Sports Sponsorships and Professional Selling with Ryan Helfrick

Episode Transcript

Jake Braun:

Welcome to Kickin’ it with Kapok, a podcast about business stories and marketing advice. I’m Jake.

Mirela Setkic:

And I’m Mirela.

Jake Braun:

And this is episode 19, “Sports Sponsorships and Professional Selling with Ryan Helfrick”. Today, we’ll be joined by Ryan Helfrick of the Tampa Bay Rowdies and now the Tampa Bay Rays. Ryan is a sales professional with a marketing degree in the sports marketing industry. He has worked in Major League Soccer with FC Dallas and the National Football League with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He currently works as a corporate partnership executive for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Ryan has a deep understanding of the relationship between sports and marketing. How do you think we should get started Mirela?

Mirela Setkic:

I guess we can go a little bit back to, what was it, April of last year when we met, Ryan?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah.

Mirela Setkic:

And here we are, so I guess let's talk about, a little bit about the intersection between sports and local businesses, and how did we end up meeting.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, absolutely.

Mirela Setkic:

How did that happen?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, that's a great question. We ended up meeting, I think actually right before the season kicked off in March. Jake reached out to me and mentioned that you guys were a new local business and looking to get your name out there to the masses, and with the Tampa Bay Rowdies playing at Al Lang Stadium in downtown St. Pete. We thought of some unique opportunities to provide visibility for Kapok Marketing, and put together a package that fit your needs, and here we are, right?

Mirela Setkic:

I know.

Ryan Helfrick:

So--

Mirela Setkic:

It's crazy; time just flew by, and it's like--

Ryan Helfrick:

I know. I haven't even known you guys a year.

Jake Braun:

Really; it's not even been a year?

Ryan Helfrick:

No.

Mirela Setkic:

Oh my god, you're right, but it will be a year--

Ryan Helfrick:

Very soon.

Mirela Setkic:

In April. This is like, shocking.

Ryan Helfrick:

I know.

Mirela Setkic:

It seems like we have had so many conversation where you come to our office, and--

Jake Braun:

I think just because we slacked off with those goody bags and Ryan had to constantly come pick them up.

Mirela Setkic:

I know; we feel bad.

Ryan Helfrick:

They were good goody bags.

Mirela Setkic:

I know, but like--

Ryan Helfrick:

I liked them.

Mirela Setkic:

Every time, like, "Oh, this is last minute, "and Ryan is going to come to pick it up."

Ryan Helfrick:

No, I mean, it worked out well, and the fans liked it too, right?

Mirela Setkic:

I hope so.

Ryan Helfrick:

So, it was something to get into the fans' hands each and every game.

Mirela Setkic:

I always, like, I would look around the stadium sometimes, to see if I see one of our bags, to see if someone left it behind or trashed it--

Ryan Helfrick:

You guys were in the fancy seats. The bags, they were in the general seats, so--

Mirela Setkic:

Did you ever find any bags where someone threw it--

Ryan Helfrick:

No, they were always picked up.

Mirela Setkic:

Really?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah. Somebody picked them up for each and every game.

Mirela Setkic:

All right.

Ryan Helfrick:

And I never found them after the game, whether it was in the stands or anywhere else.

Mirela Setkic:

Okay.

Ryan Helfrick:

So we added some swag to the bags as well. We threw in a Rowdies scarf, and a Rowdies t-shirt, and Rowdies hat.

Mirela Setkic:

Okay, so you picked up some of the slack where we didn't?

Ryan Helfrick:

Nah, I wouldn't say it was slack, but I mean, since it was taking place at our game, we obviously wanted to throw in some of our swag into the bags as well, so it worked out. It worked out really well.

Mirela Setkic:

I feel like we have made so many of those bags, and you came over so many times. It feels like we've known you forever.

Ryan Helfrick:

You made 34 bags.

Mirela Setkic:

Did we really?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah.

Mirela Setkic:

Whoa.

Ryan Helfrick:

So we did two every home game, 17 home games.

Mirela Setkic:

Holy crap.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah.

Mirela Setkic:

That's crazy; all right, well, I guess let's talk about some other stuff, about sports marketing, and we'll have some, I guess, questions. Jake, you have a question, or you want to get going?

