May 11, 2022 • 19 mins
Melissa Proctor returns on this deep dive to talk about the role of a chief marketing officer for the NBA. She talks about how she built a one-of-a-kind experience in the State Farm arena, how the stadium became a community asset, and the barriers she is breaking for women in the NBA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. On today's deep Dive,
we are joined by the woman who is breaking down
(00:21):
barriers in the NBA, my dear friend, Melissa Proctor. Hi, Melissa,
how are you Anny? I am awesome. Thank you so
much for having me back. Well, I am super energised
to have you back on the podcast today. I've been
looking forward to this because we already had you on
a previous episode where we talked all about your journey
from ballgirl to CMO, and I know that people are
(00:44):
chomping at the bit to hear more about what it's
like to be a CMO in the National Basketball Association League.
How incredible is this role and especially as a black
woman and a person of color. So I want to
start off by asking you talk about the role of
what a CMO means. You've been in the job for
about five years. You've seen obviously a lot of change
(01:05):
in terms of what marketing looks like in an organization
like this, But what would people what what describe it?
How is the day in the life of Melissa Proctor. Wow,
that's many things. Well, first of all, I'll say the
title of CMO is so different depending on the organization,
even within the NBA, based on the focus, based on
the scope, and so for me, I have around nine
or ten different departments that are reporting to me at
(01:28):
any given time. But you know, a big bulk of
the work that I'm responsible for day to day is
ensuring that everyone has what they need to do their
best work. I'm very much about that personally. Traditionally people
would say the role of cmos for a sports team
is butts and seats, whatever you can do to get
people in and for me, it is so much more
around brand building and relevance for a market and how
(01:49):
do we can really integrate our brand story in the
community and bringing it together because ultimately, from a revenue
generating perspective, based on our audience and our demographics these days,
people really want to be connected to businesses they feel
doing good things in the world. And then also from
a corporate partnership standpoint, once you have a strong brand
story that other brands can connect themselves to, that's who
(02:10):
you generate that revenue as well. Yeah, for me, it's
so much more around like having personal values that are
aligned with our brand, and thankfully we have an organization
in a city and a team that I'm aligned with personally,
so it doesn't feel like a departure from where I
would want to take it um. But so much of
what I get to do day to day is to
create awesome memories for people coming into our building, whether
(02:32):
for Hawks games or events, and figure out how we
can amplify the work that we're doing to impact the
community of atlantas as we can. Oh. I mean, that
is music to my heirs, because one of the things
I love about living in Atlanta is the Hawks community,
is the sports and athletic community, because you guys have
successfully done such a good job of building exactly that,
a very authentic community, and it never feels like when
(02:55):
you end up at a Hawks game it's about butts
and seeds. You see friends around you, you see ends
that are local and native to Atlanta supporting and cheering
the team. So that's a real great way to look
at it, because I think oftentimes people really look at
this job as very limiting, and it's so much bigger
than that. Absolutely, And you know, one of the groups
that reports moves are live entertainment and production team, and
(03:17):
so much of that is our game presentation, and we
wanted to be a party at the end of the
day that you could only experience if you come to Atlanta.
And lately I have had so many either ex players
or folks are visiting from other teams come to our games.
Are like, this is different than anywhere else. And I
love that energy because our number one goal is home
court advantage. We want to create the advantage in that
building for our team to win. That's first and foremost.
(03:39):
But outside of that, our brand Mantra is true to Atlanta.
So we really want to represent and be as true
to Atlanta through that game experience as we can. So
you are, you know, naturally creative. You're an artist, you draw,
you create art, and now you've translated this into marketing.
But at the same time, there is a component of
this where you have to sort of gauge and monitor profitability.
(04:02):
How do you balance the two and how did you
sort of take that lens and look at how you
could be successful in business. You know, it's a great
question because people are like, do you still make art?
And I'm like, well, no, not. It's done. I don't
have a lot of time these days, but I really
look at my creative abilities now is creative ways to
solve business challenges, and I think that's one of the
things that we've done so beautifully as an organization. But
(04:24):
it's not about leaning into profitability first. And so when
our current owner, Tony Wrestler came on board, he said,
we are a community asset before we are a basketball team.
Before anything else, we exist to be a community asset.
So by doing things like opening up our arena and
being the first team in the NBA to have early
voting in our building during the pandemic, and going out
and fighting food and security during the pandemic, even you
(04:46):
know what we were able to do with our MLK uniforms.
