutthis right now and that is, um I
.
I do my best not to think ofthem as complaints, right, I try
to think of it as it's alwaysfeedback.
And my dad would always tell methe best gift you can ever get
from anyone is feedback.
And of course, earlier on I'mlike, no, that's not true, I
(23:16):
like money.
You know, a car would be nice.
The best gift you can get isfeedback, and I truly believe
that, especially in privateclubs, Because silent members.
You think about it.
If they're not telling you, youknow what their perspective is,
whether it's what's going right, what's not going right.
That hurts you pretty bad.
So you know the gift offeedback is fantastic and you
(23:42):
know, when it comes to you knowthe craziest.
You know feedback that you get.
It's all over the place.
You never know right, and Ithink that's one of the
attractions in being a clubmanager is you never know what
your day is going to bring.
And then, when you throw in theHOA element in there too, it's
like now you really never knowwhat your day is going to bring,
(24:02):
and that's exciting, that's fun.
So I enjoy that and Iappreciate that.
I always try to find the goldennugget within that feedback too
.
It may be totally wrong, butit's right to them right, it's
their perspective, it's theirreality to listen to them and
let them feel heard.
(24:23):
At the very least, it's apayoff for them and it's
enjoying to them and that's tosome of them, it's an amenity,
right, being able to complainabout things.
Right, I never see them, butthey love giving that gift of
feedback, right, it's an amenityto them.
So to me, the challenge is thebalance of time.
(24:44):
I only have so many hours in aday, right?
We need to be intentional withour time.
So it's great to hear all themembers and right now, 944
properties in Hampton Hall it'sa big place, right?
So if I'm spending all my daylistening to just a handful of
members, I'm missing out on thebigger picture.
So it's important to listen,but it's important to really be
(25:06):
intentional about that time andget them to the right person too
.
Yes, you know, let me, let me,let me stop you right there,
cause, yes, I, that is veryimportant.
Um, I can, I can feel yourpassion about it, but I'm not
the right person.
Who's going to help you withthis.
Let me get you to the rightperson, right.
I don't need to be the saviorright, and if I do, I'm just
(25:27):
going to.
I'm not going to use my timewisely.
So getting them to the rightplace, too, is really important
too.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
All right, Don't have to go into detail, but HOA
meetings versus club boardmeetings which one has more
drama?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Definitely HOA like hands down.
Any HOA managers I'm sure would100% empathize with that.
It's because there's so muchmore emotion right, you think
about it.
In HOAs these members, there'smore skin in the game.
They're buying it.
They got a house right, thebiggest asset that potentially
(26:02):
they're ever going to have intheir entire lives.
There's a lot of emotion behindthat.
Whereas in clubs, if you'reupset, see ya, right, whereas in
HOAs it's the emotion comes out.
And then also the vettingprocess too.
Right, traditional privateclubs, there's a membership
committee.
Right, I'm going to vet you out.
I'm going to make sure, yep,you fit.
(26:24):
You check all these boxes.
You're going to play dice inthe sandbox, come on in.
We love it.
Whereas HOAs, you got the moneyto buy that house.
You're in.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, that's got it.
Yeah, yeah, were there any,because you're a very open
person as well.
Was there anything that youlearned the hard way as a GM, a
mistake that really stuck withyou, cause it sounds like you've
had so much experience workingwith your dad and working out at
these amazing places, but wasthere anything that you learned
the hard way and it just stuckwith you now and it's just how
(26:57):
you, how you function.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I would say um, complacency, don't get too
comfortable, right?
I think when you getcomfortable, that's when you
make mistakes.
You got to find ways tocontinually be uncomfortable.
You got to find ways toconstantly push yourself.
When you get comfortable andyou live in complacency, you
start to more mistakes andcareless mistakes start to
(27:24):
happen, whereas when you'reuncomfortable and you're pushing
yourself, you make the goodkind of mistakes, the mistakes
that help you grow and getbetter, whereas I feel like when
you become comfortable, that'snot a place where you want to be
, especially not if you want tothrive.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Can you go into any more specific detail?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I'll give a specific one, and this is an interesting
one, but it kind of brings meback to some earlier managing
days.
I got really comfortable withthe schedule.
I was responsible for theschedule for the entire food and
beverage team and I gotcomfortable with it.
I wasn't going back through anddouble-checking everything, I
wasn't going back through mybanquet event orders and making
(28:09):
sure that I had everythingcovered, and I'm just putting
schedules out.
Well, one day we had a bigevent that was happening within
a couple hours and I'm cruisinginto work and you know, just
getting the day started and thenI start to wonder where is
everybody started?
(28:30):
And then I start to wonderwhere is everybody.
And then I look at the scheduleand I realize, oh my gosh, I
didn't schedule for the eventthat's about to take place.
Nonetheless, it hasn't evenbeen set up yet.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That was like so scary to me, and just a couple
hours Yo so, coming from like alike performers point of view,
that is my ultimate fear andnightmare.
Is someone going hey, where areyou at Right, right, oh my God.
So, oh man, I'm getting itchyjust thinking about this.
