Digital Media Consultant, Sports Industry

On this week's episode of Real Work, Real Life, I’m talking with Darryl Haberman, a Digital Media and Operations Consultant, primarily in the Sports Industry. If you’re passionate about sports and interested in how you could turn that into a career, this will be a great episode for you. We talk a lot about how to break into the industry, and lessons learned along the way. We also get into detail about the transition from working in the corporate world to striking out on your own as a consultant. 

Reach out to Darryl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haberman/ or via email at darryl@habermandigital.com

If you have feedback or are interested in being interviewed, please reach out at realworkreallife@gmail.com or @realworkreallifepod on Instagram. 

Transcripts now available at: https://realworkreallife.buzzsprout.com

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to real work real life, where I talked to real people about what they do for work and what that means for their lives. Today, I'm talking with Darryl Haberman, a digital media and operations consultant, primarily in the sports industry. If you're passionate about sports and interested in how you could turn that into a career, this will be a great episode for you. 

We talk a lot about how to break into the industry. And lessons learned along the way. We also get into detail about the transition from working in the corporate world. To striking out on your own as a consultant. So let's get into it. 

Emily: Thank you so much for joining me, Darryl.

Thanks for having me, Emily.

What do you do for work?

Darryl: I am a consultant. I work with. Digital media startups and really dive in on a fractional c o o basis with, with some of these early fledgling companies looking to build their foundation and, and identify really the strongest aspects of business and, and engaging with their community, [00:01:00] their audience that's going to give them.

A good foundation to grow on. So you know, doing a lot of work across mostly the sports industry, but I am agnostic.

Emily: Oh, that's great. Do you specialize in any particular kind of sports, 

or is it all different kinds? 

Darryl: I, worked at the National Hockey League for 22 years, 16 years at headquarters, and another five and a half outside of that through some partnerships. So I have a lot of connections and interest in, in hockey, but definitely across the industry from, you know, well established businesses to small amateur college ranked athletes.

There's a whole community and ecosystem that I work within. So, yes, definitely not just one sport. In fact, there's it's a growing list.

Emily: That is so interesting. So can you talk a bit about how you got there, what interested you initially about it education, anything that you [00:02:00] kind of did along the way that got you to where you are today?

Darryl: Well, I grew up a huge sports fan in a household that, you know, my brother and I were playing lots of sports. My dad was a sports junkie, always had games on at night. He golfed but we swam, played lacrosse, did soccer, grew up on a dead end street. So I started getting into hockey through that aspect.

We set up like a you know, painted the, the streets and set up like a rink. And then I started playing deck hockey, went off to college and I thought that I would get into sports broadcasting, but it was very tough to crack into that business. I did more of the producing reporting. I, I did a lot of work for work, college newspaper, did some radio work, some TV was more behind the scenes.

And then I always knew I wanted to work in sports. Um, So that's what. What initially got me on my journey here I, my first job outta college was doing PR for a small firm in New [00:03:00] Jersey. I'm New York based. I, grew up on Long Island, upstate Ithaca College, and then have settled here. I've been in Manhattan for 23 years, and I knew.

That it's where, yeah, I wanted to live and work. Thankfully someone at the NHL had my resume, called me out of the blue when I was already miserable at doing my PR work four months into my, my post-college life. yeah, One thing led to another, Between content strategy, the digital media work, partnering with sales and marketing teams, communications folks, events.

I was working all, all realms of the NHL business, working with all the teams, going to special events. It was quite enlightening and I got to really, you know sink my teeth into building out platforms and, and monetizing many. Pieces of the business, and that's what sprung out. Now as a consultant, a lot of the work that I do across all levels of, of business and working with [00:04:00] those young companies that don't have the resources that some of the, major players that I work for did.

It's really fun and I've always been an, an entrepreneur at heart, so now I could really dive in and lean into areas that I didn't get to contribute to too much when I, when I had my own, you know, roles and responsibilities in the corporate sector.

Emily: So you mentioned you went to undergrad. Did you major in something at all related to this field?

