Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 316. Behind The Camera: Em Johnson Talks Capturing The Top Women In Sport & Self-Belief As Her Strongest Tool

Transcript

316. Behind The Camera: Em Johnson Talks Capturing The Top Women In Sport & Self-Belief As Her Strongest Tool · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I will challenge you.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I don't mind being a woman in a male dominant
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: space because I know that I will earn the respect
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: prove that my existence is valid there.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: What's going on everyone, Emily Abadi Here.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: You are listening to episode three hundred and sixteen of Hurdle,
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: a wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: about everything from their highest ties.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: And toughest moments to essential tips on.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: How to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life. We
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: all go through our fair share of hurdles. My goal
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: towards your own big potential and of course have some
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: fun along the way. Today's episode, I am talking to
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: my good friend m Johnson. She's an independent creative specializing
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: in photography, videography and creative direction a multi hype in it.
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  Speaker 3: It's something I can get on board with.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: I love this conversation and it is super interesting to
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: hear about how em picked up a camera and really
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: followed her passions when it came to creating content, making
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: it her full time career. We chat about her role
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: in building together a media and commerce company that many
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: of us know in love all about supporting and uplifting
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: women in sport, and she gives some details into what
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  Speaker 4: she's doing today involving capturing content for one of the
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: best to ever do it, Brianna Stewart. Em and I
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  Speaker 4: talk about the importance about getting more female photographers covering
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  Speaker 4: sport out on the sidelines, advice she'd offer her younger
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: self just getting into the mix. Her new gig was Celsius,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: empowering her to use her talents to create content in
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: a really special and fun way, and what else she's
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  Speaker 4: excited about coming down the pipeline. EM and I had
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  Speaker 4: the opportunity to record this in Paris inside of Athleta's
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: Power of She Space, So thank you to them, of course,
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: and make sure if you're not yet following along with
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: Hurdle over on the socials you do that now. It's
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: over at Hurdle Podcast. I am over at Emily a
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Body and the weekly Hurdle wants to land in your
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: inbox every single Friday, so if you're not subscribed, it's
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: absolutely free. The link to do that is in the
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: show notes. In that weekly newsletter, you will get so
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: much of the same inspiration motivation you love from the show,
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: plus your picks. What I'm listening to, what I'm reading,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: what I'm watching a refreshing read to take you into
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: your weekend with that, Let's get to it. Let's get
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: to hurdling.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Today. I'm sitting down with Emily Johnson.
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  Speaker 4: She's an independent creative Podo video creative Direction.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: We're at the Olympics.
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  Speaker 1: Where else would we be?
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  Speaker 3: We have things degree, we live.
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  Speaker 2: Five minute walk from each other. Why we had to
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: come to Paris to do this?
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  Speaker 4: We did have to come to Paris to do this,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: and honestly it's a good excuse, right, Yeah, wow, welcome.
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  Speaker 4: You only just got here, yes, yesterday, and it's your
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  Speaker 4: first time in the city.
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  Speaker 1: It is I'm excited.
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  Speaker 4: Do you have something aside from the sport that you're
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: most excited about to be here?
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  Speaker 1: Basketball courts? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: I love like walking around and like finding outdoor hoops
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and capturing them in the Pigali court, which has been
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: like one of my north Star courts. To capture I
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: have to like make sure I go get that. So
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I think it's just me like exploring and like capturing
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the city.
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  Speaker 4: And when you say capturing, like what goes through your
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: head when you decide what you want to capture.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's instinct.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's also I love street photography where you
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  Speaker 2: kind of just like get to observe all your surroundings
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  Speaker 2: and then whether it's like you find symmetry or minimalism
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  Speaker 2: or like you find like kind of cultural elements of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the space around and just like capturing them colors all that.
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  Speaker 2: But I love hoops like I love capturing outdoor basketball courts,
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  Speaker 2: like that's my thing.
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  Speaker 4: And where did your love for hoops stem from?
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  Speaker 1: Baby? Oh a baby, No. I grew up.
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  Speaker 2: I grew up playing, My mom played in college, my
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  Speaker 2: dad ran track, but basketball was kind of just like
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  Speaker 2: instinct for me.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think.
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  Speaker 2: Early on, just little tykes, basketball hoop, always playing, and
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  Speaker 2: then yeah, I was a natural at it where I'd
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  Speaker 2: always play with all the boys maybe the one girl playing.
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  Speaker 2: They'd have to make exceptions for me to be in
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  Speaker 2: a little boys league, Like I was just like I
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: didn't care.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I was gonna ask you, did that make
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  Speaker 3: you feel any kind of way?
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  Speaker 4: And was there a point where you wanted to stop
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  Speaker 4: playing with the boys and start playing with women.
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  Speaker 2: I think for me, I always like wore that as
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  Speaker 2: a badge of honor, where I'm like, I'm good enough
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  Speaker 2: to be here, and the boys on my team, the
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: boys the other team, like, yes, they doubt me at first,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: but then I show them and I get their respect,
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  Speaker 2: And it was like I kind of liked feeling other
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  Speaker 2: in that sense where it was like, yeah, it was
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  Speaker 2: never something. I think that having those experiences early on
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  Speaker 2: empowered me to kind of navigate myself in the spaces
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that I'm in now that are heavily mail dominated.
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  Speaker 3: Yea, well, emil dominated.
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  Speaker 4: It's so interesting because you don't often hear someone say
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  Speaker 4: I like to feel other in that sense.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And so would you say that that like to
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: feel other is also something that's apparent in their work
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  Speaker 4: that you do now in your creative process.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think I don't ever mind kind of being a
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  Speaker 2: standalone in that sense, or doing something that hasn't been done,
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  Speaker 2: or challenging stuff like I've always in my previous bosses,
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  Speaker 2: my previous coaches, my mom, everyone, my partner will say this,
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  Speaker 2: like I will challenge you, like I will always be
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  Speaker 2: the person that's going to be like, well, what about
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  Speaker 2: this or like well and like why like why do
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  Speaker 2: you want like I'm always doing that? So for me
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  Speaker 2: to embody that where it's kind of like I don't
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  Speaker 2: mind being a woman in a male dominant space because
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I know that I will earn the respect prove that
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  Speaker 2: my existence is like valid there.
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  Speaker 4: So, but isn't it a little bit of a headache
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  Speaker 4: that you feel like there's a need that you have
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: to prove that your existence is valid instead of just
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  Speaker 4: being able to show up as you are and being like, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: I have belong here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think early on where you're in this mode where like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: I'm proving myself career wise, I'm proving myself in the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: spaces like this adrenaline that like you want to prove
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: everyone wrong. Over time, you become exhausted and you're like
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  Speaker 2: why I've done it? Why am I continually having to
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  Speaker 2: do it? Like every new space that you go into,
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  Speaker 2: your having to redo it. So it's like I think
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  Speaker 2: as I gotten older, my patients and tolerance for it
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  Speaker 2: like drops significantly. But yeah, early on it was kind
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  Speaker 2: of like a very much like yeah, a few I'm going.
