Ways to Be Okay With Your Path

By: Cass Ferguson

Welcome back to another story of a person in sports! While reading this, keep in mind that it’s okay if your path is different from everyone else’s. It’s okay to venture out of what is considered “normal”, even though normal is different for everyone.

One may think that if you live in Alberta, Canada you are to work in the oil industry, but that was not the sought-after dream for Lauren Zandee. Her sports journey started back when she was a wee little one participating in competitive swimming, and like most of us who work in sports, the passion for sports doesn’t stop.

In Zandee’s story she talked about how her career working in sports started with having to make a decision and in her words, “A decision between choosing a school that has a swimming program or a school that had a program.” The program was chosen – Communications & Public Relations at Mount Royal University. This decision was not easy for her, but “I really enjoyed what I did, what I learned and I’m really wanting to give back to it one day.” 

When sitting down and chatting with Zandee we wanted to know “In your eye, what has led to your success so far?”, and she brought up the fact of being able to experience different aspects of the sports industry through her two internship opportunities while attending Mount Royal University. While at university Zandee enjoyed writing and communicating with people. It dawned upon her that this may be her passion. She thought this passion would be working within the oil and gas industry because “I’m from Alberta and that’s just what people do.” But little did she know that her passion for sports was missing and she needed to connect the two together.

Fast forward after taking 6-8 courses, she gained experience and learned about the entertainment side of sports, how to plan/ run events, run a brands social media and now as the Marketing Coordinator with the WHL (Western Hockey League). 

As Zandee said, “My journey has been a constant learning curve. Moving from an organization where their social media presence wasn’t really there, to an organization that is very established with rules for everything and you have to learn them all.” However, she did mention, “While learning all of this, I learned that there is really no wrong way of doing something because the WHL is different from the OHL and the NHL.” 

In her position as a Marketing Coordinator some of her roles & responsibilities are: 
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• Coordinating with all 17 Canadian teams on marketing aspects. 
• Holding and communicating with partners/ sponsorships that are between the CHL (Canadian Hockey League) and the teams. 
• Providing proper resources to all teams, as some teams have more abilities to access resources than others.
• Oversee all WHL events. Organizing event details.

The above name just a few responsibilities, but she did mention that a lot of her work has to deal with analytics. Collecting the analytics for partners so they fully understand the work that’s being done and what’s the dollar value. Communications for her is something “that is always on the go, day to day is always different, while marketing is different, with a bit more of a pattern to follow.”

With such a unique way of getting into the sports industry, we wanted to know WHY? Why was sports the industry of choice over oil and gas, and Zandee said, “Along my journey I have had opportunities to shadow and volunteer with events and programs where I really got to see what sports was all about. Some of them being sports, some of them not and I enjoyed the sports ones more. So it was almost the right fit for me.” The best way to describe this would be to find yourself a job where it doesn’t feel like work because in the end you want to come home happy and satisfied with what you did and the work you have produced. 

“It’s just something about sports that has been an internal drive for me and always connects me back to my happiness.” Zandee said, “My experiences have led me to where I am today, so don’t be afraid to get that experience, even if you’re not getting paid because these experiences can be applied to a job in some way or another.” 

No matter what you have done or the path you have taken you will find something. Sometimes it just takes patience and time.

Interested in Lauren Zandee’s story, follow her at: 
Twitter: @Lauren_Zandee
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-zandee-3a0087107/


If you feel like you can relate to Lauren’s story or you have a story you want to tell, do not hesitate to reach out. Reach out here: Email: sportsasajob@gmail.com or cassie.ferguson2@gmail.com