Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 315. Getting It Right: Athleta's Chief Marketing Officer Ilona Aman On Sacrifice, Hard Work & Turning A Moment Into A Movement

Transcript

315. Getting It Right: Athleta's Chief Marketing Officer Ilona Aman On Sacrifice, Hard Work & Turning A Moment Into A Movement · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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  Speaker 1: I want to be a student.
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  Speaker 2: If I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm in
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: the wrong room, because I want to learn from every
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  Speaker 2: single person that I come in contact.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: With what's going on. Hurdler's Emilia Badi. Here you are
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: listening to episode three hundred and fifteen of Hurdle, a
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  Speaker 3: wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people about
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  Speaker 3: everything from their highest ties and toughest moments to essential
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: goal through these discussions is to empower you to better
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: navigate yours and move with intention so that you can
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  Speaker 3: stride towards your own big potential and of course have
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: some fun along the way.
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  Speaker 4: Now, I have been bringing.
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  Speaker 3: You episode after episode of really awesome conversations that I
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  Speaker 3: was able to have while post it up at Athleta's
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Power of She Hub in Paris. Now today's episode is
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  Speaker 3: no exception, except this one's not with an athlete, but
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  Speaker 3: rather Athleta's chief marketing officer, Alona Amen.
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  Speaker 4: I am am.
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  Speaker 3: Excited, lit like over the moon about this episode because
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: it brings together so many of the different areas that
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  Speaker 3: I am personally passionate about as well. We are talking career,
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  Speaker 3: we are talking entrepreneurship, we were talking about going after
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  Speaker 3: the things that you want. We're talking about navigating imposter syndrome, wellness,
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  Speaker 3: women in sport, uplifting women, so much goodness. In this episode,
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  Speaker 3: Alona opens up about the highs and lows of her
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  Speaker 3: career thus far, working at other big name brands like
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  Speaker 3: Nike and Adidas, and also collaborating with huge names like
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  Speaker 3: Pharrell and Beyonce. I really appreciate Alona's vulnerability when she
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  Speaker 3: talks about the challenges that go hand in hand with being.
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  Speaker 4: So career motivated.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: She talks about having her daughter, how that changed things
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: for her, and what it's like for her to spend
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  Speaker 3: so much time on the road in this role. Like
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I said, so many great takeaways in this episode, and
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  Speaker 3: it really reminds me of some other goodies I've had
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in the past that focus on career climbing the corporate
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: ladder and staying true to yourself along the way.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: I'm going to highlight some of.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Those in the show notes, including Kelly Cortina, who used
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: to be a VP at the North Face Aaron Longen,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: the global director of the Run Trained business unit at Puma,
• 2:31
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• 3:09
  Speaker 4: With that, let's get to it. Let's get it to
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  Speaker 4: a hurdling.
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  Speaker 3: Today, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Alona Amen.
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  Speaker 3: She's the chief marketing officer for Atleta. How are we
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  Speaker 3: doing so good?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, It's Friday, So good? What a week? What
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  Speaker 1: a week that you've had?
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  Speaker 3: Talk to us a little bit about what you've been
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  Speaker 3: up to over the past five days so far here
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  Speaker 3: in Paris.
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  Speaker 2: How you're feeling right now emotional rollercoaster, primarily because we
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  Speaker 2: have the combination of driving and bringing the brand to
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  Speaker 2: life on the ground in Paris while our athletes are competing,
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  Speaker 2: and so the investment emotionally in watching their journey and
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  Speaker 2: the people that are competing against and their narratives sort
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  Speaker 2: of legacies and all those things unfold while we're also
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: storytelling about the brand. You're just constantly toggling, like the
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  Speaker 2: high and the low, and it's thrilling.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's thrilling. It's thrilling.
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  Speaker 3: And we're not just talking about any athletes here, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 3: We're talking about the Katie Lidecki legend, legend, the Simone
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  Speaker 3: Biles Goat, goat. I mean, these are the two words
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  Speaker 3: that come up for everyone when we say these names. Queens,
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  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. And what a privilege. And we'll get
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  Speaker 3: into your story and whatnot. This isn't the first time
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  Speaker 3: that you've had the opportunity to work with such top
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  Speaker 3: level talent.
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  Speaker 1: Talk to me a.
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  Speaker 3: Little bit about what it means for you right now
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  Speaker 3: to be here in this chapter with athleta.
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  Speaker 2: I could not be more excited because I'm a mom
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  Speaker 2: of a three year old, so a three year old
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  Speaker 2: who has so much energy shout out to Kira all
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  Speaker 2: the time, and having the ability to be part of
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  Speaker 2: a brand that stands for the power or I she
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  Speaker 2: but also is working religiously on paving the way for
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  Speaker 2: women and girls and really really standing behind its mission
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  Speaker 2: to empower women and girls and help inspire them when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to their confidence and strength and belonging. To
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: say that I could be a part of that, it's
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  Speaker 2: just so unbelievably fulfilling. And while to your point, like
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  Speaker 2: I've worked with amazing athletes and amazing brands and I'm
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  Speaker 2: so fortunate that those were the building blocks to get
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  Speaker 2: me here, the perspective of being a part of something
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  Speaker 2: that propels women and girls forward is just again very
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  Speaker 2: very close to the chest based on where I am
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  Speaker 2: in life.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's truly thrilling to not only be
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  Speaker 3: here right now, but to be here to witness what's
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  Speaker 3: happening for Athleta as a brand right now, and for
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  Speaker 3: you to have such a heavy hand and an opportunity
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  Speaker 3: to help shape the narrative around how this company presents
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  Speaker 3: itself during this and future big moments.
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  Speaker 1: It's a really exciting thing.
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  Speaker 2: I mean it's once in a lifetime, Like you get
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  Speaker 2: these opportunities once in a lifetime and they're so exhilarating.
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  Speaker 2: In the team that I have and the team that
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  Speaker 2: we have here on the ground and both in the US,
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  Speaker 2: they have just been obsessive about getting it right and
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  Speaker 2: it's so close to their hearts. It's not just about
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  Speaker 2: a job. You're not just punching the clock. This is
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  Speaker 2: about taking a moment and turning it into a movement.
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  Speaker 2: But we all collectively believe in it so much. It's
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  Speaker 2: really really magical to see how that's coming to life.
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  Speaker 3: When you say getting it right, what does getting it
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  Speaker 3: right look like or even feel like to you?
