Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 378. Watch the Femmes: How To Handle Disappointment & Foster Community—In Cycling & Beyond With Zwift's Kate Veronneau

Transcript

378. Watch the Femmes: How To Handle Disappointment & Foster Community—In Cycling & Beyond With Zwift's Kate Veronneau · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're all figuring it out, and sports shows you that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you know that there's no end, there's no like, Oh,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: that's it, you know, throw the towel, there's just pivots.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily here you are listening to episode three
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: seventy eight of Hurdle Wele this focus podcast where I
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: talk to inspirational people about everything from their highest ties
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: and toughest moments to essential tips on how to live happier, healthier,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: more motivated lives. We all go through our fair share
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: of hurdles. My goal through these conversations is to empower
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: you to better navigate yours and move with intention so
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that you can stride towards your own big potential and
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: have some fun along the way. For today's episode, I
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: am sitting down with Kate Vernu. She's the director of
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Woman's Strategy over at Swift And for those that may
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: not be in the loop on what Swift is, don't worry,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I've got you. Swift is an online game for cyclists, runners, triathletes,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a training platform that enables users to ride and train
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: completely in a virtual world. For those of you that
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: like to gamify your fitness, Swift is basically your b
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: f f now. Of course, Kate gives us the rundown
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: on all things Swift in today's episode, but she also
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: talks to me about how she got into this position
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: to be the person that is advocating for women in
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: cycling at one of the biggest brands in the space.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Kate talks about her background as a basketball player and
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the devastating injury that led her to cycling in the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: first place. She also talks about the different jobs she's
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: had that led her to where she is now and
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: what it's been like for her to lead this charge
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: as more and more eyes get on women's cycling. We
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: rap about what she sees for the future of the sport,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: what it was like for Swift to take a gamble
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: becoming the title sponsor of the Tour de France Femme
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: now called the Tour Difference Feen Avic Swift, you don't
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: need to tell me twice. I know my French is superior,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and yeah, so much more so tune indicate, appreciate as
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I did, her mentality around taking big risks and going
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: for things that excite you, and as always, tag the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: show as you listen over on social at Hurdle Podcast
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and I am over at Emily Abadi. I want to
• 2:40
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• 2:43
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• 2:47
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• 2:58
  Speaker 2: directly to your inbox every single Friday. Also, can't forget
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: gear picks, what I'm reading, what I'm listening to. I'm
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: also talking about that new thing I'm doing every single week.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I'm getting really back into the swing of things with
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: that now that it is fall and there's so much
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: fun stuff to do around New York. So if you
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: have suggestions for me, I am all ears. Also, last
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: little bit of housekeeping, I have some fun events happening
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: in the New York area next week. I will be
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: announcing those throughout this week. So, like I said, make
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: sure you're following me over on Instagram over at Emily
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Body so that you can be kept in the loop
• 3:37
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  Speaker 2: know the deal Again, follow me over at Emily A
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Body and at Hurdle Podcast. With that, enjoy my conversation
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: with Kate. Let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling today.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Kate Vernu. She is the
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: director of Woman's Strategy at Zwift. Welcome to Hurtle, Kate.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: How are we doing.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I'm great, great to see you. Thank you for having me.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, your energy is great right now. You're
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: bringing in this like ray of sunshine on this dreary
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: New York day. But a fun day for you because
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you're not typically in New York.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: No, I am West Coast these days, but I'm a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Jersey girl. I get back here and it feels like home.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: My heart is full, like my I'm just overstimulated. I
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: absolutely love it stimility.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I love being overstay doo. I. You know what, It's
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: so funny. When I was younger, I thrived in this
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: place of overstimulation, and now the way that I crave
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: a refuge after I have to be on for like
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: even two hours, I'm like, Okay, it's time to go
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: back into my bubble. I think that's I think that's
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: what the pandemic did to me.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I actually I completely identify with that. I
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: literally am I'm high energy and I like it. I'm
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: an extrovert. I like a lot of people's their social
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: battery when they go drains and me going out, I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: feel like it charges me. But I've learned as I've
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: gotten older that I need to make sure that I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: take that time to tone it down a bit, take
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a deep breath, you know, because you can get caught
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in sort of like you know, up up, up, up up,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and yeah, get a center yourself from time to time,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: get to clear head, clear deep breaths, and then go
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: for it. But it's fun, It's like you know, it's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: it's fun kind of living on those edges a little.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Bit, oh one hundred percent. And those edges are edges
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: that you are wildly familiar with. Considering that you yourself have
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: been a very active individual since you've been quite young, yep.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: For you. Now, how do you think that your background
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: as an athlete has played into the way that you
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: are today? Yeah?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Well, at first I thought it was, you know, the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: ability to set a goal and work towards it and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: be able to practice every day and to be able
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to show up on game day to you know, to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: for all the pieces to fit in. But I think
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: what actually is the most valuable thing is learning how
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: to get over injuries, to get over disappointment, to work
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: through team or coach drama, to learn how to navigate
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the hardest situations. The training actually was the easiest part
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: for me. That comes naturally. I get up and I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: just want to run, walk, bike, like get out there.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: That's the easy part for me. But the head game
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: of you know, overcoming those obstacles, overcoming you know, like
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: questioning if I can do it, and you know what's
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: next if I can't, and things like that is where
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I've really seen the most growth.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Do you remember the first time in your athleticism, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming it's you know, if not in college playing
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: basketball before that, that you had to face an adversity
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: moment that really taught you the importance of picking yourself
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: back up.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah. So my life, like, I come
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: from a full on basketball family. My dad was a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame Wheret Boston College. Two older brothers played.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: All we did was played basketball, and I loved every second.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: But it was my full identity and I played all
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: through I just had, you know, wonderful I played all
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: through high school. It was just glorious. It was fun.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: It was like everything was so positive. And I got
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to college and I'm playing Actually even got like Ivy
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: League Rookie of the Year my first year. Everything was
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: just going swimmingly, and then it all came crashing down. Yeah,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and it was knee surgeries. It was you know, tormniscuses.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: It was missing one season, then getting right back at
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: it and then getting the next knee went and it
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was just all of a sudden, I felt so lost.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I felt so lost. I didn't know who I was.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I literally had to give up basketball. It was pretty
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: much done, and that was all I was. You know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that I was completely wrapped up in it so much
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that I didn't know who I was outside of it.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: And that was the biggest growth of my life those
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: couple of years. And honestly, it started with like truly
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: depression and really, you know, feeling very alienated from myself,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: feeling a bit lost, and slowly building up and learning
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that I was so much bigger than just a basketball
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: player or just a student or you know, and just
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: learning how to rethink about myself. Was that. It was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a tough process, but I look back now and I'm like, wow,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad I went through that VT because some
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: people don't go through that until you know, midlife. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: so I feel like those lessons that I learned early on,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and it was sport that brought me back. It was
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I started to bike and it just started as like
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a fun hobby and I guess kept going.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So before I hear more about the biking, thank you
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: for sharing that. I can't even at that time when
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: you were going through that, mental health wasn't really something
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: that anybody talked about. How did that make you feel?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Did you feel like something was genuinely wrong with you?
