Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Roslyn McLarty, Founder of The GIST (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Roslyn McLarty, Founder of The GIST (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is what's your why? Why are you waking up every day and working on the gist? Yeah, I think it really comes down to our company mission of leveling the playing field in sports, pushing for more.
• 0:28
  equal coverage, inviting new voices and new fans into the forefront. And I think beyond the sports industry, sports really are a microcosm of our society. And so that really gives meaning to the work that we're doing in a way that transcends sports. And I think, you know, we've chosen to direct our work towards an industry that is dominated by men and people with privilege, and it's also on a world stage. And so we hope that,
• 0:58
  any of our contributions that we're making in leveling the playing field in sports will not only impact our community and athletes that we're talking about and female fans everywhere, but also just women that are existing in these male dominated spaces or in these underrepresented groups inspires them to kind of take up space in those spaces that they've traditionally been excluded from and feel empowered to make change.
• 1:27
  on a societal level. I guess it's like kind of a... It's a good answer. It's an important answer. Thank you. I love it. So cool. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 1:43
  I feel like anytime we've been reposted by an athlete that we look up to, like Simone Biles reposted us during one Olympics, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe. No way, that's so cool. Alexis Ohanian. Oh, wow. And our team just like freaks out because everybody's like such big sports fans.
• 2:01
  That's cool. That's like the best marketing moment you can ask for. Yeah. Holy moly. What is it like when someone like that reposts you? Do you see a direct kind of ROI on subscribers or it's more like a brand awareness piece? I think it's probably more of a brand awareness. Maybe some new social follows. And hopefully eventually we can convert those people to newsletter subscribers, but probably the former.
• 2:27
  Question number three is what's your go-to business resource if you have to think about like a podcast or a newsletter or a book that you've been reading or consuming recently? Yeah, oh my gosh, I have so many. I love consuming content to learn. I like Fem Street for like
• 2:49
  Tech World startup advice. I really like Charter newsletter for workplace advice, which has been relevant as we've grown our team. I don't know that one. Interesting. Yeah, it's really good. And then for people building media companies, Sarah Fisher's Axios Media newsletter. There's this newsletter called A Media Operator. Brian Morrissey's Rebooting Show, which is a podcast and newsletter, the Digiday podcast and newsletter.
• 3:19
  And then for personal growth, my favorite podcast is The Reset Podcast by Liz Cham. So many good ones there. Thank you so much. We're going to look them all up and add them to our database of what to consume, what to listen to. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah, totally.
• 3:49
  For me, exercising in the morning, I have to do it in the morning. And I just feel like so accomplished already if I can get a workout in before work. Otherwise, I like dread it all day. But I know it's really good for my mental health to get that in. Meditate. Sometimes I do it and I always feel better when I do and journaling. But I think like
• 4:13
  taking a step back from the rituals. Um, I find like one of the biggest things that sets me up for winning the day is setting goals for like the year and, and quarter and month and week, and then just like working back from there. So for us, obviously we have like our big business metrics, but my like annual goals for myself at the company are things like build a really big business. Um,
• 4:43
  have operational excellence as we scale the company in terms of audience and revenue and team from like an analytics tech finance people, ops standpoint. Um, and the third one is be the leader that I would want and create a workplace that allows people to reach their full potential and feel really just like supported and connected. So,
• 5:05
  Having those three like kind of guiding principle goals and then working back from there into like breaking those up into big rocks, I find really helps me set up my day to prioritize what's most important. Love the last one. Such an important one. And I feel like such one that needs to change in so many places and so many industries.
• 5:29
  I know. It's crazy. Um, question. Oh, actually, one thing I wanted to ask you, I just forgot to ask it earlier, but on the topic of operational and team and things like that, how big is your team now? We're 22 full time and then another 20.
• 5:47
  ish part-time. Holy shit. Wow. That's huge. That's amazing. That's a lot of people to manage. It's all happened very fast. We're figuring it out, but doing our best. Operational excellence. You've got that. You've got it. Yeah. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Yeah, that's, that's a hard one. I was like,
• 6:14
  a CPA really try and keep things as buttoned up as we can in terms of money management and whatnot. But I guess indirectly, one of the places that can cost a lot of money and like has for us is like not having the same level of standard for vendors that we work with as ourselves.
• 6:41
  And like having a vendor, I don't wanna like name who it was or the type or anything, but we've like had agencies help with things like growth or accounting, things where you're not like hiring on a full-time team member and not, just not cutting them soon enough when they weren't like performing as well as like the standards that we would hold ourselves or our full-time team to, has probably cost us the money in the long run.
• 7:06
  We've heard that a lot on the show. Oh, really? Yes. Service providers, I think there can be, it can be so great if you find the right agency or the right kind of provider or vendor who can kind of like be on the same page as you and get you to reach the goals that you have and together, you know, work effectively and things like that. But a lot of the time there seems to be, or from what we've heard on the show, there can be a lot of a mismatch there.
• 7:35
  And it can be just money down the drain. Totally. And it makes such a big difference when you find the right ones, which luckily we are there on that front. Yeah. But it's like, it's also a mistake that I feel like I make repeatedly, but I also think it's worth it to keep trying until you do find people who are in alignment and then can help you reach the things that you're wanting to reach. It's always worth it. Totally. Totally.
• 8:05
  And sometimes it takes like finding that right partner or right person on a team to be like, oh my gosh, I'm never going to do this again because it feels so good when it's like the right person and it's such a contrast. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, that you can share from Building the Gist? When we were...
• 8:33
  flying down to Philadelphia to pitch Techstars, we missed our flight. We were like so nervous about, um, missing our flight that we went to our folks so early, like two hours early and just like found an area and set up and like did work and just like got lost in our work. And then our date was like.
• 8:57
  a 15 minute walk from the place. And we were like, oh, she probably had to her gate. And then it was so far, cause like the gate switched on us. So we like ran full out through the airport and got to the gate and they were like, no, it's already worth it. No. We were like, oh my God, we're not gonna get to like pitch tech stars and this is such a big opportunity for us. But luckily they were able to put us on the next flight and we like still made it just in time, but.
• 9:23
  Wow. That's very stressful. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. This has been so fun. What do you want to shout about and leave us with today? What exciting things are in the works? For the gist? Well, as you alluded to, we're launching our new merch line in May, right?
• 9:47
  which we're super pumped for being able to get that our new rebranded stuff into the hands registers. But otherwise, just like would love people to check out the newsletter, follow us on socials. We're at the just sports.com. And yeah, we would love to have you in our community.
• 10:10
  This has been so great. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story and your learnings and all the things that have happened since 2017. I'm going to be cheering for you forever. Thank you. This has been so fun. Thanks so much for having me on.
• 10:33
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 10:57
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 11:20
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 11:35
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 12:00
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 12:22
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.