Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 375. The Power Of Confidence: On Owning Your Worth & Embracing The Unknown With Gotham FC Co-Owner Emily Tisch Sussman

Transcript

375. The Power Of Confidence: On Owning Your Worth & Embracing The Unknown With Gotham FC Co-Owner Emily Tisch Sussman · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: You are never going to gain confidence by always doing
0:02
Speaker 1: things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing to build on.
0:05
Speaker 1: You have to do things that are hard.
0:21
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, Emily, here, you are listening to episode three
0:24
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy five of Hurdle A wele on this
0:27
Speaker 2: focus podcast, where I talk to inspirational people about everything
0:30
Speaker 2: from their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips
0:34
Speaker 2: on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.
0:37
Speaker 2: We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My
0:40
Speaker 2: goal through these discussions is to empower you to better
0:43
Speaker 2: navigate yours and move with intention so that you can
0:47
Speaker 2: stride towards your own big potential and of course have
0:51
Speaker 2: some fun along the way. Transparently, I've been thinking a
0:55
Speaker 2: lot about the intro. I've been thinking a lot about
0:57
Speaker 2: the things I've been reading about whether or not I
0:59
Speaker 2: should be no bring these episodes.
1:01
Speaker 1: It's crazy, what is this?
1:03
Speaker 2: Almost eight years into podcasting and I'm still learning many things.
1:07
Speaker 2: So stay tuned because you may be seeing some shifts
1:11
Speaker 2: over here on the heart and feed.
1:13
Speaker 1: I digress.
1:14
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to bring you my conversation today with
1:17
Speaker 2: Emily Tish Susman.
1:19
Speaker 1: She is the co owner.
1:21
Speaker 2: Of Gotham FC, the National Women's Soccer League team based
1:25
Speaker 2: here in New York will technically New Jersey. The team
1:29
Speaker 2: serves as the only NWSL team in the Greater New York,
1:34
Speaker 2: New Jersey region, to be specific. Emily's also the host
1:38
Speaker 2: of the She Pivots podcast with a background in politics. Today,
1:43
Speaker 2: we talk about how she made the pivot from working
1:47
Speaker 2: in Washington, DC to having a family, moving up north
1:52
Speaker 2: and getting involved heavily in women's sports. Emily gets really
1:57
Speaker 2: vulnerable today in a way that I'm not entirely sure
2:01
Speaker 2: I've had a guest open up about her journey. Emily
2:06
Speaker 2: talks about her pregnancy, conceiving rather quickly, and the hardships
2:10
Speaker 2: that went hand in hand with pregnancy and not feeling
2:14
Speaker 2: super connected to her children after birth. It is something
2:18
Speaker 2: that I'm sure many women can relate to, and also
2:21
Speaker 2: something that I don't really feel like many people speak on.
2:26
Speaker 2: So for that to Emily, I'm super appreciative of you
2:30
Speaker 2: opening up. I know that isn't easy. We also talk
2:33
Speaker 2: about her own personal wellness journey and how that ebbed
2:37
Speaker 2: and flowed as she has evolved as a person, evolved
2:40
Speaker 2: within her career, talking about how it was almost impossible
2:44
Speaker 2: to have any balance, so to speak, between her personal
2:47
Speaker 2: and professional life when she was working in Washington, DC.
2:52
Speaker 2: We talk about the state of women's sports and how
2:55
Speaker 2: she became co owner of the Gotha, what she brings
2:58
Speaker 2: to the team as their Chief Vibes Officer, not an
3:02
Speaker 2: official title, but she wears the badge of honor proudly,
3:06
Speaker 2: and what she's looking forward to next.
3:08
Speaker 1: I really appreciate.
3:10
Speaker 2: Emily's tenacity, how she is so unapologetically herself.
3:14
Speaker 1: I do want a flag.
3:15
Speaker 2: Like I said, She's very open about her journey to motherhood,
3:18
Speaker 2: and this episode does include that open dialogue about trying
3:23
Speaker 2: to conceive motherhood pregnancy. So, depending on where you are
3:26
Speaker 2: in your personal journey, take that information how you will.
3:30
Speaker 2: I appreciate you for being here, for being a hurdler,
3:33
Speaker 2: and for listening. Make sure you're following along over on
3:35
Speaker 2: social It's over at Emily Body. I'm over at Hurdle podcast.
3:39
Speaker 2: And last little bit of housekeeping, subscribe to the weekly
3:42
Speaker 2: Hurdle newsletter. The link to do that is in the
3:44
Speaker 2: show notes. With that, let's get to it, let's get
3:48
Speaker 2: it's a hurdling.
4:00
Speaker 1: Today.
4:00
Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Emily Tish Susman. She's a
4:03
Speaker 2: co owner of the Gotham FC. She's also the host
4:06
Speaker 2: of the she Pivots podcast. How are we doing today, Emily,
4:09
Speaker 2: Welcome to hurdle.
4:10
Speaker 1: Feeling good. Great that I'm at hurdle makes it a
4:13
Speaker 1: great day. It makes it a great day. It's a
4:15
Speaker 1: beautiful day. You know.
4:16
Speaker 2: Gotham right now, sixth in the league, a familiar place
4:19
Speaker 2: for you. How are you feeling after last night's win.
4:23
Speaker 1: Vibes are high, feeling great. The team is really jelling
4:26
Speaker 1: in the second half of the season. Vibes are high
4:28
Speaker 1: with the team. They're about to go on a bit
4:31
Speaker 1: of a West coast swing. And look, we do well
4:33
Speaker 1: on the road.
4:34
Speaker 2: We do it well on the road. Oh, I'm so
4:36
Speaker 2: excited for you. I remember the uh, how do you
4:40
Speaker 2: say it? Maybe the famous sixth place year where you
4:44
Speaker 2: were in sixth place for a little bit and then
4:47
Speaker 2: we had to rally around Krieger and we know how
4:50
Speaker 2: that ended.
4:51
Speaker 1: I mean, I love that you're going. You got like
4:53
Speaker 1: the deep cut, Oh, the Gotham Deep Cut. So Gotham
4:55
Speaker 1: was ranked six in the league, eked into the playoffs,
4:59
Speaker 1: made it through the play, I to the championship and
5:01
Speaker 1: won and became national champions. That was actually we closed
5:05
Speaker 1: and bought the team majority owners of the team two
5:09
Speaker 1: days before the championship, So that was actually basically our
5:12
Speaker 1: first day with the team and the NWSL National Women's
5:15
Speaker 1: Soccer League and women's soccer had never been acknowledged at
5:18
Speaker 1: the White House in a championship event the way like
5:19
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl winning team goes. So the first thing
5:23
Speaker 1: that I was really able to provide to the team
5:26
Speaker 1: given my background, which I know that we'll get into
5:28
Speaker 1: in my political background, was being able to set up
5:30
Speaker 1: that visit with President Biden. And that was the first
5:32
Speaker 1: time it's ever happened for women's soccer.
5:34
Speaker 2: No big deal, just a casual, just a casual trip
5:37
Speaker 2: to the White House. It's so fun to see what's
5:40
Speaker 2: going on here. And before we do get into your background,
5:42
Speaker 2: I do think that probably a question you get very
5:44
Speaker 2: often is what is it that you do as the
5:48
Speaker 2: co owner of the team. So let's lay that groundwork
5:50
Speaker 2: and then we'll get into everything.
5:51
Speaker 1: That's a great question. So our actual ownership group, we
5:55
Speaker 1: have an ownership group that's made up of me, my sister,
5:57
Speaker 1: and my cousins with my sister as the head of
6:00
Speaker 1: our ownership group. We came in as controlling minority with
6:02
Speaker 1: the pathway to majority. We are now majority owners, but
6:05
Speaker 1: we knew from the beginning that we would be controlling owners.
6:08
Speaker 1: My sister has ended up although it wasn't the intention.
6:10
Speaker 1: My sister has ended up really functioning as the president
6:13
Speaker 1: of the team, so she really runs the day to
6:14
Speaker 1: day of the team.
6:16
Speaker 3: What I do is that we call me the Chief
6:18
Speaker 3: Vibes Officer, the title you never aspired to but fill
6:22
Speaker 3: very well. I really appreciate that. Although maybe I have
6:25
Speaker 3: been aspiring to my whole life, we don't know. I've
6:27
Speaker 3: always been building to it.
6:28
Speaker 1: So I bring culture to Gotham and Gotham to culture,
6:31
Speaker 1: so we can get a little bit more into that later.
6:32
Speaker 1: I love this.
6:33
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, well a fun seat to be in
6:37
Speaker 2: for sure. And again, maybe you didn't aspire to do
6:41
Speaker 2: something like this, at least you didn't, let's say, a
6:43
Speaker 2: decade ago. So let's bring it back and talk to
6:46
Speaker 2: me about your time working in Washington, d C. Politics,
6:51
Speaker 2: a stone's throwaway from where we are now.
6:53
Speaker 1: Yes, quite a different career. I started in quite a
6:56
Speaker 1: different career. My background is actually I'm a lawyer. I'm
6:58
Speaker 1: a constitutional law turm. I worked on campaigns, some for people,
7:02
Speaker 1: some presidential, some congressional. Mostly I worked on issue campaigns.
7:06
Speaker 1: So I was the lead lobbyist on the repeal of Donastontel,
7:09
Speaker 1: which was the law that mandated that we fire gay, lesbian,
7:13
Speaker 1: the transgender Americans from serving military service. We repealed that
7:16
Speaker 1: law under the Obama administration. I stayed in DC for
7:19
Speaker 1: a decade running issue campaigns. So our policy people would say,
7:23
Speaker 1: this is what I want to happen to the law.
