The Work in Sports Podcast - Insider Advice for Sports Careers

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…Popularity is a slippery beast.As a podcast host, I am always looking for interesting guests, with recognizable names, fancy job titles and experience to share. My goal is always to provide actionable advice for all of you, and share it through either my voice and experience or by my guests. But I get back to the original premise - popularity, virality, shareability - totally unpredictable. You hear people in marketing always saying - I want viral content! As if it is that easy. That’s not a strategy, it’s a dream.  My belief has always been you make a lot of quality content, and try to learn from each piece that resonates with your audience. You constantly refine and adjust - not always in a major way, not always a complete shift, just subtle movements in your approach, tone, and content. Now let’s be clear, going viral, or having something spike in popularity, doesn’t always connect to your business. The concept of just going viral is flawed. I wrote an article years back when I had my own site - it was a funny article comparing injuries in hockey to injuries in baseball. It went nuts. Hundreds of thousands of views, hundreds of thousands of Facebook likes, thousands of shares -- the thing went crazy. It did zero for my bottom line. Literally zero. Sure we can talk about brand exposure, and the potential to grab new audiences, but for all the virality it made little impact on my business. So viral in and of itself doesn’t always change the calculus of your business. It has to all be connected - content to business strategy. Now let’s get this back to this here podcast. I don’t reach for popularity anymore. I try to let it happen naturally by delivering the information the audience can grow from.I book guests based on the impact I believe they can have, and then sit back and watch to see what happens with downloads. Sometimes I have a vibe, like when I book big names like Leigh Steinberg, or Dan Duquette, that they will be popular. But what has been truly eye-opening is that guests like Colleen Scoles, Mailynh Vu and Mark Coscarello, talent acquisition managers with the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Indians and USGA respectively have doubled up Leigh Steinberg in downloads. It comes down to knowing your audience and what they want. Chelsea Zahn was a guest I booked last year, a young woman on the rise in the sports industry working in Partnership Activation for the Pittsburgh Steelers -- to me, she met the criteria for a great gust, charismatic, interesting career, not many people know about Partnership Activation, and willing to share great advice. I interviewed her, was proud of the content...and then was completely amazed when her episode became the second most downloaded of 2019 behind only Mailynh Vu who, I mean come on was the rockstar of 2019 and if you haven’t listened to that episode you are crazy. I’m guessing many of you new to the show also haven’t listened to Chelsea, so today is your day -- here is Chelsea Zahn, partnership activation manager for the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Tips and Advice to Help you Master the Remote Hiring ProcessHey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of content and engaged learning at WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…Hiring will remain virtual for the near future, and quite possibly beyond, so let's get you prepared: * Virtual interviews* Phone interviews* Video interviewsWe are missing the in-person interaction -- which stinks, but it’s justa  problem wer all have to deal with. If you are someone who relied on your charisma in the moment to get you through -- make sure your skills are on point, and you figure out how to translate your charisma to the small screen and the phone.Again - your skills become more of the focus if you can’t get by being just the smoothest operator.Tone: Right now there are a lot of deparate people out there, I don’t mean this to be discouraging or a dig on those who are suffering, I just mean from the ermployers viewpoint, there are a lot of people applying for their jobs that may not have in normal times.“Be ready to talk about why you want to work for the company you’re interviewing with and why you feel like the job makes sense as your next career move.” You need to be able to make sure the employer knows you are interested, you want this gig, and why you feel like this job makes s4ense for you in your career.You don’t want them thinking you are just looking for work -- you want them to know this is a logical career move for you and something that excites you.Normally… I tell you to make sure there are no distractions. No dogs barking, no roomates barging in. The good news is, everyone is a little more quarantine supportive and knows the world isn’t perfect right now. Try to keep distractions low, but don’t lose your groove if something happens.Acknowledge it, and get back on track. Or plow through without letting iot affect you at all, that shows a lot of focus.2: Expect more rounds of interviewsEmployers love the final face to face phase because that’s where they make sure they know the person and feel they are a cultural fit. Without that, they are extending the process in other ways. More rounds of phone or video interviews, with more people in the building. They are trying to get multiple viewpoints to be sure that they have the right match.Don’t get discouraged if the process takes longer than normal, or expected. There is no normal anymore, throw out everything you used to know. 3: What skills are more important now that ever?* Establishing trust* Communication* Collaboration* Adaptablity4: Expect more questions on how you handle challenges* Have a story related to how you handled an unexpected challenge in your repertoire. 5:  You can still be selective* You are learning here too, about their culture their workforce etc. * Don’t rush to choose the wrong job, try try try to be patient and listen to your instinct.