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  Speaker 1: To go like prove you wrong type of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, understandable.
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  Speaker 4: So, speaking of early on, you have been on the
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: block in terms of creative direction, photography, et cetera, within
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: both women's basketball and sport. For a minute, now, where
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: did you get your start creatively?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh it's funny. I my when I played.
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  Speaker 2: I played D one basketball and my first two years
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  Speaker 2: I went to Colorado State, and there was a coaching
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  Speaker 2: change before I got there, Like I ended up transferring
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  Speaker 2: after two years, But within that two years, I was
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  Speaker 2: like wholeheardly a bench writer. I kind of knew that
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have to be as dialed in on like
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the game plan as like maybe my teammates. Because I
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: knew that my coach, I wasn't really one of his
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  Speaker 2: favorites that he was going to Like if you're not
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  Speaker 2: there's it's hard for them to invest in you.
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  Speaker 1: It's the whole thing. But I took the opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: One of my international teammates, she showed me this app
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  Speaker 2: on her phone that you can capture video and you
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  Speaker 2: put a little film on it, you put some music
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  Speaker 2: on it.
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  Speaker 1: It was like TikTok before like ten years ago.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just started capturing stuff like our road
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  Speaker 2: trips because it was for me, like everything was kind
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  Speaker 2: of low pressure, like I could capture some stuff because
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  Speaker 2: I knew that I might get in the game before
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  Speaker 2: up forty, but I'm not going to be this like
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  Speaker 2: integral part. That was a whole other like mental game
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  Speaker 2: to like figure out and be okay with. But I
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  Speaker 2: definitely made the most of it by just capturing that.
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  Speaker 2: And I think for me that got the ball rolling
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  Speaker 2: where I was just obsessed with, like, especially with video,
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  Speaker 2: the feeling you could get when you pair visuals or
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  Speaker 2: you pair clips with the right moment in music, and
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  Speaker 2: like you get these goosebumps, so like this feel good feeling,
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  Speaker 2: Like I love that. I'm a very emotional person, So
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  Speaker 2: that was kind of the start. I think that, just
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  Speaker 2: like snowballed.
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  Speaker 4: Before we talk about the snowball, I want to touch
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  Speaker 4: on what you said could be a whole other thing,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: which is this how do I navigate the things that
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: I kind of changed. You didn't start at Colorado because
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  Speaker 4: you thought it was going to be this way and
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: then it was that way. So from a younger age,
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: if we're talking about in the scheme of our adulthood,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: you really had to learn that lesson, Like, hey, if
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: I dwell on this.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: It's not going to serve me.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: Talk to me about that in practice.
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  Speaker 1: I mean hindsight twenty twenty on it.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I think for me going through it, like I was
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: a natural basketball pretty highly touted, like knew I was
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: going to go D one and at the time committing
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: and signing to Colorado State under one coach and them
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: seeing my value, them knowing this is the type of
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: person I want the system versus before I got there,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: that coach being fired, a new one coming in, deciding
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: to stay, and that coach not seeing my value. That
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: two years of having to navigate that mental game of
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: like no matter really what I do, this person doesn't
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: necessarily see that value, want to invest in it, nourish it.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And it put me in a dark space for sure,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: like I never had not been one of the top
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: performers or like like playing and it was a whole
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: mental game, like I couldn't my shots, like in baseball
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: you get like the yips where you can't pitch or
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I had that with my shot in basketball.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So that was massive and I think for me, the
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: creative outlet of that and focusing helped to pull away
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: from that. But at the end of the day, it
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: was still hard to navigate that. Yeah, and to like
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: have to question your value.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so entirely understandable now knowing that it was difficult
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: for you beyond the creative outlet, was there anything else
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: that you did to manage those feelings where you someone
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: that would write about them when you talk to other
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: people about them, Like, what were you doing to handle that?
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I cried, no, no, but like so important, but maybe
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: like we had our feelings.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I think the cool thing about Colorado State
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and like this is something that like I did transfer
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to Texas after that, and this was that was missing
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: at Texas and I grieved it. I think leaving it
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: at CSU is the athlete community there overlapped a lot.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Like I had a lot of friends in track volleyball.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Everyone was kind of connected, and so I had this
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: group that I kind of just ended up meshing with
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and there was some shared struggles and even like on
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the team one of my teammates, a couple of them
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: like we were in the same boat where it was
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: kind of like we were from the previous coach. We
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: like there was just bonding over that kind of suffering
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: in a sense where it's like, I think we leaned
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: on each other a lot. We were able to vent
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: to each other, we were able to kind of like
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: understand that, like, Okay, you're not alone in this situation.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: It sucks for everyone, but.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it for me though, I played a
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: lot of mental games and it burnt me out of basketball.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but then you had this newfound creative outlet. So
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: when did it go from I'm going to start filming
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: stuff on my phone and getting these goosebumps about putting
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: them to the right tracks to kind of taking it
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: to that next level.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: I while I was at CSU, I was like, okay, cool,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I liked doing this with my phone. And then go
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: pros were out, like just for a couple of years,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: and I was obsessed with like how you could get
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: wide angles on them, and like how you could bring
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: like the color landscape. And I was like, oh, I
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: gotta get one. And I had teammates that were like
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: h cause I was like should I get it?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Is it smart? Is it dumb?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: And they're like, well, I don't know if you'll use it,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: And it was like that's for me. It was a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: microcosm of a lot of things and like the creative
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: world or why I don't mind being othered. It's it's like, eh,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: people thought I wouldn't use it, but then it's like
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I got it.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I use the hell out of it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I was capturing so many things and it was just
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: like I don't know again, like this snowball of it
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: all and like that at CSU happened and then like
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I transferred to Texas and I know we might get
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: into this, but it's like I wasn't gonna.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Play basketball at first, Like I was like, ah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I'm burnt out, Like I need to focus on without basketball,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: what do I have?
