Polygence x CollegeAdvisor: Independent Research in Business and Sports Marketing

Webinar Transcription

2024-10-09 – Polygence x CollegeAdvisor: Independent Research in Business and Sports Marketing

Anna: Hello, everyone. Good evening. Good afternoon. Good morning. Whatever time it is, wherever you’re joining us from, we’re so happy you’re here for CollegeAdvisors webinar with Polygence on Independent Research in Business and Sports Marketing. My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor.

I’ve been with the company for about three years. And in addition to working with students one on one through their application process, I’m a co-captain on our essay review team. For undergrad, I studied psychology at Carnegie Mellon. Really thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist, but life is full of twists and turns.

I ended up at Harvard Law School, where I graduated a few years back. So in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I’m a non profit defense attorney, and I live in Ottawa, Ontario. That’s more than you need to know about me, but they asked me to share a bit of my background. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start off with a presentation from our panelists, then answer your questions in a live Q& A.

On the sidebar, you can download our questions, and you can start submitting questions in the Q& A tab as they come to you. So don’t feel the need to wait until after the presentation when we start answering questions. Submit them as they come to you, and we’ll get to as many as we can. We are very lucky to have Cameron Korab from Polygence here with us.

He’s going to introduce himself in just a bit. But before we do that, I wanted to get a sense, uh, Cameron and I would love to know who’s here in the room with us. So I am going to open a poll if it will let me.

Here we go. Okay, please let us know. Know what grade you are in. If you are here as a parent educator support person, uh, please select other. And while you do that, Cameron, I’m sorry, I’m gonna put you on the spot just a bit. I didn’t warn you for this. Um. Because we might have some students here who are still figuring out what they want to do.

How did you realize that you wanted to study business? Yeah. Sorry if I’m fast forwarding to your intro.

Cameron: No worries at all. And welcome everyone. Really excited. Uh, I’m camera core up. Uh, yeah. So Anna, the, the reason that I wanted to get into business, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial bug. Uh, I come from a large family.

I have, I have six brothers, um, and all of them are in the business world. Um, so I knew I wanted to one, I was very competitive as a child. Um, so I wanted to, uh, you know, beat my brothers and, and basically everything and, and, and education and business is one of those things. Um, and I really found a knack of, you know, building things at a very young age.

Uh, I know we’re here to talk about sports business, so it’s, it’s perfect. Uh, inclination that I actually started my first business when I was back in high school, um, I ran a lacrosse camp, um, with, Me and my brothers and local students, um, which was really awesome to see. And it is really evolved, um, you know, my love for business and then sport as well, as we’ll see in the presentation.

Anna: Oh, that’s awesome. It makes you the perfect person to talk about the. The opportunity to get involved in high school in business. Yes. Uh, just so you know, in the room with us, we have 25 percent others, so probably parents, educators. Uh, about 10 percent are in 12th grade, a third are in 11th, and another third, approximately, are in 10th grade.

Awesome. That’s who’s with us. I’m going to close the poll and now I am passing the baton to you, Cameron. Thank you for taking it away.

Cameron: Yeah, you bet. Um, so once again, I’m, I’m Cameron Korab. I’m, I’m really excited to be, uh, with you guys tonight. Um, so a little bit about myself. Um, I’m the head of growth and innovation at a company called Made Hoops.

Uh, we are a underling of Nike. We’re a youth basketball organization. Some of you may even play in our organization or have heard of it. Um, I’m also the founder of the sports business report. So something that I came from the nationals lens, which I’ll get into here a little bit later. And I came into the youth sports realm by way of Gatorade actually.

Um, and I noticed there was really no, um, inclination for news and a lot of resources in the really, really segmented world of youth sports. So what did I do? I started my own, uh, which has been awesome. I’ve been doing it for the last about six months, have met a ton of people. Research is definitely something that I’ve, I’ve learned a lot along, along the way, so I’m, I’m really excited to talk to you guys about that tonight.

Um, education wise, I did my, I’m out of Chicago, so I did my undergrad here in, um, at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Um, and then I graduated from Kellogg, uh, school of Management, uh, which is Northwestern’s, uh, MBA program, uh, back in 2022. And actually since then I’ve, I’ve been a polygenist mentor in the business and sports realm.

Which has been awesome. I’m also a guest lecturer at Pace University of New York. And right out of college, I actually did an internship at a company called Optimum Sports, which is a sports media and marketing firm out of here in Chicago. And I did about seven and a half years there working on some incredible brands like State Farm, Intel, McDonald’s, and I finished running the Gatorade team.

And that’s where I found my current full time job. So I’ll just get into it a little bit. My background and, uh, you know, as you have, you seen is obviously very, very rooted in sport. Um, so when I was getting into politics, I, I really wanted to niche down and get into the sports and business niches, which has been really awesome because I’ve had, I think now upwards of 15 students, uh, from my last, uh, Two and a half ish years, which has been absolutely incredible.

