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The ROAR Podcast: Renee Washington · The ROAR Podcast

• Brice Clinton: In 2014, Renee Washington was at Lehigh University, coaching college soccer, working on a master's in educational leadership, and sitting with a decision she didn't really want to make. She was a three-time All-American at La Salle, a professional player, a Hall of Famer. But the NWSL had just wrapped up its first season. Professional women's soccer paid a couple thousand dollars a year, not a salary, not benefits, not a life you could build on. So the question was never whether she was good enough to keep going. It was whether she could afford to. She stepped away, and in those two years, she found a distinction she still uses today. There was Renee the soccer player, and there was Renee the person. More than a decade later, that person is a broadcaster, a host, a speaker, a founder, and soon a published author. This summer alone, FIFA World Cup coverage out of Philadelphia and North Jersey. A show at the MLB All-Star Game, WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, she launched her own company, Renee Washington Media and Consulting. She'll tell you the multi-hyphen thing isn't vanity, it's a hedge. Someone told her earlier in her career that the job she wanted would look different in five years. She's built everything since around believing that was true. In this conversation with Caroline, Renee talks about the athlete transition nobody prepares you for. What it actually costs to bet on yourself when there's no fallback, the role faith plays when the timing is in your control, and why, despite tracking every metric she can get her hands on, she refuses to live and die by the data. I'm Bryce Clinton, and this is Aurora Podcast. Caroline: Welcome to the Roar Podcast. I'm your host, Caroline Valvardi, and with me today is Renee Washington, broadcaster, host, founder, and speaker. Welcome to the podcast. Renee Washington: Caroline, thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here. Caroline: you have had a very interesting summer. we saw each other at WNBA All-Star weekend in Chicago. So that was one of your many stops along your summer tour of all the different sporting events that happened this summer. And so would love to hear, and I'm sure our audience would as well, all the things that you were up to this summer and Anything that was your favorite or highlights, we would really just love to to hear what you were doing and gives us kind of a feel for for what you do. Renee Washington: Yeah, so my goodness, it's been a whirlwind of a summer. I mean, the sports calendar in general has been so kind to us to have so many great events and moments in our backyard. And I was fortunate I was brought on by FIFA actually and hired to work with them starting at the end of 2025 in getting involved around hosting some of their content for FS1 and being on their shows and panels and interviews and game coverage. And so to be able to cover the World Cup. in primarily Philly and North Jersey were my two hubs for host cities, was something like a dream. I mean, I'm a former soccer player myself. I was a three-time All-American at LaSalle University, played professionally, I'm a hall of famer. And so to be involved in soccer in the the biggest, the biggest sporting event in the world on the grassroots level was so amazing. A highlight was definitely getting invited. They told me pick a game you want to go to and Steve was like, Whi whichever game you want to go to, we will give you tickets. And I was like, well in Philly, It's definitely the round of sixteen games. July fourth, fireworks, all the excitement around America two fifty. And I had a chance to watch France Paraguay, Kylian Mbappe and France are one of my favorite teams and and players to watch. And so it was amazing to be able to go to that, bring friends along. And it was like the overlap of my personal life, my professional life, being able to enjoy the World Cup. But then to have it overlap with MLB All-Star also in Philly, where I was able to host a show for HBCU swinging classic and go to the game and be on site for various events around MLB All Star week like Ryan Howard's event was so amazing. So it just led from one event to the next event to the next event, from FIFA to MLB All-Star to WMB All-Star, where we met in Chicago. And being that I was also my first ever FIFA World Cup experience, first ever MLB All-Star experience, first ever WMBA experience. And it all happened back to back to back to back. it's been quite a summer for sure. So I've been fortunate that I've been on the grassroots level of being involved as a broadcaster, but also as a speaker, as a host. So MCing, moderating panels, and so many different capacities. And I've just been enjoying every single moment of it, to be honest. Caroline: Thank you for sharing. I have Philly Roots as well, so we only bring people on the show with Philly Roots, but no, I'm just kidding. But we did see each other right after the LeBron news in Chicago. So that was interesting timing. a lot has happened this summer and I now I would love to transition into just kind of what your background and how you got to where you are today. And you've mentioned a couple of things. and you know, your background in the soccer and playing in college and all these things. So I'd love to hear your journey and can dig in more to it. But I