The 95-Million-Ball Lesson: What Teaching Tennis Teaches You About Life with Greg Moran
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Episode Narration:Welcome to Racquet Fuel, where we launch into great conversations and share powerful tools to help you become a stronger Racquet's leader. Your hosts are Kim Bastable, a former all American tennis player and now the director of professional rackets management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, the USTA senior director of Racquet Sports Development. Today on Racquet Fuel, Kim and Simon talked to Greg Moran, who recently sold the Four Seasons Racquet Club and shares what he's learned during his forty years in the business.
Kim Bastable:Welcome to Racquet Fuel. I'm Kim Bastable, here again with Simon Gale, and our guest, Greg Moran. We are very excited. Long time industry leader, author, owner, director coming to us from Connecticut. Just really interested to hear Greg's story.
Kim Bastable:I know Simon, you have some connections to Greg from way back.
Simon Gale:It's interesting because Greg was director or heavily involved at that point twenty five years ago when I first came to the country. I worked at a club just down the road, but I'm not sure our paths ever crossed other than maybe a handshake or something like that when when I came to his club. He's been a pillar of that community and one of the guys who's been a loyal employee at a long term place too and you don't see that as much these days. So there's some successful traits to somebody who's able to do that successfully. So excited to talk and listen to Greg's story.
Kim Bastable:Yes. We've discussed forty years in one place, Greg. Is is that right?
Greg Moran:Forty years, Kim. Yep. I started, you know, right out of college and, you know, very fortunate because it's a it's a successful club in a in a good area where tennis is very popular. I grew up very near the club. I grew up in in Connecticut, and my family was very fortunate to be members of one of the local country clubs.
Greg Moran:And my parents both played and wanted me to play tennis. And this was in the early seventies before tennis became so big, so I was very reluctant. But I finally agreed to take a lesson from the club pro, a young pro from Texas named Rick. And he just made the lesson so much fun that I wanted another, another, another. Eventually, became his ball boy, and I would get dropped off at the club at 07:30 in the morning and walk around with my ball hopper and pick up balls for him.
Greg Moran:And at the end of the day, he would hit with me for half an hour. He gave me a racket, and then he would hit with me as payment. And then I was just a genuine court rat after that. And after a couple years, I got to where I could hit the ball halfway. And Rick began to to use me to demo during his lesson.
Greg Moran:And I as I've told this story quite a bit, it's it's incredibly corny, but it is the honest to god truth. Rick was giving a lesson to a lady, and she was struggling. And he said, here, watch Greg do it. So I grabbed my racket, went to the net, hit a couple volleys, and she just got this look on her face. And she looked at me, and she looked at Rick, and she looked back at me, and she said, oh, I think I get it.
Greg Moran:And again, understanding how this sounds, but honest to God truth. It was that moment I said, I wanna teach tennis. And, you know, from there I played through high school, played through college. I had an interest in writing, so I started to do that. After college, I began working full time at the Four Seasons Racquet Club in Connecticut.
Greg Moran:And my career path from there was pretty steady over the next forty years. I went from a staff pro to a head pro to a part owner, director and and ultimately owner. And it was a gradual transition. And my wife and I owned the club on our own. We were part owners for a while.
Greg Moran:And then we ultimately owned the entire facility and we sold it a little over a year ago.
Simon Gale:So Greg, it's amazing how many people have similar stories about how they started coaching. I mean, mine's almost identical to yours. So it's just interesting and we talk about how we grow coaches and quite often it's we all need to be creating that moment where we say, oh, you'd be great with kids and and suddenly they're off and running and you show them a path that they didn't realize. But when you started to get into leadership roles, what was it that drew you to that moment or what what made you think leadership was something that was appealing beyond the court for you?
Greg Moran:Simon, I I realized very early on in my career regarding leadership that the first person one has to lead is themselves. We all have to kind of have our own acts together before we can even think about leading others. And as a young pro, I had some great examples of pros that did have their acts together and others that didn't. The ones that did encourage me to think long term about my career. I was teaching sixty hours a week then and loved it, but knew that as I got older, I wouldn't be able to do that.