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  Speaker 2: Getting it right is about going back to authenticity for
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  Speaker 2: this brand. We started with the mission to serve women
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  Speaker 2: in a place where we believed, and we saw and
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  Speaker 2: we observed that women weren't getting the same level of
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: commitment when it came to performance product. So the inception
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: of this brand came from serving women as society has
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  Speaker 2: caught up as a whole to say, wow, women in
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  Speaker 2: sports is actually really important. Here are the building blocks
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  Speaker 2: that when women participate in sports. When girls participate in sport,
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  Speaker 2: this is what the payoff is for them and their
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: lifelong sort of dreams, careers, goals.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't even have to be in sport.
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  Speaker 2: That has become a fantastic trend, and we love that
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  Speaker 2: everybody's participating and investing and having conversations and putting resource
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  Speaker 2: into it and adding people to the table. The part
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  Speaker 2: that we watch very closely because we do want to
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  Speaker 2: get it right is does it come from a place
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of authenticity. So as everyone is catching up to this
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  Speaker 2: conversation and we're starting to have a lot of dialogue
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  Speaker 2: around what are our stories, who are our partners, where
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  Speaker 2: do we want to take this brand. We don't want
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  Speaker 2: to be the brand that's just sticking a name with
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  Speaker 2: a product and endorsing something because it's on trend. So
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  Speaker 2: it always goes back to what are the value systems
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  Speaker 2: that we're honoring. Those are our filters, what are the
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  Speaker 2: value systems of all the people that we work with,
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  Speaker 2: So that again, the narrative is always authentic and it's
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  Speaker 2: in service of both our legacy consumer who's been with
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  Speaker 2: us on this journey from the very beginning as well
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  Speaker 2: as inviting new consumers into our space to understand and
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  Speaker 2: experience the brand in its full spectrum, which is where
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  Speaker 2: we are today.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know it's so interesting, right because you
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  Speaker 3: can have all of these ideas and you can be
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  Speaker 3: pretty clear on your values. But sometimes where we see
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  Speaker 3: a misstep is that ultimately the goal will be to
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  Speaker 3: sell product, right of course, and so it's interesting now
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  Speaker 3: to not only see Athleta doing so well with selling products,
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  Speaker 3: but then also be able to start to make actionable
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  Speaker 3: change toward where you see I'm sure the brand transitioning
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  Speaker 3: to in this next chapter being more present at opportunities
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  Speaker 3: like the SP's being here in Paris, really taking a
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  Speaker 3: stand and saying not only do we support her, but
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  Speaker 3: we want to be with her along this journey making
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  Speaker 3: the making a bigger aim for ourselves in this space, specifically.
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  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
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  Speaker 2: And we understand our consumer, we know how dynamic she is,
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  Speaker 2: and so as we're on a mission to reinvigorate the brand,
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  Speaker 2: what's so important for us is how do we keep
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  Speaker 2: finding those intersection points across culture, sport, entertainment where she lives,
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  Speaker 2: where we're having the conversation with her and to your point,
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  Speaker 2: being very participatory versus talking at her. Because she knows
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  Speaker 2: who she is, she has her voice. We don't have
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  Speaker 2: to tell her what to do. We want to be
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  Speaker 2: on that journey with her, and as a result of that,
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  Speaker 2: the self expression of what she has comes to life
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: in product. Like I've been watching your outfits all week,
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  Speaker 2: taking notes because I will be replicating them when I
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: get home. But it's so great to see how you're
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: styling style relevant lifestyle product that's maybe not ours with
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  Speaker 2: our performance product to create a look that makes you
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: feel a certain way, and when you feel a certain way,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: you project confidence and you project energy. But the fact
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: that you choosing our brand as part of your self expression,
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  Speaker 2: that's very humbling because you have a lot of options.
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  Speaker 2: I have a lot of options, and so to always
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: go back to that, I think that's always the filter
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  Speaker 2: that we put it through of she has a lot
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  Speaker 2: of options, So how are we connecting with her that
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  Speaker 2: allows her to participate and be on the journey with
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  Speaker 2: us and say, when I were athleta, this is what
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: it means and this is how I feel.
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  Speaker 3: I want to talk to you as someone who is
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: now a veteran, as a marketer, And you just said
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the phrase reimagining a brand, right. You are bringing a
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: lot of new life into this legacy brand as a
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: part of Gap Bank. And so I'm curious. Now you
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: have a big goal, right, a big goal to transform something,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: whether or not we're talking about this situation right here
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: with Athleta or anyone listening to this, they have a
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: big goal. When you have something that big in front
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: of you, it can feel really overwhelming. So how do
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: you show up to a challenge like this and feel
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: confident in what you have to offer?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think the biggest thing is permission to fail
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  Speaker 2: and failing fast.
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  Speaker 1: I deploy that in my career and in my personal life.
