Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Writing the Playbook: Kayla Green on Building Athlos, Scaling Women’s Track on the World Stage & Why You Shouldn’t Wait for Permission

Transcript

Writing the Playbook: Kayla Green on Building Athlos, Scaling Women’s Track on the World Stage & Why You Shouldn’t Wait for Permission · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm really proud of the times when I said yes,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: or the times when I believed with conviction that going
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: against the status quo is the right thing to do.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: What's up, hurdlers? Emily Abadi here.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: You are listening to another episode of Hurdle, a podcast
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: featuring the mindset secrets and true stories of the most
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: inspiring women in sports and wellness, empowering you to live
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: a healthier, happier, more motivated life, and of course, conquer
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: your own hurdles. This week, I am sitting down with
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Kayla Green. She's the acting president of Athlos. Now, just
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: this past weekend, Athlos touched down across the pond for
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: a high-energy Athlos London meet.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And what a show it was.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: From where I sat, and I'm currently sitting in Australia,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: it looked unbelievable. Electric crowd energy, DJ Trauma spinning trackside,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Tiffany & Co crowns, Record-breaking prize purses. I mean, did
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: you see Keeley Hodgkinson's speed suit? Because that was unreal.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: The fastest woman in the world, an entire vibe on
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: the global stage. Now, in our conversation this week, which
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: was recorded one week ago, we get into the real talk.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: The original plan for a two-meet circuit and the surprise
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: announcement at the end of August that the New York
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: event was officially canceled. Now, I want to reiterate here
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: that I care passionately about athletes' well-being, period. So when
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: it comes to the physical toll on these women, especially
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: after an intense championship season, putting their bodies and health
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: first isn't just the right move.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: It is the only move.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Still, calling it off that late in the summer caught
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of people off guard, myself included. So in
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: our chat today, I asked Kayla directly why they waited
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: until late.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: August to pull the plug.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We talk about the decision-making process, what went behind that timing,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: and what it actually felt like to pick up the
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: phone and deliver that difficult news to partners and sponsors.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Kayla breaks down the athlete feedback that drove the pivot,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the emotional weight of holding that boundary, and what it
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: truly takes to build an athlete-first organization when the status
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: quo sometimes pushes for the opposite. Plus, we talk through
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Kayla's journey from being founding employee number three at Angel
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: City FC to diving headfirst into track and field, navigating
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: high-stakes uncertainty and and creating systemic equity for the next
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: generation of women in sports. Make sure you're following along
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: with Hurdle over on social. It's over at Hurdle Podcast.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: You can also check out iHeart Woman Sports over at
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: iHeart Woman Sports and me over at Emily Abadi. Listen
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: to Hurdle with Emily Abadi on the iHeart Radio app,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling. today.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Kayla Green. She's the acting
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: president of Athlos. Kayla, how are we doing today?
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: So good. Thanks for having me.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Thanks for making the time. I know I just casually said,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: how are you doing today? But like, let's arrive in
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: the space. Take a deep breath. How are you doing really?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: We're doing, I'm doing really well. It's about a week
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: away from Athlos London. And so it's just putting the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: finishing touches on everything. Everybody always says like, are you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: so crazy? The inbox must be wild. The text, everything.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And I have such a great team. We've been working
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on this now for three years. And so we know
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: what we know. We know like, okay, some things are
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: going to go really well. Some of the new ideas,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: like we'll see how they turn out. But I'm just
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: everything at this point, if it hasn't been planned, it'll
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: just happen.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: And it'll be great no matter what.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: It'll be great no matter what. This is going to
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: air the Tuesday after Athlos London. So tell me, what
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: would success look like for you?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: We have always said that Athlos is for the athletes.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And I have always believed that the athletes are our
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: North Star and our fans are our compass. So as
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: long as we focus on those two points, everything else
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: falls into place. And so for me and for Athlos,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: our team, as long as these athletes walk away saying
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: this was the best experience ever... I loved competing in Athlos.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I want to come back again and again. That's success
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: for us because when the athletes are having a great time,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the fans are having a great time. This is our
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: first time doing an international event. There's no place like
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: London for athletics. The fans are incredible. Huge, huge, huge
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: crowds show up for these athletes. And so I'm just
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: really excited to bring that Athlos, like the recipe that
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: we've We've been doing so well in New York for
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the last two years. I'm so excited to bring it
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: across the pond to London.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about what the recipe involves. What were
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: the signature ingredients that you knew you needed to bring
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: with you regardless of where this meet was going to
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: be happening?
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So first and foremost, it's athlete first. So everything that
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: we do revolves around her, whether it's allowing her to
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: tell her story first. One of the biggest tenants of Athos,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: we call it speed to feedback. And you're in the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: business of content, so you really understand this. The faster
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you get it out on the feed, the faster you're
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: owning that narrative and nobody else is owning it for you.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We work on this technology that we've built with one
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of our partners called ScorePlay where the second something is
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: captured and it's uploaded, the athlete actually gets a ping
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: on her phone and it says, okay, you have photos
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: or you have content. She can post that and she
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: can control that narrative. And so for us, like one
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of the critical ingredients of success in Athlos is our
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: ability to tell that story and tell it really quickly. Again,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you're in the business of content, so you really understand this.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: You have to remind people every day that you exist
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and you have to remind people every day of the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: things that matter and what makes you different. 24 hours later,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: somebody has scrolled and they see something else. So for us,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that is a huge ingredient of our success is making
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: sure that she's able to tell her story And we
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: get to do it really quickly.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: Something else that.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: We do that we've seen such great success is that, well,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it's truly a track and field meet, right? Like we
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: are accredited by World Athletics. You're sanctioned. Athletes get points
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: for this event. Last year, Faith Kpiegan ran the fastest
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: mile of women on U.S.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: Soil. So like we're seeing some really great numbers still.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But it's really important that everything that we do
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: is focused on her well-being, whether that's like we've made
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: bibs that are sized for a woman's torso, right? They're
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not like these massive bibs, to the record-breaking prizing. So
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: we pay the highest amount of prize money in a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: woman's only track and field meet to the crowns that
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: they get if they win. We didn't want to just
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: do medals like everybody else. So we designed these crowns
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: with Tiffany and company. So another critical component of what
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: we do is just putting this athlete at the center
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: of everything that we do. And then the third is
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: we really sit at the cross section of culture and sport.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: So if you've never been to a track and field
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: meet before and you come, this isn't like a confusing thing.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know about what was your very first, what
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was your first track meet?
