Hi, and welcome to How to Sport, the show that highlights the unique experiences and journeys of professionals and sports biz.

I'm your host, Megan Robertson, and I have the privilege to be here today with Green Bay Packers Director of retail Operations, Christa Jorgensen.

Welcome, Christa, Well, hello Meghan, thanks for having me.

We're so excited to have you on the show today.

We have a fun couple of questions for you, maybe a little more than a couple, but we'll start from the beginning and then go from there.

How does that sound?

Sounds like a great plan.

So you grew up in Kansas on a farm.

We'll get to that in a little bit.

You are one of five children, four girls and a boy.

Oh my goodness, he's fine.

I promise we'll.

See about that.

You have a number of nieces and a nephew the best.

You graduated from Wichita State University with your Bachelor of Education in Sport administration, and then you have a background that's all over the sports industry.

You've hit almost all four professed professional sports leagues Baseball, basketball, and now football.

So let's start from the beginning.

You worked in minor league baseball at the Chattanooga Lookouts.

You started in retail and then moved to ticket ops.

Is that right, listen?

In minor league baseball, you do it all.

So yes, I started in retail, overseeing anything that had to do with the retail there, took on the souvenir program, oversaw mascots, hired interns, and then towards the end of my career there an opportunity presented itself to also oversee the box office, so I took that on as well well.

And that's like a really good starting point.

You did not say no, and you weren't afraid to take on kind of a new challenge, which probably made you more marketable in the future one hundred percent.

You know, the one thing about minor league baseball that I learned very quickly is if you're willing to put the time in there, you can learn a lot.

And I'm where I am today because of everything that I had the opportunity learn while I was at minor league baseball.

Such a good life and wow, and at such a young age too.

So then after that you moved to Milwaukee and worked at the formerly known Miller Park for Delaware North as the retail operations manager.

Can you describe that role in kind of what made you take that next step and moved to Milwaukee.

Sure?

So, a couple reasons led me to Milwaukee.

I have family that lived in Milwaukee.

My parents were both born and raised in Wisconsin.

But really I was looking for the next opportunity, and I had a really great mentor along the way who encouraged this position for me and really just gave me feedback on why this would be the next step for my career, and knew some of the people at the Brewers, so it was amazing.

What was the highlight of working for the Brewers?

You know?

Baseball you mentioned it previously.

Minor league baseball specifically is a grind and baseball with so many home games, how did you manage that inventory?

What were the biggest challenges that you faced?

Sure?

Well, really it comes down to a really great team, solid team of someone operating with the buying, someone operating the warehouse, and then being on the front end of things.

That's where I, you know, had the opportunity to shine with a killer staff behind me.

That's amazing and what a good point.

I mean, the people around you really make work worth it and make that experience valuable.

So again, you're full of great lessons.

All right.

So, prior to joining the Packers, you were a buyer and then the director of retail for the Milwaukee Bucks when they won the NBA Finals.

I can only imagine how crazy of a time that must have been.

Can you describe that like seasons specifically?

And then we can talk a little bit about the other seasons, but that one being the highlight.

Sure, that is obviously the highlight of my career with the Milwaukee Bucks.

You know, I look back very fondly at my time there that said, the championship run was special.

We had some really great staff around us.

We were just coming off of COVID and at that point we were also learning and hiring and educating staff along the way.

We brought Tempson to help us, but we also stat back and said, this could be an opportunity that we have once and I don't want anybody to miss that.

So I made a point to.

Make sure staff got a chance to walk out and look at the game for a period of time, because there are people that work in the industry a really long time and never have the opportunity for a championship and it was a very special run.

That's awesome, and what a great leader you were to allow your staff to have that opportunity, right like in those moments, specifically when it's so busy and you feel like there's no time to do anything, but still making sure you look and can sense the gratitude for the people around you and for the situation that you're in.

T Tell me about a time during that specific period that there was something that happened that was an unknown and how did you handle it?

You know, going through that period of time with a championship run, a lot of it was an unknown, like I hadn't done that, you know, and so we were kind of learning on the fly with the staff around us.

But I had some really great peers in the industry who had done this before, and I called them up and said, Hey, when you did this, how.

Did you buy, how did you staff?

What did we prepared for?

You know, they had had those experiences.

You know.

I called someone who was out at the Staples Center and had been there a long time, and one of the things that he had said was make sure you stop and enjoy the moment, And that stuck with me.

