Ep 113 // Building Iron Lady Golf with Lindsay Knowlton

I’m sitting down with Lindsay Knowlton, the powerhouse behind Iron Lady Golf, to learn about her journey of success from college athletics to entrepreneurship.

Listen in as Lindsay goes down memory lane, reflecting on the spark of an idea that came to her from a simple lunch and learn session, which eventually blossomed into a full-fledged community. Today, Iron Lady Golf offers women golf retreats, leagues, and a powerful sense of belonging in the male-dominated world of golf.

Lindsay talks about how her coaching philosophy evolved along with her conscious choice to step back from competitive golf, making way for a stronger focus on fostering a nurturing environment for women golfers.

We also discuss the importance of structured practice, specifically in refining one’s short game with the innovative Short Game 100 program. Plus, get a sneak peek into the logistics of planning international business trips amidst personal milestones like expecting a baby, the art of delegation, and tackling tough business conversations.

About Lindsay Knowlton:
Lindsay Knowlton is a PGA of Canada Class A Professional, TaylorMade Golf Advisory Board Member, and Ontario Golf Association Ambassador with a long history in golf. After years of competitive golf, Lindsay moved into the corporate workforce realizing that she wanted to help more women say “yes” to the golf invitations they were getting (for work, to play with family, friends etc). She started Iron Lady Golf to help empower women and build their confidence out on the golf course. To date, Iron Lady Golf has taught over 20,000 women how to play golf.

Connect with Lindsay and Iron Lady Golf:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ironladygolf/

https://www.ironladygolf.com/

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[Applause] Well hello and welcome back to your virtual tea time my name is Tori and I am your host and let me tell you if I had a dollar for every time a woman came up to me and said hey have you ever heard of iron lady golf have you heard

Have you talked to Lindsay before I would be a rich woman Lindsay so wow you are creating quite an Empire so I commend you for that so today we have Lindsay Nolton founder of Iron Lady golf good morning how are you I’m great how are you doing it’s raining in Arizona

Today it is and we you know as you can tell in the video I am bundled up and I’m still freezing I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather and the brave souls are out there taking Phoenix Open I I don’t know how they’re doing it out

There God bless the ladies that have kept their outfits and their heels and their outfits intact oh my goodness looks like it’s underwater yeah right now it’s not great it’s not great but still better we’re we drain still a little better than Southern California so that’s good and it’s still warmer

Than it is here in Toronto so I would I’d take it so Lindsay are you are you based out of Toronto then yes I’m a kuk based out a Toronto I lived here my whole life I except I went down to school in the states to Ohio State

University I leave out the Ohio State University but uh I was there for I guess just over four years which was great fun so I’m born and raised in Rochester New York so I feel like we’re neighbors I don’t know if you know that yeah you’re basically Canadian I know so

Go bills are you a Buffalo Bills fan I mean yeah it looks pretty fun to go to the games yet it could rival the Phoenix Open since we were talking about the Phoenix Open not too long ago but yes we are practically neighbors I mean I again I

Was born and raised there my dad used to drive the boat to Toronto like that was the fun trip that we would do every summer and yeah that was it’s wow so you’ve been to Toronto then oh yes yes I would actually so I would go a lot of

Times that’s you know our biggest metropolitan area like big big city closest to us cuz you know we’re we’re far away from New York city so it’s always funny when people when I say I’m from New York and they just assume it’s New York City I’m like no I actually

Rarely went to New York City it is a far drive so Toronto is the closest big big city so I’d go to a lot of business conferences in Toronto or you know I I did Real Estate with my mom for a while so we would go to like Brian buffini

Real estate conferences there I love Toronto oh my gosh that’s amazing yeah my sister used to play tennis you know championships up there so we drive over so yeah I so that’s why it perked my interest when you said you were based out of Toronto yeah very cool well if

You ever come back let me know it’s um Toronto’s getting bigger and bigger and busier and busier so it’s a pretty but it’s a very special place it is okay so let’s get started let’s first start with how you got into golf I know you mentioned you played for Ohio State but

Let’s go back to the beginning how did you get into the sport from as a child from the beginning so my dad similar to a lot of stories out there the dads love the golf and they need someone to play with them so I I have a sister I’ve got

A mom and my dad needed a little friend so out I went and I honestly remember at the beginning I was like this is boring um it’s hard like how is this going to be fun but did happen to have a little bit of a crush on this guy that played

Golf and I was like huh okay well I don’t really like golf but I certainly like this person it gave you a little extra motivation you know nothing like a like an innocent Crush to help you yeah do things that you don’t want to do well

