May 9, 2022 • 16 mins
Melissa Proctor is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. She oversees the day-to-day marketing of the team brands, including marketing strategy, marketing operations, social media, promotions, and Hawks Studios.
In this episode, Melissa talks about her first job in the NBA, the brands she helped rebrand, and how her creativity has been her driving force to success.
Guest IG: @melissamproctor
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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. Hey money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
(00:22):
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Today's guest is the
executive vice president and the chief Marketing officer of the
Atlanta Hawks as well as State Farm Arena. She is
a dear friend, and she also oversees the day to
day marketing of team brands in the arena, including marketing strategy,
(00:43):
marketing operations, social media promotions, and the Hawks studios. Welcome
to the podcast, my dear friend, Melissa Proctor. Melissa, welcome.
Thank you so much for having me. I am honored
to be here today. Well, I'm so excited to have
you here because I have been truly inspired by your
journey from ball girl all the way up to running
(01:03):
you know, executive VP for the Hawks State Farm Arena,
and you do so much for the Atlantic community. So welcome,
Welcome to the podcast, and I'm so excited to share
your journey. Awesome. Thank you so let's start at the beginning. UM,
tell us a little bit about how you got your
start in the NBA as a black woman, a woman
of color working in the C suites in the NBA.
(01:25):
Your journey and trajectory is going to be so it's
inspiring to our audience. Well, you know, it's so interesting
because I never thought that I would ever be CMO
of an NBA team. And if you ask me what
I want to be when I grow up, I still
have no idea. I love that. I say that all
the time. Um, But when I was fifteen years old,
I was an artist. You know. Growing up I loved art,
(01:47):
drawing and painting. I went to Magnet schools and from
Miami originally, so from middle school high school really focused
on the arts. And when I was around fifteen, I
remember asking my mom to get a job because all
my friends were getting retail jobs or we're movie theater.
And I told my mom and she said, well, you know, Melissa,
she's from Belize originally my father was from Jamaica, so
hardcore West Indian vibes. She said, you could only get
(02:09):
a job ever you want to do for the rest
of your life. And I told her then at fifteen
years old. I wanted to be the first female coach
in the NBA because I would watch Miami Heat games
with a cousin of mine and I never saw any
women when I would watch the games, and so I
thought that my weight in would be being the head coach.
And she said, go get a job in the NBA.
(02:30):
And I don't even know she really knew what that was.
She was a nurse, you know, like this was not
at all her worldview. I knew no one had never
been to a professional sporting event, had never like I
had no connections whatsoever. And so when she said go
do it, she laid down the gauntlet and I started
writing letters to the Miami Heat. I would draw on
the letters to try to stand out. I would call
(02:50):
like literally yellow Pages way back in the day. I
got an operator because the main and com relations. Then
he connected me with the equipment manager and the he
finally like picked up my call one day and said,
I only have ball boys. I don't know what you
would do, you know. And now I was like, well,
I'm willing to try, but me, you know, tell me
what I could do. And so he really tried to
(03:11):
discourage me a little bit, and he was like, you know,
scrunge work. It's coming early, staying late, it's popping up sweat,
folding towels. Oh and by the way, it doesn't pay.
And I was so that's not a strong option. I
was like, well, I don't care. I still want to
do it. And so one day he called me in
to go to my first preseason game. UM. Ever set
foot in my mem arena, had no clue what I
(03:32):
was doing. UM And back then there were no women referees.
Women weren't allowed in the locker room, and so I
had to work on the court. I didn't know how
to rebound, had never played basketball a day in my life. Wow,
Like that part is so funny to me. Rebound. That
was the very first day that I started my career
in sports. And once I began working as then a
(03:54):
ball girl, it was politically incorrect, so they re termed
it team attendant. UM and our team owners had two kids,
a girl and the boy, and so Nick Harrison, who's
now running things to the mind the Heat, was a
ball boy at the time and his sister Kelly would
sit on the sidelines with her parents. So once I started,
she ended up joining me on the court, the first
ball girls on the court ever for the mind Heat.
(04:17):
I mean, Melissa, what I love so much about this
story is like you actually changed the trajectory of women
in the NBA at all levels. You know, there were
no ball girls at the time. Even the owner's daughter
was sitting on the side of the court lines like
that's just incredible. You must be so proud. You know.
