Madam Athlete
Madam Athlete
Defining Your Why with Vegas Golden Knights VP of Marketing Stephanie Rogers
On today’s episode, I’m talking to the Vice President of Marketing for the Vegas Golden Knights Stephanie Rogers about defining your why.
Stephanie currently works with the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, and previously worked with the PGA Tour, first holding roles in Tournament Marketing and ultimately becoming the Director of Corporate Partnerships Strategy and Innovation. Stephanie has made a practice of defining why certain opportunities are more exciting to her than others. When it came time to look for a new job, she started by listing out exactly what she was looking for, rather than focusing on what made her unhappy, and ended up finding her current role where she was a perfect fit.
We talk about:
- Finding ways to network that feel organic and right for our individual styles.
- Learning how to lead and communicate when you’re the new person on the team.
- Being honest and vulnerable about what we don’t know.
Need helping defining your why? Aka what matters to you? Aka your values?
Grab your copy of my free guide to defining your values to get started today!
You can find the show notes and more resources at https://madamathlete.com
Keep an eye out for new content or let us know what you'd like to see next by following us on social:
Instagram: @theMadamAthlete
Facebook: @MadamAthlete
Twitter: @MadamAthlete
Welcome to the MetaMathly Podcast. I'm your host, dr Giselle Arnie. I'm a sports medicine physician with a passion for teaching and a mission to support other women with careers in this space. On this show, you'll hear the stories from amazing women in their field of sport and athletics. They'll share their journeys, triumphs and hardships in order to help and inspire you in your own career and life. Thanks for joining us. Let's do this.
Speaker 1:On today's episode, I'm talking to the Vice President of Marketing for the Vegas Golden Knights, stephanie Rogers, about defining your why. Stephanie currently works with the reigning Stanley Cup champion, the Vegas Golden Knights. Previously, she worked with the PGA Tour, first holding roles in tournament marketing and ultimately becoming the director of corporate partnership, strategy and innovation. Stephanie has made a practice of defining why certain opportunities are more exciting to her than others. When it came time to look for a new job, she started by listing out exactly what she was looking for, rather than focusing on what made her unhappy, and ended up finding her current role where it's a perfect fit. We talk about finding ways to network that feel organic and right for our individual styles, learning how to lead and communicate when you're the new person on the team, and being honest and vulnerable about what we don't know. Hi, steph, I'm so excited to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast to share your story. This is going to be just great. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2:Hi, yeah, me too, so excited that you asked me, thank you, and love all of the episodes so far, so really looking forward to joining this set of powerful women. What an incredible list that you have lined up here.
Speaker 1:I have been incredibly lucky and honored and just to build this network and it's wonderful and amazing and I'm thrilled that you're here and part of it and stepping into this. So because you've done some really amazing things and we're going to get to all of them. But I always like to kind of start early, at the beginning, because I know that you went to University of Iowa Tippy College of Business. You got your Bachelor of Business Administration. So you started off like that was your degree goal. But just curious, when you were there, when you were at the beginning of all this, is this sort of what you were thinking you wanted out of your career. You're like, yes, one day I will be the vice president of marketing for the biggest Golden Knights, or like what was your sort of early career thoughts and aspirations?
Speaker 2:I can tell you I 100% never believed or never imagined I shouldn't say believe, I do believe and big dreams. So never imagined myself being the VP of marketing for a hockey team for a few reasons and, I guess, kind of going all the way back to Iowa very proud Hawkeye, very proud Iowan. I love to say everybody has an Iowa story, so hopefully I can be somebody's Iowa story through this podcast. But yeah, I studied business. I also studied sports studies when I was in school. There they didn't have like a sports and rec management program. They do now. It's actually one of the best in the country, which is really incredible, Very, very thankful and honored to be a part of that in a small fashion.
Speaker 2:But I worked in the athletic department and communications and I had this grand idea that I wanted to go into contract law and be an agent. And then you know, I think it was probably my third class on campus I was like, yeah, that's definitely not for me. And you know, and I minored in Spanish, I thought maybe I could get into international sports and really, just like you know, I kind of had the sky as the limit. I studied business because I really wanted to be a little bit more of like a well rounded thought leader at some point in time in my life, right, Like that was my goal. My family is entrepreneurs my grandma has her own business, my parents have their own business so I was really really lucky to come up in a space when I was able to learn about you know finance and business strategy and you know customers and things of that nature, and so I kind of had that background, kind of had that goal. Marketing was very interesting to me, Finance numbers were very interesting to me, Talent management and recruitment was really interesting to me, and just kind of using that idea of personality testing, as you know, indicators of success and just all of those things when you're in college and you're just soaking it all up right. So really wasn't sure where I was going to go after school.
Speaker 2:My time at the university, when I was working in the athletic department, was in their sports information office, which was unbelievable. It gave me, like all of the most incredible experience and knowledge of what it's like working in sports, which is very fun, but it's not always glamorous, as we all know and have experienced those you know, 80 hour weeks when you don't even know what time of day it is or what day it is or what month it is. But I had some incredible mentors and you know, I think when I graduated college, the only thing I knew I didn't want to do was write press releases. So that was a little bit of a sidestep because that's all the experience I had. So that set me back a touch.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, made my way into, you know, a couple of communications internships from there and then really got the opportunity to start my career in managing digital and social content and strategy and, you know, using those tools as business tools and that's really what spearheaded me into marketing and I absolutely love the space, I love the ability to interact with fans and you know all of the different kind of nuances of partners and setting goals together and figuring them out. And you know there's nothing more transcendent than sport and my job is to make sure that as many people get to enjoy and experience it as possible. So I like to say I have the best job in the world.
Speaker 1:I love it. So you knew kind of from early on that it like sports was still part of that whole picture for you Was that like happy accident with your like initial internship with the communications department, or you were like yep sports.
