Five Questions with BP’s Newest Senior Account Executive Sara Grasmon

Join us in wel­com­ing the newest mem­ber of the Bell­mont Part­ners team, Sara Gras­mon! As the for­mer Man­ag­er, Spe­cial Events & Pro­mo­tions for the Kansas City Roy­als, Sara’s exper­tise and expe­ri­ence spans a wide range of mar­ket­ing dis­ci­plines, includ­ing strat­e­gy devel­op­ment, event coor­di­na­tion, pro­mo­tions, client ser­vice, media rela­tions, com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions, social media, video pro­duc­tion and writ­ing. She sat down with our intern Alyssa Heit­feld to talk about her time in Major League Base­ball and her past con­nec­tion to both Min­neso­ta and Bell­mont Partners.

1.    First of all, how did you get your start in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions industry?

I always want­ed to work in base­ball. It kind of changed shapes as I went through col­lege. I stud­ied nutri­tion and dietet­ics for two and a half years, but I decid­ed dur­ing my junior year that I didn’t want to do that every day. I real­ized I loved work­ing with peo­ple and I liked writ­ing. I began explor­ing oth­er options, and I thought com­mu­ni­ca­tions would be a real­ly great way to get into the sports world. That was the goal, and I was going to do what­ev­er it took to try and get there.

My first real pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence was an intern­ship in Minor League Base­ball with the Kansas City T‑Bones. I’d par­tic­i­pat­ed in my col­lege TV show and news­pa­per, but that sum­mer down in Kansas City gave me an insight into a pro­fes­sion­al work­ing envi­ron­ment and my first expe­ri­ence doing media rela­tions for a base­ball team. I did every­thing from sta­tis­tics to writ­ing game notes and game recaps to writ­ing press releas­es to work­ing with the vis­it­ing broad­cast­ers’ media to doing any­thing else that need­ed to be done.

2.    You worked with the Kansas City Roy­als pri­or to Bell­mont Part­ners. Tell me about your time work­ing in Major League Baseball. 

I did two sea­sons with the Kansas City T‑Bones, one with the Single‑A Hager­stown Suns in West­ern Mary­land, two with the Wash­ing­ton Nation­als in D.C., and a lit­tle over four with the Kansas City Roy­als. It was a wild ride. The time in Kansas City went by so quick­ly, but it was amaz­ing. It was a city filled with great peo­ple, a vibrant arts and enter­tain­ment cul­ture, and a team that had a per­for­mance that you can’t even dream up.

3.    What is your most mem­o­rable work experience?

My first full sea­son was in 2014, when we made it to the World Series against San Fran­cis­co. We end­ed up los­ing in game sev­en, which was heart­break­ing, but even that was beyond imag­in­able. In 2015, when we were able to go back and win it was unbe­liev­able. There are peo­ple who have worked in base­ball for 30 or 40 years who haven’t gone to post-sea­son, let alone a World Series back-to-back years.

It’s one of those things where you can’t even describe the feel­ings you have in the moment, but it was some­thing I’ll nev­er for­get. Between hav­ing my fam­i­ly come down for a cou­ple dif­fer­ent games to see­ing 40,000 peo­ple in the sta­di­um wav­ing the ral­ly tow­els you were respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing, get­ting there, and dis­trib­ut­ing, and walk­ing in the World Series parade. It’s going to be pret­ty tough to beat that any time in the near future in terms of excitement!

4.    You did free­lance work with Bell­mont Part­ners sev­er­al years ago. What makes you excit­ed to rejoin the BP team?

This was an oppor­tu­ni­ty that felt right. In hav­ing some con­ver­sa­tions with Jen and Bri­an, I let them know that I was think­ing about mov­ing back to Min­neso­ta. I want­ed to be clos­er to fam­i­ly again, and I real­ly felt like I want­ed to try some­thing dif­fer­ent than base­ball to keep my career mov­ing for­ward how I want to. It doesn’t mean I don’t get to be a base­ball fan any­more, it’s just going to look a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent. I’m so excit­ed to learn about dif­fer­ent indus­tries, use some dif­fer­ent skills, and real­ly just broad­en my expe­ri­ence and work in this col­lab­o­ra­tive envi­ron­ment. That’s real­ly what it boiled down to. I knew what­ev­er I did next, I want­ed to work for a com­pa­ny I believed in and with peo­ple who want to work togeth­er and encour­age each oth­er to be the best they can.

When I did my short stint with BP before, it was just Jen, Bri­an and Shel­li. It’s been incred­i­ble, even from afar, to keep a pulse on every­thing that’s been hap­pen­ing. They’ve been grow­ing, their team has been grow­ing, and busi­ness has been grow­ing, but it’s incred­i­ble to real­ize that they have some of the same clients. I helped with a Fuel Up to Play 60 Reward Sum­mit back in 2010 at the Metrodome. It’s great see­ing how events like that have evolved and changed and con­tin­ued to grow! Like I said before, I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to being exposed to a vari­ety of clients and being able to use my expe­ri­ence and skills to help with some of the new, excit­ing prospects that are now on the table.

5.    You recent­ly moved back to Min­neso­ta. What are you most look­ing for­ward to about being back in your home state? 

I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to explor­ing not just Min­neapo­lis but the whole state. Over the past eight years, since I moved away, it’s been hard to real­ly spend time in Min­neso­ta that’s not with my fam­i­ly. I want­ed to come back and see them, spend time at my home, and go up to the cab­in that we rent for a week every year, but I haven’t real­ly seen any­thing new. Now, as an adult, I’m able to go camp­ing and hik­ing on the North Shore, check out all the local brew­eries and restau­rants that I hear so many great things about, and get refa­mil­iar with the things I grew up so close to but haven’t recent­ly had the chance to explore!

We’re excit­ed to wel­come Sara to our team, and we know she’ll do great things here!