Ep26 Tyler Bloom: From Growing Grass to Breaking Seven Figures in Golf Recruiting

Tyler Bloom  0:00  
I was interviewing for those next level jobs, those clubs that were going to pay double my salary of what I was making. And I'd walk away from those interviews being like, man, they've got this all wrong and how they're handling this process. And that was kind of another driver. Was like, I could help the version of me that's going to struggle in these interviews, not because of capability, not because of experience, it's because of bias that these committees have because they don't know the role.

Jason Croft  0:26  
Welcome to the lion's edge, where top performers sharpen their teeth. Hosted by Joe Blackburn, founder of The Lion who is relentlessly dedicated to helping business owners lead multi million dollar teams and me. Jason Croft, I transform unseen entrepreneurs into industry leaders by developing their market gravity. Each week, we reveal proven strategies and raw insights to help you maximize your business, multiply your wealth and make your family indestructible. Now let's create your edge. Tyler bloom, welcome to the show.

Tyler Bloom  1:07  
I'm surprised that you had me come on here, but I think it's pretty easy to follow up people like Sam Thomas and Gary cook. So excited to be here and appreciate the opportunity.

Jason Croft  1:17  
Yeah, we wanted to get those out of the way,

Joe Blackburn  1:19  
yeah, so

Jason Croft  1:20  
we could get to you. We wanted to warm up on the other two so we could get to you. Have you here? Yeah, sure. We worked

Joe Blackburn  1:26  
all the kinks out. Now we're ready.

Tyler Bloom  1:29  
Dusted the rust off a little bit.

Jason Croft  1:31  
That's right. So Joe, as we've we've been doing with our guests, TSR, who the heck is Tyler? And why is he here?

Joe Blackburn  1:41  
That's wonderful question. And, well, let me say this, he may not even be fully aware. First of all, he's known as the general. So Ryan Meredith coined that often and early. He makes tough decisions and tough calls. And the the other lions see that when they're thinking, you know, they're rummaging over something or trying to figure out, he just he, he's called the General, and he's concise and has a strategy. So it's like, all right, this is what we're doing, and it's rubbed off. So his nickname is the general. You know, the the thing that sticks out in my mind the most, and just for, you know, the people out there that may watch this, when I met Tyler, he was in his basement in a hoodie, and now his executive presence and his leadership,

Jason Croft  2:30  
that's true. That is a true statement. What? What were you doing in his basement? I mean,

Joe Blackburn  2:37  
I

Joe Blackburn  2:37  
had to

Joe Blackburn  2:37  
interview my first couple clients well, and he's what I love about him, and working with this team, is he's coachable. You know? I mean, that's my business. Not everybody is not everybody wants feedback or does something with it. And Tyler has one of the greatest leadership qualities that you can have, and it's curiosity. Is this gonna work? How does this work? How can I do it differently? He, you know, he's always learning, and he leads that way. So he's wanting his people to be learning along the way. Because, quite frankly, he's in rarefied air. I mean, you got, I'm sure everyone's read the blue ocean strategy, or whatever book that is, Tyler's in one, you know, it's an industry that is very niche, specific, skill set specific, and they're meeting the biggest need for almost every business owner or business out there. They're in, you know, talent and recruit, recruiting. So there aren't a lot of people that are good at that. And he has taken an idea from his background to a small business to I'm when I say rarefied air, I'm talking rocket ship. So they are going so high, so fast, you don't have time always to prepare and think through. And it's like we're moving at a rate that most businesses don't, and, yeah, there's Fallout and all kinds of different things that happen along the way, but we've never stopped going up. And that's something that I really respect, because, again, I talk to people all the time and meet people and have clients and everything. And there are some people, when it gets to where, you know, outer space, they want to, they want to go back to Earth. And he doesn't. He wants to keep going like, probably to the sun. So that's just always sticks out of my mind, that constant, and it was it called Kanai constant and never ending improvement. He lives that. And you know, sometimes there's some shiny objects to get in there, to try to learn, and sometimes we pay a little attention to them, but for the most part, it's staying on path and going through the stages of growth and learning it as you go, so that you don't have to take a giant step back and make it longer and less profitable and more painful. So I enjoy working. With him. We communicate probably daily, in some form or fashion. And it's just, you know, from my vantage point, it's like, that's what you want to see somebody doing something that really no one else is replicating. And it wasn't something that you know was a 10 year strategy. It was like, Let's go so and again. Now, you know, he's, he's humble, you know, but he's well recognized, and he's made a personal and now business brand in an industry that it's golf, so, you know, it's, it takes a little bit to get your, you know, boots on the ground there. But he, he's, I mean, can you go anywhere in the industry? Tyler, and someone doesn't know

Joe Blackburn  5:43  
you?