love to also know like is this where you, you know, had seen yourself ending up and you have, as you said, all these different capacities and titles, which I have to keep looking down to be like, host, broadcaster, founder, all these really cool things that you're doing. So so yeah, we'd love to hear you just kind of talk through kind of your career journey thus far and how you got to where you are today. Renee Washington: It's a great question, Caroline, because my path is very unique. It's not linear whatsoever. There's been a lot of pivots and changes along the way. So at La Salle I actually studied public relations with a double minor in Spanish and psychology. And then I was fortunate that when I was done playing professionally, I was offered an opportunity to become a college soccer coach at Lehigh, get my master's in educational leadership, and start to prepare for life after soccer, life as a retired athlete. And it was during that time that I actively made the decision that I recognized, since I had had seven to eight internships in undergrad at LaSalle, that I started to learn a lot about who I am, what I was interested in, and what I wanted to do in a career. And so I made the career pivot and and honestly the leap of faith to go from studying public relations, studying educational leadership, into be a sports broadcaster. I recognized there were components of it I loved the storytelling. being involved in so many different events and coverage, but also being able to use sports as platform as a way to bring people into stories, experiences, insights that I feel like sports opened the door to. And so I love the connection piece. That's always been the root of everything for me is creating through sports as platform a space to provide a voice for the voiceless. So I remember having these ideas of what that would look like in a career, but I never imagined at this stage, I mean I'm over 10 years into my career now. And I never imagined at this stage I'd be working in so many different capacities. I always had these ambitions and and big dreams, but I'm actually living them. You know, I can actually say, even right now I'm in the process of still publishing my first book, which is another title that I'm adding. So I just believe like life is way too short to put yourself in a box. And that is partly why I went ahead, I even launched my own business, Renee Washington Media and Consulting. So in the midst of this exciting summer was me officially launching my own business, something I've already been doing. The work around speaking, engagements, workshops, career coaching, working around, you know, with clients around consultations and helping them in so many different aspects of building in their careers, whether as an individual or as an organization. So I built all of that in the midst of everything else. I don't know what I was thinking, to be honest, but you know, I just was timing is everything and it felt like the right time to Pursue what I want in a career, and that was to be multifaceted, multi-hyphenated. That's actually always been the goal. But now I have a clear view of what that looks like. And through my company RWMC and the work I do in broadcasting, I'm helping others with that too. I was just talking with a high school senior basketball player. She's trying to navigate through, you know, which college she's going to. Like I help so many different ages, stages as well of where people are. And naturally was the goal for me of using my platform, my experiences to help uplift others as I move through my own career. Caroline: It's really very inspiring to hear. And that was Renee Washington: Mm-hmm. Caroline: one of the questions I was going to ask next around that transition from, you know, there's, you know, a lot of athletes coming out of college and, you know, not everyone's gonna necessarily, whether they want to or not, you know, get into a professional, you know, sports career. and that k transition can be, you know, difficult in figuring out what you want to do, particularly those if they did, you know, have the ambitions of being a professional athlete. But love to hear. Renee Washington: Mm-hmm. Caroline: a little bit more just of, you know, challenges you may have gone through or as you are advising other, you know, college athletes, just Renee Washington: Yeah. Caroline: kind of what how to how to navigate that best. Renee Washington: Oof, that is hard. Nothing truly prepares you for that transition of going from being a an athlete at a high level where you have a lot of things scheduled for you. You know, when you're working out, when you're eating, when you're going to class, when you're a professional athlete, it's even more scheduled and routine. But then the other part that people don't comp really prepare you for is what happens when you're no longer on the big stage. You know, for me, I was one that was fortunate to set a lot of records. I still have a lot of records in my name. That I set and history that I made and championships and firsts that I was a part of. And so what happens when you're no longer that personality and now you have a job? You know, I don't have a nine to five. but for many it is that corporate transition of a job, a nine to five, sitting at a desk after you are just going from this insane lifestyle that is completely different. So it is really hard because now you have to figure out how who am I as a person? And