Speaker 2:Sports was definitely it for me. You know, I think I like looking back. I probably could have been persuaded at some point in time, but it's really wild. I actually had that job in the apartment before I even stepped on campus. My brother had the job before I got there and, you know, thankfully he did such an incredible job working and had great work ethic that when he left campus they offered it to me and I was on campus about eight months later. And so, yeah, I had that job before I even actually had my first day of college classes. So sports was always it for me. I've been dreaming big about working in sports for a long time.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so cool. I love that. You know we talk a lot on the podcast about people's really interesting journeys where if you look at your CV it's sort of like, okay, great, obviously she headed right here. But you're like, well, I don't know, maybe contract law or maybe this, but you like have your big dreams about sports and working in sports and you just like, try a little this, try a little this. Like nope, no, thanks, I actually don't want to write press releases. Okay, let's go over here. And. And so you're still. You're still in that realm of your big dream of sports and you've just tried different pathways to kind of like find where your niche is to go. Here's how I best contribute and what I love doing, what I'm passionate about, and it's awesome that it's like there's actually still a ton of variety, even though you said like great sports, that's it. That's a big overarching picture. There's like a billion ways to to follow that dream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's that's something incredible, right, and that's something I'm, you know, looking back, really thankful that I have family and friends and people around me that have encouraged and challenged me to continue dreaming big. You know, like dreaming big is is off putting to some, but I'm super lucky that it's not off putting to anybody in my circle. And I didn't really know what sport I wanted to be in. I had some parameters of things I thought I wanted to do, but I really just kind of let life unfold and took the opportunities as they came and tried to be very thoughtful about what I need out of work opportunities.
Speaker 2:Obviously, when you're first getting started, you can't be quite as quite as particular. You got to be a little bit willing to do whatever it takes. But, yeah, as I've continued on in my career, it's, it's been really empowering, I would say, to sit down and think, okay, this is something I really really love doing and this is why, you know, like, I really love working in marketing for events and it's because I like to be able to say our work drove this amount of revenue, right, like I like to be able to tie it to something. And so, as I've gone through kind of each step, irregardless of what the next you know company is or the next sport is or the next actual job is. I've tried to sit down and have that kind of list making of what do I need, what do I want, what challenges me, what excites me.
Speaker 1:I love this. I think that's incredible.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of us like you said, when you're first out, you're just like, please hire me, like I need a job, any job. Just you know, a paycheck would be great. But you know also, let's just get started and and often you just get so like, all right, well, I'm here, great, let me just put my head down and do the work. And we don't always take the time to be mindful and introspective of. Is this what I love? Is this challenging me? What am I getting out of this? Is this what I want to be getting out of this? What could I get out of this? Like, and to really be sort of actively thinking about our careers in that way and so insightfully. I love that.
Speaker 2:Why I use that as my justification for taking scary leaps, right? Yes, I'm willing to like try anything, but I also have to kind of be willing to understand and know where the pitfalls are. So I don't know that it's the perfect science. Giselle, don't give me too much credit.
Speaker 1:You're getting all the credit. I'm thrilled, I'm gonna like go back to listen to this episode and be like all right, what did she say? All right, she said I had to go like what do I want to learn? What am I going to get out of this? Like that was kind of an awesome list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's ultimately how I ended up in hockey. So that's that's how I ended up here with the Vegas Golden Knights. It's been quite the whirlwind of a year for us, Really incredible. But yeah, it's, it's been. It's been a lot of fun and that's how I got here was making that list.
Speaker 1:All right, that is. I'm going to want to ask you more about that, but I did want to because, like you're early, so you had those two internships. Very early on you did women's basketball coaches association communications intern and then with American Junior Golf Association and then they hired you on and you became communications manager for the American Junior Golf Association and then my understanding is that you ended up getting a job with the PGA tour, which is sort of where you were for a good while before moving to the Vegas Golden Knights through just like an informational interview.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Tell me about that. Yeah, so the WBCA, I guess, was incredible, right, like women's basketball was the sport I love most, so that was an easy step forward for me. And then the AJGA one of the most amazing internship experiences for anyone looking to work in sports. I tout that to anybody ever that I speak to. I don't care what sport you want to work in. This will teach you so much. It's a very, very difficult internship but it will, you know, skyrocket your understanding of what it takes to work in this arena.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so I was working at the AJGA. I loved it. It's an incredible organization. It really focuses on getting junior golfers prepared to get college golf scholarships. Right, like that's, their entire mission is to get junior golfers college golf scholarships. Like, how cool is that, right? All of us that work in sports have some sort of passion and probably wanted to play at a level like that at some point, whether we were able to or not. Sadly, I was not at that job, which is why I work here. But so, yeah, so working at the AJGA allows you to have a lot of responsibility at a really young point in your career, which is incredible, and it has a lot of connections right.
Speaker 2:So we had at that point in time, gosh, I think, like 20 or 30 people that had gone on to work at the PGA Tour, the USGA, you know, all over the place right Within the golf industry at various different you know corporate partners, things of that nature. So I had gotten the opportunity to do an informational interview with a woman named Laura Neal, who is like the pinnacle of, you know, women leadership and just somebody that a lot of us really really look up to. She's got this like totally humble, funny, you know, approach about her, which is really cool to see, and she lifts as she climbs, as you know the saying goes. So I had the opportunity to chat with her about a communications role on her team at that time and, you know, had a really good conversation, learned a lot ultimately, got to know, you know, from HR actually saying I wasn't being considered for the role on her team, which at that point I wasn't necessarily sure I was even formally interviewing for. So all good, like no, no hard feelings there, and it wasn't.