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I absolutely did, you know. And it's funny
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: because we didn't have like a sports psychologist, you know.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I remember I had a wonderful like trainer, our trainer
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: that like worked on our you know, like taped our
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: ankles and things like that, and she would have the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: deep talks with me and I, you know, I had
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: great friends to rely on. Actually, one of my best friends,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: my teammate, Julia Motto, is now like the psychologist for
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the LPGA, and she was my psychologist through college. And
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: if it weren't for all that kind of help outside
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of it, I'm not sure I would have gotten past it. Yeah,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's yeah, it's uh, definitely. I look back
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and I'm just like, yeah, I almost don't recognize that person.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: M And that's such a beautiful thing, as you mentioned,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: getting the opportunity to have that adversity so early on,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: but when you're in a you don't think of it
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely not. I had no idea how strong I
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: was then. I thought, you know, I had in my head,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you know that it was failure. It wasn't like, you know,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: anything beyond that was sort of like, yeah, I wasn't
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: where I needed to be. And yeah, but that that's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a good place to start.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: That's a good place to start. Well because at that time,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you imagined going on to play in Yeah, I.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Thought I was gonna play in Europe. I thought, you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't know where it was gonna end. You know.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: That was the cool thing too, is that, you know,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: when I was in high school, I was in high school,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the WNBA started, so there was no end to our
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: basketball dreams. Like it really felt like it's funny when
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I we'll talk about it when we get into cycling,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: but basketball to me, I always felt like pretty equal
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: opportunity at that time. I mean we now know that
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: they were paid nothing and you know all the you
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: know the challenges of the w early WNBA, But at
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the time, it just felt like there was no end
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to my sport dreams. And I had the same opportunity
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: as my brothers playing college, play after college. So that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and I took a lot of that into the next.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Sport, into the next sport. So how do you first
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: come into psych lane. You're dealing with this injury, you're frustrated,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you're feeling a little bit beside yourself, and somehow you
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: find your way onto a bike.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I always had a bike growing up, but
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: like I never you know, identified as a cyclist. I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: mean I just much different class on your bike, Like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you know, you train on your bike a little bit.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Like for basketball when I was hurt, I'd wheel an
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: exercise bike into the gym and I'd ride the bike
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: while they played. It was always just like a like
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a tool a vehicle. And I met my husband in Providence,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Rhode Island, and he was a skateboarder and I was
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a basketball player, and we somehow got on bikes together.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: We went for like a bike ride on this beautiful
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: bike path in Providence, the East Bay Bike Path, And
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: next thing you know, we got fixie bikes, like you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the city bikes that you rip around the city on.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: And then we just kept going for longer and longer rides.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I think it was like my inner athlete was coming
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: out again, and I just wanted more out of it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So I just kind of kept stepping it up until
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I was actually working in Pennsylvania at like I think
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I was at GSI Commerce, like a small startup, and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: one of my friends invited me to a bike race.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: They knew we rode bikes, and they invited me to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: this Philly bike race and it was a huge deal.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it at the time. And I went
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to this bike race and I see like a pack
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of guys go by. I'm like, this is so cool,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And then like ten minutes later, a pack of women
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: went by. And I literally did not know women really
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: race bikes. I had no I mean I maybe saw
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it in the Olympics, but we didn't really there was
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: no like cycling bike racing on TV or anything. So uh,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I want to do that. I
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: really want to do that. Because I had been just
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: going harder and harder on the bike, and I kind
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of had a natural gift for it. Yeah, I liked it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. It was like that dopamine was coming
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: back and that energy was coming back. And so three
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: years later I was in that race.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: It was in that race I said there one day,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: what was the You said you had a natural gift
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: for it, But did you find anything about it quite
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: challenging at first?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Oh, absolutely. There's a very steep, like learning curve
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: totor cycling. You know, the getting comfortable riding handlebar and
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: handlebar next to people diving into corners and you know,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: leaning your bike over going at you know, speeds up
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to fifty sixty miles an hour downhill. Things like that
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: were incredibly intimidating. But honestly, I do need like a
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: lot of simulation, and I think that that side of it,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the risk taking and the speed, fed me and I
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: really did enjoy it. And I have a good engine.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I have a pretty strong like
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: VO two system, and that I am actually an endurance athlete.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I think it actually made me good in basketball that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter I was pretty fresh and I always.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I loved practice. They used to run back and forth
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to practice, so it was a great place to channel
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that energy I had. And while it was incredibly challenging
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: early on because also just knowing what to do and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: how to do it you have to completely self fund yourself.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: My husband was very much supportive at the time because
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: he saw he knew that I had talent, and he
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: was like, I just have to see what you can
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: do with this.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so for you it wasn't it started to
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: not just be a hobby. Oh no, It started to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: be like, no, like I want to see how far
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I can take this. Yeah, for sure.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Think about it too. At the time, like I was,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I had like kind of pro numbers. I was like,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I want to be a pro cyclist because my pro
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: basketball dreams got shattered and I was like, here's my
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: my next chance. I can be a pro cyclist. So
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: within a couple of years I was a pro cyclist,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: like quote unquote on a professional team, racing at that level,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: but not making it.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I was gonna say, so are the air quotes? Basically
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: because there were no dollars to go along with the title.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: No dollars. I know you recently talked to Kristin Faukner,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: one of my idols. She's absolutely incredible and and you know,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: just a couple of years ago she's like, you know,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: one of the tops in the game, and she was
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: made seven grand. This is just a couple of years ago.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So fifteen years ago nothing like nothing. Only the top
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: top riders were making you know, ten to twenty grand maybe,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: like the top riders in the world. So like domestic
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: US riders like, yeah, if you're not literally winning the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: national championship, you're not making a dime, so you're paying
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: for everything out of your own pocket and you're risking
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: your life your body every race. It's really hard. You
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: crash a lot, Like in one season, you'll crash, you know,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: three or five times, you know, going down with you know,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: hitting the pavement hard, sometimes getting run over by other bikes,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: falling with a machine.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: It's gnarly what happened to you the first time of
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: that happened to you?