Go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So, so freaking out, right, having a, having a panic
attack, right, and my boss, myGM at the time, Eric, you all
right, I'm sweating I'm alwayswarm, but I'm really sweating
bullets at this point and I'mlike, yeah, I'm okay,
everything's fine.
I didn't admit my mistake.
I felt the pressure that I hadto figure it out on my own.
(29:24):
In hindsight I wish I wouldhave raised my hand and been
like, hey, can you help me?
I made a mistake, right, andkind of tag team it.
Luckily I had a reallyphenomenal team there that I
could count on and I'm liketexting like crazy hey, can you
please get here?
I screwed up, I forgot aboutthis event.
(29:47):
Need you here, need all handson deck so we can get this going
.
Luckily, everything got takencare of.
We were able to get enough teamhere to make it happen.
But I'll tell you that to yourpoint, danny, that that feeling
I still think about.
I can still remember, like thepen I was holding in my hand
when I'm like shaking aboutnobody's on the schedule.
(30:10):
So big learning moment there,right?
Don't get comfortable.
You know, double check, triplecheck.
Make sure that you're doingthings to the best of your
ability.
When you're comfortable.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
You're not doing things to the best of your
ability yeah, oh man, oh, Icannot, like I am itchy right
now like I, I wake up from night, make I I have woken up like,
like you know, thinking I misseda flight or something too, or
just, oh my goodness oh, I don'twant to itch anymore.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It's from those chemicals from the ballroom
cleaning.
You know just, you don't itchanymore, you don't feel too much
anymore, those sensory rods.
Oh it's funny that is funny.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Um, yeah, no, that that.
Oh you, you, you threw me for aloop there.
I didn't even wow.
Yeah, that has to be what.
What was the event like?
How were you able to pivot like?
How were you able to like, like, run me through, I just for,
because now I'm like hooked,like so what was the event and
how much time did you reallyhave to like?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
oh man it was like the whole.
It was a uh, it was a lady'luncheon and it had a good bit
of decorations.
That had to be done too.
Luckily, the decorations weredone because the event manager
was on it.
She was doing her best.
She was on it.
That was all ready to go.
(31:39):
It was really the manpower of.
We've got to get all thesetables up.
We've got to get all the rightchairs around the right tables.
We got to get the linen on.
So it was a hurry on that point.
But it was great because, asI'm waiting for all the team to
come in, I'm just mapping it outon the board.
You know, so-and-so silverware,so-and-so linen.
(32:00):
I'm going to be busting my button the tables getting that set
up because you know that's on me.
I need to be, I need to bereally showing that I'm sorry
about this and get the skin inthe game there.
But yeah, luckily it was close,but uh, but it all worked out
well.
I'm sure I was like completelydrenched in sweat when they came
in.
They're probably like what'sgoing on, but the room looks
(32:22):
nice was it?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
what?
Was it?
Like one of those like as soonas like the doors open, like
that, like the last bit ofsilverware was like being placed
and they had like no clue whatI'm what just?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I'm pretty sure I was like trying to schmooze them
for a minute so they couldn'tsee like the last water glasses
going down.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Oh yeah, that one sticks with you oh oh, man, man,
man, thank you for sharing that.
That man, thank you for sharingthat.
That's, yeah, thank you forsharing that.
Absolutely All right, as we'rewrapping up, finish the sentence
.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
The biggest misconception about being a GM
is the biggest misconceptionabout being a GM is that it's
easy, because I had thatmisconception right Early on,
watching my dad.
I thought it was easy.
I thought it was kissing babies, shaking hands.
And it's not easy.
And I find that the mostrewarding things in life aren't
(33:14):
easy.
Right, a career in clubmanagement, a career being a GM
COO?
Granted, this is my first one.
That path, that journey, o O.
Granted, this is my first one.
That path, that journey, that isnot easy.
It is tough and it's anythingbut a straight line.
It's a zigzag.
At times you know you're tryingto get to here, but to get
(33:35):
there you gotta.
And then you go down and it'stough.
It takes a lot of blood, sweatand tears.
It takes some long days, somelong nights at times, but it is
so rewarding.
It is so rewarding when youlove what you do and you find
purpose in what you do.
So, being a GM, it's anythingbut easy.
(33:56):
That journey getting there, buthow rewarding it is and the path
getting there, as you look backit's like man, those were great
times, although they were sotough.
And I think back to thatexample of that mistake that I
made too right, that was theworst of times, but it was the
best of times too, in the sensethat I got to see how much my
(34:18):
team really loved me becausethey were there for me.
They showed up when I didn'thave them showing up and that's
scary, especially when you needsomeone from food and beverage
to show up, let alone being downone person.
It's like I'm calling everybodyand nobody shows up.
That meant so much to me andagain, that reinforced the idea
again of having the rightleadership mentality.
(34:41):
I guarantee you none of thosepeople would have come to my
rescue had I been a jerk to them, had I been wanting to light a
fire underneath them.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They were waiting for that moment.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Oh yeah, they would have been like ha ha ha, can you
help?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, right, right, but the fact that they came, the
fact that they showed up, thefact that they, you know, were
there again, that just itreinforces, you know, the fact
that you know, you, you do theright things, you, you, you give
your best, you know, to yourpeople, um, it's, it all comes
around.
