ISSUE 002: The Crew's President & GM Tim Bezbatchenko checks in

IN THIS ISSUE

• 🤝 Introduction: We made it to the second issue!

• 🤩 A Special Offer: 20% off at WorldSoccerShop

• 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leaders: Tim Bezbatchenko’s words of wisdom

• ⚽️ Soccer Jobs: The most interesting new jobs in soccer

• 💼 Featured Job: Head Athletic Trainer at Bay FC

• 🫵 Do This Now: Cold outreach and how to do it right + a free template

🤝 INTRODUCTION: We made it to the second issue

Hello! John Bello here. I’m one of three co-founders at Pathway and I’ve taken over writing duties for this week’s issue.

We have a lot of new subscribers, so if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time you should know - our aim is for this to become the one-stop, must-have, here-to-help newsletter for those who want to break into or build a career in soccer. We drop a new issue every Wednesday.

The Pathway leadership team has more than 40 years of experience working in American soccer so we know well the challenge of trying to find your place in the very competitive soccer industry. We’re here to help and this newsletter is the first step (but, there’s a lot more to come so stay tuned).

If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover or someone you’d like to hear from, please drop us a note - we’d love to hear from you: [email protected].

We reply to every email we receive, too, so we’ll basically be pen pals. 📝

👨‍🎓 SOCCER THOUGHT LEADERS: Columbus Crew’s Tim Bezbatchenko

“Truly high performers, they think beyond and outside of themselves.”

Tim Bezbatchenko is one of the few individuals in MLS who has been given the responsibility of overseeing both the business and sporting side of a club. A two-time MLS Cup winner as a General Manager (Toronto FC in 2017, Columbus Crew in 2020), Tim is an attorney and former pro player who brings a unique perspective to both building and leading a team. Our conversation is filled with great nuggets from the Westerville, Ohio native. Enjoy!

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Any emphasis below is ours (because they’re points that should be emphasized, of course!)

PATHWAY:  Thanks for joining us, Tim. First question for you - when a club goes through a period of significant growth, change and development, what are the key ingredients to getting it right? 

TIM: The first thing is to recognize where your club is in its lifecycle. I speak about this all the time to people looking for positions or to the leaders at other clubs - you have to understand where your club is within its lifecycle. Meaning, where are you as a club? Is this club striving for championships at the moment or is it building? And so as an employee, are you coming in to add perhaps what might be a specific value add or are you employee number one after severe turnover and the club is looking for someone to be a builder?

Number two is what are the resources that you have? What level of engagement do you have from ownership? Do they have a specific vision from which you are executing on or you are in charge of that vision? 

And then third, once you understand the vision and mission of the club, it always comes back to the people. We are in a people business whether we're dealing with staff, players, coaches, families in the academy, our fans, or corporate sponsors that are looking to partner with your club because of what you can do to help their business. And so the key ingredient always comes down to the people. 

So, with the talent strategy, I take an approach of “how do these people see themselves now and then where do they want to go?” Most of the people we are looking at hiring or even people internally, they're going somewhere and they need to understand who they are as people and then where they want to go. And the more they understand that, I think the better your organization will be because they can help them get to where they want to go. And then those people will actually help your organization. They see that you are empowering them and that you are devoting resources to their development.

PATHWAY: When you think about the profile of the person that you want to bring on as a first hire, what are some of the qualities that you think of as most important?

TIM: First off is integrity. What are the values of the person? And I always go with integrity. Then I want people who are committed to learning, especially because where we are as a league, we are not yet at the top and we're striving to be among the best leagues in the world - and we're trying to be a top club. And so we need people that are willing to learn, who don't feel like they have all the answers. Number three is passion. You really need to be passionate about what you do because we work long hours and you’ve got to live and breathe this every day. And the last one is hard work and commitment. What level of commitment are you bringing and are you thinking outside of yourself? And I think that spreads to all the other values, but those are certainly some of the key elements. 

PATHWAY: Imagine you have an entry-level or mid-level position that you need to fill at the club. How do you evaluate and value these two things - experience and industry knowledge versus ambition and high potential? 

TIM: For the experienced candidate, I would want to make sure I test that knowledge because what's on paper, you want to make sure that it matches with what you both think relevant experience is. I would test that through asking for examples, I would give hypotheticals, I would ask the candidate to do project-based work to make sure that experience is what it needs to be. 

