Episode 198: The Bottom Line - Even Par
In this episode of the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, host Bradley Hamner uses a personal golf analogy—shifting from aiming for under‑par scores to settling for even‑par—to explore how small‑business owners often accept "good enough" results. He reflects on his own tendency to mask struggles, emphasizing the importance of vulnerability, as inspired by Brené Brown, for authentic leadership. Hamner argues that joining trusted peer groups—whether church circles, men’s groups, or business masterminds—allows entrepreneurs to be unapologetically themselves, receive honest feedback, and break limiting mindsets. He shares anecdotes about friends and mentors (e.g., Jason, Justin, Mike, Daniel) who illustrate both the danger of perpetual dissatisfaction and the power of honest self‑assessment. A key story recounts a first‑time conversation with a new client, where Hamner challenges the client’s small‑scale thinking, highlighting how external perspectives can unlock bigger opportunities. The episode also includes a sponsor spot for Club Capital, describing its financial, CFO, and tax advisory services for agency owners. Throughout, Hamner encourages listeners to seek out supportive peer groups, embrace vulnerability, and aim beyond the "even‑par" comfort zone to achieve greater business growth.
Chapters
I realize this episode is maybe not super business tactics. It really is about challenging your own beliefs and thought process about what you are actually capable of, and also being willing to share that with other people in your community of other business owners. And so I encourage you to get yourself in a group of other people that you're able to be unapologetically yourself.
So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world, yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast. Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders. These podcasts are going to be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business. I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it. Just get what you need and go. So with that, let's get into today's episode. Are you an agency owner looking to better understand your financials and take charge of your tax bill? Well, Club Capital is here to help. As the largest accounting advisory firm for insurance agency owners in the country, they are way more than your everyday run-of-the-mill CPA. Club Capital provides financial, CFO, and tax advisory services to help you plan and forecast your financial success. You'll meet every month to review your agency's financial performance, the difference between your profit and actual cash flow, along with helping you better understand your bottom line. Visit club.capital to book a solution overview with one of our business consultants. Club Capital, way more than a CPA firm.
Hey everyone, so if you've listened to the podcast for really any amount of time, you know that I love to play golf. I was fortunate enough to be able to be somewhat good enough to be able to play on scholarship when I was in college. I went to the University of North Alabama for a couple years before I ended up transferring to Auburn. And so I'm going to use a golf analogy to kind of relate that to kind of where we are in business and in our leadership, in particular with our businesses. And this came up— I got to give credit to a really good friend of mine, Jonathan. He and I were having a conversation and I said, hey, I want to ask you a couple questions. And I've talked to him about it in reference to golf but ended up kind of applying it to business. So as much as I would love to have said that I tried to max out my potential when I was in, you know, in college and playing in tournaments after that. I wish I could say that, but I really can't. And the reality is, is when I was playing golf, I was really playing to try to, you know, if I could shoot in the 60s— so if you're not a golfer, just hang with me, there's a message here for you— but when I was playing golf, if I could shoot under par and I could in particular shoot in the 60s, that was really good enough. Now, I wanted people to think that I would present an image of like, no, I'm going to go try to shoot a 67 or a 66 or 65 to help out my team. The reality is, is if I— say if it was a par 72, if I was 3 under par, I wanted just to get it in the house. And for you golfers out there, I think you can definitely relate to this. You know, you have a good round going, And instead of thinking about going from 3-under par to 4-under par to 5-under par, you start thinking, you know what, I think this round is kind of good enough. I just want to get it in if I want to get it in the house. And that's kind of how I was. And then as I got older, obviously I don't practice as much and have many other things going on. And so now it's moved towards I'm really playing against par. As much as I would like to say I would like to go shoot, you know, a really good round, I'm actually playing against par. I want to try to shoot even par. So if it's a par 71, I would love to be able to shoot 71, and if it's par 72, I'd love to be able to shoot 72. I know that unless just lightning strikes, I'm not going to go shoot a 67. I just don't practice that much. I certainly don't play that much. Way too into kids' activities, and glad to be for that matter. And so what does this have to do with you and your business and our life? Well, I think that that is an analogy for sometimes, at least for me, I can look back at times. I think the same mental process has been in the business is that I've said that I want to achieve some big thing, but deep down inside, I was good enough with just this happening. And I don't want to present it as mediocre. That I was okay with mediocre results or I was okay with less than results. That's not necessarily what I'm saying. Not even saying about lowering the bar. But there were times that I wasn't allowing myself to just completely be honest and open with other people and share with them my deepest feelings