June 27, 2025 • 47 mins
Jacie deHoop and Ellen Hyslop, co-founders of the popular sports media company The GIST, join Sarah to discuss their company’s origin story, reaching one million subscribers, and how they’ve handled managing an ever-expanding brand in a changing industry. Plus, a court in a 'port, a friend of the show goes way up, and team Good Game goes on summer vacation!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're out
like a boner in sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Big Citrus is on summer break.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's Friday, June twenty seventh, and we made it to
the final stretch of season one.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hard to believe our little show is nearly one year old.
We launched on July seventeenth last year, and damn, what
a year it's been. Thank you to our day one
slices and to the folks just trickling into the party. Now.
Big Citrus is taking a well earned summer break, but
don't worry. You're still getting some brand spanking new episodes
to keep you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Company while we're gone.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And we'll be back for season two and back to
our regular daily schedule beginning on Monday, July fourteenth, just
in time to get you all lathered up for WNBA
All Star Weekend. And we've got the perfect folks joining
today to help us celebrate our upcoming one year anniversary.
JC de Hoop and Ellen has slept from the popular
sports media company The Gist, who just had a big
(00:57):
celebration of their own.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We'll talk about there one.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Millions of debscribers dish on how the gist got started,
what it's like managing an ever expanding brand, and more.
Plus this weekend in sports, the big events happening the
next couple weeks while.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We're gone, And a shout out to a friend of
the show.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Who is probably singing, Ain't no mountain high enough for
all twenty thousand, three hundred and ten feet. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back Slices, Happy Friday.
(01:33):
Here's what you need to know today. In soccer, the
US women's national team has a couple more friendlies coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
On Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The Stars and Stripes follow up Thursday's match against Ireland
with another meeting, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. That's at
three pm Eastern at TQL Stadium. That'll be a homecoming
game for Cincy native and US women's national team midfielder
Rose Level. Then the squad takes the pitch against neighbors
to the North, Canada on July second, at seven thirty
pm Eastern at Audi Field in Washington, DC in the
(02:02):
All State Continental Classico. The last time the US and
Canada met was back in April twenty twenty four for
the She Beliefs Cup. US won that battle five to
four in penalty kicks after regulation and overtime ended in
a two to two draw. You can watch both those
games on TBS, True TV, Universo, Max, Peacock, or Westwood
One Sports More Soccer. The NWSL is on a CBA
(02:25):
mandated break through June twenty ninth and for the whole
month of July while confederation competitions like UEFA Women's euro
Copa America Feminina and Moore are played. That means no
NWSL games, but it doesn't mean you can't catch NWSL
teams in action. There are plenty of exhibition games to enjoy.
Angel CITYFC, BAFC, Houston Dash, Kansas City, Current Racing, Louisville
(02:48):
and Seattle Rain will all hit the pitch between now
and July twenty seventh. To Rugby News, the women's Elite
rugby season comes to a close Sunday with the Legacy Cup,
the league's championship game between the top ranked Denver Onyx
and the New York Exiles. Those teams will battle it
out at TCO Stadium in Egan, Minnesota, with the contest
kicking off at one pm Eastern two pm Central. We'll
(03:10):
link to the Legacy Cup live stream in our show
notes and if TCO Stadium sounds familiar, that's right, slices.
That's where our show side the Minnesota Aurora FC play
Good Stadium just went. In tennis, Wimbledon is on the horizon.
This Grand Slam is one of the biggest events on
the WTA Tour calendar each year, and it starts up
on Monday. Barbora Krachikova hoisted the trophy last year, defeating
(03:34):
Jasmine Paulini in three sets. This year, Arena Sablenka, Coco Goff,
and Jessica Pagoula are coming in hot, ranked world number one,
number two, and number three respectively. As you might remember,
Goff won the last Grand Slam on the tour at
the French Open earlier this month, becoming the first American
to win at Roland Garo since Serena Williams in twenty fifteen.
Draws for Wimbledon are available on the tournament site today,
(03:57):
so we'll link to the women's singles page in our
show notes so you can see who's matched up with who.
In hoops, the WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship is next week.
The Minnesota Links will host the Indiana Fever July first,
at eight pm Eastern Minnesota is making a second straight
appearance in the Cup title game after defeating the New
York Liberty ninety four eighty nine in last year's contest. Meantime,
this will be the Fever's first ever appearance in the
(04:18):
championship game since the Cup was introduced in twenty twenty one. Remember, folks,
the winner of this game gets not only the bragging rights,
but also a prize pool of five one hundred thousand dollars,
and each player in the championship game gets five thousand
dollars of cryptocurrency thanks to coinbase. You can tune into
the Commissioner's Cup Chip live on Amazon Prime Video. Speaking
(04:38):
of Indiana, on Thursday morning, Fever legend Natesmith and Women's
Basketball Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings was on site at
Indianapolis International Airport to help unveil a replica applice of
the official WNBA All Star Basketball court, complete with hoops
and shot clocks Yeah right in the airport. The court
is staged at Civic Plaza inside the airport, complete with
(05:00):
nineteen stars from the Indiana state flag, the Indiana Fever colors,
and It includes all WNBA team logos.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The court was printed and.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Installed by Miles Printing, a woman owned business based in Indy,
and it'll be in place until July twenty first. I'll
tell you what Indianapolis knows how to throw a big event.
If the twenty twelve Super Bowl was any indication, the
city is going to do this All Star game right.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
More hoops.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
We got to give props to Asia Wilson, who passed
Brianna Stewart to become the fastest player in WNBA history
to score five thousand career points. She hit the mark
in the Las Vegas Aces Wednesday night win over the
Connecticut Sun. The game was Wilson's two hundred and thirty
eighth Stewie hit five k and two hundred forty two games,
and third place Dnna Tarassi reached the milestone in two
(05:44):
forty three. By the way, Wilson also stuffed the stat
sheet in that Sun game twenty two points, eight rebounds
for assists and four steals. She now has five thy
fifteen career points in counting. More w News. Friend of
the Show Marina Maybury suffered a left knee injury during
the second quarter of the Sun's eighty six eighty three
loss to the Dallas Wings last week, the team announced
(06:06):
Tuesday shall be expected to miss two to four weeks recovering.
It's certainly a blow for Connecticut, as Maybury is the
team's second leading score at over fifteen points per game.
Wishing you a thorough and speedy recovery, Marina. Looking ahead
to tonight, there are five WNBA games to choose from.
At seven thirty pm Eastern, the Minnesota Links pay a
visit to the Atlanta Dream and the Dallas Wings play
(06:27):
host to the Indiana Fever. Then at ten pm, it's
My Chicago Sky at the Golden State Valkyries, the New
York Liberty against the Phoenix Mercury, and the Connecticut Sun
playing the Seattle Storm. More games over the weekend as well.
Will link to the full WNBA schedule in our show notes.
In international hoops, the Phoeba three x three Basketball World
Cup concludes this weekend in Mongolia. The US team, led
(06:48):
by rising Yukon sophomore Sarah Strong, plays in the quarterfinals tomorrow,
while the semi finals and championship are on Sunday. Team
USA entered this year's tournament as the defending champs, having
defeated France in the champihip game of the last three
x three World Cup two years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We'll link to the PHOBA YouTube page where you can.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Stream the competition, and we've got a little college basketball
news for you slices. Today, Apple TV Plus announced a
new three part docu series featuring the Yukon women's basketball team,
including the twenty twenty five NCAA National championship team.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The series is currently.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Untitled, but it'll span forty years of the program's dominant
dynasty under Hall of Fame head coach Gino Oriema. It's
directed by Emmy Award winner Matthew Hamachik and Emmy Award
nominee Erica Sashin. The series is in the works now
produced for Apple TV Plus by sky Dance Sports. No
word yet on release timing, but we'll let you know
when we know. To golf, the fourth major of the
(07:40):
LPGA season, the Amundi Evian Championship, starts up on July
tenth and Evian les Ban, France, and runs through July thirteenth.
The event features an eight million dollar perse and the
winner will walk away with one point two million. We'll
link to the full broadcast schedule in.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
The show notes. In the Pool.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The twenty twenty five World Aquatics Championships get underway in
Singapore during our show summer break, beginning on July eleventh.
The competition, which features the world's best swimmers, divers, artistic swimmers,
and water polo players, is held every other year, so
it's one of the only times that top athletes go
head to head outside of the Olympics. The most anticipated
matchup features American Katie Ledecki versus Canadian Summer McIntosh. They're
(08:21):
expected to go head to head in both the four
hundred meter and eight hundred meter races. McIntosh, just eighteen
years old, broke the world record in the four hundred
meter earlier this month at Canadian Nationals, and Ladeki has
held the eight hundred meter record since twenty thirteen and
lowered her own mark in that event for the first
time in nearly nine years in May. Also this weekend,
(08:43):
World's Collide WNBA Washington Mystics rookies Georgia Amore and Sonya
Citron will join Friends of the Show Sam Lewis, Becky
Sowerbrunn and men In Blazers host Roger Bennett for a
live taping of the Women's Game Podcast at d c's
Howard Theatre on June thirtieth. If you're in the DMV area,
go check it out. Doors open for the taping at
six pm Eastern and the show begins at seven point thirty.
(09:05):
We'll put the ticket link in our show notes. We
got to take a quick break slices when we come back.
My convo with the Gist crew sit Tight.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Joining us now.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
She's a co founder at The Gist, a women founded
and operated sports media brand, and she serves as its
head of content and co host of the Gist of
It podcast. A former insurance underwriter, she's a graduate of
Queen's University in Ontario, where she was co chair of
the school's Harvard Women at Business Club and a member
of the Queen's Quidditch Club. She was the MVP of
her high school varsity badman and soccer teams. Has torn
(09:45):
both her achilles and throws a mean corporate outing to
Wrigley Field. For a while, I thought her name was
Elena because I misread her INSTA handle.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's Ellen Heslap.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Hi Ellen, Hi, Sarah, Thanks so much for having us on.
