The Work in Sports Podcast - Insider Advice for Sports Careers

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. Period.  It’s is incredibly important for you to see through the noise, the chaos, the misinformation -- and VOTE. Your VOTE matters. I have already returned my early ballot, dropped it off in person at a designated official dropbox...and you know what happened. Rainbows. Immediately.  If you want to stay informed, engaged, and ready to vote, check out the EMPOWRD app -- super powerful full of local information, tons of resources to help you. Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast...  Before we get into our new favorite segment, the stat line, quick note -- the final part of our four-part series on social justice in sports told through the eyes of our young diverse aspiring sports professional panel...is Wednesday.  I hope you have been listening. If not. Do it. Start with part 1.  After this series is complete we’ll get right back into our weekly sports industry interviews -- with a returning champion, Joan Lynch. Joan is the Chief Content Officer for WorkingNation, which means she studies the job market and has incredible advice.  Her first podcast episode, last year at this time, was one of our most popular of all-time. Like, way more downloads than Leigh Steinberg, but not quite as many as Mailynh Vu. Which puts her in rockstar status.  We’ve already recorded this interview and I have to say, I think it’s some of our best work -- Joan knows her stuff, and I get all fired up, and then she brings insightful data, and I rant and rave -- we are like a perfect yin and yang. So plan on tuning in, next Wednesday. Alright… let’s get into  The stat line… The total number of jobs on WorkInSports.com -- the number one job board for the sports industry -- 17,286 -- pretty much flat week over week. We added 2,093 new jobs in the last week, an average of 299 fresh sports jobs per day during the last week. That’s a lot of fresh activity.  Three cool jobs --  #1 The South Carolina Stingrays are hiring a Marketing Coordinator - great entry-level job  -- I’ll wait a few seconds for you all to google search to figure out what sports the South Carolina Stingrays play.  If you guessed Minor League Baseball as I did, you’d be wrong, this is an ECHL hockey team - minor league sports are a great career starter, check this one out. Go, Jamie Harrison!  #2 The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs are hiring a Director of Digital Media and Communications -- The Iron Pigs President and GM Kurt Landes was on this show...and the Iron Pigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies are just 20.8 miles from my house. So if you get this job, let’s hang out.

The Work in Sports podcast: Moving Forward is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Welcome to Part 3 of our 4-part Moving Forward mini-series analyzing social justice through the eyes of ten young, diverse aspiring sports professionals, I’m your host, Brian Clapp from WorkinSports.com. Social justice in sports, the idea of communicating anger and frustration based on racial inequity, took a few decades off.  NBA Hall of famer Bill Russell, five-time NBA Most Valuable Player, 12-time All-Star, 11-time NBA championship, Olympic gold medal winner, NCAA Champion -- used his platform to fight against the racism and inequality that plague our country today.  Russell believes you should stand up for your beliefs, no matter what the cost - and he has always lived that way. Fans were violent toward him, the FBI surveilled him, fellow pro’s criticized him -- but he persevered.  He spoke his truth without fear of reciprocity because his goal was to do more than win basketball games, he wanted to change the world.  This was the 60’s - the energy and fervor to fight oppression and inequality slowed down in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and early 2000. 40 years of silence from our sports stars, the leaders and most powerful voices for change, unfortunately shut up and dribbled.  Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Charles Barkley, Barry Bonds -- they were all outspoken, but rarely is ever about social change and inequality.  The voice from within became silent. Glitz, glam and excess became the voice. Love him, hate him, respect him, admonish him - it was Colin Kaepernick who woke up the sports world and brought the athletes back down to the people.  Others followed suit with power and passion  -- but it became clear, it was no longer a shut up and dribble world.      That voice, the one that comes from the inside, has so much power. In 2017, Bill Russell posted a photograph of himself on Twitter,  in which he was taking a knee in solidarity with NFL players. Wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the image was captioned with "Proud to take a knee, and to stand tall against social injustice."  In an interview with ESPN, Russell said he wanted the NFL players to know they weren't alone.