7:24
Speaker 1: They would meet with me and I would figure out
7:26
Speaker 1: does it go through Congress, does it go through states,
7:28
Speaker 1: does it go through the White House? And I had
7:31
Speaker 1: the Obama White House outsourcing campaigns for me to run
7:33
Speaker 1: for them. And part of that, I spent a decade
7:36
Speaker 1: on cable news as a commentator. So I did like
7:39
Speaker 1: the talking head stuff for ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and I
7:43
Speaker 1: did a ton of Fox News, a lot of Fox News,
7:48
Speaker 1: and I did that for about I did that for
7:50
Speaker 1: like more than fifteen years.
7:52
Speaker 2: The way that you say that, And I did a
7:53
Speaker 2: ton of Fox News.
7:55
Speaker 1: Yes, there's like something on that I hear it Yeah.
7:59
Speaker 1: It was well because people are like, wait, but aren't
8:02
Speaker 1: you a Democrat? And I'm like, yeah, I was a
8:03
Speaker 1: Democratic strategist on Fox News. Yeah. Almost every day, all
8:07
Speaker 1: the sides need talking heads. Yeah. Well, after a while,
8:10
Speaker 1: I just said it. It wasn't worth it.
8:11
Speaker 2: But yes, What was the most challenging thing about being
8:16
Speaker 2: let's say, like a face to so many of these issues.
8:19
Speaker 2: I feel like that would come with a certain amount
8:22
Speaker 2: of hurdles in itself.
8:24
Speaker 1: It definitely did. I mean I had to speak on
8:26
Speaker 1: every issue everything, I had to speak on it, and
8:28
Speaker 1: so I was able. It wasn't just things that I
8:30
Speaker 1: was an expert on. It was things that I had
8:31
Speaker 1: to get schooled up on and then put a political
8:33
Speaker 1: lens on, so I would always have to go back. Fortunately,
8:36
Speaker 1: I worked at a multi isssue think tank, so I
8:37
Speaker 1: was able to call on our experts and get me
8:40
Speaker 1: very quickly. I mean it could be the same day
8:42
Speaker 1: that I was booked on the topic, so I'd have
8:44
Speaker 1: to learn pretty quickly what I needed to know enough
8:47
Speaker 1: to be in that segment. I'd say some of the
8:49
Speaker 1: hurdles were that I always had to stand my ground.
8:51
Speaker 1: What I actually I have a great picture of me
8:55
Speaker 1: in the middle of Hannity and Tucker Carlson where they
8:59
Speaker 1: both look screaming mad and I look super calm, And
9:03
Speaker 1: I use it in media trainings like who do you
9:04
Speaker 1: think is winnings? Argument? Obviously me because the audience listens
9:09
Speaker 1: sort of to what you say, but on cable news,
9:11
Speaker 1: quite frankly, they're just looking to see if you can
9:13
Speaker 1: take the hit. So I would stay calm through it,
9:15
Speaker 1: and I would make a very clear and fact backed
9:18
Speaker 1: up point in response. That was one of the hurdles.
9:21
Speaker 1: I'd also say A big hurdle is that if I
9:22
Speaker 1: was the face of it, I got a ton of
9:24
Speaker 1: hate mail. Always. I was used to it, so I
9:26
Speaker 1: would get it. They would call the hotline where I work,
9:29
Speaker 1: or they would you know, call like the front desk
9:30
Speaker 1: where I worked. They would try to figure out my email.
9:32
Speaker 1: It was mostly pretty vague when it came from the right.
9:36
Speaker 1: There were some times, especially in presidential primaries, where I
9:39
Speaker 1: would also get attacked by the left. I was a
9:41
Speaker 1: media spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign in twenty sixteen, and
9:44
Speaker 1: I spoke fairly neutrally about the presidential candidates in twenty twenty,
9:48
Speaker 1: and then I was also attacked by the left, and
9:50
Speaker 1: that was much more specific and much more hateful.
9:52
Speaker 2: You really had to stand on your ground and where
9:54
Speaker 2: you were, and then also get really familiar in what
9:58
Speaker 2: it was that your definition of so success was. When
10:01
Speaker 2: you think about your definition of success at that time,
10:05
Speaker 2: what comes to mind.
10:06
Speaker 1: It was super clear to me what success was. It
10:09
Speaker 1: was getting bookings, it was winning campaigns, and even really functionally,
10:14
Speaker 1: it was my title. It was a corner office. It
10:17
Speaker 1: was head count under me. Like I was super clear
10:20
Speaker 1: with what my definition of success wasn't everybody around me
10:22
Speaker 1: understood what it was like I really cared about a
10:26
Speaker 1: job title that other people in my field could understand,
10:30
Speaker 1: and particularly the talking head stuff like the cable news
10:34
Speaker 1: stuff came at a real look. My job was demanding,
10:38
Speaker 1: long hours, always had to be on call, always had
10:41
Speaker 1: to be up on everything, particularly the cable news stuff.
10:44
Speaker 1: Because I had to be able to be close enough
10:47
Speaker 1: and flexible enough to a studio. I would sometimes for
10:51
Speaker 1: months at a time, I would get up at two
10:53
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning to be on air by five
10:55
Speaker 1: to set the news for the day. It was physically
10:58
Speaker 1: really hard for me, and when I started to get pregnant,
11:01
Speaker 1: had kids. I had three kids in this span of
11:03
Speaker 1: three and a half years. It became physically impossible for me,
11:07
Speaker 1: and that really changed my definition of success.
11:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's talk about before having kids, what taking
11:14
Speaker 2: care of yourself beyond work looked like for you. So,
11:17
Speaker 2: did you have any semblance of like a personal wellness routine?
11:21
Speaker 1: No? No, And I would have laughed at anyone who did. Right.
11:28
Speaker 1: I did work out, like I would go to a
11:30
Speaker 1: workout class either before or after work most of the time.
11:34
Speaker 1: But once I started, once I got pregnant, it was
11:35
Speaker 1: like a zero. But no personal wellness meant literally nothing.
11:39
Speaker 1: There is a sense that if you work for the
11:40
Speaker 1: greater good, then nothing else should get in the way.
11:43
Speaker 1: Like what you're everything you're doing, is for greater change,
11:46
Speaker 1: and so you can't put anything about yourself ahead of that.
11:50
Speaker 1: Not sleep, not wellness, not anything. It sounds a little toxic.
11:55
Speaker 1: I yeah, I mean I think there's you know, I
11:58
Speaker 1: actually feel kind of mixed about it, to be honest
12:00
Speaker 1: with you, Like it really pushed me out of the
12:02
Speaker 1: entire industry once I did have other needs. But I
12:06
Speaker 1: do think there is something to the fact of there
12:08
Speaker 1: are campaigns that I won simply because I outworked to
12:10
Speaker 1: the other side. And I think if you work on
12:12
Speaker 1: a presidential campaign, yes, you have no balance and there
12:16
Speaker 1: is no wellness, and I'm not sure there can be.
12:18
Speaker 1: The stakes are incredibly high, and so you have to
12:20
Speaker 1: treat it that way.
12:21
Speaker 2: So as you get to this place near personal life
12:25
Speaker 2: where you are ready to have children, your definition, as
12:30
Speaker 2: you said, of success starts to shift, and what you
12:33
Speaker 2: deem to be important starts.
12:35
Speaker 1: To shift a bit as well. Talk to me about
12:37
Speaker 1: how that felt, but not because I wanted it to.
12:39
Speaker 1: I really didn't. I it turned out I was the
12:41
Speaker 1: most fertile person on the face of the planet. I
12:43
Speaker 1: assumed it would take me about a year after going
12:44
Speaker 1: off Foirth control to get pregnant, and it took me one month.
12:47
Speaker 1: I really wasn't ready. There was no part of me
12:50
Speaker 1: that was like yearning to have children, felt connected to babies,
12:54
Speaker 1: like I really was reviled by them. I was sick
12:57
Speaker 1: immediately when I got pregnant, and I was really resentful.
13:00
Speaker 1: I was resentful that my husband didn't understand that I
13:02
Speaker 1: was having this loss. I was at the height of
13:04
Speaker 1: my career. I did not want to slow down, and
13:06
Speaker 1: I didn't see any reason too. But I was so
13:08
Speaker 1: sick during my pregnancy is that I had to at
13:10
Speaker 1: least make adjustments, Like I was sleeping under my desk
13:12
Speaker 1: every day at three pm, I would under my shoepile.
13:15
Speaker 1: I would just like take a little sigiesstics. My eyes
13:17
Speaker 1: were physically closing. I was nauseous all day. Every day.
13:21
Speaker 1: I couldn't work out, and so I gained about one
13:23
Speaker 1: hundred and forty pounds in total, and it was like
13:25
Speaker 1: just to get me through, and I was miserable and
13:28
Speaker 1: I felt so lonely. So my definition of success became
13:32
Speaker 1: trying to keep up. And then after I had my
13:37
Speaker 1: first child, I became pregnant eight months again later, so
13:40
Speaker 1: I met there was like no transition between it and
13:43
Speaker 1: then again like eighteen months later, a little less than that.
13:46
Speaker 1: And every time I cried. Every time I cried, I
13:49
Speaker 1: was like, I can't do this again. I can't go
13:50
Speaker 1: through this. All I'm trying to do is feel like
13:52
Speaker 1: myself and myself is working and myself is working hard,
13:54
Speaker 1: and myself is working hard in politics, and I've worked
13:57
Speaker 1: so hard for this reputation and for what I've accomplished.
14:02
Speaker 1: I don't want to lose it, and everything in the
14:04
Speaker 1: cultural conversation that I looked to was about like this
14:08
Speaker 1: work life balance or like it just implied that you
14:10
Speaker 1: had chosen to be with children or desired to be,
14:15
Speaker 1: and I had no desire to be. And once I
14:17
Speaker 1: had kids, I felt no connection to them as babies.
14:20
Speaker 1: I just really resented them. I just I to this day,
14:24
Speaker 1: I don't feel connected to babies, and I was really
14:27
Speaker 1: embarrassed about that. Like I, I didn't feel like I
14:29
Speaker 1: could talk to anybody about it. I didn't feel like
14:31
Speaker 1: I could look to any way around it because I
14:35
Speaker 1: understand that other women really want this and struggle to conceive,
14:41
Speaker 1: and I really feel for them, and I felt very
14:45
Speaker 1: lonely in the position that I was in. Yeah, entirely understandable.
