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When Bob Beaudine was the “King of Spuds,” selling frozen French fries, no one, least of all him, expected that he would become a pioneer in the professional sports industry or that his firm
would become the top recruiter in business, sports and entertainment. Working as a brand manager for Carnation Foods was a great career, and Bob was doing just fine. But his father, Frank,
had started something that would become bigger than either could have imagined, and Bob could not resist the pull of the opportunity. The elder Beaudine had asked his son to work for him in
the executive recruiting firm, Eastman & Beaudine, he had founded in 1967. Sure. Today you think, _So what?_ But back in the day, no such service existed to match would-be executives
with high-dollar corporations. In 1980, when Bob was deciding whether to join his dad, he knew he wanted to build something that had never been done. “[My dad] wanted to know where I was
going, and I said, ‘When I do a search for a president of a manufacturing company, at the end of the search I get a tour of the plant. If I did the head of marketing for the NBA, we’d get an
All-Star weekend,’ ’’ Bob told me recently on my _Chiseled_ podcast. Sure enough, Bob ran with his idea. He went on to become one of the largest names in sports, earning himself _Sports
Illustrated_’s designation as the “top front-office matchmaker in sports” as well as the “most influential man in sports you’ve never heard of.” Bob gained this honor by shaping the senior
leadership teams and management offices across all four major league sports — football, basketball, baseball and hockey. In addition to university athletic departments nationwide, Bob’s
experience extended to the PGA Tour, the U.S. Tennis Association, Professional Bull Riders, U.S. Olympics, NASCAR, UFC and several sports-related nonprofits, among others. Bob changed the
way recruiters in almost every field look at candidates. He focused not only on skills but also on relationships, and coined the term “the Power of WHO,” which emphasizes that the people who
know you best are the most willing to help you find the position that’s right for you. Conversely, but as importantly, Bob also encouraged employers to invest time and resources in their
employees’ careers to improve retention rates and promote from within their own teams. Seems obvious now, but it wasn’t always!