Hold My Cutter
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Hold My Cutter
Hannah Mears on the Art of Authentic Sports Communication
Ever wondered how the unique culture of Pittsburgh shapes some of its most talented people? We sit down with the incredible Hannah Mears, the pirate sideline reporter, at the Burn by Rocky Patel cigar lounge. Famous for her undeniable skills and dedication, Hannah shares her journey from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to becoming a standout figure in the broadcasting industry. With anecdotes of her early aspirations and the unexpected turn that led her to sports communication, she offers a fresh perspective on the winding paths that lead to success in this competitive field.
Explore the behind-the-scenes grind and the essential skills that every aspiring sports broadcaster needs. Hannah's experience highlights the importance of embracing every role within production, from the less glamorous tasks to the high-profile interviews. You'll learn why understanding the full scope of the sports reporting industry and valuing each contribution is crucial. Hannah's story underscores the dedication, resilience, and work ethic that mirror Pittsburgh's blue-collar spirit, painting a vivid picture of how these elements contribute to achieving one's dreams in broadcasting.
Our conversation also celebrates the authenticity and enthusiasm that make Pittsburgh's broadcasting scene genuinely unique. Hannah, alongside other respected figures, demonstrates how being true to oneself and fostering authentic connections with audiences can become a broadcaster's greatest asset. Whether you're an aspiring broadcaster or a sports enthusiast, this episode promises a wealth of insights into mastering conversation skills, nurturing genuine enthusiasm, and drawing inspiration from Pittsburgh's rich legacy. Join us for an inspiring and informative episode that illustrates the power of storytelling and the value of being sincere both on and off the camera.
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Welcome to another episode of Hold my Cutter. We're coming your way, as always, from Burn by Rocky Patel. We're just a few blocks down from PNC Park here on the north side in Pittsburgh. I swear to you.
Speaker 1:I've had one sip of our coffee here at Burn by Rocky Patel. That is the truth. Our coffee here at Burned by Rocky Patel, that is the truth. But our guest this episode has suggested, and what a job she did. The LB1. It stands for Latrobe Bucko 1. Rocky Patel LB1 is named from the codes used in the factory during the creation of the cigar Medium-bodied smoke rolled in Honduras. The tobacco blend includes Ligero from the Jamestron Valley of Honduras, a mix of fillers from Condega and Esteli, Nicaragua, grown at Patel's Farm, Rocky Patel's Farm, the LB1. And why?
Speaker 2:Hold on. I got it. First I thought it was a Bednar, but it's the Bazooka, it's the O'Neill Cruz.
Speaker 3:It's the Bazooka. Look at this thing. Yeah, this is the O'Neal.
Speaker 2:Cruz version. Thank you, Hannah, for calling O'Neal, by the way, in case you haven't guessed. If you're watching, you knew right away who it was.
Speaker 3:The lovely.
Speaker 1:Hannah Mears is our guest on Hold my Cutter. We begged her for a year plus to try and join us and we finally convinced her. She said only if I can smoke the LB1.
Speaker 2:Only if and you know she ran a marathon to get here this is just a stop, really. She's on her way back to La Trobe. Yeah, she's got another marathon after this to get home.
Speaker 1:Why La Trobe? Why do we say La Trobe? For those who don't know, that is the home of Hannah Mears.
Speaker 3:La Trobe.
Speaker 1:Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3:La Trobe, I Latrobe, latrobe, is that French, I feel like it's like if you go to, if you went to the high school in Latrobe, you say Latrobe. Yeah, anywhere outside of it, you say Latrobe.
Speaker 1:So, hannah, that's been an age-old question for those of us who have not been born and raised in Latrobe or Latrobe. We've always wondered do you look down upon someone not from Latrobe, saying Latrobe, as if they are Latrobians?
Speaker 3:No, I feel like I always tell people to say Latrobe, because then it's like you pretend, like you fit in.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, so do you know? Someone's not from there if they say it wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes and no. I feel like it's just a preference thing. You can tell, though, maybe if somebody really is Like, if someone says Latrobe, you're like, oh, you're probably from there, but if they say Latrobe, it's a toss-up, it's like, okay, well, you could be, you couldn't be, so people from Latrobe will say Latrobe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she dropped a little bit of Tennessee on the last one. A little bit of Tennessee, says the Tennessee boy.
Speaker 1:How did Hannah Mears? Hannah Mears, of course, is not only a pirate sideline reporter. She's been way more than that. But we've gotten to know Hannah because she just does an incredible job as the pirate sideline reporter.
Speaker 2:She killed it this year.
Speaker 1:I mean she really did, and we've said this when Hannah's not been with us. We've talked to so many others about it. I guess I've not told you this, hannah. I've told you I think you're really good. Thank you, greg. I didn't tell you how surprisingly good you you have been. It's, thank you. I mean I thought you'd be good, but I really I've told people.
Speaker 2:It's like I cannot skeptical of you I, I was, I was, but can I, can I add to that, since dave is no longer with us? God rest your soul um he's not he's not dead, he just he. He just decided to do something different, he's worked dead to us, but his soul exists. But he called me. I was supposed to interview with you guys, supposed to help facilitate the interview.
Speaker 2:I had to go to the fantasy camp. I love it, but he said you didn't just kill it, you blew everybody away. That it was literally no question, because you went in as the outlier oh, the Pittsburgh, or we'll give her a chance. Literally, that's what they were saying. Dang, I got to hear a little bit of this and you went in and the way you're prepared which that's what your gift is and the way that you knocked it out, your knowledge of an understanding of the city, they said they couldn't hire anybody else, period. So whatever you did there which is probably just what she did all year you killed it.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. It was like the most intimidating thing. In a way. It was the first time I had really ever had to go and audition for something like that, which was terrifying, and I knew absolutely nothing like in terms of what to expect, like how to prepare things like that. So was terrifying and I knew absolutely nothing like in terms of what to expect, like how to prepare things like that.
Speaker 2:So when they gave, me and they don't help you, and they don't.
Speaker 3:They don't help you because they don't.
Speaker 1:They don't want to help you.
Speaker 3:They have a producer when you get there, that'll help you. But once I sat with the producer, they were like oh yeah, this looks good. I was like, okay, well, hopefully this will work. But I thought I was going to have to host an hour long show in my audition and I thought I was going to have to actually like really pretend to interview someone, which I did, but they were. I was giving, I guess, at one point in the interview, giving like storylines for the season Right, where different things could be, like an in-game report and things like that, and so I had to give an in-game report and they were like you don't have to like memorize that, you can look down this whole night before I memorized everything.
Speaker 3:I was ready to go because I didn't know I was going to be able to use my notes, because typically I don't know any setting I've been. I never really. I always don't want to look down at notes. I want to memorize, I want to be knowledgeable, I want to have everything there for me, um, so yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:It was kind of a crazy process, but they give you nothing. When you're done, you're like, well, I hope I did good, I have no idea, no one's giving me anything. But I just wanted to go in so overprepared I never want to be underprepared. I was. I wanted to be overprepared. I wanted to show my knowledge. I wanted to impress them, more than just the job itself being a dream job, but because I care about Pittsburgh, right Like I'm from Pittsburgh. So it meant a lot to me that, you know, some people might not be fans of the pirates, but I was and I am, and that meant a lot to me that it's represented in the best way possible and the stories are being told and being told and that they're you know, you can, you can tell them with your soul and your passion. And so I went in with that's what I went in with the intentions, and it worked out.
