Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Deleon.
Christian, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My career started as an intern in the San Diego State Athletic Department. I made the decision after my sophomore year at SDSU that I wanted to work in sports – I didn’t know in what, but I knew that was the subject matter I wanted to be around. I was a finance major at the time (freshly switched from accounting…) and called around to local teams looking for an internship. I ended up in Assoc. Athletic Director of Operations Steve Schnall’s office at SDSU and my professional (and personal) life took a turn down this path. Schnall pointed me towards the Marketing Department because they were looking for interns. I didn’t care what the job was, didn’t know what exactly the Marketing interns did, but I wanted to get my foot in the door.
Fast forward two years later and I’m graduating from SDSU after two years as a Marketing intern. I met and worked with a gentleman named Mike Kitts, a sponsorship account executive for the Athletic Department, and that relationship would be the next jumping off point for my career. Mike had taken a role with the San Diego Sports Commission and brought me over with him. I avoided every college senior’s biggest fear – what am I going to do after college.
I graduated college without a Facebook. Twitter was just starting out. Instagram and Snapchat weren’t around (this was 2009…). I had seen the traction Shaq was gaining on Twitter and wrote up a proposal to start our social media presence at the Sports Commission. Now, Digital Marketing is my job. Let me reiterate that when I graduated from college, I didn’t use social media… now it’s my job! That’s probably the biggest piece of advice I give to young professionals – you don’t need to know what you’re going to do with your career the day you graduate college, you don’t know what’s coming.
From the Sports Commission, I went back to SDSU. I had my “dream job” at 25. I was the Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing & New Media working with Aztec Football and Men’s Basketball. We were in the golden age of Aztec Athletics winning Conference Championships up and down our sports roster. Men’s Basketball was the hottest ticket in town, the Madhouse on the Mesa was sold out and truly an atmosphere to behold.
Four years later, I was ready for my next challenge and that lead me to Sycuan Casino. A big change in my career… for the first time, I was out of sports. I was more focused on the marketing, I was able to drill down into my craft.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t think anyone ever has a smooth road, no matter who we are or what our path, we all deal with struggles. Working in sports, and specifically college athletics, the hours are long, the compensation is low and the work-life balance is non-existent. The biggest struggles in my career have always been about finding that balance.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Sycuan Casino – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Sycuan Casino has been around since 1983, celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year and is on the verge of opening a major resort expansion that will feature a 300+ room hotel, seven new restaurants, two pools and a lazy river.
Sycuan is one of a number of Native American Casinos in San Diego but probably the most synonymous as a member of the community. Our tribal government prides themselves on giving back to San Diego.
My role with the company is the Digital Marketing Manager where I oversee all things digital for Sycuan including social media, e-mail, website and photo/video content creation.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to always grow – working in digital marketing, the landscape changes daily and if you don’t stay current with the trends, you’ll be left in the dust. With the opening of our resort expansion in 2019, my job will have a major shift going from marketing a casino and adding a hotel.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5469 Casino Way El Cajon, CA 92019
- Website: www.sycuan.com
- Phone: 6194456002
- Email: cdeleon@sycuan.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sycuan_casino
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sycuancasino
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sycuancasino
Image Credit:
Sycuan Casino
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