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  Speaker 2: I share that with the teams of Part of permission
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  Speaker 2: to fail and fail fast gives you the ability to
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  Speaker 2: be fearless. It gives you the ability to be a
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  Speaker 2: risk taker. It gives you the ability to quiet the
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: noise and try things that are new. It lets you
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: have creativity, It invites innovation into the conversation. And then
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: when you're able to fail and fail fast, that becomes
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: a learning to then catapult you forward versus oh that
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: was a miss or oh I didn't do it? Right
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: or oh I failed. And so for us, like we
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: really try to deploy that in our culture of how
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: do we fail fast, how do we read and react,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: how do we really watch what's going on in culture
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: to inform our decisions. But also it's okay if we
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: don't always get it right, Like that's part of life.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Nobody has a perfect scoreboard. Sometimes the losses inform the wins,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: and the more comfortable we become with that that is
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: actually impacts our confidence level to go, wow, we can
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: achieve anything, Like there really is no ceiling. I hate
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: when people say, what's the glass ceiling? There's no ceiling
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: and the open roof. We're in a terrace, like go
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: as high as you can.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Keep going into the sky. Sometimes the losses inform the winds.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: I love that.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: And speaking of losses, and obviously this is interpretive, but
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: I know early on one of your first jobs at Nike,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: arguably you kind of had a loss that made you
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: move on from what was at one point, ye a
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: dream opportunity.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: About that emotion emotion, emotion, but emotion that you recover from.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: You know, I absolutely loved my journey at Nike and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I thought, starting there so young, I was going to
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: be buried at the Berm, like I was going to
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: have my wedding and my funeral there. That is the
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: only brand I ever wanted to be a part of.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And when I made the decision to leave the brand,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: it was a really difficult decision because I had never
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: imagined anything beyond that. As I've moved around in my
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: career and I've learned and I've matured and I've grown,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I realized that Nike gave me such amazing building blocks
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and such an amazing foundation and really shaped who I
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: am today to inform how I show up as a leader,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: how I show up as a marketer, how I show
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: up based on people I got to meet and experiences
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: that I had to have. And so while it felt uncomfortable,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: then I think betting on myself to say, maybe I
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: don't know exactly what's in front of me, but I
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: know it'll be something great, or I will will it
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to be something great. That belief and self allowed me
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: to take chances in a way that, again, had I
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: been in my own head about it, I probably would
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: have just stayed the course, and I don't know where
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: that would have led, But I'm really happy that in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the moment I chose to about on myself.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: And in that moment you had to choose like what
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: felt better for you, so stepping away from that role
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: that you had at the time, it was a choice
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: based on Okay, this doesn't feel like it aligns with
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: what I want to do who I am right now,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: as difficult as it is, I'm going to step into
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: something different, and that stepping into something different, that act
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: of the unknown, can be a thing that prevents so
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: many people from making a change.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that that is. I think it's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: exactly what you said.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: It's the fear of the unknown, and I think women
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: actually have this more than anyone else. Of the negative
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: self talk and criticism prevents us from seeing things vividly.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I always call it like.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Our own personal blinders, where we give the best advice
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: to our friends, we give the best advice to our
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: colleagues like we see it so vividly on their behalf,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: and then when it comes to ourselves, we find all
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the reasons why something won't work before we find all
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: the reasons why something will.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And I think that does hold us back, and.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: So I still do this today with myself and my friends,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: where I'm like, let's take the blinders off, like, let's
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: make a list.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Let's be very objective.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Here are the possibilities of like the what if in
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the best possible way, and even if things didn't work
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: out exactly, like, this still going to work out. Like
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: it's just it's going to happen because you're brilliant, and
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: it always does for everybody, Like I don't. I haven't
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: met anyone yet in my sort of ecosystem who said,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: you know, I took this sleep of faith and I'm
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: so bummed that I did.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: They all say I took the sleep of faith. I
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: was so scared.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad I did it because holy moly, it
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: unlocked fill in the blank.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Right, And even if it doesn't unlock the thing that
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: you're after, I think that that's really important too, right,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: because this goes back to your point about failing fast
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: or being willing to fail, being not afraid to fail.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: And in essence, what happens then is by betting on yourself,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: you cultivate this level of self belief that allows you
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: to elevate to a different place and find alignment within
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: all aspects of your life. So even if the thing
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: that comes to you isn't the thing that you thought,
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  Speaker 3: So what it gave you information that you can then
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: choose consciously, choose to do something with moving forward, instead
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: of lingering in that malaise of like, what's happening here?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: This isn't what I was going for one hundred percent?
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: And there was an athlete that I used to work
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: with and when I would tell him about, you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I'm nervous about such and such and he's like, why
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: are you nervous? You've prepared and I'm like, well, it's
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: just like I have stage fright er. I'm just what
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: if I fall when I walk up to percent? And
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: he's like, you've prepared, now just execute, just execute, believe
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: in yourself and execute. And every time he would tell
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: me that, I felt like he gave me a superpower,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: which really was the superpower I already had. I did
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: the work right, like I prepared for that moment, but
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: my own self talk was getting in the way and
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: he would wipe that out on my behalf so that I.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Could just have that moment.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, it's like you have the opportunity
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  Speaker 3: when you walk into any room, you can prepare as
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: much as possible. You might not be quote unquote the
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: smartest person in the room, but as long as you
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: know that you did what you needed to do to
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: walk in and feel good as yourself, that's really all that.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Matters, one hundred percent. And I don't want to be
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: the smartest person in the room. I want to be
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: a student. And I say that too again friends all
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: the time. I'm like, if I'm the smartest person in
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: the room, I'm in the wrong room because I want
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: to learn from every single person that I come in
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: contact with, and so I don't want to be the
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: loudest voice. I don't want to be the smartest person
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: in the room. I want to be the most prepared. Yeah,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: I always want to be the most prepared, and I
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: will go to great length to be that. But I
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: want to extract as many things from the audience or
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: from the people that I'm surrounded by to then again
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: fuse into sort of my own way of showing up.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I call it my DJ Khaled moment of I'll take it,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: remix it, and make it my own.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: But I love learning from other people. Yeah, I love
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: learning from other people. So As you mentioned, you started
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: at Nike at a very young age at nineteen correct, okay,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: quite young and never were there for eight years.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: I was there for twelve twelve years, yes, five years there.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: My LinkedIn stocking is a little failing right now. There's
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of numbers this week, so it's fine.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: All we care about is like high scores in the arenas.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Really when so you're at Nike for twelve years and
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: then you graduate, talk to us about what happens next.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: So I actually stepped away from corporate.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: I felt a little bit burned out because I worked
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: on team sports my whole life, and so what comes
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: with working on team sports is every single holiday teams play.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: So I was on the road for Thanksgiving, I was
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: on the road for Christmas. I was on the road
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: for New Year's again, as a fan of sport, very
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: very excited, as a fan of life, definitely missing out
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: on things. So I took a beat and I became
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: a bar method instructor. I wanted to do something that
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: was completely different. I didn't want to build a deck.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to be on WebEx at the time
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: because zoom wasn't a thing.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And I really fell in love with the community.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I fell in love with understanding that women were not
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: just going to work out to look a certain way.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: They were going to work out because they wanted to
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: be part of a community.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: And everybody was on such a different.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Journey of movement, was serving their life in a way
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: that I had no idea prior to joining the community.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And as I spent more time there, it allowed me
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: to purify, It allowed me to slow down, and that
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: prepared me to go back to corporate, which I missed,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: and so then I went to Adidas.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I was there for eight years.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I taught the entire time, which looking back, I really
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: don't know how I did that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: It's one of these like would I make that decision again?