I think I was fortunate Those two years of getting my master's degree at Lehigh were also two years I was actively considering going back to professional soccer and not being done because at that time I always tell people, but they don't realize that was in 2014, right after the first season of the NWSL. So professional woman soccer was still new. Opportunities, salaries, resources, all of that was nothing like what it's like today. And so to be a professional athlete as a woman in any sport was to know you still had to work another job. You weren't getting paid I mean, a couple thousand dollars a year, which as a full adult is nothing you can truly live off of, it just was not sustainable. So I didn't really have a choice of if I truly wanted to play professional soccer. It was more of recognizing, okay, if I wanna live my life as an adult and have things like benefits and salary and food on the table, I had to give up the sport that I love. So it was in those two years where I was kind of on the fence of do I go back and try to play and sacrifice some more, or is it time to move on? And it gave me time to still be connected with the game as a coach and also transition out of the game as a player. And so that really opened my eyes to who I am as I always say there was Renee the soccer player and there's Renee the professional, Renee the person. That's who I had a chance to learn in those two years. And so not everybody gets that kind of like slow transition before just getting thrown into the real world. And so I'm fortunate, but I always encourage people, you can still be an athlete just in different ways. I still have routines and schedules and prioritize and competitions for me these days aren't me playing. It's me going to host an event. It's me going to do prepare for a broadcast. You know, it's still preparing for something bigger than myself where there's a team of us and now we're trying to figure out how do we execute this strong show that is gonna be seamless, hopefully problem free with interviews and game analysis. How do I go to this event and speak on this stage in front of all these people live and now we're working as a team of Panelists and myself as a moderator. So I'm still an athlete just in a very different way. And I think that's the part that you have to learn is who are you as a person and how do you bring your experiences as an athlete into that? It's not letting go of completely closing the door of who you were as an athlete. It's understanding it teaches you life skills, it prepares you for so many things in the world. It creates networking opportunities and it does help teach you a lot about yourself. And that's where it's now having the closure of. career, wish I could have played longer, but I appreciate all that it taught me to prepare for the next chapter in my life. And now I get to enjoy exercising for fun, for example, or not always having two a days. So it's a really difficult mental battle that nothing can truly prepare you for. Caroline: Yeah, because there's I mean, one piece of it is the transition from being an athlete to entering into the workforce. Or I would love to hear you talk a little bit more deeply about the decision to, your own brand and your own business and you are definitely multi hyphenate, like continuing to add all these really cool, capacities and things that you're doing. And so you can talk a little bit on what that takes to be able to, get up each day and know that you are responsible for your success. And so it's like very empowering on one hand, you see so many athletes are doing this whether by choice or, put in the circumstance where, you see a lot of the women athletes are, supplementing income and entrepreneurship often is a, a way to do that. But but sometimes you really have to be built to be an entrepreneur to really run your own show, literally or figuratively. and so Renee Washington: Mm. Caroline: what are some of the attributes you have needed to, because I'm sure there's days where you wake up and everything's on your shoulders, but also at the same time again, empowering to own your own business and and kind of control your destiny to an extent. Renee Washington: It's a great question. It's a great question. It's not easy. You know, I I tell people it's not for everyone, to be honest. You have to have a different mindset and honestly be built differently to be a full-time entrepreneur. I've never been a full-time entrepreneur. So I was one that even in the beginning of my career, I still always had a day job, so to speak. I still always had something else that was giving me salary, stability, income, benefits, things like that. That is now all on me. You know, and as a single woman, it's not like I have a husband or spouse that I'm married to that has, you know, the sub the fallback in that sense. It's it's truly on me. And it was terrifying. But also I think for me what I recognized is what's the alternative. I've already been interested in pursuing creating my own lane. I already recognize there are aspects about my interest and what I want to build and what I want to create. That did not exist in a job that I could find. Even in broadcasting, there's still more I'm doing in broadcasting than I had just scratching the surface on. And I felt like as a full-time freelancer and broadcaster, as a full-time CEO and founder of my own company, it actually gives me the ability to create the career