Addison, Texas-October 10, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC, (IBGS) announces its partnering with Tina E Clark Productions in a joint venture to produce Internet radio programs.  The partnership brings together over 50 years of innovative business operations and music business production.  The joint venture will develop a number of Internet radio program formats ranging from talk shows to full music showcases.

The programing will cover a broad spectrum of the global markets with a primary focus towards indie music artist, business executives, social media practitioners, business golfers as well as music enthusiast.

The joint venture will produce a broad range of programs developed for digital broadcast media and for use in social media marketing.  Podcasts and Video Blogs will also be byproducts from the Internet radio programs.

Innovative Business Golf Solutions is a multi faceted company offering the business community services to enhance operations. Services include business coaching, mentoring and social media training. Primary markets are golf industry, private clubs and all businesses in need of enhanced operations.

I have been interested in finding a way to add my third interest in life, music, with the other two, golf and business.  Entering the broadcast media of Internet radio just made sense.  I am very excited to have met Tina Clark who also was looking for a way to expand her message to her audience.  Producing Internet radio programs should be a fun and an exciting endeavor., said Scot Duke, CEO of IBGS.

Tina E Clark Productions, located in Dallas, Texas, is a music production company created around the music produced and written by Tina E Clark.  TECP Services include indie artist mentoring, songwriting, music arrangement and music business consulting as well as music artist development in the music business.

I have seen for sometime now the struggle musicians have with breaking into the music business.  My interest has always been to share my experience with those who are struggling to make it.  The ability to pass my experience and interest on to others through the Internet has brought me to realize I need to produce an Internet radio program that allows me to help others as it helps me., said Tina E Clark, owner of Tina E Clark Productions.

The launch of the first radio program is pending studio location and scheduling.  Marketing and sponsor/advertiser solicitation will begin immediately.  
More information and/or to schedule interviews contacting Scot Duke at 214 549-0306 or scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

As MOST of you know, I took a short break vacation sabbatical from social networking to reorganize my office and studio to get ready for the next stage of life business.  Well I am almost back to normal operations. 

I still have a few technical glitches to work out and a lot of testing to do, but overall I am functional enough to get back working on the backbone of my current business’ operations…BLOGGING.

What’s NEW!

So, what was all this remodeling for?????  Well…In a couple of weeks I hope to be back to producing at least one of my podcasting shows..if not all of them. 

As I get cranked up I will be bringing online my new Internet Radio programs.   Yes, Programs!!!… that is plural,  since I have a few things in mind to do as far as a radio program.  So stay tuned.

Then..as I get the tech issues solved I will be going online with videocasting or Vlogging..to start off with.  Then add the video to my radio programs.  I’ll be at PodCamp here in Dallas if you want to MeetUp.

Going Back to Work!

Of course, I will also be working the other parts of my IBGS company as well as now opening the door to go ‘In House’ as an operations manager, project manager, conference coordinator, event coordinator or community manager.  If you have a position..LET ME KNOW!

So, I’m rested up and ready to get after it.. Let me know how I can help.

This maybe the shortest blog I have ever written.  Getting to the point, taking action quickly and then taking the time to review the process used to obtain success are primarily how business coaches can help business owners and executives.

Here are a few more ways Business Coaches help you:
     – make better decisions about your life and your business
     – create a balanced life that works
     – get more done in less time
     – overcome barriers to your success

Everyone in business needs someone on their bench who helps them make the right decisions. 

Let me know how I can help.

Scot Duke – Business Coach, Mentor and Consultant

CEO-Innovative Business Golf Solutions , a multifaceted corporation offering businesses coaching, mentoring and consulting on business operations and personal development.

Target Clients: Small to Large Business owners, executives as well as the entrepreneur and start-up business groups.

Target Industry: Strengths are in business operations of all business models which include private clubs and golf businesses.

Mr Duke’s years of experience in social media offers each client insights into how their business can compete in today’s fast moving internet based business operations. Programs and series of coaching sessions can be customized to every clients situation or need.

A 30 minute situation evaluation is is available to all qualified clients at no cost.

As you have probably being noticing or hear me mention frequently the past few weeks, Change for me is here once again.  With that said, if you have been following me for any length of time, since 2004 when I came online for the first time, Change seems to come around for me quiet often.  In reality, looking through out my relatively long life, I have dealt with Change all my life.

What I have found is Change comes about on a broad scale of intensity.  On one extreme Change is violently forced upon you while on the far other end of the spectrum of Change, it comes about from a long played out plan.  I have seen almost every level of intensity Change has to offer.  I say almost because I am thoroughly convinced no one person can experience all of the different levels of Change in a lifetime.

