Melinda Travis: Creating High-End Content for Global Sports Brands (Full Transcript)
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Ronen Ainbinder 0:32
I'm super pumped to have the honors to introduce our next guest of the Halftime Snacks.
She is a sports industry veteran with experience on both sides of the media equation, both as a communication professional and a member of the media.
Her background is super cool and unique. She worked in communications for Major League Baseball as a network reporter for the Orlando Magic. She has collaborated with various organizations and athletes at the professional, Olympic, and collegiate levels.
Today, she is the CEO & founder of Mile 44 – a company that is pushing the boundaries of creativity by developing high-end quality content for global sports brands.
This episode is about to go down with stories and discussions you have never heard before.
So this is your last chance to pause this episode to go grab some of your favorite snacks.
Ladies and gentlemen, Melinda Travis!
Melinda Travis 1:28
Yo! Thanks for that introduction! Wow, thanks for having me. It's fun, and I appreciate you taking the time.
Ronen Ainbinder 1:35
Melinda, welcome to the Halftime Snacks. It's great to finally have you, and I want to kick off a conversation with a quick, fun icebreaker. And let's talk about this. You just came back from Isla Mujeres, and the icebreaker that I prepared for you is the warmest place you have ever traveled to for vacation. If it's Isla Mujeres, you can say that, and you have to say the second one. If it's not, you just need to say what the word is misplaced your child for vacation?
Melinda Travis 2:03
Oh, gosh, the warmest place I ever traveled by far was Dubai.
Ronen Ainbinder 2:07
Okay, okay, I wasn't expecting how hard compared to Isla Mujeres? Just so that I get an idea.
Melinda Travis 2:14
I mean, it was hot. It was probably close to 120 Fahrenheit. Hot!
Ronen Ainbinder 2:22
Alright, I've never been there, but I hope I'm making it one day. Do you recommend it?
Melinda Travis 2:28
Oh yeah, I mean it was. It was super fun. I mean, it's a long flight from LA, but I loved it. Very different, very, very unique. But it was a lot of fun. I compared it to Vegas, to be honest. It's like Vegas is on steroids.
Ronen Ainbinder 2:44
Melinda, I want to know what the meaning of Mile 44 is? Why that specific mile? Is there a story or a meaning behind it that you want to share with the audience today?
Melinda Travis 2:55
Okay, well, this week is the fourth anniversary of our rebrand. So yeah, the story. Like a lot of things in life, the name just kind of showed up. And something made us kind of pay attention and take hold of it. I think it was 2017. The company had originally started back in 2005. I started my business as a sports PR agency. And over the years, we just started to shift away from comms and PR into the content. And we needed to rebrand. So we were on a road trip to see a client in Arizona, and I threw out the idea to the team in the car. And I was like, Hey, I think we need a new name. So we're on this dusty stretch of highway, somewhere between LA and Tucson. And if anyone knows, it's definitely not the most inspiring place on the planet to come up with ideas. So my team is throwing out names, and I literally hate on all of them. And finally, Hannah Sprague, who's our VP of partnerships, says, Hey, Travis, like you hate all these ideas, but like, I don't see you coming up with anything epic. So I look around, I'm like, Okay, well, what the hell do you expect me to come up with? I'm driving, we're in the middle of nowhere, and all I see is Dustin, he roadsides exit 35, Mile 44. And then all of a sudden, we just kind of stopped, and we're like, hey, and then, of course, we're in the car for another five hours. So, what do you do when you start googling the names of things, right? So the meaning of things rather. And as we started this process, 44 turned out to have a lot of significance for us. And, without going into the weeds of numerology, we found that it, when it comes to business, is about building something bigger than yourself, which, for us, that's what we tried to do. And it just kind of stuck. So, at that time, and even now, we still don't know where we're going and where we're evolving as a business. So, we just wanted something that will give us the latitude to kind of evolve into whatever it is that we're going to be in the next however many years. So, that's the story.
Ronen Ainbinder 4:51
Let's wait and jump a little bit back before that moment before you rebranded Mile 44. Let's go maybe a little bit back to your experience as, In the media side of sports, you've been a communications expert for MLB. And then, Network Manager or network presents a reporter in the magic. So, kind of like how it works from both sides. Can you tell us a little bit about how it built you? And how that made you, you and took you than to figure out Mile 44? was the thing that I wanted you to do. You didn't say how it was called before, but before Mile 44, How was it called?