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: And I spent eight years working on both the North
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: America business and the global business, with my final chapter
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: there working with for All and Beyonce, which is like
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: a fantastic way to sort of go out with the
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Swan song. Yeah, fantastic learnings, emotions that I didn't know
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that I had, and marketing chops that I would say
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I got a PhD. And sort of had to be
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a marketer working with such brilliant human beings that just
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: had a profounding impact on my life.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: I feel like these experiences that we have, whether they
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: be in a corporate setting or beyond, so many people
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: now these days are questioning even the value of a
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: college education if you have the opportunity to get into
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the real world and start working with people and start
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: seeing how things play out. I think there are just
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: so many different opportunities and so many different paths. And
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: so to hear that you know, you took your time,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: you got back into it, and you were like, wow, Like,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: not only do I have my masters, I'm walking.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Out of here with a doctor. You did what was
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: right for you and it worked.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's not for everyone, and it doesn't come
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: without sacrificing compromise. And so when I get a chance
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: to talk to young people, I always tell them, like,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: there will be a cost somewhere, whether it's life, whether
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: it's time, whether it's money. Like currency is different for everybody,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: and currency changes as you progress in your life. What
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: was currency for me when I was twenty four is
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: different than when I'm forty. And that's okay because I
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: adjust the plan based on what's valuable to me at
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: the time. And I think that is also an informing
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: filter that allows you to make a more informed decision
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: about what is next, what am I willing to do,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: what's my threshold?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Where am I willing to spend my time.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: It's interesting for me to hear you talk about having
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: this realization at twenty four, because I know that now
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: you do have a three year old daughter and you
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: have a very interesting circumstance when it comes to how
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: you execute your weeks in your life. Can you talk
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: a little bit about what that looks like right now
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: and the decisions that I've gone into it, how it
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: makes you feel like what's the outlook here? Like what's
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: going on? Oh my gosh, how I feel.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've become comfortable with taking an l
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: at least once a day. I get that I take
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: an L either on the home front or on the workfront,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: and I've become again comfortable with that. So that doesn't
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: come with self torture and like verbal abuse to thyself.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I have an amazing husband who ahead of us making
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: the decision for me to take on this role, we
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: really became aligned on this is going to be a
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: massive lifestyle shift, not just for me but our family.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: And what's the implication to that, how do we want
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: to do that?
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: So I currently live in Los Angeles.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I commute to San Francisco on a weekly basis, unless,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: of course, I'm in Paris for two weeks, which is
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: quite exciting and it's grueling. It's a grind, and it's difficult,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: and it's very overstimulating, but it's also quite rewarding and
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: quite fulfilling. And where I am in my life today,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: that feels like the right balance. I love what I do,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I love the people that I do it with, and
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: the way that I offset that and sort of find
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: harmony is when I'm home, and really the weekend is
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: when I can sort of unplug. I really have to
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: create that separation of church and state to be able
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: to give that time to my family so that I'm
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: present and I'm creating those memories with them with the
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: same level of commitment and excitement as I do for
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: an Olympics initiative, And of course, again that doesn't come
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: without feeling war out at times. I definitely don't try
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: to paint the picture that I have it all together,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: and every week's different. Some weeks I get it right
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and some weeks I don't, And then I go shopping
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: and I'm.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: So empty and I get back out there.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: But it's again, we've become comfortable in the uncomfortable, and
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: we've become comfortable with not having a routine. My home life.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: My husband and my child have a routine because they
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: have to. That's like the stability, the foundation, and I'm
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: sort of the tornado that comes in and out and
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: they've been very gracious in allowing me to do that.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: But there's no playbook, there's no cheek codes.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I'm sort of figuring it out as I go, and
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: when it doesn't work, I'll switch up the playbook and
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: we'll try something else. But right now I'm super happy
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: and I'm not knock on wood. Count my blessings for that.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Count my blessings for that.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: In the moments where you do feel like you're taking
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: an l and you said that you've really gotten too
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: this place where you're a little bit better about not
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: like talking badly to yourself in these instances, talk to
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: us a little bit about what you've done so that
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: you can rid yourself of that negative dialogue. Because whether
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: or not we're talking about a situation like this or
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: something so different, so many of us could use these
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: tips on how to prevent that negative self talk or
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: at least have a little bit more compassion.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, I have sort of tools that I know
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: work for me that I always go back to. I
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: have a playlist that I created when I was on
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: high so that's it's my Beyonce music, it's my Kendrick
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: music that gets me hyped to get the voices quieted down,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I also don't judge. We'll go into a room and
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: turn all the lights off and just take a few
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: minutes to sit in the quiet. And sometimes that feels
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: punishing because then it feels like you could hear all
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: your thoughts. But what it allows me to do is
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: really slow down my heart rate and it quiets the voices.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I also have a group of very supportive girlfriends who
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: sort of know when I throw out an SOS and
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: they know the positivity that they need to throw my
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: way to lift me up.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: And we do that for each other. We are each
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: other's sort of board of directors.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: We go back to the same well and having a
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: community of people where sometimes I don't have the energy
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: to lift myself up. Sometimes I don't have really the energy,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: like I'm out of juice and I need somebody else
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to sort of throw me some great sort of sound
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: bites to get me out of that funk. And I
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: know who those people are, and again they're my board
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of directors. And when I hit them and sort of unload,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: they come back and sort of slow my thoughts down
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: on my mind behalf and give me those powerful, sort
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: of superhero moments that allow me to rise again. But
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I would say the lesson in that is don't try
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: to do everything by yourself. Like I was that person
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: I was pushing water up hill. I wanted to take
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the world down on my shoulders. It was so much harder. Yeah,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: there's so many people rooting for you in your circle,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: in my circle that those people are waiting to be
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: called up to bat to tell you how great you are.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Don't hesitate to lean on those people, because it really
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: does make a difference.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And I think that's sometimes unfortunately, you have to go
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: through a situation where you're reminded of the fact that
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: there are people that want to show up for you,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: and someone might say that to you, like, let me
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: show up for you. And so what I'm hearing you
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: say is that you built this beautiful level of awareness
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: that not only taught you that, but then empowered you
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: to do it the next time, and the next time,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: again and again. To your point, it's not an exemplary
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: of any sort of weakness. In fact, I would argue
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: that it's a strength. It's a strength that you have
