Tracks To Success
Kraig Kann, a veteran golf broadcaster and former C-Suite sports executive turned business entrepreneur, hosts the top podcast that brings you inspiring people and their inspiring success stories. How did they find their way to the top? How can their path help you do the same? As a speaker, consultant, author and leadership workshop facilitator himself, Kraig has a high energy fun chat with other top leaders and top personalities from all walks and all professions and gives his guests the platform to share untold stories about their rise up the ranks. On "Tracks to Success" you'll hear from big time names and names ready to hit the big time in a 5-star podcast you don't want to miss.
Tracks To Success
Jamie Pollard
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🎙️ Tracks To Success | Jamie Pollard: Building a Vision, Leading with Conviction
What does it take to transform an athletic department, build belief around a vision, and lead through more than two decades of constant change in college sports?
In this episode of Tracks To Success, Kraig Kann sits down with Jamie Pollard, longtime Director of Athletics at Iowa State University, for a conversation about leadership, competition, calculated risk and what it takes to build something that lasts.
A former NCAA national champion distance runner who began his professional career as a CPA, Jamie took an unconventional road into college athletics before eventually arriving at Iowa State in 2005. More than two decades later, his leadership has helped reshape the Cyclone athletic program, its facilities, its fan base and its national profile.
Jamie shares the mindset behind making difficult decisions, trusting your instincts and staying committed to a long-term vision — especially when others may not immediately see what you see.
🏃 From competing on the track to leading one of the nation’s major college athletic departments, Jamie’s story is a reminder that great leadership requires endurance, confidence and the willingness to keep moving forward.
🎯 Inside the episode:
- How a competitive mindset can shape the way you lead
- Why leaders have to be willing to make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions
- The importance of creating belief around a bigger vision
- How culture, people and relationships drive long-term success
- Why staying true to who you are matters when the pressure rises
This isn’t simply a conversation about college sports. It’s about vision, conviction and having the courage to lead your own way.
Jamie Pollard reminds us that success doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from seeing what’s possible, believing in the direction and bringing enough people with you to make that vision real.
🔗 Subscribe, share, and follow the journey toward A Brand New You.
🎥 Watch Tracks To Success on Kraig Kann’s YouTube Channel
Watch Tracks To Success on Kraig Kann's YouTube Channel!
Watch Tracks To Success on Kraig Kann's YouTube Channel!
Hi everybody, I'm Craig Cann. Right now on this edition of Tracks to Success. What does it take to transform a college athletics department, build a winning culture, and remain committed to one university for more than two decades? That's what he's done. And the respect is well earned. Since arriving at Iowa State in 2005, he's reimagined nearly every part of Cyclone Athletics. Now, after becoming the longest tenured athletics director in Iowa State history and the longest serving active Power 4AD in the nation, he's announced plans to retire following a remarkable 22-year run. His name is Jamie Collins, a visionary, a competitor, and a leader who didn't simply manage an athletics department. He helped transform women. His journey of success starts now.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Tracks to Success, the podcast that introduces you to inspiring people with inspiring stories. It's your chance to hear from top leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and change makers as they share how they found their way to the top and how their journey can help you find your own. And now here's your host, former network broadcaster, C-suite executive, best-selling author, and keynote speaker, Craig Cain.
SPEAKER_01Jamie, thanks so much for joining me. It is an honor. I know you've spent more than two decades leading Iowa State athletics. That's amazing. Transforming a department, building a brand, all that stuff. I really appreciate you coming on tracks to success because I think everybody's going to learn a lot.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you for having me on. It's been uh great to learn your background and look forward to it.
SPEAKER_01Well, hopefully we'll have some fun here. I'm not going to bury the lead. Um, you recently announced that you're going to retire. This is going to be your last year at Iowa State as athletics director. Why did it feel like the right time for you?
SPEAKER_02Well, my wife Ellen and I have always just said that, you know, at some point everything's going to end, right? And so when that transition happens, we want it to happen while we're healthy and young enough to really be able to enjoy the whatever's on the other side. And, you know, I I've watched some people that I really admired that quite frankly worked too long and then had health issues right after. And that's, you know, I'd feel cheated if I didn't get to enjoy whatever's on the other side. So it was really doing it while we're healthy and young.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, smart. I I've read where you said um you wanted to try to create a thoughtful transition. Um, that can't be that easy. I mean, college sports is going through its own transition, if you will, right now. But what does that mean? Is it important for you to leave something specific for the next leader, a foundation? What are you going to try to do?
SPEAKER_02Well, I just care about Iowa State. I mean, you don't put 21 years into something and not really care about it. So, you know, it matters to me what happens next. Um, you know, it'd be real easy to go, well, you don't want the next person to have as much success as you did. You know, no, that's not what I'm thinking about. You know, there's a lot of great people that work in our department. I've got a son that works in our department. You know, I I want our program to continue to be, you know, robust and really well. And yet at the same time, I recognize there's some inherent challenges given the landscape. And so for me, we have a new president, and you know, I just talked to him about it because I knew I wasn't in it for five years. Um, and so you know, I just said to him in fairness to both of us, both him and for me, you know, is it better for me to tell him two or three years into his run that I want out, or should I do it now? And we both agreed it was probably better to do it now, but do it now with a year runway so that you know we can make sure things that I can help finish up can be finished up.
