Make The Cut - Get Hired In Sports

Alexis Demmery is a former partnerships manager with the Vancouver Canucks. She worked her way up from a tour guide to lead partnership clients with the team. She hunted new partners, built partnership marketing programs and (more importantly) said no to the opportunities that wouldn't lead her down the path she wanted. We talk about her strategies for landing an internship, the characteristics needed to be promoted from within,  her personal philosophy on experimentation and how she deals with the fear of failure. Find Alexis on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-demmery-832b0348/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Zach Feldman is the SVP of Partnerships & Revenue at the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) - a three year old pro sports startup league. We talk about the evolution of his career, from a young kid who watched Jerry McGuire a couple too many times and wanted to be a sports agent ... to working in Montreal, Toronto and New York. And he provides some great insight on selling, his philosophy on negotiation and what he looks for when building a team. Find Zach on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-feldman-b3822117/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Lindsay Barenz is the President of the Washington Spirit - a pro women's soccer club in the NWSL. She was formerly of the NWSL and Real Salt Lake after building her career in the White House, as a lawyer and as an entrepreneur starting her own media company. We talk about her balancing her calling and getting her foot in the door in pro sports. We also talk through the importance of young girls playing sports, why female atheles are innately political and what she looks for as the number one skill when hiring people.Follow Lindsay on Twitter:https://twitter.com/lindsaybarenzFull show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Justin Kingsley is the co-creative director of CF Montreal in the MLS. He is an author and filmmaker, as well as a creative director and strategist who helps global brands and world champions tell stories. He has written two Bestselling books: The Way of the Fight with Georges St Pierre and Weology: How Everybody Wins When We Comes Before Me.Justin was also the Press Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office for the Right Honourable Paul Martin. He's someone who has pulled in a million different experiences to create his point of view. And now is applying that to pro sports in Montreal. We cover a wide range of topics in this episode. From how to break in to sports, to how to have an opinion. And we talk about how he'd be living a much different life if women's sports paid the same as men's (his wife is an ex-pro basketball player).  And of course, we talk about the multi-year process of rebranding the Montreal Impact to become CF Montreal. Follow Jason on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/mrjustinkingsley/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Jason Takefman is the former GM of Canada's Only Minor League Baseball Team, the Vancouver Canadians. He also worked as Content Marketing Manager with the UFC and as a Director of Corporate Partnership with the Vancouver Canucks.He is now working as Sports consultant working with VC's looking to invest in private companies, contract negotiation for sponsorships, teams. He is also the Co-Chair of the RBC JCC Sports Dinner and the host of the IBWAA podcast, a weekly Baseball Podcast.We talked about the right way to gain experience, dealing with nerves in the interview prep, advocating for diversity in tech and what she learned about herself from hiring a brand new team. Follow Jason on Twitter:https://twitter.com/jasonbtakefmanFull show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Teeka is Manager of Commercial Strategy for MLSE, sitting within MLSE Digital Labs - their  digital and innovation group. She leads the development of Digital Labs' B2B strategy, creating new business models for the innovative digital products, analytics services, and other forms of IP developed by MLSE Digital Labs. Prior to assuming this role, Teeka lead the ticketing and retail analytics practices for MLSE, working closely with these teams on areas such as pricing, retention modeling, and demand forecasting.We talked about the right way to gain experience, dealing with nerves in the interview prep, advocating for diversity in tech and what she learned about herself from hiring a brand new team. Teeka's LinkedIn profile is here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/teekacookson/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Jennifer Reynolds is a Manager,  Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. Jennifer stepped into a newly-created role to develop an integrated approach to promote inclusion and engagement for the company and its sports teams. With diverse professional experience prior to MLSE, Jennifer's passion for sport inclusion has remained a consistent thread; she has been a dedicated volunteer and Regional Board Member with You Can Play, a non-profit that promotes inclusion in sport for LGBTQ+ athletes, for the past five years.We talked about self-advocacy, the confidence to create your own path, and hint at some of the amazing work coming in from an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion perspective  in pro spots. Jennifer's LinkedIn profile is here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-reynolds-mlse/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Anthony Ruggiero is an art director at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment - the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors. Ten years ago he was selling Leafs and Raptors