Working mainly in Sports Tech isn’t a huge surprise to anyone who has known me for a while. I’ve always been a big sports fan and growing up as a competitive athlete, this is an industry that just makes sense for me. Progressing from working with two hockey teams to now helping teams from many different sports is awesome and introducing new verticals has also been right up my alley because it allows me to meet so many awesome people from many different walks of life.
Now let’s learn more about Shannon Ferguson the entrepreneur, have you always been in the apps design and brand marketing industries? SF: I graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with honours in 2008, receiving my BA in Com- munication Studies. I followed that up with a post-grad diploma in Broadcast Journalism from Loyalist College in 2009. Most recently I com- pleted the Sports Industry Essentials course from Columbia University. As you can probably tell, I love to learn and hope to one day study law as well. I was eager to begin my career in broadcast journalism once I graduated in 2009, right in the middle of the recession. During my intern- ship at Entertainment Tonight, it was clear that many of the positions I aspired to get right out of school were not being hired for. I ended up working in marketing and PR for a few years and then moved to Montreal and landed a great job in Sports Marketing for an online Sportsbook. I loved that job and while I was there, I started my first blog, The Love Hawk, which allowed me to share my writing with the world through dating and relationship advice. My blog helped me get international exposure and before long I was contributing to the Huffington Post, Elite Daily and other publications. Not only was I able to grow my confidence, but I was also able to teach myself how to build a website, promote my own brand and create my own digital assets. Life then took me on a bit of a ride to Calgary and Toronto, where I continued to work in advertising and marketing, but in 2015 my Mom passed away suddenly so I gave up big city life to move home to Cornwall, Ontario. After dealing with compli- cated grief, I decided to start my first company, Rhoice Marketing & Events. This business led me to helping a new professional hockey team that came to town and it was through my work with this team that I met my FanSaves co-founder and boyfriend, Kris McCarthy and in the summer of 2017, we started our business which has grown so much since then.
At the same time that I was running my market- ing company and creating FanSaves, I was also hosting a local TV show, Community Matters, on Cogeco and getting to work in TV in my hometown allowed me to accomplish the big goal I had set out to conquer in 2009 of being on TV. I worked there for three years, until my workload with FanSaves became too busy. I’m so grateful for all my experiences and the many winding roads that led me to FanSaves and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. When did you make the decision that you wanted to become an entrepreneur and start your own business and how did you select this industry or business focus? SF: MyMomopened her own international freight forwarding business when I was nine years old, so I basically grew up around entrepreneurship. As an only child to a single Mom, I got a lot of hands-on experience filing papers, alphabetizing folders, making photocopies and working on her old MS-Dos computer which I believe helped me become the entrepreneur I am today. I learned early on how necessary it is to be a strong leader, to be able to manage time efficiently and manage people with grace and that you have to keep moving forward even when things go wrong, knowing they will get better.
“I’m so grateful for all my experiences and the many winding roads that led me to FanSaves and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.” Did you have a mentor? If so, who was it and what was the most important lesson they taught you? SF: My biggest and most important mentor will always be my mother. In the time we had together on this earth, she taught me so much about life, business and the importance of being a kind human being. She was so strong and I’m so grateful I got to
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JANUARY 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2021
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