So it's not easy.
It's anything but easy.
(35:15):
It's so rewarding though, um,and it's.
I wouldn't do anything elsewith my life.
I would, I wouldn't do anythingelse with my life, I would
never do anything else with mylife.
It's so amazing and the journeygoing through that is so
rewarding, and learning newthings every day.
I mean my dad's 81, retiredrecovering club manager still
(35:38):
learns new things every day,right, it's so cool, so it's
anything but easy, but it'srewarding.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I know I did.
If you know someone else whomight enjoy it, share it with
them, Because if you can sharethe show, share the episodes,
the more we could share thiswith other people.
It helps the channel grow,helps the show grow and means
the world and costs nothing.
That's this episode.
I'm your host, Danny Corby.
Until next time, catch y'all onthe Flippity Flip.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club
Radio Show, where we give youthe scoop on all things private
golf and country clubs Frommastering, leadership and
management, food and beverageexcellence, member engagement
secrets, board governance andeverything in between, all while
keeping it fun and light.
Whether you're a club veteranjust getting your feet wet or
somewhere in the middle, you arein the right place.
(00:20):
I'm your host, denny Corby.
Welcome to the show.
In this episode, I am chattingwith Eric Bischoff-Berger, who
is a legacy in club management,because some people stumble into
the club industry, others areborn into it, and Eric
Bischoff-Berger is a secondgeneration in his family to run
private clubs.
(00:40):
Now, full transparency.
When I was recording theepisode with him, I thought he
was third generation and then hetold me it was second
generation, so I think Imisunderstood.
Either way, it's still reallycool to listen to his journey,
because it's more than justfollowing in his father's
footsteps.
It's about carving his own pathwhile honoring the lessons he's
(01:04):
learned along the way.
See, eric's dad immigrated tothe US from Switzerland, landing
him in New York with just a fewhundred bucks and a dream of
working in hospitality.
He climbed the ranks in hotelsand private clubs, eventually
running some of the top clubs inthe country and Eric grew up
watching his dad thrive in thebusiness.
Grew up watching his dad thrivein the business, but what
(01:28):
really stood out is his dadloved going to work and loved
coming home to say how much funand how much he enjoyed coming
home from work and that energywas very contagious.
Now Eric is leading his ownclub, bringing a modern
leadership style while keepingthe core values of service, hard
work and culture that his dadinstilled in him.
So we talk about the evolutionof club leadership, how
(01:52):
management styles have changedfrom old school to now new
school.
We talk about some HOA versusclub management, some of the
differences and which one hasmore drama and you probably
already know the answer.
We talk about the biggestmistake he's ever made as a
manager and how he recovered.
Eric's got great stories, realinsight and a deep passion for
leadership.
(02:12):
So this episode is so good.
I am so happy he came on, eventhough the real reason I brought
him on was I thought he wasthird generation, not second,
but I won't hold that againsthim.
But it's just a great episode.
He's a good human, a good dude,and cannot wait for you to dive
in.
Before we do get to the episode,though, real quick, I just want
to give a quick thanks to someof our show partners.
(02:32):
You're going to hear about themlater on in the episode.
We have Concert Golf Partners,kenneth's member vetting and
Members First, as well as myself.
The Denny Corby experience.
There's excitement, there'smagic, mind reading and comedy.
So much fun, so much crowd work, so much banter.
Your people are the real starsof the show.
The members are at the core ofit.
(02:54):
If you want to learn more, headon over to DennyCorbycom.
But enough about that, let'sget to the episode.
Private Club Radio listeners.
Let's welcome to the show.
Eric Bischoff-Berger, how doyou properly pronounce your last
name?
Slowly?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
That's like my corny joke that I share with you.
Know, I get a lot of eye rollswhen I say that Bischoff-Berger.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I don't know how I was saying it, but I don't think
it was like that.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Bischoff-Berger, but Bischoff burger, but just.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Eric, yeah, just, but just Eric.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Just Eric.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So so, third generation club manager, that is
that that's a first that I I'msure, I'm sure they're out there
, but the first that I'veencountered that's well, well,
well, danny, technically asecond generation club manager.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So my father was a was a club manager, not my
father's father.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Oh, never mind, this sucks.
We're shutting this down.
We're shutting this down.
I thought you said your grandpawas Now.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
my grandpa was in butcher houses and slaughter
houses in Switzerland.
My father immigrated fromSwitzerland because he thought
that was gross and wanted to getinto the people business and
felt like America.
You know he must've readsomething in a newspaper.
America's got hospitality so hewas coming to America.
(04:21):
Got cut out of my grandpa'swill by coming to America, only
had a couple hundred dollars,slept at a YMCA for his first
few weeks in the United States.
In New York City I got a job asa doorman at a hotel.
Worked his way up in the hotelbusiness and then eventually
made the switch over intoprivate clubs.
(04:43):
His first club was at theCountry Club Virginia in
Richmond Virginia, where he wasessentially the number two there
, the director of operations forSkip Harris, who was there for
well over 30 years.
And then I did my internship atCountry Club Virginia when I
was an undergrad at Universityof South Carolina.
