YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

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I’m pursuing an opportunity to join a unique and successful organization that is doing some amazing stuff in the world right now. As part of the application process, I was asked to share some of my accomplishments and personal interests especially as it relates to my academic and work successes, leadership roles and other activities.

I appreciate the opportunity to share who I am in more detail. It often seems quite difficult to learn enough about a person from one piece of paper or a short and structured conversation. Therefore I’m going to use some of my previous blog posts, things I’ve written long before I knew about this opportunity, to better illustrate my accomplishments and interests. Each link below leads to a blog post that I’ve written over the years.

WORK SUCCESSES

Promotions

• Every major promotion that I’ve earned in my career has led to a new position being created within that organization.
• At my first full-time position at OCSN, it took me a few months to realize I was more interested in how I could help the company generate new revenue streams rather than update web pages as a web editor. It took a few more months for me to meet, greet and successful pitch the executives in the organization to create a new junior business development role for me.
• After OCSN was acquired by CSTV, I was the first person in the OCSN Carlsbad office to move to the CSTV New York City to help develop CSTV’s digital business.
• After working on March Madness On Demand and launching a college fantasy football application (profitable in its first year) I was promoted to Director of Online Business Development to focus on online gaming and community. I was the youngest (and most inexperienced) Director in the organization and reported directly to the CEO.
• As the first employee and part of the founding team at Sportsvite, I’ve grown with the organization. I am part of the management team and now take it upon myself to improve in my leadership and management role while running business development, marketing and sales and contributing to overall strategy.

Management

• As part of the management team at Sportsvite, I currently lead a team of three people (was as high as five) for marketing partnerships, customer acquisition and sponsorship/advertising sales.
• I developed an intern program at Sportsvite (cheap, smart brainpower is invaluable to a startup) in which over ten interns have successfully completed with many going on to take full-time positions in digital media.
• As the youngest Director at CSTV, and with no direct reports or budget, I had to manage up and laterally to secure resources and support to lead digital projects in creating a blog network, podcasting solution and college fantasy football application.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

• Entered college with 38 credits and sophomore standing due to Advanced Placement courses and test results in high school.
• Accepted into undergraduate business school at University of Michigan (2-year program) and graduated with a BBA degree with distinction (3.5 GPA).
• Completed independent studies in online marketing for a local laundry mat and a search engine optimization project for my own college basketball website, Littyhoops.com
• Volunteered at local elementary school and worked as private tutor (5-10 Hrs per week).

LEADERSHIP

Work

• I believe every startup needs a true leader to instill confidence in the entire team and to pave the way to success. I’ve tried to grow into that role as Sportsvite has matured by leading our business units, making personnel decisions and managing investor’s expectations.
• When I first started at Sportsvite I had no experience in the interviewing and hiring process. I’ve now hired 5 full-time employees and numerous part-time resources and interns.

Littyhoops Blog

• My personal blog has developed an audience of 100 email subscribers that consists of family, friends, colleagues and others. I often try to write about topics that are as interesting to them as it is to me. Things like business networking, failure, and personal growth. This leads to both online and actual conversations with others who share my interests. There are so many great reasons why I love to blog.
• As an early digital adopter I have shared my thoughts on new digital products or services including Twitter, Kayak, Hulu, Kiva, DonorsChoose and even
  ChatRoulette!

• I also write about trends in digital, advertising and media as well as emerging opportunitis in local, television distribution and Facebook.

Digital Media & Sports

• I’ve organized and hosted multiple events in digital sports including nextSports and the first Sports Marketing 2.0 event.
• I’ve authored guest blog posts for Business Insider including this recent post on the new NCAA media rights agreements with CBS and Turner.
• Presented this presentation to Wharton Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club

Littyhoops College Basketball Website

• Created Littyhoops.com college basketball website during college (before there were blogs!) and taught myself development and design skills, created content and managed online marketing, SEO, Adsense and partnerships.

My First Job

• I worked for four years during high school for the Police Athletic League. I started as a referee and advanced to hiring and managing a staff of 10 refs each weekend to organize and manage sports activities at multiple field or gym locations in my town. I reported to the police officer in charge (who wrote me a college recommendation) and wrote my college essay about the values I developed from experience.

Sports Captain

• I’m the manager or captain of multiple rec sports teams each year. This sometimes thankless job is part of the inspiration behind the Sportsvite concept!

OTHER STUFF

Hobbies

• Started a book club and have a blog recapping the books that I read.
• My favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemmingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald and John Irving.
• Subscribe to multiple blogs that I read daily through Google RSS Reader.
• I consider myself a writer – thanks in large part to all my blogging.

Travel

• I’ve backpacked, and blogged, my way through Australia and Europe and have also explored India. My most recent trip was to Costa Rica. I’m trying to figure out how to get to Africa and the Far East next!

Professional Organizations

• Early member and active participant of nextNY organization. Organized multiple events in digital sports and held first feedback focus session.

Sports

• I play on numerous recreational sports teams including basketball, multiple softball teams and a dogeball team consisting of nextNY members.
• Training to run a sprint triathlon this fall.
• I’m a huge sports fan and spend a chunk of my free time obsessing over the Yankees, Knicks, Giants, University of Michigan sports and St. John’s basketball. I’m a collge basketball fanatic and take a family trip to watch the NCAA tournament every year!
• Yes, I’m addicted to fantasy sports as a participant and as an amazing business opportunity. I’ve recently contributed to the creation of one of the first twitter-based fantasy sports games.

Volunteer Work

• Part of Big Brother/Big Sister type mentorship program during college.
• Interested in creating my own charity or foundation and becoming more involved in social entrepreneurship.

If this blog post seems like I’m tooting my own horn that’s because I kind of am. One thing that I’ve learned from working at a startup is that there’s nobody else to toot your horn for you (especially at the start). Most people just see a pile of scraps and raw materials and it’s your job to convince them your building a Delorean DMC-12. The only way to do that is to believe in it yourself. This doesn’t happen by boasting, bragging or having all the answers – but rather from being honest, passionate and willing to listen and directly answer all their questions.

I often think about how I should position myself to others. Many people that I speak too don’t feel like they do a good job of concisely and effectively sharing who they are and what they want to accomplish. It’s hard and it takes some planning and practice. Next time I need to do it I’ll have this blog post (both in my mind and right here) as reference.