You know, I would have very easily just gotten into the routine and forgotten to have staff go and watch part of the game or experience you know, part of the when you know that that happened because somebody else said we made a mistake and our staff didn't get to make sure you take the time.

A lot of what you're talking about is about relationships and who you know, and that's so much of the sports industry, but a lot of industries, right So making sure you surround yourself with people that you can call when you need help, you don't have to do it alone.

And I think that's something that you know, we're learning specifically day to day right now.

But yeah, super super important lessons.

All right.

So finally, you ended up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

What was it always a dream to work for the packers?

You know, it's interesting that question is a great question.

And here's the why.

I don't think I formally thought my job goal in life is to work for the Green Bay Packers.

And if you had asked me that six months ago, I would have said, no, that I don't think that that was on my radar.

A few months ago, I was talking to a vendor.

It was the same vendor who told me about this job opportunity, and he said to me, I'm just so proud that this is where you ended up because I remember when you started early in your career, you wanted to work for the Green Bay Packers.

And I said, I said that.

I did not like that was not something I carried with me throughout my career to this point.

You know, yes, was I a fan of the Green Bay Packers.

One, but I don't think that that was ever on like my goal of the ultimate job is at the Green Bay Packers, and that potentially probably guided my career because I did take opportunities not to get to the end goal, but for the moment and how I wanted to grow my career in that point.

So what made you ultimately say yes to the job?

A great opportunity, great people.

Everybody in the industry talks about the Green Bay Packers being like the echelon of the best in class and the best in the business, and another opportunity to grow.

You know, moving here was certainly.

Not the direction I thought I would end up.

Moving my family's further south.

I moved away from them, but having the opportunity to you know, test my merit and how I had gotten there, and the ten.

Years previously actually like fifteen.

Let's not count that, you know, but I think that it was just that was the next opportunity, and it actually came at a really opportune time for me.

That's awesome, And I feel like it's a unique position because in your former roles you've had significant quantities of games to be able to sell products.

And now, I mean, what the max we could have is twelve total.

I think if you're hosting every game and whatnot, maybe eleven thirteen one of those two.

And so I think for you having all of the experience in how to sell product when you have this magnitude of games versus this small window, like how is that adjustment?

You don't get get back days.

You don't have so many games that if you have a miss that you can say, I get it tomorrow or I'll get it three days from now.

You know, when we gear up for a weekend here, we gear up and know that that is you know, one of ten weekends or one of twelve, whatever the year ends up being.

We know that we have to be ready.

There is no opportunity to say get it later.

So you know, how we prepare for that is very different, because we cannot have a mess.

We have to be ready.

Such a good point and honestly, probably something that people outside of the sports retail business don't really think about a lot, but it's such a good such a good point to make, all right.

So there's this thing called the cheesehead, and the Packers are known as the cheeseheads.

And part of what your first year or two into the role, you guys acquired the company that originally created the cheesehead fullmations.

Tell me what that process was like and what's the why behind it?

Sure, so you know, yes, Packers fans are known as cheeseheads, and you know, I think in the beginning it was not maybe an endearing term, but it certainly is now fans are proud to be cheeseheads.

And how that came to be is the creator and his wife decided to retire, and we were one of their largest clients, as purchasing cheeseheads from them makes sense, so they came to us, and so that is what started the conversation, and we worked our way through the acquisition and announced that a couple of years ago, and then since then, you know, it's really been about evaluating the business.

How do we grow the business, how are we growing our wholesale customer base.

You know, it really is an extension of the Green Bay Packers, but we also look at it as, you know, a separate entity and a separate business.

You know, we have.

Wholesale customers that are in South Carolina, we have wholesale customers in Colorado, and so it's not just about the packers anymore.

You know, the cheesehead, while it resonates with the packers, it's really known as a Wisconsin commodity from the dairy state.

You know, you will see it at various other sporting events, not just Green Bay.

And so from that perspective, we looked at it as being good stewards of the business and the brand, and where do we take that.

I'll never forget watching the World Cup and seeing a cheesehead in the crowd, and you kind of I have a sense of pride about it, right, Like, especially in your position, you have to be like, wow, that's that's pretty cool.

Very much so anytime I see it, and you know, elsewhere outside of lambeau Field, I think, oh, they might have bought that from us, But that happened because of good stewardship of the brand, someone being creative and us having an opportunity, and it does resonate with Wisconsin and that's important to us.

