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Women’s Sports is Serious Business: Laura Correnti on Building Deep Blue · Possible NOW

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Possible Now Stories of Possibilities, the podcast where
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Speaker 1: we dive into the leadership frameworks, bold ideas, and personal
0:13
Speaker 1: stories shaping the future of marketing, technology, and leadership. Some
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Speaker 1: people follow the playbook, others write an entirely new one.
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Speaker 1: My guest today is doing both and changing the game
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Speaker 1: along the way. I'm Christian Muchen and this is Possible
0:29
Speaker 1: Now Stories of Possibilities, the podcast where we explore bold ideas,
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Speaker 1: those outstanding personalities and visionaries who are reshaping business, leadership,
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Speaker 1: culture and technology. My guest in today's episode is Laura
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Speaker 1: Currenti and she is the founder and CEO of Deep
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Speaker 1: Blue Sports and Entertainment, the world's first firm dedicated to
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Speaker 1: bringing serious commercial investment to women's sports. In less than
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Speaker 1: two years, she's launched the Business of Women's Sports Summit,
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Speaker 1: co created the Women's Sports Audient Network with Iart Media,
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Speaker 1: and build a joint venture with Olympic Icon Allison Phoenix.
1:03
Speaker 1: Oh and she still finds time to post her own podcast,
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Speaker 1: court Side, where she interviews the woman driving the future
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Speaker 1: of the industry. Before Deep Blue, Laura was already rewriting
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Speaker 1: the rules of advertising a giant spoon, creating first the
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Speaker 1: industry had never seen before, the first branded podcast to
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Speaker 1: hit number one on Apple, the first live ad on CNN,
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Speaker 1: the first single advertiser takeover of The New York Times.
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Speaker 1: Her career has been all about seeing the white space
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Speaker 1: and then filling it with bold ideas that others said
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Speaker 1: were not possible. And we all know everything is possible.
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Speaker 1: So today I'm thrilled to have Laura here to talk
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Speaker 1: about sports leadership, business and why women's sports is not charity,
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Speaker 1: it's good business. A very warm welcome to you, Laura.
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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Christian. Have you ever considered
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Speaker 2: voiceover work? That was fabulous?
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Speaker 1: Good to know that there's another career waiting for me.
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Speaker 2: I love that. Yes, thank you so much for the warman.
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Speaker 1: Laura. I've mentioned your court Side podcast and you always
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Speaker 1: start with the one question and let's flip the script
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Speaker 1: and now it's your turn. When did you first fall
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Speaker 1: in love with sports?
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Speaker 3: I can very, very vividly remember a five year old
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Speaker 3: Laura who met under a willow tree with a bunch
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Speaker 3: of kids I grew up with in New Jersey, and
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Speaker 3: that willow tree was in the center of a large
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Speaker 3: sports complex at the time called Gunnaloval, which is where
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Speaker 3: all great sports dreams in the town I grew up
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Speaker 3: in in Carney, New Jersey, were born. And some of
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Speaker 3: those kids that I was gathering with in between our
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Speaker 3: games probably drinking.
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Speaker 2: You who's eating orange slices? For all?
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Speaker 3: I remember wearing oversized T shirts I played for Carneo
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Speaker 3: Electronics when I was five years old, and I don't
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Speaker 3: even remember playing the game Christian. I remember feeling the
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Speaker 3: joy of just being with my friends in an environment
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Speaker 3: where I learned at the ripe age the importance of
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Speaker 3: community and what it meant to belong And I think
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Speaker 3: so much of what sports has given me is community
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Speaker 3: in a sense of belonging. And what started as I
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Speaker 3: would say, quick witted, you know, competitive kid at the
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Speaker 3: age of five, has served me well thirty five plus
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Speaker 3: years later in the advertising industry. And so I think
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Speaker 3: there has been the matics that sports have taught me.
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Speaker 1: That's an awesome story. Was it always a kind of
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Speaker 1: team sport or different top of sports?
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Speaker 2: Oh my god.
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Speaker 3: I was such a team sport. I mean, if you
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Speaker 3: could play it, I was doing it. But soccer, basketball
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Speaker 3: and softball were the sports that I focused on competitively.
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Speaker 3: I think basketball was probably my best sport, but soccer
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Speaker 3: was my first love. In the town I grew up
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Speaker 3: in in New Jersey, I thought the whole world knew
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Speaker 3: it as Soccertown, USA. But I came to learn later
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Speaker 3: in life that I think that's just what the people
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Speaker 3: I grew up with called it. But playing in soccer
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Speaker 3: town usay, soccer was what you lived and breathed, and
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Speaker 3: it was all around you. I remember playing everything from
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Speaker 3: kickball in the street to like weekend Manhunt games with
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Speaker 3: my neighbors. I just I love to be outside and
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Speaker 3: I love to play.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, as long as you connect, size and be with others,
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Speaker 1: I totally get it. I was the same. So which
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Speaker 1: position in the soccer team.
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Speaker 3: Well, this won't surprise anyone that knows me. Center, midfield.
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Speaker 3: I had to control the game at all angles.
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Speaker 1: I definitely you did and you're still doing. We will
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Speaker 1: talk about this in a second. So I was left defender.
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Speaker 1: So that was my position for years. Yeah, back, let's
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Speaker 1: talk about sports as leadership. And of course we now
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Speaker 1: have far more data available. And what I found out
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Speaker 1: is that we know that ninety four percent of women
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Speaker 1: in the C suite played sports and over half competed
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Speaker 1: at college level, which is impressive. So if this is
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Speaker 1: the number, what do you think the wheel guill transfer
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Speaker 1: is Is it great? Is it teamwork? Is it resilience?
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Speaker 1: Or is it something less or maybe more obvious, you know,
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Speaker 1: to learn how to lose and come back even stronger.
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Speaker 1: What is it?
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Speaker 3: And I think it's all the above, definitely a yes
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Speaker 3: and question. I think such a wide range, and you've
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Speaker 3: mentioned some of them, you know, teamwork, resilience, adversity, down
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Speaker 3: to the minu ship, just how to handle feedback and
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Speaker 3: constructive criticism, the will to win. I think that athletes
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Speaker 3: that are born with this sort of ingrained switch that
5:01
Speaker 3: you know how to flip on without the prompting, because
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Speaker 3: you need to take it to the next gear and
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Speaker 3: the next level. But I have read something that speaking
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Speaker 3: to that ninety four percent statistic. There was a great
5:11
Speaker 3: conversation that happened not too long ago at a conference
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Speaker 3: that Billy Jean King had hosted and Linda Gates was
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Speaker 3: featured on a panel, and they were talking about that
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Speaker 3: ninety four percent number and the number of female executives,
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Speaker 3: many of whom we would know by name, and certainly
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Speaker 3: the businesses that they've led, and they created a thesis
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Speaker 3: that the great unifier of the connection to sport is
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Speaker 3: that it had taught all of these women about failure,
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Speaker 3: how to embrace it, how to tackle it, how to
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Speaker 3: move on from it. And I think when you look
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Speaker 3: at all of the skills you alluded to, in addition
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Speaker 3: to that one, I do think it's interesting how being
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Speaker 3: unafraid to fail your show is called possible, right, leads
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Speaker 3: to so many great possibilities when you're unencumbered by not
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Speaker 3: what could happen, but what might happen.
