SoapBlog 4 - Get Your Body Movin’
Brian Polark, Founder, Cincinnati Sports Leagues

When did being active change from getting out and doing something to designating a room in your house in which to be active? Don’t get me wrong, I have as many pieces of workout equipment and circuit training DVDs as anyone (a lot of them with a pretty thick layer of dust on them). Yet, no matter how much I feel the burn, I never truly enjoy them as much as I do getting active in a social setting. Let’s face it, when Mom or Dad told you to go out and play as a kid, you didn’t head to the half-finished part of your parents’ basement to pump iron and do 10-minute abs. You headed next door to grab the neighbors and shoot hoops, play kick-the-can or a game of wiffle ball.

Something happens as we grow up: our idea of being active changes from being involved in group activities to taking on the daunting task of working out alone. Somewhere along the line, “being active” stopped being fun and became work.

My generation and the generations after mine will be faced with the daunting task of battling sedentary lifestyles, which in many cases lead to obesity, heart disease and sometimes depression. The remedy for this, in most cases, will not be found in a 15-minute workout DVD or in a $1,000 piece of workout equipment, but rather in activities that continually challenge and engage in a social setting. This battle will be won on the softball fields, sand volleyball courts, kickball fields, and dodgeball gyms, the running and cycling groups, the 5Ks and the marathons. The activities that are done socially for health and fitness will be the key to turning the tide that has been set against us.

I’m not a rocket scientist, and my company definitely doesn’t split the atom. We focus on developing sports and social activities that appeal to the largest segment of our population. Our success is predicated on people being engaged for various reasons. The more people stay active longer into their lives, the easier it will be to instill a similar mindset and lifestyle to our kids and their generation.

Turning 25, 30 or 35 doesn’t have to be all about TPS reports, board rooms, or excuses for not having enough time. The great thing about life is that everyone gets the same amount of time in a day. The variable is how you choose to use it. Choose to get your body movin’ this year. Whether you are walking your dog in Hyde Park Square, running up Devou Hill, or playing in one of CSL’s leagues, get out and get movin’. Your body and your disposition will thank you for it!

To learn more about the CSL, visit www.gocsl.com.

SoapBlog 3: Give to be Engaged
Brian Polark, Founder Cincinnati Sports Leagues

In the first few months after my graduation from Xavier University in 2000, I learned some valuable lessons about my own resiliency.

I was trying to make ends meet by running a youth athletic camp for kids from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. I was also an umpire for softball games from 6 - 10 p.m., and a bartender and cook at a local establishment until 2 a.m. each night. Oh, did I mention, I didn’t have a car either? My circa 1995 mountain bike was getting quite a workout.

Although they didn’t last long (thankfully), those crazy months were important to my development as a future business owner. Somehow, I proved some classic clichés:

• Things are never quite as bad as they seem, and
• The grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side.

I even almost became victim to the “Brain Drain.” I was going through the motions of living in a city that I wasn’t actively involved in. I was looking for any reason to leave, a job, warmer weather, places with cheap cars… anything. Fortunately for me, I found an opportunity here in the Queen City. Looking back, I’m thankful that I wasn’t so caught up with trying to get out that I missed these opportunities all together.

Even after starting CSL, I was still restless and looking to leave. I remember taking trips to Southern California and Arizona, and after returning, starting to look through job listings and apartments in those areas. My problem was that I still hadn’t fully engaged this city. It wasn’t “my” city.

That changed around 2003. Two or three years into growing Cincinnati Sports Leagues (CSL), people started to look to us for their social needs. Our leagues were selling out, and parties and happy hours were packed. At this point, I began to realize that in order for it to be “my” city, I had to provide something worthwhile for the city.

My roots in Cincinnati came in the form of the city and its YPs accepting my business into the community. The abundance of YP groups and programming in Cincinnati are a testament to this generation’s ability and desire to be engaged. I wouldn’t be here without it, and CSL definitely wouldn’t be here without it. For that, I (along with my wife and my business) will always be indebted to the people, as well as the City of Cincinnati.

SoapBlog 2: Standing Tall Among Giants
Brian Polark, Founder of Cincinnati Sports Leagues

Growing a business in Cincinnati is a very unique and sometimes a very intimidating experience.

Cincinnati Sports Leagues (CSL) has been my labor of love since 2000. I was just out of college and could not tell if my business partner and I just didn’t want real jobs, or truly believed or understood what we were undertaking. Although I hate to admit it, to this day I’m still not sure what I have my hands on and exactly where it is going.

