Charlie Taylor is the Assistant Director of Marketing over athletics here at the University.
What he does here exactly:
The four main goals he has as Assistant Director over marketing are: keeper of the brand, advertising, promotions, and overseeing the entertainment during games and athletic events. He works with a great group of people. It is their job to promote Sooner athletics, and to get people to athletic events at the University. Since he oversees entertainment during games, he works very closely with the Spirit Squads department also. A few keys to his job include communication and building contacts. He feels that these keys are huge, and incredibly important.
How he got here:
Mr. Taylor is originally from Davenport, Iowa. He received his undergrad in Politics from the University of Iowa, and his Master’s in Sports Administration from the University of Tennessee. While he was at Tennessee he was over two sports as well as basketball, which helped to prepare him for future jobs. To read more about Mr. Taylor’s busy life before arriving at the University you can visit: http://www.soonersports.com/school-bio/charlie_taylor.html
How he uses his major on a day to day basis:
He uses his undergrad skills such as writing, talking, building relationships and using politics. When it came to his grad-school skills he learned a lot about sports and marketing, which helps significantly with his job.
A day in the life of Charlie Taylor:
Although no day is EVER typical in the life of Charlie Taylor, he loves his job. He has a few weekly meetings, but other than that it’s about advertising, game entertainment, etc. His schedule is definitely determined by what athletic events are going on that week. He told me that it is a lot of long hours, and it is work. With his job, he doesn’t necessarily get to see the games; he is behind the scenes being a part of it. He feels that his job is about selling emotions and being a part of the big group. During our interview he told me: “what I often say about our job is that we sell smiles.” Mr. Taylor’s job is more than just about “the big wins.” He considers his job to be incredibly rewarding. Many times he has gotten letters from children thanking him because they got to meet their favorite college athlete role model and from teachers thanking him for letting their class or organization come to an event. One of the most important rewards that he witnesses is student-athletes being able to graduate. A great example he gave was that of basketball senior, Amanda Thompson. She came from a not-so-great part of Chicago, and by coming to the University she overcame odds that weren’t necessarily in her favor for graduating college.
His thoughts on leadership:
Mr. Taylor views his leadership style as one where he hires great people, gives them the vision, see how they would like to do it, and then they go to get it done. He thinks there shouldn’t be problems, just challenges that need solutions. When looking to hire people, he looks for people who can think for themselves and propose solutions. For his leadership style communication is key.
This interview gave me a great insight on what it would be like to work in Sports Marketing. I gained a lot of advice from Charlie Taylor, one of those being: to never try to make a decision above your pay grade. I will take many things from this interview to hopefully pursue my dream of one day being the PR representative for the New York Yankees.
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