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: The 2016 Olympic trials.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Somewhat confusing?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I mean, outside of like a high school track meet,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: but yeah, the 2016 Olympic trials in Eugene at Old
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Hayward was my first track meet.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So my first track meet, Alexis and I went to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the 2024 Olympic trials.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: In Eugene.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: We sat down 20 minutes into sitting there And we
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: were sitting with Gabby's fiance, Spencer, and we were sitting
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: with her team. And, you know, we were like team
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Gabby with the t-shirts that New Balance had given us.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: And we were like.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Looking for her and didn't know that she wasn't coming
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: on for like another two hours. Right. And we were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: sitting there and I turn to him 20 minutes in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm so confused. This is the easiest
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: sport in the world to comprehend. It is the oldest sport,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you know, known to humankind, the very first Olympic sport.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the Olympic game was a foot race, right? Like this
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: isn't something that's new and hard and technical and understand
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: like what does an offside mean? This is very, and
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: so pervasive, right? Everybody's in a run club. You know,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: everybody's either like run D1 track or they know somebody
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: or they're, you know, it's the number one sport played
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: by high school students right now. So you talk to
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: any mom, she's shuttling someone back and forth to a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: track and field practice. And I turned to him, I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: was like, this is so confusing. There was sand everywhere.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Tara had just jumped. There's sand everywhere. Someone was throwing
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: something very sharp in the middle of the field. And
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I'm like, who's in first? I still don't understand. And
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: they were coming around the bend and there's sand on
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the track and people are going to trip.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: What's going on?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And when we, talked about Athlos, we were like, a
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: newcomer has to be able to come and say, I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: totally get what's going on. I'm fully clued in. She's
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: about to run 100 meters. This is who she's racing against.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: This is why the rivalry matters. You take the several seconds.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Everybody's leaned in, watches the race. And then there's 20
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: minutes in between each race of party. DJ Trauma is spinning.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: We're showing in venue, you know, the fans having a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: great time. The sports presentation team is going around the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: venue talking to the celebrities like, you know, Queen Latifah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: this is so fun, on air for the fans who
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: are watching back at home. We're giving them storytelling on
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the athletes and talking about them, not just as the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: competitors on the track, but also who they are at home.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And so it's a way for us to give a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: little bit more simplicity to the equation of what it
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: is to be at a track and field meet. Our
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: first year, 2024, we had Megan Thee Stallion perform at
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the end of the meet last year, Sierra. And I
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: had friends tell me that like to the right of them,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: there were people who thought they were coming to a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Megan Thee Stallion concert. Oh, there's a track meet. This
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: is so cool.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: And people to the left of them who are like.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: You know, track core being like, I've never been to
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: a track meet this fun. All track meets need to
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: be this fun. So that is another core component, the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: ingredient that we're taking to London.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: We're so excited.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Lots of really cool surprises in store for people who.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: Are in the venue.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And then we're excited about what the broadcast is going
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to be this year. We've expanded our broadcast distribution to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: bring in the BBC. along with a handful of other
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: global rights holders. And so again, like, you know, you
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: want to watch a track meet, you got to pay
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: for it, right? This is one where it's far more
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: accessible and we're excited to bring the Athlos experience across
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the pond.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: There's so much to unpack in this.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I think the first thing that sticks out to me,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: aside from the fact that the DJ's name is Trauma,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: which is something that we can unpack at a completely
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: later time.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: So good.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: I am so interested that you were excited about this idea.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: That doesn't surprise me considering your professional background of getting
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: involved with something like Athlos having never been to attract me.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Why? Why? Well, it's a similar thesis to what we
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: saw back in 2019. So my background, I'm a serial marketer.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I've worked for some of the biggest, most beloved brands
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: in the world, like Apple and Toyota. And I've worked
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: for those organizations at times when they were seeking massive
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: business transformation, right? So Apple, I worked in the retail space.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So how do you take a technology brand and give
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: it a place in a space that feels welcoming and
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: not cold and, you know.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: untouchable.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Toyota, they were pivoting from car company and mobility company.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I helped launch that platform on the Global Olympics back
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: in 2018. And so kind of coming into spaces that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: are totally unfamiliar territory is a place where I thrive.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: So Alexis had this thesis back in 2019. He had
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: been to one of the Women's World Cup quarterfinals. He
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: was like, watching the likes of the Megan Rapinos, the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Alex Morgans of the world command massive amount of attention online.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And yet the excitement for women's soccer wasn't there unless
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: it was during an Olympic year or the World Cup.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: There has to be a there there.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And obviously for Alexis, who was co-founder of Reddit, basically
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: built what became today known as the biggest online community
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: in the world. He said, like, there has to be
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: more as far as sustaining attention. And a lot of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that has to do with the visibility and the media
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: rights and storytelling. And so that enter his investment, that
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: first check that kicked off what became Angel City Football Club.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I was founding CMO employee number three. had no idea
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: about soccer. And thank goodness that we had Abby Wambach
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and Mia Hamm, who would get on the phone and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: explain what offside meant. There were so many days where
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay. And then she's like, in the box,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: but I don't understand. Oh, Kayla, this is what it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: And I think applying those very standard, just the fundamentals
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of understanding how to build a beloved brand and walking
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in and building Angel City through first principles, not Hey, look,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I come from a front office on the men's side,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: or this is the playbook we've always done. Therefore, this
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: is the playbook that is going to work. We never
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: did that. We challenged the status quo in every decision
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that we ever made. The 10% give back model where 10%
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of every commercial deal that we did at Angel City
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: went straight back into the community here in Los Angeles.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: Nobody had ever done that before. Nobody ever wanted to
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: do that.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: You can't just airdrop a pro team in Los Angeles
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: with 13 of arguably some of the best pro teams
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: in the history of sports. You have to build forever
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: fans and you have to do it by deeply investing
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: in the community. And so similarly, we had this thesis
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and I think early 2023, 24, Alexis was like, seeing
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: all of these videos go viral online of the high
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: school student who had like broken some record in the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: 100 meter.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Sprint, right?
