Tao of Sports Podcast

The art of running a fundraising club is different at the Division III level, as Dan Bolsen can relate, especially when it comes to getting $100 gifts that matter and fully involving legendary coaches in the fundraising asks. Bolsen shares his experiences as a non-alumnus during his budding tenure at Milikin University and fully admits that a lot of his donors are also donating to large DI program...

Brian G. Burns has over 20 years of sales expertise selling enterprise software for 12 VC backed start-ups. Burns now focuses on helping leadership teams create and dominate their market segments. Burns shares his approach, which is based on an exhaustive study of multi-million dollar deals across several industries and geographies. Burns talks about his time working in an efficient sales manner a...

Back on Ep. 235, Bill Bradley was a digital editor for an NFL-funded platform. Now, he is leading the Las Vegas Review Journal as their sports editor, bringing a very tech-focused background to reporting stories in Sin City. Bradley discusses some of the ways that technology such as video, photos and audio can be incorporated around the written word when covering a beat. Bradley talks about the ne...

Michael Cross is at the definitive point of where college athletics is headed, seeking new business opportunities to buoy financial goals. Cross is a former athletic director at Bradley, and understands the new normal of seeking out hard to reach dollars through corporate sponsorship support. Cross discusses some of the avenues in which there may be opportunities, but only if they fit within the v...

The role of the sales trainer is not just to motivate, but to understand fully how the sales process works, how to diagnose weaknesses in a sales staff. Sales Huddle CEO Sam Caucci has developed his training method through the listening process, working with various sports franchises in order to help them build revenue in a more effective manner. Caucci talks about how a lot of the executives view...

After working at Google, serving on the mobile team in Silicon Valley, Emmanuel Elmajian has now started his own company, Spinzo, in Toronto, Ontario. Elmajian's vision is a platform that helps generate a massive amount of group ticket sales through a focused channel. And he's started to gain a following, signing up several minor league hockey franchises, and the NHL's Arizona Coyotes. Elmajian ta...

In 2012, Bill Yates was a guest on Episode 8 of the podcast. Things sure have changed in terms of the sports business landscape since then, especially when looking back at what was a buyers market for teams up for sale, now becomes a seller's advantage as the national economy has improved. Yates discusses some of the alterations that have taken place, as team evaluations have solidified with varia...

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is the premiere event for college athletic department professionals, with a 12,000+ membership base and an annual 9-day conference that stretches out over 6,000+ attendees for 15 affiliate associations. Chris Green oversees the corporate sponsorship portion of NACDA, as well as its 15 associations, including the newest, the Nati...

As journalism embraces or faces the changing landscape of technology, various questions arise to how to best implement its application. Jeff Sharon is witnessing this first-hand, overseeing the online masters degree program of journalism at Full Sail University. A former sports writer for Genesis Communications covering the University of Central Florida athletic department, Sharon shares his view...

Having that short-hand of actually working in the industry has helped Professor Clint Warren at Illinois State as he mentors his sports management students on what to do to establish a career in the field. Warren shares his experience of learning about the importance of ticket sales and revenue generation, as well as how teams look to craft young executives into potential upper management prospect...

The global power of social media has helped smaller NCAA Division I conferences equal the playing field, and Steve Chen is one of the key examples of harnessing that power for the 9-school Big West Conference. Chen shares some of the ways in which his role is defined by expanding awareness and attention of specific branding mechanisms, as well as highlighting various individual efforts of student-...

The Ticket Fairy is a different concept in the world of ticket sales, and may be more of a group sales advocate in created a true crowd builder for a sporting event. Ritesh Patel explains how The Ticket Fairy's humble beginnings were formed when he was attempting to promote live events, only to find that drawing a crowd was harder than it looked. Patel talks about The Ticket Fairy's key concept, a...

Racing has grown from a Post-War activity into a booming, multi-billion dollar economic engine that has more Fortune 500 companies affiliated with it than any other sport throughout the world. Tim Frost, publisher of the National Speedway Directory, provides perspective on how the world of racing has grown up since the 1950s-1960s popularity boom, as well as some of its growing pains during the 19...