SPEAKER_01Well, there'll be a lot of people that are going to be bending your ear for advice, counsel, and uh and well-wishes. So I I know that's all coming. You are the longest tenured athletics director in Iowa State history, but also the longest serving active power for AD, which is which is a lot. I mean, that that's awesome. When we talk about longevity, what does longevity mean to you?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, the lifespan of an AD at any one school um is probably about four to five years. You know, the the irony on that list, and I never thought I would, I never imagined, never even thought about it, but um until maybe a couple of years ago, when I think I got up to like third, and Josie at Oklahoma, who used to be at Mizzou, and uh Mitch Barnhart at Kentucky. And I used to joke and say, Well, I'll never get to number one because those two guys will go out in a pine box, and I'm not that committed. Well, you know, in the last year they both ended up stepping away. And my best friend in the business is Rob Mullins, who is the AD at Oregon. Uh, I was his best man, and he's second on the list. But why I share that with you, Craig, is there's a five-year gap between when I started in 2005 and Rob in 2010. So there's a lot of ADs that fell into the crevice between five and ten that didn't make it. So, you know, what why, you know, back to your question of longevity. Um, you know, I just I think it's it's unique, it's a little bit of a unicorn that you would A stay at the same school, but B be able to stay at the same school because most people, you know, there's in these jobs, they're tough. And for more often than not, you know, it runs its course and maybe they're ready to have you move on. So um I'm blessed that that didn't happen. Why do you think it didn't? I just think who I am and the culture we created at Iowa State matches. Um, one of the reasons I went to Iowa State and one of the reasons I stayed at Iowa State over the years was we just felt it matched who we are as a family. Um, I'm I'm more of a small town person, it's a college town, it's a you know an institution that still has a lot of things to check. So, you know, I'm I'm not gonna work very well at a place where you know I'm a builder, not a maintainer. And so there were a lot of things we could do at Iowa State, and I think those kind of mirror together.
SPEAKER_01So, what did you think it could become? You you arrived in 2005. What what was your vision, or did you even, you know, come into it with something like that?
SPEAKER_02That's a great question. Um, I'd I'd tell you, in all honesty, where we are today, that was not even on my radar screen in 2005. Um, I was a former runner um and swimmer, so I I was you know a student athlete that what you put into it, you get out of it. I didn't have to wait for a coach to put me in. If you were the fastest, you ran or you swam. And so all I knew was you compete, you work your tail off and you compete. And that's what we started to do in 2005 was be not afraid to say, this is what we want to do. Now let's go do it. I always used to like to say, tell me what you don't think we can do, and then get out of the way and watch us do it. Because you know, we were motivated by doing things that people didn't think could be done. And quite frankly, the coaches that have been the most successful at Iowa State had that same mentality. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I want to get into your background a little bit. Let's go pre-Iowa State. We can go back as far as you want to go back, childhood, whatever that might be. Um, what were you pursuing early in your career? Was your vision always athletics administration, being an AD, being in college sports? You talked about track and swimming. So so you obviously had that as a background. But speaking of track, what what track did you really want to follow?
SPEAKER_02Well, I I would go even deeper than that to start, Craig, because I I talk about this a lot with our student athletes. Um, I'm not the profile of the person that should be on this call that you're doing this Zoom with. Um, I don't meet the profile of most of my fellow peers. Um, not only was I a first-generation college student, but I was the baby of five, but I had three siblings that never even graduated from high school. I had a sister get in trouble with the law and go to jail. I had a sister that got pregnant and I actually went to high school with my nephew. We were one year apart. I mean, think about that. Like his locker was right next to me. I don't think that was probably cool for him that Uncle Jamie was right there. Um, you know, I had a brother that had spina bifida and unfortunately passed away. And so um I was a Pell Grant recipient. My parents had an auto-body shop, and my mom did the books, and my dad fixed the cars. And so I share that because like I grew up on their side of the tracks. The kids I grew up with didn't end up, you know, going to college or doing the things that I did. And sport was what got me here. You know, my mom put me in swimming real early on in my life, and I found success, and that kind of fired a chip in my DNA of, you know, that I describe it this way as I need to have the ball in my hands at the end of the game. I mean, that's just my personality. And so I share that with you because, you know, in I went to college at Division III School, UW Oshkosh in my hometown, because we didn't have any money. So, you know, I had to work at the athlete's foot in the mall and a Pell Grant and paid for my tuition and lived at home. Um, but I always was somebody that, you know, I had that DNA that um I think back to little league, you know, who played shortstop and filled out the lineup when we didn't have coach? Me. Okay. And I don't say that in a um, I say it in a modest way. It's just who you got to be who you are, right? And I think that that just played itself out. So, you know, in college, I was an accounting major and I went to work at Arthur Anderson um and company in in Milwaukee. And was it a great experience? It was, but um, after two years, it just wasn't for me. I was, it was, I was too small of a fish in a big pond. And so I went back and met with my AD, who would become my track coach, who would become the AD. And he introduced me to the concept of do you want to work in college athletics? And so I was blessed to get a job as the athletic business manager at St. Louis University. I think I would have paid them if they would have asked me. Um, but I was living the dream. And, you know, I got to work with Charlie Spoonauer, Rich Grauer, Debbie, and you know, I didn't even know what I didn't know. I had so much water coming off the back of my ears, but we did everything. You know, I drove the bus, I popped popcorn, I created spreadsheets. I you just did it all because we had nothing at St. Louis U. And all of that just kind of fed into this DNA of being ultra competitive. And Debbie took me to Maryland, and it was an opportunity to kind of see bigger time athletics and see football. But I still never really thought about like, well, what does this mean? Like, someday I'll be AD. It really wasn't until I was at Wisconsin and Coach Alvarez. Um, when coach when Pat Richter retired and Coach Alvarez became football coach AD, and he asked me to be his deputy. That's the first time I kind of felt like, well, maybe I could be the AD someplace. Um, so I say that because I didn't start out even knowing that like athletics director was I didn't even know what that meant. Yeah. Um, I just was a competitor and I loved athletics, and so I got to work in environments where you know being competitive and doing a good job paid off.
