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Episode 11 · 1 year ago
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Episode 11 · 1 year ago
10. Fielding Jamieson, Strategy Director, Global Sports Venture Studio at R/GA
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Conversations with real women who makesports happen, this is, and so she goes. Here's your host, Amanda Borgeous, Hello. There thanks for being here, Iam pumped for you to spend this next chunk of an hour to get some insightinto a side of sports. That is super interesting and not exactly somethingwe think about all the time now before I introduce my guest, I want to let youknow that I just launchd a new show website. All of these episodes willlive on one page and what I'm most excited about is the chance for me todeliver each end, every episode straight to your inbox. So that meansyou don't need to search for it or wait until the link is tweeted you just goto, and so she goes podcom and right on the home page. You can subscribe to beadded to the emailist. It is super simple and it's an easy way to nevermiss an episode. My guest today is fielding Jamison. She is the StrategyDirector for Global Sports Venture Studio at Rga. Ther role focuses ontech and innovation in sports, with a goal of bringing together corporationssports brands and even teams to collaborate and learn about newtechnologies and how they can use them to grow. Now. Part of that requires herto form relationships with startups, who have these new technologies thather clients can use. It's really cool and she has a super impressive resumemaking stops at ESPN, comcast, nd BC, sports and now, of course, rg fielding,and I talk about trends in the textbase and how they've changed throughout theyears. We talk about the challenges that come with, creating new ideas andpitching them to people who may not be open minded we dive into her uniquename and how it' shaped her to become the woman. She is to day I go on alittle bit of a tangent with names and how they affect you as a human. It wasreally fun to dissect. That and sticking with the name theme fieldingexplains the pressure that comes with naming a human which she is dealingwith right now because she is pregnant. So we also discuss what it's like beingpregnant during a pandemic and also the pressure that women face to quoteunquote. Have it all. We also talk about the gravity of being authentic inyour career and the importance of lifting other women up get ready. Youare about to learn a whole lot. Here is my conversation with fielding Jamison Hello Fielding. How are you? I am good,a man I think so much for Havvy me. Oh my gosh, thank you for being here. I'mso excited to chat with you. I know that you are based in New York, whichis sort of the hub of all of this craziness. So is everything going okayfor you guys over there Al All good here been very lucky with that you know.Unfortunately, the city has been hit very hard. I will say my employer. RgaDida did a great job in the beginning of letting people you know work from home, starting backearly March and so was able to kind of quarantine since that work, time frame and kind ofbe away from people. And so that's that's been good, but you know overall,it's just crazy to watch this whole pindemic, I'm fold. It really is, and I don't like to talk about it that muchbecause I feel like there's so much information out there and everyone hastheir opinions and some people get crazy anxiety about it, N, and so Idon't like to dwell on it too much. So let's go ahead and move on for those of us who might not know who you are, what your company is andwhat your role is. Can You just give a brief synopsis of that for us sureabsolutely so fielding Jamison? I currently work at the Global SportsVenture Studio that we call for short gs, vs and GSBS is really an initiativeto bring together the world's leading sports organizations to collaborate andengage with startups and the overall kind of sports innovation ecosystem andwe're focused on you know a number of areas we are. You know we love YouthSports, we're focus on kind of right now, the future of the fan and athleteexperience were looking at the venues. So we really cover kind of a broadrange of sports and got im all the different elements of sports. So youhave some very well known clients. Can you just break down what you do forthem specifically and how they benefit from your expertise? Sure so we are really lucky. We have anamazing group of clients, we have more...
