Raleigh Anne Gray: Must Love Sports CEO – Work In Sports Podcast

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast. Not a day can go by without there being some messaging that directly affects the young people of our world.  When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s we felt the burden of nuclear war, I remember being fearful every time a plane flew overhead they were carrying a nuclear bomb set to destroy us…. Yes, I was slightly neurotic.  But the theme of the decade was War Games. It felt like we were in constant threat of massive military action.  Compared to the onslaught young people are facing today - that seems trite.  Job prospects are down, industries are failing, people are dying en masse -- you don’t need me to recite the hateful mess that 2020 has become.  I feel for all of you, and that is not patronizing, that is truly from the heart. I think of all of you daily who are doing so much right to prepare yourself for professional life and create the best version of yourself… and yet, the opportunity, in many ways, is being taken from you.    I read someone yesterday pitching a concept, a marketing plan, with the main thrust being a push for people to  “Find Something New” … “Find Something New”  Your career and life may be in shambles, your goals may be in disarray, your internships are canceled and your dreams look to be off track, you are collecting unemployment, you don’t have healthcare, you are afraid of a highly contagious virus killing people around you … but hey, just find something new.  As if it was that easy.  Personally I found this upsetting.  Kind of like Marie Antoinette saying to the poor people of France without bread to eat…  “Let them eat cake”  These words essentially claim the unemployed just aren’t creative enough - they need to just find something new!  A mantra like this says - the burden is on you, just shift and do something else. You’re on your own kid, figure something out. Now, I’m all for personal accountability, I think we all need to own our path, make our choices, adjust, learn new skills, adapt…. But these are really, really strange times.  This is abnormal.  Our current events are something none of us have any experience with, so in my worldview, the burden is on all of us to come together and help each other.  Not just pass the buck, not just put the burden back on the individual and say “figure your own shit out”. The time is now to help...and that burden fits firmly on my generation. Those of us with employment, those of us who can help, those of us who can guide and assist and mentor.  No one exhibits this spirit more than today’s guest Raleigh Anne Gray.  Raliegh has a career in sports as impressive as they come -- ESPN, Twitter, The Players Tribune, Wasserman -- she has the iconic sports brand royal flush on her resume.  But that is not where this story stops, it’s barely the beginning.  A few years ago Raleigh launched her own LLC, Must Love Sports, and I’ll let her explain the details of that venture. BUT, when coronavirus hit, she immediately identified a problem facing the young college-age professionals and set out to fix it.  Internships were being canceled everywhere. College students need experience, but also,  many need the specific internships credits to graduate!  So now imagine you are a college student, who’s internship has been canceled, but you need to intern to graduate. Well, now, that’s a problem you didn’t see coming.  Here comes Raleigh.  Must Love Sports pivots their business model, puts together a summer session virtual internship program, and offers it FOR FREE.  355 students sign up. Raleigh is changing lives.  This is community action. This is a collective move to work together and force positive change, to help others, to work as a team in the game of life.  I couldn’t be more excited to have Raleigh on this show -- here she is,