Sports for the rest of us

How I'm getting started in the sports industry

I’ve been digging into roles at sports and sports-adjacent companies to better understand their structures and opportunities. As a product marketer who loves to understand industry insights and their customer lenses, I wanted to share what I’ve learned and my process to see if it would help you too.

Sports today is a tapestry of culture, content, and achievement. It’s a far cry from my informative era of pure passion and affinity with my high school and college teams and the championship Dallas Cowboys. 

The mix of fashion, personality, early infusion of money, technology, and revenue expectations all play into the sports ecosystem now. You can see where this might get complicated and convoluted. 

Let’s look at the numbers.

124 primary US sports teams

An ecosystem that supports these (and smaller market teams) where there are 25,000+ companies to explore.

Where do you start? I’m not an athlete. I’m not an insider. Just a fan. But there is an opportunity here for folks like me. My focus is on “Technologies” because I know that space and I like that space. I always say to start with what you know–and for me, that means product marketing.

With my desired goal to work in sports–preferably supporting technical products within the sports ecosystem, I outlined my process so far below. 

1. Figure out what I wanted to do and my goals

2. Research the opportunities in my new desired role goals in this industry–this is ongoing because it’s a new industry for me and there is a lot to learn

3. From the skills and experience I have, identify the projects and value I would bring>Part of this also means identifying the projects that I really want to work on.

   
   

4. Make a plan for getting in the door. Generally, this has looked like:

   1. Branding and website

   2. Announcing on LinkedIn and other places

   3. Publishing content and interacting with professional contacts

   4. Reaching out for informative interviews

   5. Reaching out for informative interviews

   6. Reaching out for informative interviews

   
   

   You get the gist–I’m personalizing emails to contacts at some target companies. Have I had much luck yet? A tiny bit. But I know it’s a numbers game. 

   
   

   I’ve built out my deliverables, intake forms, and discovery process. Now I just need to test these with some real companies. 

   
   

   Next steps: test, learn, and grow! I’ll keep you up to date on my progress here. 

   
   

   And if you have some projects, let’s talk!