...traditional commerce, retail side ofsports, so we have Aditas and Dick Sporting goods. We have media, so wehave Fox sports. We have teams wih the Alla dodgers and we have leagues, MajorLeeku Soccer, Major Leegue baseball UAFA, and then we also have venuemanagement and operations partner Leve. So you know we cover a lot of differentareas of sports, but what we really do for all of these clients is really helpthem with all things: innovation, but specifically we're really focused onexternal etivation and when I say that I mean really looking outside of theirown for walls for solutions and most often those solutions that were helpingthem, look for and source or come in the form of startups, so the main valuethat weare providing is kind of being that bridge for all these organizationsinto the startup ecosystem and kind of finding them the best solutions to fitproblem areas or areas of opportunity. But we also bring all of these parnerstogether. So you know it's not every day that major Leaku socker gets totalk to Major League Baseball, about different learnings that they're,seeing whether that means from fan engagement opportunities. You knowdifferent data points in terms of how younger fans are engaging versus olderfans, so you know we actually provide a platform where all these partners cancome together and openly share. You know different learnings that they have,and so that's actually a you know really powerful, because that canreally lead to projects h between two of ourclients that you know might not have ever found each other, that's so cooland for me, innovation and sport is so fascinating, because there's no recipefor success with that right, like the definition of innovation, is basicallyfiguring out what could be and how something could play into a specificproject, team, sport, etc. I want to talk about specific projectsthat you've worked on, so you've consulted on innovations for super bowl.Forty nine you've built this thee sixty degree ad video and you work withstartups. Like you mentioned, can you just talk about those specific projectsand your involvement in those? So I would say that in my entire career youknow before I was at Gloval Sports Buntor Studio. I was at comcast NBCUniversal for eight and a half years, always working withan innovation,beginning my career was working more internal innovation, so how you know wecould grow internally and push the boundaries and then the later half ofmy career, they're more in that external innovation, so kind of workingwith startups and which led me to Global Sports Venture Studio. So Ireally been able to work on some really coolprojects kind of over the last decade that spanned from anything from youknow, building one of my first projects in the sports experience was when second screen applications were reallybig things to the idea that you' be like watching something on the firstscreen, but you'd want to engage deeper within that content on your mobiledevice or your ipad or whatever it was, and so I actually for notor dames, one of noter damesfootball seasons. I became a content writer for that second screenexperience around producing fun, facts about that team and the coach and theseason and was actually like in the studio with the actual production, crewand graphics crew. Every Saturday, which is Sumer Fun. You know actually bit launching thatexperience, so I worked on everything from that all the way to launching real.You know: products like skills on Amazon Alexa, for example,ive built products internally within the comp within comcast, where I fileda couple patents on those and then you know morerecently really been focused on helping startup succeed with with individual companies andcorporations, and you know right now can't talk about some of the specifics, specific solutions that we're workingon with our clients right now, but you know we are really excited to hopefullyin the next yearor, so you know showcase some of those introductionsthat we've made for startups that are now kind of working with some of ourclients to really help them. You know push pushboundaries, get theminto a new space and- and I hopefully...
...will have more- I could sharespecifically about that later- cool, very cool. That's awesome! You have avery impressive resume, so I want to rewind a little bit before we dive intomore of your current work. What was your first job out of college sure? Somy first job was with NBC and I was called an emergingtech specialist and what that meant was essentially. I was working across allmultiple brands at NBC Universal. I was specifically the working with NBC Newsand Bravo and I was helping them run their text message campaigns. So in twothousand and eleven that was considered emerging technology. You know the ideathat you could get a breaking news text Dokno, which is really interesting. When Ithink about that because, frankly, I think that a lot of technology and innovation is Li Cypical,and so you know in two thousand and eleven text messages were huge and andgetting those messages oo directly to your phone and then that started to getreplaced by INAPP notifications- and you know your mobile device and thenwhat's interesting. Now is we're starting to see as we started to getflooded. We all get flooted with these kind of like notifications on ourphones, people don't pay attention to them as much, and so what you'reactually seeing now come to two thousand and twenty is that a lot ofbrands are going back to text messages, because it's proven that people readtheir text messages. You know I have like thousands of unread emails, but Ihave no on red text so huh I don truse yeah. I think that that's kind of aninteresting you know where I started my career thatwas considered really innovative and I laughed about that walk, Ot witout. Ilook at it and I say: Wow we're right gind to back back to that. So yeah, that's a little bit about kind ofmy first role was right. When MBC, I think, was really taking a first stepinto what it actually meant to be considered technology company alongsidebeing considered a media company. So did you know that you always wantedto work in tech in some capacity? No, you know I actually always wanted towork in sports, so I was a college athlete I just frankly when it came time to figure out,like you know what kind of interships I wanted. I just all I could think aboutwas when people ask like what do you, like. I just kept saying sports and so a internship actually opened upat NBC sports that I jumped on and got an EA. You know an email through kindof career services, at my