00:01.88 ModGolfPodcast Welcome to the ModGolf podcast where I speak with the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the disruptors, and the influencers who are shaping the future of golf. I am your host, Colin Weston, and today I have yet another amazing woman entrepreneur in the world of golf. I talk to people from all around the world, but today I've got someone right in my own backyard here in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, 00:29.76 ModGolfPodcast Canada and that is Courtney Campbell who is the founder of Birdies Babes Golf where she has created a golf community and lessons to inspire women's golf. They host events, offer female led professional instructions and they've got a learn to play program. And we're going to get into that. You know what? I'm going to let Courtney talk about that because guess what? She's the founder. She knows about this way more than I do. So we're going to get into this, so let's bring her on here. Courtney, welcome to the ModGolf Podcast! How's it going? 01:05.36 Courtney Campbell Hey, thanks, Colin. Thank you for inviting me on the podcast here. I'm excited to join you today. 01:10.66 ModGolfPodcast Well, thanks for for taking the time and for you to squeeze me in. You have a hectic life because you are living the personal, not just the professional life that most women are challenged with, when they're trying to get into the game. And I know that you're a mom, you've got 01:27.26 ModGolfPodcast two or maybe even three children. You commute to work every single day to the golf course and you're also a professional teacher so you've got a lot going on. So you can really relate to the women that you're trying to onboard with Birdie bBabes Golf can't you? 01:41.71 Courtney Campbell Oh yeah, 100%. Yeah, I have two boys on my own. I have two step kids, so I'm a mom of four, and then I commute from Squamish down to West Van every day, so lots of driving, and then trying to grow Birdies Babes Golf, and then run two golf facilities. So I have a nine hole Glenn Eagles in West Van, and then I also run the pitch and putt, which I heard you talk about with Hoyt for the pitch and putts on your last episode. I'm getting more people out on the golf course down at Ambleside. 02:12.11 ModGolfPodcast Well, I don't know how you find the time to talk to me here. Okay I better talk fast then. I think I only have you for a few minutes because you've got to get back to the 8,000 other things that you juggle in your everyday life! 02:20.11 Courtney Campbell Yes. 02:22.81 ModGolfPodcast So I always like to ask this icebreaker question to get us going here to learn a little more about you and that is to do with golf. So I always love to hear the story of that first experience you ever had with golf and you understand the power of invitation and how meaningful that is for women. That have never been connected to golf before to get that invitation. So I'm curious with you, with your life, at what age did you start playing golf? What was that first really great golf memory that puts a smile on your face? And who was that person that that introduced you to the game of golf? 03:00.99 Courtney Campbell Yeah, that one's a very special one to me. That was through my grandfather. He was my first connection to golf. True Scotsman. We had this huge acreage back in Peterborough, Ontario, and he would set up little golf holes to practice on in the backyard. And then one day I found myself out there watching him going, what's he doing? I'm a true Canadian girl, and I grew up playing hockey. But I was like, there's a stick and a ball. 03:27.88 Courtney Campbell This looks cool so he called me over and he said okay put your hands here and this is how you do it and take a swing and sure enough i hit it 50 yards in the air and he said okay I think we found something so that was it. 03:39.88 ModGolfPodcast There we go. So that was your first experience. 03:42.89 Courtney Campbell Yeah it was my first experience and then there's a local golf course down the street from us um and my mother knew the golf pro so his name was Mark Crampton and he really took me under his wing and shaped my golf swing. From I think it was about 10 or 11 years old when I started so now a little bit later in the game for most of these juniors but it was an easy transition from hockey and baseball and lacrosse and all the other little so and the hand-eye sports that I was playing. 03:43.43 ModGolfPodcast So good! 04:13.05 Courtney Campbell I loved hitting that ball in the air 100 yards and going okay, this is fun! 04:19.66 ModGolfPodcast Nice. So that was in Peterborough. So people that are listening all over the world. So Peterborough is just outside of Toronto. I grew up in the Toronto area also on the other side of the city and I ended up in Vancouver and you ended up here too. 04:30.70 ModGolfPodcast So what was that story? Did golf bring you out here? I believe you went to golf management at Georgian College. Did I get that right? 04:37.52 Courtney Campbell Yeah that's right. I went to school there. 04:38.88 ModGolfPodcast So that's back in Ontario. So how how did you end up out here? Tell me about that. 04:43.79 Courtney Campbell So from there, golf, after my junior days, I ventured into the golf, working in the industry. So I started in Peterborough at a local shop that was out of a portable called Lift Lock Golf in Kunchkab. 04:51.94 ModGolfPodcast Right. 