What’s new in S3 for 2016-17?

kirk_wakefield 2016, Learn, S3, The S3 Program April 12, 2016October 31, 2018analytics, Baylor, Board Meeting, campaigns, companies, mentors, S3, sports, teams, tickets

by Kirk Wakefield – April 2016

April 2016 Newsletter

We have big plans for the 2016-17 academic year. Here’s some of what’s in store!

Friday, November 4, 2016

S3 Senior Pro Day

Texas BBQ on Thursday Night: S3 Advisory Board members meet the students & network with managers the night before interviews.
S3 Senior Interviews All-Day Friday: Managers meet each senior for 10 minutes in the morning, speed-dating style; then call back your top draft picks for afternoon interviews.
Stay over for the TCU-BU game on Saturday, November 5, 2016.
All S3 Advisory board teams and companies are invited to interview our 40 seniors for 2016-17! Board members should feel free to invite HR personnel to join us for the Senior Pro Day!
Virtual interviews may also be set-up for those who cannot make the physical trip to Waco.
Mark your calendars now. Official invites will arrive via email.

Tuesday & Wednesday, January 17 & 18, 2017

S3 Board Meeting

Based on insights provided by the S3 Executive Council and input from board members, we recognize that focusing on recruiting seniors in November and juniors in January better fits the schedules of many teams and companies. Hiring managers will get to meet every senior at the fall Pro Day and can still interview seniors at the January meetings. An additional benefit is that juniors will have a semester completed in the S3 program and be better prepared to meet board members and interview for internships.

Held right after Martin Luther King Day (1-16-17), the S3 Board meetings will include:

Junior Internship Recruitment & Senior Follow-up Interviews:
Phillips 66 Banquet & Corporate-Property Networking: Focused time to develop relationships with other S3 Board members.
Mentorship Hour: Share career advice with your mentorship group of S3 students. Board members will have the opportunity to volunteer as mentors and role models as a way of giving back to students as they begin their careers.
Ticket Insights: Roundtable discussion on pricing analytics presented by new S3 partners Eventellect & Stubhub.
Campaign Management: Roundtable discussion on best practices in strategy. Stay tuned, board members, for the opportunity to submit your best campaign strategy to present at the meetings.
S3 Brand-Building Brain & Barnstorming: Board members will discuss ways to strengthen and spread the good word about S3, as we continue to grow on a national and international basis.

We thank the S3 Board Members who recruit seniors for full-time positions and juniors for summer internships, as well as provide financial support for the program. We especially thank our anchor (1) corporate partners at Phillips 66, Eventellect, Schlotzsky’s, and La Quinta Inns & Suites, and (2) team partners at the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and Dallas Mavericks. These organizations have gone above and beyond!

Welcome to New Board Members!

Dan Fleetwood, Vice President, Global Sponsorships, SAP

Patrick Ryan, Co-Founder of Eventellect

Geoff Lester, Head of Partnerships & Business Development, StubHub

Katie Scallan, Senior Manager, Engagement Marketing, Gulf States Toyota

Chris Talley, Vice President, Corporate Communications, USAA

Garrett Smith, Manager, National Soccer HOF Club Sales, FC Dallas

Doug McNamee, Senior Associate AD, Baylor

Katy Young, Director of Recruiting, Learfield

We also welcome, Christine Stoffel, CEO, SEAT Consortium, who will share some exciting news with us next month!

This month in the S3 Report we begin features on the culture, values and practices of some of our great team partners. This month, read about the San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment:

Cover Photo: April S3 Club Meeting with San Antonio Spurs Brooke Gaddie (S3 2014) and Lindsay Beale (S3 2010) sharing insights with S3 students.

Branding You in the Business of Sports

kirk_wakefield 2015, Careers, Learn, Personal Development, Sell January 6, 2016November 1, 2021branding you, careers, integrity, learning agility, mentors, passion, personal brand, risk-taking, sales careers 0 Comment

by Drew Mitchell – January 2016

Who are you?

What separates you from everyone else in your business? How is your brand perceived by others?

“Branding you” was the topic of our panel discussion held at the new Foster Campus for Business and Innovation at Baylor University. The audience consisted of students from the Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program as well as sports industry executives. The panel included Tami Walker, Head of Brand Management for Phillips 66; Derek Blake, Vice President of Partnership Marketing and Military Programs at La Quinta Inns & Suites; and, Greg Grissom, Vice President of Corporate Development at the Houston Texans.

