I had so much fun talking with Brooke for this interview! She cold emailed me after the blog launched and not only did I wish we could be friends right away, but it also quickly became obvious that she would be a great resource for other Moms in the industry. While we did not know each other a month ago, I feel like we could have talked forever, and I’m excited to stay connected with her now and in the future. Brooke took a unique path to the sports world, that I think shows the power of setting goals and believing in them. She also travels frequently for business and I hope her experiences can help other Moms feel confident to do the same, should they choose to do so.
Brooke Faw lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband Rocky and five-year old son Griffin. She is an Account Director at Bespoke Sports and Entertainment. Brooke became one of the company’s first employees in 2014 and oversees their expanding VIP Hospitality & Experiences group. Prior to Bespoke, she was the Sports Partnerships Manager for Novant Health, working with the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets, Charlotte Checkers and several NASCAR teams. Brooke also spent two years with Earth Fare, a healthy grocery store chain, as their Community Relations Manager. She helped establish the Earth Fare Foundation, a non-profit organization with the goal of ending childhood obesity by teaching kids about eating healthy and living an active lifestyle. Brooke began her career as a Kindergarten teacher and high school basketball coach. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education and a Masters in Administration from Ball State University. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities with Bespoke Sports & Entertainment? I oversee Bespoke’s expanding VIP Hospitality & Experiences group that is building custom client programs throughout sports and entertainment. In addition to VIP services, we provide our clients with strategy and brand consultations as well as activation and event execution services. I am focused on our hospitality and experiences, hosting clients and planning business-to-business events at sporting and entertainment events so our clients stay closer to their own customers. Last year I traveled approximately thirty weekends of the year, mostly for NASCAR races, but was also on the road for Formula E, college football, baseball, golf, hockey, as well as some entertainment events.
Can you describe a “typical” day in the life for you and your family? One thing I love about working at an agency is there is never a “typical” day. However, when I’m not traveling, I usually get up around 5:00 AM and go for a run or go work out. If I don’t work out in the morning I never find the time to get it in, so I force myself to do it in the morning. Then I come home and get ready. My husband is usually up by then and he’ll make our son breakfast while I’m in the shower.
Our son Griffin is one of the most independent kids I’ve ever met, so he will get himself up, shower, get dressed (usually he matches!), brush his teeth and meet us downstairs for breakfast. The fact that he can do all of that on his own now has drastically reduced my morning stress!
We’re out the door by 8:30 AM. I drop him off at preschool and then head into the office. We live about 30 minutes from where I work and I usually get into the office around 9:00-9:30AM.
My work day is a balance of client calls, answering emails, creating presentation decks and planning events. These events can be anything from planning client hospitality around NASCAR races to custom fly-away trips to go to Spring Training camp to creating a B2B summit overseas around a Formula E race – and everything in between!
I leave the office around 6:00 or 7:00 PM and am usually home by 7:30 PM. Griffin’s great-grandmother picks him up from school and takes him to Tae-kwon-do practice. My husband picks Griffin up from Tae-kwon-do and brings him home. Dinner is usually done when I get home so we can sit down and eat as a family. We make it a point to do this whenever my husband and I are both at home.
Griffin and I will play Legos or games until about 8:00 PM when I take him upstairs to read a book (his favorite is Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site) and tuck him in bed. Then my husband and I usually lay in bed and catch up on our Netflix shows while both finishing up whatever work didn’t get done during the day. It’s usually lights out around 11:00 PM and do it all over again the next day!
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of? When Bespoke first started, one of our very first big projects was a nationwide tour for FOX Sports 1, which celebrated the kick-off of the college football season and highlighted their first game – Michigan versus Utah. This was during [Jim] Harbaugh’s first year as the Michigan head coach and everyone was hyped for his return.
We worked with FS1 to come up with this crazy idea – make a tour bus look like Coach Harbaugh; complete with khaki pants (real fabric!), a Michigan blue sweater, play card tucked into his belt line, etc. We called the bus the “Harbus.” And took five Michigan students who resembled Harbaugh – the “Harbros” – and put them on the bus. We also included Cleatus, the FOX Sports robot and a sports blogger who documented our trip.
