Mark Hodgkin 4/16/20 Mark Hodgkin 4/16/20

Episode 35 of The Sports Leadership Podcast

Mark Hodgkin and Kevin DeShazo talk mindset and perspective in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Episode 35 of The Sports Leadership Podcast.

In Episode 35 of the Sports Leadership Podcast, Kevin DeShazo (Culture Wins, Fieldhouse Media) and Mark Hodgkin (TicketSocket) discuss the importance of mindset and perspective during this time of uncertainty.

The book Mark mentioned on the show was “The Upside of Stress” by Kelly McGonigle.

If you have not yet, please subscribe to the Sports Leadership Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.

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Mark Hodgkin 3/30/20 Mark Hodgkin 3/30/20

Double Down on Gratitude

Did your parents ever tell you that there would always be those better off and others worse off than you?

This weekend, feeling a little more down than usual, I cleaned up some old boxes of things. I am not particularly sentimental, and am pretty selective of the things that I hold on to.

Among the assorted nicknacks were old photos, cards and letters from friends and family, little mementos from my college years, and tickets to sporting events I’d been fortunate enough to go to.

I began to feel a natural sense of gratitude for all the people and things I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy. And I realized that despite all the craziness in the world, there might be a secret weapon for getting through this.

So like everyone, I’ve been impacted by the chaos the coronavirus has rained down. A close family member of mine remains in the hospital after ten days in a medically induced coma from the Covid-19 virus. The very real economic fallout has impacted my business, my paycheck, and my 401K. Like everyone else, I remain isolated at home.

So how do we deal? Let me suggest gratitude.

Did your parents ever tell you that there would always be those better off and others worse off than you? Mine certainly did, adding that we should not look down on others or look too far up to those apparently ahead of us. We’re all fighting battles invisible to those around us.

So while these are unsettled times, and there are very real things to be worried about, try to remember:

If you’re stuck at home, be grateful you have a roof over your head. There are millions world-wide that don’t have the shelter most of us take for granted. In many places, the idea of “social distancing” isn’t even possible.
If you’re stuck working out of the house, be grateful you have a job while millions other head for unemployment. If you’re one of the heroic health care workers, be grateful for the opportunity to help others and improve lives. *And a giant THANK YOU from all of us.
If you’ve lost your job, be grateful for the money you have made and the skills that you have acquired. You will not be unemployed forever. Maybe this is the opportunity to make the jump to some thing or some place new. I would be willing to bet that you know someone who can look back and say that a lost opportunity opened a far better one (even if they didn’t realize it at the time).
If you lose your home and have to move in with parents or friends for a while, be thankful you have a place to go and people who care about you. Be thankful for the generosity of strangers and non-profit organizations and government assistance programs.
If (God forbid) you lose a loved one, try to be thankful for the time you had with them. The cold hard truth of it is that Covid-19 or not, we all stand to lose any person we love at any moment. Car accidents, blocked arteries, human violence, illness, and countless others serve as constant danger.

Some of these might seem callous and unreasonable. How am I supposed to be happy about a job loss? Notice I didn’t say be happy for it. Be grateful for what you learned in your last role. Be grateful for the people you met. Be grateful that you now have new opportunities. Was everything perfect anyway? Probably not.

This wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy. But none of this is new. How arrogant to think that your problems are unique or original. Plagues have wiped out millions in the past, war has destroyed cities (and civilizations), economies and currencies have completely collapsed.

Look for the things to be grateful, be thankful for the people and the things you have, not sad those you have lost.

It’s been said that it is impossible to be grateful and anxious at the same time. This is not a call to detach from reality, but one to focus and be grateful on the things that we all have.

After all, what is the alternative?

Mark Hodgkin 3/25/20 Mark Hodgkin 3/25/20

Introducing the Sport Media & Tech Podcast

Listen to a panel discussion filled with knowledge from three industry professionals who direct products, manage media, build content, engage people and measure the results. Kara Baker, Director Digital Partnership & Operations Golf Channel – Orlando, FL, Eric DeSalvo, Assistant AD #Content, UCF – Orlando, FL and Joey Nelson, Digital Marketing Manager, Adidas – Portland, OR.

I am excited to join with my friend and colleague Keal Blache on his new project, the Sport Media & Tech Podcast. When the Coronavirus pandemic closed down his sports media and technology undergraduate class at the University of Central Florida, he created a series of focused discussions with industry insiders discussing topics relevant to the class.

Episode 1: Digital Leaders

Episode 2: Engaging Communities

Episode 3: Paid Partnerships

Episode 4: Industry Play by Play

Episode 5: ESports

Episode 7: Big Data & Analytics

Mark Hodgkin 2/20/20 Mark Hodgkin 2/20/20

Generalist or Specialist - Mark Discusses on Life in the Front Office Podcast

I took a break from hosting to join Jake Hirshman’s great Life in the Front Office podcast.

We had a great conversation about my career path and I talked about how I believe being a generalist has helped my career (in contradiction to some of the assumptions about needing specialization).

