5 Lessons from building the BYU Sports Business Club

Thomas Clawson
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

A quote I try to live by is this

“Ideas are cheap, execution is everything”. -Chris Sacca

Lavell Edwards Stadium

I think it’s a good place to start when talking about the BYU Sports Business Club. In February myself and two friends decided to pursue a passion, and open doors for ourselves and hundreds of students. We received an email that BYU was working with “the strategic consulting team of Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment and Victus Advisors to assess the awareness, perceptions and positioning of the WCC’s brand”.

This caught my attention, and I wondered “what do these companies do?”

Bringing me to lesson one.

1) Always stay Curious

After some research we learned that sports consulting was a professional field, and it looked so much fun! I looked into how these started and many were grassroots groups who had a passion, worked hard, and grew into something that is working with hundreds of professional teams. Many of these founders biographies had one common thread. In college they were the “Founder” or “President” of The (insert prestigious university name) Sports Management or Business Club. The idea sounded too fun to pass up so I called my roommates Kyle and Hunter and said that I found our next project. We canceled on competing in the business strategy competition we had recently registered for and and began to combine our efforts on creating this club.

Leading to lesson two.

2) Passion + Persistence = Success

There were countless meetings with university leaders, department heads, deans, BYUSA, and other students. We wanted to network and learn with professionals in the Sports and Entertainment space. We looked for opportunities on campus and found nothing. Then we realized that other students wanted the same thing. That’s when we knew we could build something special. It took many late night nights, early calls, and sometimes awkward meetings, but we put our heads down and worked to build something we are proud of.

3) Always build and leverage your network

We hit the ground running with the BYU Alumni network. Anything sports related was good enough for us. We started learning about football helmets, email marketing, corporate sponsorship, guest services, and basketball operations. Alumni have been an amazing help, and we want to publically thank all of the alumni and sports professionals who have helped us get this thing up and running. Especially Luke Willardson of Monumental Sports Group who caught onto the vision of the club before we even knew if this thing would get off the ground.

Volunteering at the Jimmerosity Youth Tournament with President of Operations Kyle Adams and Jimmer Fredette

4) Build an amazing team

We have an amazing club leadership team with unique backgrounds and different passions and skills in both sports and business. Kyle can always get it done and is looking two steps ahead. Hunter knows how to meet the right people and close the deal. Elena is always growing our online presence and keeps us level headed. John can take a problem, break it down and find the next steps we need to take. Max is always dreaming big and getting others involved. The team is amazing and none of this is possible without them.

5) Get excited about what is happening

To all BYU students, we can’t wait to get things rolling in the fall, it’s going to be a blast. To all of the sports professionals out there who are reading this, please get in touch so we can help each other grow and succeed. To everyone else out there, I hope you find some joy in hearing about us building our idea into a living, breathing reality.

Cheers,

General Manager and President of Player Operations

-Thomas Clawson

BYU SBC Logo

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Thomas Clawson

Written by

I find passion in building things from the ground up. Startups, sports, and something cool that starts with s.

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