On "Make The Cut" our goal is to bring you the conversations that you need to hear to get hired in professional sports. We deconstruct the career paths, work lessons, and practical advice of the people who have built successful careers on the business side of pro sports teams. From the NHL to the NBA. From football to soccer. These are the stories of the people who make it happen off the field, off the ice and off the court. Our goal is for you to leave with a better knowledge of what it's like to work in the world of pro sports, different jobs that you didn't know existed and actionable steps on how to get your next job in sports. We want to be that edge that helps you make the cut and get hired in sports.
14: Alexis Demmery - Partnerships at Vancouver Canucks
Alexis Demmery is a former partnerships manager with the Vancouver Canucks. She worked her way up from a tour guide to lead partnership clients with the team. She hunted new partners, built partnership marketing programs and (more importantly) said no to the opportunities that wouldn't lead her down the path she wanted. We talk about her strategies for landing an internship, the characteristics needed to be promoted from within, her personal philosophy on experimentation and how s...
5 Oct 2021
13: Zach Feldman - Premier Lacrosse League
Zach Feldman is the SVP of Partnerships & Revenue at the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) - a three year old pro sports startup league. We talk about the evolution of his career, from a young kid who watched Jerry McGuire a couple too many times and wanted to be a sports agent ... to working in Montreal, Toronto and New York. And he provides some great insight on selling, his philosophy on negotiation and what he looks for when building a team. Find Zach on LinkedIn: https://www....
7 Sept 2021
12: Lindsay Barenz - Washington Spirit | NWSL
Lindsay Barenz is the President of the Washington Spirit - a pro women's soccer club in the NWSL. She was formerly of the NWSL and Real Salt Lake after building her career in the White House, as a lawyer and as an entrepreneur starting her own media company. We talk about her balancing her calling and getting her foot in the door in pro sports. We also talk through the importance of young girls playing sports, why female atheles are innately political and what she looks for as the numbe...
13 Jul 2021
11: Justin Kingsley - CF Montreal
Justin Kingsley is the co-creative director of CF Montreal in the MLS. He is an author and filmmaker, as well as a creative director and strategist who helps global brands and world champions tell stories. He has written two Bestselling books: The Way of the Fight with Georges St Pierre and Weology: How Everybody Wins When We Comes Before Me. Justin was also the Press Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office for the Right Honourable Paul Martin. He's someone who has pulled in a million...
21 Apr 2021
10: Jason Takefman - Vancouver Canucks & UFC
Jason Takefman is the former GM of Canada's Only Minor League Baseball Team, the Vancouver Canadians. He also worked as Content Marketing Manager with the UFC and as a Director of Corporate Partnership with the Vancouver Canucks. He is now working as Sports consultant working with VC's looking to invest in private companies, contract negotiation for sponsorships, teams. He is also the Co-Chair of the RBC JCC Sports Dinner and the host of the IBWAA podcast, a weekly Baseball Podcast. We talked...
12 Mar 2021
9: Teeka Cookson - Commercial Strategy at MLSE Digital Labs
Teeka is Manager of Commercial Strategy for MLSE, sitting within MLSE Digital Labs - their digital and innovation group. She leads the development of Digital Labs' B2B strategy, creating new business models for the innovative digital products, analytics services, and other forms of IP developed by MLSE Digital Labs. Prior to assuming this role, Teeka lead the ticketing and retail analytics practices for MLSE, working closely with these teams on areas such as pricing, retention modeling,...
18 Feb 2021
8: Jennifer Reynolds - Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at MLSE
Jennifer Reynolds is a Manager, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. Jennifer stepped into a newly-created role to develop an integrated approach to promote inclusion and engagement for the company and its sports teams. With diverse professional experience prior to MLSE, Jennifer’s passion for sport inclusion has remained a consistent thread; she has been a dedicated volunteer and Regional Board Member with You Can Play, a non-profit that pro...
21 Jan 2021
7: Anthony Ruggiero - Art Director at MLSE
Anthony Ruggiero is an art director at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment - the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors. Ten years ago he was selling Leafs and Raptors jerseys in the team store at the Air Canada Center . He worked his ass off, moved up and now designs the uniforms that Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors sell in that same store. We dive into that and nerd out on some uniform design storytelling for sports teams across the NHL, NFL and NBA. Listen i...
17 Dec 2020
6: Barb Sarmiento - CRM at MLSE
Barb Sarmiento leads CRM team and agency relationships at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. That's over half a billion dollars in ticket sales. CRM is an excellent "back door" into sports. It's something that most people don't consider as a way in, so the competition is lower for the opportunities - if you've got the right skill set. We did into how to build that skill set, practicle applications of how to prep for a CRM interview and more. We were struggling with some ...
8 Dec 2020
5: Astrid Moulin - Real Sports Team Store
Astrid Moulin moved to Toronto from France and was able to parlay her side project as a blogger into a full time gig for Real Sports Apparrel - the team store for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC. We talk to her about making the move with a backpack and a bicycle, why you should just start and the many lessons she learned from being thrown into a job and asked to figure it out. Here's our conversation with Astrid. Astrid's LinkedIn profile is here: https://www.lin...
1 Dec 2020
4: Dustin Rideout - MLSE
Dustin Rideout was the Head of Brand & Fan Experience for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC at Maple Leaf Sport & Entertainment. He was also a partner and head of strategy at Sid Lee in Toronto, Canada. We talk about him making the move into pro sports from advertising, what he was looking for when hiring and where he sees the biggest opportunities for change in the industry. It was a great conversation filled with actionable tips for potential newcomers from som...
24 Nov 2020
3: Russell Kovshoff - Saskatchewan Roughriders
Russell Kovshoff was most recently the Director of Game Presentation and Entertainment at the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He's one of those guys who has such a positive attitude and infectious work ethic that he really elevates the team around him. He's had such a great diversity of experience over the past 15 years with time spent with the Toronto Raptors, NBA All Star, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Pan AM games and even the Super Bowl that wrapped up in February 2020 in Miami. We go throu...
17 Nov 2020
2: Sasky Stewart - Toronto Maple Leafs
Sasky Stewart has been the online voice and communications chief for brands including the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NHL and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Now she balances her legal and marketing education with a decade of communications, PR and digital experience to guide brands, athletes and their campaigns from strategy to execution (all while increasing the percentage of leopard print and neon in any given meeting). On this one, we get raw and honest about how she fell out of l...
10 Nov 2020
1: Bradley Getty - New Jersey Devils
Bradley Getty is a creative director, author and advertising creative who found himself as the Executive Creative Director of the NHL's New Jersey Devils for two years. His mission was to rebuild the brand to relevance in culture while properly representing its New Jersey fan base. He talks us through landing the job and application process, actionable advice when applying for jobs, the right mindset that you need to success in pro sports and some fun stores on what it's like to get face a co...
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