The SportsGrad Podcast: The Ultimate Guide to Make it in the Sports Industry

Want to land a job in sport? Apply for The SportsGrad Method: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programSo you want to work in sport.You are not alone, and that is exactly the problem.Sport is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Everyone is passionate. Everyone has a degree. Everyone is willing to work hard. And yet most people spend years on the outside looking in, never quite understanding why.It is not a capability problem. It is a method problem.I am Reuben Williams, founder of SportsGrad. I landed a job at Cricket Australia the day after I finished university. When COVID hit and I was made redundant, I was headhunted into a role that doubled my salary. Not because I got lucky, because I had a method that most people never find.Since then that method has helped over 800 people land jobs in sport, from graduates with no experience to career professionals who thought the window had already closed. We have built a global network that members can tap into from day one, and spent ten years inside this industry learning exactly how hiring actually works.80% of jobs in sport are never advertised. The people landing them are not the most qualified. They are the most visible, the most connected, and the most prepared to convert opportunity into an offer.That is what The SportsGrad Method teaches.How I can help you:1. Listen to The Method — real coaching call snippets every Wednesday so you can hear the work in action.2. Read The SportsGrad Newsletter — weekly insight on breaking into sport the right way.3. Apply for The SportsGrad Method Program — if you are serious about making this happen, this is the fastest path. We review every application personally.If you refuse to settle for a career you do not care about, you are in the right place.Let's get to work: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programReuben

Meet Pat McGregor. Pat has spent the last five-plus years building a career across sports marketing, content and brand, most recently leading the marketing function through the formation of NSW Athletics.Pat's first roles were in retail at Kingsgrove Sports Centre and Adidas, before an internship in the membership team at the St George Illawarra Dragons was cut short by COVID. Working a warehouse job through lockdown and buried under rejections, he came genuinely close to giving up on sport altogether. Instead, he resigned, leaned on the SportsGrad community, and three weeks later landed a marketing coordinator role at Little Athletics NSW.From there, it snowballed to working alongside Olympians like Jess Fox and Sam Fricker at the NSW Institute of Sport, delivering a national-record membership campaign, and leading the rebrand through a merger.Lots to look out for in this episode, including how to reframe non-sport experience so it actually lands against a job description, and how to keep progressing (and creating your own next move) once you're inside.We cover:(03:16) - Interview Begins(05:00) - Quick Fire Questions(11:00) - How Pat decided he wanted to work in the sport industry(14:48) - How SportsGrad helped Pat early in his career(16:27) - Why Pat almost gave up on a career in sport(18:27) - Pat's role at New South Wales Institute of Sport(22:34) - How Pat became a 'one-person marketing department' at Little Athletics NSW(28:25) - How the Athletics NSW and Little Athletics NSW brands merged(30:42) - What challenges and opportunities arose in marketing the brands merging(33:14) - How SportsGrad has been helping Pat recently in his job hunt(39:28) - How to land a role in sport marketing in the next 30 days(41:25) - Biggest pinch-me moment working in sport(44:12) - What would life look like if it wasn't for a career in sport(44:42) - What has been the most challenging thing you’ve faced, and how did it become successful (46:17) - Pat's question for next guestIf you liked this ep, give these a go next:#236: Sports Marketing Consultant career journey (so far!) with Danny Bowerin#280: How to get a sports marketing job in the English Premier League with Alex King#324: How to turn a Law and Comms degree into a marketing role at the AFL with Veronica SteerWant a job in sport? Click here.Follow SportsGrad on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokFollow Reuben on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokThanks for listening, much love!