jerseys in the team store at the Air Canada Center . He worked his ass off, moved up and now designs the uniforms that Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors sell in that same store. We dive into that and nerd out on some uniform design storytelling for sports teams across the NHL, NFL and NBA. Listen in to hear the story behind this year's Toronto Raptors City Edition Jersey. And of course we go into the practicals that he used to move up from being the person who was selling you a jersey to become the person who was designing a jersey. The Toronto Raptors City Edition Jersey that we talked about:https://www.nba.com/news/city-edition-draft-roam-the-northAnthony's LinkedIn profile is here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-ruggiero-16263011/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Barb Sarmiento  leads CRM team and agency relationships at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. That's over half a billion dollars in ticket sales. CRM is an excellent "back door" into sports. It's something that most people don't consider as a way in, so the competition is lower for the opportunities - if you've got the right skill set. We did into how to build that skill set, practicle applications of how to prep for a CRM interview and more. We were struggling with some sound and internet issue when recording this one, but I assure you that the content,  insights and practical applications are top notch. Barb's LinkedIn profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcsarmiento/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here: https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Astrid Moulin moved to Toronto from France and was able to parlay her side project as a blogger into a full time gig for Real Sports Apparrel - the team store for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC. We talk to her about making the move with a backpack and a bicycle, why you should just start and the many lessons she learned from being thrown into a job and asked to figure it out. Here's our conversation with Astrid.Astrid's LinkedIn profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridmoulin/ and her blog that started it all is here: https://fringinto.com/enFull show notes and transcripts can be found here: https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Dustin Rideout was the Head of Brand & Fan Experience for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC at Maple Leaf Sport & Entertainment. He was also a partner and head of strategy at Sid Lee in Toronto, Canada.We talk about him making the move into pro sports from advertising, what he was looking for when hiring and where he sees the biggest opportunities for change in the industry. It was a great conversation filled with actionable tips for potential newcomers from someone who has rebuilt a marketing team in a sports front office. The two books the Dustin mentioned were "The Art Of The Start" by Guy Kawasaki and "First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins.  Dustin's LinkedIn profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinrideout/Full show notes and transcripts can be found here: https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Russell Kovshoff was most recently the Director of Game Presentation and Entertainment at the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He's one of those guys who has such a positive attitude and infectious work ethic that he really elevates the team around him. He's had such a great diversity of experience over the past 15 years with time spent with the Toronto Raptors, NBA All Star, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Pan AM games and even the Super Bowl that wrapped up in February 2020 in Miami. We go through some great stories -  like how he started his career in sports volunteering at 12 and 13 years old. We also talk through actionable steps of how to reach out, how to network and how to level up your skills during this pandemic moment in sports. Connect with Russ on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-kovshoff-00289713/ Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Sasky Stewart has been the online voice and communications chief for brands including the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NHL and the Canadian Women's Hockey League.Now she balances her legal and marketing education with a decade of communications, PR and digital experience to guide brands, athletes and their campaigns from strategy to execution (all while increasing the percentage of leopard print and neon in any given meeting). On this one, we get raw and honest about how she fell out of love with hockey, wrangled her internship by directly emailing an NHL team owner, and we dig into how the diversity of experience makes you a more valuable candidate in sports. Sasky is also the co-host of the podcast (All The) Sports on Screen with the Well Actually Sporting Club, which spotlights lesser heard voices in sports tv, movies and documentaries. Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Bradley Getty is a creative director, author and advertising creative who found himself as the Executive Creative Director of the NHL's New Jersey Devils for two years. His mission was to rebuild the brand to relevance in culture while properly representing its New Jersey fan base. He talks us through landing the job and application process, actionable advice when applying for jobs, the right mindset that you need to success in pro sports and some fun stores on what it's like to get face a couple of 80 mph slap shots when the real goalie doesn't show up. Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:https://www.mtcpod.comLike the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!