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Speaker 1: And also because I would say, I mean we always
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Speaker 1: look at the winnows, right, those ones in the front row.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this is typically, but there are so many
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Speaker 1: and we've experienced this on our own. You have also
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Speaker 1: to learn, you know, to be on the sideline for
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Speaker 1: at least some time right or to start, you know,
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Speaker 1: when you join a team to watch, toait but also
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Speaker 1: to support others. Is that something you still see with
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Speaker 1: leaders in the boardroom that they learned from that as well,
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Speaker 1: or is it something you would say, no, they have
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Speaker 1: to take more over into the business world.
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Speaker 3: It's a great question and one that I watch on
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Speaker 3: a regular basis just the changing roles in dynamics of
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Speaker 3: team members and when you need to step up and
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Speaker 3: when you know, oftentimes you need to take a backseat.
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Speaker 3: I vividly remember, for the first let's call it ten
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Speaker 3: fifteen years of my sporting career, I only knew to
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Speaker 3: be the captain and a starter. I didn't even know
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Speaker 3: where the bench was, let alone what it felt like.
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Speaker 3: And I remember my transition to playing in college and
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Speaker 3: coming in as a freshman who was wildly in shape's
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Speaker 3: probably the best shape I'd ever been in, and showed
6:53
Speaker 3: up with a very seasoned team. I was a young freshman,
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Speaker 3: a seventeen year old, going up against women who were
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Speaker 3: four or five years older than me, way more experience,
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Speaker 3: a ton more training, better skill sets, and for the
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Speaker 3: first time in my life, I've felt the bench. And
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Speaker 3: that is a really jolting experience when you come from
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Speaker 3: what you perceive to be as the best at what
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Speaker 3: you do, and then you arrive in different rooms or
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Speaker 3: on different teams and everyone's the best from where they
7:19
Speaker 3: came from. And I think that those lessons are so
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Speaker 3: transferable in the boardroom coming into the women's sports space.
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Speaker 3: From a business perspective, there are people have been in
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Speaker 3: this space for decades longer than I have. I may
7:30
Speaker 3: be a practitioner and expert in my craft through the
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Speaker 3: world of advertising media marketing, I have and still have
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Speaker 3: a ton to learn about what's worked, what hasn't, why
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Speaker 3: it hasn't, And so I think constantly being open and
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Speaker 3: being a student in the game. You know, I talked
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Speaker 3: to my team a lot about being coachable. I don't
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Speaker 3: think you can ever stop being coachable when you want
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Speaker 3: to be the best. And I mean you could point
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Speaker 3: to some of the greatest athletes of our time who
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Speaker 3: constantly reference the need for incremental gains, so absolutely transferable skill.
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Speaker 1: That's a lesson you just talked about to be still coachable.
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Speaker 1: Is that the lesson you still use in your on
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Speaker 1: board room, you know, coming from your own experience, or
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Speaker 1: is there another lesson you would like to share with us,
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Speaker 1: you know, which you can still use in today's business.
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Speaker 3: I think being coach was probably one of the most
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Speaker 3: important skills. Never satisfied with being satisfied, you know. I
8:13
Speaker 3: pride myself in being a student of the game literally
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Speaker 3: and figuratively. I think there's always something we can learn.
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Speaker 3: I mean, you even see what the industry is going through.
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Speaker 3: From an advertising media marketing perspective, From a technology standpoint,
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Speaker 3: I mean you host a conference that features so much
8:27
Speaker 3: of what the future holds, and so resting on what
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Speaker 3: you know is not enough to compete.
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Speaker 2: From my vantage point.
8:34
Speaker 1: Let's talk about business and let's go over to Deep
8:37
Speaker 1: Blue and your vision. When you create a Deep Blue,
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Speaker 1: when you would be on our possible stage with all
8:42
Speaker 1: these you know, cemos and brand leaders in the room,
8:45
Speaker 1: what would be a key message to them.
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Speaker 3: So much of the beginning stages of founding Deep Blue
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Speaker 3: was about really just having marketers recognize the value. In
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Speaker 3: just a short twelve to eighteen months since founding, the
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Speaker 3: company will turn two in December of this year. It's
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Speaker 3: now about right sizing the opportunity. I think people are
9:02
Speaker 3: very well aware of understanding that there is something happening now,
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Speaker 3: how closely they're listening. What I have found to be
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Speaker 3: the most important part is making the business case through
9:13
Speaker 3: right sizing. I think so much of what we are
9:15
Speaker 3: focused on today is this is not apples to apples comparison.
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Speaker 3: I'll give you an example. In twenty twenty four, the
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Speaker 3: NWSL to the National Women's Soccer League reported that they
9:25
Speaker 3: generated seventy five million dollars in sponsorship deals. Now you
9:28
Speaker 3: would say that's a tremendous increase sixteen percent year over
9:31
Speaker 3: year growth, continuing to show trajectory on the upward swing. However,
9:36
Speaker 3: as somebody who grew up in the media industry, it's
9:38
Speaker 3: really important to dimensionalize that number. Well, that number split
9:41
Speaker 3: across four hundred and forty one brand partners. When you
9:44
Speaker 3: do basic division, that means the average value of an
9:47
Speaker 3: annual deal is one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. So
9:50
Speaker 3: when you hear that as an advertiser, you're like, oh,
9:52
Speaker 3: this is accessible, this is efficient. But then I take
9:55
Speaker 3: it a step further and you really start to speak
9:58
Speaker 3: media math and get under the hood with advertisers who
10:00
Speaker 3: have to make the business case and are like, well,
10:02
Speaker 3: is that a lot? Is that a little? What do
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Speaker 3: I even get for that? And when I quickly explain
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Speaker 3: to them, well, let's talk on average and what you
10:08
Speaker 3: spend in sports. From a men's perspective, the average thirty
10:12
Speaker 3: second spot in the Super Bowl last year was seven
10:14
Speaker 3: to eight million, So for seven eight million, you could
10:16
Speaker 3: own the whole damn thing. Further, microscopic example, a thirty
10:20
Speaker 3: second spot in the Major League Baseball World Series with
10:23
Speaker 3: no specific guarantees is four hundred and fifty to five
10:26
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So for a fourth of
10:29
Speaker 3: the price you pay for thirty seconds of television time
10:31
Speaker 3: during Major League Baseball World Series, of which you know,
10:33
Speaker 3: if it's a blowout, you might not even see, one
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Speaker 3: hundred and seventy thousand dollars, I can own eight months
10:39
Speaker 3: worth of inventory. That's the way we like to explain
10:42
Speaker 3: it to advertisers. And so I think we're way past
10:45
Speaker 3: the charity recognizing opportunity, and now how do you make
10:48
Speaker 3: it so that it's an easy yes to get to
10:50
Speaker 3: in terms of evaluating it as a real, tangible opportunity.
