50. [Career Exploration] Turning Passion into a Profession: Baseball Fan to Senior Activation Specialist with the Seattle Mariners with Yvette Yzaguirre

Ever dreamed of turning your passion into a career? Join us on a fascinating journey with Yvette Yzaguirre, a Senior Activation Specialist with the Seattle Mariners. Yvette, a first-gen college grad, turned her love for baseball into a thrilling adventure, right from the Spokane Indians to the Seattle Mariners. We explore how her heart for baseball and the sense of community it fosters, propelled her into the sports industry. Tune in to discover how preparation, adrenaline, and a dash of nerve assist in acing conversations with high-profile individuals.

Yvette recounts her trajectory from being just another baseball fan to an integral part of the industry. Hear about her time as a promotions intern with the Spokane Indians, and the crucial role networking played in her career. Yvette also gives us a peek into the exciting world of hosting teams like the Tacoma Rainers, Tacoma Defiance, and OL Reign, and the nuances of transitioning fields from baseball to soccer. Don't miss out on this inspiring story of a woman who turned her passion into her profession and is now living her dream with the Seattle Mariners.

Connect with YY:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvetteyza/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvetteyza/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome, Yvette. Welcome to the College of Career and Epoch.

Speaker 2: 0:03

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:06

I'm super excited you're here, so to our listeners. I connected with Yvette because a friend who came on episode number 30 connected us. She was like you've got to hear her story. So here we are today. So why don't you introduce yourself to our audience?

Speaker 2: 0:25

Yeah, like you said, my name is Yvette Isayere. For that reason my co-workers call me YY. My baseball family has called me that I'm a senior activation specialist with the Seattle Mariners going into my third season. My family lives in Troy City's Washington, if you're familiar, more specifically, Pasco Washington. I'm a first generation college student, Mexican-American, and my mom is from Guadalajara. So very proud of my culture, very grateful for where I am, the sacrifices my family has made to get me to where I am today, and I hope my story can help others reach their dreams.

Speaker 1: 1:08

So tell us where you are at now in your career, and then we'll go back inside.

Speaker 2: 1:13

So, like I mentioned, I'm a senior activation specialist. I work in our partnerships department. So, if you're familiar with T-Mobile Park, t-mobile is one of our sponsors. I have my own book of business, so I oversee about 15 accounts and I work with folks like Key Bank, toyota, funko Pop, amongst a handful of others. I execute partnerships and activate them at the ballpark and introduce their brands to our fan base and try to collaborate together to make an impact on our community. So it's been really fun.

Speaker 1: 1:45

What is your degree in?

Speaker 2: 1:47

I'm actually double-majored, so I have a BS in marketing and management with a human resource emphasis.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Okay, and so back in time, when you were in college, or actually when you were in high school, what were you planning to pursue?

Speaker 2: 2:03

Yeah. So I think it really starts with my love of baseball and my family. I didn't know what I was going to do. I just really enjoyed planning events but didn't know if anything like that existed. I was wondering does something like this exist? I played sports, so I loved baseball, softball, and so our counselors would say think about the things that you love to do and try and put those together. So sports has a wonderful way of bringing community together, and that's really where it started. So, like I mentioned earlier, my mom is an immigrant. My parents worked in the fields in the summertime Tri-Cities it can get to be 114 degrees there, so they would actually pick cherries overnight and sleep during the day, and I have a younger brother and a younger sister underneath me, and so I'd be tasked with trying to keep my siblings occupied. It's really difficult to keep kiddos quiet, especially if you have so much energy.

Speaker 2: 3:07

So we would go outside, and across the street from where we lived is our high school and there was a baseball field that was there. A traveling baseball team played their tournaments there. They were an American Legion team and my friends who played baseball that I knew from softball were on this team so we would go over and watch their games. Over time, I think the parents started looking around like where are these kiddos' parents? They were always there and instead of ostracizing us, they really took us in, brought us into their community, offered us the opportunity to help sell tickets, to announce games, which I didn't plug to. I wasn't going to be a broadcaster who would announce, because from that experience it was really fun to do. We helped sell concessions, I mean just everything. We kept a book. So I learned a lot about that program Because it was a traveling team. They played in Walla, walla and Yakima and all sorts of places. So their parents would call our parents and say, hey, can we take the kiddos with us? We'll make sure the girls are in a separate room. Yeah, and they just made us feel like we were a part of something. They really gave us a place to belong, a safe place.