In the world of the Southeastern Conference, everything can be placed under a microscope. No one knows this better than Chris Freet, who laments the fact that during the first Arkansas home game of the 2015 season, the game script went long and UA didn't do "The Hog Call." Freet discusses some of the ways that he has helped try to improve the UA brand, especially with the student body, in order to...

Jayme Lamm represents the new age of journalism, where freelance has become the standard, and writing for various publications instead of one is the norm. Lamm discusses how she approaches her story development, as well as handles the day-to-day rigors of establishing enough funds to get by, along with created sponsored content. Lamm shares her thoughts on establishing journalistic integrity, ensu...

Part of Rob Kelly's watch over the Notre Dame ticket office is looking out for multiple instances of fraud, some of it coming from sophisticated runs by organized crime in Chicago. Kelly describes some of the steps that he has to undertake in order to ensure protection of the Notre Dame brand, as well as achieve clean entry for patrons to games. Sometimes, this means that there are fans going to N...

Founding TickPick in 2011, Brett Goldberg discovered a secondary market ripe with opportunity to aggregate ticket listings. Goldberg discusses his beginnings in Wall Street finance, as well as forming a private company that has yet to go after mega seed funding. As a no-buyer fee site, Goldberg talks about how each broker engages with the secondary, prices their product, and how the consumer can f...

The definitive component to any revenue stream is R.O.I. and Dave Wakeman loves chatting about that three letter acronym. Wakeman talks about his history of looking at sports business R.O.I., especially his time at being a ticket broker, where he moved a ton of inventory (over $10 million), yet the astonishment of how limited the industry is at adaptation. Wakeman discusses his theories on how to...

Dr. Andrew Zimbalist has managed to be at the forefront of several sports stories when they get to the economics sector, especially when it comes to stadiums and arenas being financed by taxpayer dollars. Zimbalist's latest book, Circus Maximus, focuses in on the plight that is the I.O.C.'s Olympic Games and FIFA's World Cup. Zimbalist shares his knowledge of the terrible deals that nations and va...

Jane Kleinberger has seen the advent of ticketing from a computerized card system to a fully enhanced database, donor management, guest management as well as highly complex ticket delivery system with both online and mobile technology patron pass. Yes, she's been at it a while, over 35 years with a company that originated as Paciolan and became the dominant ticket system in college athletics, now...

As Todd Rahr steps down from his 12-year positon at the top of the Boise Hawks Single-A baseball team, he comes on the podcast to share his thoughts on the industry. Not all of them are good ones, especially when it comes to the question of whether fans are consuming a sports product, or just an entertainment product. Rahr speaks on the idea of "gifting" fans with Bobbleheads, discounts on concess...

The majority of social network discussions in sports happen around the idea of using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. But new on the scene is Fancred, a fan social media system that now has partnerships with The Carolina Panthers, Boston Red Sox and America East conference. As Fancred CEO Kash Razzaghi explains, this isn't just another social media platform, but a meeting place for dedica...

Live broadcasts are one of the many facets of how Chris Mycoskie helps promote the schools within the Southland Conference. Using his background in television as a sports director in Baton Rogue, Mycoskie has developed a skill set of bringing the action to the audience at home, whether that be through their cable boxes or digital streaming options. Mycoskie discusses the different variables in pre...

James Kimmel has been around the secondary market for over 13 years, while leaning into the various business models of sports marketing throughout the Seattle area. Kimmel has helped launch ZeroHero, a secondary platform aimed at protecting the consumer, as well as bringing some needed integrity to the secondary market as a whole. Kimmel explains ZeroHero's broker requirement of "tickets in hand"...

Major League Soccer's secret data weapon comes in the form of Charlie Sung Shin, who has over the past decade revolutions various insights into understanding the league's customers. Shin discusses the various metrics that make up the MLS fan - age, nationality, and geographic insights. Shin also shares some of the ways that have made the MLS unique in gathering information, as well as expanding on...