It's so interesting because at the time, I don't think
(04:37):
I had any context to what that meant. I was
just so excited to have a chance to be on
the court and still, you know, learn about the game
of basketball because at the time, I genuinely wanted to
be a head coach, so I wouldn't watch pat Riley
called plays and I would He wouldn't have this like
blue notebook. He would call the plays and in time outs,
and I would collect all the papers at the end
of the game and hit the binder. Had no clue
(04:58):
what I was looking at, but I just knew one
day I was gonna achieve that goal. And so I
think it was the Heat magazine did a story on
women making their way on the court, and I think
that was the first time I actually had the knowledge
and I'm like, wow, this is actually a pretty big deal.
So what happened next? You worked as a ball girl
or they called a team attendant, UM for how many years?
(05:20):
And how did you slowly work your way into the
ranks of the C suites in the office? You know,
it's crazy. It's like I told you, I still don't
know what I want to be when I grew up now,
But at the time, I wanted to be that coach.
And so I did that for the rest of my
high school years. And I ended up learning about Wake
Force University from someone who worked for the Heat at
the time, and so I got an our scholarship to
(05:41):
attend wake And so I left Miami altogether and moved
to Winston Salem, North Carolina. Major cultural, different difference alum um.
But it was awesome, And every summer in college I
would go back to Miami to volunteer with a Heat
and in any capacity it could be with putting together
scouting reports, taking players for after workouts. Um. One of
(06:01):
the years, the summers while I was in college, the
Miami Soul was launched, a w NBA team that the
Miami had for a while, and so I got to
help work on that one summer, but I just knew
that ultimately I learned that I probably wouldn't ever coach,
especially if I never played the game. But my senior
year of college, I remember I decided I wanted to
work for the NBA, and so I applied for a
(06:23):
management training program um at the NBA's headquarters. I had
pat Riley and Colonso morning right letters of recommendation, like
it was, okay, I have to pause you. There were
you still coloring on your resume at this point to
get noticed? Because I feel like that worked. There was
there was a lot of originality in that I didn't
do that for that particular role, but I did something
(06:43):
cool for another one. So I applied for that program,
and I did my interviews and I met with the
NBA folks. I thought it was my job, and they
called me back and said, we love you. You You come
highly recommended. However, we are a business and you're too
creative for us. And so they did me the opportunity
to be a part of the NBA, and I was crushed.
Didn't exactly And I was a communications major at Wake
(07:08):
and so when all those fails, you just stay in
school and they're going, Hey, I'll get my masters and
I'll stay at Wait, It'll be fine. And then I
met with the head of the communications program, who I
knew very well, and he said, Melissa, this feels like
a crutch for you, and we think you're destined for
bigger and better things. We're not going to allow you
this crutch, so we're gonna deny you injury into our
grad school program. So I had no clue what I
(07:29):
was gonna do with my life. And then a woman
in the calm department, her name was Beth Hutchinson forget her.
She said, Melissa, I just heard about an internship at
Turner Broadcasting. I didn't know what Turner Broadcasting was, being
from Miami, so she explained about all the brands, and
all it said was send us your talent in a project.
And I was so intrigued by that creative brief designing
(07:50):
a TV guide called it a T three TV guid
all about myself and my brand. And I made myself
a powerpuff girl with locks and holding a briefcase. UM.
I created ads for myself as a ball girl for
NBA on TNT. I made myself Cleopatra in the class
you are incredible. It was interesting because I had no
idea what I was doing, but I got so involved
(08:11):
in the creative process of just making this cool application
that I didn't even care if I got the job
or not. I just loved what I created. It had
writing samples, I put off my artwork in it, and
ultimately I got a call back from TNT Marketing and
they said, you sold yourself so well to us, we
think you would do an amazing job of selling our
content to consumers. And that's actually how I got my
first marketing job ever. I left Wake Forest and came
(08:35):
to Atlanta for the first time, didn't know anyone here,
and I started working at Turner Broadcasting and had old
thoughts of coming back to sports. Actually I was an
entertainment for about eleven years. Wow, what I love about
this and I really hope this resonates with our money moves.
Audience is your drive and perseverance. Whether you were fifteen
and you were like I'm going to knock on every day,
(08:56):
I'm gonna go through the Yellow Pages to find contacts
to reach out to, and even you know when you
were getting kits, well, this might not be you, this
might not be for you. You You went above and beyond
every time to achieve your goals. I mean, it's just
it's beautiful. Well, thank you. And I think what I've
learned from my soulb over time is I didn't know
what branding was. I never took a branding class in college.