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Ooh, yeah, you always have to get over your first crash.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: It's like you're up and then all of a sudden
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you're down and you're on the ground and you're you
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: have this moment where you're like okay, am I okay,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like my head okay, like is everything moving,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: like you kind of do a quick self check, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: then the bike check is a bike okay, the bikes
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: are but you know my bikes were more expensive than
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: my car. Yeah, so yeah, and then you get back
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: on the bike and it's literally getting back on the horse.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And depending on the severity of the crash, is like
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the recovery between your body and your mind. And sometimes
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: it takes a little bit to get up to that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: confidence again, get up to that speed again, get up
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to that closeness that you know, handlebar at handlebar, But
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you do, and you learned real quick, like how resilient
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: you are. Yeah, And it's amazing in bike races to
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: see people go crashing down at like you know, forty
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: k an hour or twenty five thirty miles an hour
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and get right back up on their bike and go yeah,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you know, and they're like, you know, sometimes like they're
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: missing skin all the way down their leg or shoulder,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Like I'm trumped running but I'm like even thinking about
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: like my like desire to avoid all confrontation, like if
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I know, like something's on my phone that I don't
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: want to see, Like I'll just like leave my phone
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: in the other room for twenty minutes. Like so the
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: idea of crashing at twenty five thirty miles and then
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: being like nope, like you have to get immediately back
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: on the bike. Talk about an apple lesson from the right.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Biking is like just cycling, and like racing and training
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and stuff is like the best metaphor for life, you know,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: because like the harder you work, the higher you go.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: You know, when you you know, you have to work
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: really hard to get to the top of the mountain
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the view. There's a million things that cycling
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: can teach you in life. And one of the best
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: quotes is like Greg Lemon quote that says, like it
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't get easier, you just get faster.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so for you, you put your all into
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: this sport and you get to a place where you realize, like,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I can only take it so far, yep, talk to
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: me about that.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I recognize that I was I was close to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: thirty years old, I think maybe maybe just around thirty,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and that was a bit too old honestly to get
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: into it. If I was like the absolute best. I
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: might have had a chance, but I was very good,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: but not quite good enough to get on a European
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: team and have that opportunity. And I read organized. I
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: just had to get back to work, Like I couldn't
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: keep doing this. I had a couple of concussions. It
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: was taking a toll on my body, and I realized
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that it just was not a sustainable career.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: How did the concussion How did the concussions like manifest
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: for you? Like, how did that play out for you?
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Oh? It was tough. I had one where I was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: completely blacked out and woke up in the hospital and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: had no idea what happened. Things like that. It was
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: hard because you have to really take your time getting back.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Concussion protocol at the time is not where is that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: today too? So I mean I don't even know if
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I just had, you know, three concussions right totally. So yeah,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: you have to really be careful with that. And it
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: was hard, you know, like just the coming back from
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: it and then also, like I said, building that confidence up again,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: do it again. And I think as a thirty year
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: old person that you know, wanted a career ahead of me,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I also recognized that that was not a risk. I
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: was going to be continued really willing to take them
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: because it is like in the sport, you better. You
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: got to be comfortable with crashing and you know, and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that's I think I got to a point where I
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I gotta I gotta move on.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so did moving on from cycling feel like
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: moving on from basketball.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: No. This is the cool thing is that in cycling
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I started out, as you know, going after competition and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: wanting to be the best and race, and in that
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: process I discovered the cycling community and all the other
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: things you can do on bikes, travel with bikes and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: go on adventures and just general fitness. And it's just
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: enjoying like a three hour ride with friends on a
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Saturday and stopping for coffee. It was transformative like those
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you know, like it was exercise like I never knew
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: that was. It fed my soul, you know, as well
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: as you know my heart legs. And I absolutely fell
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in love with that side of the sport because it
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: kept introducing me to new people, places and then jobs.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: And I started out, I started working in cycling just
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: as a natural thing. I was sort of I was
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: training at racing at a belodrome and they needed a
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: marketing director and I started there.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I needed a front and director and I said, sure,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: why not. Now, obviously your interest for the sport makes
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: you a good candidate to work within the sport. But
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: talk about the other fundamentals that were necessary for that job.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Did you walk in and you said, I might not
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: know this, but I will figure it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Out absolutely, Because I did not study marketing. I studied
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: modern culture and media. It was essentially like film studies.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: But I'm a people person and I love to learn,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and I saw this opportunity of this beautiful belodrome in
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania that had Friday night racing that was super family
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: friendly and enjoyable and had world class athletes coming like
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: from all over the globe. Athletes were coming to race
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: at Teatown on Friday nights under the lights, and it
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was a beautiful thing. And cycling is can be a
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: tricky spectator sport, you know, because you think about the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Tour de France and you know you're standing outside of
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the road and they go buy and that's okay, you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and watching it on TV, there's a lot of nuance
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to learning how to watch cycling. But I felt like
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: at a velodrome, you have this container, you know, you
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: have an amazing way to see the whole race and
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to get to know the athletes, and it's a great
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: introduction to watching bike racing. And I really enjoyed it.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: So I enjoyed promoting it. I was a natural promoter.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Even in college. I did, like I promoted fashion shows
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and I did pop up stores, and you know, I
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like producing, like putting things together, I like showcasing talent,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and so this was a wonderful opportunity to do that
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and it came very naturally. And I like people. I
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: like to write, I like to communicate, So I enjoyed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: writing the weekly newsletters and the press releases and getting
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the storytelling behind the athlete. You know, these athletes coming
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: all the way from New Zealand to race in a
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: tiny in the cows and cornfields of Pennsylvania.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: The cows and corn fields. But so, what I'm hearing
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: you say is that you learned a lot, so much.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so much, And yeah, and I kept meeting people
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: because I'm just a natural connector, you know, in situations,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I'm the one that kind of walks over and introduces
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: myself and I want to hear your story right, yeah,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And that you know, led to then my next job
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: working in bike tours. I had an opportunity to work
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in bike tours and the same thing, I was marketing
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: director for the bike tours. This is basically bringing people
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: mostly from the US to Europe to ride the classic
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: climbs of the Tour de France, the Alps and the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Pyrenees and the Italian Dolomites, the people that wanted to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: go conquer an epic adventure for a week. And because
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I had just come from racing as well, it was
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: really fit. So I also would like help lead the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: tours and guide and I enjoyed that so much too,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: because you know, there's is there something about going on
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a bike ride with somebody, a really hard, like one
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: hundred mile bike ride. You go through so many emotions, moments,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: somebody breaks down at some point and the other person
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: has to kind of lift them up.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Oh totally.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It's like you it's therapy. It's like by the end
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: of it, you know each other so much better. You
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: grow together, you celebrate together, you suffer together, and that
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: shared suffering that a lot of us know and endurance
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: sports is really bonding and it became one of my
