Matt Deutsch

Matt Deutsch (0:00)

They have social teams, they have creative teams, they have talent, they have partnerships, they have sponsors, they have reach. So all they're really missing is the content strategy.

Toni (0:14)

A résumé turns years of work into a handful of bullet points. It shows what someone did, but it doesn't highlight how they think. I'm Toni Holcombe, and you're listening to Tell Me About a Time. The stories behind the résumés. Real people, real stories. Let's get them hired.

Toni (0:36)

Hey Matt, thanks for joining me in the studio today. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Matt Deutsch (0:40)

I'm so happy to be here, Toni. I love introducing myself as a sports media entrepreneur and content strategist. I've worked across social media, radio, television, podcast, video, vertical, and been doing it for 25 years. A lot of experience looking at what's coming next, building new things, working with teams to design content strategy and produce content that audiences want to be a part of and that you could build businesses around.

Toni (1:10)

Yeah, you have a really interesting career. Can you tell me how you got into this industry?

Matt Deutsch (1:20)

I've been fortunate to work and claw my way into the sports media world at an early age, right out of college. I had always been listening to sports radio growing up, so it was my first drive right out of school to be able to dive into broadcasting. And I did so on the community level, at community radio in Westchester County, New York. Really a great opportunity to learn everything about broadcasting. If you can't go to the Newhouse School at Syracuse or the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, my recommendation is to find a small independent station, which is tough to find, and do everything you can to learn the business, from mopping the floors to reporting live on election night and everything in between.

So I learned the business at community radio and got my passion for broadcasting there. All my journalistic standards and foundation in production and working with talent. And I got into my dream job, WFAN radio here in New York City, the first radio station ever talking about sports. I was able to work my way into the newsroom and then producing live radio shows with my idols. It was an unbelievable time for me to grow. Learn how to be creative on the radio. Learn the responsibility of preparing content for your audience, respecting your audience, whether it be someone listening or someone who calls in to speak on the program. Audio production, working at the biggest events in New York sports with the best people. Really fantastic.

And then creating fantasy sports radio, taking my passion for fantasy sports and radio and bringing them together, and conceiving the first radio channel dedicated to fantasy sports in 2010. Fantasy sports players, we just did not have opportunity to talk on the radio or in legitimate media. Producers would hang up on us, hosts would not want to talk to us. If it wasn't for Matthew Berry at ESPN, there'd be no fantasy sports coverage at that point. So understanding the market, the passion, the demographics, and taking a proposal to my boss, Steve Cohen, at SiriusXM, and having him pitch to Mel Karmazin, the CEO, the idea of a dedicated fantasy sports radio channel. Mel said yes. And we launched SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio in 2010. Just an unbelievable experience with success we never dreamed of. A pop-up channel doing things that had never been done before with athletes and celebrities, and really harnessing the passion of fantasy sports across the country. I was able and privileged to do that for a long time, over a decade.

And I left SiriusXM after 17 years to start my own network, to put all my ideas into practice of what I feel sports talk, sports content should be. The evolution of technology and interaction, and making it more inclusive and fun, and launching Better Sports Network. From there I pivoted to a business-to-business philosophy of producing content for companies in the space that needed podcasts, that needed video production, that needed short-form video, that needed social media execution and publishing, content strategy, live events. That's what I'm doing now at Better Sports Productions. It's basically tailoring campaigns on a business-to-business basis, producing content, hiring talent, and conducting content strategy for brands out there.

So I really have leveled up myself from what was once a radio guy to really a 360-degree media pro. Certainly in the last four years, learning graphic design and video production, short-form content, SEO, algorithms. There's just so much to it in the sports media game, in the media game, and I'm happy to learn new things and excited about what's to come.

Toni (5:12)

Very good. So content strategy, can you tell me a little bit more about that? Because I'm very curious what you mean by that.

Matt Deutsch (5:21)

Well, I think back in the day, we would be program directors in a linear network. We would direct the content that was going to be on the shows, how long they would be, who would host, what the strategy of the show would be, whether it be phone calls or interaction or guest driven, whatever it is, live coverage. And as the media space has changed and content has gone all the way down to 30 seconds, and we still have our long form, it's really changed from director of programming to more of a content strategist, in my opinion, of where my skills are best used. Because it's not just working with hosts on a radio show or a television show. It's really how do we make this 30-second vertical short on TikTok work? What are we trying to get our audience to do? Are we asking them to interact with us? Are we asking them to buy something, go to our website, go to a partner's website, write an email? Are we asking them to send us video content?

