Relay

Strategic Business Development Specialist

TeamWork Online

TeamWork Online is the #1 hiring platform and professional network for sports & entertainment, with 7M+ candidates, 1,500+ employers, and 30K+ new jobs each year.

We power the recruiting for 85% of teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, MLS, as well as minor leagues, technology, media, colleges, facilities, and more. Our proactive recruiting tools help clients hire talent they couldn’t find anywhere else, candidates with function-specific skills, diverse backgrounds, and passion for the industry.

If you’re looking to hire or get hired in sports business, send me a note!

Manager, Partnerships

How’d I land this internship?

In 2022, my wife and I moved across the country from Provo, Utah to Raleigh, North Carolina. 

I got active on LinkedIn
- started growing my network 
- posted about jobs, tagged TeamWork

Davis Filippell, President of TeamWork Online, sent me a connection request and we exchanged some messages.

1 month later, Davis flew to Charlotte for the Sports Marketing Association Conference. 

He offered to meet at 8am.

I said yes!

I woke up at 5am and drove 3 hours from Raleigh to Charlotte.

You might think I’m crazy 

But those of you that know Davis know that it was worth every minute.

He’s energetic, insightful, and motivating.

I left that meeting inspired 

And with an internship offer 😉

Marketing & Partnerships Intern

North Carolina Courage

There’s not enough sports jobs

I can’t find any…

🤦‍♂️

There’s 6,000+ jobs on TeamWork Online 

But not every job is in the
NFL 
MLB 
NBA 

Stop closing the door on opportunities.

Just because you didn’t play the sport growing up, or you don’t watch it, doesn’t mean you can’t work in it.

I never played soccer.

I worked in the NWSL in gameday operations for the NC Courage. It helped me land my job at TeamWork Online.

Because the experience built my resume.

There’s hundreds of open jobs in Minor League Baseball, in the American Hockey League, in the National Women’s Soccer League, and so many more!

It’s good to have a favorite sport.

But don’t shut down the idea of working in other sports. That just might be the path that gets you to your dream job.

This is how you break into sports.

Game Day Operations Coordinator

Brigham Young University

Can you say 

College Dream Job

Because that’s exactly what working at BYU Football was… a dream.

BYU went 11-1 and 10-3 my last two seasons there.

Witnessed NFL talent and work ethic in Zach Wilson, Jaren Hall, and Tyler Allegier.

Learned how to win on the field and off the field in sports business.

Player Experience Manager Brigham Young University Football

Legacy Logistics

I led the company in calls per week with an average 550+ which helped the company set its' own revenue record. 

Website: leglogistics.com/

Supply Chain Operations and Logistics Coordinator

Bolster

My first summer internship during my collegiate experience, as an Email Marketing Coordinator for Bolster, helped me learn more about the marketing side of business. I created and executed an email drip campaign for the onboarding of new customers. 

Website: mybolster.com/

Email Marketing Analyst

Why work in sports? It's my kind of people.

If you feel the same way...

Tell me about your

- dream job
- favorite team
- current position

Here’s mine:

I always dreamt of being the next Ed Reed

Which means you know my fav team 😈

Once I realized I wasn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, working in sports business became the dream.

Now I manage partnerships at TeamWork Online, 
the #1 hiring platform for sports & entertainment.

I’m passionate about helping sports organizations build championship caliber business teams, whether it’s ticket sales, marketing, engineering, and everything in between.

Looking to hire? Let’s chat!

Okay, your turn.

Send me a note with your

- dream job
- favorite team
- current position

Looking forward to meeting you! 

P.S. I love speaking with college students and sharing my experience in the classroom,  please reach out and we can schedule a time.

Bryson Shanklin

Hi there! I’ve been working in sports, media and entertainment for the past 14 years building brands, marketing strategies, communities, and talent relationships at companies including LinkedIn, NBA, EA, and now as a creator and the Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Arena.

Arena is a networking platform for professionals in sports, media & entertainment. Arena delivers curated introductions each week, turning matches into 1:1 meetings that lead to new opportunities including: collabs, partnerships, mentorship, clients, hiring, investors, and speaking engagements.