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed, and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Alright, let’s start the countdown… Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast… Happy Monday everyone -- struggling a little getting things rolling this morning… but I’m ready to bring the energy now.  Last week we published episode 2 of our four-part Moving Forward series highlighting 10 young, diverse, aspiring sports professionals on their journey to employment and facing the challenges of social justice.  I am very proud of our conversations thus far if you haven’t listened yet, please do so, the discussions are eye-opening. This week we publish part 3 - on using your voice from inside an organization. I’m joined by Miguel Garcia Espinoza, Caitlen Wallen, and Devin Walker for a great conversation -- please tune in and download! Alright -- time for the Stat Line What in the world … I must have hit the wrong button.   Randy Just our director of customer service just have gotten into my music playlist.  Let’s try this again… time for the stat line.. Ah much better… it’s Monday morning, I’m not ready for EDM, dubstep, trap beats yet… man, do I sound old.  Ok into the data we go… The total number of jobs on WorkInSports.com the #1 job board for the sports industry… has 17,124 jobs - we’ve crossed 17k, which is awesome. I was just looking at one of our competitors… they have 689 jobs, total. You tell me where the best chance is for you to find a job. In the last week, we’ve added 2,236 jobs to our job board - an average of 319 jobs posted each day of the week.  That is opportunity.  Ok, our most popular category right now is retail/lifestyle with just over 7,000 job opportunities -- but i want to better explain this category by highlighting a few really cool jobs. “Lifestyle” are all the brands and products that enhance your sports and active life… So let’s check out a few jobs here: Fitbit Environmental Sustainability Program Mgr - now this as just one gig that stood out to me, because I’m way into the environment and sustainability,

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed, and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  And the Work InSports Podcast Moving Forward is brought to you by High Point Gamer:  High Point Gamer is Central Florida’s premiere Esports consultant for forward-thinking gamers, brands and organizations. They help you add gaming to your marketing strategy. Their custom gaming-centric activations are tailored to support your business goals. Visit High Point Gamer dot com for more information. Welcome to Part 2 of our 4-part Moving Forward mini series analysing social justice through the eyes of ten young, diverse aspiring sports professionals, I’m your host, Brian Clapp from WorkinSports.com. The sports industry has long been our nations main source of entertainment. Look no further than the most popular tv series of 2019-2020. * Sunday Night Football* Thursday Night Football* Monday Night Football* The Masked Singer * The Last Dance Ahead of the bachelor, survivor, american idol, grey’s anatomy, this is us and a bevy of other highly dicsussed shows.  If you look at the most popular individual TV shows - 19 out of the top 25 most watched shows of 2019 were sports. And not just football. The World Series, The NBA finals, The College Football Championship, the NCAA Men’s basketball championships. Sports dominates. With that in mind, you would hope and imagine that the industry itself would be representative of the stars in the games that have become so popular. It is not.  For example, more than 45% of college football players are black, but black men only represent 9% of athletic directors and 8% of head coaches.  We can play these numbers out down the line in all facets of the sports industry - women’s sports, men’s sports, college, pro, media companies, leagues.  The disparity is real, and tangible.  Progress only comes when the majority aims to help, support and advocate for the minority. If the majority persists as if the norm they are living in is what they want to see continue, things will never change.  But, if a large enough group of allies from the majority are mobilizd and activated for change, they can hold the power and the key to stimulate positive change. As award-winning diversity, equity and inclusion leader 