And you’ll see I’m gonna spotlight two students tonight. Um, and one is, uh, who’s actually from Shanghai, right? Way, way far away from me. We’ve had meetings on off times and off hours, but the other student that I’ll get to is actually from. The town over for me, so, uh, probably just does a great job of matching people with the niches that they’re in.

So as I chain here was really, really interested in, uh, the European football model and particularly Manchester City. Football club, which he was one. He’s a super fan of, uh, which we’ll get to later. Passion leads a lot of the research and, um, you know, he wanted to understand why, uh, Manchester City rose to such, you know, national and global notoriety.

So. We did a 10 week, uh, deep dive into all things, um, such as marketing, uh, you know, different types of fan engagement. And we came up with, and we worked through a 17 page research paper, um, On all things that covering Manchester City from, you know, how their management group was structured, and you can kind of see here in this in this little image, which was really, really unique to the space all the way from, you know, their strategies and commercial operations, all the way down to advertising and how they.

Sell tickets, really. So that chain was an awesome student. He, you know, learned a ton along the way, um, and has something really, really tangible, um, to prove from it. And it’s really unique. And I were actually really talking, uh, just before everyone jumped on. Um, and, and polygons is a really, really, um.

Unique property because it gives students the ability to have something tangible right to to bring it to, uh, counselors and college admissions. But not only that, right? I’m in I’m in the business world. Now, if I see something tangible that someone is coming to me and wanting a job or looking for a connection, I say, You know, I know all these soft and hard skills are great.

Can you show me some work experience? Um, not many people, you know, out of college can have that work experience. But if you can show me this tangible 17 page research paper, you know, I’m going to know that you’re going to work hard and I might move your resume to the top of the top of the pile. So the next student here.

And like I said, he’s my neighbor here in Chicago, which has been awesome. Um, to kind of get to know him, uh, via our virtual sessions. So Kevin is actually a cricket player, um, of all things here in Chicago. So he travels a ton, um, does a lot. Is also a student, right? He’s going to college. Um, so he was really interested in the rise of cricket in the states.

So, you know, what we did, he didn’t have a lot of business knowledge on cricket was just a player himself. So, um, we did a deep dive into all different types of research out there. Cricket is an international sport, right? So there was a ton of information on the international game, but not as much, uh, in the US.

So he was doing a lot of cold outreach to people, um, using his community, his contacts to kind of get the knowledge. Um, and we are actually just about to finish his project, but he has created a 20 page report. Believe it or not on the growth of cricket. And these are things that we’re gonna, you know, reach out to some of his contacts and see if we can get this published in some of their applications and some of their league resources.

So, um, it’s really, really unique. And, uh, you know, those are just. Two of the students that I’ve, I’ve worked with, um, you know, we, I’ve worked on anything from clothing brand that we launched to, you know, this cricket project, which has been awesome. So, you know, all different types of niches and avenues that we, that we rolled out.

So now we’re going to move into some of the meat and potatoes, right? I’ve, I’ve given you two. Two explanations and two examples of some of those niches and how research, as you can see, has, you know, uh, fueled their passion in, in sport. So, um, for those of that, you who know that this is, uh, Michael Jordan obviously had a tremendous passion for the game of basketball when he was playing, um, and still does, you know, his research was a little bit different than the research we’re talking about today, but you know, I really bucketed these into three, uh, that I really felt like.

you know, uncovered why people are so passionate about, um, you know, research. So the first is self discovery. The second is identifying skills and strengths, and the third is connecting with the community. So, um, self discovery, right? The old adage of if you don’t, you don’t try, you’re not going to do it, right?

Get out there, try as much as you can. You never know what you’re going You know what? You never know what’s gonna stick, right? This is this is a perfect example of that, right? You know, you want to help identify what truly excites you. Um, and it engages with your natural interest. So, for instance, in, you know, this is 22 parallels that I can draw here.

Um, there might be, uh, a project that you’re working on in sports business, right? But you might be, you know, doing all this research, and you might be attracted to the health and wellness sections that you’re finding, right? And you could totally pivot and now have a focus on health and wellness, and you could become a PT or AT, right?

That, that’s happened. I’ve seen that happen. Um, people that I went to college with similar story, right? Um, and then in the real world, when I got out of school and was working on a special business project in the e sports world, so gaming, um, they put me on it because they thought I knew what gaming was at the age of 25.

Um, I was super into it. Um, people on my team were super into it as well. And, you know, we were working with big clients with big budgets and big money because it was brand new and shiny and some of those people that I worked with actually went to go work for these eSports companies, right? So you’re not going to know until you try.

So the second one here is identifying skills and strengths. So this is kind of in a similar realm, but it’s really about, you know, just trying new things and seeing, you know, what really fits to you. Um, so for this, right, there might be, um, avenues that you’re going down and you’re using new tools, and you might become an expert in that tool, like an Excel or an AI tool.

