One of my favorite things about this blog thus far is the opportunities it has provided me to connect with other women that I would have otherwise never met. Two months ago, Shelly Wilkes and I were complete strangers, save a few mutual connections. Shelly’s husband, Dallas, stumbled upon one of my previous posts, and sent me a LinkedIn message bragging about how proud he was of his wife and telling me that she’d be the perfect candidate for an interview. Not only was I thrilled to see a partner so excited by their loved one’s success, but she also lived up to all of the awesome things he told me about her in that first message. I learned so much during our conversation (i.e. Twitch being like HGTV – it will make sense, I promise!) and I’m pumped to follow Shelly and the G League this basketball season.
Shelly Wilkes is the team president of the Lakeland Magic, NBA G League affiliate of the Orlando Magic, in Lakeland, Florida. She is responsible for launching and overseeing the day-to-day business operations of the team.
Wilkes spent 13 seasons with the Orlando Magic and started as a game-night staff member in the marketing department during the 2003-04 season and was hired full-time in August 2004 as group sales coordinator. She was promoted to group sales account executive in July 2005, then named game presentation manager in July 2006. Wilkes was then promoted to assistant director of event presentation in July 2007, later promoted to the director of event presentation in July 2010 and named the senior director of live entertainment and production services in July 2015.
Wilkes received her bachelor’s degree in general business from the University of Central Florida in 2002. She later graduated from the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF in 2004 and earned master’s degrees in both business administration and sport business management.
Shelly lives in Orlando, Florida. with her husband, Dallas, and their almost two-year old daughter, Quinn. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Can you describe a typical day in the life for you and your family? During the week, when we don’t have games, the typical day starts at 4:30 or 5:00 AM when I go to the gym. I am back at 6:15 AM and then my husband goes to the gym. If she’s participating with our schedule, Quinn, will sleep until 7:00 AM and I can be mostly ready for work at that point. My husband comes home and we both work to get her fed breakfast and ready for daycare.
I try to leave the house no later than 7:30 AM. I take her to daycare every morning so I can have time with her in the car. I actually commute about an hour to Lakeland from downtown Orlando. If it’s a not a game-night, I leave Lakeland by 5:30 PM at the latest, so I can get home and spend a little more time with her. My husband picks her up from daycare every day and I’m home by 6:30 PM. We’re done eating by 7:30 PM, and then we do baths and bedtime around 8:00 PM. After Quinn’s in bed, we clean up and get lunches ready for the next day. By 9:30 PM I’m either going to bed or finishing up work. I try to go to sleep by 10:30 PM at the latest.
Weeknight game days are similar, except I’m not at home in the evening, but for weekend games my husband will bring her for the first half of the game and I typically get home around 11:00PM.
You’re the first female NBA G League President and were approached about launching the team when you were pregnant. How did that factor into your decision making process? What advice would you give to women in a similar position? The first thing that popped into my mind was shock, I was like, “You guys know I’m pregnant, right? You know I’m going to be gone for three months.”
It wasn’t like I was newly pregnant – I was eight months along! However, I now have an even greater appreciation for where I work. In most cases this opportunity would not be provided to a woman who was pregnant. They valued and trusted me enough to offer me the job knowing that I would be out during the first three months.
Secondly, there was a lot of fear and self-doubt. That’s a lot of change. I was asking myself, “Am I capable of doing this? I am comfortable in my job now and I know what I’m doing every day and I love what I’m a part of.” My original thought was I could come back from maternity leave and know what was going on in my current role versus this – I’d come back and I’m launching a franchise.
My advice is, if other people have that much trust in you, you should trust yourself. Have the confidence to know that you’re capable of doing this. My partner is also super supportive. We had to think through the potential of a move and how that was going to work – it’s 50 miles away. Having a partner that is supportive is a blessing and what I hope everyone would try to find. It was tough few days of weighing the options. I knew I was going to have a lot of stress with having a new baby – there’s so much unknown – and now knowing that there’s going to be a huge job when I come back. However, I knew it was a great opportunity for growth in my career and I wanted to be an example for my daughter and show her you can do what you want to do and make it all work.
