Private Club Radio Show
Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the industry's weekly source for education, news, trends, and other current developments in the world of private clubs.
Hosted by the talented entertainer and industry expert, Denny Corby,
the podcast offers a unique perspective on the private club industry, featuring expert guests, product spotlights, predictions, and more.
Whether you're involved in a golf club management, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, or business clubs, the Private Club Radio Show is the essential podcast for
anyone seeking valuable insights and information on the latest trends and developments in the private club industry.
Private Club Radio Show
445: “You Can’t Have Two Managers in the House” 😂 w/ Velecia Luckenbill
Work Hard, Be Kind, Pour the Wine.
Today’s guest is Velecia Luckenbill and trust me, you’re gonna love her.
She’s the Director of Food & Beverage at Colonial Country Club, a certified sommelier, and one of the most vibrant, driven, and straight-up joyful humans in the private club world. But her journey? It’s anything but typical.
Velecia came to the U.S. from Jamaica through an H-2B government work program. She left behind her young son, drove from Miami to Michigan, and landed in the middle of a snowstorm—with a leather jacket and no clue what a fire drill was. Fast forward: she’s now running the show, leading teams, throwing mariachi-filled parties for members, and still managing to keep her family front and center.
We talk about:
– Her path from hospitality to club leadership
– Why disconnection is just as important as connection (and how she learned the hard way)
– How she teaches wine like a boss (and why perfume is banned)
– The not-so-secret secret to a strong marriage: only one manager per household
This episode is about growth, grit, and grace—with a few laughs and wine notes along the way.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show. In this episode we have a total rock star, valicia Luckinbill. She's the director of food and beverage at Colonial Country Club in Florida. She's a Somalier, a leader and an all-around force of nature, and her story is absolutely amazing. She came to the US from Jamaica through a government H-2B visa program with nothing but grit heart and a leather jacket that definitely was not ready for the Michigan weather where she started. Now she is leading teams, creating unforgettable experiences, teaching wine with flair, putting on incredible member events, and all doing it with a signature Belicia spark. So in this episode we talk about what clubs gave her that hotels couldn't. How she balances work, leadership and family life Spoiler alert you cannot have two managers in one house her journey from Island girl to industry powerhouse and the importance of knowing when and how to connect and when and how to actually disconnect. She's wise, she's hilarious and she's real. I cannot wait for you to get to the episode Before we jump in, a quick thank you to some of our show partners.
Speaker 1:They help fuel Private Club Radio here and bring the episodes to you, to people. Big thanks to our show partners who help fuel private club radio. Kenneth's member vetting golf life navigators, members first club capital group you hear about them on the ads as well as myself. The denny corby experience. There's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic, mind reading and comedy. A ton of laughs, gasps and holyps. It is one of the most fun member event nights you can have. But the thing is I've heard of too many clubs having a bad stand-up comedy night and some clubs associate the magic shows and those type of shows with stand-up comedy shows and that's not good, and so I've developed a guide to help clubs, just like you, have amazing stand-up comedy nights. If you want to learn more and download it, head on over to dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. That's dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. But enough about that, let's get to the episode.
Speaker 1:Private Club Radio listeners. Let's welcome to the show, belicia Luckinbill. You've worked in clubs for a while now, but you didn't start in clubs. What got you started in clubs? What like pulled you in?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, one of the things that pulled me in I'm always a people person. I'm a, you know, of course. But when you're in the hospital for a long time and you realize that you don't really have as much time as you want to have with your family, and when you join the club, you're like, oh, I can finally have a little bit of life. So that's when I joined the club. You know, not working that 2 am anymore or those kind of wild hours, and I can be home sometimes by 10, the latest.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then that's just amazing. You know, forget about New Year's Eve. Everybody know you go home late that day. Yeah, Just having more time with my family is what really drew me into the club, and club does so much for you as well. You know in terms of, okay, what do you want to do, when do you want to go? And there's just so much to do in the club industry and so much to learn. You know, whether it be golf or rocket sports or whatever it takes, there's so much to do in clubs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I remember you telling me before if you know you get bored if you're not being challenged. So I'm assuming you know clubs give you that ability to be challenged a bit more and if you're not, it has different opportunities for you to be challenged, unlike maybe, some other hospitality routes yes, they do.