Jake Braun:

Sure; so how did you get started in sports and marketing? Maybe talk a little bit about how the two came together for you.

Ryan Helfrick:

Absolutely, so growing up, I grew up in northeast Ohio. My father was involved in sales his whole life. He was a sales manager, and I always saw him out on the job doing public speaking, presenting to individuals, going to networking events, and I had a passion for sports, right, and kind of took after my dad. I didn't mind public speaking and getting in front of people, being in a leadership role in college soccer, as captain of the soccer team. Once I got done with school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, right? One of those situations.

Mirela Setkic:

That seems to be the case for everyone.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, it's like, "Hey, I'll get a marketing degree,

Mirela Setkic:

Yep!

Ryan Helfrick:

"and we'll just kind of figure it out from here. "It sounds kind of fun "and the classes don't seem too tough," right, and "I can play soccer, get decent grades, "and we'll figure it out afterwards." My first job out of college, I worked for a recruiter, and I sat in this room and it was like Wolf of Wall Street style, in terms of just a table, and a phone, and people just making dials, no computer in front of me. Everything was off of paper, um, gave me a couple pencils, had me listen to Zig Ziglar for my training, like--

Mirela Setkic:

You know.

Ryan Helfrick:

I watched two or three videos and I was like--

Mirela Setkic:

I kind of gotta respect him. I read one of his books.

Ryan Helfrick:

He's good, right? Don't get me wrong. He has some great things to say, but I sat there for like two weeks, and I'm making phone calls, and I have no idea what I'm doing, and I was like, "This is what the real world's like?" I knew that I had a passion for sports, so I went home after work one day and I said, "I'm not working there anymore," like, "I need to find something that I'm passionate about, "otherwise I'm just not going to do a good job with it, "and I'm probably not going to put in the time " to learn it either," so I'm not saying that's the best attitude to have, but as a 22-year-old that was kind of where I was at. So I did some research, and I found an organization, Game Face Academy located in Portland Oregon, and it was a professional sports training center, right, for individuals that graduated from college, had a degree, wanted to break into the sports industry. You had to pay a certain amount of money; I don't remember what it was. It might have been like, three or four thousand dollar,
to fly out there, do a two week training course, and then afterwards they would help place you with a professional sports team. So I gave them a call the next morning, had an interview with them. You had to go through an interview process to get in. Went through the interview process, which I think anybody gets in through the interview process--

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

If you're willing to spend that amount of money, but anyways.

Mirela Setkic:

It was just going through the motions.

Ryan Helfrick:

Absolutely, so once I got accepted to that, I was done at the other job. I let them know like, "Hey, listen this isn't for me," and flew out to Game Face Academy in Portland Oregon, did two weeks of intense training, 10, 12 hour days, and then had the opportunity to interview with multiple sports teams, so you know, as a kid, and then even just coming out of college, you think right away, like, "Oh, if I go to this I'll get a job in the NFL, "or Major League Baseball, or NBA, NHL," whatever it is, one of the major sports leagues. My first five interviews were with single A baseball teams, and minor league Hockey teams, in small, rural areas, so I think I interviewed with a single A team in Boise Idaho, which, cool, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Okay, yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

But not necessarily what I wanted to do. I was thinking bigger picture, but having played soccer, I knew that I wanted to be within a professional soccer organization, so I interviewed with two or three different major league soccer clubs, had the opportunity to sit down and meet with the VP of sales and marketing from FC Dallas, and he ended up hiring me, and the rest is history. I literally packed my bags two weeks later, didn't know anybody there, first job in sports. My salary was, I believe, 17 thousand dollars, base.

Mirela Setkic:

Could be worse.

Ryan Helfrick:

Could be worse.

Mirela Setkic:

I mean, you said base, so, which means you had commission.

Ryan Helfrick:

So, there was opportunity to make commission, right, but not having much money saved, and being irresponsible with my money in college, 17 thousand dollars, I was like, "Man, am I really doing this?" but the opportunity presented itself, and moved down there on a whim, and from that point forward I knew in order to make it I was going to have to sell, so you learn really fast when you're depending on paying the bills, feeding yourself.

Mirela Setkic:

You got to do it.