What are we asking our audience to do?

And really designing a content strategy specifically for the platform and the goal in mind. So it's a long-form video, it's a short-form Instagram, it could be anything, a live event. So taking all the assets that a company may have, whether it be a media company or a brand. What are they trying to get across? Taking that theory and really building it, making it come to life through creative production, creative content, interaction. A lot of different ways you can do that. But when I think of content, I think about activating an audience. Getting away from the passive idea where someone's just taking in content, and really giving them something they can do with it. Whether we want them, again, to interact with us, post a message, or buy something, or vote a certain way, or just to take action. So when I see content strategy, that's really what I'm thinking.

Toni (7:12)

Okay. So that takes in a lot of different things. Everything from actually producing the content to just coming up with a message, and then what you want somebody to do with that message for the next step, right? Wow. Okay. So tell me a little bit about how you're... like you said, you had to learn graphic design, right?

Matt Deutsch (7:36)

Well, certainly coming from a transition in media where, for the radio crowd, it was just radio. Maybe there were billboards and whatnot, but I recognized quickly radio would never be enough. And in this day and age, people really need an aesthetically pleasing, we'll call it a thumbnail for now, a representation of what your content is, whether it be audio, video, a live event, whatever it is. Someone needs to see something to click on. That's the game right now. It's not just enough to have great content, whether it be audio or video. And this is one of the lessons I have learned. I've spent my whole life developing content that needs to be better than everything else that's out there. That needs to keep people listening, keep people watching, have them take action. And we've learned the lesson that before you even get to that space, you have to bring them there. It's not just enough to promote on the radio or promote on television that we have this great event happening at 8:00. You have to have people find you. And not only do you have to have them find you, you have to make them say, "Yes, I want to engage with you." A lot of times, the aesthetics of the first introduction your content has to a user, especially a new user, is where you have to win.

Toni (8:55)

Yeah. So that is fascinating, because right now we are so inundated with bids for our attention. We have all these notifications from our phone. We have all these notifications for our emails. We have notifications by regular mail. How in the world are you competing against all those bids right now? What are you seeing that works?

Matt Deutsch (9:17)

Well, it's a great question, and certainly my world, the sports media world, is as competitive and crowded as you could get. But really, I would just make the argument that we're all just competing for attention. It's the same attention. It doesn't matter if you're ADP, a timesheet company, or you're selling coffee, or you're presenting football coverage. We're all competing for the user's attention. And thankfully, we know where the users are. We know the devices they're using. We know where to find them. So now at least you don't have that problem. You have to go and be special. Make yourself different. You have to be able to be discovered. You've got to be able to stand out in a crowd. That is not easy to do in any way.

You mentioned notifications. It is something that is very strong. I think devices, apps specifically that have notifications, are powerful, but that's a responsibility. You abuse that responsibility, people are going to turn those notifications off and you'll never reach them again. So you've got to be really careful. You can't just be blasting out notifications every hour. You really have to be strategic. And it just gets back to everything you do has to be strategic. We talked about the graphic design. So to stand out in the crowd, we're going to have a customized design that's going to at least let people understand who we are before they even click on us.

Push alerts and other technology make a lot of sense, but you have to educate people about what it is. Not only do you have to not ping them too much, but you have to ask them, hey, sign up for this, you get that. We're getting asked to sign up for things left and right. We're giving our information everywhere, our usernames, our passwords. So there's a lot of fatigue there from the user point of view, and we have to be careful of that. We have to try to be frictionless, or as little friction as possible, or at least create an incentive that's going to be worth it.

So there's a lot of ways we can do that, and I've learned a lot as an entrepreneur. I've had my lessons, and discoverability is hard and standing out in a crowd is hard. Doesn't matter your relationships or experience. Sometimes you really need to work with influencers that have reach. You need to get the distribution that has reach. You need to be able to tell a good story, a story that people want to be a part of. You need to be transparent in a lot of ways with your company. What does your brand stand for? Why should someone give you their most precious commodity, which is attention?