Want to land a job in sport? Apply for The SportsGrad Method: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programSo you want to work in sport.You are not alone, and that is exactly the problem.Sport is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Everyone is passionate. Everyone has a degree. Everyone is willing to work hard. And yet most people spend years on the outside looking in, never quite understanding why.It is not a capability problem. It is a method problem.I am Reuben Williams, founder of SportsGrad. I landed a job at Cricket Australia the day after I finished university. When COVID hit and I was made redundant, I was headhunted into a role that doubled my salary. Not because I got lucky, because I had a method that most people never find.Since then that method has helped over 800 people land jobs in sport, from graduates with no experience to career professionals who thought the window had already closed. We have built a global network that members can tap into from day one, and spent ten years inside this industry learning exactly how hiring actually works.80% of jobs in sport are never advertised. The people landing them are not the most qualified. They are the most visible, the most connected, and the most prepared to convert opportunity into an offer.That is what The SportsGrad Method teaches.How I can help you:1. Listen to The Method — real coaching call snippets every Wednesday so you can hear the work in action.2. Read The SportsGrad Newsletter — weekly insight on breaking into sport the right way.3. Apply for The SportsGrad Method Program — if you are serious about making this happen, this is the fastest path. We review every application personally.If you refuse to settle for a career you do not care about, you are in the right place.Let's get to work: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programReuben

Meet Sarah Loh, Chief Executive Officer at Softball Australia. Sarah's career spans nearly four decades across the sport, education and not-for-profit sectors, but it started at a reception desk.In 1988, she asked the owner of a Dandenong gym for a job every day for six months until he cracked and gave her three hours behind the desk. By the end of that year she was centre manager. From there she built one of the most deliberate careers in Australian sport: the YMCA, a local council role at the City of Whittlesea where she project-managed a $29 million leisure centre, her first CEO chair at the country's biggest junior football league, a headhunted executive role at VicHealth, and now the top job at Softball Australia, with a Women's World Cup on home soil in 2027 and softball's return to the Olympics at LA 2028.In this episode, Sarah unpacks why she deliberately took "detours" through corporate and government roles to build the credibility sport wouldn't give her, the interview question she now asks every candidate she hires and why "what have you built?" beats a polished CV, and how to actually progress from entry-level to executive when everyone is chasing the same limited roles.We cover:(02:48) - Interview Begins(04:38) - Quick Fire Questions(13:46) - How Sarah's career in sport panned out(21:10) - Why Sarah enjoys teaching at university and being on volunteer sporting boards(28:54) - What legacy does Sarah hope the 2027 Softball World Cup leave behind(35:41) - What is the best sport event you have attended and what is on your bucket list?(38:03) - Sarah's question for next guestIf you liked this ep, give these a go next:#206: Journey to CEO of Champion Data with Libby Owens#217: How to be the CEO of the ICC T20 World Cup - Michelle Enright#338: From the AFL to Cricket NT CEO at 29, to Executive GM at Cricket Australia with Joel MorrisonWant a job in sport? Click here.Follow SportsGrad on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokFollow Reuben on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokThanks for listening, much love!

Want to land a job in sport? Apply for The SportsGrad Method: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programSo you want to work in sport.You are not alone, and that is exactly the problem.Sport is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Everyone is passionate. Everyone has a degree. Everyone is willing to work hard. And yet most people spend years on the outside looking in, never quite understanding why.It is not a capability problem. It is a method problem.I am Reuben Williams, founder of SportsGrad. I landed a job at Cricket Australia the day after I finished university. When COVID hit and I was made redundant, I was headhunted into a role that doubled my salary. Not because I got lucky, because I had a method that most people never find.Since then that method has helped over 800 people land jobs in sport, from graduates with no experience to career professionals who thought the window had already closed. We have built a global network that members can tap into from day one, and spent ten years inside this industry learning exactly how hiring actually works.80% of jobs in sport are never advertised. The people landing them are not the most qualified. They are the most visible, the most connected, and the most prepared to convert opportunity into an offer.That is what The SportsGrad Method teaches.How I can help you:1. Listen to The Method — real coaching call snippets every Wednesday so you can hear the work in action.2. Read The SportsGrad Newsletter — weekly insight on breaking into sport the right way.3. Apply for The SportsGrad Method Program — if you are serious about making this happen, this is the fastest path. We review every application personally.If you refuse to settle for a career you do not care about, you are in the right place.Let's get to work: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programReuben

