I've learned quickly in my time at 8am that some of the best customer conversations happen away from a screen. NFL Draft night in downtown St. Petersburg, FL was a good reminder of that.
8am recently announced a partnership with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, making us an official professional services partner of the team. The partnership also comes with naming rights to the 8am Club at Raymond James Stadium—something I'm genuinely excited about as a lifelong Bucs fan. The Draft Block Party was our first event as part of that relationship, and I had the chance to bring three of our customers along for the VIP experience.
We invited Creighton Shafer of Diaz Shafer Immigration, Sean Estes of Hoyer Law Group, and Raul Nieves of Consumer Law Attorneys. Three attorneys, three different practice areas, three different points in their journey with 8am. All of them are based in the Tampa Bay area, and all of them are huge Bucs fans.
The VIP experience was hosted at Taverna Costale, an upscale restaurant right near the block party. The venue had everything—appetizers, dinner, drinks, dessert—and more importantly, access to current and former Buccaneers players, front office staff, and the Bucs cheerleaders. Players were moving through the room all night, taking photos, signing autographs, and stopping to talk. Everyone walked away with an official 2026 Draft hat, the same one the players wore as they were drafted. That was a standout moment.
When we weren't inside, we were out in the streets, which were filled with fans. The block party itself was electric! The roads were blocked off, food trucks and vendors lined the route, and Bucs gear was everywhere you looked. A massive screen showed the live draft, and the energy built all night leading up to pick number 15, the team’s first of the night. When the Buccaneers made their selection, the whole crowd erupted. It was one of those moments that's hard to recreate anywhere else.
Getting to know Creighton, Sean, and Raul better was the best part of the night. Creighton runs an immigration practice and works across MyCase, LawPay, and Docketwise—a combination that gives his team visibility into everything from case management to payments. Sean's employment law firm leans on LawPay to keep billing running smoothly. Raul oversees operations at a fast-growing firm handling bankruptcy, personal injury, and foreclosure defense, where staying on top of client intake and payments is critical.
Each of them brings a different perspective to how technology fits into their practice, making for a genuinely rich conversation. A good part of the evening turned into a back-and-forth between the three of them, swapping experiences with 8am solutions, talking through what's working at their firms, and sharing ideas on how to get more out of the tools they're using.
By the end of the night, Sean was already talking about organizing a Tampa-area networking group so the three of them could stay connected, share referrals, and keep learning from each other on the 8am platform. That kind of thing happens organically when you get the right people in a room together.
Raul summed up the energy of the evening well: "The setup made it very natural to connect. Everyone there was open, engaged, and there to build relationships. It created an environment where conversations flowed easily and led to real potential opportunities."
That sense of community is something Sean picked up on too. "8am isn't just selling a service; it's building a network," he said. "You can tell 8am cares about connecting its clients to each other, and there's a real ‘rising-tide-lifts-all-boats’ mentality to how 8am operates."
That's exactly what I'd hoped for. The relationships we build with customers go beyond the products they use. Getting to share a night like that—great food, a historic draft, and a room full of people who love this city and this team—that's what makes this job worth doing.