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: And I still wanted to be around it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So I joined the women's basketball team as a manager,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and I was like I'm just going to do this.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: And then I got asked to be a walk on
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: a year later because we have to like practice with them.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Was on the team for a year, dealt with some
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: mental health stuff up the way, but then was like
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going full in on. I'm going to create content
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: for them, like I'm gonna do graphics for them. I'm
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: gonna So it kind of was just like this, like
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: it's a lot of like this rollercoaster that led me
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: to just really needing to pour into that creativity like
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: full stop.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: Dealt with some mental health stuff question mark, question mark,
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: question mark. Yeah, don't talk a little bit about We
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: talk a little bit about that.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I struggled a lot with And I think this is
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: something that I have anxiety where it's like this anxiety
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: is it's this anxious depression where they really just like
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: latch onto each other and they play around where it's
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: like you feel a little bit of depression, then you
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: get really anxious about why you feel that way.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And I in college is really when I.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Would say, actually it was like after I left CSU
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: and went to Texas. Yeah, it's in the middle of
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: sort of this identity crisis as well of like I'm
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: not playing anymore?
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Who am I? What am I doing?
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: It really just like roast the surface. I started having
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: panic attacks. I would like just have this ex sense
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: of doom and it was like something for me that
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: was like completely new to navigate a lot of it too.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: I was coming out and I think there were so
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: many stressors that were happening in my life. And when
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I was a walk on for the team for a year.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I just like, I don't it was.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Too much to handle sometimes where it's just like I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I joke and it's like not really a dope, but
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: it's like I would kind of hope that I could
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: like twist my ankle and practice because I was like,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I don't love basketball like this. I'm just like struggling,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Like it was just a whole like dark place that
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I had to kind of figure out how to climb
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: out of.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and thanks for sharing that. It's so difficult, right
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: because there's not an instruction manual on how you do that,
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: especially when you feel like it's your responsibility to do
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: it for yourself. It's not like you have this broader
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: understanding that I'm sure that you have now, which is.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: There are people that can help me with this.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And especially after the experience of being othered at
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: Colorado State, it's like, now I'm in this new environment
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: and I'm feeling this kind of way, and I don't
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: don't want to show anybody that.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I'm weak, so I'm just figuring out how to survive.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's a lot like I think there's even
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: like seven I don't know how long ago this was,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: but it's like there still was a bit of a
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: lack of understanding, lack of empathy around mental health or
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: like because it's an invisible like you can't see it.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: My teammates didn't know that, like my inability to maybe
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: like perform my best in like the weight room that day,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: or why I'm like having to sit out because I
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: literally have a panent Like it's there, you can't see it.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And so there's this lack of empathy. So then it's
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: like this layer of shame of like I already am
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: like feeling this anxiety trying to get through it, but
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I know it and it gets exacerbated because you know,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: people don't really understand like why that's happening. And so
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I think college like all that. That's where the mental
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: health for me became like a high priority because it
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: was like, oh no, like this, I can't have my
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: days go like this while I'm like not hungry or
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: I don't really like want to go do things. I'm like,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: this has to gotta squash that squash stus. But as
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: a tool, you do lean into your creative side. Yeah,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: and that's where this really starts to take off. Yes,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Like I remember I had a summer that I was
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: just it was this summer I think where it kind
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: of like really like took off my anxiety and I
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: was having frequent just sort of like panic attacks.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: But it was I was on the road.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I was an assistant coach for my sister's like club team,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and we would go to some like cities to.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Doing to DC, went to.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Chicago for like some tournaments, and I was like, okay,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: how can I Like part of the anxiety is keeping
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: yourself occupied a little bit, and I was like, creatively,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I have to give myself like projects. And I one
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: of my first like projects I did and I loved
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: it and.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: It definitely gave me a purpose.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Was like with my GoPro, I had one like the
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: selfie sticks and if you put it out like basically
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: what I do is the same shot in all these places.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: I ended up having like probably thirty of these shots.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: I did it all around like Austin, where I was
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: like living at the time, Like anywhere I could go
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: and I could get this beautiful shot.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I was like three sixty.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Turn with a camera. I'm like smiling in it. And
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: then I stitched all of them together. So it was
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: like at the end of it. The video I created
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: was like too music of course that makes you feel
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: little goosebumps. It was just like me turning around in
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: all these different like beautiful places, and that for me
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: was like the project that kind of kept me giving
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: me purpose every day to know like Okay, I need
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: to go on a walk to go get this shot.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Like I think, I use creativity and then that expression
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: to kind of give myself purpose.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, understandable.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: And I think a lot of us find purpose and
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: the things that excite us. And for many female entrepreneurs,
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: that thing that excites you is your product, it is
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: your work. So as you found that outlet within the creativity,
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: did you feel as though you were getting better at
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: navigating your anxiety?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Yes and no, Like I think it took more than that.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Like I definitely I went I started therapy. I ended
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: up getting on medication to kind of help where it's
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: like I think for me, like there's always a stigma
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: around medication, and for me it was like if it works,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, but it started.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: The creativity for me was the start like starting point
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: of me learning the ways in which I can help
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: myself or set myself up for success to like navigate that.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I think that really informed out a lot where I
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: don't know, I just I found out that like walking
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: a lot or photo walks or getting out and capturing
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: helps me a lot. Having projects, like getting excited about
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: something like that helps me manage all that.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: It's a combination of your creative outlet.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: And then also what I'm hearing you say is moving
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: your body in some sort of way. The fresh air,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: the movement, both of those that kind of perfect trifecta
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: of things helps you feel a little bit more like you.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have learned that a lot, Yeah.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: For sure, and I can certainly identify with that. So
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: beyond the I'm going to go out and take the
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: same shot everywhere, then it starts to evolve a little
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: bit more.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Yes, then me get out of the GoPro.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, oh I can, I'm good at this.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I like doing it. Let me try to make some money.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And I also like wanted to have better quality like
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: imagery or videos, so like I invested in a cannon
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: and would just I don't know, it was just I
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: was got my degree from YouTube University with all that stuff,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Like I just kind of dove all the way in
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: and was learning about it, figuring out settings like how
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to create cool how to edit stuff in a cool
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: way where you can make pictures move, like I was
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: just geeking out on all of that, and I think
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: for me that was It's funny. I compared the sort
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: of fire my belly I felt from like creativity to
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: like basketball, and it was like, Oh, this is what
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: it feels like when you truly love something like basketball and.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Never truly love like that to where I wanted.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: To nourish it and pour into it, like I always
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: had this like god given ability, but I didn't love
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: it like that.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Like even growing up, my dad.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: The great like best support system, like my parents were,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: but he'd be like, let's go to the gym on
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the weekend. Like he's like, let's go get shots up.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: You got to go do this, And I was like, ah,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I don't want to, like but it was like I
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: didn't I didn't want to put in all that work,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: but like, well, I go watch a two hour YouTube
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: video on how to create this absolutely like I just
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: like it's a different mindset. And so for me that
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: all came to light there in that like time of
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: time period. And again the snowball, like I got that camera,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: I did did and.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Like realize, Okay, I gotta level up a little bit.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: I got to work for when I graduated, I got
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: to work for the Texas football team and staff, and
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: they have even better equipment and I got.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: To utilize all of that.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And so it was just sort of they say equipment
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter, but to an extent, it does a little bit.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so having access to that was big.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I was a sponge for so many years
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: and I still am a sponge, but it was like
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I just was geeking out on learning as much as
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I could about how to create the best type of content.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: You know, it's so interesting because this conversation around finding
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: the thing that truly lights you up. It reminds me
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: of a conversation I had with a sports psychologist who
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: was talking to me about so many athletes when they're
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: phasing out of the game or they're graduating within sport,
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: they have this opportunity to identify what it is about
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: sport that actually excites them. Whether it's the competition, whether
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: it's the opportunity to play with the team, whether it's
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: the preparation or the diligence that goes into it, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: then segue those aspects into the next chapter.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Right, So if you are someone who actually really.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Likes the routine that goes into sport, then how can
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: you bring that routine into whatever it is that excites
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: you next. So it's just getting really granular with the
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: little things, right, getting really granular and asking yourself what
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: is it that makes Emily feel good?