Ryan Helfrick:

Moving somewhere, no more mom and dad helping out. That was the start of it, so I was at FC Dallas for four years. I had a great experience there, moved up the ladder, learned a lot, and really where I'm at today, and a lot of the, I guess, methods of sales that I used, I learned during my time at FC Dallas.

Mirela Setkic:

Really?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah.

Mirela Setkic:

So do you consider that your foundation?

Ryan Helfrick:

I would say that Game Face, the training that I received at Game Face, within those two weeks that I went there, along with being at FC Dallas, that's my foundation. I would say Game Face was really, gave me the fundamentals to sales, right? Then once I got to FC Dallas, I was very fortunate. They sat me next to ... My cubicle was next to one of the top sales producers of major league soccer.

Mirela Setkic:

So you could watch and learn.

Ryan Helfrick:

So I remember the first day, my boss was like, "You know, shadow Evan," right? I was like, "Okay, I'll shadow Evan." So I'm sitting next to Evan, and Evan's like, he's going through some of the different ways that he sells people and talks to people, and starts conversations, and questions that he asks, but Evan's super focused and he's super focused because he makes the most money in the company, right? He doesn't have time to waste helping me out--

Mirela Setkic:

You're just kind of there in the background.

Ryan Helfrick:

I'm like, there, right? It wasn't, he didn't mean it in a necessarily like, he wasn't trying to be rude, right, but at the end of the day he had a job to do, and I remember him saying, he said, "Listen Ryan, the best way that you're going to learn,"--

Mirela Setkic:

Is to do it.

Ryan Helfrick:

"Just get on the phone." right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

"Start talking to people; you're going to screw up, "you're going to make mistakes."

Mirela Setkic:

Which is so scary.

Ryan Helfrick:

Which is really scary. Right, but luckily I had the fundamentals from Game Face training, so I had an idea, and I was passionate about soccer, so I was speaking to people about soccer on the phone. That was something else, right, that I was comfortable with and familiar with. You know, really what I did, I had a notepad and I would just listen to Evan in between phone calls--

Mirela Setkic:

And take notes.

Ryan Helfrick:

And I would take notes on things that he would say. I'd hear how he would answer objections. I would hear how he would present to individuals, create urgency, get through the gatekeeper, right? So if he's calling the company, and you know, the secretaries who always answer and won't put you through, I listed to how he got through the gatekeeper. Then I also, on that same notepad, after every call that I made, I would write notes on areas where I needed to improve. So maybe during my conversation, I was saying "um" too much, or asking close-ended questions that would just get me yes or no answers.

Mirela Setkic:

Never want to ask those.

Ryan Helfrick:

Then you would have those very awkward moments of silence, like, "Do you like soccer?" "No."

Mirela Setkic:

"Yes."

Ryan Helfrick:

or "no," right?

Mirela Setkic:

Or no.

Ryan Helfrick:

Then you're like, "Where do I go from here?" Right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, what does Zig Ziglar talk ... Is he the one who talks about having the 20 belly to belly conversations a day or something? Where you have to connect on a deeper level with the person?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, absolutely, so I mean, it's peeling back the layers.

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right? It's really building a relationship, and it can be tough or intimidating to do over the phone. You only have a certain amount of time, right, and you need to grab peoples' attention very quickly. That's where I really got my experience in ticket sales and phone sales, and speaking with people. The firs time I realized that, "Okay, I'm getting somewhere with this," is I remember getting a call back from a company in Dallas. I don't even remember what the company was, but the lady called me back. I swear I left this lady like, 20 messages, but every time I left her a message it was about something different. It wasn't the same message every time, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Ryan was finessing.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, it could have been like, "I had exciting news, our schedule was just released, "we just signed a player, we have a big game coming up, "we have an appearance in your neck of the woods," whatever it might be, and she called me back and she said, "Ryan, I have no clue who you are," right, "and I'm not even interested in soccer, "but I'm going to buy group tickets for my company to come "out and I'd like to meet with you at the game, "and just so you know before we even meet, "have your resume ready because I want to talk to you "about a job here, because if my sales reps were "as persistent as you are, "then I'd like to discuss an opening with you." Some young sales reps, they get into the mode where they just feel like they're bothering people, but if you're--

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, it's a mental block.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right, but if you're calling them with good quality information, and information that's of value to them, and you're handling yourself in a professional manner, and if you're showing the individual that you actually care about learning more about them and building a relationship with them, than just, "Hey, I'm here to sell paper tickets to you "to get you out to the game and make commission," then they'll talk to you, right? That's what it's all about, right? At the end of the day, that's what sales is about, and that's what I like about it so much. It's meeting different individuals, hearing their stories, hearing how they're successful in certain areas, right, hearing where they struggle in other areas, and then trying to fill the gaps with some of the assets that we have to provide for them.