Speaker 1:You went and prepared for an hour. You prepared for an hour.
Speaker 2:Wait till you hear that she's not sharing one thing. Who'd you call?
Speaker 3:So you mean like to prepare for the interview?
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk about what you did to prepare for this and then I'll explain what I did. And we both did something unique. Mine was exact opposite of yours. Oh, that's funny, because I'm basically is it with mitch.
Speaker 3:Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 2:yeah, okay so they pick the game yeah.
Speaker 3:So essentially what they do is okay. So rewind a little bit. I had a little bit of ties with the pirates the year before. I had done their social media reporting. So anytime we would go to a community event I would sort of just, you know, do the social media videos. So I had made connections with some of the players and the personnel and things like that.
Speaker 3:So when I found out I was getting the audition which Mitch Keller had found out too, like there was a couple of players who had, or people you know just the hearsay of oh, I heard you might be up for this type of thing. He was a couple of players who had, or people you know just the hearsay of oh, I heard you might be up for this type of thing. He said if there's anything you ever need, like, let me know. And so I felt weird asking because it's like a weird thing. But I was like, hey, I found out the game I'm supposed to be pretending I'm doing happened to be, you know, a game where he was going to be coming off the game pitching really well, I think, or something along those lines.
Speaker 3:And so I said can I send you a couple of questions to answer as if I had just interviewed you and so you could give me direct quotes so I could use them as an in-game hit, as if it would be something new, current and real that you would be saying, because I didn't want to go in there and just say the same thing. That everybody else probably was was what was on the paper. So I was like, how can I use what's available to me?
Speaker 3:and so mitch being so kind, because he is just an amazing human, him, his wife clancy, his whole family like the best people.
Speaker 3:He sent me just a paragraph back about everything from like that game gave me quotes to use, and it just meant the world to me that, you know, those people were on my side no matter what, but also just he didn't have to go out of his way to do that, you know, and he did, and that meant so much and I do think that made the difference. Right, it might have been like that was a 30 second part of that.
Speaker 2:But because who else could bring that? No, nobody. That just showed immediately she's different, she's a burger. Burger latrober, how do you say that?
Speaker 3:yeah, so yeah, it separated her big time. Dave said when that happened it was just like Burger La Trober. How do you say that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, La Trober, La Trober. So yeah, it separated her big time. Dave said when that happened it was just like the whole room just went.
Speaker 1:Was it in Pittsburgh?
Speaker 3:Hannah, or did you go to Boston? I had to go to Boston for that. Really. Yeah, I went to Boston for that. So it was essentially when you walked in you met with the producer. I sort of said here's what my rundown is, because you had to go host a show, so you had to host the show at the desk. I thought I was gonna have to host an hour-long show. They're like no, no, this is like five minutes.
Speaker 3:I was like okay, well, I prepared for it, but that's fine so it was quick, but that wasn't supposed to be like the main role anyway. Um, and then I had to give what I would think of in-game hits. I had to have two of those ready. Plus, I had to have current storylines for the season and then had to interview someone as if it was a post-game interview and then went from there and then waited for like a month.
Speaker 1:It felt like but how long was it.
Speaker 3:I can't remember the exact time, but it was a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:It was a couple of weeks, but the decision was made literally that week.
Speaker 3:When you were done after the interview. When you were done, how confident were you that you think you nailed it? I? I felt so good about what I did because I've never felt so prepared for something in my life, yeah. I, I wanted that so bad. And you know what everybody always talks about, like this kind of cliche, but like when you know opportunity meets, you know when you, when you have an opportunity. It meets circumstance or it meets like preparation. That's when like good things happen and all.
Speaker 2:I wanted to do was luck.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like, go in there, be myself and over prepare. And I had felt like I over prepared Once I realized they said you don't have to memorize things. Once I realized they said it's not going to be an hour, I was like, oh, I'm way over prepared for this and I feel so good about this. And yeah it just. I walked out of there saying I can confidently say I could not have done any better and I'm usually my biggest critic, and I felt good about that.
Speaker 3:I said you know what, if they don't want me, they don't want me, but I feel very proud of what I just did.
Speaker 2:You could hang your hat on it, right.
Speaker 3:I could have, I would have walked away, and if they didn't want me, I you know fine, there's somebody better than me. But I felt like that was the best possible product I could have put on there. So I was like, well, if they don't want me, it's not in my cards, but I felt very good about it.
Speaker 1:Was this ultimately something that you wanted to do growing up?
Speaker 3:ultimately, no, yes, and no, I was always somebody who was really good at public speaking. All those writing classes and English classes came naturally to me.
Speaker 2:So it just was a gift and you just kept building on it. Yeah, gift to gab.
Speaker 3:That's what my parents always said, my dad was a talker.
Speaker 3:I was a talker, my older brother and my grandma, we all had the gift to gab, they called it, so could just talk. Always I was the kind of person who would rather give a speech than write, then take a test, like I would rather write a paper or give a give a public speech than take a test. No, thank you. I'm like don't give me a test, anything, I will stand there and BS till the cows come home. Um, but that was sort of just like the, the skillsets I had, right, but I always wanted. I just thought you never really saw that as an option growing up. You always thought you could be a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, like the jobs that they teach you about in school. And so I love kids and I had a passion for, like taking care of people and I, till my senior year of high school, thought I was going to be a nurse practitioner and I wanted to specialize in neonatal, so I wanted to go with the babies and things like that.
Speaker 2:So that would fit with the talking to and the personality.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the neonatal nurse practitioner.
Speaker 3:That's what I wanted to be and then, when I was applying for schools and stuff, something just didn't feel right. I just I didn't know what it was, but I just it didn't feel right. And then, um, I had always loved sports. I played three sports. I just I didn't know what it was, but I just it didn't feel right. And then I had always loved sports. I played three sports. I just never really knew you can mesh them. And then one summer I was a runner for ESPN, before I was heading into Penn State.
Speaker 2:What is a runner?
Speaker 3:A runner is essentially someone behind the scenes who's doing whatever they need that day, from getting coffee to wrapping cables to finding random things at Lowe's that the crew needs that day. You're a runner going to pick people up at the airport, like whatever they need that day. You're the person that they're contacting for it. So when I went to Penn State, I sat there in orientation and I saw there was the communications program and I thought, oh, something about this is me, like this is my personality, this is me. So I didn't know exactly what it was going to be, but I knew that's the field I should be in um. And then I went that summer shadowed espn when they were at steelers training camp and I was a runner and I saw what they were doing and I right then, and there was like this is what I need to do did you have to run everywhere, by the way?
Speaker 3:um, sometimes. But they gave me a car so I could drive too, which I'm in this like huge, like Cadillac Escalade driving around Lake Trove with this coffee in my seat that I'm like I can't spill this everywhere. It was so nerve wracking I was like what if I wrecked this car?
