Growing My Social Capital

• Domain Expert: My domain expert is a Hall of Fame baseball player by the name of Wade Boggs. The reason I consider him a domain expert is because he has been in the industry of professional sports for the last 40 years of his life. While he may not have the experience of selling something to a professional sports organization, he has many connections within the world of baseball. I've known Wade Boggs for the last 5 years. I first met him at my high school in Tampa when I first tried out for the baseball team, and after being on the team for all four years, I really enjoyed learning from him and gathering as much as I could from his many experiences. I think that having Coach Boggs in my network would put me ahead of everyone else trying to get into the professional sports business because he knows it like the back of his hand, which really puts me at an advantage. 

• Market Expert: My market expert is a good friend, Cooper Borden. He works for Under Armour, and they specialize in providing all sorts of things for these professional teams. I met Cooper about 10 years ago playing baseball, and we have motivated each other through everything since then. The reason he would be a good fit for the market expert job is because he has a good idea on how the market works. We may not be selling the same kinds of things, but with his connections I could learn a thing or two on how to get into the professional sports business. 

• Supplier: My supplier is one of friend's dad, Mike Garam. He is a retail specialist that sells sports equipment to local teams and organizations. I find him as a great fit for this because he has the expertise with selling to organizations in the same realm, and I think I could really learn a lot from his knowledge of the retail business. 

• Reflection: After completing this assignment, I learned what valuable connections I have already, and how easy it is to find someone who has connections that can get you to where you need to be. I know that sometimes social networking can be hard, but when you really sit down and think about who you know, and how they could possibly help you, the sky is really the limit on where you can go with it. For my future networking events, I would have to use the same mindset I did here, and try to think about the connections I already have, and which ones could be easily created, either through someone else, or going out of my way to find someone. As for my past experiences, I have never really been in a situation where I had to network, so I really don't have anything for comparison sake.