If you follow me on social media or my podcast show, 99.0% of the time I share you sports career development content with sports career stories from today's sports industry professionals, to support you with your sports career development.
For a change, I am going to share with you a personal story, relating to my sports career development and I hope it helps.
Here I Go!!
From personal experience in the last 4 years when pursuing my career, I have learnt in the sports industry ‘you can’t do it alone’!
When starting a career in the sports industry it does feel like that you are on your own.
Story Time: Why I wanted to reconnect with Jackie Fast?
Two weeks ago, Jackie Fast put a post on LinkedIn an event she was speaking at and it was Free to attend, so I took action and signed up.
The reason why I signed up was because of 3 reasons:
- The main reason, for attending the event, I wanted to personally thank Jackie Fast ( I will explain in more detail in this blog)
- I wanted to learn from Jackie especially her entrepreneur experience on how she created Slingshot Sponsorship from a spare bedroom and sold it for a multi million pound business.
- Also, I was learning from other brilliant entrepreneurs during the weekend like Rob Moore, Ed Smith, Levi Roots and many more.
Why I wanted to thank Jackie Fast?
As you see I took ACTION on that day & made the finical commitment because I trusted her advice.
Sports Career Tip: Really listen to people who have more experience than you and commit with their advice.
One person was Chris Robb, who was sitting across me and I asked him a question that evening ‘What he enjoyed the most from his sports career?' and it was fascinating response how enjoyed watching thousands of people cross over the finishing line relating to his Mass Participation Events with smiles on their faces.
But before the end of the evening, we exchanged business card and he provide me a word of some words of encouragement which I still remember Chris's words to this day "Ed don’t lose your enthusiasm you have, it’s great!"
Honestly, attending the event was a an investment of £500 (Ticket, Travel and Hotel) it was scary at first but as you see in this blog post it led to more exciting opportunities.
Sports Career Tip: Investing in yourself is part of the process relating to your sports career development. That is how new opportunity arise and new relationships are created.
2018 February - 2019 February: During this period I was not in contact with Jackie & Chris I was focused on growing my podcast show and improving my vision at Education2Sport.
2019 April: I reached 150 podcast episodes, it was amazing mile stone to achieve.
That week, I remember Chris Robb ‘Liked’ my LinkedIn post when I reached 150 episodes.
That week Chris sent me an email well done for reaching 150 podcasts episodes and he let me know about the event in Singapore and ask if I was free for a WhatsApp call.
The end of the week we spoke on WhatsApp. During the call he asked me If I would be interested to be a speaker for the event to do a workshop about starting a career in the sports industry.
At first I was honoured, and wanted to say yes BUT I had to do the maths because traveling to Singapore + Hotel is a large investment!
I had to admit, 3 weeks later I was still thinking about ‘how’ I was going to get to Singapore then I sent Robb this WhatsApp message in October:
The learning lesson when sending that WhatsApp message to Chris was make a commit first and figure the details later.
2019 December: Here is a picture of Me with Chris Robb at The Mass Participation World Conference 2019 in Singapore!!
When I attended this event I learnt so much about the Mass Participation Industry.
Also, I manage to complete 6 podcast interviews during the event like Matt Rogan the Co-Founder of Two Circles and many more, they will be out soon!
Most importantly, I conducted my first sports career development workshop, which was a brilliant experience because it got me out my comfort zone!
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Question: Have you connected the dots why I needed to thank Jackie Fast?
Imagine if I said 'NO' to Jackie Fast during our podcast chat or emails about by not attending the ESA Awards Dinner back in 2018, I would not met Chris and I would not of had the opportunity do a Workshop out in Singapore.
Sports Career Tip: You sports career development is all about how you get out your comfort zone, by meeting a new challenege head on!
2020 February: Here is a picture with Jackie this what happened next when taking the picture....
Here is the conversation script which I remembered pretty well when taking the picture:
Jackie: I recognise you, have we met?
Ed: Yes, my name is Ed Bowers you were on my podcast show and you encouraged me to attended the ESA Awards back in 2018.
Jackie: Yes I remember! How are you and why are you here?
Ed: I am here because of you, I saw you promote this event on LinkedIn two weeks ago, and I wanted to see you, just to say thank you. (Face reaction was priceless!)
Ed: Jackie can I spare 3 minutes of your time after all the book signing and photos?
Jackie: Sure
During the 3 minute chat: I explained to Jackie this story in brief, you are reading the detailed story.
This tweet made my day from Jackie:
What I respect the most from this tweet was the last sentence: “I expect even bigger & better things in your future!”
That last sentence is encouragement with acceptability. (Thanks Jackie!)
This story I have shared with you, in this blog article. I hope indicates that pursuing a career in sports is a journey not a job.
That last sentence is an indirection from Jackie as reminder for me, that I need keep progression relating to my future, which I plan to do after writing this!
Thank you for reading and I hope you find this helpful blog post helpful relating to your sports career development?
If you would like me to share more examples like this relating to my sports career journey, please share it and tag me on twitter @EdBowers101 and let me know!
To your sports career success,
Ed Bowers
Please Share!
Ed's 3 learning lessons : That you can’t pursue a career on your own, especially in the sports industry:
- Listen and learn from people who inspire you. Believe in their information and show commitment with your actions relating to what they say or do.
- This is easy said then done! Investing in your sports career development is part of the process when pursuing a career, especially in the sports industry. From experience, by investing in the right people or events will create new opportunities & new meaningful connections in the sports industry.
- My final lesson & most important, ‘The Power of saying Thank You’, I could of done the normal thing by sending a thank you email or a phone call. But seeing Jackie’s face reaction in person when thanking her during that 3 minute chat was priceless, it was worth every penny when traveling from Cambridgeshire!
Podcasts mentioned in this Blog Post:
© 2020 Edward Bowers, via Education2Sport Limited. All Rights Reserved.
