If you work in and around communications in sports in North America, this is a week you should hopefully love, but you may hate. The convergence of winter team sports tied with mega events like The Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics make this a mad scramble for those looking to cut through clutter and find a share of voice in conversations that can range from products to health and wellness to investment to media and on and on. You have to know your story, develop and cultivate relationships, time the delivery, match the spokesperson or people, keep them informed and engaged, and find all the little creative ways to make the story sing.
It’s not easy, it’s hard, and it takes orchestral skills sometimes to make all the pieces fit together and determine what success is framed like. I thought of all those pieces fitting together as I went around our first day on what is now Media Row in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Some faces and names have been the same for years…some are new…some look lost as they scramble to make sense of things, some try to impose their will to force relationships, some make big assumptions that time challenged outlets will just “know” their story and will want to share it…and some are along for the ride.
The competition to cut through to deliver meaningful engagement is maybe harder than ever, and probably leave many wondering if the effort is worth it.
Bottom line is regardless of the grind, you have to enjoy the process and take the time to learn, to adapt, to roll with the punches, to listen and to grow personally and professionally in a massive opportunities like this week.
I thought of all this as I was wandering a bit yesterday, and it reminded me of a story that came back, tied to the NFL, with the passing of longtime Jets PR head Frank Ramos.
In 1975 when you could do such things my dad walked into the Jets offices on Madison Ave & asked if he could talk to someone about how you got tickets, which they actually sold from there. A man came out and gave my dad not just a bunch of Jets swag for his son but passes to a Saturday clinic the team was doing at Shea Stadium in a few weeks, glad to do it he said. That guy was Frank Ramos. I told him the story years later and he laughed and said that was a rare non busy day in the Namath era. Lol.
Now here was a guy, way before the advent of social media, influencer strategy, heck even the internet and talk radio, who had a massive task in managing the media for the Namath era Jets. It was a grind at its core not much different from the demands of all those people in Milan or New York or running around San Francisco this week. It’s demanding, stressful, challenging, uber competitive and sometimes pretty thankless. have sense can view the work as a positive experience, if you listen, if you build PERSONAL relationships, if you can have sense of enjoyment and bring those little positive things to others, you can truly enjoy the experience no matter what the demands and the pressure you feel.
I mention the Ramos experience because he took the time to do little things and wasn’t looking for payback on the day years ago. He could have stayed in his office or grumbled away that he was too busy, or even worse yet, instead of answering a question he could have said what many who don’t choose to invest in relationships do…just say NO…and walk away. That’s the easy way out, but it should not be the first option.
The payoff Frank Ramos had on that day became deeply personal and valuable to me down the road, and I never forgot it and neither did my dad. He came home as a hero that day, and it stuck with me forever.
The lesson I guess is that we have to find the little things in the most hectic environments as communicators and professionals. We have to frame messages, cultivate relationships, solve real time issues, build trust and tell stories to audience big and small without losing the joy or the nuance on the journey.
As I take to the halls of Media Row the next few days will there be building stress? Sure. Will it all be roses? Nope. But will I enjoy the ride? Sure will. I hope everyone else does as well. The little things, like Frank Ramos did years ago, can add up to big wins if you put the time and the effort in, and do it with curious wonder and joy.
You will get back more than you give, both now and down the road.
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