14:48
Speaker 2: So as you are navigating all these emotions, did you
14:53
Speaker 2: find some sort of an outlet to express how you
14:56
Speaker 2: were feeling and help cope with what you were dealing with?
14:59
Speaker 1: No? Not really, I just kept finding ways to work,
15:01
Speaker 1: like I just I, you know. I. Eventually, after the
15:03
Speaker 1: second kid, I couldn't go back to the Think Tank
15:05
Speaker 1: after my second maternity leave because the pace was insane.
15:08
Speaker 1: I had no child's care on the weekends. That's when
15:10
Speaker 1: Trump in the first administration was dropping new policies. I
15:12
Speaker 1: had to run our rapid response for it. I just
15:15
Speaker 1: found different ways to start consulting. I would, you know,
15:18
Speaker 1: this is sort of pre work from home era, and
15:21
Speaker 1: still I was. I would sit in the bottom of
15:23
Speaker 1: my closet and work all day because that was the
15:25
Speaker 1: only place I could close the door. Yeah, and they
15:27
Speaker 1: couldn't find me. And then I thought I had figured
15:31
Speaker 1: out a way to do it with the third kid.
15:33
Speaker 1: Like I had a political podcast at the time, I
15:36
Speaker 1: felt like I had found my outlet to be able
15:38
Speaker 1: to still talk about the things that I cared about.
15:40
Speaker 1: And I had all female experts on and so I
15:43
Speaker 1: felt like I was maybe moving something forward. They got
15:44
Speaker 1: felt kind of worth doing. And then three weeks after
15:48
Speaker 1: I had the third baby, was the pandemic, was the lockdown,
15:51
Speaker 1: and it just it all shattered.
15:54
Speaker 2: So when it shatters, and when you are now home
15:59
Speaker 2: with three babies, is coming to terms with this reality
16:03
Speaker 2: that is it's about to be very different than it was.
16:07
Speaker 1: How do you feel lost? I felt totally lost. I
16:11
Speaker 1: didn't know who I was. There was no part of
16:13
Speaker 1: me that I could connect to the part of me
16:16
Speaker 1: that made me feel more most normal was working, and
16:19
Speaker 1: that part was totally unavailable to me. The thing that
16:22
Speaker 1: I had to do was take care of three kids
16:25
Speaker 1: under three and a half, and I did not feel
16:28
Speaker 1: like myself. I was just scrolling through these, like you know,
16:31
Speaker 1: Instagram videos of people doing cute things with their kids
16:35
Speaker 1: all day and I was like, oh my god. My
16:39
Speaker 1: one son was three and he had twenty minutes of
16:42
Speaker 1: preschool on zoom a day. And there was one day
16:44
Speaker 1: that they had us do an activity that involved like cooking,
16:48
Speaker 1: and I cried through the entire thing. I was like,
16:50
Speaker 1: this is too much pressure again to this. So I
16:54
Speaker 1: just I tried to found to find ways that I
16:56
Speaker 1: could and I just tried to find things that made
16:59
Speaker 1: me feel the most normal, and that was building something working.
17:04
Speaker 1: The thing that it eventually came to was, if I
17:07
Speaker 1: feel so lost, women have gone through things that are
17:10
Speaker 1: way worse than this, I know they have. I need
17:13
Speaker 1: to hear something actually worse to make me feel better.
17:16
Speaker 1: And I need to hear something. I am going to
17:19
Speaker 1: be fundamentally changed after this. I am not going to
17:21
Speaker 1: come out of this the same person, and I don't
17:23
Speaker 1: want to know everything about resilience is not connecting to me,
17:26
Speaker 1: because that feels like going back to something that I was.
17:30
Speaker 1: I can never go back. I am fundamentally changed. I
17:33
Speaker 1: want to know that I can move forward with my
17:36
Speaker 1: work experience, with the personal experience that I've gone through,
17:39
Speaker 1: and build something different and maybe it can be maybe
17:45
Speaker 1: as good. Like I don't need it to be better
17:46
Speaker 1: than it was, like I just needed to be. I
17:48
Speaker 1: just need to feel meaning in it.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to feel meaning in it now before
17:52
Speaker 2: we talk about what that thing is. I do want.
17:56
Speaker 2: I do feel like I need to garner an understanding.
17:59
Speaker 2: Were you like googling to try to find other women
18:02
Speaker 2: like you, because when your community is immediately available to you,
18:07
Speaker 2: you're trying to seek understanding somewhere and you knew that
18:10
Speaker 2: you couldn't be the only person in the world that
18:12
Speaker 2: felt this way. So did you find community anywhere to
18:15
Speaker 2: talk about how you were feeling? No?
18:17
Speaker 1: Not really, I mean, you know, like I had, I
18:19
Speaker 1: had my mom chats, like I became even closer with
18:23
Speaker 1: other friends of mine from college who also had newborns,
18:26
Speaker 1: so we were in the same situation and toddlers. We
18:28
Speaker 1: were in the same situation. I ended up connecting with
18:32
Speaker 1: like random people from my past who were in a
18:35
Speaker 1: similar situation to me, and we had those like real
18:38
Speaker 1: close pandemic relationships where we helped each other through it.
18:43
Speaker 1: I don't know that I was googling people, but every
18:46
Speaker 1: time I found a story that sounded similar to mine,
18:51
Speaker 1: like I didn't want to hear other mommy stories that
18:53
Speaker 1: I found depressing, I was like, oh God, this is
18:56
Speaker 1: going to get worse right before it gets better. I
18:59
Speaker 1: wanted to find that felt big, like that someone had
19:02
Speaker 1: gone through what I now call an intervening life event,
19:06
Speaker 1: and I would just get so excited when I found
19:07
Speaker 1: that story. Sometimes I would just DM them and just
19:10
Speaker 1: find them. I dmmed a lot of Peloton instructors. Yeah,
19:13
Speaker 1: I think that's how I found community. There are a
19:15
Speaker 1: lot of Peloton instructors that have been on the show.
19:19
Speaker 2: And then I think the secondary question here I thought
19:22
Speaker 2: someone might be wondering, is you went off birth control.
19:24
Speaker 2: You knew you wanted to be a mom, but you,
19:26
Speaker 2: because you had never done it before, weren't sure what
19:29
Speaker 2: it would feel like at the different stages of bringing
19:31
Speaker 2: up your children.
19:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I understand that there is an intellectual
19:36
Speaker 1: divide there like, yes, I was off birth control, but
19:38
Speaker 1: everyone I wasn't the youngest. I had never gotten pregnant
19:42
Speaker 1: before everyone I knew, including in people in my own family,
19:45
Speaker 1: it had taken them a year after being off birth
19:48
Speaker 1: control for the birth control to leave their family to
19:50
Speaker 1: get pregnant. And I just wasn't that psyched about it,
19:53
Speaker 1: Like I felt like I had nothing about it felt
19:57
Speaker 1: concrete and exciting to me. So I felt like I
19:59
Speaker 1: had a year to get used to the idea and
20:01
Speaker 1: hope that something would click. And I would hear stories
20:04
Speaker 1: about people saying, oh, you know, like the second I
20:07
Speaker 1: saw the baby, my perspective change my life. And I
20:09
Speaker 1: was like, maybe it'll click then, and you know what,
20:11
Speaker 1: it didn't. I was like, oh, thank god, these you
20:14
Speaker 1: know this birth is over. This sucked.
20:17
Speaker 2: Like you come to this place where you're like, okay,
20:20
Speaker 2: is there a way for me to channel what feels
20:21
Speaker 2: like my purpose and like really utilize my life understanding
20:24
Speaker 2: and practice to create something new?
20:27
Speaker 1: And that is where the basis the idea for Sheep
20:29
Speaker 1: of Its comes from. Yes, yeah, you know. The thing
20:32
Speaker 1: that I said when I was still in politics is
20:34
Speaker 1: that I wasn't an issue expert. I was a function expert.
20:36
Speaker 1: I was an expert on the function of how to
20:38
Speaker 1: build a campaign, and that can really apply to anything.
20:41
Speaker 1: So I took that process and I took that mindset,
20:45
Speaker 1: and I took it to this cultural challenge. Now, even
20:48
Speaker 1: when I was in politics, I said, some people change culture.
20:50
Speaker 1: That feels way too broad and hard for me. I'm
20:52
Speaker 1: going to change laws, and all of a sudden, if
20:54
Speaker 1: that was unavailable to be like, maybe I'd try this
20:57
Speaker 1: big amorphous culture change thing. I had built a podcast
21:02
Speaker 1: with a production company, this political podcast that I'd had before,
21:05
Speaker 1: called Your Political Playlist, and I thought, this time, I'm
21:08
Speaker 1: going to do it myself. I'm going to do every
21:09
Speaker 1: piece of it myself. And if it's going to feel
21:12
Speaker 1: important enough to me and not maybe not like important
21:14
Speaker 1: for the world, but important to me, then I need
21:17
Speaker 1: to learn every piece of the business. And so it took.
21:20
Speaker 1: I ended the political podcast so that I had space
21:23
Speaker 1: and understanding, and I did a little bit of like
21:25
Speaker 1: a tour, like I went around and tested ideas with people,
21:28
Speaker 1: people I respected, people that I didn't know as well,
21:31
Speaker 1: that were maybe in the media industry, and said I
21:33
Speaker 1: have this idea. I actually had two ideas at the time.