Um, this is something that if when paired with self discovery, right, you can, you can really hit a home run because you’ve got the two, you know, things that you can control in self discovery and, and, and your skills and strengths. So, um, The third and definitely not the least right here is connecting with the community.

So I hit on this a little bit. I think it’s super important. It’s the reason, you know, that I, I truly believe that an MBA and when I went to Kellogg really escalated, uh, you know, in terms of research and, and finding people that, you know, are like minded and can open up new doorways for me. So, uh, just a little anecdote here.

I was in a. Entrepreneurial class at Kellogg and and the whole class was around building a product. But you didn’t actually, uh, you were with a group and you interviewed people. You interviewed for people outside the classroom every single week, and it was for 10 weeks. And that’s all you did, right? You use your community, use your connectivity, um, to discover what’s right, what’s wrong.

And what this really comes down from to me is you want. To have the experience, right? But it’s really nice to be able to talk to someone that’s had that experience. So, you know, what you can do not do, um, you know, maybe bypass to save you some time. So, um, you know, all 3 of these together just make an awesome mix, uh, for you for someone that really wants to uncover the passion of research.

Um, and I would challenge anyone. Um, you know, to to really take a look in the mirror at these three, um, kind of verticals and really say like, Hey, what, you know, what am I interested in? Can I, can I kind of create a checklist of these three buckets and really identify what I want to research in and what can fuel my passion

and I believe I’ll pass it back to you for this portion.

Anna: Hello. Sorry. Um, thank you. I. I don’t have anything to say on this slide, other than scan that QR code to learn more about Polygence and getting signed up with them. I do have lots to say on this slide. Um, so. We at CollegeAdvisor are well aware of how overwhelming the entire college admissions process can be, and we are here to help.

Our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one on one advising sessions. We’ve already helped over 8, 000 families in their college journeys, and I’m excited that we recently analyzed our data from 2021 to 2024, and we found that CollegeAdvisor students are 2.

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If you are joining from a phone and therefore unable to take a picture of the QR code right now, remember that you can download the slides and the handouts tab so you can scan them later. And when you close out. This meeting, you should be redirected to that page, but make sure that you scan it or somehow get to that page because during that free meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what Uh, our experts believe you can do to stand out.

At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages that we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, figuring out what extracurriculars make sense for you, maybe it’s Polygence, uh, and so much more. We’ll review the whole process.

Uh, so we are going to move into our Q& A. Uh, I’ve been reading through the questions you submitted in the tab. As we get to each one, I will paste them into the public chat so you can see them, and I’ll read them out loud before turning it over to Cameron. As a heads up, if your Q& A tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just make sure that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page.

Thanks. So Cameron, uh, first question, uh, is have you worked on any sports analytics projects?

Cameron: Yes. The quick answer is yes. We work on a ton of sports analytics projects. Um, the new gold is data. So, uh, as they say in the biz, so I have, um, you know, I’m not an expert by any means in the space. I have analysts that I work with that are gurus and all sorts of tools Um, all the way from Nielsen to Excel, um, that helped me, you know, kind of analyzed whether it’s survey data or data we get privately from a third party, um, that helped me make my business decisions and help me kind of make strategic business moves in terms of moving our, uh, you know, uh, our, Basically, our company forward.

Um, so, you know, peek behind the curtain. Funny enough, I just had a survey go live, uh, no less than 18 minutes ago. Um, and I’m already getting feedback, uh, live, uh, from my analysts, uh, during this call actually, which is, which is really funny. So yes, in short, um, uh, you know, sports analytics, both, you know, on the actual performance on the field.

Um, I’ve never worked on any of that, like a money ball type deal, but on the business side, yes, I’ve, I’ve worked on a ton. Um, it’s super important. It’s something that, um, will only get more, you know, smarter and smarter as technology and AI kind of develop. Uh, but I would highly, highly suggest, um, you know, looking into that and trying to, you know, find examples or, um, how ROI is calculated, things like that.

Those are big businesses. And there’s a ton of information about that, I was just actually listening to a podcast today on it. Um, so yes, uh, sports analytics in all, in all facets of business is super important.

Anna: Cameron, could we maybe take a step, and can you speak to what the process is for students to get started with Polygence?

Cameron: Yeah, definitely. So, uh, Polygence, uh, obviously you can, uh, you know, go to the website. You can find it with a simple Google, um, Google search, but you’ll be able to put in your interests and things that you’re able to, you know, wanted to discuss and discover, um, you might have an initial meeting, um, with, you know, some, a mentor there.

Um, and then it goes into a pairing process with mentors like myself, right? If you have a, um, A niche or something, a hankering for wanting to be in sports business, right? You would write up a brief of a project that you want to tackle or something that you’ve worked on before and want to kind of bring in and, and work out, you know, there’s all different levels of ways to work together with someone like myself.