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And it's like, wait, these videos are going viral and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: yet I can't find it on TV.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: This is crazy.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And he quickly got with Gabby Thomas and Gabby, of course,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: wrote a thesis.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: No surprise there.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: No surprise there.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Harvard coming in hot.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Harvard coming in hot. And, you know, and so they're
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: like knocking around some ideas. And Gabby's like, it needs
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to be more entertaining. And we need to pay these
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: athletes more. And what if we actually were able to
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: have visibility more than once every four years on a
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: big screen? And these became the fundamentals of what Athlos became.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And five short months later, with a very small team,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: we brought Athlos to market in 2024. 3.1 million people
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: tuned in and watched us. And I think you know
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the stats, and I don't need to go through the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: long list, but Caitlin Clark's debut in the WNBA was what?
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: 1-2, 1-3?
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: 1-2.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: I would give it maybe 1-7.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: 3.1 million people. We were getting the scale. So there
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: was absolutely a there there. We thought we might've been
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: riding the wave of the Olympics, right? We were only
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: six weeks after Paris. And so we were like, okay,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: maybe this is just about the momentum. And everyone was like,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: it's really smart to launch six weeks after Paris. Except
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: there was a lot that we were asking of the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: athletes at that point. And we were so proud of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the athletes who came in 10 toes down and said, yes,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I want to be a part of this. And when
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: we had 30, 31 of the fastest women in the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: world compete that first year, because we only had the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: six events, we didn't have field yet. And I think
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: about 80% of them had just meddled in Paris only
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: six weeks prior. And so, you know, we saw that
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: there was success. It was that we were getting product
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: market fit. Last year, we thought maybe we would see
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a sophomore slump. Nope, four and a half million people
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: tuned in. Mm-hmm.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: Were you there in Times Square? I was in Times Square, yeah.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, you were there in Times Square. We shut down
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Times Square the day before Athlos and held the qualifying
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: jumps for the long jump in Times Square. We threw
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a gigantic spotlight on this sport and broke the internet.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And that's the thesis, right? Can you sustain momentum and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: visibility on this sport more than once every four years?
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: We have proven that. And can you do it in
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: a way that heroes the athlete and allows her to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: tell that story speed to feed. And so as long
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: as we can continue to sustain that momentum, record-breaking prizing,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: best track meet ever, fans have a great time, pulling
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: ourselves out of the center of just the core track
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and field community and putting us into culture, and then
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: doing things that really push against the status quo of
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: what it's like to run a league. this year for
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the first time ever, every participating eligible athlete is getting
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: equity in the league. So she's getting prizing for what
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: she's going to do on the track, and she's getting
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: equity for the partnership off the track in advising us
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and helping us build something for the future. So you
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: have to have a lot of bravery, right? You have
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: to have a lot of belief that something isn't right.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: We can ask the question why and try to, try
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: to come up with a better solution. And, and that's where,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that's where we started with Athlos. And that was the thesis.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: What you did. help to do with Angel FC is
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: absolutely amazing. And even highlighting the 10% give back is
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: such a cool concept. And it's fun to see you
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: bringing some of those similar ideas to the work that
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: you're doing with Athlos. I would be remiss now, we
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: talk about the growth from year one to year two,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: that steady upward projection. You highlighted that it became a
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: two-month event, so to speak. So having those jumps in
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Times Square and then the main event at- icon, now
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: this year originally projected to be a two-meat model. Is
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: there concern now that it's only one night and it's
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: in London that we're not going to see that continued
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: upward growth?
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Not at all. I think given the.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: One, the excitement, the momentum, I mean, we're nearly sold out.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I think we have about 100 tickets left. So I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: know this is going to air post-Athlos London, but as
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of a week out, were nearly sold out. That is
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: such a strong signal. of the market getting excited. I
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: remember when we made the announcement about New York, obviously
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it was later in the day and so all of
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: our UK counterparts had already been asleep. And I woke up,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: it was a Saturday morning and I woke up to
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of messages.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: Does this mean we're getting the crowns in London? This
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: is so exciting.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: And so I think London, those that had taken note
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: were like, wait, we're actually going to get some of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: those components that you were waiting and holding off in
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: Londoners can't wait for this. And so I think, and also.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Adding a partner in the BBC makes this so much
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: more accessible to homes across the UK. So we're already
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: seeing the early signals that this is going to be successful.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I have told the team, I'm like, I can't wait
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to blow the doors off of London. I just spent
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a week in London meeting with a handful of decision
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: makers across the UK athletics market and meeting with women's
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: sports supporters. And all of them are like, we're so
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: excited and we were so honored that we were the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: first market that you decided to take this to outside
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of New York. And so, yeah, we are completely confident
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: that we're going to continue to see that upward growth
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and I think having additional partners like the BBC really
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: help us continue to build the foundation to enable us
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to scale.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You go to sleep and you wake up and there's
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: all this feedback.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I'm just thinking about the fact that you went to
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: sleep and how my anxiety would be like, absolutely not.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Put me in your shoes on the night that you
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: make the announcement that the New York meet's not going
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: to happen.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Look, I have been working with Alexis for the last
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: six and a half years. You know, by background, obviously,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I had worked for Apple. For me, I am really
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: drawn to founder visionaries and those people who have a
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: true fire in their belly for bringing something new to market.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And seeing when, okay, like, you know, we learned a
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: lot from that. What are we going to do to
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: shape and sharpen that? Or we might need to take
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a left turn when we were planning on taking a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: right turn. And so there wasn't a single doubt in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: my mind that what we were doing was right. We're
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: an athlete first league. And the decision was made in
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: support of the athlete's health. It's really hard to sit
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and question that. I remember I had to make a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: phone call to one of our studio executives for one
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: of our rights holders and explaining, okay, look, this is
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: what's happening. London is still going on. You know, we're
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: working with World Athletics to bring the dates into the
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: calendar for next year. And she was like, good on
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you for making a decision where you put a woman,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a female athlete's body first.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: This is the only phone call I've ever had where
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: somebody has actually said that to me. And so I think,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: you know, when you know, like, this was right for
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the athlete, you There isn't a single doubt in my
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: mind like we made the right decision.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: And and to be clear, like I agree with putting
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: them and their bodies first. I think where the confusion
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: of so many people lies is before we sat down today,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I listened to you on a podcast that went live
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: on June 3rd.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: That's talking about New York.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: So did we not think or did we not know
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: in June.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: That the timing was going to be rough?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I think we've watched a summer of some incredible feats
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: happening on the track, right? Like world records have been broken.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: You're watching like Team Great Britain pick up so many medals.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And I think just like being honest with your body,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: like there's a moment where you sometimes turn around and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you say like, this is for your health, for our health.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: This is the decision that needs to get made. I
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: could wake up tomorrow with a cold.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, a lot of people right now are training
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: for fall marathons that might be listening to this. And
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: so many people, it's that time where a lot of
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: them start to realize, I'm not going to be able
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: to run the marathon that I set out to get
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: out and go do come the fall.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: We want to have a cycle that is something that
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the athlete doesn't have to say, ooh, is my body like,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: going to be okay?