SPEAKER_01Well, I will say this a great athletics director has a vision for looking ahead, and it's like you're looking ahead at all my my questions that I have here for you because we've already knocked off a few of them, including Coach Alvarez. And I wanted to just I'm gonna follow that one up because we all know his impact, his legacy uh in college athletics, pretty big, not just at Wisconsin, really, but leadership, vision, building a successful athletics department. What's the biggest takeaway? So, so if you talk about your trajectory, if you will, this this rise, what did you learn from maybe him? What did you learn about yourself along the way?
SPEAKER_02Well, I can tell you what I learned about myself was the day that um it sounds corny, but it it was like an aha moment. Um, the exercise called strength finders. Yeah, and I don't know if you're if you're aware of it. So, you know, my wife, my wife was a student affairs person, so she's into Myers Briggs. And when we were dating, I was always like, I'm not doing that. That's uh you know, that's like giving away like the secret sauce. I can't let you get inside my head. But I kid her because strength finders is really like Myers Briggs for business, and you do the assessment, and you know, you get back the assessment and it tells you what your strengths are. And my top two strengths um were activation and strategy, and then when you read their second edition, very few people have act our activators and strategists. Usually you have one, but when you put the two together, it said you get people that are just really driven strategic leaders, and so that was an aha moment because I used to always wonder like, why do I do or think the way I do? And I think that that exercise really confirmed for me, you know, why do I get agitated by people that are type B? Because like I just I want to go, go, go, go, go. Let's make the decision. If it's wrong, we change it. And I so going back to Coach Alvarez, you know, one of the things he used to say as a leader was you can't be paralyzed. I mean, he has to make multiple decisions during a football game, and not everyone ends up in a touchdown. You know, so you run a play and it's you know, three yards and a cloud of dust, and everybody is like, oh, throw the ball. But you know, that three yards and a cloud of dust is teaching him something about the next play and the next play and the next play and how you get down the field, right? And so don't be paralyzed by making decisions because you make a decision, you assess what happened, good or bad, and then you make the next decision. And I thought that was really like operationally good. Um, I'd also say this from my previous, you know, the three people that were really my mentors, Pat Richter. I really learned um Pat Richter was a very regal leader. Pat Richter was Iowa State's Fred Hoyberg. You know, Pat Richter was the medal of honor in the Big Ten. He was a baseball letter winner, football letter winner, basketball letter winner, played in the NFL. He could do no wrong. But he was so regal and he really taught me kind of the patience and understanding families and how getting to know the people that you work with. Um, and then Debbie, Debbie was awesome because Debbie really, you know, you you take this for granted with a female at that time. You know, if a guy was as tough as Debbie, they had you know what. And if a woman was that tough, she was uh, and I'm not gonna say it just out of respect, but um, I saw somebody that she administered like she coached. And you know, we all know great coaches and they're just dogged, you know, they they work their assistants really hard. And you know, when I worked for Debbie, we worked really, really hard because she looked at you like an assistant coach. And so there was really never a day off, right? Um, but I learned you know, just how to get stuff done, you know, and so the combination of all three of those kind of became really who I am.
SPEAKER_01I will say this about Coach Alvarez: that uh cloud of dust, three yards and a cloud of dust. That's a big cloud of dust because uh Wisconsin had some big offensive lines. Oh, I mean, that's they yeah, they did.
SPEAKER_02Yes, they did, but I still remember those days when people, you know, we go to the Rose Bowl and people want to get rid of the offensive coordinator because we had Ron Dane and all we did was run the ball. Well, you know, that offensive coordinator went on to be an NFL coach, right? So um, you know, people sometimes didn't understand what was going into the ultimate success. That, you know, you got to build it play by play or brick by brick.