That was kind of what happened and I was like okay I guess I’m going to head out to the golf course every day yeah and honestly by chasing this guy around the golf course for the better part of a summer I actually got really good at golf

And um and so that was sort of the beginning so I have to thank him very much he’s since married another Lindsay so all is well yeah but um no it was it was really kind of a fun start to the game and so that was

How I got going but it was I was a bit of a later Bloomer like I was 14 and so in the world of getting a golf scholarship as you know I mean that was sort of like grade seven8 for me and so it was a quick uptake from there and um

Played in a bunch of the tournaments got recruited headed down to the States and that was sort of how golf got going for me yeah and how was your experience at Ohio State and playing college golf wild yeah like I it was it was really fun it

Was really intense you Americans do it well you do Sports well like I remember going on my recruiting trip and it was the Ohio State Michigan football game oh boy and thinking to myself what is this like this is the coolest thing I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life and you

Know we’ve got like my mom and my grandma showing up to our sports games this is like 110,000 people and so that was a really easy way to say yes to going to that school and obviously the team and the coach and I studied business while I was there everything

Was a great fit and I had a I had a pretty incredible time while I was down there I mean we got to travel all over the place I was part of the traveling team which was great but but uh yeah it was like learning how to have a

Full-time job while you’re down there you know exactly what did a training schedule look like what was the season cuz again did you have a fall season and a spring season or how’d that work so I don’t know if you know this but Golf and baseball have the two longest seasons of

Any college sport because we have fall and spring so we would train basically from a like end of August to December and then you’d have a little break for Christmas and then tournaments would start up February to the end of May and so you were just kind of always on and a

Typical week so we would practice usually six days a week about four hours a day on Golf and then in the mornings it was sort of like three or four mornings a week for an hour and a half to two hours of physical training so it was busy but then you’re traveling every

Other week for golf so if you’re leaving Wednesday to Sunday um you’re kind of always either doing your work ahead or catching up afterwards so it was busy time management skills really got refined but was there over overall an incredible experience or was there any struggles at all that you know I think

The struggle is that like your score really matters and so golf like now it’s kind of nice for me I can just play golf and enjoy golf but keeping a low scoring average if you have one game that is just not optimal it really inflates that scoring average quickly so you know I

Think managing also the weather conditions obviously it was a Midwest school so I remember some days where it’s like snow and hail and rain and it sort of felt like survival of the mentally fit human really did well um so I would say those were the hardest parts

Was just kind of the mental management around score and you know you’re also competing within your team right there’s 13 girls on a team and only five travel so you’re always competing against your teammates to then try to get away to go on the trip so yeah and at that time how

Did the competitions look were they was like did you travel you traveled as the five person team and then was it an individual round you know stroke play round and all the scores are added up how does how did it work when you were

There so when I was there it was five so five golfers count four scores so one person that had the highest score would get dropped and we’d count four so it was kind of an individual competition and also a team competition at the same time for each event and some days I

Don’t know if people know this but some days we quite often we would play 36 holes and I when I come and tell my friends this now I was like 36 holes carrying my bag we didn’t stop for lunch like your little brown bag would come

Out on the 18 hole Loop get handed to you and uh yeah it was a it was quite the step count yeah but again you’re used to that you’re training for that totally oh my God if I had to do that now oh on the 23rd hole I would be done

I T ta me out totally I need to go home and resty rest please yeah I know exactly so it was it was a really wild experience but back to that mental part you know keeping yourself mentally in it for 36 holes I mean that’s it was like

10 hours of golf so that was a really interesting part yeah so when after you graduated you went into working right away or was there any point after college that you thought okay I might want to try and take golf to the next level or were you pretty good at you

Know putting the clubs down and moving on to the next chapter this was like that was a really interesting part so I was I was on the Canadian national team and so my last year of school I was still on the team so I was still an

Amateur golf or so I I did come home to Toronto and I have back to my wonderful parents they were like this is awesome we’re so supportive of your golf but like it’s time to get a job you know let’s like get a real job here you know

Golf now I laugh at our jobs because I’m like is this really a job like this is so fun but at time it was time to get a real desk job so I worked at I went and got a job at tailor made Adidas golf and

So I thought that was going to be like super Glam and it was it was so fun to work there but you know like any starting job my job was to steam the shirts and make sure they look good in the showroom and you know like get the

Spreadsheet organized and so it was definitely an Awakening when I went from like playing golf to being in the world or business of golf but had a wonderful wonderful job career there for a while and uh and always actually was in Sports Marketing I went and worked for Puma afterwards after tailor made

