The Best #SportsBiz Career Advice of 2018 Part 2 - Work in Sports Podcast e096

I went back and listened to our last 10 expert podcasts and picked out the best pieces of sports career advice. This is all the great actionable advice you can put to work for your sports career, right now!

Hi everybody, I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…

I wonder all the time… is it working?

Is the advice I share really getting in there with you and making a difference, am I helping flatten your learning curve so that you are more efficient and successful in finding opportunities in your sports career, or nailing an interview, or hustling for a networking opportunity, or building a relationship with someone in the industry.

Obviously, it’s worked for me, and it’s worked for the people I’ve hired… because that’s where I get my concepts from…my real life over 20 years in the sports industry.

But does it work for you? That’s the real rubber meets the road question.

Many of you have posted on our private facebook group to say thanks, I’ve received cards in the mail to say you liked something I had to say, and others have told me I’ve made their road trip better.

That’s all great. But I wanted to hear someone say – your advice, it helped me get a job.

I know, maybe I’m needy, which would be true…I am a bit needy, but in reality we are all inspired by something and for me, the opportunity to make a difference for all of you out there listening…is really motivating.

And then it happened. I received an email yesterday from Jackson Amos a student at the University of Florida…and he shared a story:

“The main reason for reaching out is that I want to thank you and let you know that your advice really does work! See, I have a huge creative side that most people that know me have no knowledge of. I have been using programs like Photoshop for a few years now but have never published my work (which seems very silly to me now.) After to listening to your show I created a professional Twitter (@Jax_Graphics) and started posting my creative content for the world to see and the craziest things have happened. I have reached over 8,000 views on some of my videos and it actually landed me a job. The Gator Basketball team reached out to me through Direct Messages asking if I wanted to join their team as their Graphics Coordinator. It has been about 3 weeks with them and I have completely run away with it. I want to seize this opportunity and never look back. My hobby has now turned into a job and I couldn’t be more excited to walk into work everyday. Just wanted to share this with you and let you know how much you are appreciated and how your podcast really does help students! Looking forward to hearing more of your content and putting your advice to work."

The idea here isn’t to say ‘hey look at me, my advice works!’ ---  everyone will pull something different from our content, every one of you will find something that speaks to you and makes you take action…so find that thing, and act on it.

I was at a conference once, and I was feverishly taking notes… and a friend leaned over to me and said 20%. Since that didn’t feel like a complete thought I asked – what the hell do you mean? And he explained, you’re never going to act on 100% of what this dude says, so just pick out 20% that really resonates with you, a few topics, and really lean into them.

That meant a lot and put a laser focus on actionable items. Now I present to you 100% of my ideas and you guys get to figure out your 20%...and it’ll be different from person to person.

Let’s get to the rest of this episode – I went back over my last 10 interviews, listed to them all again – cringed at some of the points I babbled – and picked out my 20%...the actionable items from our guest expects that really resonated with me.

Episodes used in this episode:

• Chris Valente, Boston Red Sox
• Deandra Duggans, Baltimore Ravens
• Karl Keating, Nike
• Andrew Howard, NFL
• Scott Rego, Philadelphia 76ers
• Amie Wells, Tennessee Titans
• Jack Mills, NFL agent
• Dr. Samuel Todd, University of South Carolina 

Enjoy!