Um, and then we would get, uh, I would get on my end, kind of your brief and your outline. Um, hopefully we match and it would be a perfect pair. Um, and then we have an initial meeting. Um, and then we kind of scope out the, you know, it could be upwards of 10 meetings, um, for our sessions each, um, that could span over, you know, it could span over a month or two months, just depending, we like to go at your pace, um, and, and really make sure you’re, you’re getting the most out of the sessions that we have.

Once again, they can, they can range in timing. We can, we can make it, um, you know, 30 minutes, we can make it an hour. Um, you know, we really want to make sure we have check ins and there’s Tools and assets that you can use from a writing perspective and research. Um, and then, you know, from the publishing end, Polygence does a great job of allowing students to get their work published.

Um, obviously I’m going to work, uh, in my resources to try to get it published as well. Um, but yeah, it’s a, it’s a great tool and, and honestly, Like I said before, I wish I had this tool because I was always wanting to have a little something tangible that I could take to that, you know, that college admission or that that interview process.

Anna: Yeah, absolutely. And Cameron, I, I know when I was in high school, I don’t think I’ve. Fully knew how powerful mentorship could be.

Cameron: Yes.

Anna: Um, can you speak to like the impact that you’ve seen your mentorship have on your students or the impact mentorships had on your career through the years? Why should students, especially students interested in business, care about mentorship and invest in those relationships?

Cameron: Yeah, and I kind of hit on it with the connecting with community, but, um, you always hear the old, the old say, you know, it’s not what, you know, it’s, you know, I would, I would say that’s not very true, but it’s very important about what, you know, right? It’s, it’s, it helps to be smart and it’s good to be smart.

Um, so make sure you’re studying and get good grades, but mentorship is super important in the. What you know, right? It leads to a lot of doors that can be, um, you know, easily open for you. And it also just sheds a, a widespread of knowledge on yourself. Um, because you can learn from people’s mistakes.

That’s. Pretty much gold in this world, um, and you can learn from a lot of their successes to write. You can learn what they did, right? What they did wrong, who to talk to, who did not talk to. I like this tool. I didn’t like this tool. I spent money on this venture and I didn’t spend money on this venture.

Right? It leads to it’s it’s pretty invaluable. Um, and to get a good mentor or mentors, right? Um, is super important. And for me, um, yes, I have mentors in the business and sports vertical, but I also have mentors that have nothing to do with sports and, um, because I want to get the widest range of, of knowledge possible.

And I think, uh, not only did, uh, you know, growing up with seven boys in my family help, uh, but going to get in my MBA and unlocking a lot of those doors and, uh, you know, talking to those people, like minded people like myself, uh, really, really helped shape my kind of, Thinking about a mentor and now people are coming to me to be a mentor and I’m learning a lot about, you know, what I liked and what I didn’t like from from different mentorship.

But, um, hopefully that answers the question. I think the 2nd part to that,

Anna: I think you answered it perfectly. If there’s a 2nd part, I forgot. Um, I, Yeah, I agree. I know in my life, mentorship has been really helpful and safe space to get feedback on things I could do differently to achieve my goals in a really safe space, much safer and easier to get feedback from someone you see as a mentor versus someone who’s Your employer and decides if you have a job or not and signs your paycheck.

Um, not saying that bosses can’t be mentors as well. Uh, but there’s, there’s something nice about the safety of mentorship. So thanks. Thanks for speaking to that.

Cameron: You bet.

Anna: Uh, we have a student who’s asking how is business and sports marketing different from what most people would consider business?

Cameron: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great question.

Um, if I close my eyes and I think of business, I think of accounting and finance, uh, and things like that, right? Uh, maybe private equity or banking, right? And, and, That’s that’s what I envision is business, right? Those my friends that are from University of Illinois that went to get their business degree as well, obviously, a different pathway.

So, in terms of sports marketing, um, and sports business, right? There’s, it’s obviously 1, it’s super niche to sport, obviously, uh, but it allows you to open up a lot of different opportunities. Avenues that traditional business might not, right? You’re working with obviously big time athletes, right? That’s obviously the number one, the, the talent on the field.

Um, compare that to business and that’s, you know, maybe big businesses like IBM or uh, apple or something like that, right? So you’re dealing with real people, um, that are really, um, shaping the ecosystem of sport in general. So that’s, I think, the biggest. Comparison and contrast. Um, two, I think, you know, it really in this day and age, right?

A lot of the sports business comes down to, um, technology and media, um, where are people watching the sport? How are people talking about the sport? Right? To understand that is to understand a lot of the business aspects. And I feel like, uh, my time at my agency right out of school, uh, really helped me kind of, uh, Understand that ecosystem really well.