Speaker 2:I know this is normal now, but then I'll be like you're a college student. In Escalade you have to feel like what up'm hannah? Right, that's cool. Like also.
Speaker 3:This is so fun, I did tacoma this are you.
Speaker 1:Are you good with that?
Speaker 3:this is fun no, I was terrified because I thought I was gonna wreck the car and then I was like they're never gonna hire me back. I'm gonna. This is horrible. This is a nightmare, but it was fun and ended up and you didn't wreck it and I didn't wreck the car and thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2:I didn't say but this is fun, Greg Brown taught me how to smoke a cigar today Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, but he did not teach her how to cut it.
Speaker 3:He said hold my cutter, I'm not giving it to you.
Speaker 2:He held on to the cutter. That was the whole point.
Speaker 1:It's not working. She had to learn about this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you taught her. Hold my, that's right, that's what you had to learn. And the mugs?
Speaker 1:And the mug of coffee. Yep, isn't that good coffee.
Speaker 3:I love the coffee. I love the latte, vanilla latte so sweet, oh, that's nice.
Speaker 2:So, to wrap that story up, the way I did mine and I was the exact opposite of you. I was scared to talk in front of people. I had learning disabilities.
Speaker 3:I hated taking tests, I and now I'm on TV. It's cool. Now look at you. Yeah, it's really really neat.
Speaker 2:I think my wonderful wife, communications major. She wanted to do what I'm doing to a certain extent. She took a shift, I took a shift, but when I did mine they sent me the DVD. Like three weeks before JA hit a walk-off homer against Rich Hill in the 10th.
Speaker 3:You got the DVD.
Speaker 2:No, no, I didn't watch it. My interview was at 8 o'clock when you talk.
Speaker 1:I was going to say cheater about your stuff. Wait, wait, wait. That was my thought. You said opportunity.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait, hey, hold your cutter for one minute. I didn't cheat. I woke up at 6 o'clock, I think, my interview, I thought I said 8. It was probably 10. Woke up at 6.
Speaker 2:I game, took notes and got prepared for for the show like I was doing it, because I I figured out what's this look like, what's the schedule, how am I going to do it. So I knew the talking points and I put it down and I walked in, left my notes and did the interview. So I did the opposite. I didn't prepare before, I waited till.
Speaker 2:So I was reacting to the game and it was so fresh and so real and they were like dude, I know I'm high energy, but I was passionate about it because I hadn't seen that game since Jay Hay did it, and Jay Hay was a friend and Rich Hill was a friend, so like all my enthusiasm came out at once and they said that was the biggest separator. So like I bought into who I was, just like you did, just differently. That's cool. I say that because we always try to give some two cents One, be a runner, do the little things, and then two, the fact is, do it your way, we talked about that on another podcast, hannah, and you're such a great example of it.
Speaker 1:Love people that get it. I know you've spoken to kids. Now, though, you're still a kid, but you've spoken to some, I'm sure, high school, maybe college students about wanting to get into the business and that nobody has the same path. It's it's different for everybody, but the one common theme is that you're willing to put in that work because you know you want something, you'll you'll do whatever it takes, and that's kind of it sounds like what you did.
Speaker 3:Oh, a hundred percent. My path is very all over the place with so many different backgrounds of production and video, of editing like kind of that one-man machine, because my generation going through college we had to be at that point, which is amazing.
Speaker 3:It's a lot, it's a lot. And I was actually just talking to someone, a college student the other day who everybody sees where you are now right, but they forget about the path that it took and they're like well, I want to do what you do, how do I get to be a side then reporter in major league baseball? I was like, well, it took me at least five years to get here, and five years prior to that, in school.
Speaker 2:You don't fall to the top, you don't just all of a sudden be here and so many people on social media.
Speaker 3:I think it gives you a false sense of of a lot of things, but a false sense of success in a way too, because, because so many people think, oh well, I can just do that right now because she's doing it right now and I'm like whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3:I didn't post the hours upon hours of things that I was doing to get to that point. And I said when I graduated college you know it was hard because I was at Penn State, a division one program covering some of the best athletic teams in the nation, for four years I felt like I was here. Then you graduate college, those opportunities are gone. I graduated in the middle, like as soon as COVID became a thing, so I had no job opportunities available.
Speaker 2:It made me feel a little you right there we go again Back to that again.
Speaker 3:Substitute teaching in a school to make money and sidelining high school football games. You know you're making $30, $50, and it wasn't even a point of the money. I just wanted the opportunity to keep building myself. And that kind of stuff not everybody's willing to do because it's not glamorous, no, like it's, you're not making a lot of money, it is a lot of hard work. You're sitting there sometimes thinking like what am I doing?
Speaker 3:But at the same time time like if you love it, that's going to teach you if you really love it or if you want to do it for the wrong reasons and I can confidently say I'm in this because I love it, or else I wouldn't have done any of that you know I had just as much joy covering a middle school wrestling match that I do like standing and interviewing andrew mccutcheon, like it's just the, the people, the passion, the storytelling, and and you have to love both things you can't just only love it because you get to be on TV. I love every aspect of it.
Speaker 2:So one. I tell kids all the time it takes what it takes, it's just if you're willing to actually do it. But what type of perspective did that give you? And when you see someone editing something you did, or someone that's producing or anything, you've touched all of that because it's something I believe in in every business. I got that way. When I was playing I was kind of mentored to say don't miss little things, learn it all, figure out what the clubhouse guy does and how he does it, and it gives you a perspective and an understanding that's completely different and you do love it differently, but you love what's done for you to even walk out there and do your dream I have so much respect for how a production comes together.
Speaker 3:It's insane because I was the runner who was just standing in the background, trying not to be too noticed, in a way, and make sure things are happening the right way for the people who are putting this together. I have so much respect for the producers behind the scenes who are trying to find the storylines, put the show together, make sure things are flowing properly, because I did that, like at KDK, for a few years I was a sports producer and I mean it's a grind, because you're worried about the timing, you're worried about stories. You have to make something happen every day, even if things are slow. I was, you know, have so much respect for videographers. I had to carry around those heavy cameras. I'm a little person and you're standing on the sidelines and it's, it's rainy, it's cold, it's whatever it is, it's hot and it's you still have to get the shot and it's intimidating sometimes, like if you don't, you don't get that shot, that's it, like you missed it, and so you have a certain level of respect for that. Missed it and so you have a certain level of respect for that. And the people, the audio.
Speaker 3:You know, I was at Oregon the other day covering a football game. This is crazy. I'm at Oregon covering a football game. Oregon beats Ohio State. Right, this is number two and number three in the country. This is like one of the biggest games of the year in the Big Ten. The Big Ten sends me to cover it, which is such an honor and a privilege to begin with, but NBC's the actual broadcast. I'm just covering pre and post-game, so NBC gets priority of those post-game interviews. So I'm standing beside where NBC is to get Dan Lanning after the win and there's a field rush of the fans because Oregon beats Ohio State. It's a huge win. You know Oregon skyrockets to the ranks number one in the nation. All these things. I'm standing there, my cord for my microphone, the XLR cable like this is hooked into the microphone, my audio guy's here, my camera guy's here and I'm bodying people like my elbows are going because there's people rushing the field. You know you start getting a little scared in a way no-transcript, anything about it.