04:57.31 Courtney Campbell And I thought, hey, this seems pretty good. And then I moved on to work up in Muskoka in Huntsville. And I loved it up there. And the guys that I had worked with were like, "you should become a golf pro. You could do this really well. You're really good at talking to people and teaching. Why don't you try?" And I was like, I don't even know what that entails. Where do I go? So I followed in the steps of the other guys that I worked with. They helped me go through the process of getting my PGA of Canada card. 05:25.39 Courtney Campbell And then once I landed there, I said, well, Muskoka season is done in October. Now what am I going to do? So I had this choice of trying to figure out where I could land somewhere year round. 05:37.39 Courtney Campbell So Vancouver was one of them in Canada. And I also ventured down to California to work for a year as well. 05:44.06 ModGolfPodcast Got you. So were you teaching mostly women? 05:44.92 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 05:48.80 ModGolfPodcast Did you find with the students that you had, was teaching women something that you gravitated to early on in your teaching career? 05:58.15 Courtney Campbell Yeah, I think at first I really started with juniors and I feel like any professional getting into teaching juniors is a great stepping stone, even if you're not so confident, because at first you're not super confident in the swing, but those kids are so moldable. And if they are listening well, you can create these little athletes out of them. So I started there. Then when I did venture over to the west coast, I took a position as an associate professional at Capalano Country Club. 06:26.06 Courtney Campbell There I really worked on growing my client base. So I mostly found a lot of the women were gravitating to me because women were taking lessons from women, maybe a little bit more relatable, but I taught everybody at the time. 06:39.23 ModGolfPodcast Right. 06:43.53 ModGolfPodcast So myself as an entrepreneur, I've talked to almost 200 guests now on The ModGolf Podcast. I talk to entrepreneurs all across the spectrum in the golf industry and so there's always that AHA moment. 06:55.94 ModGolfPodcast There's a gap or an opportunity or a pain point, or you see something there and for you, you're already extremely busy. So to take that extra energy and decide with Birdies Babes Golf to start that up. So I'm quite curious to learn, so what was the turning point, that inflection point for you? And you realized that there was a need for a community like Birdies Babes Golf and the specific challenges that you saw that women face that you thought creating this platform would be able to help. 07:27.62 Courtney Campbell Yeah, I always envisioned myself trying to get to that like grassroots level of introducing was mostly from my friends like moms that wanted lessons, and I was sorry that in a position where at a private club I wasn't really able to invite these friends of mine and the women out to to try golf. 07:49.28 Courtney Campbell So I was thinking like, well, how am I going to do this? So I actually started in a bar at the simulators at One Under in Vancouver. 07:57.83 ModGolfPodcast Yes. 07:57.88 Courtney Campbell And I started to package these deals up for some friends to say, here, I'll give you a golf lesson for an hour and a half. We'll give you a bottle of wine. and pizza and some appies and we'll have fun and at the time their music was blasting at One Under because it's a pub kind of theme there and so and I invented Birdies Babes Beats which was my original name because I literally couldn't hear what I was saying to the girls! But I could see they were having the best time and every time they left they were like "how do we keep this going? We're in the simulator but now what?" 08:32.87 Courtney Campbell And then I had just taken the the job position as head professional at Glen Eagles, which is a public course. And they had a very small like turf nursery area. And I was like, hey, I can see this area becoming a place where we can really teach. Even though it's small, it's going to give me the fundamentals just to get these clubs in everyone's hands and swinging, even if it reaches only 160 yards, making that those first couple shots and seeing their faces light up from there is exactly what I wanted to start. 09:03.81 Courtney Campbell And then from there, Birdies just took off! 09:06.92 ModGolfPodcast I love this, I love this. So great takeaways there in entrepreneurship that you stated, as a lot of founders follow and in the tech space, it's called a minimum viable product. 09:07.88 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 09:19.94 ModGolfPodcast It was a bit of an experiment, what you did indoors there at One Under, that you just tried a couple of things as a side hustle, and it resonated. 09:24.69 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 09:30.32 ModGolfPodcast Then all of a sudden it's like, holy smokes, this is catching on. Women love this. They want to come back and do it even more and then you have the opportunity and the space at at Glen Eagles there and I believe if I get it right - I'm looking at your website right now with Birdies Babes Golf - is the big image with about fifty women on that the space you're talking about there at Glen Eagles. 