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As someone looking to enter the world of sports sales, last Monday night was a special treat as we heard from a panel from the 27-time World Series Champion New York Yankees.

Dan Rosenthal, Manager of Inside Sales; Jose Duverge, Premium Sales and Service Specialist; and Rose Barre, Senior Premium Sales and Service Specialist joined MSBA for the last speaker series at the EHS dorms, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

All three executives had interesting backgrounds, with Jose originally starting out on the player development side with the Philadelphia Phillies; Dan rising through the Cleveland Cavaliers organization; and Rose coming over from the New York Islanders.

After telling us their respective stories, MSBA Co-Founder David Oestreicher moderated the panel before we showered them with our own questions. Having interned in both the ticket sales and premium departments of two professional sports franchises in my native Kansas City, I have so much respect for what Dan, Jose, and Rose do day in and day out. Selling season tickets or a luxury suite at Yankee Stadium may seem like something that sells itself — after all, it is Yankee Stadium — but sports sales isn’t about selling a ticket. It’s about selling an experience, a piece of premium real estate, a certain share of ownership in the team — both its successes and failures.

Dan, Jose, and Rose have worked hard to get to where they are today. They’ve learned the art of storytelling and how to best connect both individuals and companies alike with the Yankees brand. Having been to Yankee Stadium five or six times this summer to take in some baseball games, a friendly between Spain and Ireland, and a Justin Timberlake/Jay-Z concert, I’ve been a part of that brand first-hand.

With this being my last blog post before we finish up the MSBA program later this week, I wanted to take a moment to thank Ben Sturner, David Oestreicher, and the rest of the MSBA staff for making this summer possible. Another thank you to my MSBA classmates for your part in making my summer what it was. Perhaps the only thing better than experiencing New York for the summer was experiencing New York for the summer with all of you. I’m proud to call you all friends.

A special thanks to Jared Schoenfeld. In you, I found a mentor not only for this summer but for life. Finally, thank you to everyone at the National Football League who personally invested in my success: Chris Terranova, Toni Schutte, Cate Hefele, Agaja Reddy, Natara Holloway, Tracey Bleczinski, Don Brown, Leo Kane, Bobby Gallo, Laura Lefton, Johanna Faries, Bernie Gutierrez, Peter O’Reilly, Chris Parsons, Mark Waller, Pete Abitante, and the list could go on. This summer has been one I will always treasure throughout my life.

I’ll close with a quote shared with me by Jose Duverge: “When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

To my classmates, here’s to pounding the rock every day until we reach every goal we aspire to attain.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. #MSBA13