From Fashion to Foils: SailGP Marketing with Steph Sirutis | FanAmp Fast Lane

Steph's early career and start in racing

#1. What was the first moment that you discovered racing?

Before I worked [at SailGP], I worked for the Olympics. And there's different types of racing. So that's when I discovered it.

I saw the beauty in racing. You can race in different types of series. You can race in a car. You can race in a sailboat. There's also people that race on their own feet. So there's different types of racing. There's skiing. So I saw that it was a wide variety of types of racing.

#2. When did you decide to make racing, and sports in general, a career?

Sports was by chance. I never thought growing up that I’d end up working in sports. I've always loved marketing, digital marketing, that was clear to me. I like content. I'm very good at that.

I started in fashion but then I went to another very different type of business that is Repsol, which is energy, oil and gas. Very different; has racing in it. They sponsor a lot of racers. And then I got the call from the Olympics just by chance - being at the right time and right moment - but also because I was working hard. I believe you have to have a little luck, but you have to work it out. It's not like it's going to come. If you work and work and work, opportunities will come. You can sit down. But there's always a little bit of luck, a little push, a little help.

#3. What was the first step you took to launch your career in racing?

I started in fashion and beauty in what would be comparable to a Macy's, but in South America. It's called Falabella and it's located in Peru, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. And I did the digital marketing part for that so that was my first role. I did the email marketing, content creation, and also numbers and analysis.

Greg: When you started in the fashion side, was it content creation and marketing?

Email marketing, content creation, and also [campaign] analysis.

Greg: What taught you that that was what you could do and that you enjoyed doing? How did you get exposure to it before you jumped in?

I liked consuming it, so as a consumer I said, "How do I get there to make these videos, to be part of this team, to be part of the marketing, and those campaigns that are on TV?." When I was in university I saw the commercials and I said I want to work in one of those brands.

Greg: Was it in school you interned [at Falabella] and then you went back full-time?

I started my internship [at Falabella], and then I got the job and I became an analyst there. That's how I started, back in Colombia.

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Steph's current role

#4. What’s your current role and what does a standard day look like?

I’m the Marketing Specialist for Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team.

[My schedule] depends on the day, it's quite crazy.

It's very different to be covering an event obviously than day to day in the office. I like both of them. What I like most about events is just being there. It's having that rush. You feel tired, you're overwhelmed, but at the end you want more. It's the adrenaline. But as well I enjoy the days at home, doing my routine, going to the office, working from home.

Greg: What are you focusing on for each event?

First, before the event we create a plan. There's a lot of strategy. And then during the event, that plan is actually put into motion. As you know, events don't always go the way you plan. There are surprises every day. So you have to be adaptable and proactive. You might have to go and run for a sponsor, or have to see the athletes during their interviews. You have to see that the content is being created, the strategy is going to plan, and then you have to revise the content. Then you have to check that it's working and everything is part of it and it's all happening in real-time. It's quicker.

Greg: How do you break down a race weekend, factoring in media commitments, making time for sponsors, or anything else that might come up?

At the end of the day, [the athletes are] here to race. That's something that sometimes I forget, right? The priority is racing, even though I want to get content, content, content. So, what we do is that before coming, we see what our priorities are in terms of sponsors. It's really important to have our sponsors be a part of every stage of the SailGP weekend. And after, we look for opportunities around the city we’re in.

Being in New York is amazing because we can do a lot of content in the city as well, so for example, yesterday we created content all around New York with one of our sponsors. We created cool reels, we did some interviews in the street with people asking questions. So it also depends on the city, depends on the moment that is happening for the team. Right now we are growing, we want awareness around the team. And it also depends on how the team is performing as well. We have to adapt.

Greg: Did you find any Brazilians out on the street?

We did find a couple! It was funny actually, they’re everywhere.

#5. What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of your role?

Rewarding

There’s a lot that’s rewarding. Being able to cover some of the sessions is super rewarding. Growing in my career is super rewarding, being able to learn from different people in the industry, meeting our sponsors, meeting people, networking, seeing our content have great numbers, growing followers, seeing our team have wins. It's rewarding in many ways.

