The most frustrating part of the whole sportscasting career experience is how little control individuals have over their own destiny. You are constantly at the mercy of program directors deciding whether or not to respond to calls and emails. It’s impossible to know when the next freelance assignment and accompanying paycheck will arrive. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy. That’s why when I recently made the decision to move on from my radio sales job outside of the metro, I wanted to do something where success or failure was in my own hands.
That’s why I’m excited to start a new venture partnering with Lakeville North High School to help them build their own in-house streaming platform. They are one of the premier high school athletic programs in the state of Minnesota, and they have hired me as an independent contractor to build and sell the platform, as well as call their games!
It’s a perfect fit in many ways. First, I’m the voice of a team in the Twin Cities metro area. And not just any team, but one of the most traditionally successful teams in the state. They are defending champs in football, runner ups in boys basketball, and made state in girls basketball, boys soccer, girls soccer and lacrosse. This position should be profitable, provide great exposure within the metro area, as well as just being flat out fun!
Perhaps what I’m most excited about is the freedom this position will provide. I’ve always wanted to take a more entrepreneurial route in my career where I could, at least to a degree, control my own destiny. The school owns the platform and has final say on all decisions, but I don’t have a manager giving direction on a day-to-day basis, and for the first time ever, I can mold the broadcast and sponsorship packages the way I want without being micromanaged.
The flipside of that freedom is that if anything goes wrong, the responsibility is squarely on my shoulders. If something doesn’t sound good on-air, it’s on me. If sales aren’t where they need to be, the culprit will stare at me each time I look in the mirror. The buck stops here, and that is both an exciting and simultaneously scary feeling.
When I made the decision to move to Minnesota, I was betting on myself. Now that I’m leaving a stable, if frustrating job to take on this opportunity, it feels like another leap of faith. However, if this were a game of poker, my starting hand feels much stronger than it did before, and after carefully researching the opportunity, I really like the odds this time around.
