July 9, 2025 • 45 mins
Charlotte Jones is the powerhouse Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys — but her most defining moves have happened off the field. In this special live episode recorded at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Charlotte opens up about growing up in one of the most iconic families in sports, and what it’s really like to build a career inside a multigenerational family business. She shares how she’s navigated imposter syndrome, raised three children while growing one of the most recognized brands in the world, and learned to balance legacy with innovation as she steers the Cowboys into a new era. From the behind-the-scenes culture she’s fostered to attract and retain top talent, to her thoughts on the hit Netflix series America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Charlotte reveals the intention and heart behind every decision — and why purpose, family, and vision continue to drive her forward.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Charlotte Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to she pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Welcome
(00:33):
back to she Pivots. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.
If you listen closely, you might just be able to
hear the Aspen trees and streams behind me because we're
recording from Aspen Ideas for the Aspen Ideas Festival. We're
all be sitting down with some of the world's foremost leaders, innovators,
and creators and bringing these insightful conversations.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
With you here on she Pivots.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Today, we're kicking off this special series of episodes with
my conversation with Charlotte Jones, executive vice president, chief brand
officer and co owner of the Dallas Cowboys, our Friendemi
Go Giants.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
This one we recorded live in front of an audience.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm so excited. She Pivots is one of the inaugural
audio first media companies to partner with the festival. It
was invigorating to be among brilliant leaders and thinkers from
around the globe to discuss and here ideas that will
shape tomorrow and help us understand today. Over the next
few weeks, you'll hear live, candid conversations from inspiring women
(01:36):
recorded here at the festival, from geopolitical issues, to economic issues,
to cultural issues and beyond. Each interview connects to the
larger cultural moment we're in, and of course, interreeves their
personal lives. I hope you walk away feeling as inspired
and determined as I did to continue to share our
(01:57):
stories and experiences to change the cultural landscape for a
better tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Let's jump right in. Hi, I'm Charlotte Jones and I
am co owner and Chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
This is our first live so welcome to she Pivots
Live from Asvin with the most incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Guests, our Charlotte Jones. Hi ready, I'm so excited to
be here with you today. Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
As co owner chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys,
you haven't just reshaped a team, You've reshaped an entire industry.
You've helped build one of the most iconic and valuable
global brands in all of sports, and you've done it
in a space that for so long, maybe someone argue
still is pretty dominated by men. On this show, I
talk to women about how they pivot, about how their
(02:48):
personal experiences shape their careers and the impacts they have.
And part of the reason this conversation feels so personal
to me is Charlotte and I have been discussing is
that I grew up in the family that owns half
New York Giants and now we own Gotham FC. So
the world of sports, team dynamics, family business, this is
all familiar to me.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yes, Emily, we're frenemies, so we're like friends and enemies
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, my son almost wore his Giants hat, but out
of respect for you, he's gonna switch this Giant's hat
for we need a great rival.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Please take your hat.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So I have about a million things that I could
ask you of how you built a global brand to
work in with your family, So I want to go back.
We always start my show in chronological order because I
feel like in order to understand how we got to
the success we are today, we have to understand where
we started Yeah, so welcome again. Let's go back, little Charlotte.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Oh, that is so funny. Honestly, I wanted to dance
on Broadway. That's really what I wanted to do. I
had background and dance. That's what I did when I
when I grew up. That was my hobby, that was
my passion, that was my sport. Unfortunately, I was not
great at it. You know, I didn't have a voice,
I can really couldn't do any of the things that
would actually launch you to Broadway. So I studied and
(04:04):
in that I became a great student. And then I
went off to school in California. I went to Stanford.
And at Stanford, I went there because a gal came
to our school, you know when you have all of
the school days where they're showing, and this girl was
a dancer on Broadway, but she had gone off to
study in Florence at Stanford. And I'm like, that's what
(04:26):
I want to do. I want to go to school
in Florence, and my way there is to get into Stanford.
So I went out to Stanford and I actually went
out there with a human viole, with a path to
be a doctor. So I was pre med and I
went through this core of human biology and it's the
first two years of Stanford. At the end of those
two years, I decided, you know what, the four walls
(04:47):
of a hospital is really not meant for me. I
knew then that I wanted to help people. I really
wasn't sure how or what that would look like. I
finished my degree at Stanford and really didn't know where
to go. My Dad's like, hey, why don't you go
into politics. So i'body, well, that's a pivot. That's a
pivot inly, like go to med school, then go to politics.