Darryl: Yes. I was a, a sports information and communication major, so there was a lot of sports marketing, sports management classes. I did, you know, television, radio work and sports studies. Just literally everything. About. The sports atmosphere, the field work that I did, internships, I mean, it was all about the things that, are still very, vibrant and popular and, and where there's tons of innovation that's happened since I went to [00:05:00] college.

 I think my 24 5 year. Great Union is coming up either next year or the, or, or the year after if I thought about it. I'm quite the quite the veteran here. And I've seen and done a lot since, since graduating.

Emily: if you were sort of talking to someone who's graduating college right now and they wanted to get, they wanted to work in sports in some way, do you have any recommendations for them? It sounds like you really just tried everything and went a lot of different paths, and it finally brought you to a pairing of entrepreneurial work.

And still in the sports industry. Do you have any like advice for someone that was starting out and thinking about working in sports in some way?

Darryl: Yes, for sure. Try and get in as early as you can, whether it's an internship or do some field work. Do those exploratory interviews. Just get as much information about. You know, a team, a brand, a, company that you, you like, and then volunteer see where you could contribute to within the scope of [00:06:00] your job, your internship, and then you'll start really building more of a repertoire, but you'll also be able to show your value to lots of different teams and people.

And you never know where that's gonna go, but it's also good too. Be a hard worker, be industrious, and, and from, from that standpoint, the sooner get involved, the the better. Certainly if it's a passion of yours and something, you wanna make a career

Emily: Yeah. Absolutely thinking about that internship path, are most of those internships paid or unpaid?

Darryl: unpaid,

Emily: Unpaid.

You'll have to earn your, earn your

stripes to work in those industries. 

Darryl: exactly. In, college, sometimes you'll get the course credits for that or that's a requirement, but it's when you come out of college sometimes there's a little bit of of money, but most of it is like reward based in the experience that you're getting.

And you could say like, you know, I worked with the N H L for the summer [00:07:00] before I went, went off to my senior year of college, but. , the internship route is, quite common. I know that sometimes people have a different interpretation or a stigma around what an intern really does or how beneficial they are to an organization, but I think it's more about, making the most of your opportunities and, being open to all kinds of work outside of maybe what you had initially signed up for.

Because, you know, there's so much that you can do in the course of a, you know, a 40, 50, 60 hour a week.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely. I've worked with interns before and I always think it's kind of a nice boost of energy and innovation in an organization. 

Darryl: And the young, the young ideas, the fact that they're wide-eyed, they bushy-tailed, most of the time they're happy to just, be involved and be able to publish something that they know is gonna get widely consumed. There's a lot of that.

 One of the fun, aspects of my career has been hiring, I don't know, two to [00:08:00] 300 people between interns and entry level positions and managers, and having teams you know, 40, 50 people counting on me to, put the right pieces in place and build on to, something that might have hit the skids a little bit or might be really successful, but now the organization wants more.

So you have to really understand each other and, be able to make sure that everyone's pulling on that rope together.

Emily: That is fascinating. So do you work with a team now or do you work by yourself as a consultant?

Darryl: I, I am my own. Practice. You know, I run a boutique management consulting practice here in New York City, but I operate worldwide and I do have some partners in different ventures. So it's a little bit of a mixed bag.

Emily: So you talked a little bit about certain, you know, personality traits that would make someone successful in this industry, but thinking especially about the work you do now, what sort of personality do you think would be successful in that [00:09:00] kind of work?

Darryl: someone who, can marry their analytical mind to the creative side. Someone that's definitely knows how to be a hard worker, an industrious, take advantage of their skillset, but also know what voids exist with the people that they're working for. But of course, be conversational, affable to someone that's easy to approach.

 Really be. Of authentic self.

Emily: So not to get too quickly down to the details, but what do you make doing what you do and what do your other benefits look like? If you have any benefits in your current work?

