DON’T WAIT FOR THE OPPORTUNITY

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” – William Ernest Henley.

When I was in my early 20’s, my dad took me to have lunch with a lovely chap called Bob Jones. Dad thought it was a good idea because I was working for a well-known University ‘marketing’ a Management Diploma that was slowly destroying my soul. You see, I had left Uni with a First in English and Drama and had grand designs on becoming an actress or a journalist! However, fate had other ideas ! So, I didn’t end up following either of those paths and came to realise that that wasn’t really what I wanted to do either. It just didn’t fire me up and consume my every thought.

 So, at this lunch, Bob explained to me that he ran a multi-million pound PR agency and that he started it all after reading a book. I think the book was something like ‘How to run your own PR agency’ and with that book under his arm, he went to work setting up his own business. He didn’t stop to question the validity of his qualifications or knowledge. He didn’t bury himself in self-doubt and criticism, but just got to work. That lunch, and moment, was profound for me and has probably changed how I approached my career forever.

 I had always thought that you needed qualifications upon qualifications and lots of pieces of paper to prove to people that you could do the job that they needed filling. But no, here was Bob telling me that you didn’t need that stuff at all and really the only thing you needed was a belief in yourself, bags of drive and a whole lot of gumption.

 At this point, I didn’t actually know what would become my passion, but I started talking to people and looking for new jobs as I knew that what I was doing was not flicking my switches and, if anything, was making me feel that I had wasted all of that hard work at University. I knew I was made for more than that and the longer I spent behind a screen. I would often waste time instant messaging my friend in the office, so that we could have secret conversations without the ‘other person’ in the office knowing what we were talking about and the more I did that, the more I felt everything I had been excited about become submerged underneath the mundane.

 Cut to a few months later and a match at Twickenham between England Rugby and Australia. I think we won that match, I can’t be sure, because that wasn’t the memorable part of the story. What was memorable for me was the eureka moment that occurred whilst I was stood high up in the Twickenham stands. Since I was an early teen, my dad had taken my sister and I to watch the rugby.

England had just scored a try and the crowd went absolutely wild. As we all leapt out of our seats, my dad put his arms round my shoulders and I put mine round his waist and we jumped up and down together in utter joy, this voice in my head said, “I want to do this!’ I didn’t really know what that meant. I didn’t want to be a rugby player, but I knew I wanted the keys to this moment. This electrifying moment that brought sheer joy to everyone around. One of the things I love about rugby is that you can be in the stands sat next to the fans of the opposing team and you know that you can have banter and a laugh and it will never turn violent (or I have never seen violence anyway). So even though we were all revelling in the score line, the Australians around us gave us a sly smirk and a clap. It was brilliant.

 From that moment on, I had a fire in my belly that told me that anything other than working in sport was not going to be acceptable. I did not want anything else and I was not going to settle for anything else either – but where to begin?

 Well, at this point, I have to admit, that I still had a little voice of the ‘nagging doubter’ in my mind that I couldn’t do any of it without qualifications or experience. I also really had no idea how to break into sport at all, let alone break into rugby. So, I decided to get that experience, whatever it took.

 While my brain fried about how I was going to move away from working in a University Marketing a Management diploma, I was lucky enough to have a friend who had just begun trying out in women’s motorsport. At the time, there was TV programme called Formula Women and they were asking for women drivers. I think the premise was that they would all train together and then race together and they would end up whittling it down to the top person in poll position who would secure sponsorship or join a team. I can’t really remember because my friend didn’t win, but this scenario taught me two great lessons – one, any experience is good experience and two, being around people who also have belief in themselves is infectious. My friend really wanted to race at that moment and so she asked me to help her find sponsors. She also gave me a book about sports marketing and sponsorship. In a bizarre twist of fate, I would go on to meet the author of that book in a mall in Cape Town, South Africa, but I digress.

And so, at her behest, I started writing letters to sponsors and newspapers and I even started writing freelance pieces for magazines and newspapers myself and every time I secured something, I would collate it and put it in a folder ready to use as a portfolio.

 I then started telling everyone and anyone who would listen (and I didn’t really give them a chance not to) that I wanted to get into sports marketing. At this stage, I still didn’t really even know what that would look like, but I knew it had to be in sport. I told them how I was currently a Marketing Manager (that was loosely my title), working for an up and coming Female Racing Driver and that if they knew of anything to let me know. I applied for all sorts of jobs in sports, some for protein shakes companies, some that were totally out of my league and some that were nothing more than a skivvy.

 I even got chatting to a chap in the gym who I knew via acquaintance who was a player for Newbury Rugby FC and I told him. Poor chap! He probably was trying to get his weight sets in. However, he told me that actually Newbury were really looking for someone to help them out with their promotion and sponsorship. Newbury RFC was a semi-professional club, which meant that whilst players were paid, they weren’t full-time rugby players and therefore still had to do full-time jobs elsewhere. The club had a good following and fanbase, but they always needed more funds. He asked me if he could give their Head Coach my number and, of course, I nearly bit his hand off!