Our vision is to become the most trusted networking platform in the industry, where quality beats quantity, and the right introduction is worth more than a thousand cold emails.

*****

Past Experience: 14+ years of experience at companies including LinkedIn, NBA, LA Clippers, Adidas, Electronic Arts (EA), FOX Sports, UCLA Athletics, PAC-12 Network, IMAX and more across Athlete & Sports Creators, Community Management, Community Relations, Partnerships, Marketing, Content, Public Relations, Communications, Player Programs, Athlete Recruiting, Ticket Sales, Fan Relations, and Events.

Recognized in:
Sports Business Journal New Voices Under 30 
Hashtag Sports Creators of Color
Hispanic Executive Latinos in Sports

*****

Interested in partnering with Arena? Contact us here: https://arenatalent.com/partner/

For 1:1 career coaching sessions with me, you can book a 15min. - 60min. video call here: https://intro.co/AdrieneBueno

For brand partnerships, speaking engagements, or other inquiries for me directly email me at hello@adrienebueno.com

Adriene Bueno

Today, we change how the sports, media & entertainment industry builds professional relationships. 

My co-founders Parul Khosla, Olivia Schwartz, and I have spent almost a year building and testing Arena and today, 1,000 founding members get access.

Networking in sports, media & entertainment is broken. 

Seriously. On any given day, networking includes 100s of cold DMs that go nowhere, multi-day events where you collect business cards but never follow up, and group chats where if you blink you've missed 90% of the timely updates unless you're constantly checking it.

So we built something better. 

👀 Here's who's in the room:
- GMs, VPs, and C-suite execs
- Forbes/Emmy Award winners
- Leaders from every major league, and decision-makers at Fortune 100 brands, top studios and teams, streaming platforms, and iconic venues

These are people who've spent years building relationships the HARD way because they didn't have any other option. Now they're choosing Arena because they're ready for something different.

Our promise to them (and to everyone who joins):

Arena is where new relationships lead to opportunities that wouldn't have existed otherwise. Members come here because it's where conversation and community thrive, and it's the go-to place to meet like-minded pros from diverse backgrounds who intentionally WANT to make this industry more collaborative and connected.

We're already seeing members land new opportunities through Arena matches. I can only imagine what's possible for the thousands to come. 🚀

To our founding members: Welcome to Arena and see you at Member Orientation soon. Sound off in the comments, we want to hear from you! 🥳

Not a founding member yet? We're opening up more spots soon.
👉 Join the waitlist at the link in comments.

Know someone who should be in Arena? Tag them below!

#SportsIndustry #MediaIndustry #EntertainmentIndustry

Co-Founder of Arena | Connecting sports & entertainment pros | Creator | Alum: LinkedIn, NBA, EA, Adidas, ESPN, IMAX, FOX Sports

Here's something most people don't know about Arena yet. 👀

We've been quietly building a membership of 800+ leaders from marketing execs and content leads to senior decision-makers from ESPN, Apple, Verizon, LA28, NASCAR, and more.

They're all members. And when we open the doors, partnerships leaders are getting access to them first.

Here's why we're starting with partnerships/BD pros:

Your career in this industry runs on relationships. Not just for closing deals, but also for mentorship, collaboration, career moves, and opportunities you can't even predict yet. Arena builds those relationships for you.

We're talking Executive Directors at Disney. Vice Presidents at the Miami Dolphins. C-Suite execs at TikTok. Leaders from Paramount, Google, Sphere, T-Mobile, LA28, NASCAR, and more.

When we started reviewing applications, the caliber blew me away... actual GMs at NBA teams, BD directors at top platforms, sponsorship leads from major brands like Alaska Airlines, and SVPs at NBCUniversal.

These are people who've spent decades building relationships the hard way. Sending thousands of cold emails. Attending dozens of exhausting, mass networking events every year. Joining countless group chats.