Greg Moran:And quite honestly, probably wouldn't wanna do that, because you wanna continue to learn and grow. So that was always in my mind. But even more so, I saw a lot of pros that didn't have their act together. Their mentality didn't extend beyond how many hours can I teach and how much will I get paid per hour? There was no thought, there was no planning, and it had a profound effect on me.
Greg Moran:An older pro that was a very good friend of mine was of that mindset. He didn't lead himself well. So as he got older and his body began to break down, and he really had done no financial planning, he ended up in a very bad way at the end of his life. And so I saw that, as I said, it had a profound effect on me, and I wanted to try to help change that a little bit to to get pros to think long term about their career.
Kim Bastable:So how would you define leading yourself well? Have you put together some kind of rubric for that or in thought process of how you look at that?
Greg Moran:Yeah. And and, Kim, I think that's part of I've I've mentioned that I'm working on a book for, you know, for teaching pros, and a a large part of that is that. And I think the biggest part of of leading yourself is initially learning to think about tomorrow. Right? We all young pros.
Greg Moran:We all love to be on the court. It feels great. We run. We sweat. We work with our players, and it's great.
Greg Moran:And and we probably get paid pretty well for it. But you have to realize that the day is gonna come. When you're thirties and your forties, when all of a sudden your back's a little tight at the end of the day, your wrist starts to hurt. I mean, I've had five surgeries, my elbow is now bone on bone, arthritis everywhere. And again, I was fortunate to have examples as a young pro.
Greg Moran:That was in my mindset, to be able to think about that. And then I think you you also need to think about lots of little things that I talk about in this book I've done. Your image. How do you present yourself professionally? You know, I talk about doing a personal inventory.
Greg Moran:I go through a bunch of things that I think are key key things in professionalism. You learn to set goals. You find mentors. You build your network. It's just having an awareness that as time goes on, things are gonna change.
Greg Moran:And and a lot of pros don't do that. I mean, when I still had the club, there were two or three pros there at the club that were in their late fifties and 60s that had no other opportunities besides what they generated on the court. There were two pros in their 60s that didn't have health insurance. It's interesting because leadership is many things, but you two would know this better than me. I mean, what percentage of tennis pros, for lack of a better word?
Greg Moran:And I do I I think I mentioned to you, I don't like to use the word tennis coaches. I use the word tennis pros because I think coaching is an element of what we do. But overall, we're professionals, just like a doctor and a lawyer. And I think getting young people to think of it that way, I think, is really gonna have a a long term effect on them. Think of yourself as a professional.
Greg Moran:You are a professional.
Simon Gale:Well, clearly, you're passionate about growing and developing people. It's clear through your career path that's something that you've invested in. Talk about the importance of of mentorship and that continued learning for leaders in the industry in developing these people.
Greg Moran:Yes. I I do have a passion for that, but I'll be honest with you, and this is maybe something for the people as they move to the leadership role. I made a major mistake as I moved up the ladder in that I spread myself too thin. Right? I didn't delegate well.
Greg Moran:When I was running programs and owning the club, I continued to teach a lot. I continued to oversee everything, and that was not a great thing. So I could have done a better job with mentoring the pros. I could have done a better job of training. I was still teaching forty five, fifty hours a week when I owned the club and still overseeing everything.
Greg Moran:Were I to do it again, I certainly would have delegated a lot better. I think that's an important lesson for young leaders. And it's easy to do, right? It's even more so when you own the because then you're involved in in every element of it. And then you've got the mental health.
Greg Moran:This is going off off your question a little bit, but then you have the mental health issue that come into it. Kim, I've heard you talk about that in other podcasts. My wife and I were in the business together, and fortunately, when we owned the club, our our kids were older, but the club was prevalent in our minds twenty four seven. So 2AM midnight meetings at home were were all the time. So were I to do it again, I would definitely I would have learned to delegate a little bit better.