(05:08):
And I thought, well, that's crazy. But I remember when
I was a junior. We all have had to do
this when we were in high school, and you have
to go interview somebody famous and then write an essay
on him. So I went and interviewed our sheriff at
the time, who was like this walking tall sheriff. He
worked under Bill Clinton, and he was like infamous in
the town because he actually took all the prisoners, chained
(05:30):
them to the governor's office the fence outside of the
governor's office, and left them there until they passed prison
reform and then he armed every seven eleven with a
shotgun instead. If anybody comes in, you're allowed to shoot them.
Like he was a crazy, crazy character, So let me
go interview him. So I went to interview him. I
wrote this great paper and at the end of it,
I said, and he's probably going to land in Congress.
(05:53):
I got an a on the paper with a comment
that said, oh lord, I hope not from my teacher.
And fast forward to my graduation. I reached out to him,
got an interview, and went to work for him in
Congress on Capitol Hill. And that was the beginning of
an adventure that was probably one of the toughest points
in my career. And I know a lot of people say, wow,
(06:15):
you work in a world of all men and probably
a lot of aggression and all the things that go
along with that. Congress was a lot harder, and it
was had so many more challenges for me as a
young female. On Capitol Hill, I had a renegade boss,
and I didn't have much leadership. Thank goodness, our senator
from Arkansas said, come across the hill, let me show
(06:37):
you the ropes, and that's okay. I'll help you navigate
this path forward. Well, my congressman switched parties in the
middle of the night. I was in charge of his office,
and I woke up the next morning and he goes,
come with me, let's go into this meeting. It turns
out its press conference. Now we're no longer going to
be Democrats, We're going to be Republicans. So when we
sat there and I was like, what in the world
is going on. About that time, my dad decided to
(06:58):
buy the Dallas Cowboy and he was back on this
journey and I would call my dad and be like,
oh my gosh, you're not going to believe what happened
to me today. And here he is fighting all these
fires back in Dallas, and he'd say, you know what, Charlotte.
He goes, you got to grow up. You got to
put your big boy pants on. And it builds character.
It builds character. Like every call was just like, get
(07:19):
over it. It builds character. So I'm over fighting my
own battle. He's fighting all of these battles. He comes in,
he buys the team, and at the time, right before
he bought the team, he comes to visit my brother
and I in DC and my brother was at Georgetown
and he said, you know, look, I think I want
to buy the Dallas Cowboys. And we looked at him,
we looked at the financials around it. It was terrible.
(07:40):
It was losing thirty five thousand dollars a day, over
a million dollars a month. The team was one in
fifteen and on top of that, thirteen percent of the
Dallas Cowboys was owned by the FDIC, Like we truly
were America's team. You had a piece, you had a piece,
You had a piece. It was a disaster and so
as a financial disase all of these things happening. Were like,
(08:02):
why in the world do you want to do this?
And he just said, you know, sports is my passion.
I've always wanted to be involved in football. Now is
the time. And sometimes you can't wait till the perfect setting.
When the crosshairs lined up, you got to take the
shot and you got to jump in. And my brother
and I looked at him, were like, all right, you know,
good luck with that, and he said, you know, you
just got to know one thing. If I do this,
(08:25):
it might just change our life a little. That's the
only time my father has ever underestimated anything he has
ever said to us. And off we went on this
incredible journey and like about a year into me working
on the hill that year, the only game we won
was in Washington one in fifteen. That was great, at
(08:46):
least I could go to work. But then I got
a call from him and he said, Charlotte, he said,
I got to ask you this question, like, okay, and
he said, what is the difference between biker shorts and hotpants?
I'm like what? They were crazy, Like what are you doing?
He said, there's a line of women outside of my
office thinking that I'm trying to change the iconic cheerleader
(09:08):
uniform from hotpants to biker shorts. He said, I don't
even know where they trained. I don't even know where
they are. Can you just come down to help me
and get me out of this mess? So I left DC.
I went down for what I thought was a weekend,
and in it we found out it was another one
of the rumors. We were being sued about everything that
was walking at that time. And got in there and
(09:29):
figured it out, you know, changed the leadership, you know,
found this other cheerleader to run it, and you know,
looked at my dad and I'm like, okay, I'm headed
back back to DC and he said, no, I want
you to stay. And I said, well, Dad, I do
what you know. And he said, you know, I need
somebody by my side that I can trust, somebody that
will lay awake at night and try to figure out
(09:51):
how to solve all these problems. And I said, well,
you know what, I don't know anything about running a
professional football team. And he looked me dead in the
eye and he said, that's okay, neither do you. Why
and off our journey began. What a journey.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You mentioned that your brothers were there as well. Did
they step in in the same way like it came
for you? It wasn't like it sounds like. It wasn't
this big decision where it says, now we're going in
as a family to go run this team together. It
came a kind of piecemeal in projects. Did the same
happen for your brothers as well? Well?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I will say this. My older brother is a chemical
engineer by trade. Our family business was oil and gas,
so he was planning to go into family business when
he got the call and said the family business is
switching to football. He played football at the University of Arkansas.