Those are some deep cuts that you went for quidditch. Yes,
it was quite I actually loved it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I loved it so much. It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And now it's called quadball. It's been renamed and rebranded Quadball.
And they're hosting the end because of the whole toughness
of it all, because of the JK rowling of it all,
And they're hosting their Olympics in Belgium in July.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Wow, Olympics of Quadball. Who knew?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Joining her as fellow just co founder and the companies
head of Partnerships, leading their revenue generation through partnerships with
companies like Nike, Bumble and NBA. Canadian Tyron Moore a
former financial analyst. She's a graduate of the Smith's School
of Business at Queen's University. She loves watching basketball, playing tennis,
and cycling, and her favorite athlete as Venus Williams. She
loves chocolate covered almonds and swears by essential oils and
(10:43):
sleep meditations.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's JC DeHoop Hi JC.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having me on. Those were some
deep cuts.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, we're having these two ladies on because they were
named to the Forbes thirty Under thirty lists and twenty
twenty They were selected as recipients of the prestigious ad
Week Champions of Change Award last year.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Their company, The Gist, has been.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Accelerated through programs with Facebook, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Comcast,
NBCUniversal Tech Stars, and Billy Jean King Enterprises. We have
so much to learn from Ellen and JC and we
have so much to learn about how the Gist began.
But before we get to that, I do want to
make sure everyone's caught up on just what it is.
So even though there are lots and lots of loyal
folks to the Gist, for anyone not familiar, Ellen, can
(11:24):
you give us a little elevator pitch?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
What is it that you guys make and produce and
send out? Great question?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
We want to be the go to source for sports
for all underserved sports fans. We are your witty, sports
obsessed best friend that's keeping you in the know of
what's happening in sports. We really meet our audience where
they're already scrolling and where they're already living. So we
provide a four times weekly newsletter that keeps you up
to date of what's happening in the world of sports,
providing equal coverage on both the men's side and the
(11:52):
women's side through a newsletter that has over one million subscribers.
You can also follow us on Instagram, our TikTok, at
the Just USA, at the Just SA and at the
Just Sports on TikTok where you can get daily updates
on what's happening in the.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
World of sports.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And then we also have a podcast, which you mentioned,
which is called The Gist of It, where we have
the opportunity to dig into some of the nuances with
sports and pop culture and really we exist to make
sports a more inclusive space for everyone. And I'm sure
we'll get into it in a minute of why we
started the Gist and how we started it and where
(12:28):
we see the Gist going as well, But really we
are the antithesis to something like a Barstool Sports, where
we want to ensure that everyone feels like they are
part of a conversation and that they are welcome in
the sports community.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
If you had just said we're the antithesis of Barstool Sports,
it would have been like, great, Yes, sign up, where
can I saw to your point, we are going to
talk about how it came about because it was founded
in twenty seventeen, you two founded it alongside a third
friend from college, d Roslyn McClarty. So take me back
to twenty seventeen, JC and how it all happened.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, So the idea really came about from a lot
of like our I think, our context in the sports world.
So at the time, we were all working in very
corporate kind of jobs. You mentioned, I was in the
kind of financial services financial analyst space, and it was
all of like our first jobs out of college too,
(13:27):
and we'd all played sports and been different levels of
sports fandom, I would say, but it's kind of in
that first job out of college where we're really seeing
how people were talking about sports all the time, connecting
through sports all the time, especially in a like a corporate,
very male dominated kind of setting. But as a female
fan and female athlete, it's so easy to feel on
(13:49):
the outside of that sports conversation and community. Think it
just really felt like it wasn't for us in a
lot of ways. And the idea actually came about from
us just hanging out on a weeknight and talking about
the Leaf's game the night before, and Ellen was going
off about what had happened, and we were like, oh,
(14:11):
it's so much more engaging and fun to talk about
sports with your girlfriends and specifically to get your sports
updates from your like witty sports obsessed best friend. Like
me and Ell have been friends for a very long
time at that point and still and I love talking
about sports with her. I love hearing about what's happening
(14:32):
in women's sports, in men's sports from Elle. I don't
necessarily love the comments section on Instagram, or I don't
necessarily love a lot of the time watching the broadcast,
like it's long, it's boring. I'm like, let's get to
the highlights of like what's actually happening the context here,
And that was what we really felt was missing in
the kind of sports media landscape. And it was actually
(14:53):
that very night that we were like, we want to
center women in sports, and we really want to focus
on the female fan and growing sports fandom amongst women
in many ways, Like we came up with that idea
that very night, and then I think it was like
seven months later, we had a big launch party, had
(15:15):
a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Of free booze, free food.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
That got a little bit of hype going, and really
from day one, we also did want to do a
newsletter and kind of launch a newsletter. It was not
only pretty affordable to just start sending one out tomorrow,
but as kind of like corporate girls, we were like,
we're checking our inbox incessantly, Like there's something about one's
(15:40):
inbox that is like entry into somebody's world that we
thought was very interesting. We were subscribers of The Skim
and The Hustle and Morning Brew at the time, and
so from actually like that very first night, we thought
the newsletter concept and a newsletter being a way to
really build community and also that one to one connection
where you really feel like you're talking or you're reading
(16:03):
something from your best friend, we really enjoyed and thought
that that was kind of how we wanted to grow
this community that again was all about just centering women
in sports when so often we had this hypothesis that
there were just so many other women that felt the
same way as us on the outside of the community
and the passion.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
When you know, yeah, not being spoken to exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I actually pitched a women's sports not for women specifically,
but about women's sports newsletter to ESPN probably like ten
years ago. I was like, it would just be like
a quick, little thing, just like I think it was
around the same time of like the skim being like,
oh the skim, but for women's sports, because like it's
so hard to find out ESPN.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
They're like, yeah, we don't need to do that. I'm like, okay, great,
and Ellen, how did you right? Ellen? How did you
fund it? How did you build it?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Really great question because when you're twenty five and you're
working those corporate jobs, is not like you have a
big savings to rely on or can kind of go
into your own money yourself. So we bootstrapped as we
were initially starting the gist, leveraging those small savings to
be able to hire on a designer, to be able
to pay for our website, to be able to host
(17:16):
that initial launch event, and for us to be able
to really feel like we could have it as a
side hustle. And then the place where we were really
able to say, Okay, we feel good about leaving this
cushy corporate job in order to go ahead and really
focus on the gist is that we were accepted into
an incubator program with Facebook as well as the DMZ,
(17:39):
which is the number one university based incubator in the world,
and Within that incubator, we received one hundred thousand dollars
in non alude of funding, which non aluteed funding in
the startup world is literally unheard of. We also with
that program receive sixty thousand dollars in ad credits, access
to mentorship, access to an office, and so JC Oslyn
(18:00):
and I at the time when we were applying for
this program basically said if we get in, we are
going to quit our jobs and fully dedicate ourselves to
the GIST because we had that one hundred thousand dollars
to really test and learn and to see if this
was actually a viable idea, and so that really kicked
things off Sarah for us that incubator program, and from
there we were able to raise some money friends, family,
(18:23):
as well as be part of a tech Stars accelerator
program with Comcast NBCU down in Philly, and then we
raised a one million dollar round I think it was
twenty twenty one a Jace to allow us to continue
to fund the Gist and now it's been self funded
from jac and her team working so hard to allow
us to do everything that we want to do on
(18:44):
the content and audience and growth side. To continue to
grow the GIST.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Amazing. What sort of fears did you have leaving those
corporate jobs?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Jac so many we were very naive, I will say
it was. It was very, very scary, But at the
same time, I think we were actually young enough and
experienced enough to really push that right down.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Right, who needs a four oh one k.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Or our parents were more scared than we were, I
think now in nindsight break yes, yeah, Like I remember
my parents who've always been in the public sector, like
having security is just everything.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
They were like, you can't be serious.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
But you did and it's working, which is amazing. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
It really was like a bet on ourselves and on
the fact that there were just other women that felt
the same way as us. It was certainly a hypothesis though,
like I I feel like now when we tell people
about the GIST, it's been so interesting for me being
on the partnership side and needing to do the pitch
a million times to so many different people, and how
(19:54):
the reception has changed. Because this was twenty seventeen was
when we kind of came up, but the concept in
twenty eighteen was when we quit our jobs and really
took it on full time, Kaitlin Clark was not around,
Like even the WNBA was in a very different place
back in twenty Like this is before the pandemic. Like
female athletes just weren't talked about and heralded and like
(20:16):
so part of our cultural fabric the way that they
are today, and let alone female fandom and men's sports
was certainly not something that had ever crossed anyone's minds.
And you know when we told.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Well maybe in Canada, I will say that for a
long time now, brands here have recognized that, like, ooh,
we're just looking our demos and like fifty percent of
our fans are women, and yet we never market or
speak to them at all. Yes, like that conversation had
been around and about, but yeah, still they weren't figuring
out ways to serve.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yeah, And I would say when it was when that
conversation did come up at that time, it was Okay,
we're going to make a jersey for them, like the
shrinket and picket. That is just not something that young, cool,
progressive women want or the content is going to be
rooted in the wags, which is like very interesting and fun,
but is not the root of being a female sports fan,
(21:12):
and so you know, when we were talking with various
execs at sports media companies and broadcasters, like the feedback
was generally like, yeah, we've tried versions of that, and
there isn't a market there. And so there certainly were
moments of a lot of doubt. At the same time,
I do think we were really lucky to have each
other so that when you're feeling like another no, there
(21:37):
isn't another really smart, experienced person telling us that there
isn't a market for this, the other person is feeling confident,
and so you can kind of play off of that.
But I do think we had the benefit of age
and naivety in some ways that we were pretty We
had a lot of conviction in the idea and of
(21:57):
what the gist could become, and I think in ourselves
as well. Well. Sometimes I'm like, I don't know how
we had that much confidence and conviction, but we did.
We were really excited for what the gist could become.
