Making the Fan

We take a journey w/ our guest, Erin Sheehan, Senior Director of Guest Experience for the San Diego Padres. This episode's larger theme is around creating a guest experience strategy for sporting events. We explore Erin's involvement and influential role in opening the Atlanta Braves' Suntrust Park and The Battery entertainment district; we cover her lessons learned as the Director of Fan Experience for the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-Fil-A Fan Experience; and we get caught up on all the projects she's been working on with San Diego Padres, including renovating the framework behind the Padres' service culture.If you're passionate about creating and operationalizing a service culture and guest experience, you won't want to miss this episode.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

Working in the sports & entertainment industry, there are few events that you can host without the support of other people/organizations. For most all other events, you need that support to execute all the facets that make an event successful. Whether it be working with a company that provides temporary labor for your ushers, or working with surrounding hotels who impact your guest's overall experience, often you must work with partners not under your direct control. If there isn’t leverage in the relationship, how do you get everyone to march to the same drumbeat? How do you lead through influence instead of power? To explore this question, we welcome Linda Logan and John Page to the show.Linda Logan is the Executive Director of Columbus Sports Commission which she helped to create in 2002. A trailblazer in sports business, Linda has led the Sport Commission to book over 600 events generating over half a billion in visitor spending. Some of the highlights include NCAA men’s basketball tournaments, Presidential debates, UN summits, and the 2018 Women’s Final Four in Columbus. She’s one of the most well respected sports commission execs in the country.John Page, our second guest, works closely with Linda as the General Manager of the Greater Columbus Convention Center. He is a 20 year SMG veteran, the last 6 of which he has been in Columbus. He manages the venue’s daily operations, stakeholder relationships and business development. One of the biggest projects he’s led in recent years was the guiding the facility through its award-winning 22-month, $140 million expansion and renovation. On this episode of Flip the Switch, we really focus on the topic of leading with influence, instead of power. Both of our guests have to work with hundreds of leaders and businesses outside of their control to put on the events that they host, so I wanted to explore some of the strategies and tactics they use to be successful. 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

Is a hot dog a sandwich? Why does that even matter? It matters a great deal to Chris Grosse, Assistant Athletic Director of Marketing for Penn State Athletics. If you follow him on Twitter, you'll know these are the types of questions that get Chris fired up, out of the box questions that no one else is thinking of. Think of the hot dog question as an exercise for him to flex his muscles when it actually comes time to creating one-of-kind experiences for students and fans. In this episode, Chris goes into detail as to how his creative ideas and experiences have brought him major success and praise nationwide for his innovative execution of unique gameday experiences. We unpack his creative process with his team, and explore how some of his greatest hits (such as Millennial Day at Georgetown) came to life. We talk about why he would go to work for Phil Dunphy from Modern Family and we discuss the differences between innovating in a small athletic department versus one of the nation's largest departments. Join us for this wild ride. For more hot takes from Chris, follow him on Twitter, @Chris_Grosse 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

Matt Difebo, the original founder of now Learfield IMG Ticket Solutions, joins us on the podcast to discuss lessons learned throughout his journey. While at UCF Athletics, Matt identified an opportunity to better serve fans trying to buy tickets, and realized he could turn that opportunity into a business, helping athletic departments sell more tickets to their events, more effectively. Matt was one of the inventors of the outsourced tickets sales model, and shares many of the ups and downs leading that thriving 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

With younger generations demanding more from a brand, it is no longer just about who has the best product on the field. Telling compelling stories that create emotional connections are more important than ever to win over the hearts and wallets of your fans. In this episode, Rick Jones, one of the most successful sports marketers in the college athletics industry, discusses how using sponsorships can build up or destroy your brand promise.  Rick and David dive into elements of fan experience and sponsorship such as cause marketing, using other people's money and the state of marketing in college athletics. 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

If you work for or lead an organization that puts on events, this episode is for you. Kevin Weickel, the former Tournament Director of the PGA TOUR's Disney Classic, and Mike Millay, one of the founding executives at ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, join us. These two former Disney executives reflect back on their time running one of the largest golf resorts in the country and the busiest sports complex in the US. Creating and running an event at Disney comes with a whole new set of expectations, and these guys cover it all: from how to create deeper engagement with your event volunteers, to the impact of recognition done right, how to get other stakeholders in your organization to care about your event and what Disney executives do during the actual event. Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation to find out what great Disney leaders know.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

Guest: Drew Martin, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs, University of Texas Athletics. Drew and David dive deep into the University of Texas's refreshed approach to football gameday. Focused on creating emotional connections for fans, Texas created pregame-mega festivities Bevo Blvd and Longhorn City Limits in 2018 to great praise from the fan-base. By creating new gameday experiences, Drew and his team are beginning to change fan behaviors, providing more reasons for a typically late-arriving fan base to show up to campus earlier and engage with their brand for a longer period of time. Drew goes behind the scenes to talk about how certain deals were made, how they worked on changing the mindset internally within the athletics department, and the impact these customer-focused changes are having on the bottom line.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

Guests: Rob Kelly, Senior Associate Athletics Director of Media & Brand for Notre Dame Athletics; Kevin Doyle, Strategy Manager (Travel/Hospitality) for Deloitte Consulting. This episode goes behind the scenes of Notre Dame Athletics' journey to become more customer-centric. We explore everything from how ND re-positioned their ticket pricing strategy, to how they managed large scale change in an athletics department where tradition is heavily valued. Kevin provides insight into similarities and differences between his current, large hospitality clients and athletic departments, while Rob shines light on what it's like to be a senior leader charged with leading customer-journey improvements in a values-oriented culture.   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

A mash-up of advice and stories from innovators in Customer Experience and Employee Experience. Executives from the sports & entertainment industry join forces with leaders from world-class B2C and B2B companies to discuss all the challenges and hurdles they face in their business. On each episode of Flip the Switch, host David Millay -- Managing Partner of EngageMint -- leads wide-ranging conversations with guests, exploring similarities, differences, vulnerable failures, smashing successes, and behind-the-scenes stories to help you lead your own business. The round-table format of Flip the Switch creates a conversation unlike your traditional interviews, allowing for hilarious stories, riffing, and unexpected "light-bulb" moments. Guests on Flip the Switch have included leaders from The Walt Disney Company, PGA, University of Notre Dame Athletics, Deloitte Consulting, University of Texas Athletics, and many more. If you're on a journey to enhance your employee engagement and turn your customers into raving fans, this podcast is for you.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