Greg Moran:And there's an old saying that when a when an owner works in the business, he often neglects to work on the business. Right? And that was something that, you know, I definitely fell victim to that. Fortunate, you know, we were in a good area and the business was always strong. So my if you wanna call them, I'm not gonna say failures, but if you wanna say my deficits as a leader didn't really impact.
Greg Moran:As far as mentors go, I mean, you know, mentors are huge. Right? I you know, as I mentioned, when I was a young pro, had good mentors and and mentors that taught me things that I didn't wanna do. And that was a large part of my education because when I was coming up in the early eighties, there was not the educational opportunities that there are today. I mean, what you what you two are doing is just is amazing.
Greg Moran:The apprenticeship program, all the I see things from the RSPA, the USTA, PTR, it's just tremendous for young pros. That wasn't there when I was coming up, so I had to have mentors. And they're they're phenomenal. You learn from their experience. They help you set your goals.
Greg Moran:They give you feedback. You have access to their network, which is great. I I would say to young pros that are that are looking for mentors, first look for somebody and and again, with me, it was it wasn't a formal thing. And I think that's the way that it kind of evolves in clubs. Right?
Greg Moran:There's formal mentorship, but most of it's informal, I think. Kim, you would probably know better better than I. But, know, you're a young guy at a club, you see an older pro that you respect, he takes you under the wing, and and you go from there. But for the young pros out there listening, you know, look for somebody that's achieved the goals you wanna set, eager to share their knowledge. A lot of the guys my age now, we've achieved our goal.
Greg Moran:And now it's that's the old moving from success to significance. Right? You've you've achieved your goals, and the next step is now you wanna try to give back. So mentorship is, of course, huge.
Simon Gale:So if we zero in on a specific stage of your career when you were director of tennis before you became part owner and owner, what were some of the biggest challenges in that role and how did you overcome them? It sounds like you just worked constantly and did everything. So you probably took on a lot of these challenges on your own, but what were some of those?
Greg Moran:Well, I think the biggest challenges for anybody running the tennis program are pros, pros, pros. Right? I mean, the quality of your program is really determined by the the quality of your pros. And we had at one point, we had over 800 kids in our program. So I would often need and that's not even the adult program.
Greg Moran:I would often need ten, eleven pros out there. And it and it's tough to get ten, eleven quality pros because a lot of them aren't aren't at the club full time. Right? So they're you get you have your school teachers that love tennis and come in in the afternoons, and they're doing their couple of hours a week. So there were many times where I would have to put people out there that was not really it's not like in the office where if Sally calls in sick, say, okay.
Greg Moran:Well, Bill can take over her work for the day. You know, you have to have a body on that court. So there were times that, you know, there would we would have to put some pros out there that weren't quite of the standard that we would like. But, Simon, you know as well as I do, we all have our little tricks. Right?
Greg Moran:You can put them in the corner court or you put them in between two strong pros that can be an influence into them. Pros are always a tough thing. And also then then the uncertainty of thing. Who calls in sick today? Who's not that?
Greg Moran:So those are really the the tough things. I I don't know if if you overcome those challenges. I think you learn to navigate them, quite honestly. One of one of your guests, Kim, was a club owner, and I think his name was was Joe, Joe Perto. And he had a a great line.
Greg Moran:He said, if you don't have a sense of humor in the tennis business, you're you're never gonna last. So I think he was a 100% right in in whatever position.
Kim Bastable:Pretty good advice. I'm glad you're listening to the podcast and referencing back to some of those. Joe was a great episode. Thank you for that.
Greg Moran:Yeah. He was fabulous.
Kim Bastable:So let's talk about this book project. I love your comment about your you may moving into significance. I think that's what so many people that have been in this great industry for so long feel. They really wanna help the young people to make some life choices that and decisions that maybe they wouldn't make or make as quickly. So what's the book project all about?