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: really favorite things working in bike tours. Every job I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: kind of picked up new skills. And my skill in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: bike tours was like when you get like you have
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a guy that like got really grumpy on a climb
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and he just wants, like a hurt animal, wants to
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: be left alone, Like don't stop talking to me as
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, cheery, like you know, really super fit,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: like climbing next to him and like hey, so like
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: you know, what do you think of this view? And
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: he just wants to be left alone and you have
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to kind of figure out a way to crack that
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: egg and get him out of his own head. And
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that. You know, to usually ask them
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: about their kids, ask them about their pets, asking about
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: something outside themselves, and then all of a sudden, you
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: know they can you know, rise above the immediate pain,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: see like the bigger picture, settle in, you know, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: just refhraate.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: It's such a valuable skill I'll never forget. I think
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I was working at self, So this must be like
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, and that's like when the term like sweat
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: working was really big. Everyone needed to like go to
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: a workout class with their colleagues, and it was because
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: there's so much research around exactly what you're talking about about,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: this idea that when you do hard things with other people,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: it opens you up beyond maybe your typical boundaries to
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: try something new, say something different, new connections, etc. And
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: so for you learning how to help people get outside
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: of their shell, what a special gift opportunity? Do you
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: recall maybe someone that's done that for you?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely so many times. Honestly, a lot of times it's
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: my husband. He is like, I'm the fiery one, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I swing a little bit more up and down, and
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: he is solid and sweet, and sometimes he just can
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: say something very simple that just immediately takes me out
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of that you know kind of fight.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Or flight, the fighter flight. We know the fighter flight, well,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about the fighter flight. That's so
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: interesting and I feel like, especially as an endurance athlete,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: it's like you know how to live in that place
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: of discomfort quite well, but we also learn over time
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: that living in that place isn't the healthiest thing. So
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: you are leaving these bike chores, you are writing often,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: you're getting to live your passion and also learn all
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: these new things. When do you learn or when do
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: you start to come to this place where like, okay,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: maybe it's time to graduate from here.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it was actually more about what was
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the next opportunity going to be? Yeah, you know, instead
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of sort of saying I'm done with this, something else
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: came up that was really exciting. And it came up
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: because I was going after some good business. I was
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: working for these bike tours. We are the vip tour
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: operator to the Men's Tour de France, like, you know,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the biggest bike race, one of the biggest of sports
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: events in the world, and I'm taking people for their
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: dream trips to the tour. And I started to notice
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: as the marketing director that a lot of my clients
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: on Strava, they were doing this thing called zwift. So Strava,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you know, is how we track our cycling and running
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and hiking. And I saw that a lot of my
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: clients were doing indoor training cycling training using like a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: video game. I was like, what is this and this
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: is like ten years ago and I look it up
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and it's this company called Swift and it you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: their goal was to make indoor cycling fun. And they
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: literally built a video game where you put your bike
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: on a trainer inside and you're riding in a virtual
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: world with other people. And a lot of people were
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: doing it. Caught on like fire back in like twenty fifteen,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and I sent them an email. I had just moved
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to La. I saw that they were in La. I
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: sent them an email to Partnerships at Swift and I said, Hey,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I'm Kate. I worked for this amazing bike tour company.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Why don't we do like a challenge together on Strava
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: where you have to ride x amount in Swift for
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: a chance to win the Dream Trip, the IP trip
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to the Tour de France. And they wrote me right
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: back and they're like, we love it. Why don't you
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: come down the office? And so I did and I got,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you know, and I met the guys there. It was
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: great because a couple of them knew the same people
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: that I knew from back in the cows and cornfields
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania, and all those connections that I had been
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: making came to Fruition and created this other opportunity just
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to really connect with those guys. Yeah, and they had
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: just started this company. It was probably like thirty people
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and we got to know each other, started riding bikes together,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and then a couple months later they had an opportunity
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: that they then approached me about, and that was to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: help them launch the Swift Academy, which was this groundbreaking
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: program to It was a global talent ID competition in
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the video game, So from the comfort of your home,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you got to try out to win a professional cycling
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: contract with a pro women's team. And that program was,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of like you know the onset of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: HOUSEWIF got really into women's cycling, and they brought me
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: on to run the program because I had raced that
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I knew the cycling world really well, that I had
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the right kind of energy to tackle something like that,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: And for me, it was so exciting that a company
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: was looking at things differently that my failed ambition in cycling.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, maybe I can make it better
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: for somebody else. There's a tryout, Like if I could
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: try out from my house ten years before that, I
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: might have made a pro team. And I love the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: idea that somebody was creating new pathways that we were
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: rethinking how to get into the sport and how you know,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: you don't have to exactly live in the right place
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: in the world to make it into this sport that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: you could potentially, you know, do it from you know talent,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: get talent id'ed from.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Indeed, there is so much alignment here, oh Ma, it's crazy.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: And as you speak about this, your energy is contagious
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: and it is such a holistic example of energy attracts.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Like energy. You were excited about the opportunity to take
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: what you were doing and offer that to others, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: you found people that liked what you were doing and
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: it worked. And it's not surprising that it worked because
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: you all had a common mutual goal, which was we
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: want to get as many people as we can involved
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: in this.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I love the sport. It had given me so much,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: and this company was trying to make it more accessible,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: more inclusive. They were breaking down some of the barriers
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that so many people and especially so many women faced.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
• 30:17
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• 30:36
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  Speaker 2: two when you first subscribe today? Would you say that
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: you're good at celebrating yourself.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I probably could be a little bit better. I'm always
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: kind of I move fast and I'm onto the next thing.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I'm hard on myself. I do, though, I do. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: do celebrate moments. I do. Like you know, we'll probably
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: talk about the Twitter France from a vig Swift, but
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: that is something I celebrated.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you that much. Yeah. Do you remember celebrating
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: when you got offered this in house opportunity with Zwiff.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: It was actually very scary because I love the bike tours. Yeah,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and I love the people I worked with. They had
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: become family and it was a big risk. I'm like, wait,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave riding in the Alps and the purities,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: going to Spain in France every summer to go work
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: for an indoor cycling company. But there's this moment that
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you just know. You're like, you can feel the energy
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: that there's something behind that door and you want it.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: And I knew the bike tours it was great, but
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: it was I knew what my next two, three or
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: five years looked like. Yeah, and I am an ambitious
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: person and I wanted something next and it was so exciting.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: It was you know, that that nervous energy of like, well,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: this is really risky, but you know I could be
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: a part of something game changing.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: How do you talk yourself into the risk? A lot
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: of people hear this and they're like, I have so
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: been there. There has been something that you know so
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: much of it feels right, but I'm so nervous. What
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: would you tell that person?