Speaker 2:They do challenge you a lot, you know. Funny enough with clubs is, you know, um, I did rocket sports for a while and then after that, um, I could now move over into the gulf, and I just remember, every time members would say, oh, you're not doing this, but then you did something else. Oh, but we're not. So it's always a challenge to get better what you did before, and the better you do it is, the more they ask for you to push yourself to do even better the next time where, where is?
Speaker 2:this grateful. They're very. They're grateful for what you do. They just want to see what do you have next?
Speaker 1:I know you got more in you yeah, where, where does that mindset come from? Where? Where do you get that? Where, what? What place does that come from?
Speaker 2:I just think it also have to do with how I was raised. You know, my, my mom, my grandma would say go for it, work hard. You know, and no matter what, have fun, don't let anything set you back. And you know we're a human being. We're going to have those down days, you know, but brush it off and carry on. You know, and that's the thing, that that word headache is always there, it's always a nonstop for me and it's what else can I do? Hey, you just did this great and I love it. I feel great, especially when the members are happy, or my staff they're happy about what they just accomplished. I'm like, ok, what's the next task? What else can we do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, where now? Where are you from? I'm from the beautiful country island of Jamaica. I'm an island girl. When did you, when did you come here and do you get to go back home often?
Speaker 2:And do you go back home often? Well, I came here, um, god, now you, to let me feel like I'm old. I came here in 2004, I believe, and I actually started out as an H2B, but the government side of the program, because there's two sides there's a private side and then there's the government side. Yeah, and that's how I started and you know, know, I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Um, it's not for the faint of heart, I can tell you oh yeah because I cried for months because I had a young baby at a time and I said, how could I even leave my kid to be here? But I said, well, if I really want to get the best for him and do great and help my family, then that's the reason why I got on that plane. Yeah, that's the reason why I drove from Miami for three days to get to Michigan and God knows, michigan was cold.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can that because you you probably never experienced that level of cold prior and nothing could could prepare you for that. Like no movie, no documentary, like could could prepare you for that.
Speaker 2:Like no movie, no documentary, like nothing could prepare you for that no, no, I even watched bobstad a couple times and they didn't tell me that. No, no, I was cold. I literally ran into a little. They had like a little um store by the dock because we're waiting for the ferry. So let's imagine we pulled up and the ferry is moving away and I'm like they said you just missed the ferry, you gotta wait like another hour. And I said what? And the warmest place actually was the side of the bus with the engineers. And oh, I came back out and I was in a leather jacket. I couldn't feel my nose, I couldn't feel my ears. I was like this is like torture. Nobody tell me that this is America. The America that I see in movie is not this.
Speaker 1:Not even coming to America with Eddie Murphy, not even coming to.
Speaker 2:America, nothing. I said this is not what I saw in the movie. So why are you doing this to me? And I just remember we got to the island. And then again another thing nobody tell us that they were going to do a fire drill. So I got in my room starting to freshen up, unpacking and they said, oh, you got to run back out to do a fire drill. I mean, what do you mean? There's no fire. They said no, you really have to leave the apartment. I said I am not dressed for the outdoors. I have a shorts and flip-flop on. I got back out and I try to run in the sun. That sun it was not warm. I said for the first time call me silly, but I'm gonna say the sun is actually cold because I there was no warmth, I was freezing my bum off, wow. But you know it was an experience, it actually built me and you know it's a thing in life that says just be prepared for the unexpected. Yeah, because you just never know what's going to get tossed at you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, wow, ooh. That had to be tough.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then I did bad and I just remember. You know again, sometimes you just never know what's going to get tossed at you in life or where your next step is. So just be ready when that door is open. Because when I was in Michigan, I just I'll never forget that there were some recruiters from Florida, actually from La Playa, and my roommate said to me can you just follow me to the interview? I said fine, how come? I'm on my break anyway. And I was just sitting there observing people reading, just minding my own business.
Speaker 2:One of the recruiters came to me and said what are you doing? And I said oh, I'm just here with my roommate. He said to me why don't you come and interview? I said I don't even have any of my documents here with me. I don't have a resume, nothing. He said I observe you the moment you walk in this room. Come and sit at the table. And the rest was history. Danny, and I never looked back the moment I came to Florida Never, and I've been living here for more than 20 years now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm sure it is not quite Jamaica, but better than Michigan.
Speaker 2:Better than Michigan. Way better than Michigan.
Speaker 1:I think there might even be an inside joke with people from Michigan saying when you grow up in Michigan, you leave Michigan.