Mirela Setkic:

That's true.

Jake Braun:

Well, it sounds like you're pretty persistent or tenacious with sales, and you also played competitive soccer in college. Which one's harder? Is it harder to try and win the soccer game, or is it harder to close the sales deal?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah?

Ryan Helfrick:

So it's a little bit different, right? When you think of soccer, and I know every sport says this regardless of the sport that you play, or every athlete says this regardless of the sport that you play. Sports is a team game, right? You're relying on others as well. You have to do your job; don't get me wrong, but it's a team game, so you're not going out there and winning and losing on your own, but similar, even on a sales team, whether it's with the Rays and the Rowdies, or when I was with FC Dallas, you still have team goals, right? You're still working together to hit your team goals. You have individual goals as well, just like you would playing competitive in soccer, right? There's a lot of similarities between the two. You have to prepare for a game, right? When I played soccer in college, you need to get in shape, you needed to train daily, you needed to revue film. Before I go to a meeting, I need to--

Mirela Setkic:

Be in shape.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, right. I wish. Be familiar with the company, right, understand what the company does, understand who they're marketing to, what the demographic they're marketing to is, know who their competition is, and just understand a lot about them. So there's a lot of similarities between the two. I feel confident in both.

Mirela Setkic:

Ooh, Ryan.

Ryan Helfrick:

You know, I will say this. In sales, you're dealing with different personalities, right? You may get in front of someone and you could have the best pitch or presentation put together for them based on what you think they need, but really you know, if it's not a good fit or if it doesn't fit in terms of what they're doing from the marketing end, then it might not be the best fit for them, right? I would say sales is probably a little bit more difficult.

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, sales is scary.

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, it is. It is for some, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

Until you get the hang of it.

Mirela Setkic:

Not for Ryan though.

Ryan Helfrick:

No, I wouldn't say that. I would say there's moment when you get into meetings and you doubt yourself, and just like anything else, you might go to two or three ... Listen, you may go to 10 meetings in a row where you get nos, and you start wondering, like, "Do I know what I'm doing? "Am I asking the right questions?"

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, so how do you get yourself out of that? How do you keep on keeping on?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yes, so I think, one, you have to revert back to the fundamentals. You look back at where you were and where you are now, and you know that, "Okay, I've sold in the past, "I've been successful in certain areas in the past. "Yes, there's areas that I need to improve upon. "Here are maybe some of the weaknesses "that I need to work on, but at the same time, "maybe I need to change my pitch a little bit. "Maybe I need to change the way I'm doing things," right? "Maybe I'm researching too much, and I'm going in "with thoughts in mind of what would be "the perfect fit for them, and I'm not listening," right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, you're boxing them in and not letting them express what they want.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right, so I would say that's the biggest thing, right, when it comes to sales. Everybody thinks it comes down to the pitch and the presentation, which I agree with. That's a big part of it, the likability of the individual, and building the relationship, but at the end of the day, it's really asking good solid questions, learning about your customer, and listening to what they have to say, and based on what they say, then reacting to that and putting together the best package that fits them.

Jake Braun:

That's one of the, or few of the things I remember, most memorably from when I first talked to you. I won't do it justice, but you would say thing like that, like, "Well, why don't you tell me about "what you're trying to achieve as a company, "and see how we can meet those needs?"

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, absolutely, because, listen, I can put packages in front of companies and set up meetings all day long, but then I'm wasting their time.

Mirela Setkic:

Your time too.

Ryan Helfrick:

Really, I'm wasting my time too, right? That's the one thing in sales; time is everything.

Mirela Setkic:

Time is money.

Ryan Helfrick:

Time is money.

Mirela Setkic:

I know.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right?