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: the know all the understanding that hey for in order
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: for me to be my best self, I the opportunity
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: not only to cultivate this amazing board of directors, but
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: then to lean on them to help me get to
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: where I want to be because they support and love
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: me that much.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: And asking for help is not a weakness. And I
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: would say, on the front part of my career, I
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: viewed it as a weakness. I thought, if I ask
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: for help, people will think I'm not capable. I don't
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: have the capacity, I'm not mature, I don't have the bandwidth.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I can't rise to the occasion.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Like all these things were such intrinsic pressures that I
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: put on myself. And the minute I put those bags down,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: and I did it slowly, because you know, it takes
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: a minute to have confidence to actually ask for help.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: But as I did it, and I saw people come
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: back in full force to go whoa you asked me
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: to help build you Like yes. I was so shocked
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: and also energized by the response of like it's okay
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: to say I don't get it, It's okay to say
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: I'm messing up, or God, today really sucked, Like tell
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: me something positive and people are like, let me tell you, yeah,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and then they go off with like whatever they're going
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: to tell me, and I'm like, I feel so much better,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Like thank you, thank you for taking on my stress
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: for a quick moment.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: It's also so interesting here to double click on is
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: the concept that you talked about an extensive career both
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: at Nike and at Adidas, and in those roles you
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: were a woman often working in a man's world, and
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: that in sports marketing specifically, it is certainly I would
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: argue a more male influence space. And so do you
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: believe that that gender gap was the thing that made
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: you feel like you needed to do.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: It on your own? Were you working to prove yourself
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: in that way?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've always had a little bit of
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: a chip on my shoulder.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Less about gender. Actually, for my experience, it was about age.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I always felt like I was the youngest person in
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: the room, and I had to prove that I belonged
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: in the room. And so that's where my formula for
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: preparation became of if people perceived me to be so
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: young and they're not going to give me the time
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: of day, I'm going to be so prepared that it
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: gives them. I take control of the narrative and it
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: doesn't give them anything to be biased or push back
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: on me on even though I was one of very
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: few women in a lot of those rooms at the time.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: If I'm honest, that didn't enter my mind. I didn't
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: think like, well, they don't want me in the room
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: because I'm a woman, or man, I have so much
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: more work to do because I'm a woman. For me,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: it definitely felt like more of an age bias that
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I was trying to overcome.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: And I was young.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I mean I was nineteen and I thought I knew
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: it all, which probably also didn't help my case, which
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: is where the preparation part helped.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: about my longest standing sponsor on the show, and that
• 28:46
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  Speaker 3: and a huge part of that routine is drinking my
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• 29:02
  Speaker 4: I drink it right after I'm done.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: With my workout, before I sit down at my desk,
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  Speaker 3: and it makes me feel truly ready to take on
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  Speaker 3: my day, like I'm doing something good for my body
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  Speaker 4: Now, I know what you're wondering, why AG One?
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, I have been taking ag one for
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• 30:22
  Speaker 3: So you mentioned how special it is to have this
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: board of directors, and now in your position at Athleta,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: you've had the opportunity to work on building your own team.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: When you are looking to hire and foster emerging talent.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: Are there certain either characteristics or character traits that you
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: look for or what is it that stands out to
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: you amongst the.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Crowd drive drive drive drive, That's a big one for me. Energy,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: which I know are these are like a lot of
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: soft skills, But I think those soft skills are invaluable
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: because the hard skills can be taught. You can teach
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: somebody how to do integrated brand marketing. You can teach
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: somebody how to create reels on TikTok. You can't teach
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: people excellence, you can't teach people work ethic, you can't
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: teach people patience thresholds. So that is a lot of
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: what I talk about when I'm considering how the team
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: will work together, what the chemistry is as a team.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Sport fan, what gets me so excited about architecting a
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: team is I'm a fan of teams that win and lose,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: and I'm always so critical of like, well you don't
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: have the right players on the team or the coaching
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: staff and do blah blah blah. So having the ability
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: to really learn the psychology of how people work together,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: what personalities gel it allows me to build a really
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: strong a team and not everyone can be Alpha. That's
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: the other thing that I get asked of, like you're
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: very high energy, you're very extrovert. Is that the type
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: of people you want on your team? And I always say, no,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: I need balance, I need introvert and extrovert. But the
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: common denominators are the discipline and the excellence and the
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: work ethic and your willingness to have that elasticity to
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: try things outside of your discipline to inform exactly what
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: decision you're going to make. And then the last thing
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: is is we're in marketing, so people who are students
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: of marketing and culture is so important. I'm a student
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: of marketing every single day. The amount of pictures I've
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: taken on my phone just in being here of things
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: that have been inspiring or exciting or things that I
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: didn't imagine or know about. When personalities are hungry and curious,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: it unlocks imagination, and imagination unlocks the possibilities of the
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: ways that we can tell stories and we can bring
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: our brand to life. So those are always things that
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to sort of peel back and understand. Is
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: this a way that this person operates. Is this something
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: that's interesting for them, not because it's on a job description,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: but because it's weaved into the DNA of their existence.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: And when I see that, I get very excited to
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: get them into the system, get them into the brand
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: as quickly as possible.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Earlier, you were.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Talking about the concept of not only extreme preparation and
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: showing up with as much as possible, but just presenting
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: your best self. And I believe and know, and I'm
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: sure that you'll be able to speak to this that
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: no matter how prepared you are, you might still struggle
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: with imposter syndrome. When do you think, in the scope
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: of your career that you got to a place where
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: you could really own how awesome you are. You mentioned
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: working with Pharrell and Beyonce talking about huge talent. Would
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: you say that even a chapter like that played into
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: the mix.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, if I'm honest, I don't think imposter syndrome
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: ever goes away. I think sometimes it's dormant and sometimes
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: it's awake, and you got to kind of manage the conversation.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I think if I look at what the last five
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: months at Athleta have been, I've spent countless hours preparing
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: for a presentation and then tech goes sideways and I'm like, okay,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: we got to roll because there's a stage and there's
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: a camera, there's an audience, and there's consumers.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: And in that moment, I'm like, what am I doing here?
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Like? Am I getting it right? So for me, I
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: don't think it's ever gone away. I think it's it's
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: like exercising. You've got to continue the work to keep
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: that muscle condition, because the minute that you let off
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: the gas, the abs go away.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: They're not just built in, they're not built it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: How does a muscle strengthen you give it something to
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: push up again?
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Exactly?