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…I saw someone post today, quite longingly, that they miss sports. I know it’s a feeling we all empathize with, but it was the manner they shared it. It just seemed so raw and honest. Not like a complaint, rather just a plea. Like it had a deep sign in the middle. I miss sports.We all feel that way, but I can only imagine what it’s like for college athletes right now who would be in the midst of their spring seasons. Athletes are used to routines, almost all that I have interviewed, have their days organized to the extreme. Wake up, train, study, practice, gym, practice, class, train, bed. Scheduled down to the minute. Preparing their mind and body for competition. Now, take that away.I know many athletes when they finish their career, they lose a piece of their identity, they’ve always been a competitor, and athlete - that is their brand - and they struggle to reidentify themselves with the world, and within themselves. They don’t know who they are. Now imagine in our current world, having that taken from you unexpectedly. There was no soft landing you can see coming in the future -- just one day, poof, it’s gone. The Hofstra men’s basketball team hasn’t made the NCAA tourney since 2001. They’ve only made it four times total, losing all four times. They qualify, they are pumped, and then it’s over. Baseball players, golfers, track and field stars… it all just ended. Their routine was broken, but also the chance to make incredible, lasting memories. Which is one of the main reasons I wanted to have Averee Dovsek, Hofstra women’s golfer on the show this week. Through the despair of her season being canceled, she is still making the absolute best out of things and keeping a positive attitude. AND before this world turned upside down- she was already a model for how student-athlete can manage their time and still gain career-focused experience…  Here she is, the next big star in sports broadcasting, you heard it here first, Averee Dovsek…Questions for Averee Dovsek, Hofstra Women's Golfer and Aspiring Sports Reporter1: There is so much I want to talk about in regard to your career development in the sports industry, some of the sports broadcasting internships you’ve done, and more… but I want to start out with being a student-athlete in this crazy time.You compete on the golf team at Hofstra, Division 1, what is it like right now being a student AND an athlete in this unique time?2: This should be a time of year you are training, practicing, competing, but with that not being an option, how are you maintaining your edge?3:  A big part of playing sports is the community that comes from being on a team – how are you staying connected with your teammates and trying to keep that bond strong?4: I get questions from student-athletes all the time, saying “I don’t have the time to intern, how can I get a job in sports without experience”. I’m empathetic to this, but you’ve done some very high-level internships, how have you done it and how would you advise other student-athletes?5: Let’s talk about those internships, you’ve leaned into who you are, and I think that is really smart. Your edge is your knowledge and experience in golf and you want to go into broadcast journalism so getting an internship last summer at the Golf Channel made a lot of sense.These roles are competitive, what was the hiring process like for you, and why do you think they selected you for the role?6: What did the role consist of, and how did you make the most out of it?7: You seem like a naturally outgoing person, what was your approach to networking and getting to know people at Golf Channel while you were interning?

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…Three straight days of sunny weather and I’m feeling good. We’ve been mid-70s and bright sun the last three days, which is perfect. And weather definitely affects my mood, so expect some positivity today!If you haven’t listened to last week’s podcast with Ari Kaplan, you need to. Seriously, it’s a long episode, but it didn’t feel it.  Ari is one of the OG’s of baseball analytics and has some great, great stories. Plus, he shares how to break into the world of sports analytics, and much more. As I said, long episode but worth it -- there are some episodes, just being honest, that feel like they drag or take a long time to get to grandma’s house. Ari, man, loved this interview.Coming up on Wednesday is Averee Dovsek -- Averee is on the women’s golf team at Hofstra, so we talk a good deal about being a student-athlete at this time. AND we discuss interning and gaining experience as a student-athlete- it’s unique being an athlete, your time is allocated to training traveling competing… so many struggle to gain career experience. Averee is the exception - she’s done internships at the Golf Channel and PGA Tour Radio - and we talk about what she's learned, how she’s focusing on her career, and managing her time. Really great stuff coming up later this week.  As for today…The sports career-focused question comes in from Josh in Indiana - “Hey Brian, I’ve heard a lot of people on your podcast say they look to hire people who are leaders or have leadership potential. Two-part question -- how do I develop leadership skills, and how do I show them off in the applicant process?”Josh -- good stuff. It’s true, for a long time I’ve been saying the main attributes people need to be successful in any industry is to be coachable, curious and competitive. They are all pretty self-explanatory, but being coachable means you listen well, take to teaching, can be molded, being competitive means you will work hard work extra, want to be the best, learn new skills, look for an edge and being curious means you are a constant learrner, always curious and always strviing for more.But we really need to add to that list. In these times, and in the development of the new normal, we need to stress adaptability and leadership. Let’s talk a minute about adaptability before we get into leadership. I have spoken to hundreds of people over this quarantine, and I’d say they can be broken into two groups. 1: Those who freak out. The sky is falling, I will lose my job, I’m going to get the virus, the economy will crash, we’ll be in a depression, I’m in a depression. Everything is panic and overwhelming. 2: Those who are seeing the problem, analyzing it, and figuring out how to adjust and adapt. They are looking for opportunities, taking some of this in stride, adjusting to virtual meetings, learning, and saying to themselves, I may get this thing… but I’ll beat it if I do. Now, I’m not being naive here -- there are people at massive risk for this virus and I am not advocating taking it on face first -- I’m just pointing out that there are some who adapt, and there are others who get overwhelmed. I know someone who is an at-risk case, she has every reason to fear coronavirus, but she’s not letting it overwhelm her. She’s quarantining, she’s adjusting to zoom life, she’s working remote and she’s hell-bent on proving her continued value to her company. She’s not wallowing, she’s adapting. That adaptability is important now, and forever moving forward.