Ryan Helfrick:

At the end of the day, it's really finding out, you know, "What are your overall objectives? "What would you like to see come of this? "When we get to the end of this, what do you want to say? "What do you want to see in the perfect world?" Right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

"How do you want to see this come to fruition, "and then let's work toward that together." That's a big part of sales, and then after the selling's over with, I always say once the sale happens, that's really the start of the selling point, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, you have to continue to--

Ryan Helfrick:

Because you have to continue.

Mirela Setkic:

Maintain.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right. You have to maintain it, you have to up your game, you have to stay in constant communication with them. There may be bumps in the road.

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, sometimes.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right, Kapok Marketing?

Mirela Setkic:

Yes, but you know, it's how you treat those bumps in the road. If you do it well, then the relationship becomes even more solid in my opinion.

Ryan Helfrick:

Absolutely.

Mirela Setkic:

I think that applies to anything.

Ryan Helfrick:

Absolutely.

Mirela Setkic:

Everyone's happy when things are good.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right.

Mirela Setkic:

It's when you know--

Ryan Helfrick:

It's when it gets a little rough.

Mirela Setkic:

Ish hits the fan--

Ryan Helfrick:

Yep.

Mirela Setkic:

How do we handle this, and was this company here for me? If they were not, then it's not going to look good.

Ryan Helfrick:

Right, so there's the service side to it, right, which at the Rowdies and the Rays, we have somebody who services the accounts, but regardless of anyone who's servicing the accounts, I always like to stay in contact with those individuals as well-- because I think it just--

Mirela Setkic:

You're really good at that.

Ryan Helfrick:

Helps building the relationship, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, like you're really, really good. You're very on point. Some people are just hot mess express.

Ryan Helfrick:

Well, I think it's one of those things, right, again, you get to some sales people and their focus is just on the money, right? Listen, at the end of the day, I'm in sales because I also like money, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah, I mean we all have to eat.

Ryan Helfrick:

I want to sell, yeah, I want to make money, but I really like the relationship aspect, getting to know individuals, getting to know their business. You get to learn so many different industries, how they work, how they function, how their business works, and you kind of get that entrepreneurial mindset, right, and understand where they're coming from, but with all that being said, I would say where some of my successes come from, I'm not the best sales person, right? There's plenty of other sales people, even in sports that I've met, at the Rays, that I've worked with at the Rowdies, that are much better salespeople--

Mirela Setkic:

Salespeople.

Ryan Helfrick:

Than myself, but I will always say this, that I pride myself on my work ethic, and that I'm going to try to outwork everybody around me, right, and that's not to say that selfishly or pridefully. Is pridefully a word?

Mirela Setkic:

I don't know, Ryan.

Ryan Helfrick:

I think I just made that up.

Mirela Setkic:

English is my second language, so I don't know. Don't ask me.

Ryan Helfrick:

My goodness. Even with that being said, it's okay, somebody might have a better presentation, and somebody might do a better job in terms of the questions that they ask, right, and I'm going to do my best with that and always look to improve, but one way that I can keep this relationship going is to make sure that after the sale takes place, to continue building upon that relationship, stay in constant communication, find different ways that I can introduce partners to other partners, or to individuals that I know in the community, and help connect two individuals that might benefit from each other. It's just it really comes down to work ethic, right? That's what I really pride myself on, over anything.

Mirela Setkic:

True.

Jake Braun:

One of the things you just mentioned, is you get to meet a lot of different businesses and different industries. You've also had the opportunity to work in a lot of different sports, right? It sounds like you've been in soccer, football, baseball. How do all those different things compare? Do you like soccer the most because you play soccer?