09:50.44 Courtney Campbell Yeah, and that one there, that's the first hole. So every time I put on social nights once a month, I do a theme night to get women exposed to golf. I block off the end of the tee sheet for the ladies. And then it really requires no experience. If they've hit the ball a few times, it's totally fun. But the women that are also going there are so supportive of everyone. 10:11.87 Courtney Campbell So I always do this big group photo on the first hole in their their theme outfit. So that one could have been Birdies en Blanc, but I've done Birdies Rodeo. We've done Birdies Boho night. 10:23.54 Courtney Campbell And I do a birdies women's golf day as well. 10:27.72 ModGolfPodcast Right, so I see that photo, everyone's in white there. So obviously that's your Birdies en Blanc Night there. 10:29.68 Courtney Campbell Yeah, that's one of the favorites. 10:32.90 ModGolfPodcast There we go. Nice. I'm not gonna do a head count there, but it looks like there's at least 50 women there. So you're finding now just the kind of the social networking piece of this, do you have to do almost no promotion? Are you finding that having created such great experiences for these women, that they're inviting their friends, that it's word of mouth, that this is how Birdies Babes Golf is growing? 10:58.40 Courtney Campbell Yeah, I feel very happy and fortunate about this part, but I will post it a week out of the social nights and they sell it within like two to five minutes. I generally cap them about 44 to 54 women for most of the night except for the big day, which is 72 and we take over the whole golf course. But that 72 player Shotgun sells out in like half an hour. So it's all word of mouth. All the women are great in the community They want so much more they want to get into the merchandise and they want to be traveling. So it's kind of set fire and it it's taking off. 11:36.58 ModGolfPodcast Nice. So the programming that I understand. So for those shotguns, they are playing nine holes of golf. Then you're all meeting up for some social afterwards. Tell us about the programming of a night like that. 11:49.91 Courtney Campbell Yeah, so the social nights are very casual. I give them two or three rules. It's mostly just keep up to the group in front of you because um pace of play is super important. And then I bring myself out and then one or two other golf professionals from the Lower Mainland to join. And we go out and provide tips on the golf course if the girls need it. 12:09.56 Courtney Campbell Then they just go out as groups of four and they play golf. So there's no scoring recorded. Last year I really put in a networking piece for women-owned businesses to come out and talk about themselves, also charity groups that need in. Last year I had Vancouver Rise, the new women's soccer team that's about to be released and enter our Vancouver market. 12:33.06 ModGolfPodcast Alright. 12:37.89 Courtney Campbell So they came out and did a talk. We've had Scotia Women's Initiative out there talking about the support that they can help women in business. So those pieces are really important. 12:48.59 Courtney Campbell It's golf plus social plus networking. And then we all head to The Orchard, which is a beautiful little patio at our golf course for the social piece afterwards. Most of the time the girls walk away and they come up and say like, "thank you! I met my three best golf friends and we're traveling to McCleary or Fraserview and we're off to Big Sky next week." And that is so special to me. 13:12.90 ModGolfPodcast That's amazing. Are you finding that of the over 50 women or 75 women that night that are coming out, some of the new ones, how many women have never played golf before? 13:24.26 ModGolfPodcast Are you getting a couple of them how up that have never even picked up a golf club before? 13:31.86 Courtney Campbell Yeah, some of them they'll come with a friend. They're like, "I've been to the driving range once." And I was like, great, this is your time. Because I'm going to put you with two others that are going to help move you along. And if you hit and miss and just pick the ball up and keep going. So there's really no pressure. And if they show up, I always provide clubs if they don't have the equipment. So when they're in the programming, if they're like, hey, I don't know anything, I have golf balls ready for them, I have tees, I have the clubs, I'm there if they need just like one or two swing tips to kind of get them started. 14:04.59 Courtney Campbell And then it's really up to the rest of the community of women to kind of like support each other and move along. 14:10.41 ModGolfPodcast I like this, so it's not all on you. That it truly is that network effect. 14:11.79 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 14:14.67 ModGolfPodcast I'm assuming that other women there help them also because golf is so overwhelming with the etiquette and the rules and the pace of play and all the equipment. There's just so much, all these barriers that both of us have known and talked about for, I know myself more than a decade now and and and some of these things haven't changed and there's still barriers to entry that you're helping to lower. 14:36.12 ModGolfPodcast So you've found that with the women to support each other, that they're not making them feel bad. Sadly, men, especially older guys are terrible at this in the golf course. I'm sure a lot of women, that's one reason they stay away. 14:47.75 ModGolfPodcast So you have these crusty old guys that make you feel bad because you're too slow or you just don't know this unspoken language of etiquette of what you need to do. 14:48.49 Courtney Campbell Yeah. Oh yeah. 14:57.23 ModGolfPodcast So are you finding that you have this peer to peer mentorship that's going on out there? 