And we're BACK! 🔥 🎙️ S3 Episode 1: From Media, to Sports, to Collegiate and Entertainment – Here’s How Great Salespeople Can Become Great Sales Leaders. We're kicking off Season 3 by diving into the remarkable career journey of Jason Oberlander, the Chief Commercial Officer at ASM Global. A seasoned professional in sales, marketing, and strategic roles across various media and sports organizations, Jason's path wasn't always clear-cut. Jason's professional trajectory is nothing short of impressive. From his initial days at CBS Radio and MTV Networks to securing a role at the National Basketball Association (NBA), his career has been a testament to versatility and resilience. From his humble beginnings, we explore Jason's extensive experience, strategic insights, and pivotal moments that shaped his career in sports and entertainment. For the full episode, check the link in comments ⬇️ #sportspodcast #sales #business #entertainment
Transcript
Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of Part of the Road. Just before we get into today's session, just wanted to give a big shout out to all the team behind the production of the podcast and a huge, huge thank you to all of the guests that have joined us over this past year. We were recently featured in the Forbes article earlier this week, so I wanted to just take the opportunity to say thanks to. Everyone that's played a part in that and the involvement that you all had certainly wouldn't have been achievable without the amazing guests and the team behind the production. Moving on to today's session, I'm sat with Jason Oberlander. Jason, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Amir. Thanks for having me. Of course, brief background for Jason. This is someone who has conquered the media world, conquered the entertainment world, transitioned into sports and is now the Chief Commercial Officer for ASM Global, one of the largest. Not the largest venue management organization in the world. So Jason, I think it got a really good story to tell. I guess a good place I really like to start these things is taking us back to the early days. How did you kind of first make that transition into sports? Might be quite interesting in fact to get your media career in their first before you made that transition. Well, it happened at the same time. When I first was entering the world of business, I knew I wanted to be in business, but I didn't want to be in any business. I wanted to be in the entertainment, sport, media business. I felt like, you know, it was just more interesting and I was passionate, you know, about the business of culture. And so my root started looking at media networks and cable and television and I had a good, good fortune to find an opportunity at Showtime Networks in sport and event programming. Got in on the ground floor, freelance role as an assistant in the PR department. Wow. And Showtime networks at the time was deepened boxing. They were going head to head with HBO. They had Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield on contract, Julio Cesar Chavez and a roster of other fighters. And it was a blast. You know, I was going to these fights in the center of a media storm, meeting characters like Don King and, you know, the fight camps. Television personalities and learning the business of PR and and creating buzz around these events and overtime was able to, you know, ascend and and eventually become a publicist for the network. It's a, it's an interesting way to get into the industry. I think getting involved, you're right in the limelight with all of these famous names and, and people that you're you have in those relationships with. I guess from a lot of these podcasts I've done before, the typical route you tend to see is ticket sales. So many presidents, CEO's, execs that I know have kind of made it through their careers by starting ticket sales. You learn the graph, you learn the hard work that's needed to go into the early part of your career in order to kind of make it big. How did you kind of. Find that that exposure, I guess, in the earlier part of your career helped kind of shape where you want it to be. Maybe you may not have had a clear vision back then, but certainly there have been elements of that role that would have helped with career making decisions later on down the line. Yeah, I think it was just fascinating to be so close to the production and learn how these events are made. And, you know, the pay-per-view events that we were doing with Tyson, you know, we're generating $100 million over the course of the day. And, and learning the side of the business as well as, you know, the creative side of it, learning how to market these events. You know that all is is learning and skills that you can apply later in life. But I did realize that. You know, PR was not gonna be the end game for me. It was a good place to kind of enter into and get situated. You know, I had an English lit degree prior to that. So it was kind of natural to get into a line of work that involved writing and storytelling and working with writers and storytellers. But to get to the top ranks, you know, within a media organization, that wasn't going to be the path. And so I knew I needed to make a transition. And that's when I started thinking, OK. Well, I I don't have the solid building blocks of a business degree, I need to go get my MBA. OK, and so I spent. Pretty much close to two years researching, visiting schools, applying, getting rejected, reapplying, and finally, you know, got into Columbia and decided to go full time and just immerse myself in the experience. And I don't regret that at all. It was, it was expensive. I took on a lot of debt, but the people I met, the, you