So there was always a little bit of doubt, certainly
from external people, but we knew there was something there
(22:17):
and that there was a business opportunity there. This was
never a project.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want to talk about that part too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Because Ellen, did you actually want to be the boss
of a company and do hiring and firing, managing people,
figuring out health insurance, like all of that stuff that
comes with wanting to create something and talk about sports.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
I think, to the jac's point, Sarah, I had no
idea that any of this would actually come with it.
I think that we had a dream that the gist
would one day get to a place where we could
gainfully employ a team of people that were all marching
towards this mission of leveling the playing field. But what
exactly doing that looks like?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
We had no idea.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Thankfully, we all graduated from business school, we were all
working corporate, and so I don't think that business side
was outside of the equation for us. We kind of
knew potentially what we could be getting into. As a
sports fan myself and as someone who's been obsessed with
sports for a very long time, I honestly was just
so stoked to be able to share my passion and
(23:21):
to be able to speak with people, and to be
able to grow and develop this fandom with like minded
women who I hadn't had the opportunity to speak with
or meet beforehand. But running a business is very different,
and we have learned so much over the years, and
what we both do at the GIST over the years
has changed so much, and now we are really at
(23:43):
the place where we have an amazing team behind us,
and they're the ones who are creating all of this
amazing content that you're seeing. They're the ones working the
different pitch calls, going to meet all of these different partners.
They're the ones who are coming up with all of
these creative ideas. Versus a beginning, it was us kind
of on this island getting into the nitty gritty doing
(24:04):
all of the ops while also strategizing, while also having
to find money that still exists today, but at a
really different scale. And so definitely looking back that something
where I feel like we've learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You mentioned the different rules, jac how did you divvy
up the roles, and then did you learn at any
moment early on like oops, a daisy, you should definitely
be doing that and I should be over here.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yes, we you know.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I think in our early days we each gravitated to
different areas of the business pretty naturally based off of
just what we were good at. But at the end
of the day, is you know, being a founder is
that you just kind of have to do whatever needs
to get done. So yes, we did have our roles
kind of divided out, but I think what also made
(24:50):
things work was just we were very on the same
page that whatever has to get done, we will do
and we'll have to learn it for the first time
and that's okay, and it'll probably be really until we
can hire somebody to do it ten times better than us.
But I would say it always made sense for Elle
to be the voice of the Gist. That was really
(25:11):
that first night, and like that relationship that I have
with Elle of being like, I want to talk with
her about sports is really what the whole premise of
the Gist has been founded off of. And so Elle
really building and leading everything that is audience facing from
day one we knew was going to happen, and so
her evolving as our head of content, being the one
(25:32):
in the weeds writing the newsletter every single night to
now leading the entire editorial team was a very natural decision.
And then myself editing it really poorly, and then on
my side of things, I think that it also felt
(25:56):
very natural to be kind of on the sales side
or pitching side of the gist. I think I've always
felt a lot of passion for what we're building, and
I don't know if I would thrive in a kind
of like a sales business development role at another company
doing it for someone else, but for something that I
care so much about. I was like, yeah, I think
(26:19):
everybody owes us money, and so that feeling has translated
well to kind of what I oversee. Yeah, but whether
we thought we would be overseeing a sales team and
an editorial team, we had no idea. Again, we were
just like now, so young and kind of figuring it
out as we went along. But I think all of
(26:40):
us being open to doing literally whatever needs to get
done to move the business to that next stage was
really important.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, Because Ellen, now you've got several newsletters, a podcast
at job board, have you social media presence?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
What's been the biggest challenge as you grow?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Obviously great to have more investment, to be able to
hire more people to scale things, But what's been the
hardest part about that?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
It's really interesting question because I think I would answer
it differently depending on the day of the week. I
think from a content perspective, and if we think about
it from a macro lens, Sarah, from the content side
of things, you constantly have to keep a finger on
the pulse, and you constantly have to be thinking not
only about what's happening within the news, but how consumption
(27:25):
habits are changing. What apps are people on, what does
their day to day look like, what are they actually
caring about? And then within that, how can they just
be part of their habit. How can we be part
of what they do in their daily routine when they're
opening up their inbox, and how can we make sure
we're the first email that they read. How can we
(27:45):
be making sure that we're popping up and they're thinking
about us when they're going for a walk so that
they listen to our podcast. And it's been very interesting
over the years where there's been this huge interest in
the last couple of years in newsletter now. In the
early days, it wasn't big into that TikTok happened as
we were growing the gist. We totally had to adjust
(28:06):
to that. Reels on Instagram have allowed us to storytell
in a completely different way, and then we've also adjusted
and honed in on who our target market is in
a different sense as well, and as people's attention spans
have continually decreased, we've also had to adjust the way
in which we're providing content and the way in which
we're marketers of that content as well. So there's a
(28:29):
lot of macro context that changes how we do things
at the GIST.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And one of the things, and I've told you this
on several occasions, I think I say it every time
I see you. That I love so much about the
Gist is that you do provide the context, do the research,
do the reporting, and lay things out so that people
who don't know much about something are instantly given enough
to care about it, and those who do know are
still learning something new. And Ellen, it feels like you're
(28:59):
the sort of content director and deciding how to deliver things.
Was that important to you from the beginning And did
you ever feel like, oh, I'm basically now a sports
reporter slash journalist, which isn't something that I studied.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
It was super important to us from the beginning, Sarah.
We always say that we are a fan first company,
and we mean it so much in that we are fans.
We talk to fans all the time, and I think
we truly understand what a day to day life looks
like as a fan. And that doesn't mean that they're
totally obsessing over their apps or that they have time
to watch every single Chicago Cubs game. It means that
(29:34):
they're real people with real lives going on, and we
have to think about the information that matters to them.
And so really, at the gist at the center of
the way we create content, especially on our newsletter, it's curation,
context and why does it matter? And that's always been
exceptionally important and continues to be across every single channel.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So JC, you're in charge of trying to sell people
on the idea that they should advertise spot ansor and
get involved with all this great content. What are a
couple of your favorite activations or collabs from over the years.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
We've been having so many good partnerships, especially in the
last year last six months. I would say we just
got to work with Brandon Stewart alongside Corona, which was
just so fun and cool. And I think our whole team,
like we are ultimately just like sports girls who are like,
(30:27):
oh my gosh, we get to work with Stewie, Like
that's just really fun. And I think in general, being
able to work with some of the biggest names, particularly
female athletes, but also just hear the stories of a
lot of different female athletes. In particular, we've worked with
a lot of male athletes as well through our partnerships
(30:50):
has been amazing. We only really started working with Athlete
Tent in the last year or so, and that has
taken our partnerships to a whole other level. We always
are talking about how these athletes are just at the
core of what of all the growth that we want
to see, and so that's been pretty cool. And we've
had partnerships with Nike that have also involved some of
(31:11):
those those key athletes as State Farm and a Caitlin
Clark and what have you. So we're really fortunate to
work with some really big brands in the space that
want to tell the right stories and again center other
fans and other perspectives. But there's a lot of them
that have actually been really cool and I think pushing
(31:31):
the envelope on the kinds of deals that you see
in the space and the kind of content that you
see in the space.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm always impressed. There's a lot of creativity.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It all flows really well, though it feels very natural
as part of the content. And I know I'm being
advertised to at times, but that's part of the game.
And it's never something where I'm like ew or like oh,
I hate that, I don't like how the it's always
very smart, which I appreciate. As jac just talked about
Ellen that just covers men's and women's sports. That is
a herculean task. How do you do side what content
(32:01):
makes the cut maybe for the newsletter, what you want
to talk about in your podcast, or what you just
might not have time for.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
So it really depends on the week, the month, the
time of the year.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I feel like, as you know, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Our team, if we want to think about the newsletter
in particular, they're always staying up to date on what's
happening in sports. They're watching games, they're watching Sports Center,
they're listening to podcasts, they're doing everything that avid sports
fans are supposed to do. And then before every single newsletter,
we have a half hour long scoping call and kind
of go through, Okay, what do we want to talk
(32:35):
about today, How do we want to talk about it,
Why do we want to talk about it, Where does
it fit in the newsletter? How should we explain this
complicated nuance and is this the right format or should
this be a story that's actually much better off living
in the podcast because there is so much great area,
or there is so much nuance, or is this a
(32:57):
place where we're going to pass it off to social
because it's a little bit more fun, it's a little
bit more pop culture. I think to Sarah, we're always
trying to figure out how we're evolving the newsletter content too,
and so this year we also launch the Group Chat,
which is a Sunday newsletter that really talks about the
intersection of sports and lifestyle, and that's really based off
of how we're seeing our gisters respond to that intersectionality
(33:21):
between both and also bringing in sports to what their
day to day life looks like. And so it's been
really nice to be able to have that Monday, Wednesday,
Friday newsletter content focused on both men's and women's sports
and then the lifestyle content. What I will say, Sarah
is that we are bringing in everything that's happening in
the sports world and bringing it to a five minute read.
(33:41):
And what is actually at the top of our newsletter
our team thinks is the most important. It does not
matter if it's women's sports, It does not matter if
it's men's sports. It is what is the most entertaining thing?
What do you need to know? And how can we
make it feel important or special to you? As that
every day on the go very smart art woman and
so balancing all that is hard. But our team is
(34:05):
some of the best in the business and they have
a lot of fun doing it too.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I got to meet a lot of the teams when
came to Chicago, and it was the best group.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I was like, I want to work for the gist.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Oh my gosh, Sarah, thank you for coming out.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That was so fun. I want to go back in
time and have this be my job. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
But it was also just like this bunch of really
enthusiastic young women and a couple dudes, and it just
seemed like a really awesome place.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
To work and like a really fun group to work with.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So I'm excited for young up and coming talent to
have places now where they feel welcome and included and
spoken to, as opposed to folks like me coming up
or it was always like one woman in a room
of thirty five bros making fun of women all the time,
and you have to have a thick skin, and you know,
you just love sports, so you want to be there
even if it sucks half the time and you're getting
(34:52):
treated like shit. So I just was, you know, sliding
doors my life back to if I were in my
twenties now to have you as my bosses?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
How fun would that be?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I mean Sarah too, what I will say we
the GIST can only exist because of people like you,
And we talk of Jacy and I talk about that
a lot, right Like growing up, you were who I watched.