 I also met a chap via a sports friends’ network (think facebook, but for people to link up to do sport together) who was a GB Pentathlete and we started playing Squash together. When I learnt that he was a professional athlete, I offered to help him and his girlfriend, who was also a Pentathlete, with their website and marketing for free (of course) and so for the promise of dinner now and again and a bottle of wine or two, I added them to my CV as well.

I then went on holiday with my mum to Italy. There I met a lovely couple and we got chatting by the pool, as you do, and I (yes, you guessed it), told them that I wanted to get into sports marketing. ‘Oh,’ said lovely chap by the pool, ‘my best mate runs his own sports agency, let me give you his email address. Tell him I gave it to you.’ Well, thank you very much, I said. I will! Upon my return from Italy, I emailed him straight away. Again, I told him that I was a Marketing Manager, working with a Female Racing Driver and (now) GB Pentathletes. Sadly, he didn’t have any work for me at the time, or any scope to take anyone on, but he sent me a kind and supportive email telling me to ‘keep on going and not to give up’ and whether he meant it or not, I took it as genuine and used it to bolster my resolve that I was, indeed, just going to keep going!

 A week or so after that, I met with the Head Coach of Newbury RFC. He asked me about my experience and so I explained that I was a Marketing Manager, working with a female racing driver, GB Pentathletes and I was also a freelance journalist. I could write, knew how to talk to people and was happy to dedicate several hours a week to them, for free! And so I did! I organised ‘meet the player’ events, took photos, wrote press releases, contacted the local press and worked with their sponsors.

 This next part, is one of those weird sliding doors moments, but bear with me on this one. The point to this story is still about being the captain of your own team of one. It’s just you and that’s really exciting!

 Now, by this point, I was a few months into lots of freelance work (and when I say freelance, I mean, I did it all for free). My dad was starting to get a bit tetchy with me, because he felt that I should be being paid for all of my work, and he was of course right, but equally I knew where I was going and I felt that it was the right thing to do at the time. I just needed to keep running those ladders and passing balls and something would come good of it…and it did.

 As part of my ‘sports-centric’ process, I joined a Polo club as a non-playing member. I failed to go and watch any polo matches, but what I did do was go to the summer ball. Now, the friend who was supposed to come with me, dropped out right at the very, very last minute and so I nearly didn’t go. But a voice inside me told me I really had to go and, to be honest, I really wanted to! So, I rang up my female racing driver friend, told her to throw on a black dress and get her speed-racing arse over to mine pronto. Which she did. And the Cinderellas’ went to the ball, hoorah! When we got there, we stuck out like sore thumbs and it was super awkward. I imagine that actually everyone else there hung out together every weekend and pressing the divots together, so we probably looked like the total randoms that we were! However, there was a group of lads and, as we all gazed across the crowded room together, we recognised that we all felt out of place, so we ended up eating together as a group.

After that, we all became great mates for a time, but one of those chaps, Chris, worked for Swindon Town FC, basically doing the sort of job that sounded just like I wanted! He was the Press Officer – which meant he had to do a lot of writing (tick for me), deal with the press (another tick for me) and put stories and news on the website (double ticks for me). Within about a week of us all meeting, he sent me a message to say that he had just had coffee with the Press Officer at Bath Rugby who was about to leave and that I should contact her. And contact her I did! She and I had coffee, I told her all about my experience and that was doing a very similar job at Newbury. As fate would have it – Bath were playing a pre-season friendly against Newbury in a few day’s time, so she suggested I go along and meet their CEO during the match. So I did.

It was absolutely pouring, it was dark and cold, I was brewing the cold of all colds, but in a darkened area of one of the balconies, I had a quick chat with Bath’s CEO. He asked me if I understood rugby, “yes, of course,” I answered (thinking, to myself, well, mostly) and then “can you write match reports?” “Yes,” I replied immediately, thinking to myself that I better bash out a quick report after this match, because up until that point, I had never done it! And so, there, on that cold night in Newbury, I got my dream job. Ok, so actually it was a couple of weeks later and a couple of meetings later, but that is where my baptism of fire began, and boy, did it burn!

The Pro Tip:

Don’t wait for things to happen, but go out and grab them. You don’t need a piece of paper that tells you you are really good at something, because no is not a good enough answer for you. Believe in yourself, because you can do it. You just need to believe it.

How to Apply to Your Life: 

• If you say you, you are. Don’t be embarrassed about what you want. Tell people. Feel good about it. Look in the mirror and tell yourself ‘I am…’

• Don’t wait for opportunity to arise. If you want to change your job, get looking. If you want to re-train, find that course and get enrolled. If you want to get fit, don’t wait until it’s sunny to go out for that walk. Set aside (write it down) a certain amount of time a day for achieving that goal and make it non-negotiable.

• I promise, you will look sillier if you are the person who doesn’t believe in yourself. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.

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