Tyler Bloom  5:43  
There's segments of the industry that they would still who's this guy I want to get to know, but I think we've done a really good job that most, most locations I go to, there's somebody there that knows, recognizes us, our company, you know? I've heard I speak, heard her podcast, read an article, you know? So, yeah, I think that's probably a pretty fair statement. It's really hard for me to say that, but I think that's probably true.

Joe Blackburn  6:07  
My boy, Johnny, who's 20 and in the Professional Golf Management Program up in Blue Creek, North Carolina. So those guys, those kids, are all you know, golf's their life. He had his buddies down for spring break, and we were sitting at supper, and Johnny said something about Tyler bloom. And one of the kids was kind of goes, you know, Tyler bloom like, so, I mean, that was pretty surreal moment, like the so the kids that are up and coming even know who you are, so like, you just really taken, in my mind, a great business, and build it into not just what you do, but who you guys are. And I think you, you're at the, you know, the top of the heap, and I love it. And quite frankly, it's the sky is the limit, because the industry is going to have the need in perpetuity. And you know, the boogeyman can't go out and grow grass, AI, so you have that as well. So though that labor force is going to constantly have to have someone, and you guys are doing now the general managers and different parts of the club, so you have an exponential opportunity across that and probably other industries. So it just, it's been awesome to see and Tyler again, coachable. You know that's a big. Lot people aren't lot of people even know what to do and won't do it. So whether he knows it or doesn't know it, it's execution. We're doing it.

Tyler Bloom  7:36  
I'm laughing Jason, as he says that, because I'm like, Man, I'll just hire Joe's my PR person, and we'll be, we'll be good, because I couldn't even solve myself that good. So I appreciate that you're welcome. Really interesting.

Jason Croft  7:50  
He needs to do that the intro of your podcast. That needs to be just,

Tyler Bloom  7:55  
yeah, Joe's my new sales rep. He's like, he's like, our sales leader. We're gonna start him on our discovery calls, I love it. It's all yours, brother, you got it. That's awesome. Yeah.

Jason Croft  8:05  
So,

Jason Croft  8:06  
so give us that context. So, golf industry, I mean, Joe is absolutely

Jason Croft  8:12  
right. You talk

Jason Croft  8:12  
about a niche of a niche, as I started looking into what you were, you've built, like, this is beautiful. A niche within a niche, within a niche and of aspect golf industry. But

Joe Blackburn  8:24  
give

Jason Croft  8:24  
us a context

Jason Croft  8:25  
for who

Jason Croft  8:26  
you're serving and how you're serving those folks. And where did this start? I want to hear this journey from basement to where you are now.

Tyler Bloom  8:33  
I'm not gonna lie. There's a little bit of, I think we probably all deal with this imposter syndrome. Is Joe's like, reeling these things off. I'm like, wow, I didn't really think about it that way, you know. And so you I think every step of our growth has been overcoming imposter syndrome every year, in some fashion. But just to give some context, I've been in the golf industry for 20 years. Started playing golf when I was six. Didn't really want to do anything else. I mean, had a lot of friends that went into business, finance, some of those, more, I would say, practical career pathways. My family grew up in a small town Pennsylvania, and was in like, the school district system, teachers, administration, things of that. So I was the outcast. Always been the outcast, sort of the black sheep of the family. And just really always wanted to be around golf, so I went to school for, you'll, you'll get a kick out of this turf grass science at Penn State University. It's, it's the Top program in the world. I

Jason Croft  9:30  
know so many people. So I know so many turf grass scientists. Man, if I could throw a rock and hit 10 turf grass scientists right now? Yeah.

Tyler Bloom  9:38  
So my former life is I literally grew grass for a living, and was fortunate and blessed that I worked at some pretty iconic places as I was growing and developing early in my career, places like Oakmont, Marion, Southern hills, Muirfield village, places that host us opens, PGA tour events. And you know, you always look back and say you don't know what you don't know.