Kim Bastable:Like, tell us more.
Greg Moran:Yeah. I mean, the book project is is pretty much that. It's when I when I sold the club, I wanted to transition to to more teaching, more writing, and and trying to give back. And the book idea really, really came from there. I want to write something that would be both educational, but also a fun read.
Greg Moran:Because a lot of what I see in terms of educational material comes across to me as, well, like a textbook. Right? Scientific's not the right word. It's too formal, I think. And I'm I'm always thinking of the average pro.
Greg Moran:Right? I'm interested in the average pro who maybe doesn't read a lot of books. He maybe doesn't go online. He doesn't do that type of thing. So I wanted to make something, I wanted to write something that would a, provide information, but also be a fun read.
Greg Moran:So I have a lot of stories from my career. You know, the crazy tennis parents, the obnoxious this, all the stuff that anybody that's been in tennis has had to deal with. So I'm hoping that the information there will will pique their interest, and also it'll be an enjoyable read. I'm not trying to totally educate them, but I'm just trying to get them to think that there is more than what they're doing. And then and I and I say this at the end of the book.
Greg Moran:My hope here was to get you to kinda realize these things, and now the rest is up to you. And then they come to people like you two, and then they do the deep dive. They realize that they have to they have to do more than just learn new drills, that type of thing. I talk about I have a section that the first section is called thinking beyond tomorrow, and I talk about the next forty five years of their career. And I go through kind of stages in your twenties, in your thirties, in your forties, and then I talk about the financial timeline.
Greg Moran:In theory, you should begin to start thinking about whatever, budgeting, savings, work with a financial planner. And then the last little part of that that first section of the book, I have a sec chapter I call Keeping the Machine Functioning, and that's really talking about your body, quite honestly. How do you keep your body on the court? I mean, I'm 60 I'll be 66 in a couple weeks, and that's a big thing for me because I did an article for RSI years ago, and I did some math. Simon, I might have mentioned this to you.
Greg Moran:And simple math, I had fed over 95,000,000 tennis balls at that point. Right? And that didn't include playing. So, I mean, my arm is, you know, hanging by a thread. So I talk about that a little bit.
Greg Moran:And I I don't I didn't wanna get into how to be a better person on the court, how to relate to your students, all that kind of stuff, because that's there's so much good information out there. But I do talk about some things in in success in the world of recreational tennis, because I've always been very adamant about the fact that that's unless you're on the pro tour traveling with somebody, we are all teaching in the world of recreational tennis. I have a group of advanced men that that I work with on Saturday morning. We've been doing this forever, and I mentioned that. You had a couple of ex college players, and they're out there trying to play like ex college players in their fifties do, which is a bit of a zoo.
Greg Moran:So I pulled them all together, and I and I would say, you know, men, the banter is as it is. And I'll say, guys, it doesn't matter how good any of us were. At the end of the day, we all circle back around to being recreational players. And this one guy said to me, well, I'm not a 60 year old guy. He goes, well, I'm not a recreational player.
Greg Moran:And I said, well, yeah, you are. He starts, you know, kinda arguing. And I said, well, let let me ask you a question. I said, are you being paid to be here or are you paying to be here today? And he's, well, I'm paying to be here.
Greg Moran:I said, well, you're a recreational player. And he got a little look on his face. I said, no. You're a serious recreational player, and that seemed to make him happy. But that's always been a big thing of mine.
Greg Moran:And then that's the core of the industry, right, the recreational player. So I have a section talking the book about that. I have a section talking about customer service. I do touch on a little bit about when you become the boss. And this is really a lot about what your podcast is about, my feelings on leadership.
Greg Moran:There's been so much great information from you guys. I'm not really sure what I can can add that's new, but I've always felt that big role of the leader is to inspire. That's the job. So I go through a bunch of little ways. I think one of the big ways you inspire, perhaps the most important way, is to inspire by example.