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Speaker 1: You've mentioned that this came up in twenty four, this dator,
10:57
Speaker 1: you found a deep blue in twenty three. So what
10:59
Speaker 1: they're another key moment that you said, okay, now it's
11:02
Speaker 1: time to do it. Were you approached by your network,
11:06
Speaker 1: you know, mentors, whoever you knows that Okay, this is
11:09
Speaker 1: something you have to do though, because you're the only
11:11
Speaker 1: one you can do it. What was the moment maybe
11:13
Speaker 1: or was it a process over the years that you decided, Okay,
11:16
Speaker 1: now it's time to do it.
11:17
Speaker 3: Sure, there was a light bulb moment. It actually goes
11:19
Speaker 3: back far beyond twenty three. It was pre COVID twenty nineteen.
11:22
Speaker 3: During the Women's World Cup at twenty nineteen in France,
11:25
Speaker 3: the US women's national team had lifted the trophy for
11:27
Speaker 3: the fourth time, and it was also the same year
11:30
Speaker 3: that they had sued their employer in US Soccer for
11:32
Speaker 3: equal pay and won. And there was this climatic moment
11:36
Speaker 3: where the crowd starts chanting equal pay instead of USA.
11:40
Speaker 3: And I tell this story often about how the broadcasters
11:43
Speaker 3: were really excited, but the advertising community didn't budge. I
11:48
Speaker 3: was very curious as to why, for the second time
11:51
Speaker 3: in as many decades ninety nine and now in twenty nineteen,
11:54
Speaker 3: you're seeing consumer demand but advertisers paying little to no attention,
11:59
Speaker 3: let alone interest and investing or getting under the hood.
12:01
Speaker 3: And what we quickly realized, Christian is it wasn't a
12:04
Speaker 3: story issue. The narratives were there, It wasn't a product
12:07
Speaker 3: issue that US women's national team alone had been one
12:09
Speaker 3: of the best to ever do it for decades.
12:12
Speaker 2: It was a systems issue.
12:13
Speaker 3: We had advertisers evaluating women's sports on the same currency
12:17
Speaker 3: and metrics, which is reach and efficiency as they were mens.
12:21
Speaker 3: And so if you have a dollar to spend and
12:23
Speaker 3: your tasked with finding as many eyeballs as possible, as
12:25
Speaker 3: efficiently as possible, and I present you Sunday Night football
12:28
Speaker 3: versus the WNBA Playoffs, you don't have to justify one
12:31
Speaker 3: of those decisions. And that's where your money's going nine,
12:33
Speaker 3: if not ten out of ten times. And so it
12:35
Speaker 3: was a systems issue, one of these things I'm sure
12:37
Speaker 3: as an entrepreneur you can relate to. You go to
12:40
Speaker 3: sleep thinking about, you wake up thinking about, and it's like,
12:43
Speaker 3: I've got to put this to the test. And so
12:45
Speaker 3: fast forward to twenty three. I ended up posting the
12:48
Speaker 3: Business of Women's Sports on at the first annual in
12:51
Speaker 3: April of that year, not knowing if anybody would even
12:54
Speaker 3: show up, but knowing this could be a determinant as
12:57
Speaker 3: to whether or not the advertising market would respond.
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Speaker 2: Not all these did people show up. We sold out
13:01
Speaker 2: the room.
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Speaker 3: Marketers were flying from all over the country, and you
13:04
Speaker 3: know this, to spend your own money and fly cross
13:07
Speaker 3: country to spend a day on a subject matter that
13:10
Speaker 3: isn't necessarily part of the mainstream, right, you know, there's interest,
13:13
Speaker 3: there's intrigue, and so it was one of those I
13:16
Speaker 3: walked off the stage and it was like, how much
13:18
Speaker 3: more validation and signaling do I need to take a swing?
13:22
Speaker 3: And so got to work, dusted off a business plan
13:24
Speaker 3: and within six months, following a deep listening tour, launched
13:27
Speaker 3: the business and thanks to the Final Four tournament in
13:31
Speaker 3: April of twenty four when the world met Caitlin Clark
13:34
Speaker 3: and Angel Reese, it's been lights out ever since. And
13:37
Speaker 3: so a lot of work went into the founding of it.
13:40
Speaker 3: But I don't think anyone, whether you were new or
13:43
Speaker 3: in the space, could have predicted the trajectory of what
13:45
Speaker 3: would have happened over the last eighteen months.
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Speaker 1: What a great story, and I think you agree. Sometimes
13:50
Speaker 1: it's not necessary to come up with the brand new
13:53
Speaker 1: idea the world hasn't seen yet, But it's about timing, right,
13:56
Speaker 1: and to come up with one hundred percent that year
13:58
Speaker 1: about timing and you did it. You did it. What
14:00
Speaker 1: is the hottest myth to break when you started to
14:03
Speaker 1: talk to people and brands and decision makers, is it
14:06
Speaker 1: that women's sports don't have the audience. Is it that
14:09
Speaker 1: there is no money connected to this? What was the
14:12
Speaker 1: hottest or the biggest hurdle to convince people to get
14:15
Speaker 1: into the game.
14:17
Speaker 2: How much time do we have?
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Speaker 3: All of the above, and I think again comes back
14:21
Speaker 3: to well, what do you typically equate success with? And
14:24
Speaker 3: then what are the barriers to achieving it? It's very
14:27
Speaker 3: hard to say. And in classic chicken EG scenario, well,
14:30
Speaker 3: you know women's sports, there's no money coming in. Well,
14:33
Speaker 3: advertising dollars and media rights are determined based on audience.
14:37
Speaker 3: But if the thing isn't on TV broadcast, let alone
14:40
Speaker 3: in prime time, how do you develop the audience to
14:42
Speaker 3: bring the money? And so it really had to require
14:45
Speaker 3: champions who believed in the product, could see the vision,
14:49
Speaker 3: could see the opportunity, who were listening to the rabbit
14:52
Speaker 3: fans who have been part of this ecosystem for decades,
14:55
Speaker 3: to play some early bets, and there were advertisers who did.
