We Need To Be Doing That

EPISODE 50!  Keith Hernandez (not the Mets guy!) is Founder and Partner at Launch Angle, and Host of the podcast The Changeup (again, not a baseball reference!). His prior jobs include Bleacher Report, Slate Magazine, and Buzzfeed. We discussed: - How often people mistake him for Keith Hernandez of the Mets, but how it works in his favor when making restaurant reservations - Shift in content...

Luke Bonner is a former professional basketball player and current CEO / Co-Founder of PWRFWD, a company that turns athlete passions and performances into products, and have worked with numerous athletes including Sue Bird, Mo Bamba, and Breanna Stewart We discussed: - How PWRFWD began - The growth of women’s sports, primarily the WNBA, and why Luke has such love for the women’s game - Celebrating...

Kelly Brooks and Danijela Covic of Quarter4 to discuss sports betting, Artificial Intelligence, the current state and future state of sports betting - How Quarter4 got started, and how it was directly connected to Toronto Raptors - The components that go into Quarter4’s decision model which can predict over 2M times a day - How the human involvement fits into a AI model and using the recent Charge...

Gilad Karni is a former professional basketball player + Special Forces Operative. Gilad now uses his background in sports, leadership, and high-pressure skills, to mentor former professional athletes to become inspiring entrepreneurs by awakening their ultimate potential, purpose, and leadership skills. - His basketball career in Israel - The current NBA player he played against as the Captain of...

Sener Korkusuz is CEO and Co-Founder of American 7s Football League (A7FL), 7-on-7 football without helmets or hard shell pads. "The A7FL’s unique rules retain the toughness and excitement that fans crave while also delivering action-filled nail-biting games and mind-blowing highlights along with celebrity shout outs from Snoop Dogg, Deion Sanders and New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team." Currentl...

Michael Marques is a portrait and lifestyle photographer based in Connecticut whose clients include Conair, Ethan Allen, General Electric, Habitat for Humanity, School of Visual Arts, World Wrestling Entertainment, and XXL Magazine. "There were times when I wanted to be a professional drummer and sound engineer. Around that same time, I began using my father’s old SLR to photograph hardcore and pu...

This episode is just the 3 of us with no guest, exactly how we started this thing 43 episodes prior. We dig into how this podcast started and why, and how it has been beneficial to us. We also discuss the first year of HEARTLENT Group. The work we have done, the things we have learned, and some advice we want to pass on. __________               We Need To Be Doi...

Rebecca Levin is a VP at IMG Media - We talked about growing up outside NYC - Rebecca was a Collegiate Club Rugby player and that involvement in and her contacts in the sport helped her determine she wanted to work in sports - How her career started in Minor League Baseball and all that she was exposed to with that team - How she arrived at Octagon, MLB Network, and then IMG Media where she's been...

Joe Pinchin is the Manager of Digital Content at the Chicago Bulls Discussed: - Career path that includes three years at FIBA prior to landing a position with the Chicago Bulls in 2020 - The experience of joining an organization in the middle of a pandemic and working remotely - How the Bulls digital team handled content surrounding The Last Dance - The Bulls strategic approach and new rollout of...

Steven Brunner started King of the Mountain Sports Marketing (KOM) in 2005 after leaving a senior executive marketing position at the U.S. Olympic Committee. He had previously been a marketing executive for Turner Sports in Atlanta, and associate executive director at USA Wrestling. We discussed: - His roots in Wisconsin - How he got into running in high school (was a collegiate duathlete and tria...

Zach Best is General Manager and Founder at Fansided, recently acquired by Minute Media. We get into his Kansas City Chiefs fandom, how Fansided started with his brother, his thoughts on the industry and where things are headed. We discussed: - Career paths not being a straight line to where you end up. Zach came out of college in the Hospitality industry, decided that wasn’t for him and went and...

We welcomed the Creative Director for Duke Women’s Basketball, Selena Castillo on the show.  In this episode, we discussed: Working through Covid and how she and the team adapted What it’s like to work side-by-side with Kara Lawson as the Duke head coach Her creative approach to content The increased popularity of women’s college basketball and the WNBA https://twitter.com/selenarcastillo ___...