The NBA G-League is known to be a testing ground of sorts for the NBA and began streaming games on Twitch last season. How has this been received by your fans? Does it impact your sponsorships or in-game entertainment? Most of our games are streamed on Facebook Live and Twitch. There were about 53 games last year [broadcasted] on NBA TV and ESPN as well, and we’re continuing to figure out more distribution channels for the G League.
Twitch came on last year after the season started and it’s an opportunity is to reach a new audience. Most people know Twitch because they are gamers, but outside of gaming, many don’t understand the platform. I’ve compared it to watching Food Network or HGTV – instead of watching someone else cook or do home renovations, you watch people play video games. Twitch has recently gotten into distribution of sports and also broadcasts a lot of soccer games. The G League partnership was a way to test the relationship and they ended up being the broadcast partner for the NBA 2K League.
For us, it was another opportunity to reach a new audience. I like Twitch because it’s not gated at all. You don’t have to have an account to watch a game, which is different from Facebook Live. Twitch is truly just going to their site and watching the game. You can get a view from the local arena or watch the gaming personalities commentate on the broadcast. We were able to partner with users that have millions of followers in the gaming world. They would actually commentate over our games. This well-known personality on Twitch would talk about the G League, and it bridged the gap between gamers and sports.
The Lakeland Magic recently hosted a Women’s Leadership Breakfast. What was the goal of this event? Were there any key takeaways from the panel that really resonated with the attendees? I’m in a unique role as a female team president, and I felt like I needed to expand upon that platform and provide an opportunity for women to have this conversation within our community. I’ve never thought about being the only woman or relied upon it. I don’t think I have ever experienced discrimination. I don’t think it’s [being a woman] hindered me. I may have been naïve to what was/is happening me, but I’ve either never paid attention or its truly never happened to me. However, I obviously want to be a role model and utilize the platform I have to lift others up, but I have not felt the discrimination others had.
I did know that within our community, this conversation needed to happen, and we needed a platform for people to get together. I wanted a panel from different industries – corporate, education, entrepreneurs – and Kristen Ledlow hosted for us from the sports industry. It was a very diverse panel with diverse backgrounds, which helped the conversation. The different experiences can spark something within another person. That’s what I think was most valuable. I knew it was going to be a great event and people would have good experience. I wasn’t prepared for how much people appreciated the openness of that dialogue that was in the room that day.
The most impactful thing most of our panelists talked about was that the only way we can make change and an impact is if we are lifting up those coming behind us. If we’re not doing that than what are we doing?
Kristen Ledlow also shared a great point one of her mentors had told her on the sports broadcasting side – “No is a full sentence.”
We high achieving women, especially those in leadership roles, feel like we should and need to do everything to prove ourselves. It’s even less feasible when you have a family. You cannot do it all and you can say “no” to things and feel confident in that answer.
Outside of this event, this season we’re partnering with a small business organization for a women’s leadership event around opening night. We’ll also do a few different events throughout the season. This includes a basketball hoops and heels happy hour networking event with basketball on the court and a women only basketball clinic with our coaching staff. We want to plan things to get women more engaged with each other and this conversation, but in a more relaxed atmosphere.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of? Two things that come to mind were the opportunity to produce NBA All-Star Game in Toronto in 2016 and having the opportunity to launch the Lakeland Magic. A lot of my pride in launching the team has to do with building an awesome team. A team that has passion for what we’re building and wants to provide a great community platform and entertainment option for people in Polk County. I also love watching people growing in their roles. We’re fairly young and getting to watch our staff really flourish and find their own way has been extremely rewarding for me.
Do you have other “Mom Mentors” or Moms working in sports to help guide you through parenthood and professional life? We’ve had a baby boom over the past few years at the Orlando Magic. It was really nice to experience that together. They’ve [the Orlando Magic] always been very family friendly, but we did not have the best maternity and paternity leave policy. We had a policy and it was good – but not from the standpoint of what we really should be doing for our staff. With this boom and all the families having kids, it made the organization really take a look at our leave policy; how we were welcoming mothers back and how we were allowing fathers to take time with their new families. As a result, the leave policy has changed and now it is awesome for all levels of the organization. Those types of policies really do lead to loyalty, productivity and helping people appreciate where they work.