(09:18):
And the thing that I've consistently done, whether it was
for the heat drawing on those envelopes from making that
magazine is I branded myself and differentiated what I did
to stand out from the others. And so now even
a CMO of the Atlanta hawkspeople like, how to work
in marketing? What can I do? And they're submitting a
resume that looks like the same template resume you know
in Microsoft Word And I'm like, say that that you
(09:41):
know you want to market the Atlanta Hawks, But if
you're not marketing you first and foremost, how do I
have faith that you'll be able to market this team
or this organization. And so it's a very core difference.
But I've realized that over time that it definitely is
a differentiator. Okay, so years at Turner working in marketing,
you learned how to sell, You learned how to like
push a product to other people. How did you make
(10:03):
the transition to the Hawks and back to your dream
of being a part of the NBA. Very interesting story. So,
after my first year at Turner as an intern, I
decided I wanted to go to graduate school and so
actually quit Turner UM and moved to London for a
year and went to Central St. Martin's College of Art
Design to really focus on brand strategy because that became
my passion UM. And after my year in grad school
(10:24):
in London, I moved back to Atlanta and worked at
Turner in a number of number of roles from business strategy,
consumer insights, media trends, cartoon network, adults, swim, you name it,
I did it. UM helped to rebrand Court TV in
the True TV is my first big brand strategic project.
And then the final position that I had at Turner
was part of a digital health and wellness startup. We
were launching called up Waves and it was an interesting idea.
(10:47):
I was part of a task force and it became
a business unit, and every mentor I had within that
company told me not to take that job because his
historically and launching new digital businesses, Turner wasn't. Their core
business was cable television and old in that way, and
so it was a very different business, and so the
likelihood of success they didn't think was very strong. I
didn't care because I just wanted to learn, and I said,
(11:08):
you know, for me, I've worked for every other brand.
I just want to do this. And so we launched
this amazing brand. About six months after the brand was
off the ground. I think at the time, I was
eight months pregnant with my daughter, mar Harley UM, our
CEO at the time, left the company, and then the
chief financial officer of our parent company came in to
take over. Little did anyone know at the time they
were preparing to sell, and so we were the last
(11:30):
business started in the first one cut. So my entire
team I got laid off, being there eleven years. I
started as an intern. I left as a vice president
of content and marketing for this startup UM And so
for the first time in my career, it's like, actually
fifteen years old, I had no job, no clue what
I was gonna do. But I knew I had to
have a kid, because you had to feed this child.
(11:51):
I had some severn so I said, you know what,
let me focus on this part. And then we'll figure
out the other part. And then literally two months after
I had my daughter as a fan because I'm still
a big basketball fan, the Philips Arena for a draft
party with a girl friend of mine, just to go
check it out. And I was there and I ran
into Steve Coonan, who was the president of T and
T when I was an intern, moving like when I
(12:14):
first went to Atlanta. I love during that year. I
forgot to mention I made no money as an intern.
So I called my old Boston the Heat, who called
someone at the Hawks. So my first year in Atlanta,
I was actually a ballgirl on the court for the
Hawks as well, popping up sweat and Philips Arena, and
so he would see me sitting courtside mopping up sweat
and then would see me working on brand strategy projects
over time. Ran into him at this event and he said, Hey,
(12:37):
I want to introduce you to people. Introduces me to
most of the senior team at the time, and they're
all like, oh, we can't wait for you to start.
I was like, starting what? And you know, at the
end of the night, he was like, hey, I might
need some help building a brand. Would you mind sitting
in on some meetings. I know you do creative, you
have a creative background. They were in the process of
designing some uniforms, talking about their brand story and I
(12:58):
was so excited. I was like, sure, all happy to
You're like I would do, and this is what I
want people to understand because your story has got so
many subtle gems in there. We're talking about tenacity, you know,
volunteering your time and adding value sometimes without pay, but
over a long period of time, and the network that
it builds, you know, and I liken it sometimes to nursing,
(13:19):
Like nursing wasn't a glamorous job, right, like we wipe butts.
You were cleaning sweat off the floor. But people saw
that you were doing it, you were passionate about it,
and years later they're like, I still want to work
with you. You know. The biggest thing that I would
always say, people like why are you successful at Turner?