Speaker 2:But a couple weeks later I got an email actually from a guy that worked for her saying hey, you're, you're somebody that were really interested in this role that we have, that were. It's a brand new role, it's all about social and digital content and it's starting all of these channels and managing them for these tournaments that the PGA Tour owns and operates. Laura spoke very highly of you. We'd love for you to interview, and I was like, well, this is crazy, didn't even know this role existed. Obviously it's, you know, brand new. But, and I was like I guess this is how networking works. Yeah, so I guess this is what everybody's talking about.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, fast forward, ended up getting that job started at the PGA Tour in January 2015. And it was an incredible opportunity. I learned so, so much at that time. I aged myself a bit by saying I really got into social and digital when it was just starting to become used as a business tool, like when Twitter was still 140 characters and no photos. So, yeah was just, you know, a little bit of blessing in terms of of timing, right, and then had the opportunity to take it and run with it, because nobody really cared about it and nobody really knew what to do with it. And so they're like here you're, you're new, you can do this, you're young, you probably understand how it works and yeah, the rest is kind of history from there.
Speaker 1:I suppose that is so awesome. I love the story of I was just having this informational interview and then I found out I didn't get a job.
Speaker 1:I didn't think I was interviewing for and two weeks later was offered this other position that didn't even exist. That's the informational interviews and the networking piece I think are so important, especially for women, to build your network, to get talking to people, to get them to know you, and and often it's just those conversations, it's just those people that you meet that just turn into something. It might be two weeks later, it might be two years later, it might be a decade later. That can turn into something completely unexpected and you're just going into it with like a hey, you're this leader in my field. I could I just talk to you? I think you're incredible. Could we just chat about you, know this work that you're doing or whatever, and it really you start to build those connections.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's something that I personally have really struggled with in my career is that kind of intentional networking.
Speaker 2:And I love talking to people, I love learning about people, I love meeting new people, but the idea of making it like a thing on your to-do list right, of setting aside time to reach out to people that you really respect and look up to and to have, you know, have the courage to ask for, you know, tend to, you know, 10 to 20 minutes of their time just to pick their brain a little bit.
Speaker 2:And I don't know why. I don't know why we, as you know, women are, I don't know why. Just it's hard for some of us and I don't know if it's a women and a men thing, but I know a lot of women I speak to are very nervous to reach out and ask somebody for their time and I just don't know why. Because most, all of us want to have that conversation right, like we want to help, and I know that there's women out there that I look up to that would love to help. You know, maybe not me specifically, but would love to help others and just help in general. So, yeah, it's an interesting, it's an interesting topic.
Speaker 1:It is such an interesting phenomenon, that sort of hesitation, fear of oh my gosh, I can't talk to this random person. Like what are they going to think? Like how is this going to go? Or sometimes it's. You don't want to feel transactional, like you are doing this, you know, networking on purpose. That feels like sleazy or just uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:And for me I talk about this on the podcast I'm actually a big introvert and before this podcast, the likelihood that I would have just reached out to random strangers and been like, hey, do you want to come talk to me for an hour? Like we don't know each other, is zero. The chance was zero. And like, as I got started, you know, I started with people that I knew and then I was like, well, who do you know? And then who do you know? And then it got to be like me reaching out to just randos that I meet on social or that I meet through somebody else, or I'm like, hey, I think you're awesome, any chance you want to be on this podcast. It's like a complete 180 of a human being for me to talk to strangers and like, frankly, the sort of forced nature of the podcast of having to have a new guest every week was actually really helpful, because I just didn't have a choice. It was like you will go find a guest, you will go talk to some stranger, because otherwise your streak is broken and what are you doing here? And it was really helpful.
Speaker 1:And now I'm just it's dropped that barrier of, well, this is awkward, or this is uncomfortable, or I feel weird about this, and instead I'm like you know, I think a few weeks ago I emailed somebody who was like hey, I heard you moved out of the country and you're doing sports medicine in Switzerland. Would you mind talking to me about that? I think that's so cool. And the guy was like yeah, absolutely, let's hop on a zoom. And it was. He was excited to talk to me about it. I was just curious about it. I thought it was awesome. And it ends with like well, if you have, if you want to come out here, if you have ideas, like, let me know, we can try to set you up. You know like, and it's just, it's just so. It's actually fun, but it took me like three years of forcing myself to do this to now that it's just like oh, you're doing something cool, can I talk to you about it?
Speaker 2:I'm so glad that you got there because this is giving us an opportunity and I know when we chatted before, like it's just, you have a, you're a breath of fresh air. The energy that you bring is so incredible. So thank you for for spearheading, because that, you know, has gotten probably not all, it's definitely gotten me, but I'm sure many others out of their kind of networking comfort zone as well. So this is, it's amazing, it all works out.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Thank you, it has been, I mean, gosh. I hope that it helps other people, but the personal like what I have gotten out of it makes it worthwhile of just getting to meet such amazing women and practice those networking skills and it is awesome. So, oh, my goodness, Okay. So you got this job PGA tour through this phenomenal informational interview situation and that was where you kind of kicked into really into this digital marketing side and you worked your way up through PGA tour. You were there for years and ended up as director of corporate partnership, strategy and innovation, which is maybe a little bit different from the digital marketing piece Is that? How did you sort of transition up through that kind of pathway?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I first started I was in a team called tournament marketing, the team tournament marketing. We were really the the soup to nuts kind of in-house marketing agency for the tournaments at the PGA tour on an operated. So they have somewhere between 40 and 50 tournaments on their schedule every single year. There's a handful of them around eight to 12, depending on the year and depending on which tour right Senior tour versus the regular tour versus the cornfairy tour that the PGA tour actually owns and operates right. So then the rest of them are kind of not this isn't actually how it works, but sort of like a franchisee right there's host you know organizations and other businesses that you know own and operate those tournaments, but it's all in partnership with the PGA tour. So we were exclusively focused on that set that the PGA tour owns and operates in. You know, thankfully they were, thankfully for myself and for all of my colleagues that were working on them they were some of the biggest tournaments on the tour schedule the World Golf Championships, the President's Cup, the Players' Championship, the FedEx Cup playoffs so really, really big events that had great fan bases, that had great players and, just, you know, great partners that we were able to work with. So back to the digital marketing piece of it.