college and- and so I was lucky enough to get thatinternship and start my career in sports, but that internship wasactually really focused on digital media and at the time that met, andthey were focused on actually launching a brand new, an BC sports APP and aspart of that APP, they actually had. They were alive doing some streaming oftennis matches as well as doing kind of live score updates and again, this alesounds like crazy because we all are like, of course, we would have lives.Orup dates, Li againtwoueleven, some of that was really new, even downloading an APP wasn'tsomething that was. You know something that people were used to, andso that was kind of my first entrance into technology and really just fell inlove with it like just really liked. The idea of you know being kind of a digital nativeand thinking that I at the time, toage tsanty one whateverintotin was kind of on the Cuttyn edge of technology, and you know I couldwork a computer and I knew what a phone, what you know a smartphone was, and anIPAD and you'd be surprised at how many executives at the time really didn't,and so I think that I just saw an opportunity to be seized. There likethis could be a really exciting path and andtechnology is only going to get better, and so what better kind of you know what better sector to be apart of then than tech? I love that you just wanted to work insports and you just as soon as an opportunity came. You just took it andran with it and it's become something amazing for you. I feel like there area lot of people who say. Okay, I know I want to work in sports, but I don'tknow what I want to do and that's great that you want to work in sports. Butthere are so many avenues you can take and some people get lucky like you,where you fall in and Youll love it and you build upon it and it becomes asuper successful career. But not everyone is is lucky enough to havethat sort of success. Right, YEA, it's! I was very lucky, but I agree. I thinkthat you know sports is such a big...
...sector and there's. So there are somany opportunities and I think that some people don't realize how manydifferent ways you can work in sports and honestly. That was one reason I wassuper excited to come on the podcast today, to kind of hopefully give adifferent lens to people out there of you know I'm yes, I'm in technology,but I'm also working in sports, but I'm an innovation and I work with startups.But I also work at an agency and you know it all kind of blends together andth. There are different ways to kind of fulfill that dream you don't alwayshave to go kind of the traditional path to get there yeah absolutely and that'sanother reason why I wanted to talk to you because I'm familiar with thebroadcast side of things, the journalist side of things and this sideof sports is so fascinating, because it's similar in the sense that you arehelping a brand to tell a story which is essentially what I do. I tellstories but, like I said before, there's no way to know if a certaintechnology is going to take off or or if people are going to enjoy it or ifit's going to work for that specific brand h. So I guess my question is: Howdo you, how do you in your team come together and say? Okay, this is a greatidea. Now we've got Ta, you know pitch it to Aditus and see if this is whatthey want to do, and hopefully it works. How does that? How does that process gofor you? That sure I mean there's there's definitely one of the partsthat I love the most, but also find somesometimes really difficult about.My job is the creative side right, so you have to not only understand thetechnology, but then you also have to be creative. To your point of liketelling that story, you can't just go. You know, put a startup sounder infront of at Nitas and just say specifically pitch your technologyunlet, the ditas try to figure it out right. You know you really want to goin there telling a story of how this startup or this piece of technology cantransform a certain part of their business, and so you know, I think thatonce we've worked hard and a lot of brainstorming to develop that story, wework also very closely with the startup during that time. You know once thepitchers made to our partner and let's say the partner is like yes, thissounds great. You know we are really focused on doing what's called prof ofconcepts or pilots which are essentially just tests. You know we puttogether testing periods to to your point oflet's just test this solution and see if the our inclination or o theory isright. Here is this something that you know a is gonna help our partner in a certain businessto business manner, be to be side or is it more? Is it's a consumer where youknow it could help them drive sales? I could help them drive foot traffic. Itcould help them with the fan experience whatever it is right. So we really putyou know a test in place with specific parometers and goals that we want tohit with that that partner and then it that test goes well. That's when,hopefully, the start up will secure that larger deal that so many covetwith one of our partners, and- and so you know, we again, you never want tojump. I love innovation. I think everyoneneeds to be innovating, but you also don't alwayswant to jump two feet in you know. Sometimes it's good to slowly like dipdip, your tonn and then kind of slowly get into the pool, and I think testingthese solutions is one is kind of one of the best ways to do that. So that's I that's interesting to me,because not everyone's open minded, not everyone, is, can see your vision thatyou're pitching and be like yeah. That could be really cool. You know you'repitching these technologies, these ideas that you might not see the value of for sometime. So how do you approach someone who's? Not Open minded someone! That'slike look. I have noody you were talking about. I don't think this isgoing to work ohit's so difficult. You know that I will say that is likethat is a really big challenge and, and frankly think you know I'm ad a jobright now that Iam, you know our partners have come to us and we'vecourted them and we all are kind of of the same mindset. So you know that'sthat's nice. So we do have you know people who are really open minded whoknow the importance of innovation. We can kind of skip that part. You know,but working within a corporation you're, surely going to run up against people who are not as open minded and,frankly rightfully so don't get me wrong. E'r very much worried aboutoperating cash fell very worried about the bottom line, and you know if it'snot going to bring them a million...