Melinda Travis 5:32
Before Mile 44, we were pro sports communications, I mean, very original. Still, we were doing a lot of straight sports PR work, as well as crisis management. So it was definitely more corporate and more formal and more structured, and it worked for back then. But to go back to your question, I did start out on the media side; I was a reporter as my very first job out of college, in the NBA, super fortunate to get that opportunity. But I realized probably about two weeks in that I just didn't like being a reporter, I didn't like being intrusive, I didn't like being on the other side, I could see how much the athletes hated dealing with the media and you there's something about rolling up, and you're the part of someone's day that they hate. So I always sort of gravitated toward the athlete side, because and this was a long time ago, I mean, athletes didn't have the resources they have now, they didn't have the platforms they have now, and I found they were very, what's the word, they weren't ready for the media, they didn't want to deal with the media, they didn't understand the power of the media, and they didn't get any support. So I always felt a part of me always felt bad; it's like these guys are being thrown into the fire with no preparation. And then as soon as they say something wrong, they're, they're just thrown to the wolves, and everyone freaks out. And it's, I just, I didn't like being on that side. So when I left the magic, I went to MLB. But then, from then on, I was on the agency side, working directly with athletes. So the PR practice grew. And we did a lot of crisis management work. So when you're dealing with athletes in some of the worst times of their lives, you sit across the table from people that you've only read about. When you sit down with them, you realize how wildly different they are as people. And in that role, you're trying to show people what you see and who the real person is. And that was sort of the art and science and sort of caring part of how you do crisis management well, so it was a lot of learning the stories behind the stories. And I think all of that is kind of converged now in content because we take that expertise and just a few things again, just understanding who people are at their core and how they want to be portrayed, how wrong traditional media used to get them, why they hated it. After all, they weren't being understood. So I've always sort of had this empathy, I guess, for the athlete, and again, working with them in such hard times in their lives, getting to know them as people just gave me an appreciation and wanted me to carry that through. So the stuff that we do now is very much focused on getting it right for the athletes. So while our clients are are typically brands who activate athletes, athlete ambassadors, or athletes who are getting involved in the brand is our client. Still, in a way, the athlete is too because if the athlete has a great experience, if they like the content that we're creating for them, they feel we're presenting them and depicting them in the most authentic powerful way, they're gonna have a great experience they're gonna want to keep doing it for the brand. It just it's better for everyone. The old school way was not letting athletes control things or not giving them the preparation and sort of feeding them throwing into the fire to see what they do and then when they don't do it, well it's again it's um, it's just not it's not a level playing field. So I think when you when you allow them to the room to sort of be themselves and allow them to redo things or have them give them peace of mind that they are, you are going to treat them in the best way possible and present them in a way they appreciate that. I think that's sort of been one of the things that made Mile 44 stand apart and do well in this space.
Ronen Ainbinder 9:26
Is there any other thing of the media side of sports that you can think about right now that you think is broken in terms of the system and or maybe that it could be improved understand that the side of probably giving the athletes the platform to tell their stories and show who they are is one is there any other thing maybe more now on the corporate side that you think that is broken or that it can be improved?
Melinda Travis 9:56
Yeah, I think just touching on the Last point a little bit to what you're saying now; Hope Solo is one of the athletes I work with a lot. And I would see so many times when I go with her to shoots, she'd read the script and be like, what, like, they want me to do this, like, I would never do this in a workout, I would never, I don't do this. So, again, letting them lead, I don't think athletes are allowed to lead the content a lot of times. And if it's about them, then they should; we're not the experts they are; we're just trying to capture it as authentically as we can. So that's sort of one technical piece. But obviously, we're in the digital content creation space and on the brand side. So that's the lane that I guess I'll speak from. And first, I'll say there's a lot of great content out there; some people are doing some incredible things. But I think when it's not great, it points back to a couple things that I think are I've seen over and over again.
