The Best You - A Coaching Podcast: Personal Growth Through Real Conversations · Gary Gillan

Game On: A Woman’s Path into Sports with Jessica Beers

·41 min·2 clips

Jessica pushes back on the idea that only big sponsors matter in sports revenue.

1. The Best You episode centers on Jessica Beers’s path into sports partnerships and her work with the Kissimmee Sports Commission. 2. Gary introduces Beers as Executive Director of the Kissimmee Sports Commission and notes her roles with Experience Kissimmee, Brightline Trains Florida, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Orlando City Soccer Club, and Dr. Phillips Centre for the Performing Arts. 3. The episode asks how an educator with a master’s in early childhood development ended up leading partnerships in sport and events. 4. Beers says she started in afterschool education at about 19 or 20 years old and later completed her master’s at Concordia University, St. Paul. 5. She describes working at one of the largest childcare centers in the nation at YMCA at Disney before moving into Coca-Cola and Powerade. 6. Those brand roles became the bridge into sport and entertainment, eventually leading to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Orlando City Soccer Club. 7. Beers says she did not know much about soccer when she joined Orlando City, the MLS’s 21st team, but grew to love the sport. 8. She compares education and youth sports by saying “kids are kids” and by pointing to the travel worries that parents bring to sports events. 9. She says families spend a lot of money to come to sports experiences, which creates pressure around lodging, travel, and support. 10. Beers describes working in sponsorship and strategic partnerships as a “heavy sales position” inside revenue-focused sports organizations. 11. She says she was often one of few women in the room, especially in NFL and other male-dominated settings. 12. She credits great male mentors and “a level playing field” at the Buccaneers and Orlando City for helping her grow into leadership. 13. Beers says one of her hardest challenges was speaking up confidently when she feared disapproval from people with more experience. 14. She says Disney’s advice about keeping “a smile on your voice” while still “put[ting] your foot down” stayed with her. 15. She says therapy, reading, and books like Radical Candor helped her become a better listener and more confident in meetings. 16. Gary connects that habit of careful communication to his own experience of feeling supported and clearly informed during the Rangers Football Club and NARSA convention work. 17. Beers says the Kissimmee Sports Commission is competitive but focused on destination marketing for travelers through youth, amateur, and professional sports. 18. She says the work depends on the “E, R and E” of environments, relationships, and experiences, while also noting that some sports commission strategy is not something she wants to share publicly. 19. The conversation is an interview with a reflective, practical tone and long examples from Beers’s career. 20. People interested in women in sports leadership and partnership strategy will likely value it, while listeners wanting a fast, narrowly tactical business chat may skip it.

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