14:59
Speaker 3: I always give credit to Andrew Brimmer and the team
15:01
Speaker 3: at Ally Financial for placing a bet when this wasn't
15:04
Speaker 3: the popular thing, saying a few years back, we're going
15:06
Speaker 3: to commit for every dollar we spend in men's we're
15:08
Speaker 3: going to spend in women's on an equal footing within
15:10
Speaker 3: a determinate amount of years, creating a real tangible number
15:13
Speaker 3: that they needed to achieve. Andrew tells us all the time,
15:16
Speaker 3: you get into the space and there's actually not enough
15:18
Speaker 3: inventory to buy, and so you know you've got this
15:22
Speaker 3: systemic challenge that is multi layered and multifaceted that I
15:26
Speaker 3: think really just require dedicated attention. When Andrew placed that bet,
15:31
Speaker 3: you could probably hear a pin drop.
15:32
Speaker 2: People didn't really react.
15:34
Speaker 3: Were they're reacting Now you can't even get in and
15:37
Speaker 3: that's just a few years ago.
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Speaker 1: Who else is following this example? Are these more than
15:41
Speaker 1: your brands? The younger brands? Is that the mix of
15:43
Speaker 1: bose Do you see a difference in terms of how
15:45
Speaker 1: they behave.
15:47
Speaker 2: A mix of both.
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Speaker 3: So there have been legacy brands who have I would
15:50
Speaker 3: say always been and we're early believers in the space.
15:53
Speaker 3: Although those brands now recognize they can't rest on their
15:55
Speaker 3: first mover position. There is so much new money coming
15:59
Speaker 3: in that's saying I here first or I was here early,
16:02
Speaker 3: is no longer enough to keep up with the pace
16:04
Speaker 3: in trajectory, especially when you have so many new and incremental
16:06
Speaker 3: fans coming into the space. So those brands who were
16:09
Speaker 3: there early you see really thinking about innovation and ingenuity.
16:13
Speaker 3: How do they find incremental gains, new ways of showing
16:15
Speaker 3: up to meet the modern market, the new market as
16:18
Speaker 3: well as the new fans. And then you're seeing a
16:20
Speaker 3: great number of net new brands, I would say, non
16:23
Speaker 3: endemics to the women's sports or maybe sports space period
16:26
Speaker 3: who are recognizing this growth, recognizing the get in price
16:30
Speaker 3: of where they can align Today. I talked about that
16:32
Speaker 3: one hundred and seventy thousand dollars to be a league sponsor.
16:35
Speaker 3: You're not getting that type of inroad in men's sports.
16:38
Speaker 3: We work with brands like Vagisil who first time ever
16:41
Speaker 3: spending in the space. We broke it to deal with
16:43
Speaker 3: them with the New York Liberty and the WNBA. The
16:45
Speaker 3: same thing with Bumble last year as they were coming
16:48
Speaker 3: in and around the w as well. And so these
16:50
Speaker 3: are brands who had historically not spent in women's sports
16:53
Speaker 3: and were now recognizing that not only was it part
16:56
Speaker 3: of the cultural zeitgeist, that there were real tangible returns
16:59
Speaker 3: in terms of the audience being there. I think everybody's
17:01
Speaker 3: really trying to figure out the best opportunity to find
17:05
Speaker 3: their lane and do it with staying power in.
17:08
Speaker 1: Terms of media and media coverage and media business. And
17:11
Speaker 1: you have a great experience in this as well. So
17:13
Speaker 1: now is all the athletes having their own platforms and
17:16
Speaker 1: media companies doesn't mean a massive change for your daily
17:20
Speaker 1: work with them not being you know, just with a
17:22
Speaker 1: single person in the room, but dealing with a whole
17:25
Speaker 1: bunch of team members and probably different opinions.
17:28
Speaker 3: With athletes in particular. It's really interesting for a number
17:31
Speaker 3: of reasons. So when you think about us living in
17:33
Speaker 3: a media era where I would argue it's individual over institution,
17:37
Speaker 3: the athletes absolutely hold the influence and the impact and
17:40
Speaker 3: comparison to the leagues and the teams. I often cite
17:43
Speaker 3: numbers like Angel Rees for example, has four point five
17:45
Speaker 3: plus million followers on Instagram alone.
17:48
Speaker 2: I think the WNBA has less than a third of that.
17:50
Speaker 3: So when you look at the sheer scale size and influence,
17:54
Speaker 3: and these athletes, many of them because they have had to,
17:57
Speaker 3: not many maybe because they wanted to, but it's how
17:59
Speaker 3: they're bilding their businesses and their brands off the court,
18:02
Speaker 3: are leveraging and disintermediating traditional media to bypass. Less than
18:07
Speaker 3: fifteen percent coverage of total sports goes to women's sports.
18:10
Speaker 3: So if you're not getting the airtime, you have to
18:12
Speaker 3: create it, and they're going to platforms like social to
18:15
Speaker 3: do so. That coupled with this next generation who I'm
18:18
Speaker 3: so enamored by, who is taking the reins on the
18:21
Speaker 3: nil ruling and running with it in every which direction
18:25
Speaker 3: to maximize their returns during their college and now high
18:28
Speaker 3: school years. It is interesting to see how you have
18:31
Speaker 3: so many of these young, up and coming emerging athletes
18:34
Speaker 3: who are becoming multi hyphenates before they become professionals. That's
18:37
Speaker 3: very exciting because what it presents our athletes who have
18:40
Speaker 3: business sensibility. They understand the value of partnership, sponsorship, building community,
18:45
Speaker 3: building fan base.
18:47
Speaker 2: They know what their fans are looking for.
18:49
Speaker 3: There's a level of authenticity that they demand and that
18:51
Speaker 3: makes for sharper advertising and more effective outputs.
19:06
Speaker 1: Do you think it's more for brands to get even
19:08
Speaker 1: better familiar with the newer platforms or the modern platforms
19:11
Speaker 1: or the state of the air platforms, however we call it,
19:14
Speaker 1: or is it still a kind of misunderstanding how to
19:18
Speaker 1: actually connect with fans through women's sports. In other words,
19:22
Speaker 1: do you see brands need to still learn about the
19:25
Speaker 1: difference between you know, fans supporting women's sports than men's sports,
19:29
Speaker 1: or is it more about the new platforms in general.