Speaker 2:When I first got there, most of the tournaments had social channels. They all obviously had websites. I mean, it was 2015. It feels like it was a million years ago in terms of digital, but it was still 2015. We were at least a little bit advanced at that point. And so my job was, you know, as simple as post pictures on facebook and update the website and you know I laugh because that's really what it was. But it was also like figure out how to make us Better, figure out how to make this work. And in twenty fifteen was really when the platforms themselves started introducing analytics and, you know, reporting and tracking mechanisms. Advertising and it was also just the wild wild west in terms of partner advertising on brand channels.
Speaker 2:And when I first got there, we had to deal with one of our, you know, huge partner still a huge partner to this day and loved working with them. So this is not any ill discussion around them. But the contract specified like thirty social posts, a tournament week, which was like a day, and had very specific copy tagged with this partner, etc. Etc. Etc, etc. All these rules, and that was one example of maybe ten or fifteen partners that we had to fit in throughout the tournament week. So the pages were basically just like scrolling billboards, right, I mean, that's how it was Essentially sold.
Speaker 2:And so kind of my first step and I was very adamant about this when I was at the age of ga and think I had An awesome support system there was in a smith she's one of my favorite mentors of all time who is on my side and I said we're not just selling this stuff blindly, right, like this stuff is valuable, that's why these partners are asking for it. We're not just gonna Throw it in and have like an Like irresponsible number of posts that we owe to all of these people that you're not even able to get our channels out there, than they're gonna be completely invaluable to the people that we want to read them and they're invaluable to the partner because nobody's interacting with it. So how to great stance there, at a great Approach there, that I was able to bring to the pg a tour and say hey, met with the head sales people, met with all the sales people for all the different teams and said you guys, we really gotta start scaling these back, so Locked into these numbers for the next year, two years, whatever the deal was. But as soon as that conversation is up for negotiation, we have to pull this back. The stuff is valuable or not getting the right value for it. This is worth thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. We gotta figure it out right. So, really, dug my heels in on that and I will tell you just all.
Speaker 2:That was a trying time, because most people are looking at me like who the heck do you think you are? You are new to this business. You know we've been in golf for twenty years. Like you're this, you know, self-proclaimed, not self-proclaimed but like you know you think you're this hot shot, that's, you know, all up on social and digital, and you're, you know, twenty six, at the point twenty five. So it was really tough to get them to take me seriously. But I just Dug down into the numbers and into the data and said you guys, this is what's happening. Look at all these other case studies of other businesses. And you know we're getting this amount of reach. But if we don't put the partner on it in this way, we're gonna get this amount of reach and then you're gonna sell it for this much more, and so Just taught me how to speak the language of the way that it takes to convince people, right, to build consensus. And the way that you have to speak the language to a salesperson is much different than the way you have to speak the language to somebody that's managing the relationship, is much different than you have to speak the language to somebody that's in marketing or ticket sales, right. So it was awesome. It was awesome to have to have that learning experience Fast forward was able to grow that team pretty, pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:We ended up having several content Managers. We put together a mini kind of production team, so our team was responsible for Taking photos and shooting video and editing video and writing scripts and doing commercials, like we were the full and house agency, right. Yeah, we had all of these other teams that serve the PGA to our as a business, but we didn't have those resources for our own channels and so, again, like blessing of circumstances, it allowed us to get really, really broad in our knowledge pretty quickly, and so we took our video views. You know, once we started really digging into the analytics and seeing what people liked and following the trends of the algorithms, right, I mean that was Ninety percent of the battle was to stay up with the algorithms and I just I was super lucky. I had a team that was really excited to work really, really hard.
Speaker 2:We had a ton of fun and I always lead with data because I think it's super important, but we also we also are humans at the end of the day and our team did a great job and we started putting a lot of focus into production, quality and production and we're able to, you know, skyrocket our video views by like a hundred million one year and Really putting to play some really strategic sales tactics and advertising tactics through the social and digital world, driving several millions of dollars of ticket sales that we could attribute to our work. So it was cool to see. It was cool to see that happen, first of all, to be able to say, hey, our team is doing this, but also to be able to lead a team of young professionals in the content and digital marketing space that I could say, hey, you know, you're responsible for driving Five hundred thousand dollars worth of tickets revenue like that's incredible and it's like you know, it helps when you Are able to, and it's just like so unbelievably fulfilling when you're able to help people see that about themselves.
Speaker 1:So really important you talked about like because often times when you are the new person coming in, and I think, especially, probably if you're young and especially if you're a woman, and you're like, hey guys, we need to make a big change, you you're doing it wrong, right, and you might be a hundred percent correct, but it is really hard to To get people on board with that and especially to kind of look past the well, she's young and she's a woman and what does she know? And like I've been doing this for you know Decades or whatever Decades or whatever it is that people have about, here's the status quo and so figuring out, like you said, of leading with data. And then also I really liked how you said having the different communication strategies to bring people, to bring people to consensus, like Is it the marketing person, is it the sales person? Is it the ticket person? Like different stakeholders have different sort of Languages, different things that matter to them, and how you're navigating that and that's, I think, really important.
Speaker 1:That's I've talked about this before, but one of the things that I struggle with in a new, new job is I'm like great, I see the vision and I see what we need to do better, to be more efficient, to be more effective, to do whatever, and I'm just like ready to go and you put you have to take the time to bring people along and to get them to see your vision. And having that data, having that language, that sounds really like very helpful advice and probably that was a struggle going through it, but I also learned how you were like. That was an amazing learning opportunity.