15:02.68 Courtney Campbell Yeah, for sure. And then I even provide like clinics for them. So I'll do some clinics on Mondays. And I talk about the etiquette the women that are needing lessons and help, they're more than welcome to drop in. And through the winter time, I'll do range nights where I just show up and say, I'm going to be on the range. If you want to join, grab your bucket of balls and I'll be happy to help you through. 15:23.54 Courtney Campbell But for the etiquette piece with, yeah, those experiences with the marshals and the older guys sometimes and older women too, and that are really rules-based. I mean, there's a learning process to it, but my girls kind of stay together and they they help each other through when somebody's saying like, okay, you're slow, and they're there to help pick them up and say, "okay, this is what he's meaning by this, or she's meaning by this, and we're gonna move along." 15:53.85 ModGolfPodcast Got it, got it. 15:55.31 ModGolfPodcast So as far as partnerships, you mentioned corporate partnerships with Scotia Bank and also with Royal Bank of Canada, RBC. I'm looking at your LinkedIn and I see you're involved with this She Plays Golf event that happened in the summertime. 16:11.40 ModGolfPodcast So are you finding that now that you've got a lot more businesses that are leaning in, because they understand that it's not just the social value to bring women to golf, but also that business networking piece that is still strong and growing and expanding. So tell me a little bit about some partnerships and how you were involved with the She Plays Golf event and about some of those things that you do with other partners. 16:42.08 Courtney Campbell Yeah, there's here's lots of partners and there's lots of other programming that I like to support and collaborate with. So, She Plays Golf is with Golf Canada and I was one of their locations this year where I hosted, they were finding the women to drop in through Golf Canada and then I hosted their event for them. So, I framed it to more get on the golf course and try. So, we had different stations for all these women to come out and it sold out right away. One was go out and learn how to putt and chip. The next one was full swing for the group. And then my group, I took them to play a full hole. So it was one whole experience with eighty women. I pretty much was the guinea pig and I hit all the shots and I had taught them the etiquette on how to move through the hole. 17:26.46 ModGolfPodcast Right. 17:26.44 Courtney Campbell And they loved it because that experience doesn't come up when you're standing on the driving range because it's so different. There's a creek in front of you. There's trees on the side. You're taking 10 minutes in the bushes trying to find your ball. So it's those really quick tips to help the women along. So the She Plays Golf was a great initiative um to go. This year was the first time to take it like nationally across. 17:48.42 Courtney Campbell So they had different landing spots at each province. So I found that a great way for women to be introduced. They were also introduced to my program. So there's that nice collaborative effect of of that happening. And there's awesome other programs out there too. Iron Lady Golf in Ontario with Lindsay Knowlton. I've done some of her teaching programs for her. If she needs some people that are out on the west coast, her corporate groups, then I'll be happy to help instructor, her corporate groups there. 18:22.36 ModGolfPodcast Nice. Well, what you just mentioned in Ontario, that was leading to my next question, just as far as the interconnectivity between all these amazing women like yourself and the golf industry, that grassroots are building community. I've had on the podcast recently and on our Monday ModGolf LIVE show on YouTube, I've had previous guests on the podcast from years ago and brought them back. One example is Azuzaina Maldonado, who's formed Latina Golfers over 16 years ago in Los Angeles. And I've got my friend Clemmie Perry, who is in Tampa, that has created a Golf for Black Women in the community around that. So there's all these other other groups. And then the overarching one with Women's Golf Day with Elisa Gaudet. I don't know if you know Elisa at all, or have you been involved with Women's Golf Day? But there seems to be these really hyper local community based organizations and platforms like yourself with Birdies Babes Golf, and then others sprinkled all over the place. 19:21.02 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 19:25.17 ModGolfPodcast And this network that brings them all together, whether it's through Golf Canada and Women's Golf Day. So on that note, have you been involved with Women's Golf Day at all that happens every single June? Have you been involved with events like that? 19:37.28 Courtney Campbell I haven't directly been involved, but with the PGA of BC, we've done Women's Golf Week. We know of Elisa's Women's Golf Day, but we've been really supportive with all the professionals around BC, putting on a Women's Golf Day event during Women's Golf Week. And so The PGA of BC always focuses the whole week on the women in our industry, showcasing what they do, putting on events. 