Speaker 3:And I was standing there and Dan Lanning looks at me and he's like, are we going to do this? And he wasn't not in a rude way, like, all right, let's go kind of thing, coach. I'm so sorry we can't, like I can't do this, like it's broken.
Speaker 2:And I at this point want to just melt in tears because you are like what do I?
Speaker 3:do now. But then, as soon as it was, I was like I looked at my camera guy or my audio guy. I was like you go find another XLR cable that way. So he has to go the whole way to the fields from this way. I said we're going to follow coach, we're going to figure out where he is and we're going to see if we can borrow someone's cord to get this interview somewhere else. Thankfully, dan landing was so kind. We went into the like the locker room and he ended up doing it. We found an XLR cable and he did it on the side.
Speaker 3:But that gives you so much respect for every moving part, because it didn't matter how prepared I was for that interview. It didn't matter how prepared I was for that moment, like wanting that moment selfishly, but also for the Big Ten Network to be able to put that on their production. I felt horrible because I'm like they wanted to be able to show that. That's why I was sent there. Everyone was so kind, though, being like there's things that are out of your control, we get it. But I had so much respect for the people around me where it's like man, if I could stand there and be as prepared as I want, but if I don't have video, no one's going to see it, and that's the stuff behind the scenes that you just have so much respect for people Day in the life of live TV right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was the most intimidating and eye-opening things I've ever done, and here I am like feeling like I'm at the top of my game, I'm so prepared and things like that happen and you're like crying on the way home because you're just like work with, all of a sudden, because then you're trying to ask these PR people extra things behind the scenes and I was like I don't want to be difficult to work with. Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 2:How could you be difficult if the cable snapped?
Speaker 3:You just start to feel bad asking afterwards. I know you feel that because you're your worst critic.
Speaker 2:I'm the same way Like what did I do? I should have done something.
Speaker 3:You horrible and I wanted that moment for the big 10. I wanted to be able to turn on that broadcast and see when they came the film storm, the field storm, like down to us. You saw that moment, you captured it and and I, I didn't get it, but I did the best with what I could. But it does. It gives you a whole different perspective and I was doing the alternate broadcast the other day for the first time, which was so fun, um, with max talbot and matt caps got to explain that.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have an alternate broadcast now once a month on Sportsnet Pittsburgh Plus and on the SNP360 app, and we essentially do a format like this where we're sitting and talking Imagine a Pirates game happening right and you guys would be reacting to it but also telling stories, having guests, incorporating fun things for the audience. But we're doing that with hockey once a month. It's really fun. But after the show, freddie, our you know, our producer was said have you produced? Before? I said yeah, he goes. Oh, I could tell, because there were just certain moments where you say, hey, how about we do this? Because we're coming back and we're showing this shot and this story would go well you're able to time to go?
Speaker 3:yes, and that's not to like to my own horn by any means that no, it's real yeah, you can tell when people have had that because and I value that as somebody I think that's helped me so much in my career because it helps you with storytelling and it takes the things that much further and you know what, what shot your camera guy wants in that scenario and when this story could fit. You're not just throwing it in there. So yeah, long story short. I have so much respect for every single person behind the scenes because it just it's you can't have you can't be ron burgundy, you can't just yeah, like yeah, don't put it on the prompter he's gotta say yes, yes, but
Speaker 2:like we don't have prompters, we, but I I respect that so much. You did the same thing. As I've gotten into this industry, I've done the same thing as, like I want to know what the director does. I want to know, I want to know what everybody does so I understand it. Like the gear we use and stuff, how do I set it up? I've messed up a thousand times. I absolutely love that. I think every person should learn their entire industry so they can't understand. Because if freddie had a bad day, right, you just may have saved him because his brain's just not firing you. Hey, let's try this, try this, try to do this, but then they get this fire in, especially freddie. I love freddie, he'll. He'll kind of be like no, let's go this direction and bring that in in segment b in the second half. I'm like cool, and it's like you're just firing, like like you're a battery, like I'm catching him. I'm calling my own pitch and he's like, no, we're, let's shake this way, but he's the actual catcher and I get to be the pitcher.
Speaker 1:It just helps.
Speaker 2:So much to know what everybody does, it just helps you and your job to know what everybody does it just helps the pieces of the puzzle, it just helps. You guys are walking through the entire game plan every single day. People don't know a lot of that stuff. I think that's the most interesting part about this industry is every person that's been in this industry that's come on this podcast has talked about how important it was to do all the groundwork, build the foundation, because the understanding they have it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So. But, hannah, but you talked about your freshman year at Penn State. That's when you were a runner, but then you decided to really focus on your career. So what did you do the next three years at Penn State?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So going into my freshman year, it was basically sort of right before the fall of freshman year I was a runner that like one weekend for ESPN, when they were there, I had done a couple of things. Um, freshman year I was in a class with this professor, mike Poorman. He's awesome, he's still a mentor till this day. It was like a sports business class and I got put in it essentially and it was a bunch of sophomores, juniors, like it wasn't really a thing for freshmen to be put in it.
Speaker 3:But I was there that summer session, I had a good relationship with some of the advisors and so I got to be in that class and it changed my life because he got in. I went up to him and this was something I always tell young people in college. I say go talk to your professors, go meet your professors, don't just show up to class, make sure they know who you are, because they are so well-connected and they can help you so much, especially like at any university. I went to a big university and that helps just make it feel a little smaller.
Speaker 2:What gave you that intuition to do that? Is that just who you were?
Speaker 3:I think it's just like who I was innately as a person is. I just I felt like this professor had so many similarities that I did in terms of we liked sports, the passion, so I was like I want him to know who I am, like I want to talk to him. Maybe he has advice for me, because I wasn't the type of kid who grew up saying I want to be a sports broadcaster. So I knew everything I needed to do to get to that point. I really was starting from scratch. So I just went up to him I said hi, I'm Hannah, um, I'm from Latrobe, pennsylvania. I want to do sports broadcasting and any type of advice you have for me I'd love to know. And he knew me then from mirror he calls me mirrors, just mirrors from Latrobe. All this time.
Speaker 3:He did a special class on Arnold Palmer and he brought in Arnold Palmer iced tea for everyone one of the days, oh my gosh he was just an awesome guy and he got an email one day that somebody from Penn State Athletics was looking for a student who could possibly be an on-camera talent essentially, if you want to call it that and to cover feature-y stuff within Penn State Athletics. So he had just told me I needed to answer this email and go have a meeting with this person, who was Ariel Sargent at the time, and I said, okay, I thought I was just going to be like her personal assistant, Like that. I didn't know I was going to be an interview. I was like, okay, I'm just going to go sit there, tell her like I'll do anything she wants me to do.
