By Cheval John

Photo Courtesy of Tigger 11th

As we are almost in the middle of March, most of the U.S. are anticipating the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, which is dubbed as “March Madness.”

This week, teams are vying for a chance to make this prestigious tournament and have an opportunity to showcase their talent in front of a national television audience.

Let me rephrase that, teams who are normally not featured almost regularly on national media outlets like their counterparts in the top conferences (ACC, Big 12, SEC, Pac 12, Big East).

The only way these “unknowns” have the same opportunity to showcase their talents on national television is if they are in the finals of their respective conference tournaments and if the winner is playing in the national tournament.

Now things have kind of changed in recent years with the “unknowns” getting some television coverage during the regular season.

Before, a person would only know of the big name schools like Texas A&M, Florida State, the University of Florida, the University of Texas, etc. because their teams would always receive constant television coverage.

You could say that collegiate sports have always been the best marketing tactics to gain exposure for their respective schools.

Others would say that it a particular degree programs or world class teachers that allowed their institution to gain either national attention or world-wide attention.

The truth of the matter is that collegiate sports is the reason why universities are gaining national exposure.

And prospective students would always dream of going to the big name schools because they want to be part of the attention that the schools are receiving.

And the branded schools would be able to recruit the 5-star athletes because they have the capabilities of helping them reach the professional sports levels like the NFL and the NBA.

So the not-so branded schools like Davidson, Sam Houston State, McNeese State, Stephen F. Austin, etc., were at a disadvantage because they could not recruit the 5-star athlete and also gain the best and brightest students in the world (the exception of gaining the brightest students are the Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton).

The lesser known conferences would at times gain national attention if their schools made a national tournament (mainly the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, the College World Series and in football, the Divison I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs).

In this day and age, the playing field have been leveled to a large degree for all universities.

Some of the mid-major conferences made deals with television networks like ESPN and Fox Sports to broadcast their games on television.

While conferences of the “lesser known schools” in the words of James Altucher, “choose themselves”* and create their own television networks to showcase their athletes. term paraprhased*

One of the conferences who “choose themselves” was the Southland Conference.

They have always found a way to remain competitive in the midst of realignments of schools in their now 51st year of operation.

However, they went to another level under the direction of commissioner Tom Burnett.

With his leadership, the conference decided to create the Southland Conference Television Network in 2008 to showcase their member school’s athletes (regular season, football, basketball and in tournament time, all of the sports teams) via television affiliates to about 13 million viewers in the states of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

If the Southland did not choose themselves, then the nation would not have been able to see former Sam Houston State running back, Timothy Flanders flipped over the defender and landed in the endzone for the touchdown.

And because the Southland choose themselves, they have earned the attention of national media outlets to where their members’ regular season football games and basketball games are now broadcast live nationally on ESPN3 in addition to their network.

The lesson that can be learned from this is that if you want to gain your dream job, but you are not “qualified” for the job, then you have to create your own opportunities to succeed.

Most of the time, job seekers just send in their resumes and hoping that someone will call them in for an interview with the possibility to work at their company.

Instead of waiting and hoping for that call after putting in the resume, be proactive.

You can do internships to get your foot in the door, attend networking events, etc.

From there, you can share your knowledge and the lessons from the work experience you gained either with your own blog, a podcast, or YouTube channel.

When you do the above, nine times out of ten, you will have a much better chance to gain your dream job.

In the case of podcasting, you can interview anyone who are in the industry that you want to work in like public relations and share their story of success with your audience.

I can guarantee you the most busy professionals will say yes to the opportunities to be on your show because they see the opportunity to promoting themselves and their companies without spending a whole lot of money for marketing.

In conclusion, do not wait for someone to validate your talent or expertise because you will probably be waiting forever.

Instead, create your own opportunities by blogging, podcasting, etc and prove to the prospective employers that you are very knowledgeable in your chosen career field.

Over time, you will gain the recognition and even earn your dream job with the company you always wanted to work for.

Video courtesy of the Southland Conference Digital Network