SPEAKER_01Tracks to Success is proud to be sponsored by Ahead, a company that's been shaking things up for more than 30 years. From premium golf headwear to standout apparel and accessories, Ahead has built its reputation on quality, creativity, fast delivery, and taking care of its customers. They've never been content to follow trends. They've built a brand by setting them. If you're looking for gear that helps you look your best on and off the golf course, visit AheadUSAShop.com and don't forget to use the code TTS30. That's TTS30 to receive 30% off your personal order. Ahead, premium headwear, apparel, and accessories, and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast. We're talking with Jamie Pollard. He is the athletic director at Iowa State University, soon to be outgoing athletic director with quite a legacy. When you took over at Iowa State, Jamie, you were not simply um managing what was already there and what existed. You were actually asking a lot of people to believe in something far bigger. And I believe you've achieved that. Um almost 25 conference championships by my count, and maybe I'm missing some under your watch. How did you create belief?
SPEAKER_02Well, um, that's a great question, and I think you know, you um you've got to give them something that they can visualize, you've got to be able to show that you're making progress, but in the end, you also have to achieve some things because they're not going to continue to believe and trust if there's not some action that they can actually see. And so, you know, one of the things that we did early on, which you know, in hindsight, most people probably wouldn't want to do when you're first starting out, is we weren't afraid to talk about the warts. And uh Steve Melchow, who was um my one of the staff that came with me from Wisconsin but was our communications person, um you know what we did is we laid out here, you know, we used to say this. I don't know, I can't guarantee you if you do this, we will be successful, but I can guarantee you if we don't do this, we won't be successful. And so we started doing a lot of um just metrics that you could uh follow and see where we were season ticket sales, athletic budget, you know, fundraising. You know, we just looked for things, number of championships, um, what you know, what percentage in the Big 12 were you overall? Were you in the you know, the top 75% or were you in the top 25 standings? And we counted things. One of the great things about sport is it's very uh object, you know, it's you don't have to have subjective goals, you can have very objective goals because they're very measurable, right? And so we put all that out there and challenged our people to say, I remember we had a thermometer on the website that was number of season tickets, and you know, we just put it out there and people rallied behind it. I remember when we said for the Iowa game, you couldn't go to the Iowa game unless you bought a season ticket, there would be no single game sales, and people you know initially had a meltdown, like no one's gonna be at that game. Well, we sold it out, you know, and so we went from you know, in our first year in 2005, we had 22,000 season ticket holders. We now have 47,000, but that first year we went from 22 to almost 35,000 season ticket holders because you know, you know, almost a 50% increase because we said you had to do it if you wanted a ticket to the Iowa game strategy and then activation.
SPEAKER_01Good job. Yep. Um I I've had a wonderful opportunity many times to speak with uh corporations and leaders of corporations, and we work on messaging, we work on communication, and um you're nothing without a great message, but but that starts oftentimes by before saying this is what we are or this is what we want to be, saying. This is what we're not, and this is what we don't want to be. Okay. It has to go in in reverse order. Now, I believe you're a visionary. I believe you're an innovator, and innovation can create a lot of excitement for people. It definitely does. But in sharing what you just shared, it can also cause resistance. Like some people are like, whoa, that doesn't work, or you know, we're not going to fill the stadium, or all those things. So, how did you know to say, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to give the Heisman to the doubters, uh, if you will, and I'm going to push forward past stress or past people doubting us. How did you do it?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it just goes back to that what I said, which is if we don't do it, we're not going to be successful. So, you know, you really have one choice is figure out how to do it. And um, you know, again, I go back to the Barry or even Debbie. Debbie used to have this saying is if you're strong enough to make a tough decision, then you're strong enough to correct the wrong decision. And, you know, 21 years, Craig, of being the AD and being the leader, never once did they call me to the hospital and say, should we pull the plug, life or death here? Should we pull this plug? I didn't have any life or death decisions I've ever had to make. Now, as leaders, oftentimes we go home at night and put our head on the pillow and make decisions into life or death, but they're really not. You know, like really, come on, say we're going to be 30,000 season. What's the fallout if we don't? Right. But a lot of times people are afraid to say that because they don't want to fail. And part of us, what we said is don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid, you know, just let's go try to do it. And if we don't do it, okay, we dust ourselves off and we pick ourselves back up and we try again.
SPEAKER_00In addition to hosting this podcast, Craig leads the Cannes Advisory Group, empowering companies and individuals to elevate communication and build brand awareness with bold ideas, lasting impact, and his signature green shoe style. From company consulting and team workshops to one-on-one coaching and transformational virtual programs, CanAdvisory guides people to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and impact. So whether you're a leader looking to give your team a game-changing one-day experience, or an individual who wants to become a speaker and presenter, people remember, visit canadvisory.com. And when you connect, mention the Tracks to Success podcast to receive a special discount on Can Advisory Services. That's CanAdvisory.com. Now, back to the interview.