It was big shoes to fill but itwas.
(05:10):
It was.
There was a lot of pride therebeing able to walk the halls
that my dad used to.
That I ran as a kid, notknowing really the full extent
of what he did and having thatopportunity.
And it was really cool becausethe team who was at Country Club
Virginia they do such a greatjob with culture there and they
have a hallway in one of theservice areas at the West
Hampton Clubhouse that has allthese old pictures.
(05:31):
I think they still have it.
I should have asked Bill Keisterabout it but all these old
pictures of past events andmanagers working there.
And so, as I worked at CountryClub Virginia, a nice surprise
was they started putting mypictures in there, right by my
dad's pictures, and that justyou know you want to talk about
giving you a purpose.
(05:52):
Wow, that purpose was so strongand I didn't want to let my dad
down Right.
Even to today, my dad's 81years old this year.
I don't want to let my dad downRight.
It's a bit of pride in theretoo, but it really serves as
it's a purpose and it's specialgetting to follow my dad's
(06:13):
footsteps and what he made hisentire life out of going from a
check with a couple hundreddollars to being able to put
food on the table for a familyyeah, and just, and, and just
work that way up.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And you know that's a phenomenal story and because
you're, if your dad's, 80, sothis was what back in the 50s,
60s.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I'm horrible at math, so no, when he was at country
club virginia, it was in the 90s.
It was in the 90s, yeah, he wasin the hotels and then he got
into country club virginia yep,yep, clubs was a little bit
later in his career, um, so itwas in the 90s.
Um and uh, and country clubvirginia, the mcgregor downs
country club in raleigh, uh, tohis last spot at porcelain club
(06:59):
in columbia, south carolina, uh,where he retired there, and and
he's happily playing golfnearly every single day and my
mom is better half riding horses, so getting to follow the
footsteps and in a veryrewarding career, it's pretty
cool.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, and that story is amazing, especially in a time
where where, like I feel likeright now, we, we all, have
access to so many resources andso many things and people still
just complain and just don't goafter or achieve anything.
And he just came from and justbuilt something, built a name
and a career and a life for himhimself and his family, where
(07:41):
most people like nowadays it'slike, you know, someone says
something wrong to them andthey're like I'm quitting life,
I'm right, I'm not gonna go towork and it's just like wow, wow
.
I was talking to another gm atconference.
He I mean not not, as you know,deep of a story as that, but he
came over from france when hewas, you know, late teens, early
20s, sold his car for a one-wayticket and just flew to
(08:03):
colorado and hoped for the best.
But it was a better life thanwhere he came from.
Just crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I love it because my dad actually ended up going to
Colorado, so maybe there'ssomething about the Europeans
wanting to go to Colorado.
I think he was attracted to theRockies, he used to ski a lot,
he used to actually be a heliskiinstructor and so going to
Colorado I think was pretty neatfor him when he got to get
involved in the ski lodges andhotels out there.
(08:30):
Well, I guess probably Coloradomight passed down from Bern.
Switzerland, where most of myfamily is even to this day, is
(08:51):
in Soliturn, which is just northof Bern.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, so what was it like growing up with a GM dad?
Did he bring work home?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So, Danny, what a great question.
It brings back so many memoriesto me.
So what really originallyinterested me in what my dad was
doing was I recognized my dadwas excited to go to work as
much as he was coming home fromwork, and that wasn't like
(09:27):
anybody else's dads, right whenI'd have sleepover at my buddy's
houses, you know dads are likeI got to go to work.
You know, this sucks.
And my dad's like, you know,he's got the Swiss yodeling
music crank and he's like, yes,I'm pumped to go to work.
And I'm like, yeah, right,something's got to be going on
there.
Right, I got to get to whereverhe's going and figure out
(09:49):
what's going on.
So it must be like Disney Worldor something.
And so I remember my first timeactually going to work with him,
and I remember it specificallybecause I got in trouble.
And I got in trouble because Iwanted to look like my dad when
he was going to work and he hada briefcase.
Right, I had the Sunday clothes, I could throw on a jacket, no
(10:10):
problem.
But I had to get a briefcase.
And the only briefcase that Iknew of that I could use was in
our game closet and it was abackgammon briefcase that had
all my mom's.
My mom loved this backgammonset.
And what did I do?
I took the briefcase full ofthe backgammon stuff and I
emptied it all out and threw allthe stuff away that was inside
(10:31):
of there and I just put somerandom papers inside this
backgammon briefcase and I wasready.
I was pumped to go to work too.
I'm like show me what's goingon at this cool place.
And that's when he was atCountry Club Virginia and I went
(10:52):
to work with him and it waseverything I could have imagined
, and more man.
This place had swimming pools,it had kids activities, it was
big and beautiful and there wasfood and beverage all over the
place.
And oh, by the way, in my dad'soffice he kept all the candy
bars in there.
It was the coolest.
By the way, in my dad's officehe kept all the candy bars in
there.
It was the coolest.
I loved it.
I mean, I couldn't get enough.
I was like, when can I comeback to work with you again, dad
(11:13):
?
And he's probably, you know.
