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Alexis Morgan’s journey to working with the Memphis Grizzlies was anything but linear. Starting out as a sideline reporter, Morgan would eventually go on to grad school before doing communications work for a hedge fund.
Her big break came after she had moved to LA and started doing videos on the side for SLAM magazine. After seeing some of the videos, the Grizzlies approached her, interviewed her, and she landed the job.
She is a great lesson in never giving up and being able to make yourself unique from both a career and personal brand standpoint. Edited highlights appear below:
Her Path to Where She is Now (25:02)
“I went to school at Penn State for public relations. I thought I was always going to be spreading the message of businesses to consumers and I had wanted to do that for a few years prior to going to college.
“During my time, I worked a lot in the sports properties world and I got an internship with the women’s basketball team at Penn State. They said, ‘hey, you should do a sideline reporter for our women’s basketball team for the Big 10 Network.’”
“It was an awesome experience and opportunity, so I said yes. After Penn State, I thought that because I had focused too much on the sports journalism world that I needed to be more balanced. so I went to Columbia’s journalism school.”
“After graduating there, I worked my way up in the hedge fund world and I started doing more investor relations communications, then I moved to LA did some freelance videos for SLAM, the Grizzlies saw the video, they invited me to come for an interview, and the rest is history.”
On Achieving What You Want (29:11)
“It’s crazy because you know, you just have to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. My mom was always like ‘what are you doing?’ She felt like I was just working towards a non-goal, but it ended up becoming something big and as long as you work hard for you, you can definitely achieve whatever.”
Social on the Sidelines is Presented to You By:
On Her Role With the Grizzlies (38:44)
“In my role, I’m bringing the outsiders inside through behind the scenes access. In all of my videos, I shine a positive light on the Grizzlies. So, it’s a little bit of public relations and a little bit of journalism sometimes. I interview everyone from the halftime performers to the coaches and the players. Most things digital content I have some role with.”
On Her “Pinch Me” Moment (35:33)
“One of the biggest moments for me was for when I was in the TSA line going somewhere with the team and the TSA agent opened my bag and I had my camera that was provided by the NBA in my bag she was like, ‘Wow, you know, I love photography. I would do anything to be a photographer.’ I had to take a step back for a moment and realize that I get to do this as a career. I pay my bills by this. It makes you appreciate that this is a blessing and you should appreciate every single day of this because people dream of doing this job.”
On Her Advice (41:19)
“My advice would be to make sure that you build your brand and build a voice. You want to be different than what people are already doing because if you’re not, you just kind of fall into the flow of everybody else. You got to make yourself different in some way and never give up. I was just doing freelance videos and that’s exactly how I landed my job.”
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https://soundcloud.com/socialonthesidelines/social-on-the-sidelines-episode-7-ft-alexis-morgan-memphis-grizzlies-slam-magazine