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: How does your will strengthen exactly if it's something to
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: push up against? And so I think what we perceive
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: is that these people that stand in front of us
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: and they're so strong and confident, and they seem as
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: though they've gotten it all together. Really, what they've done
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: is they've just learned how to manage that inner voice.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's the work. It doesn't come without the work.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: You're always doing the work. And it's so metaphorically linked
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: to exercise, Like if you run every day, you're going
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: to run faster, you're going to run further, you're going
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: to run longer.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: If you don't run for months and then you want
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to go for a run, you might.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Be panting like not because you've forgot how to run,
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: but your muscle has sort of just you know, relaxed
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit. So it is constant work and you
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: get better at it. You get better at it as
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: you do it more. Yeah, So that part becomes exciting
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: because it creeps up on me less and maybe less blindsidingly.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And in those moments where I feel like you're
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: exercising it all the time, that can also be what
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: we would designate to be when you're in alignment, right,
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: like the other things that used to feel a little
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: bit scary, kind of GREMLINI yeah, now feel a little
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: bit more manageable because you're like, I'm constantly putting myself
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: in these a little jarring situations and it might not
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: be the most comfortable, but it gives you the mojo,
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: the emphasis that you need to then show up and
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: try different hard things and shorter amounts.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely, And if you flub guess what you're
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: going to be at bad again. Yeah, you're going to
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: be at bad And no one knows, only you know
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: that you flowed.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Like I've done countless presentations where I'm like, Okay, I
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: totally missed the slide, didn't touch on such and such,
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: miss this, and I'm going through the inventory of what
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I didn't do, and then I have to take a
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: beat to say, no one knows that, Yeah, for all
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: they know, this was my flow, And here I am
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: beating myself up, like let's park that and move on.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: I really I had to take that into practice. Earlier
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: this year, I was hosting a large event with five
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: hundred people for Strava, and I was doing an opening
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: dialogue and the information that was supposed to be on
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: what is ironically called a confidence monitor was not where
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: it was supposed to be. And I had for Hurst
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: and Herst and Hurst and was able to handle it
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: regardless but I walked off that stage and I was
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: so in my head about it. I was so mortified.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: I was like, I practiced for so long, I worked
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: so hard, I did all of the prep, like did
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: everything that I was supposed to do, and still something
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: went wrong. And what ultimately helped me get over it
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: was I watched it back and I was like, nobody knows,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: and not only does nobody know, nobody cares this thing
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: that you're building up in your head to be this massive, scary,
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: big pivotal quote unquote fail. It's truly just the thing
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: that then I have the opportunity to not only learn from,
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: but then again to our conversation from before use going.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Forward one hundred percent. We had what we call our
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Storeman conference, and we do a ton of preparation. There's
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: full rehearsals, mic checks, and I told the production team,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: I'm like, listen, something happens with microphones.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: They hate me, like it does. They all hate me.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: They all hate me.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: It's like a universal there's like a cult gathering of
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: microphones that just do not want to work when I
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: have them. And this production person who was so fantastic,
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: he's like, no, we've checked, like We've moved your hair,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: we moved your earring, like it's perfect.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: This is how we're going to position it, like, don't
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: move your necklace.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Did all the things, and then I go on stage
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: in about two minutes into a twenty nine minute presentation.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: The MIC's not working, and so then he comes out
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: on stage like very stealthily, and he hands me a
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: handheld mic, which I hate holding handheld mics, and so
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: we're having this like eye contact exchange where he's like,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: I turned off your other mic. Talk into the handheld mic,
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: and the whole time, I'm thinking the confidence monitor is
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: still rolling with what I'm supposed to say.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: I hate the word confidence ever again, Like call it
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: something else, call it something else.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Those things need to go away.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: But between the mic and the monitor, I was like okay,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: and instead of rushing into the presentation, like everyone's looking
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: at me, the lights are on me, and I just
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: took a deep breath and I'm like who cares? Like
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: I know this material better than anyone. I have this
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: stupid mic that I'm uncomfortable with, but I got a roll,
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: like I can't just get off the stage and be
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: like I quit. This was too scary and when I finished,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: a lot of the feedback that I got is people
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: were like, you were so graceful up.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: There with that whole transition, and I'm like I was.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: I was literally in my own sweat, in my own head,
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: like that whole thing went so sideways for me. And
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: people were like, no, you just looked so calm. How
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: did you do that? How did you look so poised?
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, ah, that's not what I had in
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: my head. That is not the perception I had, But
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: thank you.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: And I think ultimately sometimes it's calling a spade a spade.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: I one time I was on stage and I just
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: realized I could not stop sweating. And it was probably
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: at some sort of event that involves some sort of
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: athletic brand and a competent monitor and a confidence monitor.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: And I literally just said to the crowd, I was like, well,
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: you usually see me sweating in a different capacity, so
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: this is just a new opportunity. And that even goes
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: back to our conversation about authenticity.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Why pretend that something's not happening, Yes, why pretend a
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: humanizing element?
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Because and I was actually talking with Simone's manager about this,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: I said, you know, sometimes people get put on a pedestal,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: which is fantastic because from one angle, it's like very aspirational. Right,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: you have Beyonce, you have Simone, you have whoever. You
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: have them on a pedestal and you're like, Wow, this
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: is the greatest of all time. But what comes as
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: a result of that is you strip away the humanizing
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: element of who they are. So then when they go
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: through a humanizing moment, there's all this criticism that comes
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: from the outside world because people feel entitled to have
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: that opinion. Well, we almost do that to ourselves. We
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: strip ourselves of the humanizing element of our existence as
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: we progress in our career, and we take away the
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: ability to have those humanizing moments. And so when we do,
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: it's almost like a reminder of yeah, I sweat, I trip,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: I wear heels all the time, I trip. It happens
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: like that's okay, yes, versus being like, oh my gosh,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: I need to you know, strengthen my calves or work
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: on my ankles so that I'm not falling over, or
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: maybe not texting and walking.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's the bigger problem here.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: We've said so many big names in this conversation so far,
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: so I'd be remiss if we didn't revisit the Beyonce name,
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: because I'm sure anyone that's listening to this once to
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: at least have some sort of an insight as to
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: what it was like to be involved in such a
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: special moment with both her and her team and such
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: a large company.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, my biggest takeaway is the amount of work that
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: her and her team put forward. I think I understood
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: that they were hard working. You don't come to be
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: an icon and a master of your craft without doing
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: the work. But being on the ground and seeing the
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: relentless approach to everything that they do, the obsession to
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: detail and unwillingness to take no. As a visionary, that
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: felt like life lessons that I take with me everywhere
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: that I go. That when you believe in something so
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: much and if somebody tells you no, not to take
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: the no and to find the yes. And I share
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: this again with my team of it's not the we can't,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: it's the how can we? That I really took away
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: as a life lesson because again, that team works harder
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: than anyone I've ever seen. That woman, the work and
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: the grit that she puts in. Going back to what
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I said before of like not without compromise. It's these
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: things don't just happen to her because she's an amazing
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: human and artist and master of her craft. She and
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: her team work relentlessly to get to that, and I
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: think sometimes that can get lost because people don't see
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: the behind the scenes. I think across the board in
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: entertainment and sport, in corporate people just assume like, well,
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: you just made it.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: We must have known somebody, and it's like, no, it's
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of work. Yeah, I mean a lot
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: of what you do. It takes a lot of work.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: You don't just come up and you're like I just
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I have it. I have the magic. I just shine.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: I just shine, and like bring up all of these
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: conversations and spend no time figuring it out.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: How there's no pre You just woke up and you're like,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I've got this, Like this is my day job.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Like, hey, the only air so.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: Far is that you spent twelve and n eight years
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: at Nike. So I'm just swapping the ideatas like you
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: knowledge and we're good to go. I totally hear what
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: you're saying, and I think that actually this brings about
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: an interesting conversation point of being a firm but kind,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: especially for you coming into this role at Athleta. You're
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: stepping in. You're the new kid on the block. You
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: were brought in here for a reason. They saw you,
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: they saw your vision, they saw what you brought to
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: the table. How does someone like you step into this
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: bring about change? Probably step on some toes in the process.