Greg Moran:That's that's a big thing for me. And the staff would see me picking up garbage around the facility or or cleaning the courts, or cleaning the locker room because the facility guy didn't show up. That sent a message to them. And the same thing applied when I was on the court. As I said, I still talk quite a bit, but I felt when the pros saw me out there at 60 years of age, still bringing the energy, that sent a message.
Greg Moran:And it also gave me a good opportunity to help them learn. I could involve them in demos. I could show them how to time multi core rotations. The boss being out there just brings a different kind of energy. So that's a big thing for me with leadership is inspiring.
Greg Moran:That's probably a little longer answer than you wanted, but
Kim Bastable:No. That's that's awesome. That's a there's so much good detail there. And one of the things that is fascinating to me on that is from the forward that was written by Kirk Anderson for your book. And he makes a comment, and I couldn't agree with this more.
Kim Bastable:And I think it's something that people fail to realize. We can't just spend our time on court all the time and feel like we're growing and developing because there are so many more aspects to the profession. And one of the things he says is while many of the lesson providers do well financially in the short term, most burn out mentally and emotionally or wear out physically or have very little to build on when they're forced to cut back on their hours or move entirely into a different career, which is as you're saying, you're you're a little bit spent after a while, millions of balls. So he says, the lesson providers mistakenly believe they have fifteen to twenty years of experience, but a future employer easily sees that this person looking to gain new employment has one year of experience 15 to 20 times. And I find that fascinating.
Kim Bastable:We have pros that do the same thing year after year after year that then fifteen years later wanna be ready to be a director, and they're really not ready. Could you respond to that?
Greg Moran:I would agree with that a thousand percent. I think that that's exactly what we're talking about. I mean, they they don't realize. They don't think anything's gonna change. They don't think their bodies are gonna hurt.
Greg Moran:They don't think they're gonna even become stale. I mean, I would argue nobody loves teaching tennis, you know, more than I do. I'm still looking for new drills. I go on tennisdrills.tv, which I would recommend to everybody out there, and Jorge is not paying me to do that. I think that's a phenomenal thing.
Greg Moran:I still love the tennis, but it's yeah. You're gonna get old. That's the bottom line. And I think that's where it becomes important going back to the mentors to get in somebody's head, for lack of a better word, and and tell them that. And and they often don't believe it.
Greg Moran:I mean, I that was really a big frustration for mine to try to get pros to think beyond. I would have four zero one k guys, and not just career work, also financial planning. I would have four zero one k people come to the club to talk, and half the pros wouldn't show up for the meeting. And they just don't they don't think. And I think, again, that's where it becomes important for the boss, for the leader to sit down with people and do that.
Greg Moran:And I think that also, you know, that that sit down with people and and talk about that also will help to get Simon, you'd mentioned, I think one of the the things you sent me prior to doing this, we need to get people into the industry. Right? I'm hearing that everywhere. There are not enough tennis pros around. I think the five day work week is amazing.
Greg Moran:I think that's fantastic. I think to get people in again, I'm I'm veering off here. But how do you get people in into the industry? I think you've you have to show them that there is a rewarding career path where you can have an impact on people's lives. Tell the story, my story of my pro.
Greg Moran:Simon, tell the story of of your pro that that had an impact. My my life had my first tennis lesson gone poorly, my life would have been totally different. I met my wife through tennis. Right? And and it's a funny funny kind of end to the story, him and Simon.
Greg Moran:I did reach out to him. I reached out to him about that this the pro Rick about three years ago. And he's in Florida. He's in his late seventies, still teaching. And I called him up, and I I said, is this the same Rick such and such that was teaching at such and such club in the in the early seventies?
Greg Moran:He said, yes, it is. And I said, well, my name's Greg Moran, and I don't know if you remember me, but I just wanted you to know what an impact you had on my life. And it was great because he he had seen my name on different things, and he always wondered if I was that same little blonde haired kid running around picking up balls. And it made me feel great that he remembered, and I hope it made him feel good that that he impacted my life. But but how bringing people into the industry?