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's like it's kind of like buying a house.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You know, you can't just like walk in and go,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: oh my god, it like look at that shower, look
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: at the bathroo, look at that kitchen. It's beautiful. I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: want it, Like, you really have to dig deeper. You
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: got to open all the closets. You got to do
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the due diligence to under fully understand the opportunity. So
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I had to really think about, you know what the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: career path and that could look like. I had to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: really get to know the guys that I would be
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: working with. It was it was boys club too at
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the beginning of ed Swift, and I was like, is
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: that something I'm ready for? I had to really get
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: in there and understand fully the risk I was taking
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and the elements to that. And at the end of
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the day, the fact that it was in tech, the
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: fact that it was in sports, so much of it
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: felt right. There's a lot of gut that went into
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: saying yes mm.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: A lot of gut, a lot of trusting yourself, which
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: comes from repetition. Absolutely, we get to a place when
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: we are dealing with the unknown that you have to
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: trust yourself, and you can only trust yourself when you
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: can put into practice the lessons that you've learned previously.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: So you talked so beautifully about so many difficult moments
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: where you had to trust yourself. You had to trust
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: yourself to move on from basketball. You had to trust
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: yourself after you crash the first time on your bike.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: To get back on and keep competing, you had to
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: trust yourself to go as far as you could with cycling.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: And so now here you are again in this next
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: exciting chapter, leaning into that self trust and it's so special.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's really fun. And you know, like, I
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: know I have the work ethics, so I know I'm
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: going to give it my all. Right, I can't control
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: all the factors, but I know I can control the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: effort I'm going to put into it. So also, I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: take that mentality into each new opportunity.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: And that in itself is such a beautiful skill saying
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I might not have all of the answers, but I'm
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: going to do the best I can with what i
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: have right here. And that in itself is a hurdle
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: for many people. Oh absolutely, And that's the thing.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: None of us have it all. We're all figuring it
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: out once you realize that. Like, I love my CEO
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: so much now he's the best, and I love that
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: He's incredibly real and I see his flaws clearly, I
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: see his successes clearly, but what I always see is
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: his optimism and his belief in himself, and his belief
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: in his team, and we've made mistakes as a company,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and I love that how we've recovered from them. Have
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: we pivoted? You can always do that. And sports shows
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you that you know that there's no end. You know,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: there's no like, oh, that's it, you know, throw the towel.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: There's just pivots.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: This is exactly what you were saying before about the
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: importance of learning how to pick yourself back up, because
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: it's not the fact that you quote unquote fail, it's
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: what you do after that failure that empowers you to
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: show up and do it again. Absolutely, and so having
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: the tenacity to pick yourself up. And it's say, this
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: didn't go hard I had hoped, but I'm willing to
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: keep going and give it another try, or I'm willing
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: to pivot. Ye, that is such a win. It's such
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: a win. So you join this WHIF team. Yeah, and
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: you and you go through these evolutions, right because you
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: joined to do one thing, you get the opportunity then
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: to you continue on your path there and then another
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: opportunity presents itself.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: This is so cool. So yeah, we started that Swift
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Academy program started as a women's program. And the cool
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: thing is we set out to like find that diamond
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: in the rough, find that like talent in the middle
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of nowhere that you know, had been undiscovered. But in
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the meantime, we built the largest women's global cycling community.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: So the ROI on that must have been pretty great.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: That's incredible, right, not only like the press and media
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: around this groundbreaking you know, talent id competency, but we
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: had so many women coming to the platform just to
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to try, like to test themselves, to join a community
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: that was all training together. Because the Zwift Academy was
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: a program in the game that you had to like
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: kind of go through this series of workouts like this
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: this full program, you know, to to identify how good
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: are you? How good you know? Are you as good
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: as you think you are? You better? And it was
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: beautiful because so many of the women actually weren't going
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: for the pro contract. They were just going to see
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: what they could do. And and in the meantime, we
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: had we had a Facebook page that kind of supplemented
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the academy where the women could connect, I could create
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: like announcements and stuff, okay, like tomorrow's workouts live, you know,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: things like that, And you saw the connections start to
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: be made. You saw women celebrating each other, encouraging each other,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: answering each other's questions, they built their own resource. It
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: was It was incredible. And that's one of the biggest
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: barriers in cycling for women especially is that you walk
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: into the bike shop and you don't nobody gives you
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the time of day, or you're afraid to ask the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: questions that you have. You don't you know, you don't
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: know how to just get into get stuck into it,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and it's an intimidating sport. It's it's dangerous, and it's expensive,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of things you need. And we
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: saw that in this Facebook group that the women were
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: just naturally supporting each other and commiserating and celebrating and
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: it was just beautiful. And that's what actually got me
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: really into taking that the next level on the platform
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: and seeing like what else can we do if we've
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: done this, Like what else can we do to you know,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: grow and elevate women cycling, Because Wow, we have an
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: opportunity to connect women in the ways that they haven't
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: been able to. Because if you don't live in a
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: place that's like great to ride and you don't have
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: local community. It's really hard, you know, it's hard to
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: feel safe, it's hard to feel supported. And so to
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: know that any woman around the world, you know, could
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: log on and join like a group ride and make
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: friends and you know, ask questions was really exciting and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: we kind of kept taking that to the next level.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: And then when we started racing in Swift, because it's
