These easy tips will help you find the success you have dreamed about.
Throughout the years I’ve noticed that there are several things all great sports business professionals do. It’s not enough to be average; you deserve to be great. Doing these three things daily will help you achieve your definition of success and make the impact you desire.
1. Build your personal brand
In today’s world, you are expected to have a social media presence. It is the first thing someone will review when they look to hire you or connect with you.
If you are looking to get hired, a hiring manager will go to your LinkedIn or your Twitter and check to see what you post and who you engage with. If you are trying to get a job in basketball, then you better have some basketball information on your timeline. People want to see you are passionate and you care about the role you are applying for.
On the flip side, if you already have a job, building your personal brand allows you to establish more credibility and become the go to guy /girl in your field. This can lead to new career opportunities, new business partnerships, new clients, or even engagement with celebrities and influencers.
In sports, Twitter is one of the best and most recommended platforms to use. Twitter allows to engage and build your credibility with other experts / professionals in your field.
When you are building your personal brand especially on Twitter, you need to be active, authentic and consistent. Lana Berry, a social media influencer, shared some valuable advice to me in an interview for my upcoming course Elevate Your Sports Career when she said, “Find you niche, talk to them, speak what you are thinking, and do it on a regular basis.”
This advice is incredible because too often people don’t post enough or they aren’t their true self. In order to be respected in your line of work, you need to be constantly building and engaging with others on social media. They call it SOCIAL media for a reason…
Here are a few great sports business people to follow on Twitter:
Jessica Smith — @WarJessEagle
Jeremy Darlow — @jeremydarlow
Karen Freberg — @kfreberg
Alex Kennedy — @alexkennedyNBA
Lana Berry — @lana
Alan Stein Jr. — @alansteinjr
Kari Van Horn — @karivanhorn
Nicole Imbrogno — @nicolefimbrogno
2. Network like a maniac
Sports is a relationship based business. If you want to succeed and climb the ladder, you must network and you must become good at it.
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, you have to find a style of communication that works for you. For some, this means you will take to LinkedIn and become a master connector. For others, you might go to every conference in a three state radius to meet everyone in person.
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The ultimate key to networking is building authentic, genuine, mutually benefitting relationships. It is about having a WE mentality, not a ME mentality. If you are around me or have heard me speak at a university or event, you will know that I am all about adding value to a relationship.
It is your job to give someone a reason to connect with you, hire you, or engage with you.
The best and most successful people in sports across the board are the people who have the strongest relationships and who make it a priority to add value.
Before you keep reading and finish the article, go add 5 people on LinkedIn and follow 5 people on social media.
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3. Read
Read. Reflect. Repeat. If you are in sports business or trying to breaking into sports, you should be constantly reading. It can be articles on great websites like Front Office Sports. It can be a career and motivation book like Elevate Beyond. It can be a leadership book like School of Greatness. It can be a relationship building book like How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The point here is there is almost unlimited content and it’s your job to find something you like or want to learn and consume it.
Besides the fact that reading is fun (yes, I love to read and welcome any suggestions), reading is the number one way to continue your education.
At the basic core, reading a book is spending several hours digesting the information someone has spent years, sometimes even a lifetime, studying and documenting for your benefit.
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When you read, you consume fantastic information that can help you become a better person, better employee, better leader, etc.
If you look at the most successful and respected people in the world, they will all say that reading is a huge reason for their success.
Let’s recap…
If you want to be the best sports business professional possible, you need to do three things daily:
1. Build your personal brand
2. Network like a maniac
3. Read
If you can make these things part of your daily routine, you are going to start meeting some incredible people, connecting with people you never could have anticipated and you will learn more information that you can use to advance your career and quality of life.
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