that I want, the life that I want. And so I tell people that I work with all the time that are entrepreneurs or building their own is there's different layers to it. You don't have to be full-time in this entrepreneurial space. Maybe you are part-time and part-time, maybe you know. There's there's different percentages you can split it, but it also does fall on your shoulders so much. So understanding if I'm not working, how do I develop in my career a a system that even when I'm not working, I'm still making money? Even when I'm taking days off, traveling, in the meeting, at the event, that the business is still functioning, you know, that things are still moving on. So I do actually have a team, a tremendous team. there's about a dozen people on my team or so that are helping in so many different ways. And they're getting internship experience, portfolio experience. you know, the business right now is not at a sustainable space, and we're working on it to get to the point of d driving revenue and and partnerships and sponsorships that I can actually pay. But right now I have a group of interns that help me, and they're all tremendous talents that are actively working to build their own portfolio and experiences. So for me, it's like you're not gonna get generic busy work, you're getting legitimate hands-on experience from the grassroots of how to build a company. How to work in marketing, how to work in sponsorships and partnerships or social media management. And that's been extremely helpful. And then also it's learning what is my vision? What is the goal? What is, you know, you roll things out in phases. I didn't build to even this point in my career overnight. It took phases of me slowly building from one step to the next. And that's actually why, for me, what I love is I get the chance to practice what I preach. I'm truly working with clients on building their business, launching the marketing strategy and email campaigns. How do you have more visibility on social media? And I'm literally doing the same things in my own career. So everything I speak on from broadcasting to RWMC and everything in between are literally things I have lived, experienced, overcome, challenges I face myself. And so I think it comes down to in this current s era that we're in, people can have more flexibility. Entrepreneurial paths are possible. Social media and different resources, chat GBT, AI, data, do all these different things. I have access to all the time so much insight onto what's working well and what's not working well in my company. That is something that we didn't really have before. So I think the evolution of technology and systems are allowing more people like myself to take that leap of faith. And I always encourage it. If you feel like you're being pulled to it, not for the weak, but it is very, very beneficial. Like I don't have to depend on You know, especially in broadcasting, shows get canceled all the time, jobs get canceled all the time, people get laid off and so many things are in in uncertain. But I'm like at the core of it, I do control my own destiny in that sense. It's terrifying, but it's also empowering in a sense. Caroline: No, thank you for sharing that. There's so many directions I wanna go with that, but I mean Renee Washington: Ha ha ha. Caroline: first I'll just say, the kind of tenacity and I know there's a lot of conversations about, athletes being good entrepreneurs because of so many of the skills, that that you need to have Renee Washington: Mm-hmm. Caroline: as an athlete to be a entrepreneur, it relates so well. and so I think having that athletic experience and determination and building confidence to know that you can do it and having the short term memory to be like, okay, that show got canceled Renee Washington: No, yes. Caroline: or that thing happened, but so on to the next. so that's one piece of it. And then I also want to get into the evolution as you're building on the content side and marketing and even with broadcasting just the evolution of like AI and data and all that. But before we do that, something that people don't like to talk about much on podcasts or things like that. But I do think that there is also a a piece of it which you talk about a little bit more publicly, is the faith-based piece of it. that's an interesting element of when you are, on a road that can be uncertain or you're, doing it as an entrepreneur where you're leading your own business. I would love to hear you just talk a little bit about how, faith or your purpose is is at the foundation and and how that kind of influences how you think about what you do. Renee Washington: Yeah, I mean my faith is what helps me tremendously in every aspect of my life because I've taken first of all taken so many leaps of faith that required me to s to trust. I I believe in for my own religion. I believe in in God having a plan bigger than anything I could ever imagine and that there are steps being ordered and and things all happening for for my good. And so I've had opportunities where it's like I have to trust. I have to trust God. I have to trust in this season when nothing else makes sense. And that has directly shown me at times I'm like, whoa, how am I surviving this season? How am I getting through this challenge? There's no way I should have been able to overcome that. And I'm like, it's nothing, nothing but blessings, nothing but God that I've able been able to