The Work in Sports Podcast - Insider Advice for Sports Careers · Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Networking Your Way to the Show w/MLB's Alana Meraz

·31 min·10 clips

One conversation can change an opportunity. Alana talks about networking as a normal habit, not a polished career trick: a short call gives someone a reason to remember you before a job ever enters the picture. That advice feels earned. Her earlier work meant constant movement, with Chicago as home base, long stretches on the road, and one run of four games in four cities. Men's and women's teams were both part of the job, so the role was wider than people may picture from the outside. The pace sounds tough, but she still talks warmly about qualification moments, old coworkers, and the things she keeps learning from them. Then the episode moves into Major League Baseball. Seven months in, Alana is an international partnership activation coordinator, and the host pushes for what that means day to day. The answer gets practical quickly. Stateside partners sit on one side; Latin America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and Canada come through her team on the international side. The job sounds like activation work with a lot of moving parts: partners, campaigns, regions, and making sure people have what they need across markets. The career advice lands cleanly at the end. Skills count, but so do likability, enthusiasm, and presence. For anyone trying to get into sports, the episode turns networking, travel, activation work, and interview energy into behaviors they can practice.

As heard by us

A reminder that one good call can lead to the next real sports opportunity.

The episode follows a simple but useful idea: sports careers often grow from ordinary contact and steady follow-through. Alana Meraz lays out why a 30-minute call can open the door to a future recommendation, and the story stays grounded in travel-heavy events, relationship…

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Why you'd press play

A 30-minute call can still open a door months later.

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