SPEAKER_01Talking with Jamie Pollard, Athletics Director at Iowa State University. I want to talk about finance. Um, and I know you were an accounting guy, so numbers and and your time at Arthur Anderson and all that sort of stuff. And by the way, that told you you didn't want to do that, but but now you can't escape it because money is is such a big part of athletics. But let's talk about fundraising for a second. Because when you're talking about asking people for money, it's really not about dollars and cents most often, it's about relationships and trust. Is that fair? That's what I believe. Uh, am I off base?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Um, it's it is totally about relationships and trust. And um it helps to be able to articulate the vision. And finances is a big part, uh, you know, when you're at Iowa State and you're trying to get better, you have to be able to articulate the need and match your need with their desires, and then develop that relationship and that trust and ultimately get them to feel like they want to support what your your vision of what you're trying to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So I had a conversation with a CEO and a top salesperson at a workshop I was doing recently. And I said, question for you. Do you know what your message is? Do you know what your company story is? He said, Absolutely. And I figured that would be the answer. But my follow-up was if I pulled 20 people in just underneath you, would they be able to articulate the same story and the same message? And he said, I don't know if we could do that. And I said, Well, then you don't have a message and you don't have a story. Because it, and I spent time at the LPGA as chief communications officer. If the if the commissioner and if I or the head of marketing were the only ones that knew the story, then we don't really have one because you've got this band of not employees, but we're trying to create ambassadors here. And we'll get to more of that in a second. How much is storytelling a part of a university under under somebody's watch like yours?
SPEAKER_02Oh, storytelling to me is the biggest part of leadership. Um, you know, I that's where I go back to the financial part. You know, a lot of people get so bogged down in the bean counting part of it that they can't tell the story for better or worse. God bless me with the ability to tell the story. And that is a big part of being a leader. I I've always said if I had to prepare for every speech, every podcast, everything I do, and you know, oh, I gotta write out all my message points, I gotta, I'd be buried. I mean, you'd never get out from underneath it. Right, you have to be able to, on a moment's notice, articulate the story and the message, you know, the elevator speech. And it's got to be sincere, it's got to be believable, and hopefully, it's got to be something that they'll buy into.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, ultimately, I tell people I'm in this case, I'm just the enabler. I mean, you're you're gonna have your messages regardless of my questions. You're gonna acknowledge or answer my questions, but you're gonna try to get something out there for my audience, which can become your ambassador, if you will. So it it's it's really a song and dance, and it's not that easy, and some people don't necessarily understand it. So I'm gonna take it to another level. Um, in in spending time on college campuses, by the way, in case you can't tell, I have a huge passion for college athletics. I spent 25 years at students. And I am a I am a college athletics guy, okay? I love talking to student athletes, but one of my biggest messages on campus is the concept of, okay, student athlete, great, great experience. How are you going to be an ambassador for four years for the university? How are you going to parlay that into something? Now, the problem is they're not staying for four years most of the time now. They're passing through. So it's difficult to build a program. Um, they're they're passing through often. But at the same time, they have this wonderful opportunity to be an ambassador of a brand, a storyteller, if you will, and create a legacy for themselves in a community or on a campus. I want to know what you tell student athletes about today's situation and how they can better themselves.
SPEAKER_02Well, I go back to you know a little bit of what our story is and what our mission that I would say we articulate to folks, and that is we use sport, we use sport to change the lives of young men and young women. And and so we do that in a way that obviously needs to be fun, exciting, vibrant, because we need all these people to buy into helping us do that. So when I talk to the young men and young women, what I always encourage them from day one, and I just I did it with our incoming freshman cohort that's here this summer, is I say, Well, number one, you're in this room because God gave you some talent that we've decided you're going to be on one of our teams. And so God gave you this talent, and you clearly use this talent to get yourself a scholarship and get you in this room, but don't sell yourself short because you're all competitors and your competitive spirit that got you here, you need to apply in all phases of your life. You don't think for a second to, you know, go see the strength coach to get stronger or to stay after practice and shoot more free throws. So, why wouldn't you lean into the tutors? We provide you to be the best student you can be. Why wouldn't you lean into our life skills staff that want to get you public speaking opportunities, want to get you community service moments? And and then I usually try to paint a picture to give them some examples because we've had several at Iowa State. George Niang comes to mind um that use that opportunity, the platform we gave them. I mean, George comes back to Ames and does three charity events every year now. And I mean, George is probably in my 21 years, maybe the student athlete that fully embraced every aspect during his time in the community, every resource we gave him, he tapped into, and it's made him who he is. And so I like to paint some pictures so that they have some examples. Because if all they do is come in and just play their sport, that's that's that's great, but they're missing out on a chance to change their lives, yeah, to prepare themselves because the sport part's gonna stop. George is at that stage right now, he's hurt and maybe won't get another NBA contract. And what comes next, right? And I think we did a good job preparing them for that, but they're all gonna be there someday, so why not tap into all those resources and become that full um full person versus just being, well, I'm a student athlete.
SPEAKER_01Great coaches are one thing, willing participants under their leadership is a whole nother thing, as you just pointed out. An athletics director often judged, you know, this, um, by the coaches that he or she hires, who you bring in. I want to know what you look for. What's what is on the top of your record sheet beyond their records of wins and losses when you're deciding who's gonna lead not just your program, but your university and your community?