And now I can walk the walk and talk to talk. Obviously, comparing that to traditional business, right? If you’re an accountant, you’re going to finance. Awesome. I have plenty of friends and colleagues that are in that world. It gets a little mundane and it’s kind of rinse, wash and repeat sports are happening every day.

It’s changing every day. The landscape changing every day. Um, if you’re really truly interested in sport, you know that it’s the last thing that people are watching live on television, right? It’s keeping a lot of these legacy broadcasters live. Um, my father worked for CBS sports. He’s a dinosaur in the industry.

The only reason he’s still there is because they have college football in the NFL and golf, right? Um, other than that. They’re, you know, syndicated broadcast networks and channels and shows. Uh, yeah, he, he might watch Blue Bloods on Friday night, but, uh, that’s just because he’s got nothing better to do. So, uh, yeah, hopefully that kind of, uh, does a little peek behind the curtain of, of, uh, different sports businesses versus traditional businesses.

I think I can go on about an hour on this, um, just comparing and contrasting, but, uh, I’ll spare everyone.

Anna: Well, this is somewhat of a follow up question, I think, to that. What skills do you think are most valued or the most helpful to have in sports marketing?

Cameron: Yeah, definitely. It’s funny. I was talking to my father’s colleague today and she was looking for someone to hire.

New York office and she said, Hey, she literally asked me that same question. She said, Hey, when you’re hiring people, um, what are these, some of these skills that you’re really looking for? Um, obviously coming out of, coming out of high school, coming out of college, right. Um, you know, a lot of these new hires don’t have the experience or, you know, tenure in, in the real world experience.

Right. And that’s, and that’s totally fine. Right. So what I always say is, um, well, one, um, I come from a family of six, six brothers, right? I have a, a work ethic. I think that’s, you know, speaks for itself. So if you’re hardworking and you could show me your hardworking, whether that be in different extracurriculars, you know, at school stuff that you can handle, uh, and, and, and manage, right?

That, that shows me something on paper. Hey, this person is involved in, in a lot of these things. And, you know, they maybe have, you know, have a fundraiser and they ran a marathon. If they’re, you know, You know, that stuff is great. So hardworking, something that I can point to is always number one, because I can teach you a lot of the hard skills that you need to learn and some of the soft skills, maybe two.

Uh, but if you’re not hardworking or not willing to learn, uh, you can’t really teach that. So that’s number one, getting more into the soft skills and hard skills, right? It’s always. super important these days. If you can, you know, if you can know how Gmail works, if you can know how Excel works, if you can know how some of these, maybe some of these other tools, uh, work, uh, that always gives people like up, right.

And, and that’s just, you know, a matter of your circumstances. Uh, but with that being said, YouTube is free if you have the internet. You can learn anything. And I, and I know that because I’ve done it, right? I’ve, I’ve, I’ve needed to learn how to use certain tools, um, that maybe I wasn’t getting the best explanation of, um, through the, the, you know, school or whatever it might be.

And I, you know, hopped on YouTube and I learned a ton. So, um, just curiosity, really, I think that kind of leads itself nicely into that kind of bucket, um, and willingness to learn and, and being an entrepreneur. Meaning you want to make yourself, you know, someone who helps the business grow, you’re not just waiting for everything to come to you.

You’re being proactive, right? That’s and that’s kind of 2 or 3 things. But I think those in a nutshell really help, uh, you know, shape and are both hard and soft skills that that is someone could really bring not only to sports business, but any job really itself. And then, you know, three is just having a, you know, uh, you know, a can do attitude and not wanting to put anyone down or, you know, you’re always bringing a little spark to the company or the team, right?

That, that goes a long way. And, um, it’s something that I look for in my hires. And it’s something that I built my team around and my company around, um, because it’s super important, um, to have a, uh, a can do attitude and a can do company. And really, you know, everyone’s on the same page. Um, you know, one track mind of let’s, let’s grow and let’s succeed together, uh, which, which makes things a lot better than, you know, dark and dingy and moody and, um, you know, this stinks and that stinks.

So, um, hopefully those three ish, four ish buckets are, are things that people can take away.

Anna: Yeah. I think that that’s a really helpful high level picture of the skills that you’ll want to bring those sports marketing. You mentioned Cameron that athletics are part of what’s keeping TV Like a thing. Um, this question is sort of a flip of that.

In what ways do you see technology changing sports marketing? And what trends should students be looking for?

Cameron: Yeah, I mean I’ll silo AI Aside, right? We’re not going to talk about that. We can talk about that at a different time. Uh, but in terms of technology and media, right? I, I get asked this probably every week.

Um, obviously the biggest one is probably live streaming and, and, you know, companies like a Netflix or a Hulu or a, um, a doodad or a what dad there’s different one every single day. Right? So, uh, live sports, like I said, is the last thing that people are, are watching. Um, and it is a. Arms race to see who’s going to gobble up the live sports rights.