The biggest thing is that the people concepting and creating the content are not the consumers of the content, some more directly. If you want to resonate with Gen Z or the younger audience, Gen X, myself included, should not lead and drive the creative. And I'm sure someone like me who's worked in the media for years, I have the sensibilities and the foundational strategy, things about creativity and storytelling that don't change over time. And I do consider myself to still be pretty cool and immersed in what's culturally relevant, but I don't live it. And I always tell my team this, most of them are in the target consumer group. I'll give my input, but I'm not the target audience. And I'll never pretend to know more than you guys do about what's cool or what people want. So I think giving away the old guard needs to give way to that young generation of creatives. And I think, sometimes that's not happening, especially in sports media. I think the second layer of that is diversity. in the wake of last year's wake up call, if you will, in diversity, you hear creative agencies saying things like, we're going to do better when it comes to hiring, we're going to make sure that our staff, better reflects the makeup of America, and here in America, African Americans make up almost 40% of the population, Hispanic and Latinos, almost 19%. So it sounds like the right thing to do and say, right, hey, make sure you have a team aligned with those numbers. But if you're an agency, or you're a media company trying to create culturally relevant content, that's not even close because it's these communities who are driving culture and remaking the culture. So if you're only making up if only 30% of your staff is, is that and that's not even close to what people even have these days, you can't possibly get it right. So will things get better? I hope so. And I don't think it's that hard. Let me take it back. It's not hard in the sense that it's available to everyone, but you have to be intentional and go and go looking for it. Because we found the best, most diverse, crazy, talented people, they don't come from the traditional sports pipelines. They're not showing up in the industry, networking events, should they not even have gone to college. They're not even on LinkedIn. So that process of finding people to be part of that has to be part of your strategy. And quite frankly, I don't think many companies, especially the big ones, are equipped or maybe even know how to do that if that makes sense.
Ronen Ainbinder 13:23
Yeah, totally. I think that just to summarize what you just said, which I think resonates with me a lot. I and I think it's great points, first of all, is to know who you're speaking to basically know your audience and know who that audience is. Because if that audience doesn't understand your content means that you do not understand your audience. So instead of saying, Okay, let's, let's put a message out there PR, a saying, Yeah, we're ESPN, we're gonna, step up the diversity, XYZ, it doesn't mean that then your content is going to be adapted for this new audience that you want to reach. So that's one side. And then also from another point of view, or another perspective is that these media companies also have an agenda. They're also owned by someone who eventually it's a prop for profit organization that wants to make money, meaning that they will optimize for retweets. They're optimized for likes, how many likes, how much reach was the reach. So they're usually not optimizing for content, they're optimizing for reach, which is not the same and it's. It's kind of like, what I want to talk to you about also for Mile 44 like, how important it is the content and but but but but before we get to that, I want to grasp the idea or understand the notion when you have the moment you found product-market fit meaning the content that you make with the people that you do it For the audience that you want to deliver to, what was the moment that you were like, Ha, like, the aha moment of this is, this is what works. We need to replicate and find this, even if it wasn't the first time, right? Because at the end of the day, you have to optimize your iterations. Do it again and again until you find it. But I want to know, what was it like when it clicked for you?