Speaker 2: 4:26

I see baseball do that for other people, how it brings the community together, and so when I was thinking about my counselor saying, think about the things that you loved to do. I loved planning events, I loved the sense of community that baseball brought to each other and I was like, do these things exist together? So that's when I started asking questions, trying to set up informational meetings. I was a part of a program called DECA. Deca is a business forward, entrepreneurship type program that teaches resume building, interview skills, debate, a multitude of things.

Speaker 2: 5:02

And so I went to the Washington State Conference and attended it in Bellevue was the first time I'd ever been in a very big city and was really excited about that. The operations person from the Seattle Mirrors was giving a talk there. I was like I need to do that, I want to go talk to him, I want to ask questions, and so he was really the first individual to say come, job, shadow me, we'll show you what it's like and go from there, and I fell in love with it. I asked him exactly what degrees do I need to do something like this? And he put me on a path towards what I was trying to do for wanting to do, and ever since then.

Speaker 2: 5:45

That's also another reason I love talking to the next generation of sports professionals, because I had a lot of people support me. He helped me in deciding that I needed a marketing degree, and then I said, great, I'll be back.

Speaker 1: 6:01

How did you build up the courage to step up to him and ask him questions?

Speaker 2: 6:05

I think it has a lot of adrenaline right. You're really nervous, you don't want to say the wrong thing, so the only way to combat that is to prepare for it right. So even now, if I feel nervous about something that I am not super familiar with, I just try to find information, plan questions that I would ask someone. Right, the more conversations you have with like CEOs and CEOs, their time is very important and you may only get five minutes. You get max 30 minutes. You want to utilize that time as best as you can and so, just preparing for that, I was a part of the debate portion of DECA, so I already knew like to come prepared with questions and then ultimately like what was the goal for the conversation?

Speaker 2: 6:50

What would I have viewed as successful for the interaction? And I did. Now I wanted his emails so I could continue to ask questions, and if he would be open to an informational or a job shadow of some sorts. And because he was so open to that, it was successful and I think it amplified you know how a lot. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. So it just built my confidence that people are willing to help.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Yeah, and into our audience. I love highlighting what she said, that she is the one who approached for the job shadow shadowing, because a lot of students we have parents and students listening and they're waiting for the opportunity To be there, like the opportunity will come to them, rather than them just getting out of their corporate zone and seeking those opportunities, creating those opportunities that might have not existed if you didn't ask 1000% I.

Speaker 2: 7:51

In my experience, I don't know that an opportunity has ever come to me. It's been me seeking those moments or creating those moments. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Absolutely, absolutely. So you left, you had your contact and you decided to pursue a career in marketing. Is that right? So?

Speaker 2: 8:11

yes only because I knew that that was the degree I needed to work in baseball. So because marketing was the element I was given, that's what I was trying to follow. I know that a lot of people have approached me about sports management degrees, which I think are wonderful. They do teach a lot of the curriculum that we actively utilize in our day to day. However, I knew that I wanted to expand. Because I was a part of DECA, I understood that there were different departments and different forms of business, that I wanted to keep a general degree in case I ever chose to get out of sports. Obviously, it's been a long road and I don't ever foresee that happening, but I at least wanted the opportunity to have something that could be applied to other things.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Yeah, absolutely. How did you make the decision which college or university it goes to?

Speaker 2: 9:03

Truthfully, which one would accept me with it in holonesty right I applied to quite a few sports also kind of helped. Ultimately it came down to U of I in Alabama and U of I had a. It's called the IBC program, the Integrated Business Curriculum. Okay, basically, in your senior year you were put into a senior project and there was one student from each department, so I would have been the marketing person. We had someone from Finance, someone from IT, you know X, y, u were put in a group and you developed a project together and I really loved the idea of that. It was it's renowned in Idaho and so I just decided that that's where I wanted to go.

Speaker 1: 9:52

So you get to college? Did you have any other mentors during your college years?

Speaker 2: 9:59

I mean, I had really great friends who offered a lot of support. My counselors didn't really know how I think to support me because they didn't have a sports program. They just did their best to connect me with people who eventually ended up working in sports. So, honestly, not really, but I tried to pull bits and pieces from a lot of different people.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Yeah. Over time helped a lot. Yes, and actually that's perfect transition to my next question, because so you go to a school where sports is not the big program there, right, but that's where you want to go. So how did you network of career plan?