SPEAKER_02Correct. So I would say that evolved over my 21 years. If you'd asked me that 20 years ago, I would have said, well, it would have been heavy on the science, you know, who's good, right? And what you quickly learn is that personnel is your most important decision you'll ever make as a leader. And personnel is an art, it's not a science. You've got to find the right fit, and that fit um is the culture that you have in your on your campus in your athletics department, but it's also, you know, what are you expecting out of that particular program? Everybody can't have the ball in their hands, so to speak, right? So, you know, if your golf coach and your track coach and your wrestling coach think they need to be the celebrity, like the star football coach or the star basketball coach, you know, you can things can get off kilter just like if you have a team. You know, if you have a basketball team, you need 10 to practice, but five aren't starting. And do they accept their role on the team? And so that's an art filling out the roster. And so I always viewed as athletics director, I was the head coach. And our 18 sports were my team members, and each one of those team members needed to fit their role for us to be successful. You know, the football coach had to had a lot more responsibility and pressure because not only did they need to win, they're the face, and they're 75% of our operations. And the basketball coach is not far behind, although they're a smaller piece of the percentage. And then it, you know, slowly goes down to where some of them aren't there to bring in the revenue per se, but they are part of your team. You need them to be successful, right? Because people want, you know, no one likes to have an athletics program where you got a whole bunch of teams that aren't winning, sure, but they also need to fit in the culture because if they suck up all my time, then I can't be spending time with the star players that I have to spend time with. And so having that fit is a total art.
SPEAKER_01All right, I want to stay on the topic of coaches. Matt Campbell, phenomenal coach, transformational for the program, somebody you brought on. You didn't fire Matt Campbell, he left. I want to ask you about decision making and what is more difficult for an athletics director. Is it making the decision to hire somebody, right? And all the process that you might have to go through, or recognizing, you know what, we got to make a change and actually having to let somebody go.
SPEAKER_02Well, they're both really important, and they're you know on different ends of the continuum. Um, one is easier than the other, but I'd say one is more important than the other. So, what I would say is um what's more important is spending the time on the front end to get it right, because getting rid of somebody is really hard to do. And what I've learned over time is you know, the more time you spend on the front making sure you get it right, makes the frequency of having to do the really hard thing on the back end um less frequent. And um, you know, it's still going to be hard to do because I, you know, I've always said this personnel decisions are the most important thing I do as AD. And getting the head coaches right is really important. Um, but letting somebody go better be a hard thing to do. Because if it's not, then you're not, you know, you're you're losing some of that human element piece. But when you know you got to make that change, you got to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_01You you've got to be able to make those tough decisions. Jamie, this is a tougher question, I think. Um there are athletics directors and there are coaches who are are making their way out of the business um because of the current landscape of the business. By that I'm talking about NIL, I'm talking about dollars and cents, I'm talking about TV rights fees, etc. Pieces of the pie, if you will. How tough has that really been for you to manage?
SPEAKER_02It's really hard because it's number one, things changed really quickly and significantly. You know, our industry just got flipped on its head almost overnight by the house settlement. You know, we were dealing with NIL and it wasn't great, but it was manageable. And instantly you took, you know, at Iowa State, we were doing three to five million dollars. And overnight on July 1st, you know, it became you could give 20 million dollars. And you know, and now 20 million looks, you know, it's not the cap anymore, it's the floor. And so those numbers, you know, we weren't sitting around with 20 million dollars that we didn't have allocated. You know, that that was real pressure. And you know, now that 20 has quickly become 30. And at some schools, it's as high as 50. And and that's putting a lot of pressure, not only on athletic departments, but on institutions, because they're trying to stay in the game until this quote, you know, gets sorted out. I I describe it as musical chairs. You know, no one wants to get out and say, oh, there's not going to be a chair for me. But you know, when the music stops, there might not be a chair for you, right? So um, now that being said, and maybe this is a follow-up question to you, but uh is you know, I'm I've not said it, nor will I say that that's why I'm retiring now. You know, I've I've run my race. My race is, you know, the last lap just happens to be at this point in time. But, you know, I I've got too much respect for the industry. Um, I've been very involved in our national organization and been the president. You know, I just came back from Las Vegas. There are 7,000 young people out there that were me 20, 30 years ago. And so who am I to rein on their parade because they've got their whole career left? And you know, 20 years ago, there were great leaders in college athletics that they had tough decisions to deal with too. And they made those decisions, and because they did it, I got to have an amazing career. And so um, part of it for me is I've, you know, I've just said I'm never gonna say that's why I'm getting out. You know, can I look at it and go the timing of my race coming to an end? You know, I might have picked a really good time to get out, but I'm not, you know, I've got two sons that are assistant basketball coaches. You know, I'm not, I want them to have robust 20 to 30 year career. So I'm not gonna rein on that parade. We will figure this out, but is it choppy? Yes. Um, is it uncomfortable? Absolutely. Has it gotten some people to say enough's enough? No doubt. But we'll get through it. We will get through it somehow, some way.
SPEAKER_00Looking for a guest speaker for your next event or annual conference, Craig brings an inspiring and empowering message your audience won't soon forget. Visit Craigcanspeak.com to learn more and hear what audiences are saying about the green shoe experience making an impact at events across the country. That's Craigcanspeak.com. And when you connect, mention the Tracks to Success podcast to receive a special discount on your event with Craig. Now, back to the show.
SPEAKER_01Jamie Pollard is my guest on Tracks to Success, a longtime athletic director at Iowa State. I want to follow up on something as I move toward the end with something you were just talking about. There are a lot of people that talk, Jamie. Um a lot of chatter out there, lot of different uh people wanting to have a voice, but they don't always have something to say. Now, you've been pretty outspoken on a number of things, and people like that about you. Um, they respect that about you. So I would say you do have a voice, uh, for sure. Is that something you had to develop?