Melinda Travis 15:24
Hmm, I guess this is where I can pretend, just say we were highly strategic, or that we had this big vision. But I've just never been that way. It's not the way I've done things. And I just tend to follow the signs and pay attention to the people, the opportunities, the insights that strike me as we're paying attention to and then believing there's something there that I have to keep sort of uncovering and taking further. Hence, we obviously new brands have huge content pipelines to feed, which is sort of how we made the pivot in the first place for from comms because clients were asking for it. But it wasn't until the pandemic hit in the world shut down that we got clear on the value proposition and what we were truly solving for. I think every business, why not every business that was dependent on live sports and live production, revenue disappeared overnight, but back in March of 2020, our team sort of came together and decided that we weren't going to shut down. We had nothing to shoot. Still, we knew that we needed to take this opportunity to get better as a team, so obviously, we can scale up or down to execute the jobs in production. Still, at the start of the pandemic, our core team was six, including me, and I tease them all for better or worse; they're all young single who have lived alone. So they decided to quit sort of quarantine together, and we created the bubble before there was a bubble and kept it airtight, staying healthy. And again, just focus on getting better as a team, testing out new gear, sorting track, trying new things, staying, staying creative because the pandemic, it took a toll. And it was important to keep everybody mentally healthy and just inspired in this crazy, unbelievable time. And then, more importantly, use the time for business development, I'd see on LinkedIn, so many things saying, don't, you shouldn't it's important to reach out to people in the pandemic, and it's like, you know what, you can say that when you're sitting in a corporate job, but when you're building a company, and you've got five people looking at you who want to know, are they going to be okay? I can't worry about that; we didn't stop. So what better time to get people on the phone, right? When there's zero pressure for a conversation because they have no money to spend. There are no projects on the timeline; they've got nothing except time on their hands. And our VP of business development did that for about nine months straight, just 40 calls a week building relationships and just saying, Hey, we exist. There's definitely some overlap in our worlds. And when this crazy shit is over, we should know each other. So, within those conversations, not only did we build those relationships, but we got nine months of Intel in terms of understanding what brands want, and what their biggest challenges are, what they need? What can we give them that no one else can? And the answer isn't content production. I mean, there's, yeah, they needed, and that's the end product, but people don't hire us because we can shoot, edit, they hire us because we problem-solve for everything else. Because at this level, I mean, we live in LA, you can throw a rock and hit a production company and get great content from so many people. But they want a one-stop-shop; they want people who get their business, the core business that they're in, and the people that they serve and sell to come up with concepts that they can say yes to right away that are turnkey, and then have the ability to make it happen. As I said before, they want people who know how to work with elite athletes. people who don't freak out when the athlete is three hours late and shoot time goes from three to 45 minutes. We've dealt with this over and over again; it's just it's okay; we'll make it work. Or, if we know the athlete is a full workout later in the day, we have to adapt our shoot to them. And again, I think that's um, that's just a skill set. Maybe we've taken it for granted over all these years working with athletes, but it matters to brands. They want people to shoot sports, and they're going to capture the authenticity of the athletes in the sport and do it the best way. they want diverse teams; maybe they're not as diverse as they want to be. But they can take an agency and some creatives that feel that for them, and then they just want a great experience for themselves and their athletes. They want things quickly. So it kind of proved that. If we double down on everything, we're good. This is where we're going to be strong. So again, it wasn't this grand plan or this; hey, this is something that we can do. It's what are we good at? And how do we sort of adapt it to this new world and, that's that, I mean, come January 2021? It's been crazy, and it hasn't stopped.
Ronen Ainbinder 19:58
I want to double click on the topic of creativity that you mentioned, like how do you keep yourself creative? I think that first as to your point, I feel like the pandemic boosted people's creativity level in levels, and here's why. I think that when people were stranded at home locked and with no resources or not so much time in their hands, they have to figure out ways in they're going to do things that they did before but in new and adaptable ways for the pandemic, so I feel like the pandemic boosted creativity in a way now I want to know You, of course, you've worked with a couple of creative talents from all over even like content and even like athletes that they are also creative. I want to know if you have a couple of ideas about what makes a creative talent. What are the ingredients that build up someone with that natural creative talent that you look for?
Melinda Travis 21:01
Yeah, I guess creative talent is like everything else is pretty subjective. I think from Mile 44, it's pretty distinct. I think number one, you have to watch our stuff and feel something about it. You've got to understand our vibe, get it, and it has to resonate right it's fast, it's always moving, it's every cut. She is intentional; it's kind of all about exerting as much hype as we can and making people just want to get out and go do something after they watch our stuff, so you have to be about that first thing and grasp it's we're not a lot of sports content is very sort of pulls that emotion out and in that in that that that inspiration and motivation and we're sort of about I hope that our stuff inspires but our goal is to ignite whatever it is whatever fire inside you when you watch our stuff it's like you want to get up and go do something, so it's that sort of personality type that we're looking for. And people weren't afraid to try new things, I think especially here in LA, you get people done the same things over and over again and looking at a client a project an athlete and saying hey this I want to try this and having to be okay with that if it doesn't work out the first time we've got to do it over again. But I think for for this environment the biggest thing which is maybe not a creative trait, but you have to be okay with understanding that marketing and creative are sometimes at odds so sometimes what the client wants maybe isn't the best thing for for the the art or maybe kills something that you wanted but you have to you have to be okay with that and I think some creatives are married to to their their stuff and it just doesn't work like that we we definitely will will fight for things fights probably the wrong word will usually advise a client like here's the reason why we think we it should stay this way or here's another way of doing things so that we don't sort of gut the thing that we did but sometimes you just have to be okay with that and finding that middle ground where they're happy but you can live with it and and some people just aren't so those are probably the main things for us but yeah, I think people who were just open we we definitely have people from the sports world on our team but we also bring people in from music from Fashion Film because of its culture and I think when you infuse all these different different things into it you just you just get a different product and and it's never the same.