21:36
Speaker 1: One became she pivots, interviewing women to understand how they
21:40
Speaker 1: go through something and come out better on the other
21:42
Speaker 1: side with a different career. And I actually had a
21:44
Speaker 1: second idea at the time, also about raising sensitive boys,
21:47
Speaker 1: that my son is incredibly sensitive, and I didn't see
21:51
Speaker 1: anything in current culture about celebrating his sensitivity. It was
21:55
Speaker 1: all about overcoming it. So I wrote articles on both
21:58
Speaker 1: of them, and I pulled them both in magazines, and
22:01
Speaker 1: the sensitive son one ended up becoming the number one
22:04
Speaker 1: article on Reclare for I think about a month, and
22:07
Speaker 1: then I launched one with sheep pivots, But I kept
22:10
Speaker 1: them both going at the same time to see, like,
22:12
Speaker 1: which feels right, which feels worthy enough for me to
22:16
Speaker 1: really lean into. But even as I was putting these
22:20
Speaker 1: things out into the world and saying this is my
22:22
Speaker 1: culture change moment, this is my new thing, I was
22:24
Speaker 1: still having a lot of doubt in myself one that
22:29
Speaker 1: anybody wanted to hear anything cultural from me, except for, like,
22:32
Speaker 1: you know, political commentary. And part of the reason I
22:34
Speaker 1: had that doubt was actually external doubt that I had
22:37
Speaker 1: shopped these ideas around to every talent agency and nobody
22:41
Speaker 1: knew what to do with me. They were like, oh,
22:43
Speaker 1: we like you, Emily, we like you a lot, but
22:48
Speaker 1: like your background's news and you're not trying to be
22:50
Speaker 1: a news anchor, so we really don't know what to
22:52
Speaker 1: do with this concept. So I really got that external
22:55
Speaker 1: feedback that like it didn't live anywhere, And I was
22:58
Speaker 1: also struggling to feel like it was real enough, Like
23:02
Speaker 1: I changed laws, I worked with. The White House is
23:05
Speaker 1: sitting around talking about how I really hated being locked
23:08
Speaker 1: in with three babies. Good enough, right, Like I really
23:10
Speaker 1: struggled with that.
23:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so you said that you wanted to learn
23:13
Speaker 2: all different aspects of the business of what it would
23:16
Speaker 2: take to create this new type of podcast for yourself.
23:20
Speaker 2: What was the most challenging one for you to get
23:23
Speaker 2: into to really feel like you could.
23:25
Speaker 1: Grasp, well, I understanding the actual mechanics of audio was
23:30
Speaker 1: like a real ya. I still wouldn't say I really
23:32
Speaker 1: got that. I did a lot of like making pillow
23:34
Speaker 1: forts and sitting in them, a lot of trying that,
23:39
Speaker 1: so those went pretty badly. Eventually I figured out that
23:44
Speaker 1: I could outsource that piece in a good way, but
23:47
Speaker 1: I also really felt like it was important for me
23:49
Speaker 1: because I had this big insecurity around does anybody want
23:52
Speaker 1: to hear anything about culture change from me? And is
23:55
Speaker 1: it important enough? I really felt like I needed a
23:58
Speaker 1: media partner for it. So I went around, and you know,
24:00
Speaker 1: the agencies wouldn't take me as a client and pitch me.
24:03
Speaker 1: So I did it myself. And so I went out
24:05
Speaker 1: and found contacts at all these different kinds of media
24:07
Speaker 1: agencies and so pitching to them differently. You know, some
24:10
Speaker 1: wouldn't even take a meeting with me. Some would take
24:13
Speaker 1: it and then say, well, you're not really what we're
24:14
Speaker 1: looking for. It was a lot of rejection and so
24:18
Speaker 1: being able to pitch myself in a way that felt
24:21
Speaker 1: good and important enough when I really doubted it myself,
24:25
Speaker 1: I say that that was a That was an interesting
24:27
Speaker 1: piece of the journey too.
24:29
Speaker 2: There are a lot of people that hear this and
24:31
Speaker 2: they think to themselves, wow, I wish I could even
24:34
Speaker 2: begin to garner that level of self belief because despite
24:38
Speaker 2: the amount of rejection that you received, you were still
24:41
Speaker 2: willing to, as the kids say, stand on business right.
24:44
Speaker 2: You were still willing to put yourself out there. So
24:46
Speaker 2: for someone that comes to you and has that level
24:49
Speaker 2: of concern that says, I don't even know if I
24:51
Speaker 2: could ever do that, if I could ever be the
24:54
Speaker 2: person that has that much confidence in myself to go
24:57
Speaker 2: for it.
24:57
Speaker 1: What do you say to them? Well, I take the
24:59
Speaker 1: advice of this same as when I was meeting with
25:01
Speaker 1: people who were coming out of college networking for jobs
25:03
Speaker 1: is to understand who you're meeting with and have a
25:06
Speaker 1: really specific ask for them in that and understand what
25:09
Speaker 1: level they are compared to you. Right like, if you're
25:13
Speaker 1: just out of college or if you're re entering the workforce,
25:15
Speaker 1: go to the people that you know really well and say,
25:18
Speaker 1: what are my skill sets? Like you can see it
25:20
Speaker 1: differently than I can, how would you pitch me? And
25:23
Speaker 1: that can help you build and really be crystal clear
25:25
Speaker 1: about what you're pitching, what you should lean into, and
25:28
Speaker 1: how you should talk about yourself. And then once you're
25:31
Speaker 1: ready to enter a different industry than you've been in,
25:33
Speaker 1: or maybe expand the industry, then you can go one
25:36
Speaker 1: step remove to the people you might be like you
25:39
Speaker 1: know one or two connections away from on LinkedIn and say, hey,
25:42
Speaker 1: would you take a meeting with me? But once you've
25:44
Speaker 1: done that, once you've gone to someone who's step in
25:46
Speaker 1: that industry. You do need to be prepared. You can't
25:49
Speaker 1: waste their time. That's not the person that you have
25:51
Speaker 1: a brainstorm in conversation with and it's like, what do
25:54
Speaker 1: you think I should do? Like I just sort of
25:56
Speaker 1: love this field, you know, like that's the kind of
25:59
Speaker 1: all you have with your girlfriend. Yeah, have it with them,
26:01
Speaker 1: and then once you've got that really solid, then you
26:04
Speaker 1: can make the leap to talk to someone who's like
26:06
Speaker 1: steeped in the industry, but also that part as well.
26:10
Speaker 2: Have that conversation with your girlfriends. So often when it
26:14
Speaker 2: comes to career, you know, we think about getting together
26:16
Speaker 2: with the girls and we're talking about like who knows
26:18
Speaker 2: what what happened over the weekend and kind of trying
26:21
Speaker 2: to take a break from maybe the madness that is
26:23
Speaker 2: the work week. But your friends, your squad can be
26:27
Speaker 2: truly the best place to pulse check so many things
26:32
Speaker 2: when it comes to what it is that you're doing
26:34
Speaker 2: and who it is that you want to be. When
26:36
Speaker 2: you said, just now, okay, what do you perceive of me?
26:40
Speaker 2: These are people that know you front and back. Why
26:42
Speaker 2: don't you ask them?
26:43
Speaker 1: Right?
26:43
Speaker 2: And a lot of people don't think Okay, I actually
26:45
Speaker 2: have this built in support squad that can give me
26:49
Speaker 2: some really great feedback relevant to you know, beyond what
26:52
Speaker 2: we're doing on the weekends here.
26:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, we don't even realize how strong our skills are,
26:59
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to interpersonal skills and EQ. We
27:02
Speaker 1: are often very strong in these spaces and can be
27:04
Speaker 1: leaders among our peers. And especially if you're just born
27:07
Speaker 1: that way, you may not realize that's a skill.
27:10
Speaker 2: And sometimes just born that way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
27:13
Speaker 2: just a natural leader, but you may not realize it. Yeah.
27:16
Speaker 1: I had a really interesting conversation in the last couple
27:19
Speaker 1: of months with someone, you know, I have young kids.
27:21
Speaker 1: I'm in a community people with young kids. A mom
27:23
Speaker 1: who has three kids, who hasn't worked outside of the
27:26
Speaker 1: home in about twelve years. And she said to me, well,
27:29
Speaker 1: I really haven't worked and I don't have any skills.
27:31
Speaker 1: And I was like, ugh, hold up, you are a
27:35
Speaker 1: leader among your peers, you are incredibly organized, you have
27:39
Speaker 1: a ton of skills. And what actually made me insane
27:43
Speaker 1: is that she was like, well, my husband said I
27:44
Speaker 1: really need business skills, and I was like, you have
27:48
Speaker 1: business skills, you just have been applying them in a
27:50
Speaker 1: different context. You need someone outside of you to tell
27:53
Speaker 1: you that you have those skills and apply them in
27:56
Speaker 1: this context. But you absolutely have them.
27:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sometimes you just need that other to kind
28:00
Speaker 2: of like remind you who the hell that you are.
28:02
Speaker 2: I was having this really beautiful conversation with a friend
28:05
Speaker 2: yesterday about this broader concept of confidence, and confidence isn't
28:09
Speaker 2: something that just drops down overnight on the lucky chosen right.
28:14
Speaker 1: Confidence is something that comes from repetition.
28:17
Speaker 2: And so when you take the time on the days
28:20
Speaker 2: that you feel good, on the days that you feel bad,
28:22
Speaker 2: on the days that you feel med, and you still
28:25
Speaker 2: show up anyway, that is where confidence comes from.
28:28
Speaker 1: I would even build on that and say and doing
28:31
Speaker 1: hard things that you are never going to gain confidence
28:34
Speaker 1: by always doing things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing
28:37
Speaker 1: to build on. You have to do things that are
28:39
Speaker 1: hard to be able to have any semblance of confidence
28:41
Speaker 1: and really feel like you know who you are.
28:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so for you, the hard thing is starting
28:46
Speaker 2: this podcast at the time you are in pillow forts,
28:50
Speaker 2: you're brainstorming, you're shopping these ideas. When do you really
28:54
Speaker 2: feel like you're starting to garner the momentum?