Greg Moran:I would love to get in front of a group of college kids and tell that story and talk about the impact he had on my life. So that will help bring people into the industry, I think, and then it becomes up up to us to show them, you know, how to grow. There is a viable career path. And and, you know, people I don't think like to talk about this too much, but you can be very financially successful. And I I know people when they list their higher job satisfaction, many people will say, well, money is not important.
Greg Moran:A better environment is more important. And I think there's certainly an element of truth to that. But you have to pay your bills. And for people to see that you don't have to be a club owner to do well financially. So I think it's it's showing people the impact that they can have and then showing them the path for success, fulfilling, growing career, I think will go a long way.
Greg Moran:And I have to say, I think what you guys are doing goes a long way towards that. Again, I wish it was around when I was, you know, 50
Simon Gale:I just said that to the the fellowship program. We just got eight new fellows come in this week who are at the start of their career. And as I was explaining what they do and what the summer looks like, I said, I wish this was around when I was 21 and just getting started. What a great foundation to to be in. So I wanna pick up on something you said earlier which ties in with the question I had planned, which is you talked about when you were a director and then as an owner, you did everything.
Simon Gale:And in hindsight, if you look back now, you would say, I I would have delegated better. So when we're talking about trying to create a career path for people and people see where they can go and that, yeah, I could make 6 figures and I could become a leader and these are the skills you need. What are some actual tangible ways that you would help that happen? So for example, you said somebody just keeps teaching forty hours. How do you start to sprinkle in some opportunities for them to have a leadership role or do something off court?
Simon Gale:If you did it again, what would that look like? What would be a couple of examples?
Greg Moran:Yeah. I I think you would start by having them try to to lead things on the court. Right? We did a lot of multi court workshops where we do a lot of demos, and it's fortunate because so often I would say to somebody, okay, today we're gonna talk about poaching. Do you wanna do the demo?
Greg Moran:And a lot of times it would be no. And then, again, that's a confidence thing. So I would, you know, ease them towards it. Now one of the things that I would do sometimes when I knew somebody was a little hesitant, I would I would put them on the spot a little bit. I'd be doing something, Simon, what do you think about that?
Greg Moran:Just to try to get them to think. And it also depends on the personality of the pro. Right? The the extroverted pros are eager for that kind of stuff. The introverted pros, you have to be a little bit more careful because you don't wanna to shut them down.
Greg Moran:But I think you gradually try to to ease them into things. So, Simon, I would say, yes. Slowly but surely, having them do more things on the court. I would invite them to come sit with me as I was designing lesson plans. I would come have them sit with me when we had 80 kids coming for a clinic.
Greg Moran:I would show them how I did it. And then I would say, what do you think? Do you have a better way to do it? So I think it's a gradual thing where you slowly try to build their skills, but also build their confidence.
Kim Bastable:I actually think that story is great. I think there might have been a little bit of a transparency of I'm going to leave because I know that you can do this.
Greg Moran:Yeah.
Kim Bastable:And then at some level, there you want them to practice with a smaller amount of people maybe first and figure out they have the words, do the practice teaching in front of the small group of comfortable pros before they have to do it in front of the three courts of adults. It's amazing. This is a public speaking job, so that is a bit intimidating. Isn't that the the there's a lot of research that says public speaking is one of the most fearful things any adult or any person actually does.
Greg Moran:Ahead of death?
Kim Bastable:Ahead of death. That's right.
Greg Moran:I mean, Jerry Seinfeld has a great bit that he does when he says, you know, when you're when you're at the eulogy giving a funeral, the person in the coffin would rather be there than where where you are giving the eulogy.
Kim Bastable:So let's just say I'm hearing what you say if we're gonna summarize that your advice to aspiring tennis leaders really has a lot to do with looking down the road, not looking at what they can do today or tomorrow or this year even. It's a really a long term view. Would you agree?
