Latest / The Bridge To Tomorrow's Talent Podcast / Ep. 15 Beyond The Game. Building A Career In Sports

Transcript

Ep. 15 Beyond The Game. Building A Career In Sports · The Bridge To Tomorrow's Talent Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So good morning or good afternoon, and thank you for joining us whenever and wherever you are.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Zachary Hill, and I'm the chief of staff here at Tomorrow's Talent, where we strive every day to bridge young adults to the real world of work.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Bridge to Tomorrow's Talent and a podcast where we talk about the state of the workforce, the future of work-based learning, how to best get into new careers, and what really makes the real world of work tick.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined today by Benjamin Goulding from the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us today, Benjamin.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you, Zach.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really excited to be on here and chat with you a little bit about uh my job and about uh all things Firebirds and Oakie Group.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome, awesome.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for being here.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, first, can you tell me a little bit about what specifically you do with the Firebirds, since I know you're not out on the ice?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm not a player.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um sometimes we get mistaken for players when we're carrying around bags and things like that.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, so I'm manager of group sales with the Firebirds.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So what that means is I plan out um, you know, our our strategy for each season's group initiatives, uh, our campaigns for group ticket sales.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um but in short, essentially what we do is uh we sell tickets to large groups.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's primarily our schools, um, our local businesses, uh, youth sports organizations, things like that.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we work with uh these different organizations to bring them out to a hockey game to have them experience, you know, uh a special night with the Firebirds, um, both watching hockey and gaining experience that they can take home with uh their friends and family that they enjoy the games with.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in charge of all those big exciting events, not just day-to-day tickets, but getting big groups of people in to see the game together.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's great because it's a lot of planning for you know, maybe one specific game.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so a lot of work goes into these one-off games, but it's it's really cool to see that come to fruition.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, planning big group ticket sales, right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's something that a middle schooler might think of as a future job that they can get into.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did you get from high school and you know, graduating senior year to what you do today?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you make that jump?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I never thought I would be in sales in general, to be honest.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I always grew up as a big sports fan.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I always knew I wanted to work in sports in some capacity.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um grew up playing sports in high school, uh, primarily played basketball, and um always liked uh to be around sports.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I went to college, I I got my degree in in sport management from St.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: John's University in in Queensley.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a great experience because obviously I was learning in the classroom, the the ins and outs of the sports industry, um, but more importantly, I was getting to work with our athletic department as well and kind of be hands-on with um the different teams that we had uh on site at St.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: John's.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so, you know, from there I always just wanted to figure out different ways I could get into the sports industry.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, that came with part-time jobs, you know, working tennis tournaments, um, working game days at you know, various um sports teams within uh New York City where I was going to school at, um, and you know, mostly stringing together these part-time roles, it's you know, started to realize that a lot of the um reliable and and solid careers in sports are through uh ticket sales because obviously people are always gonna come to the games.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be um a need for people to purchase tickets to come in and experience and enjoy those games.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um I you know started looking out around at different programs and um different ways that I could get my foot in the door in the in the sales industry within sports.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh one of the primary ways is is to go through uh an inside sales program.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of minor league teams, major league teams have these programs that are essentially paid internships where you have a six, seven-month program.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're learning the basics of outbound sales, um, where you're contacting people, you're learning how to be on the phones, be comfortable, uh, talking to strangers, talking to different people.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that kind of gave me a you know an idea of how I could get into the industry.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I ended up starting and doing uh an inside sales program with the Ontario Rain, who are a similar team to the team I work for now, uh the Coachella Valley Firebird.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: So the rain also in the uh American Hockey League.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that brought me back to California.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I learned, like I said, the ins and outs of uh sales and the sports industry uh from the get-go with that, and um, you know, not only learning sports, but working for a minor league team, being asked to do uh different things to help out the team, um, you know, whether that's game day responsibilities or things like that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so learned a lot within those six months, and then that lended itself to some more opportunities within the sales industry in sports.