open the doors and get the opportunities. And there are so many pieces of my testimony that have shown me you have to at some point release that control. And I'm a Virgo, I'm a type A personality. I'm very big on like every detail controlling as much as I can, but I've had to learn when do I take a step back? When do I know, okay, what I've done is good enough to get me in the door, to get me the opportunity, get me the client, to get me the show. And then the rest the the chips will fall where they may. So I think that is a tough transition, even as a deformer athlete, because I always say as an athlete, when you're struggling, you can do extra reps, you can work extra. on your fitness and your and your first touch and your shots and all these things to get better. But in life it doesn't always work that way. I can do as many reps as I want. I will get better, but I still can't always control the outcome. Whereas as an athlete, you are on the field playing, you might have a little bit more involvement in the outcome. I don't know when the show, you know, I can do everything possible to make it a great show and we have the show get canceled. Or I do all this to prepare for an event and Now I step on the stage and somebody, you know, doesn't show up or whatever. Like there's so much beyond my control. And I've had to learn that. And I've had to learn even the timing is absolutely beyond my control. So that's why I roll things out in phases of where I'm at now is not where I plan to be three months from now, six months from now, a year from now. But I have to also crawl before I walk and slowly just keep moving forward and not try to do too much too quickly, but instead. To trust the timing of things. I've learned so much. I've had so much that's, you know, come through some of the ch most difficult moments of my life, financially or mentally, or just different components that I've actually learned the most about myself. And that's what also gives me the faith to keep going because I've seen firsthand what can happen when you are persistent carrying yourself with integrity. My soccer career was a prime example of that. You know, becoming an all-American three times and setting records and history. I wasn't one that was just naturally good at soccer and grew, you know, was born being like this instant superstar. It took time, it took consistency, it took overcoming challenges. And so I always say that's actually what helps me so much in my career, knowing if I can have that same determination, that same mindset of understanding it's a marathon, not a sprint. It never gets easier. You get better. You get smarter. You get wiser. You get more prepared. Your faith deepens. That's how you navigate through the later seasons, the bigger challenges. So my faith is the core of who I am, where I'm at, what I do, why I'm so big on helping others, because I do truly believe and I've seen something that makes me so emotional every time I think about it is I have directly had moments in my life where I'm like, why is this happening to me? And Forward X amount of years later, I see not only did that help me, but it helped somebody else. And I'm like, that's why, that's why that happened. That now makes sense. You know, I've I've had life-changing, life-altering moments in my life that all stemmed from me taking a leap of faith, or even the hardest moments in my life where the best opportunities, best growth, best learning, best moments came from. So it's it's bigger than me. In my opinion, like what I'm creating, what I'm building in my career is about the you know, the next generation, that little boy or girl, that even professional that's making a career transition that I can help them. And to have people saying, Thank you, or I was in such a dark place, but thanks to you or this, you know, workshop or this event, I now have learned about myself. And that to me is what keeps me going and helps my faith understand the journey is not just about ourselves. So it is the core of everything. That I do, to be honest. Caroline: Thank you for sharing that. I don't want to go too off course, but it's interesting angle. And I know that's something that seems Renee Washington: Yeah. Caroline: important to you and maybe useful to others who are listening to who are going through their own journey. So the sports space particularly can be hard and as a woman it can be hard, like all these different elements. so This is the Roar podcast. And so that is Surge's data analytics platform and all about tech and data and how that influences sports and decision making and all that. And so we always have to touch on some of those topics. And in the work that you're doing as you build out your whole media company and content creation and all these things, are evolving so quickly across so many aspects, So I would be interested just across the different work that you do, whether it's as broadcaster or with the kind of new segment of your company that you started, just how technology and AI, how you're keeping up, and also what's the challenges or the benefits, however you want to handle that question. But obviously it's having a big impact. And so like to hear how it impacts the multiple levels of of things that you do. Renee Washington: Yeah, I mean, I think for anyone, I always try to stress technology is changing and you have to learn it. You have to figure out how to implement it. And I have been actively