For example, the NBA just renewed all of their broadcast rights until 2036. A traditional broadcaster, TNT and TBS, who have had the rights for, I think, 30 plus years. got outbid by Amazon, uh, 2. 5 billion or something like that. Right. So really paying attention to those types of, uh, industry moves, you can kind of see where the business is going.

And funny enough, I did a project on this, um, with a student, um, at Polygence, uh, around the NBA all star, and he was really focused on that one specific event and why it was doing so well or poorly. Um, and, uh, And the The, uh, the event or the project actually transformed into this exact question of where is the sports industry going?

Um, and a lot was delved into the fact that all of these, all of these large, uh, companies and leagues and teams, right? They’re all pushing their own digital app and digital ecosystems because they want the rights. They want all of your data. They want Um, to shed, setting you highlights. They don’t want you on all these platforms that they’re selling their rights to.

Um, and I think that’s where eventually, you know, maybe in our lifetime, that’s going to go, you’re going to be watching, I’m a Chicago, big Chicago bears fan. I’m going to be watching Chicago bears, um, you know, game off of an NFL app, right? Not on CBS. So I think that is probably the biggest thing that I would pay attention to.

Um, outside of, you know, the, the illustrious AI.

Anna: Yeah, the AI is, I think, a mystery for all of us still. What advice do you have for a student who’s trying to build a network but doesn’t have any personal connections in the industry?

Cameron: Reach out to me. Now you do. Um, no, I, I, in, in all seriousness, um, I, I don’t know the, the age limit that you’re able to set up a LinkedIn.

Um, but something as easy as a blog, right? Where if you are actually interested in this, right? And you have thoughts and you want to follow it. What’s what’s new and latest, right? You know, get on all your favorite social medias, um, create an account that you’re just, uh, repurposing content. You’re creating your own thoughts and feedback on stuff.

That’s movement in the industry. Uh, you know, I, the, the MBA rights, right? If you were to just point to that, if you. Came in for an interview with me and you said, Hey, I am a sports business, you know, analyst, right? Um, I have this Twitter that has, even if you have a hundred followers, that’s a hundred more than I have.

Um, and I talk about, you know, different movements in the sports business world. It, it’s, you know, as long as you have a phone or a computer and internet, you know, you can, you can do that and it shows. Right. Uh, not only myself, but, but most likely college, um, admissions officers that you have a real passion for something, and that’s, you know, a lot more than, than some people have.

And you can show me a tangible result of that. Um, and like I said, it can be a hundred followers and it can be, you know, a couple impressions on each post, but, um, as long as you have something, as long as you’re interested in something, um, you can create that network pretty fast and you’d be, you’d be surprised about how many people will actually listen.

I started. Uh, my company, it’s not, I’m not the face of it by any means. Um, and you know, I have over 15, 000 followers across all of our, all of our channels in six months, right? People want to learn and want, um, knowledge at their fingertips. And, you know, it’s all out there. Um, if you have a phone or, or, you know, internet connectivity, it’s just about if you’re willing to put in, you know, even 30 minutes a day, really, um, which is really shocking to some people.

Anna: Yeah, and I would add in addition to all of that, I think in my experience, I noticed students sort of shy away from, uh, like cold reach outs. Oh, um, but I, I think there’s no, I think There’s only upside to doing it. Your response rate might be 5%. Um, but that’s another way to get your foot in the door to show someone who you respect in the industry you’re trying to get into, right?

Like you can reach out, explain your situation, ask if they’re available for a quick phone call, a lunch. And You never know where that goes. Right? At the end of the lunch, you can say like, Hey, is there anything you think I could bring to the table for you? Anyone you think I should talk to? And then network sort of flow naturally from there.

Cameron: Yeah, 100%. And to kind of add on to that, right? At least in the sports world, there’s, you know, all tiers of sports teams and organizations, right? Um, even if it’s your local high school basketball team, right? Go get involved in there. You never know who, um, you know, you might be a player. You might be, uh, you know, a manager, you never know, or go to your local, you know, minor league team.

Trust me, people always need help. And if you’re willing to, you know, you might have to do it for free for some, for some extended, uh, time, but you know what, you never know the connections you can make. My, my cousin actually started at the King County Cougars here in Chicago. Um, and now is a global SVP at Under Armour, right?

So he made his way up all the way through the ranks. Um, and it’s just an awesome story about you never know, you know, that Nike CEO, uh, the new CEO is, was an intern at Nike. 30 years later, he’s now the CEO, right? It’s, it’s crazy. So you never know who you’re going to meet, what you’re going to learn, uh, by just kind of putting yourself out there.

And I think that was the number one bullet I had in, in the research.

Anna: Yeah, that, sorry to keep adding on, but I think that’s a good reminder, too, to students that just get involved somewhere, right? Like, if you can’t, if you have no connections at Nike, if you’ve reached out, you can’t get in, go to your high school basketball team.