Darryl: Well benefits cuz I work for myself. Thankfully, I'm married and I have a, wife and kids that now we are under, my wife's benefits, so I don't worry too much about that right now. I was in my corporate career, I was making you know, some good money. As a consultant. There's a wide range of salary. I have some equity projects. I do some commission work. I do get some monthly. [00:10:00] So it's a, it's really a wide spectrum, but you know, if you are a veteran like me, in the industry it's quite common that you could be approaching, 1 75, 200 for base salary and get some bonus built in there.

And then there's other perks and, , the benefits that come with the job as far as not only health insurance and all that stuff, it's the. Travel expense budgets, the opportunities to, you know, get tickets to significant events and get the merchandise and all that stuff that I know from being friends with some folks in HR sometimes that has a T or 30 K value as well.

Emily: Absolutely. And if you're someone that's really passionate about sports, that's a huge benefit to get the, you know, access to some of those events, I assume

Darryl: You know, a newcomer to the industry or someone fresh outta college will start understanding is some of the, some of the salaries will be quite lower in the industry because they, they get all the other perks [00:11:00] and benefits and exposure to, great brands, events.

The athletes themselves, sort of the unique behind the scenes look.

Emily: Yeah. so thinking about that, working in corporate, sort of, and now working for yourself, can you talk a little bit more about how you made that leap? I think that's something that, A lot of people don't approach until much later in their career, and I'm so curious about what steps exactly went into going from a corporate career to working for yourself full time.

Darryl: Great question. So someone that had worked over two decades for. Largely the same brands in the, same industry. I had always thought about, you know, taking the, the leap or working for myself, but in true transparency, it was a reorg. I didn't really have a choice.

There was a lot of sort of restructuring some layoffs, some things going on that sort of expedited my exit, let's just say. And really gave me a decision to make. And thankfully, like I said, [00:12:00] in part back to the benefits is I had a, wife that thankfully has a good job and but we have benefits and I, I didn't have to feel like I really had to chase down a, a new full-time position.

I actually could grow a practice and do things that I wanted to do and be at home for. You know, my young kids we used to have a nanny early in the pandemic that we parted ways with, because there was gonna be two kids working from school here at home. Two full-time parents.

And there was just a lot going on. So, you know, we, reorganized our home and what we did and, and, you know, now dad was gonna be consulting and working from home. And that, brought about a lot of , the changes that have happened in the last couple years.

Emily: Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, sometimes those reorgs restructures, I'm sure can be so painful in the moment, but can kind of. Force you to make a change for your life that maybe you might not have made otherwise. So it's probably good [00:13:00] perspective for people going through challenges like that, that it can lead to new adventures, I guess.

Darryl: Yeah, and then everyone you hear about it all the time is someone usually is thinking about a side hustle or a hat. As one, and then they're like, this is what I'm passionate about. How do I make money doing this? 

Emily: yeah. So you mentioned, you know, finding flexibility for your young family. What are your hours like, and do you feel like you're able to balance your personal life with your work life reasonably well?

Darryl: Oh, yes. So, I still try and to keep. Normal working hours. But I think as a consultant I do a lot of my work in the evening hours, so follow up emails, doing proposals, just doing some of the research that in the course of having meetings during the day or.

Being, that caretaker picking on my son from school, booking some of the cleaning. We have a dog. You know, there's lots of times I'm back and forth that I can't just have two to [00:14:00] three to four hours uninterrupted. It's in the evening after the kids are asleep.

But things are quiet that I'm able to fully, you know, lock in. So you know, I'm starting my day by. 9 30 10. Some of my first meetings, I don't sit till 10 30, 11, if I could do that reasonably. Cause I, I need the exercise still, I gotta take the dog for a walk, that kind of thing. And then I settle in and I'm taking meetings till probably three or four and then take about an hour break and then have another couple hours before dinner.

And then a lot of times I'm not meeting anymore, like I said, after. You know, eight or nine o'clock I might take a consulting call or, do a quick sync up with some of the people I'm working with. But for the most part, that's time for me to, you know, sit in focus and, do some writing or check out LinkedIn and that kinda.

Emily: Yeah. That's so interesting. This actually brought to mind a question I should [00:15:00] have asked a little bit earlier, but when you first started out, how did you determine what rates to charge? For your time or for different projects. 