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…Managing and leading people requires a unique blend of patience and expertise. Patience is paramount to success as a manager because you are inherently managing and leading people who are less experienced in this expertise than you are. If someday you become the director of group sales for a sports organization, you will be influencing the day to day actions of people new to the business, and junior in their experience. This means you must be patient in executing your plans, taking their growth with the logical steps forward, and steps backward. It’s like having a kid - you work on their reading, and as soon as you make progress...the next day they look at you like they’ve never seen the word AND before. You want to scream, like, we did this 25 times yesterday...and then you realize they are 6 yeard old and child protective services have already told you to stop yelling so much. I’m kidding of course - child protective services have never yelled at me, even if that story was slightly autobiographical. But this is patience in action. No one learns in a straight line, they go up and down. They grasp some concepts quickly and others take longer. They need repetition and acceptance of their shortcomings. This is a major part of being a thought leader at a company. You can’t write people off as hopeless, you have to work with them, find their learning style, figure out ways to translate your information into their language. Nowhere is this trickier than in the world of sports analytics. Analytics is one of the roles in the highest demand for the sports industry, and yet it is a very very different language than most people speak. The best in this business have learned how to adjust their style to their stakeholders, whether that’s a GM, a coach or a player.  Some are visual learners, and need heat maps, others like massive amounts of data and want it all, while others need to be told a singular thing at a time that can help them advance in their skill set. Everyone learns differently, and as long as they have the passion, the learning will come. I was watching TV with my wife the other night, and she was watching some competition fashion show and they are talking through designers and styles and sewing techniques -- and I said to her...how in the world can anyone keep up with all these designers and techniques.She looked at me deadpan and said: “so who did the Patriots draft in the 3rd round of the 2007 draft?”And I said “trick question, they didn’t have a 3rd round pick”It took me a minute until I realized she set the trap and I jumped in it. The point is, everyone has the capacity to learn what they are interested in and is placed in front of them within the right format.That is the challenge for those in analytics -- taking complex data, that their audiences want to understand, and making it understandable. The passion is there, it’s on the analyst to make it more than just numbers. It takes patience. Today’s guest Ari Kaplan understands this more than most - over the last three decades he’s been finding ways to give pro sports teams an edge through data AND having the patience to share the information in the right manner so that it can make a difference. This interview is fascinating - I learned so much because I have the passion, and Ari has the patience… so where do you fit in?Let’s find out -- here’s Ari Kaplan…Questions for Ari Kaplan, Baseball Analytics Pioneer1: Before we dig deep into the world of statistical analysis in sports, let’s go back to your beginning. As a student at CalTech most would assume you’d end up at NASA, some seismological laboratory or astronomical observatory – but for you,

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…I apologize for not having a Friday podcast last week. I have to say, Friday was the first day of this quarantine that my kids were really struggling. They’ve been incredible this whole time, but they are young, this is really weird, and it felt like Friday it all caught up to them at once. It was rainy and cold, the sky was grey all day...and all three just looked miserable. So I skipped the podcast, bailed on a few meetings I was supposed to have, including a podcast interview with Averee Dovsek from PGA Tour Radio which we are going to do this Friday instead. Averee is a cool story -- she’s in college, a D1 golfer on the women’s team at Hofstra, and has also done some very high profile internships with golf channel and PGA tour radio...and during the pandemic, rather than sit around blaming the world for her season coming to an end, and her internship with PGA Tour radio...she started a podcast.  She reminds me of some of my previous guests like Carlton Robie, Dasmine Evans and Jake Kernan -- driven, focused, and willing. Those are great attributes when you are trying to get into this business.Anyway, Averee’s interview will be live in two weeks, this week on Wednesday is Ari Kaplan, one of the pioneers of baseball analytics. I don’t say that lightly, he is a pioneer in baseball analytics and data science. He’s worked or consulted for every major league team - and he shares a bunch of really fun stories, great career advice, and insight into what is happening now in the world of data science and analytics. I know many of you in our audience will get pretty geeked up about this one, I know I did. Just one more note, Ari speaks on these intricate subjects in such a deliberate manner, he makes it easy to understand complex information. As he puts it, you can’t talk to a manager or GM in spreadsheets, you have to translate and explain… which he does so so well in this interview. This whole tangent started with me explaining why I missed the podcast on Friday. And it’s to make this point. We all make choices every day, don’t forget to make choices for yourself or those who rely on you most. Sometimes, you need to be you the person, more than you the worker. OK, let’s move along…The question today comes in from Jonny in Los Angeles… Jonny writes“Hey Brian, I feel like you are my trusted advisor even though you don’t know me personally. I listen intently to what you share, and since your advice has so often been proven true in my life, I trust you implicitly. My question - the advice you hear all around the internet is that during this time you should be doing more informational interviews with people in the industry. While this advice seems legit, I ask you, how? Like, how do you set them up, what do you ask, what are the goals, and how should I set this up for success? I’m just not quite sure I understand why they are valuable.”Jonny, your question basically wrote my outline for me… how do you do it, why do you do it, what questions do you ask and what does success look like. Like seriously, that’s how I outline just about every talk. How, why, what and what does it look like when it works. Thanks for doing my work for me :)Ok, so let's talk about informational interviews.