The discussion yielded important insights on how to brand yourself in any business, but specifically in the business of sports. We each have a personal brand that makes each of us unique, as the iconic Dr Pepper brand reminds us, we are “Always One of A Kind.”

The Four Pillars

Derek introduced four key underlying principles of who you are and how others will see you.

Connecting – Be a networker. Help people meet other people, which in return broadens your network.
Humility – Unless you are an entrepreneur, you will always have a boss until you become CEO. And then you will have a board of directors. Always have the mindset of WIT–whatever it takes. Be willing to do anything, even if it means taking out the trash or making the coffee, no matter your seniority level.
Integrity – “Don’t shift with the wind.” Do the right thing, even when no one is watching. During hard times don’t stray from core principles and values.
Giving – Set yourself apart by giving back, regardless of how much money you make or what your position. Plenty of people know how to take. Being a giver means you are a service to your peers, business, society and the community.

Why Ration Passion?

Tami talked about how it was important to have a framework for your personal brand. First, you must develop expertise. Whether it’s through education, experience or a combination of other learning opportunities, expertise sets you apart from others. Know what skills and talents you possess and what skills you need to acquire. Second, you must have passion that distinguishes you from others.

Mike Libecki is an example of someone who pursues his passion. Life is sweet–the time is now–so, why ration passion? Don’t hold back who you are and showing others what you love. Being passionate is being human. Don’t place a limit on your passion. Combining passion with expertise is a great combination.

Relatedly, Greg emphasized three ingredients to your personal brand:

Passion – See a common theme here? Passion can change and evolve as you experience life, but decide what passion really makes you tick now.
Competitiveness – Compete. Be bold. Make decisions. As a young adult and student, this is the perfect time in life to be bold and take a risk with your career.
Trust – Your personal brand reflects those who surround you. Others see who you trust and those who trust you. Building trust with the right people in your network is important in building your brand.

Market your Brand

After you understand your personal brand, the next step is to market your brand. What good does your brand do if nobody knows about it? Here are a few pointers from the panel:

Use the Power of Who – One of the commonalities among panelists was the power of your own personal network. Who you know influences the content of your brand and how you market it. Bob Beaudine has a great book titled “The Power of Who.” Read it if you want to grow your brand. One point Beaudine emphasizes is to use your “who” to market you.
Get Involved – Involvement in a variety of activities places your brand across a wider market. I joined St. Jude as their Corporate Chairperson this past year. I am passionate about the cause. I wanted to share my talents. Serving introduced me to a totally new network of people. Get involved to serve. Don’t overlook the opportunity to build your network while you serve.
Be Different – Being your own brand means being different. For example, since everyone is so consumed with social media and email, we forget about the power of postal mail. Executives may (dis)miss an email, but every hand-written note gets read. When you meet someone new, send them a hand-written note. That makes you different.
Promote –Promoting your own personal brand is as easy as coming up with a username and password. LinkedIn is a free platform to share your talents and skills and connect with others. One approach–sometimes required by corporate policy–is to create separate professional Facebook and Twitter accounts. Use social media and digital strategically. Be careful. Most future employers will review before hiring.

Develop your Brand

Now that you understand what your brand is and how to market it, develop your brand. Notes from the panel include:

Risk-taking– Green paper buys things. We like it. But don’t let money get in the way of your passion. Use the time early in your career to take a risk while responsibilities are low. Go deep on why you are passionate. Then ACT on that passion without caring about the financial compensation. Now is the time to set the momentum for your career. Money will follow.
Learning Agility – Be a “seeker of knowledge.” The number one predictor of career success is learning agility, which includes people agility, mental agility and strategic agility.
Power of Mentors – Mirror others that have success. A proverb provides, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Identify seasoned veterans as mentors. Each executive you see today still has mentors who offer advice and serve as a mirror for the future self. Find someone who shares the same core values to help lead along your journey.
Build your network – You always have room to add to your network. The bigger your network, the more visible your brand. It is still true: Who you know gets you the job. What you know keeps you there.

Derek Blake sums it up, plain and simple, “My name is all I have.” At the beginning of the day and at the end of the day, people buy you, not the product you sell. Be intentional–have a plan–on how to market your brand. Be the brand others can’t live without.