28:57
Speaker 1: I think when I put the well I did. The
28:59
Speaker 1: big one is that I got a handful of guests
29:02
Speaker 1: that I felt really good about. So I said, let
29:04
Speaker 1: me just try this. I'm going to try something that
29:07
Speaker 1: feels concrete that I can pull off. I can do
29:10
Speaker 1: ten guests in a season, I can have an arc,
29:13
Speaker 1: and let me start to go out to people whose
29:15
Speaker 1: either stories haven't been told or people whose stories may
29:18
Speaker 1: have been told but never this aspect of it, because
29:20
Speaker 1: I really wanted to uplift the personal piece out of
29:22
Speaker 1: their professional narratives. Once I had a little bit of
29:24
Speaker 1: that idea and that roster together, I did find a
29:27
Speaker 1: partner who really believed in me, and it was a
29:29
Speaker 1: partner that I really expected. It was Marie Clair Magazine,
29:31
Speaker 1: so they were willing to take me on as the
29:33
Speaker 1: first podcast for the magazine. I became a contributing editor
29:36
Speaker 1: for the business column for the business section of the magazine,
29:40
Speaker 1: which also felt like a little strange to me, like
29:42
Speaker 1: I was coming out of government and policy. I wasn't
29:44
Speaker 1: really sure I could be a business reporter, but it
29:46
Speaker 1: was understanding that it was kind of the same skill
29:49
Speaker 1: set that I was applying across the board, and the
29:51
Speaker 1: fact that they were willing to take that chance on me.
29:53
Speaker 1: It made me feel I would never really say that
29:57
Speaker 1: I've had like a full imposter syndrome, but I was like,
30:00
Speaker 1: oh my god, I pulled it off, Like I'm still
30:03
Speaker 1: checking to see if this idea is real, and they
30:06
Speaker 1: believe in me enough to launch this with me, like
30:08
Speaker 1: they believe they are taking a chance on me building
30:12
Speaker 1: their brand. Like I kind of pulled it off.
30:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, you pulled it off. And then in practice, how
30:19
Speaker 2: did it feel?
30:21
Speaker 1: It felt good. Yeah, it felt really good. I loved
30:25
Speaker 1: doing the interviews. It took me a while to get
30:27
Speaker 1: into the rhythm. I still had to check myself about
30:32
Speaker 1: being personal in any way because I was very good
30:35
Speaker 1: at cable news. I was very good at being buttoned
30:38
Speaker 1: up clear. She was well media trained. She was well
30:41
Speaker 1: media trained, Like people don't realize, but it's a real
30:43
Speaker 1: skill to be able to pull new thoughts in your
30:46
Speaker 1: head and never move your head and never move your
30:48
Speaker 1: eyes so like always look straight. Like I was really
30:50
Speaker 1: good at that. And even if you listened to the
30:52
Speaker 1: early at like the early episodes of my show, I
30:55
Speaker 1: basically edited myself out of it entirely, like you barely
30:58
Speaker 1: ever hear me asking questions, yeah, because I didn't feel
31:01
Speaker 1: secure in it.
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Speaker 2: dot com slash hurdle today. Early on, what would you
34:02
Speaker 2: say was the most helpful piece of feedback that you got?
34:05
Speaker 2: Because to you here, you're saying you don't hear me
34:08
Speaker 2: ask questions. I remember early on a mentor of mine
34:11
Speaker 2: said that people are going to come back to your podcast,
34:13
Speaker 2: yes because they are good guests, but because they like you.
34:17
Speaker 2: And so if you aren't having a conversation, if you're
34:20
Speaker 2: just there being a talking head and asking through a
34:23
Speaker 2: list of questions, then you're going to lose people. So
34:26
Speaker 2: that was the best piece of advice that I had
34:28
Speaker 2: got that I received.
34:30
Speaker 1: So what was yours? Well, the feedback actually came from
34:32
Speaker 1: the guests. At the end of every episode or the
34:35
Speaker 1: end of every conversation I've interviewed, the guests would say,
34:38
Speaker 1: oh my god, I've never shared it like that before.
34:40
Speaker 1: I have never shared so much. I've never felt so
34:42
Speaker 1: good about a conversation. And after doing that capsule of ten,
34:46
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, you know what, I am kind
34:48
Speaker 1: of good at this, and I don't have to hide
34:50
Speaker 1: behind the guest story. People can hear me ask the
34:53
Speaker 1: questions too. And so from the end of the first
34:56
Speaker 1: season to the beginning of the second season you'll hear
34:57
Speaker 1: like a real shift in the way that we edit
34:59
Speaker 1: the show, because is I keep more of my question
35:01
Speaker 1: asking and more of my edit in And that really
35:03
Speaker 1: did come from the guest But I actually had a
35:06
Speaker 1: big hurdle even before that, is that I had this big,
35:09
Speaker 1: you know, insecurity that I'm trying to overcome. And I
35:12
Speaker 1: put together an email list of all my personal and
35:14
Speaker 1: professional contacts to announce the facts that I am now
35:18
Speaker 1: doing a personal podcast and I'm sunsetting my career as
35:22
Speaker 1: a political strategist, which also felt like I thought everyone
35:24
Speaker 1: was going to laugh me out of town. Although I
35:26
Speaker 1: was already gone, I couldn't tell if I cared, and
35:29
Speaker 1: you know, saying this personal thing and saying that I struggled,
35:31
Speaker 1: and it was so vulnerable and I'm trying to have
35:34
Speaker 1: a new identity around it, and I launch it, and
35:36
Speaker 1: I launch it with this podcast called Pivot, and I
35:39
Speaker 1: knew enough that I had to trademark it, or I
35:41
Speaker 1: at least had to do a trademark check. So I
35:43
Speaker 1: had hired an intellectual property attorney to do a trademark
35:46
Speaker 1: check for me. And one of the things that I
35:48
Speaker 1: had done in creating like all the different like the
35:50
Speaker 1: business of the show, is that I had created different
35:52
Speaker 1: formats for it. So one of them is that it
35:54
Speaker 1: would be an award and then I would get to
35:56
Speaker 1: interview people after I gave them the award. I did
35:59
Speaker 1: not have a very ip attorney. They had done the
36:01
Speaker 1: trademark check as the copyright the check as Pivot Awards,
36:07
Speaker 1: and they didn't tell me that. So within two weeks
36:09
Speaker 1: of launching the show, I get a cease and desist
36:11
Speaker 1: order from Vox Media, who owns the parent company that
36:16
Speaker 1: owns the podcast called Pivot, and I'm like, it's all gone.
36:21
Speaker 1: I just did this major, I just rebranded myself and
36:24
Speaker 1: I screwed it up. And I went through almost two
36:27
Speaker 1: months of back and forth them saying well, here's the
36:29
Speaker 1: kinds of names you can use, and I was like,
36:32
Speaker 1: but none of them were pivot. And going through that
36:35
Speaker 1: really solidified for me that once I'm going to fight
36:38
Speaker 1: for this, I care enough to do it. And two
36:40
Speaker 1: it's the pivot that I care about. No other name
36:43
Speaker 1: or title was acceptable to me. My mom gave me
36:45
Speaker 1: the idea for she Pivots, and at first I had
36:47
Speaker 1: I was. I was like, well, maybe I want to
36:49
Speaker 1: interview a man from time to time, and then I
36:50
Speaker 1: realized I actually don't care. So I was fine with
36:52
Speaker 1: she pivots.
36:54
Speaker 2: So it was fine after I realized that men don't
36:56
Speaker 2: need to be in the space.
36:56
Speaker 1: We've heard enough. We've already been there. Yeah, we've heard
37:00
Speaker 1: enough from men.
37:01
Speaker 2: And so I mean, at first you hear it, you'r
37:03
Speaker 2: lukewarm to the idea, and then you really get on board.
37:06
Speaker 2: For you, when you get on board, do you feel
37:08
Speaker 2: it deep in your you feel in your chest?
37:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fighting for it. Oh yeah, I just fought
37:12
Speaker 1: for this and I care. I care way more than
37:14
Speaker 1: I realized that I did. Okay, And so she Pivots
37:16
Speaker 1: is born. She Pivots is born.
37:18
Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, And so now, as you said, you go
37:21
Speaker 2: through that first season. The second season becomes more in
37:24
Speaker 2: depth than the third, and so on.
37:26
Speaker 1: You've done four Uh, yeah, we're going into season five now, yep.
37:29
Speaker 2: Yep, going into season I've had about one hundred and
37:32
Speaker 2: thirty five guests. Can you imagine four seasons ago saying
37:37
Speaker 2: that sentence out loud?
37:37
Speaker 1: Oh my god? The lift to get to ten the
37:39
Speaker 1: first ten in the first season is probably the same
37:42
Speaker 1: lift that it's been afterwards. Yeah, it was so it
37:46
Speaker 1: just felt so big and so hard, and everything felt
37:48
Speaker 1: like a decision. No, I never could have I never
37:52
Speaker 1: could have amenda with it.
37:53
Speaker 2: You know, you talked about how important it was to
37:55
Speaker 2: you to really make sure that your guests were telling
37:57
Speaker 2: stories in ways that maybe they hadn't told these stories before.
38:01
Speaker 2: When you reflect yourself on some of the stories that
38:04
Speaker 2: you've told, what comes to mind for you when you
38:06
Speaker 2: think about maybe some of the things that you've spoken
38:08
Speaker 2: about before but haven't really brought new light to as
38:12
Speaker 2: of late.
