Beyond High Street

Miami grad John Walton is living his dream at this very moment. He is in Korea, calling Olympic hockey games for NBC (you might have heard him last night calling the USA women's 5-0 win over O.A.R (Olympic Athletes from Russia). Quite a change of location from his days in Oxford and Cincinnati and then from Hershey, PA and Washington, DC. His twenty-year career has stretched from the Cincinnati Reds to now as the Director of Broadcasting and Play-by-Play voice of the NHL Washington Capitals (he is taking a three week sabbatical to do the Olympics works). As you’ll hear in our conversation, his entire career started with a tip and some help from a Miami professor. We caught up with John before he left for Pyeongchang, and he talks about the importance of storytelling and how he uses his voice to tell that story.

 Rebecca Messina is a well-respected global brand marketer who has led fast-growing entrepreneurial premium brands at The Coca-Cola Company and now at Beam Suntory.  She has lived and traveled the world teaching the values of ‘brand’. Interestingly, she says the difference maker in her initial job growth at The Coca-Cola Company comes from her Spanish-speaking skills honed at Miami. Fortunately I get to spend time with her every year in Oxford at The Cradle of Marketers…because I learn from her too. Our conversation begins as we dissect this past Sunday’s Super Bowl advertising game.  

With two days before the Super Bowl, I felt appropriate to get Miami alum Rick Dudley on the pod. Not only did he spend more than a decade at the NFL, he has been the CEO of Octagon, a global sports and entertainment marketing and management agency, for more than 15 years. And oh yeah, he is my boss. He references two Miamians in the pod that are very relevant to the Super Bowl too - Jim Steeg and Jon Miller. We'll get them on the pod shortly. In the below image, Rick is with Octagon's Janey Miller, John Shea and client and 4x 2016 Olympic Gymastics Gold Medalist (including the Individual All-Around) Simone Biles. 

Now one of the biggest stars in WWE and eight-time Intercontinental Champion, the Miz, then Mike Mizanin, originally came to Miami to find his direction. After two years, with the help of his Theta Chi fraternity brothers, created a VHS video tape and applied to be on MTV's The World. As they say, the rest is history. Despite his short time on campus, The Miz credits the University, and the friends he made there, with sending him on the path to success. Go ahead, and add to his multi-million follower list on Twitter and Instagram.  

Jay was the first person I met at freshman orientation in Oxford. We immediately connected and have stayed friends ever since. He has always inspired me with the ability to thrive in the corporate world while having credibility in the venture space. Over the past 20 years, he was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America and also an Angel Investor. But in 2017, he was recruited to be the CMO of a booming pet toy business Bark. Not a Miami conversation goes by without Jay reminiscing about bringing Jay Leno to campus (in the early 90's) when he was leading Concert Board as a student.

Jenny Rooney is one of the most trusted names in journalism when it comes to corporate news and people who make it. Weekly, you can see her interviewing the world's top CEO's and CMO's, in paper and at conferences. She also helped create Miami's Cradle of Marketers conference (with fellow alum Dave Knox), which brings back some of Miami's brightest alumni to give advice and network with current students in the Farmer business school. She also deserves some credit in Beyond High Street as I created the idea of it simply thinking about how to extend the great work she does at the Cradle of Marketers. Makre sure to follow her on twitter to hear some great interviews with the world's best business minds.   

When Kyle isn't hanging around with partners like 43-time combined Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer and Serena Williams, he's one of the smartest voices in Sports Marketing. Kyle gives a good perspective when working for a business with large marketing budgets and how to be nimble and different when your budgets aren't so big. He always brags about the Luxembourg experience and recommends international studying for every single student.  Make sure to root for Kyle's partners in the coming months, and to follow him at @kyleschlegel15.

Check out my audio below where I share my vision of this new pod, Beyond High Street. Since graduating more than 20 years ago, I have always wondered what it is – what’s the commonality of all Miami students. We were willing to venture into the farmland and into the corn stalks of southwest Ohio, we left major cities to study and live in a tiny, rural community for 4 years and for some, even more. I’ll say this - whatever it is - it drives us. It’s why Miami consistently ranks in the top 5 in the country in producing Fortune 500 CEOs and CMOs and It’s why you have seen Miami names on the executive leaderboard at Instagram, twitter and other emerging global brands. The list of Entrepreneurs, business heads, community leaders, media executives and authors is endless, it even includes a former United States President and Super Bowl winning quarterback. I am going to have weekly conversations with these alum (releasing every Wednesday) and dig into their current experiences and what drove them to Miami and how Miami helped them turn that drive into tangible success. I hope you enjoy the pod and do share with all Miamians. And follow along on twitter via @BeyondHighSt. -David Schwab