What all this change has built up to for me is my developing a very high level of experience, knowledge and confidence in dealing with every level of Change.  These three attributes are the byproducts of effectively dealing with Change.  This does not mean or indicate each time a change I was involved with was successful since the facets of Change have no negative value to what someone’s learns from each change.

But enough of the explanation of what I have dealt with and where I come from, lets get to where I am now going and where I can take YOU!

The Journey Continues

Since 2004…December 14th to be precise, the day I was released from what I found to be a great learning institute for business called ‘The Corporate World’… my mission has been to pass my 31 years of dealing with Change in the business world on to the next generations.  That mission is continuing, but here comes the Change that I am making.

What I am finding, over and over again, is in today’s very fast paced lifestyle people are not dealing with Change very effectively, if at all.  This is not New.  People are humans and humans are instinctively fearful of anything not familiar. Change, and how to deal with it, is not familiar to most.  However, what is New is the way people are going about dealing with today’s Change in life, business and the environment.

In the past, and as instinct demands, people would look to asking others around them if they are familiar with the Change confronting them.   What is happening Now, today, is the people around most people are not familiar with the Changes being forced upon them.

Again, I digress slightly from my point which is what I am changing.

New Direction

You can go out and fill a truck with Books on Change and how to deal with Change.  On the most part they do help make a person more familiar with what Change is and how to approach dealing with it.  However, there is one chapter in each of those books that is missing, or maybe it is simpler to say, one book that is missing.  What absent from all that vast wealth of information is Me!

No I am not planning on writing a book..that I know of..but I am going to address that vacuum, that empty space, that void that is out there in the ‘World of Need’ and make myself available to fill it.  How?

I am taking a new direction in what I do professionally by offering my experience as a Business Coach, a Mentor or…for the more conservative… Consultant to dealing with the changes in life and business confronting people today.

What about what I was doing?

I am not leaving anything I have done.  What I have found is you never can walk away from anything you relish, enjoy doing or have made part of your life.  I will continue to take people to the Golf Course and show them what Golf has to offer then as a Business Tool.  Business Golf is absolutely needed in today’s environment.  That service will still be offered and expanded upon which I will explain more about in up coming announcements.

So, lets get to the Point…

Business Coaching

What I have also found in the past 12 years is most business people are struggling.  Even in a very successful, highly profitable, business, I am finding people who struggle on a number of things in their profession, life and career.  It is these people, young and old, who I want to offer my Coaching, Mentor or Consulting services.

Oh Yes, I know.  You have run into a hundreds of people who are out providing the same services and I understand you probably have hired a few of them with an assortment of different results.   What sets me apart from most of them goes back to the attributes of business and life I have gathered..experience, knowledge and confidence. Plus..the team of business coaches I am bring joining forces with to broaden the scope of what I can offer you.  Again, more on that expansion of operations as more develops.

I could go on and on validating what I have to do different or better than some others out doing nearly the same as I.  What it comes down to is Trust.

Trust Value

Part of the Change I am making and New Direction I am taking is in escalating my efforts to build upon what I found a number of years ago to be the most sound aspect of good business practices which many business people today have shunned off as being unprofitable and a waste of time…Building Trust.  Trust is a theme I adapted and have been building more upon most of my life.  I have been putting an all out effort recently to heighten my efforts of trust building through straight forward advice in my blogs to hopefully set an example to others on the importance building trust is in life as well as in business.

Trust plays out in life and business in different ways.  As far as a business, nothing has changed as far as trust being part of everything from the Social Media a business uses, to the operations the business is run by, to the product or service the business delivers.  What has changes is now a business is judged by the consumers of their product or service by who is doing the business, who is managing the business or who owns the business.  If there is a breakdown in trusting any of those factors of business a business will not survive.

However, Trust is not easy to build and how to effectively build trust is what if offer.

Let Me Know How I Can Help

All of what I have mentioned here is an explanation of what I have done, what I do and what I am going to do.  It also provides you..if you have made it this far into the blog..part of my philosophy on life as well as business.  My services I offer will not be for everyone but probably could be used by everyone.  The fact is, if I don’t have the answer to your life’s problems or your business’ issues, I probably know someone who does.

And..another fact is, and this is something I have found very encouraging, is..there are something that NEVER Change.  For me, the one thing I will never change will be the sincerity of the statement I make to you at the end of every one of my blogs which is…

…Let me know how I can help.

Stay tuned for announcements of more changes being made!

Straight off (pardon the pun) the news wire today…

Country superstar George Strait is taking a swing at another passion besides music.