I would always raise my hand to take on the
jobs no one else wants, and that was my thing,
(13:40):
And so I volunteered my time, sat in on a
couple of meetings, and after around four or five meetings,
he was like, maybe I should you should be a
consultant maybe we should pay you a little bit, and
I was like, okay, cool. And then maybe about six
or seven months later, I came on board as a
vice president a branch strategy for the Hawks. And so
from that time, you know, the world evolved pretty quickly.
We on board a new ownership, there was a lot
(14:02):
that happened within the organization, and you know, grew into
the opportunity for to become chief marketing officer. And since
then our business has shifted. We partnered with Emery and
our practice facility. We we've done building and that State
Farm arena. Um, Mike, I couldn't have imagined when I
came into the Atlanta Hawks organization that now almost eight
years later, that this would be where we are as
(14:24):
a business or where I am as an executive. Wow, Melissa,
this is so inspiring and I feel like I feel
your energy, like I feel the energy of you the organization. Um.
It is such a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today. Can you share with us where our money moves?
Audience can find you on social media so that they
can follow you and your journey and also check out
(14:45):
the book that you've written. Because we are running out
of time for today, but we are having you back
on another episode for a deep dive. Awesome. Well, absolutely so.
I am on Instagram, that's my best. You can reach
me at Melissa M. Proctor p R O C T
O R at Instagram or I have a website as
well with a lot of my artwork, my art pieces
(15:06):
context on my book and that's at Melissa. It's Melissa M.
Procter dot com. UM, So anybody feel free to connect
with me LinkedIn as well, UM and I love it.
I'd love to help as many people as I can.
Have been doing a lot of speaking engagements lately and
really just trying to share all the insights that I've
learned in my journey to help inspire or help someone else,
especially women and people of color and sports. Well, Melissa,
(15:28):
it is such a joy to have you on the podcast.
Make sure you check her out on social media. Make
sure you pick up her book, From Ballgirl to CMO.
It's available on Amazon everywhere you can buy books. It's
truly an inspiring story. But I am also super excited
to have you back for another episode on our Deep Dive.
We're gonna dig more into what it means to be
a CMO in this incredibly exciting industry. So thank you again, Melissa,
(15:52):
thanks for having me and 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, sharing the knowledge
on your social media, and or leaving us a review
on Apple podcast. Make sure to tune in Monday to
Friday to Money Moves and subscribe to our podcast powered
(16:14):
by Greenwood, so that you too 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 out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves as an I Heart Radio
(16:37):
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 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. Hey money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
(00:22):
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Today's guest is the
executive vice president and the chief Marketing officer of the
Atlanta Hawks as well as State Farm Arena. She is
a dear friend, and she also oversees the day to
day marketing of team brands in the arena, including marketing strategy,
(00:43):
marketing operations, social media promotions, and the Hawks studios. Welcome
to the podcast, my dear friend, Melissa Proctor. Melissa, welcome.
Thank you so much for having me. I am honored
to be here today. Well, I'm so excited to have
you here because I have been truly inspired by your
journey from ball girl all the way up to running
(01:03):
you know, executive VP for the Hawks State Farm Arena,
and you do so much for the Atlantic community. So welcome,
Welcome to the podcast, and I'm so excited to share
your journey. Awesome. Thank you so let's start at the beginning. UM,
tell us a little bit about how you got your
start in the NBA as a black woman, a woman
of color working in the C suites in the NBA.
(01:25):
Your journey and trajectory is going to be so it's
inspiring to our audience. Well, you know, it's so interesting
because I never thought that I would ever be CMO
of an NBA team. And if you ask me what
I want to be when I grow up, I still
have no idea. I love that. I say that all
the time. Um, But when I was fifteen years old,
I was an artist. You know. Growing up I loved art,
(01:47):
drawing and painting. I went to Magnet schools and from
Miami originally, so from middle school high school really focused
on the arts. And when I was around fifteen, I
remember asking my mom to get a job because all
my friends were getting retail jobs or we're movie theater.
And I told my mom and she said, well, you know, Melissa,
she's from Belize originally my father was from Jamaica, so
hardcore West Indian vibes. She said, you could only get
(02:09):
a job ever you want to do for the rest
of your life. And I told her then at fifteen
years old. I wanted to be the first female coach
in the NBA because I would watch Miami Heat games
with a cousin of mine and I never saw any
women when I would watch the games, and so I
thought that my weight in would be being the head coach.
And she said, go get a job in the NBA.
(02:30):
And I don't even know she really knew what that was.