Joe Blackburn  10:00  
Well,

Tyler Bloom  10:00  
I didn't know that the influence that those clubs would have in the game of golf and the people I worked for were of the highest caliber. I somewhat knew that. I know that more now and and I always just had sort of this, I don't know, like internal gravitation towards team development, recruiting. I always worked with our international students and interns. Helped with a lot of staff development programs. Was really good with administrative type things, internal marketing kind of aspects. And when I was an assistant manager, probably back in like 2011 2013 timeframe, I started helping a lot of my peers with their cover letters and resumes. Sounds a little geeky and nerdy, but it was just something I really enjoyed, and I learned a lot from that. I learned what hiring committees were looking for. I was able to communicate their strengths their weaknesses. I had a formal writing background. I actually used to write for a newspaper, so it was either turf grass science or journalism as a career Avenue. And I picked turf grass science, good choice. Yes, yes. So probably back. This was 2018 timeframe, like many businesses, struggled with getting line level staff, mid management, staff. And I was able and fortunate to develop an apprenticeship model similar that you would see with plumbers, electricians. And I just kind of took that sort of framework and adopted it to what we were doing. And we had over 30 students from local public high schools come through that apprenticeship program, I started getting calls to go speak on this at association meetings. I would get calls from peers club representatives because they were familiar with what was going on. I would end up getting interviewed in publications, and one day, I'll never forget this, I was torn the property with it with a consultant that specializes in agronomy and and he had seen sort of the transformation of our team. And he had said, Hey, Tyler, have you ever thought about starting a recruiting firm? Not, not really. And he said there was a real need for this in this industry. Well, I just started researching it, and started thinking of, what would this take to go and do it? And as I started getting more and more opportunities to go speak on stage, every time I'd go speak on stage, I would get calls and emails from people that were in attendance asking me if I would help them, the light bulb went off and said, That's how I'm going to go start my business. So literally, this is June 2020, right in the heart of the pandemic. My wife just had our second born, six digit salary, full insurance paid for the house that we lived in was provided by the club I worked at. I quit cold gave a two week note, or, you know, 30 day notice, and quit cold turkey to start this company for my father in law's basement. And literally, I had an idea, but the idea was more of me going out, networking and knowing that my relationships in the industry, I'd figure it out. Like I would figure it out. I mean, when you're at a point I think too, where you realize, like, hey, the potential earning potential for me is x, if I can reverse engineer what it's going to take to get to that. For me, it was like, why would I not do this? I'd be stupid too. I'd regret not doing this. So that that was kind of the emphasis of, like, how I made the leap. It's, I'll tell you, it's interesting standing here today looking back and be like, Damn, that was a really ballsy move with with no certainty. I mean, my parents, my parents wanted to disown me six years ago,

Joe Blackburn  13:44  
matter how many was it like accumulation of reasons?

Tyler Bloom  13:46  
Oh, well, there's been periods, there's been phases, but they really wanted to disown me six years ago. They had no idea. And so it was a it was a big leap of faith, but honestly, I thought I looked at it as the risk was staying with what I was doing before, because all my peers were doing that. And I just was like, I don't want to be that person that just follows what everybody else is doing. I'm just going to go make my own mark in the way I'm going to do it.

Jason Croft  14:14  
I think that's that's so powerful too. And often there's one of two drivers. One is this situation I'm in is so miserable I've got to go do this. But the other, it seems like for you was more I'm so limited here. I know with that ceiling, I can't stand the ceiling. There's so much opportunity that that you could feel that future regret just sitting there, if you didn't at least give this a shot,

Tyler Bloom  14:42  
that's exactly how I felt. And I think part of it was, you know, selfishly, and we all have ego, but I'd go into these I would I was interviewing for those next level jobs, right, those clubs that were going to pay double my salary of what I was making. And I'd walk away from those interviews being like, Man, this. Have got this all wrong and how they're handling this process, and that was kind of another driver. Was like, I could help the version of me that's going to struggle in these interviews, not because of capability, not because of experience, it's because of bias that these committees have, because they don't know the role they're making hiring decisions based on their background in finance and business. It whatever it is, and it's not really based on what the role actually is. So that was another, that was another piece for me that I just thought, if I'm going to do this, I need to have a, I guess, a bigger purpose. It can't just be about money. It's got to be about like, serving a specific type of person. So you know, you asked this probably early on, before I got in this long winded explanation, we really do serve golf course superintendents and private club leaders, that that really is who our primary audience is, and that's and that's shaped a little bit differently over six years, but that's fundamentally who we serve.

Jason Croft  16:00  
So what is that differentiator in your process for this the way you just outlined, these guys are doing it all wrong. What is that right way that you're doing this recruiting for these folks so differently?

Tyler Bloom  16:16  
I will be interested to hear Joe's viewpoint on this, because I think he does have some probably outside perspective. But I think couple things that stick out to me is one, alignment, and you have to start with alignment, at the start with who the club is you're working with, and the business and having a context of who they really are, even if they don't think they are a certain type of organization, you have to really pull out what's their demographics, what's their annual revenue? What are their goals? And it's having a hard conversations about that, and not being afraid to have that hard conversation with the client, and setting a standard around that.

