Influential Woman · Sports Sales

Emily Brown

Premium Sales Manager, Learfield Amplify

Seattle, WA

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Washington State University Degree Sport Management Degree 2021

Her Story

About Emily

I've been working at the University of Washington for just about 4 years now, since graduating from college in 2021. I'm part of the ticket sales team in the ticketing department here at UW, where I help manage a part of our sales team and work closely with two other departments in ticketing. It's a sales-heavy desk job, but what makes it dynamic is that our team handles 9 sports that are ticketed, so we're year-round and never not promoting or selling something. A typical day involves weekly meetings and reaching out to fans in a number of different ways, and it really depends on the time of year and the season. Right now, we're getting ready for fall sports after just wrapping up spring sports. There's a lot of back and forth with other departments when we're doing projects, and it's a lot of phone calls and trying to get people out to the stadium. Interestingly, I actually went to the rival school, Washington State University, where I majored in sport management. I grew up on this side of our state and came to games here, and I always kind of knew I wanted to work in sports. I have a twin brother, and we grew up watching sports here as a sports family. I didn't really think about the sales side of it until I just kind of found a job and dove into it.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Emily

01What do you attribute your success to?

I think just having strong mentors in my life has really helped shape my journey. Going through college, the advisors and the professors really took time to kind of invest in you, because it's a smaller major, so once you get kind of past freshman classes, it's smaller than other majors, so there's more opportunity to form a good relationship with professors and stuff like that. I think that helped me, and then just kind of all the resources they provide you once you're finished with college, and the resources you can use to kind of just dive into your professional side of things.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

It's cliche, but I think just be yourself. Literally, if you go into anything you're doing not being yourself, you're not gonna get the full experience, I guess, and you're selling yourself short. So just don't be afraid to be yourself, your authentic self, because if you have good values and habits and whatnot, that alone is a really important thing.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I think be curious. I think everyone always says this, but network. Find a way to network that works for you, because sometimes it's kind of hard. So find groups and people who are gonna invest in you and help give you good advice. And you know, just keep your eyes open. There's a lot of new jobs now, and just different kind of lines of work. So, in a way, just do your research too. Figure out what you're passionate about, I guess.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I think what's relevant is just being a woman in sport right now. It's getting more common, and I think there's a lot with college sports right now because it's a little out of control, just in terms of how they're handling the student athletes getting paid. There just needs to be more oversight there, and kids are transferring schools left and right. So I guess a challenge is when we are talking to fans, you kind of have to paint the picture of yes, it's different players every year, but a lot of the traditions that they care about are still intact, and it's still a really fun thing to get behind. So I think that's a challenge, but an opportunity as well, because the landscape of college sports is changing, and it's kind of fun to be behind it.

05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I think being just a dependable, reliable person definitely, to my friends, and then at work, if I'm given a project or something to do, they know it's gonna get done. And I think just being a trustful person as well gets you a long way, no matter what. I do value friendships and personal relationships too, and I think that's important, just in life in general.

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