19:32
Speaker 3: It's a great question, the multi faster one. So what's
19:34
Speaker 3: interesting about men's sports versus women's is there's actually relatively
19:39
Speaker 3: low overlap. I just had the opportunity to go on
19:41
Speaker 3: Alex Rodriguez's podcast, The Deal, and he asked a similar
19:44
Speaker 3: question as the new owner of the WNBA Links in Minnesota,
19:49
Speaker 3: and he was surprised to find out it was single
19:50
Speaker 3: digit crossover between his men's and women's team. So there's
19:53
Speaker 3: a lot of education that has to happen. And with
19:55
Speaker 3: that lack of crossover, the need to understand, well, then,
19:59
Speaker 3: who is this ninety percent plus debt new audience that
20:02
Speaker 3: I'm going to achieve, perhaps in the same market of
20:04
Speaker 3: a men's team I'm invested in. So I think yes,
20:07
Speaker 3: learning the consumer, their habits, their likes, their dislikes. The
20:10
Speaker 3: women's sports community is a very unforgiving one. These are
20:13
Speaker 3: people who are rabid fans that have been here before
20:15
Speaker 3: this was popular, and they drive accountability from those who
20:18
Speaker 3: are coming into the space, holding brands to a level
20:21
Speaker 3: of understanding that I haven't seen in many other industries
20:26
Speaker 3: and verticals. So I think that's part one, and then
20:28
Speaker 3: part two, how they're showing up in different capacities and
20:31
Speaker 3: how these athletes are now leveraging the broader ecosystem. I'm
20:34
Speaker 3: starting to see more female athletes on LinkedIn in the
20:37
Speaker 3: last six to nine months than I've seen in my
20:39
Speaker 3: entire life, and I think that's a signal.
20:41
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
20:42
Speaker 3: And the content that you see them engaging with their
20:44
Speaker 3: and how they're trying to connect with the advertising community
20:47
Speaker 3: or the business community wildly different than what they're doing
20:50
Speaker 3: when they're dancing on TikTok. Right, it's not a one
20:52
Speaker 3: size fits all, like anything, I think learning the audience
20:55
Speaker 3: and what they're after. But then how do you segment
20:57
Speaker 3: your messaging and your activation across the platforms to best
21:00
Speaker 3: connect with the fan bases.
21:01
Speaker 1: Which platform do you use most for your own kind
21:04
Speaker 1: of content or sharing information? Is it LinkedIn?
21:08
Speaker 3: It is LinkedIn? I'm not on TikTok, I am not
21:11
Speaker 3: TikTok dancing. I don't think anybody wants to see that,
21:13
Speaker 3: but obviously, as somebody in this industry, I'm very well
21:15
Speaker 3: versed on all the different facets. But when I look
21:18
Speaker 3: at what we're trying to build Deep Blue as a
21:20
Speaker 3: B to B company, and so it's important for us
21:22
Speaker 3: to support our community and our industry with as much thought, leadership, insights,
21:28
Speaker 3: and guidance and examples as possible. And so I'm regularly
21:31
Speaker 3: on there sharing what we're seeing in real time and
21:34
Speaker 3: hopes that for someone that may be the difference between
21:36
Speaker 3: spending nothing versus spending something.
21:38
Speaker 1: We talk about new brands, whether it's more the established brands,
21:41
Speaker 1: but definitely the are brands coming into the women's sports
21:43
Speaker 1: world now coming from different industries, right, not the traditional
21:46
Speaker 1: linked industries. For could be finance, could be beauty, of course,
21:50
Speaker 1: do they reshape the type of stories and campaigns we
21:53
Speaker 1: are seeing because of their business background? Is that a
21:56
Speaker 1: big shift because of their products and services to the
22:00
Speaker 1: fans of women's sports?
22:01
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I'll even stay within a category
22:04
Speaker 3: that has been endemic. So financial service is probably one
22:06
Speaker 3: of the biggest most active categories in sports period, but
22:09
Speaker 3: particularly in women's sports. It's definitely one of the higher
22:12
Speaker 3: spending categories. I think many of them have shown up
22:15
Speaker 3: historically in the space with the tried and true playbook,
22:18
Speaker 3: and we know what that is, right, it's presenting sponsorships,
22:21
Speaker 3: it's naming awards, it's showing up on led boards around
22:24
Speaker 3: the court. But again, hard pressed to recognize that this
22:28
Speaker 3: is a different audience in a different environment, certainly cultural
22:31
Speaker 3: time that we're in. I had the opportunity to work
22:34
Speaker 3: with mass Mutual on a campaign earlier this year. Mass
22:37
Speaker 3: Mutual one hundred plus year olds financial institution focus on
22:40
Speaker 3: protecting the ones you love and insurance, and came across
22:43
Speaker 3: an insight that an alarming number of women.
22:46
Speaker 2: Do not have financial confidence.
22:48
Speaker 3: And when you marry that with the cultural zeitgeist, and
22:51
Speaker 3: how do you take a statistic that's jarring but really
22:54
Speaker 3: humanize it and bring it through in a way that
22:56
Speaker 3: is relatable and accessible. Women's sports presents that approachability. I
23:00
Speaker 3: think even unlike men's sports, there's a level of access
23:03
Speaker 3: that exists in women's sports where you could get up
23:05
Speaker 3: close to the athletes in ways that you know historically
23:09
Speaker 3: in the sports industry we have not, and so it's disarming.
23:12
Speaker 3: And so instead of coming out with your classic approach
23:15
Speaker 3: to highlighting that number and talking about products and Services.
23:19
Speaker 3: We went a different direction and we engage three athletes
23:22
Speaker 3: at three different parts of their career, one being an
23:24
Speaker 3: emerging collegiate superstar and Flage Johnson, who plays for LSU,
23:28
Speaker 3: who's not only a basketball player, she's also a recording artist,
23:31
Speaker 3: a true multi hyphen in every sense of the word.
23:34
Speaker 3: We also had Madison Keys, who's been on the tennis
23:37
Speaker 3: circuit for quite some time, who had just come off
23:39
Speaker 3: the Australian Open victory, her first Grand Slam win, as
23:43
Speaker 3: well as Kristin Press, who's been a veteran on the
23:45
Speaker 3: US women's national team, a current player for Angel City,
23:48
Speaker 3: and we start talking about the different stages of financial confidence,
23:51
Speaker 3: the growth, the team that you need, and instead of
23:54
Speaker 3: again coming out with a classic financial service ad, we
23:57
Speaker 3: created something so cinematic that Parawai's these women for their journeys,
24:02
Speaker 3: the work that they put in, the outputs that they achieve,
24:05
Speaker 3: to demonstrate that through the rise of their careers, the
24:09
Speaker 3: team that they would need to achieve their success not
24:11
Speaker 3: only on the field or on the court, but off
24:13
Speaker 3: of it as well, and that extends to their finances
24:15
Speaker 3: as many of them are increasing their earning potential as
24:17
Speaker 3: the space continues to grow. So we hired an incredible director,
24:21
Speaker 3: We had an all female production team behind the scenes
24:24
Speaker 3: and obviously in front of the camera with our talent,
24:26
Speaker 3: tell this story in a way Christian that you know
24:30
Speaker 3: you just hadn't seen done. And also to recognize that
24:32
Speaker 3: this wasn't a women's sports ad. This was a brand
24:34
Speaker 3: ad that featured female athletes, and so it didn't just
24:37
Speaker 3: run in women's sports content. It ran across NCAA, March
24:41
Speaker 3: Mandness tournament in general men's and women's competition. It was
24:44
Speaker 3: on business platforms, news platforms, sports platforms all the way
24:47
Speaker 3: through the NBA Finals, And it was really to send
24:50
Speaker 3: a message in normalizing the conversation, certainly around the female
24:53
Speaker 3: financial confidence gap, but to also leverage the influence of
24:57
Speaker 3: these athletes not just because they were women who play sport,
25:01
Speaker 3: but because they are talented athletes and business people on
25:04
Speaker 3: a journey. And so I think that was just such
25:06
Speaker 3: a great manifestation of what we're talking about and going
25:09
Speaker 3: a layer deeper and developing strategy.
