Our guest for this session is Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Jared oversees Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams, as well as the company’s focus on Modern Work. 

Obviously, the different elements of Microsoft 365 are deeply embedded in all of our daily work, from Outlook to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and more. His team has tremendous insight into the data behind how we’re using these tools, allowing his team to see trends before others see them. As a result, Jared and his team have been spending more and more time reimagining the future of work. And this is where we’ll spend the majority of our discussion.

Overseeing Microsoft Teams, Jared’s team played a huge role in the NBA bubble, as their Teams “Together Mode” allowed for the NBA to create virtual fans at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. We discuss Microsoft’s broader activities in the sports & entertainment and live events industries, where properties everywhere are having to place a more intentional focus on the digital experiences they provide their fans. It’s here that our group found some particularly interesting insights. 

Like many of our guests on this show, Jared’s experience is not limited to just sports & entertainment. He’s seeing trends from all industries around the world, and that insight can help us think differently than our peers, to better engage our fans and our employees. 

Time Stamps:

7:25 - Sporting leagues adapting to digital technology

8:15 - Digitization and the NFL

12:15 - Creating digital experiences for fans around the world

14:15 - Asynchronous and synchronous transformations

16:05 - Application of Microsoft Teams "together mode" to the NBA and NFL

18:52 - Trends of physical proximity oriented spending being reallocated to digital budgets

24:40 -  How to combat change-resistant people

28:45 - The role of humans in technology advancement

32:29 - The pandemic's acceleration of technology

35:00 - Future of Work: Microsoft's 7 principles 

39:39 - What will the new "normal" be after Covid-19?

48:55 - How Microsoft runs meetings

53:24 - Blending digital and physical 

Microsoft Teams Resources and Implementations:

Microsoft Teams

NBA Bubble virtual fans experience

Microsoft Teams Together Mode

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Today’s episode is a little different than usual. This episode is the edited audio from one of our Fireside Chats, something that our invite-only community has access too.

Our subject matter experts for the chat were Brad Wurthman, Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Operations at Virginia Tech and Chris Grosse, Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing at Penn State University.

Brad and Chris both lead teams responsible for the fan experiences at their famous sporting venues. On a normal football Saturday, their 65k+ stadiums literally shake the ground from screaming fans. But this year, neither stadium will host fans due to the pandemic. So we brought them in to discuss their plans for engaging fans virtually.  

In these Fireside Chats, it’s not just me and the guests. There are tons of other leaders on the platform, where they can chime in, ask questions or add their two cents. So when you hear other voices on this episode, don’t be surprised. If you'd like to join the waitlist to attend future chats and ask your own questions, feel free to sign-up here.

Time Stamps:

6:00 - Replacing stadium experiences for fans at home

15:00 - Creating alternate revenue sources 

20:00 - Changes in key metrics during COVID

22:00 - Penn State’s content strategy for virtual fans

24:50 - Keeping fans engaged with sponsors at home

32:00 - Implementing fan cardboard cutouts 

39:28 - Activating user-generated content

45:25 - Turning tailgating to “homegating”

48:10 - Sports subscription boxes 

53:10 - Biggest skill sets needed on a team for the future 

VT & PSU Virtual Fan Engagement Plans:
Virginia Tech's Plan
Penn State's Plan

Where to Reach the Guests:

Brad Wurthman
Connect on Twitter: @wurthman
Connect on LinkedIn

Chris Grosse:
Connect on Twitter: @Chris_Grosse
Connect on LinkedIn:

Rachel Mydosh
Connect on Twitter:@rachel_mydosh
Connect on LinkedIn:

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

The Deputy Athletics Director for UCF, one of the most innovative, creative, organizations in college athletics, joins us today. In his daily responsibilities, Scott has oversight of all external units, including Brand Advancement, Strategic Communications and Video Services, as well as being heavily involved in revenue generation. 