Greg Moran:Yeah. I I think both. I mean, you wanna have that, you know, the the growth mindset because it also keeps it interesting for you as well. For somebody coming into the industry today that wants to be a leader, it's certainly a lot more challenging than than when I came in Because, you know, with technology and everything, so there's that good. But I think your skills have to become you have to be much more skilled than I had to be coming in.
Greg Moran:So I would say certainly, you know, work on your key your skills. I mean, talking before about one more leadership thing I would always like to say, and this is something I kinda the way we did it as well, is never lose sight of, like, the atmosphere wherever you are as a leader. The atmosphere that I always tried to and my wife and I always tried to to create is a family first atmosphere. Right? And I think that's true whether you're leading a group of pros, whether you're leading a club, whether you're owning a club.
Greg Moran:Never lose sight of that because we are it's a relationship business that we're in, and the relationship that you have with your pros and your staff, you want it to be quote unquote somewhat like a family. Our people our pros knew. If there was ever a family issue that came up, even if it was last minute, go. We have your back. I it's an interesting story, Kim and Simon, when I was spent a summer a couple summers at a country club, and I was scheduled to give a lesson to the president of the club at 4PM.
Greg Moran:And I'd left for a little bit to go watch my son, I think it was play soccer. And I got back to the club about 03:30, and the guy was there hitting serves. And he said, oh, what were you doing? I was at my my son's game, and he looked me in the eye. And he said, next time one of your kids has an activity and we have a lesson scheduled, you call me and we reschedule the lesson.
Greg Moran:And I thought, wow. Now is that gonna happen today? I I don't know. But that had a profound effect on me. And I would say for anybody wanting to be a leader, yes, the skills, all that stuff.
Greg Moran:Of course, it's important. But nothing's more important than the relationship you have with your team.
Kim Bastable:Excellent.
Simon Gale:Well said. Well said. I I think you just talked about your role as a director versus what today's director faces, whether it's technology, multiple racket sports now as well. Mhmm. I think the roles evolve from heavy teaching and a little bit of off court to perhaps you needed off court a lot more.
Simon Gale:And even now, there's directors roles where you can't teach more than ten hours because of the administrative and hospitality side of the industry that's required. Where do you see the role today and how do you see it evolving in the future? What skills are needed five, ten years from now that you think will make a director successful?
Greg Moran:Everything we have now on steroids. I mean, the organizational skills, you need the technical skills, you need people skills, you need the problem solving skills, times whatever. Because now you're not just dealing with tennis, and I just dealt with tennis my entire career, which is good because that's that's really where my passion was. But now it's you know, with the country clubs, it's not a director of tennis too much. It's a director of rackets.
Greg Moran:And I think as as things grow like anything else, you know, you need Simon, as you said before the podcast, were on your call, bigger program, bigger bigger issues. The more going on, the better your organizational skills will have to be. So you really need to be I don't wanna say businessman per se, but you have to have businessman. So you have to be you have to transition from being a coach to a professional. That's probably the best way I would put it.
Kim Bastable:Well, I think what the good thing I hear from you is the job is more complex, but so are the resources. As you said, you didn't have the resources when you were starting out, and now, you know, we do. We have lots of different educational resources. And we can certainly network together through social media and mediums like this where people can learn faces. LinkedIn, we can all talk to each other and ask questions, which is helpful to the young ones that are eager.
Kim Bastable:So I just have one last question, and I hear this a lot. You mentioned the five day work week and how that's great for helping the young people be inspired to come. But there are still people in our industry saying, well, I had I didn't get a five day work week, so you gotta work as hard as I did. And I think that's shortsighted, but how do we stop that? What do we do about that mentality?
Kim Bastable:It's just a six day work week, or it's just that's what our job is.
Greg Moran:Oh, Kim, I was like that. I mean, when the young pros I mean, I worked seven days a week, sixty hour you know, at the club at six in the morning. I was a 100% like that. And when the young pros come in, what do you mean you don't wanna you're not gonna work? You know?