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh luckily, you know, where I was close and where I was um living at the time here in Palm Desert, uh the the Coachella Valley Firebirds were were starting their their inaugural season within you know months of of my transition from you know Ontario Rain to a new role.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it kind of worked out.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: The timing was was perfect with that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, it all started with a love of sports and um you know a love of wanting to work in the sports industry and and that led itself to working in sales and and now um you know being the role that I'm at now.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's fantastic.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a that's a great journey.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one, you made it all the way across the whole country, right, to wind up here in California, but then also the kind of shift as you went through and found exactly what it was that you wanted to do within the the wide world of sports, right?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: All the different things that are there.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: How did you you said that when you were in college, you saw kind of ticket sales or that kind of area as the more reliable part of sports to be in?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: What led you there and what other things were you thinking about before you thought that sales was a place to settle into?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I not only uh within college where I was looking through you know the different options within the sports industry, uh, but also just working in sports after college, I experienced some of these different um options within sports, and uh primarily it was uh it was like game day operations and player operations.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um, for example, when I was in college, um I was working for our athletics department, and uh what I would do is I would handle the setup for um for all the game day stuff for baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, any of our uh Division I sports that we had there.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um it was all about uh making sure the sidelines and and everything was set up for the players um when they played in the games.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was more behind the scenes uh and and more closely interacted with with the athletes themselves.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I did you know things in similar veins with um you know the different tennis tournaments that I worked, you know, the US Open, uh the BNP party boss here in Indian Wells.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and those were player operations where you know I booked uh practice courts for players or I worked in the locker rooms where the players were at.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it was a lot more behind the scenes and and working directly with the players more so.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I really enjoyed that.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I think I saw more as a um a positive career traject trajectory was in uh ticket sales just because um you can kind of start on a on a ground level and work your way up into a managerial role or a director position, um, and you know, work um on the front office side of the team where you're you're client-facing, um, you're you're working with the fans and you're trying to enhance their experience, which I thought was really cool as well.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously it was really exciting to work with the players, but um I think there was a part of me that that wanted, you know, I was a fan more than I was ever an athlete, so I wanted to uh enhance you know a fan's experience, maybe more so than I did uh working with a with an athlete or or a player um at the time.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it was kind of a natural path to to move into more of the ticket sales and and the fan-focused um part of the of the industry.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, that makes sense to me, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted to enrich the part that you had grown up enjoying.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you wanted to come back and make it even better for folks.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so as you were, you know, going through that, whether it was the classes or the work that you did in college or even some of those early jobs, the tennis tournaments and things that you were helping support, did you have you know mentors or specific individuals who kind of helped you along the path or you know, gave you the right direction to point yourself or helped you find where you fit?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I had, I think it came a lot from uh professors I had, and then also um, you know, working with uh the some of the training staff that I that I worked with in that work study program.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: But um they were really helpful in in kind of the hands-on experience and like telling, you know, letting me know like what works best um when I'm actually in the moment and working on a job.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, with my professors and and and some of the classes that I took, those were the people that you know guided my path a little bit more in terms of here's where you should be applying, um, you know, this is what you should look for in a in a uh job or an internship.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you know, kind of helping me find out what I wanted to do through the different courses that I took.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the professors uh at at my university had the most profound impact of of that mentorship and kind of guiding me uh in the path that I wanted to pursue.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And more than just what they taught in class, you're saying little bits of extra guidance things that you got on top of that.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I had um I I went to um a sport management uh group that we had on campus, and so it was outside of our classes, and um we were able to network and and uh that led to different you know uh internship opportunities and and things like that.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it was outside of the actual curriculum where I I think I I took a lot of that um information and and um you know that kind of helped me beyond just the the classroom and and what I was learning in the classroom.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, going out there and making it happen as opposed to just going along for the ride and waiting for something.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you could if you could go back and and do some of that college part of your experience different, especially knowing where you wound up, right?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: That you wound up in uh ticket sales, uh would you do any part of it differently?