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: It's also really funny because I say that I'm.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Trying yourself, but I'm also talking to you. It's so weird,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: but I love it so cool. So and then as
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: to your point, the equipment matters. So what an unbelievable
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: opportunity is for you to get in with this football
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: team and now you're really cooking with gass.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's like I think the thing is, like
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: equipment is a big barrier to entry for just a
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: lot of creatives where it's like you have the eye,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: you have the understanding, you have a storytelling, but like
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: in order to bring that to life at a premium
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: level like you can these days were more equipped with
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: like iPhones that can capture like high quality, but eight
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: ten years ago that wasn't the case where it's like
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: that sort of was just like a way to amplify
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: all of your work and so and to have the
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: canvas of like a college football team where like every
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: day I'm going to practice and capturing them every day.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I kept capturing every game like it was working so
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: many different muscles.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that leveled things up a lot for me.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: I mean I'm sitting here right now with you when
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: I have a ton of great equipment here that I
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: don't have at home, right and it puts me in
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: this position which is then a twofold problem because it's like, Okay,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: I walk out of here and I have ten weeks
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: of unbelievable podcast content, And then I ask myself, in
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: those ten weeks, what are you capable of changing so
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: that if you wanted to roll with this for ten weeks,
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: can you then start a foundation that enables you to
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: continue this when you return. It's it's like I said,
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: it's twofold, it's can I and then what do I
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: need to make it happen? And that then goes to
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: your conversation around money and equipment and is this the
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: bet on yourself era? I think it is. I think
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: we're in the bet in yourself era. Let's talk in
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: the bet on yourself era. Yeah, I know that right now.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: You feel like you two are in this period of
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: time where you're kind of flexing muscles in a different
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: way and moving and really trying some new things. So
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: how is that manifesting for you at this point in time.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I think it's for me and I tell us some
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: of my friends where it's like, again, I'm a challenger
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: where like early on in my career when people are like, Okay,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: you kind of need to have like give it ten years,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: give it like a little bit of like you have
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: to get this like understanding this experience, like experiences a
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: lot of value. And for me, I was like, nah,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I don't need experience, Like I can make cool shit.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I can do I can do this. Like I think
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: where that for me is like I was, I'm at
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: that point where I've had the ten years under my belt,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I've been doing it and I've like laid the bricks
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: where yeah, I think going fully freelanced, like I call
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: it the independent creative. Like I think for me, this
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: was the perfect timing for it, and I think, yeah,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: just seeing sort of the fruits of my labor that
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I was able to lay over the last like handful
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: of years at the different gigs I was in, Like,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I definitely I was.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Kind of forced in the betting on myself.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I had definitely planned on it, but it was one
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of those things where you plan and you're waiting for
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: everything to line up perfectly.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which, uh, that doesn't happen. I was gonna say,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: I was gonna say it.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I never just like this doesn't happen, but you kind
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of like it was.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I was scared. I knew I was going to be uncomfortable.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: I knew there was this sort of like this would
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: kind of reveal a lot to me, and I think this,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I'm now a year freelance, which is it feels like
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: it's been like four years at this point, Like things
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: move slowly, but it's like because of a full time
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: job I had, the company kind of unexpectedly folded. It
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: was like, oh, we're doing this now, like we're betting
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: on ourselves. Now we're doing this, we're going full in,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: And I think for me it was it's been incredibly validating,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: like the opportunities I've had since then and who I've
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: gotten to work with Yeah, and I think for me
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: it was just like, Okay, this was year one and
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: what can we do year five, year ten?
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Like Oh, I have goose pumps just thinking about it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
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  Speaker 4: about my sponsor at Element Elements, a tasty electro like
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  Speaker 4: the time, especially as I'm fueling these longer runs. I
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: drink Element about thirty to sixty minutes before I head
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: out the door, and I have so much confidence knowing
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• 26:46
  Speaker 4: than chasing them afterward. The best part is that when
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• 26:52
  Speaker 3: It's not a hard thing to do. Now.