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed, and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Alright, let’s start the countdown... Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…. Before we get into the stat line, last week we published part 1 of our 4 part series titled Moving Forward, and I just want to say thank you for all the really positive responses we’ve received.  Equality is an important subject - sports should be the ultimate meritocracy, both on the field and in the offices. The best should rise, no matter what they look like. No matter what their gender. But that isn’t always the case. We need to fix that, and so often that starts with conversations where our eyes are opened.  I’d like to consider myself a pretty empathetic person, I put myself in the shoes of others often. BUT, to hear someone else’s experience in their own words is so powerful.  When Gerald Taylor explained in episode one just how much it meant for him, a young black man, to have Jason Wright named team president of the Washington Football Team because it helped him see that it is possible-- you could feel it. When Jalen Mitchell, 19-year old Howard student,  explained that not everyone has to be on the front lines for the fight for social justice, but everyone does have a role - the maturity, vision, and passion of this 19-year-old man gave me chills.  It makes a difference to hear the conversation, hear it in their voices. Go back and listen.  I’ll admit, I put a lot of effort into this series, and wanted to see it be successful. But I had an epiphany last week, thanks to some friends, you know who you are, and I don’t really care how many downloads we have. The people who do listen I know will be impacted, and even just one set of ears that are opened and maybe the conversation shifts their perspective a bit, and opens themselves up to their role in progress - that is the marker of success.     Part 2 comes up this week with Destiny Jones and Alex Rodriguez.  Now its time for the stat line… The Stat Line - Understanding the Week in Sports Careers We’re going to jam through the numbers pretty quick here because I have a very important message to get across… On WorkInSports.com - the number one job board for the sports industry, there are currently 16,

The Work in Sports podcast presents Moving Forward, a 4-part series highlighting the sports industry's role in influencing change for people of color, the LGBTQ community and women. We will discuss representation, allyship, having a voice on the inside, fearless communication and inspiring steps for our future. Join us in this conversation with an open heart and mind. One of the best ways to begin a career in the sports industry is through Minor League Baseball, it is the ultimate platform to do a little bit of everything and gain invaluable experience.  In 2016, MiLB launched the FIELD program, which stands for 'Fostering Inclusion through Education and Leadership Development' a landmark program designed to provide an opportunity to sports career-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds.  This is a wonderful program - we need more like it. Alumni of the program point to it as the launching point of their career and it has clearly added to the diversity amongst minor league organizations.  But, this past June, just days after George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minnesota, Minor League baseball was noticeably silent. As other leagues, teams, athletes, and organizations condemned the actions and called for change, Minor League Baseball said nothing for days.  The silence as they say was deafening and didn’t go unnoticed by those who had been part of the most recent FIELD program cohort. The group banded together and released a joint statement professing their profound disappointment in Minor League Baseball and their belief in the need for progress in social justice and equity while acknowledging the positive role sports can play in changing the world. In the coming weeks, we will be joined by members of that FIELD cohort, young, diverse people, sharing their voice and thoughts as we watch the sports world continue to grapple with its role in social change.  In week one we’ll be focusing in on using your voice to force change with Jalen Mitchell and Gerald Taylor.  Questions for Moving Forward Part 1 with Jalen Mitchell and Gerald Taylor As young people in the sports industry, how was it that you and your group felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak out in this instance? What was the response like after you and your group posted your statement? What were you expecting, and what actually happened? Was there any fear of repercussion? And frankly, has there been any?  When I was coming up in the industry, the biggest personas of the era - Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm - didn’t really speak up about politics, race, gender equality – but now, not only are the athletes using their voice, so are the young people, which is great progress – but where do we go from here? Sports has a unique ability to reach people, and in the last few years many organizations have started using their voice and brand to support social justice efforts and battles for gender quality– is it enough just to use their voice and platform, or should they be doing more? (hiring practices, executive positions, equitable pay etc?)  One of the more inspiring stories for me personally, was hearing how Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics drove from Boston down to Atlanta to be part of the peaceful protests in his hometown. It doesn’t always have to be dramatic action,