That was the first idea that I brought to the
table a CMO when I started this position. It was
how do we honor Dr King's legacy in a city
like Atlanta in an ongoing way more than just on
m OK Day US. And for that, we donated a
hundred percent of our profits for that back into the
city of Atlanta through the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative of Atlanta.
(05:08):
Because we really believe that, you know, through um economic
empowerment for people of color especially and women, would be
able to make a long term impact. And I think
by doing those things, which are what we believe the
right things to do, has ultimately led to profitability. But
it's a different perspective in the creative way to look
at Wow. I mean, what a great lens and what
(05:28):
an amazing organization that allows you to express so much
of this on behalf of the city of Atlanta. I mean,
those m LK jerseys have been impact well to so
many and all of us. Remember you know the State
Farm Arena opening up its stores for voting for COVID vaccinations.
So I think, you know, finding a role like this
that allows you to do so much for so many
(05:49):
is really incredible and inspiring. Yeah, and I think but
the coolest part of it, what I've realized, is the
more that we've done in the community and not just
stroking big checks, but creating programs that really help people.
Now they're organizations that want to partner with us for
that commitment to the community, and that's where a lot
of the corporate partnership and revenue dollars come in to
help support and ironically, I had a person reached out
(06:10):
to me personally and said, you know, after you know,
I voted at the arena, I love what you did
with m OK. That stuff was so insightful and inspirational
to me that I've never been a season ticket member,
but I bought season tickets because I believe in what
you're doing, in your values, and that's you know, you're
making the difference. That's got to feel really really good. Okay,
So I want to segue into another aspect of this.
(06:32):
You know, oftentimes people ask me this being a black
woman in technology, which is renowned to have, you know,
be dominated by males as well, What are your thoughts
or how has it been for you and your experience
being a black woman in the c suite of the NBA.
We know there's tons of black people that are players,
but as we move up the organizational chains, we see
less and less women and women of color as well.
(06:55):
How's your experience been. You know, when I first started
in full time and working with the organization, I was
the only woman on our executive team. We had two
other people of color that were part of that, but
as the only woman, it was jarring. I was a
new mom. You know, we didn't have places for me
to you know, for lactation rooms or anything, and so
we had to create the environment where women, especially in
(07:16):
women of color, can thrive and really be able to
voice their opinion. And so I feel like a lot
of what I did early on was just speaking up
and having a voice and utilizing that voice to help others.
But you know, to be honest, from my first meetings
we would get together in Miami every year with all
of the teams for sales and marketing meetings, I didn't
see many women at all, didn't see many people of color.
(07:37):
And over the years that has changed so much within
the NBA, and there's still a lot more work to
be done, but I think the NBA is incredibly progressive
in that still more work that we need to do.
But you know, for me, I look at people ask
what's the best part of my job, and I said
having it. I love that so of then I'll go
speak and people are like, oh my gosh, but you're
(07:57):
so cool. We got locks, you have a nose ring,
but you know you're something down on earth and your
CM old the team and I'm like, yes, and it's possible,
and you can knew it too. And you know, and
I always tell this crazy story when I first got promoted,
I had gone over to the arena and parts of
the reserve parking spaces where the players and executive's parked
to go to a meeting, and a security guard came
up to my car and looked at me and said,
(08:17):
I'm excuse me, man, you can't park here. This is
reserved for executives. And so I took out my badge
and I showed him, and I was like, you know,
and he looked really confused, and then he was kind
of like, okay, okay, go ahead, go ahead. But I
knew in that moment that I changed his perception and
the stereotype and he had in what an executive of
an NBA team looks like. And to me, that's the
(08:37):
most impactful. Oh I love that story. You know, oftentimes too,
it's you know, those little micro aggressions as we call them, happen,
and you can choose to respond in a different way,
but you're just like, I'm showing you, and he just
hadn't seen it. Well, here you are, and he will
remember you. He probably remembers that incident, and he was
like okay, cool, park here and next time, I'm sure
you showed up. He was like, okay, okay, that's right,
(09:00):
that's right. So along that question, do you have any
tips You've shared with us some in the last episode,
but again for aspiring young women trying to break into
a career where there aren't a lot of women or
people of color. What are some tips and tricks that
you can offer that have really successfully works for you.