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• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Again that address for freebies drink l mnt dot com
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: slash hurdle. Before we talk about the who I've gotten
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: to work with, let's talk about what you would deem
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: to be perhaps the most foundational bricks for you.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: People.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think people for me is big
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: and then I think just like the passion for it
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: where for me the people, like I've the connections I've
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: made from year one to year now, and it's like
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: understanding that like doing right by people, being kind, working hard,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: and like doing things the right way, like that maybe
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: in the moment doesn't get noticed, but like that's something
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: that doesn't leave people, and it kind of like something
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: I bring it back where last season for the WNBA,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: I shot the WNBA finals, like for the league, like
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: the full stop, full thing.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: I was one person, like the one person doing it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: That opportunity came from someone I used to work with
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: six years prior to that, where that door opened because
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: of that where it was like six years ago my
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: relationship with her name is Lucy. She has content for
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: the W Now we didn't know that this would happen there,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: but it's like for me, people is big because it's
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: like just being carrying yourself well and like that goes
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: a long way, and it made me not pay off.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: It doesn't maybe pay off like immediately, but I don't know.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I think for me, like that's big. And then I
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: think just the passion, like I love women's sports.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: She's like, I I love it. It's like shaking, yeah,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: I love women now.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I always have and I've always I think for me,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: I cared deeply about parity and equality, and it's like
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I think women's sports has always been easy for me,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Like I was an athlete, like I clearly identify with it.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: I have friends who are still athletes, Like I just
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: love it, and I love the fight for what we're
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: trying to build. And I think for me, it's like
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: that gives purpose as well to know that, okay, we're
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: fighting to like make things better and make improvements. So
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: it's like for me, I have this like deep deep,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: deep passion for it, and it's like I think that
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: coupled with just like connections and moving and doing right
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: by people and doing things the right way. I think
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: just kind of help to uplift where I'm at.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and a double click on the people component.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: It's also like it's not you're not being a good
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: person because you think that if I do this now,
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: this will happen. Then it's because you genuinely have this
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: moral compass that's like, no, this is the right way,
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: and this is how I want to present myself and
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: this is who I am at my core, and that
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: is the kind of action and that is the kind
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: of manifestation and relationship building that over time, like it
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: you're good.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: It's long game, and it's like I think for me,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: like even in high school, it's like I ran with
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: like what you might dub as like the popular crowd,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: but I was still othered there because I was so
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: disciplined about like so I wouldn't go do any of
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: the partying stuff, like I was a goodie good yeah,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: and I it was like I caught like I caught
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: flag from that growing up because it's like, oh, you're lame,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: like you go up.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I'm like, for whatever reason, I've always just had this like.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Long game approach where I know like Okay, that then
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: like partying or is like the right fun thing to do,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: but it's like what's the long term? And I think
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: to you, like the people building where it's like in
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: this industry, it's very easy to be transactional and to
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: like lean into that and to get like really quick
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: temporary like benefit versus knowing like aligning yourself with what's
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: going to benefit you the most in the long run.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Is I think kind of just how.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: I like to operate. Yeah, No, I mean I'm kind
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: of the same.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: I was definitely like a good, good and it just
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: it just gave me too much anxiety to not really
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: be a.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Good, good candidly.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: No, And I my parents, they they raised me well.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I wish I never want to do wrong.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I still don't want to do.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: I hear that.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: I like to be a little bit of a disruptor,
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: but I always want to do it in like a.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Kind kind of safe way.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: With that said, going back to your boisterous love for
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: women's sports, you have had the honor of doing a
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: myriad of things, but one of the things that you're
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: most proud of, arguably would be the foundational work that
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: you did with together so talk a little bit about
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: how that project came onto your radar and let's move
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: and groove from there.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, I love Together. That's my little baby, I think
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: I was at Player's tribute in New York, which for
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: context to like athlete storytelling wise pioneer of like led
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: storytelling but also like walk the Walk and did stories
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: on women athletes and that was like a lot of
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: that work was attributed to like the editors and they
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: had and like the care and the diligence. But my
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: boss at the time at Players doing was Jess Robertson,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: who is now co founder of Together, and she had
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: gotten identified by Alex Morgan's team as like, Okay, this
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: is someone we want to build this with and like leverage,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: and I became aware of such thing that was still
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: so under wraps there was no name for it, Like
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: it was just like there's this white space, this is
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: our plan, We're going to build it.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: And I reached out and was.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Just like I want to do this, like please I will,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: like I'm perfect for this, and so I got brought
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: on as the second employee and basically moved out to
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: LA This was like right before COVID started to and
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: it was like, Okay, great, we're sitting in a room
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: like a whiteboard and like what's the name?
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Like who are the other athletes that were launching with?
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Because Alex was so so like saidfast and like this
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: is not happening alone. And I went there like this
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: is a brand for women's sports, but like all women
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: and that is not limited to race, sexuality, sport, like
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: none of that, Like this is for everyone. And so
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: it was really just from ground zero and for me
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: to have been involved in the capacity I was so
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: early on, Like it still doesn't feel like I think
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: that's something that even like ten years from now, I'll
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: be like, oh that was a really big deal, like
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: because of where together will like be. But in the
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: moment I knew and I was like for me, I
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: had the opportunity to build a brand for myself and
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: like that that's like a selfish approach in that sense,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: but it was more of just like a way to
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: summarize like how cool of an experience.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: It was where it was like this isn't exists and to.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Be on ground zero of doing that, like and to
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: have my fingerprints all over it like that that opportunity
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I was like, Nah.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: This is this is sick.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and clearly your moral compass or your ambition was
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: the thing that triggered the no. But I need to
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: see it at this table for individuals that are listening
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: to this, and maybe they have their own version of
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: together the thing that they're excited about, but they have
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: that either imposter syndrome or they feel like they can't
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: garner the confidence to pull up the chair or to
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: send the email any recommendation or advice somewhere to start
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: do it yourself.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: But I think like in the sense of I say
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: that where that minimizes it a bit, but it's like, Okay,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: if you want to do you want to be brought
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: in to do this project that or you want to
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: have create a space for like let's say you wanted
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: to build it together.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Like I look at Ari Chambers, who she started, and
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: then the real ones know that what is now highlight
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: her which is under like the Bleacher report like umbrella
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: that started as a handle called we are in Jayla
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: that Ari was just like this doesn't I need to
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: create content and I need to do this. I'm gonna
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: do it myself, And like then it materialized into what
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: it is where I think I use as an example
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: of like, do it yourself, show proof of concept, like
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: don't wait for somebody to green light it or to
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: give you something. Obviously, I think resourcing helps things to
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: grow and have like scale, but I think just to
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: start and do it yourself, show proof of concept, create
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: the series you want yourself, create the photos you want yourself,
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: and then the right people will take exception and notice it.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: But then it's like, yeah, you got to reach out,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: you got to get experience, like you gotta knock on
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: those doors, and you might get a lot of nose,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: but it's that one yes or that one person who
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: sees your value that really makes the world of difference.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: And I think that the thing that can be frustrating
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: so many is maybe the repetition of the no right,
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: So it's so many no's, and then that turns into
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: a question of am I doing the right thing? And
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: so in those instances on my side, I turn inward
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: and ask myself, what's my why? And is my why
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: strong enough to keep me persistent in the myriad and
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: see of nos? For you, what was the thing that
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: kept you knocking on doors when you felt as though
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: maybe it wasn't one hundred percent clicking.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: I think, and this is like I do think I
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: have my pathway like to sort of my creative career
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: starting like it. It wasn't like I've been very privileged
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: in that sense of like I didn't necessarily have to
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: go through some of the exhaustive processes of like hearing
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: no or like having over one hundred job applications put
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: in like I've been I've been lucky to where I've
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: not had to have that experience. But what I did,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: and like starting with Texas women's basketball, like for example,
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: I just was like creating, creating, creating. I was on
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: like I don't don't quote me on this, but like
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: it was like eight twenty five an hour to like
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: what my work was for them, and I was doing
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: so much and just trying to learn, learn, learn, have
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: all these proof of concepts. And then before I was graduating,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: the football team, like a new coach came in. This
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: was right on the precipice of like content being huge
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: for college athletes and like them investing in their own
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: creative teams. And I knew the football team was investing
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: in creatives, and I hit them up and was like
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I want to like can I have an internship? And
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: they were like do you want full time? And I
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: was like yes, Like I yes, that's not like for me.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: So like that was a that was a that was
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: a big thing for me where it was like it
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: worked out well.
