The AmeriCARD Dream
How ones hobby can turn into a dream job
It sounds like the American dream to me and that’s why I am chasing it. My love and passion of sport cards since I was a kid has carried over to my adulthood. Now I want it to carry over to my future career.
Sport Card Marketing is my dream.
A job that lets you talk about, think about, post about and even handle sports cards all day. As a sport card enthusiast, could you ask for more?
So, I wanted to get to know more about this exciting dream job and was looking for someone to interview.
One person that came to mind immediately is the legendary Susan Lulgjuraj, who’s been well known in the hobby circles as Sooz for many years. She is someone I have followed for a long time on Twitter and watched her career blossom into the career I am currently chasing and going to college for.
Susan started out as a journalist about 15 years, spending some of that time writing about sport cards as well with her time at Beckett magazine, a long-time sport card publication. She then spent some time doing PR, social media, and choosing card images for a product called Stadium Club while at Topps cards, one of the industry leaders in producing sport cards. From there, she spent some time at Goldin Auctions before landing her current position as Senior Marketing Manager at CGC Cards, a grading card company.
Her decade long hobby work paid off as she got the opportunity to pivot into marketing, which she says is a similar transition, “Storytelling. Working under deadlines. Understanding how people operate. Content creation. There were a lot of areas where it was a good fit.”
All of that experience before she landed her current job was a big help as she states that having “a variety of industry experience and gained more at each step in my career. I learned how to coach employees, work with partners and create solid marketing plans.”
When I asked her about what her typical day was like, though it didn’t come across as exciting when she said, “A lot of meetings”, there is still a lot of interesting aspects to the job as well including, working with different teams that do content, social media, graphics, events, finance, sales, and so on.
Having the right skills is also an important piece to a job like this, it’s not always about the fun of playing with sport cards all day. Susan mentioned some skills when I asked her which ones were important, she immediately pointed out that “Empathy is incredibly important. You have to know how to work with people and understand them.” Along with that, another useful skill “is knowing how to work under deadlines. Also, don’t being afraid to say you don’t know. You can always learn and research, but don’t fake an answer.”
Other than having the opportunity to have your hobby as your job, there are other perks of the job that make it fun. I asked her what her favorite part of the job was and she told me, “My favorite part is seeing a campaign or social post hit with the audience. It’s really satisfying to see hard work come together.”
As someone who does a lot online with cards myself, I can see how the reward of that probably feels. Being creative and having it be a hit among other hobbyists is a high point of a job like that. I know when I come up with some ideas on my social media pages for sport cards and seeing others enjoy it, it hits you in the feels.
To sum this job up, you have a job that lets you work with your favorite hobby, you get to use your creativity to show the hobby to others, and then you get paid to do it?! Sign me up.
So, when I asked her If you could do things all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? I wasn’t surprised with her reply, “I would choose this path every time. I love cards and I get to work on them every day.”
I hope to say the same thing someday. Thanks for the interview Sooz.
(this is a college course paper I am writing and sharing with you all as well! I decided to re-publish this since I liked it and wanted to share my college work)
