Pushing through discomfort and finding success is a trait of the best workers in every field, including the sports industry. At the beginning of his career, WorkInSports VP of Content and Engaged Learning Brian Clapp worked as a producer with CNN/Sports Illustrated. As an avid sports fan, Clapp possessed a deep knowledge of nearly every sport — but NASCAR was a blind spot.

When covering NASCAR at CNN, Clapp relied on producers and anchors who were more knowledgeable about the sport. This served him well enough until NASCAR hero Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s fatal crash at the 2001 Daytona 500. Instead of outsourcing a part of an hour-long program’s content to others, NASCAR became THE story of the day from the higher-ups at CNN. With nowhere to hide, Brian and his team leaned into the story and met the moment with informative content.

Today’s guest on the WorkInSports Podcast is Amy Anderson, NASCAR Head of Content Strategy. Anderson has experience leaning into areas outside of her comfort zone. Before joining NASCAR in 2021, she spent nearly 20 years with Fox Sports in various positions. She spent four years as a traffic and sales coordinator before moving into a role handling content and marketing. Anderson eventually rose to Vice President of Fox Sports Content Studio – Brands and decided to shift to NASCAR. While both Fox Sports and NASCAR are popular sports brands, the similarities end there.

A national network like Fox Sports serves a wide array of content across all sports, mostly at a surface level. When working for a league like NASCAR, you are leaning into content for superfans of that particular sport who will pick up on a lack of comfort and sports knowledge. With that in mind, Clapp and Anderson discuss:

• How she moved from traffic/sales coordinator to an opportunity to work on the content side at Fox Sports

• The challenges of working in a sport with a rabid fanbase such as NASCAR

• What skills she values when hiring her staff

Listen to the full episode to catch Anderson’s perspective. Then, subscribe to the WorkInSports Podcast for more sports career advice. Additional content is available on our YouTube channel!