doing the same. Like I think about RWMC and the work I'm doing with my company. I have people that are all over the world on my team. And so the ability for me to have a team of people that are not just domestic, but in other time zones, and now we can jump on a video chat on Google Meet and talk since it is all remote. that we can talk and have a conversation and go over tasks and go over projects together. That is technology. That is the ability that we can still see each other face to face without being even in the same country or let alone the same, even the same continent. So I think that aspect of the reach is great because I see that even on the broadcasting side with streaming rights and media rights and deals that, you know, I'll be on a broadcast. I mean, I just did the Winter Olympics for curling, for example, and that's all across the world. So I have people reaching out to me saying, wow. It was so great to watch your curling broadcast at X, you know, two in the morning in my country. Thank you now. What it was so great. Like that reach is something that's changed. The globalization of sports, the reach of technology that now you truly can have, whether it's on the speaking side, events, even I just did a hybrid workshop where some of the attendees were not in person. They were all over the world and they were able to jump on the computer. And now I can have the same workshop. That's for those in person or also for those virtual. So it's the definitely in the audience reach. But then even the way you can simplify things. Like I would not be able to do half the things and half the titles if it weren't for technology. I just couldn't. You know, I have everything from on the social media side. I use platforms that allow me to schedule out content so I can build out a content calendar versus trying to in real time post and engage and follow and things. So now when I do want to take that day off, I still have content going out on my social media. That's technology. I still have the ability through Chat GBT and similar functions to help take any, you know, notes or game prep or whatever it may be and say, hey, here's the here's everything I'm seeing. Can you organize this in bullet points for me and add headers and and structure it so I can easily follow it? That technology has saved time, but also energy. mental health because there are I'm like, wow, the ability to do things in real time. even I work through various programs and I have them connected to my chat GBT where I can now have tell the tell my chat GBT friend, you know, hey, can you create this email or whatever it may be? And now it's or create this task or whatever it may be. And they're automatically able to do it. So I don't think for an an Everyone has a one size fit model. And I do s understand with technology, you have to find what works best for you. But lean into it. It's not going anywhere. Things like AI and chat GPT and things, they're not going anywhere. So learn it, figure out a best way that it fits your lifestyle. And for me, it is actively helping me be multifaceted and be multi-hyphenated of even brainstorming ideas. The amount of times I have brainstorming sessions with my with my good friend, my chat GPT friend. is insane. So it just allows you to simplify some areas of your life, especially when you're building so many things in your personal career and and personal life. Caroline: so our Roar platform partnered with Gensler, one of the architect firms around the World Cup and did a social listening project where essentially they're scanning across social media, across different platforms and hearing what people who are attending the matches were saying about their experience with the stadium or arena. And it's been super fascinating, having the ability to not only pull in through all the social listening all of those insights and what people are saying globally about the stadiums that they were at. but then also you know then being able to use those insights to which you know there's been some level of this for a long time social media listening is nothing new but just how deep it can go now is super fascinating and just seeing the way that all these different groups because we continue to, try to to implement it in other ways too, beyond just that one project in the World Cup and, informing the decision making around, particularly what we do around SERV with the sports entertainment districts, but with the stadiums and arenas. So, hearing what people are really saying. So it's really interesting on that level too with like the social media listening. and then also was just gonna ask if anything has involved in how you do your, KPI tracking. 