I watched you on around the Horn. I learned from you.
You're who I went to for my sports news that
helped me develop my avid fandom. And so as much
(35:24):
as we wish that the GIST and sometimes we say
we wish the just didn't have to exist, like in
an ideal world, the GIST does not have to exist
because we are already centering female voices, We are all ready,
we are already providing equal coverage, We are already thinking
about sports fans being equals regardless of who they are.
But we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for
(35:46):
folks like you doing the work that you have done
throughout your entire career that have allowed us to excel
into the spaces.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
That we are. That's really nice. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Yeah, you all should have seen our team totally freaking
out at getting to Sarah Spain.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It was so cute.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Well, I got a shout out Margo because she might
be my number one fan and she's the best. Yeah,
jac Last October, you guys announced the milestone of a
million newsletter subscribers across your platforms. In terms of goals
or expectations when you launched, are you on schedule ahead
of schedule, on a schedule you never thought existed?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Good question.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, that big one million subscriber milestone is one that
I think we've been thinking about planning for for a while.
That was one that really just felt, you know, I
talked about in those early days. There were a lot
of dotors. There were a lot of people in the
industry in particular, who like, we've already tried that, or
(36:52):
there isn't actually demand for something like that, and one
million shows that that is just not true. I think
it really proved our thesis. It's like women love sports.
There's so much opportunity to expand on that, and so
that was a huge, huge milestone for us. And then
in terms of just where we're going and whether we're
on track, I will say I feel like in many
(37:14):
ways like we are in totally different zones than we
might have predicted we would be back in twenty eighteen.
Elle spoke to how just consumption habits have evolved so much.
TikTok didn't even exist when we launched the Gist, and
I think for myself on more of the partnership side,
(37:35):
and you know, we couldn't have predicted some of the
explosive growth around women's sports and also where some of
our partners are going to be investing in supporting in
interesting ways, sometimes not as fast and as much as
we would like there to be, but there certainly has
been a lot of new opportunities that have kind of
(37:58):
come across our desk that have been really interesting as well.
I would say we have big plans. We always have
had big plans of what the Gist can become as
being that really go to source for sports for so
many underserved fans out there, and we have a lot
of different ideas in how we can really super serve
(38:19):
those gisters at a whole other level in twenty twenty five,
but you know, in five years as well, And so
I think we're kind of in a place now where
where we have to anticipate those needs, right, Like there's
new channels that are going to be emerging in new
ways that we can really move this space forward that
we need to be thinking about for a year, three
(38:39):
five years from now that we're starting to lay the
groundwork in. But it's been really exciting too. I think
it's been interesting because there's simultaneously been so much progress
in the women's sports space in particular in the last
few years, but also it feels like it's been slow.
I think for those of us like yourself that have
been just fans and just part of this ecosystem for
(39:00):
some time, it's like, yes, we're making so much progress,
but how is it not faster? So we feel a
lot of that around the business as well. I think
we you can't help but feel that way. As a founder.
You're like, oh my gosh, what an amazing year we've had.
But also I want everything moving.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
More fast, more and more and more better, yeah, more.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
And so we try to balance that as well and
appreciate how much you've done.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
I think you need both.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
You need gratitude and you need to be able to
look back and see your progress. Otherwise you'll constantly be
looking ahead and you'll never be satisfied. But also having
ambition to demand and ask for more, which is so important,
especially in this space.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
We're running out of time. But I want to ask
you Ellen.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
You know you started in Canada and then expanded to
the States, and I wonder having gone up to Canada
the last three years for the espnW Summit and loving
watching how the professional women's landscape has transformed just in
three years up there, from almost nothing to multiple leagues
and all this energy and enthusiasm. Do you find that
you can leverage a mayor and sponsors or folks who
(40:01):
are already on board and bring it back to Canada
and try to get them to catch up or where
do you still see pushback versus a freeway ready for
you to speed on in the space as you're trying
to negotiate or pitch content or get investment.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
There's a lot of differences between the Canadian market and
the American market, both on the audience side as well
as on the brand partnership side. I can speak more
to the audience side. So for context for all of
your listeners, we have a Canadian newsletter, a Canadian Instagram page,
and an American newsletter and an American Instagram page, and
that is very purposeful. The reason we did it is
(40:39):
because Canadians and Americans are different, and they're interested in
different things and they respond to things in different ways.
I think a lot of people might remember Target expanding
into Canada and then failing within two years, and we
didn't want to have that opposite effect when we actually
entered into the US, and so we're very intentional of
who we're hiring on the content team, both Americans and Canadians,
(41:01):
where they're living, what content they're consuming, to ensure that
we are meeting and reaching those American markets but also
local markets and the way.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
That we need to.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
And so what we speak about to our American side
of things is actually really different on the Canadian side.
The order in which you know, when you talked about
the newsletter, hockey is oftentimes pretty high up on the
Canadian side of things in comparison to the US side,
where it might be the NFL or NBA. The other thing, too,
Sarah is just the college landscape is remarkably different. The
(41:34):
NCAA provides so much more opportunity for us to talk
about sports. In the US, the women's sports ecosystem already
existing was truly amazing. For a very very long time
in Canada, I felt like we were the only ones
developing fans of women's sports. I truly felt like that.
And I think that we are a big proponent of
(41:55):
women's sports fandom in Canada versus in the US. I
do think that we have one hundred time percent been
a part of that growth. But the NWSL was there,
the WNBA was there, There was already this mass appeal
for NCAA gymnastics and basketball and everything like that. That
the markets were different and the fandom is so different
(42:15):
because of that high school pipeline and college pipeline being
really separate of what you see in Canada. There's so
much value and having these separate audiences and also working
with brands who want to speak to these audiences in
different ways, and then sometimes a North American brand that
does want to actually say like, oh my gosh, finally
we have Canadian reach. Finally these leagues are expanding into Canada,
(42:38):
and we need to have that North American opportunity and
that's really where we can step in. But there's a
lot of nuance, there's a lot of differences, and we're
really proud that we're able to cover off on both sides.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
It's very impressive to be able to do. And I
subscribe to both of them on social media. I only
get the US newsletter, but I like to find out
about what's going on in the world of rugby and
other things that you guys are way more into than
we are.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
We should send you the engagement rates of Canada versus US,
because on different on different posts, it could be like
an insane engagement rate on a post in the US
and then crickets on Canada.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So's it would be really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Well, we're trying to serve our neighbors up north whenever
we can here without getting too Canadian focused, but we
know that there's a lot of folks up there like
the show, so we try to make sure we throw
them a bone every once in a while, especially since
I might be moving to Canada sometimes.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
You Yeah, with things don't improve.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Down here, Well, thanks for coming on. Congratulations on all
your milestones. You're helping us celebrate our first year. We're
coming up on the end of season one for Good
Game with Sarah Spain, and we love being able to
shout out and highlight other folks that are doing great
stuff in the space because it is really a community
and everybody gets better and more when we all help
(43:59):
each other out.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
So keep doing your thing. We're always watching.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Thanks Sarah, and congratulations to you.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's a really exciting congrats on one here. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much for having us.
This is really fun.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Thanks so much to Ellen and jac for joining me.
We got to take another break when we come back.
Is this podcast going to end on a cliffhanger? Welcome back, slices.
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day, slices. As I mentioned,
(44:35):
we're going on a much needed little summer break for
the next two weeks and then we'll return to our
regular daily programming July fourteenth with the launch of season two.
But that doesn't mean we're going to leave you hanging.
There's some pretty cool stuff coming, including my conversation with
Alison Felix a couple big Citrus chats and my guest
appearance on the Hello Sunshine podcast The bright Side, so
be sure to stay tuned in. Also ahead of season two,
(44:58):
we want to hear from you. What ideas and suggestions
do you.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Have for us?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
What do you want more of, maybe less of? What
guests do you want to hear from? Hit us up
good game at wondermedianetwork dot com is the email or
you can leave us a voicemail at eight seven two
two o four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe,
rate and review. It's easy watch Friend at the Show
Katherine Berteen summitting Denali, the highest mountain in North America,
(45:24):
rating nine out of nine women in the all women
Summit Crew review. Friend at the Show Katherine Berteen, an activist,
author and former pro cyclist, continues to amaze us. This
time she joined five other female climbers and three female
guides to summit Mount Denali in Alaska. Wrote Catherine on
her Instagram quote, did you know women weren't even allowed
(45:45):
to climb Denali until nineteen seventy Yep, The Rangers wouldn't
give permits to female climbers until fifty five years ago
when the first women's team Denali Damsels broke trail for US.
Catherine continued, quote, we paid homage to the women of
nineteen seventy by flying at Denali Damsel's flag bearing their
names and hours.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
End quote. Catherine and her.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Crew summited twenty thousand, three hundred and ten total feet
and that was after fourteen days ascending the glacier.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
No shirps for this climb.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
They carried their own gear, food, tents, waist buckets, garbage, poop, everything.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
And here's the kicker.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
This is actually the second time Catherine has summitted d Nali.
The first time she had a bad experience with what
she calls poor judgment, bad decision bro culture guides back
in twenty twenty two, so she wanted to return with
female guides and have a better experience for her final
Glacier high Point expedition. Last time she hiked it, she
sprinkled some of her father's ashes at the summit, and
(46:43):
after losing her mom last year, this time she tossed
a dual sprinkle of ash, honoring both her parents at
the top. We're sending you big hugs and hoping you've
got bath, salts for your feet, and a two hour
massage scheduled Katherine. We'll share Catherine's instapost in the show notes.
If you want to read more now it's your turn,
rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you Monday for
(47:03):
my guest appearance on the bright Side, hosted by Simone Boyce.
