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But before we could hear their stories, we had an exciting surprise: free stuff. Many thanks go out to Spira for the shoes and Deuce brand for the watches!

Our first speaker of the night was Carlos Fleming. Carlos is the VP of Talent Management at IMG and represents clients such as Cam Newton, Venus Williams, and James Blake.

Carlos’ story is interesting because he started as an intern at IMG and rose through the ranks to where he is today. Carlos’ story was extremely relatable, as he talked about compiling a legal pad of 500 jobs that he would be interested in and feeling fairly confident about landing one of them. One of the most valuable takeaways from Carlos’ talk was the value of trust, reputation, and loyalty. The theme of mentorship has been one of the most prominent themes through the first week and a half here at MSBA. Speaking to that theme, Carlos echoed that as he said, “All it takes is one person to believe in you”. From there anything is possible.

Our second speaker of the night was Richard Weiss, the Publisher of Sports Business Journal. Richard was instrumental in the creation and growth of SBJ, and drew from his past experience at the Wall Street Journal to help grow Sports Business Journal into the leading sports business publication on the market.

In a way, SBJ has helped grow the sports management major, as the publication is currently used as the “textbook” in hundreds of classes across the country. SBJ is interesting because they are a media company that has created a community of people who have varying interests in the sports business field and have allowed all of those people to stay current with the latest topics and trends of the industry. Richard’s ascension in the industry through media companies was non-traditional, but it just goes to show that there are many different tracks of breaking into the sports business world.

Just a week and a half into MSBA, we have already had some amazing speakers with tons of great stories and lessons; I can’t wait to see what the rest of these 8 weeks will hold!

#MSBA13 class with our amazing speakers tonight: @IMG_Worldwide‘s Carlos Fleming & @SBJSBD‘s Richard Weiss. @goMSBA pic.twitter.com/bvpd9R5oVx
— Myles J. Robinson (@mylesjrobinson) June 13, 2013