25:11
Speaker 1: Talk about opportunities. Do you see or would you like
25:14
Speaker 1: to see a complete new sponsorship opportunity and format to
25:18
Speaker 1: be introduced using women's sports platforms which doesn't exist yet.
25:22
Speaker 1: Do you have something in mind?
25:23
Speaker 2: So I'm glad you asked this.
25:25
Speaker 1: Quite okay, what is it?
25:26
Speaker 3: Okay, we talked about the media model not serving the
25:29
Speaker 3: current ecosystem in terms of where women's sports are today.
25:32
Speaker 2: Historically haven't had the reach.
25:33
Speaker 3: Historically, haven't had the technology, the data, all of the
25:36
Speaker 3: things that we need to make the business case from
25:38
Speaker 3: a media buying perspective. And so you're like, okay, well,
25:41
Speaker 3: if it's not a CPM basis, what is it? And
25:44
Speaker 3: something I would really love to push the media industry
25:47
Speaker 3: on is right sizing the opportunity not just in terms
25:50
Speaker 3: of what we're selling, but how we're selling it, and
25:53
Speaker 3: thinking about ways we can engage advertisers to come in.
25:56
Speaker 3: Perhaps it's through a flat fee, an engagement based model,
25:59
Speaker 3: a product lead model. I would just love to see
26:02
Speaker 3: ways that we can step outside the box and recognize
26:06
Speaker 3: that we cannot sell something for what it inherently cannot
26:08
Speaker 3: deliver on if you're going to gate keep it behind paywalls,
26:11
Speaker 3: if you're not going to put it in prime time,
26:14
Speaker 3: if the argument is we need more audience than it
26:16
Speaker 3: needs to come from behind those barriers, and if it's
26:19
Speaker 3: that there's not enough ad dollars coming in. Well, perhaps
26:22
Speaker 3: we need more content and so just finding ways to
26:24
Speaker 3: work with advertisers that goes beyond the system. That is
26:28
Speaker 3: a very quick and easy sell that we're all very
26:30
Speaker 3: comfortable and know in this industry to really create the
26:33
Speaker 3: value versus just transacting in the limited version of it.
26:37
Speaker 1: Have you already identified those advertisers who are keen to
26:40
Speaker 1: do this and to join you on this, Johnny.
26:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I give you a great example.
26:43
Speaker 3: We're going to be premiering a documentary called the Fastest
26:46
Speaker 3: Six Weeks in Sports that Deep Blue co produced with Ensemble,
26:50
Speaker 3: which is a company co founded by Ray focus on
26:53
Speaker 3: the creator economy as well as Religion of Sports, which
26:56
Speaker 3: best in class sports production company, and the heart and
26:59
Speaker 3: fast rule. You have to put together brief and you
27:02
Speaker 3: have to go get at finance. Then you have to
27:03
Speaker 3: find a distributor. By the time you make the thing,
27:05
Speaker 3: we are all the way over here. So in a
27:08
Speaker 3: sort of roundabout way, understanding the brand market and the
27:11
Speaker 3: desire for brands to get around more content and be
27:14
Speaker 3: able to influence and shape it as well as their
27:17
Speaker 3: narrative within it and alongside it, we decided to go
27:20
Speaker 3: a different route, and that was to work directly with
27:22
Speaker 3: brands and executive production roles to underwrite and finance the projects.
27:27
Speaker 3: So now we are able to make the thing while
27:30
Speaker 3: simultaneously meeting those production dollars with media dollars to ensure
27:35
Speaker 3: not only we're making it, but that it's discoverable, so
27:38
Speaker 3: that we're promoting it, we're driving tune in, building ancillary
27:41
Speaker 3: content around it, et cetera to increase the likelihood of viewership.
27:46
Speaker 3: So our first doc, The Fastest Six Weeks, which is
27:48
Speaker 3: an incredible story about collegiate athletes coming from the final four.
27:52
Speaker 3: There's literally six weeks between the time they finish that
27:54
Speaker 3: tournament to the time they enter the league for the
27:57
Speaker 3: WNBA tip off, which is just incredible. And thanks to
28:00
Speaker 3: the brand partners we're working with on that, which include
28:03
Speaker 3: Uncrustables as well as door Dash and a couple of
28:06
Speaker 3: others will be announcing soon that have come on to
28:09
Speaker 3: support that, and Roku who was quick to support as
28:12
Speaker 3: a distribution partner alongside YouTube and a few others. So
28:15
Speaker 3: just an example of ways to get and market quickly
28:17
Speaker 3: with ideas and not be encumbered by legacy systems.
28:21
Speaker 1: Do you feel that women today have more freedom all,
28:24
Speaker 1: let's say flexibility, or feel more pressure to share multi
28:27
Speaker 1: dimensional stories off the field, like around motherhood, activism, mental health.
28:33
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't think they feel pressure at all. I
28:34
Speaker 3: think they're asking for the microphone. I think that these
28:37
Speaker 3: are stories that are inherently part of who we are.
28:40
Speaker 3: I've heard so many athletes say sports aren't who I am,
28:43
Speaker 3: It's what I do, and it's just one piece of
28:47
Speaker 3: the layers of the people that we're talking about. Many
28:50
Speaker 3: athletes are embracing the opportunity to tell your stories, and
28:53
Speaker 3: there's been so many great examples athletes starting podcasts, starting
28:56
Speaker 3: full on media companies, making sure that they are showing
29:00
Speaker 3: the different dimensions of who they are as people off
29:04
Speaker 3: the court, because the reality is, the on court component
29:07
Speaker 3: of it has limitations. Currently where we are today, there
29:09
Speaker 3: are real stealings in terms of the income earning potential
29:13
Speaker 3: for female athletes as competitors off the court.
29:17
Speaker 2: Whole different story.
