Catching up with Kyle Brown
The time we spend at our desks can take up a lot of our time. And while what we do to make a living is important to our lives, it isn’t the full picture of who we are.
So we've set out to discover how our team spends their time during the work day and once they clock out.
Kyle Brown oversees all searches for consumer & ticketing revenue roles and operational & administrative disciplines and is Turnkey’s longest tenured recruiter.
Read on to learn more about Kyle.
My process to get ready for each day starts with me trying to make a list the night before of high level, big items I need to get done that next day. I will continue to make changes because I'll be thinking about stuff, you know, right before I fall asleep or right after I wake up.
I'll usually stick to that to the list, but it does change. It's living, breathing and it's never the same at eight o'clock in the morning as it was six o'clock the previous night. I deviate a little bit as things pop up. A client may call, or a candidate might need to move an interview. Even with things shifting around, I try my best to stick to that list each day.
One of my favorite things about this job is that each day is so different.
Some days I'll have six interviews. Other days it's all business development calls. No two days are the same.
You’re always meeting new people and having different interactions. You can do one interview, and then go to interview someone else for the same role and it's a totally different conversation. So, I like that we could go from doing a business development pitch and the next call could be an interview, and then the following call I'm negotiating or presenting an offer.
Whatever comes up, you tackle that. But I try to stick to my schedule while making additions on the fly.
In my opinion, what we do for work is pretty cool.
I always wanted to work in sports, but I never thought it would be in recruiting. Recruiting in sports to me growing up was like “what four- or five-star linebacker is committing to which university.” I never even knew this was an industry and now I can’t imagine doing anything else.
We talk to a lot of people and network, build relationships, and help people find potential dream jobs too. I try to stay in that mindset that even if something comes up and it's maybe a tougher conversation, I truly enjoy the work I do every day.
You can get something from every call.
Whether it's a lead, a good candidate or just a reference for someone else.
If you're really listening and ask the right questions, no call is wasted. When we do a search, we probably call and talk to a hundred to 150 people. One person's going to get the job. So, you talk to people and maybe they're not right for that specific job at this specific time, but in five years they could be.
Maybe the job is in New York and you're trying to be on the West Coast, the salary is off, or it's in football and you want to be in hockey. But if this one isn't right let's still get to know each other because the next one could be the right fit.
And I've seen that happen and play out time and time again. There are people I've placed recently that I first spoke to back in 2015. Those are always my favorites too because you foster and build those relationships.
So that time is never wasted. You're still building something. It’s really just being attuned and knowing what to look for and what questions to ask.
I feel like I've grown a ton during my time here. When you first start out, you get thrown right in. I remember my second week, I was given resumes for a role we working on, I think it was a CRO position, and they just asked me to interview those 10 people. I had no idea what to ask or vet for but I dove in.
It's trial by fire but I think that's the best way to learn.
Client relationships are something I've loved building because that's who you really get to work with the most. You're talking to people multiple times a day all throughout the search process, which could be up to a couple months.
It’s been fun to go from helping to support a search to now the past few years, I’ve been able to run point and lead searches with a team helping to support me.
Kyle and his wife, Mo
Kyle’s and his dog
Hanging at the ballpark
My wife and I are big sports fans. If there's a game on, we're watching. I try to just consume as much sports content as possible. It's one of the reasons why I love living in Philly, it’s an amazing sports town. I love going to Sixers games, Phillies games, Eagles games.
Other hobbies of mine include golfing and hanging out with our dog Lola. We’ll go on walks throughout the city or take her on hikes at some of the parks around the area.
I still like my core teams, but it's hard not to root for teams that we’ve done placements for because you spend so much time with them.
How cool would it be to place someone that goes on to win the World Series or the Super Bowl?
So, you do have a little bit of that rooting interest. But we also work with so many different teams that at some point you're pulling for someone at every organization regardless.
It’s been awesome to see how TurnkeyZRG has grown over the years, and to play a small role in that has been so rewarding.
There is a quote from JJ Reddick’s podcast that has always stuck with me.
“You've never arrived. You're always becoming.”
I don't know if Coach K said it, where he got it from, but that quote really resonated with me.
We could crush a search, or a pitch, and then it's like, all right, well we're on to the next one.
We just keep pushing. We had a great year in ‘21. Great year in ‘22, but now it's time to beat that and get to the next level.
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment, music and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model.