Mark Hodgkin 12/9/19 Mark Hodgkin 12/9/19

Mark's 2019 Reads

A complete list of the books I read in 2019. I have tried to divide them by how much I enjoyed them and how valuable I found them.

Below are the books I’ve read in 2019. I have tried to divide them by how much I enjoyed them and how valuable I found them. Click to buy on Amazon via my referral link (price stays same for you but helps support the SportsBiz Book Exchange).

Want to connect on GoodReads?

Highly Recommended:

Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport

Peak Performance, Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness

Stillness is the Key, Ryan Holiday

The Passion Paradox, Brad Stullberg & Steve Magness

Deep Work, Cal Newport

Master of the Senate, Robert Caro

Passage of Power, Robert Caro

The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, Rich Cohen

The Laws of Human Nature, Robert Greene

Being Nixon, Evan Thomas

Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time, Ian O’Connor

The Manual, Epictetus

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt

Brothers, Rivals, Victors, Jonathan W. Jordan

Inspired, Marty Cagan

On The Shortness of Life, Epictetus

Lonesome Dove (fiction), Larry McMurtry

Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier

The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership, Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison & Craig Walsh

No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein

Show Notes: Sports Leadership Podcast Episode 32

Episode 32 was a deeper dive on a recent post Mark wrote about a series of lifestyle experiments to maximize his time and be healthier and wiser.

Episode 32 was a deeper dive on a recent post Mark wrote about a series of lifestyle experiments to maximize his time and be healthier and wiser. During the conversation, we referenced a number of products and content we recommend, which you can see below.

Listen to Episode 32 below or wherever you find Podcasts. If you have not yet, please subscribe to the Sports Leadership Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.

Articles:

Mark’s Blog Post on Time Off

Mark’s Note Taking System for E-Books

How to Configure Your iPhone to Work For You, Not Against You

Books Mentioned (buying via links below have the lowest Amazon price available and helps support the show):

Atomic Habits, James Clear

Deep Work, Cal Newport

Products Mentioned:

Blinkist: Summaries of thousands of non-fiction books, available to read or listen. Great integration with Evernote.

Evernote: Organization service Mark uses to save notes of books.

Scribd: The Netflix of books and audio books. Monthly fee gives access to thousands of books and audio books.

Pocket: App for flagging articles to read later.

Kindle: Available as a device, but also a free app on smartphones. Look out for their daily discounted offerings.

Purple Carrot: Vegan food delivery service Mark uses.

Precision Nutrition: Nutrition and meal planning service Kevin uses.

Mark Hodgkin 9/30/19 Mark Hodgkin 9/30/19

Meditations on Two Months "Off"..

In a (fortuitous) fluke of timing, I found myself with almost two months off between leaving my last job and starting my new one. It’s not often we adults find themselves with this much time off and not scrambling for a new job. While a plan to spend some time traveling was scuttled for a few reasons (new septic systems are expensive!), I was able to invest plenty of time experimenting with things that I believe could make my life better.

I had a somewhat similar experience three years ago and vowed that no matter how much time I had between jobs, I would emerge far better as a result of the time in between.

Here are a few of the things I dabbled in, and my unscientific results.

Moved my iPhone out of the bedroom

A common refrain from those worried about the pervasive nature of mobile devices and those who advocate the benefits of sleep both suggest removing your cell phone from your bedroom when sleeping. Not only does it lead to sleep problems, but even the mere presence of the phone can cause distraction and anxiety.

Often used as an alarm clock, research suggests that 71% of people sleep with their phone on the nightstand (or even more horrifyingly in their hands or in bed with them). I’ve recently begun wearing a Garman watch, which has a silent haptic vibration to wake me up and keep my iPhone on the dining room table.

It’s been an adjustment, but do not reach for it when I wake up, or when I awaken in the night, and am not tempted to lay in bed scrolling through my phone for distractions. The tracking of my sleep (via Garman and SleepTracker) don’t show a marked uptick in quantity or quality of sleep but I intend to continue with this habit.

Removed social apps from my phone

Similarly, I removed Twitter and Instagram from my phone. I had noticed myself scrolling and scrolling, sometimes for 20 or 30 minutes when I was just taking a ‘quick look’. It’s like eating snacks right out of the bag or tin, it’s very hard to stop once you’ve started.

I have often justified this kind of usage as the byproduct of a career in the digital space, but if I’m being honest with myself it was usually just a mindless distraction. I still check social networks on my laptop, but not having it on my phone has saved me considerable time that would be spent flicking through social posts. If I’m bored and on my phone, I’ve started opening the Pocket app to read articles I’ve flagged, Kindle to read a few pages of a book, or Blinkist or Scribd to grab a book summary. I find this digital diet much more satiating than social media.

Disconnected from the news

This is one that I think can be a little controversial, but bear with me. We’re going on 25 years of the “24 Hour News Cycle” and today - despite the fall of newspapers - have more ways to follow the news than was even conceivable a few decades ago.