And finally, what I've personally seen that works is gamification. It's taking the content and making it so that the user, the viewer, has a little bit more of a stake in it, a little bit more interest in it. Rather than just putting my feet up and listening or watching, I'm now highly engaged because I'm waiting for you to say that buzzword, or I'm waiting for that little Hello Kitty icon to show up so I can win something. Or I'm looking to answer a question, or I'm even chatting and interacting with the audience in real time. Maybe I have a teammate in the audience and we're doing something. But gamifying the content doesn't have to be overly complicated. Think about our Top 40 friends. Just give me a chance to win something and I'll be much more engaged.

Toni (12:25)

Very good. So I want to push back on something. You said the most precious commodity that we have right now is attention. And I would present the argument that our most precious commodity is our time. Every time we get a notification, every time we get a pop-up, it takes a little bit of time away from us, because there's that switch transaction that occurs. If I am watching this and then something calls my attention over here, now I have a spend on going from here to here. What are you seeing in your industry right now that's addressing that spend?

Matt Deutsch (13:06)

Well, time and attention are very similar to me, both super valuable. On the one hand, it is very difficult, specifically in the media world, to ask our audience to go from app to app to app. That is not a seamless experience. Those of us of an age remember clicking around and surfing around, where it was all one platform and pretty easy to go from one to the next. And now, like you say, it really is an investment. Get off one app, get onto another, maybe I've got to sign up again and put my username in. So I think that's certainly a fair point, and something you have to win with.

We talked about friction a little bit. Your ability to come into the gate, to come into the pool, needs to be seamless, needs to be easy. It can't be difficult. And again, I would go back to incentivizing me. If I'm going to put my time in, I've got to be incentivized to either be with the cool kids, win something, or share something. Look smart in front of my friends, look smart in front of my family, learn. And of course, fear of missing out. Very, very powerful. You get my time if you can explain to me why I can't miss what's coming up.

Toni (14:13)

All right, very good. So what recommendations would you have for someone like me who's just getting started, who's got a new concept, who's honestly just trying to help other people out in this world? How do I get more attention? How do I get more views? So ultimately I can help the people who are coming on to the show?

Matt Deutsch (14:33)

Yeah. Well, you're off to a good start. You bring someone in to talk to, and automatically you're talking to their whole audience. You're talking to their network. So bringing in people of influence that can share your message, share what you're doing, is a great way to start. I think you use LinkedIn extraordinarily well. You're transparent. You put yourself out there with a purpose. People know exactly what you're doing, your background, where you're coming from, why you're doing it, and you create a safe space. So you're at least harnessing the environment to make great content.

You're editing. And I think putting out short-form clips is a no-brainer for anyone that's producing anything more than 2 minutes. You've got to go with a short-form clip to be able to reach people. We talked about the graphic design, but the hook right in the beginning, the first thing that somebody's hearing or seeing, has got to be the most important part of the piece. So thinking about ways to structure your content and present it to the world to get them to keep listening is important.

It goes against journalism a little bit. We would never manipulate a quote from a guest in the real world, but in this world, it's perfectly okay to take the last thing that I said and put it before the first thing I said, and move things around to create the best sound bite. With permission, of course. So creative editing, to get out of that linear world and understand that it can be choppy. It can be presented differently. It can start with something where nobody knows what they're talking about, but they're really intrigued.

So I think the hook, the graphic design, working with influencers, getting your message out, being transparent, these are all ways to amplify what you're doing. And ultimately, you need to be a guest. Just pretend like you wrote a book. All these authors, they talk about the process and do the interviews. They have to sell their books. Same thing. You need to appear as a guest on other people's podcasts. And that's where your true secret sauce will come out, because in a long-form conversation, we can hear you, we can see you, we can see how passionate you are, your transparency, your drive, your motivation. And that's going to get me to want to watch the next podcast.

Toni (16:47)

All right. Very good. Thank you for that. So you must have worked alongside or directly with a number of celebrities. Do you have any stories you can share?