Speaker 2:Man it was. It was a different world. I can tell you, though, there's some fun stuff. You know that I get to see and and do, cause I love to Ike. You know I love to just walk on the outdoors and just go to different places, and just just that's how I am, you know. I just you know sometimes your nature have to connect for you to to see a brighter, you know difference in life, and it's just as me yeah, and you are also a somalier yes what got you into wine, because that's also a very, very specific thing.
Speaker 1:But also to start to do that whole process takes a whole different level of dedication. So what kind of sparked the wine journey?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, ever since I was, I was always fascinated with wines and how it come about. And you know, and I did food and beverage in school and I just remember one of the courses we had to make wine and I remember we had to start like from scratch. Of course, this is house wine, it's not like the one we are drinking now, you know. But I was so fascinated about it that when we made that wine I said, let me see what's going to happen with this yeast. And, you know, let me see how all this science is going to work. And I just remember that the teacher was not in class that day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we decided to go in that room and decide that we're going to go in the lab and we're going to test the wines out. Oh, don't ask us what happened an hour after that, but we're all very happy. Don't ask us what happened an hour after that, but we're all very happy. And you know, and I'm always so curious about wine and the different grapes, and even to this day, it's like every time something else come out, it's like what I thought I learned all of this.
Speaker 2:But there's a new grape, yeah, or there's a new grape or there's a new method or you know, but it's just so. It's. Wine is a conversation piece. You know, you have that glass. You can make friends just by drinking wine with them. Like, let's have a chat, danny, let me pour you a glass of wine. What do you see in here? Let's talk about the life of this wine, because every wine speaks on its own.
Speaker 2:You know, I just had a tasting session and we were doing Gamay. Again, it was the same grape, but at the same time they speak. The languages were so different, but they're so beautiful. Yeah, but again, and it's something I will continue to learn and continue to teach to my staff and to my family, because I do have family members, especially my mother-in-law, whenever I'm home, and I said, okay, I'm going to be doing some wine tasting and, you know, taking some notes, and she's like I'll be your guinea pig. I said, mom, you have to spit, though she's like I'm not the one working, I'm retired, so we do have a lot of fun at home, even, you know, like this, just being curious, you have to be curious when, if you want to learn wine, it's not about drinking it.
Speaker 2:You have to be very curious I think it also.
Speaker 1:It's a, you know, just like you said, it does open up amazing conversations, for better and for worse. So even for the people who take it serious versus the ones who don't. I was doing a wine tasting and I think it just happened to be me and my wife got paired up with the other table full of people who were there kind of just to eat something and enjoy wine. We weren't super serious about it, so you know, it was like a food, food and wine pairing and we had so much fun. But there was this one table who was having, who was taking it way too serious, and our table could not have more fun watching how much fun they were taking it serious uh, right well, just because it's like you know what do you smell?
Speaker 1:and we're, and we're all just trying to think of what basic stuff in this other table I smell mushrooms and grass and we're like, what are you smelling? But for them they were having a blast, they were loving it, and the same thing for us we were still having a blast, we were still loving it, just in different, much different ways. What they may or may not have found funny is when the host of the event came over to me and asked what I smelled and I took a, you know, a, very probably about 30 seconds, swirled it like I was. It was getting quiet in the room and I was like I think I smell my mom.
Speaker 2:It was it was hysterical uh, feel free to use it. It's a great look at you and say what's wrong with this guy yeah, um yeah, that wine is again. It's just a brilliant thing, yeah, you know. So if you love it, go for it. Just have fun yeah have fun. Don't don't mind what the next person beside you is doing. Just have fun with it, and my sense of smell is going to be different from yours.
Speaker 1:Smells, palates, what you probably ate for breakfast and what you just had and the colognes and perfumes that you wear and smell probably all take into effect.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's not a thing. Do not come in the room with all those fragrance. If you come into a wine tasting, I want to smell the wine and not my grandma's cologne. When people do that to me, I'm like okay, do you really want to smell the wine or that fragrance I?
Speaker 1:always say listen.
Speaker 2:No, grandma cologne in here today, please that's one thing I never thought of.
Speaker 1:One way to piss off wine people is to wear very fragrant colognes and perfumes that is true why do?