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Should I sign up for this?
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: And it is our hope by working with World Athletics
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that as of next year, we will have competitions that
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: sit earlier on in the season and within the global
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: calendar itself so that we're starting to really address that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: What I'm hearing you say is twofold.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: One, you said the word competitions, which means the goal
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: is to get back to more than one And the
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: second thing that I'm hearing you say is that throughout
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: the season, there became a vocalization that okay, I thought
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: that I was going to be able to do this
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: as an athlete. And then I just don't think I
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: can hang on anymore. And it's interesting also in the
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: context of like what's happening in track and field right now,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: you see someone like, for instance, Rye Benjamin, if we're
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: going to bring a man into it, who's doing the
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: 400 double right now at World Ultimates.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: And he came.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: Forward and said, I could get hurt doing this. This
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: could be very bad for me. And I think it
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: is kind of in vogue right now to say, I
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: can't be superhuman all the time.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I'm not a pro athlete.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And I certainly haven't run as many marathons as you have.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: But of the few that I have.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Wait, Kayla, we need to talk about your marathon history.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Let's put Atlas on the back burner for a second.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Don't worry.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: I think like you run it in four and I
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: might run it in 10. That's okay.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We call it party pace for someone like me. And
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I always say this to the athletes, like I am
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: in awe of what they do.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: And I've always like, yeah, it's funny.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: We were building Angel City, Angela Hughleys, who's now the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: president of Houston. She was head of player support when
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: we brought her in. And I remember being like, Angela,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: can I just have your workout routine?
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: And she was like, Kayla. Yeah. this is genetics.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I can give it to you, but this
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: is genetics. But back to your point, I think it's
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: really about making sure that as an athlete first league,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: we're doing things that are right by the athlete. We
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: can't ask them to do one more peak this late
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in the season. And that was really where Alexis made
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that decision. What happens to the things that were going
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to happen?
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: In that.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: So there's like all of this money that was allocated
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: to the New York meet. Is that money now pushed
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: into London? Is that saved for next year? Like were
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: there athletes that were only going to compete in New
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: York and now they're competing in London?
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, the rollover on that.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: So Athos this year was a circuit, right?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: So you had to compete in London and there was
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: prizing and points allocated to London and those accumulated to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: Very similar to NCAA.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: So a lot of these athletes were very familiar with like,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you know, okay, I work, I'm, I'm on a team
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and these are my points. And then the, the winner
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: would be crowned in New York. So it wasn't that
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: we had athletes that were kind of picking and choosing
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: which race they were committing to both races. Um, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: so they're excited because they're running London and like thrilled
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to be able to kind of cap their season off
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in London and We haven't changed the prizing, so it's
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: still record-breaking prizing. We had actually upped the prize pool
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: this year from last year. The biggest difference is in
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: London now, she'll be crowned. She'll be crowned. It's so exciting.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: We will have a grand finale. And so there's still
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: that kind of party energy and vibe that we've always
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: had in New York. I'm very excited about a couple
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of things like t-shirt cannons. I think like that might've
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: been an interaction that you and I had where you
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: were like, I've never seen a t-shirt cannon. It was like, okay,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: but we do that. I know I had the t-shirt
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: cannon last year, you know, like, you know, sending t-shirts
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: out into the fans and just like New York, we're
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: having kids races. So before the pros get on the track,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: We're having some of the fastest youth in London compete.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: They get little Tiffany necklaces, right? Like just like the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Tiffany crowns. And so it is that whole CFB, I
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: believe it become it. There's a kid's zone. So just
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: after the athletes step off the track, that's a part
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: that they go and they see and get to sign.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: You know, I remember seeing Keely like take her spikes off,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: sign them and give them to an athlete last or
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to a child last year. And then they go to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the mix zone. So we've got a lot of those
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: elements that we're bringing to London. And I think Londoners
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: are just excited to experience something new.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: You said something before that I really appreciated, and it
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: was that you genuinely thrive in moments where there is
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: a lot of unknown. and I don't think that there
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: are necessarily a lot of people listening to this that
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: share that sentiment. So my question for you is, why
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: do you think that that is? And for people that
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: really struggle with uncertainty, what advice do you have to
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: offer to them to help them navigate that?