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: a virtual world, when we started racing, we did it
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: with complete parody.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, pause, there's people listening to us that are like,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: I totally don't understand what's going on. Yep, So can
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: we just like break down the virtual world for Hot Sock? Sure, Okay,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: let's do it.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's essentially a video game. When you put
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: your bike on a trainer inside, it measures your power,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: how fast you're going, like, you know, based on your
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: body weight, your size, and the power that you're putting out.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: It literally powers your avatar in the game. So you're
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: riding in the video game is mimicking, you know, your
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: exact effort that you're doing on this indoor bike, and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: so you can do like group rides. You're literally riding
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: like simultaneously with other people around.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: The world, right, So you can hit me up and
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: be like, yo, tomorrow at seven, do you want to
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: go ride yep on the swift.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Exactly, And you can just free ride in the world.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: You can join events, you could do workouts, there's all
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: sorts of things you could do. And then when we
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: introduce racing, you know, similar to just racing in the outside,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: you have long road races, you have like you know,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: shorter kind of races. And we did it with complete parody,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: which is not a thing in cycling. At the time.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Cycling it was incredibly male dominated and there's quite a
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: lot of disparity in terms of opportunity, visibility, salaries. You
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: rarely had a race that would have the same distance
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: in the same prize person. It's not like triathlon or something.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: It's very different.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: So it was it was groundbreaking that we were just
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: doing that in swift, just creating the same opportunities you
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: know from the.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Gun right, and so helpful that explanation. Also, I would
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: imagine as a connector to see that Facebook group taking
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: off and to see these women come together, you're like,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: we are doing something that's so much more special than
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: just like encouraging women to ride yep and.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: The cool thing was. It wasn't just like you know,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Fred and his basement riding. It was like pros started
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: to train on Swift because it's incredibly efficient to train inside.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: You can control the environment and control the factors, you
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: can get your intervals in. It's incredibly efficient. So we
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: saw a lot of pros training on Swift as well.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: And then COVID hit and we blew up.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, talk to me about that, because we're.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Home fitness and literally people could not ride bikes, you know,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: very far outside, like everything was locked down. You couldn't
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: go on group rides. All the group rides shut down.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Racing was even paused like that. Whole season in twenty
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: twenty was on pause. Yeah, and Swift blew up.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Twenty twenty is the year that I got into cyclic.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, so many people this is a very common story.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because also you could like you could go out
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: and just ride by yourself, you know. But for the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: people that were looking for that community, they came to
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Swift and the and the challenges and the different kinds
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: of workouts and racing and Swift, and at that moment
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: in the spring of twenty twenty, the Tour de France
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: was actually put on pause and they like, you know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: for the first time in like forever, they weren't sure
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: if it was going to go that year, and we
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: got together with the organizers of the tour and said,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: why don't we do something on Swift because somebody of
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the pros were already on Swift right. Yeah. So yeah,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: So we did a virtual Tour de France in the
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: summer of twenty twenty where pro men and pro women
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: lined up from you know, their you know home set
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: up in Drona or Columbia and raced against each other
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: in real time. And it was broadcast around the world
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: because there was no cycling racing on at the time,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: so there, you know, the media and the broadcasters picked
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: it up because it was you know, we got to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: watch something everybody's.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Hungry, hungry for it. Yeah, what a special moment for
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: the company.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: It was really exciting, and it took a monumental effort
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: because we literally built a French world. So this is
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: a video game, so you literally built worlds, and we
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: built a French world in a couple months that mimicked
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: part of the actual Tour de France.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Course.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Wow, And at this time, there was no women's tourter France.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: This is twenty twenty, yep. And there was a one
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: day women's event that was owned by the Tourter France
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: called Lacres that was meant to expand at some point,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: but it hadn't in about eight years. And so doing
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: it on Swift and having that parody was eye opening yep.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: And everybody watched, and everybody watched.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: And the women were phenomenal.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: They were phenomenal, which arguably was a major catalyst for
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: what happened next for women's cycling exactly.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because then that's what kicked off A conversation was
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Withift and ASO, the organizers of the Tort France, to say, like,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: it's time, there needs to be a proper women's Twartter
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Friends stage race. It's the biggest race in the world
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: by far right, and women weren't there.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's so interesting because there is both this
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: recognition that it's time and also still a lack of
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: available funding to support this creation of an outlet avenue
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: equal opportunity for women yep.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And the organizer of the tour they clearly hadn't
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: done it yet because they didn't believe it was going
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: to be sustainable, Like they didn't believe that the audiences,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: audiences would come, that the investors would come. And so
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: we took a big step and we said, we'll come
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: on board as a title sponsor for four years, right,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: and we will do this together and you'll co promote it,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: and we'll bring the giant global community of cyclists that
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: we have, you know, the energy of that community, those fans,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you know, to the race and to our campaign around
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the race, our promotion of the race. And we did.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: And so in twenty twenty we announced that in twenty
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: twenty two, a Tour de France fem A x WHIFT
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: would be.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Introduced the inaugural everything you just described, it's such a
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: big risk. It is a very big decision, one that
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: you were obviously so passionate and excited about. But I
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: would imagine that there had to be many conversations also
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: about are we sure this is what we want to do?