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed, and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast… First things first - it’s Monday, time for the stat line... [stat line] If you need a reminder, the Stat line is when we jump into the data of the past week in sports industry employment -- since WorkInSports.com is the number one job board for the sports industry and the industry leader since 1999 - we have lots of data. And we’re using it! First -- the total number of active jobs in the sports industry -- we’re up to 16,350! That’s a lot of opportunities. Just to put this in perspective, if you lived within 25 miles of Portland, Oregon, you’d discover there are 333 active sports jobs in your area. Pretty cool right? If you lived in Portland Maine, 33 active sports jobs -- not as many, but just proving… WorkInSports is everywhere, and so are sports career opportunities.  Side note - I love both Portlands.  OK, next data point -- the last 7 days we added 2,755 active sports jobs to our board -- which is an average of ...divide by 7, carry the -- 393 jobs added each and every day. That’s a good reason to come look at our job board every day.   The top category of the week is…. media/creative! This area continues to thrive, lots and lots of jobs related to content. Seems like everyone nowadays is starting a podcast...so there is that too. Ok, top three jobs of the week -- my personal favs. Revenue Operations Analyst with New England Sports Network -- this is the business analyst job.  Associate Director of Digital Engagement -- San Antonio Spurs - two parts of this job really stood out: * Collaborate with a diverse group of internal partners across Content, Marketing, Broadcast, Game Operations, Global Partnerships, Sporting Operations, and Communications to grow our global digital audience and optimize organic digital content performance.* Enhance revenue-generating campaigns, and improve data-capture opportunities LuLuLemon -- VP of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity -- And that is the stat line! Which dovetails beautifully into promoting our new series coming up this Wednesday and running through October…  It’s called Moving Forward - we’ve brought together 12 young diverse sports career-focused prof...

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter  Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Alright - let’s start the countdown… Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast. There are many attributes and traits that intrigue me about professional athletes. Throughout my career in the sports media I’ve often found myself interviewing pro athletes and thinking to myself, what makes them different? I worked hand in hand with NFL MVP Shaun Alexander for a few years and kept asking him questions, probing at his background his development as an athlete, his experience being the absolute best every phase of his life… I asked so many questions I think he got annoyed with me  No that’s not true, Shaun is one of the kindest, most gracious athletes you could ever encounter.  You see, I’m one of those people that looks for patterns. Is it where they grew up? how early they started training? Is it a passion that is born within that can’t be controlled only fostered? Is it purely size and speed? Game intelligence and instincts? I’d ask Shaun specific questions like, how did you know to cut that direction on a play -- that didn’t look like it was open at all?! and he’d go into a complex discussion of the blocking scheme, but eventually admit, instincts take over. So is that it? Is it born from within?  This would go round and round and round and round. Finally one day, two years into our friendship - he gave me the answer.  As he would explain it -- The baseline qualification is that you have the elite athletic combination -  fast, strong, size, weight...that gets you to college. It doesn’t get you beyond that.  To get to the pro’s and potentially elite level, long, award-winning, triumphant career, requires elite competitiveness. The belief that you need to outwork, outsmart, and out manuever everyone else.  That when you line up to play, you raise your ability to an entirely new level. That when your season is done, all you can think about is how you will improve for the next turn. This style of competitiveness cozy’s up, very close, to obsession. Nothing else matters but competing. This is also why so many elite players struggle with mental health issues during their playing days -- not being quite elite enough, not handling the pressure well enough, not having enough outlets for their anguish. 

The Work in Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD This is the most important election of our time. And let’s be honest, voting during a pandemic is a little confusing right now. There is so much misinformation out there aimed toward making you believe your vote doesn’t matter - so why bother. Well, your vote does matter.   Voting is the most important responsibility of citizens. Don’t give up that power or that right! Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app.  You know who is engaged, informed and ready to vote with EMPOWRD -  * Trey Flowers,  Detroit Lions * Whitney Mercilus, Houston Texans * Justin Reid, Houston Texans * Anfernee Simons, Portland Trailblazers  All of these top athletes are out there supporting this great app that will make it easier for you to get all the information you need to vote!  Download the app today at EMPOWRD.com  Alright let’s start the countdown… Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast… New feature -- big hit.  Got a lot of positive feedback on our new segment  -- so let’s jump right into...The Stat Line Alright quick recap of the week that was in the world of sports employment - through the lens of WorkInSports.com the number one job board for the sports industry… Three main data points and trends to keep you informed … we start with the top line number.  There are currently 15,556 active sports jobs posted on WorkinSports.com -- that is a good healthy number. Now, this is down 1.3% week over week.  But as is always the case data needs context.    In the last week we added 3,302 new active sports jobs - and average of 471 new jobs per day and an increase of 27% week over week. So you may be asking -- how can you add 3,302 jobs this week and have less overall jobs? Well, that’s actually another really good indicator for the state of our industry. What this means is, there was a churn -- many jobs were filled, many new jobs added -- positive activity level.  OK, final part of the stat line, three awesome jobs added this week: This part is subjective.  Communication and Digital Media Internship with USA Team Handball -- look I don’t know anything about handball, other than I think I would be awesome at it -- but the opportunity to learn this skills for a national governing body is the type of thing that will sand out on your resume. Play-by-Play broadcaster for the San Diego Seals -- who are the San Diego Seals? They are a National Lacrosse League team in San Diego, I like San Diego. The only problem I have is that in San Diego, nothing should be indoors. Seriously, everything from showering to sports should be required to be outdoors in San Diego. And finally -- I have been in the sports industry for 20+ years and I still am introduced to new jobs and companies every damn day.  Our final job comes from BallerTV who I heard of for the first time this morning. Based in Miami they are looking for a Live Sports Event Coordinato...