You know, one I would say, don't be intimidated, because
I think a lot of times it's you know, I'll
(09:22):
sit in the back of the room. I'm not going
to speak up or use my voice. But if you
are have the opportunity to be in that room, you
have responsibility to YouTube. You know. The one thing that
I get a lot is can I get coffee? Can
I grab some of your time? Relationship building is critical,
I'd say in a lot of industries, but especially in
sports and entertainment, And my biggest advice is find a
way to become an asset to people's time, time, not
(09:45):
a liability, because so often it's let me have your time.
This is what I want. I want to be CMO,
I want this, and you've done nothing to pour into
the other person. So I always ask the question, what
are your points of pain, what are your challenges, what's
keeping you up at night? Then in a timely way
after your conversation, come back and offer something. It could
be in real time if you can. But that is
(10:05):
a mindset that so many people don't have because they're
always looking at and what's in it for them, not
necessarily helping be of service to the other person. And
I think for me, throughout my career, relationship building has
been critical, and the other part is doing the job
you want before you have it. You know. Some often
people are like, oh, well, once I get the job,
then I'll be able to get the experience. I wanted
(10:25):
to work in brand strategy so bad and couldn't get
a brand job. I went to graduate school to focus
on branding and came back to Turner and wasn't you know,
creative for years? And so I found a brand outside
of Turner and said raised, hey, I'll be your head
of brand strategy. Just let me make business cards with
it and put it on my resume, and they're like great,
And that opportunity led me to ultimately get a branding
(10:47):
job at Turner. And I think for women, especially in sports,
people are always waiting for someone to give them the opportunity,
and sometimes you have to create it and sometimes you
have to do the job free. And I think what's
so remarkable about your story, and I want to talk
about the book that you wrote as well from Ball
Girl the CMO is that at so many critical points
in your life you were offering to add value to
(11:07):
other people and they remember that and they come back.
And so it's almost like the more you give, the
more you get. And I truly truly believe that. But
I think also in your case, I mean, you were
never afraid to do the small jobs. I'll get coffee,
I'll sweep the sweat off the floor, And though that
perseverance and tenacity adds up to the success that you
want later in life. And I think this is something
(11:29):
that I want our young audience to hear, because this
idea of like overnight success or you know, we all
just closed our eyes and blinked. We got there. You know,
for most of us who are later in life, we
have worked really hard through the trenches to get our
way up there. So it's it's not overnight. It's a
couple of decades and most of our cases, but it
certainly pays off, absolutely, And I tell everyone to this day,
(11:52):
if someone needed me to go and mop up sweat,
I could make them up and mop up for the
next game, because I'm not above anything, right, and I
think it's a very core different One of the other
things that I always, you know, advise people, especially women
to do, and it's something that I learned probably in
the middle of my career through mentors, was the power
of guiding principles. And so you know, you asked me,
what can women do differently? And it's establishing what your
(12:14):
values are, What are the things that you believe, what
are the things that you know is your filter for
any opportunity that comes your way. That are your non negotiables.
And for me, I define my guiding principles early on,
and it's a big part of my book from Ball
Grow to CMO of how I did it and how
others can do it too. And I call them my
starting five because any opportunity that comes my way because
I still don't know what I want to be when
I grow up, you know, I against these values and
(12:37):
they're ones that are defined for me personally and in
doing so. It's also very clear from talking to someone
about an opportunity man whichever I would say, Hey, I'm
happy to do that as long as these five things
are met, and that clarity changes the dynamic with so
many conversations because you don't put yourself in compromising positions. Okay,
so now you've piqued our interests. I need to know
(12:58):
what are these five guiding principles? Can you break them
down for us? Yeah? Absolutely? So my starting five one.
As you mentioned, I'm a creative love making art but
I've also had a lot of business strategy roles, and
I realized that my superpowers when I can bridge those
two things together. So anything that's creative and strategic, that
is my strong suit. That's where I need to be.
(13:18):
My second, I get bored real easily, and I know
that about myself, and so anything that I do, I
have to be adding new tools to my personal toolbox.