Arena changes that. Every week, you get curated intros to leaders who align with your goals whether that's new business, your next role, or relationships that open doors down the line. When you match, you meet.

If you're in partnerships, BD, sponsorship, or sales at an established brand, league, team, platform, venue, publisher, or studio, this cohort was built just for you.

Applications close Jan 16. Link in comments.

Know a partnerships leader who should apply? Tag them below. 💜

Most networking advice doesn't work for partnerships leaders in sports, media & entertainment...

"Put yourself out there more."
"Attend more events."
"Just be consistent with your outreach."

I've heard all of this over the past 14 years working in sports, media & entertainment at the NBA, EA, LA Clippers, Adidas, FOX Sports, and more. And I get it, this advice works for people who do generally need more connections.

But if you're a partnerships leaders, you don't have a quantity problem at all, you have a timing and relevance one.

I’m sure many of you already know hundreds of people, your LinkedIn is stacked with thousands of connections, and your phone is full of contacts from conferences, deals, and past roles.

The issue isn't meeting more people. It's connecting with the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time when there's actual alignment on what you're both working toward.

That's the gap most networking advice completely ignores. Plus on top of that, we have to factor in the realities of the way things have currently been done that have lost all credibility:
- Cold outreach with low response rates.
- Random DMs that feel spammy, even if you really took the time to type it all out yourself
- “Let's grab coffee sometime" that rarely happens without a ton of back and forth (if at all)

What actually works is warm, curated intros to people who align with your goals delivered consistently, not randomly.

That's exactly why I built Arena with my co-founders.

Every week, you get matched with industry leaders and decision-makers based on what you're actually trying to accomplish. And boom, when you match, you meet. No chasing or awkward follow-ups.

If you're a partnerships leader in sports, media & entertainment and this resonates, Arena's Partnerships Cohort applications are open now through Friday, Jan 16.

Learn more at https://lnkd.in/gqTMPPsV 💜

📣 Sports, media & entertainment friends and colleagues going to Super Bowl in the Bay Area - I'm co-hosting Arena's Big Game Week Kickoff on Feb 3!

This one's personal for me. I'm originally from the Bay, recently moved back from NYC, and this is my first time hosting an Arena event here since returning home. :) 

Arena and Living Sport are bringing together established execs and rising stars across marketing, partnerships, content, community, events, tech, operations and beyond.

🏈 The experience:
- 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀: For the first time EVER, we're bringing our matchmaking experience to an IRL event - curated connections based on your goals, experience, and interests
- Brief fireside chat on how industry leaders actually use tentpole weeks (which events are worth it, what makes a convo worth a follow-up, how new opportunities come to life)
- Past attendees are Emmy-Award + Forbes winners to senior level execs from Netflix, MLB, NFL, Meta, NBCUniversal, Sony, Google, LA28 and more
- Track record of meaningful industry connections (with a 100% success rate!)

💬 What past attendees have to say:

"This was, by far, the best networking event I've been to. The curated selection of attendees made this event stand out because I had the ability to have meaningful conversations with everyone."

Register here (limited spots - apply early): https://luma.com/pkp9c165

P.S. Not in the Bay Area? Please let us know where we should host Arena networking events next in the chat below.

#SportsIndustry #MediaIndustry #EntertainmentIndustry

If you're in partnerships, this is a conversation you don't want to miss. 👀

I'm moderating an Arena virtual session - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄, 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀, 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 & 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

💡 Here's what we're talking about:
- How dealflow and categories are shifting over the next 12 months
- What's changing in expectations from brands and rights holders
- Why the old playbooks aren't working the same way anymore

🎤 Speakers:
- Brynn Sussman, Director of Entertainment Partnerships (Celebrity & Music) at the NHL
- Sean Bulvanoski, Sr. Partnerships Leader in Sports Media

🎟️ Over 200 professionals have already registered from the NBA, FOX Sports, TikTok, Paramount, Disney, ESPN, NBCUniversal, and more. 

If you're in partnerships, sponsorships, BD, or revenue in sports, media, or entertainment, this convo is just for you.