Work your way up. That’s the best way. My understanding of how business especially works, but it’s how a lot of the world works and on your resume or on your college applications. It’s okay if you don’t have the most like prestigious name brand. I think what a lot of folks are looking for beyond prestige is Have you done the work?

And that speaks to all the skills that Cameron said are really important in this business world. So sorry, I added some tangents there.

Cameron: We’re, we’re passionate about it. I hope everyone can can see that it’s not, we’re not just, you know. Talking to talk. This is, these are real things that, you know, I am looking for as a person that’s hiring people.

Anna: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Back to the questions, Cameron, do you think it’s important to be an athlete yourself if you want to work in sports marketing?

Cameron: No, definitely. I mean, it, it definitely, um, You know, you have that experience and there’s a lot of skills that are learned from sport and team sport, but in no way, shape or form.

Do you have to play sports? Um, you know, definitely helps you with the on the field stuff, but, uh, you know, like I was kind of comparing and contrasting, uh, if you’re passionate about it and you’re a fan, uh, that also helps, uh, but you don’t have to be a fan. Right? I, I, I’m a huge fan of the Chicago Bears. I swore I would never work there because I feel like I would lose my, my fandom for them if I had to, you know, uh, run through Excel spreadsheets and all that stuff.

So honestly, like as long as you’re passionate and as long as you want to help someone grow and you want to put your expertise on the line, um, you know, I, yeah, the answer, the quick answer to that is no. Um, and I think that’s true in a lot of, um, obviously it helps, right. But, um, you know, I have plenty of people that I’ve hired that are, have a super skill set in something else.

And I’ve asked them, Hey, did you ever, you ever played sports growing up? Uh, and you know, they’ve said no. And that was okay. Uh, because you know, um, I, you know, used to be an athlete and will not step a foot on the basketball court anymore because I will tear my Achilles. So, uh, you know, that I’ll leave it at that.

Anna: Understandable. I’m happy to help with this question or take it Cameron. Yeah, how should students include a polygence experience on their college application?

Cameron: Yeah, so, um, I know that in certain college applications, uh, you can add an independent independent research project. Um, so that would be my advice there.

Um, and also maybe it’s an activity section, um, which depends on the, the college application that you’re doing. Um, and really important here is who’s ever, um, going to be, you know, recommending or writing your letters of rec. You definitely want to be able to add, um, or tell them and give them a complete explanation, maybe even present to them any sort of projects like a poly agents project.

Um, so they can also mention it. In their, um, admission letter and letter of rec. So, um, yeah, there’s, there’s those type types of things. Also, if you have any sort of attachment with the application, right, wherever you can slot it in, um, those are really important to make sure it’s, it’s, it’s there. So the, the admission officer can can see it.

I don’t know if you want to add anything. Yeah,

Anna: I would, I would just add. So most of your applications will go on the common app. So, like Cameron said, there’s an activity section. You would list it as an activity, an independent research project, and then you get 150 characters to explain what you did. My advice is to be as specific as possible.

So, what did you research? What did you write? Was it published? Focus on you and what you did, not as much what Polygence is. Um, That’s not what the college admissions officers are looking for. They want to know what you did. Um, so it’s about, you know, selling yourself. I think these could also be great sources of stories for your essays, uh, whether it be a personal statement or one of the supplemental essays you might need to write.

Um, and I totally agree about getting anything you think, uh, makes sense into a recommendation letter. Let’s go. Totally agree. Um, Cameron, do you know how many mentors Polygence have?

Cameron: Yeah, that’s a good question. Um, definitely in the hundreds. I don’t know thousands. Don’t put, don’t quote me on it. Uh, but the really cool thing about Polygence, I know we’re here to talk about sports and business and all that stuff, but just go on their website.

You can find anything out of this stuff, right? You can find anywhere from agriculture to medical. Right to sports, uh, which is really, really cool. Um, I have actually been back and forth with a couple of different mentors myself. Um, some of that are in machine learning, right? Like really cool high level stuff.

Um, and I’ve even, you know, even scrolled through and looked at a couple different projects just to get some inspiration in the medical field. I have some friends that are doctors and, and, and thought it’d be a cool, uh, thing for them. So, you know, you can get nutrition, you can get food. Photography, philosophy, math, finance, like anything that you can think of, uh, you know, you can be paired with, with a mentor that can really help kind of, uh, bring your, uh, project or, or thought really to life, which is really cool.

And like I said, if, if I had something like this when I was, when I was in a high school, um, and the ability to have a mentor and work on something you’re passionate about and help have someone guide you through it. Um, I would be signed up right away, which is, which is really cool that they found me to kind of help with it because it’s kind of full circle.

Anna: Yeah, it’s really cool. Uh, Maureen from Polygence messaged. There are 3, 000 mentors, so whatever you’re interested in. They’re likely to have someone whose skill set is relevant, and I’ll say as an advisor, a CollegeAdvisor, one of the number one questions I get, or a source of anxiety for my students, is how do I demonstrate my interest?

