Yes, You Can: Be Your Own Agent

We will have some job announcements in the next few weeks. I tend to hide from my blog when I'm (we're) making life decisions, because really, it's nothing for any of you to worry about until we've actually finalized something.

You can then gather from my previous posting that I don't consider a camera/smartphone a life decision. This is a sign of good mental health.

But before I blab all over what our plans will be for next year, I want to describe how we arrived at our TBA decision. For any of you aspiring or current overseas athletes, I hope these steps can show you that you don't necessarily need to hire an agency. With a little investigating and a lot of resourcefulness and motivation, you can find your next job on your own, too.

Learning how to be my own agent has been a great experience. I've had several missteps, and probably have many more in the future still, but overall I have really enjoyed the challenge.

1) Contact.

This is SO MUCH EASIER when you speak/understand the language. This gift of French that my tutor and all of my friends have so generously given to me has empowered my entire life in ways that I never imagined. I started with the players and coaches I knew. From there, I got myself a profile on a spectacular French volleyball forum called Volley-Zone.com. Not only did I get to post my profile (which is how several coaches contacted me), but clubs post what players they need, AND if they pay salaries or not.

*UPDATED 2017: How To Create Your Volley-Zone Profile YouTube Tutorial!*

The other link that rocked my world was just sitting on the French Federation website the entire time. On the Competitions Nationales Seniors page, you can access the email addresses of every club (upper-right corner, select "Addressier ELITE-NII-NIII en PDF") and have a heyday sending out recruiting letters. The information is out there, we just have to find it! (And for volleyball in France, I just did it for you...you're welcome!)

2) Pitch.

I was really bad at this as a junior and senior in high school, shyly trying to get recruited by GSAC schools. God bless my parents who did most of the talking for me during that time. Now I'm rattling off my facts in another language - I've come a very long way.

I always write the same introduction email: remark on their current season, ask if the team is in need of my position, ask if the club has the budget to hire a foreigner, where and what levels I've played, any highlights from those seasons, my basic information (age, height, weight, marital status), when I would be available to come for a tryout, and the dates of my departure and return to Europe.

Between my friends' contacts and this format, I was able to get in contact with 30 clubs, and had 20 reply for a 66% response rate. Be prepared for a second email with your contract demands, CV/resume, and video links to send.

3) Tryout.

Out of the 20 clubs I opened dialogue with, 8 invited me to tryouts, and I went to 4. Ask a lot of pointed questions before taking the time to go anywhere: any plans to move up a division, other professional players, ability to afford moving up a division and hiring more professionals, ability to reimburse travel for coming to the tryout, longevity of current president, coach, and players, housing options, potential jobs for spouses, etc. Don't even bother going unless the club can at least answer these questions "correctly."

Tryouts are my strong point, as my videos are just plain boring, and my personality is best experienced in real-time. In addition, I got to "try out" the coaches, players, gyms, towns, and transport. As a college coach, I always told recruits that the best way to know if you belonged somewhere was to visit. My visits took me to new places in Paris, the north of France, and even to Luxembourg! I met a lot of great people (read: even MORE volleyball contacts), and every single coach ran a great practice. It was like a marathon of volleyball interviews, and despite being way out of shape from a lackluster year, I loved every minute of it.

4) Negotiate.

This is the part that I need to keep working on. My weak deal this year dropped two boys teams and baby-sitting-in-exchange-for-housing in my lap. My new contract is much more normal; one team to coach, housing sans children, salary, etc. Basically, when a club asks you what you need, keep it as simple and as open-ended as possible. I've made the mistake of limiting the potential of offers; let the club give you numbers, and you can always say "no" if it's really too low.

At minimum, ask for: work papers/visa, housing (independent if you are married), monthly salary (DO NOT write a number!), round trip plane ticket home in the summer, and some kind of transportation provision (depends on the area). If you're an NCAA D1 All-American, I'm pretty sure you can be a lot more demanding, but for me, this is plenty and keeps us happy in Europe.

5) Confirm.

Talk to the people directly affected by the decision. This could be a significant other, parents, children, teammates, coaches, landlords, and anyone else you like talking to. For us, this year the priorities were the coach, team, location, and contract, and in that order. We were fortunate enough to have all of the facts for 3 clubs to make an informed decision.

Communicate with the potential new clubs and set dates for when the club will make you an offer. Once the offer has been made, set another date with your contact in the club (be it the president or coach) for when you will give them your final answer. If you know sooner than that, even better!

Tell the club you want to go to, "yes," and receive confirmation back from them before telling the other clubs, "no, thank you." Sometimes, things change, and you want to keep your secondary choices on hand if your first choice doesn't work out when you try to commit. After a club agrees with you to move forward, then immediately inform the secondary clubs that, "it is not going to work out this season, but maybe sometime in the future." Always leave the door open!

Ready to jump into your new job? I know I am!


If you want more details on how I've managed to "demand" my husband comes with me, or why I have chosen to represent myself, you can email me here. My experiences revolve heavily around women's volleyball and France, but I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Until next time...continue finding ways to keep your dream alive!

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Set To Survive

Marc and I have been laughing about how I will have played more volleyball in this month of May than in the previous 8 months combined. I have already won more matches in the past two weeks than in the entire season!

Moving to VGA this year opened up new opportunities, like being closer to Paris and playing for a club that has men's teams has meant that coed volleyball tournaments are now on my map. I was very happy to receive invitations to play in two 4v4 coed indoor tournaments the last two Thursdays with several of my new guy volleyball friends around Paris.