38:13
Speaker 1: Well, I'm incredibly proud of the vulnerability that the show brings,
38:19
Speaker 1: the level that people feel comfortable telling me different aspects
38:22
Speaker 1: of the story that are so personal they often I'm
38:25
Speaker 1: really the thesis of the show is to integrate the
38:28
Speaker 1: personal into the professional, to show why we've made these
38:31
Speaker 1: professional choices and how we're better because of this personal
38:33
Speaker 1: thing that we went through. And we're just not used
38:36
Speaker 1: to thinking of our lives that way. We're not used
38:37
Speaker 1: to thinking of our professional stories that way. So I'm
38:40
Speaker 1: incredibly proud that I've helped the people who have gone
38:43
Speaker 1: through it even make that connection for themselves. And a
38:47
Speaker 1: lot of what I've learned through going through the interviews
38:49
Speaker 1: is that it brings out a different vulnerability in me
38:54
Speaker 1: that I'm willing to say things that are personal and
38:57
Speaker 1: willing to talk about things that are personal, and I
39:00
Speaker 1: get more and more comfortable with it as I go.
39:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, now that you have this platform and this
39:07
Speaker 2: place to get personal, when you think back to the
39:10
Speaker 2: woman who felt so alone, who felt so othered in
39:15
Speaker 2: this otherwise very quote unquote normal experience, what comes to mind.
39:22
Speaker 1: I'm proud of how far I've come. I really talking
39:28
Speaker 1: about pivoting. It's become a much more popular word and
39:30
Speaker 1: much more popular concept, which I think is only for
39:32
Speaker 1: the better. The more we're talking about it, the more
39:35
Speaker 1: people are likely to get touched by some conversation, and
39:39
Speaker 1: hopefully they feel connection to it. I mean, you can
39:42
Speaker 1: hear as I talk about it right now, Like I'm
39:43
Speaker 1: pretty clear on talking about how not excited I felt
39:47
Speaker 1: about being pregnant, how alone I felt in all of it,
39:50
Speaker 1: how little connection I felt to even my own babies.
39:53
Speaker 1: And I understand that that is still hard to talk
39:56
Speaker 1: about and hard to hear. I think for a lot
39:58
Speaker 1: of people, really specific in talking about it, because I
40:03
Speaker 1: felt like there was no one that could have felt
40:04
Speaker 1: more alone in those feelings than me, Like it was
40:06
Speaker 1: so unacceptable to feel those things. So I don't sugarcoat
40:11
Speaker 1: it in any way. I don't try to give it
40:12
Speaker 1: a positive lens. Now. It was what it was, and
40:16
Speaker 1: I will say that now because of that, I really
40:20
Speaker 1: have unique relationships with each of my kids, and I
40:27
Speaker 1: parent them for who they are, and I don't do
40:30
Speaker 1: it because of what I'm trying to project on them.
40:35
Speaker 1: I am proud of the relationship that I have with
40:37
Speaker 1: my kids, and I think it's in some ways different
40:40
Speaker 1: than other people's. But I can live with my parenting
40:42
Speaker 1: choices because they're all my own. How does motherhood make
40:45
Speaker 1: you feel?
40:45
Speaker 2: Now?
40:48
Speaker 1: Now? I feel joy around it. I think that being
40:52
Speaker 1: with my kids has I think They're super interesting, Like
40:57
Speaker 1: they see things differently than I do. And there it's
41:01
Speaker 1: brought out a lot of things that I thought adults
41:05
Speaker 1: couldn't do. We're like thought was embarrassing, you know, Like
41:08
Speaker 1: I jump in the pool with my clothes on. I
41:11
Speaker 1: have the biggest bruise you've ever seen on the back
41:13
Speaker 1: of my leg cause I fell out of a tree
41:15
Speaker 1: because we were limbing trees. We have farm animals now,
41:20
Speaker 1: things that I never thought were possible as an adult,
41:23
Speaker 1: and things that I never definitely never thought when I
41:26
Speaker 1: was like a power lady in a power suit, like
41:29
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill, Like I definitely never thought would be
41:31
Speaker 1: part of my life. Right, I'm proud of who they are,
41:35
Speaker 1: and I'm proud that I bring them along with I'm
41:41
Speaker 1: honest with them, and I'm proud of how I bring
41:42
Speaker 1: them along with me and my work. And I think
41:45
Speaker 1: they're becoming. They will be great adults. They will be
41:48
Speaker 1: great adults. Yeah, Like that's how I parent them, Like
41:50
Speaker 1: I think about what kind of adults they would be
41:52
Speaker 1: and what kind of lessons they have to learn now,
41:53
Speaker 1: And part of that is building confidence. Not everything can
41:55
Speaker 1: be easy.
41:56
Speaker 2: Not everything can be easy, And I mean going back
41:58
Speaker 2: to talking about how at the time, when you were
42:01
Speaker 2: working in Washington, DC, you didn't really feel like you
42:03
Speaker 2: had any sort of steady, consistent wellness routine. What does
42:07
Speaker 2: wellness and taking care of yourself look like these days?
42:10
Speaker 2: It's incredibly different.
42:11
Speaker 1: While I was building sheep pivots actually really coincides with
42:14
Speaker 1: my own not to sound cliche, but like wellness journey
42:18
Speaker 1: along with it. You know, I had gained so much
42:20
Speaker 1: weight with my first pregnancy, really hadn't lost it before
42:23
Speaker 1: the second, had lost most of it before the third,
42:26
Speaker 1: but then gained about sixty pounds again, and that coincides
42:29
Speaker 1: with as I'm redoing my life like I had always.
42:32
Speaker 1: There was a piece of me that, when I was
42:33
Speaker 1: still working in politics, felt like if I dedicate as
42:36
Speaker 1: much mental energy and time as it's going to take
42:38
Speaker 1: to lose this weight, people will look at me and
42:40
Speaker 1: think I'm not serious about my job. Everything has to
42:43
Speaker 1: be being serious about my job. And so all of
42:45
Speaker 1: a sudden, I had no job and I had to
42:47
Speaker 1: redo the whole thing. It was also during the lockdown,
42:50
Speaker 1: and I thought I cannot come out of this with
42:53
Speaker 1: the same body that doesn't feel like it's mine. I
42:57
Speaker 1: had a lot of health problems. They had thought I
42:59
Speaker 1: had a breast cancer scare after I had had the
43:01
Speaker 1: second Maybe I did not have it. I slipped a
43:04
Speaker 1: disc from delivery. My abs were totally separated, like I
43:09
Speaker 1: had just had a lot of issues from not just
43:12
Speaker 1: the pregnancies and the deliveries, but also carrying so much
43:14
Speaker 1: weight for about five years, and I thought, I cannot
43:17
Speaker 1: come out of this the same person. I have to
43:19
Speaker 1: really prioritize this and take this seriously. So before my
43:23
Speaker 1: third baby was one years old, I went down to
43:25
Speaker 1: a health clinic in Florida. I went for two weeks.
43:27
Speaker 1: It's called Critticken. It's for people who are basically old
43:31
Speaker 1: and I have heart disease. I was neither of those things. Nevertheless,
43:34
Speaker 1: that program really worked for me. Why did you choose that, Loe?
43:37
Speaker 1: Why did I choose it? It's a great question. I
43:39
Speaker 1: think probably because I'm a vegan and always have been,
43:42
Speaker 1: and so it could work for me. And so the diet,
43:45
Speaker 1: you know, it's sort of like an outdated idea of
43:47
Speaker 1: what dieting is, or like what eating healthy is, and
43:51
Speaker 1: it's very vegetables. First, didn't I felt like every other
43:54
Speaker 1: like nutrition or you know diet or like anything I
43:57
Speaker 1: had looked at was like, well, if I'm not going
43:59
Speaker 1: to eat fish, but this one was very vegetables first
44:02
Speaker 1: and vegetable protein first, and so that really worked for me,
44:05
Speaker 1: and I super focused on it, and I lost the
44:09
Speaker 1: rest of the weight and got tone within about six months.
44:13
Speaker 2: Wow.
44:14
Speaker 1: And it was a very serious endeavor for me, and
44:17
Speaker 1: it really has changed my life where I'm stronger than
44:20
Speaker 1: I've ever been. Fitness is a very serious part of
44:23
Speaker 1: my life now and it really never had been before,
44:25
Speaker 1: Like I really prioritize it in my day. I do
44:27
Speaker 1: something pretty aggressively active every day, and it's changed my
44:33
Speaker 1: relationship to me even change my relationship to my kids
44:34
Speaker 1: and parenting that I hadn't realized how much I was
44:37
Speaker 1: always trying to end the play or not play the sport,
44:43
Speaker 1: or not pick them up, like because it was hard
44:45
Speaker 1: for me. And now because I'm strong, I'm driving it
44:48
Speaker 1: or I can stay in it with them, and it's
44:51
Speaker 1: made our relationship much happier, much more joyful.
44:53
Speaker 2: Beyond the diet component of it, you talk about doing
44:56
Speaker 2: something physically demanding every day, what does the movement component
45:00
Speaker 2: of your overall wehill and this routine look like.
45:02
Speaker 1: I'll do pretty heavy weights two to three times a week.
45:06
Speaker 1: I've been working with the same trainer he helped me
45:08
Speaker 1: rehab my back after the slip discs. I've been working
45:11
Speaker 1: with him for a long time, very dedicated to him.
45:14
Speaker 1: But we do it outdoors. I really care about there
45:16
Speaker 1: being a lot of natural light, so I'll be outdoors
45:18
Speaker 1: almost any time that I can. Beyond that, I might
45:21
Speaker 1: take a class. I really like like a good heavy movement,
45:25
Speaker 1: like a hard you know, like a like a tremble
45:27
Speaker 1: like I don't. I don't love a yoga. My running
45:32
Speaker 1: goes in waves. It's usually pretty bad. But I will
45:35
Speaker 1: at least do like a good hard, aggressive walk with
45:39
Speaker 1: a weight to invest on to try to get that
45:40
Speaker 1: in everything. She's a rocker.
45:42
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, So talk about a one eighty right,
45:45
Speaker 2: because you went from this place of really not putting
45:47
Speaker 2: any heavy emphasis on this for yourself to now really
45:50
Speaker 2: investing in yourself. I firmly believe that when you take
45:53
Speaker 2: the time to invest in yourself, there is nothing to
45:56
Speaker 2: regret in that because it only pays back to you
45:59
Speaker 2: and gives you that real word tenfold.