...dollars, they're, not interested in itright and so for sometimes for those people. You really just have to digdeep and try to come up with creative ways to make themcare, and frankly, that's a lot of like getting into that individual psyche andtrying to figure out. You know what makes this person tick. What drivesthis person? What excites this person, and how can I frame this? This story, the storyline, thisinnovation storyline in the best manner to get them excited, but also to behonest with you. Amanthat there's also points in time where, frankly, you justneed to move on. You know there. If people can't see you know the vision of what you'retrying to sell, andyou've tried, multiple approaches, it just might notbe a good fit, and so I think that's also important to recognize right thatnot not everyone is going to you know, and this is startup stealwith this all the time right like they here know all the time for people. So Ithink that it's a good lesson that I've learned from them, which is, if youhear no, then just move on right. You know you're not going to there's you'renot going to always be able to change everyone's mind and that's okay, YepYep. Absolutely, and sometimes you get a lot of nose, but all you need is theone yes and then you can take it and run with it. Absolutely so. You've madestops at ESPN, NBC sports and Comcast, and now you're with Rga. has there beena time where you've experienced some sort of adversity in your career andyou were able to overcome it and succeed? has there been a time likethat in your life? Sure I mean there's been plenty oftimes. I think 've faced different types of adversity. I mean there as one from the professional sidethat I'll never forget. I was working on a project and something went wrongat the eleventh hour. We were supposed to go, live basically the next day, andI checked in with my tech team that I was working with and basically theywere like yeah, most everything's working, except for this one really bigpart- and I was like excuse me and I will never forget- Having to make thephone call to my ven boss and explaining to him like we're goingto have to push this pro. I mean it was a really big forward facing project andI was like you know, we're going to have to push this and he didn't respond for a minute and justsaid well, when our entire group gets let go. You'll know that you're thereason- and that was a really difficult pale toswallow at the time, but I will say I also learned a lot from that moment,which was you know a that, wasn't something that I everwanted to say to anyone who worked for me. Frankly, but be there are certainpeople kind ot in the professional world thereae there are doers who just roll up their sleeves and are willing to get ounit. You know bad word done us, you know get in. There find thesolution theyre. Yes, people right there they're constantly trying tofigure out how they can make something happen, and then also- and then,frankly, to the point of our last question- sometimes there's just nopeople and Nay Sayers and people who like to complain about things but don'tactually have a solution. They just like to pick holes and whatever youknow, you're putting out there, and so I think that in that moment I realized that I was adoer, yes person. We got to figure this out and you know stayed up for thatwhole night and many many nights after that, working frankly in a really deep technicalspace that I had zero experience in. But but I'll tell you what I came outof that. I was an expert technical problem that we were facing,because I literally sat there and watched youtube videos and read andfigured out how what I needed to do to get this project done, and so I think that that was a momentby the way our team did not get fired, because if that was afraid to ask that is fired, it was a successfullaunch when it launched. We did it right. I stand by. You know thedecision to not kind of launch something when itwasn't ready and but again you know, I think I again, I learned just a lotfrom that project in general, but then also the you know, response fromleadership that I got, which you know...
