We were lucky to catch up with Dillon Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dillon, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
My confidence and self-esteem weren’t always what they are today. There were times in college where I doubted everything I was doing and couldn’t make up my mind. One of the big contributing factors that I believe helped propel me closer to being more confident was when I started to work on myself by working out. The year after college I was the unhealthiest I have ever been in my life. This affected how I thought about myself. This went on for about 6 – 8 months until I couldn’t stand what I saw in the mirror and finally decided to start doing something about it. The key word there for me is “start”, you just have to start doing something. That’s exactly what I did, I started. Over the course of several months I lost around 35 – 40 lbs. and started to feel better and think more positive about things. This to me was the start of becoming more of who I am today, a more confident and positive believer that everything will always find a way to work out.
The next step I took was changing jobs back to my passion, golf. I stepped out of my comfort zone and worked at Cedar Rapids Country Club. A big step up from the very public course I worked at before, Airport National Golf Course. At least what I perceived as a big step. There were ups and downs during my first several months making countless mistakes and still feeling like I was at a public course when I wasn’t. Well, this mindset had to quickly change as my boss, who was supportive but also critical got me hired on at a very exclusive private club in Palm Beach, Florida for the winter.
This club was even a bigger step into being uncomfortable. This jump was much bigger than that of the previous jump I had made from Airport National to Cedar Rapids Country Club. Those two courses were still in a familiar area. This was a whole new world where I was catering to not people who made good money but people who owned or ran fortune 500 companies and NFL teams. I went from well-off people to multi-millionaires, even billionaires. This was a shock that I had to quickly adapt to. Through those 5 -6 months working there, I was able to gain the biggest boost of confidence knowing that I was able to handle any situation thrown at me.
My biggest piece of advice for anyone struggling with confidence is to change your routine and get out of your comfort zone. Challenge yourself everyday and don’t be afraid to fail.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Developing golfers and growing the game. To me that sums up pretty much everything I want to do professionally and through my non-profit. The reason for settling on this explanation came from looking around the area at what other sports were doing and how they were succeeding. I saw baseball, soccer, volleyball, basketball and other sports having a tremendous following and many proven programs to develop players especially at the junior level. Seeing this I felt as if golf was behind the so called 8-ball in our offerings and development. There was nothing in the area that offered a long-term development program for players. It was kind of a one and done program where if you came back the following year it was the same program. This I felt needed to change and golf had to step up and in a big way.
My goal was to attack the issues that plagued golf in two ways: one was to develop a long-term development program that wasn’t only for juniors but also adults and two to find ways to get more kids into the game. These goals led to my discovery of the Operation 36 development program and the creation of the Eastern Iowa Junior Golf Association.
The Operation 36 program has evolved over the last couple years where know we focus on athletic development first followed by golf skill development and juniors are broken into one of four different levels. Juniors attend weekly classes one to two times per week and get to test their skills on the golf course two times per month in what are called 9 hole events. This is where the juniors start out at 25 yards from the green and try to shoot 36 or better. If they do they get to move back to the next level. The best part is I also do this with my beginner level adults and they absolutely love it. With the support of my students and their belief in my coaching I was able to open my indoor teaching studio in North Liberty where I will be able to keep working with players during the winter months.
As for the Eastern Iowa Junior Golf Association, the focus of that has also changed and evolved based on what my time allows with running my own golf academy. The overall goal is to help get kids into the game and offer support any way we can. Currently we do this in one of three ways: offering scholarship tournaments for high school players to compete and earn money towards college based on their performance, junior golf assistance fund where we help families afford the cost of junior golf and financially supporting already existing organization with their mission of supporting junior golf. All of this is done through our Annual Swings For Kids Fundraiser. This years event is schedule for Friday, May 30th at Wildcat Golf Course. Over the last 4 years we have been able to raise over $25,000 towards junior golf.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
There are countless skills, qualities and areas of knowledge one must know when choosing to take on a journey as I have. You have to know all aspects of business where that be marketing, taxes, budgeting, technology, operations and many others. For me the first one that stands out is communication. You have to be able to communicate in a clear and timely manner. The quicker and better you are at communicating the more potential you have of succeeding. This is because people are used to getting things fast and quick thanks to Amazon and smart phones.
Communicating fast doesn’t mean that you need to sacrifice quality or relationships. I feel as if to many times things become transactional and there is no relationship behind it anymore. Businesses want speed and efficiency which is great for the bottom line but do you create an impact on that customer that wants them to come back again. Your goal should be leave an impression on your customer that you care about them and want them to succeed as well. I do this through being invested in my players development. I touch base with them and provide value through regular communication. Make them feel you are there for them.
When you are going it on your own you have to take it upon yourself to learn. Be the master of your own business and never stop learning. Over the last several years I have learned more about building a website, taxes, marketing and may other essential business areas that I never knew before. This for me took stepping out of my comfort zone as I am not a big social media user but it is an amazing way to grow yourself. Much of this learning was essential because it wasn’t always feasible with the budget to hire an expert to do it. This is where building relationships came in and showing I care as one of my students happen to be a CPA who has helped me tremendously come tax time.
For someone who is just starting out on their journey I would strongly advise your to constantly be learning, communicating and developing relationships. It may not take off right away but having patience and sticking with it is what most people don’t do which is why so many don’t succeed. To succeed keep doing the small things everyday and eventually you will see the payoff of all that dedication.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
The biggest challenge I face for both my profession and non-profit is awareness. Creating awareness that my services are out there to help students player better and that there are opportunities to help get kids in the game through the Eastern Iowa Junior Golf Association. Golf still has a struggle with its image of who the game is for coming from years and years of this stuffiness and its a rich man’s sport mentality. This however is changing and it is becoming more accessible and acceptable of everyone. Social media has played a big part in helping change this image but there is still a ways to go and we know here in the Midwest we are usually years behind these trends that happen firsts on the coasts. This is why I believe golf, especially junior golf lacks participation here in the area. This is because of the awareness but also these other junior sport organizations already have a proven development pathway and great support. Also many of the kids aren’t exposed to golf until their later years.
To reverse this issue, there first has to be programs and resources available to help educate and bring awareness that these services are available to help get kids into the game at it is affordable. This is why the Eastern Iowa Junior Golf Association offers financial support to help get kids into the game. I have also make a change to my own programming where I now will start juniors as young as 5 in golf programming with plans of starting as young as 3 in the coming years. To go along with this, I have started reaching out to elementary schools to see if they have the necessary equipment to do a golf related course during gym class.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eijga.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088881167114
Image Credits
Dan Kempf (Joe Photo)
Hope Hall (X-Golf)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