I also appreciate that there are a lot of young families I can go to, to with questions. There are other women and working moms that have so much knowledge about how and what to do. It’s a great group of people I’m able to lean on and call on.
It’s also been great to see some of our leaders that have families. If their child has a game or activity at school, they make it a priority and go. It’s important that leadership is showing that as an example.
How has being a Mom positively impacted your career? Your empathy grows. One, a huge part of my job is maintaining a culture, building a staff, and keeping people motivated. People bring their whole selves to work every day. It might not be visible, but it’s part of who they are. I think becoming a Mom and knowing what my whole self looks like now has made me more empathetic and understanding of others life circumstances.
It’s not only made me a better leader, but I feel like I’m way more efficient. Efficiency is my love language! I know I have an hour with my daughter in the morning and maybe two more at night. What do I need to accomplish now? I’m wearing my work hat now, I need to get this done because I need to put my Mom hat on and spend positive, focused time with Quinn.
Quinn showing off her athletic skills early, cruising past the competition to win the 2017 baby race.
The sports industry is always going to have irregular hours that can make managing family life difficult. If you want to work in the sports, that’s just a fact. What can we in the industry do to make it a more family-friendly place to work? What I think organizations can be doing across the board is improving flexibility. Having a flexible mindset when it comes to staff and what they individually need to make work, work for their family. We are very much a 9:00 – 6:00 office, but I think the days of that being the only option are no longer and should be no longer. If somebody needs to come in at 8:00 and leave at 5:00 or they have a doctor’s appointment – they should be able to do it. I know leaders that are not flexible and it doesn’t make you feel like you can do anything or that you’re valued or trusted to get your job done. Flexibility is key as a leader in any organization.
I think family leave policies are also extremely important. You should be showing that you’re truly valuing what that looks like, and that includes both maternity and paternity leave. We all look at Sweden as an example. There, the Mom AND the Dad have a year off – how amazing would that be? Realistically, I don’t ever see America going that route, but you should have a leave policy that truly supports mothers and fathers taking the time and your leadership should support them in doing so.
Women are often stunted in their growth and career because their organization thinks they’re no longer capable of growing and that’s just not true. You become more efficient and much more focused on the job. At the end of the day, there are definitely times when I think, “What would it be like if I did take a step back so I could spend more time with Quinn?”
But, the question is, does the father ever think that? At what point, do we as a culture, have a father that says, “I should take a step a back in my career so I can stay home and raise the kids.” It’s an interesting dynamic, and whether it’s in our DNA as women or our culture to have that thought, we should have an environment that welcomes family into the workplace. Families should be celebrated.
Lastly, the unrealistic, but amazing option, would be to have on-site daycare. I don’t need them to pay for it. I’ll pay for it. A third party or organization on-site for daycare would make all the difference in people’s lives.
Do you have any book/blog/podcast recommendations for the Sports Biz Mom? I listen to a lot of podcasts because I drive a lot. I really do think The Daily from the New York Times is a great thirty-minute news show. I would also encourage people to sign up for theSkimm, which is an email newsletter that has quick snippets of the news presented in a very digestible way. I think it’s very important to be up on current events and be informed, particularly in our political environment.
A work-related podcast is How to Be Awesome at Your Job. They interview leaders in different fields and it’s all focused on learning and growth.
For parenting, I love Unruffled by Janet Lansbury. She has a very unique parenting style and is super interesting. She’s all about respectful parenting – speaking to your kids like real humans and explaining to them what’s happening. When kids are frustrated, they don’t have the emotional capacity or language to deal with things, so we have to think of things from the child’s perspective and explain it to them.
I also love Simon Sinek and would encourage everyone to read Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and also listen to his Ted Talks.