The Work In Sports podcast is brought to you by EMPOWRD! NFL superstar Trey Flowers, ESPN anchor Maria Taylor and many others are encouraging you to get registered to vote with EMPOWRD!  Empowrd is a technology platform created by former Oracle Tech executive Horace Williams to simplify civic engagement and put democracy in the palm of your hand. With EMPOWRD you can: * Confirm your voter registration status, * Link to register to vote in your state, * Identifying your voting location (plus notification of any last-minute changes to help combat voter suppression), * Preview your election ballot before election day and * Ability to check-in on Election Day and most importantly, report any voting issues at the poll site. This is the most important election of our time. Get engaged, informed & ready to vote - all with ONE app. Download today at EMPOWRD.com. Alright let’s start the countdown... Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of content and engaged learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast… Big ten football back in October -- look, this is great news all around, as a die-hard sports fan this is what we want to see. If the league commissioner caved to the pressure, thats not good, but if they did their work, consulted with scientists, public health officials and creatd systems to keep the athletes and staff safe and sounds… well, right now.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve actually found the NBA and NFL experience without fans, a great experience.  The NBA, I don’t even really notice the lack of fans anymore…The NFL is still a little weird, with the huge empty stadiums, but I’m getting used to it. Baseball… ugh, but maybe I’m tainted by my Red Sox being awful. But there is something magical about college sports. I’ll be the first to admit, growing up in the Boston area, there isn’t a huge college sports component, it’s all pro sports.  I always thought of college sports as the minor leagues to the pros, and therefore less important. In my world view the pro game was the pinnacle and everything else was just a pathway.  But really, this is the wrong lens to look through.  This perspective changed for me, when I was in my late 20’s. I travelled to England to watch a few premier league soccer games -- I saw a game at Arsenal, and another at Chelsea - and these were experiences I had never had in sports. The fans were different, the stadium experience was different, the vibe was different. I remembered returning, and going back to work, which was at CNN/Sports Illustrated at the time and telling anyone who would listen.. Oh my gosh, I feel like a different sports fan with different expectations.  One of my co-workers said to me… have you ever been to a football game at UGA? Well, no.  Another -- have you been to a game at Tennessee? (this is when Peyton was huge) And then my boss, a Michigan grad, said ..dude “what about the Big house?” you been? It wasn’t until I started experiencing these college sports cathedrals that I realized mine was the skewed perspective. That the real passion and enthusiasm and maniacal fandom was in college sports. That booming of 106,000 people on a saturday in the fall chanting so loud your chest felt like it was compressing. 