Ronen Ainbinder 23:31
Very interesting. Have you found any specific challenges from working with athletes? You mentioned that sometimes they come with the mindset that something should be as they want, but then you have a door in your mind open for which they don't, so showing them that door might be a challenging thing? Are there any other challenges that you can share with us from having experience working with athletes from all levels, from Olympia or Olympic to collegiate and professional sports?
Melinda Travis 24:06
Yeah, honestly, I think I think working with athletes is probably the easiest part of it because you kind of know what to expect if you can get them in, you can get them out you can be efficient you can you walk them through you show them why they're doing things you give them input on the front end we always make sure that they see the shoot plan in advance that they have input important to do that. Still, honestly, I think it's more on the brand side because there are marketing messages you have to get in their product shots you have to get in your there. This ultimately has to drive their business results. So yeah, is that close-up of the shoe? The best shot for this frame maybe not, but it's what's needed, so just do it. But yeah, I think we, we generally try to find that happy medium and look at it again on the front end, looking at what has to be achieved and then building the creative around that so that we don't know no one on our team feels that they're compromising your creativity. The client still gets what they need. And the overall goal is achieved because you're not making content for content's sake; it is definitely an end goal. And, again, I think having that agency background and understanding what the client needs, we kind of thread that, thread that needle for our creative so that they can get to the other side.
Ronen Ainbinder 25:23
I think that's so valuable; I think you guys should stop and go back 15 seconds; this is key Melinda, knowing the strategy behind the content and knowing how to connect it, I've seen so many content creators that have no idea what you're doing, they're just creating by creating, and there's no, there's no thread behind it. So I guess solving that problem is one of the value propositions you guys are great at delivering. But let's talk about culture. This is probably the main topic I want to get to, and I want to know, as you mentioned, you worked with people from film, from music, from fashion, from sports. So probably most of the things that build a culture. In what ways do you think sports brands and sports teams themselves impact culture and society differently from other brands in, say, food or industry? Or what do you think about sports?
Melinda Travis 26:28
That's a great question. Obviously, to me, sports are a reflection of culture and society, right? It captures everything about that human experience, aspirations, struggles, loyalties, traditions, sports brands, ability to move people, tap into those things, move them to act, feel to believe in something. And so they are different, and they do have a lot more leverage in that regard than other brands do, I think, to couple that, you watch all of it play out with these larger than life athletes, whose influence is second to none, who, again, are the culture makers, the culture amplifiers. Because of that, we pay attention. We connect with that. Nike says that if you have a body, you're an athlete, and I think all of us can sort of gravitating toward that. So they do have the power to influence what the brands do, and I think many of them do it well.
Ronen Ainbinder 27:21
Yeah, I remember watching. I don't know if you've ever watched The Shop with LeBron James. In one of the episodes, he mentions how the way they dress before games might influence that they don't; they don't expect people to start copying the way they dress for games just because they dress just for the game. So they are the ones putting in the example. And setting the culture Do you think they know about this responsibility? Or is it just a few that are maybe at the top of the popularity? LeBron? And those ones? Do you think all of them know the power of their platforms? Or the end of the power they have over culture? Or is it something you've seen that some don't care and, don't understand how this works, and don't know how to build their brands and connect them to things they believe in? Or what is your experience with that?
