S8 EP 04: "Owning" the Problem...and the Solution | Jay Karen, CEO, NGCOA

08/15/22 • 57 min

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In this season of Getting Better Now, we’ve talked a lot about the state of the golf industry. We heard from the Golf Professionals when we highlighted “The Club Pro Crisis” in Episode 01 of this season. We heard from the CEO of the PGA of America himself in a candid conversation with Seth Waugh in Episode 02. Now in Episode 04 of Season 8, we hear from another association chief, Jay Karen.
Jay is the CEO of the National Golf Course Owner’s Association (NGCOA), where he’s spent nearly 17 years in multiple roles with the association. He has a pulse on the issues impacting owners throughout the country, many of which end up impacting us as the PGA Professionals working for those owners.
A self-proclaimed “learner”, Jay is actually pursuing his membership as a Class A PGA Professional and you’ll hear his own war story about passing the PAT. In addition, we’ll obviously get into the labor situation from the perspective of the owners as well as Jay’s personal feelings about how we got here, and more importantly how we can fix it.
Jay also watched the downturn in golf happen after the “Tiger Boom” and has great insight into how we can avoid that from happening again, post COVID.
Jay is the co-host of Golf Business LIVE, where he shares the screen with the PGA’s own Don Rea. You can catch up on past episodes on YouTube.
Not only was Jay fun to talk to, he is really knowledgeable on the issues impacting golf so I know you’re going to get a lot from this conversation.

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S8 EP 03: Maximizing the Member Experience | Shep Hyken, Customer Service Expert

How can we do that? If you ask Shep Hyken, it’s by creating an amazing customer experience.

Shep Hyken, calls himself the CAO (Chief Amazement Officer) of Shepard Presentations. He’s a customer service and experience expert and a sought after keynote speaker, as a Hall of Fame Speaker from the National Speakers Association. For decades, he’s worked with companies that want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

As a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author he’s written 8 books focusing on delivering amazing customer service, customer engagement, managing the customer experience and creating customer loyalty. His new book “I’ll Be Back” on building returning customers, is a perfect fit for the situation in our industry today. He’s also the host of “Amazing Business Radio”, a podcast where he profiles leaders and their customer service expertise.

With all this said, Shep is a big golfer and as a member at his local club, he understands the customer experience at clubs from both the staff’s perspective and from the members’. That’s why this is such a valuable conversation. There are plenty of takeaways in this conversation to help you and your team build a better service experience at your club.

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S8 EP 05: "Leadership and LIV" | Seth Waugh, CEO PGA of America, Part Two

Are you looking to hire team members on your golf staff? GBN's Recruiting Services makehiring easier with our best in class network of Golf Professionals that helps you reach deep into the market to locate your next staff member.

Go to www.golfbusinessnetwork.com/recruiting to get started and get ahead of the competition.

Welcome back for part two of my conversation with Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America. In part one we focused on a critically important topic for Golf Professionals today, the supply and demand issues in the labor market. Every PGA Professional should hear what Seth had to say on the topic. It was an honest and frank conversation and personally I think we should be encouraged by what we heard.

Now we get into two more important topics. As you know, prior to the PGA, Seth was the CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas. I took the opportunity to ask him about his leadership philosophy and what it takes to lead organizations of such immense size. Any leader can benefit from his thoughts on the topic, especially his “Golden Rule”, which you’ll hear him explain. Leadership is such an important skill when it comes to retaining great people, and in this labor market, it’s never been more critical. This is a great opportunity to take some leadership insights from an experienced and successful leader.

Lastly, I ask him the question about LIV. One perspective we haven’t heard much is how that tour can impact the PGA of America and specifically PGA Professionals. Seth will be at the forefront of some of the most important decisions that golf’s governing bodies will make regarding LIV. You’ll get his thoughts. You won’t want to miss them.