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast… In case you weren’t sure...2020 is still a massive kick to the you know whats. Rest in Power Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of equality for all people, and the rule of law.  For everyone dealing with wildfires, hurricanes, and our global pandemic, please stay safe - this is a time for diligence, not complacency. I know we all want to get back to normal, but right now that just isn’t our reality...so be safe and be smart, care for your fellow citizens.  Before we get started with today’s question -- we have a new segment -- I like to call it  The Stat Line I get asked just about every day about the state of the sports industry --- so we’re going to give you a quick update each week based on our data at WorkInSports.com - in case you didn’t know, we’re the leading job board in the sports industry and have been for a little over 20 years.  The Stat Line will consist of at least three valuable data points for you --  How many jobs are currently in our database. Whether that is an increase or decrease over the previous week, and month. Top categories for job postings, and highlight three jobs currently active on our site that I think are interesting. So let’s start with the top line number -- 15,763 active jobs right now on our site.   That’s a good number -- lots of opportunities -- but let’s get a little nuanced.  It’s important to see the trends… in the last week we have added 2,392 sports jobs...the week prior we added 1,842 --- now that’s a short term trend, but it’s good news.  As for categories -- where is the growth? 2,343 jobs in media/creative -- remember eleven without fans, teams leagues and organizations are still creating content for their digital and social platforms. Over 6,000 active opportunities in retail/lifestyle -  many of these are far more working the register at Dick’s Sporting Goods -- no offense, Dick’s, we love you, in fact, if you want to sponsor this podcast… call me.  Many of the jobs in retail and lifestyle apply to huge brands like Puma, Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, these brands are thriving right now and they are HUGE businesses. As for my three favorite jobs of the week --     Zamboni Operator which is about 30 minutes from my house. Back up plan. Happy Gilmore. Assistant General Manager for a summer collegiate wood bat league which just sounds awesome.  And the director of video content for the Tennessee Titans -- I mean I’d be drooling all day making videos of Derrick Henry stiff arms, and I’d get to work with former guest Amie Wells -- so that would be fun,  Alright -- that is the stat line!  If you have data you want me to share on a regular basis -- let me know… I want to help you all be smarter about your job search! And I’ll get through it a little faster in the future, this was a set the stage episode.  Ok onto today’s topic! Sometimes as I prep this show and go through the myriad of questions we receive each week -- rather than handle a specific question, I notice a theme which we can dive into.

Hey everybody I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast. In 2007 today’s guest, Kara Walker,  graduated from Ithaca College.  The Massachusetts native began her career in Ticket Operations with the Boston Celtics.  Today she is the VP of Marketing and Content Strategy with the Boston Celtics. I’m not just reading her resume, there is a very clear point, or at least it should be. Kara started in sales but today she is a VP in a much different part of the organization.  I mention sales jobs and customer service roles to people who want to work in sports and I watch their face change.  It’s a reflexive reaction that borders between disgust and annoyance.  It’s like they think I’m insulting them by saying they should look into sales roles, rather than be named the GM of their favorite team right out of college.  I get it. Everyone has big dreams and those dreams don’t include cold calling people for season tickets, or convincing a church group to buy 30 tickets to the Sacramento Kings game in November.  I speak in college classrooms all the time and I’d guess about 25% of the people want to be sports agents. Ask them why and they’ll say they want to be close to the players and it looks like fun. Good luck.  You think it’s glamourous, it is not.  There are around 830 agents certified by the NFL Players Association and 1,590 active players on 53 man rosters. Not great odds…but now go even further 75% of the players are represented by just 17% of the agents.  A half dozen or so super agents handle all the big players and the big deals. The other 824 agents scrap for what is left. When NFL rosters go down to 53 people at the end of training camp as many as 300 agents have no active clients at all.  Now, let’s compare that to jobs in sports sales.  For the last 20 years of WorkInSports.com -- that’s right, we’re in our second decade of sports industry domination now, sales jobs have made up about 50% of the jobs on our job board.  Now, I’ll be transparent -- things are a topsy turvy right now in the sports industry. The whole global pandemic, no fans, no tickets has put a damper on jobs in sales. I’m not being flip, near 200,000 americans have died in this pandemic and we all think about them daily, maybe not specifically, but we think about this terrible situation daily.  Sals jobs are lower on our job board than ever before -- but let’s have some perspctivce. Sales equates to revenue. Revenue is the #1 goal of any business. Sales jobs will return in full force. Matter of fact, they’ll return in greater numbers than ever before as sports teams get back to normal and the need to make up for lost revenue is present.  In the long game of life -- the number of sales jobs and opportunities will be in your favor.  But, I get it – you aren’t convinced – you’ve been told all your life to do what will make you happy, and sales isn’t it. I’m with you, I have never worked in sales, I haven’t even been a waiter at a restaurant trying to sell someone a steak dinner, and I turned out OK. But, I’m not giving up on this. You need to see the truth.  Sales isn’t a life sentence,