Good Game, Ellen, Good Game, jac You Climbing twenty thousand,
three hundred said fat goodn't be me so so impressive.
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
(47:23):
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer.
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm
(47:45):
your host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're out
like a boner in sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Big Citrus is on summer break.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's Friday, June twenty seventh, and we made it to
the final stretch of season one.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hard to believe our little show is nearly one year old.
We launched on July seventeenth last year, and damn, what
a year it's been. Thank you to our day one
slices and to the folks just trickling into the party. Now.
Big Citrus is taking a well earned summer break, but
don't worry. You're still getting some brand spanking new episodes
to keep you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Company while we're gone.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And we'll be back for season two and back to
our regular daily schedule beginning on Monday, July fourteenth, just
in time to get you all lathered up for WNBA
All Star Weekend. And we've got the perfect folks joining
today to help us celebrate our upcoming one year anniversary.
JC de Hoop and Ellen has slept from the popular
sports media company The Gist, who just had a big
(00:57):
celebration of their own.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We'll talk about there one.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Millions of debscribers dish on how the gist got started,
what it's like managing an ever expanding brand, and more.
Plus this weekend in sports, the big events happening the
next couple weeks while.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We're gone, And a shout out to a friend of
the show.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Who is probably singing, Ain't no mountain high enough for
all twenty thousand, three hundred and ten feet. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back Slices, Happy Friday.
(01:33):
Here's what you need to know today. In soccer, the
US women's national team has a couple more friendlies coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
On Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The Stars and Stripes follow up Thursday's match against Ireland
with another meeting, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. That's at
three pm Eastern at TQL Stadium. That'll be a homecoming
game for Cincy native and US women's national team midfielder
Rose Level. Then the squad takes the pitch against neighbors
to the North, Canada on July second, at seven thirty
pm Eastern at Audi Field in Washington, DC in the
(02:02):
All State Continental Classico. The last time the US and
Canada met was back in April twenty twenty four for
the She Beliefs Cup. US won that battle five to
four in penalty kicks after regulation and overtime ended in
a two to two draw. You can watch both those
games on TBS, True TV, Universo, Max, Peacock, or Westwood
One Sports More Soccer. The NWSL is on a CBA
(02:25):
mandated break through June twenty ninth and for the whole
month of July while confederation competitions like UEFA Women's euro
Copa America Feminina and Moore are played. That means no
NWSL games, but it doesn't mean you can't catch NWSL
teams in action. There are plenty of exhibition games to enjoy.
Angel CITYFC, BAFC, Houston Dash, Kansas City, Current Racing, Louisville
(02:48):
and Seattle Rain will all hit the pitch between now
and July twenty seventh. To Rugby News, the women's Elite
rugby season comes to a close Sunday with the Legacy Cup,
the league's championship game between the top ranked Denver Onyx
and the New York Exiles. Those teams will battle it
out at TCO Stadium in Egan, Minnesota, with the contest
kicking off at one pm Eastern two pm Central. We'll
(03:10):
link to the Legacy Cup live stream in our show
notes and if TCO Stadium sounds familiar, that's right, slices.
That's where our show side the Minnesota Aurora FC play
Good Stadium just went. In tennis, Wimbledon is on the horizon.
This Grand Slam is one of the biggest events on
the WTA Tour calendar each year, and it starts up
on Monday. Barbora Krachikova hoisted the trophy last year, defeating
(03:34):
Jasmine Paulini in three sets. This year, Arena Sablenka, Coco Goff,
and Jessica Pagoula are coming in hot, ranked world number one,
number two, and number three respectively. As you might remember,
Goff won the last Grand Slam on the tour at
the French Open earlier this month, becoming the first American
to win at Roland Garo since Serena Williams in twenty fifteen.
Draws for Wimbledon are available on the tournament site today,
(03:57):
so we'll link to the women's singles page in our
show notes so you can see who's matched up with who.
In hoops, the WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship is next week.
The Minnesota Links will host the Indiana Fever July first,
at eight pm Eastern Minnesota is making a second straight
appearance in the Cup title game after defeating the New
York Liberty ninety four eighty nine in last year's contest. Meantime,
this will be the Fever's first ever appearance in the
(04:18):
championship game since the Cup was introduced in twenty twenty one. Remember, folks,
the winner of this game gets not only the bragging rights,
but also a prize pool of five one hundred thousand dollars,
and each player in the championship game gets five thousand
dollars of cryptocurrency thanks to coinbase. You can tune into
the Commissioner's Cup Chip live on Amazon Prime Video. Speaking
(04:38):
of Indiana, on Thursday morning, Fever legend Natesmith and Women's
Basketball Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings was on site at
Indianapolis International Airport to help unveil a replica applice of
the official WNBA All Star Basketball court, complete with hoops
and shot clocks Yeah right in the airport. The court
is staged at Civic Plaza inside the airport, complete with
(05:00):
nineteen stars from the Indiana state flag, the Indiana Fever colors,
and It includes all WNBA team logos.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The court was printed and.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Installed by Miles Printing, a woman owned business based in Indy,
and it'll be in place until July twenty first. I'll
tell you what Indianapolis knows how to throw a big event.
If the twenty twelve Super Bowl was any indication, the
city is going to do this All Star game right.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
More hoops.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
We got to give props to Asia Wilson, who passed
Brianna Stewart to become the fastest player in WNBA history
to score five thousand career points. She hit the mark
in the Las Vegas Aces Wednesday night win over the
Connecticut Sun. The game was Wilson's two hundred and thirty
eighth Stewie hit five k and two hundred forty two games,
and third place Dnna Tarassi reached the milestone in two
(05:44):
forty three. By the way, Wilson also stuffed the stat
sheet in that Sun game twenty two points, eight rebounds
for assists and four steals. She now has five thy
fifteen career points in counting. More w News. Friend of
the Show Marina Maybury suffered a left knee injury during
the second quarter of the Sun's eighty six eighty three
loss to the Dallas Wings last week, the team announced
(06:06):
Tuesday shall be expected to miss two to four weeks recovering.
It's certainly a blow for Connecticut, as Maybury is the
team's second leading score at over fifteen points per game.
Wishing you a thorough and speedy recovery, Marina. Looking ahead
to tonight, there are five WNBA games to choose from.
At seven thirty pm Eastern, the Minnesota Links pay a
visit to the Atlanta Dream and the Dallas Wings play
(06:27):
host to the Indiana Fever. Then at ten pm, it's
My Chicago Sky at the Golden State Valkyries, the New
York Liberty against the Phoenix Mercury, and the Connecticut Sun
playing the Seattle Storm. More games over the weekend as well.
Will link to the full WNBA schedule in our show notes.
In international hoops, the Phoeba three x three Basketball World
Cup concludes this weekend in Mongolia. The US team, led
(06:48):
by rising Yukon sophomore Sarah Strong, plays in the quarterfinals tomorrow,
while the semi finals and championship are on Sunday. Team
USA entered this year's tournament as the defending champs, having
defeated France in the champihip game of the last three
x three World Cup two years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We'll link to the PHOBA YouTube page where you can.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Stream the competition, and we've got a little college basketball
news for you slices. Today, Apple TV Plus announced a
new three part docu series featuring the Yukon women's basketball team,
including the twenty twenty five NCAA National championship team.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The series is currently.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Untitled, but it'll span forty years of the program's dominant
dynasty under Hall of Fame head coach Gino Oriema. It's
directed by Emmy Award winner Matthew Hamachik and Emmy Award
nominee Erica Sashin. The series is in the works now
produced for Apple TV Plus by sky Dance Sports. No
word yet on release timing, but we'll let you know
when we know. To golf, the fourth major of the
(07:40):
LPGA season, the Amundi Evian Championship, starts up on July
tenth and Evian les Ban, France, and runs through July thirteenth.
The event features an eight million dollar perse and the
winner will walk away with one point two million. We'll
link to the full broadcast schedule in.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
The show notes. In the Pool.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The twenty twenty five World Aquatics Championships get underway in
Singapore during our show summer break, beginning on July eleventh.
The competition, which features the world's best swimmers, divers, artistic swimmers,
and water polo players, is held every other year, so
it's one of the only times that top athletes go
head to head outside of the Olympics. The most anticipated
matchup features American Katie Ledecki versus Canadian Summer McIntosh. They're
(08:21):
expected to go head to head in both the four
hundred meter and eight hundred meter races. McIntosh, just eighteen
years old, broke the world record in the four hundred
meter earlier this month at Canadian Nationals, and Ladeki has
held the eight hundred meter record since twenty thirteen and
lowered her own mark in that event for the first
time in nearly nine years in May. Also this weekend,
(08:43):
World's Collide WNBA Washington Mystics rookies Georgia Amore and Sonya
Citron will join Friends of the Show Sam Lewis, Becky
Sowerbrunn and men In Blazers host Roger Bennett for a
live taping of the Women's Game Podcast at d c's
Howard Theatre on June thirtieth. If you're in the DMV area,
go check it out. Doors open for the taping at
six pm Eastern and the show begins at seven point thirty.
(09:05):
We'll put the ticket link in our show notes. We
got to take a quick break slices when we come back.
My convo with the Gist crew sit Tight.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Joining us now.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
She's a co founder at The Gist, a women founded
and operated sports media brand, and she serves as its
head of content and co host of the Gist of
It podcast. A former insurance underwriter, she's a graduate of
Queen's University in Ontario, where she was co chair of
the school's Harvard Women at Business Club and a member
of the Queen's Quidditch Club. She was the MVP of
her high school varsity badman and soccer teams. Has torn
(09:45):
both her achilles and throws a mean corporate outing to
Wrigley Field. For a while, I thought her name was
Elena because I misread her INSTA handle.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's Ellen Heslap.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Hi Ellen, Hi, Sarah, Thanks so much for having us on.
Those are some deep cuts that you went for quidditch. Yes,
it was quite I actually loved it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I loved it so much. It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And now it's called quadball. It's been renamed and rebranded Quadball.