...frankly wasn't a all right. Well, I'mhere to help it was more of a let's your you know. Let me figure out how toblame this on on you. If I have to go down for it, so you know, I think thatthat's that's just one one example, that'sreally stuck with me and has helped honestly try to shape me as I thinkabout myself as a manager. Where does your sense of selfconfidence come from? I have to be honest with you. I Ifrankly think it comes from my mother. I think that she did looking back on. My life did anabsolutely incredible job and stilling. A sense of confidence in me that Ididn't even realize was happening at the time, so my name is fielding, and that is aname that oftentimes can be considered a boys name and a when I was younger. Isigned up for what was supposed to be a softball league, but when my mom signedme up, they thought that I was a boy, and so it put me in the Baseball Leagueand they call my mom when they are. I can't remember exactly how we figuredthis. I think they called and said we just realized. You know this is whathappened and Butby, but you know, unfortunately, we didn't even getenough girls for the softball Leagu. So do you think you know she'd want tostay in the Baseball League, and I will say at the time of course I was like no.You know I was nine. I didn't want to play with all the boys, and my mom really gave me this kind ofJackie Wewere, studying Jackie Robinson at the time in school and kind of waslike looking Whith Jackie Robinson, that he was different and he this isvery different. Obviously I'm not trying to compare myself to JackieRobinson, but she use it as a teaching moment of you know. You've just beenstudying this amazing historical character. I mean hi character, aperson in in sports and specifically inbaseball and look, you have this opportunity to be that different personand to be a leader, and so I did, and so I you know, played baseball with theboys for years. I still sometimes go back to thathometown in New York and people are like. Are you the girl that playedbaseball, an which is funny, but I think that that'sjust an example that my my mother, in the way that she was able to kind ofpush me to push me outside of my comfort, DomePush me to grow. Push me to be comfortable with WHO I am and to youknow eventually, as I grew up, you know, use my voice as a platform to you know, hopefully kindof share ideas and, to be honest, with people around me. I love that she used your name as, andI'm sure this wasn't the only teaching moment, but you know we can't controlour names right. Our parents name us and we just we kind of take on thatpersona. Naturally, I think that's just a human thing, but I'm sure it's beeninteresting for you. You know growing up and even now in the professionalworld, having a unique name, I think is amazing because it sets you apart. How is that impacted you professionally?Would you say? Oh I love it. I wild say I talk to my mom all the time like Ithank them all my parents for naming me a unique name. I think itdefinitely helps kind of set you apart h. The only downside is people thatusually remember you and yeah, and so sometime I will say I am I'm very goodwith faces, I'm not always the best with names. So sometimes I feelembarrassed of people come up to me and they're. Like oh fielding. You know wemet four years ago. Whatever event that was- and so I you know- I'm not, I don'talways it's not always a positive in that sense, but I will say I do Ifrankly. I do think it's helped me professionally. I do think it helps.You know to have a unique name or a unique style or kindof whatever makes you you and showing that personality. I'm a big bigbeliever in that you know I've. I've sat through so many courses on how to be an executive woman and whatto wear and what colors to wear and how to style your hair and that you shouldhave short hair and not long, hair and Brown or blonde, and all these kind ofridiculous or what I personally think are kind of ridiculous attributes thatpeople are assigning to what a quote successful woman looks like, and you know, Iam a big believer in beingyourself being authentic and when you you're most comfortable when you areyourself and people can see them, and I think that that will help you urstrength, kind of shine through and whatever you're trying to doabsolutelyand if you're, confident in yourself.
People then want to be confident in youand what you can accomplish it. It's just the way that you care yourself,but it's so interesting how I was just thinking. I've never really trulythought about how much a name means, because you have no control over it atall. Unless you know you change your name when you become an adult, but speaking of names, you are about toname another human and I don't need you to share that information, but you areexpecting and you're doing very soon, which is so exciting. Congratulations,you thank you. So I just want to ask. Are you putting a lot of thought intothe name because of you know everything that we just discussed with your name: Som a ton of thout, probably driving myhusben crazy, but e s we're not finding out the gender. So we have. You know bothmal and female names, and then you know some names like mine that could swing swing either way, but I know Idefinitely think because I have such a unique name I'. Take more top of mind for me tomake sure that you know wher. We are also naming our child somebeing unique,so that's kind ofatly. I torture him on like crazy names yeah. You know. I think that it's definitely been a fun time to kindof think about that. There's a lot of pressure. I mean you have to be bold.You can't just like not that there's anything wrong with. You know simpleclassic names, but I don't know I feel like theyeare high expectations. Name is John, and he goes is goes byhis middle named Stewart, and so you know he has pretty normalnames, but you know we. There is a lot of pressure to yourpoint. I never really thougt like you. No, you can't control it, butY. Yes, you have to think about. You know you have to think about everything,including like what do you like? What is the worst nickname lik? Yes on game,we pay like what's the worst nomi you come up with, and each of the kids can't call your childthat on the playground, so yeah a lot a lot of pressure, but youknow well, I hope I didn't stress you out even more. I just it just came tome that, like this, I'm excited to find out the name. Now this is going to begood. It has to be