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…I’ve been spending a lot of time lately considering the plights of different types of people during this global pandemic. Obviously this is tragic, people are losing their jobs, and many are losing their lives. I thank, from the bottom of my heart, all of those people on the front lines of this pandemic, from the healthcare workers to the grocery clerks, who risk their own health to help others -- admirable traits, and I wish you nothing but health. But I’ve also been thinking about those of us locked down and isolated at our homes. I live in an area with some land, we have about 4 acres, I have my kids home with me, my wife -- I’m surrounded by my people. We have computers, TV, internet, food, phones, a ping pong table, stable jobs (for now) a huge garden. We have nothing to complain about. Others aren’t so lucky. This for them is far more challenging. They live in small apartments, they don’t have access to the internet, they are all alone. This to them can be torture. Empathy, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and understanding their plight, is really important right now. I got my first job in Atlanta at 21, had never been there before, didn’t know anyone, and had a crappy apartment. Like, really crappy. I couldn’t imagine being locked in place at that time. I would have gone nuts.Even later in my 20’s moved in with my future wife, just the two of us in another crappy apartment in Seattle -- Fremont to be specific. All these super cool things just outside our door within walking distance, but instead we could have been trapped inside. I’m not sure we’d be married now if that happened. I look at my situation now and say, not so bad. But I can also realize that so many of you are in a situation that makes this hard and uncomfortable and your motivating thoughts of “I’m going to learn new things and catch up on good books” may have drifted off by week 6 of this situation.I’ve also been thinking about personality differences and how they can influence how someone is handling this situation. An extrovert is likely really having a hard time right now, trying to have game night on zoom, or facetime with friends… the quiet moments are likely crushing their spirit. Introverts, on the other hand, largely get their energy from inside themselves and selected interactions with people are likely handling this with grace. Some people may not have even realized who they were until these moments. You might not have realized just how much of an extrovert you were until it was taken away! If you are feeling right now this deep desire to be around other people...maybe you are more extroverted -- for you this is hell. But if you are Ok with this scenario, and surprised at how well you are handling this unexpected change, maybe you are more introverted than you realized prior. This is good, this is a positive for everyone because the more you understand yourself and how you tick, the more you can set yourself up for success. Today’s guest is a self-identified extrovert, she loves large passionate, screaming groups of sports fans… and that love serves her well in her role as Director of Marketing for Lenoir Rhyne Athletics. Just a few years removed from her undergrad, Leah Clayton has carved out quite a path for herself and she’s here to tell us all about it… and get some of that extrovert energy out!Here’s Leah Clayton!Questions for Lenoir-Rhyne Director of Marketing Leah Clayton1: Before we get into sports marketing in athletics, and your life and role at Lenoir-Rhyne – let's go back to your beginning a bit -- why college sports and why marketing? How did you discover this career fit for yourself?

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkinSports.com and this is the Work In Sports Podcast…I think I’m in the anger phase of quarantine. Just to be clear, I am not some whack-job thinking I should protest the quarantine, or claim it’s all some conspiracy to bring me down, or scream that I need a haircut so open up the stores again. Quite the opposite, I’m a pretty firm believer that there are people dying out there from a highly transmissible virus and we all have to do our part to stop the spread, this is about all of US, not me. No, my anger is just a phase of this process… like I’ve hit the moment that I’m a little edgy and don’t necessarily have the patience for my child asking for me to stop typing so much and focus on them. Or to make them a sandwich, or to pick up their toys all over the floor. Alas, my anger isn’t just reserved for the kids - in fact, I do a pretty good job of holding that down -  my anger has migrated to other areas I don’t usually let it. Like people saying stupid stuff on twitter.Now, I don’t do the twitter beef thing. If people have their opinions, that is their right, and no amount of me arguing with them in 200 and whatever characters is going to resolve their deep-seeded issues. BUT - sometimes I see reckless things being shared...and it just pisses me off. Today, I have to let that anger shine.  Normally, I hold it in. Like how presidents aren’t supposed to talk shit about other presidents, even if they despise them, or you aren’t supposed to bunt during a no-hitter… I have professional respect for others in this realm of career development in the sports industry. I won’t name names, that’s not my style, But I read something on Friday that just really pissed me the hell off. A question was asked by a young person -- “what advice would you give someone during job searching during this pandemic” And the advice given back was “Apply for everything that interests you whether you are qualified or not”I wanted to explode. This is quite possibly the worst advice I have ever read. So, I’m sorry but I have to go off on this, for many many reasons.Let me tell you why this is terrible advice. 