That was his passion. He's like, my bags are packed
and I'm ready, when do we start? So he was there,
(10:43):
my brother was at Georgetown when on to law school.
It would later join us. But I think from my
dad's perspective, he surely was looking for something that would
bring us all in. He wanted a family effort here,
and I think none of us realized. When I got there,
I thought I was just coming to help try to
figure out how to get it out of a hole,
(11:03):
and that I would then go back and start a
trajectory of my own career. And then I woke up
and it's thirty five years later and I'm still working
from my dad. That's what of good.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
There is a really interesting family business dynamic in it,
and I've definitely seen this in my own family, our
own family businesses, that there can be sort of a
crushing sense of lack of autonomy as a person is
coming up into their own career. If the expectation from
the outside it's like you know, the succession outside, like
or the family you run the business, but as the
person who's coming up in it and trying to learn,
(11:35):
legitimately gain skills, trying to earn respect of your peers,
trying to earn respect of those who work with you.
It can be a challenge. Did you feel that you
had gained enough of that in your career, your pre
career on the Hill as you entered or was that
still something that you grappled with as you entered the team.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Oh, I think I'm the number one leader of Imposter
Syndrome Camp. Like I think every time I've said into
particularly that situation, it was like, I don't know what
I'm doing. And unfortunately my dad when I moved and
I got there, you know, I went and found my
own office, cleared out a broom closet, you know, kind
of do what you guess do. And then I went
(12:13):
up to him and I was like, okay, you know,
I'm here. What do I do? And he just looked
at me and he said, find a way to stop
losing money, and whatever you do, don't tarnish the star.
And at that point I had no idea what that
actually meant. And I think when I got into it,
and I realized that the only thing of like true
value was was what people really felt that they were
(12:36):
a part of, and that was the brand of the Cowboys.
So it's like, what, how did you go about and
start and to solve the problems that you had and
then to turn around and grow from them without messing
with what people were so reverent about. And for me,
I didn't know what that looked like. And I think
the good news is that neither did our family. I mean,
(12:59):
none of us knew really what we were doing. And
for me that was like such a benefit as opposed
to going into an established family business that's that's been
there for generations. This was This wasn't the oil and
gas business. This was a football team. And it wasn't
just a football team, you know, it was a culture.
And to figure out how why did people you know,
(13:19):
gravitate to this culture and this sport and this game.
What did it mean to them? And how did we
build upon that? And for me, you know, every day
and continues to be is a learning curve. And I
think rather than develop the anxiety about not knowing what
to do, the greatest thing was that both of my parents,
because my mother got really involved, we all kind of
(13:40):
had to roll up our sleeves. Was that they were
okay with failure. You know, it's like you're going to
bump your toe. It's not going to work. Then you
got to like pick it up, you know, go off,
you know, get back in there, fight again, you know,
build character like all that stuff. And you know, here
it was. That was my journey. It was like figure
it out. Just get in and figure it out. And
everything is really a crisis. And I think from day
(14:00):
one when we started, we started in a crisis. Every
crisis that has come along, you know, has had a
lot of drama associated with it. And how did you
solve for that? And I think, you know, I laugh
a lot of times and those if you may have
a similar experience. But when I was in college, all
of my peers would like run over me rising to
the career center. You know, it's like, ah, I got
to get this job. I got to get this job,
(14:21):
got to get this job. And my friend and I,
you know, we're in the trample, like going, oh my gosh,
where's everybody going, you know, like what is the deal?
And I think we realized that as much as we
were perfectionists, that we could accept imperfection. And in that process,
she's now a superior court judge, you know, in LA
and amazing. And I've had my own trajectory and we've
(14:45):
noticed that those who had just perfection and couldn't accept
a flaw in their perfection could then no longer handle Okay,
I've got a job, now I want a family. How
do I balance both of those? You know, imperfection sets
in really quick, kind of slaps you in the face
as soon as land, and you have to live with it.