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: So there's an intrinsic why for me. And it's because
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: I wake up every day and You said it yourself
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: as well. And this is why you have the platform
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that you do. There's an inequity between male and female athletes.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: There still is. And whether it's a pay inequity or
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: a media inequity, there's an intrinsic why to what I
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: do every day that I get up every day. I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: have a seven-year-old daughter and I have an 11-year-old son.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: And every single minute of my day is spent making
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: sure that when both of them are old enough... No,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I don't think they have the genetics to become pro athletes,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: even though they would like to think that they do.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: But I never want... I don't want a day to go.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: By in my professional life where I didn't try to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: make this an equitable path for both of them. I
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: know that you have a very similar passion for what
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you do as well.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: And so... Living.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: In uncertainty, but knowing that there is a deep why
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: that we're going to navigate this path. And sometimes we
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: don't know where the outcome is headed. But we have
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: visionaries like Alexis who 10 toes down have the conviction.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: And yep, we didn't have a blueprint. We're creating it.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: This is what it looks like.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: That's why.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And when I talk to people who might live with
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: uncertainty or, okay, like I'm uncomfortable with the uncertainty, what's
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: your why? Okay, well, that comes with a lot of
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: hard work and a lot of uncertainty. But if you're
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: very clear on why you're doing it, you'll get up
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: every day because you will be unfulfilled until you know,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: like that's what we're working towards.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: We have an incredible team at Athos.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: There's like 22 different disciplines that all report up into me.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we get on these team calls and I see
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: all the squares on the boxes and I'm like, I
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: can't believe all of these people are working on this
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: with us and that they're so excited and deeply invested
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: and are so successful in what they're doing. And People
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: ask me a lot like, okay, how do you motivate
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: these teams? How are you so successful? Everybody seems so
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: happy working on Athlos. And I think it comes from purpose.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: It comes from this very clear reason why we are
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: doing what we are doing. And knowing, look, in my lifetime,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I've done a bit of the math. I don't know
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: in my lifetime if my daughter, if she ever wanted
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to be a professional soccer player, would have the pay parity.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: But I know that in my lifetime, I will be
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: laying the foundation for the next generation and the next
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: generation because one day pay parity will happen.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: One day media equity will happen.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: And I think that's really what the team that works
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: on Athlos believes.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: That's why you know, we're flying.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: To London, like working odd hours throughout the night, because
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: we all believe that what we're doing, we're putting our
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: fingerprints on what will be that legacy for media equity
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and for pay parity.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: You said, people see me and they say, you're so successful.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like you're successful?
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Well, I think people see what, what, what I've been
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: doing and say that the business is successful, right?
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah. The business is successful.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I think that there are times when I look back
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: at what we built at Angel City, we never knew
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: like starting that thing that we would be the most
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: valuable team in the league in four short years. Sports
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: assets don't don't see that kind of compounding rate of
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: growth in four years. They're usually 10 to 15 year horizons, right?
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Like that's why you kind of get into it and
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: that's why you build it. And I think it's, it's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: magical to just watch and turn and say like, I
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: remember the day when we were on the phone with
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: our apparel partner and I'll tell you a funny story.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: So like most NWSL clubs were selling about 20,000 jerseys
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: a year, right? Like that was a pretty standard number.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: And I remember like we were getting on the phone
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: with the Nike team and like, okay, how many jerseys
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: are you guys going to place the order for in
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: your inaugural season?
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: And, you know, I worked with Richard Roscoe. He's the
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: CMO at LAFC.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: He kind of like went to the Church of Rich
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: every Monday night, And he was like, let me tell
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: you what it's like to be the CMO of a
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: football club.
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: And okay. I learned so much from him. And I
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: think that.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Probably 70,000 was what LAFC was seeing year over year.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: And so I remember like sitting down with Julie Urban,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Jess Smith, and okay, like let's hedge our bets here.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Like let's like order 40,000 jerseys and see where we go.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: And I remember at like some point during the summer,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: We get this phone call from Nike and they're like, okay,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: like we weren't prepared for you to have that many
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: jerseys ordered. And we're like, we have to kind of
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: figure out like how we're going to accommodate this number, right?
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: And you look back on that and you're like, well,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: that was like a marker of success, right? Like we
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: actually forced a system to change. We weren't going to
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: follow the status quo of 20,000 jerseys, right? I think
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: in our inaugural season, we were one of the top
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: clubs that sold the most amount of jerseys. I mean,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure San Diego probably sold more because of
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Alex Morgan on.
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: The back of the kit.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: But that kind of commercial success is because we took
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a risk and we didn't follow the blueprint.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: We challenged the blueprints.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Same thing with doubling revenue year over year with Athlos, right?
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: We took a big bet on things like our media
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: partner strategy. We could have gone with a single media partner.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: We could have gone with exclusive rights. When we went
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and we pitched our broadcast strategy out in the marketplace,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: we said, can you take it non-exclusively? And that was
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: how we were able to bring in ESPN and DAZN
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and YouTube and X in year one. And then in
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: year two, Ion, the Home for Women's Sports came in
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: as a great partner for us domestically. And here in
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: year three, we have the BBC, a few other partners
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: that we're about to announce. But it's like taking those
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: risks and not going with a standard blueprint on, okay,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: like if you're a league, go with this one broadcast partner,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: try to get a great rights deal. We had to
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: challenge that. Yeah, you have to challenge that. And so
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: as you....
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Were getting at, you kind of started to say, well,
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: I feel like the work that I've done is successful,
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: but I want to go back to how you feel
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: about the work that you've done. So when you sit
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: from where you sit right now, you're sitting by yourself,
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: you're in your house, it's 730 in the morning, maybe
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: your kids have given you some alone time and you're
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: writing down.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: About how you feel about yourself. How do you feel?
