Out of Office: Jordan Nelson Is the Voice of Rodeo

[I had] no formal experience in rodeos other than being a fan, and I have a lot more experience on the football side. Rodeo is something I just had to pick up on the fly.

Basically, they gave me a microphone and said, “Oh, talk about the rodeo for two and a half hours.” That’s a lot harder than it sounds if you’ve never done it before.

Those first couple rodeos, it was kind of a learning curve for me. You have to learn how to say “um” a lot less and when to look in the camera … but really, a lot of the work is done behind the scenes. For me, it’s keeping up with the standings, what contestants are doing, how the horse or the bull has been doing and getting to know stock contractors.

My role at the bank is more customer-facing than most CFOs’, but it’s still a back-office role. [Sports commentating is] an opportunity to hone and polish some [of those community engagement] skills that are important to me.

[My goals are] to be able to keep telling the story [of the Western way of life] and expose more people to a great activity that reflects well [upon the culture of] our state and our community. Anything I can do, even the small part that I get to play in that, makes it well worth it to me.