Shawn Humphries, a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher and a GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, is the president and CEO of On Par Companies and the director of Shawn Humphries Golf Performance at Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine, Texas.
Shawn Humphries on the importance of concentrating on transformations, not transactions:
I’ve always believed that people don’t buy what you do, but rather they are buying why you’re doing it, which kind of goes against the grain of how business professionals market themselves. I have found through my own business practices and observations that those who build their business based on transformation of the students, rather than transactions, stand the test of time. The big challenge is that many are focused on a number and the end results, but we can monetize relationships over time. I have found that defining what I do (how the golf swing should function, my teaching philosophy and how my instruction practice will operate) and not specializing in only one area (golf teaching, training, coaching, wellness, fitness, mental training, and clubfitting) helps create trust with my students and they continue to hone their skills with me.
Shawn Humphries on the business impact of concentrating on transformations, not transactions:
Like most, early in my career I honed my skills giving private lessons. And for several years, I was giving over 1,000 lessons per year, but wanted to transform my business and help my students evolve and improve more rather than just focusing on individual lessons. The only way you can take your students through a complete transformation is by taking them from A to Z, by creating self-awareness, teaching, training, and coaching them through everything. By changing the way my academy operates and focusing on transformations, I have seen tremendous results. I now have 100-plus youth golfers in my academy who visit a minimum of three days per week for 12 months a year, and most weeks I’m coaching for 60 hours per week. I have realized such success because everyone is committed to transformation rather than just one-off lessons and changing the mindset of our kids, getting them to move off the number, result, score and outcome. We never ask our players what they made on a hole, what score they finished with, and or how they finished in an event. We ask them to tell us what you did well, tell us what you learned, and what solutions you need. Focusing on the plan, solutions, and process builds capacity, tolerance, variability and flexibility. That’s how you transform people.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email shawnhumphriesgolf@gmail.com
