Why You're Only Getting One-Off Gigs (And How to Fix It) | Scottie Rodgers

You Are a Brand: What It Actually Takes to Get Hired by a Corporate Client with Scottie Rodgers

Episode SummaryPart of MMCB's ongoing Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs series, this episode brings in Scottie Rodgers, Vice President of Communications for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, with over 30 years of communications experience and 32 years working in college athletics. Scottie sits on the other side of the hiring table from most of MMCB's audience — he's the person deciding which creatives get the contract — and he breaks down exactly what separates a creative who gets hired once from one who gets staffed in permanently: presentation, follow-up, business paperwork, and understanding that every piece of content is an asset with a value that has to be actively built, not assumed.

What You'll Learn (Timestamped)00:00 — You are a brand as a creative. The episode opens on this line: Scottie explains why he actively avoids purely transactional vendor relationships in favor of "partners" — language and framing that changes how a relationship gets treated.

02:56 — Meet Scottie Rodgers. VP of Communications for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, 32nd year working in college athletics, and a self-described "small town kid from Alabama" whose path into sports came through journalism, not athletics.

05:43 — His actual role is strategy, not creation. Scottie is upfront that he doesn't design, shoot, or edit — his job is recognizing creative talent and matching it to the right team, using a sports analogy: he's the GM, his content lead is the head coach.

08:54 — The three things he looks for before partnering with any creative: good follow-up, consistency, and knowledge of the space — talent gets you in the door, but these three keep you in the room.

12:50 — It's not just social media. Streaming graphics, internal company communications, YouTube channels, and owned platforms are all underexplored areas where creatives can get hired — most creatives only think about the external, social-facing side.

23:31 — What "follow-up" really means. Meeting deadlines is the floor — the real differentiator is checking back in after a project wraps, which is how one client turns into three through referrals.

26:25 — "Every creator is a communicator. Every communicator is a creator." Scottie learned this the hard way after years in a traditionally siloed college athletics communications world.

27:45 — You have to be able to sell your own work. Great content doesn't matter if it can't be packaged into a proposal that a VP can confidently take to leadership for budget approval.

33:48 — The hard skills creatives skip. LLC paperwork, W9s, clean invoicing, and professional-looking proposals are non-negotiable if you want a corporation's finance department to actually cut you a check.

39:21 — Presentation has to match the work. Ron shares his own story of a nonprofit losing credibility over a poorly branded folder — proof that packaging communicates value before the content ever gets seen.