Joe Blackburn  16:52  
You know, the thing I and I work with part of the team as well, the thing that he has done, and really Ryan and Mary gets involved in these at some point too, is when the hiring committee person, whatever are off track, having the guts to tell them this isn't going to work because you're unwilling to do the salary, the timing, or whatever it is. And a lot of times out of fear, I think other recruiters, their concern is we just need to play somebody versus this is how we should do it for the right person. So it it takes, you know, if put yourself on the in their shoes, if I'm talking to, you know, high level executives that are having to be on the Country Club board, or a general manager that runs a, you know, the top course in the country, sometimes you don't want to tell them the truth, because there's ramifications. You could offend them. You could lose them as a client. And what, what they've really done a great job of, is a setting the expectations, and then when they run into it, they adjust like, you know, it's like the rarefied air. Sometimes you go into these, or you agree to something, and something comes out of the blue, and it's like, all right, on the next one, we have to make sure we address this first so, and Ryan does a really good job of this. It's the iteration of the front end that keeps it in a better timeframe, so that a the course is taken care of, because that's, I mean, you get remembered. I mean, all of us been to a golf course like grass bad. You know, people are bitching. So they really do a good job of trying to figure out how to set the stage, keep it moving. And I would say, from what I see, it's communication. I think a lot of times it's Hey, we're just waiting on you, or we're not. We're busy doing our jobs, so the it's not overbearing, but a better rhythm around how often we communicate and keep you in the loop or get information or follow up. It that compresses that down where, again, I, you know, I was in financial services, and there were recruiters, they could care less about the fallout it was, we want, we want to get paid on this person coming to work for you. Or they were recruiting our people in the same day, by the way, so they there was no loyalty, which it's their job, but they've done a really good job of kind of case by case. What are these things that pop up that keep us from fulfilling our commitment to the client. So it's always centered around the client, and they take care of the candidate. You know, sometimes a candidate isn't the right fit. Well, they don't just get cast out into the abyss. They just may not be the right fit for that club. So it's all about the continued communication and really having a tough conversation when it needs. And I would, I will say Ryan has gotten to the point to where he's pretty damn direct, you know, and you know, you got to, you got a brand so there's brand risk to tell them the truth. There is. So you guys have done a nice job of that.

Tyler Bloom  19:57  
I would add to that. And I think there's a level. Of my personality that, you know, is the differentiator, pretty approachable guy, I hate to like be too self deprecating and kind of an aw shucks personality, but I think a lot of our industry is very blue collar, and they respect somebody that just came from being in that position, and understands the challenges that they deal with, and they feel like they've got somebody that can support them in these processes or at their clubs, because they've never really had that representation, and I think we've done a really good job as a company to support that person even when it's not in my best interest financially or it's something I'm really uncomfortable with, and I Think I've leaned into that each step of the year that we've been in business to be a little bit more supportive. And you can't fake that. You can't fake that, I mean, and this is no disrespect to our competitors, because they're really good. They've got really tenured people experienced in their line of craft. But I think on the superintendent side, specifically, it's been a very underserved, niche part of the industry, and their story is not told. And I think we've done a really good job of leaning into telling that story and being very unbiased. I mean, I have a lot of dear friends that represent some of the most iconic clubs in the country, and there are times when I don't take their candidates because I don't think they're the right fit for a job, even though that might not actually be beneficial for me long term, it's the right decision. And I think people appreciate that, and that follow up communication with the candidates, because on the other side, there is a person, like, there is a human that their life is affected. And so I take that really seriously, like, it's not you can't fake that.

Jason Croft  21:41  
I think you're in a, you're in a really interesting mediation kind of role here, too, operating in, like you said, a very blue collar role. I mean, you're talking about growing grass and figure this, and yet people making the decisions and hiring these folks at this upper echelon of society, and maybe how they made their money and who they cater to, those are different worlds.

Tyler Bloom  22:08  
Very much.

Jason Croft  22:09  
That's a fine line to to walk and to be able to translate between the two

Tyler Bloom  22:15  
well, and I'll add another piece to that, Jason, like I've had to grow to be able to be that sort of mediary, because I was that guy that was boots on the ground, field general, very much in the trenches. Not to say I was rough around the edges, but yeah, when you put me in the room full of executives, for sure, I was rough around the edges. My communication style was definitely not as on point, wasn't as direct, certainly wasn't buttoned up to the level that what I view now. So I had to level up like the business has grown, because I've had to level up, but I've leveled up each step of the way.

Joe Blackburn  22:55  
It's a unique skill to be able to relate given the environment, because you have to be great in the boardroom and you have to be great on the field, so and you have to be real, like you can't fake that. And you know, coming from it is a good thing, because you can empathize with the people that have to deal with it every day. A you're you said it, you're the product. It's because our relationships. So the product is me. I mean, that's important, because people are always, you know, the ones I have to deal with that are asking, do you even get me? Are you just sending me someone that is gonna be a train wreck? So, like, the No, the known fact that you probably get me and understand this empty's biggest money mover on the planet, that's a pretty strong component of the game.