Speaker 2: 10:46

Well, actually part of my story starts while I'm in college. So my thought process was always back to baseball how do I bring this back to baseball? So I needed experience, and that's another element of being a first generation graduate. So I said I need to find a way to break through the door of sports. So I applied at the athletic department. But even then they want some form of experience and I didn't have any. So I applied for a position in operations. Right, I still kept going back to.

Speaker 2: 11:24

I love planning events. I liked setting these things up. So I went to the colleges operations department and, honestly, would help set up meetings, I mean down to like chairs and tablecloths and water, and it would be like late at 9.30 and I'd be tearing down events by myself. You know, nothing is above me, right? I just this is how you get started and that's what I was willing to do. So eventually my supervisor there offered himself as a reference, which helped me navigate that.

Speaker 2: 11:56

And then I applied at the athletic department when I was able to do an internship. So I was an intern for the University of Idaho athletic department and there we did everything. So as an intern I worked soccer, swim, basketball, football, right, no baseball, but I said this is the closest thing to it. I'm glad that I did it because, similar to the business college, you want to learn about what other people do and how a little bit comes together. So I was very thankful for that. So I just eventually put a resume together, a cover letter, and I emailed every single minor league baseball team that I could that there was an email address for someone. I emailed them and sent them my resume. They may not have even had an internship program and I was still in their inbox, you know.

Speaker 2: 12:47

I applied for as many internships as I could. Sometimes I didn't even fit the internship that they were offering, and I still applied for it just because.

Speaker 2: 12:57

I needed it to try any way to get my foot in the door and, thank goodness, I like to think of myself as very independent. So I was okay with applying for positions in on the East Coast. I'd never been, didn't know anybody there. I was like it was so important to me that I wanted to work in baseball that I applied all up and down the East Coast as well. No-transcript was accepted at the Connecticut Tigers they're now the Norwich Sea Unicorns, but they were a single A team and they fit my college schedule so that I could go come back in time for school and it fit this summer Because I applied.

Speaker 2: 13:37

I could only attend if housing was offered right. So this was one of the internships that offered me housing and credit. And so they did say you know, you kind of have to figure out the rest. I said you got it, I will. So they offered me the position. It was in Norwich, connecticut. I had to apply for financial aid in order to get credit and that financial aid supported me living in Connecticut while I was there. So I worked, I went to school and those were the two things that I was only focused on over that summer.

Speaker 1: 14:13

That is amazing. What did your internship entail?

Speaker 2: 14:17

Yeah, I was a rotational internship, or a rotational intern Essentially meant that we would rotate from department and learn a little bit from everybody, and at the end of your internship you'd have a week where you got to pick the department you enjoyed the most. Eventually, it was time for me to come home. Right, it's the fall of, I think, 2012. They say you know it's time to consider graduation. You know, what do you wanna do? I had decided that I probably couldn't afford a master's degree. I basically only needed an extra semester of credits in order to get my second degree, and so I compromised, right, I said I'll stay an extra semester so that I can do a major. So that was what really brought, on the management side, right, I wanted to understand people. I wanted to understand what motivated them. You know those elements Again, in hopes that one day I could also help people who came after me. So I had basically an extra summer because I needed to come back.

Speaker 2: 15:20

I wanted to stay in baseball. I wanted to make sure there wasn't like a cooling off period. So I was still working in the athletic department. Except now I was like, okay, I'm so happy that I'm here, but I need to continue my baseball experience. Like now I had had a taste of it and I wanted more.

Speaker 2: 15:38

So I reached out to WSU. Another element right, I wasn't going to school there. I didn't know anybody there. I just knew that they had a baseball team. So I emailed their athletic director. I emailed their marketing person and said, hey, I just got back from Connecticut. Here is my resume. I would love to just come over and help.