20:08.68 Courtney Campbell Most golf course locations do participate on the Women's Golf Day. Generally, I find most golf courses have a Tuesday dedicated to women's golf. And so I've run my Birdies Women's Golf Day last year and that was for the last two years and I've invited different companies in, more clothing to like expose, I had the four all girls there two years ago to expose women's golf clothing there. 20:35.98 Courtney Campbell And then this year I had Irene Crowchild. She's an indigenous World Long Drive champion from Canada. 20:44.96 ModGolfPodcast Wow. 20:45.06 Courtney Campbell And she was out talking to all the girls and kind of showing off her skills to everybody. So it was really nice to have her out this year. So yeah, that big initiative to drive women's golf during that whole week is pretty powerful. 20:58.42 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. 20:59.93 ModGolfPodcast Well, you did use the word invitation there that you invite certain groups. With invitation, do you also encourage the women that are part of your group to pay it forward and invite some of their friends? Let's say the example I gave earlier, before we started recording here describing my wife, who is very athletic, loves the outdoors, but has never played golf because she doesn't have any girlfriends that play. She doesn't have that first experience of being made to feel welcome to come out. 21:35.29 ModGolfPodcast With me, I obviously play golf but my wife probably have to spend more time with me on the golf course and maybe she wants to spend less. Who knows? Maybe there's something there, but joking aside is that power of invitation. 21:46.10 ModGolfPodcast So my question is, do you also encourage other women to pay it forward and to be very intentional and invite some of their non-golfing girlfriends to come out and have a first experience? 21:56.11 Courtney Campbell Oh yeah, and it happens pretty naturally too because the experience that I'm creating they've had so much fun so I do find that women are love to go to enjoy an experience. So I'll have lots of group of ah groups of women go out and say, I just played on this birdies night. I don't know really anything about golf, but I was out there with two or three others that did. And now I want my best friend to come and join me because I want her to have as much fun as I just did on the golf course. 22:29.89 Courtney Campbell So that's pretty much how Birdies has grown. Like the whole Glen Eagles community of moms there, it started with like four or five and then it snowballed. And I know on our WhatsApp group chat now, there's at least like 46 women that are kind of brand new to golf, but also now have the golf bug. 22:47.63 Courtney Campbell but I think they're golfing more than their husbands were at one point. 22:48.24 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 22:51.45 Courtney Campbell And now it's more of this co-ed and I'm seeing a lot of more like family time, and then the husband and wife golfing or their partners golfing together, which is is' pretty awesome to see. 23:03.45 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. Well, I've certainly seen the power of golf for women in my own life. Even though my wife doesn't play her mother, who sadly we lost her just last year, she passed away at 86. She played golf all of her life, only one in the family who did. And she played at an executive course just south of Vancouver in Richmond, where she played at Mylora Sidaway, you probably know that course, and it was flat so she could walk it, she'd be out there, she'd be getting in her 8,000 steps on an executive course, she'd have a burger and a beer with her girlfriends afterwards, and she actually had her first and only hole-in-one at the age of 82! 23:29.68 Courtney Campbell yes! 23:45.93 Courtney Campbell Wow. 23:46.24 ModGolfPodcast which is amazing. And that just lit her up, right? 23:47.73 Courtney Campbell That is amazing. 23:50.48 ModGolfPodcast As far as that experience and the way they celebrated that. So I know seeing through her how golf really positively impacted her life. And sadly COVID when things were shut down and she lost her mobility. 24:06.10 ModGolfPodcast And sadly, I know that kind of led to her decline. She never actually got COVID, but COVID had a negative impact on her, not just her physical health of not walking around, 24:11.26 Courtney Campbell Yeah. Oh. 24:16.05 ModGolfPodcast but also that social connection that that golf provides. 24:18.42 Courtney Campbell yeah 24:20.35 ModGolfPodcast That's why golf golf is is wonderful and why I encourage women of all ages to ah start to play. 24:20.51 Courtney Campbell yeah 24:28.52 Courtney Campbell to try it. Yeah and I totally encourage, I feel like golf is such a community base and even at a public level and even my employees that I have, mostly retirees, they're there to connect to others. They have got out of a big business and now they're retired and they want to meet others and connect to the community. So I have many 65 plus individuals working for me and they love being there every day. 25:02.00 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. Well, going back to that awesome photo about 50 or 60 women there on the first tee, they all look like golfers. 25:08.76 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 25:10.82 ModGolfPodcast They're rocking their golf apparel there. So are you finding that also that women are loving that, the fashion aspect of golf too? 25:21.90 ModGolfPodcast Because looking at everybody they all look great. 