Speaker 2:you show up if you don't want me to smell your fragrance. You gotta be very minimal at least be very minimal, because we're here to learn. And again, your nose picks up everything and if I'm trying to smell something and all I can smell is that gardenia oh god, you know, yes, you might. That's that really serious. You might just take them off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what maybe surprised you the most when you switched from I don't want to say serving members like you're still serving members, but from kind of now running the show a little bit more Like, was there something that maybe surprised you? Maybe going from, you know, just being more of like a you know that to more of like a leadership role, was there anything that surprised you?
Speaker 2:Well, what surprised me you know I would if I would call it surprise is to see how I'm able to connect and then disconnect, because you have to. When you, when you leave work, you have to disconnect. When you leave work, you have to disconnect. When you're here, you have to connect with your in-house members, which is your team, and also the members that you're serving, and it's like, oh my God, I remember the names. How the hell did I remember what that person drank last week or a month? And here I am at home, I kind of remember what I was going to do the next minute. But it's just like that surprises because you're so connected with everything here. It's like, oh, yes, I remember, or this is your next move, and it's not the constant planning. Sometimes I surprise myself and say, how did we just get through this without fumbling, because it's not easy and you can't please everybody. You please the 99. But at 1% I get surprised when I win them over.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you're like how am I going to do this? How am I going to please that? 1%?
Speaker 1:How do you disconnect? What's your routine? Because that is something I've chatted to a few people about casually, but something not many people talk about openly. How do you disconnect? Does it start in the car? Is it music? Is it a phone call Like, how do you start the process of disconnecting on, let's say, your quote unquote Friday? You know you have, you know, a couple of days off, or even just you know disconnecting on your way home. What's your process like?
Speaker 2:So my first thing is whatever tasks that need to be done at work, try to complete it before you go home. That way you don't take out a laptop on your home, you don't try to do all those emails Because, as my leader would say, there are certain things that can wait until they get back to the office. Just turn those things. Like you can't turn your phone off, you're going to still see that email pop up. You're still going to remember something, but write it down and say you know, when I get back in the office I will get this done. This is now my family time, this is now my me time, and it wasn't something that I did overnight, because I can tell you I remember days my husband used to take my phone and put it in the car and said you can't go in there and get it, can we have some connection time right now? And you have to work on it and build that up, and it will happen over time.
Speaker 2:And you know I used to go home and I would vent about what happened during the day. Now I'll get in the car and I'll have a conversation with home before I get home. Hey, you know, my day was like this and then I switch to whatever we need to switch to for home. And when I get home, we don't talk about it. We don't talk about work the best thing, because I used to talk about work so much that my own kids said to me Mom, you're still not here. And that was one of the things that really opened my eyes and said Okay, it is time to really make it your time. And that's when I learned to disconnect Whatever.
Speaker 2:I remember that I, you know if I forgot to do something and I can, you know, point it to someone else to say, hey, I forgot to do this, please remember too. That's a quick second, but my days of having the laptop for like a half a day I'm still working or doing something you know that's now turned off. I'll write down whatever I remember to do and when I come, I'll come to work early. I always get into office early just to make sure you know the stuff that I forgot or something that I need to complete is completed early enough. But, like I would say, for example, today, we know we have an event coming up. If you walk in this room right now, it's ready to go, because this was done. I like to prepare ahead of time. That way I can disconnect when I need to disconnect. But it's practice, though it's a lot of practice.
Speaker 2:And it's not easy.
Speaker 2:Because, when you hear that phone ding, you're so anxious and want to read it and you want to respond to it. You're like I need to respond to this email. But then you look at it and you said do you, do you really need to respond to this? Yeah, or take a note Maybe later, when you have the time to yourself that you're not taking any time away from anyone, do that quick response. Or tomorrow, when you get back in the office, open up your emails and respond to whoever you need to respond to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's a hard thing to come to grips with and do and to actually act on it and not answer that email. And yeah, no, that's super important and what a changing moment there.
Speaker 2:It is a changing moment and, like I said, for me my eye opener was again my husband saying you know, phones stay in the car, because at that point I had two phones One was a company phone and one was my personal phone. Company phone need to start staying in the car because that was taking up more of your time than anything else. And then one of your kids look at you and said well, mom, you're telling me not to go here with my friends, but you're not here. You're sitting in a room. But where are you? And that's when I said okay, you guys win. Well, where are you?
Speaker 1:And that's when I said okay, you guys win. It is your time and don't get into a fight about it. You will catch up to the email and you will catch up to whatever you had missed. Reassign it to somebody else. Somebody can help you, trust me. Yeah, yeah, is your husband also in the club space or in the hospitality space?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think that's the reason why we are still so happy together, because we always say if we did not have the same job, I don't know how this would work. The only thing that he always say, though, he will not go back into management because you can't have two managers in the house.