And it was really in this like Realm of corporate life and being back home in Toronto where I would have my friends my colleagues my mom’s friends sister’s friends saying like I need to learn how to play golf like I’m missing out on every corporate golf event I need to

Figure out how to retire with my spouse and have something in common with them I need to you know I want to have a girls night out whatever it was but it was like these requests kept happening and I just honestly I was sitting in Starbucks

One day down the street from my host with one of my best friends and I was like this is crazy I just want to help more women say yes to golf and this guy was on his computer and he sitting like back in the day when people would sit at

Those long Harvest tables like sharing space Oh yeah PR and he’s like looking over looking listening and I was like this either he’s like total stage five yeah what’s this creeper doing over here at this har table yeah anyway he finally leans over and he’s like oh my gosh like I’ve been

Listening to your whole conversation I love this you need to call me and it turns out he was like a senior VP at one of the largest banks downtown and he was like you’re on to something like give me a ring so I thought well you know what

It’s worth a try even if he’s weird let’s try it give him a call and he had me come in and give a lunch and learn about you know leaning into fear and discomfort and saying yes to an opportunity and talking sort of through golf analogies and that was kind of the

Beginning of Iron Lady 12 years ago was like thanks to this person randomly at Starbucks that heard me talking about I didn’t think honestly I wasn’t thinking about it from a business perspective it was more of just like a purpose of wanting to help more women get into it

Yeah explore golf yeah totally and it’s not that hard if you know enough of the basics to get you out there and over the hump yeah okay let’s back up for a second because you said first I’m back way up so Taylor Made Adidas you said that you worked for initially are they

The same company I didn’t realize that if they are they were they split but they were together oh interesting so there was a point that that was the same company and now they’ve split very interesting okay and then on to this guy kind of almost validating your idea that

Day and when you initially said that I was thinking okay he works at Bank he wants to almost like start this company and invest in it but really he wanted you to come and talk to the company and you know Embrace that Embrace golf from other all different angles yeah and I

Think he wanted to empower The Women Within his organization to feel like they could say yes I mean I I did hear the stat one time that 80% of women turned down an opportunity to play golf not cuz they don’t want to just cuz it’s easier to say no to things

IR us yeah how do you think I mean I know this is probably almost the foundation of Iron Lady golf to begin with then how what was the next step with Iron Lady golf so I still had to have beginning yeah okay the beginning was lunch learn happened and then from

That lunch and learn this group of women are going great now we want to learn how to play golf and I’m going oh my gosh I know how to play golf I don’t know how to teach golf very different skill sets and so I remember going to this Pro and

Saying could you help me with this like I’ve got this idea I’m going to bring this group out I’ll teach sort of the the rules in the etiquette and how you show up and you teach the golf C great we did it and I remember after that very

First session at the end of it they go now what and I’m thinking oh my gosh now what there’s nothing like I don’t know now what and but I was like oh yeah of course like pulling it right out of my rear end I was like we these like

Monthly programs and they’re like great so you know they show up to these monthly programs that we figure out and then at the end of that it was that now what again I’m like we go okay what makes sense let’s get you on course so

Then it was like let’s get you on course and then the now what turned into let’s go away together and so started the I know you do these incredible Retreats and I wish I could come your Desert Classic this year but uh I’ve got a little bun in the oven yeah so anyway

We’ve done now like 50 trips um which has been great adventures and then you know what I realized the most was that they’re seeking community and often times especially for women specifically that don’t aren’t members at a club or like how do you even get started with

Golf they need something and so once they were ready to leave the learning Nest I was like okay you got to like you can’t just come and show up to lessons every week that’s not really the glue that’s going to make golf stick for you like we’ve got to find you like-minded

People in a safe environment where you can play golf together so we started creating these leagues and a league is really just like a weekly playing group and we’ve you know partnered with different golf courses and create this like mobile Golf Club essentially where they can leave the learning Nest still

Feel safe as this like entry point to golf and it’s been incredible so that’s thing that we’re doing so at what point did you go and become a teaching professional get your PGA class is it a Class A yeah teaching professional status you know I felt like there was

This Tipping Point where I was teaching like I was like figuring out this business and teaching and all of it but I kind of felt like I was a bit of a doctor without a PhD yeah like just practicing and doing it and I thought okay I really want to lean into this

Business and building this community and I need to go like affirm this so it took a while I think it took like six years to get it but yeah probably I probably did that I don’t know 10 years ago so pretty early on I got it started and