Speaker 3:And so it took me about three minutes to realize like, oh, I'm being interviewed for something and I don't really know what it is but she was asking me all these questions and then afterwards I met Jim Nachman, who ended up being such a father figure to me but a mentor and my boss eventually, and they were starting this new thing called Beaver Stadium Extra and I was an extra, essentially covering all things on Beaver Stadium football Saturdays besides the game. So special guests that came back, former Penn State players, like an NFL player comes in and you interview them and that's the kind of stuff that goes up on YouTube to do more of a fan experience. And from there it just grew and now it's really cool to step away from that and see and look back and see all the students that get to do that now Like they've split it up more so from just like one person to a bunch of students to give them real experience on camera at school. So my freshman year I got to get all those kinks out of like the weird stuff you get to do, and so I got to get so many.
Speaker 3:I tell people all the time it's repetition, repetition, like you just have to put yourself in front of a camera and ask questions, and so I was so blessed to be doing that from freshman year on. But then they gave me more opportunities because I spent, I realized I didn't want to just be on camera, I wanted to know how it worked back to like all the stuff. So I stayed one summer just to learn how to video and edit. Um, so and then, ironically, that next fall, because I learned how to video and edit, there was an opportunity that came up and they needed someone to go cover the nfl combine with all the penn state athletes at the combine, and I was the person they sent to do it because I could do all three. And so it was just. You know, it's those things. It's like weird how things work out. God works in mysterious ways.
Speaker 2:However you want to, call it, she put it, you put in the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you were there, you kept showing up.
Speaker 2:The question is how many times you say no.
Speaker 3:Oh none.
Speaker 2:I eventually times. You say no, oh none.
Speaker 1:I eventually had to teach myself that that was one lesson I none.
Speaker 3:That was one lesson I had to teach myself. Or someone sat me down one day and they said hannah, like it's okay to say no, sometimes like you're gonna kill you right right, yeah, you still haven't learned that, yet no no, I think all three of us have that problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of saying yes all the time, but the luxury of being able to say, you know, that's just not for me when you have really get to that point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you get to that point, but until then you do get to that point where it's like is it gonna fill my cup anymore, or is? It just me, because I did get to a point where I felt like I was doing a lot for other people but. I was like I I am really spreading myself thin here, and if I can't give a hundred percent, I don't want to give anything, because I shouldn't ever shortchange somebody, right?
Speaker 2:And Greg does a thousand things. But as you get older one, you have family. Two, you also look at it like and I don't know if I could pour that much into that the way I want to, but I had to find care level Like all right, if I get 50%, nobody's going to beat that in my mind. But that took a long time. I'm 39.
Speaker 3:But like at your age.
Speaker 2:I said yes to everything, everything, everything. Yeah, I'm going to do it. The only thing I said no to was when Robbie asked me to go on air for Teak. Yeah, and Jaco said, no, you need to do it and I did it and that's why I have this job. But you say yes Because I was terrified. That was insecurity, but that is a lesson everybody should learn. Yeah, they did it and they said yes and they showed up and I love that.
Speaker 3:There are days, I'm sure you guys all know too you're tired you're tired, like you. You're like, oh my gosh, am I really about to do this?
Speaker 3:like, oh, and it was really hard, because when you're in college and you're sacrificing so much that your friends are partying and this and it's not that I didn't have that experience right but yeah, you have class, I was working jobs, I was plus this, plus you're trying to manage, like trying to have a social life, and it's not easy to, like you know, say yes to everything when you feel like you're missing out on a lot of things. But I wouldn't trade a single thing. I did because it all led me to somewhere you know it's a sacrifice. Yeah, yeah, and those are sacrifices I was willing to make to get where I am well, so after?
Speaker 1:so after graduation what happened?
Speaker 3:oh well that was so that was fun um so wait?
Speaker 2:so literally 2020, like may. Did you graduate? May, I'm guessing 2020. Did you even get to walk?
Speaker 3:no I actually don't even think I saw my name roll across the screen because it was like when the computer screens were on.
Speaker 2:I got tired of watching it. I was like it's fine isn't that terrible.
Speaker 3:I'm already like three beers deep at this point.
Speaker 2:I was like whatever, like I graduated go me.
Speaker 3:I think that was more for my mom. Anyway, I was like Mom when the diploma comes in. I don't even know where my diploma is. I was like Mom when my diploma comes in. You can look at that Good for me.
Speaker 3:But it was really cool. At least when I look back, I could say, yes, I graduated in COVID and what a bummer. But I got to cover the Super Bowl that year, right happened and that was so cool. So there is so much that Penn State gave me that I'm so glad to be sitting here today and I wouldn't be here without that experience. But yeah, after graduation was hard after graduation because COVID, there's no jobs. I was. I also tell people to do this now too. I was cold emailing people, so I would write up an email, I would attach my resume, my demo reel, everything and basically just be like you have no idea who I am, but I'm Hannah Mears and here's what I can do and here's what I want to do. I sent it to everywhere I'd ever be interested in.
Speaker 2:Wow, everything shut down.
Speaker 3:Well, everything shut down because I just wanted to keep putting myself out there, and even if they had nothing, maybe they knew somebody who had something, or maybe it's just like making a connection and I had a guy from Clemson call me because I emailed the Clemson football people. I was like they'd be a cool school to work for. I did that with a lot of people but I just was passionate about certain things. And the guy called me back and this like reaffirmed you know, when I was substitute teaching because I was just trying to make money and so I was just in school substitute teaching and doing like high school reporting and stuff, and he called me and said I don't know you and we don't have a job for you, but I want you to know that if I had any job, I would offer it to you in a heartbeat because I respect what you're doing so much.
Speaker 2:That fired you up, didn't it?
Speaker 3:And I was like, okay, what I'm doing isn't crazy, because you know the amount of people that probably read that email and never responded or just deleted it. Of course the very few.
Speaker 2:And then but going back to being crazy, the most successful people I know have a little bit of crazy. Yeah, you have an obsession about what you want to do and if you don't, you may not love it, right, right, because you have to be a little bit of a psychopath to keep moving forward and you have to be willing to hear no.
Speaker 3:And you have to be willing to hear not yet. And you have to be willing to hear you're not ready or those things like rejection is a big part of this industry, and one of the one of the people I emailed, ironically, was for the MLB Network, and a year later, right emails me back saying, hey, are you still available? We are now looking for remote producers because we need people to help edit these shows and with covid we can't in here, and so I started working for the mlb network. At one point that was one of my first jobs outside of you know, my first real job I wouldn't say in the industry was editing video for the mlb network remotely, because I sent an email, you know you edited for the mlb network.
Speaker 1:I did. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:No, isn't that crazy, on't that crazy and it was funny because the amount of videos I edited that year was what? Like 2021? Rowdy soles was like hitting bombs all the time and yeah, I was interviewing or editing so many rowdy soles videos, and then this year I'm covering him like as a part of the pirates, which is kind of crazy that is crazy. So many like rowdy soles good and things like that, which would mean like did they give you good video of? Roddy Tellez Put it out there.
Speaker 2:Do you get like a certain region? How'd they do that?
Speaker 3:No, they just. It would just be if I was working on like High Heat, like their show, right Are you kidding me? Whatever they were, talking about that day they would just say this Where'd you do it? Oh, in my living room that is wild, yeah, for the whole season well, the 60 games, yeah, the whole season, and then after the season.