And then high potential is something that we as an industry like to talk about a lot. We all like to find people that are high potential and are striving to be high potential. The one thing is when we're hiring, you can't have an organization full of high potential people in every department because potential implies that they haven't reached a certain level and that they have farther to go and that they maybe don't yet have the needed experience. So who's going to teach them? Who's going to allow them to fail so that they do reach their potential? Because by definition, these people will fail. High potential employees require a lot of a leader and they require you to give them what they need so that to fulfill their potential. It's true even for players who are high potential players. What's their individual development plan? What are we giving them in addition to the other players so that they can reach their potential? 

One person I spoke to described high potential employees being “takers,” whereas experienced people in the industry with industry knowledge, they're “givers.” They are willing to share their knowledge and they will be happy to sit and help others become better. And so you want someone who has that experience, not to hoard it, but to be giving that and distributing that and communicating that throughout the club and to other people. I wouldn't say I would always lean on one or the other - it’s about a balance. Again, I would start with where the lifecycle is as the club. And if you're hiring a position for your first team and you need to win now, you might want to lean on experienced industry vets. That's just the reality because you're in a position where immediate results matter. Whereas if you're in a lifecycle where you’re having success, there's already good culture at your club, then you can bring in some high potential people and see where they go. And that's exciting because they challenge you in a different way than someone who's experienced.

PATHWAY: What qualities do you see in high performers that allow them to add value to the club, but also then simultaneously build their career? And what classifies them in your mind as high performers?

TIM: Well, first off, they will already have had a match with the club values, so between passion and hard work, they understand what we're about as a club. But then they have to be an expert in something. Our highest performers typically aren't generalists. They have one area of expertise that separates them from everyone else. And again, I like to make analogies on the field - what makes that player special? What's their superpower? A lot of times you're working within a team, you have 11 players in the field, and so everybody needs to bring something different. And I think in the same way in our leadership team or within our staff, the high performers typically bring something, and it could be more than one thing that shows that they're an expert, that they're different than everyone else. 

Truly high performers, they think beyond and outside of themselves. So this idea that they're not only thinking within their swim lane, they're actually working horizontally across lanes. And the analogy we give sometimes is it's not just staying in your lane, it's more water polo than just swimming back and forth in your lane. Everyone says, “Hey, just do your job, stay in your lane.” I think that's important, but the truly high performers, the leaders in our club, are thinking more in a matrix fashion where they're doing what they do and they're doing it well and they're delegating and they're sharing, but they're also asking questions and they're seeking feedback and they're asking teammates how their areas are going and how they can support and facilitate success in another department. It can be hard to do that as an entry-level employee, but you can show the high performers are the ones who kind of do it naturally because they're talking to others, they're participating in club activities where they learn about what's going on in and around the club. Those are the attributes that I would characterize for our high performers.

PATHWAY: If you could give one piece of specific tactical advice to someone who wants to build their career working in soccer, what would it be and why?

TIM: The ability to take your expertise and communicate it in a way so that someone can use it to make a decision is a lost art. Whether as an entry level employee, a coordinator, or a manager, or at the director level is the ability to generate a report, have an opinion highlighting the pros and cons of a topic, and then being able to communicate that in the way that a leader can digest it clearly and succinctly and can make a decision.

I think that's really important and that's the advice I commonly give to people - generate a one or two page report, whether or not because you've been asked or because you understand this is something that someone in the organization would find useful. It could be an email, it could be a two page report, it could be a PowerPoint, it could be a presentation. It's a difference maker. If you can show that you researched something, you've thought about it, you've reflected on those thoughts, and you've come up with a recommendation that’s big because it doesn't happen very often.

PATHWAY: Thanks so much, Tim!

Ed. Note: You can follow or connect with Tim on LinkedIn.

And here are a few current Columbus Crew job openings that you may want to consider applying for:

• Manager, Community Relations

• Manager, Partnership Activation

• Manager, Human Resources

• Haslam Sports Group Diversity & Opportunity Fellowship

⚽️ SOCCER JOBS: The most interesting new jobs in soccer

We track down the best and most interesting jobs in soccer every week so you don’t have to. Here are some of the recent postings that caught our eye. If you think you’re the right fit for one of them, get that application in already!