good. Being pregnant during this time must bepretty interesting. I actually have a couple people close to me that are pregnant and I'm constantlychecking in on them and talking to them. But you know I I don't know what it'slike: I've never been pregnant, I'm not pregnant during quarantine and apandemic. Has it been interesting, or I mean, is everything? Okay, yeah I mean listen,it's it's! Definitely not how we imagined it. Let's just say that mine oWorse Tan, an I, but you know I think I've tried to look at this whole thingas like glass half full. So you know I'm home, I'm comfortable. I get towear whatever clothes I want Righ, like you know I can be in sweat, pants andthen just like a nice black shirt on top for my zoom calls, but Lik I'mcomfortable in my own home Y. Frankly, my husband is here which I'm so luckyto have a partner throughout this, and so you know he's here, because you knowhe's not going to work so he's been here. The whole time and we've got toexperience little milestones together. Just you know my somach growing or thebaby kicking and that sort of thing I'm not missing anything becausenothing hapingi'Tyou know I'm not missing. Having not to you know, go outmy in my kind of normal social life orfeel like. Oh, I wi. You know, I'm tired, I don't. I N T you K miss out onthe party or a weddieg or anything like that, and so frankly, I've kind oftried to just look at this as a blassine in a very weird disguise thatyou know I've kind of just been able to trot along and be pregnant. I haven'thad any weird people come up and try to touch my stomach, which I woul beenwarned about. You know so we kind of got it kind ofSkipe, some of that stuff, so yeah, of course it's been, it's been weird andyou know it's been unfortunate to have to go to doctor's appointments alone. Ithink that's been my kind of saddest part of this whole thing, but if that'sthe saddest part, then I'm I'm okay with that, you know, I think we're incredibly lucky were kind ofincredibly blessed. You know, even in New York, there's just been so muchcraziness around people having to give birth alone, and you know we're havingcovid you know and having their not being able to see their baby rightafter, and so you hear these kind of terrible stories, but you try to just know that you knoweveryone comes out on the other side, and you know I always say this, butwomen are incredibly strong and you...
...know pregnancy even from a biologicalstandpoint literally makes us stronger, and so I've just tried to find comfortin that the whole pregnancy thing is mine blowing to me any time. I'velooked into it because people close to me have been pregnant. I'm like how isthis human, a thing? How is this possible? It's it's absolutely. It is amiracle truly, but I feel like with with women in any sortof industry. First of all, every woman, every human is different, but I thinkwomen especially feel a sort of pressure to if they want kids there's a pressure to.If you've already found success like someone like you to stay, working or orthen you know, some women don't want to go back to work once they have the babyor they want to have more kids or like there is no right or wrong way to do it.So I guess my question, for you is: How are you anticipating handling this? A Bwho have you looked up to? That is a successful woman and a mother who, whoseemingly, does it all very well sure God you know, I think I think you just haveto take this day by day and I'm always very quick. You know, I never dyou knowI never say or try to judge another woman on their actions in the situationthat I haven't been in right. So if I you know what who am I to say that thatwas the wrong the wrong choice, I have no idea kind of writ a wrong choice.Right have no idea. What's going on in their lives, I can only control myselfand my family, and so you know, I think that it's been it's been reallyinteresting. I mean I'll be honest. I was really nervous to tell work. Youknow I actually started this job pregnant. You Know Oh wow, that was a prettycrazy situation and you know I didn't tell work until I was really kind of ata comfortable place that I wanted to do that. But you know that was a weird situationfor me to navigate and I was I was really nervous about telling work,because because I had just started this job and I will just say that it pays todo your research in terms of when you move companies and the types of teamsthat you're going to join, because my team was so overwhelmingly supportiveand kind, and that just meant the absolute worldto me- and I think that you know I am somebody who has loved- who frankly, has always really beenfortunate to love my job even out of college. I levet my job and so work is a really big part of mylife and myself, and I see that continuing. But you know I don't knowwhat could happen, and so, while I am, you know, really focused on my jobright now and- and it's really already kind of excited on getting back to workalmost because I've already you know we're planning years in advance right,so I'm already excited of you know, what's to come and differenttransitions and different moves, we're making. You know, I think that that's the bestfor me right now and that's that's, I think all I can how I can answer that and then the second part of your question therewas a woman is a woman who was on my team at comcast NBC Universal.Her name is Moniqe Mafo and she is was such an inspiration to me. She was. She is a mother. She as amother of two amazing children, one with special special needs, and she wasthem like. Just such a bad ass woman at work, she showed up every day she puther heart into her work. You could rely on her to get it done, and you know asI'm going through this pregnancy and I look back at all these different peoplewho have inspired me in different. You know facets and, as I think aboutwho I want to be as a mom, I find myself like lean. You know,looking back at people, not not famous people, not celebrities, you know notpeople in books, but but really the people that I've had the opportunity toget to know and work with my colleagues and my friends and I'm beg borrowingand stealing different attributs of you know of them and their selves asmothers and and trying to shape who you know what that word means to me. So youknow, Mooni is continues to be someone who I really look up to in thatway. I just message her about this on Mothersday so show. I think wesurprised to hear this podcast, but you...