Ryan Helfrick:

Yeah, no, that's an interesting question. Growing up playing soccer, definitely have a passion for it. I played baseball growing up too, and I played it in high school. Wasn't good enough to go anywhere with it, so I took the soccer out and helped pay for school, right? I would say if you asked me when I was in high school or college, "Hey listen, you're not going to be a professional athlete, "but you're going to work in professional sports," I probably wouldn't have said that I wanted to work in soccer, right? Just right off the bat, because football was so big in the country at the time, and basketball, baseball, right? I was passionate about soccer, but I don't know if I would have said that that was one of the sports that I wanted to work in. At the time, major league soccer wasn't where it's at today. It was kind of looked at as a minor league sport, or a minor league, I wouldn't say sport, but a minor league league, essentially, right?
It wasn't one of the four major sports. I probably would have
say, "Hey, baseball or football," right? Once I played in college, and just gone through my business classes, and once I went to Game Face ... When I went to Game Face, I knew I wanted to work in soccer, right? I think it just, again, it came down to the passion. I understood the ins and outs of soccer. I understood it from the youth soccer level to the politics involved in soccer, to how some of these organization were run. Whereas, on the football and baseball level, I just knew what I saw in the field or what I watched on TV. Right, I didn't really know the backend of the business. It's something that I obviously had to learn on the soccer side as well, but just being involved with youth soccer clubs growing up, and knowing people who worked for soccer organizations, it just gave me insight to how they work and operate. With that being said, each one is a little bit different. Major league soccer, I remember at FC Dallas, it was a
very... It was a sales focused culture, which all of them are. Don't
get me wrong on that. Major league soccer, NFL, MLB, right? All very sales focused, but soccer's a little bit more relaxed, I would say, right? Whereas, you know, throughout the course of the week, it was jeans and a Polo to work, right? You're going out, you're meeting with, at the time, specifically because I was in the ticket sales department. You're meeting with youth soccer clubs, so if I go out there in a suit, and I'm meeting with a youth soccer coach, or a youth soccer board.

Mirela Setkic:

It's not going to be a good match.

Ryan Helfrick:

They're like, "Who is this guy?"

Mirela Setkic:

Yeah.

Ryan Helfrick:

"Who does he think he is?" Right, "and he's coming out here telling us, "like, trying to sell us on soccer. "We work with kids each and every day. "We bring them out to your games, right? "We support the club." So we kind of adjusted to who our client was, right? It was jeans Polo, jeans, button-down shirt, or you know, business casual, right? NFL, very sales focused, a little bit different. I was in the luxury suit department, so that was suit and tie every day, but also, you're pitching--

Mirela Setkic:

You're selling big packages.

Ryan Helfrick:

You're pitching your client six figure deals every time you go out, right? If I'm speaking to the CEO of a top 10 business in Tampa, I'm not going in there in jeans and a Polo, right? He would look at me like, "Who is this clown?" right? You kind of have to ... You have to adjust and adapt to your surroundings and who you're working with, right? Then with the Rays and the Rowdies, it depends who I'm meeting with, right?

Mirela Setkic:

Okay, so today you're casual because you're wearing jeans.

Ryan Helfrick:

Today, I'm a little bit more casual.

Jake Braun:

It's Friday.

Mirela Setkic:

It's Friday.

Ryan Helfrick:

I didn't have any meetings today, right? I know my customer, right? When I come in to meet with you guys, I'm not going to come in, in a suit, right? Maybe the first time we met, I might have been in a button-down and a coat, or just a button-down. Once I get to know you, right, just I knew that you were the only clients that I was going to be seeing today, so yeah, casual. Most of the time, and I never wear jeans unless it's Friday.

Mirela Setkic:

Oh, okay.

Ryan Helfrick:

If I have any presentations, I'm typically in a suit coat, no tie, you know, open collar, but suit coat and business casual. Then throughout the rest of the week, it's button-down shirt or a Polo, just depending again, who I'm meeting with, what the conversation is. If I'm making calls all day and sitting in the office, you know, just depends what I'm doing. The culture of each of the organizations, all of them are very sales focused. All of them are just a little bit different in terms of how they manage individuals and people, but I can tell you each organization puts their employees first, which is great. Sports is supposed to be fun.

Mirela Setkic:

I know.

Ryan Helfrick:

You know, you get into sports, yes, you're in the business world, but we're all in sports because we're passionate about it, and because as a kid, you know, you played it, or maybe you watched it, and that was kind of your time to get away from everything else happening in life, right? It was your escape.

Jake Braun:

Well, we’re running up against our time limit. Let’s close it out here for this episode. And we’ll continue this conversation with Ryan in our next episode. With that, I think it’s been a great 19th episode. We’d like to again thank Ryan Helfrick from the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Tampa Bay Rays for joining us today.
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