So I look at myself as an agency of one,
what new capability and my adding by taking on this opportunity,
because if I can do it in my sleep, I
don't need to be there, you know. The third, my
mom was really bad with money growing up. I did
not learn about financial literacy till much later in life,
(13:40):
and so most of my money and scholarship money from
college I had to give her to help take care
of bills at home. So I made the commitment that
whatever I did, I need to be able to pay
my bills on time or ahead. And since I've had
my daughter, it's more thinking of generational wealth. How can
I really help invest in her future through whatever this
opportunity it is. My fourth is some sense of work
life harmony. I don't believe in balance. I don't think
(14:02):
anything is always in balance. So it's really if I
need to leave at four o'clock to go and take
my daughter to same class, or if I need to
spend ten days in Trinidad for carnival, because that's important
to me. I need the flexibility to be able to
do that. And knowing that if I think of a
thousand percent of myself at work, I'm there. But life
will always be more important than work to me. So
finding people that are aligned in those values and the
(14:23):
family first, that's critical. And then my last is authenticity
because as the way I'm talking to you is how
I talked to my team, it's how I talked to
my kid, my boss. I'm not a cold switcher. I
keep it one hundred and so wherever I am, I
should be able to bring my best self to work
and all that I am and encourage my team to
do the same. And so I think by being authentic,
(14:43):
we can do our best work and the company gets
the best output. Um and so those are my five
So anything I can do that really encourages those five things,
I know that I am in a happy place for
me to ultimately live my best life. I mean, I
can absolutely vouch for me seeing this in all view. I,
like I said before, this is one of my friends.
And I'll tell you I think how we met because
(15:05):
this speaks to authenticity. We were in some business room,
some business setting, and you know, there was this black
woman at the front of the room, and all of
a sudden, like I was hearing a little bit of
a West Indian accent, and I was like, okay, I
couldn't remember, but I knew I had to talk to
her because I love all things soca and I think
we're at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. So I went up
to her and we started having this comment. I was like,
(15:25):
where are you from? And instantly I asked her. I
was like, do you like Soaca music? And that was it.
That's how our friendship really came. But you know, there
was no code switching. We were ourselves and our authentic selves,
no matter what the setting, and I think people really
appreciate that. I don't think. I think the days where
you have to hide who you are to be your
your best at business are over. Absolutely absolutely all right.
(15:48):
So Melissa again, make sure you guys pick up her book.
But last, but not least, I want to ask you
a question. So, if you were offered the job as
an NBA head coach, do you think you could make
it work. I'm asolutely not miserably. I would be honored
by the opportunity, but I know my strengths and weaknesses
and I don't think that that would be aligned with
my starting five, especially now, because you know, coaching is
(16:11):
hard work. Coaching the always had practices like that. I
have so much respect for our basketball operations team and
what they do. But you know, I found on my
right group, so you know my mind. God makes no mistakes.
Everything happens for reasons. Well, I love that we appreciate
the honest answer. Now, one last question, as we move
(16:32):
into you know, this sort of new era in marketing,
we're seeing a lot of things change with Web three,
the Hawks, and we've come out of this pandemic where
there was a lot of uncertainty about where basketball and
the fan experience was gonna go. Can you tell us
anything about some of the innovative stuff that you are
working on with the Hawks. You know, we always have
(16:53):
something of our sleeves at the Hawks, and so we're
really excited. We will very shortly be launching an FT
week um. While we are are always looking at what
is new and different, and obviously the NBA has been
doing stuff for a while the top shot, but we
really want want to do stuff for the folks here
in Atlanta. How do we provide interesting experiences and opportunities,
So we're always looking at that. We actually have an
innovation lab internally where we're consistently looking at what are
(17:16):
new things happening not just in our space but other spaces,
and how we can use it too and improve our
fan experience. And through a lot of the work that
we do with the Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
we're always looking at local entrepreneurs and saying, hey, how
can we help support Whether it's teaching I did a
master class for a lot of local entrepreneurs here and
then integrating some of those businesses potentially if relevant within
(17:37):
the Atlanta Hawks, but really just trying to be of
service to the community. So we have a lot of
things coming up. I can't get too much away, but
you know, for me, I'm always just grateful for the
opportunity to share the work that we're doing with the
Hawks and continue to do new stuff in the future.
Thank you so much for fostering such community here in Atlanta. Melissa.
Can you remind our audience where they can number one,
(17:58):
find your book and number two to find you on
social media? Absolutely so. My book is from Ball Girls
to CMO. It's available on Amazon and all places books
are sold um. Also, folks can connect with me at LinkedIn,
um at Melissa M. Procter and also on my website
Melissa M. Procter dot com. Awesome, well, Melissa, thank you
so much. Thank you for continuing to inspire so many
(18:20):
and break through all the ceilings that you have. We
wish you the best and hope to have you on
the podcast. Again, I would love to thank you so
much for having me, and kudos to you and all
the amazing work that you're going. Thank you all right,
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today,
but make sure to follow Melissa on all her social
media handles, and if we helped you make your money move,
please make sure to let us know by sending us alike,
(18:43):
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(19:04):
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you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. On today's deep Dive,
we are joined by the woman who is breaking down
(00:21):
barriers in the NBA, my dear friend, Melissa Proctor. Hi, Melissa,
how are you Anny? I am awesome. Thank you so
much for having me back. Well, I am super energised
to have you back on the podcast today. I've been
looking forward to this because we already had you on
a previous episode where we talked all about your journey
from ballgirl to CMO, and I know that people are
(00:44):
chomping at the bit to hear more about what it's
like to be a CMO in the National Basketball Association League.
