Meet Dakota Zinn of Kansas City Chiefs

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Dakota Zinn.

Hi Dakota, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I always knew that I wanted to work in sports. As a senior in high school, I was very set on my career path to becoming the next Erin Andrews. As life consistently shows, things don’t always go exactly to plan, but my continued passion for working in sports has always remained my North Star and has led me to opportunities much greater than I could have ever anticipated.

I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a major in Sports Media and immediately moved to New York City to intern for MLB.com in their media department. That experience led me to move to Denver to continue my work in baseball at Coors Field for a season as an MLB real-time correspondent. Though I loved baseball and living in different cities, I was ready to come back home to Kansas City, do less freelance/seasonal work, and find a more permanent, steady position. This was a huge career decision and one that isn’t traditional for those who get the opportunity to work in sports at a young age.

I was leaving something I thought I truly wanted in exchange for better financial stability and a more well-rounded marketing experience. This move led me to grow in my career while still being indirectly tied to sports with the goal of coming back to a traditional sports team/league later in my career at a higher level and with a deeper skillset. Over the last 8 years, I have worked for a few experience design firms and sports architecture firms here in Kansas City in roles ranging from marketing and project management to business development.

These firms worked on a wide range of sports projects around venues, training facilities, stadiums, and arenas for both professional and collegiate teams. That experience allowed me to understand a lot about the sports business and the impact design has on the fan, team, and community while also deepening my development in relationship management, tool and data integrations, communications, branding, and business development.

It is very important to note my path has been extremely unique and has taken unexpected turns. Between some of my positions with these firms, I have experienced a lay-off, flexing my entrepreneurial skills and starting my own successful marketing and media business, mentoring young professionals, teaching a digital media course online at Michigan State University, working through a pandemic, and starting my own family.

These turns led to growth and development and expanded my comfort with the uncomfortable. Those moments gave me more transferrable skills than I ever knew they would and introduced me to people who would forever impact my life’s story in the best way possible.

All in all, I had overcome many obstacles that pushed me to work harder, be more innovative, and always stay resilient. I reached a lot of success working in the AEC industry, and I had a great time doing it, but ultimately, I decided I was ready to explore my options and stay true to my dream of working for a sports team or league again.

Tell about landing your current role with the Kansas City Chiefs, what you do, and how things are going.

Last Spring, I came across a position open for Director of Partnership Solutions with the Kansas City Chiefs. This opportunity not only aligned with my combined skill set and experience so well, but it was also the perfect timing to join an organization I have been so passionate about my entire life, my hometown team. I went through a couple of months of interviewing and accepted the position last July.

Coming up on hitting a year with the Chiefs, I am proud, humbled, and honored to have achieved something I had set out to do over ten years ago. This role is new to the organization and is an incredible opportunity to make an impact, grow, and support the business in a new way.

I sit on both sides of the partnership department, new business and existing partnerships, to help create and refine processes for efficiencies and optimizations, use data to support sales pitches and ROI, help manage internal and external relationships, ideate opportunities with our marketing team, and manage our vendor relationships. My role keeps the partnership engine running optimally, so to speak.

This first season has been one I will remember for the rest of my life. Getting to not only grow professionally in a leadership role but also experiencing the road to the Super Bowl and then actually winning it will go down as the greatest rookie season of my career.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As mentioned above, my path was never straight. I faced many obstacles, including experiencing a layoff and the worries and fears associated with that, experiencing the pandemic and all the challenges we all had to adapt to during that time, and experiencing motherhood while simultaneously trying to grow in my career. I think the obstacles have been equal parts gut-wrenching and extremely satisfying, if that makes sense.

I have proven to myself repeatedly that I can overcome and bounce back better than the time before. I am giving my children the gift of watching their mother work hard to achieve her dreams while also being a great mom. I want my kids to know that they can be anything they want to be but that it comes with a lot of hard work and determination. I also think it is important for other women to see that it is possible to do both, if that is what they desire.

I am, however, not naive to the fact that it takes a lot of support from your partner, your employer, and the people around you, and for some, there isn’t that luxury. That is why I am extremely grateful every day for my village and for the opportunity to do what I love at work and at home and I will always be thankful for the obstacles because they have pushed me to find creative solutions along the way.

I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about you and the Kansas City Chiefs?
I have a desire to be “people first” while also staying competitively driven. I care about every team I have ever been a part of. We spend so much of our lives at work and with our colleagues that it is important to create and contribute to a positive culture because that leads to the most team success. I believe that starts with building relationships with your people and listening to understand them better. That is currently what I am doing here today to help positively impact the success of our team for years to come.

I pride myself on earning trust by doing what I say I am going to do. I believe the Chiefs organization really fosters and celebrates that spirit. To be champions, we must think and execute like champions all around. I believe we have the right people in place to really do some incredible things together, and I am excited for the future of this team as we enter our “dynasty era” (and hopefully go for that 3-peat!) and what that means for our organization and our community.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
Yes, I have a few pieces of advice.

1. Do not be afraid to try. Do not be afraid to put yourself out there. Do not be afraid to ask for help. We as humans tend to talk ourselves out of opportunities because we don’t believe we have what it takes, the right experience, or literally whatever else we say to convince ourselves otherwise. Block that voice out. Go to the event, introduce yourself to that person, and apply for that job… Nothing is ever as bad as we think it will be, and more times than not, it is better than we could have ever imagined. A lot of life-changing things can happen when you just show up.

2. Be good to people and always do the right thing.

3. Lean into your network and find a mentor in the space that can help guide you along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chiefs.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakota-miller-zinn/