SPEAKER_02No, I think it goes back to what we talked about at the beginning of this uh call. You know, all of us are wired in a certain way. And um yeah, I just that's never been that's never been a challenge for me. I've always said, um, you know, I hate committees because committees are rooms full of people that are afraid to make a decision by themselves, so they all get on a committee and they hide it. But if you make me be on a committee or you call me to a meeting, then you're gonna hear what I have to say because otherwise I'm wasting my time and your time. And one of my pet peeves, and you know, I talk about it with my friends, colleagues in the Big 12. One of my pet peeves is when you know Commissioner Yormark talks about something and nobody says anything in the room, and then we go to break, and six people are huddled around the water cooler bitching about it. Well, then say it in the room. You know, have the guts to say it because that's the only way we're ever gonna get it right. If you just harbor all your feelings and then say it off to the side, you actually make it harder for yourself. Yeah, so so don't be afraid to just say what you're saying, what you feel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, it's not easy for some people. All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor. I want you to back your chair up about half a foot so I can see the Iowa State logo as I ask you this question. Yes. In my research, hopefully I'm right. Anonymous couple recently makes a five million dollar commitment to create the Jamie and Ellen Pollard endowed director of athletics position. Correct?
SPEAKER_02Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01Iowa State's been a big part of your life, you're a big part of its brand. What did that honor mean to you?
SPEAKER_02Wow. You're gonna make me get emotional here, huh? That's not fair. You should have told me that question was coming. Um, you know, you mentioned legacy earlier. Um, you know, that's really cool. I mean, one of my goals before I retired was to get the position endowed because I felt like Iowa State needed to have that done. Other schools, not a lot, but other schools had had that done. But never in my wildest imagination did I think anybody would do what they did. First of all, to have five million dollars that you would be willing to donate for this cause, but number two, that you're willing to do it and not put your own name on it, like 99.9% of all the other people, and you do it, you know, for somebody else. And then on top of it, to make it a requirement that my wife's name, Ellen, had to be in it, because. You know, you're supposed she gave up a lot over the last twenty-one years.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty special.
SPEAKER_02Um and the couple that did it, the wife was a stay-at-home wife, and so she knew, and so that was like a big thing for her, was that it needs to be both of you.
SPEAKER_01And that's pretty cool. Uh this podcast is called Tracks to Success. And I always talk about the track to success, whatever people define it as, is not a straight line. And there's detours, there's pivots, etc. etc. Um, do you have a defining moment? Do you have something, um, a decision, something unexpected that that completely changed your journey? And if so, if something comes to your mind, would you would you say the same thing to other people if you were standing on a stage with a bunch of people looking to figure out their career that that pivot's okay?
SPEAKER_02Oh, pivot is absolutely okay. You know, you just you never know what is around the corner, and um, you know, opportunities that might be there for you that you would have never ever experienced, you know, um, had that circumstance not happened, right? I mean, uh case in point, I mean, I go to Maryland with Debbie and the provost. He came from Penn State and I interacted with him some, but not a lot, but apparently made enough um impression on him when I didn't know I was making an impression on him, that you know, nine years later he's hired as the president of Iowa State, and he calls me and says, I want you to be my AD. Right. And so without that connection at Maryland, nine years later, I get 21 years of amazing opportunity at Iowa State. So, you know, things happen along the way that um you just you never know what's what's coming. I'll I'll give you another good one. Is, you know, I was one of six senior associate ADs at Wisconsin. I was the youngest by a long shot. The five others had been there long before I got there. Pat retires. I didn't interact a lot with Coach Alvarez at that time, but I get called to his office. Uh now I'm thinking, why does he want to talk to me? And he says, I want you to be my deputy AD. And the other five will report to you. And I said, Why me? And he gave me two responses. He said, number one, I've watched your work and I know you're really good. And he said, number two, you're the only one of the six that didn't come ask me for the job. And that wasn't lost on me. That let your works do its talking. But that pivot, that moment in time when he made me deputy, prior to that moment in time, no one called Jamie Pollard about an AD's opening. And from that point on, the search firms were calling me. The you know, fortunately, Dr. Joffrey eventually called me, but that pivot in my life opened up unbelievable doors for me.
SPEAKER_01Well, guess what? You just gave me my final question, which I'll get to in just a second. So um, after more than two decades in the same role, how did you keep familiarity with Ames and Iowa State and Cyclone Athletics from becoming complacency?
SPEAKER_02Well, that's that's yeah, that's a great question, Craig, because um, you know, it it can happen. And quite frankly, it probably near the end of my time here started to creep in. But some of it was, you know, I'm 61 now, and you you start to see some, you know, I've got grandkids, you start to have other things in your life that pull you. But I think it, you know, it goes back to at Iowa State, there was still a lot of first that had uh could be happening. And so there were things that you know we still needed to tackle. But I'll give you one that, you know, Psytown. I've learned so much from Psytown that, you know, that's not a normal athletic director's responsibility. It is a university project, but the president gave it to the athletics director to lead and manage and run um because of our entrepreneurial um tendencies in college athletics. And so I've learned so much about development and third, you know, third-party transactions dealing with developers, contractors, um, real estate, that I would have never had the opportunity in my just role as athletics director. So I think it's looking for unique situations like that and embracing them when they come to kind of keep things um happening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Somebody's gonna be the successor to you. Um, you realize that. When they walk into the office that you've got, what do you hope they understand about Iowa State? Um, maybe it's people, uh, the programs, the responsibility of leading Cyclone Athletics, Cyclone Nation.