Melinda Travis 28:16
Yeah, I think it's interesting because I've sort of seen the evolution when athletes didn't have it at all; from athletes learning about it and maybe not leveraging it to now, it's just sort of natural. So it's very, very cool for me to see athletes owning their power and taking, being intentional about their careers, their decisions, what they do, how they're perceived, what, what pieces of them they bring to their spotlight. So I love that because again, 20 years ago, when I was with magic, they didn't have that opportunity, and they couldn't put that on the world. So yeah, I think it's pretty intentional; I think everything's converging, right? Sports, music, arts, fashion, it's there. And, because we're getting to know athletes in a different way and in a much more personal way, they're able to bring all those pieces of them, which sort of creates that whole brand, so I think they're intentional about it they should be. And it's, I think it's a positive and then I love seeing how they're, they're using this time in their lives to build for the future. Before, an athlete would never talk about retirement like you didn't bring it up. That was like, I'm not thinking about it. I'm an NBA player. This is what I'm doing now, and I will deal with that when the time comes. Whereas now it's almost the brands being built concurrently on day one, these athletes know where they're going. With the new legislation here with collegiate athletes now being able to get paid, that's happening even sooner. So yeah, I love it. And it's been cool for me just to see how things have changed, and it's great to see athletes owning what's available to them and being the ones to dictate what's good for them.
Ronen Ainbinder 30:01
And what's next for Mile 44? Is there any plan that you have for the future?
Melinda Travis 30:08
Wow. Oh, so many trips back to Mexico first. No, you know what, honestly, we haven't had a chance to breathe; this year has been crazy. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to just, just sort of assessing everything we've done and being a little more intentional about what we do next year. I mean, we're so lucky; we're working with some of the most incredible brands on the planet right now. And, we've been lucky that again, we were able to sort of leverage COVID and get better. And I know that that wasn't the case for a lot of people. So super grateful for that. But, um, but no, I think we just want to experiment with new things, too. We want to take what we've done and build on it. And I think we're excited to be starting this year with the foundation that we built this year and just so much more of an understanding of what we can do. It's a pretty cool time for us.
Ronen Ainbinder 31:02
Yeah, but I also think that since you understand how the media industry works, and especially related to sports, you can like it; you're now like three steps ahead of them. So as long as you can keep up with that advantage of knowing where the value is and how to, like, provide value for both the brands and the athletes and make both of them happy, you're always going to be moving forward. So yeah, I'm looking forward to Melinda, this, this has been great. I can't live without asking you a more personal question. And I want to know, what are maybe two or three things that you do to increase serendipity in your life? Is there any action you take, any habit you formed, or one or two or three that you can share with us to increase? Serendipity?
Melinda Travis 31:52
I mean, honestly, I'm such a big believer in that. And honestly, if I look, I think Steve Jobs said it; when you look back on your life, you can clearly see the dots connecting. Yeah, I think just I believe, we always joke around here, I would say, especially when COVID hit, and we always had hope. Someone said to me, no hope is not a business strategy; I'm like, belief is a business strategy. And I always believe that things will happen because they always have. I think, again, if you, if you pay attention to the things that warrant your attention, and you notice interesting people and opportunities and things coming in. You capitalize on those, or you just at least explore them, that, to me, sort of creates the opportunities, whenever we've been at that crossroads, or we're not sure what's next. It is that intentional thought and just being clear about what you want and why you want it. And, and letting the house sort of reveal itself to you. So we definitely talk about that a lot here and everything that's happened to us and how the company has been built over the years; none of it could have been planned. So I think just not trying to control things so much. Again, just be very clear about what we do and why we do it and continue to be authentic to ourselves. We have a sort of mantra here that is going to do it anyway. Because there are so many times where we just know what is right for us, despite what other people would tell us is reasonable or rational. And, again, I think when you believe in what you're doing and why you do it so much. And you've got the people around you who also support that; things always work out, and you just have to keep moving forward.
Ronen Ainbinder 33:34
That's amazing Melinda, It's so inspiring to listen to your words and everything you think and do. It's fascinating. Appreciate that. Appreciate you coming to the Halftime Snacks. There's been a wonderful time with you chatting, learning from everything you're doing, and building can't wait to see where this is gonna go in the next 5-10 years. I'm looking forward and anytime, you're always welcome to the Halftime Snacks, Melinda.