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are there other things that you would add to the experience or you know, different opportunities that you would have taken had you known where you were headed?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or um, I think from from the career trajectory that that I ended up in, I think it was the the right route to take.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think there were certain um things in in college that I wish I had um done in addition to what I was already learning.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um like I think the I'm not someone that has a lot of regrets, but the one thing I did look back and and wish I had uh looked into a little bit more was like our college radio and and some of that programming side of things, um, which wouldn't necessarily have helped my um my career in ticket sales, but I think any bit of um you know communications or anything like that always helps in in sales.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think that's one thing that would have been a cool experience to kind of learn a few um a few other sides of the sports industry, of the entertainment industry.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um it would have been something that I would have liked to look into a little bit more.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I think that's the most important thing with um with college and and and going to school is is um you know trying different things and experiencing different things uh in order to see what you'd want to pursue in in your life and in your career.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so for me, I I was able to do a lot of things at at my university um beyond just the the curriculum that that helped uh you know mold me as the person that I am and and the and the career path that I wanted to take.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean I can't agree more, right?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: College is the time to go out and try all the different things, all the different kind of career opportunities and industries that you can to really find where you fit.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think that helps a lot of people.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: They need to hear that, right, before they're on their way into college.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, anything related to sports and the entertainment world, um, definitely from people from the outside always seems like a little bit riskier of a career path to take, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even though I'm sure you work in an office, right, from pretty normal business hours, uh, it doesn't seem as stable as what somebody might consider a more normal kind of nine to five job, right?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what advice would you give to folks who are interested in this kind of work?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're also, you know, sport fans themselves and they're in high school or college looking at this, but they feel uncertain about if there's enough possibilities out there, enough opportunities, or or they're nervous about moving all the way across the country, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: What advice would you give folks might be in those shoes now?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that the biggest advice is to be open-minded and to, you know, take take risks essentially.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because it is it is quite the risk to work in sports, or it seems like it from the outside.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but really, like you said, it is a stable environment, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like we are are working very similar nine to five office hours uh during the off season.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and where it gets tricky is you have to be flexible.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the other biggest uh piece of advice is working in sports, the hours are gonna be a little bit different, especially during the season.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so while we have our normal nine to five office hours uh throughout the summertime during the season, uh when the team is playing, we often work late nights and our schedule varies from week to week.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: So that makes things a little bit tricky, obviously.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: If someone wants something a little bit more stable, it's not necessarily going to be that.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Where uh the stability that it does provide is you have a really solid base and a foundation of a team.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so everyone's kind of working towards the same goal uh when it comes to you know winning, um, selling tickets, uh making sure the arena is functioning on all levels, making sure the game day works.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So everyone kind of has this common goal uh and it all centers around a team, which is really cool to see because um you know if you're working for uh you know a different company and everyone still has similar goals, um, it might be harder to rally around that when you don't have like a you know a sports team that you guys can all um understand that the common goal is going towards the success of that team.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's kind of cool to be able to have that stability and that um that cohesion and teamwork uh that you find in sports uh translates to not only the play on the ice or on the field, but also the people like us that that work in the front offices and and behind the scenes.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not only are you supporting a team, but because you all have one really clear goal, you all are a pretty solid team as well.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a lot of camaraderie, um, and everyone really is cohesive in that goal and in that team uh team environment.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, great.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned a little bit earlier, uh, you know, some of those extracurricular kind of things you were doing in college, and as you were going up through the beginning ranks, that it was important you were talking to people and kind of building your network, and that's how you got access to more of these opportunities that you went out to.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you and I both know, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And any other professionals watching know that networking is vital.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's super important to opening the next door and getting that next opportunity.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: But if folks were interested in going into live entertainment, even not necessarily just sports, but for working on this kind of thing, how would you suggest they start making those kinds of contacts and and getting in touch with the right people?