Dustin Rideout was the Head of Brand & Fan Experience for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC at Maple Leaf Sport & Entertainment. He was also a partner and head of strategy at Sid Lee in Toronto, Canada.

We talk about him making the move into pro sports from advertising, what he was looking for when hiring and where he sees the biggest opportunities for change in the industry. It was a great conversation filled with actionable tips for potential newcomers from someone who has rebuilt a marketing team in a sports front office. 

The two books the Dustin mentioned were "The Art Of The Start" by Guy Kawasaki and "First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins.  

Dustin's LinkedIn profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinrideout/

Full show notes and transcripts can be found here: https://www.mtcpod.com

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Russell Kovshoff was most recently the Director of Game Presentation and Entertainment at the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He's one of those guys who has such a positive attitude and infectious work ethic that he really elevates the team around him. He's had such a great diversity of experience over the past 15 years with time spent with the Toronto Raptors, NBA All Star, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Pan AM games and even the Super Bowl that wrapped up in February 2020 in Miami. 

We go through some great stories -  like how he started his career in sports volunteering at 12 and 13 years old. We also talk through actionable steps of how to reach out, how to network and how to level up your skills during this pandemic moment in sports. 

Connect with Russ on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-kovshoff-00289713/ 

Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:
https://www.mtcpod.com

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Sasky Stewart has been the online voice and communications chief for brands including the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NHL and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

Now she balances her legal and marketing education with a decade of communications, PR and digital experience to guide brands, athletes and their campaigns from strategy to execution (all while increasing the percentage of leopard print and neon in any given meeting). 

On this one, we get raw and honest about how she fell out of love with hockey, wrangled her internship by directly emailing an NHL team owner, and we dig into how the diversity of experience makes you a more valuable candidate in sports. 

Sasky is also the co-host of the podcast (All The) Sports on Screen with the Well Actually Sporting Club, which spotlights lesser heard voices in sports tv, movies and documentaries. 

Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:
https://www.mtcpod.com

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Bradley Getty is a creative director, author and advertising creative who found himself as the Executive Creative Director of the NHL's New Jersey Devils for two years. His mission was to rebuild the brand to relevance in culture while properly representing its New Jersey fan base. He talks us through landing the job and application process, actionable advice when applying for jobs, the right mindset that you need to success in pro sports and some fun stores on what it's like to get face a couple of 80 mph slap shots when the real goalie doesn't show up. 

Full show notes and transcripts can be found here:
https://www.mtcpod.com

Like the show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps. Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!