Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - Building a Winning Team with Top Performers | Jonathan Perelman - President of ICM Stellar Sports

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Lessons - Building a Winning Team with Top Performers | Jonathan Perelman - President of ICM Stellar Sports · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this episode, you'll learn how to build high-performing teams in fast-paced, high-exposure industries
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  by focusing on cultural fit, adaptability, and curiosity. Discover strategies for identifying
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  talent that thrives in chaotic environments, the importance of trusting your team,
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  and how staying ahead of industry trends can set you apart. You'll also hear insights on
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  managing high-performance individuals while embracing innovation to ensure long-term success.
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  You've always been working in organizations and been successful at, like you said,
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  staying ahead of the curve. So how do you find people that are on that same wavelength?
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  Because every business in the world would want to find people that can keep up with trends,
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  you know, at ICM, you're dealing with athletes, and they're massively exposed,
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  even at previous roles, like, you know, at BuzzFeed, you're putting out content all the time,
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  trying to find what's relevant. There's always things that are in the public eye, which makes it
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  even harder to find, you know, anything you screw up, everybody sees, well, even more so
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  impolite, you've never worked in a low-exposure industry where the stuff that you're putting out
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  into the world isn't scrutinized, you believe. So tell me, how do you find people that can keep up
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  with that pace that can, like, at ICM, even your hiring, your strategy? What do you look for in
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  people that you bring on? Oh, I can't tell you that's got that secret. No, I'm just kidding.
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  Um, I never thought about the, the high exposure. I don't think there is a,
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  it's the great, it's the right question to ask, and I talk to people about this all the time.
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  I don't have a great answer for it. It's, you've got it, you've got it dig and find the right people.
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  I'm a believer in, it's about the people or the person, not necessarily the experience.
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  So someone can come with the perfect resume. But if I don't think it's a cultural thing,
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  if I think they're going to come in and be a bull in a china shop and mess up what we have,
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  if I think, yeah, they're great, but they're not going to speak up when they see something that
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  they don't think is right. It's not going to work. And so do we, it's about the right,
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  it's people more than, um, product people that, that experience. Um, and listen, I'm,
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  this is me personally, and I think this is makes for great people that you work with and,
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  and for a great environment. But I always say, I'm an expert, not, and this is a, this is a
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  thing that's quote, but in expert, nothing but passionately curious about everything.
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  I, you could have someone that is the best at this one thing, but I won't well-rounded people.
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  I want to have a well-rounded team. I want to work with people that have interests, you know,
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  outside of the stuff that they do every day. That could be their main interest. I'm in sports.
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  I love sports. The business of sports is what I read is what I want to do. I
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  I'm happy to work seven days a week. My family doesn't always love that, but I, I, I,
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  I know what is your passion about it. I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about it.
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  But there are other things that I do that are outside. I think finding those kinds of people
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  that are, are well-rounded. And, you know, there is be all these sands. I was at, at, at, at Google,
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  at Google about finding Google is right, do they pass and sort of test? Would you want to sit next
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  to them on a cross-country flight? Would that work? All that? I mean, it might be silly and
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  not scientific, but I think it's really, really important. At the end of the day,
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  that's how you find the best people. That's how you get the best deliver, the best output is by
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  having good honest debate and, you know, not having people that always agree with you,
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  but coming up and in that madness, in that chaos, in that, in that debate is where I think you
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  create the best, the best product, the best outcome. And so, it's an imperfect science, but one
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  that is really important. The, it's a bit, in my business, it's about the people.
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  You know, that's, you, you have even gotten all of your career
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  advancements, next jobs. You're not going on, you're not going on, indeed, and linked in,
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  and applying for these things. This is entirely who you know. That's interesting as well.
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  Yeah, that's also, you know? Well, I, that's true, Scott. That also worries me, right? Because
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  if there could be a great person who is for the best job to work and help us grow the business,
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  but if they don't know the right person, are we going to miss them? I, I get concerned about that.
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  That is in fact your right, how I gotten to the point. I'm not sure success, but I'm,
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  it's elusive, but I'm looking for that success. But you still, but you've still done, you've still
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  done well by any, any standard throughout your career, and it's all been handshakes with the right
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  people. That's not a, that's not a bad thing out by any means. By the way, it's just, it's a,
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  it's a point that you're right. You could be missing out on good people, but it's also another point
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  to people that aren't getting into the right rooms or talking to the right people or networking.