Jason Croft  23:42  
Oh yeah, and Tyler, you've, you've alluded to this a couple of times, or really talked about having to have those tough conversations and and kind of educate someone who is potentially hiring you and wanting this. Give me some examples of that. What are they see getting wrong. I guess in a situation where you have to go, Look, here's a better way to think about this. It will serve you and serve your candidates. What does that look like?

Tyler Bloom  24:14  
I'll tell you. The simplest one to start off is compensation. I mean, just educating them on what it takes to go land somebody with X amount of experience, and being able to benchmark that for them a lot of times, that solves a lot of their problems, is just getting alignment on that, and I think being able to communicate the value of that position and what it does for a facility, even though it's not necessarily a revenue producing role. Well, there's no golf course, there's no food and beverage, there's no events, there's no members, so it is like the central hub to generating revenue at a at a private club, or any club, right? So I think that's an easy one. I think a lot of times what we hear, and it's a, and it's a, it's a little bit of a challenge, is pedigree, right? Everybody wants to be able to say. At any private club at a cocktail hour. We just landed the superintendent from this top 100 level Club. Well, is that really relatable to the business context of the club that we're at? And so I think being able to educate people that some of those experiences that they may get at these great clubs doesn't always apply to, you know, a mid level type operation, a $5 million revenue Club's a lot different than a $10 million revenue club, and the experience is that person has at a $10 million operation may not translate to its $5 million operation because of less resources, right? So I think a lot of times it's communicating about that. And those are just two examples that immediately like come off of that seems to be like two critical factors for success otherwise. And I think if we're not aligned on that, or I think we've done a better job of saying this might actually not be the right engagement for for us, selfishly, but also, more importantly, for you, the client, because you're going to pay us for something that we can't deliver on, and that's taken time for me to, like, have the guts to say that to somebody, and the guts to tell our team we need to say, No,

Joe Blackburn  26:12  
yeah,

Jason Croft  26:12  
that's that's always tough.

Jason Croft  26:14  
You do it long enough, and you get advice and help and guidance a lot of times from from a Joe, you know, to say, you know, if you say yes to this, you know what's happening down the road. And the more experience you have, you can lean into that and say, All right, I'm gonna gonna be smarter about this, for sure.

Tyler Bloom  26:35  
Oh, I still make the same, a lot of same dumb mistakes. So, you know, but it's there are less of them now

Joe Blackburn  26:40  
well, and you're wearing a new learning curve, because now you're including the GM search and fulfilling there, which is a totally different person and a big need. And again, you can come in as GM in a country, on a club or whatever, but if you've never been there, I'd think that'd be pretty difficult to know all the moving parts and everything, at least surface level. So now we're going up another rung. It really hasn't been too much of a hurdle, from what I can tell. I mean, the mechanics are similar. You know, getting great people is getting great people. So you it's just finding the talent, which, by the way, there's lots of shortages and surpluses in this world, talent isn't in surplus.

Jason Croft  27:27  
That's exactly where my mind was going. What are the challenges right now, industry wide, in these roles and specifically for you?

Tyler Bloom  27:39  
So I'll try to keep this concise, but this is a problem that was 1015, years in the making. We're now seeing the result of that. The byproduct is there wasn't a lot of people going into education continue. You know, secondary, universities, trade, programs and salaries, 510, years ago, quite frankly, weren't what they are now. Now you can make an argument with inflation and all other things that you know is an $80,000 salary today the same that it was five years ago. No, but before five years ago was 50, 60,000 and I think, you know, with a little bit of pride, I think we've helped course correct that to pay those get clubs to pay those positions what they're worth. So I think what you see now is a is a the demand is high because the amount of money coming into the game of golf, we've never seen it. You think about new designs, new builds, just media in general, and the interest in the game of golf is so high. Well, where's that money going like? Is that money going into the talent? Is that going into reinvest into workforce development, is it just the physical assets. So there's a lot of moving parts on that that need to course correct over time. But from the recruiting side specifically, is, yeah, we just don't have enough people, whether it's hospitality, whether it's in the PGM programs, Professional Golf Management, turf grass management, you name it, most people find themselves in the golf industry as a second career. They didn't, they didn't start out their career coming out of high school thinking, hey, I'm going to go in the golf industry. Usually it's been, hey, I started in this field. I just love being outside. I love working with my hands, or I like being around the golf setting. I'm going to now take a second career, you know, chance at golf. So I think the industry is still trying to figure out who we are, who do we want to be when we grow up, and how do we educate today's workforce to apply to what member expectations are? Because that's changing too. The member expectations have changed drastically from very hoity toity, traditional kind of club setting, stuffy white male to way more inclusive, family oriented. It's not just golf, it's, I'm going to play golf, but my wife's going to go the spa, the kids are going to go to kids camp, and that's how we're making those choices on, you know, joining a club is really what's based off the family, not just, you know, the father. There.