She was a nurse, you know, like this was not
at all her worldview. I knew no one had never
been to a professional sporting event, had never like I
had no connections whatsoever. And so when she said go
do it, she laid down the gauntlet and I started
writing letters to the Miami Heat. I would draw on
the letters to try to stand out. I would call
(02:50):
like literally yellow Pages way back in the day. I
got an operator because the main and com relations. Then
he connected me with the equipment manager and the he
finally like picked up my call one day and said,
I only have ball boys. I don't know what you
would do, you know. And now I was like, well,
I'm willing to try, but me, you know, tell me
what I could do. And so he really tried to
(03:11):
discourage me a little bit, and he was like, you know,
scrunge work. It's coming early, staying late, it's popping up sweat,
folding towels. Oh and by the way, it doesn't pay.
And I was so that's not a strong option. I
was like, well, I don't care. I still want to
do it. And so one day he called me in
to go to my first preseason game. UM. Ever set
foot in my mem arena, had no clue what I
(03:32):
was doing. UM And back then there were no women referees.
Women weren't allowed in the locker room, and so I
had to work on the court. I didn't know how
to rebound, had never played basketball a day in my life. Wow,
Like that part is so funny to me. Rebound. That
was the very first day that I started my career
in sports. And once I began working as then a
(03:54):
ball girl, it was politically incorrect, so they re termed
it team attendant. UM and our team owners had two kids,
a girl and the boy, and so Nick Harrison, who's
now running things to the mind the Heat, was a
ball boy at the time and his sister Kelly would
sit on the sidelines with her parents. So once I started,
she ended up joining me on the court, the first
ball girls on the court ever for the mind Heat.
(04:17):
I mean, Melissa, what I love so much about this
story is like you actually changed the trajectory of women
in the NBA at all levels. You know, there were
no ball girls at the time. Even the owner's daughter
was sitting on the side of the court lines like
that's just incredible. You must be so proud. You know.
It's so interesting because at the time, I don't think
(04:37):
I had any context to what that meant. I was
just so excited to have a chance to be on
the court and still, you know, learn about the game
of basketball because at the time, I genuinely wanted to
be a head coach, so I wouldn't watch pat Riley
called plays and I would He wouldn't have this like
blue notebook. He would call the plays and in time outs,
and I would collect all the papers at the end
of the game and hit the binder. Had no clue
(04:58):
what I was looking at, but I just knew one
day I was gonna achieve that goal. And so I
think it was the Heat magazine did a story on
women making their way on the court, and I think
that was the first time I actually had the knowledge
and I'm like, wow, this is actually a pretty big deal.
So what happened next? You worked as a ball girl
or they called a team attendant, UM for how many years?
(05:20):
And how did you slowly work your way into the
ranks of the C suites in the office? You know,
it's crazy. It's like I told you, I still don't
know what I want to be when I grew up now,
But at the time, I wanted to be that coach.
And so I did that for the rest of my
high school years. And I ended up learning about Wake
Force University from someone who worked for the Heat at
the time, and so I got an our scholarship to
(05:41):
attend wake And so I left Miami altogether and moved
to Winston Salem, North Carolina. Major cultural, different difference alum um.
But it was awesome, And every summer in college I
would go back to Miami to volunteer with a Heat
and in any capacity it could be with putting together
scouting reports, taking players for after workouts. Um. One of
(06:01):
the years, the summers while I was in college, the
Miami Soul was launched, a w NBA team that the
Miami had for a while, and so I got to
help work on that one summer, but I just knew
that ultimately I learned that I probably wouldn't ever coach,
especially if I never played the game. But my senior
year of college, I remember I decided I wanted to
work for the NBA, and so I applied for a
(06:23):
management training program um at the NBA's headquarters. I had
pat Riley and Colonso morning right letters of recommendation, like
it was, okay, I have to pause you. There were
you still coloring on your resume at this point to
get noticed? Because I feel like that worked. There was
there was a lot of originality in that I didn't
do that for that particular role, but I did something
(06:43):
cool for another one. So I applied for that program,
and I did my interviews and I met with the
NBA folks. I thought it was my job, and they
called me back and said, we love you. You You come
highly recommended. However, we are a business and you're too
creative for us. And so they did me the opportunity
to be a part of the NBA, and I was crushed.