Speaker 3:did that lead to something else? Because of the MVP? Yeah, so, interestingly enough I mean, there's so many risks throughout my journey I feel like I took. So Westmoreland Sports Network was somewhere I worked as well locally and I have to always give them a shout out. They gave me my first real opportunity right Like I was sidelining high school football, but they let me do it the real way. Like they were like go be like how Aaron Andrews is and go do your research. And I'm calling high school coaches, I'm looking, calling high school kids.
Speaker 2:Like, and so they gave me like that first start. I put handcuffs on somebody right A hundred percent. They were awesome.
Speaker 3:And so they gave me all that experience. Know, you think you're ready out of college to just take on the world and like, if I would have had this job out of college, I would not. I probably would have been fired Like I would not have been ready.
Speaker 1:Right, you think you are, but you're not.
Speaker 3:You think you are but you're not. There's so many lessons. Yeah, Westmoreland Sports did that, but then I was working substitute teaching to try to make money. Then the MLB Network got me out of that, where I was allowed to actually do something, and then KDK reached out and I was taking a pay cut which was scary from the MLB Network and leaving something that felt really good.
Speaker 2:But I knew that KDK was a better step in the right direction, where I wanted to go, just to get my foot in the door in an area I wanted to be in in Pittsburgh and and since then just kind of went from there. I'm gonna drop a hurdle as I'm on you, an honest you got to be an honest self-evaluator, yeah, and I feel like today's age is not. But like you too, so you guys have some similarities in your story about like the work. Is that just pittsburgh blood? I feel like everybody I meet just has that knack that that's successful, has that knack and the want to like. I haven't heard. Like yeah, I just showed up and it happened right. I've heard that in tennessee, I've heard that everywhere. I have not heard that yet here. Is that instilled as a kid, because the way pittsburgh, that pittsburgh like, I think, do you not agree? Like I feel like it's blue college? I have not heard that yet. Here, is that instilled as a kid Because the way Pittsburgh's.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've had Pittsburgh pride to some, do you not agree? I feel like it's just this region. I mean I don't know, I can't imagine other cities, but like the ego.
Speaker 2:Neither one of you guys have ego.
Speaker 1:She does, I don't, I don't have any.
Speaker 2:Well, exactly, yeah yeah, it I need to take a step back to go forward. All the lessons you're doing it naturally is that from your upbringing.
Speaker 1:Or is that from just naturally? Probably the work ethic probably comes from our upbringing. You too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but communication-wise in your all's industry. I don't think people understand how cutthroat it is. Very little opportunity, even less than Major League Baseball, if you put it in perspective. When it comes to how many people, there's only one. There's only one, hannah Mears for the Pirates right, not 25 on the roster. So you look at it and you're like that's this small.
Speaker 1:So you take all these jobs and do all this stuff. In terms of Hannah specifically, you basically grew up on a farm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you worked a farm, never mind. Now I get it Right.
Speaker 3:She's tossing hay I mean the hard work, definitely, Like my parents are very hardworking people and they instilled that from day one. You know we were never not going to work.
Speaker 2:I've had a job since I was 12. So it was from your upbringing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had a job since I was 12. I worked at Idyllwild Idyllwild and Soapstone.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, doing everything there. And then I was babysitting, I was waitressing. My mom never let us out of a job. I worked at Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2:I worked at Genelli's local restaurant, but they did the same thing, right they?
Speaker 3:did the same thing and then we'd be at home and in the wintertime, you know, we heated our house with a wood burner and so we had to go and our mom always had a list of chores and it was just a very good, structured way of growing up, right Like I at the time. Yeah, you're miserable and you're like, why do we have to do this? But I didn't realize everything that it was teaching you was valuing hard work and appreciating where you came from and everything my parents worked for. And you know I couldn't have been cheap paying for all of our sporting sports that we wanted to do and I played travel, soccer and everything and my parents never complained. You know they were happy that we were happy and successful. And my dad wasn't so happy when I decided not to play soccer in college and take a scholarship and then pivot and go to Penn State. But now he's happy.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell people from now on, your dad is Paul Bunyan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, perfect, he's got his little babe blue. Well, he has the, he has the automatic one now but for a long time we did it, and that's what he did.
Speaker 2:That's what other people he doesn't use that. Yeah, paul bunion doesn't use that. Right, he was how did uh.
Speaker 1:How you said, katie k reached out to you to be a producer for what sports beat, but well, it was nightly sports.
Speaker 3:Nightly sports, just their regular sports. They were looking for sports producers how did they find?
Speaker 1:did you reach out to them first?
Speaker 3:no linkedin. I guess I was posting stuff on linkedin social media.
Speaker 2:Linkedin's powerful I don't get it, yeah, and jared barton, who was just.
Speaker 3:I just loved all the people I worked with the kdk. Truly, they were just really transformative. I feel like it came at a time where I needed something and they were just like a family to me, um, and it was just really cool to work somewhere you grew up watching. Just like it is to work with you guys now, like I grew up watching you guys, it's very cool for me. And so to be with Bob Pompiani, rich Walsh, josh Taylor, jared Barton, steve Banco, like all these people behind the scenes and Jeremiah Miller came along along the way. It was just so cool to be there with these people.
Speaker 3:But Jared said he saw my stuff on LinkedIn from Penn state and he's like I liked watching it and they hired me to produce. You know, they knew that wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but then I kept producing, I kept putting myself out there for little things. I did some web content, like on camera for them and then eventually was an analyst on the nightly sports call and that was very cool because it was a very full circle moment of I started here with a dream and eventually I would watch people on the nightly sports call thinking I could do that, I could do that.
Speaker 1:So you were on the nightly sports call. I was on the nightly sports call.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Taking calls and talking. Oh yeah, taking calls talking.
Speaker 3:I want to take calls.
Speaker 2:Can we bring that back? Sportsnet calls just saying from fans. Some people aren't always nice, but some people are.
Speaker 3:That's the fun of it, right, let them get it out there and let's talk, love it. It was cool. So it was a very full circle thing for me and I was still producing at the time when I was there. But yeah, it was like a reward almost. I got to be on there.
Speaker 1:How long did you do it? Um only a few months until I got the, until I moved on, obviously, to do this stuff.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, no, but you were doing that. When you say, oh, two years.
Speaker 1:when you say this stuff like the pirates, no, yeah, but you were tell us about all the content stuff that you were putting together for not just the pirates, but hockey right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have like, you have like you should have a smorgasbord. Yeah, she did.
Speaker 3:So I had about eight jobs before I got this job at once, which is kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:At least you didn't run out of fingers. Yeah right, you do have 10. You got 10. You got 10. You got to add on there you got higher digits. Freelance is no joke it is a hard world, but it's also really rewarding at the same time, because you can learn a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah so I was doing um. I was. I started out. I worked for the penguins for a while so I was part-time with the penguins doing video and editing um and did some on-camera stuff. Then I was able to leave there and I was doing kdk and sports betting. So I was doing sports betting, hosting when you started that did you know?
