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MENTOR: @Tracy Roe
Business Development Director
NET (Lincoln, NE) |
MENTEE: @Teri Tate McColly
Business Development Director
Idaho Public Television (Boise, ID) |
TRACY ROE
WOW… where did this year go? I think back to my first meeting with my mentor, Teri Tate McColly from IPTV, in D.C. in September 2019. We immediately hit it off, with plenty of things to discuss, and I felt like I’d known her forever. We laughed after completing the Myers Briggs that we couldn’t have been more opposite and maybe they planned it that way, but quickly found out that each of our unique styles would play key complimentary roles over the year.
Teri was an incoming Corporate Support Director, but had already worked in corporate support for three years and had an extensive radio background. Our game plan was to help her transition into the management role, while dealing with a lack of established processes and a complacent team opposed to change.
Immediately out of the gate, one team member resigned and her veteran sales rep moved to Florida. This provided Teri a perfect opportunity and thus, our game plan was born: “Define a Department” and “Effectively Build a Sales Team”. Teri and I met weekly and started parsing items into the following categories:
- Employee Recruitment & Development
- ProTrack Proficiency
- Management & Team Leadership
- Benchmarking and Tracking Toward Goals
- Sustaining Revenue Development
We’d hold a phone meeting every two weeks, where Teri would provide an agenda of what she wanted to work on. Then, we would discuss and exchange supporting items throughout the week. Once COVID hit, Teri and I leaned into each other as we evolved processes and worked to keep our teams engaged. I found our kinship extremely valuable as we discussed how each of us were coping with our new realities and kept each other afloat.
As we close out our final presentation, Teri commented on how was shocked at all of the items we had been able to cover. I gotta say – my mentee is a Rock Star. She was positive, energetic, and open to new ideas…. I’m so excited to watch her continue to learn, apply and grow!
Thank you, PBS, for the opportunity to be part of this amazing program. One intent of signing up to be in the Mentor Program was to grow my networking opportunities. However, what I found is that the program provided so much more. I learned that we all share the same challenges and frustrations, whether you’re a small or a large station. And, by mentoring Teri, it gave me an opportunity review my own strengths and opportunities, and I learned just as much from her, as she did from me. I would highly recommend participation, on either side, for all member stations.
TERI TATE MCCOLLY
The CSPI Mentorship happened at the perfect time, though, at the time I didn’t realize it. My Mentor, Tracy Roe, from Nebraska NET, is a great partner for me. We are very ying-and-yang. Tracy answered my question, “How do other people do it?”
When we started, I was on a path to become Business Development Director. I’d been a manager before, but pretty much in name only. Now, I wanted to build best practices. But you know how that can be; the best way isn’t always the way we do it, “This is the way we have done it. And the only way and we will continue to do it this way.” My associate was not interested in looking for better ways. Tracy recognized my frustration, and offered some great ideas to keep me moving forward.
By directing me to reports I could pull from our traffic software, ProTrack, and providing an outline of steps to manage a professional department, Tracy provided tools to understand where we were and strategize steps to improve. This made a big, big difference for me. The CSPI Mentor program opened the door for me to explore how other stations’ Business Development departments manage accounts and prospects. I knew from my experience in commercial broadcast that we could operate with a more client focused process than we were. Expecting our sponsors to work around our outdated processes didn’t make sense. Tracy had had a similar experience when she joined NET.
This is part of the reason Tracy and I were so well matched. She had arrived at NET with a similar task: to improve and codify processes. And she did. And now I am so lucky because I can take Tracy’s work and repurpose for IdahoPTV. I know all the wrinkles will need to be smoothed out as we integrate new processes to monitor and measure our progress. Going forward, I will be able to follow the money and steward our relationships with ideas and clarity. Improved and transparent processes are going to make our underwriting partnerships at IDPTV smarter and productive.
I’m so grateful for invitation and encouragement to share ideas and experiences and problems with an experienced and successful mentor. I plan to continue asking Tracy for opinions and I know she will be there to answer my call. Thanks Tracy. Thank you #CSPI, @Toanya Kessé and @Beth Drake, this engagement has been very, very helpful.