And I'm like running down thehalls of Country Club Virginia
and you know, she's probablylike, oh gosh, I don't know,
it's probably going to be awhile.
But luckily, you know, mypersistence and keeping wanting
to come back led me to a pointwhere that was elementary school
, right.
As I got into middle school, itwas OK.
Now I'm going to put you towork, right, I'm going to give
you some things to do now.
(11:34):
Here's a rag, here's a bucket.
You're going to go in thisballroom and you're going to go
around and scrub all the wallsafter this event and let me know
when you're done, right and sodoing that wasn't as fun as my
first experience, but I startedto learn there's so much work
that goes into this and there'snot enough hours in the day to
(11:56):
get all this stuff done too.
How are we ever possibly goingto get to accomplish all of it?
And so I started to see, too,his leadership style.
You know the teamwork that goesinto it and it's like wow, all
of this does get accomplished,but it's by many hands and very
capable hands, passionate hands,people who are really excited
(12:18):
to be there and and see all ofthis come together and make this
experience for the members.
And it just resonated with me.
It set something off in myheart that I want to be a part
of that.
And again, going through theactual work, I saw that it was a
lot more than I could haveimagined First times.
(12:39):
Going there in elementaryschool, it was like, yeah, my
dad.
All he does is kiss babies andshakes people's hands.
Right, you start peeling backthat onion and seeing the amount
of work that goes in to makethis beautiful train run.
It's a lot and it's hard workand it takes a lot of time and
you start giving up on yourweekends.
Right?
(12:59):
If I want to go to work withdad on Saturday, I'm going to be
sacrificing something my timewith my buddies, you know,
playing football in the frontyard.
I'd rather go to work with mydad, right?
I'd rather be part of somethingbigger than you know, getting
some bruises and going home.
I want to be part of makingpeople's days.
(13:21):
I want to be part of thathappiness that people feel when
they're around my dad and aroundthat kind of culture.
That's what I want to be a partof.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
It sounds like that high came from, like the Clorox
that you were taking in from.
Oh yeah, Still there, Stillthere oh yeah, I think that even
just says a lot, just how hehad you clean the walls.
It sounds so dumb, but I can bevery fortunate to have been
able to go to so many clubs toperform and entertain, whatever
(13:52):
and there's a lot of dirty clubsand I think just having him
just, just you just say that,having having you clean the
walls is making sure his placewas nice, it was clean, clean.
I think that just says so muchto his, his leadership style.
If, if, if, if you were to bothsit down how do I want to
phrase this?
(14:12):
Is there what's the biggestchange in management since he
started?
Like, if you were, if you wereto both sit down and chat, what
do you think is the biggestchange in club management since
maybe he started and now thatyou are doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I would say the change is from the leadership
style right, going from an oldschool style of don't ever make
mistakes to embracing mistakes.
And I would say in that samesense too, my dad was ahead of
the curve on there.
I recognize that right, becausemy dad was constantly trying to
uplift people and recognizingif a mistake was made it wasn't
(14:53):
a gotcha, it was a okay.
This happened.
How are we going to learn fromthis?
How are we going to improvefrom this?
And I didn't see that withothers.
He was kind of a trailblazer inthat because he saw that that
worked.
I don't know if that was a trickin the bag from Switzerland or
what, but it worked and peoplegravitated towards that.
(15:16):
They wanted to follow that kindof leader right.
They wanted to follow someonewho they didn't feel like they
had to walk on eggshells and Ifeel like that was the feeling.
That was management.
Back there was I'm going tolight a fire under your butt.
And now what do we do?
We don't talk about that.
We talk about lighting a firewithin people.
(15:38):
We talk about how do you bringout the best in people, and it's
not by pushing them over theedge and breaking them, it's by
lifting them up right.
It's by modeling the way,inspiring that shared vision
right.
We challenge the process, butyou encourage and you enable
people, and so, while I thinkthat was the biggest change, I
(15:59):
think that he was embracing thatearly on in his career and it
was a major part of the successthat he saw too.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Does he?
Does he ever critique the waythat you run your club or your
your?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
style what I left out .
Denny is after.
After, uh, after wiping downthe walls in the ballroom, he
would come back around and sayEric, good job, but you missed
these areas.
You got to go back around again, you got to hit all of them.
The attention to detail thereand that really stood out to me
too was if you're going to do it, make sure you do it right,
(16:35):
make sure you give it your best.
Doesn't necessarily have to beyour all, but give it your best.
So that really resonated withme too, and that was special.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, I think we probably touched on it, but is
there anything that you'velearned from your dad that maybe
you couldn't learn from as youwere getting your CCM or any
leadership books or courses that, like nothing else that you
could have been taught, that youpicked up from him, or watching
, or just being around him?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I'd go with persistence.
If you're told no, or if youdon't get something, that's not
the end.
You can either go another pathor you can learn from it.
Right, the persistence that hetaught me has helped me in not
just my career but my life.
(17:29):
I wouldn't be married right nowif it wasn't for persistence.
You know, my wife didn't see meand say, wow, that guy's good
looking.
Yeah, that wasn't the case.
I had to battle.
You know I, it wasn't easy'teasy.