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: It was like learn it was learned behavior, right, So
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: you learned in that moment that if you ask, you
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: might get what you want. Yeah, you also have learned
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: by this point that if you ask, you might not.
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: But it's shoot your shot or wonder what if?
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think a lot of what I've learned
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: throughout my career is it's to not take it personally
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: when not everyone sees your value like I think there
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: are you It's it's not you can't expect everyone to
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: see your value, to know your worth, to like understand
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: like what you bring to the table.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: But the right places for you to be will see that.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: And so I think that's the hardest thing to come
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: to terms with is like a lot of the nose
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: you're getting are like nos that you want to get,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Like they're ultimately going to like put you in the
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: position or put you into the space that like is
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: a brand is something that invests in you and wants
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: like truly wants to like work with you.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: And so I think the nose are hard.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: They're hard, but it's the self awareness and it's like
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: the perspective of like, Okay, the no is also a yes,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: but like that doesn't minimize that shit hurts.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: It's always gonna hurt, but yes, to your point, when
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: you get to know one place, it's really just a redirection,
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: and that redirection more often than not, puts you in
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: the space that whether or not you believe that's supposed
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: to be, that ultimately will be better for you. Now,
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: when did you know then, as we progress on your
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: journey that it was time to graduate from Together?
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: So I think for Together, it was like it was
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: a marathon building that. And I think when I had joined,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: we were like gonna launch within like three months, like
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the timeline versus like what it with COVID. It just
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: was like okay, wait, we can take our time and
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: like let's do this right, Let's have a body of
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: content to launch with, not just be like, hey, we're
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: going to exist, stay tuned for everything. It was we're
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: launching and we can we have a full plate of
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: stuff that we can like put In and I think
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: for me it was one that was in LA and
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: it was like I think I had built it. And
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: when I say I had built it, like there was
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: we had a great small team and everyone had their parts.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: I think I speak mostly on like being employeed to
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: and having my hand like my fingerprints are still all
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: over it, which is I'm very proud of and it's
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: the content. But when I was on the team part
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: of that, the small group building it, like.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: It was like it was our life, like that was
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: we lived and breathed it.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: We're doing it in COVID like on Zoom, like I
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: think for me, we spent like eighteen months building it.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: We launched it, and then and then the coming months
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: after launching, I had less desire to be involved in
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: the day to day of like this content machine. Like
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: I think I had done content players Tribune. I had
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: just like even done content at Texas Football, Like I
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: was like, I need to just like chill and have
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: a bit of a shift. And I think startups too
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: is like they're not they don't have a ton of
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: capital where salaries aren't huge either. And for me, I
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: was kind of at this point where I was like oh,
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I'm like getting older where I'm like, I want to
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: make more money and it was like that wasn't gonna
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: happen then at together and it was like for me,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I also wanted to get back to New York.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get out of this like content cycle.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: So I kind of like took a full time job
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: at a tech job that was like it was still
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: in sports. It was still aligned with my purpose where
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: they were trying to increase access to women's sports and
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: viewing it. So it definitely aligned, but it was I
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: was just not passionate about.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: Transparency. I just didn't necessarily sorry, but.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I'm wing my butt off.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: I did my job, but it was like that I
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: think that was an experience I also needed to have
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: where I can't not be involved in telling the stories
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: of women athletes, Like there's I can't I'm too humbly,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: I'm too good at it to where like I just
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: can't I can't misuse my talents that I have to
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: like poor into it.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: And it's it's something that is irrefutable because of now
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: where you see yourself in this space, So for context,
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: who are you working with primarily right now and what
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: projects have been in the works over the last year who.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: I'm working with now, So I've since going freelance kind
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: of just like was getting gigs a couple of retainers,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: did some work for the w did some work for Nike.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: But right now where I'm kind of putting a lot
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: of my eggs in the basket is I'm working with
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Brianna Stewart. Stewie probably like the most decorated like women's
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: or not women's scratch that basketball player period period, Like
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: her resume is just insane and like Stewie's a great
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: human being, and so the opportunity came where she's in
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: New York, she's local, and it's okay, how can we
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: we need someone who can just sort of be her person,
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: help like create, like be her creative partner. And so
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: for me, like that's been kind of since March and
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: really like the betterment of the season is like all right,
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: Like I'm just full fledged like working with her doing
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: kind of her creative director like content person, so photo video,
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: I'm helping to kind of shape her brand a little bit,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: and like, yeah, I think that's just for me, that's
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: like a culmination of where I've wanted to be like
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: I finally feel like this is something that doing this
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: for athletes, that's where I really feel like I shine
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: a lot. I'm just understanding the athlete POV and understanding
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: the space for my experience and being able to plan content,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: strategize around content, and execute that content and.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Have the overall broader brand vision.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Like it's just yeah, just kind of exercising all my
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: little multi hyphenet muscles with this particular gig.
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: I love all the little multi hyphenitt muscles. You say,
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: the opportunity just kind of came about.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I did not just come about.
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: Okay, so why don't we actually talk about Let's talk
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: about that.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the laying the bricks.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: I think this is something again it goes back to
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: like the people part of just.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Doing things right.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: And I think the first I don't necessarily remember like
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: the first interaction I had with Stewie, but it's like
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: I think there's there's twofold of it, of like her
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: agency Wasserman having been aware of me and been able
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: to like know what my work was at together, what
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: my work was at Player's Tribune, like where my talent
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: level was at, and then it was Stewie I think
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: she's always been so good at identifying like just people
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: who were doing things or who are contributing to the space,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: contributing to the cause, Like she's always been able to
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: do that, and I think I was trying to even
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: before coming here. I was like, how did we how
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: do we meet? I don't even understand. And I think
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: it was when I was at Player's Tribune. My job
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: was not photo, but I took every opportunity to use
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: the access they could give through getting credentialed to like
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: shoots so many sports, and.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: That one of them was WNBA.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: When they Liberty played at MSG Seattle Storm, where Stewie
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: was at at the time, came. I took some pictures
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: of Stewie tag you're on Instagram.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: She shared them like I think.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I think that's kind of where it all started. And
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: then we ended up working together on different projects. But
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: it's like there was this level of trust of like, Okay,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: I know Emma's going to do a great job in
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: that she has her mind in the right place around
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: how to think about these things and has enough awareness
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: in the industry of what's going on to help and so.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: It was years in the making. Okay, which mark story short,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: it did not just come to be.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of like deposits made that right
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: now is when it chose to kind of become something,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: which is a lesson.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: A lesson, Yeah, a lot of deposits made.