Speaker 2: 16:02

I didn't ask for an internship, I didn't ask for credit, I just said I've been experienced in this. If you ever need extra hands or extra support, I would be more than happy to come over and help. And, trina, they were like yeah, on game days we need extra hands. You obviously know what you're doing. So here is the schedule. We'll treat you like we treat our interns, which was such a compliment for me. They have students there who need practicum hours, which is essentially need to be in the atmosphere for X amount of hours before they can graduate. Correct. The interns had applied, were selected, and so when they said we'll treat you as one of them obviously I wasn't an intern, but I was treated as such was really empowering for me If I was there. So I helped navigate the team. Give everyone like okay, here is what promo you're working on, here's where you're going, and I would drive to WSU on game nights. One night we retired John Olerud's jersey and John Olerud is a Mariners alumni.

Speaker 2: 17:08

And so I worked in this game. I want to be here, I want to see this happen, and I was just very grateful to be a part of it.

Speaker 1: 17:16

So I did not.

Speaker 2: 17:19

I did that in the fall. My friends graduated and then I stayed, and then this next summer hit and I needed to again continue with baseball. So I wasn't graduating till the fall of 2013. And I wanted to stay in baseball, but this time a little more local. So I applied to the Spokane Indians and I had already done that, right, I sent resumes to every single minor league baseball team, so they had received my application before.

Speaker 2: 17:51

So, luckily, when I was working at WSU, there was an individual there who he also had worked for the Spokane Indians, and he said that. And I said can we talk? I told him I, upcoming summer, would love to apply there. Do you know anybody you'd be willing to pass off my resume to? And he said, yeah, I would be happy to. So he calls me. I remember him studying for an exam and he says, hey, I just got off the phone with the GM. They closed their internship program, but if you send it tonight, he's willing to look at it. I said, okay, I stopped studying, I'm updating my resume, right? I'm calling my friends like I need you to double check that there's no typos, like help me get it out the door. And then I'm in their hands like okay, did he get it? Did it send? Yeah. And then I Ultimately like was very grateful to that individual for even being willing to send that.

Speaker 2: 18:51

His name is Nick Jula. He actually worked in the University of Idaho Athletic Department and when I was at WSU there was someone who worked at the Spoken Indians who came to visit. He was like you should say hi to him, right, so they can put a face to a name. So he came to one of the WSU games. I said hi to him, was like here's my name. It's crazy, so please don't forget it.

Speaker 2: 19:14

He went back that weekend, brought up my name to them. They're like I think I just got a resume person and so I was trying to stay as top of mind as possible. So I was very grateful to Nick because I couldn't even get an interview with Spokane. They wouldn't even look at my resume until he put it in front of them. They called and said I mean they were willing to give me an interview. Eventually they offered me the opportunity to join them for the summer. So I was a promotions intern with the Spoken Indians that summer and I just learned so much from them I mean Nick Jutla actually who passed on my resume. He was the one who said they're the beamer of minor league baseball and I can't wait to see it and in this experience they are truly that.

Speaker 2: 20:05

I mean they offer the best internship program. They are big on personal development, which I appreciated so much, and I just I can't say better things about the organization. And so I was sad to leave, but just kind of trust in what would happen. So I went back to school, finished my degree, I officially applied for a full time position with the Indians. I accepted a full time position with them before I graduated. So I was lucky when I would graduate, when I graduated, that I would have a job, full time job in baseball come January 3rd.

Speaker 1: 20:42

Wow, and before I asked you about that, I do want to bring something that I think it's key, and I've said this in previous episodes you never know when you're just one connection away from changing the trajectory of your life.

Speaker 2: 20:59

One connection, one connection, one hello. You know, I can't stress, even in my professional career. Now right, sometimes you think this five minute interaction isn't going to matter. It absolutely does.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:16

Not just. You know, we live in such a virtual age now that I think sometimes we forget like, oh, we can just do this virtually. There is such a connection in having that one-to-one conversation with someone in person right. Spending the quality time with the individual, learning about them, their passions, I think is extremely important, and just making the effort right Speaks volumes. When you think they're not watching or you think that there is no way they would know, they always know, yeah, yeah. They always tell the effort you're putting in. People have people talk. That's another thing about you know, once folks get into their industries, everybody knows everybody. You have one moment to make a strong first impression and you only have one opportunity to do that.

Speaker 1: 22:06

So yeah, absolutely, and so you accepted a job and you stayed with them for a couple of years, right?