Did you have contacts you talked to or was there, were there resources online or did you use prior work as a comparison?

Darryl: Yeah, it's all of the above. I also knew what my time, what I would probably like to charge, the staple of my practice is when people wanted to do things, would I be hourly? Would I do a monthly retainer? Would I take a little bit of a hybrid compensation model where there's a, if it's a startup, some equity, a monthly stipend percentage of revenue shares.

So all those things, I'm like, okay, if it's this kind of job, I started thinking about a range, and then I would do those and I'm like, I didn't feel like I got enough out of this, or, or if I'm doing a consulting call, it's an hour, I'm getting $150, but it really felt like I was giving three, $400.

So, [00:16:00] different platforms led to different things, and now I think I'm kind of fine. And then the other thing is you also think about the salary you were making in the corporate world, and then if it was that market value slice and dice that over hours and weeks and then you're like, okay, this is reasonable.

Or I know that most people are doing this. So yes, you do that comparison and no doubt you find the right thing. That's going to, meet your financial needs.

Emily: So some trial and error, but it sounds like you found a good balance with a lot of different models of compensation. 

Darryl: Yeah. Exactly. And you know, it's good to be diversified too, or not be set on one thing to kind of prevent you from doing business and showing your value. I think that's the other key piece here is. Even if it's a small project, as much as I'd like to have, three to four or five, retained clients I'm not opposed to doing things knowing that it's gonna take an hour or two time and, maybe my competition [00:17:00] could be a little bit better, but at least out there I'm getting polished.

They're seeing the value of my work, and then there's potential to get better pay, you know, down the road.

Emily: Right, right. Yeah. When you think about building out your client base, did you find that. Most of your clients came from, past people that you met with or knew through your corporate career or are you finding them, like, is LinkedIn turning out to be a really useful tool there, or any other methods of finding clientele?

Darryl: Yeah, networking. I think that's the key. I wish I was doing more of that when I was working in a corporate job. But yeah, the art of being authentic. Introducing yourself, finding people that you get along with that there's some synergy and then some of the referral work comes.

So it's a little bit of a puzzle. LinkedIn should be leveraged. But I'm not paying for any, like lead generation. I'm more just finding people that I get along with that I understand there's an opportunity, I'm doing [00:18:00] a good amount of networking, more in person stuff now than I had been.

And. Just generally being resourceful or going back to people when I have projects that I know would appreciate what I'm doing. So there's that opportunity to work and leverage a lot of my connections to say, Hey, you're doing similar work. What are your thoughts? Get the insights there.

And that also leads to other introductions, but you know, kind of a wide range of ways to get work. No doubt about it.

Emily: Absolutely. What do you think about the prospects in your field right now? Do you feel like there's, you know, plenty of work to go around? Is it growing? Is it not growing as fast for someone getting into maybe the broader sports industry?

Darryl: Tons of potential. I mean, I think it's also, as much as there's competition, there's collaboration. Like if you and I worked for. Two different companies and we both after the same clients. I still think there's plenty of ways to slice and dice it where[00:19:00] you and I don't have to be completely at odds.

We could find enough there for there to be meaningful work between our two companies, between whether we're individuals or we work for corporations. I think there's so much in your, you, I don't know how, if you are a sports fan or just following the industry, but there's so much growth right now. It's insane.

Emily: Mm-hmm. I, I know about pickleball growth. It's

Darryl: Yeah. Well, pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. But it's also, there's, there's so many European sports that are coming over. There's also in the creator economy and, and with all those streaming platforms, there's so much in the sports arena. You know, whether it's virtual or real events or the sports rights and the way things are broadcasted and how companies look to monetize on content.

There's so many opportunities or fledgling businesses are, thinking about dabbling in into the sports arena. And [00:20:00] you could kind of grow things like I do a little bit from scratch and, and there's never a shortage of, opportunity. I really do feel that way.

Emily: Sounds like an exciting time.