And they're hosting the end because of the whole toughness
of it all, because of the JK rowling of it all,
And they're hosting their Olympics in Belgium in July.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Wow, Olympics of Quadball. Who knew?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Joining her as fellow just co founder and the companies
head of Partnerships, leading their revenue generation through partnerships with
companies like Nike, Bumble and NBA. Canadian Tyron Moore a
former financial analyst. She's a graduate of the Smith's School
of Business at Queen's University. She loves watching basketball, playing tennis,
and cycling, and her favorite athlete as Venus Williams. She
loves chocolate covered almonds and swears by essential oils and
(10:43):
sleep meditations.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's JC DeHoop Hi JC.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having me on. Those were some
deep cuts.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, we're having these two ladies on because they were
named to the Forbes thirty Under thirty lists and twenty
twenty They were selected as recipients of the prestigious ad
Week Champions of Change Award last year.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Their company, The Gist, has been.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Accelerated through programs with Facebook, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Comcast,
NBCUniversal Tech Stars, and Billy Jean King Enterprises. We have
so much to learn from Ellen and JC and we
have so much to learn about how the Gist began.
But before we get to that, I do want to
make sure everyone's caught up on just what it is.
So even though there are lots and lots of loyal
folks to the Gist, for anyone not familiar, Ellen, can
(11:24):
you give us a little elevator pitch?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
What is it that you guys make and produce and
send out? Great question?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
We want to be the go to source for sports
for all underserved sports fans. We are your witty, sports
obsessed best friend that's keeping you in the know of
what's happening in sports. We really meet our audience where
they're already scrolling and where they're already living. So we
provide a four times weekly newsletter that keeps you up
to date of what's happening in the world of sports,
providing equal coverage on both the men's side and the
(11:52):
women's side through a newsletter that has over one million subscribers.
You can also follow us on Instagram, our TikTok, at
the Just USA, at the Just SA and at the
Just Sports on TikTok where you can get daily updates
on what's happening in the.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
World of sports.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And then we also have a podcast, which you mentioned,
which is called The Gist of It, where we have
the opportunity to dig into some of the nuances with
sports and pop culture and really we exist to make
sports a more inclusive space for everyone. And I'm sure
we'll get into it in a minute of why we
started the Gist and how we started it and where
(12:28):
we see the Gist going as well, But really we
are the antithesis to something like a Barstool Sports, where
we want to ensure that everyone feels like they are
part of a conversation and that they are welcome in
the sports community.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
If you had just said we're the antithesis of Barstool Sports,
it would have been like, great, Yes, sign up, where
can I saw to your point, we are going to
talk about how it came about because it was founded
in twenty seventeen, you two founded it alongside a third
friend from college, d Roslyn McClarty. So take me back
to twenty seventeen, JC and how it all happened.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, So the idea really came about from a lot
of like our I think, our context in the sports world.
So at the time, we were all working in very
corporate kind of jobs. You mentioned, I was in the
kind of financial services financial analyst space, and it was
all of like our first jobs out of college too,
(13:27):
and we'd all played sports and been different levels of
sports fandom, I would say, but it's kind of in
that first job out of college where we're really seeing
how people were talking about sports all the time, connecting
through sports all the time, especially in a like a corporate,
very male dominated kind of setting. But as a female
fan and female athlete, it's so easy to feel on
(13:49):
the outside of that sports conversation and community. Think it
just really felt like it wasn't for us in a
lot of ways. And the idea actually came about from
us just hanging out on a weeknight and talking about
the Leaf's game the night before, and Ellen was going
off about what had happened, and we were like, oh,
(14:11):
it's so much more engaging and fun to talk about
sports with your girlfriends and specifically to get your sports
updates from your like witty sports obsessed best friend. Like
me and Ell have been friends for a very long
time at that point and still and I love talking
about sports with her. I love hearing about what's happening
(14:32):
in women's sports, in men's sports from Elle. I don't
necessarily love the comments section on Instagram, or I don't
necessarily love a lot of the time watching the broadcast,
like it's long, it's boring. I'm like, let's get to
the highlights of like what's actually happening the context here,
And that was what we really felt was missing in
the kind of sports media landscape. And it was actually
(14:53):
that very night that we were like, we want to
center women in sports, and we really want to focus
on the female fan and growing sports fandom amongst women
in many ways, Like we came up with that idea
that very night, and then I think it was like
seven months later, we had a big launch party, had
(15:15):
a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Of free booze, free food.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
That got a little bit of hype going, and really
from day one, we also did want to do a
newsletter and kind of launch a newsletter. It was not
only pretty affordable to just start sending one out tomorrow,
but as kind of like corporate girls, we were like,
we're checking our inbox incessantly, Like there's something about one's
(15:40):
inbox that is like entry into somebody's world that we
thought was very interesting. We were subscribers of The Skim
and The Hustle and Morning Brew at the time, and
so from actually like that very first night, we thought
the newsletter concept and a newsletter being a way to
really build community and also that one to one connection
where you really feel like you're talking or you're reading
(16:03):
something from your best friend, we really enjoyed and thought
that that was kind of how we wanted to grow
this community that again was all about just centering women
in sports when so often we had this hypothesis that
there were just so many other women that felt the
same way as us on the outside of the community
and the passion.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
When you know, yeah, not being spoken to exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I actually pitched a women's sports not for women specifically,
but about women's sports newsletter to ESPN probably like ten
years ago. I was like, it would just be like
a quick, little thing, just like I think it was
around the same time of like the skim being like,
oh the skim, but for women's sports, because like it's
so hard to find out ESPN.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
They're like, yeah, we don't need to do that. I'm like, okay, great,
and Ellen, how did you right? Ellen? How did you
fund it? How did you build it?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Really great question because when you're twenty five and you're
working those corporate jobs, is not like you have a
big savings to rely on or can kind of go
into your own money yourself. So we bootstrapped as we
were initially starting the gist, leveraging those small savings to
be able to hire on a designer, to be able
to pay for our website, to be able to host
(17:16):
that initial launch event, and for us to be able
to really feel like we could have it as a
side hustle. And then the place where we were really
able to say, Okay, we feel good about leaving this
cushy corporate job in order to go ahead and really
focus on the gist is that we were accepted into
an incubator program with Facebook as well as the DMZ,
(17:39):
which is the number one university based incubator in the world,
and Within that incubator, we received one hundred thousand dollars
in non alude of funding, which non aluteed funding in
the startup world is literally unheard of. We also with
that program receive sixty thousand dollars in ad credits, access
to mentorship, access to an office, and so JC Oslyn
(18:00):
and I at the time when we were applying for
this program basically said if we get in, we are
going to quit our jobs and fully dedicate ourselves to
the GIST because we had that one hundred thousand dollars
to really test and learn and to see if this
was actually a viable idea, and so that really kicked
things off Sarah for us that incubator program, and from
there we were able to raise some money friends, family,
(18:23):
as well as be part of a tech Stars accelerator
program with Comcast NBCU down in Philly, and then we
raised a one million dollar round I think it was
twenty twenty one a Jace to allow us to continue
to fund the Gist and now it's been self funded
from jac and her team working so hard to allow
us to do everything that we want to do on
(18:44):
the content and audience and growth side. To continue to
grow the GIST.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Amazing. What sort of fears did you have leaving those
corporate jobs?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Jac so many we were very naive, I will say
it was. It was very, very scary, But at the
same time, I think we were actually young enough and
experienced enough to really push that right down.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Right, who needs a four oh one k.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Or our parents were more scared than we were, I
think now in nindsight break yes, yeah, Like I remember
my parents who've always been in the public sector, like
having security is just everything.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
They were like, you can't be serious.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
But you did and it's working, which is amazing. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
It really was like a bet on ourselves and on
the fact that there were just other women that felt
the same way as us. It was certainly a hypothesis though,
like I I feel like now when we tell people
about the GIST, it's been so interesting for me being
on the partnership side and needing to do the pitch
a million times to so many different people, and how
(19:54):
the reception has changed. Because this was twenty seventeen was
when we kind of came up, but the concept in
twenty eighteen was when we quit our jobs and really
took it on full time, Kaitlin Clark was not around,
Like even the WNBA was in a very different place
back in twenty Like this is before the pandemic. Like
female athletes just weren't talked about and heralded and like
(20:16):
so part of our cultural fabric the way that they
are today, and let alone female fandom and men's sports
was certainly not something that had ever crossed anyone's minds.
And you know when we told.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Well maybe in Canada, I will say that for a
long time now, brands here have recognized that, like, ooh,
we're just looking our demos and like fifty percent of
our fans are women, and yet we never market or
speak to them at all. Yes, like that conversation had
been around and about, but yeah, still they weren't figuring
out ways to serve.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yeah, And I would say when it was when that
conversation did come up at that time, it was Okay,
we're going to make a jersey for them, like the
shrinket and picket. That is just not something that young, cool,
progressive women want or the content is going to be
rooted in the wags, which is like very interesting and fun,
but is not the root of being a female sports fan,
(21:12):
and so you know, when we were talking with various
execs at sports media companies and broadcasters, like the feedback
was generally like, yeah, we've tried versions of that, and
there isn't a market there. And so there certainly were
moments of a lot of doubt. At the same time,
I do think we were really lucky to have each
other so that when you're feeling like another no, there
(21:37):
isn't another really smart, experienced person telling us that there
isn't a market for this, the other person is feeling confident,
and so you can kind of play off of that.
But I do think we had the benefit of age
and naivety in some ways that we were pretty We
had a lot of conviction in the idea and of
(21:57):
what the gist could become, and I think in ourselves
as well. Well. Sometimes I'm like, I don't know how
we had that much confidence and conviction, but we did.
We were really excited for what the gist could become.
So there was always a little bit of doubt, certainly
from external people, but we knew there was something there
(22:17):
and that there was a business opportunity there. This was
never a project.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want to talk about that part too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Because Ellen, did you actually want to be the boss
of a company and do hiring and firing, managing people,
figuring out health insurance, like all of that stuff that
comes with wanting to create something and talk about sports.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
I think, to the jac's point, Sarah, I had no
idea that any of this would actually come with it.