How incredible is this role and especially as a black
woman and a person of color. So I want to
start off by asking you talk about the role of
what a CMO means. You've been in the job for
about five years. You've seen obviously a lot of change
(01:05):
in terms of what marketing looks like in an organization
like this, But what would people what what describe it?
How is the day in the life of Melissa Proctor. Wow,
that's many things. Well, first of all, I'll say the
title of CMO is so different depending on the organization,
even within the NBA, based on the focus, based on
the scope, and so for me, I have around nine
or ten different departments that are reporting to me at
(01:28):
any given time. But you know, a big bulk of
the work that I'm responsible for day to day is
ensuring that everyone has what they need to do their
best work. I'm very much about that personally. Traditionally people
would say the role of cmos for a sports team
is butts and seats, whatever you can do to get
people in and for me, it is so much more
around brand building and relevance for a market and how
(01:49):
do we can really integrate our brand story in the
community and bringing it together because ultimately, from a revenue
generating perspective, based on our audience and our demographics these days,
people really want to be connected to businesses they feel
doing good things in the world. And then also from
a corporate partnership standpoint, once you have a strong brand
story that other brands can connect themselves to, that's who
(02:10):
you generate that revenue as well. Yeah, for me, it's
so much more around like having personal values that are
aligned with our brand, and thankfully we have an organization
in a city and a team that I'm aligned with personally,
so it doesn't feel like a departure from where I
would want to take it um. But so much of
what I get to do day to day is to
create awesome memories for people coming into our building, whether
(02:32):
for Hawks games or events, and figure out how we
can amplify the work that we're doing to impact the
community of atlantas as we can. Oh. I mean, that
is music to my heirs, because one of the things
I love about living in Atlanta is the Hawks community,
is the sports and athletic community, because you guys have
successfully done such a good job of building exactly that,
a very authentic community, and it never feels like when
(02:55):
you end up at a Hawks game it's about butts
and seeds. You see friends around you, you see ends
that are local and native to Atlanta supporting and cheering
the team. So that's a real great way to look
at it, because I think oftentimes people really look at
this job as very limiting, and it's so much bigger
than that. Absolutely, And you know, one of the groups
that reports moves are live entertainment and production team, and
(03:17):
so much of that is our game presentation, and we
wanted to be a party at the end of the
day that you could only experience if you come to Atlanta.
And lately I have had so many either ex players
or folks are visiting from other teams come to our games.
Are like, this is different than anywhere else. And I
love that energy because our number one goal is home
court advantage. We want to create the advantage in that
building for our team to win. That's first and foremost.
(03:39):
But outside of that, our brand Mantra is true to Atlanta.
So we really want to represent and be as true
to Atlanta through that game experience as we can. So
you are, you know, naturally creative. You're an artist, you draw,
you create art, and now you've translated this into marketing.
But at the same time, there is a component of
this where you have to sort of gauge and monitor profitability.
(04:02):
How do you balance the two and how did you
sort of take that lens and look at how you
could be successful in business. You know, it's a great
question because people are like, do you still make art?
And I'm like, well, no, not. It's done. I don't
have a lot of time these days, but I really
look at my creative abilities now is creative ways to
solve business challenges, and I think that's one of the
things that we've done so beautifully as an organization. But
(04:24):
it's not about leaning into profitability first. And so when
our current owner, Tony Wrestler came on board, he said,
we are a community asset before we are a basketball team.
Before anything else, we exist to be a community asset.
So by doing things like opening up our arena and
being the first team in the NBA to have early
voting in our building during the pandemic, and going out
and fighting food and security during the pandemic, even you
(04:46):
know what we were able to do with our MLK uniforms.
That was the first idea that I brought to the
table a CMO when I started this position. It was
how do we honor Dr King's legacy in a city
like Atlanta in an ongoing way more than just on
m OK Day US. And for that, we donated a
hundred percent of our profits for that back into the
city of Atlanta through the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative of Atlanta.