1: This statement is rooted in hope, not fact. When you say, apply for anything whether you are qualified or not, you are basically saying “magic may happen”… the employer may magically decide “hey, you can’t do this job, but we’re going to hire you anyway because you are awesome”This is laziness. When you think to yourself, rather than put in the work to make myself qualified for the jobs I love, rather than understanding the marketplace knowing what skills are in demand and developing myself, rather than doing internships, volunteering, informational interviews, networking … I’ll just apply for jobs and hope something wonderful happens. You know what that does - it disrespects all of you who have worked for something - you’ve focused your strategy, you’ve put in the effort -- and some other fool is going to come in, not be qualified, apply for the job and get it? How dare you insult me this way?This is like reading that Aston Kucher was discovered by modeling agents walking around the mall in Iowa, and thinking I need to walk around the mall in Iowa looking fabulous each day because magic may happen to me. Someone at some time may have been hired despite not having qualifications, but it’s magical thinking, hanging on to one story, and projecting it into a pattern that will help you. We tell ourselves things we want to believe can be true - because they are easier. It is easier to be discovered or to get a job we aren’t qualified for just by applying. That path is easy, doing the actual work is hard. Saying coronavirus will disappear “like a miracle” at some point is easier than putting in the work to get testing done. But easy, the path of least resistance, is not a strategy,

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…There is a moment that sticks out to me from today’s interview with Dan Kaufmann, New York Jets Director of Corporate Partnerships...well, there are actually a couple, Dan is really great and shares a ton of insider advice, but one, in particular, was Dan talking about his early career and how he failed a lot. You’ll hear him discuss it first hand in just a bit, but I think it is really valuable to highlight. Dan comes right out and says, I tried a lot, I failed a lot and I learned a lot. This is an attitude that most people don’t have. Dan says it very normally like this is just a pattern everyone goes through, but in reality, most of us are afraid to try because we are afraid to fail...and that holds us backWhen I say most of us, I definitely mean me. When I was starting in my career, I was so afraid to be judged by my peers as inferior that I didn’t ask questions, I didn’t take any risks, I didn’t try anything in the grey areas- and in turn, I didn’t really push myself into uncomfortable areas. I thought if I did my tasks, and hustled around that would be enough. And it was just fine. But looking back, my own fears of judgment, stunted my growth. I see it now with my kids first hand -- they learn best by trying and failing and I let them! My daughter was trying to make a pizza the other day, and she said hey dad can I try to make something else with the extra dough. Yeah, go for it!She made this calzoney type thing, stuffed it with too much sauce, it burst in the oven...and she said to me after, if I was going to do that again, I’d make these three changes to my approach. She’s 12.I was 22 years old at CNN Sports Illustrated trying to play it safe all the time, OR being faced with something I didn’t know how to do… and faking it, instead of just asking someone else a question on how. This is EGO. And I’m not the only one that suffers from this affliction.Failing is OK, in fact, it’s better than OK, it’s the best way to learn. Just to be clear, I mean failing by trying things that maybe don’t work out… not failing because you are lazy and miss deadlines, or do sloppy work. Dan Kaufmann joined the New York Jets a little over 5 years ago and as you’ll hear in this interview, really loves his job in corporate sponsorships and is excited by his day to day involvement. Before we jump in -- this interview was conducted a few weeks ago, prior to the coronavirus outbreak, so there is no reference to our ongoing struggle, the NFL season, how the Jets are operating as a business. Just a good old fashioned pre-corona perspective on getting going in the sports industry -- Here he is -- Dan Kaufmann, Director of Corporate Partnerships with the New York Jets.Questions for Dan Kaufmann, New York Jets Director of Corporate Partnerships 1: Before we get into your world of corporate partnerships in the NFL and all the steps you took to get there – lets go back to your beginning --- did you always dream of working in sports?Follow:  how did you discover your fit in sales and marketing?2: Over your career, you’ve worked for a multitude of different organizations of varying sizes.Minor league hockey with the Pensacola Ice Pilots, mid-major college at the University of Toledo, Major college at the University of Wisconsin and now in the NFL with the Jets.Other than the obvious bigger budgets and larger staffs – what are the main differences you experienced in the varying work environments?3: Your first role after undergrad was with the aforementioned Pensacola Ice Pilots selling minor league hockey in the south. That can’t be easy, but you led the org in revenue that year. What did you learn about sales and marketing early on and what it ...

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…Just a reminder for everyone, we have this incredibly robust online learning platform called The Work In Sports Academy -- 4 modules full of articles, videos, worksheets, podcast episodes and more. The course teaches you hor to be an expert at getting hired in sports.YOu can find all the details at workinsports.com/adademyBUT the reason I am bringing this up is that during this crazy pandemic where we are all locked at home, I wanted to offer up something special to all of you. I created an abridged version of the Academy courses, called Academy Essentials… and it’s 100% free. Register as a user at WorkInSports.com with either a free account, or a premium membership, and you will get the Academy Essentials course for FREE.Pretty cool right?Alright so let’s talk about the sports industry!If you missed it I posted an episode on Friday on how the sports industry will function during high unemployment -- we are headed towards a period of high unemployment, many of you have never lived through that, so I brought up some strategies and expectations you should all have for this new scenario we’ll all be facing.I suggest you listen, and be prepared for what is to come. Coming up on Wednesday is my interview with Dan Kaufmann, Director of Corporate Partnerships with the New York Jets - it’s a great interview, and the LAST of my pre-corona interviews!I interviewed Dan prior to the breakout, he’s an incredible interview, but we speak nothing of corona, so you’ll need to take a break from corona talk for 40 minutes on Wednesday, I think you can hack it. Dan and I did talk last week, and for the NFL, business is still moving forward, he is still meeting with clients virtually and talking on the phone -- he, like Greg Hylton a few weeks back, said many teams in the NFL are still hiring staff...so that is a place to look if you are in the market. Of course, it can all be found on our site, WorkInSports.com the #1 job board for the sports industry. Just being completely transparent… prior to the corona outbreak, we had about 25,000 active sports jobs on our site. Now, we’re down to 10,776 -- it is a smaller pool, but that’s still a lot of opportunities. Our friends at Open Sponsorship -- former podcast guest Ishveen Anand’s company - they are hiring. I’m seeing jobs from Red Bull, Turner Sports, NBC Sports, CAA, Bismarck Larks baseball team -- and a bunch of other orgs, some of which you have heard of, others you may not have known existed. That’s what WorkInSports is here for -- we find all the jobs, thousands you may never have even heard of, and put them in one convenient spot for you. ASM global, Sommer Sports, Hurrah, Altitude sports… there are so many sports employers out there and these are just some of the employers on the first page of our site, posted fresh!Alright, today’s question comes from Jasmine T…Jasmine is a member of our private Facebook group where she posed this question. YOu can join the group too, search Facebook for Work In Sports podcast, then answers a few quick questions and I let you in. Don’t answer the questions, I don’t let you in. It’s pretty simple. Ok, Jasmine’s questions: “For those of us that were in the interview process before all of this happened and the company is now under a hiring freeze, what would you recommend doing? What is the best way to keep in touch with the hiring manager? I'm trying to stay relevant so that I'm remembered when the hiring freeze is over!”Jasmine great question and I’m going to try and take it in multiple directions to help various people out in a similar scenario.This is a very real scenario, many people were in the process,

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at Workinsports.com and this is another special edition of the Work In Sports podcast…For the last month and a half, we’ve gone to 3 episodes a week so that we could keep supplying you with the most up-to-date industry-relevant information and guidance. We’ve added a ton of new listeners so thanks to all of you for either tuning in for the first time, or continually listening.If you are a new listener, I want you to know that all of our content is evergreen. Meaning, it is still just as relevant as the day we posted it. So if you go back through our archives, and see that I interviewed super agents like Nicole Lynn, Leigh Steinberg or Jack Mills…  or James Kimball from the UFC, or Kara Walker from the Boston Celtics...or any of our other incredible guests… know this...we don’t talk about last night’s game or specific plays or events tied to that moment in time. We talk about their career, how they got where they are and what guidance they have for you, in our audience. So go back, listen to any of our episodes, and you’ll get incredible sports career advice.Alright, last note before I get into today’s episode… On Wednesday I interviewed Leah Clayton, who is the Director of Marketing for the athletic department at Lenoir Rhyne. Many, many, many of you have asked me to interview people in smaller athletic departments, or to get people earlier in their career -- well, Leah is both, she’s just a few ears into her sports career, and she’s really making a mark at Lenoir-Rhyne.She is also wildly charismatic, and I had a really really good time interviewing her. Smart and funny….plus she called me out for mispronouncing her alma mater, which I loved. I absolutely love it when someone is confident enough to call me out.OK, so what do we want to talk about today?This question from Ben in Washington stood out to me…“Hey Brian, love the podcast, I’m a pretty new listener but I’ve gone back and listened to 5 of your previous episodes and really enjoyed the content.  My favorite so far was Celia Bouza from ESPN Next - you and her had a really strong rapport, and I loved that chemistry.I’m a college senior, so my world has been turned a bit upside down. For the last decade we’ve had pretty low unemployment numbers, people were getting jobs. Now, unemployment is going to go through the roof. You’ve lived through this more than most of us… what is it really like when unemployment is high?”Ben -- welcome to the community, and thanks for listening. Celia is one of my favorites too -- glad you enjoyed that one and YES, I am old enough to remember when unemployment was high. I’m old enough to remember how scary it was with the financial crash of 2007-2008. And I’m old enough to remember 9/11 and the fears that came after that. I was working at CNN during 9/11 and that was a scary, scary time. But rather than focus on what it was like to live through those moments, let’s focus on the job market during high unemployment. 1: Employers get really, really frustrated. They have roles to fill, but because unemployment is high, they get more and more unqualified people applying for their jobs,

Hi everybody, I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast.Over the last decade or so there has been a greater emphasis on culture and environment in the workplace, especially in business but more recently in sports.Not to get all “when I was a young whippersnapper” on you…but when I started my sports career back in 1996, everything was task-oriented. Get the job done. Period. My boss didn’t really care about my feelings or how I fit in or whether I felt comfortable taking chances in my role. And I didn’t expect her to.  