On Tuesday, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Program Director of Sports Communications Nick Pietruszkiewicz hosted the latest episode of his YouTube series “What’s Your Story?” as the Quinnipiac community welcomed ESPN Sports & Lifestyle Content Creator Katie Feeney.
Pietruszkiewicz and Feeney explored the new realm of sports content creation, Feeney’s journey and what the future holds for women in sports media.
“Students, especially, were really excited about this,” Pietruszkiewicz said. “She’s been in that chair that you all are in, that students are in, more recently than anybody else, so I think you identify with what she’s doing and the content she’s producing.”
The discussion opened with the two talking about their March Madness brackets and whether they see their bracket succeeding in the near future, with Pietruszkiewicz mentioning his prior episode’s guest, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi.
Similar to Lunardi, Feeney pioneered sports content creation, a genre of space that didn’t exist before she started her TikTok account, where she has amassed 7.6 million followers.
“It’s a huge honor,” Feeney said. “It’s kind of crazy that five years ago, what I’m doing didn’t really exist yet. I was the first social media correspondent for the NFL, which, at the time, ‘social media correspondent,’I had no idea what that even meant.”
However, working in sports content creation was not Feeney’s original career path; she looked to become a physical therapist and dabbled in marketing after starting her own business at 18.
When she began attending The Pennsylvania State University, Feeney discovered her love for sports and the exciting, unknown nature of working in the sports industry.
“I think the fear of the unknown is always there, but I would say I was more excited to kind of be a pioneer in this space,” Feeney said. “You constantly have to reinvent yourself in this space, whether it’s in sports or in social media or really any job on the creative side, as things change.”
Despite just starting at ESPN five months ago, content creation is not a new world for Feeney, who began her social media journey in high school.
Yet, starting on the earlier side of the social media landscape, Feeney discussed the challenges of posting on social media ‘not being cool.’
“Social media was also a different time then, not many people were doing it,” Feeney said. “I was talking to some girl earlier about this, but like, it was not cool. What I was doing was not looked at as cool.”
Feeney went on to discuss her career take off, starting around the time she began working with the Penn State football program. From her work with Penn State football, Feeney exploded on social media, living her dreams now of attending major sports events, including the Super Bowl and the Masters.
Feeney and Pietruszkiewicz talked about the different skills and strategies Feeney has learned and utilized within her content creation and work style. Feeney touched on the idea of giving yourself time to decompress and relax when working in an environment that is chaotic and fast-paced. She also highlighted the importance of conducting research and exploring different content ideas she wants to hit during events.
“I think it’s important to look at and to be aware of how something is doing, but I think when you get too caught up in it, it can mess up your mind a little bit,” Feeney said. “I try to look at the general overview of how my stuff is doing versus a single post because sometimes it’s completely out of your control.”
With a large number of students in attendance, Pietruszkiewicz opened up the final half an hour of the discussion to the student body, asking questions to Feeney about her personal and professional growth, life experiences and to share their idolization.
“I’ve followed you since Penn State,” a Quinnipiac School of Communications student in attendance told Feeney. “I’ve been a fan forever.”
To wrap up the conversation, Feeney left the women in the room with an important message about perseverance and navigating a growing space for women in the sports industry.
“Do it,” Feeney said. “Get started. It’s still new, so our generation, we are the future.”