46:01
Speaker 1: It has been incredibly warning, but I have to say that.
46:03
Speaker 1: I also think there's like an edge of it, Like
46:06
Speaker 1: I do think to some degree we thinking about ourselves
46:08
Speaker 1: too much. And I use it as a tool to
46:12
Speaker 1: let me live the life that I want to live.
46:14
Speaker 1: I don't organize my entire day around figuring out the
46:18
Speaker 1: right fitness class that I want to go to, Like
46:20
Speaker 1: if I can't do it in a way that fits
46:22
Speaker 1: into my day and gives me the ability to accomplish
46:25
Speaker 1: the things that I want, then I throw on a
46:27
Speaker 1: vest and I go outside, Like I don't overthink it.
46:31
Speaker 1: I do think that's an important piece that there's a
46:33
Speaker 1: balance to it too, because I do see a lot
46:36
Speaker 1: of I think people overthink like am I doing it
46:39
Speaker 1: exactly right? Am I getting exactly the right routine? Am
46:42
Speaker 1: I doing the skin thing whatever it needs to be?
46:45
Speaker 1: And I think, to some toge we're thinking about ourselves
46:46
Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, I hear that.
46:48
Speaker 2: I also think that when it comes to such a
46:51
Speaker 2: big transformation like the one that you've had, there's a
46:53
Speaker 2: lot of quote unquote shoulding yourself typically involved in that,
46:57
Speaker 2: Like you probably we're exposed to so many different things
47:00
Speaker 2: that you could do and constantly wondering should I be
47:03
Speaker 2: doing this, Should I be doing that?
47:04
Speaker 1: Should I be doing that?
47:05
Speaker 2: How did you get to a point where you were
47:08
Speaker 2: able to listen to yourself intuitively and trust that the
47:12
Speaker 2: path that you were on was the right path for you.
47:14
Speaker 1: I think probably once I started to see results from it,
47:16
Speaker 1: Like once I started to get stronger, once I started
47:19
Speaker 1: to feel stronger, I think that I was like, oh, okay,
47:22
Speaker 1: this is worth it, this is right. And once I
47:26
Speaker 1: started to be able to be much more active with
47:27
Speaker 1: my kids and pick them up quite quite frankly. Yeah, Oh,
47:31
Speaker 1: it's so.
47:31
Speaker 2: Special and it's so rewarding, and it's just now that
47:34
Speaker 2: you're in this place, As someone who also went for
47:37
Speaker 2: her own health journey, I can sympathize and relate to
47:42
Speaker 2: You can't imagine going back.
47:45
Speaker 1: No, No, I really can't. It's like a very strict
47:47
Speaker 1: part of my day, my week because I'm so proud
47:52
Speaker 1: of how far that I've come and I'm so happy
47:54
Speaker 1: with the things that it facilitates me to be able
47:56
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah.
47:57
Speaker 2: Then, as you now are strong and feeling good in
48:02
Speaker 2: your body and able to play with your kids, you
48:05
Speaker 2: segue into the women's sports space, You're like, well, now
48:08
Speaker 2: that I'm in this place.
48:09
Speaker 1: It's a perfect time for me to really get on
48:10
Speaker 1: board with that. I know, I'm so intense and I
48:12
Speaker 1: do something, I go all the way in.
48:13
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that you and your upbringing,
48:16
Speaker 2: you were really around sports quite often. Give us some
48:19
Speaker 2: context on that before we talk about the end ofsl So.
48:21
Speaker 1: I grew up in New York City. When I was
48:23
Speaker 1: nine years old, my grandfather bought fifty percent of the
48:25
Speaker 1: New York Giants. So being a part of sports ownership
48:29
Speaker 1: is a very big part of our family tradition. We
48:31
Speaker 1: went to Giants games every single week with my grandparents,
48:34
Speaker 1: sat next to them, always with them, had dinner afterwards.
48:37
Speaker 1: It would go into the off season. We often went
48:39
Speaker 1: to away games. It's been like a very big part
48:42
Speaker 1: of our family identity. It's one of the things that
48:44
Speaker 1: our family organizes around. Even if I wasn't kind of
48:47
Speaker 1: sporty and like playing a lot of sports myself, it's
48:50
Speaker 1: been a big part of our family culture.
48:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so having that as a background, when this
48:55
Speaker 2: opportunity came around to get involved with the Gotham it
48:59
Speaker 2: felt now question mark question mark.
49:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're I think we were kind of
49:03
Speaker 1: figuring it out. So I had three kids very close
49:06
Speaker 1: in age. My sister actually went through the same thing
49:08
Speaker 1: with the three kids. She had been the head of
49:10
Speaker 1: global marketing for Peloton and left when she had the
49:13
Speaker 1: third kid. So my sister started a sports VC fund
49:16
Speaker 1: to invest on behalf of our family, leveraging our position
49:19
Speaker 1: in the Giants and the access that we had into
49:21
Speaker 1: the sports world. And I thought, cool, go for good,
49:24
Speaker 1: go you like, what a cool thing you're doing. That
49:27
Speaker 1: seems perfect. And she made a couple of different investments, smaller,
49:33
Speaker 1: and then she saw that the biggest opportunity was in
49:35
Speaker 1: women's sports, particularly in women's soccer, particularly in New York.
49:40
Speaker 1: They wanted her as the lead investor because of her
49:43
Speaker 1: operating background with Peloton, and again I thought, go you
49:48
Speaker 1: go off, have a great time like that. I would
49:51
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with it. We fast forward to
49:54
Speaker 1: the second day that we signed in as owners were
49:56
Speaker 1: in the national Championship. I flew to San Diego where
49:59
Speaker 1: the championship game was for the championship, basically just to
50:01
Speaker 1: support her, and thought like, what a cool investment this is.
50:05
Speaker 1: And from the context of being around I mean, I've
50:09
Speaker 1: been to almost every Super Bowl my entire life, from
50:12
Speaker 1: the context of being around what the NFL has built
50:16
Speaker 1: to and what that business looks like. To see what
50:19
Speaker 1: I had walked into when these were the champions this
50:23
Speaker 1: was the championship game. The level of business was just
50:28
Speaker 1: so different that it did feel like this, all of
50:33
Speaker 1: this background that I had could actually be useful. So
50:38
Speaker 1: from the minute I stepped on the ground, I was
50:41
Speaker 1: figuring out ways even really just to help my sister
50:44
Speaker 1: get her hands around it and figure out how do
50:46
Speaker 1: we turn this into the business of the future and
50:49
Speaker 1: the business that these athletes deserve because they've always worked hard.
50:54
Speaker 1: It wasn't the athletes, it was the business around them,
50:56
Speaker 1: and that has just grown over the last eighteen months
50:59
Speaker 1: basically almost been almost two years.
51:01
Speaker 2: What's the biggest difference in what's going on with the
51:03
Speaker 2: team now versus eighteen months ago?
51:07
Speaker 1: How long can this podcast.
51:10
Speaker 3: Look?
51:10
Speaker 1: I'd say the biggest difference is the two things that
51:12
Speaker 1: my sister brought into it leading the team. One is
51:15
Speaker 1: the understanding that we will be the first global sports
51:19
Speaker 1: brand for women. There are other global sports brands that
51:22
Speaker 1: people understand, like Real Madrid or the Dallas Cowboys or
51:25
Speaker 1: the Yankees, like you can see their logos anywhere in
51:28
Speaker 1: the world and you understand what it means. That person
51:30
Speaker 1: may not even understand who the starting ten are, you know,
51:33
Speaker 1: but you understand what that global sports brand means. There
51:36
Speaker 1: was no global sports brand for women, and it will
51:38
Speaker 1: be US, and so we make decisions based on that
51:42
Speaker 1: with that as the north Star. The second thing she
51:44
Speaker 1: did is that she reoriented US as a live events business.
51:48
Speaker 1: So she brought over the head of live Events and
51:50
Speaker 1: Activations from Peloton. She brought over a lot of other
51:53
Speaker 1: marketing people from Peloton to really be thinking about how
51:56
Speaker 1: do we make this a wrap around experience for everyone
52:00
Speaker 1: who shows up. People have to feel like they are
52:03
Speaker 1: attached to every piece of the experience. They also additionally
52:08
Speaker 1: need to understand the stories of our players, because that's
52:10
Speaker 1: how we're You know that people get attached through players
52:13
Speaker 1: and through the stories of them, and they are and
52:14
Speaker 1: they're worth it. Yeah, every one of them has an
52:16
Speaker 1: incredible story and they're incredible people, and they are worth it.
52:19
Speaker 2: It can be challenging when people are so attached to
52:21
Speaker 2: the players when there are changes within the roster. I
52:24
Speaker 2: know that you guys went through a lot of changes
52:26
Speaker 2: at the top of this season. How did you handle
52:29
Speaker 2: that in a way that really showed your biggest fans
52:33
Speaker 2: that you truly do care about them.
52:35
Speaker 1: We had we had our GM speak directly to our
52:38
Speaker 1: to our audience and to our fans, and she spoke
52:41
Speaker 1: directly about how the slogan of our team that we
52:43
Speaker 1: talk about that like really gets into the values is
52:46
Speaker 1: always building, never finished. We are always building the team
52:49
Speaker 1: of the future. We are never satisfied with where we are,
52:51
Speaker 1: even if it's winning a national championship, but we are
52:54
Speaker 1: always thinking ahead because we are planning not just for
52:57
Speaker 1: this season, not just for next season, but we are
52:59
Speaker 1: planning to be a global franchise, and so we are
53:02
Speaker 1: always building, never finished.
53:04
Speaker 2: I am just like sitting here and again the confidence
53:08
Speaker 2: that radiates from the way that you talk about what
53:11
Speaker 2: it is that not only you are creating what you
53:13
Speaker 2: expect from this brand. It's really beautiful and it beckons
53:18
Speaker 2: the question.
53:21
Speaker 1: How do you maintain it?