Want to know how to find your perfect employer in sports? Read on!

The surprisingly simple little secret to landing a leadership position

kirk_wakefield 2014, Careers, Lead, Learn, Personal Development, S3, Sales Management, Tickets October 3, 2014November 1, 2018leadership, leading, managers, mentors, sales management, work ethic 0 Comment

by Kirk Madsen – October 2014

What is leadership?

For everything written about leadership and management (an Amazon.com search yields over 1 million books on the topic!), we sure seem to have a lot of questions about what it is and how to do it. One of the questions people in leadership positions get asked all the time is, “How did you get to where you are now?”

Whatever their answer is, it will probably include a surprisingly simple little secret.

Ready? There is no secret.

There really isn’t much of a mystery. Leaders follow simple, repeatable processes anyone can start immediately!

But, before we talk about these processes, let’s first establish two key ground rules:

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”400px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Ground rule #1: Consistency is king.

Ground rule #2: A positive attitude is non-negotiable.[/dropshadowbox]

These two ground rules are the cornerstones or the foundation for all you do. Over the long haul, building success without these cornerstones is impossible. From there, focus on a few key concepts:

Concept #1: Do more, now.

Leaders work harder and generate results more consistently than their peers.

Dionna Widder, the Vice President of Ticket Sales & Service with the Cleveland Cavaliers, sums this point up perfectly: “You do not need a title to be a leader. Set yourself apart with your work ethic and results.” Everyone is capable of having a great week, or even a great month. Leaders have great quarters and great years. Sure, they have their off-days. So did Michael Jordan; his were just better than everyone else’s.

Concept #2: Lead, now.

Take on a leadership role with your current team.

Joe Schiavi, the Director of Inside Sales with the Detroit Pistons, offers some practical advice to practice leadership now: “Teach less experienced reps and give time out of your day to make sure that your teammates have the best possible opportunity for success. Your manager will notice your extra efforts. Your teammates will respect you because you took the time out of your day to help them when they needed assistance.”

Concept #3: Be a student.

Every day.

Consider how much more capable you are of passing a test when you’ve taken the time to study. Widder recommends, “Schedule a meeting with your manager or other leaders in the industry to learn. Seek out resources and dedicate time to be a student.” Books, articles, TED talks, conversations with others – there are countless resources available. Use one of them every day!

Concept #4: Pick your peers.

Immediately find mentors and surround yourself with successful people.

Do you know what I love most about being a leader? Finding others who want to succeed, and empowering them to do it. On a peer-to-peer level, spend your time and energy with people who exhibit the positive personal and professional traits you see (or want to see) in yourself. On an executive level, ask the people you admire to mentor you. The benefits of surrounding yourself with successful people will be real and immediate. “Ask and welcome feedback from your leaders, peers, and friends and develop plans to improve areas that need improving,” Widder says. “Feedback can be both positive and constructive; both are valuable to your growth.”

By applying these concepts, you’ll have a greater impact on your organization. The greater the impact, the greater your chances of breaking into leadership positions.

Cover photo courtesy of MarcMo.

How to get promoted in sports sales careers

kirk_wakefield Careers, Learn, Personal Development April 1, 2013November 2, 2018avoid gossip, brand yourself, John Wooden, mentors, no whining, screw up, Success 0 Comment

by Rob Zuer – April 2013

What is success?

“True success comes to an individual by self satisfaction in knowing that you gave everything to become the very best you are capable of.” John Wooden

Wooden’s definition of success is the simple answer to the question every single person asks in a first job in sports and the key to happiness in life.

We don’t want or need the best salesperson. We want people striving every day to get better; people who feel deep satisfaction from more than revenue or commissions.

Positive Attitude

You will always have those around who can’t succeed or hate what they do. Do not:

whine,
gossip,
talk negatively,
complain, or
get sucked into the herd.

They will drag you down. Do not associate with them. Negativity spreads like a plague. Keep a positive attitude about yourself and, more importantly, your organization.

Teamwork

Kelly Cheeseman

How you work with others directly affects the perception of you as a future leader.

“The theme of this industry is teamwork. You need it on and off the field, court or ice. To be successful in all cases you need to have a great game plan, be a team player, and work hard to achieve the plan or goal,” emphasizes Kelly Cheeseman, Chief Operating Officer of AEG Worldwide.