Meet Hector Arenas, Venue Operations Manager at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Monterrey.Back home in Mexico, he'd built a solid career as an industrial engineer with an MBA, ten years of experience, and a general manager role at a lending company, complete with the apartment, the car and the stable life. Then COVID hit, and he and his wife made a decision to leave their comfort zone and chase their dream. In July 2023, they moved to Australia so Hector could study a Master Of Business (Sport Management) at Deakin University.Four months later, on a tip from his university mentor, he landed a three-month casual events contract at Melbourne Park, and turned it into three straight Australian Opens. From there, he applied cold to FIFA, got knocked back once for being "not experienced enough," then came back a year later to win a Venue Operations Manager role at Estadio Monterrey, delivering matches at the biggest event on the planet in his home country.Lots to look out for in this episode, including how to break into sport when you've got zero industry network in a new country, why "say yes to everything" opened every door, and how the engineering discipline of doing more with less transferred straight into running a World Cup venue.We cover:(03:13) - Interview starts(09:26) - Quick Fire Questions(08:08) - What Hector's career looked like prior to moving to Australia(20:31) - Opportunities to work in sport in Mexico(22:14) - The decision behind moving from Mexico to Australia(25:31) - What skills from Hector's engineering career were transferable to the sport industry(27:05) - Hector's first role in sport at the Australian Open(31:21) - Favourite moment working at the Australian Open(33:44) - How Hector joined SportsGrad(37:14) - How networking has helped Hector's career(39:48) - How to build your network when you arrive in a country for the first time(40:48) - How Hector found his role at the FIFA World Cup(45:14) - Hector's journey from watching Mexico at the FIFA World Cup in 2022 to working at the 2026 World Cup(46:47) - What a match day in Hector's role looked like (55:51) - Favourite moments working at the FIFA World Cup(01:07:33) - How to land a role in sport events and operations in the next 30 days(01:08:45) - Biggest Pinch Me moment working in sport(01:13:49) - What life would look like if not a career in sport(01:14:48) - Hector's question for next guestIf you liked this ep, give these a go next:#356: Career journey of FIFA World Cup Commentator David Basheer#357: From International Student to Major League Soccer with Adam Ferreira (Vancouver Whitecaps)#358: Sports Marketing in the Premier League and the MLS with Sunny Dhillon (Seattle Sounders)Want a job in sport? Click here.Follow SportsGrad on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokFollow Reuben on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokThanks for listening, much love!

Want to land a job in sport? Apply for The SportsGrad Method: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programSo you want to work in sport.You are not alone, and that is exactly the problem.Sport is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Everyone is passionate. Everyone has a degree. Everyone is willing to work hard. And yet most people spend years on the outside looking in, never quite understanding why.It is not a capability problem. It is a method problem.I am Reuben Williams, founder of SportsGrad. I landed a job at Cricket Australia the day after I finished university. When COVID hit and I was made redundant, I was headhunted into a role that doubled my salary. Not because I got lucky, because I had a method that most people never find.Since then that method has helped over 800 people land jobs in sport, from graduates with no experience to career professionals who thought the window had already closed. We have built a global network that members can tap into from day one, and spent ten years inside this industry learning exactly how hiring actually works.80% of jobs in sport are never advertised. The people landing them are not the most qualified. They are the most visible, the most connected, and the most prepared to convert opportunity into an offer.That is what The SportsGrad Method teaches.How I can help you:1. Listen to The Method — real coaching call snippets every Wednesday so you can hear the work in action.2. Read The SportsGrad Newsletter — weekly insight on breaking into sport the right way.3. Apply for The SportsGrad Method Program — if you are serious about making this happen, this is the fastest path. We review every application personally.If you refuse to settle for a career you do not care about, you are in the right place.Let's get to work: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programReuben