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: Before we sat down today, you and I were wrapping
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: a little bit about the landscape of the space you're in.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: You go to either a WNBA game or you step
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: into so many of the other sports that you have
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: the opportunity to shoot with those credentials that players tribune
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: and you are one of a small pool of women
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: that are shooting the sports. Let's talk about that. Let's
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: talk about how that makes you feel. And if you
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: see that changing moving forward.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: I think, first, yes, it is changing. It's changing before
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: our eyes. It's the same thing though with women's sports
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: in general, where it's like, hey, we can celebrate our growth,
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: we can celebrate what's been changing, but there's work to
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: be done and we're still not there yet. And I
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: think that a lot of the sort of thematics you
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: see in women's sports and just sort of fighting for
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: equitable coverage, equitable pay, all of that that in itself
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: manifest in the creative and photography industry where it's like
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: sports has always been this like boys club and it's
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: like men own sports. Women are given permission to exist there,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: and it's I think for photography it's like growing up
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: like even when I started my sort of creative journey,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: there wasn't necessarily like a professional women's photographer in sports
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: that I was like, oh, like I was following a
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: lot of photographers and they were all men, but it
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: was like I was just soaking up all their work.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: And then the whole argument too, is like the work
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: isn't not good, it's just that there just never has
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: been like intentional space for women in it, and the
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: barrier to entry has always just been.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Tough.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: And I speak to like my experience even at Texas Football,
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: like I was privy to this information, Like I don't
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: necessarily know if I should have been privy to it,
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: but it was like before I got hired, they were like,
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: can we trust her around the boys?
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And I was like, that's an interesting question.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you're good, I'm gay, but like
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: also it's like that's the concern, it's can we trust
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: her to be around all these football players?
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: And it's like that in.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: Itself was my experience with like entering the space and
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: existing in a male dominated space. But it's like a
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: lot of photographers, a lot of other women photographers and creatives.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: It's like you go on the sideline, you show up,
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: you're not given the same respect from like legacy photographers
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: or who are like predominantly older white men, right, And
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: it's just kind of like, oh wow, that's I have
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: friends who are like always received comments like oh that
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: camera looks heavy for you, or like you're just like
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: not given the space to occupy, And it's yeah, God,
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: it's getting better, but it's got to change because I
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: think just it's kind of the same way in terms
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: of the coverage of women's sports, why it's been so
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: low is because it's just like there hasn't been an investment.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: There hasn't be an opportunity. We're seeing that now and
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: we're seeing all.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: That payoff, but it's like for photography, it's like women
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: just haven't it's always been a boys club.
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: And so knowing that it's always been a boys club,
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: when you step into a space, now, do you still
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: feel any sort of way by showing up there?
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: Do you still feel like people have things to.
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: Say to you, or are you more in a place
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: of like ownership of what you have to bring to
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: the table.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I definitely am a place of ownership.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: I'm also in a place where I don't care if
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: you want to like doubt me or like question my
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: credential or whatever, because I know what I can create,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: and I know like what I have created. So I
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: definitely kind of got over the hump that I do
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: think the problem is is there's so many women stuck
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: on the other side of that hump, where it's kind
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: of like they haven't been given the opportunity of space
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: to show their work, to show that they belong. I
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: take a lot of pride in it now, and I'm
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: trying to make sure I open the door for others.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I think for me that matters.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: And it's like the number of I think it's like
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: thirty two percent of like sports photographers or women like
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily sure where they got the number from,
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: but I don't.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Thinking about that doubt it at all. Again, it's legacy,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: like very.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Much like older white men, and I can there's a
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: lot of reasons and layers why that exists that way.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: I don't want to spend necessarily our time on that.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: But I think for me, I feel an ownership and
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: a pride to it where it's like I am in
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: a position where I can open that door for other people.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: And I think part of the yes, there's a big
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: disparity in terms of men and women, but even like
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: in total, like that percentage of women, there's like a
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: severe lack of black and brown women like of representation,
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: and like that's a whole nother factor to that. And
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: for me, it's like especially get together when it's like, oh,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: I'm building out what our original content is, Like I
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: am one person. I can't make it all, Like I
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: have to leverage and get hire people to make it.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Like my biggest emphasis was women. I'm hiring women, and
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: I'm hiring like black and brown women because also our
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: coverage and the content we show is going to be
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: incredibly diverse. So the opportunity I can have to if
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: we're shooting with a black woman, my emphasis is I'm
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: hiring an other black women to shoot with her, because
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: it's just like you you get there's just such a
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: different understanding of when someone identifies with you and understands
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: like cultural context, and it's not to say that if
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: you're white you can't understand that, but it's like when
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: you have the ability to be intentional and to have
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: that work out like that was a big emphasis for
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: me and it still is. Where it's like I care
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: deeply about, like ifever I can source creatives for things,
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: or I can recommend people. I'm intentional about making sure
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: that I'm doing my part to at least try to
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: move it forward.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think that's important.
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, we hear it all the time in so
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: many different industries what have you, that in order to
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: be her, you need to see her. And so it
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: is a really cool opportunity when you take a step
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: back to be able to say, like, not only am
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: I someone that's at the forefront of trying to lay
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: this foundation for other folks, but how great is it
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: that I then have the opportunity to open the door
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: for women that may not have felt comfortable in this
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: space previously. You know, I have been working with Lauren
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: for a really long time, and I feel like it
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: is a completely different opportunity when I get to go
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: on projects and go on set and trust in her
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: that she knows what I'm looking for because we have
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: a shared lived experience. So to what you're saying about
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: wanting to create that space for black and brown creatives
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: to then take care of other black and brown individuals,
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: it's a no brainer in that that will then give
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: you the best quality content possible. You also said it's
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: not that someone that may not be the same skin
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: color can't provide great content. I totally agree with you
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: on that. But if you have the opportunity to do better,
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: do better, yes, period, period, period. Okay, woman photographers, we
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: need more of them, and then create some space. Stop
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: having such an ego. That's basically the summary of the
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: last five minutes. As you look forward now, aside from
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: your work with Stewie, what else excites you?
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: What else is on the radar?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I just have so many ideas, and I think that's
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: hard where you're like, Okay, where do I start?
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: What can I do? First?
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: I think for me, I just I really like I
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: want to grow what I'm doing with Stewie.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I want to be I want to have more involvement.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: I want to She started a league with the FISA
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Collier Unrivaled, which is a three on three that's going
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: to be in the winter I'm stoked for that. I'm
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: hoping I can kind of contribute to that. That's exciting.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: That's on the horizon. I want to do a photo
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: book of all my basketball courts. I want to I
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: hosted a gallery for my birthday. I want to do more.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: I want to.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Figure out how I have a women's basketball community that
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: we it's called Buckets and Brunch. I'm also trying to
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: figure out how to just to continue to pour into
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: that and give those women who are also my friends,
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: like just cool opportunities to work with brands and just
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: to have some fun. I'm also excited I have a
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: partnership with Celsius now, which is okay, which is I'm like.
