#teamworkonline

Contributed by Buffy Filippell, SAEM guest blogger and TeamWorkOnline Founder Week of August 19th

Why do we love sports? It's because what appears to be an inevitable loss just may not be so inevitable. There's always hope. "It's not over until...."

I went to the Cincinnati Western and Southern Tennis tournament Saturday to watch some tennis and see two former TeamWork hires, Ina Broeman, retired sponsorship executive; and tournament director and finalist of TeamWork Online’s Best Boss competition, Vince Cicero. I witnessed an incredible, life-reminding, semi-final match.

The New York Times described the match this way, "The 6-foot-10 Isner, best known for his booming serves, was a point from defeat midway through his semifinal match against del Potro, but he benefited from his opponent’s nerves. Del Potro was ahead by 5-3 in the second set and had match point on his serve, but he double-faulted. Isner then earned his first break point of the match, and he converted it with a backhand winner."

This was just one of the on-the -ropes moments in the match. Up in the tie-break, Isner too lost his lead and had to come back twice to win the second set, then was cruising to win in the third when Del Potro refused to be run-over. Isner, exhausted, never say die, finally won.

"It's never over until it's over," Isner paraphrased New York Yankees player Yogi Berra, when asked by the announcer how he willed himself to win. On a single point, one of the participants is pounding his opponent with shots, taking the offensive stretching the opponent side to side. A slight change of pace and the defender seizes the chance to be on the offensive and can win the point!

So when the odds are stacked up against you, how can you turn from defense to offense and win the job?

Years ago we only had a phone.   I called the employer I had met every week after my interview.  With every call, I moved from 50th to 10th on up the ladder until finally, I was offered a job.  We call that persistence.

Andrea Kay who writes for USA Today talks about "Polite persistence can be test for job." 

Here are a few of her tips: 

Remind employers of your existence and help them see you are worth paying attention to. If you see your application was viewed once and then a second time, with that, I suggest you pounce. Send an email to the HR person or the hiring person and again stress your interest. For sales positions, this is a generally acceptable practice. Reinforce what you purport to be - enthusiastic, competent and want to make a positive impact in the sports industry. This is your career.

If you receive a turn off email, respond politely. I've seen the employer offer someone a job who doesn't work out and he goes back to someone who followed up to the turn off. Sometimes you win jobs because you hung in there the longest.

And go the extra mile. Ryan LaBell, a 2013 graduate of Slippery Rock University, applied for a job with a stadium in Miami. Hundreds applied. He arranged to meet the hiring manager at his own expense. "I'll be there next week, can I meet you? " He did and was offered the job.

Contributed by Buffy Filippell, TeamWorkOnline Founder and SAEM Guest Blogger

It’s the weekend and my husband and I are able to leisurely read through the Weekend Edition of the Wall Street Journal ( that’s where I got the idea for last week’s story) and the Sunday New York Times (that’s where I got the idea of hosting networking events that has increased job connections).

We asked our staff where do you get your news? Darren Rovell’s twitter feed? Are you watching the protests amongst the middle class in Brazil and their distrust of the government spending for the World Cup and the Olympics? How will this affect our national governing body athletes and events? Did you see that GoBowling.com (Strike Ten, the marketing arm of bowling) is sponsoring a Richard Petty vehicle, the No. 43 Ford Fusion driven by Aric Almirola? Or, did you see the Phoenix Suns announced a new logo?

So, how do you get your sports business news? Here are a few suggestions for many of us on a limited budget.

My Account: that’s right, your own TeamWork Online candidate dashboard covers breaking news in sports regarding sponsorship and new hires. It’s under your picture. Our sources are ISportConnect.com and SportsProMedia.com. These are two international publications that give you the world view of the sports business. Subscribe to them on an RSS feed or your twitter feed or just check their website via My Account to get to see all of their stories by topic.

Sports Business Daily: Can’t afford their subscription? Follow their twitter feed and their Facebook page. SBJ merely aggregates sports business news from other sources.

Wall Street Journal: For business news which affects all of the sports industry, this is a must. Their twitter feed can give you the headlines. They even have videos such as the employer do’s and don’ts on summer internships in light of the fact that Fox Searchlight pictures was sued by interns for not paying and not providing educational value, merely using unpaid interns to do a job. Fox is appealing the decision. This ruling may impact internships in the future.

New York Times app: This keeps me up to date on the latest headlines. Business owners are affected by political issues. Promotional programs are designed around local and national headlines. 

Here are some tips on where to get “news” of your favorite organization before you apply for jobs.

1) Organization’s website: check out the organization’s website and see if you can pull out some business stories that show you are in the know. One candidate applying to a sponsorship job noticed the organization didn’t have a beer sponsor and said he had plenty of contacts in that category. He was hired and found their first beer sponsor! Again, don’t apply to a lot of jobs with the same company, but a lot of the same kinds of jobs across multiple employers.

 2) (Hometown) Business Journals: Crain’s (City) or (City) Business Journals – search online because they often have the business information that includes team information, such as the Phoenix Business Journal citing the Phoenix Suns as having the lowest attendance since moving into the arena (but they also have one of the highest sponsorship revenue in the league). Crain’s Chicago talks about the on-going discussion about renovating Wrigley Field and at issue is reducing the jumbotron. How does that affect sponsorship sales? And recently the Houston Business Journal cited a new sponsorship of AdvoCare International LP for the ESPN Texas Kickoff which is promoted by Lone Star Sports run by the Houston Texans.

3) Bloomberg TV – if you like your sports business in video, go to Bloomberg TV and put in “sports” in the search box. You may get some sports utility vehicles, but you will get the latest in sports business.

contributed by Buffy Filippell, Founder of www.teamworkonline.com

July 1 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Bob Greene, a columnist and commentator for CNN, wrote an article published recently in The Wall Street Journal reminding us of “The Forgotten Gettysburg Addresser,” Edward Everett, the day’s orator the cemetery was dedicated. We all thought it was President Lincoln, right? 

Edward Everett was a highly accomplished man. So the text goes, “He had been president of Harvard University, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of State, and Minister to Great Britain. He was also by all accounts a terrific speech-maker.” He spoke for 2 hours.

The story continues, “As Everett returned to his seat, he might well have assumed that he had just delivered a speech for the ages. By my count of his text, he had spoken 13,508 words. Then, after some music, Lincoln (who was asked to make merely dedicatory remarks) stood up. A two to three minute speech. Fewer than 280 words.”

We all can remember it; can’t we? “Fore score and seven years ago…that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Everett wrote to Lincoln thereafter, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Lincoln purportedly responded, “I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not entirely a failure.”

Cover Letters Okay, now let's talk about your cover letters? Long, drawn out, perfectly crafted, written, re-written, edited by career services or your parents or spouse, three paragraph summations of all of your thousands of experiences including helping old women cross the street won’t get the employer’s attention. Answering exactly what the job needs and how you have accomplished feats in those areas will be best remembered. Think Gettysburg Address here.

Headline/Elevator Pitch Make the best of your Gettysburg Address in the headline/elevator pitch across all of your applications; this is only for MVP members. To update it, go to My Account/Update Profile/Experience tab. Or, go to your applications tab and add a custom YouTube elevator pitch to each job application.

Telephone Interviews Lead with your best success that matches the needs of the employer first and sum up the call with it again. Follow up with an email promptly stating the same.