SPEAKER_02It's a great place. It's got a great culture. People care about you as a person more than they care about you as the AD. Family matters. Iowa State is um, you know, in an environment that allows you to be more than just the athletics director. It allows you to be involved with your family, it allows you to be involved in the community, it allows you, you know, I coached my kids in track and field and baseball. You know, I did things that a lot of ADs would never get to do. And, you know, that was one of the reasons Coach Campbell stayed. He coached his daughters in softball. And, you know, that's part of it at Iowa State. And so I hope whoever comes in appreciates those opportunities and embraces them because it'll make them a better leader, too.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure you're gonna look for somebody uniquely different and special, the university will to follow that role, which leads me to my last two questions. It's about differentiation. Let's start with the university, okay? Um, in today's world of college athletics, and by the way, if you look over my shoulder, there's a green shoe. I talk about a green shoe mindset, standing out, differentiation being big. How do you do it? So every college university is trying to find their way, trying to find their footing within their conferences, within the landscape, nationwide, et cetera. Every day when you go to your job, are you trying to find a way for Iowa State to stand out and do something uniquely different to get noticed, if you will, to have people pay attention? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And you know, uh, our staff would joke and say, you know, my background's not marketing. My background is strategy, but put strategy with communication and it really becomes marketing. It's branding. And so the answer to your question is it's not coming to the office every day. I'm thinking about that 24-7 is what are we doing? And what and not just what are we doing, but how are we articulating what we're doing? Because the wheels of the bus and the you know, the the motor is going to continue to turn, right? But how are we telling people how that motor's turning and why is it turning and what is it going to accomplish? And that's what I view as the leader. Like, I don't need to make the meal, but I need to make people understand how good the meal is and what the benefits of the meal are. And somebody else will continue to make the meal. So, yeah, you're thinking about that 24-7, and you're looking for ways to tweet it. Um, you know, whatever, what social media, you know, what ways can you get it out there? What are the touch points to get to the various constituents to let them know what's going on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, creating our own content, having the media be almost spoon-fed, some of our storytelling, because they don't have time to come cover every single thing that you'd like to have them cover on campus. How can we help them be a true partner? Okay, last thing, your legacy. Um 20 plus years a long time. How do you want to be remembered? I talk about being sticky and and memorable and the importance of that. So, all right, why you? That uh we go back to the question a while ago. I want to know why you, what stands out? How do you want to be remembered?
SPEAKER_02Well, I hope I'll be remembered that um that I embraced Iowa State and cared about it in a way that gave people hope, excitement, and made them proud to be an Iowa stater.
SPEAKER_01Simply said, and quite differentiating. You've done an amazing job. I've followed your career. It's really a pleasure to have you on tracks to success. Heck, I think I need you to come speak with me on a campus and I I I could cue up a few sound bites from you and just play them. Phenomenal. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for your for your time.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for having me on. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I hope our paths can stay uh connected.
SPEAKER_01One last segment I call Getting Ahead, which is focused on you and your own tracks to success. It's brought to you by Ahead, the finest in headwear and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast, available at aheadusap.com. For listeners of this show, ahead is giving one of its biggest discounts ever. Visit aheadusap.com now and use the code TTS30. That's TTS30 and receive not 20% off your purchase, but 30% ahead. They don't follow the trends for more than 30 years. They've been setting them. It's time for getting ahead. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Jamie Pollard. Let's talk longevity and the difference between holding a position and truly building something, because Jamie Pollard spent more than two decades leading Iowa State athletics. Think about that. That's a long time in a profession where leaders frequently chase next opportunity. Jamie actually stayed and kept finding new opportunities inside the place he'd already chosen. Now that might be the real lesson here. Longevity doesn't mean standing still, it means continuing to see what something can become. Too many people believe that growth actually requires leaving a different company, a bigger title, a better opportunity someplace else. But getting ahead can also mean looking at the opportunity within, the position you already have, and asking yourself, what haven't I built yet? What could be stronger? What could be reimagined? And what kind of impact could I actually make if I stopped treating this role like a temporary stop? So here's the challenge I have for all of us. Are you counting the years you've been in your position or making those years count? Staying somewhere for a long time is not the legacy. Making it better because you stayed actually can be. So I'll leave you with this. Your tracks to success will be a whole lot better if you don't allow comfort to slow your momentum. I hope you enjoyed the interview. I'm Craig Cann. Until next time, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00Don't forget to subscribe for more great interviews and Craig's insights on reaching your highest personal and professional summit. Listen to Tracks to Success on all the top podcast platforms. Watch it on the Craig Cannes YouTube channel, and visit CraigCanspeak.com to learn more about Craig as your next speaker.