I come from different places, I lived in a lot of different places growing up and I loved that part of it. I like to meet new people, I like the networking.

Cities like New York are great for that.

Challenging

The most challenging would be learning Portugese, and it’s still challenging for me. I learned English and Spanish and I don't remember learning them because I was very young. But as an adult, learning Portuguese and having to work in Portuguese with only two years learning the language or less, it's been a challenge. It’s also so culturally different as well, you have to adapt to the culture you’re working in.

Greg: What is it like working in a Brazilian work environment?

The Portuguese are amazing people. Very welcoming. Colombians make you feel at home, but they're very relaxed as well. I come from a Colombian and Lithuanian family where timing is much more strict. My dad used to say, “On time is late.” So I suffer a lot with the more relaxed schedules, but now I'm getting used to it and adapting because if I don't adapt, I’ll die.

#6. What are the top 3 qualities that have helped you succeed in your role?

Adaptable

One quality that I think is very important is being, and I've heard it from some of my bosses, being able to adapt to the cultures. I know, for example, yesterday that we were asking the questions on the street. So I knew how to ask the Latins. I knew how to ask the Spaniards. I knew how to talk to the Americans. I can talk to Brazilians as well. So being able to adapt culturally is one of my main advantages.

Resilient

Resilience is a very important one. Recently, I had to live through the death of my father, and that made me stronger. I was telling my boss, if I had lost my father after this job, I don’t think I’d be as resilient or strong as I am now. So I think resilience is something very important in life in general.

Proactive

I’d say being able to catch things fast and on the go. In the sports industry, the marketing industry, things don’t wait for you, so you have to catch them while they come and the opportunities and take them, or they'll fly away.

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Steph's advice

#7. If you could give advice to your younger self, back when you were first starting out in the fashion industry, what would that advice be?

Relax. My mother always says it, but you have to celebrate your failures as well. Don't take everything too seriously. The journey is going to be amazing and you're going to be where you never thought you would be. So just take it one day at a time and enjoy the journey because you always want more. So that's my advice.

#8. What advice would you give to someone looking to be in your position?

Things don’t just come if you stay on your sofa or in your bed. You have to work hard. You have to put yourself out there. It's not going to be easy. But with that and a bit of luck, like we just said, you're going to make it. When you think it's not going to happen is when you're the closest to it. Just give it everything you've got.

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Steph's career highlights and favorite moments

#9. What's one piece of content you've made that you're most proud of?

Oh, a couple. I made a beautiful, well no, we made it, it was not only me, but it was a beautiful campaign for Women's Day in the Olympics. And it was very inspiring, full of messages that said how people like to say that “girls can’t run, a woman can make it,”  typical offensive cliches, and then showing all the bits and pieces of how these women won their Olympic medals, how they’ve obtained everything. That one was beautiful.

With this team, we made one today that I'm so proud of around New York, but we make great content. We have a great team here in SailGP, with Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team. And I'm very proud, every day, of the content, the quality. There's other teams that come and say to us, "The quality of your stuff is great. Even though you’re new, you're doing great, great, great content." And it's nice to hear.

#10. What has it been like going from the Olympics - being part of an entity - to being part of a team?

It's very different because in the Olympics there's a lot of sports.  I remember every time there was an Olympics, you had to remember all the rules of the different sports and you can't just focus on one, so you have to do it all. And here, being able to focus on one, I think it's way more special because you just have a love for that and you just give your all in one little area. You're not as stretched thin and you don’t have to be everywhere.

I like it now. It feels like you're more in a family now. And before it was like a big organization that was very good and it was a very good school. But right now I feel like I have more responsibility and I've grown.

#11. If you had to go on the boat, what role or position would you take?

The first thing that came to my mind was captain. In Portuguese they call it 'captain', but in English it’s the ‘driver’. So the role Martine [Grael] has because she’s a strong woman and I really like her position. I’d need more strength in my arms to be a grinder, they practice literally every single day. I don’t think the boat would go far if I was in that position!

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