Greg Moran:I was a 100% like that. And what used to drive me absolutely nuts is when I would contact them, oh, hey. Can you do a lesson from such and such? You know? And they would say to me, well, who's it with?
Greg Moran:Number one. That doesn't matter. And then it would also be, you know, can you get me a lesson on either side so I don't have to come to the club just for an hour? So you're dealing with that mentality as well. So you're talking about the older pros that have been doing this for a while.
Greg Moran:What do you say to them? Times change. Things change. And what's very important with the young people I've got my my kids are 38 and 35, so I see a lot of their friends. What's so important to them, I and think it's great, is is the work life balance.
Greg Moran:And it's funny, even today is my my son-in-law, an accountant, and then and he works from home a couple days a week. My daughter works from home a couple days a week. And when they have to go into the office, it's like a thing. And I'm like, really? You know?
Greg Moran:And they dad, things have changed. And I think it's great. I think the young the young generation of pros and leaders coming up have as you said, have so many more resources, certainly so many more responsibilities, but it's just gonna continue to get better and better. And I and I think what's also important, Kim and Simon, is the older pros like myself, older leaders like myself have to value that, and it's great. I'm not gonna say we paved the way.
Greg Moran:That's that's ridiculous. But this is the reality now, and it's great for these young pros. And if they can then come back and and learn from some things that we did because at the end of the day, I don't know if you agree or disagree with this, the fundamentals of this are the fundamentals of this. Right? Communication, clarity, all this stuff.
Greg Moran:But now it's just it's blowing up. But when when you pare it down to the fundamentals of leadership, I'm not sure they've changed that much over the last hundred years. Now it's a broader role, but fundamentals were just like just like teaching tennis. Right? The fundamentals are the fundamentals.
Simon Gale:Well, Greg, there's a lot of little bits of gold in in what you've said. You know, I think one of the things that maybe I find a bit disappointing at times with with it's not a label on generations, but the younger generation sometimes discount the old guy or the old lady in the room who've done been there and done it. Mhmm. And I think that's a real mistake because if they listen to you and took couple hours of your time to pick your brain, I think there's some really valuable lessons that they could take away from your experience. And I think you don't get that on YouTube, you don't get that through a tweet or something like that.
Simon Gale:You you need to spend some time with people who've been there and done it and I think you're a valuable resource for the next generation who are looking to move into a leadership role. So I thank you for your time today.
Greg Moran:Oh, my pleasure. It it's funny, Simon, when you say that because of there's a there's a saying when somebody leaves a a business, you move from who's who to who's that. Right? And since I've sold my club, I'm still teaching at the club. I am still at the club, but I really make it a and I and and the new owners and everybody there, and that that's another that might be another topic for a conversation.
Greg Moran:When is it time to leave a leadership role? Right? When is when is it time? And, you know, so I and I've made it very clear to the new owner that I'm available anytime he likes. The news the staff knows I'm available anytime they like.
Greg Moran:But I really make a very concerted effort. I walk in the door five minutes before I teach. I am out the door five minutes after. And that's very conscious because I don't think the the new guard needs to see the old guard there. Because then it's, well, this is how Greg did it.
Greg Moran:This is how blah blah blah. It's their time. They don't need me around. I'm available if they'd like.
Kim Bastable:Excellent. That's good advice. Yes. You're right. There might need to be another podcast about that subject.
Kim Bastable:Very interesting. Well, we we are running short on time, and we appreciate very much your advice, your thoughts. Look forward to this book, and it's really an opportunity for us to take someone with forty years in the same club and moving exactly up the path that we talk about all the time. Great information. So thank you for being here.
Greg Moran:My pleasure. I'm glad we could finally get it together.
Kim Bastable:Thank you so much. That's what we have for you today on Racquet Fuel. We'll speak to you next time.
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