Speaker 2:anything about I knew nothing about. I've always wanted to ask somebody that maybe was from the ground level, because I don't bet, I don't know a lot. I was just with somebody that bets a lot and he was talking to me like I know because everybody assumes I'm like. This is like Latin.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, but it's fun. She'll learn the lingo, she knows the language, she's going out and hosting a show like I got it.
Speaker 2:This is your best bet today, you know what the part about that was.
Speaker 3:I, I mean, I worked my butt off to learn at all because I wanted to be as knowledgeable as possible. I wanted to learn, I wanted to know. I wanted to because I was making my own bets like nobody was telling me what I had to say, so if I put something, out there and people were betting on it and it and they and it didn't hit like that's on me consequences.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and so that was hard, um, but it was. It was so fun because it was, you know, when you talk about like adding to your arsenal right of things you want to be able to do, sports betting was one of those things that I saw was growing so much. I wanted to be able to do that at some point because I wanted to have that on my resume in case somebody offered me a job one day and one of the things on there said you have to know about sports betting and if I didn't, you know I want to. I always want to be like one of the the most like prepared people for the job or one of the people that they're like well, she can do all of that now, type of thing. So I wanted that on my resume and it was like the perfect opportunity for it and everybody there was so cool and helping me learn, but they essentially were like, did they?
Speaker 3:know the gist of it, you know sports and you liked researching and you work hard, you'll be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, that's one of my like.
Speaker 2:I have like a list of like have you ever done this before? Best position. Do you know how I even got?
Speaker 3:that. Do you know how? I even got that job was colby armstrong, ironically. How crazy is that?
Speaker 3:how that so I was working at the penguins and I had done something with colby and great human, by the way we were just talking and then one of his friends reached out to him and said hey, do you know of any females who are in the sports industry who would be interested in hosting shows? I have a friend we're looking like specifically for like x, y and z to like branch into this, and he's like actually I do know somebody and that was one of my first full-time jobs I ever got, wow, wow.
Speaker 2:Can I ask you guys about hosting shows? So Rob King says he's like the point guard. He jokes around all the time and says you know I was a shooter, but now come back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now he's a point guard, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's all about passing the ball, but put him in the right position 100%. How do you guys read the situation? Some people are good at it. I've worked with a lot of people Sportsnet, Pittsburgh, outside of it. Some are great at it. But like that, I think, is the biggest gift, even if you don't know what you maybe are talking about, if you can push the conversation and understand the feelings, the emotion, the empathy, everything that's going on. People are going to tune in. How did you guys because I think both of you guys have a great sense of people, I'm asking both how did you kind of get that knack? Is it just by conversation? I know you like to go deep into understanding, but like, how do you do that For people and kids?
Speaker 1:that are trying to figure it out. That's her, that's up her alley. Well, it's too different.
Speaker 3:There is nobody better than transitioning or adding in funny things or underlying things than Greg Brown.
Speaker 1:Completely agree, he is fantastic to listen to One of the reasons that's true is because Hannah Mears is so prepared. Oh, okay, now that's the truth, by the way, until you do it, because I know what you're doing ahead of time, and there's some people that just leave you cold and you're done.
Speaker 2:Neither one of them are going to actually answer my question, because they don't like talking about themselves. But what I'm saying is you're from a different age.
Speaker 1:Newspapers don't right, yeah, you had to do research can I believe you had a little way on a stone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's an enigma in her age group that you know, they think they know because of social media, because they're understanding what they see, but she does it the old-school way too and I'm trying to you know, understand what makes someone tick and the understanding of, like I wanted understand that person so I can lead them to great content, I think.
Speaker 1:for Hannah, it seems to me, and she already mentioned it, it seems to me that she loves finding stories.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's her passion, right, that's the producer in you, right, and I also 100%.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest thing for that and even when I watch shows and what you see, it's someone who's just really authentic in themselves and I think that's anything in being on camera is because you know when people watch you, they know they're going to get this certain type of energy and fun when they watch Greg Brown there's my mom always says it and she, my mom is. Let me just put it this way she is not someone who's going to sit down and watch a sporting event just because she's watching some on there or she likes, you know, the Stanley Cup and rooting for the Penguins or watching a Steeler game.
Speaker 2:She's not like actively listening and watching, whereas my dad's listening to every word that greg brown's saying, right yeah, or that you're saying, and then he's going and telling all his friends what you said and that's the. That's literally the market in a nutshell, 100.
Speaker 3:But what makes people good is that you're so easy to listen to because you don't overthink it, you don't isn't over analyze it, he just tells you what's going on but is able to have a conversation, but, like, knows when to pause, knows when to make a moment, a moment, and I think that's truly people who just aren't afraid to be themselves, because there are so many people who will watch something and think you have to be perfect and structured and people like to watch it, knowing you're human and truthfully, yeah, sometimes I don't know how I'm going to transition or what's going to happen. We were talking to. I guess a good example of this if people are listening is I was hosting hockey the other day and Jay Caulfield said something about. He was really specific. We were talking about. Ricard Raquel took out this offseason, worked really hard. Haley Hunter told a phenomenal story about he decided to take away the sweet with his coffee in the morning, but it's a really big tradition in his culture to have a sweet with your coffee in the morning, but this season.
Speaker 3:You know, like a, like a dessert, yeah, but he wanted, but he wanted to come into this season. He was 0 for 17 and scoring in games last year and he wanted to come in this year and make an impact right away and he did. It worked whatever he did, but he took that sweet away. So we were talking about it and jay said I don't know if I could take away, like my chocolate cream filled crispy cream donut. And I stopped and I said, jay, that was really specific, like it wasn't like oh, I wish I could just take away.
Speaker 3:You know, my sweet in the morning. It was like my crispy cream this, this, this, and I was like you know what I wasn't afraid to just be like well, wait a second, like before we go to anything else.
Speaker 3:that was way too, like and he told us this great story that during covid, like he would go and like that was the one donut he found and he liked. And now he's like, obsessed with it. He talks about it all the time but it was just. You know, it's things like that that make I think and I don't think I'm a really strong man yeah, it made him real and then I made him laugh and people talk about Jay not laughing all the time, and I was like you bring out the human in other people too.
Speaker 3:And I'm not saying I'm great at it, right, this was my first time hosting. I think there's so much more I could learn, but someone like Laura Rutledge is so good at it she does it.
Speaker 2:I play with them. They're great people.
Speaker 3:But she's not afraid to be someone else. But if you can make other people feel comfortable around you, that's the biggest thing. Right as soon as you start talking, someone's going to feel your energy like, if you're nervous, they're going to be nervous, and so I think if you and I think greg does so good at that you're not afraid to be yourself.
Speaker 3:We know that, like we know, if we send it to fort, we're like wait, maybe we should make sure we filter this first, because he's gonna. He's gonna run with it Whatever he's committed to.
Speaker 2:And I'll say this I didn't know where you were going to go, but you nailed what I believe with all my heart is be who you are. You're going to get everything. I have no matter if it's on camera or off camera. That's who I am and I believe both you guys are the same way. And I think that's incredible, because when I got into this, I got some advice and I got beat up. The fans didn't like it and I was like what am I doing wrong? My wife goes you're not. You stop it. And the quote and I wanted to share this, all leading to this uh, walt emerson right ralph waldo emerson yep, go ahead, brownie.