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: Be firm, but stay kind absolutely. I mean, I think
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: the biggest thing is coming in and listening.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: First.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: I think everyone loves to talk. You have to know
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: when to talk and when to listen. And so to
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: understand and to be able to take a brand and
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: a team forward, you have to understand what got them
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: to where they are today, what inform that, and then
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: really unpacking what is the legacy and the history and
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: sort of the decision making that lived before I stepped
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: into this space to help them shape. While yes I
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: have a vision, I need to understand what the ingredients
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: are that I'm working with. What do I need to
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: push and pull on in order to drive that mission forward?
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: As sort of corporate buzzwordy as it sounds, collaboration like
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: there's nothing I can move forward without collaborating with whether
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: it's my peers or my team or the leadership team.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: And I have no interest in doing it by myself.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: I don't have the strength or the capacity or the
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: brains to do it alone. So bringing people in on
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: the journey so that they can feel like they're also
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: a part of co authoring what that is allows us
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: to move the chains faster versus me coming in and
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: saying I'm the nukid on the block. Here's all the
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: things I'm going to bring you guys step aside while
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: we run this new offense. That's an effective and that's
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: been what has allowed us to get from point A
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: to point B to point C.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: That's also how you build relationships. Right If you come
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: in and you just lay down the law, that's not
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: going to be received. Well, that doesn't mean that there
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: aren't things that need to change, or maybe approaches or
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: systems or whatnot, But it's how can we do this
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: together recognizing that it's not really working?
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and push on the places where it's not
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: and give examples of where it can. Because I think
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: people don't know what they don't know, and so it's
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: not that they're not interested in finding out, it's that
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: they don't have a starting point. So what I take
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: with again a lot of humble and grace, is how
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: do I show people? Sometimes saying it to them doesn't translate.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: That's not their fault, they just haven been there yet.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: So what can I bring from my past life that
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: can be informative, that can also give them the confidence
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: to take a risk in a way that it doesn't
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: feel confident in the moment because they haven't been there yet.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: What are you bringing from your past life that's really
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: informing you right now in this role here at Athleta.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: A few things on the soft skills part, the ability
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: to be empathetic to thyself and to the people around.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to go into a situation and lose. Nobody
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: wants to be down right, most people want to win,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: and so recognizing that right out of the gate, so
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: that it allows our communication to start from a place
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: of positive intent. From a hard skill standpoint, discipline and focus.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I think when you're in a brand that's going through
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: a transformation and a reinvigoration, a lot of ideas come
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: to the forefront. A lot of people have a lot
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: of ideas, and it's really easy to become distracted and
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: chase the next thing because it's the thing that's maybe
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: more fun or more ect where it's on trend. And
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: so really dialing down on being focused, having priorities, and
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: then sticking to those focuses. That's a discipline that's really
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: really hard to do, and so conditioning that muscle has
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: been something that we've collectively been focused on because again,
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: there's so many exciting things in our space. Power of
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: She is having its moment, but for us to really
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: propel Power of She forward, we have to have that
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: really really strong discipline and focus to move it in
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: the direction.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: That we want. I'm going to read something to you.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I'm scared.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: Oh it's okay, it's a good thing, I promise. The
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: way that Alona inspires her team to think differently and
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: take risks, trying something new and different, even if it
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: doesn't end up as a perfect success, is always a
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: win in her book, and in my opinion, that's the
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: type of game changing leader you want to work for.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: Alona really knows how consumers think and what they'll respond to.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: She also thinks like a young millennial slash gen Z consumer,
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: and it really gives her an advantage for storytelling. Beyond that,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: she's super organized and has an amazing work ethic. She
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: always does whatever it takes. How does it feel when
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: I read that back to you from both people that
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: work for you and also your boss.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to get emotional because I
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: can't conjure tears most I'm like.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Keryn Dias in the holiday. It like doesn't happen for me.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's so kind, And that's what I hope
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: people would say when I'm not in the room, because
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: my starting point is it always through the lens of
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: like how can I help? How can I make things
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: better for other people? How can I be a resource?
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: How can I enable? How can I empower? And I
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: feel very blessed that I can be in a leadership
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: role where both my boss, both the brand that I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: work with, both my team enable that so we can
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: have that two way dialogue, that two way relationship, and
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: my ability to make an impact on people like goes
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: so far from me because the work's the work, and
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: I always say that, like you could do work andwhere,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: but if you're able to change somebody's lives and make
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: somebody feel a certain way because of something that you
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: said or did, or a culture that you created like
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: that to me at this point in my life is
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: the most fulfilling thing.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: So that yearbook, those yearbook statements are like uh.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: In middle school, no one signed My yearbooks always have
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: a mirk.