(05:08):
Because we really believe that, you know, through um economic
empowerment for people of color especially and women, would be
able to make a long term impact. And I think
by doing those things, which are what we believe the
right things to do, has ultimately led to profitability. But
it's a different perspective in the creative way to look
at Wow. I mean, what a great lens and what
(05:28):
an amazing organization that allows you to express so much
of this on behalf of the city of Atlanta. I mean,
those m LK jerseys have been impact well to so
many and all of us. Remember you know the State
Farm Arena opening up its stores for voting for COVID vaccinations.
So I think, you know, finding a role like this
that allows you to do so much for so many
(05:49):
is really incredible and inspiring. Yeah, and I think but
the coolest part of it, what I've realized, is the
more that we've done in the community and not just
stroking big checks, but creating programs that really help people.
Now they're organizations that want to partner with us for
that commitment to the community, and that's where a lot
of the corporate partnership and revenue dollars come in to
help support and ironically, I had a person reached out
(06:10):
to me personally and said, you know, after you know,
I voted at the arena, I love what you did
with m OK. That stuff was so insightful and inspirational
to me that I've never been a season ticket member,
but I bought season tickets because I believe in what
you're doing, in your values, and that's you know, you're
making the difference. That's got to feel really really good. Okay,
So I want to segue into another aspect of this.
(06:32):
You know, oftentimes people ask me this being a black
woman in technology, which is renowned to have, you know,
be dominated by males as well, What are your thoughts
or how has it been for you and your experience
being a black woman in the c suite of the NBA.
We know there's tons of black people that are players,
but as we move up the organizational chains, we see
less and less women and women of color as well.
(06:55):
How's your experience been. You know, when I first started
in full time and working with the organization, I was
the only woman on our executive team. We had two
other people of color that were part of that, but
as the only woman, it was jarring. I was a
new mom. You know, we didn't have places for me
to you know, for lactation rooms or anything, and so
we had to create the environment where women, especially in
(07:16):
women of color, can thrive and really be able to
voice their opinion. And so I feel like a lot
of what I did early on was just speaking up
and having a voice and utilizing that voice to help others.
But you know, to be honest, from my first meetings
we would get together in Miami every year with all
of the teams for sales and marketing meetings, I didn't
see many women at all, didn't see many people of color.
(07:37):
And over the years that has changed so much within
the NBA, and there's still a lot more work to
be done, but I think the NBA is incredibly progressive
in that still more work that we need to do.
But you know, for me, I look at people ask
what's the best part of my job, and I said
having it. I love that so of then I'll go
speak and people are like, oh my gosh, but you're
(07:57):
so cool. We got locks, you have a nose ring,
but you know you're something down on earth and your
CM old the team and I'm like, yes, and it's possible,
and you can knew it too. And you know, and
I always tell this crazy story when I first got promoted,
I had gone over to the arena and parts of
the reserve parking spaces where the players and executive's parked
to go to a meeting, and a security guard came
up to my car and looked at me and said,
(08:17):
I'm excuse me, man, you can't park here. This is
reserved for executives. And so I took out my badge
and I showed him, and I was like, you know,
and he looked really confused, and then he was kind
of like, okay, okay, go ahead, go ahead. But I
knew in that moment that I changed his perception and
the stereotype and he had in what an executive of
an NBA team looks like. And to me, that's the
(08:37):
most impactful. Oh I love that story. You know, oftentimes too,
it's you know, those little micro aggressions as we call them, happen,
and you can choose to respond in a different way,
but you're just like, I'm showing you, and he just
hadn't seen it. Well, here you are, and he will
remember you. He probably remembers that incident, and he was
like okay, cool, park here and next time, I'm sure
you showed up. He was like, okay, okay, that's right,
(09:00):
that's right. So along that question, do you have any
tips You've shared with us some in the last episode,
but again for aspiring young women trying to break into
a career where there aren't a lot of women or
people of color. What are some tips and tricks that
you can offer that have really successfully works for you.
You know, one I would say, don't be intimidated, because
I think a lot of times it's you know, I'll
(09:22):
sit in the back of the room. I'm not going
to speak up or use my voice. But if you
are have the opportunity to be in that room, you
have responsibility to YouTube. You know. The one thing that
I get a lot is can I get coffee? Can
I grab some of your time? Relationship building is critical,
I'd say in a lot of industries, but especially in
sports and entertainment, And my biggest advice is find a
way to become an asset to people's time, time, not
(09:45):
a liability, because so often it's let me have your time.
