Value Add: Issue 2

🌟 Note from AAJA Sports President Michele Steele

Whether you’re a Day 1 subscriber, or are new to the newsletter game, welcome - we are your go-to spot for celebrating and connecting with the AAPI community in media and sports. This month, we’re talking about the WHY: why groups like ours matter and why so many companies agree, whether they employ AAPIs or serve them as customers. We’ll have a one-on-one with Norman Chen, president of The Asian American Foundation, and profile an exciting media business that started with an AAJA assist. And don’t miss our monthly memorabilia giveaway! Let’s get it!

🗓️ Upcoming Dates

🚀 Stay Inspired

One on One with TAAF President Norman Chen on Why AAPIs Matter…

• What is The Asian American Foundation? “TAAF was formed in 2021 at the peak of anti-Asian hate by several prominent Asian American business people who said, ‘Hey, what can we do to help address this crisis?’ So they came together, formed TAAF, and created a very simple mission to focus on safety for our community, belonging for our community and prosperity for our community.”

• What role can sports play? “A tremendous one. We are gaining more and more of an appreciation of the power of sports to change narratives. At the NBA All-Star game, we held one of the first ever Asian American showcases - we had owners, we had players, we had managers all there. We had Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai talking about their experience buying into the Nets and the Liberty, and making the Liberty a championship team. We really believe that you can advance our causes of belonging and prosperity using sports as a platform. Next year we're going to do the Super Bowl, the All-Star game, and we're going to work on the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics.”

• What do companies like Citadel, KKR, United Airlines, AirBnb and the rest get out of partnering with TAAF, and what is the path forward for diversity as a business priority? ”It's just a fundamental business decision. If Asian Americans have $1.7 trillion in buying power, similar to the Latino and close to the Black community, then shouldn't we be treating them as a real market? We understand this customer base, it's just basic business. If we have 14% plus of our staff who are AAPI and we have someone at the top who looks like them, they realize there's a future for them here. They know they're going to be respected. Think about your career, think about everyone's career. It's basic business in addition to whatever moral, ethical feelings you have about it. So that's our appeal. It's for solid business reasons to understand your market and to inspire your workforce.”

🦋 Storyteller Spotlight: Pranav Iyer

Iyer on A Passion Project That Became A Business

Pranav Iyer, a former college football player who worked for ESPN’s social team and launched his own company AMAZN HQ in 2019, Iyer has caught the attention of fans who are locked into his highlights of Asian and Asian American athletes. He’s amassed nearly 170K followers on IG and TikTok, and his first documentary series, “Leesanity,” on Xavian Lee, has 134K views and counting on YouTube.

We’ll post more of our interview on our social channels but here’s what he told us:

The Backstory: “I grew up in Cupertino (Cal.), in a town that was basically all children of immigrants. So basically half my school growing up was South Asian, the other half was East Asian. My dream from the age of eight was to become the first Indian American quarterback in the NFL.

(While in college) in 2019, I had done this long form story, through a scholarship at AAJA, ‘The Rise of Asian American Basketball & the Lasting Impact of Linsanity.’ Through that, I got to interview 30 plus different people from all different types of Asian backgrounds from across the country. And one thing that they all mentioned, regardless of whether they were no name athletes to NBA, WNBA-level professional athletes, they all said that no one's ever asked about what it means to be an Asian athlete.

And to me that didn't make any sense because at all of these people's games, there's dozens of reporters at all their press conferences. So those opportunities are there, but then it made me realize who are the people making decisions to tell the stories in our community? Oftentimes it's not people that come from our community. Then I realized, let’s just start this ourselves.”

Key Learning: “I had no experience in anything apart from being an athlete, knowing the (athlete’s) experience and obviously the experience in storytelling. But in terms of creating a platform, doing social media, videography, all that stuff, I had no idea of any of it. So I really just invested into a camera, started showing up at people's games, and it all stemmed from there.

One huge takeaway that really revolves around the Asian community is not being afraid to ask for help. I grew up in a single parent household, my mom never asked for help from anyone because she knew how important it was to really be able to provide for ourselves. And that mentality was really instilled in my mind that we just got to put our heads down. But in reality, there's a lot of times where you just don't know things. It's okay to ask for help, and I, luckily, realized that it's not always going to be a burden for people. People want to do this, people want to help.”

Financing Details: “I'll say it's definitely still a work in progress, and a lot of why I've been able to do this for so long has been a privilege, I have the ability to cut a lot of costs and stay at home with my family.

Our key (revenue) buckets are sponsorships, merchandise and synergistic partnerships with leagues. The NFL knows their audience is becoming older and older. How do they reach a younger audience? That's through the leading social platform for the youth, Overtime. Right now we're trying to find more leagues like that, that we believe can have a very synergistic partnership with us. For example, just a couple months ago, we hosted a professional combine in partnership with the Asian Tournament, which is an overseas professional basketball league in Asia.

Licensing is another thing that we haven't tapped into so much, but I see a lot of potential.

The last (revenue stream) is as a production house, sometimes it's not just making content for AMAZN HQ. There's this media outlet in Asia that wanted to do a specific series about three Chinese-American athletes on the rise, and obviously who better to produce that than AMAZN HQ? We are the experts on telling Asian stories in sports.”

🔥 In case you missed it…

Sports Media News Plus Bonus Sauce… Best Salty Egg Snack

• Athletes Unlimited Softball League just launched with television deals with MLB Network and AAJA Sports partner ESPN…read all about it here - the league is helmed by veteran MLB exec Kim Ng.

• Going Around the Horn One Last Time… Happy Trails for now to a friend of Value Add, Tony Reali, a legend in his own right for hosting Around the Horn, a franchise that highlighted so many journalists. Reali has started a YouTube channel before you see him pop up on a screen near you… check it out.

• Snack Attack Vol. 1: Best salt(ed egg) snack? So many to choose from, but have you tried these Salted Egg Salmon Skin Chips? Many people love the Salted Egg Chips, but KICK IT UP A NOTCH with Salmon Skin. Addictive and has Omega 3s!
  
  Have a snack that we should know about? Email [email protected]. We’ll feature them in our next edition!  
  

  

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More on Katie

You can listen to Katie on the Cardinal Territory podcast, available wherever you get good podcasts!

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See you next month!

AAJA Sports Task Force