A Golf Pro explains how the right Approach is important to setting up a well placed shot. Here’s how the same Approach applies to Digital Marketing.
Transcript
Brad Besancon: Well, hello, everyone. It’s Brad with Clarity Digital and I’m here with Kyle Kerver down at the Cleburne Golf Links, here in the Pro Shop, and we’re talking about our map program which at Clarity Digital, stands for Method, Approach, and Performance.
Today, we’re going to talk about methods with Kyle because there’s nothing more important in golf than kind of a system or methodology, right?
Kyle Kerver: Sure. We follow a process in golf much like business: you start everything out the same way. You start behind the ball to set up your shot, to set up your round. You set up everything in a process.
Besancon: It’s amazing, all that you have to go through for a little white ball, isn’t it?
Kerver: That’s correct. It’s amazing.
Besancon: And the sad thing is, what we find is at Clarity is, there’s probably more people going through steps in golf than they do in their business. So one of the things we hear in golf is that you have to play your game.
Kerver: Right.
Besancon: You can’t play Tiger’s game or Jordan’s game, or Rickie Fowler’s game; you can’t have their swing.
Kerver: Correct.
Besancon: You have to have Kyle’s swing and Brad’s Swing. So tell me the importance of playing it your way and your game. What are the critical aspects of that?
Kerver: As a teacher of golf, I teach very specific things in general but when we get down to it, once we get to a certain physical level, we do have to figure out our own way of doing everything. So my swing might be a little different than yours because we’re different body types, we’re different heights, weights, everything as far as the way we’re built, so even on the physical side is different but more on the mental side as well; we have different brains, we have different approaches of everything so we really have to find what’s best for us.
Besancon: Yes, really like the attitude of your game, right?
Kerver: Very much so.
Besancon: So you can only help mechanically so much.
Kerver: Very much so.
Besancon: And then it comes to kind of the attitude and what you’re doing, which brings us to another aspect of business which is, you have to play your game.
Kerver: Yes.
Besancon: Right? You can’t go out there and be Coca-Cola or be Walmart, or be super Target; you have to be your business, your brand, your voice. The same way around a golf course it is, you have to pick up the clubs that you chose and swing it.
So you talked about some of those steps. Let’s walk through like some very one, two, three fundamental steps that kind of apply to golf that as well as kind of what businesses should be thinking of when we’re talking about this analogy.
Kerver: Right, so kind of how we start with our approach to every golf swing, is we look at the general area, we kind of assess the situation. Every golfshot is different. So we look in a general area and then we find what we want to do specifically for that golfshot; there’s so many things that are involved in that golf swing at that moment, so.
Besancon: A lot of muscle memory.
Kerver: A lot of muscle memory. And then on the mental side of it, you have visualizations; you have to visualize your goal for that shot. You have to visualize your own personal swing for that shot, and then–
Besancon: Sounds familiar? It’s like business.
Kerver: Exactly. And then as you step into your shot, obviously, you have to execute at the end of it. So a lot of commitment involved there, a lot of going through a checklist, setting up your business the same way.
Besancon: I mean, you just went through the steps that Robert and I go through with companies all the time: visualize where you’re going; we always challenge our clients, where do you want to go with this? What do you want to do online? What is your social media? What is overall objective of it? When you’re walking with that ball sitting in the fairway, where are you trying to go? Are you trying to lay up? Are you trying to get on the green? Can you get to the green? You have to go through all of those questions. And what’s really critical about the other things I think you said which is important in the game as well as in businesses, you kind of take a step back before each shot, right? Walk us through kind of stepping back and what you’re trying to do when you kind of, like you said, overall picture.
Kerver: Sure, sure. We step back behind the ball. Obviously, the most important thing is target. We look in a certain direction, we look where we want the ball to go, but in generally speaking, we look at all the elements: look at wind, we look at temperature, we look at elevation of what we’re standing on, elevation of the green, the slope of the green–
Besancon: Where you’re starting.
Kerver: Yes, where you start and where you want to end up. So all those things you take in, in a general aspect, and then as your approach the ball, it gets more specific and more specific, until we do execute the golf swing.
Besancon: Time for the action now, right?
Kerver: Right.
Besancon: You make your decision.
Kerver: Correct.
Besancon: Right? You pick the club, you visualized it, and now you make your action.
Kerver: Yes, sir.
Besancon: Sounds a lot like listen, think, speak for Clarity’s standpoint.
I think one of the key things that applies with golf and business is this step-by-step approach, right? You have to practice. You have to create muscle memory, and you have to approach or you have to create your own system, if you will, and your game so that you can stay consistent. And ultimately, that’s what golf’s all about, right? Consistency.
Kerver: It’s all about consistency.
Besancon: Yeah, so we really appreciate your time, man. I really appreciate you letting me come down here and kind of walk us through. And I think some of the key takeaways are this: you have to have a map, you have to have a method, an approach, and a performance tester, right? Which is what we’re talking about and you also have to be sure you’re taking a step back first, going through a system, thinking about your next shot with the basis of where I wanted to go, right? It’s the same in business: you have to know where you’re going before you can start.
And then I think the biggest thing that Kyle said was, is know where you’re starting, right? And look at all the things that are making up your starting point.
That’s Clarity clip of the week from Cleburne Golf Links. Come down here and enjoy a round.