Matt Deutsch (17:00)

Well, we have to be careful. Producer privilege, right? We have a lot of privileges. We hear and see not only our hosts, but the top talent behind the scenes. Crazy things that I've seen and heard off mic, sometimes on mic when it wasn't intended. And it is a privilege. While I don't ask for autographs, I'm secretly always thrilled about working with the most successful people in the space. And really the best part about it is challenging them to be better hosts, to be better guests, to be better speakers. Taking these world-class people who want to be the best at everything, and helping them grow, and teaching them, and coaching them. They expect coaching, especially the athletes. They love it.

But the story I would say is pretty fair to tell is working with Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, on a radio show called October Nights, where Reggie would talk about the Yankees in the playoffs at SiriusXM. And Reggie, quite a character, as is public. The book on Reggie's out there. It's not unusual for a guest to be off the timing, or to show up late, or whatever it is, to make the producer sweat to get that radio interview or that television interview, to get that recording. Anything could go wrong, and it always has. We've got to fix equipment, or something doesn't work, or the car service has a flat tire.

So on this particular day, Reggie's, we'll say, right on time for him, but just a few minutes before we need to record, at the massive building at SiriusXM in New York City. We're going to the 37th floor. And maybe 3 minutes before we need to record, Reggie's in the lobby. Of course, we're asking for security, and Reggie doesn't have his ID. So now I know immediately what's coming. I know I'm going to be sweating this one out, and I politely ask the security guard. It's not like we're asking for someone we don't know to come into the building. We're not trying to make light of security or anything, but it is Reggie Jackson.

So I walk over to the security guard and I say, "Reggie Jackson here doesn't have his ID. I'm literally recording with him in 2 minutes. This is me, Matt Deutsch. You know I work at SiriusXM. Can you let Reggie in?" He says, "I'll let Reggie in if he signs an autograph for my son." I said, "Great." I walk over to Reggie. "Reggie, I saved the day. We're going to be able to do this. All you need to do is sign an autograph for his son. We'll take you right upstairs." Reggie says, "No. I'm Reggie Jackson. I'm not just giving away my autograph." Reggie jumped over the turnstile in the lobby of SiriusXM, got in the elevator, and went upstairs. You can't make it up.

Toni (19:41)

He just said, "I'm going." Mr. October. So why are you on the show today?

Matt Deutsch (19:49)

Good question. Well, I don't turn down podcast appearances. I love talking to people, and love appearing and helping people in the space. So I'm looking for my next opportunity. I did not expect to be looking for full-time work, but it comes at a time where I'm really fortunate to be able to dedicate my time and attention towards this growing industry. Certainly in sports media, but evolving technology and new markets coming in, to see for the first time where my skills and strategies can best be used.

I've been in this path, this funnel, for so long in the sports media game, which I love, but I think it's an excellent time for me to step back and take a look at what else is out there. And I've already started to have some revelations. For me, content strategy is trying to apply what I do, maybe in an unconventional way, outside the sports world, towards the business world, towards private brands. Taking my gamification playbook, my experiences, my relationships, my strategy, and bringing me in to create content for brands who all have the same need for attention that sports media and sports networks have.

All these brands are producing advertisements and webinars and social content, and many of them podcasts and even shows. They have partnerships with ambassadors and assets to work with and a lot of reach. Everything that a media network would have. And to be able to take my experience and work in an environment like that, with my fresh eyes, my objective eyes, over a new product. Ask the questions that maybe others who have been doing it this way for so long haven't asked, and try new things, and see if my gamification can activate their audience and help them develop community and build business.

So I'm here to tell my story, to look for smart people building cool things. I want to work in a creative environment, and I want to work with teams of people that have a mission and want to have fun creating content and moving the needle. It's been quite an interesting process, after being head down creating content for so long, to be able to step back and look within, and see the new world, and see that this is really what I could be doing that I never thought of before.

Toni (22:09)

Okay. Very good. So you've mentioned gamification a couple of times. What in your work history or career has indicated to you that it is powerful enough to overcome all these bids for attention?

Matt Deutsch (22:27)

Good question. I think it goes back to my radio days in the beginning, with traditional phone calls. A radio talk show that is more welcoming with phone calls, in my opinion, is going to be better than a radio show that has no interaction, that is just one way. Also, you're going to get higher listenership if people not only know they can call in, but more specifically know they can call in and win something. It's pretty easy to understand. I need to be listening. I hear this word, I call in, I win something. So that would be the simplest part of gamification.