In a time right now where revenue is tight for all sports and live event organizations, we all need new ideas to engage our audience, our followers and our fans. And Scott’s been a key leader in an organization that has done a 180 in the last few years. 

On January 1, 2018, Danny White, UCF’s Athletic Director, declared UCF the National Champions after a 13-0 undefeated season, despite not getting a chance to compete for the official national championship. Even before that public declaration of rebellion against the status quo, UCF had created an internal culture of innovation, one that challenged traditions and focused on engaging their young fan base and employees. 

When you’re not a traditional superpower in your market, the success UCF has had is hard to achieve. They got there by taking risks, experimenting, and ultimately creating and sustaining a culture of innovation. 

All the headlines usually go to massive capital investments in experiences like tailgating in a lazy river, or putting a beach in the stadium. But those headlines are the result of a 100 little things that have been done to foster a culture of creativity and innovation. Things like changing department names and role titles, the experience and demographics of your staff members, the metrics people are held accountable too, and more. 

If you’re a smaller player in your market trying to make waves and topple the big guys, this episode is for you. And honestly, if you are the big guy thinking you can’t get any better cuz you’re already at the top? You’re gonna get toppled by the organizations that think like Scott and UCF. If you’re not innovating, you’re dying. 

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Our guest today is Brian Betts, a 22+ year Disney Cast member and former executive. By trade, Brian is an industrial engineer, so this episode is going to have an analytical and methodical approach towards improving customer experience.

In his career at Disney, Brian did everything from helping launch Disney Cruise Line and Disney’s Fast Pass, to overseeing experience insights within My Magic+, Disney’s mobile app and connected ecosystem. Throughout Brian’s career, he’s used analytics to optimize the guest experience, managing multi-billion dollar annual capital investments, including the development of new attractions and experiences. As part of his last role as Vice President of Planning and Development, he was part of the commercial team with oversight of long-term planning and revenue generation initiatives. Check out his Linkedin page for more info, he’s just got too prolific an experience to share it all here. 

Two of the major projects Brian was involved in his later years that we dive into: First, using data and predictive analytics to proactively recover guest service opportunities in real time. Second, using the data gained from Disney’s  My Magic+ initiative to create greater personalization for the guest. Brian goes into detail on how they used analytics to help equip front-line Cast Members with “superpowers” to deliver better guest experiences.

Even if you don’t have a billion dollar budget for customer experience, there are tons of principles and takeaways from this conversation you can apply to your own organization. 

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

We’re joined today by the legendary Quint Studer. Quint is a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, and an expert in delivering quality experiences, for customers and employees. He’s the co-owner of the double-A baseball team, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, and the founder of the healthcare consulting group, the Studer Group.

In Quint’s approach to patient experience and fan experience, it all starts with the employee experience. We'll spend the episode discussing what you can do to better engage your employees so that they can better engage your customers. 

Time Stamps

0:20 - Intro
8:45 - Why does Quint live in Pensacola?
11:00 - Quint’s philosophy on driving great customer experience
17:45 - The most important people on your team to train
20:00 - Internal systems and processes that help drive CX
24:00 - Leadership is an inside job
27:00 - Leading metrics vs Lagging metrics
32:00 - Impact of retaining employees
36:30 - Strategies to engage your frontline employees
42:40 - Emotional bank accounts
44:30 - Re-purposing employees roles during the pandemic
47:20 - How the Blue Wahoo’s larger purpose drives real action

If you enjoy the episode and want to learn more from Quint, here are some great resources Quint has available

Books & Blog
Quint's Leadership Blog
The Busy Leader's Handbook
Hardwiring Excellence: Purpose, Worthwhile Work, Making a Difference
Results that Last
More books by Quint

Referenced in the Episode
HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems)
The Busy Leaders Handbook
The Kid is Hot Tonite by Loverboy
Baptist Healthcare
Pensacola Vibrant Community Blueprint
Mark Clement - hospital CEO
Press Ganey

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Our guest today is Drew Bedard, the Vice President of Marketing at Bristol Motor Speedway and Kentucky Speedway. 