Speaker 2:And I'm nothing if not optimistic. I love it. So, yes, I guess just a round out then. So was able to work in the tournament marketing team for a long time, ended up working my way up to oversee the entire team, which was One of my greatest enjoyments in my career that, to this point, had amazing, smart, talented, driven people on the team that I absolutely adore still stay in touch with.
Speaker 2:The PGA tour, as you can imagine, was at like most leagues, really successful for a long time and really successful selling on the same kind of principles that they've sold on for a very, very long time. Right, you get into the to the age now and a lot of people still believe in the things that they know are going to drive business. One of them is golf, right, or is sports in general. I should say, golf being an incredible asset to have in your portfolio of advertising, if you're, you know a business and you're looking to market. But golf has all these stigmas, right, like it's this you know old, rich, white sport and you know nobody goes to the tournaments except for that demographic and you know it doesn't reach any of these types of audiences, it doesn't care about sustainability and has all these kinds of stigmas, right. A lot of businesses face face these you know issues, but my role when I moved over to the corporate partnerships team was really to work with the business development and the corporate partnerships of the people that are selling it and the people that are managing the current relations To revamp how we take the product to market.
Speaker 2:The PGA tour was so dynamic. You walk on To the golf course at any one of the tournaments and I will tell you that what you see is much different than what you imagine, that you're going to see in terms of people that are there and how people are enjoying it. And Really, I personally believe golf is kind of entered into this like culture phenomenon, right. Like you see, athletes and celebrities and Music stars like Kim Kardashian posted one year that, like her mom got all of them, you know golf bags and she's on the driving range, like it's part of culture now and so and there's, you know, they're doing a ton of great work and sustainability and all these other things, and so that was my job, right, I have worked in that space for so long at the tournament level.
Speaker 2:Like, creating a lot of these things, yeah, making making these moments happen that they brought me over to that side to to revamp the storytelling around what we're doing in that space. So that was awesome. I got to learn a ton about selling at a really, really, really high level, a bunch of really incredible mentors and learning opportunities there as well. But at the end of the day, I really missed this kind of marketing, a fan engagement, fan development role and that didn't really exist at the PGA tour anymore in the same way that had before, and so I started making my list. Yes, now we're at the list.
Speaker 1:We're ready, you're going to make a scary leap, so you made your list.
Speaker 2:Yes, I made the list and I really I had no you know intention or idea that I would ever leave the PGA tour. I loved it. I love that place. Still do so. I think that there's an incredible amount of people there, or an incredible group of people there. But made the list and, you know, had a couple opportunities and, once again, my, my entering into a new job is unconventional at best, but blindly applied to this job on LinkedIn. Never imagined Anyone, didn't know anybody out here and a couple weeks later my now boss, eric to see, reached out to me and said hey, your resume is like exactly what we're looking for. You interested in this job? I said absolutely.
Speaker 1:I am still. Really. I love that you made the list first, because I think so many of us are like God, I miserable, my job in that might not be what you were at, but you're going. I know I want something different, but Oftentimes we're just like I'm not happy here, like what else is out there, and you just look at other jobs instead of going. Why am I not happy here? Or what else do I want to be doing? What is the next challenge that I want?
Speaker 1:And then using that, like making your list to then Fuel the search, I think is genius. You don't just end up somewhere else going oh well, there's something that I'm just not getting out of here, so let me just try somewhere else. And you're in the exact same job, same position, but just a different. You know Whatever, it might be team, university, something and you're like, oh, shoot, you know what, like the first few months, or this is new, this is great. And then you're just like, oh, but this is actually the same, yeah, and there's still something missing. But it's because you didn't like do that work? You didn't make your list to figure it out first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think for me it's probably comes from a place of, like you know, wanting control and and wanting to make sure that I'm not making a dumb decision.
Speaker 1:So, and you, know, I mean Wise decision-making process, genius. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:It seems to have worked so far, so we'll see and I Was, so you've been with the biggest golden nights, for it's been. It's been over a year, right, but like your first year there, they won the Stanley Cup. So I think you're doing a pretty good job. I'm gonna just say that's all on you and Give you full credit for that, because they didn't win it before you showed up and then you showed up and then they won it. That's how I see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was. I was the one on the ice every day making all those things, taking all those hits. Yeah, I can't even ice skate, I don't think so. No, it's been. It's been an amazing, amazing year here. The team here is, you know, obviously very talented on ice, but the team in the business office is also very talented and it's it's crazy, because it's this weird Kind of mix of we're still a startup, like we're still in year you know, last year it was your six, now it's your seven of being a business but we're a professional sports team competing at the highest level and achieving the Pinnacle of the sport, and so it's just crazy that those things are kind of meshed together. And then you know our owner, mr Foley. He has other ventures, other sports ventures, other, you know, we bought an English Premier League team in December, right like right in the middle of the Vegas Golden Knights season. We have a gel team, we have basketball, we have football, we have wineries and restaurants and hotels, and so we're working across a lot of different entities within the portfolio. But you know that the kind of cornerstone is the Vegas Golden Knights.
Speaker 2:And my big joke is and I have a funny story to. To tell you about this I didn't even follow the sport of hockey In June of last year, in June of 2022, didn't even follow the sport of hockey. And when I was out here interviewing For the job, you know the the amazing thing was that I had, I had a great job in Florida, right, and I loved the company and I love the people. And you know as badly as I really wanted this job and as much as I really thought that this job was Truly dream job material, like 100% dream job material. I was very focused on being super honest and transparent with my boss you know potential boss at that time during the interview process and Cannot thank him enough and I've thanked him profusely since then. He was also unbelievably transparent with me.
Speaker 2:But we were sitting at dinner when I was out here interviewing and I said, okay, just so we can get this out of the way. Like I don't know anything about hockey, I said and I am not here to fake it until I make it with all of these people who have lived and breathe the sport since they were in diapers, like I am, I don't know about hockey. I said I'm a huge sports fan. I watch a ton of sports. I am a fast learner, like I will go all in on trying to learn it, but just want to get that out there that I don't know anything about hockey. And you know, of course we have a good laugh about it.
Speaker 2:I'm very, you know, happy to be self deprecating and, and you know, vulnerable in those moments and he's like I don't need somebody that knows about hockey, I have a lot of that. I need somebody that knows marketing, especially digital marketing. I said, great, I got you, yeah, and so that was really the kickoff and like I have owned to that, you know, lack of knowledge, you have to. You have to be, you know, vulnerable in that space when you go to work for a hockey team Since day one. And so my whole joke when we were going through the playoffs I was like, wow, hockey is really fun. You guys like, what a sport you know. So it was. It was a really fun year to learn the sport, learn the city.
Speaker 2:The fan base out here is unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life. They are knowledgeable, dedicated, committed, passionate pride, you know, prideful like it's just. It's a dream come true, and I've told a lot of people that Growing up dreaming of working in sports, all those long hours that I've put in throughout the years. Like this is what you dream of. Like this is absolutely what you dream of, and it's not easy. Like winning the Stanley Cup, you know our coach had this saying during the playoffs it hurts to win and I'll tell you like for every single person in this organization you know, winning is is everything that we've ever dreamed of and wanted, but it does hurt to win.
Speaker 2:You know, the day after we won the cup, we had 30 people in the team store downstairs like hanging shirts and price tagging and doing all these other things. That's. You know five, six, seven am and you know all your phones blowing up. I bet you're still out parking with a cup. I'm like, yeah, well, I have Bagels and coffee and 30 staff members that are hanging t-shirts to get ready for the doors open. Because that's what it takes right, to take advantage of the Momentum. Wouldn't trade it for the world, absolutely wouldn't trade it for the world. It was the most amazing experience, but it was quite the learning experience this year quite a ride, incredible.
Speaker 1:I was reading an interview where you were talking about some of the experiences happening in the playoffs and With the fan engagement, and so it's awesome that you're just right in that right spot doing incredible things. But this was talking about and I just think this is the craziest and coolest idea ever the free tattoos of the team logo. That was one of your like teams ideas to go. Oh, here's a great marketing like plan. Let's do free tattoos the team logo and people line up for it. Like it has been a huge thing and In this article, so like. First of all, I thought that idea was genius and amazing and it just cracked me up and it was so wonderful. But also you had talked in the article About we don't believe we're not gonna self edit when we brainstorm.
Speaker 1:Like we got to put it all out there and get all those ideas out there, and so I I love that. I think it's a valuable and I think that also ties into you talk about talking about let's just go ahead and be vulnerable about what I do and don't know, and let's just put that right out there. I don't know hockey. I did not grow up watching hockey. I don't know all the rules. I don't know who these players are.
Speaker 1:What I know is marketing, and I have such respect for people who are Confident enough in themselves to go here's what I don't know Great. Also, I'm a fast learner. I will figure this out. I'll be all in. But like here's, here's where I'm at. I think that's genius and that kind of this. It tied in for me with your comment about not self editing, with just let's just be vulnerable. Let's just put, put our ideas and thoughts and what we know out there and then you can see what like amazing, this is gonna come out of that. But when you're like lying or hiding, or you're feeling Like unsure of yourself and so you're trying to fake it till you make it, I think you'd get yourself in trouble. Can I think it? Can you know it's it, then rather just being right up front and saying, yeah, no, don't know the sport, but I'm kick-ass at this digital marketing, which is what you want, and I'm really excited about this fan engagement and I will figure this out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's something about being vulnerable that is like this secret you know, in my mind it's a secret sauce like we all have our own insecurities right, like I have a list of them and I'm happy to talk about them probably not public setting but like we all have them right and like it's okay, we're human, like we're absolutely human and, you know, I think Sitting in a room and being able to own that vulnerability is really, really freeing. It's terrifying and Sometimes it backfires and sometimes it allows people to take advantage of you. But if you have your guard up just enough to know, okay, I'm going to put this out there, I'm going to own it, but I'm also going to be the person that's, you know, willing to work the hardest or willing to learn the most. You know, like be a sponge and I'm putting my vulnerability out there to say I want to learn more. It's not because, yes, you know, I don't have an intention with it, I absolutely have an intention with it, but it's to, it's to be set the table of. Look, I want to learn from you.
Speaker 2:I think that you have something that I can learn, you know in your mind and Would love for you to help share that with me, and then you know, conversely, I hope that that opens your mind to learn something from me as well.
Speaker 2:Right, and, and you know, it doesn't matter who's sitting around the table, whether it's the CEO, or whether it's the intern, or whether it's, you know, anybody, anybody in between, like every single person in that room can learn something from someone else, and I, and I believe that you know in the heart of hearts that I have, and so I try to also live by that example, because I've benefited from that right, like I learned so much from From people every single day, and that's that's something that I put a priority on. It's something that I'm, I you know, thankful that my family and friends and mentors have instilled in me is to be a learner every single day, and good ideas come from anywhere, and I'm really really proud to work for a team and a boss and Eric that you know, also hammers that ideal home, that good ideas can come from anywhere, and that's why we don't self-edit in our brainstorms and why we end up with tattoos on our Plaza before the games for the entire playoffs.
Speaker 2:So, it's a it's a cool kind of concept, but it's scary. It's scary, but it's a good one.