Became official which is great um but you know I’ll be honest the the most learning I’ve done through the teaching is just by doing it by seeing so many swings over time like there’s no manual I I do a lot of YouTube learning from other great coaches out there trying to

Figure f it out but I’m sure and I apologize publicly to the people that I screwed up at the beginning you know thinking that I was giving them the right tips and probably didn’t I doubt it I’m sure you know we all hear things a certain way some things help some

Things don’t so yeah no reason to feel apologetic for that at all totally but yeah so it’s it’s been lots of fun figuring it out now we’ve got a roster of probably about 18 coaches at iron lady that are helping to to run all of our programs and it’s been it’s been

Amazing yeah and we’re going to do a deep dive into the leagues and your travel and all those events too but I want to know when did you stop competing as a golfer oh you know what I stopped competing pretty quickly like once the the national team stuff was finished for

Me I don’t think I really competed and I I do want to go back and I actually you know I wonder if one day I’ll get my amateur status back and like you know playing all these fun tournaments but for me it’s one of those where if I’m

Not practicing and I don’t have a ton of time to like get my own game ready I didn’t totally feel prepared to enter into competition so I love playing right now for fun but I I don’t play enough golf to feel like confident stepping up to the tea for an actual scoring event

Yeah yeah well that would be so fun if you got your amateur status back and and you just went out there and did the thing you know I’m thinking about like this like comeback you know yeah once I but also showing your community like what it’s all about and the ups and

Downs of it and it’s like you know what I’m still here with you but I’m GNA go Venture and do this and see how it see how it goes you know play a couple events a year yeah that’s what I think oh my gosh I love that okay so let’s get

Into the leagues okay because I I looked on the website and I looked at the leagues and my first thought was this is really impressive okay cuz again I know how much it takes to build something like build this community that you already have the thousands and

Thousands of women that are a part of Iron Lady Golf and I was looking at your leagues and I’m like wow this is fantastic so tell me how this works tell me the basis of the league how does someone join what does it look like and feel like and also how you

Manage it on the back end like how do you make it happen yeah thank you by the way I’m like I’m so pumped about the leagues but you’re absolutely right like they are they’re an operational Beast yeah in terms of you know figuring it

All out and um I told you how they were you know quote unquote born which was basically out of a need for people to leave that learning nest and just go out play but they weren’t confident enough yet to make their own tea time or the bigger pain Point finding other women to

Play with yeah that was the hardest part that I’m sure you see as well and so I thought okay how can we help facilitate this and so preco golf courses needed help right like they had empty tea time slots let’s say Monday at 4 and so I

Remember going to our first course and it’s called Flemington Park Golf Club and if you ever come to Toronto I’m bringing you because we can wear our jeans and nobody will look twice oh I love that even though I would never do that I I’m such a weirdo about what I wear

While I’m golfing because I feel in my soul that it affects my golf game and I know there’s some listeners listening that are like oh yeah I I know what you mean I totally get it and it’s but I think what’s so amazing about this place

Is that there’s just no judgment yeah oh yeah yeah in your bathing suit and they’d be like have a great game exactly it’s so cool so it’s run by this wonderful family and they I went and you know presented this idea and I said you know what if I

Brought a group to you and we took where do you need help in your in your tea time slot and they said oh Mondays you know between 4 and 6 I was like done so we’ll um we prepay them for the season wow and so they’re guaranteed the revenue for the year MH

So it’s kind of like a no-brainer on the golf side because you have that Revenue upfront you also have this new community of golfers that by the way probably have families or friends and other people they want to bring back and you also have us that’s running all the organizational Administration operations

Piece of it so the way that we structure the league essentially is this idea that you’re a member of the iron lady Community for the year right so we’ve got these master classes that we’re running right now everything from golf tips to Mobility to um we had the tailor

Made Engineers on this week telling us all about equipment and golf balls and what you should be getting so there’s lots of learning to be had throughout the season and ways to connect socially we’ve got tip nights we’ve got social nights games nights so it’s it’s really

Tried to be packed with much more it’s not super competitive so we really this program specifically is a is a great on-ramp for people that are looking to get into golf and kind of find their way and it’s the way we structured it is 12 weeks and then eight weeks as well so

It’s awesome we started with one and we’re up to I think we’ve got 32 unbelievable again I was scrolling like I kept scrolling I’m like when does this end how does she like it’s it is very impressive so okay let me let me make sure I understood this correctly so

They’re going to pay a almost like a membership fee to be a part of Iron Lady golf but then they’re going to tell you okay I want to do this league but I want to be a part of the Flemington League at the same time so they pay the fee they

Automatically get you know access to this weekly League that lasts 12 weeks and then they also get a bunch of virtual trainings plus access to be able to sign up for other events probably before anyone else I would imagine yep totally tip nights with a coach live so the

Coach comes out and helps them with their game they get drink nights at the club so it’s a one-time fee for the year and each course is a little bit different in their pricing just based on the tier level of of the course but yeah it’s a onetime fee for the season just

Like you would pay if you’re a member at a private golf club you’re a member for the season whether I golf once or 300 times I’m paying the same price so yeah it works out really really nicely and if you can’t go one week we’ve got everything built out online

Where you can have a guest take your spot for free for the week that’s a great idea yeah so that you’re not you don’t feel like oh well I can make 10 of the 12 and it’s like you know what gift it to your pal yeah that’s fantastic and

What happened after Co how did you guide through the co High seat well during Co I bought some lights and removed my coffee table and started teaching online in my living room um which you know a lot of people did and that was it actually worked really well

I like had short ceilings so I was like grab your kitchen spatula if you can’t swing a club and like let’s get going and okay so now that you mentioned spatula I was just cooking lunch the other day and I swear to God I was out

Of spatula I don’t know where all the spatulas have gone in my household but I was like really sorry I had to I had to add that in but during Co in Canada I mean even golf courses were completely shut down shut down like golf was closed and it was crazy it was

Crazy um it was majorly locked down here so it was hard and the hard part about it too was that golf Co did great things for golf in terms of you know spiking the interest in the game and getting more people into it so that was great

But for the purposes of of our you know my business brain it was like okay no groups bigger than four and can’t use practice facilities and all of a sudden golf is so popular there’s no access to the tea so it really made group programming near

Impossible so so that part was a little bit tricky and I’d say you know since then we’ve seen golf courses having weight lless and you know not needing as much help I’d say in I think things leveled out a little bit like they’ve started to find their

Way but um yeah I mean it’s great for the game it’s it’s super exciting for the game and I think that also what did come out of it was the interest that women have yeah in golf right and that being the biggest growth category for

The game which is great yeah okay so on to travel and you on your website you kind of have it sectioned off into travel plus events so what would you consider an event then like in about a week and a half we have a ski day okay you’re just you’re you’re venturing off

Into other sports too just to get together yeah it’s more yeah I think to your point like it’s it’s more of a community Builder and fun and you know we don’t have the sunshine all year long but we’ve got these great ski hills you know coup hours away so we’ll go and and

Uh this is our second year doing it was really popular so we’ll do it again but the golf trips are probably more of the main main focus for sure yeah and and one other question too about the events and your geographic area to begin with

Do you find that is most of your leagues and events in the Toronto area like how far does it span geographically so I would say most of our like leagues and learning and events currently are Ontario as a provinces Theo State and some people didn’t know that when I went

To school so we’ll just just in case any of your listeners are another behind the scenes thing so I’m getting ready for the Desert Classic and on our swag bag tags which is also a bag tag too I put a label and I’m starting to put where

They’re from so Phoenix Arizona or San Diego California and so when I get the Canadians I’m thinking to myself how do I say this how do I say am I saying Toronto Ontario and I saying Toronto Canada I don’t know that was something that actually just happened yesterday

Where I was like how do I properly tell people where they’re from is that weird totally so how do you do it it I was going to say where where did you land I landed at Regina Canada because I was lazy and didn’t want to look up the spelling to

Sasan is that how you say it a yeah and I have a certain limited space on my labels and I’m like am I gonna say three things I want the US people to know like you’re from Canada that’s important like yeah so what would be the proper way I

Think that’s a good call I think you’re right to kind of lead with the city and then end with the country yeah I mean let’s be real we provinces it just seems it seems confusing to us Americans I it’s it’s tough it’s tough for us to translate but okay I’m sorry

Go back to your where we were at The Province so anyway for the purpose of this it is more Province based but we’re starting to do more across the country as well we’re starting to expand across Canada which is great and I but I would say for the travel people as you’ve

Probably seen there’s less sensitivity on Geographics like if going to cast aampo then you know anyone and everyone yeah totally what you already have daughter son no no I have a niece yeah two nieces three not one two okay excuse me sorry about that and this but you

Have a bun in the oven right now little girl a little Iron Lady okay and when is she due March 9th so okay so that’s definitely coming up congratulations that’s why I like do I have a desert classic baby like do I come want like T

Can Tor be a doula like how’s this work you know what it would become an event it was we are exciting okay so how do you think you’re gonna hand like are you prepping ahead of time you know you’re going to be a new brand new mom you’re going to be

Going into the summer season how do you think things are going to change and obviously you don’t know but how are you trying to plan thinking about planning yeah like and it’s such a it’s a great question because this has been one of those things where I don’t think two

Years ago I could have done this with where you know the business was at and now I feel like we have a great team so both from an iron lady like head orders perspective of people that are helping with you know operations and website and and keeping the wheel moving and also

From a coaching perspective running the programs executing them and you know there’s a huge part of me that’s really excited for Iron Lady 2.0 and how what the evolution of this business will be as you know I’m expanding what I’m doing and and uh obviously not stepping back

In any way but just sort of to the side the time will be like a little bit different and you know we’re going to cabat Links in a trip in July and I’m thinking to myself like I think me and my little plus one can do this like I

Think we got figure out you know I honestly in some ways I think probably I’ll bring her to stuff I’ll leave her I’ll you know I’m going to figure this out so my plan right now is to take 12 weeks by the way in Canada we have a

Year mat leave like people that work at a bank get one year off and sometimes they take 18 months it’s incredible yeah which is amazing when I hear that you know often in the states it’s six weeks so I mean you’re not even yeah out of it

Out of the fog no if you had a C-section you’re barely re fully recovered yeah you’re barely driving yeah like you must go back to work but you can’t drive there you’re not ready to drive no that’s crazy yeah so I’m thinking sort of like 12 weeks and then

You know that’ll get me to June and we’ll see I don’t know we I’m winging it I also love to work so I think this is going to be a blended life yeah I had kind of the same when I had my kids I I

Love to work too so it was like making it work between having a newborn and still kind of squeezing in work when I can and you know you make it happen and but having a team around you obviously is key so you have a Bermuda trip in

April right so do you have a team member taking care of that we’ve got a group going to Cass Campo on Saturday and again I didn’t want a Dominican baby so we have another coach no comment on that but yes and then we’ve got we yeah we’ve got

Another a great coach running um Bermuda too and so you know I think also as Iron Lady 2.0 Finds Its way this is this is part of it too like I I can’t wait to keep doing trips but just not all of them like we did 10 10 last year and so

Okay let’s get into the trips okay so this year first how many trips do you have scheduled so last year was 10 that’s unreal this year is it’s four currently but we’ve got cassid aampo Bermuda cabat linkx and then ban and dudes fantastic so how do you was it

Just because you had your plus one coming that you down you you know your schedule got much lighter or what happened between last year and this year to make that decision from you know 10 to much less I feel like I have really let go and delegated and

Figured out how to run the leagues and the learn program with like with our team but I’ve held travel quite close yeah to me and really done like been on the trips done the trips and so last year very sadly my dad passed away at the end of August and um actually is

Part of this what makes this little bun so special too is that basically the day before he passed away uh I found out I was having a little girl and I got to tell him so it was like such a gift and so special and he yeah I mean he’s like

My favorite favorite person but I feel super super connected to to him through her and so it’s a real gift but I couldn’t go I couldn’t be as involved in a lot of the stuff last year just because of everything happened happening yeah yeah it actually the Silver Lining

Was that it was a little bit of a gift because I saw that guess what everything still ran and you know a trip as he was passing away a trip went to Ireland so I couldn’t go and someone else went and it was great and you know all of this stuff

Was happening and I thought okay here we go like this this business can still run but the downshift in travel this year for sure was intentional just knowing that I mean you know you run trips great trips it’s a lot of work and so much

Work it’s a lot of work yeah you know I also I don’t mean this in a bad way but it’s high risk right like you’re taking people away they expect a lot of course they do because they’re paying a lot to be there and you want to create a great

Experience and I just felt let’s just tighten it up this year and run four amazing trips and then we can reift the gears once the dust is settled and get back into it yeah you know it’s interesting that you had to step back a little bit and trust that everything

Would go okay and it actually did go okay but I could very much relate to that like you you get in this spot as a Founder a business owner that you need to have your hands on everything because you have the pride in it you want it to

Look feel a certain way and be presented a certain way and no one is going to care as much as you do you know but it is a quite an experience when you do have to let something go and have someone else do it take care of it and

Realize it’s fine like you’re good you can let go of that and it will be great and it almost allows you to focus on the next thing to help grow the business but I can very much relate to what you were saying about that like it’s it’s

