The Voicemail Intro on Your Phone

"Hi, this is Michelle.  You've reached the right number at the wrong time.  You know the drill.  Leave me a message." 

As you begin to call professionals in the industry, you're invariably going to be leaving them a voicemail with your number so they can call you back.  I'll save the items about when to call and what to leave on their voicemail for the next post.   For this one, it's about the message that they're going to hear on your phone if they call you back.  Personally, I'm OK with funny or informal messages.  I think they show a little creativity, and I LOVE creative people.  I don't like companies that are old and stuffy.  But I can tell you with certainty that most business people don't care for those informal or funny messages.  They hear them and cringe, thinking they're very unprofessional.  They start thinking, "If she has that unprofessional of a message when she knows I may be calling and she's trying to get a job/internship with me, how unprofessionally is she going to behave with my customers?  Could I even trust her to know what a professional conversation with my customers should sound like?"

Unfortunately, there are times when you will have to conform to the accepted "business norms," especially when you're trying to break into the industry or are just starting an entry level job with a long-standing organization (e.g., professional leagues, major universities, etc.)  Personally, I hate the idea of conforming to "business norms" that are a throw-back to the 1950s and were created by WASPy old white men, but I'm also a pragmatist.  Don't shoot yourself in the foot before you even get a chance to begin your career and show them what you can do.  Unless you start your own company or find a really cool start-up or small company that embraces irreverence, you're going to have to get rid of your college student voicemail message.  Welcome to the adult world of business where fun sometimes gets swept under the carpet!  

The Forgotten Piece of Being Able to Work Independently

I was talking with a professor here at OU today and she was praising one of the graduate assistants for how well she works independently.  She was saying that the grad student needs almost no direction on what to do, but that because of it, she (the professor) doesn't know if a project is almost done or if it's barely been started.  I think it's great that this student can work so independently.  It's something that bosses love!  What this student is missing, though, is that she needs to keep her boss updated on her projects and where they stand.  It's a minor thing, and one I know this student will pick-up very quickly once she receives this feedback.  It's a much easier fix to teach someone to keep her boss updated than it is to teach her to work independently.  In the realm of personnel issues, this is a nice one to have.

In your jobs and internships, make sure to let your boss know where you stand on completing projects.  Even if she doesn't ask, let her know either by dropping by her office or sending a quick email.  It doesn't have to be anything elaborate or long.  Quite frankly, it shouldn't be long.  Just a few sentences or bullet points are all you need.  The best solution is to flat out ask her at the beginning, "How would you like me to keep you updated on my progress with this project?"  It will show a maturity level that isn't always seen in young employees.

In Chaos, There Is Opportunity

In chaos, there is opportunity.  I first heard this phrase in an old Cary Grant movie, Operation Petticoat, when Tony Curtis's character was scrounging for parts during a bombing.  The phrase is true in the sports industry, too.  

We all have those one or two top level organizations where we dream of working.  We may even be lucky enough to get to work for them from day one.  Sometimes, though, it's better to take an opportunity in a smaller or start-up or off-the-beaten-path organization.  Why, though?  Often, these other types of organizations can offer more hands-on experience in a lot of different areas than a large one can.  Established companies often have long established policies and procedures.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  You can learn about a specific area in an established company, but in a small or developing one, you can learn about MANY different areas and help create the policies and procedures.  It also allows you to have an impact on what happens in a bigger way.  When you go to apply for your next job, you can give concrete examples to hiring managers of the impact you had on the organization.  

I was in the second intern class at Disney's Wide World of Sports.  The first class had three people who started working the year before the Sports Complex even opened.  They worked 100+ hour weeks on a regular basis to help get it open.  There were ten of us in the second intern class and only a handful of permanent staff compared to what Disney Sports has now.  Our class got there about six weeks after they opened and just before the summer deluge of events.  We all worked on all kinds of events and in a lot of different functional areas.  It was the best internship possible and one where we were able to learn a great deal about a lot of different areas.  We got to sit in on meetings and manage areas that I'm sure their interns today don't.  The Disney Sports internship is still one of the top ones out there, but with 30+ interns and a boatload more specialized staff, the interns don't get quite the same experience we did.  It was chaos and we had an opportunity that doesn't come along often with an organization like Disney.

When you're looking for your first job or an internship, take a look at some of those smaller university jobs if you want to work at a BCS school in the future...or if you want to work for an NBA team, look at a team in the NBA Development League...You get the idea.  Search for your internship or job based on the experience you're going to get from it.