25:24.77 Courtney Campbell Oh yeah, they're dialed in. I think a couple of the girls would say that they would want me to release what I was doing a little bit faster so they could get the the the outfit perfect. If you get women into golf, then they're buying out of the pro shop. 25:44.09 Courtney Campbell And they're buying the outfits and they get really into it. So it's great for any golf professional businesses. If if you make a community and if you make this a fun way for women to get in, they're the ones going to be in the golf shop buying. They will buy all the outfits and they will keep coming back as returning customers. And my girls love all of it. They want the the birdie swag. Yesterday we did a Birdie Smash Factor. 26:13.24 Courtney Campbell There's a fitness coach, Chris, he has Smash Factor Golf. 26:17.32 ModGolfPodcast right right 26:17.41 Courtney Campbell And I walked in with my hoodie on and one of the girls had my head cover on one of her drivers. And then one girl said, "I need this and I need this." So they're very much for wearing all the apparel and they look the part. 26:34.17 ModGolfPodcast Love this. Love this. 26:34.98 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 26:35.21 ModGolfPodcast So, so as we both know, and pretty much everybody knows that traditionally golf has been a male dominated sport, but over the fact past few years we are seeing more women and getting involved in organizations like yours who are certainly helping facilitate that. 26:48.63 ModGolfPodcast So what do you think what has contributed to this shift and how has Birdies babes Golf played a role in that change? 26:58.20 Courtney Campbell I think COVID really helped influence golf to become popular again during the time for connection and just to get out outside. 27:13.83 Courtney Campbell I think COVID really helped inform that. There wasn't too much to do during that time, I think a lot of businesses thrived in golf, then they were creating platforms for groups and communities to get into, whether it was the guys or the girls or the other leagues. And then a program like mine where there's an ease and it feels safe, but there's fun and they're also getting an experience to take away plus learning a new sport. 27:45.54 Courtney Campbell That's what's so inviting to all these new communities and businesses like Birdies that are popping up to include women and getting them in the game. 27:56.17 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. 27:57.20 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 27:57.99 ModGolfPodcast Well, you've been teaching for some time. I'm sure you've given tens of thousands of lessons. So you've probably seen it all. So I'm curious to get your insights on what are some of the common misconceptions that beginners, especially women have about golf and how do you help reframe those thoughts during the first couple of lessons? 28:18.44 Courtney Campbell Ooh, I feel like a lot of people that come in for their first experience go, I know nothing. 28:24.83 ModGolfPodcast Right. 28:24.71 Courtney Campbell And which is fine, that's my favorite student because I'm gonna give them five really basic tips to just get them started and to their surprise, just those three or four tips and and trusting that they know how to connect themselves from the golf ball to the face of the club and giving them that 20 yard hit and seeing their reaction from that. 28:48.78 Courtney Campbell is all that they need. And then from there, I feel like it's really good coaching and really great conversation with the student to encourage them to keep going because everyone swings differently. And if you don't try, then you'll never start so you need to start somewhere you need to put the the club in their hands and say this isn't a foreign object it's something that's going to make this ball go forward. I always say the ball has no feelings. You have the feelings but let's just smash this and try to get it out into the into the grass in front of us so yeah it's a lot of fun. 29:23.02 ModGolfPodcast I like that. So one thing you put first and foremost, right at the front with Birdies Babes Golf is the F word. And that is FUN. You want to make sure everybody's having fun while they're at an event and while they're learning. I love stories, and I'm sure you've got thousands of them now, positive ones that put a smile on your face. So can you share any memorable stories from one of your events where a woman had a breakthrough moment in her game that just put a smile on her face and built her confidence? I'm sure it's probably tough to choose one, but maybe a couple that you can share off the top of your head. 29:55.69 Courtney Campbell There's this one at Hawaiian Night and I gave some tips out to the girls who were driving so we're on Apple Valley there's a tree right in the middle of the fairway. An apple tree and I was helping the girls with their drivers and this one lady Sherry came up and she's like "I just keep talking topping the ball and I just can't do it" and there's all these women there and we're like okay we're gonna fix this so i gave her two or three things on her setup and i said "Okay, just go for it!" She launched that ball to the edge of the green on six. It was like a 200 something yard drive. And the cheers and the running around that you would probably never see just for a driver. 