On July 15, 2020, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the NASCAR All-Star Race. The event had almost 30k fans in attendance, the largest attended event in the US since COVID cancelled sports in March 2020. 

As sports & entertainment venues across the US prepare to reopen, I thought it would be good for you all to hear from Drew, who’s actually done it. I think that qualifies him as the closest thing to an expert as we’ve got in this world of operating events post-COVID. 

In the conversation today, we’ll talk about his lessons learned, what he and his team might have done differently, we’ll cover what made them successful and we’ll dive in on specific tools and tactics they used, from project management software to communication methods used with fans.  

Follow along Drew's journey or message him on Twitter or Instagram: @drewbedard
Marketing that Works with by Drew Bedard (Drew's own podcast)
Email Drew at: [email protected]

Mentioned in the Episode:
CUE Audio  (light and sound integration)
Basecamp (Project management tool)
Trello (Project management tool)
Asana (Project management tool)
FanThreeSixty (customer data platform)
Fans First w/ Jesse Cole (Podcast Episode)
Build Your Brand & Build More Fans w/ Adam White (Podcast Episode)
Magic Spoon (adult version of kids Cereal)
Shady Rays (polarized sunglasses)

Books Drew has gifted the most:
War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Today’s guest is Mike Crawford, the President and CEO at Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company. Previous to his current role, Mike held a number of leadership roles with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and The Walt Disney Company. 

At 4 Seasons, he was the President of Asia Pacific and then Portfolio Management around the world. While at the Walt Disney Company, he spent the majority of his time focused internationally. In his last role, he was the lead executive in charge of Shanghai Disneyland, including the resorts, hotels, retail, dining and entertainment district. 

Based on Mike's background, you can see the growth strategies powering Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company. Throughout the episode, we discuss Mike's lessons learned from those companies and how he is adapting those insights to the sports & entertainment world.

If the company name sounds familiar but you can’t put your finger on it, Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company is the larger organization built around the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. 

Rather than just a place to gather and celebrate the past, the organization is honoring the past and inspiring the future. By leveraging the brand and familiarity of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Mike and his team are building a massive entertainment and media destination to immerse customers.

One of the key takeaways from the episode is the way they're using their real estate to diversify revenue streams, creating retail, dining, hospitality, healthcare, commercial, even residential verticals.

Mike and his team are maniacally focused on building community among sports fans. Not just in-person or on-site, but digitally and year round. This comes through their focus on creating unique content and governing themselves like a true entertainment company. They’re diving deeper into esports and in June, they acquired the first-ever professional fantasy football league. 

There are tons of valuable nuggets throughout our conversation that should shift your mindset and approach on how to build your own brand. I hope our conversation inspires new immersive ways to engage your customers and create experiences for your employees that help them buy into your vision.

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

This is second half of a two-part interview with Mike Millay. This part of the interview dives deeper into the behind-the-scenes stories at ESPN Wide World of Sports and explores Mike's own revelations as leader at Disney. 

Mike is the longest tenured executive in ESPN Wide World of Sports' history. He's also my Dad and a Senior Partner at EngageMint, so this was a special episode for me.

The MLS kicked off it’s first game last week, and NBA players are now in the “bubble” on Disney property. As ESPN Wide World of Sports is the epicenter of major league pro sports in America right now, I know there are lots of questions from our listeners and from the general public that we sought to answer here.

For some quick background on ESPN Wide World of Sports, it opened in March 1997, and each year, over 300,000+ unique athletes compete there. It’s a 250+ acre sports complex right in the middle of Walt Disney World property, including a 7,500 seat baseball stadium, a 5,000 seat multi-purpose arena, a smaller 70,000 square foot foot arena, twelve full size soccer fields, four multi-purpose fields, four professional baseball fields, six softball fields, a tennis complex, a track and field complex, a cross country course, and more. 