Professional Journal

I don't know where I heard about keeping a professional journal, but it's something I've been doing since I started as an intern in 1997 at Disney Sports.  Since then, I've read about various entrepreneurs who keep idea journals and/or notes about meetings.  Maybe I read something about it back then and got the idea that way.

These journals have proven very valuable to me as I've worked on projects and needed to reference information.  I started by recording information that my leaders would relate in meetings.  They weren't necessarily things they were saying directly to me, but items that would come up in planning discussions with the entire event management team, things about event management that I just didn't know at the time.  It could be anything--ratios to use when renting certain equipment (at least 1 portable toilet per 75 people and 1 ADA portable toilet per 150 people); standard revenue split percentages for merchandise sales with partners; keeping signage messages and PA announcements positive (use REMEMBER TO rather than DON'T FORGET TO); and dozens of other simple things. 

From there, I started summarizing great articles I read (a lot of early Fast Company articles in my first journal), writing down key points from books, and taking notes from a multitude of speakers I heard.  It's progressed now to the point of clipping key items that I know I'll use later, especially data/statistics and their sources.  (Even though I know it could all be found relatively easily again on the internet, I still clip it and tape it into my journal.  I know what's in the journal and can flip to it even faster than I can Google the exact info.)  The latest evolution of what I keep in my professional journal includes ideas that I someday want to turn into my own business(es), sketches, names of people from my network I'd want to hire and in what roles, what I want my company employee policies to be, etc.  

I have a friend who negotiates contracts with professional athletes for his organization.  Last month, he was telling me that his mentor had kept meticulous notes of all his negotiations throughout his career.  My friend started doing the same when he began working for his mentor.  He said that it's his professional journal to help him with future negotiations, but it's also a great way to document his career for his own edification. 

If you decide to keep a professional journal, make it something that is your own and fits your personality.  There's no one way to do it.  The only rule is to use it in whatever way is going to be beneficial to you.

Drive vs. Passion

For me, I have to have a lot of passion around my work, which is why I jump around so much in my jobs.  It's something that I'm sure is difficult for some people (especially hiring managers) to understand.  Once the passion for the product or service or organization is gone and I can't re-invent or re-summon it, I go looking for something else.   I know that I need change and continuous new challenges.  My passion lies in exploring new and innovative ideas.  There are people who can work at something that is "just a job" for a long time, but I'm not one of them.  

The reason for this post is to advise you to find a product/service that generates a lot of passion in you and then work in that area.  In the book The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar, he describes the difference between drive and passion.  Drive is something that pushes you along, a commitment or something that you do out of obligation.  Passion is something that pulls you along, a force that you can't resist.  If you really want to work in sports, you should have a passion for sports, but also a passion for your specific chosen area of sports.  If you want to work in marketing, but take a long-term job in event management because you want to break into sports, it's not going to be enough to make you truly happy.   Your passion has to cover both areas to continue to sustain itself.  

Auxiliary Products and Services in Sports

Inc. is one of my two favorite magazines. (The other is Mental Floss.)  In the April 2008 issue on pages 30 & 31 there is a great picture and insets.   It's a section called "Behind the Scenes: Companies at the Heart of Everyday Life."  On it, it shows a photo from pre-game of a Pistons-Trail Blazers game. It highlights companies responsible for some of the things in the photo - the court, the courtside seats, the mascot uniform, the pre-game pyro.

These are great examples of parts of the sports industry that students don't often know or hear about.  They're also great areas to look at to break into the sports industry, not to mention the fact that there are some really interesting things out there besides the obvious areas of pro sports teams, college sports teams, and marketing companies.  Just looking at this picture I start to think about other areas that students could pursue that they may not know about because they're not so obvious.

I have a friend from grad school who works for Aacer selling basketball floors.   I know another person who was a rep for Spalding basketballs.  A guy I worked with at Disney's Animal Kingdom has a company that creates card stunts for stadiums.   The company that managed the concessions and catering for the Indy car race at Disney also managed concessions for the Kentucky Derby and a bunch of other major sports events.  A vendor/friend from New York Road Runners who is responsible for their major event signage also handles pieces of signage for the Super Bowl.  John Anthony's travel company (Anthony Travel) has grown immensely in the last 10 years and now handles major accounts such as Disney Sports, the Iron Man Triathlon, the ING New York City Marathon, and countless universities and other groups.

There are all sorts of auxiliary areas out there to consider.  There may even be an area that will pique your entrepreneurial interest enough to motivate you to create your own company.   The opportunities in sports are out there. It may just take a little more thought or resourcefulness to find out what they are.

I'm Back

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. I was on a brief personal break, but am now back and starting to resume posting.