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely huge risk. It was a massive risk. It
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: was a huge commitment we were making and it was
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: unproven beyond you know, the virtual Tour de France that
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: you know did get you know, hundreds of thousands of
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: people watching around the world, but it's still we you know,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: didn't know if the fans would truly come and if
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: they would accept this as that incredible audience that the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: tour gets, if that would transfer.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: To the women's side, right.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: So, and there was you know, there was previous editions
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: of a women's sort of France in the fifties and
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the eighties, but it wasn't given the same visibility in broadcasts.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: So they they floundered after a couple of years and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: they gave up on them. And those are some heartbreaking stories,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: incredible stories, but this was something but that we felt
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the timing was right and we had that proof of concept. Okay,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you know, there is definitely an appetite there, but we
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: had to truly believe. We had to believe before anybody believed.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: But we also, you know, a bunch of years before
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: that we believe we could have a pro try out
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: in Swift and that program was going incredibly well. So
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: we're the risk takers in cycling. We had already demonstrated
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: that we're willing to think outside the box and put
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: our money where our mouth is and be leaders in
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the sport and help build the future of cycling that
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: we want to be a.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Part of So you've done it four times now, Yes,
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: looking back on the last four editions of this, what
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: would you say has been the biggest learning, the biggest win,
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: and the biggest challenge.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: The biggest learning is that visibility was truly the key
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: to unlock the unlimited potential of the sport. That first year,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: we actually our campaign around the towrter Fronts Famavexwift was
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: watch the Fen. It was a simple like we put
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: it on cycling caps, we put it on like bags,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: watched the Fen. Everybody watch this is happening. We took
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: out a huge ad in the New York Times that
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: had a beautiful picture of like Paris with the female side.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: It's like, this is happening. And everything went into just
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: making sure that awareness was peak and that you know,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: everybody knew it was going on. And it worked. Honestly,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: it worked because audiences were truly ready. It felt like this,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: you know, this was past due. So the energy brought
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: to that first edition, the numbers, the broadcast numbers, the millions,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: hundreds of millions watching around the world was astounding.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: And the learning, it seems, is like the same learning
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: we've seen as more and more coverage of women's sports
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: comes into the picture here, which is that we don't
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: need we have fans. Yeah, and the fans want to
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: be served with this content, with the opportunity to be fans.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: It's just a matter of getting all of these outlets,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: et cetera on board to broadcast these special stories. The
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: biggest win from the last four years.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, the biggest win from the past four years, I
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: think there is. It's validation. It's sort of knowing how
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: we can even trust our instincts more, you know, because
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: we believed in this from the beginning and it has
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: surpassed everybody's expectations, even our own, which were very high.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: And the biggest win though, is like this year at
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: the race, we saw crowds that were absolutely next level. Yeah,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: just you know, for the whole course, nine days of racing,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: you know, one thousand kilometers, the whole course was lined
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: with fans. And to see so many little girls and
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: little boys growing up seeing this as normal. This is
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: bike racing, and that's their view of bike racing and
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: they're gonna never think of it differently than that. I
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: think that's the biggest one.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: It's not just here are some women riding bikes. It's
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: this is bike racing.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is here to stay. This is gonna inspire
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: that next generation. Nothing's ever going to be the.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Same again, nothing ever. Yeah, biggest challenge.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: The biggest hurdle is not getting complacent. It's great, it's happening,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of disparity in prize purses,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: in coverage. They don't have full coverage of every stage
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: like the men do, and the men have twenty one stages, right,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: So there's things that will continue to advocate and push
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: for and help influence. It's just making sure that we
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: don't like say, okay, we did it and just kind
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: of sit.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Up and be like we're going going so many times,
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: even I just did a really big project in Tokyo
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: and I three weeks later yesterday, I sent a message
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: and I was like, we need to recap this, like
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: we need to revisit this, what worked, what didn't work,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: what can we do better? These conversations sometimes it's easy,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: as you said, like onto the next thing, Onto the
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: next thing. They're so important to that forward progress. Absolutely,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: it's so important for you. Now you've done so much
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: in this role. But bigger than this specific event. What
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: else excites you in your current role as the director
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: of Women's Strategy and Swift.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Definitely the opportunity of cycling to learn from other sports.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Cycling has always been it's such a unique sport. It's
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: so Euro based that it's just sort of survived in
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: its own kind of bubble. And in all of the
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: innovation and excitement investment we're seeing in women's soccer and
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: rugby and WNBA and March madness, like everything that we're
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: learning there bringing that to cycling and shaking it up
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: even more honestly like it needs it, it really does.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I think that one of my biggest superpowers coming into
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the sport is that I'm not just from this sport
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: that I come from basketball that I you know, even
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: that that first campaign that we did where we put
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we had like a tagline on March like
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: merch is huge in women's sports. We know this, Like
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: the fans want March and they want to rep because
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: it stands for something. It's more than like I play
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: this sport, it's like I am I want to I
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: want to help build this bright future for you know,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: women's sports. I want to be a part of the
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: solution like I'm team women, you know, yeah, and giving
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: fans the opportunity to do that and to really get
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: to know the characters and to enjoy all the unique
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: things that women athletes bring to sport, and that is
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: there's a relatability. They share a lot of different ways
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: than men do in terms of like how they're creating
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: content and you know behind the scenes that they're giving
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: us access to. There's such a wonderful opportunity for investors
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: to connect with audiences in new ways. And I love
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: seeing that. And I think we can do more of
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: that in cycling because sometimes we have a sport where
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: everybody wears helmets and sunglasses and it can look a
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: little bit uniform. Yeah, And so I want to help
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: bring out these incredible personalities. I want people to fall
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: in love with the writers and to get to know
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: you know. I want rivalries, and I want the drama
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and the storytelling that we're seeing propel other sports.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: I hosted a dinner last year, and before the women
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: at the table left, I said, I want to open
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: up the opportunity right now for anyone in this room
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: if there is something that you need help with that
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: maybe you haven't vocalized, you have the floor, like there
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: are thirty leaders in this room from all different aspects.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: What it is that we were there to gather on?
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: And I said, how can we show up for you?
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: So you say this, and you say, the fans want merch,
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: and the fans want media and the fans want access.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: If I was to say right now, like what do
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: you need help with? Okay, what do you need help with?
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I need like storytelling. I want people to know that
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: there wasn't a women's towart of France. The men started
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three. Yeah, and now the women's is happening,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: and you have these gorgeous characters like this incredible drama,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: fabulous sport and it's I think that maybe a lot
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: of people don't really engage with cycling because they don't
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: get it. Yeah, when you watch it on it's on
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Peacock in the summer next year, it's August first through ninth.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Commentators do a fabulous job of breaking it down and
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: kind of teaching you how to watch cycling and it's
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: not hard. And then all of a sudden you're a
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: super fan, Like I haven't watched basketball in a long time,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I kind of honestly, it was a little
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: heartbroken for me. And now with everything it's been happening,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I'm so invested again in the stories.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: There's your team, Oh Aces all day, Okay, Vegas, Vegas.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: We are three blocks from Barkleys.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah. Really excited.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I would say pay attention this, Like people
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: don't realize that the Tour de France is the most
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: watched annual sporting event in the world. Yeah, the Women's
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Tour is probably behind, like the Rugby World Cup, the
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: most watched women's sporting event in the world. We had
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: one hundred million hours watched last year.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: In France alone, seven point seven million people watched the
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: final stage to watch the beautiful Pauline Pferan provo win
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: in like incredible fashion in France, and that was fifty
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: three percent of TVs that we're on we're watching it.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: So it's huge and I want American audiences to to,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: you know, to get involved and to get excited and
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: to catch the bug because it's exciting. It's beautiful too.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: It's a spectacular spot to watch because it's literally a
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Tour de Frase.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of a pivot but I'm just
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: like sitting here thinking about your energy and your vibe
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: and that I correct me if I'm wrong. Would assume
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: that oftentimes people kind of expect you to bring this
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: energy and this vibe to every room that you walk into. A.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: How does that make you feel? And B what do
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: you do on the days that you don't feel so
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: shiny and energetic?