Um, but I think that was um,that that was really big, was
the.
He taught me persistence and II never learned that in
(17:51):
contemporary club management.
Um, love the book, right, andit's only getting better.
Um, but yeah, I didn't learnthat in school.
Um, the persistence that hetaught me I use every single day
and I'll I'll never stop usingit.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, you've, you've.
You've had quite the career aswell.
You've worked at a lot ofdifferent places, a lot of
different, unique places.
Was that intentional Was?
Were those moves lateral moves?
Were they intentional moves?
Were they progressive moves?
What was with some of thosemoves?
Yeah, it's funny because youwere following your wife.
(18:29):
She wouldn't leave you.
I think she followed me.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I got lucky.
I would say a lot of them wereintentional, but some of them
were not so intentional too.
So I'll kind of give you someexamples.
Starting off with internshipsworking for my dad at Forest
Lake Club.
Working at Country ClubVirginia extremely intentional.
I wanted to learn from the bestleader I knew, which was my
(18:56):
father.
I wanted to go to one of thebest clubs that I knew, which
was Country Club Virginia veryintentional.
After finishing the internshipat Country Club of Virginia,
going back to be a manager intraining extremely intentional.
Continuing from there and goingto Colleton River Club that
level of progression, veryintentional.
(19:17):
Where it hit kind of a bit of acurveball on me was really at
Colleton River.
When I came back a second time,tim Buckles great mentor, great
leader, great friend he wascrazy enough to hire me back at
Colleton as assistant generalmanager, had a great three and a
(19:38):
half years there.
I wanted to be the next GMthere, but I wasn't ready and I
wasn't what they were lookingfor either.
They needed a CEO, they neededRobert Cerecci, right, I wanted
to be that person, but I wasn'tready yet, and especially
because I didn't have the HOAexperience.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Did you know that you weren't ready, or did you think
you were ready?
And how did that feel?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I think I knew I wasn't ready, but I wanted to be
ready, right, I was ready tofake it, to make it if I needed
to, but it wasn't happening.
You know, I was reading thestars and it just wasn't
happening.
I needed to get that HOAexperience, and what not a
better place to go than Latitude, margaritaville, are you
kidding me?
(20:20):
I mean, first off, love thevibe, right, right.
I mean who doesn't?
That culture, that escapism,that fun, just a really neat
learning grounds from thatculture aspect.
But also closing anywhere from50 to 80 homes, not a year but a
month.
I mean we're flying throughhomes Minto, doing a phenomenal
(20:43):
job as the builder there forservice, who I work for as the
senior director overseeing theday-to-day operations there.
And then that third entity,margaritaville, which really
injected in that marketing, thatfun, that culture.
I got that great experience andthat set me up to be ready for
that GM job.
(21:04):
When Hampton Hall becameavailable it was a little bit
earlier than I thought it wouldbe.
I thought I'd probably be atLatitude for a couple more years
, but when the opportunity'sknocking, you got to go for it
and I put my name out there andI'm fortunate to be here at
Hampton Hall now for coming on ayear and a half, two years now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That's awesome.
Any wild homeowner complaintsthat you had to deal with.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh gosh At Latitude.
Margaritaville, yeah, or any ofthem, but yeah there, yeah Gosh
, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I'm sure that, for how well that.
I'm sure that attracts acertain personality.
Yeah, it's not just like any,like it's Marguerite.
I'm sure that attracts someunique people.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, I'd say.
And every club is quirky in itsown way, right, I feel like.
And every club has the noisetoo, right?
There's always that percentageof members who are just against
everything, for whatever reason,just as there's that same to be
said about members who are foreverything.
(22:15):
Right, they just love you.
Whatever you're doing, I loveit.
Don't even tell me what you'redoing, I'm sure it's great.
And the opposite holds true too.
And I'd say the crazieststories probably come from those
who are just against everything.
And it's like what you know?
Are you serious?
You know you're complainingbecause there's, you know, a
(22:37):
survey line that's going acrossyour yard, like you're the one
who put it there.
Why are you upset about that?
What's?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
what's what's hard to deal with?
Uh members who complain aboutlike a bad meal, a bad steak, or
homeowners who complain abouttheir neighbors like Christmas
lights.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So.
So, danny, to go back, I can'thelp.
But my dad's in my mind aboutthis right now and that is, um I
.
I do my best not to think ofthem as complaints, right, I try
to think of it as it's alwaysfeedback.
And my dad would always tell methe best gift you can ever get
from anyone is feedback.
And of course, earlier on I'mlike, no, that's not true, I
(23:16):
like money.
You know, a car would be nice.
The best gift you can get isfeedback, and I truly believe
that, especially in privateclubs, Because silent members.
You think about it.
If they're not telling you, youknow what their perspective is,
whether it's what's going right, what's not going right.
That hurts you pretty bad.
So you know the gift offeedback is fantastic and you
(23:42):
know, when it comes to you knowthe craziest.
You know feedback that you get.
It's all over the place.
You never know right, and Ithink that's one of the
attractions in being a clubmanager is you never know what
your day is going to bring.