I think that we had a dream that the gist
would one day get to a place where we could
gainfully employ a team of people that were all marching
towards this mission of leveling the playing field. But what
exactly doing that looks like?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
We had no idea.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Thankfully, we all graduated from business school, we were all
working corporate, and so I don't think that business side
was outside of the equation for us. We kind of
knew potentially what we could be getting into. As a
sports fan myself and as someone who's been obsessed with
sports for a very long time, I honestly was just
so stoked to be able to share my passion and
(23:21):
to be able to speak with people, and to be
able to grow and develop this fandom with like minded
women who I hadn't had the opportunity to speak with
or meet beforehand. But running a business is very different,
and we have learned so much over the years, and
what we both do at the GIST over the years
has changed so much, and now we are really at
(23:43):
the place where we have an amazing team behind us,
and they're the ones who are creating all of this
amazing content that you're seeing. They're the ones working the
different pitch calls, going to meet all of these different partners.
They're the ones who are coming up with all of
these creative ideas. Versus a beginning, it was us kind
of on this island getting into the nitty gritty doing
(24:04):
all of the ops while also strategizing, while also having
to find money that still exists today, but at a
really different scale. And so definitely looking back that something
where I feel like we've learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You mentioned the different rules, jac how did you divvy
up the roles, and then did you learn at any
moment early on like oops, a daisy, you should definitely
be doing that and I should be over here.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yes, we you know.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I think in our early days we each gravitated to
different areas of the business pretty naturally based off of
just what we were good at. But at the end
of the day, is you know, being a founder is
that you just kind of have to do whatever needs
to get done. So yes, we did have our roles
kind of divided out, but I think what also made
(24:50):
things work was just we were very on the same
page that whatever has to get done, we will do
and we'll have to learn it for the first time
and that's okay, and it'll probably be really until we
can hire somebody to do it ten times better than us.
But I would say it always made sense for Elle
to be the voice of the Gist. That was really
(25:11):
that first night, and like that relationship that I have
with Elle of being like, I want to talk with
her about sports is really what the whole premise of
the Gist has been founded off of. And so Elle
really building and leading everything that is audience facing from
day one we knew was going to happen, and so
her evolving as our head of content, being the one
(25:32):
in the weeds writing the newsletter every single night to
now leading the entire editorial team was a very natural decision.
And then myself editing it really poorly, and then on
my side of things, I think that it also felt
(25:56):
very natural to be kind of on the sales side
or pitching side of the gist. I think I've always
felt a lot of passion for what we're building, and
I don't know if I would thrive in a kind
of like a sales business development role at another company
doing it for someone else, but for something that I
care so much about. I was like, yeah, I think
(26:19):
everybody owes us money, and so that feeling has translated
well to kind of what I oversee. Yeah, but whether
we thought we would be overseeing a sales team and
an editorial team, we had no idea. Again, we were
just like now, so young and kind of figuring it
out as we went along. But I think all of
(26:40):
us being open to doing literally whatever needs to get
done to move the business to that next stage was
really important.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, Because Ellen, now you've got several newsletters, a podcast
at job board, have you social media presence?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
What's been the biggest challenge as you grow?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Obviously great to have more investment, to be able to
hire more people to scale things, But what's been the
hardest part about that?
Speaker 3 (27:03):
It's really interesting question because I think I would answer
it differently depending on the day of the week. I
think from a content perspective, and if we think about
it from a macro lens, Sarah, from the content side
of things, you constantly have to keep a finger on
the pulse, and you constantly have to be thinking not
only about what's happening within the news, but how consumption
(27:25):
habits are changing. What apps are people on, what does
their day to day look like, what are they actually
caring about? And then within that, how can they just
be part of their habit. How can we be part
of what they do in their daily routine when they're
opening up their inbox, and how can we make sure
we're the first email that they read. How can we
(27:45):
be making sure that we're popping up and they're thinking
about us when they're going for a walk so that
they listen to our podcast. And it's been very interesting
over the years where there's been this huge interest in
the last couple of years in newsletter now. In the
early days, it wasn't big into that TikTok happened as
we were growing the gist. We totally had to adjust
(28:06):
to that. Reels on Instagram have allowed us to storytell
in a completely different way, and then we've also adjusted
and honed in on who our target market is in
a different sense as well, and as people's attention spans
have continually decreased, we've also had to adjust the way
in which we're providing content and the way in which
we're marketers of that content as well. So there's a
(28:29):
lot of macro context that changes how we do things
at the GIST.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And one of the things, and I've told you this
on several occasions, I think I say it every time
I see you. That I love so much about the
Gist is that you do provide the context, do the research,
do the reporting, and lay things out so that people
who don't know much about something are instantly given enough
to care about it, and those who do know are
still learning something new. And Ellen, it feels like you're
(28:59):
the sort of content director and deciding how to deliver things.
Was that important to you from the beginning And did
you ever feel like, oh, I'm basically now a sports
reporter slash journalist, which isn't something that I studied.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
It was super important to us from the beginning, Sarah.
We always say that we are a fan first company,
and we mean it so much in that we are fans.
We talk to fans all the time, and I think
we truly understand what a day to day life looks
like as a fan. And that doesn't mean that they're
totally obsessing over their apps or that they have time
to watch every single Chicago Cubs game. It means that
(29:34):
they're real people with real lives going on, and we
have to think about the information that matters to them.
And so really, at the gist at the center of
the way we create content, especially on our newsletter, it's curation,
context and why does it matter? And that's always been
exceptionally important and continues to be across every single channel.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So JC, you're in charge of trying to sell people
on the idea that they should advertise spot ansor and
get involved with all this great content. What are a
couple of your favorite activations or collabs from over the years.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
We've been having so many good partnerships, especially in the
last year last six months. I would say we just
got to work with Brandon Stewart alongside Corona, which was
just so fun and cool. And I think our whole team,
like we are ultimately just like sports girls who are like,
(30:27):
oh my gosh, we get to work with Stewie, Like
that's just really fun. And I think in general, being
able to work with some of the biggest names, particularly
female athletes, but also just hear the stories of a
lot of different female athletes. In particular, we've worked with
a lot of male athletes as well through our partnerships
(30:50):
has been amazing. We only really started working with Athlete
Tent in the last year or so, and that has
taken our partnerships to a whole other level. We always
are talking about how these athletes are just at the
core of what of all the growth that we want
to see, and so that's been pretty cool. And we've
had partnerships with Nike that have also involved some of
(31:11):
those those key athletes as State Farm and a Caitlin
Clark and what have you. So we're really fortunate to
work with some really big brands in the space that
want to tell the right stories and again center other
fans and other perspectives. But there's a lot of them
that have actually been really cool and I think pushing
(31:31):
the envelope on the kinds of deals that you see
in the space and the kind of content that you
see in the space.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm always impressed. There's a lot of creativity.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It all flows really well, though it feels very natural
as part of the content. And I know I'm being
advertised to at times, but that's part of the game.
And it's never something where I'm like ew or like oh,
I hate that, I don't like how the it's always
very smart, which I appreciate. As jac just talked about
Ellen that just covers men's and women's sports. That is
a herculean task. How do you do side what content
(32:01):
makes the cut maybe for the newsletter, what you want
to talk about in your podcast, or what you just
might not have time for.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
So it really depends on the week, the month, the
time of the year.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I feel like, as you know, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Our team, if we want to think about the newsletter
in particular, they're always staying up to date on what's
happening in sports. They're watching games, they're watching Sports Center,
they're listening to podcasts, they're doing everything that avid sports
fans are supposed to do. And then before every single newsletter,
we have a half hour long scoping call and kind
of go through, Okay, what do we want to talk
(32:35):
about today, How do we want to talk about it,
Why do we want to talk about it, Where does
it fit in the newsletter? How should we explain this
complicated nuance and is this the right format or should
this be a story that's actually much better off living
in the podcast because there is so much great area,
or there is so much nuance, or is this a
(32:57):
place where we're going to pass it off to social
because it's a little bit more fun, it's a little
bit more pop culture. I think to Sarah, we're always
trying to figure out how we're evolving the newsletter content too,
and so this year we also launch the Group Chat,
which is a Sunday newsletter that really talks about the
intersection of sports and lifestyle, and that's really based off
of how we're seeing our gisters respond to that intersectionality
(33:21):
between both and also bringing in sports to what their
day to day life looks like. And so it's been
really nice to be able to have that Monday, Wednesday,
Friday newsletter content focused on both men's and women's sports
and then the lifestyle content. What I will say, Sarah
is that we are bringing in everything that's happening in
the sports world and bringing it to a five minute read.
(33:41):
And what is actually at the top of our newsletter
our team thinks is the most important. It does not
matter if it's women's sports, It does not matter if
it's men's sports. It is what is the most entertaining thing?
What do you need to know? And how can we
make it feel important or special to you? As that
every day on the go very smart art woman and
so balancing all that is hard. But our team is
(34:05):
some of the best in the business and they have
a lot of fun doing it too.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I got to meet a lot of the teams when
came to Chicago, and it was the best group.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I was like, I want to work for the gist.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Oh my gosh, Sarah, thank you for coming out.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That was so fun. I want to go back in
time and have this be my job. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
But it was also just like this bunch of really
enthusiastic young women and a couple dudes, and it just
seemed like a really awesome place.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
To work and like a really fun group to work with.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So I'm excited for young up and coming talent to
have places now where they feel welcome and included and
spoken to, as opposed to folks like me coming up
or it was always like one woman in a room
of thirty five bros making fun of women all the time,
and you have to have a thick skin, and you know,
you just love sports, so you want to be there
even if it sucks half the time and you're getting
(34:52):
treated like shit. So I just was, you know, sliding
doors my life back to if I were in my
twenties now to have you as my bosses?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
How fun would that be?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I mean Sarah too, what I will say we
the GIST can only exist because of people like you,
And we talk of Jacy and I talk about that
a lot, right Like growing up, you were who I watched.