'cause now it's interesting with all the different social media tools and I mean across all the digital marketing tools have the, built in AI now that for me because I yeah, on the comms and marketing side. So a lot of that stuff I'm like, this is very nice. Like I can go into Canva and just be like, Can you remove that element from this graphic? And so, Renee Washington: Yes. Caroline: would love to hear if there's any specific applications, whether from KPI side or otherwise, because on our side is really understanding like audience and that seems to be one area where AI can really have an interesting and powerful influence. Renee Washington: Yeah, I think that's the beauty is we can get real time feedback of what's working well, what people like, what's you know, in terms of even understanding I know like we see it all the time on broadcasting, but I get that information too is like peak time of what time are people tuning in, what you know, who was tuning in at what time more than others, the demographics of ages and where they're j tuning in from. Like I get those same insights whether it's with my company or on the broadcasting side that I have direct correlation of knowledge of who's watching where. And that's even something you did not have before. And I know even on the something else I wanted to add to that that people don't realize is as a broadcaster, for example, we have perspective insights into so much more. If I'm doing a game, for example, of different camera angles, different stats in real time, different updates in real time. So I can be able to easily add that into the broadcast. That we have a team of data collectors that are actually Pulling all these numbers and stats. And I know if you ever watch a game, you're like, how do they know that? There's a team that does that. Like that is even little things like I know the World Cup rolled out trackers, you're gonna talk about tracking information. This is not as much performance, but is more on measurable data of who's touching the ball how many times. So you can actually in the soccer balls now, they have trackers that allow them to know, okay, Messi touched the ball X amount of times on these parts of the field versus somebody else. Like those types of pieces of information to add more context and sometimes it might be a little bit too much data to be honest but I think the most important thing for me is the performance tracking. KPI allows you to know what's working, what's not working, what can we try different. How do people perceive this? You know, for social media you have so much more insight on your target demographics, you know, who you're reaching, which types of posts type are resonating with them, and which types of time of day resonates with people. So I see that all the time of getting updates from my website to my social media to just everything, honestly, of giving me direct insight and perspective of to how can I better reach people and maybe what can I do more of to reach them positively. Caroline: And I imagine I mean that's for, your own business and then, as you're working with Renee Washington: Mm-hmm. Caroline: clients too, I'm sure, yeah, learning from your own business and then, being able to apply all that. But I'm sure you have, an amazing amount of data. So with all this data that you're able to collect and it seems like you do get deep in the weeds, I can tell your enthusiasm for yes like tracking all that stuff. from what you've been seeing in data that you've collected from broadcasting or target audiences or markets, are there, opportunities that you see or what do you see ahead as opportunities for your own business or the next hyphen, or just more broadly speaking, whether it's a certain target market or just any, particular insights or things that you've been excited about as you've, looking at across, KPIs, For for what you're doing. Renee Washington: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's it's great because I get updates all the time of like someone's on your website or someone just clicked this article or these comments or whatever. Like I you get that in real time now. I can go pull an actual report if I wanted to of certain time frames and windows and look at that. But I think one of the things that actually because I'm believe it or not, it's it's a d it's misleading. I like the data, but I also don't live and die by the data. I think there's some places and some companies and definitely brands and things that are so hyperfixated on impressions and clicks and things. And I understand that because it's very measurable. But for me it's also are we reaching people? And then are we reaching diverse people? I don't want just people in New Jersey. I want people that are all over the map. I want different ages. I want different backgrounds. So one of the things I love about what I can track is yes, to know that we have a person that is across the globe that saw value and and bought one of my ebooks or signed up for a class or is watching me on the broadcast, that is something that lets me know the power of my impact, the power of my reach. And and that is what keeps me going. Because I know I will get every once in a while a social media message or a person that follows and say, hey, I read this article or I saw this show you did or whatever it may be. And that's great too. That's a different type of feedback. But the actual quantitative data of X amount of people are watching in these different regions or have tuned in at this time It's just so encouraging to know I'm I'm doing my part. I don't care if they watch for five minutes or the entire thing. If somebody's tuned into a game, if somebody's, you know, clicking on a link and reading something, that is a start. And so I think that's actually what I enjoy most about it is to know someone sees value in my broadcast, my show, my you know, my business, whatever it may be, that they took time to click, they took time to look, they took time. I mean, I even get the Google search. Now, those, if you want to talk about a rabbit hole, insane. Google search updates of like what are people searching that led them to your website, what terms came