And then, when you throw in theHOA element in there too, it's
like now you really never knowwhat your day is going to bring,
(24:02):
and that's exciting, that's fun.
So I enjoy that and Iappreciate that.
I always try to find the goldennugget within that feedback too
.
It may be totally wrong, butit's right to them right, it's
their perspective, it's theirreality to listen to them and
let them feel heard.
(24:23):
At the very least, it's apayoff for them and it's
enjoying to them and that's tosome of them, it's an amenity,
right, being able to complainabout things.
Right, I never see them, butthey love giving that gift of
feedback, right, it's an amenityto them.
So to me, the challenge is thebalance of time.
(24:44):
I only have so many hours in aday, right?
We need to be intentional withour time.
So it's great to hear all themembers and right now, 944
properties in Hampton Hall it'sa big place, right?
So if I'm spending all my daylistening to just a handful of
members, I'm missing out on thebigger picture.
So it's important to listen,but it's important to really be
(25:06):
intentional about that time andget them to the right person too
.
Yes, you know, let me, let me,let me stop you right there,
cause, yes, I, that is veryimportant.
Um, I can, I can feel yourpassion about it, but I'm not
the right person.
Who's going to help you withthis.
Let me get you to the rightperson, right.
I don't need to be the saviorright, and if I do, I'm just
(25:27):
going to.
I'm not going to use my timewisely.
So getting them to the rightplace, too, is really important
too.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
All right, Don't have to go into detail, but HOA
meetings versus club boardmeetings which one has more
drama?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Definitely HOA like hands down.
Any HOA managers I'm sure would100% empathize with that.
It's because there's so muchmore emotion right, you think
about it.
In HOAs these members, there'smore skin in the game.
They're buying it.
They got a house right, thebiggest asset that potentially
(26:02):
they're ever going to have intheir entire lives.
There's a lot of emotion behindthat.
Whereas in clubs, if you'reupset, see ya, right, whereas in
HOAs it's the emotion comes out.
And then also the vettingprocess too.
Right, traditional privateclubs, there's a membership
committee.
Right, I'm going to vet you out.
I'm going to make sure, yep,you fit.
(26:24):
You check all these boxes.
You're going to play dice inthe sandbox, come on in.
We love it.
Whereas HOAs, you got the moneyto buy that house.
You're in.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, that's got it.
Yeah, yeah, were there any,because you're a very open
person as well.
Was there anything that youlearned the hard way as a GM, a
mistake that really stuck withyou, cause it sounds like you've
had so much experience workingwith your dad and working out at
these amazing places, but wasthere anything that you learned
the hard way and it just stuckwith you now and it's just how
(26:57):
you, how you function.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I would say um, complacency, don't get too
comfortable, right?
I think when you getcomfortable, that's when you
make mistakes.
You got to find ways tocontinually be uncomfortable.
You got to find ways toconstantly push yourself.
When you get comfortable andyou live in complacency, you
start to more mistakes andcareless mistakes start to
(27:24):
happen, whereas when you'reuncomfortable and you're pushing
yourself, you make the goodkind of mistakes, the mistakes
that help you grow and getbetter, whereas I feel like when
you become comfortable, that'snot a place where you want to be
, especially not if you want tothrive.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Can you go into any more specific detail?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I'll give a specific one, and this is an interesting
one, but it kind of brings meback to some earlier managing
days.
I got really comfortable withthe schedule.
I was responsible for theschedule for the entire food and
beverage team and I gotcomfortable with it.
I wasn't going back through anddouble-checking everything, I
wasn't going back through mybanquet event orders and making
(28:09):
sure that I had everythingcovered, and I'm just putting
schedules out.
Well, one day we had a bigevent that was happening within
a couple hours and I'm cruisinginto work and you know, just
getting the day started and thenI start to wonder where is
everybody started?
(28:30):
And then I start to wonderwhere is everybody.
And then I look at the scheduleand I realize, oh my gosh, I
didn't schedule for the eventthat's about to take place.
Nonetheless, it hasn't evenbeen set up yet.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That was like so scary to me, and just a couple
hours Yo so, coming from like alike performers point of view,
that is my ultimate fear andnightmare.
Is someone going hey, where areyou at Right, right, oh my God.
So, oh man, I'm getting itchyjust thinking about this.
Go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So, so freaking out, right, having a, having a panic
attack, right, and my boss, myGM at the time, Eric, you all
right, I'm sweating I'm alwayswarm, but I'm really sweating
bullets at this point and I'mlike, yeah, I'm okay,
everything's fine.
I didn't admit my mistake.
I felt the pressure that I hadto figure it out on my own.
(29:24):
In hindsight I wish I wouldhave raised my hand and been
like, hey, can you help me?
I made a mistake, right, andkind of tag team it.
Luckily I had a reallyphenomenal team there that I
could count on and I'm liketexting like crazy hey, can you
please get here?
I screwed up, I forgot aboutthis event.
(29:47):
Need you here, need all handson deck so we can get this going
.
Luckily, everything got takencare of.
We were able to get enough teamhere to make it happen.
But I'll tell you that to yourpoint, danny, that that feeling
I still think about.
I can still remember, like thepen I was holding in my hand
when I'm like shaking aboutnobody's on the schedule.