Hey everybody I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast… Alright, this is the first time I’m speaking about this publicly, I have some big news about the podcast. Something exciting and important.  Over the last decade, we’ve all watched at sports figures have opened up to the world. Whether via Players Tribune, their own social accounts, their voice in press conferences, what they wear, and how they display their world views - we have gotten to know athletes better.  As I have said many times prior -- In my era, we never really knew how guys like Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Rickey Henderson felt about the world. We knew how they played, and how they acted as teammates...and that was about it.  Back in June when George Floyd was murdered and peaceful protests took over the streets of our nation... they also took over the arenas. Athletes used their voice, sports became a greater vehicle and platform for social justice and expression.  I for one love this. I hate the “shut up and dribble” as if athletes were placed her to sing and dance and run for us… just to entertain. These are human beings with important views and global impact.  At the same time as George Floyd, a group of diverse young professionals also stood out from the rest of the crowd. The 2020 cohort of the  Minor League Baseball FIELD program, which stands for  'Fostering Inclusion through Education and Leadership Development' spoke up, loud and clear, when Minor League baseball was silent.  At the time I was impressed with their unity, fearlessness, and voice. I only wish I had this strength at their age. I began connecting with each and every member of the cohort, offering to help them with their careers and network.  And one young woman, Adrienne Brown, took it one step further. She asked is we could do a series of podcasts with the FIELD cohort to discuss being young and diverse while trying to work and make a name for yourself in the sports industry.  Enthusiastically I said yes.  In the month of October, we will debut our 4-part series titled Moving Forward and featuring young diverse professionals speaking their truth and sharing their experiences. We just conducted our first interview sessions last week, and I couldn’t have been more impressed with our first two guests -- Jalen Mitchell an incredibly impressive student at Howard University and Gerald Taylor, a recent graduate of Virginia State who is trying to stand out in the world of diversity and inclusion.  The conversations are eye-opening, and important. Please listen with an open heart and mind.  Ok, on to today’s question… Keisha from Chicago… “Hi Brian, I’ve heard you recently in two different zoom sessions and I was captivated by your talks -- you have a very engaging demeanor and speak with so much passion! I have a follow-up question if you don’t mind answering it. You talked about the most important traits you need for the sports industry - being competitive, coachable, and curious. I wrote them down to keep me inspired. But I have a question… is being competitive just another way of saying work hard?” Keisha -- I am so excited by this question. You submitted it via LinkedIn and many times I just ...