Strait and partner Tom Cucisk have purchased the Tapatio Springs Golf Resort and Conference Center in Boerne, about 25 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Strait and Cusick, who lives in the Texas Hill Country community, finalized the deal April 1. Terms were not released Friday when the purchase announced.

The seller was Textron Financial Corp., which last June bought the resort for $4.5 million during a foreclosure auction.

Strait, who’s an avid golfer, says he’s lived near Boerne and played the resort’s courses, always believing the complex "could be a real jewel."

The resort, founded in 1981, has three nine-hole courses and more than 100 hotel rooms.

Copyright Associated Press

I may have to round up a posse from the Business Golf Country Club, Business Golf Advisory Group, She Kan Golf and the Biz Golf Guru to go down there and put on a ClamBake Cafe Business Golf School.  Maybe George will play us a tune.

So where dose Golf fit in the world of Social Media? Will encouraging more golfers to come online help Golf survive? Where would the golfers who are newbie to this viscous jungle called the Internet enter and not get discouraged?

I have been asked these questions frequently. Some I have answers and others I am still looking for greater understanding. One thing is certain, in order for Golf to find its way through this uncertain economy more people will need to learn to play golf and more golfers will have to come online.

These two different solutions seem to be contradictory to each other because a golfer cannot possibly learn all of the aspects to playing golf online, but once the golfer learns offline how to play golf they more than likely are going to need to go online to fulfill the rest of their interests in playing golf. I am certain the offline golf industry stands ready to help people learn golf, but are golfers ready for the internet?

Right now, No, most are not. But with the advent of effective methods of using social media in Golf there is starting to be a better understanding of the internet by more golf professionals who are part of the solution.  With their help it should not be long before golfers will feel comfortable being online.

Lets take a look at what is causing the problems golfers are having with the internet and making them feel uncomfortable online. Then take a look at how things are changing.

Professional Tour Golfers

The Professional Tour Players are starting to come online..well, we hope they are the real tour player and not a hired gun PR person. Anyway, it is a good sign to see the professional golfers taking a higher visible stance online so the rest of us real golfers can reach out to them and keep in touch.

What is even better is these top players of the professional golf tour world are reaching out and touching back..yes, they are talking to you and me. Twitter seems to be the baseline for a few of them but a few smarter ones are looking for more productive digs to talk to their fans. 

For years now most top professional golfers have their own web-sites where they would post a blog or two a month..or at least we hope it is them writing their own blogs and not some PR person hired to be them. (Humm, is there a theme of deception starting here?)

Now these more outgoing professional golfers are moving into entering groups and using social networks that allow them to speak to their fans in complete sentences. That is a very good sign..it means they are figuring out how the internet works. All this is good for Golf.  Lets hope more of these valuable assets of the Golf Industry continue to use places like Facebook to keep in touch with their customers..the golfing population.

Golf Bloggers

Everyone who has swung a golf club more than twice has a story to tell. Even if that story is just comparing their first swing with the second time they swung the golf club it still is a story. People who play golf are a smart bunch and really have more to offer than just golf. However, Golfers get very disgusted with the Internet and leave…sometimes forever.

Many of the golf bloggers enter the internet from advise from others that blogging is way to making a bucket full of money. So they enter wide-eyed into the internet to start blogging fueled with advice they paid $1500 to get from some internet marketing expert who’s claim to fame is he knows how to spell ‘Scoble’ and spout out terms like ‘monetization of your time on Twitter’.

These golfers new to the world of social media then go out on Blogger and start up a blog..FAIL. They take an entire hour to write their stories about their love for golf and post it expecting to get a few thousand hits within a minute from the time they post their blog in the morning and by the afternoon be offered a dozen $4000 a month advertising ads to place on their site.  Yes, I have spoken to people who have told me this is what they were told by others.

For those who survive more than a day from that valuable advice they eventually find none of that expensive advice was true. It may work for Tech and Widget/gadget sites, but for golf..’it aint gonna happen’. So, they feel they were scammed and either leave the internet in discuss with a new mission to now publically bash anyone who uses the internet as a scammer or a fool.  This does not help Golf.

Sometimes these misguided bloggers are fortunate to find someone like me who has made it their mission to help people like them avoid the potholes of the information highway. But I am not here to talk about me..I am here to tell you where golf fits out here.