This is what I want. I want to be CMO,
I want this, and you've done nothing to pour into
the other person. So I always ask the question, what
are your points of pain, what are your challenges, what's
keeping you up at night? Then in a timely way
after your conversation, come back and offer something. It could
be in real time if you can. But that is
(10:05):
a mindset that so many people don't have because they're
always looking at and what's in it for them, not
necessarily helping be of service to the other person. And
I think for me, throughout my career, relationship building has
been critical, and the other part is doing the job
you want before you have it. You know. Some often
people are like, oh, well, once I get the job,
then I'll be able to get the experience. I wanted
(10:25):
to work in brand strategy so bad and couldn't get
a brand job. I went to graduate school to focus
on branding and came back to Turner and wasn't you know,
creative for years? And so I found a brand outside
of Turner and said raised, hey, I'll be your head
of brand strategy. Just let me make business cards with
it and put it on my resume, and they're like great,
And that opportunity led me to ultimately get a branding
(10:47):
job at Turner. And I think for women, especially in sports,
people are always waiting for someone to give them the opportunity,
and sometimes you have to create it and sometimes you
have to do the job free. And I think what's
so remarkable about your story, and I want to talk
about the book that you wrote as well from Ball
Girl the CMO is that at so many critical points
in your life you were offering to add value to
(11:07):
other people and they remember that and they come back.
And so it's almost like the more you give, the
more you get. And I truly truly believe that. But
I think also in your case, I mean, you were
never afraid to do the small jobs. I'll get coffee,
I'll sweep the sweat off the floor, And though that
perseverance and tenacity adds up to the success that you
want later in life. And I think this is something
(11:29):
that I want our young audience to hear, because this
idea of like overnight success or you know, we all
just closed our eyes and blinked. We got there. You know,
for most of us who are later in life, we
have worked really hard through the trenches to get our
way up there. So it's it's not overnight. It's a
couple of decades and most of our cases, but it
certainly pays off, absolutely, And I tell everyone to this day,
(11:52):
if someone needed me to go and mop up sweat,
I could make them up and mop up for the
next game, because I'm not above anything, right, and I
think it's a very core different One of the other
things that I always, you know, advise people, especially women
to do, and it's something that I learned probably in
the middle of my career through mentors, was the power
of guiding principles. And so you know, you asked me,
what can women do differently? And it's establishing what your
(12:14):
values are, What are the things that you believe, what
are the things that you know is your filter for
any opportunity that comes your way. That are your non negotiables.
And for me, I define my guiding principles early on,
and it's a big part of my book from Ball
Grow to CMO of how I did it and how
others can do it too. And I call them my
starting five because any opportunity that comes my way because
I still don't know what I want to be when
I grow up, you know, I against these values and
(12:37):
they're ones that are defined for me personally and in
doing so. It's also very clear from talking to someone
about an opportunity man whichever I would say, Hey, I'm
happy to do that as long as these five things
are met, and that clarity changes the dynamic with so
many conversations because you don't put yourself in compromising positions. Okay,
so now you've piqued our interests. I need to know
(12:58):
what are these five guiding principles? Can you break them
down for us? Yeah? Absolutely? So my starting five one.
As you mentioned, I'm a creative love making art but
I've also had a lot of business strategy roles, and
I realized that my superpowers when I can bridge those
two things together. So anything that's creative and strategic, that
is my strong suit. That's where I need to be.
(13:18):
My second, I get bored real easily, and I know
that about myself, and so anything that I do, I
have to be adding new tools to my personal toolbox.
So I look at myself as an agency of one,
what new capability and my adding by taking on this opportunity,
because if I can do it in my sleep, I
don't need to be there, you know. The third, my
mom was really bad with money growing up. I did
not learn about financial literacy till much later in life,
(13:40):
and so most of my money and scholarship money from
college I had to give her to help take care
of bills at home. So I made the commitment that
whatever I did, I need to be able to pay
my bills on time or ahead. And since I've had
my daughter, it's more thinking of generational wealth. How can
I really help invest in her future through whatever this
opportunity it is. My fourth is some sense of work
life harmony. I don't believe in balance. I don't think
(14:02):
anything is always in balance. So it's really if I
need to leave at four o'clock to go and take
my daughter to same class, or if I need to
spend ten days in Trinidad for carnival, because that's important
to me. I need the flexibility to be able to
do that. And knowing that if I think of a
thousand percent of myself at work, I'm there. But life
will always be more important than work to me. So
finding people that are aligned in those values and the
(14:23):
family first, that's critical. And then my last is authenticity
because as the way I'm talking to you is how
I talked to my team, it's how I talked to
my kid, my boss. I'm not a cold switcher. I
keep it one hundred and so wherever I am, I
should be able to bring my best self to work
and all that I am and encourage my team to
do the same. And so I think by being authentic,
(14:43):
we can do our best work and the company gets
the best output. Um and so those are my five
So anything I can do that really encourages those five things,
I know that I am in a happy place for
me to ultimately live my best life. I mean, I
can absolutely vouch for me seeing this in all view. I,
like I said before, this is one of my friends.