Jason Croft  30:00  
How are you approaching that in in unique ways? Because really, you've got to market. I mean, any company should be marketing as much on the recruiting side as they do for customer acquisition side. Are you helping along those lines a little bit too, and finding unique avenues for finding some talent who, like you said, maybe a second career for them, instead of only these folks looking for roles in this industry,

Tyler Bloom  30:32  
I'm laughing, because when we we started the company based on that premises, I didn't start the company to do executive search. I started the company to actually help clubs basically rebrand themselves as an employer of choice in their communities, and really tried to coach the employer how to become more approachable, more diverse in their thinking, diverse in the kind of candidates that they considered. And that's not always racial or age. That's just like, what is diverse and what we offer in employment? Are we part offering part time? Hours? Are we offering flexibility? Are we offering advancement opportunities? Like, that's the diversity within the workforce that I think is needed. A byproduct of that is connecting with people in you know, whether it's high schools, whether it's trade schools, whether it's retirees, whether it's veterans, whether it's different minority groups, people with disabilities, right? If you don't have the core foundation set up as an employer, doesn't matter who you engage with, like they're going to come in and see it's a smoke screen into a culture that's just a total toxic environment. So I think we've changed a lot in terms of now trying to really educate the employer upfront about that, and trying to help them become a better employer and better employee culture, and producing that versus like we go out and recruit the people and bring them in, because then we're on this hamster wheel of turning people over. So I think we have a company has changed our approach specifically on that to try to be more educational and create that sort of thought process for the employers first, before we go into the recruiting,

Jason Croft  32:10  
that's great, yeah. Rather than the order taker, this is what you said you wanted. Here you go and digo again, back to those tough conversations. Is that a case by case conversation, or is that something that's formalized that you're able to roll out to these folks? Of like, here's how you should be looking at your recruitment.

Tyler Bloom  32:32  
You know, it's interesting. I think it's evolved, and it's been based on our experience of some of the failures that we've had with employers, that we learned those things we were talking about that earlier of where do the gaps come in recruitment? So I think that we're we're taking that insight of our missteps with employers and embedding that into the process earlier on to educate them. So I think that's where a lot of it comes from. Do we have a real standardized recruiting development? Yes, we do. I would say most employers that we work with, you can give them a process and policy, a two year staff development, and that goes out the window because they're hitting the face of the whirlwind of day to day execution. So I think, I think we've tried to be educational, but nimble enough to adapt with them and try to be practical for what they're dealing with. I'm probably a big picture thinker in a lot of ways, and the ideas that I have are probably five to 10 years down the road that can be implemented. So I've had to, like, really reel myself back to thinking, what is the employer dealing with today that they can survive to tomorrow to the next three months to the next year, and just keep nurturing that along the way, versus like, Hey, here's this pie in the sky program and framework that you should be using that it's going to take you two to three years. But if you do this, you'll be there when they can't even get off the they can't even get off the ground floor, blocking and tackling,

Jason Croft  34:00  
for sure, because that, yeah, you try to sell them that grand vision when the house is on fire and cool, I'm gonna You can't help that means you can't help me. That's what you're saying to me. Okay, I'm gonna find somebody who can help me today, put this fire out. Then it becomes, that's a good insight, because then it becomes your job to look five years down the road for these folks and get those things in place on their behalf, in the background, new products to roll out new new things that you're going to need this I'll be back, you know, but it's just in service for them. Yeah, that's that makes total

Joe Blackburn  34:38  
that's the

Joe Blackburn  34:38  
rarefied air. See great leader. See what what's ahead, and then you have to plan accordingly while you deal with the present. So that's why they're the industry leader in what they're doing, because they're seeing further out.

Tyler Bloom  34:52  
I'll give a good example of that, Jason, so when I started the company, we built out this apprenticeship model that is nationally recognized by the US Department of Labor. For greens keeping that's what we used when I was a superintendent, and that's and that's a model that we tried to help a lot of these clubs that are dealing with these lower line level staff or mid management staff, to just get them in the in the operation, then develop them. What I found out was that not everybody really understood the time commitment and the investment in a mentorship that was second nature for me. I just loved that was what I grew up in, in the mentorship culture that's not everywhere in America. That's not practical, probably for 90% of the employers that we work with just don't have enough bodies. They don't have time in the day. And so, you know, it changed from like that being like how we execute on work in a service to now we educate about that. Now, what you see in our industry is that you have other universities that have had to change education models because they're not getting enough students, and now they're using that apprenticeship model to get more people enrolled within their kind of states. We've seen the US Golf Association develop a greens keeper apprenticeship program, similar to what you know, we started, and now that's being adopted from a nationally, internationally recognized association. So I joke and say I was five years ahead of my time, but that feels good, like it feels good for me that, like we help set that sort of precedent. Maybe we're not the main leader in that, but we definitely move the needle that people are thinking differently about how they recruit and develop talent

Jason Croft  36:27  
that's powerful. What? What are some of those five year out, 10 year out visions that you see, that you do want to implement? Where do you think that industry is going and the your company's going,

Joe Blackburn  36:41  
Oh, now bring the shiny objects out. Jason, great job.