Didn't exactly And I was a communications major at Wake
(07:08):
and so when all those fails, you just stay in
school and they're going, Hey, I'll get my masters and
I'll stay at Wait, It'll be fine. And then I
met with the head of the communications program, who I
knew very well, and he said, Melissa, this feels like
a crutch for you, and we think you're destined for
bigger and better things. We're not going to allow you
this crutch, so we're gonna deny you injury into our
grad school program. So I had no clue what I
(07:29):
was gonna do with my life. And then a woman
in the calm department, her name was Beth Hutchinson forget her.
She said, Melissa, I just heard about an internship at
Turner Broadcasting. I didn't know what Turner Broadcasting was, being
from Miami, so she explained about all the brands, and
all it said was send us your talent in a project.
And I was so intrigued by that creative brief designing
(07:50):
a TV guide called it a T three TV guid
all about myself and my brand. And I made myself
a powerpuff girl with locks and holding a briefcase. UM.
I created ads for myself as a ball girl for
NBA on TNT. I made myself Cleopatra in the class
you are incredible. It was interesting because I had no
idea what I was doing, but I got so involved
(08:11):
in the creative process of just making this cool application
that I didn't even care if I got the job
or not. I just loved what I created. It had
writing samples, I put off my artwork in it, and
ultimately I got a call back from TNT Marketing and
they said, you sold yourself so well to us, we
think you would do an amazing job of selling our
content to consumers. And that's actually how I got my
first marketing job ever. I left Wake Forest and came
(08:35):
to Atlanta for the first time, didn't know anyone here,
and I started working at Turner Broadcasting and had old
thoughts of coming back to sports. Actually I was an
entertainment for about eleven years. Wow, what I love about
this and I really hope this resonates with our money moves.
Audience is your drive and perseverance. Whether you were fifteen
and you were like I'm going to knock on every day,
(08:56):
I'm gonna go through the Yellow Pages to find contacts
to reach out to, and even you know when you
were getting kits, well, this might not be you, this
might not be for you. You You went above and beyond
every time to achieve your goals. I mean, it's just
it's beautiful. Well, thank you. And I think what I've
learned from my soulb over time is I didn't know
what branding was. I never took a branding class in college.
(09:18):
And the thing that I've consistently done, whether it was
for the heat drawing on those envelopes from making that
magazine is I branded myself and differentiated what I did
to stand out from the others. And so now even
a CMO of the Atlanta hawkspeople like, how to work
in marketing? What can I do? And they're submitting a
resume that looks like the same template resume you know
in Microsoft Word And I'm like, say that that you
(09:41):
know you want to market the Atlanta Hawks, But if
you're not marketing you first and foremost, how do I
have faith that you'll be able to market this team
or this organization. And so it's a very core difference.
But I've realized that over time that it definitely is
a differentiator. Okay, so years at Turner working in marketing,
you learned how to sell, You learned how to like
push a product to other people. How did you make
(10:03):
the transition to the Hawks and back to your dream
of being a part of the NBA. Very interesting story. So,
after my first year at Turner as an intern, I
decided I wanted to go to graduate school and so
actually quit Turner UM and moved to London for a
year and went to Central St. Martin's College of Art
Design to really focus on brand strategy because that became
my passion UM. And after my year in grad school
(10:24):
in London, I moved back to Atlanta and worked at
Turner in a number of number of roles from business strategy,
consumer insights, media trends, cartoon network, adults, swim, you name it,
I did it. UM helped to rebrand Court TV in
the True TV is my first big brand strategic project.
And then the final position that I had at Turner
was part of a digital health and wellness startup. We
were launching called up Waves and it was an interesting idea.
(10:47):
I was part of a task force and it became
a business unit, and every mentor I had within that
company told me not to take that job because his
historically and launching new digital businesses, Turner wasn't. Their core
business was cable television and old in that way, and
so it was a very different business, and so the
likelihood of success they didn't think was very strong. I
didn't care because I just wanted to learn, and I said,
(11:08):
you know, for me, I've worked for every other brand.
I just want to do this. And so we launched
this amazing brand. About six months after the brand was
off the ground. I think at the time, I was
eight months pregnant with my daughter, mar Harley UM, our
CEO at the time, left the company, and then the
chief financial officer of our parent company came in to
take over. Little did anyone know at the time they
were preparing to sell, and so we were the last
(11:30):
business started in the first one cut. So my entire
team I got laid off, being there eleven years. I
started as an intern. I left as a vice president
of content and marketing for this startup UM And so
for the first time in my career, it's like, actually
fifteen years old, I had no job, no clue what
I was gonna do. But I knew I had to
have a kid, because you had to feed this child.
