It’s great to hear that you take interns because I know that you are really a wonderful mentor and I can see that is important to you in the community here and with your friends that you’ve introduced me to. What do you look for when you take on an intern?

Erin Cowan: First and foremost is passion. They have to be very passionate about the sport. They have to be responsible. They have to have that creative side, to be an innovator and to be able to communicate. Again, communication is the most important thing. I have a couple of interns and I train them. They already know the sport (I pick them first for that particular sport) and I just teach them camera angles, how to talk to the athlete, or if we’re working with talent, how to coach the talent, and how to work professionally in that environment. To me, it’s like a secret society. I had one guy I worked with whose very first shoot was a multimillion dollar, multi-athlete shoot. We shot 18 professional athletes and that was his first shoot, his first major job -- and now he works for Nike. This is a kid I trained and worked with and who I mentored and now he works in sports marketing for Nike Basketball. And it was me just saying, "This is what we do, this is how we do it. I have this opportunity [for you], and I can pay you to do some things and you’ll probably do a little travel, and that’s it." Then just teaching them how Nike works. [Nike] is a matrix - knowing how their system operates and knowing what they look for [is important].

Read Erin's full interview here!

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