(30:10):
So big learning moment there,right?
Don't get comfortable.
You know, double check, triplecheck.
Make sure that you're doingthings to the best of your
ability.
When you're comfortable.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
You're not doing things to the best of your
ability yeah, oh man, oh, Icannot, like I am itchy right
now like I, I wake up from night, make I I have woken up like,
like you know, thinking I misseda flight or something too, or
just, oh my goodness oh, I don'twant to itch anymore.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It's from those chemicals from the ballroom
cleaning.
You know just, you don't itchanymore, you don't feel too much
anymore, those sensory rods.
Oh it's funny that is funny.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Um, yeah, no, that that.
Oh you, you, you threw me for aloop there.
I didn't even wow.
Yeah, that has to be what.
What was the event like?
How were you able to pivot like?
How were you able to like, like, run me through, I just for,
because now I'm like hooked,like so what was the event and
how much time did you reallyhave to like?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
oh man it was like the whole.
It was a uh, it was a lady'luncheon and it had a good bit
of decorations.
That had to be done too.
Luckily, the decorations weredone because the event manager
was on it.
She was doing her best.
She was on it.
That was all ready to go.
(31:39):
It was really the manpower of.
We've got to get all thesetables up.
We've got to get all the rightchairs around the right tables.
We got to get the linen on.
So it was a hurry on that point.
But it was great because, asI'm waiting for all the team to
come in, I'm just mapping it outon the board.
You know, so-and-so silverware,so-and-so linen.
(32:00):
I'm going to be busting my button the tables getting that set
up because you know that's on me.
I need to be, I need to bereally showing that I'm sorry
about this and get the skin inthe game there.
But yeah, luckily it was close,but uh, but it all worked out
well.
I'm sure I was like completelydrenched in sweat when they came
in.
They're probably like what'sgoing on, but the room looks
(32:22):
nice was it?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
what?
Was it?
Like one of those like as soonas like the doors open, like
that, like the last bit ofsilverware was like being placed
and they had like no clue whatI'm what just?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I'm pretty sure I was like trying to schmooze them
for a minute so they couldn'tsee like the last water glasses
going down.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Oh yeah, that one sticks with you oh oh, man, man,
man, thank you for sharing that.
That man, thank you for sharingthat.
That's, yeah, thank you forsharing that.
Absolutely All right, as we'rewrapping up, finish the sentence
.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
The biggest misconception about being a GM
is the biggest misconceptionabout being a GM is that it's
easy, because I had thatmisconception right Early on,
watching my dad.
I thought it was easy.
I thought it was kissing babies, shaking hands.
And it's not easy.
And I find that the mostrewarding things in life aren't
(33:14):
easy.
Right, a career in clubmanagement, a career being a GM
COO?
Granted, this is my first one.
That path, that journey, o O.
Granted, this is my first one.
That path, that journey, that isnot easy.
It is tough and it's anythingbut a straight line.
It's a zigzag.
At times you know you're tryingto get to here, but to get
(33:35):
there you gotta.
And then you go down and it'stough.
It takes a lot of blood, sweatand tears.
It takes some long days, somelong nights at times, but it is
so rewarding.
It is so rewarding when youlove what you do and you find
purpose in what you do.
So, being a GM, it's anythingbut easy.
(33:56):
That journey getting there, buthow rewarding it is and the path
getting there, as you look backit's like man, those were great
times, although they were sotough.
And I think back to thatexample of that mistake that I
made too right, that was theworst of times, but it was the
best of times too, in the sensethat I got to see how much my
(34:18):
team really loved me becausethey were there for me.
They showed up when I didn'thave them showing up and that's
scary, especially when you needsomeone from food and beverage
to show up, let alone being downone person.
It's like I'm calling everybodyand nobody shows up.
That meant so much to me andagain, that reinforced the idea
again of having the rightleadership mentality.
(34:41):
I guarantee you none of thosepeople would have come to my
rescue had I been a jerk to them, had I been wanting to light a
fire underneath them.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
They were waiting for that moment.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Oh yeah, they would have been like ha ha ha, can you
help?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, right, right, but the fact that they came, the
fact that they showed up, thefact that they, you know, were
there again, that just itreinforces, you know, the fact
that you know, you, you do theright things, you, you, you give
your best, you know, to yourpeople, um, it's, it all comes
around.
So it's not easy.
It's anything but easy.
(35:15):
It's so rewarding though, um,and it's.
I wouldn't do anything elsewith my life.
I would, I wouldn't do anythingelse with my life, I would
never do anything else with mylife.
It's so amazing and the journeygoing through that is so
rewarding, and learning newthings every day.
I mean my dad's 81, retiredrecovering club manager still
(35:38):
learns new things every day,right, it's so cool, so it's
anything but easy, but it'srewarding.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I know I did.
If you know someone else whomight enjoy it, share it with
them, Because if you can sharethe show, share the episodes,
the more we could share thiswith other people.
It helps the channel grow,helps the show grow and means
the world and costs nothing.
That's this episode.
I'm your host, Danny Corby.
Until next time, catch y'all onthe Flippity Flip.
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