(11:51):
I had some severn so I said, you know what,
let me focus on this part. And then we'll figure
out the other part. And then literally two months after
I had my daughter as a fan because I'm still
a big basketball fan, the Philips Arena for a draft
party with a girl friend of mine, just to go
check it out. And I was there and I ran
into Steve Coonan, who was the president of T and
T when I was an intern, moving like when I
(12:14):
first went to Atlanta. I love during that year. I
forgot to mention I made no money as an intern.
So I called my old Boston the Heat, who called
someone at the Hawks. So my first year in Atlanta,
I was actually a ballgirl on the court for the
Hawks as well, popping up sweat and Philips Arena, and
so he would see me sitting courtside mopping up sweat
and then would see me working on brand strategy projects
over time. Ran into him at this event and he said, Hey,
(12:37):
I want to introduce you to people. Introduces me to
most of the senior team at the time, and they're
all like, oh, we can't wait for you to start.
I was like, starting what? And you know, at the
end of the night, he was like, hey, I might
need some help building a brand. Would you mind sitting
in on some meetings. I know you do creative, you
have a creative background. They were in the process of
designing some uniforms, talking about their brand story and I
(12:58):
was so excited. I was like, sure, all happy to
You're like I would do, and this is what I
want people to understand because your story has got so
many subtle gems in there. We're talking about tenacity, you know,
volunteering your time and adding value sometimes without pay, but
over a long period of time, and the network that
it builds, you know, and I liken it sometimes to nursing,
(13:19):
Like nursing wasn't a glamorous job, right, like we wipe butts.
You were cleaning sweat off the floor. But people saw
that you were doing it, you were passionate about it,
and years later they're like, I still want to work
with you. You know. The biggest thing that I would
always say, people like why are you successful at Turner?
I would always raise my hand to take on the
jobs no one else wants, and that was my thing,
(13:40):
And so I volunteered my time, sat in on a
couple of meetings, and after around four or five meetings,
he was like, maybe I should you should be a
consultant maybe we should pay you a little bit, and
I was like, okay, cool. And then maybe about six
or seven months later, I came on board as a
vice president a branch strategy for the Hawks. And so
from that time, you know, the world evolved pretty quickly.
We on board a new ownership, there was a lot
(14:02):
that happened within the organization, and you know, grew into
the opportunity for to become chief marketing officer. And since
then our business has shifted. We partnered with Emery and
our practice facility. We we've done building and that State
Farm arena. Um, Mike, I couldn't have imagined when I
came into the Atlanta Hawks organization that now almost eight
years later, that this would be where we are as
(14:24):
a business or where I am as an executive. Wow, Melissa,
this is so inspiring and I feel like I feel
your energy, like I feel the energy of you the organization. Um.
It is such a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today. Can you share with us where our money moves?
Audience can find you on social media so that they
can follow you and your journey and also check out
(14:45):
the book that you've written. Because we are running out
of time for today, but we are having you back
on another episode for a deep dive. Awesome. Well, absolutely so.
I am on Instagram, that's my best. You can reach
me at Melissa M. Proctor p R O C T
O R at Instagram or I have a website as
well with a lot of my artwork, my art pieces
(15:06):
context on my book and that's at Melissa. It's Melissa M.
Procter dot com. UM, So anybody feel free to connect
with me LinkedIn as well, UM and I love it.
I'd love to help as many people as I can.
Have been doing a lot of speaking engagements lately and
really just trying to share all the insights that I've
learned in my journey to help inspire or help someone else,
especially women and people of color and sports. Well, Melissa,
(15:28):
it is such a joy to have you on the podcast.
Make sure you check her out on social media. Make
sure you pick up her book, From Ballgirl to CMO.
It's available on Amazon everywhere you can buy books. It's
truly an inspiring story. But I am also super excited
to have you back for another episode on our Deep Dive.
We're gonna dig more into what it means to be
a CMO in this incredibly exciting industry. So thank you again, Melissa,
(15:52):
thanks for having me and 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, sharing the knowledge
on your social media, and or leaving us a review
on Apple podcast. Make sure to tune in Monday to
Friday to Money Moves and subscribe to our podcast powered
(16:14):
by Greenwood, so that you too 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 out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves as an I Heart Radio
(16:37):
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts from
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.