The tournament day is LONG. Check-in at 8:30AM. Play starts maybe around 9:30AM...okay, 10:00AM. There are two pools of three teams on each court, so the schedule is like "play, off, ref, off, play, off." Understand also that French players like to warm-up at the speed at which they eat their lunch: SLOW. The only saving grace is the "play" is one set to 21 points. But add three rounds of pool play (continually re-seeding teams to sift by talent level), then playoffs, and are you yawning yet? I know I was!

The May 1st tournament was in southeast Paris, in a suburb called Villejuif. There were 5 gyms in action, and over 70 teams. My team won our first two pools, then got second in the third pool, eliminating us from the playoffs. We went 5-1, with me attacking on a coed net for half the day. Not bad. Also received a tryout invitation from the local club team (level N2), so the day was spent very well, indeed!

The May 8th tournament was further outside of Paris, in a small town called Limeil, close to the end of the RER A line. This tournament was smaller with 36 teams in 2 gyms, and my team ended up winning 2nd place! These guys had me stay at setter the whole time (much better for everyone), and it is always fun to set guys who can crush the ball. Plus, these tournament hosts were awesome, giving us a breakfast snack when we arrived, and passing out free bananas throughout the day! YES!

Team "4 As Trof" - Like "Catastophe." Real clever. Go Team Catastrophe!

I played in these tournaments because friends of mine asked me to, and it sounded like a good time. Both tournaments were definitely fun, and the second tournament was made even more awesome when they lined us up afterwards to receive our...PRIZES!!! Every placed team received a prize bag of a t-shirt, hat, USB key, keychain light, water bottle, and shopping bag. Then they led us to the grand prize table, where we were allowed to choose any item out of things like: remote control race car, voice recording spy pen, video recording spy sunglasses, barbecues, crepe making hot plates, noise-canceling headphones, and some other random things. I chose the wanna-be-iPod-but-I-have-no-brand-MP4 player, and now I have a terrible camera and music player again! It'll tide me over until I get back to the USA in a few weeks, and it was FREE.

The level of play was exactly like the coed open gyms in San Diego County that my brother-in-law, Seth, takes me to when I am back in California. There's always some freakishly huge and scary attacker, then a bunch of people who just love volleyball. But I think it would be really difficult, even in the heart of SoCal, for a club to get over 70 local teams of 4 players to pay and sign up for a day-long tournament like these. Too many adults are "busy," and other local clubs try to block interest in competing clubs, even for something as basic as a community volleyball tournament. Volleyball is just happier and friendlier in France, and it is nice to enjoy this no-capitalism-in-sports attitude.

Maybe French photographers just don't count us down to the photo well enough? I was ready!

Besides these fun coed tournaments, two of my teammates have invited me to play in an outdoor women's 3v3 tournament at the end of May. I'm really looking forward to it, minus the probable sunburn the day after.

And as I briefly mentioned before...volleyball club tryouts. There is still the possibility that I will stay at VGA next year, but the fact that the team is going back down to N3, coupled with a few other issues, means that I am back on the club-hunting track. I have actually experienced a healthy amount of success in receiving responses from clubs, and have four tryouts scheduled in the upcoming weeks. We would, of course, love to stay in the Paris area, but I really want to continue to play at the N2 or N1 (now called "Elite") levels. We had to be a little too lucky this year to make our lives here work, and we can't afford to live like that again next year.

I have seen enough European volleyball by now to know that it is NOT too much to ask for all the players to be at all the practices and games, or to train 3-4 times a week, or to feel like I have actually exercised by the end of a practice. It is possible to play medium-level volleyball in a serious way, with real commitment and concentration from players and coaches alike. It's such a funny and basic thing for me to be focused on now, but I totally took it for granted in America.

Especially as a coach, this year was brutal training several boys who literally had ZERO interest in getting better at volleyball (in defense of the minority, I did have about 7 boys out of about 25 who genuinely cared and listened to me, and, I know this is crazy, but they actually improved at volleyball - WHAT?!). Most of the boys just wanted to talk to each other, bully somebody, kick the balls, push each other, serve and hit the ball as hard as they could into the walls, and pretend I wasn't there. Lord of the Flies was my every Wednesday and Friday.

I used to ask American players, "Why are you here?" and they would respond, "To get better!" This year, I would ask myself, "Why am I here?" and the answer was usually, "To referee and keep score!" I stopped "coaching," and instead would ask the player, "Do you want to know how you can do that better?" The response? "Oh, I know how already." I would shrug my shoulders and say, "If you know, you do it." (My version of this phrase in French rhymes, so that's about as satisfying as practice would get.) Sometimes the boys would snap back at me when I would "forget to not coach" and "accidentally tell them what to do." All I would think was: I feel sorry for your mom, and I never want to have one of you. All I would say was: "You do know that I'm here to help you, right?"

My coaching world was thoroughly refreshed the past two weeks when my coach was gone and he asked me to train our team. Let's just say that people who actually pay attention and want to play volleyball can really do well in my practices. I won't be signing up for teaching volleyball P.E. anytime soon.

All this to say, yes, going on tryouts to see what else is out there. Totally ready to be back in NorCal in a month to do camp at Redding Christian with good kids who are excited to listen, understand, and learn. Thrilled to get to spend time with Cuatro in Colorado for a week. Looking ever so forward to relaxing with my happy family, and to not being around hoards of children regularly. American volleyball. The pool. Driving with the radio blasting. Loud, uncontrollable laughter. High fives and hugs.

Who knew I'd be so excited to fly back to America?

It's been one of those years.

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