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are there like industry conferences they can attend, or how can they get their foot in the door?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a few different things um that they can do to get their foot in the door.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think one thing that that maybe was less prevalent when I was uh starting out in the industry or even as a as a high school or a teenager uh was you know LinkedIn and and kind of the social media aspect of uh you know business and and professionalism.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um so something like LinkedIn is is really crucial to be able to reach out to people and and just do research in terms of you know who's the front office, who is the director of ticket sales for the Miami Dolphins, and you can look them up and you can you know make a direct contact by just messaging them and and saying, um, hey, I just want to you know get to know a little bit about your job and your role and and see you know what your career path was and and how I can you know take that same career path.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think the um the internet and being able to access um you know and and reach out to people like that is really important.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um but beyond that, like in my experience, I uh went to some different um camps and and um things like that.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So uh one of the more formidable experiences that I can remember was I did a um a summer camp in um I think my junior year of high school where I went to the University of Massachusetts and it was a two-week camp.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was all focused around sports business.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was at their their school of sports business, and we had college professors, um, and we had uh business professionals that came in and did lectures and things like that.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then we had to work as a team um, you know, to do certain or accomplish certain goals throughout the two-week process.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um not only was that great to meet these college professors um that are teaching at a high level, but we also got to meet business professionals that are uh doing this day in and day out with professional sports teams.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then most importantly, we got to meet other peers that were also 16, 17-year-olds, just like myself, and were you know excited about going to the sports industry.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are some people, you know, 10 years on that I still have contacts with.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, the sports industry is very small, so sometimes I'll I'll run into those people at at different conferences or different events.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's it's really cool to see those kind of um interactions and and relationship building materialize over the course of a decade like that.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those early, early, even during high school experiences carried through to still today.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you think the biggest challenge that newcomers to the industry, or you know, maybe even you have some examples from when you were starting, but what's the biggest struggle that newcomers into the the back end of sports industry, right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: The side that you're on, what do they face?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are what are the challenges they can expect?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the most important thing or the the largest challenge that someone might face is that when you're getting into the sports industry, generally you are a sports fan, right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's why you want to start to work in sports.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the the biggest challenge is separating that fandom with the fact that it is a job, right?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so um you have to be professional, you have to um understand that that this is a job, this is a career that you're taking, um, you don't get to be a fan, and and you might lose out on some of those those fan experiences, right?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, like me, for example, um I'm actually, you know, I work in hockey and and I love working in hockey, um, but I'm not and I never grew up a hockey fan, right?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it was easy for me to be excited that I get to work in sports, but I never let you know a fandom get in the way.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And on the contrary, I never let you know the work ruin uh my fandom for something, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think those are that's a very important thing is separating the two and and understanding that you know it's not one and the same.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're working in sports, you're not gonna be just enjoying it the entire time, you're not gonna be a fan the entire time.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but on the same, on the same side of that, you know, when we're going on playoff runs with the team and um we get to see how how well the team is performing, we get to experience that excitement too.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there is um a little bit of that, even even if you are um you know working day in and day out, you do get to experience that those little bits of joy as well that that a fan does too.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you're saying there's a little bit of like getting to see how the sausage is made that can can take away from the fan experience and you have to focus on what you're doing and not cheering for the team.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense, yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, like I I grew up, you know, working in restaurants and it was it was the same thing where um you're on the back end and you don't don't get to enjoy the food like like the customers do, right?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: You see, like you said, how the sausage gets made.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it there's there's some similarities with that where um yeah, you do have to recognize that you know there's there's not um it's not gonna be about being a fan the whole time.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So looking at the pathway that you took to get here, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Starting in kind of game day management or player management and making your way into sales, do you think that in the industry today, for people that are brand new coming out of either high school or college to try and get into this industry, are those pathways still there for them to take advantage of, or has the landscape shifted at all?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you see as kind of the route for new folks on their way in?