We started in Michigan and traveled for fifteen days through the Midwest, down the East coast, through the South and then through the West to reach Utah. Every morning we did an appearance on a FOX regional network morning show and every afternoon we did an appearance with a former Wolverine or Ute celebrity. In the evening we attended a baseball game that was broadcasted on FS1 and used an in game feature to promote the upcoming college football season. In total we did six baseball games in 14 days (Detroit, Cincinnati, New York (Yankees), Atlanta, Texas and St. Louis) while also stopping at the Big 10 headquarters, taking a lap around Charlotte Motor Speedway and eating at as many Cracker Barrels (Harbaugh’s favorite restaurant) as we could. We created so much content and buzz around our trip that the Harbros started to get recognized and became mini celebrities by the end of the trip!
When we arrived in Utah we knew it was going to be tough. The Utah Athletics department wasn’t thrilled with how much FS1 had talked about Michigan when they had a really good football team as well. We weren’t given any access to the game and thought we were just going to have to watch it from our hotel room. However, we went into the stadium and just kept acting like we were supposed to be there. No tickets – just a smile and a polo shirt!
I led the boys down onto the field and no one stopped us! We hung out by the FS1 booth trying to keep a low profile when Sarah Harbaugh, Jim’s wife came over to our group. She had been following the tour and thought it was hilarious. She asked to take a picture with the Harbros and as we’re taking the picture, Coach Harbaugh walked out of the locker room! He came over to talk to the Harbros (who I thought were going to pass out because they were so excited.) Once the camera crew realized that Harbaugh was meeting the Harbros, they immediately came over to film the action. Our cover was blown and we were quickly escorted off the field, but not before our 15 minutes of fame. I remember my boss calling me asking how in the world I was on the field meeting Harbaugh (he saw us on TV) when I wasn’t even supposed to be allowed on campus.
Before that tour, I had never really traveled and definitely had never been away from home for two weeks. I also had never planned a tour route, hired staff and put fabric on a bus! I learned so much from that experience and now know that nothing is ever “impossible.”
What personal accomplishment are you most proud of? My ability to step outside my comfort zone in order to chase my dreams. I’m from a map dot in Indiana where you marry your high school sweetheart, you live down the street from your parents and you raise a family of your own that turns around and repeats that cycle. While it’s an amazing life, I knew I wanted something different.
I took a leap of faith and came to North Carolina for what was supposed to be a “summer vacation.” I had no job, no family other than my uncle who I was visiting and barely knew anyone. Within a month I had a job, lots of new friends who I considered family and had met the love of my life who I quickly got engaged to just a short time later.
As a former teacher, you’ve forged a unique path into the sports industry. Can you tell us about that experience? [After moving to North Carolina] I felt my personal life was perfect but my professional life was still missing something. As much as I loved teaching and as comfortable as I was doing it (I come from a long line of educators) I knew I would kick myself if I didn’t pursue a career in sports. I quit teaching on the last day of school (a Thursday) got married on that Friday, went on a weeklong honeymoon and when I came back I started a new career in community relations at Earth Fare.
From there I worked up the nerve to ask my CEO if we could start the Earth Fare Foundation, as I saw it as a real need for our company – and in the next breath I told him I was pregnant! I started the foundation from scratch and it grew to be very successful, but I still wanted sports to be a part of my job.
I left Earth Fare when I landed a dream role of running sports partnerships for a large health care system in the Southeast. They also happened to have a PSA with Michael Jordan – the first time I met him I held it together and then called my dad from the car crying with excitement! I loved my job, my co-workers and everything about my career, but found myself bored with the “corporate” role of my job.
So I took my biggest step outside my comfort zone and came over to a startup agency. I had no idea what was in store as it was brand new but I knew I was working with some of the best in the business and there was no way we were going to fail. I’ve now traveled to almost all 50 states and internationally! All this coming from the girl that had barely been outside her county line in Indiana.
How has being a Mom positively impacted your career? It has taught me so many things!
- How to survive on very little sleep – having an infant trained me to be up and power through at an event, even if I’d only had three hours of sleep.
- How to have the patience of a saint – I’ve found myself in meetings and where I may have previously been worked up, I now realize it’s not that big of deal.