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: We girl, Although I know that, feeling too the strength
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: to go like, can you say book?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: It just came to mind as you were saying that,
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: I'm just like looking at you and I'm so in
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: awe of your strength and and the way that you
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: present and obviously the awesome work that you're doing here
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: and that you've done.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: And I think about your daughter and the.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: Woman that you not only want to inspire her to be,
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: but the role model that you are being for her.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: In this process, I've had the opportunity to sit down
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: with so many strong women, including female athletes, who've had
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: to make so many sacrifices for their families, even when
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: their children are so young to be away from them,
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: and they have this goal that is so much bigger
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: than them that I want my daughter one day to
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: grow up and think Mommy is strong, not that Mommy
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: wasn't here, And I can only be that woman for
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: her by pursuing the things that make me feel good
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: and providing that example.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like that is what your MO is
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: right now? Within your family? One hundred percent.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: I had a group of people around me years ago
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: when I was sort of ambitiously going after a marketing career,
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: and they would, in a very loving way, tell me
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: that it would be almost impossible for me to pursue
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: my career in marketing at a high level and be
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: a mother. And they said, you got to just prepare
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: yourself for that. You got to pick one or the other.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: And I remember thinking, like, really, I do, And I'd
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: look around and at the time, a lot of people
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: who were in lead marketing role were men, and so
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: I would go in sort of this search of and
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: then I started seeing women that I looked up to
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: who did both, and I started obsessing, trying to understand
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: how do you do both? And they kept telling me, like,
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: I love both, I love them differently, and I know
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: I can't be everything to both all at the same time,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: but I know I could do it. I'm not going
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: to be all things to all people every single day,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to pick and choose when I show
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: up for who and That started to give me more
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: confidence in thinking about how do I manage being a
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: mom and not suck at that, and how do I
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: manage being in marketing, which is very demanding when you
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: think about travel and being in market and connecting with consumers.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: It's not a nine to five desk job. And there's
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: nothing against a nine to five desk job. This just
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: isn't And through watching the people that I looked up to,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: it allowed me to think about what my version of
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: that reality would be. That now my lessons to Kira
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: is you can be anything and multiple things at the
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: same time.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: There's not going to be anybody.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: Who tells you you can only be one thing, and
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: you can change as frequently as you want because you're
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: What we're enabling for you today is we're helping you
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: build the endurance and the stamina, both mentally and physically
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: of I'm not there all the time.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: I can't control everything. I can't fix everything.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: There's certain independence that she's growing up with that maybe
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: I didn't grow up with because I didn't have that,
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: you know, formula in my own household. So yeah, it's
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: it's scary, but I also feel like it's showing her
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: that there's endless possibilities to what she can and will do,
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: and how.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Could it not be scary? Right, this is something that's
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: brand new.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: You've been a marketer for two decades, you've been a
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: mom for three years.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: Right, I'm definitely a rookie in the mom game. Is
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: a rookie in the mom game? Like, I still get
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: my kid can at nine o'clock and I'm like, it's fine.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: She loves me today.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: She loves me today, she loves me torit and I
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: like candy at nine o'clock two.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: So we're all. We're all so good.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: Someone if they were to be your friend, because you're
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: private on Instagram, they come to your page.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: They see all of these jazzy things.
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: A woman as this chief marketing officer at a major brand,
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: has a beautiful family. When you look in the mirror, though, Alona,
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: what is it that you see looking back at you?
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: Really hitting you with the hard one here to help you.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: I see a work in progress. I see a work
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: in progress, not through the lens of like negative self talk,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: but through the lens of man. There's still so much
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: I want to do in like the most exciting way.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: I look at it through the lens of adventure, and
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: then when I reflect on sort of the moments that
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: I maybe wasn't as nice to myself, and I can
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: see that through photography. I try to remind myself to
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: like kind of cut that stuff out of the dialogue
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: so that as I spend time with friends and my daughter,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: who's constantly listening to everything that I say, that those
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: sort of sarcastic defense mechanisms are disarmed and I'm not
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: constantly leaning into that as a mask for maybe other
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: things that I'm going through.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: What do you think has been the biggest challenge for
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: you over the beginning of your tenure here at athleta.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Lifestyle adjustment and feeling like I have to do it all. Yeah,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: I have to do it all. Like I'm still, you know,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: debating with my husband who owns grocery shopping, and he's like,
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: you don't.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do that, Like I can.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I'm fully capable, and I'm like, no, no, I know
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: you are, but like I really just need to instacart this.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: Like I'm very specific about the apples that we get,
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: and I think it's not even the apples. I think
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: it's a metaphor for feeling like I just want to
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: have a little bit of control of something because so
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: many things feel like they're out of my control. I
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: mean spending the amount of time that I spend in airports,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: not a single flight ever being on time, and thinking, Okay,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: this is how I start my day, Like I'm not
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: sitting in traffic, I'm waiting for an airplane, and if
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: this airplane doesn't take off on time, I have a
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: whole domino effect of what the day looks like.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to order Instacart because I can control it.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: I know that this will be here between ten and
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: eleven am on the dot, whether.
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: Or no, Glson's will always have apples.
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: And the kind that you want, hopefully.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, Honey, Christmas. There never Well, I'm so happy
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: that we were able to do this. This is like
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: such a special conversation.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: And again, I'm not only so happy that we were
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: able to have it, but I'm so grateful for the
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: time that I've been able to partner with you guys
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: here in Paris. Before I let you go, we did
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: talk about what was a rocky start to what has
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: been such a beautiful evolution of both you and your
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: career with so many lessons along the way. When you
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: look back to that younger version of yourself twelve years
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: into a career at Nike, trying to stand on her
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: own two feet, trying to align with her values and
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: figuring out what's going to be next in that scary period,
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: no knowing what you know now?
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: What would you tell yourself at that hurdle?
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Be present and be fearless it I missed out on
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of things because those two ingredients were removed.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Be present, be fearless. I love it.
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: Well For those listening right now that might not follow
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: you yet, either on LinkedIn or otherwise, or perhaps some
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: info on Athleta, give.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Us the detail so that we can keep up and
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: follow along. Oh my gosh, so many good things. So
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: follow Athleta on Instagram and TikTok. We are buzzing with
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: so much content both on the ground here and in
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: the States on LinkedIn. You can find me on Alona Amen,
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: but also follow Athleta because we're always posting all the fun,
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: exciting jobs that are coming up in the brand. Yeah,
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: and reach out to me through any of those mechanisms.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: I think I also accept courier pigeons if that's your
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: form of communication.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: But just make sure they're not taking a flight to
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: get to her because it will be delayed.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, My flights are always delayed. My MIC's always fail.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: This is my one win in a mic not failing.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited to get this w on the scoreboard.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: You know me.
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: another Hurdle concord.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: Catch you guys next time.