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  Maybe you do more of that. She was with all say, Scott, I think that's right. The challenge
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  is that can only take you so far. You could, they could say, oh, wow, you're great. Come on into
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  this, to our organization and do this stuff. But if you can't perform, if you can't give something
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  back that is good, you're not going to last very long. And so I totally agree. It is important to
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  put yourself out there. I don't know how people necessarily network in a COVID world in a
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  just pose kind of ish COVID world. Maybe not quite yet. We talked earlier about travel that we've
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  done and starting to do more and how out of practice we were. But yeah, it's important to put
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  yourself out there. It's important to meet people. And I get a lot of young people asking me for
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  advice in their, in their careers. And that's one of the biggest things I say is, you know, go,
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  go meet somebody and go talk to them. And this is your doing as, as your podcasts do, right?
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  People are always pretty much happy to talk about themselves and their career and what they've
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  done. And when you find someone that you connect with, maintain that relationship, follow up,
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  keep going back, ask them questions. I think the idea of mentors and mentees are, that's one of
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  the things that I think people talk about, but we don't do enough of. And it's really important when
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  when people look to make moves and, and grow their career, but also I don't have the answers to
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  everything. And there are times I just want to call somebody and ask them for advice. And I do that
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  with peers. I do that increasingly with people younger than I am, not necessarily just an age
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  thing, but with people that are maybe at slightly different levels, because I want to know how
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  they're thinking about things. And I'll, I'll ask people that have been out of business for years,
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  how they dealt with some of these challenges or some of these questions. And for me, that's what
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  how I've always learned and grown and developed is by, it's really important to be a very good listener.
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  You've got to know the right questions to ask, but when you do, listen to what the answers are.
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  Okay, one thing that I did want to, I did want to get your insight on is the people that you
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  managed now, sitting that's also interesting, managing really ultra high performance individuals.
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  Um, walk me through, walk me through what it's like. And I know, and I know that you are
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  managed people who probably do this while you manage agents that manage a lot of these relationships,
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  but you still probably have a pretty good idea of what it's like to manage some of these athletes.
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  So what's what's that like, walk me through that?
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  Well, managing people that manage high performance athletes,
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  uh, or high performance artists, whatever, um, yeah, is, um,
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  these are high performing people. Uh, so yeah, it's, it's,
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  my sort of style is pretty loose. I think if you're, if you're managing,
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  like, we're managing people down to certain details, you don't trust them.
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  You don't have the right people back to the, when the earlier parts of our conversation,
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  it's just not going to work. It's not going to work for you as a manager. It's not going to work for
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  them working. I think really what's most, you got to give people leeway and the ability to do it
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  their way. You can't implement your way upon band again, have the trust and have the faith
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  that you have the best people that will do the best work. And they shouldn't do it in the,
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  in the shadow of how you want it done. They should do it their way, understanding
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  what it is and how the business works and, and where they should be spending time. But I don't
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  think you can dictate exactly how they do what they do. Now, as far as managing athletes or
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  artists today, I really think you have to stay ahead of the curve. You've got to know what's going
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  on in the business. Yes, some parts of being a football agent, which technically I am not,
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  so easy for me to say, but some parts have never changed. You've got to look after the athlete,
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  you've got to make sure they've got the right contract, you've got to, you are their advisor,
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  you are, you are, you are together with them, you are on the same team. Do the best deal for them,
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  make sure they are protected, make sure they're happy, you need to do all that. That, that hasn't
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  changed. That will not change. That's really a huge part of a business. But you've got to be
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  understanding of what new things are happening and opportunities. I think about this with NFTs
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  and a year ago, I think whatever the time frame was, if you had said to an agency, what's your
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  NFTs strategy? It was an NF who, right? That's not in the lexicon, that's not what they do.
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  Today, you need to be able to talk to, as an agent, you need to be able to talk to your clients,
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  answer questions from them, bring them opportunities in the NFTs space. Maybe it's not right for them
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  for any number of reasons, but for those that are, you need to be on top of it. And that's a
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  very new development. So staying on top of an abreast of the latest trends and how things happen,
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  I don't have to tell you, or most likely, the listeners about how quickly things change.
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  Today, that's, to me, you need to have this sense of how to represent somebody, how to look after
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  them, how to ensure that they are giving their faith in you to help them with their career.
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  That's a massive responsibility. And you need to take that responsibility and do your best with
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  it. It doesn't mean it will be perfect every time, but that's a huge amount of pressure for an
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  agent to have to look after somebody's career. But that's not it. You also need to be, and we'll
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  say again, look around corners, understand what's coming up and what's coming new and where
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  opportunities are that didn't weren't available, weren't a thing some time ago, but you need to
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  at least be open to learning about what those new things are. You don't have to be an expert in it.
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  You can, you can take someone with subject matter expertise to help get there, but you really do
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  need to understand that things are changing, things are evolving, the pace at which we all
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  live our lives is just maddening. So being on top of that stuff is really important to help bring
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  the best opportunities to your clients. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable,
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  don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive
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  deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode.
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  See you in the next one.
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  you