That's awesome, all right, So enough of a professional let's get to the personal.

So I hear that you and your family have a Marco Polo?

Can you explain what that app is for people that don't know about it and how does your family use it?

Of course, so, yes, it's a video app.

Think of it.

Instead of your family having one big group text chain that you can read through, it's a video and so because of that, we've had opportunities to watch nieces and nephews grow up in a way that we haven't in the past.

You know, I don't have family that lives here in Green Bay, and so this still gives me a connection.

It's not uncommon for me to.

Watch the videos and not reply because I can see those popping up on my phone throughout the workday, and some of them are lengthy, some of them are not.

And I would be remiss to say that sometimes the videos that get watched first are the nieces and nephews and not the others.

Shout out the nieces and nephews for sure.

We mentioned this at the beginning.

You grew up on a family farm in Kansas and that had to have taught you a lot of core attributes growing up.

What would you say are the most important things you learned?

And we can shout out your parents for this as well.

We just shouted out the nieces and nephews, but really your parents are the ones that raised you into the amazing, amazing person that you are today.

I have the best parents.

I don't know.

I've met your parents.

They're pretty great too, so they can be tied for first.

Fine, but I have really great parents that you taught us the lessons of her work, teamwork and looking out for others and just generally.

Being kind and honest.

You know, it isn't necessarily about you know, who is first in line, but who are you're bringing along with you?

And so from that space, like, we've got some great stories of you know, fading the sheep on the farm in the rain, you know, a variety of things, riding in the combines.

We didn't have a traditional style farm that others would maybe think of as far as like farming or cattle.

We did have sheep.

My mom grew up with sheep here in Wisconsin, and so it was very familiar to all of us to be a part of that.

That's so neat all, right, So looking ahead at the kind of the retail roadmap.

What's on your six month, a year, five year plan for the Green Bay Packers retail department?

Sure, you know, we're always looking forward.

You know, our business starts in October of the year prior, so last October we start buying for the upcoming season, and so at that point we're already working with vendors are to determine what are the trends, how do we think our team is going to be on field, because that plays a huge part in how we buy, And so that planning starts, you know, about nine months to twelve months out and then if we're doing any bigger drops, sometimes that can happen two years out.

So how do we make.

Sure that we're being good to the business and good to our fans and creating new products so they continue to come back, But also how do we continue to grow our brand and what does that look like.

We don't want to be status quo, and sometimes that is redesigning something.

Sometimes that could be renovations in a store, buying the cheesehead business, Like, that's a big part of the roadmap for us as we move forward, and what does that look like.

So there's many.

Parts to the overall brand of retail for the Green Bay Packers, and it evolves every three to twelve months based on a lot.

Of different things.

So fascinating and again like things, until you're in the industry, wins and losses truly matter, having to in a way take educated guesses as to what's going to be popular at the times.

Right, you guys have great consultants and people that you're able to lean on, but it's still a lot of it's kind of guess and check and cross your fingers.

Right, there's a lot of risk and reward, you know.

You know, in October of one year, we're thinking we're going to be great or we might be similar to this year, and how do we buy for that?

And so then we decide what's the risk we're going to take, what's the reward we want out of it?

And it's really depending on a really great group of staff.

You know, our buying team really works closely with our vendors.

You know, the retail team works closely with finance.

You know, what are our goals and how do we look at that and how do we continue to grow the brand because it's I mentioned it before, we don't want to be status quo.

How do we navigate the trends and mitigate the challenges.

What a great way to almost in this podcast.

So I like to end my podcast with one final question.

If you were to provide one word that describes the culmination of your career up until now, what would that word be?

Blessed?

I use that in my interview here, and I think along the way, I've had many opportunities.

I've had really good people around me.

I look back and I still have conversations with people that I worked with in minor league baseball.

You know, I have friends that still work at every organization that I've worked in, and so these opportunities don't happen without great people around you and supporting you, you know, whether that's co workers, people in the industry, or even your family.

But ultimately it comes back to being blessed.

I've had opportunities that maybe weren't handed to me.

I had to work really hard to get to where I am today.

This didn't just happen, but there were opportunities that formed this path to the Green Bay Packers, and ultimately I look back at that and say I blame ust.

Stepping stones to the to the reward.

Krista, thank you so much for joining me today on the Health.

To Esport Forecast.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, m HM