Meet Jack Lloyd, Marketing Specialist at Cricket Australia, and one of the people building the 150th Anniversary Test Match, cricket's biggest global event in a generation.Jack's love of sport started early. A Year 9 internship at AFL Media, then as a bartender at the MCG throughout uni just to be near the action. He got his foot in the door leading live match-day coverage at Box Hill Hawks, with a day a week inside the Hawthorn media team. Just as he graduated university at the end of 2019, the world shut down for the COVID Pandemic. Hiring froze, redundancies swept the industry, and his entry into full-time work was put on pause.So he kept building. A message from Reuben pulled him in to produce the first 70 episodes of the SportsGrad podcast, absorbing exactly how insiders break into sport. That's where it all turned. He landed at Rugby Victoria, then won his big break as Digital Marketing Coordinator for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, a 300,000-fan database, 800,000 tickets sold, before moving to Cricket Australia, where he's climbed from marketing coordinator to leading Big Bash marketing across a record 1.1-million-fan season.In this episode, Jack shares how to get a foot in the door at the lower levels and build skills that actually carry up, why leading with your "why" beats reciting your CV, and the pinch-me moment at the World Cup final he never saw coming - flag in hand, 90,000 fans, and being on the field at the MCG for the trophy lift.We cover:(03:08) - Interview begins(04:40) - Quick Fire Questions(10:23) - Early experiences that shaped Jack's career(17:35) - How Jack landed his role at the ICC T20 World Cup(20:16) - Day-to-day responsibilities in Jack's role as Digital Marketing Coordinator(23:53) - Being on the ground for the T20 World Cup final(27:42) - How Jack landed his role as Digital Marketing Specialist at Cricket Australia(40:47) - What the lifecycle of a marketing campaign at Cricket Australia looks like(45:01) - Campaigns Cricket Australia are running in the lead-up to the 150th Anniversary Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground(53:14) - What challenges did Jack face breaking into sport(54:13) - How Jack decided what career path to take(55:33) - Impact of mentors on Jack's journey(57:02) - On Jack's role as a Coach in the SportsGrad method Program(01:01:27) - How to land a job in Sport Marketing in the next 30 days(01:02:39) - Biggest 'Pinch Me' moment working in sport(01:07:04) - What life would look like if not a career in sport?(01:08:06) - What measures do you implement to prevent burnout(01:09:55) - Jack's question for the next guestIf you liked this ep, give these a go next:#225: T20 World Cup tournament time jobs with Jack Lloyd & Harrison Orchard#347: Sport Marketing & Communications - How to work in AFL, NBA and Seven Sport with Anthony Alsop#358: Sports Marketing in the Premier League and the MLS with Sunny Dhillon (Seattle Sounders)Want a job in sport? Click here.Follow SportsGrad on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokFollow Reuben on socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTokThanks for listening, much love!

Want to land a job in sport? Apply for The SportsGrad Method: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programSo you want to work in sport.You are not alone, and that is exactly the problem.Sport is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Everyone is passionate. Everyone has a degree. Everyone is willing to work hard. And yet most people spend years on the outside looking in, never quite understanding why.It is not a capability problem. It is a method problem.I am Reuben Williams, founder of SportsGrad. I landed a job at Cricket Australia the day after I finished university. When COVID hit and I was made redundant, I was headhunted into a role that doubled my salary. Not because I got lucky, because I had a method that most people never find.Since then that method has helped over 800 people land jobs in sport, from graduates with no experience to career professionals who thought the window had already closed. We have built a global network that members can tap into from day one, and spent ten years inside this industry learning exactly how hiring actually works.80% of jobs in sport are never advertised. The people landing them are not the most qualified. They are the most visible, the most connected, and the most prepared to convert opportunity into an offer.That is what The SportsGrad Method teaches.How I can help you:1. Listen to The Method — real coaching call snippets every Wednesday so you can hear the work in action.2. Read The SportsGrad Newsletter — weekly insight on breaking into sport the right way.3. Apply for The SportsGrad Method Program — if you are serious about making this happen, this is the fastest path. We review every application personally.If you refuse to settle for a career you do not care about, you are in the right place.Let's get to work: www.sportsgrad.com.au/programReuben