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay, well, at 7.30, my kids don't give me
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: alone time. I knew you were going to say that.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: I was going down this path and I was like,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: she's not following me there.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Would it be glorious if I had at 7.30 in
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the morning my alone time? But as soon as they're
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: like off to school and, you know, we haven't had
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: like our UK meetings kick off. And I think and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I reflect on my own personal journey. I'm really proud
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of the times when I said yes or the times
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: when I believed with conviction that going against the status
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: quo is the right thing to do. And it's deeply
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: fulfilling when you watch the incrementality of where we are.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, the Valkyries is, their valuation now is at
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: a billion dollars. To be at a time like that,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: what a time to be alive, right? And what a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: time to be working in women's sports in such a
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: high growth, high potential market. But then I, like the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: business side alone, like, okay, great. then I'm watching these
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: athletes break world records like Messiah Russell, who two years ago,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I remember we sat, we sat her down. I was
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: at her end of her season. She had just won
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: the gold in the Olympics and we had her at
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Athlos and she had come out here for something like
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: in late November and we were doing some content. And I,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: of course, because I was the producer at the time,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: they're asking her the questions. We're a startup and we
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: do a lot of, we wear many, many hats. And
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I also find that to be deeply fulfilling. Nothing brings
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: me more joy than sitting on set during an athlete
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: photo shoot. But I remember like I had asked her
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: the question like, okay, like you won the gold at
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the Olympics and you know, you, go. You competed at Athlos.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: What next?
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: And she, without hesitation, went again. And I think it's
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: this incredible time to be around athletes who believe, yeah,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: win again. And now two years later, she's broken the
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: world record. right? Like, and I think it's, it's success
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: for me is being able to sit and have proximity
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: to an athlete who has that mindset. And also to say,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: what am I doing every hour of the day? to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: make sure that you will have equity, that you will
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: have media visibility, that that story does get told. And
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: we remind people every day that you're not competing, that
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: this story exists. So I think for me, it's like
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: success is having that experience and that proximity to these
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: athletes that are doing incredible things. And also knowing that
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: in the background, The incrementality of bringing more money and
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: more visibility into the sport is showing up and paying
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: off for those athletes on the track, on the pitch,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: on the court.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: I think it's irrefutable that you've been successful and it
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: makes me happy to hear that you find so much
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: joy in the work that you're doing. I tell myself
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: day in and day out that it truly is a
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: privilege to be able to do work that you feel
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: so passionate about, knowing that not everyone has that opportunity.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: Not everyone gets to wake up and says, I get
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: to do this today. I mean, you can say I
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: get to be, and I always give this example and
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: then I feel so bad for people that listen to
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: the podcast and they work in accounting, but I'm like,
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: I just don't know if an accountant has the same
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: amount of joy that I get every single day, which
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: is fine. I'm sorry for the accountants that are listening
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: to the show, but your success and your passion shines through.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: And I believe that when women come to an opportunity
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: like Athlos or come to a room where you're sitting
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: at the table that it's impossible not to meet that passion, excitement, creativity,
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: and feel that and bring that and channel that themselves.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: I find it also so interesting that we talk about
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: the excitement to be working in women's sports right now.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: You talk about the opportunity that you hope that your
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: daughter sees ahead of her and simultaneously knowing that you've
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: said Athos might not always be a strictly women's meet.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: That's interesting to me. It's interesting to me because it
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: seems as though.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: You're so passionate about building a product for women, but
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: we're open to the possibility of one day that there
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: might be men involved. You've said it publicly before, so
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: I'm just bringing it up again.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: We never say never, right?
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And I think there's an excitement. We have a lot
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: of the male athletes who are like, what are we
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: going to be able to run in this thing? I
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: think that they all just see it and they have fun.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: So we never say never, but I say what a
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: powerful thing if.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: How cool would it be that the women welcomed the men?
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which isn't something that exactly we've seen before.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Before, necessarily.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: Now, when you think forward, we've already talked about some
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: of the metrics or some of the things that we
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: think success could feel and look like in London. You
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: brought up so beautifully these athletes that finish something like this,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: and then you say, what's next?
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: And they say, win again.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: Are you the kind of person that's good at giving
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: yourself time to celebrate your wins?
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Or are you also like your athletes that say, what's next?
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: What's next? What's next?
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a really good question.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: And I think I'll pull it back to working for Alexis.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: And Alexis is someone who is completely restless. And again,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: like I think as somebody who's drawn to a founder visionary,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: they're restless. And I think that there is a bit
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: of that restlessness of like, this was awesome.
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: We had a great time.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: But also, I remember somebody asked me, at the end
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of 2024, I've gotten on the phone, maybe like two
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: weeks later, well, we finally had a little bit of
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: time to sleep, but there wasn't much time to sleep.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: We just got back up and said, okay, what's next?
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: And someone had said like, oh, congratulations, you did it.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Great job. Atlas was a success.
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: How do you feel?
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: And I was like, we've literally just summited to the
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: base of our mountain. And I think we really have
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: that mindset that we've only just summited to the base
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: of our mountain. And we have to have that mindset.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: We might be at like the first camp now that
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: we're three years in, but we have not come to
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the top of this mountain yet. And I think like
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: anybody who's climbing, who like gets their first camp, has
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that first campfire, eats their food, packs up their stuff
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in the morning and keeps climbing.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: And so that's really where we are.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And I think there is that fire in the belly
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: across the entire team.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: We did it.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: We proved, could bring this thing across the pond. We
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: proved it, brought it global. We've got to keep going.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: You know, it reminds me of, on the flip side
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: of this, whenever I go through a frustrating time, more
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: often than not, when I'm dealing with something work-related that
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: doesn't go my way.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: I'll be all in my feelings.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: I'm someone that is very firm on feeling the feelings
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: and then figuring out from there. Without a doubt, every
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: time I'm in the feeling zone and I'm trying to
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: just feel my feelings, my dad is the person that's like.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, what's next?
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: And I do believe that it's so powerful to have
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: people that love and support and care about you that
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: are always... seeing your potential and kind of guiding you
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: to water at moments when you feel like you don't
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: have the strength to walk over there yourself. What excites
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: me about hearing you say, well, we're at the first
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: camp is because it's so illustrative that there's just so
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: much more runway to go down.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: That is exhilarating.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll pull it back to Angel City. So
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Angel City is in its fifth year right now. And
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I'll go to matches and I'll run into like Amadea Tesanari.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: She's the creative director who actually designed the crest. And
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: then we hired her to be our in-house creative director.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: And like, I'll give her a big hug. And I'm like,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: what are you guys doing for the collection this season?
