Watching my wife has shaped parts of my personality. For example, my wife is always patient and calm when talking to a customer service person, no matter how frustrated she might be.
My wife is inquisitive. When she wants to know the answer to something, she doesn’t just wonder about it. She looks it up in the moment.
Patience and inquisitiveness are traits I’ve learned from my wife.
There are also common personality traits of sports broadcasters who go far in the industry.
Here are seven of them.
1. Focus
Sportscasters who go farthest set a goal, they draft a plan for getting there and they stay the course. They are undeterred.
Sportscasters who go farthest aren’t always the most talented. They are the ones who persevere.
2. Determination
One of the students in a sports broadcasting class I taught was Jordan Carruth, who now works for STAA. Jordan got Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt on our sports talk radio show three nights before the Super Bowl! Most coaches don’t do radio for LA, NY or Chicago stations three nights before the Big Game yet Jordan got Whisenhunt on our campus station because he was determined.
3. Relentlessness
I know a sports broadcaster who has contacted more than 200 program directors at stations across the country seeking a job. Relentlessness.
4. Confidence
If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.
5. Inquisitiveness
When Joe Davis was an underclassman at Beloit College, he contacted sportscasters at all levels to ask questions of things he wondered about. Be inquisitive.
6. Outgoingness
An aspiring sportscaster I know living in the Southern California desert will drive 2-3 hours to meet sportscasters, buy them coffee, get to know them and ask questions.
7. Kindness
When the 1,000th job was accepted by a STAA member in 2019, two of our long-time members sent to me a beautiful Louisville Slugger baseball bat featuring an inscription of congratulations. There was nothing in it for them, except to be kind and do something nice for someone else.
Talent is certainly mandatory for going far in sports broadcasting. However, many folks are as talented as you. Personality traits like these seven might be what sets you apart and gets you to the top.