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's a lot of similarities and when I was uh as to when I was getting started as well.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think those pathways are very similar in terms of um those, you know, inside sales and those those um entry-level programs that that kind of get you on your feet and get you used to these new environments of sales in general and working sports.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think a lot of the same pathways do still exist.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously there's um there's a lot of you know camps and programs that people can um can still do.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's not a lot of shifting in that regard.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um So I do think there's a lot of similarities from from when I was starting out and and trying to find my footing as to uh a lot of you know young people will will start to see now uh as well going into the sports industry.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've got to ask the question that I'm sure is on a lot of folks' minds, right?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: But is AI affecting job prospects or the size of your workforce, or is it having a real impact on the work that you do, or or has that not affected like the number of people that work, just how you do the work?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Where does AI sit for you?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's more how we do the work.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And and honestly, um, you know, I I always want to be wary of of the trends and and you know what can help us in our industry.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think for ticket sales and sports sales, uh what is great about AI for us is that it's not gonna necessarily replace a ticket sales rep, but we use it to supplement some of our work, right?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so for us, we always you always want to have that human connection.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when you're talking on the phone with someone, um, like you know, AI is not necessarily gonna sell tickets for you, but it helps me at least with my day-to-day, um, you know, sometimes planning certain things or um, you know, different uh um strategy uh planning and uh organization aspects that that helped.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think of it more as a supplementary tool um as opposed to something that will replace the the ticket sales process because I do think there is something uh inherently uh human about um you know selling tickets and and working with uh with clients in in that capacity.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't we haven't seen our sales staff shrink at all because of AI.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think it's just been a small tool that we've we've used uh in our day-to-day that's that's helped us.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and it's it's it's worked for us and we haven't had to shift too much of of what we do, it just helps here and there.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, because you think because you guys are doing people work, you know, back and forth communications with with real living other humans, that it's gonna stay that way.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that makes a lot of sense to me.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: That resonates.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then as kind of our closing question here, I just want to ask, you know, knowing that a lot of the people watching this are teachers and other business leaders, but also a good amount of students are watching and tuning in too, is there any advice that you would give students who are, whether they're in high school or college, but want to get into the world of sports?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of last piece of advice would you give them before they launch into that?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, the advice I would give is, you know, learn, learn what you want to do and how you want to impact this world.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, if that's working in sports like like it was for me, um, you know, follow that and and follow that passion and excitement that you have for sports because you never know where it's gonna lead you.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think it's about uh the advice I would give is about being open-minded and um you know, be willing to take risks and enjoy the journey because um you never know where you're gonna end up and it's important to be open to the opportunities that present themselves.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's what people need to hear, right?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Be flexible so that you're willing to jump and do whatever it is that fits your passion, right?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: That fits what it is that you want to do, the impact you want to make.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your thoughts.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I know I definitely learned a lot about the sporting world.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up myself a sports fan, so it's kind of cool to get to see the back end of things, you know, where I as a fan have never ever stepped before.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's really, really interesting.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a reminder for everyone watching or listening along, but in the description of this episode, you should find a link to our churn calculator.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a business leader that's watching this, that's a great tool that you can use to identify the numbers and the true cost of turn for any position in your organization.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, just be sure to tweak all the variables and make it match your situation as best you can.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if it gets you thinking about reducing churn, well, then feel free to give tomorrow's talent a call or shoot us an email and we can help you talk about some internship pipelines to give people opportunities, just like Benjamin had when he was starting out, right, to get their foot in the industry and really find out what it is they want to do.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to thank you all so much for joining us today.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: We really appreciate having you here, listening or watching along.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching us on YouTube, or please try to leave a comment or leave us a like, uh maybe subscribe to the channel because that really helps get the word out to all the other people who need to get their foot in the door with whatever industry they want to make an impact in.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh love having you all here.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time on The Bridge to Tomorrow's Talent.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.