Speaker 1:It is and it's like you're coming from that place of vulnerability and sharing that vulnerability with a growth mindset, Not as an excuse right, You're not like yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't care about hockey and I'm not gonna learn about it and the end you're like, no, here's where I'm at, but I'm somebody who learns and figures it out and somebody who is going to like, take the reins on this, but just here's where we all know, so that we're all on the same page. If here's where my current knowledge base is, yeah, and yeah, it's being vulnerable or sharing that vulnerability from that growth mindset, learning, because Because literally knowing where you are is the first step of then doing that growth and doing that learning and figure learning from other people and learning from other people's knowledge. And if you're not willing to acknowledge where you are, then you're gonna miss out on all those learning opportunities.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, and I'll tell you, I like I love, you know, talking with women and talking with strong women, and I think that we as women have a lot of work to do as well with in terms of supporting each other and in our kind of career trajectories.
Speaker 2:But there's nothing that Fires me up more and this is gonna sound probably a little arrogant, so I apologize on the front end here, but then sitting down in a room full of you know men or dudes and Sharing a ball of you know, a bit of that kind of vulnerability, right, like acknowledging what I don't know, and they all kind of stiffen up like, oh well, I know definitely more than you know, and I'm like, okay, yeah, bring it on. Like I promise you, I promise you you don't, but bring it on, and if that's what you want to project, then we'll see where we get to from there. So you know, you got to use that, you got to use that as a little bit of Fire under you as well. Right, like it, the growth mindset is real and we got to have Confidence and when you can go in with that confidence or when you can see that they're faking it until they make it and it gives you that little extra spice to to push ahead.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that. Oh, my gosh, I know we.
Speaker 2:yeah, hopefully that wasn't too too much. No, I 100% Hearing one.
Speaker 1:I think, yes, I think women, we do need to do better at supporting each other, right, like you talked about, what it? What was her name? Lauren, laura, oh, laura, neil.
Speaker 2:Yeah, laura Neil of, like she lifts as she climbs right.
Speaker 1:That's what we all need for supporting each other. As you're going through this, as you're sitting there in that room full of dudes and you're like here's what I don't know and and that should be like, oh man, this is great, okay, like that's just a fact, like that's that should have no judgment attached to it. But when you see the dudes putting judgment or but I just feel like it's even so much worse. When you see Women that you expect to be supporting you and you expect to have your back being the opposite, like that, just that burns for me, like almost worse than when it's coming from the men in the room, because that I'm sort of like yeah, I'm expecting that, okay, we're gonna handle that, but yeah, I'm like putting my gloves on right you know, I think that's the.
Speaker 2:That's the one thing that I hope you know most. If I ever talk to anyone, the one thing that I just hope that everybody can take from it is like you shouldn't sit at the table and think I should be the woman here. Yeah, you should sit at the table and think you know I'm proud to be a woman here, but there should be more here. Yeah, how can I work here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's where we get into trouble, right.
Speaker 2:It's like we, we feel like we have to Suit up in our armor every single day, right, and go in and work hard and put our head down and take the shots and, you know, be tougher than everybody else and whatever. And it's like a. It's like a battle that you're going to every day and then you finally make it and you're like, all right, amazing, like I'm the one that made it and it and you know the ones that didn't make it are all of your peers that are right there, you know, sitting around, like you know that we should have brought along. And so whenever I sit into and sit in a room, you know that I have the opportunity to speak about any of the women that I've worked with or Interacted with, and I think that's the one thing that I think is really important I'm interacted with.
Speaker 2:I never start with, oh, she's so nice, or she's so funny, or, gosh, she's got great style, like I'd never start with any of those things, even if I think all of those things, yes, I'm always like man, she works her butt off or she's so smart, she's very articulate, like you. You got to be very thoughtful about how you're complimenting each other and I was listening to the, to the episode you did with the Adiat pit, I believe, yeah, and how you guys talked about having these kind of like group of like you're all trying to get to the same place and you realize you're stronger together, like that is so incredible and so inspiring.
Speaker 2:Um, and I just hope that that's what people think about when they have the opportunity to Lift as they climb, they realize that opportunity exists and they take advantage of it.
Speaker 1:I love that advice.
Speaker 1:You know there's been studies in um, so I've been fellowship director for a couple sports medicine fellowships and Every year there's applicants.
Speaker 1:Uh, the residents are applying to be in the sports medicine fellowship and they get their letters of recommendation From their three faculty and you read them and there have been studies about this how male residents the Words that are used to describe them are like you know leadership and you know just all those like big, strong words.
Speaker 1:And then for the women it's like well, they're so kind and they're so nice and they're really like they help out on the team and it's, it's all these just very like, not like those aren't nice qualities but the just those descriptors are so different. So even to be purposeful in your language when you're talking up other women and to say you know, it's not just that she's so nice, it's not just that she's so friendly, it's that she is so freaking capable, it is that she is so competent and I always know that she is going to figure out that answer and I like, like that hits so differently and like and it you just, it's weird to know these gender differences about how those recommendations come about. And so to like, kind of be forceful and like thinking about what words are you using as you're talking up other women, so we can support each other really effectively.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. That's right, I love it.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, um, I really could talk to you all day and but I'm gonna try to Uh, get to the questions. I ask everyone. Um, so I ask everyone about what challenges have you faced in your career, what things have been difficult for you have you had to overcome, or what things you still struggle with today.
Speaker 2:Um, really good question. I mean I think you know the list of challenges is Is pretty long if you sit down and kind of think about it. Um, you know, for me it probably Was always, you know, having the confidence, Um, and having the support to Continue pushing forward in the ways I knew that I needed to push forward, right, so I'm gonna going back to that original um example of Of the sales team and helping them kind of think differently or trying to convince them to think differently, right, and so I'm. I wouldn't say that I'm not a confident person, but I'm also, um, sometimes too Uh, in tune with the emotional side of things. That's probably most.
Speaker 2:Most of us are Um, and so I stress a lot about, you know, overthinking Did, did I handle that Okay, did I handle this Okay? And um, so really, the challenges for me have all been around maintaining your confidence when you get kicked in the teeth, maintaining the trust in your gut when you get kicked in the teeth, like it's going to happen. It's going to happen a lot, you know. You're going to have people that you work with that are really, really difficult. You're going to have people that you work with that want to see nothing but you fail. You're going to have employees that are, you know, very tough to manage. You're going to have bosses that are very difficult to work for Like it's just all part of it. I try not to focus too much on those because I think they just waste your energy in a negative way.
