Finding My Focus

48 hours ago I was pretty sure I was not going to post my most recent podcast episode titled, “Why Golf Professionals Hate Social Media”. After some encouragement I decided I would post it. That ended up being a good decision.

For years, I have been creating content with no real agenda other than to educate myself on new media landscape and then report back to whatever portion of the golf professional community that would listen.

It wasn’t until recently that this journey took on a semi-crystalized, let’s call it sparkly goo, form of an idea.

It happened when I made the connection between being a golf instructor and trying to teach someone how to use new media for business or personal growth. I realized that to make an impact, you have to know what is important to each given golf professional you work with. You have to know the type of facility they work at, the type of pro they are, the ambitions they have personally and professional, and general strengths and talents that they possess.

With this new perspective, I hope to teach. I hope that given my experiences as a PGA Director of Golf, Instructor, Merchandiser and many other roles I have had over my nearly 30 golf professional journey, I am able to communicate the opportunities for golf professionals to use new tools at their disposal without having to learn too many new things and keep focusing being a golf professional.

Just like the game of golf, new media and technology should make our lives easier. So whether you are trying to get that first assistants job out of school, or tying to land that GM spot at a top 100 facility, this is for you.

To stay up to date on the latest, be sure to drop your email into this website for exclusive content, subscribe to my youtube channel and follow me on IG and Snap @PGAjay.

Why Golf Professionals Hate Social Media

Today I posted this Season 1 Episode 2 of the PGAjay show.

(I am calling this new series of videos Season 2 so that I don’t have to figure out what episode I was on when I did this a few years ago)

I wasn’t sure I was going to post it after watching it through the day after I recorded it. It’s long and a lot of it is just me trying to figure out exactly what I am trying to say without exactly saying it……Though I should be used to that by now. So I posted on Instagram Stories that I wasn’t sure if I would post it or try to redo it. I left it that I would sleep on it and decide in the next 24 hours

In the morning I had a couple of encouraging messages from people saying I should just post it and share that part of the creative process with people. And I think that’s right for now. I think I have a good idea of what I want to do with my content right now and I just have to keep moving forward. And those comments helped me do that, so thank you.

My hope is that I can take what I know about these new platforms and use my experience as a Golf Professional to find and share ways pros can amplify what they already do to accomplish objectives. It’s even hard to write it out in a sentence let alone actually doing it.

How Should Golf Professionals Use Social Media?

Well that’s a lot longer answer if I don’t know what you need it for.

Do you walk up to your students on at your first lesson and start rattling off everything they need to do to use the golf club correctly? Of course not. You get to know them, you listen, you learn, and gain some understanding of what their goals are, how long they have been playing, the status of their game. Not until you understand these things as a coach can you effectively create a plan for improvement.

It’s the same thing with social media and golf professionals. If you have spent any time working for different clubs and different pros, you know how different each one really is. Each golf professional with different goals and aspirations for their clubs, themselves and their staff. Until we understand exactly what each person is trying to accomplish we can’t provide an efficient solution.

I share more about this in this video and that will be followed by my upcoming podcast but I wanted to try to post more of these thoughts here on my site.

The First PGAjay Podcast Video

I’ve done videos before….I’ve done podcasts before….. but I have never done a video of a podcast before…… Until Today!

I decided to record a video of the podcast today, for a couple reasons. One, I wanted to add more content to my YouTube Channel since I have started making some VLOGs again and wanted to add some professional content. Two, I feel like it’s a little easier to discover on YouTube than podcast. While podcasts are increasingly more popular every year, YouTube is still a great place for discovery and is like the number 2 search engine online.

This content does take much much longer than just publishing the audio on the Anchor.fm app but I think the extra effort may encourage me to spend more time to make it good.

It has also been some time since posting to my website, and I hope to update that more often with many of these posts and maybe some additional thoughts along the way.

In my last Podcast, I cover future changes to the PGA PGM Program, including three new career paths?

(Click 👇 below to listen free)

I think that announcing the topic beforehand and getting your insights was a huge help to making this episode better. I also feel like the show had a little more structure to it and was hopefully easier to follow. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem hard to do a podcast but 61 episodes later I feel like it’s just starting to come together. And having you all be involved in it is a big help. It made me feel more confident that what I was talking about was relevant to your experiences.

I’m thinking he next one will be on how to get the most out of your experiences as an intern (or non-intern) this summer since so many of you are starting those up. So let know a little about what you are doing this summer and what you hope to get out of it personally and professionally. It will be around growth in general so it won’t be limited to just University PGM students so that everyone gets some value from it.

Thanks as always for the support everyone. It really does mean a lot and I appreciate it. 👊

https://anchor.fm/pgajay/episodes/061—PGA-Announces-New-Career-Paths-and-Education-Updates-e1dfj9

How to Monitor Pace of Play by Time

Here is the Pace of Play sheet I created for you so you can start monitoring pace of play by time at your course. I have also included a tutorial video (up soon) on how to customize this sheet for your facility based on first tee time, tee time interval and desired pace of play.

PGAjay LeDuc Pace of Play Sheet

 

How Golf Pros can Network on Instagram

“How Golf Professionals Can Use Instagram To Network” is my first tutorial video on helping Golf Professionals achieve their goals and increase their value in a competitive market.

Instagram is just one of the tools PGA Golf Professionals, and aspiring PGA Professionals, can use to increase their network and grow their business. It’s not a replacement for growing the game through one on one interaction, but a way to broaden our reach and strengthen our relationships with our members and customers.

In this video I show how searching “hashtags” on Instagram around areas of golf that interest you can lead to conversations, friendships and future opportunities in golf and the business of golf. I look forward to making more videos like this from your comments, questions and feedback. Let me know what you would like to see with comments below and don’t forget to subscribe for more valuable videos to come.

Ppdcast 50

🎇🎆🔥Podcast 50 is Live🔥🎆🎇How to be inspired by surrounding yourself with others • Why experienced golf pros are better equipped to be good a social media than the youngsters • Ideas for both young pros and old ones on how to used social media to sharpen their skills and expand their reach.​

​CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Lighting Tip

I don’t fancy myself a film 🎥 expert…. but I’ve learned 👨‍🏫 a few things over the last few years.​

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Respect Your Gut.

It still feels weird for me to post my content in groups on Facebook because there are so many other people pushing and selling stuff in those groups.
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Funny that I feel that way when I am sharing my experience and knowledge that I feel can bring people real value without asking for something in return. 

Even with that, if I am feeling like it could be seen that way…. there is a good chance people are seeing it that way. 

You don’t have to always go with your gut but you always have to listen and respect it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!