If you messed up that was bad… if you messed up multiple times you’d be labeled as unreliable and never given the fun games to cover, or the next opportunity. That was sports and that was the media… we couldn’t really afford to be wrong.Failure wasn’t seen as a pathway to creativity, it was seen as a pathway to a different career.Around the early 2000s, my wife, then-girlfriend, was in the dot com industry where they played ping pong in the office and totally changed the concept of failure…this new wave believed failure was a necessary part of true growth and creativity.This idea of failing to be acceptable always confused me. She played Half-Life around her office and I sprinted around the newsroom trying to get a story on the air and not miss a deadline.We lived in very different work worlds.But…despite 90% of them going out of business, the dot coms may have been on to something.The sports world has come in this direction as well – there is more concern than ever for happiness, inclusion, cultural fits and more.In fact, the same concept the dot com industry embraced in the early 2000s of failure being a necessary indicator of pushing yourself, finds its way into the sports world modus operandi too as we constantly try to push new boundaries in social media, content creation, branding, advertising, and marketing.We can’t just recycle – we need to push new boundaries, we need to try new things, we need to be free to fail in the spirit of refining and developing.It’s not the same as “do crappy work and it’ll all be ok” – it’s the concept that to be unique means you have to try things and you won’t always hit.  I heard someone say the other day – “if you want to see something new, better go to a different planet” implying it’s all been done before. I don’t buy this. I see new often. I see teams and brands and leagues pushing past normalcy daily.And I see failure.I think back and wonder if these things are inextricably linked – was I afraid to fail back in my early career and therefore less impactful? So I now feel more emboldened to fail and am more creative?Hell if I know.But one thing I know about myself is I do like an environment where I’m not self-censoring every move fearful it will result in my downfall. I do like running a group of people and trying to get them to work fearlessly.Not carelessly, we still have to be accurate, we still have to do things the right way and be careful what we say and who we say it about… but the idea of trying without fear makes sense to me.That is the philosophy of today’s guest.I believe wholeheartedly that for a creative person, you could have no better leader and role model than Bryan Srabian San Francisco Giants VP of Digital Media and Brand Development. For 18 years he’s been a fixture with the Giants, and get this he started his career well before the internet, well before social media… and now in my view, he is the kingpin, the OG of the sports social media.He adapted to a changing world, became an expert in a growing field, pushed the Giants to new levels and formulated a highly functioning team that wasn’t afraid to fail…and because of that, they’ve succeeded an awful lot.But I’ll let him tell it – here’s Bryan Srabian, San Francisco Giants VP of Digital Media and Brand Development…Listen to the Work In Sports Podcast to hear more! Here are a few video clips:

It's the most frequent question we receive -- "I love sports, what should I do for my career?" listen to this episode of the Work In Sports podcast for some ideasHey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkinSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…A couple of quick notes before we jump into today’s fan question:Note #1: Quarantine kind of stinks. It is essential, I’m glad we are all taking it seriously, but this stinks. Note #2: So many of you that I know from our audience are posting that they’ve been laid off, or your job has been furloughed -- and this hurts me to my core. This feels like something I’m seeing every time I log in to LinkedIn - another person posting they’ve lost their job. I feel for all of you. We are all feeling a tightening of our belt. Reach out to me via LinkedIn, or our Private Facebook group and I’ll see what I can do to help. Our private Facebook group is a great spot to network, and fund support from your peers. Others like you, facing these times and looking for support and guidance. Search for the Work In Sports podcast on Facebook, answer a few questions and you are in!Note #3: In the same spirit, we have created an abridged version of our Work In Sports Academy courses -- we call it Academy Essentials. It is now FREE for all users to access, so if you are looking to increase your knowledge, learn some strategies and tactics that will help when it comes to getting hired in the sports industry, Academy Essentials is a great start and again, completely free.Alright, today’s fan question comes from Wyatt in Colorado -- “Hey Brian, I’m a junior in college, pretty early in my sports career and I’m trying to figure out my fit for the industry. I notice on your site WorkInSports.com that your tagline says “make your passion your career” I like that saying… I know my passion in sports...but what part of sports should I make my career in, that’s where I struggle. Any ideas that can help me.Also, I have to say your site actually has a lot of jobs right now, and I didn’t expect that, thanks for your continued hard work during these times.”Wyatt -- thanks for the kind words and good questions. I think the final side note is kind of funny -- “your site actually has a lot of jobs right now” that word actually always cracks me up, it’s like the ultimate backhanded compliment.You actually look nice today. Wow, that paper you wrote is actually pretty good! Your site is actually pretty good at this! I appreciate the positive response Wyatt, we are working really hard as a team right now, and always, to find all the potential opportunities out there. We know many of you are hurting, and finding your next opportunity can be a way to bring light to the end of this tunnel.As I mentioned last week on our special Friday edition, in normal times we add about 75 new sports jobs a day, which is a LOT of opportunities, and that number HAS slowed down, but it hasn’t stopped. We added 183 fresh sports jobs last week...and trust me, there is going to be a huge boom once quarantine lets up. There are opportunities now, and there will be more soon. Our site, WorkInSports.com is absolutely your best place to get the latest on opportunities. So let’s get into your question about passion, and then refine things further. This comes with the caveat of, I can’t answer this question for you, you have to discover it. Has anyone seen the movie Inside Out? It’s a Pixar movie, really really really well done. I have young kids, so I see all of these types of movies. Trust me, I have a point in here, just stick with me. The movie is, on a macro level, about your emotions and how your experiences to help frame them.   One of the concepts they use to explain this concept to younger minds is that all of your exper...