Tyler Bloom  36:44  
I think this is a service based industry, and the human touch is never going to go away. But I do believe AI, what's the boogeyman that's called on this podcast? I think AI definitely has opportunity, especially as it relates on the maintenance side, as we think about robotic mowers, the adoption of predictive models for water management, fungicides, you know, plant protectants, you know, just better conservation practices, in general terms, I think that's where AI is going to help create more predictability so you can use less resources. You may be able to use less people. With all that being said, though, the expectations are growing and and there is going to be a real need for really strong, experienced talent. I think you're going to see more management consulting, specifically in the golf industry, across whether it's food and beverage, Golf Management, golf course maintenance, I think you're going to see more management consultant, because there's just a big gap in experience and knowledge from today's generation to that kind of boomers age. So I think, you know, that's going to be a bridge over the next 510, years for us as a company. I don't know how much we'll chase that, because I've learned that we need to stay focused on really what we do best, and a lot of that's relationship building. A lot of that's connectivity and promoting these things. But are we going to be so embedded into all those different shiny objects? I'm not sure yet. I think I've learned to focus on what we're really good at, which has taken a lot of time and effort and a lot of patience for me, and a lot of re like, reworking myself as, like, a leader and a business owner. I mean, that's the one thing that's been fascinating for me in this whole journey, is I'm still learning to be, what is a business owner and a business leader? Like, what is that? Even though I was a department head, even though I had an executive level role, it's a lot different when, like, you were the one signing paychecks, your name is on everything. And so that's been a different that's been something very different, which makes it a lot of fun to think that, like I'm just kind of feel like I'm just getting into that, like I'm just starting to feel like I'm scratching the surface on what that is. And that, with that being said, we went from $0 you know, June 2020, to break in a million dollars, and on path to do that again. You know, this year, in five years with no blueprint. But Joe, let's, let's give credit, but Joe, we had Joe. So the Joe is the blueprint.

Jason Croft  39:16  
Joe works against you a lot of times, though, too. I think so he's, so that's, that's even more impressive.

Joe Blackburn  39:23  
He said a key word in there, own it. We've spent time on you own it. You know the one of the challenge. I had this challenge. Tires had this challenge. People that work for other people have this challenge. When you come out of the corporate machine, whatever that is. If you don't have the I own this mentality, you will gravitate back towards the stability of that machine, and that sometimes can be beneficial with some structure, but a lot of us seek that certainty of the hand. Handbook and the rules and the all the different things that were put in place for a massive organization. Well, when there's five of you, that's not necessary, you need to be that's your actually. Your advantage is we don't have that. We can move at our pace. You know, we we're essentially one organism, and there is utility within it, but it's not so regimented. I call it over HR in your company, a lot of our a lot of our clients came from that are, are a part of it, and they want, there's a stability in the in those rules, so to speak, but it's also what keeps those behemoths slow. That's why, quite frankly, Tyler took a leap of faith. I took a leap of faith. Waiting two and three weeks for something to happen that you can't control is not a great way to execute in the field. So when you don't, you don't want it to be the wild wild west. There has to be frameworks and expectations and accountability. But you everybody has that. I call it de institutionalizing. Once you're in this world, de institutionalize it like just take don't look for the problems. Don't look for the rules. Create what you can do. And he's done this, figure it out as you go, and you break more ceilings faster, so that creates more glass falling down. And his team, they are exceptional at looking up, seeing the shards, correcting it, communicating it with transparency and courage, which is not easy. And then Tyler, like I said, He's coachable. He takes the feedback fall. Sometimes he falls on the sword. I get on I'm like, quit, you owned it. So just, let's go. But that's a that's how they're moving so fast. And, yeah, there's moments where you're grasping for the solid ground, and that's freaking normal. Like, if the earth started shaking, we'd all do that, correct? Well, imagine you're in a rocket. You think that's like a stable, nice flight, like, I, you know, I was on flight yesterday is pretty smooth. No, it's going like this. That's the that's the cost of growth. And most people back out of it. They just, they don't want it. And to his, you know, whether it's even Mitch Meredith, you know Sam, I don't know her very well, but Ryan and Mary are like, there. We all have our moments. But they're like, we're still going. We are going, and we got your back, and let's just figure it out. And I just it's been, you know, I don't treat everything like a case study. They say case but in real life, in real time, fucking incredible

Tyler Bloom  42:35  
when you come from a position where, like, we had the security of the institution, the institution was governed governance, whether that's like Joe said, HR policies, you got payroll processes, you've got all these things that are already in place, and you're just kind of a cog in the wheel. Yes, you might be the leader of that department, but you can fall back on a clear blueprint. This has been nothing like that. I mean, it has taken, I mean, I'm a guy who listen. I like to be I like to be friends with our employees, which is not necessarily a bad trait, and it's not a good trait. That's just kind of the way it always was for me. Coming up through now, you followed the pecking order, and you knew who the boss was, and you knew the hierarchy, but that was an established system is pretty crystal clear. It's not like that when you're pulling people like our team isn't people coming from the golf industry outside of Meredith. They've all come from different corporate America jobs, or they've been in other institutions that they bring different perspectives into the company. And I'm somebody who I like to listen to that like, I want to know that, because I don't have all the answers. I think it's different for our for the employees and my co workers, because we've all been used to taking direction from somebody who they're the boss. They've got clear instructions and objectives. We're making the like we're making the objectives. The objectives were, they're constantly changing. There's never, there's never a time I've felt in six years where I knew in the next three months, here's exactly where we should be on revenue. Here's exactly how many clients we should have coming in. Here's exactly all these now. We're working really hard right now to kind of create those standards for ourselves, but the goalpost is always changing, and it's changing because we're just we're crushing it. We're doing a good job. We're focusing on the things that get us paid and make our clients happy. But that's not something that I came from the business world where you had week to week metrics you had to meet. We did in some ways, but not like what I think my evaluation of normal corporate America jobs where you have p and L's, you have things that you have to meet every single week, and if you don't meet those numbers, you're fired or your course corrected. It's not the environment that I came from,

Joe Blackburn  44:56  
and it's seasonality as well. There's, there's a thing called. Off season. So there's seasonality where there's mandates, so you the timing, the pull through the pipe, all those things that create the revenue streams are also impacted by the seasons of the business itself. So you have to adjust accordingly on cash flow and pull through and and it's, it's it's the benefit is the nimbleness that me what I mean by you can't be slow and nimble. Those do not those. That's an oxymoron. So the speed creates a little bit of chaos. However, you are under a time crunch when there's, you know, there's down here or wherever. You know, I don't know if Pennsylvania, but other places they're going, it's time to go. So they it's really, for me, it's interesting to see how they adjust quickly when under the time crunch. I just think that, I mean, and it's a mandate like you, you've signed up to pull someone through. I think it's awesome. And there's, and it's, you know, you're there. It used to be. And now I'll credit the AIO type world, or the post covid world. There used to be, like Tyler said, clear hierarchy and structure. Well, now it's pretty flat. We're all one thing, and everybody has to do something that they're probably the most talented in, or their gusher, or wheelhouse, whatever you want to call that, but they also have to pick up for the others. So it's like one unit with the idea is we're going to fulfill our commitment to the client. And that brings people together when it may not be something I'm great at, but I can do it. That's how you've gone so fast.

Jason Croft  46:44  
Yeah? I mean, that's a culture in and of itself. When you have that, and we're pulling together, and we're we're on a mission together. Yeah, thanks for being on Tyler. This is, this is awesome. I'm just amazed of what you put together. And like I said, I love the niche within a niche down the blue ocean, right? It's it is that's really strong. So who should be reaching out to you, and how do they do so,

Tyler Bloom  47:09  
all right, any club leader, any club member, that is looking for expertise in recruiting, talent development, but they can just find us by going to bloom golf partners.com. Really simple. We have a contact page there. Click Submit and, you know, we'll follow up with them as soon as we can. Sometimes it's been interesting when we get those replies that come through my email inbox. A lot of times, I just pick up the phone and call them, and they're usually surprised to say, Wow, you got back to us quick. And I'm like, Well, that's the nature of the business,

Jason Croft  47:39  
absolutely. And your podcast tell people about that.

Tyler Bloom  47:44  
Oh, yes, leadership on the links. Yeah, you can hear us on Apple and Spotify, and it's a really good resource. It's been interesting to hear a lot of club members are listening in tune with us now, so when they're researching the company, they're going to the podcast to kind of get a taste test of what we're all about. Fantastic. All right, lions, there's your edge. You've just experienced the lion's edge. If this episode lit a fire, if you're ready to push past your current ceiling, there's more waiting for you. Want to see what it takes to become a member of the Lion. Visit join the lion.com. To discover how successful entrepreneurs become unstoppable forces and make sure you never miss an episode by

Jason Croft  48:30  
hitting subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts. This isn't just content. This is your edge.

Speaker 1  48:41  
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