know, credentials. Gave me and the learning I had I think made it well worth the effort. How old are you of interest at a time when you were looking to to take up the NBA? I was five years out of undergrad, so yeah, I would have been 262627. Yeah, quite, I guess to take that kind of thought process and take a bit of a step back five years after getting through college. I think a lot of people once they get through college, they just want to focus on getting their head down and working, taking that step back and actually thinking about the real bigger picture. It sounds like from everything that you said that you were thinking about the bigger picture from quite an early age. Yes, definitely. I set my sights high. I wanted to run a network, so I thought, what do I need to do to get there? It was clear the path and trajectory I was on was not going to do that on its own. I needed to make a transition and I could have transitioned a number of different ways, you know, functionally, but I just felt I needed that. Baseline foundational understanding of business and be able to speak the language of accounting, finance, marketing so that I could, you know make that pivot and and ultimately grow CBS Radio directors to choose it marketing. There was that again sounds like you're an intentional man with intentional desires. Was that something that you kind of really wanted to do coming out your MBA? You saw the opportunity to take a leadership role marketing. So one of the no OK, I think what. Happened was, you know, you're going to school at at a school like Columbia and most of the, you know, peers and your classmates are going to Goldman Sachs or McKinsey. And there's this well traveled recruiting path, you know, where these programs come on campus and they just interview and you know, they rank you and you get hired and we'll get an offer and get hired or do a summer internship and then get a full time offer down the road. There was none of that in media and entertainment and I knew I wanted to get back into the industry. Just from a different angle. So you had to go out and. Create your own opportunities, you know, and, and network and meet with alums and others. And I was fortunate to get an internship at Spike TV right around the time they were looking at bringing the UFC on board, which was still very young fledgling enterprise. And because my experience in in the fight game CEO, even though it was an intern of, of the network, was asking my opinion, I thought it was a good bet. I didn't really know, but my gut told me it was and look where it is. Now, but yeah, I think that summer internship. Is what gave me a foot in the door at Viacom. And allowed me to network within the walls, you know, with some credentials, with some referrals and recommendations from the people I've worked with over the summer. Most NBA is coming out, you know, we're looking at roles in strategy or M&A or, you know, business development. But I knew I wanted to be on the revenue side of the business and I wanted to learn about how that that aspect of the business works. No one was going to hire me for a role in sales right out of the gate, right? So I needed to take another measure, which was support a sales team, work in strategic marketing, help that that, that note that sales staff and, you know, and, and. And the process to, you know, ultimately be be shadowing them and learning from them and understanding, you know, how this all works. And when you know, I was given the, the, the opportunity, I, I said to the hiring manager, like, I really want to be on the front line. I will kill it for you in this role. And I will, I will do everything you ask him more. But once I do, you know, I'm going to look for that shot. And I was treated my word, I gave my all and he was true to his word and. Gave me that shot. So then I was in a frontline business development role with CBS Radio selling across 180 radio stations, and I was terrified. Surprised I didn't really. Grasp. You know how. How hard it is, you know, when, when you work in a support capacity or you know, marketing role? The work comes to you, umm, you know, and, and, and you do the work right. It's pretty straightforward. When you're in a sales role, you have to generate. The work, yeah, right. And the feed after the feed into the business, Yeah, get the opportunity. Get doors open. Develop trust. Getting assignment ask, you know, ask for the order like you, you have to be the engine. Yeah. And that was a big transition. How did you. Because Martin I guess obviously sits under the commercial world, right. And and to your point, you're, you're effectively being given the workload to take on off the back of the business development team. So you understand what is needed once that work is taken on. But that transition going from to your point being the person who takes on the work versus the person that has to go out and take on the work. How did you kind of find that transition and what kind of some of your early learns in making that move into a more kind of client facing business role? I think the first was overcoming fear. Yeah. You know, you, you have to just do it. And. And it it takes time to become natural at it. So you're going to mess up, you're gonna look foolish, you're gonna make mistakes, and you just have to keep doing it. Just keep going back out there until it feels comfortable and natural. And that's when you start to build an authentic connection on the other side of the table. And that's when the doors open and people share more information and point you to opportunities and you can start to, to maneuver.🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0jgcKvGDHE
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