Definitely a weird feeling to hold on to something so tight and think that you have to and then be forced to okay well there take care of it but here’s all the notes here’s everything that needs to happen and you can’t possibly yeah so grip loosen the grip yeah loosen

The grip is right and and it is high risk it is high risk I mean there there is a reason why what you’re doing is not replicated over and over and over again cuz let’s face it there’s a demand for it there is a ginormous huge millions of female golfers out there

That want to play in leagues want to do trips want to have a community like this but it’s it’s not easy to grow what you’ve grown and it is a lot of upfront time energy and money and it’s all on you you’re doing it’s I I love what

You’re doing and I respect you and it so much because I know exactly how hard it is yeah and and the risk and the fun yeah but it’s really hard and I think you’re right like I I’ve talked to a lot of people that want to run a trip or

Want to and I was like absolutely I mean I’m happy to share all the things but you know even just getting the commitment of people to sign up yeah right like and trusting you I remember my very first trip I was like nobody’s gonna come like I this is almost like

Nobody’s going to sign up for this and I GNA sign up I’m going to fail and then it will all be terrible it’s going to be terrible and I remember this one sweet sweet iron lady saying to me like okay I’ll come so now there you’ve got one

And I was like okay okay we got one all right and this woman uh I was so desperate oh my gosh this woman called me and she said I’ve never golfed before can I come and I was like you’re perfect yes of course you can but like also in

My head thinking oh my God how the heck am I going to do this one yeah so you have to start somewhere and I think that’s the one thing I’ve learned with all this and over time and what you’ve grown and and I and I’m really proud of

Iron Lady and where we’ve come and but like my God you have to start somewhere and I think too back to like us wanting to do everything I feel like you have to do everything at first and by the way this is sort of this funny little side

Note but when I first started this business and of course you literally are the only person that exists so you’re doing Finance sales marketing teaching like you name it we’re doing it but I remember it was really hard to have hard conversations so what I did was I

Created Debbie and Debbie was my fake admin that when I had to have a really hard conversation or send someone a bill or you know they were disgruntled about X Y and Z I was like from Debbie at Iron Lady golf so that when I had to teach them

The next day it wasn’t so awkward exactly no I know exactly like I’ve heard of people doing that before and I it’s such a brilliant idea it still just separates you even though you’re not separated it’s like in your mind it separates you and you are not

Obviously the person that said that or reprimanded them so you know everything’s normal I know I know it was I mean I giggle about it now but uh you do what you needed to do right to to get it done so how about social media how has social media come into play with

Your with Iron Lady and how you manage it and how has it evolved over the years again for a long time it was just me and then we’ve got we do have a social media coordinator that helps out and I think you know social media is it’s so

Fascinating like I think you do an incredible job by the way like so good I admire also like your bravery to just talk to that camera like you just like and I quite a bit introverted so for me it’s just like just my skin crawls at the thought of like turning the camera

To my face and trying to talk to it and I just love it I love your sense of humor on it I think it’s so funny and like interviewing some of these hysterical people um so anyway kudos to you I got to lean in I got to like get a

Chapter out of your book get some of your energy but you know I think for us too we want to be we want to be the place that people look to for for help with tips and learning and being up on things and I think it also becomes a

Fine balance like I would rather it be sort of like an entertainment fun learning experience but we’re also trying to share what we’re up to you know what I mean and it’s like the balance of finding like I don’t want to be pushing and promoting our programs

But it’s social media is amazing like the way that well you know I was able to connect with you and watching all the really cool things that people are doing out there and it’s free yeah you know pry well so and are you able to look at

All the quote unquote cool things and know like okay I can maybe test that idea out but I don’t need to test out those five like or are you like me sometimes where I’m like okay I’m going to go dabble in all of these and see

What works and then it kind of scatters my brain and it’s not necessarily a good thing like are you able to kind of see things that you want to test out and be more regimented about it and or are you an idea person and you’re just kind of grabbing

Everything I’m like the I’m the classic like entrepreneurial idea person where I’m like oh my God this is so cool and this person’s doing this and like what if we tried something that way like creative brain and then I feel like our team is like let’s have process so on

Tuesdays we’re posting this and on Wednesday that and I was like oh but there’s something so fun that’s happening that we should be talking about yeah anyway they they do a great job of maybe staying in the lane but uh I just love seeing everything that’s out

There there and that you know I feel like back to you I just feel like you’re cutting edge on a lot of the stuff that you’re doing and it’s fun and the Energy’s there and it’s just great yeah I appreciate that I appreciate that so I

Have wrapping this up I wanted to talk about the 1 second rule you had mentioned it to me and I think it’s very simple and very brilliant I think it will help a lot of listeners so tell me what the 1 second rule is all about so