We talked about New York Knicks basketball with superfan and Knicks content/media personality Anthony Donahue, as the Knicks enter the Playoffs and continue their bright season. - How the Knicks entered and have played such a key role in his life - Becoming a superfan and fantrepreneur creating content, shooting commercials, interviewing current and former players, how he tried to create and do so...

We recorded this episode with Matt Wurst roughly 2-mo ago. It was when Clubhouse was on fire and you could not ignore it. Matt has always been an early adopter and one to jump into things and have a POV quickly, so we wanted to talk to him about how he has been engaging on Clubhouse and the opportunities he sees. We then recorded some episodes we felt were more timely and we prioritized them befor...

Emily Miller is Senior Digital Marketing Manager at The New York Racing Association. We talked to her about her career in sports and what led her to her current role with NYRA. We discussed: - Growing up in Saratoga and around the track - How she got into her role at NYRA - What her current role at NYRA entails - How and why data and analytics, and the psychology of being a fan impacts her work -...

Michael Arzt is COO of Atari VCS and Connected Devices We discussed: - His career and how he entered gaming and eSports well before the trajectory it has experienced lately - What he’s doing at Atari - Early days of Twitch and eSports - The latest Atari release and where Atari is headed __________               WNTBDT.com @ElliotGerard // @jonahballow // @keiths

Amir Zonozi is President and Co-Founder of Zoomph, a company that helps teams, leagues, brands, and agencies measure the value of sponsorships and understand their audiences for sports and esports. We discussed: - Amir’s background - How Zoomph started, and the teams they first started working with (“They gave us Press passes, and they shouldn’t have”) - Amir deconstructs sponsored content that pe...

Luc Doucet is Founder at The First Mint, a platform that covers NBA Top Shot, streams, analytics, and podcasts. They are building the future of reactive media in the social ecosystem of blockchain. We recently talked to Jack Settleman about NBA Top Shot and in that episode he mentioned Luc, and based on what he said about him we knew we needed to talk to Luc. We discussed: - What is NBA Top Shot a...

Elex Michaelson is Anchor on Fox News LA, weeknights 5, 6, 7 and 10PM, and Host of California’s only statewide political show “The Issue Is”. We discussed the current political, media and entertainment, and sports landscape, and how they all intersect. We discussed: - How the media has changed over the last 10+ years and how that has opened up the opportunity for athletes to control and deliver th...

We welcome “Mr Internet” Jack Settleman to help us understand the digital collectible NBA Topshot, because we need the info! We discuss digital collectibles, NBA Topshot specifically, CryptoKitties, NFT, Blockchain, Crypto… jump in! Jack on Twitter // https://twitter.com/jacksettleman __________               WNTBDT.com @ElliotGerard // @jonahballow // @keiths

Chris Grosse is Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing at Penn State University. We talked to him about his career leading up to Penn State, what he does at Penn State, and how he has helped with the careers of juniors and students looking to get into and advance in the sports industry. We discussed: - How he started working directly with juniors and students - His career trajectory from the N...

Katie Linendoll is an Emmy Award-winning TV personality, consumer technology expert, and one of the leading women in the field of technology. As one of the most in-demand technology experts worldwide, Linendoll is recognized by a wide-range of audiences for her reporting and frequent appearances as an expert contributor for major media outlets including NBC’s “TODAY” show, “The Rachael Ray Show”,...

Guest Host: Brandon Chubb Rashad Campbell is an athlete and businessman. He graduated from Cornell University and played Defensive Back on the football team, where as a senior he set an Ivy League record for kick return yards in a season and became the only Ivy player with multiple returns for a score. His 1,921 career kickoff return yards ranks third all-time in the Ivy League. Football has been...

Jay Koeppel is a big NY Jets fan which opened doors for opportunities and businesses such as creating a magazine, guerilla marketing campaigns, getting press credentials from the Jets, and doing stunty and buzzworthy things on behalf of his Jets fandom which got him local and national media attention countless times. As much of his business life was ramping up, COVID shut down many aspects of his...

Adena Jones is one of the Social Media OGs, and you might know her from Bleacher Report, ESPN, NBA TV, Soul Cycle, and many others…. She has recently co-founded and launched Another Lane, an exclusive sneaker marketplace and community, with her husband Chad. We talked about: - How the four of us worked within the beginnings of Social Media… remember Twitpic? - Why it is so important for a brand to...