29:18
Speaker 3: I truly believe today women's sports is more valuable off
29:21
Speaker 3: the court that it is on. And so when you
29:24
Speaker 3: think about the need to create those exposure and access
29:27
Speaker 3: points to bring in new fans, certainly but new brand
29:30
Speaker 3: partners especially, I think it's a necessary part of the model.
29:35
Speaker 1: When scouts are looking for athletes, are there looking for
29:38
Speaker 1: their voices and values as much as for their performance.
29:42
Speaker 1: Is it Bose?
29:43
Speaker 3: It's such a great question and one that's interesting and
29:47
Speaker 3: dependent by market.
29:48
Speaker 2: What we see in the US is one that.
29:50
Speaker 3: Is highly highly commercial driven, and so on paper, the
29:54
Speaker 3: ones that are driving the biggest stats aren't necessarily the
29:57
Speaker 3: ones that are leading the charge commercially and vice versa,
30:00
Speaker 3: and so it is interesting to think about what and
30:03
Speaker 3: how athletes use to develop their business. I mean, look
30:06
Speaker 3: at Alana mare Usa rugby. This is not a sport
30:09
Speaker 3: in the US in particular that is part of the
30:11
Speaker 3: mainstream cultural zeitgeist. Well, lon O mar got everybody thinking
30:14
Speaker 3: about rugby and how she has leveraged that opportunity in
30:18
Speaker 3: the Olympics in Paris to build a platform for herself
30:21
Speaker 3: which is so multifaceted. This is a fantastic example of
30:25
Speaker 3: where I think athletes who are commercially minded recognizing hey,
30:29
Speaker 3: there's a shelf life to this thing. Women are showing
30:32
Speaker 3: up and controlling the controllables by using their platforms and
30:34
Speaker 3: their narrative to build their businesses is phenomenal different in
30:37
Speaker 3: other parts of the world, you know, where you see
30:39
Speaker 3: like football is Life, to quote one of my favorite shows,
30:43
Speaker 3: Dead Lasso. But in the European markets, which I would
30:45
Speaker 3: say at a different phase in terms of the commercialization
30:48
Speaker 3: of the women's game performance rules above all else, I
30:53
Speaker 3: think that is changing. I think the athletes are demanding
30:55
Speaker 3: it and particularly keen to watch what happens in the
30:58
Speaker 3: Women's Super League this year in Europe in the US
31:00
Speaker 3: in their football season, soccer season for US in the
31:03
Speaker 3: States to see how these athletes, particularly those who are
31:06
Speaker 3: coming off winning the Euros and the Lions's that are
31:09
Speaker 3: in that league, are going to use this platform in
31:11
Speaker 3: this moment to absolutely build their off pitch brands and
31:15
Speaker 3: commercial opportunities. Accordingly, I think it's a domino effect that's
31:19
Speaker 3: happening across the world. I think the US has led
31:21
Speaker 3: the way for so long, but thanks to social media
31:23
Speaker 3: and the wide range of knowledge share that is happening
31:26
Speaker 3: freely across the Internet and the networks that exist, I
31:30
Speaker 3: do think you're going to see a continued rise that
31:32
Speaker 3: will expand far beyond the borders here.
31:35
Speaker 1: So I've mentioned Allison Felix and your partnership with her.
31:39
Speaker 1: In my intro did a John venture was Always Alpha,
31:42
Speaker 1: which is a company? Tell us about that, you know,
31:45
Speaker 1: what do you have in mind with this partnership and
31:47
Speaker 1: where will it be in New Year's time.
31:49
Speaker 3: Always Alpha was founded by Alison Felix, as you alluded
31:52
Speaker 3: to USA Track and Field Icon, along with her partners
31:56
Speaker 3: West Felix and Cassette Chaput, and their ambition was to
32:00
Speaker 3: create a talent management firm that was exclusively dedicated to
32:02
Speaker 3: the needs of female athletes. When they came online earlier
32:06
Speaker 3: last year, it presented a really interesting proposition in terms
32:10
Speaker 3: of basically cornering the market. For lack of a better
32:12
Speaker 3: way of saying it, Deep Blue was really focused on
32:14
Speaker 3: the commercial side deal flow, thinking about how we get
32:17
Speaker 3: brands involved in the space. And as somebody's in the industry,
32:19
Speaker 3: you control the money, you control the market, and so
32:21
Speaker 3: inasmuch as we could influence as well as educate where
32:25
Speaker 3: brand investment was going, we would have a seat at
32:27
Speaker 3: the table. Well, the other side of that coin is
32:30
Speaker 3: influence and who's driving that, as we talked to earlier
32:33
Speaker 3: in this episode, are the athletes. And so if you
32:36
Speaker 3: could maintain a world where you had a vantage point
32:40
Speaker 3: that included both where dollars were moving but also where
32:43
Speaker 3: influence was commanding. Now, all of a sudden, you have
32:47
Speaker 3: a vantage point in this industry in particular that has
32:50
Speaker 3: never coexisted, and so it was a bit of a
32:53
Speaker 3: no brainer after a series of conversations with the Always
32:56
Speaker 3: Alpha leadership team to say, hey, not only can we
32:59
Speaker 3: support you with deal flow strategy all the things that
33:01
Speaker 3: we're seeing from a commercial perspective, you can also help
33:04
Speaker 3: inform the way those deals are moving based on the influence,
33:07
Speaker 3: trends and first looks that your athletes are seeing that
33:12
Speaker 3: very few have the opportunity to do.
33:13
Speaker 2: In a first person basis.
33:15
Speaker 3: So we formed a joint venture Shook Hands, with the
33:18
Speaker 3: intent to become the world's largest firm dedicated to servicing
33:22
Speaker 3: the women's sports commercial industry alongside the female athlete talent
33:26
Speaker 3: management business.
33:27
Speaker 1: Wow, that's an ambitious goal and I'm sure you will
33:30
Speaker 1: be there very soon, sooner than later. Talk about partnerships
33:33
Speaker 1: also with ATHLETs. Is there a dream partner could be
33:35
Speaker 1: an athlet, could be maybe a brand or a leak.
33:38
Speaker 1: Is there a dream partner for Deep Blue? You know
33:40
Speaker 1: you're looking for you would like to partner with.
33:43
Speaker 3: For me, it's not individuals specific in as much as
33:47
Speaker 3: it's about innovation and ingenuity, and it's finding and aligning
33:50
Speaker 3: with partners who are going to push the bounds on
33:53
Speaker 3: what confines the industry today. Really those who are not
33:57
Speaker 3: just interested in getting in it for the short term,
33:59
Speaker 3: but really vested in finding ways to extrapolate it for
34:02
Speaker 3: the long term. And there's some great examples of athletes
34:04
Speaker 3: I mentioned Flaje Johnson earlier.
34:06
Speaker 2: Who're just doing it different.