🗓️ Wed, Jan 14
🕐 3-4pm ET
📍 Virtual (link in comments)

Spots are limited. Register now and I'll see you there!

We built Arena to intentionally be community-centered by design. 💜

Most networking experiences throw you into a sea of profiles, feeds or crowds, and say "good luck." You scroll, you connect, you maybe send a message later but they often go unanswered. It's exhausting and honestly, it doesn't *consistently* work. 

Arena is different.

Think of it as a specialized matchmaker for your career in sports, media & entertainment. 🤝 

It's where your professional brand meets a trusted community of leaders who are all looking to have real conversations and meet each other. Which means our members don't EVER have to doom scroll, get random connections, or send cold outreach that goes unanswered.

Instead, here's how it works:
1. You tell us your goals, experience, and what you're looking for
2. Our matching algorithm curates intros to leaders who align with those goals
3. When you match, you meet :) 

Trust is fundamental to our platform. Every member is vetted, every intro is intentional, every match is mutual, and every single connection has context behind it where your network is only made up of people you ACTUALLY know.

800+ leaders from Disney, ESPN, Apple, NASCAR, LA28, and beyond have decided they're ready to build relationships this way in 2026 because they know the right relationships built at the right time can change your career.

If you're a leader in sports, media & entertainment and want networking to finally feel intentional, my team and I build Arena just for you.

Link in comments to learn more. 👀

It's no secret that cold DMs suck when it comes to relationship building. 

In fact, I've been personally DMing 100s of sports, media & entertainment pros one by one a ton more lately, carefully personalizing each message (on my own with no help of AI/automations, I promise), and the outreach to reply ratio has been ROUGH for me. 🥲 So I can only imagine how tough it is for the millions of pros who need to do this 24/7 for your job, let alone for your career growth.

👀 BUT with that said... this low level of success with DMs is comforting to me. It actually re-affirms everything we're building at Arena to be 1000x times the right move for pros in sports, media & entertainment. 💜 

Arena is the evolution of what building authentic professional relationships (in an industry that wouldn't exist without them) looks like. 

Funny thing is we don't do cold DMs. We don't have social feeds. We don't even have group chats. Instead, we just focus on great people meeting great people, and industry execs LOVE it.

Arena is a superconnector networking platform for professionals who work in sports, media & entertainment. 🤝 Every week, you get curated intros based on your goals, experience, and interests. And when you mutual match, you meet virtually (or IRL).

🚨 TODAY is the last day to apply to Arena's Partnerships Cohort. Learn more and apply by tonight, 11:59pm ET to be considered for this application window: https://lnkd.in/g9upmurG

Work in marketing, content, or another business function? Get notified about upcoming cohort application windows here: https://arenatalent.com/

P.S. Thank you for those of you who have replied to my DMs lately :) it's helped me carry on and power through - appreciate yall so much!

Build trusted relationships in sports, media & entertainment

How many group chats are you in for the upcoming sports industry events?

I counted mine yesterday: 7.

Seven chats, a bunch of threads, q’s like "Did anyone get into that thing?" along with screenshots of invites where half the events don't even have dates attached.

The problem (and the beauty) of the Big Game week is it compresses five months of networking into FIVE DAYS for professionals in sports, media & entertainment, BUT all the info is scattered across messages you'll never find again.

So I decided to fix this and built the Executive Survival Guide to the Big Game Week:
↳ Industry events only where I filtered out the fan-first stuff
↳ Spots to grab coffee, have a 1:1, and get a breather between the chaos (we all need these) 
↳ What's actually worth your time vs. what to SKIP

I pulled it all into Gamma so you can see the full week and click into what's relevant to you.

Get the full guide here: https://lnkd.in/g4garhXJ

Updating through gameday. Drop where you'll be, let's connect IRL!

#GammaPartner

taplio

The Battle

Bryson Shanklin

Adriene Bueno

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance ScoreAdriene Bueno's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Bryson Shanklin

Adriene Bueno

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Adriene Bueno's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAdriene Bueno's LinkedIn Performance