Like, my high school is limited in the clubs it has, I live in a small town. Here’s a really obvious example. Strong way to demonstrate your interest, right? You take initiative, you go out there, you find a mentor, you do this project, you have some tangible, all the things Cameron has said, um, really great opportunity to highlight your interests.

Cameron: Yeah. And I would also highlight there. Everyone, uh, is an industry export expert has a, most people have a secondary education, like a PhD or MBA. Um, so you’re dealing with the 1 percent of the 1%, which is awesome.

Anna: Yeah, that’s really awesome. Back to sports marketing a bit, Cameron, because we got another question.

Of course. What’s, what’s the typical career progression for someone in sports marketing?

Cameron: Yeah, yeah, good question. Um, so there’s, there’s three sections of probably more media or marketing. Uh, sports falls into that too, uh, but you can, you can go into one, one of the three buckets, right? You can be on, uh, a brand side, like a Gatorade, right?

You can go work for a brand. Uh, you can be the middle person. Who’s the agency, uh, which I used to work at OptumSports was an agency. We represented the brands, um, or you can be on the publisher side, which is. A CBS or an NFL, right? The person that’s putting the product out there or the medium to get the product out there.

So, um, at any of those, right? Uh, anyone that starts, uh, new is, um, is going to be some sort of analyst or, uh, you know, assistant or accounting executive. Um, and honestly, the best advice I can give you is meet as many people as you possibly can, ask as many questions as you possibly can sit in as many medians as you can.

Once again, I’ll double take on this, ask as many questions that you can be annoying to the point where they’re like, oh, my gosh, Cameron’s asking another question. Uh, just because at this point, right? You’re not you’re not handling anything super major. Uh, you know, you’re, you’re right out of school.

You’re curious, you want to just be a be drinking out of a fire hose, as we say, um, so that’s like the, the 1st tier, right? And then you’re going to get to some sort of account executive role where you’re running, uh, any, you know, a brand or a campaign on the brand side. You’re going to be managing on the agency side kind of back and forth between the two or on the publisher side, you might be selling right?

Um, and then the next level of that is you’re now managing those people. And then on top of that is you’re running the more or less the managers and the team. The high level vision of the company. So, um, you know, it’s, it’s definitely different, uh, day to day between the three different buckets, but, um, I didn’t actually know that going into the, the whole, uh, ecosystem.

So, um, hopefully this is a nice tidbit for anyone that’s, that’s interested in getting to the, uh, sports marketing.

Anna: Yeah. Thank you. We have a decent number of parents who have joined us. Having worked with, uh, students through PolyGEMS, what advice do you have for parents in terms of how they could support their students or their children as they’re working on a project?

Cameron: Yeah, I would honestly ask, like, after a session, right, uh, I have to give a feedback. Um, Loop of of, hey, what do we do inside of this session? Um, ranking the session any tidbits next steps. Um, I would really advise parents to go through that and be curious about it because, um, once again, I think it’s a, it’s super unique tool.

But obviously, like most things, you’re going to get out of it what you put into it. Um, and it’s super important, I think, for the parent to also be curious and to ask questions and to, you know, lend any help that they might have from their personal business world or their, uh, you know, their knowledge or education or whatever it might be.

Um, Because, right, we only have a limited amount of sessions, which are, you know, awesome and great. But, um, it also just shows that the student that, hey, the parent is also, you’re also engaged in this. They want to check in on you. They want to make sure you’re doing well and succeeding in it. So, yeah. Um, I mean, I guess in layman’s terms, just be excited and be engaged in the project because, um, you never know, like, someone that, you know, might be also, you know, helpful in a research or something that we can talk to, right?

Um, so, yeah, I feel like that is the best advice I could give to parents that are in the Polygence, thinking about it at least.

Anna: Great. Thank you, Cameron. We, I think, are at the end of our questions. Before I let you all go, I’m going to put this slide back up again. This also means if you have another pressing question, get it in soon.

Um, and while you do that, Remember to scan this QR code. When you do that, students, it will ask you to make a student account. Then you can submit an application for their research program. Once you complete your application, you’ll, you could be scheduled for an admissions interview, or you can learn more about Polygence, parents.

You also can create parent accounts and follow your students progress, which is great. Speaking to the last question is another way you can monitor and be a support. Um, and just so you know, the one on one student mentor sessions are recorded and students can share those recordings with their parents.

Um, so you as parents can be pretty fully involved. Um, I didn’t see any more questions come in. So Cameron, thank you so much for your time, for your expertise. We really appreciate it. Thank you everyone for coming out and we hope you all have a great night and check out Polygence and CollegeAdvisor.

Cameron: Awesome. Thank you, Anna. Awesome job. Thanks everyone. Have a good night.