Speaker 2: 22:12

Yes, I was there for three years. We hosted a All Star game, all Star week while I was there. I this was the unique part about this job was you? I sold sponsorships right. I sold a package to an organization and then I would execute it. So, like I said, here's an outfield wall sign. This is the investment. I would also make sure that that outfield wall sign was installed, that the promotion was executed right. I'd see on both ends. So again, we go back to OK. Seattle Mariners is the goal. What do I need to do.

Speaker 2: 24:59

So I started looking at higher level teams. So, if you're familiar with baseball at the time, there's a single A, double A, triple A, majors. So I said how do I continue to climb this ladder while also doing things that I love to do? One of the things that I think I was extremely fortunate to have, that some folks don't, is I got to be very transparent with my supervisors and I had always shared with them this is my life goal. So, while I always said I want to work for the Seattle Mariners, I had shared with my supervisors. I think the next step for me is to try to go higher in the minors. So I started looking around and they were OK with that. Obviously, they weren't going to do the work for me. I had to do it, but they would support me.

Speaker 2: 25:42

So I found that to come in years of the triple A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, they did have a partnership activation position. That was only activation and I was like perfect, this is. Is this a dream? I had just reached out so that my name again was out there. Hey, if a position comes up, here's my resume, please consider. Right, I wanted them to see it over and over again. And then, as we got closer to the end of the season both my supervisor and our vice president of sponsorships at the Spokane Indians they each reached out to the Mariners on my behalf. They would make phone calls with me in the room and say, hey, so, and so I have your next sports professional. And they are like, oh, and he's like, actually I have him right here, and so we would have to make it yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:37

And again, just their willingness to do that on my behalf, obviously from the product I had put towards them when I was there. Right, I had developed programs, I was creating opportunities for sales, right. So, yeah, they got in contact with the Tacoma Mariners specifically. I set up an informational and I said same thing, we could have done it over the phone. I said I will come to you. So I drove here, went to their offices. They set up that and from Spokane to Tacoma is about a six hour drive. Oh, why not, it's from basically one side of the state to the other. So I said, while I'm here, I'm so close to Seattle, let's see if I can also make a stop there. So again, no conditions available, nothing like that. I asked Mandy Lincoln she's our marketing professional here at the Seattle Mariners even today, emailed her randomly, she doesn't know me and I said, hey, you're going to be in the area. Would you be open to an informational meeting? I'm available any of these days, whatever time works best for you. Again, if you only have two minutes, you have 30 minutes, whatever is available for their schedule. I wanted to make happen. So, sure enough, I came over, did an informational meeting with the Tacoma seniors.

Speaker 2: 27:56

The next day I went up to Seattle and an informational meeting with the Seattle Mariners and I was just even happy to be in the room. The person I met with wasn't even the person in the. He was in public relations and I wanted to be in marketing. He was like I don't, I'm happy to set up a meeting with you. He's like I'm not in your department, I'm also not the hiring manager. I'm like that is totally fine, I just want to learn, I want to understand your organization. He's like great, that's all I can really do, so that's great. So in the fall he had a position open up, I also, of course, saw it reached out again, was like hey, I saw this. Would you be willing to pass off my resume to whoever is hiring? He said yeah, happy to, forwarded that on.

Speaker 2: 28:38

I went through a couple of interviews and then eventually was offered a full time position with the two Mariners as well. Wow, made the trip in November. We finished our season, I think October. And then they were like when are you ready to start now? Like whenever you're willing to have me? And spoken Indians were like whenever you need to go, we will, you're fine, okay. So yeah, spent six years there.

Speaker 2: 29:05

Uh huh, spent the larger part of my mid to late twenties, had about three different positions. We also hosted an all star game in 2017. And then I became a director. I led a team of five three full time employees and two interns, both in season and off season. And then here was the foreshadowing part was eventually we became, we are Tacoma and we ended up host. We are the home of the Tacoma renewers AAA affiliate Seattle Mariners. We then adopted the Tacoma Defiance, which was the affiliate of the Seattle Sounders, and then eventually also hosted O L Rain, which is the Seattle women's professional sports team who Megan Rapinoe plays for. Wow, so wow. They have a transition, so grounds would transition the field from baseball to soccer to allow for those games. East 17,. We hosted over a hundred professional sporting events across three teams and I oversaw the partnership department for all three.

Speaker 1: 30:15

Oh my goodness, that is amazing. And even still, you still had as your goal the Seattle Mariners.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.