The complex is huge in size, and in revenue. From a financial perspective, it was about a $100 million NET revenue business driver for the Mouse when Mike was there.

Mike left ESPN Wide World of Sports about 5 years ago, while some of the stats may have changed, most of the business strategy remains the same. 

Today, Mike owns a number of different companies in the sports industry, but for the purposes of the podcast, we stick to ESPN Wide World of Sports. If you're interested in seeing what Mike is up to now, feel free to visit his companies' respective websites. 

• EngageMint (customer & employee experience design firm)
• 3D Institute (award winning content and frameworks for the coaching community)
• Clancy's Sports Properties (strategic consulting for organizations in sports tourism, sports complexes, and youth sports)

Mike can be reached via email at [email protected]
To connect with Mike on LinkedIn, click here

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

This is first half of a two-part interview with Mike Millay. This part of the sheds light on the business model powering ESPN Wide World of Sports and explores how the cultures of Disney and competitive sports merged.

Our guest today is Mike Millay, the longest tenured executive in ESPN Wide World of Sports' history. He's also my Dad and a Senior Partner at EngageMint, so this was a special episode for me.

The MLS kicked off it’s first game on Wednesday, and NBA players are now in the “bubble” on Disney property. As ESPN Wide World of Sports is the epicenter of major league pro sports in America right now, I know there are lots of questions from our listeners and from the general public that we sought to answer here.

For some quick background on ESPN Wide World of Sports, it opened in March 1997, and each year, over 300,000+ unique athletes compete there. It’s a 250+ acre sports complex right in the middle of Walt Disney World property, including a 7,500 seat baseball stadium, a 5,000 seat multi-purpose arena, a smaller 70,000 square foot foot arena, twelve full size soccer fields, four multi-purpose fields, four professional baseball fields, six softball fields, a tennis complex, a track and field complex, a cross country course, and more. 

The complex is huge in size, and in revenue. From a financial perspective, it was about a $100 million NET revenue business driver for the Mouse when Mike was there.

Mike left ESPN Wide World of Sports about 5 years ago, while some of the stats may have changed, most of the business strategy remains the same. 

Today, Mike owns a number of different companies in the sports industry, but for the purposes of the podcast, we stick to ESPN Wide World of Sports. If you're interested in seeing what Mike is up to now, feel free to visit his companies' respective websites. 

• EngageMint (customer & employee experience design firm)
• 3D Institute (award winning content and frameworks for the coaching community)
• Clancy's Sports Properties (strategic consulting for organizations in sports tourism, sports complexes, and youth sports)

Mike can be reached via email at [email protected]
To connect with Mike on LinkedIn, click here


*Statistic correction* We say in the interview that EWWS is the largest sports complex in the world, but there are now a handful of bigger complexes, such as the National Sports Center in Blaine, MN.

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Our guest today is Jahaan Blake, founder of The J. Blake Group. 

We'll cover two main topics in this epsisode. 

1. Creating infrastructure behind the scenes that allow your front-line staff to create genuine moments of connections with fans
2. The importance of coaching in leadership

We spend much of the episode discussing her prior roles that led her to start her own company, primarily her roles in the MLB. Jahaan and I first met when I was with Disney Institute and Jahaan was with the Chicago Cubs, as she and her were revamping their customer service program. We’ll go into more detail on that program in the episode.

Before working at the Cubs as the Director of Fan Experiences, she worked at the LA Dogers as the Director of Fan Hospitality. And her first role and longest tenure with one team in Major League Baseball was with the Boston Red Sox, where her last role was as the Manager of Fan Services and Entertainment.

Engage with Jahaan on Instagram: @jahaanblake

Connect with Jahaan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahaanblake/

Jahaan's new podcast, A Game of Her Own: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/game-of-her-own/id1506816919

Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay