ISSUE 004: Allen Hopkins Jr. of Black Players for Change

IN THIS ISSUE

• 🤝 Introduction: Gratitude + Intro to Allen Hopkins Jr.

• 🤩 A Special Offer: 20% off at WorldSoccerShop

• 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leaders: Allen Hopkins Jr., Black Players for Change

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

• 📋 Featured Job: Head Coach, Men’s Soccer at Drexel University

• 🫵 Do This Now: A LinkedIn assignment to grow your network

INTRODUCTION

Hello, Pathwayers!

It’s almost time for turkey and, for some, football of a different variety. 🦃 🏈

We’re grateful for you, Pathway readers. Nearly 2,500 of you have joined us on this journey so far and we’re thankful to have you along for the ride.

Today, we’re pleased to share a conversation with a man who has built one of the most interesting - and varied! - careers in American soccer. We spoke this week with Allen Hopkins Jr., the Executive Director of Black Players for Change.

Capturing his entire career in a few sentences isn’t possible (take a look at his LinkedIn profile to see what we mean) but from serving as one of the most prominent broadcasters in the sport (NBC Sports, ABC, ESPN, and FOX Sports) for more than a decade, to serving as Special Advisor to former U.S. Menʼs National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, to working with MLS in the Player Relations & Competition Department, Allen has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the sport that we can all learn from. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

As always, we’re happy to hear from you directly if you want to share an idea or feedback: [email protected].

-Kyle Sheldon, Co-Founder & CEO

SOCCER THOUGHT LEADERS: ALLEN HOPKINS JR., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF BLACK PLAYERS FOR CHANGE

“Because it's not about the network, it's about the advocacy within the network.”

Our conversation this week is with someone who has been a respected part of the American soccer community for decades and also reinvented himself - and his career - on multiple occasions.

Allen Hopkins Jr. was named the Executive Director of Black Players for Change earlier this year and maintains his own soccer jobs newsletter called The List. Since 2021, he’s helped secure upwards of 50 successful hires in the soccer industry. With his deep background in the sport, we were thrilled Allen was willing to share a bit about his personal experience in the industry and some of the key learnings he’s picked up along the way.

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity (any emphasis below is ours - because we think they’re worth a closer look!).

PATHWAY: Allen, early in your career you established yourself as one of the leading broadcasters in soccer working for ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC, and others - yet, you chose to leave the broadcast industry to pursue other interests. How and why did you make that decision?

ALLEN: The decision to leave broadcasting was a burning bush moment for me in South Africa [at the 2010 World Cup] that led me to pivoting out of broadcasting. I had, by all accounts, a rapid ascension into broadcasting. Within two years of doing local high school sports in the Bay Area, I was on Sky Sports and FOX Sports World, FOX Sports International, and that time was amazing. A big part of why I decided to leave was that I just have always always believed that I had a bigger mission in life. It was a conversation with one of my mentors, Keith Jackson - the great broadcaster Keith Jackson - who lived near me at the time. He just told me a story about how he didn't want his life to end at a stadium. It really stuck with me and I just had a moment where I felt like I can do more than broadcasting to affect the game, to affect the people around me. And I just realized that I just wanted to go to a place where I could leave a legacy - a positive, lasting legacy for my friends, my family, and community in the game. And I didn't know what it was. I had no concrete plans. All I had was a supportive family, a couple bucks in a savings account, and a desire to find my true self.

PATHWAY: As someone who has made that big decision to pivot in your career, what are the one or two key learnings you’d share with someone who is considering doing the same?

ALLEN: The main learning, at least for me, that I think can be applied to others is reverse engineering. What do I mean by that? Know what you want to do, know what your value is, and then backfill the pathway to get there. For a long time I said to myself, this is what I'm good at - I'm good at affecting people, making people better, organizing operations and logistics. My nickname growing up was ‘Tetris’ because I can just fit it all together and that's how I raise my kids: “No matter what it is, we got it. We’ll figure it out.” So, understand what's going to make you happy, where you're going to get your joy and fulfillment - what's your personal career ambition, and your professional currency? And then keep the main thing, the main thing - then go back and figure out what steps you have to take to get there. 

PATHWAY: Over the last few years, you’ve developed a community for those who want to work in soccer via your own newsletter, The List. What have you learned in developing that community and from helping others land jobs in soccer?

ALLEN: One of the things I think about all the time is that soft skills are the hard skills. The ability to connect with people, the ability to write concise, articulate, and precise emails, the feeling you give people by being a great teammate, a great colleague. It takes natural talent, humanity and gifts, and an intentionality to be good at things that people don't see. So, I think people should rely on their soft skills more and articulate them more as their hard skills. I find that in soccer, the people that survive and have long journeys in the game, it's because they have the same mentality of self-advocacy and self-improvement and awareness and resiliency, and being a self-starter. I tell people all the time, find things that differentiate you from other people. And usually it's the soft skills.

Now the rub is that those are sometimes the hardest things to articulate in a snapshot, in a resume or CV, particularly now as we head into the heavy algorithm reliance of the job search. So it's - how can you make those contacts and those connections? Because it's not about the network, it's about the advocacy within the network. If you can get people to pick up the phone and call on your behalf, that is different. I grew up, it was your network, your network, your network. But when I think about all the key moments I've had in my career, all the breakthrough moments, it was all because I had someone picking up the phone and calling or writing on my behalf. And that's what I do with The List. My approach is direct contact. It's leveraging all the relationships that I have in this game after so long and really advocating for people in a way that's genuine, authentic, and can be felt. 

PATHWAY: As you look at either side of the job seeker - the talent - and the company who is assessing the talent and looking to hire, what are the most important factors to ensure alignment on both sides of that equation? 

ALLEN: Great question. What I've learned is that every table's not a table to sit at. And just because you like the club, you like the market, you can envision yourself there, you're speaking it into an existence like, “oh, this is what I'm going to do,” the reality is that you have to have a specific understanding of how you're going to fit into an organization. And you said a word that I absolutely love that people don't use enough, it's talent. Find organizations, find opportunities where - and it takes a lot more due diligence - but find a place where they're just looking for the most talented individual and they're going to help them find the role that fits their organizational needs. It's really difficult to be talented and then fit into someone's box.

I just love that word talent because what I found in the soccer space, you have organizations now who are full of smart HR people who understand that the whole idea is talent acquisition and retention. So, look for the words, look for the language, look for the vocabulary that speaks to you in job descriptions, because oftentimes those are little clues, when someone's really got their arms around a job description and when they haven't. 

What are they saying - and what are they not saying - in the job description that's important to you? As an exercise, print out the job description, get a red pen, mark it up, and try to understand if this is a great opportunity for building your career or an opportunity that’s just a job. There are jobs and there are careers and you have to understand that sometimes a club just needs a job to be filled. 

PATHWAY: To turn our attention to your new role at Black Players for Change - we’d love for you to share how you're seeing the organization evolve and where you think it can make its biggest impact in the sport in the coming years?

ALLEN: When I think about Black Players for Change, I want our organization to be the heart and soul of soccer. Full stop, end of sentence. And that's the opportunity that we have. It's really about an organization like BPC whose sole function and focus is to create those pathways of equality and social justice. And I am so blessed to work with an amazing membership - the professional players that make up BPC are amazing; Our board of directors, our executive committee, our subcommittees. It's just amazing to be around a group of people that are so intentional, and are so bright. 

I also remind people that Black Players for Change is a descriptor of who we are, not just all that we focus on and what we do. The work we do lifts up everyone. Our focus is on issues that are distinct to the black experience, particularly in soccer. That's why representation is so important to us. We want to see as many talented black men and black women have opportunities to be head coaches and executives, chief soccer officers and GMs, and I tell people all the time, there are those moments after a big win on the field and you're dapping up everyone and life is never better. You get home, everyone's loving you up, everyone's breaking down the game and you feel like, man, where's Man City? Let's go. We're going to beat everyone. And by the same token, if you lose and you were never in it and you couldn't get out of your own way and you want to avoid the JV girls team around the corner, they might hand you an L. I want everyone to have that same opportunity to feel that high and to feel that low - let them choose their path and let them have an opportunity to experience all of that. That's what I want. I just want people to have the opportunity to feel those amazing highs and to find out who they are in those desperately low lows. And so that's really what motivates me is having people have access to all the great things in and around this game. 

PATHWAY: What are the things you've seen from organizations that are successfully incorporating DEI into their hiring process? 

ALLEN: There has to be an honest evaluation of the population and the people that you're continuing to see apply for jobs. Having been in the club environment and thinking about the interfaces that you get back, being on the receiving end of applications from the bigger box companies is how little humanity sometimes goes into the process. And it's very, very hard to communicate and advocate for yourself when you are sort of shut out in the beginning. And diversity is not just based on your skin color - it's your background, your socioeconomic background, how you came up, your religion, your beliefs, how you identify as a person. And I just tell people, diversity is really the best thing for business. And there's a treasure trove of business cases that can prove both anecdotally and from a KPI perspective the value of having a diverse team. I think clubs and organizations who really are courageous, who really want to have a vibrant collective of individuals really need to ask “where are we getting our individuals from? How are we sourcing them?” And I think if they have a diverse portfolio of places they get people from, sometimes it is a friend of a friend, sometimes it is a direct contact, it can easily be a family member, many different variables go into a formula to create a great and vibrant organization.

I would just challenge companies to give people the bandwidth internally to really look at how they hire people. What are their job descriptions saying? Are their job descriptions eliminating people from the beginning [of the process]? As an example, I know a lot of organizations are removing the bachelor's degree requirement from their job descriptions because they really just want to find the most talented people. And this is why our representation piece is very important, too - the more women you have, the more underrepresented minorities that you have, you generally just find a more diverse workplace. And then the last thing I would say is there are a lot of people in the space who want to do this work. There's a lot of allyship, and that's what heartens me is there are a lot of clubs who have raised their hand to say, “hey, we really, really want to have a workplace that reflects our values, our mission, and who we want to be in our community.”

PATHWAY: Given your background in mental conditioning, Allen, what would you share with people who have had difficulty breaking into the soccer industry or that have faced repeated rejections?

I can't wait to share this with my kids because they'll be happy that I'm sharing something they've heard ad nauseam. Marcus Aurelius: “If you're ever going to do anything great, setbacks are expected, not permanent.” If you want a dream job, you have to normalize the setbacks. You have to normalize the failures. You have to know that you're going to have two dozen conversations that lead to three real ones that lead to one opportunity. You have to understand that the failures are learnings, the obstacles and the challenges are all opportunities to grow. And you really have to figure out how resilient you can be, how patient you are, how you can find ways to let that frustration fuel you and make the obstacles the inspiration.

And the last thing I would say is give yourself grace. There will be times where you weren't as sharp in an interview or you wish you would've said this, or you wish you would have done that. Learn from it, move on, and understand that the grace you give yourself gives you the opportunity to heal and to move forward. So it's a challenge. It's hard when you've been on a losing streak of opportunities. But if you're ever going to do anything great, setbacks are expected, not permanent.

Ed. Note: You can follow or connect with Allen on LinkedIn or X [Twitter!] You can also learn more about Black Players for Change by visiting their website.

SOCCER JOBS: THE MOST INTERESTING NEW JOBS IN SOCCER

Each and every week, we track down a handful of the newest and most interesting jobs in soccer. And we’ve got a wide variety of opportunities to share on both the business and sporting side of the sport today. If one of these strikes your fancy, throw your hat in the ring and apply, why don’t ya?

• Data Scout - Charlotte FC [MLS]

• Graphic Designer - San Diego Wave [NWSL]

• Director, Fan Experience - FC Cincinatti [MLS]

• Head Coach - Tacoma Defiance [MLS Next Pro]

• Manager, USWNT Social Media - U.S. Soccer [USSF]

• Senior Manager, Marketing (Soccer) - Puma [Brand]

• Associate News Producer, Soccer - Paramount/CBS Sports [TV]

• Manager, Partnership Development - Chicago Red Stars [NWSL]

DO THIS NOW: LEAVE 10 LINKEDIN COMMENTS

This is what we call “low hanging fruit.” And, if you do it consistently, it will lead to more connections, a bigger network, and eventually, more opportunities.

TODAY’S RECOMMENDATION: Go to LinkedIn, scroll your feed, and find 10 posts within your area of interest or expertise and add a comment.

• Keep these tips in mind:

  • Be positive, encouraging, and supportive

  • Add value to the post by sharing your own opinion (in other words, don’t just say “way to go!”)

  • Write 2-4 sentences to ensure substance

  • Avoid sarcasm, hot takes, and banter

If you don’t yet have a ton of connections and are having trouble finding 10 posts to comment on, here’s an approach you can take to unearth some:

• Find active and influential LinkedIn users and click on their profile

• Scroll down to “Activity” and click on both “Posts” and “Comments”

• Find a relevant post and add your commentary

• Voila, you’re in the conversation!

And, if you need a head start, here are a handful of soccer industry professionals who tend to be active on LinkedIn (and are worth following!);

• Vicky Lynch, Chief Revenue Officer at Rhode Island FC

• David Wright, Chief Commercial Officer at U.S. Soccer

• John Brennan, Founder & CEO at AC Momento

• Diego Hurtado, Founder at Diaza Football

• Lynnea Bolin, Brand Designer at NWSL

The professional soccer community is small. By simply increasing the breadth and frequency of where you show up on LinkedIn, especially if you can add value to the conversation, people will start to take notice - and you’ll very likely see connection requests increase. You’ll be on your way.

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.

Tell a friend?

⏩ Finally, if you’re willing to help spread the word, please forward this issue along to a friend or two who love the beautiful game. It’s the top way people find us and we’re grateful for the assist.

And if you really want to plug in to all things Pathway, you can also follow us on social media:

• Twitter / X

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Have a Happy Thanksgiving, soccer friends. See you next week.

• John Bello

• Kyle Sheldon

• Nolan Sheldon