30:33.41 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 30:39.18 Courtney Campbell It was like a hole in one on the Waste Management on like 16. It was wild. 30:42.85 ModGolfPodcast Right, right. 30:43.30 Courtney Campbell That one sticks out the most to me. Then for her to leave with that feeling like I can do this, I get my driver going now. And then she came back after and played a couple more rounds and she said, "those two tips that you gave me changed my game completely!" Also my other big thing is their experience on how they enjoyed the night that really let them come back and feel confident enough to return to the golf course. 31:17.42 Courtney Campbell That also makes me happy because I'll see these girls, they'll come out, they'll have a good time. And then if I'm sitting in my office a week from now, I have this big glass window and I look out and I see those same four girls that I connected at a Birdies Night and they're all up on the first tee, still scared as usual, but they're just going out there. That means a lot to me. And I've seen it happen and reoccur over and over again over the last couple of years. I love seeing them when they finish nine and come through the shop doors. They're like, "we had the best time!" 31:48.04 ModGolfPodcast Love this. 31:48.09 Courtney Campbell So yeah, that's great. 31:49.16 ModGolfPodcast Love it. Wow. 31:51.42 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 31:51.78 ModGolfPodcast Well, it sounds like you're not going to slow down anytime soon with Birdies Babes Golf, even though it's still the side hustle off the side of your very, very big desk. 32:02.03 ModGolfPodcast It sounds like it's taking over your desk. So I'd like to talk about as we finish up here Courtney, about the the the future and looking ahead. 32:04.09 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 32:08.50 ModGolfPodcast So just before we get into the future of Birdies Babes Golf and where you want to go with it, let's look at that bigger picture. So looking ahead, what do you see for the future of women's golf in terms of both participation and visibility and what changes or trends are you most excited about? 32:27.48 Courtney Campbell Yeah, visibility it's starting to happen more so on the LPGA we're starting to see the girls covered more. There's more highlights on the story of the women and their stories so it's connecting us back into who these people are, which I think is very powerful. I also see that like women's golf, more leagues happening, not so super heavy on the rules basis, but leagues and fun ones like mine to start off in and then having more of a direction of where women can go after that. So if they're going to find themselves in the competitive route and they want to join a league where they're playing for their club championships, I really see that taking off. 33:09.85 Courtney Campbell Because that's the next step for a lot of these women here. I think corporately is going to be focused more heavily on exposing women to golf because the number of women that I have come to me and say "okay I'm not sitting in my office with everybody else while the men leave to go play and I'm stuck here working. I want to be part of this. So I'm going to do whatever I can to get out the door and join them on the golf course." And I think also the exposure of golf courses and businesses will be more women-focused. 33:49.38 Courtney Campbell And women like Sam Piper are really doing a great job, like at Sagebrush. All these golf courses are trying to push that. This isn't a scary thing to be doing. I think evolving the golf courses and talking about you could play these tees more forward and this golf course isn't so intimidating and then once they get out there it's just such a beautiful experience. 34:12.08 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 34:12.86 Courtney Campbell Yeah, I think that's the way golf will be going. It's just trying to highlight these pieces of what Birdie stands for, which is this is fun. 34:23.73 ModGolfPodcast Nice. Nice. 34:24.42 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 34:25.33 ModGolfPodcast So to finish up with here, let's talk about the future of where Birdies Babes Golf could go. I'm just curious, and I obviously don't want to throw your current employer who also I'm friends with here with Tom Monaghan under the bus here to announce on ModGolf that, no, I'm quitting my job and going full-time with this because it's taking off. 34:38.17 Courtney Campbell Yeah, with Tom. 34:45.19 ModGolfPodcast But ultimately, where do you see this is going? Are you really happy where it is and just want to keep on going with with the format that you have? 34:55.99 ModGolfPodcast It's not something I'm assuming that you're looking to scale and start doing this all over the province or something. I'm not going to put words in your mouth. You tell me, but where do you see the future of what you're doing here with Birdies Babes Golf? 35:07.29 Courtney Campbell Well, one, thank you, Tom, for letting me have this creative outlet to grow women's golf! 35:13.39 Courtney Campbell He is a big champion of it too and super supportive. So, Tom's the best. And I love working for Monaghan Golf Group. There we go, all the plugs. 