53:22
Speaker 2: Because there are going to be hurdles, There are going
53:26
Speaker 2: to be things that don't go as you'd hoped right,
53:29
Speaker 2: and so those otherwise shake that confidence. How do you
53:33
Speaker 2: come back to this through line of we've got this
53:35
Speaker 2: and this is what we are going to be well.
53:38
Speaker 1: I actually think implicit in the question is the two
53:40
Speaker 1: things that it is. One is keeping your north star.
53:42
Speaker 1: You know where you're going. If you know where you're going,
53:46
Speaker 1: then you just make every decision focused on that you
53:48
Speaker 1: don't get distracted by pieces along the way. And the
53:51
Speaker 1: second piece is to expect that the form will change.
53:54
Speaker 1: I feel like this in my podcast, in my investments.
53:58
Speaker 1: We can see it in Gotham. You have to understand
54:01
Speaker 1: that there will be hurdles and that things will change. Look,
54:05
Speaker 1: I started an award show and then got sued on it.
54:08
Speaker 1: You know, like the form changed, and my core north
54:12
Speaker 1: star was to be able to move culture by telling
54:15
Speaker 1: stories of women who have changed their lives for personal reasons.
54:18
Speaker 1: And I got to be able to do that, but
54:20
Speaker 1: the form changed. So understanding that it is part of
54:24
Speaker 1: the process and not getting derailed by it, I think
54:27
Speaker 1: is an incredibly important piece of being able to move forward.
54:29
Speaker 1: I'll also say, you know the other piece of it.
54:31
Speaker 1: You know, I have confidence talking about it. I get
54:33
Speaker 1: that from the players. They are so confident in their
54:38
Speaker 1: abilities and we have confidence in them. One of the
54:41
Speaker 1: things that was transformative for me that first weekend that
54:44
Speaker 1: I went out and met them at the championship. We
54:46
Speaker 1: stayed in the hotel with them, so I got to
54:48
Speaker 1: see them interact, and they go on their walk before
54:50
Speaker 1: every game together, walk with me, when with mey, our
54:53
Speaker 1: coach says, And to see them interact. I had never
54:57
Speaker 1: been around women who were so physically strong and also
55:02
Speaker 1: so unapologetic about being physically strong. And I thought to myself,
55:07
Speaker 1: I I need to see this. I want every insecure
55:12
Speaker 1: mom in my class to see this. I want my
55:14
Speaker 1: kids to see this. These are the role models that
55:16
Speaker 1: I want my kids to see, the role models that
55:18
Speaker 1: I want my daughters to see. But by the way,
55:20
Speaker 1: my daughters see a lot of strong women, these are
55:22
Speaker 1: the role models I want my son to see because
55:24
Speaker 1: I want him to also know that women can be
55:26
Speaker 1: physically strong and have confidence. Yeah, oh my god, chill's
55:30
Speaker 1: just thinking about it. We love strong women.
55:32
Speaker 2: And speaking of strong women, obviously, women's sports at the
55:36
Speaker 2: crux of such an unbelievable moment in culture period right now.
55:41
Speaker 2: We are seeing so much momentum and it must feel
55:44
Speaker 2: some kind of way to be a part of it.
55:46
Speaker 1: It feels incredible, honestly to have walked into something and
55:50
Speaker 1: then see its skyrocketing almost immediately. It does put a
55:54
Speaker 1: little bit of pressure on us, to be honest, to
55:56
Speaker 1: like move a little faster, like faster than maybe we
55:58
Speaker 1: would have normally internal rondomitess or like building to what
56:01
Speaker 1: we want to. But again, like our athletes have always
56:03
Speaker 1: been at this level and they've always deserved it, So
56:06
Speaker 1: it's the right kind of pressure. Yeah, And so when
56:09
Speaker 1: you say the pressure to move a little bit faster,
56:11
Speaker 1: how do you keep up with that? How do you
56:14
Speaker 1: execute in a way that aligns with your north star
56:17
Speaker 1: when maybe you're having to do things at a little
56:19
Speaker 1: bit more quicker of a clip. I think it's putting
56:22
Speaker 1: people in place that you really trust and you think
56:25
Speaker 1: have good judgment and to not micromanage them. And actually
56:28
Speaker 1: my sister does that incredibly well. She has put very
56:30
Speaker 1: good people in senior positions and doesn't micromanage them. And
56:34
Speaker 1: then I bring in we have entirely different skill sets,
56:37
Speaker 1: so she is managing the team. She's actually now the
56:39
Speaker 1: president of the entire league of the chair of the
56:41
Speaker 1: entire league of the NWSL, So we have incredibly different
56:45
Speaker 1: skill sets. I bring in, as we say, like the
56:46
Speaker 1: vibes officer, right, like I'm the she Vibes officer. I
56:49
Speaker 1: bring culture to Gotham. I bring Gotham to culture. So
56:53
Speaker 1: being able to work also, my sister and I never
56:54
Speaker 1: thought we would work together. By the way, how is
56:57
Speaker 1: that for you? It's been great because we do have
57:00
Speaker 1: very different skill sets. We're very close, but we're very different.
57:03
Speaker 1: And owning that I think is so powerful. Owning and
57:07
Speaker 1: sitting in what you know to be true. It's not
57:10
Speaker 1: about ego, It's just about facts. Yeah. Yeah, our kids
57:14
Speaker 1: are very close and the facts that we can and
57:16
Speaker 1: we can see each other every weekend at games. We
57:18
Speaker 1: live in two different places now, but we see each
57:20
Speaker 1: other every weekend of games. And the fact that we
57:23
Speaker 1: are able to create for our kids what was so
57:26
Speaker 1: incredibly formative for us in our childhood. The fact that
57:30
Speaker 1: we can do it for our kids and that we
57:32
Speaker 1: can do it for women is very important to us.
57:35
Speaker 1: I say that is essentially one of our north stars
57:37
Speaker 1: as well.
57:38
Speaker 2: Like personally, someone comes to your Instagram page, they see
57:42
Speaker 2: a podcast host obviously a co owner of The Gotham.
57:45
Speaker 2: But when you look in the mirror, Emily, what is
57:47
Speaker 2: it that you see looking back at you?
57:51
Speaker 1: I see someone who is finally comfortable in every piece
57:55
Speaker 1: of themselves. I was so serious when I worked in policy,
58:00
Speaker 1: and I worked so hard, and I was so proud
58:02
Speaker 1: of it, and I couldn't be that silly. I couldn't
58:09
Speaker 1: be that fun. You know. I started dying my hair
58:11
Speaker 1: lavender during the pandemic because I wanted to do something
58:13
Speaker 1: that gave me a little joy. And now we like
58:15
Speaker 1: to say this is my natural purple. I could never
58:18
Speaker 1: be doing the job that I had done with it,
58:21
Speaker 1: and I don't do it for anybody else. I do
58:22
Speaker 1: it for myself because it brings me joy. I'd say,
58:25
Speaker 1: I now see someone who finally embraces every part of themselves.
58:29
Speaker 2: When you think about the woman that was beside herself
58:36
Speaker 2: in the midst of having three children within three years,
58:40
Speaker 2: the woman who felt so lost, so unsure, so othered
58:45
Speaker 2: by the circumstance.
58:46
Speaker 1: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you offer
58:50
Speaker 1: her during that hurdle moment. It's so hard to say
58:56
Speaker 1: what advice would be, because I think I had to
59:00
Speaker 1: live through that low point to be able to get
59:03
Speaker 1: to this high point. Yeah, I don't think I ever
59:06
Speaker 1: really truly believed that I could be as comfortable in
59:09
Speaker 1: my own skin as I am now, and I never
59:12
Speaker 1: truly believed that I could be as happy as I
59:15
Speaker 1: am now. I just didn't believe it was going to
59:16
Speaker 1: be possible. I thought I'd have to find some other
59:18
Speaker 1: compromised version of myself. Yeah, so you know, I guess
59:22
Speaker 1: the right answer is, you know, like, hang on, You'll
59:25
Speaker 1: make it like you're going to get through this. But
59:26
Speaker 1: I do think I had to have lived through that
59:29
Speaker 1: load to be able to have the perspective to gotten
59:31
Speaker 1: to where I am now.
59:33
Speaker 2: What do you tell yourself on the days that you
59:34
Speaker 2: don't feel so shiny or so confident? Are so good
59:38
Speaker 2: as you are?
59:39
Speaker 1: That I probably need to rest? Is like the biggest thing.
59:42
Speaker 1: I'm like a go go until I crash, And sometimes
59:44
Speaker 1: I just need to crash. It's it's just so hard
59:46
Speaker 1: to where I am. Oh my god. And that is
59:49
Speaker 1: the advice we will leave them with. Emily.
59:51
Speaker 2: I'm so happy that you were able to come to
59:52
Speaker 2: the studio today talk to us. How do people keep
59:55
Speaker 2: up with you? How do they follow along with you?
59:56
Speaker 2: How do they keep up with the Gotham Give Me
59:58
Speaker 2: the Beats.
59:58
Speaker 1: You can find the podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts
1:00:01
Speaker 1: called she pivots or with iHeart. You can find it
1:00:03
Speaker 1: in the app as well. You can find us also
1:00:05
Speaker 1: and our guests on she pivots, the podcasts on Instagram
1:00:08
Speaker 1: and Gotham FC has its own account you can see
1:00:12
Speaker 1: all the players. Our team does a really good job
1:00:14
Speaker 1: of getting to know all of our players in their personalities,
1:00:16
Speaker 1: so I definitely recommend it. And we have three home
1:00:18
Speaker 1: games less less this season. Oh my gosh, I need
1:00:21
Speaker 1: I need to get you need to need to get over.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: Ives are immaculate.
1:00:24
Speaker 2: Lives are immaculate. From the Chief Vibe Officer herself, I'm
1:00:28
Speaker 2: over at Emily a body at Hurdle podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: Catch you guys next time.