Hey everyone, before we get into today’s special Friday edition of the Work in Sports podcast a couple of notes:1: We developed this really robust curriculum focused on the strategies and tactics everyone should learn and utilize to get hired in sports. We’ll over the last month, I made an abridged version, and we’re giving it away for free on WorkInSports.com -- that’s right, Academy Essentials is 100% free to all users. 2: You also may be wondering -- why should I visit WorkInSports.com right now -- wit no games, there must be no jobs. That would be false. In the last week, we’ve added 183 sports active jobs -- now that’s way off our average, we’re normally closer to 75 fresh sports jobs a day. But there are jobs and opportunities out there, so if you need work, we have the opportunities.3: Which brings me to my third point -- starting next week, we’re going to make all part-time jobs free to access for all users. We know many of you working game day events have been furloughed or laid off, so we’re making access to all the seasonal and part-time roles free on our site.4: And finally -- look for an email from us early next week. We are dramatically dropping the price of a WorkInSports membership to serve you better. Yes, we are a service site, we provide a value of fiding all the sports jobs and putting them in one place for you...and we charge a fee for the service...but we are dramatically dropping the price to help as best we can.Ok, let’s start the countdown... ---Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is a special Friday edition of the Work In Sports podcast.So...I want to be really honest with all of you right now. I’m not one of those guys that always tries to act like they have all the answers and that their model for doing things is perfect. I get annoyed when I see “motivational speakers” always having all the answers, never sad, never conflicted…the world appears very black and white to them, and they are the only ones who know where the right color is. When you know in reality, backstage they are popping pills to get them ramped up. Or they have a failed marriage for cheating on their spouse, or they are miserable in their day-to-day. Not all, but many. All that is inauthentic to me. To come out and preach a system acting as if the sun is always shining in your world. It’s not. So, I try to be honest. There are things I am very confident in, and I speak on them as often as I can, with all the authority that I can. BUT, I am far from really having anything figured out. This week was tough. I’m struggling with motivation and focus, so trust me this is not at all an “I’ve got this figured out, come follow me!” It’s more of, I know I am struggling with this, which means you likely are too -- so let’s see if we can figure some things out together.I mean… my wife texted me a picture of an emoji yawn from upstairs in her office, and it made me yawn downstairs at the kitchen table. I’m so unmotivated right now. The weather isn’t helping, it’s been Seattle here for the last week. Light rain, grey, low clouds, cold, raw. I love Seattle, lived there for 10 years… but I moved for this reason. The weather is not happy. I’ve definitely realized that about myself, my own little self-audit, I am affected by weather. Sunny and cold, I’m fine. Grey and cloudy… not good.I watched a video of James Harrison crushing an egg in his biceps -- damn thing popped like a zit. And I thought to myself...  I should try that, that looks like fun. That’s what our days have been reduced to!Now, I get it to all those people saying Anne Frank spent 761 days in a secret annex and I’ve spent 2 weeks in my nice home so suck it up...and I get that I should have some perspective, but I’m sorry some days it’s hard.I’m looking at things I am supposed to do and I’m like …”meh”.

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast.If you’ve ever heard me talk before about networking, you know that I believe there are 5 types of people you need in your network. One of those people I call the connector. They are the person who knows everyone and loves to connect the dots between who they know. This is a special attribute within some people. They are naturals at getting to know people and then figuring out ways their connections should get to know each other.  For me, connectors are an extremely valuable part of my network. I need them. When i have my sights set on a guest for this show, the first thing I seek is… which of my connector friends may know them. A little over a month ago, I read a story on Ryan Creelin, commissioner of the ECHL. The story explained how he was an intern at the ECHL, and over 17 years worked himself up to eventually become the commissioner. That kind of story gives me tingles. Seriously -- isn’t that all of our dream? Get an internship at a great organization, then get hired, then advance, then become the boss. It sounds like something out of a cheesy movie on Lifetime, but this is real life. I had to land Ryan as a guest. My first guess was… Bill Guertin. Bill is a former guest on the podcast, he’s a sales trainer, one of the best in the business...and he is the very definition of a connector.I knew Bill did a lot of sales training with minor league hockey teams and leagues… so the chance he would know Ryan was solid. So I reached out. Within 30 minutes, Bill was connecting Ryan and I for today’s interview.Networking is more than just knowing the right people to help you get a job. It’s having advisors who can help you through tough decisions, connectors who can introduce you to the right people, insiders who know what’s happening in the industry at all times, idealists who see the potential in everything, and realists who keep you grounded when you need to be.Today's guest Ryan Crelin as I mentioned is the commissioner of the ECHL, a minor league hockey league with 26 teams spread across the US and Canada -- the teams roughly equate to a Double-A baseball team. A minor league feeder system for the NHL. As a reminder -- this interview was conducted before Coronavirus became a thing when their league was in operation and games were being played… so there is no mention of their suspended season or how it will affect them moving forward… but there is a ton of knowledge personally about Ryan advancing through the organization to become commissioner, and on how a minor league can survive on the sports scene…Questions for Ryan Crelin, ECHL Commissioner1: There something I really love about your resume. You graduated from Seton Hall in 2006, been working at the ECHL since 2005. There something really endearing about that.I talk to people who jump all over the place during their career- heck I’m one of those people – why has it been important for you to get into the ECHL and stay there?2: To start as an intern and develop into the league commissioner almost sounds like a lifetime movie script, a feel-good story, that seems somewhat farcical – but you are very real.What was your mentality and approach when you first started out in the ECHL – did you envision this?3: Give us a little bit of insight into your path – we know you were an intern, and we know you are now commissioner – but what specific skills did you refine, and roles did you take on, during your ascension?4: When you look around now, at the teams in your league, at your league offices – are you looking for people, like you, that have that extra drive and focus?