- How to be emotional and connect with people – I always thought that emotion was a sign of weakness – and when I became a Mom I cried at the drop of the bucket. Now, when I’m emotional in meeting it shows that I care and it changed my perspective and turned what I thought was a negative into a positive.
- It has made me so extremely loyal – I will do anything for the people who help me instead of hinder me because I’m a Mom. I was told in my early 20’s that I could never have children, so I didn’t ever think this would happen for me. I was very career driven and didn’t understand the concept of being so focused on family. After my son was born I finally got it and I had great co-workers that would babysit for me or clients that would let me bring my baby to meetings. I will do anything for those people now. It’s tough being one of the only ones in the office with a child and working spouse and not having a dedicated person at home. Anyone who is willing to help me manage our crazy schedule and cares about my kid is gold in my eyes.
- It has made me want to help new moms so they know that they can do it too. It takes a village!
What’s something you wish you would have known about being a working Mom before you had children? That you don’t have to work yourself into the ground just to prove that you deserve to be here. I think we as females feel like we already have to prove ourselves so much more to deserve a seat at the table – we have to answer that email as soon as it comes in, we have to stay in the office later than everyone else, we have to work all night on the presentation – just to show we committed to the job.
As a new mom I felt like I had to double that – if I took an hour out of a meeting to pump, I needed to stay an hour later to make up for it. If I had to leave early to take the baby to his doctor appointment, I needed to come in early to make up for it. I constantly worried about “proving” that I wasn’t taking shortcuts just because I was a mom. I literally took a conference call while pacing the halls of the labor and delivery wing because I knew it was important and while I was in labor, the baby wasn’t coming right that second, so I had time.
Then someone finally shook some sense into me. “Work smarter, not harder” she said. “There’s no eye for an eye and I don’t need to see you in here 10 hours a day. I just need to know that whatever needs to be done is going to get done – I don’t care if that happens while you’re in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. You don’t have to show me your face in order to prove to me that you’re doing your job.
It’s all about balance and it took me a long time to figure out how to balance all the wonderful things I have in my life. At the end of the day, I’m not curing cancer – that email can wait, my little boy can’t!
One of my goals for the blog is to be a resource both for working Moms but for sports industry leaders who work with or manage Sports Biz Moms. What advice would you give to a supervisor about managing a Sports Biz Mom or soon-to-be Mom – particularly one who is not a parent themselves? I would say, don’t be awkward, communicate, be open minded and flexible and ask them how they’re feeling. Let them come in early and leave early. Let them take a conference call from their office or work from home on Friday. If you put that hammer down and compare females to males, it’s the quickest way to lose good employees. Supervisors also need to consider the bigger picture. They need to realize that other women who are not pregnant are watching how the company handles their co-workers pregnancy. If they want to have a family someday, they’re wondering how this is going to work and if supervisors want young females to continue to work for them, they have to set the right precedent.
What non-traditional benefits do you think would help to make the life of a Sports Biz Mom easier? In-office or near office childcare – one of my biggest “mommy guilt issues” is that I feel like I don’t get to spend enough time with my little guy. However, if he could ride to work with me, I could spend my lunch time hanging out with him and then he can ride home with me; that would be awesome!
What type of childcare do you use? There’s an African proverb that says “It takes a village to raise a child.” That couldn’t be truer – we have a combination of preschool, summer camps, babysitters, family and friends that we lean on – especially when we both have to travel. We try to spread it around so that no one feels overly used and are so incredibly grateful for all of their help. I wouldn’t be able to have the schedule I have without them.
What advice do you have it for women in sports who do not yet have a family, but may someday want to? Travel now! I didn’t start traveling until after I had Griffin and if I had it to do all over again I would have done this job in my 20’s so that I could be home more often now.
However, the best advice I can give is give yourself a break and stop worrying about it! I talk to so many women who say “I have no idea how you balance it all.” Some days I have no idea how I balance it all but I didn’t figure it out until I had to. You’ll never have enough money saved, you’ll never have enough vacation days banked up, it will never be the perfect time in your career to have a baby. So just go with the flow and if it happens, thank God for how blessed you are and don’t worry – you too will figure out how to balance it all.