Under Further Review: Creating Opportunities

In sales, the key to success is creating opportunities for yourself.  If only about 10% of sales are closed and won, then you need a whole lot of opportunities to sell the most.  Selling yourself professionally is no different.  We do this in times where creating opportunities is our conscious goal (like networking events) and we do this even when we may not know (like with our online brand). 

We can easily control the opportunities like networking events, guest speakers, and educational trips, but the opportunities that we don’t always notice take a little more thought.  A lot of it comes down to what we perceive as networking on a daily basis.

I’ve written extensively on using social media to build an online brand.  In this case, a strong online brand can lead to opportunities.  However, a strong online brand is more than just social media.  I’ll take you through my personal path of how I got to my position right now to show how it works.

When I got to Drexel, I immediately looked for some sort of sport management club.  Through the search I found that the Sport Management Student Union was under construction and soon to start.  The SMTSU was a great opportunity, but their blog The Sports Complex seemed to be where I initially found my niche. 

Throughout my school years, I had never been a good writer (I still have lots of room to improve).  I knew that it was a weakness of mine and I wanted to work as hard as I possibly could to turn it into a strength (I know it sounds corny, but it is actually true).  I wrote about sports business for the SMTSU on a steady weekly basis just in an effort to try to get better. 

Last year when Drexel Men’s Basketball was making their run through the CAA and to a hopeful NCAA Tournament bid, I wrote a few pieces about the team and their eventual tournament snub.  One day on Twitter, I noticed that a man by the name of Aaron Bracy had followed me.  Aaron is the Founder and Editor of the prominent Philadelphia college basketball website Philahoops. 

At the time, I thought nothing of it.  I figured that since I had just mentioned a City 6 basketball team, he followed me to see if I had anything else to say about the team (you know like when you mention the morning cup of coffee that you had and are immediately followed by 3 different coffee Twitter accounts). 

Eventually, I wanted to write more than the once a week for The Sports Complex.  Co-op was about to begin and I knew that I would have a little more time on my hands than during class time.  To fill the time my friend from UMass, Drew Rosen, and I started I-95 SportsBiz, a blog that takes an in-depth, strongly opinionated, longer form look at sports business.  Between the two blogs I was writing three-five times per week and (hopefully) developing my writing skills further.

Though I may be guilty of shameless self-promotion, it has helped me out greatly.  About a month ago, I was contacted about Aaron Bracy (remember the Philahoops guy) regarding a position on their staff.  No more than two weeks later, I was named their Drexel Men’s Basketball Beat Writer for the upcoming 2012-2013 college basketball season.  From the span of four-five months between my first Drexel basketball piece on The Sports Complex, Aaron had seen that I had continued writing during that span and reached out to me with an opportunity.  That opportunity has brought me to a job.

By writing for Philahoops, I have taken a step forward in my career.  Taking steps forward only create more opportunities.  What I did was nothing crazy; it’s something that anybody can do on any given day.  I’m not saying that I have found some secret formula to success.  What I am saying is that there are opportunities out there and most require some sort of prerequisite.  There are opportunities that lie not only beyond the Drexel University co-op listings but also beyond your comfort level.

Challenge yourself to step out beyond your comfort zone.  Do something that you never thought you would ever do (preferably something within the laws of the land).  Challenge yourself to not only find your biggest weakness, but turn it into a strength.  Even if you have no desire to pursue that newfound strength into a career, it will only create opportunities for you.

To be completely honest, I have no idea what I want to do in sports anymore.  However, I think that that’s alright.  I have a network and I have opportunities.  Not knowing what you want to do isn’t the end of the world, but not having any opportunities to figure it out can be.  Creating opportunities is something that anybody can do and something that everybody must do in the world of sports business.