Hopefully, effective social media will help make a change because Golf needs bloggers. Golf blogging is an excellent social media tool. A good golf blog mixed with personal and professional articles paints a positive picture of the person who is blogging. Just reporting the Blah-Blah of the golf swing and promoting a book is not going to provide anyone a picture of the person who is talking. What the online golf consumers  are looking for are Real people…people they can trust.   Can a golf blogger who just promotes a product or book  be trusted to be telling them something worthwhile?  

Golfers are demanding more information on who the person talking to them really is, what they think, what knowledge they have on a subject. This builds up a following of people to the golf blog who come back to learn more…humm, that sounds like trust doesn’t it? If trustworthiness is lacking then the blog become nothing more than a commercial..and there are too many commercials out here for golfers to check out.

Golf Groups

If you have been out here more than five years then you know about the claims from the mega social networking sites that they have trillions of members…well, 100’s millions at least. They might as well say they have trillions because they just don’t have as many REAL people who are members of their sites as they want to admit. Saying you have a million sounds better than a few hundred and since it can’t be verified, why not say a trillion? See how the number games out here are played?….geez What has this got to do with golf?

Well, there are many people who make claim of there being millions of golfers online. Really? Then where are they?

Back in the hay day of golf groups there were more than 50 different golf social groups and out of all of them I could not account for more than approximately 200 thousand members…not all of their members would I make claim to being real golfers. I am sure there were probably a few more golf groups I missed during my three year long study but I am sure their stats would not prove the claims of millions of real golfers being online.

Many of those groups have died out or are left stagnant. Others that are still around are shown active, but the question remains, is the activity in the forums from Real Golfers? Hopefully, but from reading the thousand of discussion in a few dozen golf groups that all start out with..’Hey, check this out’..and then be lead to a MLM for an energy drink for golfers…I seriously doubt it.

Remember that trust factor that bloggers need to build?  Golf groups have have that same issue. Taking for granted the golf groups online are filled to the brim with Real Golfer is a mistake.

The question now becomes..

’How many of those estimated 200,000 golfers are still online, active and using the internet more than trying to find a date?

Golf groups play a part in social media especially for businesses who have a product or service to market to the group. Unfortunately, when the businesses find there are not that many real golfers online they pullback and start using old traditional ways of marketing that fail.

Still, if more control is given to the group’s environment to make the group safe from the people online out to muddy the water or market something other than golf, then the social media for golf would strengthen. Unfortunately, most of the golf groups still alive today are not willing to cull out anyone from their membership who is not a golfer since they are playing the number games with their advertisers. Fortunately, the advertisers are starting to not be interested in playing the number game anymore and are looking for places that have Real People to market to and not to an unverifiable number of members.

Still, golf groups, if organized correctly, hold the future to golf’s survive, online and offline.

Golf Social Media

There are a very large number of internet marketing people online who are very dominate and have figured out to get out of their overly saturated market of the tech, affiliate sales and gadget industry that dominates the internet they have to look to new markets. Golfers are their ‘New Meat’ of the internet for these people who feed off promoting people, places and things.

To lure in golfers, and the golf industry, these non-golfing, or non-golfer, marketers place Golf as keywords in their business profiles knowing the search engines of the world are going to pick them and display them as a golfer.  Yes, another game played out her in La-La-Land that lead golfers and golf businesses down a road of unproductive marketing.   This deception by those who feel their social media will work for golf usually causes more disgust amongst those who fall for it making their feelings for anything online distasteful.

The bottomline for all of this is there just is not enough real golfers online today to make the traditional social media methods used by other industry work. A different approach has to be made for the golf industry.

In order for social media to work for the golf industry more golfers need to be encouraged to come online.  To do this more golf sites, golf bloggers and golf groups are going to have to develop more trust, integrity and honesty. All of these virtues are part of the game of golf so why is it not part of how businesses and golfers promote themselves online?

The true core of social media has to do with being personable. As the ambassadors of the game of golf, the PGA and LPGA members, come online more good in making online golf endeavors more personable online will begin. In order for Golf to become more vibrant online more real golfers have to come online and in order to draw them online more safe places for social networking have to be offered golfers who come online.

My company’s ( IBGS ) mission is the find ways for golf to survive this economy intact.  One of the many ways I am doing this is by developing a viable community for golfers to join together, network and soon enter into educational opportunities that teach golfers how to use the internet to meet their needs. You can find out more at the Business Golf Country Club site by signing up for the Newsletter or by joining the BGCC Facebook Page.

For everyone who is out here for the Golf; to do business for golf; or to market to the golfers of the world, using social media correctly is a must. Learn how to use it by finding a community to belong to and keep in mind you need to show people who you are before telling them what you do for a living.  This is what will help golf survive. Sounds simple doesn’t it? 

Let me know how I can help