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: Like, I'm so excited. Like, who are you collabing with next?
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Because if you sit with this, like we did it,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: we're the most valuable club in the league.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: That's not enough.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, even when you're seeing like,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the pay parity that's taking place in U.S.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: Soccer, like it's still not enough. And I think about, running.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: And I think about track and field, the number one
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: sport played by high school students in the United States.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: And yet mom and dad do not put it on
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: TV on the weekends. You can't find it. So we're
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: not done. I'd like to see it on TV on
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: the weekends. I'd like to be able to put it
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: on for my daughter and my son. So, and, and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: have them not, you know, okay, like who's running. I'd
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: love for them to know Now, I will say, I
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: think there's incrementality. So this summer, I had the opportunity
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: to spend an extended time in London because we've been planning.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: And prior to working on Athlos, I had spent a
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: little bit of time advising the Chelsea Women's Football Club.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: And so like, and my husband is English. And so
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: on the weekends, the Premier League is always on TV.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I went to my first match this year.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: Your first match?
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: My first Premier League match.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: I went to an Arsenal game.
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: Oh, they're so fun.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: You can't say that because of Chelsea, but here we are.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: It's okay.
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: All right. I'll give it to you. I'll give it
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: to you, Emily.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: So we put the matches on the TV and we
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: talk about the athletes.
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Like Hannah and Sam Kerr and Lucy Bronze and Lauren
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: James and I'll come back from London. I'm like, I'll
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: get them their jerseys. And they don't want their last
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: name on the jersey. They want their athlete's last name
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: on the jersey. And so it was great. I was
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: able to bring the kids to Stanford Bridge this summer.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: And we walked into the locker room. And in the
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: locker room are all of the jerseys. It's the men's
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: team and the women's team. And little Charlotte grabs my
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: phone and runs straight up to Alyssa Thompson's jersey and
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: was like, Taking her selfie.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: And I and I knew at that moment, like she
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: didn't see anything different. She didn't like realize like, wait,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: like that's actually a big deal that like there's some
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: parody in this locker room. Like and I think I
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: think there are those moments where you have to kind
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: of then turn around and be like, OK, this is
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: what the work is all about. This is why we
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: are doing what we are doing, because my seven year
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: old doesn't see anything different.
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: Those are the little moments.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: But no, I'd love for her to watch track and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: field on TV. I'd love her to know that's what
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: mom and dad are watching on the weekends.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: Well, I think there's some positivity that we can see
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: with the amount of volleyball that's been on TV. Talk
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: about the biggest sports in the United States. I know
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: volleyball and track and field are kind of neck and
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: neck in that, especially when it comes for young women.
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: So to now see League One being more televised, to
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: then see also Unrivaled getting airtime as well.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: It's exciting.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: And I think they had just announced that ESPN was
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: talking about what they plan to do with Women's Sundays
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: moving forward, and they're investing more in that. And so
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: in order to be her, you need to see her.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: We're seeing her on TV a lot more, but I
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: agree with you. I'd like to see her running on
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: the track a lot more.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: Okay. So someone comes to your social media page.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: And they see the acting president of Athlos. But when
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: you look in the mirror, Kayla, what is it that
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: you see looking back at you?
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: Ooh, that's a big one.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: Big one.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: It's a big one.
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: I see someone I'm incredibly proud of. I see someone.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Who has a very clear reason for being. But I
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: think I see someone who's doing the work for her kids.
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: Speaking of your kids, I mean, obviously you talked about
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: what you see when you look in the mirror, but
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: what is it that you hope that they see when
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: they look at you?
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: Again, big question, Emily.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: I'm full of them. It's fun.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: You know, When your kids are 7 or 11, you
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: get to kind of ask them these fun questions in
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: the car.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: Like, okay, what does daddy do? Oh, this is fun. Right?
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: And you're like, oh, wow. That's what... Oh, daddy's on.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: My husband's a commercial director. And so the seven-year-old's like,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: daddy makes commercials, right? Like, she's so cute.
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: My God, what a nug.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Then she can be like, oh, he made that commercial
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: on TV, the one that has the car.
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: Great. She gets it, right? It's so cute.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: And I asked her, and then you're like, okay, well,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: what does mommy do? mommy helps female athletes. Oh, but
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: how clear is that to her?
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Right. Right.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: And I think it's a lot of like, you know,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: she got to meet Tara Davis Woodhull in the hotel
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: last year at Athlos on her birthday.
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: And, you know, Tara's like, Oh, Charlotte, tell me more.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: And I love your necklace. And, and, you know, and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's like, I loved her shoes. And I think it's that,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: you know, you, my daughter and my son have grown
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: up on the pitch. They've grown up in the media room.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: They've grown up with mommy talking and working with professional athletes.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: They've grown up seeing me, you know, spend the hours on,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: on a set, making sure that an athlete, you know, is, is,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: is positioned properly in front of a camera. And so like,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: they do see me in that way and they see
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: me as someone who is working and To further and
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: advance female athletes.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: And so to be able to say, what does mommy do?
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: And she says she helps women athletes.
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, I have chills.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I haven't asked like what that actually really means. Because
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: she could be like, I don't know. Like, do you
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: carry their suitcase for them? I don't know, mommy.
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: What do you do?
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: I like the bigger thought process of what it could entail.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: Unless like you're the one that's bringing the baton to
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: the podium.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: Right, right. Exactly, exactly.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: But you could carry the crown also. Like you could
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: hand it to someone.
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: There you are.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: That could then crown it on someone.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: There you are. It's cute.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Like the other day, we were like pretending that we
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: were in the Olympics, like, you know, because I just
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: wanted to get the kids to move a little bit more.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: And Charlotte went and like got paper from our printer
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and safety pins and made herself a bib. And then
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: she was like, okay, how do I spell this? Okay,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and what should I put as my name? Okay, the
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: last name, Charlotte. And I think it's like, she's watched
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: us make bibs fit a woman's torso. So it's really
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: cool to watch how that completely translated to a seven-year-old.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: You've worn a lot of hats in your career and
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: have tried a lot of things.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: Do you see yourself sitting in this seat for a while.