The one second rule is something that I have focused on for a long time and I think it’s the the easiest tip that you can give someone so many of the faults that happen out there on the golf course like we leave a putt short we’ve topped

Our seven iron our drive is blasted out to the right is because you’ve looked up one second too early you’re excited you’re excited to see where the ball’s gone obviously but you know anuka does the best job out of them mall where she would listen I mean you were just at at

Pia and Lynn’s um school and I saw and this whole concept of like listening for the putt to drop that feels extreme I don’t think I can get there I might be listening for a while but if I wait one second at least then I’ve got given it a

Solid stroke right so I would just try to basically putt wait for one and then look yeah and you know speaking of putting something that helps me personally is when it’s a short putt let’s say within 5T so 5T in N I will say to myself keep your head down listen

For the putt to drop because that’s usually not a long period of time and it does I am striking the ball better I am finishing the stroke and I do consider myself a pretty good putter on those short putts but I do have to tell myself

That like okay listen for that putt to drop like don’t move a soul don’t move anything until you hear that ball drop in the hole that’s exactly it and I think it’s such a good little Mantra right you know the last thing you can say to yourself is stay down CU remember

To the brain doesn’t understand the word don’t so when it’s don’t look up it hears look up or Che things out yeah we’re seeing where that’s going so you can top a putt just like you can top a seven iron and Y same and it’s halfway there and then we wonder why it’s

Halfway there and it’s like way right too and you’re like why is it way right that that’s a horrible Le or read yeah bad read daddy so yeah I I just think you know if you’re trying to keep your game simple and you want one thought out on the golf course that’s

Playable as well right just think stay down for one extra second on every shot I love that tip all right so what’s what’s going on in The Iron Lady golf future give us one uncomfortable scary goal that you’re scared to say out loud and maybe you haven’t even told your team yet but

Let’s put it out in the universe let’s start it here and then we’ll have it on on video so that in a year 2 years 3 years 10 years from now when you accomplish it you can say that’s I said it I said it fun so tell me so fun okay

Give me something give our listeners something within three years we will be all across Canada and in six locations across the US yeah that’s without a doubt that’s without a doubt I know that’s going to happen so I will be sure to save this video I might even just I

Might just message it or email it to you so that you have it on hand because that is going to happen and I even think three years is a stretch I’m going to say it happens in 2 years your passion is very clear and we’re we’re doing Zoom people unfortunately Lindsay’s not here

In person but I can feel it what you’re doing is incredibly special and I know it has helped well I can see the numbers it has helped thousands and thousands of women get started in golf and if you are a beginner and I’ll just say this in

General if you just started playing golf maybe less than a year maybe even less than two years and you haven’t found a ladies League yet I’m telling you that is where amazing spot to start go find a ladies league and if you’re in the Ontario area you know Iron Lady golf

Already has it set up ready to go for you but start there go to your favorite courses ask them is there a ladies League here that’s the best way that you can find a league is go to the courses you already play go to the Pro Shop ask

The guy that’s behind the desk say hey do you have a group of ladies that play every week and they usually if they if it’s a yes they’ll know contact information to get give to you so yeah that is my tip for the day and then

Let’s end on an idea because I am an idea machine too okay and I feel like there is a way for us to collaborate and so I am thinking of an amazing amazing trip okay we pick a hot destination somewhere I mean cabat links is I I’d

Love to make my way there so maybe we’ll we you guys will have to go back there but what if we had like a US team versus a Canadian team talking now you’re talking okay 10 US players 10 Iron Lady players little friendly competition maybe it’s offered to our VIPs first you

Know to entice them and we have the most sick ultimate girls trip and competition there’s out there putting that out done and I think you know with one text one group I think this SPX would be filled and I also think whoever I’m texting which I know who it is now

She’ll be like stop with the ideas we have the busiest month of the year put this on the back but let’s make that happen again whether it’s in a year 2 years 5 years let’s collaborate somehow some way and you know at your earliest opportunity if you’re ever in Arizona let’s get

Together but I’m sure our paths will cross in person very soon yeah I can’t wait so so nice to meet you thanks for having nice to meet you Lindsay and congratulations on everything you’re doing good luck with everything and congratulations on your plus one and your new baby girl coming in March that

Is like around the corner that can happen today really you’re at that work whereare and and I can’t even tell you’re pregnant holy she there she’s kicking away all right until next time thanks Lindsay for being on I appreciate you thanks Cy so nice chatting with You