P.J. Keene

P.J. Keene, Director of Group Sales for the Houston Astros, reminds us, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” To have influence, P.J. explains, “We must lead by example, focus on more than just your numbers, and care about our team.”

In helping others get better to achieve the team’s overall goals, you brand yourself as a potential leader with a bright future. Being number one on the board is not the only thing that gets you promoted.

Five Ways to Improve

Positive attitude and teamwork are fundamental to success in the business of sports. How can we make ourselves better?

Find a Mentor

Seek out and learn from those individuals who have been there and done that. If you want to be a quarterback in the NFL, you watch Manning, Brady, or Montana. You copy throwing motion & mechanics and learn all they did to get to where you want to be. This is no different in the sportsbiz careers. Find the stars of the industry and learn from them.

There Is Nobody To Blame But Yourself

Successful people take responsibility for everything that happens to them and by them. Take responsibility for your actions. Do not blame others or the situation. No one will feel sorry for you or listen to excuses about how life is unfair.

School Is Not Over

Never stop learning. Read books on any topic that makes you better. Invest time in things that will help you succeed. And dare I say it? Turn off the TV & video games. Why waste so much time in areas unrelated to your goals?

Screw Up!

Failure is the best teacher. Take risks. Make mistakes. The story goes that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. When asked about this, he is quoted as saying, “I did not fail. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Set Goals

Have your goals in front of you. Place them on your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, front door, back door, closet, anywhere you can see them. Make them an obsession. Do not give up on them.

Will the job be difficult?

Sure. Don’t give up or get discouraged. The results and money will come. Love the journey to the destination.

Where will your journey take you?

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

You don’t have to have Haley Hosch to lead a tourism department, but it sure helps

kirk_wakefield Careers, Learn, Personal Development, S3, S3 Spotlight, The S3 Program April 1, 2013November 2, 2018double accounts, flexibility, hard work, invest in self, mentors, Orlando Magic, patience, positive attitude, relationships 0 Comment

by Anna Merritt – April 2013

What’s it take to be a Tourism Manager?

During the annual Baylor S3 Board Meeting in her senior year, Haley Hosch was able to meet some of the representatives from the Orlando Magic. After a follow up meeting in Florida and graduation, she flew out to the Magic and started her career as an Inside Sales rep. After two months, she heard about a position focused on tourism. Haley switched over to continue selling in the tourism department and subsequently proved herself to rise to manager of the department.

Jamie Weinstein, Ticket Sales Manager for the Orlando Magic, says, “It’s great getting to work alongside Haley every day. She has an unbelievable sense of pride in what she does with her clients and has really grown the Tourism Department this past season.”

Haley says the best qualities to have in the mix of tourism and sports industries are patience, flexibility, and great relationship skills. When working with other big industries focused in Orlando, sometimes negotiations and deals don’t go as expected. Having the patience and the flexibility to work around these hurdles is imperative. Also, Haley points out that many of the people she works with are the same year after year. If you don’t care about those relationships, the next year’s negotiations could be tough.

Getting Here

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Haley is well-liked and highly respected by her colleagues at the Orlando Magic. She’s a passionate, collaborative leader that gets results. The Tourism Department continues to grow because she goes above and beyond for her clients. ~ Joe Andrade[/dropshadowbox]Starting a career is always a difficult task. At some point, we all need a mentor or some eye-opening advice. One of these mentors is a senior vice president who Haley says, “continually pushes me to think globally and strategically for the department and company.” His consistency as a great leader has influenced her career. Who doesn’t need someone like that? Another mentor is a leadership coach at the Magic who Haley gets to meet with to set personal and professional goals and strategically work toward achieving those goals with the support and guidance of someone with greater experience than herself.

As far as eye-opening advice, Haley says some of the best advice she’s received is to “control the controllable.” There are many uncontrollable things in life, you can’t let those things take over and get you down. You can always control your attitude and outlook. One of her favorite quotes is, “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” What is your 90% going to be like?

Learned along the way

When talking to people interested in getting into the sports industry, and most other careers, Haley offers four pieces of advice.