And then taking it to the next level when I built my Better Sports Network app, bringing the technology and the innovation along so that not only can I call in, but I can be waiting with my finger on the button. When they say this word or when this question comes up, I know it, I can hit the button. Or I can compete and put points around a scoring system around a game that we're all watching, and compete for fun and prizes, to interact with the audience and have more of a stake in what I'm watching. With Better Sports Network shows, we found that people watched longer when we were opening up interaction for them to be able to compete with each other and chat with each other and win prizes. I think that's the basic theory right there, to make it more exciting, make it more interesting.

Newsletters that have games in them, I believe, are also more sticky. I'm more likely to want to get your newsletter every morning if it has, for me, a fun and simple game attached to it. Other people want a more complicated game. I'm on the train for an hour and a half, I need something that's going to take up that time, and I look forward to your newsletter because you have this game in there. Or you're taking me on a scavenger hunt, and you're putting clues in your podcast and your Instagram post and your newsletter and your website, and when it comes out in the morning, I've got all the clues and I'm going to win that prize, or I'm going to get shouted out.

Even the shout-outs, I think that is another piece we're really missing for gamification. So it's just commenting on YouTube. "Matt, how is that gamification?" Maybe it's not. It's just interaction. Someone puts a comment, but for sure I'm going to go in there and interact with everybody who comments on my YouTube post or my Instagram or my TikTok. Go look how many brands are out there putting out content where the comments are there and nobody's answering them. There's nobody home. That's crazy to me. So not only should you be interacting with each and every post, which, we don't really know the secret sauce, but in my opinion really fuels the algorithms. It's also a terrific way to shout out your subscribers, your fans, your people out there. You don't have to give first and last name if you don't want to. Show the post, show their message, show their email, black out what you have to, but at least shout out their name. People will do a lot just to get shouted out.

Show their video. I think user-generated content too. UGC. "That's not gamification, Matt. It's UGC." Fine. It's user-generated content. But someone is taking the time to film themselves at the beach and send me their 20-second video clip so I play it on my show. Call it whatever you want, but that person's going to be more engaged in my show to find out if I play his or her video clip.

Toni (25:38)

Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. So how would a brand that has no gamification start implementing it today?

Matt Deutsch (25:50)

Well, that's where I come in. I've been spending my time reviewing assets, reviewing company strategies, and putting together mock strategic plans for them. I think you do see these opportunities out there from brands that want a creative strategist. Some of them have head of content roles. I am finding that that position also entails the creative side of it, the logos, the branding, which is fine, but I do think that's two separate positions. I do feel like the content strategist needs to work with the head of social media and the head of creative and brand, but that person really should be involved in the content campaign.

And to get a specialist like that, let's face it, it's not enough to just do YouTube. Our content campaign is everything. You see it on the job descriptions. The website, the newsletter, all our vertical short-form content, our YouTube, our webinar, our products. What do we see at the Amazon store, at Walgreens on the shelf? As a content strategist, my content is also on the label of the product. So that's a lot to ask. And that's why I feel like working with well-designed teams that have specialists in them is going to be the most successful.

Of course, as an entrepreneur, I've done all these things myself. And also in a large company like SiriusXM, working cross-functionally with marketing and sales and tech and PR and legal and all the tentacles you need, the team that makes it happen. But to answer the question, for a company to do that, I think they need to start thinking strategy. They need to start building it before they even hire anybody or do any recording. You need to say, why are we doing this? What are we putting together here? What is the goal? And I think you need to work with a specially designed professional to do that.

Toni (27:47)

Okay. What sorts of brands are you interested in working with?

Matt Deutsch (27:53)

Well, that is a good question. I think I'm learning. Sports media is an easy one. I love sports, and all of the sports media world makes sense, whether it be creator-led, legacy media, big, small, audio, video, vertical, horizontal, live events. All of that stuff. Over my career I have specialized in seeing what's next, and emerging technologies and emerging markets. So I think prediction markets, specifically in sports and beyond, is an area where there's a lot of investment, a lot of growth, a lot of innovation, a lot of scrutiny, volatility also, but really not a lot of content in the world. Not a lot of information, not a lot of entertainment. So on the sports side, it would be anything media and sports, but specifically my background: prediction markets, betting, fantasy sports.