And I'll tell you I think how we met because
(15:05):
this speaks to authenticity. We were in some business room,
some business setting, and you know, there was this black
woman at the front of the room, and all of
a sudden, like I was hearing a little bit of
a West Indian accent, and I was like, okay, I
couldn't remember, but I knew I had to talk to
her because I love all things soca and I think
we're at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. So I went up
to her and we started having this comment. I was like,
(15:25):
where are you from? And instantly I asked her. I
was like, do you like Soaca music? And that was it.
That's how our friendship really came. But you know, there
was no code switching. We were ourselves and our authentic selves,
no matter what the setting, and I think people really
appreciate that. I don't think. I think the days where
you have to hide who you are to be your
your best at business are over. Absolutely absolutely all right.
(15:48):
So Melissa again, make sure you guys pick up her book.
But last, but not least, I want to ask you
a question. So, if you were offered the job as
an NBA head coach, do you think you could make
it work. I'm asolutely not miserably. I would be honored
by the opportunity, but I know my strengths and weaknesses
and I don't think that that would be aligned with
my starting five, especially now, because you know, coaching is
(16:11):
hard work. Coaching the always had practices like that. I
have so much respect for our basketball operations team and
what they do. But you know, I found on my
right group, so you know my mind. God makes no mistakes.
Everything happens for reasons. Well, I love that we appreciate
the honest answer. Now, one last question, as we move
(16:32):
into you know, this sort of new era in marketing,
we're seeing a lot of things change with Web three,
the Hawks, and we've come out of this pandemic where
there was a lot of uncertainty about where basketball and
the fan experience was gonna go. Can you tell us
anything about some of the innovative stuff that you are
working on with the Hawks. You know, we always have
(16:53):
something of our sleeves at the Hawks, and so we're
really excited. We will very shortly be launching an FT
week um. While we are are always looking at what
is new and different, and obviously the NBA has been
doing stuff for a while the top shot, but we
really want want to do stuff for the folks here
in Atlanta. How do we provide interesting experiences and opportunities,
So we're always looking at that. We actually have an
innovation lab internally where we're consistently looking at what are
(17:16):
new things happening not just in our space but other spaces,
and how we can use it too and improve our
fan experience. And through a lot of the work that
we do with the Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
we're always looking at local entrepreneurs and saying, hey, how
can we help support Whether it's teaching I did a
master class for a lot of local entrepreneurs here and
then integrating some of those businesses potentially if relevant within
(17:37):
the Atlanta Hawks, but really just trying to be of
service to the community. So we have a lot of
things coming up. I can't get too much away, but
you know, for me, I'm always just grateful for the
opportunity to share the work that we're doing with the
Hawks and continue to do new stuff in the future.
Thank you so much for fostering such community here in Atlanta. Melissa.
Can you remind our audience where they can number one,
(17:58):
find your book and number two to find you on
social media? Absolutely so. My book is from Ball Girls
to CMO. It's available on Amazon and all places books
are sold um. Also, folks can connect with me at LinkedIn,
um at Melissa M. Procter and also on my website
Melissa M. Procter dot com. Awesome, well, Melissa, thank you
so much. Thank you for continuing to inspire so many
(18:20):
and break through all the ceilings that you have. We
wish you the best and hope to have you on
the podcast. Again, I would love to thank you so
much for having me, and kudos to you and all
the amazing work that you're going. Thank you all right,
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today,
but make sure to follow Melissa on all her social
media handles, and if we helped you make your money move,
please make sure to let us know by sending us alike,
(18:43):
sharing the knowledge on your social media, and or leaving
us a review on Apple Podcasts. Make sure to tune
into Money Moves Monday to Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you two
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check
(19:04):
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
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