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: That's a great question. Yeah, Like I've learned a lot
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: more about self care because I can't believe how much
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: more energy my job has taken in the last four years,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: promoting this race, promoting this partnership, getting out there in
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: the media, being on the ground at the race. This
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: level is expected from me totally, but it also comes
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: very naturally. So I do what I can outside of
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: those moments to ensure that I'm ready for the So
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: just like good habits, ritual is really important, and having
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: a good regimen at home, like you know, trying to
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: get as much sleep as possible, taking good care of myself,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: staying you know, working out regardless of all my travel,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: you know, even if it's a quick gym workout, like
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: a quick hotel workout, you know, doing planks on the
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: on the floor of the hotel, but taking care of
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: myself as much as possible so that I'm ready to go,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: you know, when the moment strikes. But but there's times
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: that I'm not quite there, and then I think it's
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: going back to like the basics of like, I love
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: to connect with people. So maybe it's a quieter conversation
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: this time. Maybe I'm not grabbing the stage or the mic,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: and I'm I'm you know, finding somebody in the room
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: that I want to hear their story. So I think
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: there's different ways, different things I can do in the
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: moment to get outside of myself, you know, and and
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: kind of just take it in and just be more
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: of a receptor. Yeah, somebody that's kind of doling it out.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: It's so such a beautiful takeaway to say, just because
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: I'm tired doesn't mean I'm not who I am. Yeah,
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: And that is such an eloquent way to put it.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: It's like, even though I'm tired, I am still a connector.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: Even though I'm tired, I still want to learn about you.
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: My capacity for how I go about it just might
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: need to shift in that moment. What a really cool
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: way to think about it.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I always say that there's an opportunity in
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: every room you just you don't you haven't found it yet,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and so just kind of it's a growth mentality, you know,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: it's kind of always thinking that there's there's some door
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: that I don't even see yet that's going to open.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: There's some door that I don't even see yet that's
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: going to open. Right now, someone comes to maybe your
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: Instagram or your LinkedIn, they see your title and what
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: you do in Swift. They see a woman that's passionate
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: about cycling. But when you look in the mirror, Kate,
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: what is it that you see looking back at you?
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see a fighter in a good way. I
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: see somebody that uh is ready for the next challenge. Yeah,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: and that thrives on that energy. I feel so lucky
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: to have found Swift is it's a company that has
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: always been doing something that has never been done before,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and that takes a unique person to accept that challenge
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: and want to be there for that and want to
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: dive into the unknown. And I've learned to really embrace
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: that uncertainty and risk and those are now positive emotions
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: for me. You know, I remember, there's a wonderful athlete
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Kristin Armstrong, who has won three Olympic gold medals in
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: the time trial race and she's now a phenomenal coach
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: and she has this sort of mentality of embracing the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: pain and if you kind of switch your mind to
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: it's not pain, this is power and it's pushing me
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: forward and that and you reframe it to at you know,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: to now it's it's something that is driving you instead
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: of holding you back. And so you know, we have
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: to kind of get out of kind binary thinking of
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: like good and bad and everything can you know, lead
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: to something positive but you haven't seen it yet, So
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: be patient, don't jump to conclusions, and you know, give
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: the world the opportunity to kind of show you what
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: that is.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: Turning your pain into power is again one of those
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: things that is repetition and repetition and repetition. There is
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: going to be that one day, that one difficult moment
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: that you first realize it's possible, and then there's going
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: to be that next difficult moment where you realize, Okay,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: not only is it possible, but I can do something
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: about it. It's so challenging to get there, it is.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: I here's a fun one somebody told me once as
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: we were starting a freezing cold ride in like norcl
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: and I was like shivering, and I see this, this
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: this gentleman that's on the ride. He's Icelandic and he's
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: wearing just like short sleeves. I'm like, what is he doing, Like, Hilmar,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: aren't you freezing?
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: Of course his name is Kilmar.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Hilmar, Hilmar.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this is like not your average Hilmar.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Aren't you freezing? And he said cold is a state
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: of mind, And I went, I think, okay, whatever, Viking,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: but then think of it. Try it sometime, all right,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it sometimes. We all, like, you know,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: the best, the best athletes in the world know that
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: the strongest muscle you have is your brain. And so yeah,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: get out of thinking like that you know it all
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: like you don't know anything, and you can constantly retrain
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: your brain. Uh, and there's little things you could do
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: to take you out of that fight or flight moment
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: or that panic or uh, that discomfort, you know, to
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: turn it into something that actually might create, you know,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: your next step, your next progress, your next awakening.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: So basically we're gonna leave here and we're gonna go
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: jump in a couple of ice backs.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just a state of mind, Just a state of mind.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: Well, Kate, I'm so happy that we're able to do
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: this today. Before I let you go right now, you
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: have the opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: I'm going to bring you back to when you made
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: the difficult decision to walk away from basketball, being told
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: that you can't keep doing this thing that you love,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: knowing what you know? Now, what would you tell yourself
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: during that hurdle moment?
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is just the beginning, that there's no true endings,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: that this is just.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: A pivot, just a pivot. Kate, so happy that you
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: were able to come to the studio. For those that
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: want to keep up with you, you want to keep up
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: with the Zwift, give me the details. Where do you
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: fend you?
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, you can find me on Instagram at just my
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: full name. Kate Verno. Definitely follow goes witht on Instagram
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: as well to follow the excitement around our Towurter friends,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Femavi Swift partnership and everything we're doing to grow and
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: elevate women's cycling. And you know, if you have questions
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: about the actual app and want to get rolling with
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: an incredible women's community around the world. You know, feel
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: free to DM me anytime with questions about how to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: get into it and what you need to join this
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: beautiful world of cycling.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: Amazing see one Swift I'm over at Emily a Body
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: and at Hurdle Podcasts Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: next time.