Double-up. Concentrate on doubling revenue on each of your accounts. In other words, focus on turning each small account into a bigger one.
Surround yourself. Think about how you want to be perceived by your peers and leaders. The people you associate with will influence you, so surround yourself with successful, positive people.
Step outside. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn from tenured executives throughout your organization. In sales, it can be very easy to stay within your department bubble, but the sports industry is saturated with leaders and influencers that can help you throughout your career.
Invest in yourself. Professional and personal balance is important. Take the time and resources to invest in both.

S3 Board Member Spotlight: Kelly Cheeseman, AEG Worldwide

kirk_wakefield About S3, Careers, Lead, S3, S3 Spotlight, The S3 Program, Work ethic February 10, 2013November 2, 2018advice, AEG, career path, good mentors, LA Kings, mentors, NHL, sales careers, Success, work ethic 1 Comment

by Jerry Ruiz – February 2013

Congratulations to S3 Board Members in their new positions: Kelly Cheeseman, Chief Operating Officer of AEG Worldwide, and Chris McGowan, President of the Portland Trailblazers.

This is a story about the value of good mentors.

Kelly Cheeseman started his career as the Manager of Marketing at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes before coming to the LA Kings/AEG in 2001 as an Account Executive in ticket sales. In short order, Kelly advanced to Senior Sales Executive and then to the Manager of Ticket Sales. By 2005, Kelly was the Director of Sales & Service. Three years later, he was promoted to Vice President, Sales & Service, followed by a move up to Senior Vice President in 2012. When Chris McGowan left the COO position at AEG Worldwide to become the President & CEO of the Portland Trailblazers, Kelly was, as always, prepared to step in.

“Kelly has the best work ethic of any sports executive I have ever seen,” said Chris McGowan. From his experience, beginning in 1996 at AEG, McGowan sees the COO position at AEG as a true privilege. Having worked alongside Cheeseman for over a decade, Chris said what’s obvious to everyone is that, “Kelly is extremely passionate about the sports industry and dedicates a lot of time and energy into learning every aspect of the business.” Kelly would say he’s been helped by seeing it modeled by his mentor, Chris McGowan.

Giving back

In turn, Kelly has always taken the time to mentor others. Two graduates of the inaugural Baylor S3 class in 2006, Todd Pollock and Brett Christenson, began in ticket sales at the LA Kings/AEG. Cheeseman took the two under his wings and helped them get off to a good start within the industry.

“Kelly has been a great mentor. Aside from his knowledge and business-savvy mentality, he has always been a great leader with his staff, whom he cares about greatly. His willingness to develop skill sets and train his staff makes him one of the best executives in the sports world today,” said Pollock, currently General Manager of Sales & Service at Temple University.

Under Cheeseman’s mentorship, Pollock moved from inside sales to account executive to Manager of Sales & Service for the LA Kings in less than two years, before becoming Manager, Ticketing & Suites, at the San Francisco 49ers. Cheeseman, like his mentor McGowan, share the qualities of all good mentors.

Christenson landed at FC Dallas in corporate sales, before completing his MBA and moving into corporate business intelligence and database analytics.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-bottom-right” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Qualities of Good Mentors:

genuine concern for your best interest
willingness to share what they know to help you get ahead
willingness to be available to you when you need help—not just at their convenience
ability to identify your needs or deficiencies and to develop strategies for overcoming such obstacles to your success
respectfulness, trustworthiness, honesty and supportiveness

Source: Achieve Solutions [/dropshadowbox]

Learned along the way

Looking back at his career, the biggest challenges came during the two NHL work stoppage. Facing such obstacles out of your control, Cheeseman says, “will truly test your ability to maintain good relationships with customers and challenge your mental strength.”

When asked about some of the best career tips he’s ever received, Cheeseman recalled words shared by McGowan that stuck with him:

Hard work can never be beat.
There are no shortcuts.
Always look for ways to be innovative.
Don’t get stuck in a rut.

What is Cheeseman’s advice to others wanting to succeed in sales management in this business?

Hire a great team properly organized to work together. Focus on the structure.
Develop a measurable business plan you can review against key performance indicators.
Hire an analytics team to support your staff.

Of course, it always helps to have a positive mindset. “Clients and co-workers really enjoy working with Kelly because he has a great personality,” McGowan added.

Thanks

The students in the Baylor S3 program look forward to continued success stories from those fortunate enough to work with Mr. Cheeseman and Mr. McGowan. Thanks for giving back!