• Marketing Support - Diadora [Brand]

• Head Athletic Trainer - Houston Dash [NWSL]

• Manager, Social Media - Major League Soccer [MLS]

• Assistant Coach, Women’s Soccer - University of Maryland [NCAA]

• Coordinator, Corporate Partnerships - Carolina Core FC [MLS Next Pro]

• Executive Director, Planning and Integration - FIFA World Cup 2026 [FIFA]

• Coordinator, Game Day Sales and Service - New England Revolution [MLS]

🫵 DO THIS NOW: How to nail your cold outreach and begin building relationships

Whether you’re just starting out or are midway into your career journey, one of the most underutilized tactics to progress your career is simple, consistent relationship building (Ed. note: It’s not wrong to call it networking, but we feel that term has a bit of an impersonal and callous underpinning so we don’t use it often).

It may not be top of mind when you have a job - especially if it’s one you really enjoy - but by carving out 30-60 minutes every week, you can start to build a circle of potential future employers, mentors, collaborators, and more.

Success in any industry is about the relationships you build - and then keep! - but you have to start somewhere.

Here’s the roadmap we’ve used to nail your cold outreach:

• Block 30-60 minutes on your calendar every week

  • Pick a day and time that works best for you but do everything you can to not schedule over it!

• Create a simple spreadsheet to track your outreach

  • PATHWAY RESOURCE: Steal our template!

• Spend the first half of your scheduled window searching LinkedIn for individuals you would be interested in speaking to

  • Look for folks who work in your area of interest but consider those who may be adjacent to your specific area, too (Ex: If you work in social media, connect with someone in marketing)

  • Look for individuals to whom you have a specific, personal connection:

    • From the same city/state

    • Went to the same college

    • Played a sport in the same conference

    • Have a mutual friend that you know well

    • Support the same teams

    • Etc.

  • After you’ve identified a potential contact, spend time researching and reviewing their digital presence

    • Find them on X [Twitter!], LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

    • Look for examples of their recent work and projects

    • Look for mutual connections

  • Then, if you plan to reach out, drop them in your tracker with your insights and notes

• Spend the second half of the window, sending very short introductory emails to those you’d like to speak with

  • Your message should be no more than 4-5 sentences

    • Your only objective is to get in-person time with them - not share your entire career journey

    • If you have a specific connection, be sure to mention it (Ex: “I went to College of Charleston, too…”)

    • Reference something specific you found in your research (Ex: “I loved the season ticket campaign you recently launched…”)

  • Ask for no more than 30 minutes (sometimes asking for 15 or 20 minutes will increase your chances of success)

  • Give them an out right off the bat

    • This is counterintuitive but giving someone permission to say “no” often leads them to say “yes” instead (Ex: “If now isn’t a good time, I completely understand…”)

    • If you don’t hear back, follow up 7-10 days later with a short, simple note (“Following up with the hope you might be willing to meet…”)

      • If you don’t hear back after a second follow up, move on - you’re simply not going to hear back from everyone

• PRO TIP: Don’t just make outreach to senior executives

  • Extend requests to folks who are early or mid-career

    • They likely don’t receive as many requests

    • They often have more schedule flexibility

    • Careers are long and today’s mid-career professional is tomorrow’s c-suite executive

• Track your outreach and keep at it every week!

  • You may only hear back from ~10% of the individuals you reach out to - don’t be discouraged and keep going

In a future newsletter, we’ll tackle how you can best prepare for the relationship-building conversations you’ve been able to land (Spoiler alert: It’s all about preparation) so stay tuned!

That’s it for now - good luck and let us know how it goes! 🤝 

- Kyle Sheldon, Co-Founder & CEO

When you’re ready, here are a few ways we can help you:

1. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here to ensure you get every issue (sent on Wednesdays!) directly in your inbox.

2. And, if you’re a club or brand looking to hire the most ambitious talent in soccer, drop us a line and we can tell you about our process, our growing talent pool, and the services we offer.

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Issue 002 is in the books, folks. Thanks for reading.

See you next Wednesday. 👋

• John Bello

• Kyle Sheldon

• Nolan Sheldon