Speaker 2:You told me this and I'll never, ever leave about enthusiasm yep, nothing great ever happens without enthusiasm. Yeah and whether we win, lose, draw, there's something in every single game and every single moment that you can look at and say man, that was cool. Well see, I think again this show.
Speaker 1:By the way, I'm glad you're watching this mutual society that we have here where we're applauding each other and patting each other on the back. It's called a dig me session, brownie, but I do think, and I'll pass it on to Hannah and Fort.
Speaker 2:They can't do it folks.
Speaker 1:That it is enthusiasm and I know Hannah believes this and Fort, you're relatively new to the business, but I think you wore it on your sleeve when you played. I could see it. But just enthusiasm for living in what you do comes natural. Yeah, it's contagious and nobody wants to watch or listen to anything if they don't think you're into it. Right Like why in the world would I waste my time if they're miserable? And I really think she's unbelievable. Hannah Mears is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:And I don't know how long we're going to have her here.
Speaker 1:We're lucky and I talked about Bob Walk. We lucked out with Bob Walk because I think he's one of the best color analysts in sports, another person that was not afraid to be themselves.
Speaker 3:That's right. We have a really good group of people who aren't? Afraid to be who they are, and I think, that's just the best part of it. That's what makes people really good. I think some of the best broadcasters I know is people who aren't afraid to be themselves, and I think that's really special. But also pittsburgh people love that because true there's certain markets right, who pittsburgh people more than anything would be like oh, they're being fake or they're this like.
Speaker 1:If you're authentically yourself, pittsburgh people feel like you're their friend well, it's funny to say that because you talk about like your mentor one of mine is Mike Lang, of course, and Mike helped me get the job, and that's one of the things I was so frustrated early on because I was getting people kind of saying like what's he doing?
Speaker 3:Why are people?
Speaker 1:so excited about the Pirates.
Speaker 2:And that's the one. We get that bugaboo a lot All you hometowners.
Speaker 1:They're terrible that doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 2:You're not enthusiastic about your sports team because they're winning or losing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just love your team, right? So, anyhow, uh, he said that. He said I'm going to give you a couple pieces of advice. He did, and one of the things is is, don't ever change who you are, because, especially you talk about pittsburgh, this town will spot a phony in a second.
Speaker 2:And what's the years? What's the years? This is my favorite Listen to this. This is to a T correct in every single way.
Speaker 1:Now, this won't apply to Hannah, because she's been doing it for a long time, but for me I had been in town for a while, then went to Buffalo and then I came back and I thought instantaneously people would pack Pittsburgh. The granny's back.
Speaker 1:Oh hey yeah, I'm like I wasn't feeling it the first couple years. I'm getting frustrated. Wow, people don't seem to really like me like they should, and I was talking to him about that and he goes you've got to give it five years, kid, and he goes at five years. You will not believe. If you put five years into Pittsburgh, they'll accept you. And almost to the day it was like, wow, five years in, they accepted me and you felt that way too. I moved here five years.
Speaker 2:In five years. Wow, every year I was thinking about taking this job. He said you do not give up. Now he told me that story and literally we bought a house within six months Because I felt like the fan base always accepted me like a Pittsburgher just because of my work ethic or whatever, and I'll never forget that as a player. But it was different. This is my biggest fear, like biggest fear as a kid. Yeah, talking in front of people, I mess up my words, I lose my thought.
Speaker 3:Your wife was telling us that the other day, it was crazy. Haley and I were like there's no way, like no way.
Speaker 2:It was a scare. And then Dan Potash gave me some advice. Rob King Brownie's been the best, but, same as you, I had people say no, no, no, no. And when he said that to me, I'm like you're right, I love this city, I love that team, I want to see something great. I don't need to go further right now. Let's see this out. And we bought a house and it was literally five years. You told me year four and I ended up doing it year five, One more year.
Speaker 1:You felt yeah, because I was thinking about maybe taking another position.
Speaker 3:I never take it for granted that I get to be in Pittsburgh yes, in my hometown and I'm blessed to be in my family, but I love Pittsburgh and I love what they're about and I love the sports teams and I love the passion.
Speaker 3:It's different. You take pride in covering a Pittsburgh team. I don't care how many wins or losses it. I take pride in covering a pittsburgh team because there is a certain grit, a certain feel and a certain history. Right, I feel like every single player that came to pittsburgh this year. Someone different said the history here. Martin perez said it instantaneously he was just wanted to be a part of pittsburgh for a little bit.
Speaker 1:You said that one more time please, about the history, just embrace the history for the people listening out there.
Speaker 3:Like the history, the history the rich history in pittsburgh. And it's so true because it's every single player that comes to pittsburgh.
Speaker 3:Like rowdy telez said, the same thing it's the rich history here and they all know it, they're aware of it and they're proud of it and they're proud to put on uniform because of it. Ikf said the same thing, so it's just weird how that was. The one common denominator between everybody was the history in pittsburgh and the fans and the passion, and they're excited to play for a team like that, because it's not like that everywhere yeah, you know you more than anyone probably know that I didn't.
Speaker 2:and then you meet brian lasik, you meet the guys over at the office that dig into this with a passion you don't even understand. They spend 40 hours, 50 hours for a minute to make this perfect clip, to go into a show to tell when Sid scored his first goal and his mom was in the stands. Whatever it is, but the passion behind it you can't fake that. You know and you're talking about be who you are. If you're trying to keep up some persona, at some point that realness is going to come out and I think, being yourself good, bad or indifferent, you can grow. That way, If you're trying to be somebody you're not, you can't grow because you're always trying to keep up with what you're trying to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it shows too. Yeah, it really does People know.
Speaker 2:It's been a blessing. You and Haley have been an absolute phenomenal addition to every single thing over there. We have a great team. I've seen a lot of people leave over the last seven years, but you guys have been phenomenal. And Haley walked in and hosted a show which you just did hockey first time and nobody could even tell, because you're thinking about the people right next to you and I always think about if you can serve the people next to you that you work with and love. You always win and I feel like we have a group and in Pittsburgh in general, going back to rich history, everything is about loving on that next person and I don't know why we don't embrace that.
Speaker 3:Every single one of you. I could explain to somebody when they ask like who they are. I could explain your personality genuinely, because that's who you are on camera. And so people always ask me like oh, is Greg Brown exactly what he seems like?
Speaker 3:I'm like yeah, and more like better but, like exactly what you'd want those people to be. It's like when you meet your heroes, they're exactly who you want them to be, right, and that's like the biggest compliment ever is knowing you're a kind person, you're a good person, but you're also exactly how you're talking to the fan base is how you talk to your friends and that's what people want to see and that's what Pittsburghers appreciate.
Speaker 2:And you're a word wizard.
Speaker 1:I could really listen to this for another hour. In fact, if you enjoyed this edition of the Mutual Admiration Society with Hannah Mears this episode, you'll love the next one on Hold my Cutter. Hold my Cutter.