...know, but she is definitely somebodywho she makes me feel like you can do itall and in terms of doing it all jus not to otto go on a tangent. But I think one thing that women get caught up and isthat is that notion of you know doing it all, and I was I wish I could remember who it was, butit was years ago and it was on a panel and it was a woman and she finally justsaid you know what I'm just going to be honest with you you're not going to beable to do it all. You can't, and so there's just going to be some dayswhere you're, a great employee and you're a great coworker and and thenthere's going to be and those same days, you're going to be a crappy wife formother and then there's going to be other days where you're, the mostamazing mother in the world and you're, not the best employee you're, not thebest coworker and that's okay, it's you know it balances out, and you have tobe able to give yourself that space to not always be a hundred percent at allof your different roles that you as one individual or Plaine, and that's reallystuck with me, and so I think that you know. While we all talk about thisconcept, men and women of you, Kdon't quote having it all. You know it's Ilike this motion of like you can have it all. Just it rarely happens at thesame time and and that's okay and you should still celebrate the fact, a thatyou have the opportunity to play all these different roles within withinyourself. Wow. That's that's very powerful and it is true, I feel likewomen specifically. I obviously can't speakfor men, but we're almost wired to just assume that women are supposed to haveit all like. We just have to figure out a way to have it all and that itdoesn't. It doesn't happen that way and it's true there are seasons in lifewhere we might feel like. We have it all next month, but then next yearmaybe something happens where okay things, you know, didn't exactly turnout the way that I thought they would but doesn't mean that that your life is is bad or or that you don't have at all.You know. I think we just we need to give ourselves just some space tobreathe. So thank you for saying that I yeah. I appreciate that it's very big, just a few more for you as a femaleleader in this industry. When you look around what does it look like from yourpoint of view in terms of other women leaders around you, so I wish therewere more I'll, just start there. I really wishthere were more. So I straddle this kind of tech, world and sports, andthose are two industries that, while we've seen a rise in women, we're still not close right to kind ofa quality and- and so I love- I think, what's amaze- There'sthere's some good and bad about that. The good about that is the women thatare in those industries, and this is a perfect example, and your podcast is aperfect example really come together and they do reallytry to help each other and lift each other up, and that is amazing towitness, and so I love that aspect of things, becausewhen it is a small community, it almost can be easier to try to help help other women along make connections and grow thoserelationships. But you know I I also on the flip side of that. I don'tnecessarily want that to be the case. I don't want it to be a small club. Idon't want it to be really easy to play the name game with another women at you know, Tech Conference or youknow a sports event. So you know I do want to hopefully see an Infux of womenin the more in the you know, Business World D, and you know trying to succee just as much as their mautcounterparts in industries that are predominantly male oriented liketechnology and sports, and so you know I was fortunate to work with someamazing women who have taught me that the importance of lifting otherwomen up it is something that I have carried with me and something that Itruly try to help in any way it can from a mentorship perspective, bothprofessionally and in my personal life, in terms of empowering women to goafter what they want and to recognize that they can be in any industry thatthey want to be. But you know I can on. I have at least some background andtech and sports, and so can at least speak to those, and so you know, Ithink that the work that you're doing...
