Three Questions with... Matt Barnes, Michele Steele and Kyle Schlegel
Three opinions from three leaders from three different types of work. Journalist, enterpreneur and marketer. All thriving. Hope you enjoy Matt, Michele and Kyle sharing their past mistake now a strength, their daily purpose and their passions (professional and/or personal).
Matt Barnes is the President of Leisure Club; a lifestyle and hospitality brand focused on exceptional environments and experiences that drive community engagement. Barnes brings a creative and philosophical approach to business that inspires audiences into action. Prior to Leisure Club, Barnes started businesses in experiential advertising, social gaming, and event marketing, while lending his knowledge and experiences to start ups, agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. He is crushing.
MISTAKE: Just one? Lol! If I had to boil it down, I’d say having pride is not the same as being proud. The difference is in the driver. As a young, swashbuckling entrepreneur standing atop some niche heap shouting industry jargon with my nose in the air, swilling on about things I didn’t really love, I over imbibed on accolades and adornment. My driver was a special little avatar of future me that was only admirable for self-ascribed accomplishments. It took a number of jabs, bruises, and scrapes, like a lot of them, for me to realize I had the whole thing upside down.
For me, having pride is selfish and short sighted, sacrificing anything, relationships, opportunities, and security, just for another proverbial rung or, better yet, an intangible reality. Whatever preserved image one might have of oneself is not real to anyone else.
Being proud is looking around at what’s in front of you and expressing gratitude for the blessings you’ve been gifted. Speaking that into your lot in life, into the people that surround you and support you, into the fields you’ve chosen to sow, into the moments that have shaped you. Being proud is focusing outward with appreciation on the sacrifices of everyone and everything around you.
Once I realized that, my whole life changed.
We are not the light, just a prism for it. Your goals are a gift, treat them as such. Don’t eat yellow snow.
PURPOSE: Besides caring for my family, my purpose is to create experiences that bring people together. It’s a thread that shows up throughout my life. From neighborhood forts as a kid to dinner parties in college and from large scale art events to a network of social environments, I have always been guided towards a single outcome, bringing people together to share memorable moments. My hope is that maybe people walk away deeply inspired, or more connected, or maybe they just smile at the next stranger they see. It’s my job to provide a space for people to fill their cup and take it back out into the world spilling over.
PASSION: Besides loving my family, my passion is creative problem solving AND solution sharing. I love people and finding solutions for implied or under expressed problems. From minor inconveniences to full scale conundrums, I enjoy taking disparate concepts or bits of data and blending them together, creating new combinations of ideas. Sometimes we get lucky and one of those combinations turns into a product or service that serves humanity.
Michele Steele was recently named to leadership at the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) , as president of the organization's largest affinity group, the Sports Task Force. She's currently a 14-year national correspondent at ESPN , where she reports from the field and you will often see her helping out on SportsCenter. And more importantly, Michele is a great person!
MISTAKE: When I graduated from college, my goals included "delay my fabulous career" for as long as was tenable. Backpacking in Europe without an income wasn't an option but working there was. As someone who could speak the language reasonably well, the French government hired me to work in public schools - first in the Loire Valley then on the island of Martinique - teaching English to students from first grade thru high school. While it did probably 'set me back' relative to my peers by a couple of years in the journalism business, it wound up being one of the most impactful experiences of my life - one that resulted in being able to better connect to global audiences, uncover new opportunities in unfamiliar spaces and piqued a lifelong curiosity in what's unique and different. I also know a lot about Loire Valley wines and still have my scuba license; both of which have come in handy on a number of occasions.
PURPOSE: Did you know that Asian American audiences spend 15 percent MORE time viewing sports than the general public? And are 33 percent MORE likely to subscribe to sports-specific streaming platforms? Sports podcast listenership is also growing quickly, up 28% between 2022 and 2024. Nielsen put together those statistics on sports audiences just this week - and my purpose right now is to use that kind of data to guide the AAJA sports group and ultimately, help our partners grow their businesses. And I'm applying the 3 core principles that have guided my career to that mission: Integrity - We strive for excellence in all we do. Respect - Mutual respect is fundamental to the business. Kindness is not weakness; it is a strength. Good people can do GREAT things when they do them together. Prosperity - We are in the business of delivering and creating value for our sponsors, partners and membership - growing their audiences, fostering more resonant storytelling and enhancing the skillsets needed to be successful in a media business where the future is a wide-open road.
PASSION: Learning new things. Building community. Presidential history. Like my dad, who was a lifelong civil servant, I'm a voracious reader of history - I'm also keenly interested in leadership. For the last decade or so, I've tried to visit all 16 of the presidential libraries in the US Presidential Library System. It started when I was at the University of Iowa for a game and wound up visiting the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, IA after my assignment ended. I realized I could learn a fair amount of modern US history through the prism of the men that have thus far occupied the Oval - I've visited Hoover, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and George W. Bush. My favorite so far is Nixon's library, as it included his childhood home and Marine 1, and provided a fascinating, and candid, accounting of Watergate and of his resignation. A close second for me is FDR - whose story is personally inspiring - his polio diagnosis at age 40 profoundly changed the makeup of who he was - and in my view, prepared him to be an unflappable leader during such a difficult time. He did not avoid great adversity but soldiered through it.
Kyle Schlegel is an SVP Marketing at United Sports Brands , leading marketing for a portfolio of industry-leading brands, including Shock Doctor , McDavid, Cutters and Nathan. His experience is vast across Weber, Wilson, Louisville Slugger and P&G. He has grown businesses everywhere he has gone. Of course he is a fellow Miami University ( Miami University Alumni Association ).
MISTAKE: Well, how much room do you have? Is there a maximum character count? Although there are numerous, I would say there are two things to come to mind in my professional life. 1) Although I credit my 13 years at P&G to start my career as the reason for any success I've had since then, I wish I would have known sooner how magical work can feel when you marry your passion (sports and lifestyle brands, in my case) with your profession. When I arrived at Louisville Slugger and realized how fulfilled I could truly feel at work, I wish everyone could feel that in their careers. 2) There have certainly been a handful of times in my career that I could have pushed and been bolder. I love to build, make the complex simpler, organize a team against a goal and more...but sometimes all of that "building" comes at a cost and that is not simply going to the whiteboard and writing a big, bold idea that we should all pursue with all we have.
PASSION: I'm a coach, a mentor and someone that simply loves to empower those around me. I'm never more at peace than when I am building teams and cultures that genuinely cheer for each other and generously celebrate team and individual success. A teammate shouting out to another for something that made a difference is the greatest gift that happens within a team. Helping someone on the team to find their confidence, unlocking a new skill, moving past a barrier or achieving something they didn't think possible is my fuel.
PURPOSE: As much as I'd like to cite a professional purpose, my true purpose is to take what my parents (they are awesome, by the way) made possible for me and expand on that for my daughter. My purpose is to give her the tools, the confidence, the support, the encouragement, and the room to pursue even her wildest dreams. She's an artist, an aspiring astronaut, an athlete, a humanitarian, a friend, a cheerleader for everyone around her, anything she sets her mind to...and enabling any and all of that is my north star.
...who should we ask Three Questions with... to next? Let me know!