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Julian Valentin’s journey to working with the Colorado Rockies happened partially out of being bored and partially because of the fact that his wife he had just married told him to go look for a job.
Valentin was by no means out of work, he just happened to be a professional soccer player who was in his offseason. After quickly putting together a resume, he applied for a role with the Rockies and after a few rounds of interviews, got the job. His story is one of great perseverance, innovation, and wisdom.
Edited highlights appear below:
On Why He Left Playing to Pursue a Career in Sports (6:24)
“When I was hired, my job was primarily publications. The interactive marketing, what we called it at that time, was just kind of stuck on the end of the job title. For me, that was always the most exciting part in making the decision to leave playing and to take the jump because I always felt that there was so much potential in this industry. I felt that this was where people were going to get their information, and it played out that way.”
On Keeping Content Fresh During the MLB Season (8:08)
“I’m obsessed with being interesting. People always ask me, ‘what’s your, what’s your digital strategy?’ Of course, you’re staying true to who you are as an organization and you’re staying true to your established voice, but I just try to be interesting and entertaining because I think a lot of times we try to do a little bit too much. As long as we’re being entertaining and interesting for our core fan base, that’s really what we try to be.”
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On Making Sure Staff Stays Fresh (19:01)
“A huge thing is just rotating staff. If you cover five, six, seven games in a row, you get a day off. So that’s huge for me is rotating our responsibilities. We have a great social staff of four people and we rotate the different things that we do, so that way when you get back on the account for Twitter for example, where, where people are generally judged, you’re fresh and you have all these ideas, things you’ve been sitting on for a couple days in your rest.”
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On His Hiring Process (31:56)
“The first thing I do when I get applications as I read the cover letter. Some people don’t even write cover letters or send cover letters. I won’t even look at a resume if it doesn’t have a cover letter and I won’t even look at a resume if the cover letter is poor.”
“I want to know more about the people as opposed to the skillset because we can learn skills, we can learn job skills, but the biggest thing I look for is somebody who’s going to fit in with our team, and who’s gonna be a hard worker, who’s going to have a personality that I want to be around for 162 games a year because I see you more than my kids.”
On Creating Personal Value (35:55)
“I think the important thing for all of us in this industry is to create value for ourselves. Take the initiative and the opportunity ourselves to make sure that we’re not just classified as the Twitter guy or the Instagram girl or the Snapchat guy. We need to figure out how within the framework of our own organization, we can continue to sell what we do, talk about the importance of it and then show that you’re more than just that show that you can do other things, show that you are an invaluable part of this organization.”