Politics, international relations, climate change, these things are massively complicated. To be a truly “informed citizen” you might have to quit your day job to give them the consideration you’d need to really understand them. That’s not what we do. We pick and choose topics to follow, news organizations, and influencers to guide our opinions. Everyone says they seek out a variety of sources, but look around...does it really look like many actually do?

Today I see most news coverage to something akin to professional wrestling, especially with the rise of opinionated talking heads and those who will say anything on Twitter for attention. And news outlets have long understood the psychology around what content moves the needle. It’s what tugs at our emotions, and the easiest ones to conjure up are fear and anger.

So add it all up and you have a complicated tangle of issues being boiled down to the simplest and least nuanced levels jammed down our throat by outlets that rely on ratings (or clicks, engagement, etc.) to survive. I’m happy to let most of it run right by me, checking in occasionally. There’s a lot of truth to the idea that the real important news will get to you regardless, and the rest is just background noise.

Began reading summaries and ‘Blinks’

This is another one that took me out of my comfort zone. I’ve prided myself on reading between 70 and 100 books each of the last five years, dilligently tracked on Goodreads. I followed the status bar of my yearly challenge, always making sure I was on track to reach my goal. Similarly, I’d developed the unhealthy habit of trudging through any book I started to make sure I “finished” it, undoubtedly wasting hours of my time. Similarly, many of the books I’d read I felt were full of good ideas and takeaways that filled 200+ pages, but could essentially get the point apart in 20 or 25.

So I started ignoring my “count” and moving away from the idea of books as items to be finished and focused instead on grabbing the best information I could out of books in summaries or Blinkist recaps. I’ve written about my system for taking and keeping notes using Kindle and Evernote, and have taken this to keeping Evernotes of books, ‘Blinks’, summaries, and articles. I want to absorb the information I read, but also have it on file for future projects or to just reference in the future. My yearly totals of books read may dip, but I know my reading habit is not going anywhere and think this will help me make the best use of my time.

Removed meat (mostly) from my diet

My wife and I took an amazing trip to California this summer in which we started in San Francisco, went to the last round of the US Open at Pebble Beach and camped along the Pacific Coast Highway for a week. We ended our trip with a few days with my very health conscious aunt and uncle. After a weekend of eating clean and Vegan both Megan and I felt noticeably different and came back East feeling refreshed instead of rundown after a 12 day trip.

So we kept it up. Introduced to Purple Carrot, we began getting vegan meals sent to us weekly and mostly keeping away from animal products. There are plenty of other reasons to shy away from meat (animal welfare, climate impact, etc.), but quite simply we just feel better. More vegetables leave us feeling full but not fat and bloated. Not saying this will be a permanent thing, but are going to keep with it for the immediate future.

Set up an Exercise System

A friend told me to invest in my workouts during my last “time off”, but unfortunately I didn’t take it seriously and as a result have been carrying around a few more pounds than I wanted. Even more discouraging, this came after I lost over 60 pounds and had basically kept it off for five years.

I’ve always subscribed to the theory that “the best workout is the one you will do” and this year purchased a rowing machine. I was drawn to something that was cardiovascular but also worked the big muscles in the arms and legs. I also liked that I could do something else like watch TV or listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks while doing it at home.

I’m proud to say the rowing machine has gotten near daily use and I’ve avoided the cliche of it collecting dust in the garage. What changed? I wanted to set up a time to do it (in the morning) and get all the excuses out of the way the night before, when I had a reserve of willpower. I would roll out the machine and place it obtrusively in the middle of the living room, ready to go. I’d also grab my shoes and workout gear and put them on the machine. So I’d just have to roll out of bed, slip into the workout gear and jump on the machine. As with any workout, once you start, you tend to keep going. I found that watching a show on Netflix kept me engaged and resulted in a nice 45-50 minute workout.

The results to doing this daily are obvious. Have you ever felt worse after getting a workout in?

Worked with my hands

My entire career has involved building or creating digital products. While I love it and am very happy with my choice of career. I have always been jealous of those who made tangible items. I’d also read a bit about the advantages of having hobbies very different from your professional work. For example, Churchill carved out time to paint regularly and allowing his mind to drift to other things actually made him more effective at his real work.

So I invested in a small shop in my garage with a variety of hand and power tools to begin creating things on my own. I get in there a few times a week and do a lot of research on YouTube on technique and easy projects. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and have a LONG way to go, but I find it very fulfilling and am planning to keep at it. There is something profoundly satisfying about creating something from scratch.

Mark Hodgkin 9/30/19 Mark Hodgkin 9/30/19

Orlando Magic's Kevin Tiller Joins the Sports Leadership Podcast

We had a very special guest on Episode 31 of The Sports Leadership Podcast. Orlando Magic Basketball Operations Associate and Player Development Coordinator Kevin Tiller.

Kevin shares some of the leadership lessons he's learned from prominent college coaches Shaka Smart and Will Wade as well as the leadership of the Magic. He’s also been part of an organizational culture shift for the NBA’s Magic, who made the playoffs last year after a six year drought.

He also gives some great insights on his career and what it takes to succeed in the sports field.

If you have not yet, please subscribe to the Sports Leadership Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.