Speaker 1:Ah, interesting. Ooh, I think that's the episode title. You can't have two managers in the house.
Speaker 2:Oh snap, you can't have two managers in the house, that's a great line.
Speaker 1:Why is that?
Speaker 2:Because one of us have to be able to mellow the other out. My husband is like the quiet type. When you know something is bothering me, because I go quiet.
Speaker 2:When I'm upset about something, I will just go quiet, you know, and he's like oh yeah, and he will, mellows it out and he's like you know, the two of us can't be managers in here because we would go nuts of assuring the workload what's happening outside of home, you know. So we always like he always joke about it and said you know, at work, because he's been there for over 15 years, and he said they can ask me to train anyone, to teach anyone, ask me any question and I will answer it, but don't ask me to become a manager, because that's not going to happen. That's just not going to happen. One of us have to be able to mellow the other person out and I'm the happy and go around once everything is good. So he wants that. He said if my wife is happy, then everybody else is happy.
Speaker 2:I don't know what he means by that. That's funny, but he's good and we have a lot of fun. Though we always do this thing where you know, if we know it's the day of coming up, you know I don't tell you what I'm doing, it's getting in the car. Where are we going? I don't know, but I know and we will just drive places. You know what it be and we would just drive places. What would it be we're going to go fishing or maybe just a walk in the park or somewhere, but we always try to do something. But that's always fun and that's how we find new places all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's really good and really special and that's cool that you guys have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he does work at la playa and he loves it, so sometimes when he's busy, I get to go and watch him work excuse me, sir, can I get a beverage?
Speaker 2:not now yeah, that happens, yes, or he didn't even run out. He's like did you guys get taken care of? I'm like sure we did. And I'm like, but no, you go work so I can watch you work. And he always like laugh. And then you know, if I see something happen, there will be like oh, that member have you going, isn't there? That's how it does. Watch them all run around and I'm like, thank god I'm not working, but I love the people watch. I love going out and just watching.
Speaker 1:I unfortunately spend a lot of time in airports and it is amazing. People watching, amazing people watching, especially when people don't know they're being watched.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, that's always the best thing, always the best thing. So yeah, but you know, overall, dani, danny, for me it's just moving and and coming here and just being humble about all the stuff that happened for me in life. You know, even even the stuff that is not so good, I use it as the rise, the rise to the occasion. So you know, if you should think, oh, oh, my gosh, he's going to get down for that, oh no, I am not, because there's not two bosses in the house. My husband is going to help to pick me up. He's going to say brush it up, hon, let's carry on. And we just move on.
Speaker 2:And you know, even to see, sometimes, or when I'm able to help someone to come to this country and work, I'm like, yes, I just help somebody else, you know, because it's just a great feeling when you hear they say, oh, I can go home and send my kids to school or I put a room up somewhere and you know, now I have a home. It's just such a great feeling, it is just amazing. And I'm just here as an advocate to say have fun with what you do and do not have two bosses in the house. It's not going to work.
Speaker 1:That is hysterical. I love that, oh my goodness. So what is next for you on the horizon? What is? What is next? What's on your goal list? What are you trying to accomplish?
Speaker 2:Well, right now I'm, you know, thank God, for CMAA. I'm in CMAA and I'm hoping to get my certifications that I'm working on and, once I can get my certified, club management. So I'm looking towards doing that and hopefully, you know, to become a GM one day and I want to be the people person. That's what I tell myself. People always say are you the next GM? Are you the next? I want to be the next people person. I want to be that young lady that they look upon and say, hey, my daughter, my son, is going to be the next people person, not just a GM, not not just you know, the other executive person, but that people person. I'm all about being happy. If I come in the room, I'm a goof. People always say you're crazy. No, I was born that way. I own it.
Speaker 2:I don't deny it I was born that way and I don't try to make it up. That's just who I am. That is just who I am, so let's's have fun. I love that so much you don't need two buttons in the house.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing some of your story and message. It was very, very nice, really, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, Danny, for having me.
Speaker 1:Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did so much fun, so much great energy. Loved it If you're enjoying the content. A like, share, subscribe it means the world costs nothing. A five-star review with a rating. If you want to download the comedy guide, head on over to dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. That's this episode. I'm your host, denny Corby. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity flip.