about what I wanted to accomplish in the business. It was way too much of a front, way too much of a I'm going to try to put on one. I'm going to try to put a mask on and seem a certain way when the reality is maybe I was trying to say, hey, I'm kind of struggling here and I'm really actually kind of good enough if we just accomplish this in the business. And I think that looking back on it, that level of, as Brené Brown puts it, vulnerability would have maybe actually allowed me to connect with some of those people better and maybe even allowed them to open up. Because whether it's in my small group at church or whether it's in other groups, men's groups, when I allow myself to be open and vulnerable and share maybe an area that I'm struggling with in the business or in a personal life, it's been amazing to me how people will galvanize around that. And the thing that you fear the most is to be kind of looked at as less than, or you fear to be maybe considered that your goals aren't big enough or that you're settling. And then maybe in some of those cases, that would have been nice to have somebody to challenge those thoughts. Because I wasn't able to necessarily be open and honest, it was— you would put on a front. So if I go back to the golf analogy, what do I wish I would have done? There's no way I would have done this in college, but I wish I would have been able to share with some people like, you know what, guys, there's times whenever I'm 3 under par and I'm just trying to get it in the house. There was a few people I can think of. I won't say their last names, but Jason was one of them. Justin was another one. I mean, those guys, when they were 4 under par, they were not happy until they got to 5, and then they were not happy until they got 6, and they were not happy until they got 7. They would just keep going. It's almost like they had amnesia. For where they were. And I look at that, some people are like that in business. And one of the things I've realized is even those people, they have insecurities and they have some vulnerabilities as well. But they've done some things along the way to be able to work through that. There's a few people, some of my business mentors, one guy in particular, Mike, lives in Toronto, incredible entrepreneur, has had a run of some very successful businesses. I really look up to him and his team. They've taught me a tremendous amount. And on the outside, every business that they, he and his partner Daniel, seem to be involved with hit million-dollar run rates in less than 12 months. And you know, they just have success after success. But until you hear kind of the backstory of all the different things that it took to be able to get to that place, and then you begin to see You know, he's a human too, and he has insecurities and vulnerabilities. He has just happened to now figure out the right system in place to be able to have some success on a fairly regular, consistent basis. And so it's been really interesting to me to get myself around groups where you're able to be completely honest and completely yourself. And so if you're listening to this and you have that group, man, cherish that group. Cherish those people in your life because that's not normal. That's not what a lot of people have in their life. And people don't see that. I certainly know that I did not experience that myself for a really long period of time. And I will tell you, it's one of those things, once you experience that, you don't really ever go back. But I think in life, but I think also specifically in business, it is really hard to get to that place to take that kind of initial first step. And it does take time. I mean, you're not going to walk into a networking be in iGroup and meet somebody first time and tell them your entire life story and all the doubts that you have and insecurities and all of that kind of stuff and the failures of your business. I get that, and I don't think that that's necessarily wise to do that. But if you don't have somebody that— or somebody or somebodies that you're able to be completely unapologetically yourself and to be able to share with them and say Hey, look, you know, I'd love to do this in my business, but the reality is this is kind of what's in my head. And allow that person to kind of challenge that even-par mindset and to say, hey, you're destined for more than that. Just this evening, I was on the phone with a guy for the first time, never spoke to him before. He was a referral from a friend of mine and a client, Dave. And we were on the phone and we were talking about, he does, he has this little arbitrage opportunity where he buys some things and sells it, makes a profit from it. And he makes a pretty good, nice little cash flow on a monthly basis. And I said, I think you're kind of thinking a little too small. I think you've got truly a level 10 skill set, but you're applying it to a level 2 opportunity. And he shared that sometimes it was just having somebody else to be able to speak into his life and be able to speak into that is sometimes all we need is the permission to kind of go after bigger things. And so we ended up having just a really awesome conversation. And this is the first time I've ever talked to this person. And so I don't say that in any way for anything about me, but other people have poured into my life. And when you experience that, it is truly transformational for you yourself and for your business. And so I realized this episode is maybe not super business tactics. It really is about challenging your own beliefs and thought process about what you are actually capable of, and also being willing to share that with other people in your community of other business owners. And so I encourage you to get yourself in a group of other people that you're able to be unapologetically yourself. And I think you'll be surprised about how much that allows them to be able to be open themselves.
All right, everyone.
I hope this episode served you. Until next time, lead well.
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