But I'm seeing that a much larger area would be, like I said, working for a brand that has every level of content production associated with it that a media company would have. They have social teams, they have creative teams, they have talent, they have partnerships, they have sponsors, they have reach. So all they're really missing is the content strategy. And now that I'm looking, I've had this revelation. Those opportunities are out there, with brands that need me as a gamification content strategist to be the differentiator for them to stand out in a crowded market.

So my new thought is, which of these brands can I just come right into, bring my playbook, learn, be objective, and help them? And which ones really do need a specialist? If I hadn't been a fantasy sports expert, I never could have launched SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio. You have to have the lingo. You have to be authentic. You have to know where the landmines are. You've got to know the emotions that your audience, your readers, your viewers, your listeners are going through because they're in that space. Now, not all of them need to be that. If I'm selling coffee, I think I can just come right in and give you my content strategy. I'm putting together proposals for wellness brands. I think that's a good one for me. Putting together proposals for, like I said, ADP, the timesheet company. It's an excellent opportunity for a head of content. And it's not all sports. I've worked with brands, I've worked with companies outside of sports, which gets me really excited, figuring out how to take what I've learned and make them better.

Toni (30:20)

Okay. What kinds of signals would indicate to a brand that they need somebody like you? What would be happening in their business? What kind of business problems would they be facing?

Matt Deutsch (30:39)

Well, we've already seen this start in the media world. We've seen these massive sportsbook companies, these betting companies, create content on their own. It's awesome for our industry for all these people to be getting hired, but they're spending way too much money, not understanding return on investment, not really knowing how they're even doing. That is one area where I think you need to have a plan. We need to know what our metrics are. What are we evaluating? What are we using as success here?

For a private business, signals like that depend on where the content is. If it's long-form content, we want to make sure people are watching or listening longer. So we're using time spent listening, and how many people are still there 15 seconds in, 30 seconds in. I think that's a big one. Obviously, interaction would be another one. Comments, shares, likes, we have hypes now. These are easy analytics to go through, to be able to see when my people are online, when they interact with us, what strategies work, what strategies don't.

Clicks and views, I'm not as big on as I am with extended viewership and commentary. YouTube will call it an engaged view. I'm much more interested in an engaged view than somebody who hovers over my post for 3 seconds and rings up a number on the scoreboard, but there's nothing there. You really need to be able to form a bond with the audience. And it starts with them not flicking right past your stuff, because they're not going to remember it. Give them something memorable to take away, and let's score it. Let's figure out how memorable it was by scoring the action they need to take.

So to answer the question, what signals are out there? It has to be the traditional analytics on our social media posts, but really it's resonating. If it's a brand, it's how many people are buying the product. We have easy, simple things like promo codes. You hear this, put this code in, you get 10% off. Tell them Matt sent you. So you could try all that stuff. But if you don't have the strategy going in, the why and the how, just putting it in afterwards and then measuring success off that is not going to work out that well.

Toni (32:54)

I completely agree with that. Is there anything else you want to say that we haven't covered today?

Matt Deutsch (33:00)

I would just always share advice with people that are in the same boat as me. Unfortunately, I have clients I'm working with. Wish it was more. I think we've proven that my business development could use some work, but I'm proud of the clients I'm working with, and happy to still have my hands on equipment and be creating every day. To be able to look for an opportunity but also be generating some income is a blessing for me, and to still be able to work with great people.

But a lot of people are out of work, and they're not working at all. It is a challenge, as we all know, and there's a lot of dark times and loneliness. So the message is, you're not alone, and you have support. Find your people. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. I've been given a lot of support from people that know me and people that don't know me, so I always want to start with gratitude for that. The people in my network that know what I'm all about and check in on me, but also the people who have just met me and are learning my story and offering advice.

And I would say, if you're fortunate enough to be happy in your position, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be looking for a new gig. You should always know what's out there. But if you are in a comfortable place, then keep an eye on the people who aren't. Invite them out. Help them. Make an introduction. You really will see that it will make a lot of difference to that person.