I watched you on around the Horn. I learned from you.
You're who I went to for my sports news that
helped me develop my avid fandom. And so as much
(35:24):
as we wish that the GIST and sometimes we say
we wish the just didn't have to exist, like in
an ideal world, the GIST does not have to exist
because we are already centering female voices, We are all ready,
we are already providing equal coverage, We are already thinking
about sports fans being equals regardless of who they are.
But we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for
(35:46):
folks like you doing the work that you have done
throughout your entire career that have allowed us to excel
into the spaces.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
That we are. That's really nice. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Yeah, you all should have seen our team totally freaking
out at getting to Sarah Spain.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It was so cute.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Well, I got a shout out Margo because she might
be my number one fan and she's the best. Yeah,
jac Last October, you guys announced the milestone of a
million newsletter subscribers across your platforms. In terms of goals
or expectations when you launched, are you on schedule ahead
of schedule, on a schedule you never thought existed?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Good question.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, that big one million subscriber milestone is one that
I think we've been thinking about planning for for a while.
That was one that really just felt, you know, I
talked about in those early days. There were a lot
of dotors. There were a lot of people in the
industry in particular, who like, we've already tried that, or
(36:52):
there isn't actually demand for something like that, and one
million shows that that is just not true. I think
it really proved our thesis. It's like women love sports.
There's so much opportunity to expand on that, and so
that was a huge, huge milestone for us. And then
in terms of just where we're going and whether we're
on track, I will say I feel like in many
(37:14):
ways like we are in totally different zones than we
might have predicted we would be back in twenty eighteen.
Elle spoke to how just consumption habits have evolved so much.
TikTok didn't even exist when we launched the Gist, and
I think for myself on more of the partnership side,
(37:35):
and you know, we couldn't have predicted some of the
explosive growth around women's sports and also where some of
our partners are going to be investing in supporting in
interesting ways, sometimes not as fast and as much as
we would like there to be, but there certainly has
been a lot of new opportunities that have kind of
(37:58):
come across our desk that have been really interesting as well.
I would say we have big plans. We always have
had big plans of what the Gist can become as
being that really go to source for sports for so
many underserved fans out there, and we have a lot
of different ideas in how we can really super serve
(38:19):
those gisters at a whole other level in twenty twenty five,
but you know, in five years as well, And so
I think we're kind of in a place now where
where we have to anticipate those needs, right, Like there's
new channels that are going to be emerging in new
ways that we can really move this space forward that
we need to be thinking about for a year, three
(38:39):
five years from now that we're starting to lay the
groundwork in. But it's been really exciting too. I think
it's been interesting because there's simultaneously been so much progress
in the women's sports space in particular in the last
few years, but also it feels like it's been slow.
I think for those of us like yourself that have
been just fans and just part of this ecosystem for
(39:00):
some time, it's like, yes, we're making so much progress,
but how is it not faster? So we feel a
lot of that around the business as well. I think
we you can't help but feel that way. As a founder.
You're like, oh my gosh, what an amazing year we've had.
But also I want everything moving.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
More fast, more and more and more better, yeah, more.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
And so we try to balance that as well and
appreciate how much you've done.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
I think you need both.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
You need gratitude and you need to be able to
look back and see your progress. Otherwise you'll constantly be
looking ahead and you'll never be satisfied. But also having
ambition to demand and ask for more, which is so important,
especially in this space.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
We're running out of time. But I want to ask
you Ellen.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
You know you started in Canada and then expanded to
the States, and I wonder having gone up to Canada
the last three years for the espnW Summit and loving
watching how the professional women's landscape has transformed just in
three years up there, from almost nothing to multiple leagues
and all this energy and enthusiasm. Do you find that
you can leverage a mayor and sponsors or folks who
(40:01):
are already on board and bring it back to Canada
and try to get them to catch up or where
do you still see pushback versus a freeway ready for
you to speed on in the space as you're trying
to negotiate or pitch content or get investment.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
There's a lot of differences between the Canadian market and
the American market, both on the audience side as well
as on the brand partnership side. I can speak more
to the audience side. So for context for all of
your listeners, we have a Canadian newsletter, a Canadian Instagram page,
and an American newsletter and an American Instagram page, and
that is very purposeful. The reason we did it is
(40:39):
because Canadians and Americans are different, and they're interested in
different things and they respond to things in different ways.
I think a lot of people might remember Target expanding
into Canada and then failing within two years, and we
didn't want to have that opposite effect when we actually
entered into the US, and so we're very intentional of
who we're hiring on the content team, both Americans and Canadians,
(41:01):
where they're living, what content they're consuming, to ensure that
we are meeting and reaching those American markets but also
local markets and the way.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
That we need to.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
And so what we speak about to our American side
of things is actually really different on the Canadian side.
The order in which you know, when you talked about
the newsletter, hockey is oftentimes pretty high up on the
Canadian side of things in comparison to the US side,
where it might be the NFL or NBA. The other thing, too,
Sarah is just the college landscape is remarkably different. The
(41:34):
NCAA provides so much more opportunity for us to talk
about sports. In the US, the women's sports ecosystem already
existing was truly amazing. For a very very long time
in Canada, I felt like we were the only ones
developing fans of women's sports. I truly felt like that.
And I think that we are a big proponent of
(41:55):
women's sports fandom in Canada versus in the US. I
do think that we have one hundred time percent been
a part of that growth. But the NWSL was there,
the WNBA was there, There was already this mass appeal
for NCAA gymnastics and basketball and everything like that. That
the markets were different and the fandom is so different
(42:15):
because of that high school pipeline and college pipeline being
really separate of what you see in Canada. There's so
much value and having these separate audiences and also working
with brands who want to speak to these audiences in
different ways, and then sometimes a North American brand that
does want to actually say like, oh my gosh, finally
we have Canadian reach. Finally these leagues are expanding into Canada,
(42:38):
and we need to have that North American opportunity and
that's really where we can step in. But there's a
lot of nuance, there's a lot of differences, and we're
really proud that we're able to cover off on both sides.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
It's very impressive to be able to do. And I
subscribe to both of them on social media. I only
get the US newsletter, but I like to find out
about what's going on in the world of rugby and
other things that you guys are way more into than
we are.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
We should send you the engagement rates of Canada versus US,
because on different on different posts, it could be like
an insane engagement rate on a post in the US
and then crickets on Canada.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So's it would be really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Well, we're trying to serve our neighbors up north whenever
we can here without getting too Canadian focused, but we
know that there's a lot of folks up there like
the show, so we try to make sure we throw
them a bone every once in a while, especially since
I might be moving to Canada sometimes.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
You Yeah, with things don't improve.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Down here, Well, thanks for coming on. Congratulations on all
your milestones. You're helping us celebrate our first year. We're
coming up on the end of season one for Good
Game with Sarah Spain, and we love being able to
shout out and highlight other folks that are doing great
stuff in the space because it is really a community
and everybody gets better and more when we all help
(43:59):
each other out.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
So keep doing your thing. We're always watching.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Thanks Sarah, and congratulations to you.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's a really exciting congrats on one here. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much for having us.
This is really fun.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Thanks so much to Ellen and jac for joining me.
We got to take another break when we come back.
Is this podcast going to end on a cliffhanger? Welcome back, slices.
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day, slices. As I mentioned,
(44:35):
we're going on a much needed little summer break for
the next two weeks and then we'll return to our
regular daily programming July fourteenth with the launch of season two.
But that doesn't mean we're going to leave you hanging.
There's some pretty cool stuff coming, including my conversation with
Alison Felix a couple big Citrus chats and my guest
appearance on the Hello Sunshine podcast The bright Side, so
be sure to stay tuned in. Also ahead of season two,
(44:58):
we want to hear from you. What ideas and suggestions
do you.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Have for us?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
What do you want more of, maybe less of? What
guests do you want to hear from? Hit us up
good game at wondermedianetwork dot com is the email or
you can leave us a voicemail at eight seven two
two o four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe,
rate and review. It's easy watch Friend at the Show
Katherine Berteen summitting Denali, the highest mountain in North America,
(45:24):
rating nine out of nine women in the all women
Summit Crew review. Friend at the Show Katherine Berteen, an activist,
author and former pro cyclist, continues to amaze us. This
time she joined five other female climbers and three female
guides to summit Mount Denali in Alaska. Wrote Catherine on
her Instagram quote, did you know women weren't even allowed
(45:45):
to climb Denali until nineteen seventy Yep, The Rangers wouldn't
give permits to female climbers until fifty five years ago
when the first women's team Denali Damsels broke trail for US.
Catherine continued, quote, we paid homage to the women of
nineteen seventy by flying at Denali Damsel's flag bearing their
names and hours.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
End quote. Catherine and her.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Crew summited twenty thousand, three hundred and ten total feet
and that was after fourteen days ascending the glacier.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
No shirps for this climb.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
They carried their own gear, food, tents, waist buckets, garbage, poop, everything.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
And here's the kicker.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
This is actually the second time Catherine has summitted d Nali.
The first time she had a bad experience with what
she calls poor judgment, bad decision bro culture guides back
in twenty twenty two, so she wanted to return with
female guides and have a better experience for her final
Glacier high Point expedition. Last time she hiked it, she
sprinkled some of her father's ashes at the summit, and
(46:43):
after losing her mom last year, this time she tossed
a dual sprinkle of ash, honoring both her parents at
the top. We're sending you big hugs and hoping you've
got bath, salts for your feet, and a two hour
massage scheduled Katherine. We'll share Catherine's instapost in the show notes.
If you want to read more now it's your turn,
rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you Monday for
(47:03):
my guest appearance on the bright Side, hosted by Simone Boyce.
Good Game, Ellen, Good Game, jac You Climbing twenty thousand,
three hundred said fat goodn't be me so so impressive.
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
(47:23):
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer.
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm
(47:45):
your host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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