Speaker 2:But the challenges for me have all maybe varied in terms of what they were specifically, but all kind of go back to just trusting the gut and having the confidence in yourself, in your work ethic and in your, you know, internal drive and in your brain, honestly, like in your own intelligence, having the confidence in your own mind.
Speaker 2:So I would say I still face that a little bit to this day and I think that's okay, right. Like I think I've come to the place where, if I'm not questioning at least a little bit, then maybe I'm not respecting the opportunity that exists in front of me or the responsibility that I have, right? So healthy dose of fear into every situation is good. I think that that makes you take it seriously, and I am a big podcast listener. I try to listen to things that are pretty well rounded in terms of how did you get to where you are? What do you think about leadership? What do you think about mentorship? What do you think about working across, you know, business lines, across verticals, across industries, and so my combating the lack of confidence or the hesitation in confidence comes from learning, and so I think that's how I handle my challenges today.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's genius. That's that growth mindset again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to learn everything.
Speaker 1:Just learning everything. It's just like great, here's where I'm not quite where I want to be, but I also know that I can and I will learn it. So, yeah, I love it. What particular triumphs have you had in your career? What things are you really proud of?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, my. I've had the opportunity to work on a lot of really cool events, so I guess twofold. My thing I'm most proud of is the team that I had that I managed when I was overseeing tournament marketing. They were so tight knit. They supported each other. My favorite saying is teamwork makes the dream work. I stay at all the time I believe it like in my soul, and we were really tight knit group. Everybody was always willing to raise their hand. What can I do? They were smart, they were motivated, they were proactive and I was just like so proud to be a part of that team and to be able to lead, and so that's the biggest, probably personal accomplishment that I've had is growing a team like that and being able to manage it and sit back and watch them flourish From.
Speaker 2:Something that I did kind of on my own not on my own, but like a project that I led was the president's cup in 2019 was in Melbourne, australia, and that's a team golf event and Tiger Woods and Ernie Ells were the captains, and so for two years leading into that event, as you can imagine, with those two massive names, you know there was a never ending list of opportunities, tasks, things that I had never done media plans, media, creative media tours, you know, working content creation, production, selling tickets, all of those things, working with partners halfway across the world. And that day, that Sunday, when the event was over and the cup was raised and you know, we kind of were all celebrating and looking back on everything that we had accomplished over two years. It was probably the most proud I had been, you know, in my entire career, thinking about all the things that went into making that happen.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. It's like sometimes those big, crazy challenges are exhausting as you're going through, but then you're like oh my gosh, look at all this amazing new stuff I've just learned and figured out.
Speaker 2:And I would be remiss I know we're running out of time here, but I would be remiss to also not say that I had the same feeling during the parade this year of Stanley Fitch. So you know a lot of my career has been spent in golf, but I had the exact same feeling the night of the parade. I was fortunate enough to be on a bus with a bunch of our scouts, which also hilarious. Going back to my knowledge of the sport, I've learned a lot, but not on their level, obviously. So it was fun hanging out with them.
Speaker 2:And we were on top of the bus just driving down the street and you see, you know a couple of hundred thousand fans chanting, go Knights, go at the top of their lungs and confetti, and you know, the players are throwing things and everybody's cheering. It was like overwhelming how powerful that scene was, again one of those moments that you dream about for a long time. And we pulled off a spectacular drone show at the culmination of our parade on the stage. And, just like all of it, coming together was a very humbling, exhausting, exciting moment as well. So I guess I'll put those two projects next to each other.
Speaker 1:I love it, I love it. Oh my gosh, you've already had so much very good advice that I will be taking personally so, but I always ask is there any other or we can just stick with that? But is there any particular career advice that you have for other women who are out there maybe early on in their careers still figuring things out?
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate you being so kind and saying I have good advice. I don't know. I think, yeah, I think kind of everything I've said so far is probably all of it wrapped up right, like, don't be afraid to be the hardest worker in the room, you know, like it's okay, you know it's. Don't be afraid to take risks, don't be afraid to play it safe. Like, don't be afraid to be comfortable where you are, don't be afraid to ask questions. And you know, I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to like be perfect or do it the best, or do it first or do it, you know, whatever, that we really lose sight of doing it for what makes you know, doing what makes us happy. So don't be afraid to live in the moment. But also don't be afraid to be the hardest worker in the room and take control of your own future, right, like we all have to take a little bit of control. So, gosh, I don't know, yeah hopefully that's helpful.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it was so helpful. I love it so much. Um, steph, it's been incredible talking to you. This has been really wonderful. You have had such amazing advice and it is just. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for sharing your story and your experience. I think it's going to really like help. A lot of people hear it.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Giselle. This was such a pleasure. Oh my gosh, I really enjoyed chatting with you. I've enjoyed listening to all of the episodes that I've gotten through. I'm going to get through all of them. Um, I'm looking forward to listening to all the ones that you have in the future and, yeah, hopefully we can keep lifting as we climb together.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Mademathlete podcast. I loved talking with Stephanie Rogers, as always. You can find out more about Stephanie in the show notes at mademathletecom. Throughout her career, Stephanie made a point of listing out not just what parts of each job appealed to her, but why she enjoyed them, and I find that so freaking important and it's often one of the last things we're doing when we're looking for new work, which is really one of the first things we should be doing when we're looking for new work. She understood what motivated her and how to seek out opportunities that aligned with what mattered to her, with aligned with her values. If you're looking for a way to get started on this path but don't know where to begin, I have a free guide to defining your values. To help you out, you can grab your free copy at mademathletecom slash values. As always. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you.