Calling all up-and-coming broadcast talent – here’s your chance to make a name for yourself overnight. Compete against others in SiriusXM’s “MLB Fan Call of the Month” contest.  Visit SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call, and make your voice heard before the contest closes on September 10th at 10AM Eastern.  One winner, as judged by the SiriusXM programming team, will have their play-by-play call air on SiriusXM MLB Radio, and advance to compete in the final “Fan Call of the Year” contest for a grand prize that includes a trip for two (2) to attend the 2021 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, plus the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to call a half-inning of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, LIVE on SiriusXM MLB Radio! Go to SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call for a full set of contest rules, prizing details and more.    Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast… Buenos Aires, the Paris of the South, known for its architecture, cuisine, shopping, history, entertainment, beaches  -- one of the top travel destinations in the world.  But in the 1970’s Buenos Aires was in the midst of the Dirty War, a period when Argentina’s military dictatorship turned against its own people.  Quick trip down history lane -- it was 1976 when the Argentine military overthrew the government of Isabel Peron, the widow of populist president Juan Peron. It was a political coup called Operation Condor and it was sponsored and supported by the United States.  The military took power by force, and turned against Argentina’s citizens, taking away political dissidents and people it suspected of being aligned with leftist, socialist or social justice causes and incarcerating, torturing, and “disappearing”  an estimated 30,000 people.   Still to this day, every Thursday, the mothers and grandmothers of the 30,000 unaccounted for victims of the Dirty War, gather in one of Argentina’s most famous public squares, the Plaza De Mayo, wearing white scarves and holding signs covered with names.  Why am I bringing all fo this up? Why the trip down Argentinian history?  Today’s guest is one of the most famous sports broadcasters in the world, Andres Cantor, known around the globe for his legendary play by play call when a goal is scored in soccer. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL! I can’t do it, nor will I try.  But to really understand a person, you have to know where they came from.  When I was given the opportunity to interview Andres, a man I have long admired for his artful, entertaining work in soccer, the Olympics, and as a leader in the Spanish-speaking  community - I wanted to understand the man behind the call, not just the call itself. Andres grew up in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, during the Dirty War, when the military took to the streets and people he knew disappeared.  His family fled the country, and came to America, where he had to completely restart his life.  I strongly believe we are formed by our early years, they become our foundation for what we believe is true, valued and important - our early experiences shape the way we see the world.   Not put yourself in Andres shoes. War-torn country, on his doorstep, in his vision every single day.

Calling all up-and-coming broadcast talent – here’s your chance to make a name for yourself overnight.  Compete against others in SiriusXM’s “MLB Fan Call of the Month” contest starting on Thursday, September 3rd at 10AM Eastern. Visit SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call, and make your voice heard before the contest closes on September 10th. One winner, as judged by the SiriusXM programming team, will have their play-by-play call air on SiriusXM MLB Radio, and advance to compete in the final “Fan Call of the Year” contest for a grand prize that includes a trip for two (2) to attend the 2021 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, plus the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to call a half-inning of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, LIVE on SiriusXM MLB Radio! Go to SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call for a full set of contest rules, prizing details and more.  Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast. I have an ongoing internal dialogue - no I’m not talking to myself, I’m not that old or senile yet - no, I’m constantly asking myself “what else?” This has become a little bit of a joke between my wife and I, she was on a job interview once years ago, and the interviewer started with a broad question about the role, and then for the next 30 minutes just kept repeating “what else?” every time my wife paused.   While I think this is a terrible interview technique -- it is a pretty good question to ask yourself about yourself.  I do this often and in many ways.  With my kids, I wonder - again in my head -- what else can I be doing to help them become good people? What else can I teach them that school may not? Maybe it’s life skills, maybe it’s about the history of racial oppression, maybe it’s about climate change and sustainability?  I wonder “what else?” can I do to be a better husband, mentor, friend, volunteer, member of society -- the list goes on. What else? I have an industry friend who always talks about the extra 1% you can do -- similar concept -  he’s always telling people it doesn’t have to be huge, it just needs to be 1% better than everyone else...and this is just another way to get into a positive mindframe of doing a little more.  I’m not perfect at it, sometimes I ask myself “what else” - come up with a good idea for something more I can do, and then cease to actually do it. Turns out, you make less of an impact when you don’t actually do the stuff you think about doing. Who knew?  Anyway, the reason I bring this up is not out of self-importance or even a desire to be transparent…  it’s because my mind has been raging lately about the podcast, this here show.  What else? I feel like I should be doing more, that the traditional industry expert interview style is good and I enjoy it thoroughly, but maybe we need to break through and push a little more. I don’t know, I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I feel there are some more creative approaches I am yet to unlock but will continue to work on.   With that in mind, I am taking a bit of a different approach to today’s show… a little shift that i think is pretty cool. Today’s guest is Andrew Diamond, Manager of Sports Sponsorships and Marketing for SiriusXM - cool job right? Andrew has also worked for Octagon, FanDuel, Topps and more - he’s a pretty interesting dude.