35:23.55 ModGolfPodcast There we go you're safe now! 35:25.24 Courtney Campbell Yeah, it was safe. But yeah, so for Birdies this year, trying to get the girls more on the road. Doing a couple more trips, exposing them to more golf courses, more opportunities to play golf. 35:37.80 Courtney Campbell I'd like to really expand my corporate connection. I do have a lot of corporate groups coming in and I'd love to do that networking piece of getting Women-driven businesses and then the corporate groups into lessons and then create a learn-to-play structure. And if I can touch on trying to grow Birdies out eventually that is a focus of mine of trying to grow location wise because my events, the social nights do fill up. I would love to move it around the Lower Mainland a little bit to have more exposure. 36:18.40 ModGolfPodcast To finish up, you touched on more remote event locations or even destination golf, because golf travel is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. 36:25.60 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 36:30.60 ModGolfPodcast I'm not coming from a place of knowing, but to me it seems for women to be connected to women-only golf trips and not needing to be an elite level player, just go have fun playing some golf. A lot of the women that fit into the profile of Birdies Babes Golf. So are you finding now more women are looking to maybe go down to Cabo for a week and rather than just hang out at the beach or go to the spa it's like, no, we're going on a golf trip. 36:56.11 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 37:01.46 ModGolfPodcast We're doing the guys buddy golf trip thing, but we're doing it in the way that works for me. 37:01.72 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 37:07.80 ModGolfPodcast So are you finding that, as far as destination holiday golf or groups of women has been growing over the last couple of years? 37:14.11 Courtney Campbell Yeah, I've had a big reach from women wanting golf trips. like They're always pushing. Like, "can you take us to Palm Springs? We would love to go!" 37:24.59 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 37:24.46 Courtney Campbell They want to do the golf, and then they want to do the shopping. We want to do lay by the pool. So having the whole experience wrapped into one would be wonderful. So I think it's in the near future of bringing like a small group down and kind of testing the waters and then moving the girls around a little bit. 37:41.20 Courtney Campbell So the flock will be flying. 37:44.19 ModGolfPodcast The flock will be flying. Hey, if you play it right then you should be able to get a lot of free destination golf where you're going there. Although having to leave four kids at home right now, maybe that's a little tricky at the moment. 37:50.32 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 37:56.01 Courtney Campbell Yes, it's a little tricky. Yeah, we got to get these guys golfing more. 37:58.22 ModGolfPodcast Right. There we go, that's the plan. Okay, hey, so why don't we finish up here, and now we'll jump over to our video conversation for the ModGolf YouTube channel, where we're gonna do something a little bit different. You and I have been spitballing this around a little bit before the show, that we're going to focus on five key takeaways or things that women can learn who are just beginning golf, as far as making that experience better. 38:26.72 ModGolfPodcast We're still workshopping the name here, but we're going to focus more on on that. 38:31.76 ModGolfPodcast But before we go, why don't you let our listeners here know where they can connect and learn more about Birdies Babes Golf. 38:43.03 Courtney Campbell I do most of my work on Instagram. So it's Birdies Babes Golf. And then I do have my website, which is birdiesgolf.ca. I'm trying to be active on posting all the events there. 38:53.23 Courtney Campbell Most of my events will be released in January. So you can find it on there. And yeah, you can always reach out on Instagram. I'm on there quite a bit and showcasing a lot of the women in in my community having fun. 39:08.54 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. Well, if you're a woman that's living in greater Vancouver, obviously you'd be able to connect because you're close in the region to go to one of Courtney's wonderful events. 39:18.84 ModGolfPodcast But even if you're not, if you're from anywhere around the world, if you connect to see what Birdies Babes Golf is doing, hopefully that will inspire you to get involved somewhere in your own local community, because that's the great thing as we touched on earlier in the show here as all over North America, really all over the world, but especially in North America, Women-focused golf communities are in most cities. 39:37.93 ModGolfPodcast There are organizations now with women golf professionals like Courtney that want to give back and create community and have fun. So you'll be able to find the equivalent of a Birdies Babes Golf in your community. 39:51.90 ModGolfPodcast And if nothing else, I'm sure Courtney would love to have a conversation with you. 39:55.02 Courtney Campbell I sure would. 39:55.24 ModGolfPodcast I'm sure that will happen. 39:55.82 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 39:56.87 ModGolfPodcast There we go. 39:56.89 Courtney Campbell Yeah. 39:57.59 ModGolfPodcast All right. So with that, Courtney Campbell, Founder of Birdies Babes Golf. 39:58.44 Courtney Campbell Thank you. 40:02.85 ModGolfPodcast Courtney, thanks so much for sharing your story today with us and and our listeners on the Mod Golf Podcast. 40:07.84 Courtney Campbell Thank you, Colin. I had a lot of fun doing that.