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: The seat of running. Yeah.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: As long as I keep getting thrown hard problems from Alexis,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: I will absolutely be there to continue to solve them.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: It's the most exhilarating and most exciting part of the role.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: And like I said, I mean, we've only just summited
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: a camp one of this mountain.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: So yeah, there's a lot of work ahead of us.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: What would you say is the hardest part?
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: The hardest part of working in something so new is
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: that there's no blueprint.
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: You're failing fast. You're realizing that you're failing faster. You're
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: seeing the wins on the board and you're saying, okay,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: like how do I go scale these next? So I
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: think the hardest part and the thing that I think
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: maybe that I get out of bed every day more
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: excited to do is to say like, yeah, we didn't
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: have a playbook.
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: We're writing it.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: And then it's really rewarding when somebody calls you and says,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: can I have your playbook?
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: We want to do what you've been doing.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: When we've had so many NWSL and WNBA teams call
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and say, tell us more about this 10% giveback. Tell
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: us more about how you gave the athletes equity. Tell
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: us more about how you did this meteorites deal that
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: seemed impossible. Tell us more about how you commercialized and
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: doubled revenue year over year. in something so nascent. We've
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: never seen this before. So yeah, I mean, it's exciting.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, there's got to be a
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: very clear why for, you know, wanting to get up
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: and do this every single day.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: Someone makes a call like that or wants to make
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: a call like that, and they're probably intimidated. They're probably
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: a little bit unsure. They want to come to you
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: and get information. What happens when you get a call
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: like that?
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: So we are a first principles type of organization, right?
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Like we don't come from like that traditional front office,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: like secret sauce, like, okay, nobody knows what we do
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: over there. And that's like why we're so good at
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: what we do. And good luck, like we'll see you
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: out on the pitch. A lot of what we do,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: we're building out in the open, right? Like Alexis is
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: openly building software and saying, come in and beta test it.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about like things that we want to
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: be doing to build the run club communities and bringing
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: pro athletes closer to a run club community. And so
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: he's very public and open about that because a rising
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: tide does impact, right? And also we're newcomers to this sport.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: And so we have to earn our way into the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: sport and we have to earn the trust of those
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: that have been in the sport for decades. And we're
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: really honest about it, what we do know and what
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: we don't know. And so, yeah, there's a lot that
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: we do that we're building straight up in the open.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: And it's great because we get feedback really quickly. And
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: you're like, okay, it doesn't sound like.
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: They want that. Great.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Or, wow, we actually were on to something here. Should
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: we scale this? How do we do it? And we're
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of that with our athlete owner advisors
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: as well. We have three owner advisors, Keri Richardson, Gabby Thomas,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Tara Davis-Woodhull. One of the first conversations Alexis had with Gabby,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: he was like, could we like do a track meet
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: on like an F1 track and like have it like cool,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: you know, like fastest cars, fastest athletes. And Gabby was like, no,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: we run out of track. And there's a reason for that.
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, like I think equally we make those
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: phone calls as well and say like, okay, could we
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: try it this way? Or like, hey, we've, you guys
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: have seen tremendous success.
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: Like, how did you do it?
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: But I think a lot of those phone calls, when
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: I get them, stop being about, here's what the playbook
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: looks like. And more, I'll get on the call with
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: someone and they'll be like, I've been thinking about making
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: a career move or I'm thinking about like, maybe I
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: want to represent female athletes, but I'm not exactly sure how.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: To do it.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, do it, please do it. We need
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: more we need more female representation. We need agents that
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: are advocating for these female athletes. And it's not that
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: this system's broken, right? Like there are tons of amazing
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: agents today who represent athletes that we work with. But
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: I typically, like, it's so commonly that I'll get on
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the phone with someone and they'll ask this question and
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: like underneath it, they're just really wondering, like, should I
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: be doing it?
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: They're looking for permission. Do it.
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: Just go do it because you've seen it. Just take
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: the leap.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: Again, they're looking for that permission. They're looking for someone
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: to say, yeah, why not you? And I think what's
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: so inspiring about so much that you've shared today is
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: that's truly how you operate. You're like, why not me?
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: Why not step into the arena? Why not try to
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: figure it out for myself? And that is really empowering.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: And I think it's something that a lot of people
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: can learn from.
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Right now, before I let you go, Kayla, you have
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice. Let's
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: go back to the inaugural days being employee number four?
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Three.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: Employee number three at Angel FC with quite the task
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: ahead of you. Knowing what you know now, what advice
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: would you tell your younger self on the cusp of
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: that hurdle moment?
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: There were a lot of times that we.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: We took a minute and waited. Like, okay, should we
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: do this? Oh, like, let's give it a minute. Oh, like,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: let's see where the league sees where we stand.
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: Let's do this.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: And I think when you start to work with leadership
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: like Alexis, it's like, we should have.
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: Done that yesterday.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Why haven't we gotten to it yet? And I think,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: and look, like, we're in the business of speed, right? Like,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: you run at a pace, right? And I think the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: advice I would have given myself That first week of lockdown,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: when I got on the phone with Julie Ehrman, we
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: wrote the positioning of the club that exists today, like
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: would have been, don't wait, just jump, just go do it.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: Don't take a beat because the world is moving too
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: fast and we need to be ahead of it.
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: Don't wait.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: I love that advice.
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: I was giving that advice to someone earlier today. Kayla,
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: so fun to sit down with you. For those that
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: want to keep up with you, they want to keep
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: up with Athlos. give us the info because they're going
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: to need to do some keeping up in the off
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: season too.
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: There you are.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: So we tell the stories of our athletes 365 days
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: of the year. So follow along at Athlos.com and at
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: Athlos on all things social.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: On all things social.
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: I'm over at Emily Abadi and at Hurdle Podcast. Another
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.