By: Jake Cohen
Sep. 9, 2022
On Sep. 8, SBA brought in Lisa Levine for our first speaker event of the school year. The theme of the event was “How to Navigate the Media,’ as Levine is the owner of Zone Sports Media Consulting, focused on working with professional teams to train their players for interactions with the press.
Levine works with several professional teams including the Minnesota Vikings, Boston Red Sox, and the Utah Jazz. The core of her business is consulting with owners, general managers, and coaches to help them navigate PR issues. With over 20 years of experience, Levine is in constant communication with general managers across the NBA, NFL, and MLB. She has also conducted the rookie programs for the NBA and MLB for over 10 years.
In today’s media climate, players face questions regarding team changes, social justice, and political issues. Levine teaches from several core pillars, most importantly teaching people how to control the interview and how to develop a process for their interviews, using what she calls the 3 P’s and 4 A’s. The three P’s are pause, pass, and prefer, while the A’s are concentrated on maintaining an agenda, anticipating, knowing the audience, and asking questions.
Levine’s speaker event was engaging and relevant, driven by her experience with many public relations crises across sports. We were thrilled to bring in Lisa Levine and learn more about how teams and players interact with the press in the sport industry!