...with this podcast and that other womenare doing and frankly other men. You know we need allies and yeah can't goabout this. In just looking at women women to women. We need men to help us and we need those allies, and so I'm soappreciative of all the events, all the meetups, all ofthe different things that are going on that are women, focus and and areshedding light on that and giving women opportunities to meet each other and tonetwork and to get into the door. And so you know, all I can say is just moreof that. Please and whatever I can do to help you know. Let me know I lovethat I feel lucky because in my career for the most part, I've been the onlyfemale on my immediate team, not in the entire department, but just on myimmediate team, but I've been very lucky. Where M my teams in the past,all the men have been so great they're, still friends to this day, whether itwas a job eight years ago or last year, a D and those those men like truly dohelp. Without even you know, you don't need to make it a thing like. Oh, let'ssupport our girl. You know like just just be a human to each other, and Ithink that that goes a long way, so I'm glad that it's growing, obviously, asyou said, there can always be more, but we've got ta start somewhere and youare doing your part to help grow that so that is amazing. I want you. I knowthat we briefly spoke of a woman that you look up to, but you mentionedmentorship and I would love for you to leave us with a woman in sports thatyou look up to someone who inspires you and maybe someone that could be a gueston my show. This is a really. This is a really difficult question, but I'mactually going to go with somebody. I've never met this person, but she's recently Ih've now attended.I think two or three events that she spoke on tat and it's Stephanie mcmannwith the WWe. She is the chief brand officer there and first of all I am not a DW W fan. Idon't even think I've seen one e match, and so when she first spoke,it was actually at Rga and our space, and so I was like okay. Well, I'm goingto obviously go and kind of see what this is about and whan I left there. Iwas like, I think, I'm like a huge wwevman now like I think I have to goto it. I was like texting my husband, like we got to go to like one of theseevents and like just the way that she has built their brand and the thoughtfulness that has been kind ofput into this crazy sport. Entertainment Reality Show of a brand is, is pretty amazing and not only that, but her kind of theFFORST that they've made on the philanthrophic side and some of thecommitments that they've done there working with a lot of differentnonprofits and and really giving back and having their athletes. WHO, as weknow you know, athletes are often considered heroes and having theirathletes. You know working with younger kids who, who are terminally ill or youknow giving back to frontline Hereo was like theyre. Just a brance sportsorganization, if you willed O to watch and to kind of look up to what they'redoing, and so I actually think that she has really impressed me, and I think I was you know a little. AsI said, I was a little skeptical about the deb Di e Oin. I learned about about it and you know thethought thoughtfulness that has kind of got into it. The thoughtfulness branklythat they put into the womens side of the wwe is incredible, so I would saythink she would be a great person to have you know on your show and just to offerinsights into again a brand that women don't often associate with, andyou know again, tat yeah is a woman leading the brand and her family.Obviously you know in general leading that company, and so you know, she'sreally tur. She really turned me around, and so you know now big Big Stephaniemcman Fan still haven't gotten to go to WWe event, given the covid situation,but it's definitely so on my list. I love that we can look up to other womenwho essentially have nothing to do with anything that relates to us, but westill find different things in them that we aspireto be, or you know just traits it. We respect. I think that that's that'svery cool. Thank you. So much fielding...
...seriously. This has been such a funchat. I appreciate your time. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy. I amso excited to find out the name. Thank you. Thank you, a No. I man o reallythe pletters Ollmine. I so appreciate you having me on the show today andfrankly, really appreciate all of your personal efforts in Thi Space andHighlighting Amazing Women Across Sports O. Thank you. This conversation was so fascinating tome because, as a broadcaster, I'm not really familiar with innovativetechnologies, you know, aside from smartphones and recording devices andcameras, so hearing how she works, with brands to think outside the box topromote themselves, especially using startups. It's really cool. I alsoreally did enjoy our unexpected, deep dive into names and what they mean andhow they impact a person's life. It's kind of crazy when you think about itanyway, to learn more about Global Sports Venture Studio. You can followthem on twitter, at Global Sports, vs or their website Global Sports Venturestudiocom. Now I know we hit on a ton of different things today. So if thereis something you have a question about feel free to reach out, as I mentionedin the Intro, you can contact me and find all episodes at, and so she goespod com and, while you're there don't forget to subscribe to get on my emaillist. Also, I had a few people leave reviews saying that they want to learnmore about me, which is very nice. So if you want to read about myexperiences and what inspired me to create this show, there is an aboutsection on the home page of the website, and if you want to follow along onsocial media, you can do that at end. So she goes pod on instagram andtwitter. Thanks for listening.
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