Darryl: Yeah. No, it's, really exciting. The key is keeping it rewarding and not feeling so stressed out in the process. But I enjoy talking about sports and my work and what I do and how I can help and, going on the road and being part of these meaningful events in the community.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely. So along that vein, you know, we've talked about a number of things that you really like about your work, but do you have anything to add that you love about your job, especially if you think it's something that people might not expect if they don't work in your field?

Darryl: People don't expect that you could work easily with an athlete. And I think they think that that's a little bit of the big hunt. But there's a lot more people in this day and age, certainly athletes and the [00:21:00] people, the marketing teams, the agents that work with them, that are very receptive to new ideas and innovation and working with the creator economy.

So there was, you know, Joe Schmo. 14 year old kid that shouldn't think that the kid never work with like LeBron James or someone like that. There's actually tons of opportunities really. If they're good at what they do or they're engaging sometimes yeah, you, you gotta luck into things, but at the same time, it's not like, oh, I could never do this.

No. In fact, you can do this. It's actually not that hard.

Emily: That's amazing. I think a lot of people out there kind of dreaming about pairing their passions with their work life. It's like that's a really exciting potential for work, so that's cool.

Darryl: Yeah.

Emily: On the other hand, is there anything that's tough about it, especially if it's something that either you didn't expect coming into the field or you just didn't expect how challenging it would be?

Darryl: No one, no one [00:22:00] anticipates a lot of the. Red tape and time constraints. Like some things like, I just need a quick answer. A quick answer could turn into two months. And then in the corporate world, someone, will objectively say, you know what, this is not a business priority.

Yes, it's, it's important to you and the people you work with, but. No, we have other fish to fry, you know, so it's like, give me a break here. Like, you know, you're impacting a lot. Yeah, well, we're also running a business, you know, so it's like there's a lot of, considerations and a lot of things that go into whether something could be achieved and executed.

But that's where the, fund really begins. Cuz now you have to be resourceful. Maybe you don't have as many people on a project that you'd like to, maybe you're not getting paid as much as you, you should be. So how do you find that balance and how do you still work hard and show up and be present?

 Whether it's in corporate or consulting, you have to, chug along and, not carry, , some of that [00:23:00] excess baggage with you because, That's going to impact your productivity. It's also going to be visible on a zoom call or in an interview, so you really just have to like roll with the punches constantly and plow along.

Emily: Yeah, there's so much outside of your control, probably whether you're working for yourself or someone else in your whole career. Well, this is my last question. What is one piece of advice generally about work that you would give your younger self?

Darryl: Team built perpetually find the find partners in business allies because, individually you can persevere and try and take it all upon yourself, but it's really that together. Or as a strong group, as a bunch of partners, you're going to thrive more. They'll be able to find that balance and, that team mentality.

To, you know, benefit each other's lives and also potentially climb the ladder or get money into the [00:24:00] business. So yeah, definitely collaboration is key. And doing things with people you, know, like, and trust, I guess is a big thing with me and something that I would've.

No, it's not to say I didn't do it or didn't think about this when I was younger, but it's ever more important.

Emily: Absolutely. So if people wanna find out more about what you do or maybe get in touch, what's the best way to reach out to you or, find out more about your work?

Darryl: LinkedIn is, something that I'm checking out Every few hours or so, or on the app looking, at people's posts and, understanding where there's opportunities. But I am an active networker. You could probably see, or you probably know people that I'm talking to constantly.

And then, you know Just my email my responsiveness is, not something that people will be picking apart because I'm, generally pretty receptive and responsive to making sure that I'm [00:25:00] getting back to people that wanna, work with me or have a question.

So I try and be quick with an answer.

Emily: Can confirm. Very prompt emailer.

Darryl: Okay, great. Well, thanks for that compliment. Emily, I'm nothing if not prompt isn't that the, 

Emily: That's Right,

That's right. Thank you so much for your time, Darryl. I really enjoyed talking with you.

Darryl: Yeah, this was, great. I appreciate it and have a great rest of your day.

 Thanks for joining me. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review on iTunes. That's the best way to help others find the show. If you'd like to be interviewed here or you'd like to hear about a particular type of job, please reach out at Real Work Real life@gmail.com.