I struggled early on to find where CSL fit into the business landscape of Cincinnati. We knew we wanted to provide an outlet for young professionals to be active, athletic, and social all in one place. The concept wasn’t a hard sell to your average 21 year old, but I worried about how it would it be perceived in the larger, more established business community. We knew that being a one-city entity would hurt us in the short run, but if we grew and positioned ourselves correctly, it would benefit us in the long run.

Believe it or not, young professionals actually survived prior to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn! (We like to think of CSL as the original social network!) Their behavior was similar, but how we reached them was different. After figuring out how to reach YPs en masse, we were able to achieve a critical mass at all of our events. Achieving this at an early stage allowed us to build a strong following for all of our offerings. This helped us realize that we had something on our hands larger than some sports leagues and parties.

The holy grail for advertisers and marketers is a concentrated population of a specific demographic, and the most highly sought after demographic is 18-34 year olds. CSL encompasses that demographic (21- 34) in Cincinnati. The development of this aspect of our business allowed us to position ourselves as a marketing vehicle that could provide area businesses with a way to reach a concentrated population of 21-34 year olds that are educated, savvy, and important to any company developing a product or service aimed at YPs.

Over the last eight years, our ability to be fluid, change, and adapt to advertisers’ and marketers’ needs have kept us positioned as a premier outlet for reaching young professionals. In our continued effort to be fluid, especially during this time of, shall we say, fiscal uncertainness, CSL continues to develop cost-effective ways for products and services to reach young professionals. In 2008, we developed the goAgency, which specializes in executing on-site marketing programs, and in 2009, we will launch our ad management initiative, which will give advertisers the chance to deliver their message on www.goCSL.com, outside of our traditional marketing packages.

Our goal at CSL isn’t to be all things to all people, but rather to be really good a providing a few services to specific clientele. Succeeding in doing that will allow us to stand tall amongst giants in the Cincinnati business landscape.

Brian Polark, Founder Cincinnati Sports Leagues
Soapblog 1: Cincinnati and the YP Life Cycle

I started Cincinnati Sports Leagues (CSL) out of my apartment in Hyde Park in 2000 with another young professional, my business partner, Joff Moine. During this time, it felt like an epidemic was sweeping the city: word on the street was that “Brain Drain” was taking young professionals to bigger, warmer or chicer destinations. Despite the power players like P&G, Fifth Third and Chiquita doing their best to recruit and train some of the best employees, they seemed to be leaving at the first chance they got.

This proved to be a unique challenge for a business owner who was focusing on that “at risk” group. A lot of our initial struggles involved finding our “fit” into the business landscape in Cincinnati. We felt too small to be a major player, but potentially too big to go unexplored. We needed a niche, a cause, something to weave us into the fabric of Cincinnati.

We found that niche by providing YPs with a social outlet, a way to expand their network outside of work. We didn’t split the atom with this business concept. We basically took what we enjoyed doing and turned it into a business.

I’ve come to understand that the social life cycle of a young professional can take one of two routes. The first route is one in which they engage their community outside of their job, grow their network of friends, contacts and peers, and begin to lay roots in the city where they live. The second route is one in which they don’t engage the community, and avoid “planting” roots, making it possible, and that much easier, to leave a city.

We didn’t consciously try to change the social landscape for young professionals in Cincinnati, but over the last eight years, we feel like we’ve been one of several organizations that have done just that. You don’t have to go far to find someone who has participated in one of our co-ed sand volleyball, softball or basketball teams. Even those who don’t play sports may attend our happy hours or New Year’s parties. The average CSL participant takes part in three to four leagues and events each year, and I’m willing to bet that some of these 21 – 34-ers have had the opportunity to pick up and leave for a bigger city, sandier beaches, or warmer climate. But they made a choice to stay.

Has Cincinnati plugged the “Brain Drain”?

I think our region has grown stronger over the last eight years. And although Cincinnati didn’t grow mountains or develop an ocean, it has become more appealing to YPs. Some smart people in Cincinnati realized that although our city wasn’t big enough to be a major player in the hunt for YP talent, it also had too much potential to go to waste. These people encouraged the Give Backs, YPACs, and CSL to exist. They knew that encouraging young professionals to engage and be involved in their city outside of work would provide not only the roots for YPs to stay in Cincinnati, but also the roots for Cincinnati to grow as a city.