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: Wait me, why why you'll tell us? Why you am?
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: I think for me what I like, they're what when
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: I was telling Lauren this, like what's cool is I
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: didn't reach out at all, Like I did not go
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: after this where I think and you can relate, like
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: sometimes we have to like go prove to people like hey,
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: this is here's my value, here's why you should do this.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: And I think for Celsius, it was like just completely
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: like them coming to me of going they they have
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: a roster of athletes, like many like brands do of
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: who their endorsers are, but they want they're putting an
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: emphasis on how can we within the sports space. You
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: have the athletes, yes, but you also have these creatives
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: who harness like so much power. And I think for them,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: they wanted to find someone who had credibility in the space,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: kind of had a lot of work under their belt,
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: like interacted with athletes and had that mutual respect. And
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: they asked around and my name came up and it
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: was like that to me, I was like, that's cool.
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: Like when your name comes up in rooms that you're
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: not in people to say about you, it means that
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: you're doing right.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think for me, I was like, I
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: mean I know that, like I definitely have respect out there,
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: but to like for me to be the person that
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: was recommended by multiple people like and so it kind
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: of just like conversations started happening. We figured out like
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: the structure of the deal, and what's cool about it
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: is I'll get to like they have a creative partner
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: in meet where like I'll get to work and shoot
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: with some Celsius athletes and then all the content I
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: obviously create for them, like it's coming from a creator
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: mindset and like an athlete mindset, where it's like it's
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: smart for them, I think because you're getting like really
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: good content out of like a brand ambassador, and so
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, I'm excited.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: It's crazy. I like it just started.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: I have no idea what magic will cook up, but
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: I know that we will.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, geeked, I'm so geeked. You so excited. I'm like
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: you want.
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: Wait, I have a confession. I have only had one
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: Celsius flavor. Do you have a favorite flavor that I
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: should be trying.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: They just release these new like essentials, and there's just
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: like dragon Barrier, dragon Fruit one that I'm excited to try.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: All Right, I'm down. We'll have to have a little selfis.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: There's so many flavorsus crazy.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I'm not surprised that they game to you
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: beyond the fact that you clearly have good people that
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: are in the room saying good things about you when
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: you're not there, which is a really special thing. Your creativity,
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: your work is so impressive and like I'm just amped
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: to see where this goes, especially because they are sponsoring
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: so many cool events sports et cetera. Now, so to
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: get you on the ground there to have these opportunities.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: They have a partnership with Noah Lyles. I saw that
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: fastest man in the world. I'm like, it's just cool.
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: It's like, all right, we love women's sports, but we
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: also like to shout at the bestest man.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: I was like when he won that, I was like,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: that's cool. He's what Celsius respect.
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: I'm down here. I want to know.
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: People come to your Instagram page, they see a independent, creative,
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: someone who's dope with the photos, a lot of cool
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: basketball courts. But when you're at home and you look
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: in the mirror, what is it that you see looking.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Back at you World's best dog?
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: Mom, Wow, I've got the dog I have met.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: I think for me it's like I never I think
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: it's there's people that you look at my page or
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: you look at my body of work, and you're like
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: you have it all figured out, and it's like, I
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: think I'm still at I don't know.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I don't ever feel like, oh, I've reached it. I've
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: gotten to where I wanted to go.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: I think I see someone who's still just like so
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: ambitious about so many things, and I take sort of
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: signals I've gotten from like success in year one, and
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: I see that and I'm like, ooh, if I keep
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: at this, like this is gonna be cool. So I
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: think for me, I see that I see someone who
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: I struggle with mental health, like I do so to
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: see I see.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I see so many things.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: I see like a great like partner, dog, mom, like sister,
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: child like.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: I think there's so many cool aspects. I think it's yeah,
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: giving myself grace through it all as well.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to see who I continue to become. We're
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: always changing, Like I see someone now I'm I hit thirty.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: I was so excited to hit thirty because it's just
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: like so cool. I'm so mature, welcome to the club.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: But it's just like I feel more sure myself and
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: sort of who I'm becoming and how I express myself
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: and how I kind of navigate the world. So yeah,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: I think it's just cool. I know, I'm proud of myself.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: I know, like my mom's as long as moms comments
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: on my Instagram feed are cute as hell. She's like's
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: your mama, I love you?
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my god?
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: Comments are I know she's cute, but it's yeah, I'm
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: proud of where I'm at.
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: I love it well.
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: Speaking of what you spoke about earlier on mental health,
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: right now, you have an opportunity to offer yourself a
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: piece of advice going through the hurdle of navigating your
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: mental health back in college, talking about how it really
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: was a dark place, wishing at times that you could
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: have just twisted your ankle to get out of the
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: thing that you thought that you thought you were supposed
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: to be doing.
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: It was a tough time. Now, knowing what you know now,
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: what advice would you offer yourself during that hurdle moment.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's hard to give it a singular piece of advice.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: I think for me, it's this notion and this works
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: for the big moments of anxiety, the big moments of darkness,
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: and all the little ones too where it's like it's
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: all temporary, your like current is not like your permanent reality.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: Where I think for me, that's like been the biggest
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: thing with anxiety of you get that voice that's like, no,
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: you're not going to be okay, and it's like you
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: have to. It's I think it's learning and understanding and
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: embodying like I'm very capable of getting through this, and
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: this is temporary right now, what I feel it doesn't
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: like minimize what those feelings are. But yeah, I think
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: it's it's the cliche like it's okay, it's better, but like,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: truly it's things are temporary, and you have this ability
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: to control and know that, like you can get yourself
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: through it, and you have a community, you have a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: village to lean on the lowest moments happened like in Austin, Texas,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: and I never thought I was leaving there and now
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: I'm in Right now, I'm in Paris, but it's like
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: I live in New York City where it's just like
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it's just kind of trusting yourself and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: trusting the deposits you make, and that includes mental health.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, that wasn't really one sound piece of
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: sage advice.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: I just wanted all of it.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: I want all of you, all the good parts, all
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: the bad parts, all the parts. Yeah, I love that.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: And and that sentiment that you are not your thoughts. Yeah,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: you get to respond to your thoughts and then kind
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: of moving groof from there.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: M Johnson so happy that we're able to make this happen.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 4: For those that don't follow your outrageous work already, where
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: do they find you?
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: Instagram at m dot Johnson. Yeah, that's kind that's kind
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: of where it is.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Is great. That's all you need to know.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: That's all you need to know.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 4: I'm over at Hurdle Podcast at Emilah Badi another hurdle conquered.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time