34:08
Speaker 3: There's a very real path for this woman where she
34:11
Speaker 3: could have a number one single and be a number
34:14
Speaker 3: one draft picked in the same year. That is pushing
34:17
Speaker 3: the bounds on how we think about the world and
34:19
Speaker 3: influence of talent as it relates to the sports and
34:22
Speaker 3: entertainment industry. And then when you look at some of
34:24
Speaker 3: the brands that are in and around the space who
34:26
Speaker 3: are actively looking again not just to transact, but to transform.
34:30
Speaker 3: Speaking back to that ally example, I mean there's so
34:32
Speaker 3: many others who are thinking creatively.
34:35
Speaker 2: Love to partner with them.
34:37
Speaker 3: Also looking at people who are not just trying to
34:38
Speaker 3: come in for a season, but really thinking about multi
34:41
Speaker 3: year deals I think is important to drive longevity and
34:44
Speaker 3: then just those that have complete abandon for doing things
34:47
Speaker 3: the way they've been done. Great example of this is
34:49
Speaker 3: what Nofisa Collier and Brandi Storret had built with unrivaled
34:52
Speaker 3: feeling a real business need to create opportunities for their
34:56
Speaker 3: peers in the WNBA and professional basketball to not have
34:59
Speaker 3: to go overseas in the off season, not have to
35:01
Speaker 3: leave their families to supplement their income, and in doing
35:04
Speaker 3: so created a product that surpassed every metric they set
35:08
Speaker 3: out to.
35:08
Speaker 2: Achieve in Your one alone.
35:09
Speaker 3: And so the amount of innovation and blank canvas that
35:12
Speaker 3: exists here is what excites me. Christian and anybody who's
35:15
Speaker 3: willing to come along for that ride.
35:16
Speaker 2: We're absolutely game to lock in with.
35:18
Speaker 1: I love it. So we talked a lot about what
35:21
Speaker 1: you're currently doing and looking back, you've built platforms, You've
35:24
Speaker 1: built podcasts and summits and even soccer clubs. I mean,
35:28
Speaker 1: what a range once one thing which is still missing
35:31
Speaker 1: in women's sports that you would love to intend maybe
35:34
Speaker 1: as part of D Blue, maybe outside of D Blue,
35:37
Speaker 1: is anything else?
35:38
Speaker 3: Oh?
35:38
Speaker 2: I intend to own teams.
35:40
Speaker 3: I absolutely love the idea of an endgame being not
35:44
Speaker 3: just building a portfolio of assets, whether that includes content, media,
35:48
Speaker 3: certainly consulting, business and services, but the ability to get
35:52
Speaker 3: back on the pitch, be around the athletes, to influence
35:56
Speaker 3: the game day experience, really be part of the fabric
35:59
Speaker 3: of what influencing from the outside right now. But building
36:02
Speaker 3: it from the inside out is something that is not
36:05
Speaker 3: just a matter of if. It really is a when
36:08
Speaker 3: and so for me, it's a through line that isn't
36:10
Speaker 3: just a vertical in nature. It's one that we absolutely
36:13
Speaker 3: are thinking horizontally in terms of getting in and around
36:16
Speaker 3: other ways we can impact and demonstrate proof of concept
36:19
Speaker 3: to show the true tangible returns of what we believe
36:21
Speaker 3: this industry delivers on Laura.
36:23
Speaker 1: Let's say in five years time, when a young woman
36:25
Speaker 1: is asked when she first fell in love with sports,
36:28
Speaker 1: what do you hope her answer says about the future
36:31
Speaker 1: you've built, we've built altogether for women's sports, Will it
36:34
Speaker 1: be a different answer than today.
36:36
Speaker 2: It's fascinating that you asked this question.
36:38
Speaker 3: I literally just posted or reposted a quote from Alex Morgan,
36:42
Speaker 3: who is just on the Call Her Daddy podcast. Alex
36:45
Speaker 3: has a young daughter, and she talked about how she
36:48
Speaker 3: hopes one day when her daughter is of age and
36:51
Speaker 3: asked that question, presumably she will only ever have known
36:55
Speaker 3: a world that is equal. I get chills saying that
36:57
Speaker 3: out loud, because I think when you look at the
36:59
Speaker 3: numbers today, but the steady progression of where they're moving,
37:02
Speaker 3: and the conviction of what the women's sports industry and
37:04
Speaker 3: community is committed to, and you'll hear it endlessly anybody
37:08
Speaker 3: you ask, it's leave it better than we found it.
37:10
Speaker 3: It very much is a pay it forward mentality, one
37:13
Speaker 3: that certainly didn't start with Deep Blue. I mean, you
37:15
Speaker 3: can go back fifty plus years thinking about all of
37:18
Speaker 3: those who came before us and making bets and doing
37:21
Speaker 3: the hard thing to ensure that the next generation has
37:25
Speaker 3: what they need to be set up to succeed. And
37:26
Speaker 3: so that quote that Alex shared sums it up quite beautifully.
37:30
Speaker 1: All Right, thank you so much for this exciting and
37:33
Speaker 1: super inspiring conversation. It was so much fun for me
37:36
Speaker 1: and I'm sure everybody who's listening, and you know, you
37:39
Speaker 1: remind us that women's sports isn't just about equally at time,
37:42
Speaker 1: for sure not. It's about unleashing leadership. It's about rewriting
37:45
Speaker 1: business models. It's about building movements that last. And you
37:49
Speaker 1: are superstar and you're such a big mentor for so
37:51
Speaker 1: many people, especially women. Of course, Thanks again for your
37:55
Speaker 1: vision and voice, and to my audience out there. Keep
37:57
Speaker 1: questioning the playbook, keep pushing the boundaries as Laura does,
38:01
Speaker 1: and above all, keep turning possibilities into reality. This is
38:04
Speaker 1: all about I see you all soon back for the
38:06
Speaker 1: next episodes. Thank you so much, Laura, Thank you Christian,
38:10
Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for tuning in everyone. Once again, I'm your host,
38:16
Speaker 1: Christian More. If you have a question or suggestion to me,
38:19
Speaker 1: reach out, send me the m on LinkedIn. If you're
38:22
Speaker 1: curious to learn more about Possible, sign up for our newsletter,
38:25
Speaker 1: or if you want to join us at the Possible
38:27
Speaker 1: Show in Miami, visit possibleevent dot com. Possible Now is
38:32
Speaker 1: a co production of iHeartMedia and Possible. Our executive producers
38:36
Speaker 1: are Ryan Martz and Yasmin Melendez. Our supervising producer is
38:40
Speaker 1: Meredith Barnes. Special thanks to Colleen Lawrence Mac from our
38:44
Speaker 1: programming team. Our theme music is composed by Anthony Keatcoli.
38:49
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