up. so I'm like, wow, why are so many people searching for Renee Washington, you know, soccer or whatever, maybe like just random things that that I even get insight on like what people are how people are even stumbling onto my work or intentionally finding it. And I think that is cool, but also insane at the same time that I can truly see, okay, this is what people are searching for right now. But now I can cater messaging and resources to really fit that, you know, what you know, that push of if there's a a massive, you know, influx of numbers or anything like that. So I think it's just the reach is actually the biggest thing for me because that's the goal. Whether it's one person or a thousand or ten thousand, it's to reach someone positively. Caroline: it's a wild Renee Washington: Yeah. Caroline: world and it's like also figuring out, which is it because the rabbit hole of endless amounts of data, but it's like how do you make it digestible too in a way that helps you, with your decision making and expanding your business or improving your business, all that kind of stuff. So you've given so many interesting and useful insights and Congratulations on all of the incredible stuff that you're doing and I'll be interested to see what what hyphen Renee Washington: Thank you. Caroline: you add next. before we go, I wanted to ask you, as you reflect, you give a lot of great advice and are advising a lot of people and younger people. But can you share what's some of the best advice that someone has given you on your journey, if there's anything that comes to mind? Renee Washington: Yeah. Well, thank you for the kind words, first of all. But something that I see now, there's a lot. my goodness. I've been so fortunate to have incredible people that have poured into me and made it possible for me to even have the confidence, the courage to pursue creating so many different things. But I think one of the things that one of the many is somebody mentioned to me the job you want to have will look different five years from now. And I remember at the time not really recognizing that because I was just a young perspective. But then I saw things like TikTok be introduced and YouTube shorts and I mean honestly YouTube was not even that big when I was in college. Like I'm like I wish we used YouTube and had more videos of me, like highlight Caroline: See you. Renee Washington: videos and stuff the way that athletes have these days. did not exist. Content creation and influencers did not exist. And if you go five years before that, it's a lot more changes too. And that's just the the start of it. You know, things like the change of newspapers, radio, written pieces in general of articles, like so much has changed on the broadcasting side. And that's before you even get into the technology around chat GBT and AI and what it's what it's created. So That's something I've learned. And I think that's also partly why I enjoy being multi-hyphenated, because in my opinion, it keeps me versatile enough that I can continue to change with the times. Instead of being locked into just one thing, like I think about, for example, there are a number of people I know that kind of got phased out because they were just a a writer or just an anchor. And then now we're seeing a change in the industry. And it's like, well, where do I fit in? Having the ability to do multiple things, wear many hats, not only does it help. To be versatile to evolve with the times, but also it's helped open doors for me. Some of my clients that I work with, like I have one client in particular, it's professional soccer club I work with. I do their articles and I help with their PR. So I'm doing their journalism and their PR all in the same, you know, clients that I'm working with, all in the same partnership. So versatility is not just about ensuring you have a a seat at the table and options, but it also opens doors for your own career path because I can come in and I can record content. I can be so do social media edits. I can write. I can host. Like I can do so many things. And even this World Cup this past summer, I was doing a lot of that. I was getting brand partnerships and opportunities where it was like, hey, we want you to go on site, host this event, and also I want you to do two behind the scenes reels as a deliverable. So just there's so much value when you have skills that cross over into different lanes. I'm a life learner. I'm always learning something new, reading something, searching something. Like continue to sharpen your skills. Don't get stuck. Don't get complacent because again, five years from now, the jobs we're currently having are going to look different. That is a fact. We don't know how, but it's going to look different. And as you're learning new things, it only allows you to easily transition a bit more into those new roles, those new opportunities. Caroline: that's such a good point. Particularly in the whole media landscape, it's such a good point. Like you have to keep Renee Washington: Mm-hmm. Caroline: evolving and having that breadth of capabilities and having that versatility is wise wisdom, if I can say it. Renee Washington: Okay. Caroline: but I think that's a good way for us to close. but again, thank you so much for your time and insights and again, just best wishes as you continue on your journey and thank you again for sharing. Renee Washington: Yeah, this has been so much fun, Caroline.