You have to live with it and be comfortable in
(15:05):
that imperfection and knowing that that's okay. And I'm still
going to figure out how to be the best that
I can in the moment that I'm in, whether it
be my job, with my family, with my community, in
my career, and my spiritual life. I need in that moment,
I need to be my best and be okay when
I fall.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You brought us to this moment perfectly because the lens
that I look at these conversations in these stories is
the intersection of the personal and professional. How we've come
up with our whole lives of coming up with these
professional narratives to always explain why we made these professional choices,
and often there was a lot going on personally behind
it that drove those decisions. So while you've had this
(15:45):
incredible career and build this unbelievable brand. And we will
get back to that part, the brand building part. I
want to bring the personal life in here. Where were
you in your career, in your trajectory when you marry
for the first time, had children?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
How did you manage that piece?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Where were you in the career and then how did
you manage it?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I find three kids a lot, by the way, like
a lot, like I can't believe you did this?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Well? You know, I think I was young. I think
that's the key to that was helpful. You know. I
we bought the team, I got married shortly thereafter, then
had three beautiful kids and they all came. But that
was that was was part of my dream, you know.
The dream that was not part of my dream was
(16:27):
running a football team. So it was like, yeah, I
knew I wanted to do that. Now I just had
to figure out how to do that. Along with that,
I am blessed because my best mentors are my parents.
They're super supportive in all of that, and that meant family.
So when I had my daughter, she's my oldest, we
set up a nursery at work. You know, she had
(16:48):
a At first, I was a commuter from Arkansas to Dallas.
I think we were the only two Meet and Haley
that had a reserve seat on Southwest airlines. Were like
run through the airport and they're like, wait, here comes
Charlotte Door. I commuted back and forth every week with her,
and then my mother would keep her while I went
to work, and then I would come back. And I
(17:08):
lived with my parents with my baby, y'all. And you
gotta know this. So we're in this one bedroom apartment,
one bedroom apartment, and the other room that I was
in was the study. So they made it into a bedroom.
No door, like, no door, I'm in the study. The
(17:29):
dining room was my mom's closet. Our breakfast table was
the little coffee table that was in front of the sofa,
like literally like put a towel on the coffee table.
That's where we ate. And I raised my daughter in
and out of that study, and I remember so vividly,
you know she of course, they wake up every couple
of hours. Then my dad would get up because he
(17:50):
would hear her, and he would come in my room,
sit on my bed and said what can I do?
And I'm basically sitting there like nothing, and no, he
sat there and to this day. He said, every father
should be a grandfather first so they can appreciate what
it takes to be a mother. And so in that,
(18:12):
you know, it's like I would have zero sleep, then
my dad and I would leave in the morning and
go to work, and my mother would take over. Haley
and that journey began. So she became a part of everything.
And probably one of the greatest things we do with
our organization is have a kid's Christmas party. So all
the players, all everybody that has children in the organization
bring the kids and we have this massive blowout, which
(18:33):
is awesome because you know, we have a family culture.
We are a family. We built a family culture, and
I think everybody feels a part of that.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, oh, I love that. Stay tuned for more of
Charlotte after the break.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
We have a family called Sure. We are a family.
We've built a family culture, and I think everybody feels
a part of that.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, oh, I love that. So I want to come
now to this branding piece. You have done such an
unbelievable job. You have truly set the standard globally for
the brand. I'd say across all sports, sports that were
often considered entertainment and not the business of sports that
we consider it today, and this is a place where
I actually specifically want your advice, Like, yes, we have
(19:25):
a legacy brand, the New York Giants, but also in
the last year and a half, we bought Gotham FC,
the women's professional soccer team in New York, and my sister, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Everyone will call for that. I want to come to
a Gotham game.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And what's been There's been so many interesting things about
this journey. But my sister is the president of Gotham
and I now spend almost half my time on building
up the brand, trying to help her build up the
brand for the team. Before we bought this team, we
lived in New York. We didn't even know there was
a women's soccer team in New York. Our brand awareness
were starting like real low, Like we've got a lot
(19:58):
of runway for growth. You know, it's all upside, It's
all upside. My sister runs the team. She comes from
a marketing background, and what she always says is that
there are many iconic global brands, global sports brands in particular,
and the example that she always uses is the Dallas
Cowboys that you can see someone wearing Dallas Cowboys gear
all over the world and they may not actually be
(20:19):
able to name your quarterback, but they identify with the brand.
Yeah yeah, okay, like people here want to identify the quarterback.
You guys know your football, great chocolates. And so that's
what it is to be a global brand, and there
has not been one for women's sports yet and we
believe that we can be it. And so we're making
a lot of decisions. My sister are leading this around
(20:41):
the team and which blocks move first to be a
global brand. And this is a place that I'd love
to get your advice. Yes, you may have started as
thirteen percent of the FGIC America's team, but you built
a global brand.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So what decisions did you make with that in mind?
And what did you have to lose? Well, that's a
loaded question right there, and a lot of opportunity for
both of you to figure this out. But for us
it was it's really been and this has evolved you
know over time. First you get in and you're kind
of scattershooting on what is all of this and what
(21:15):
do what do I have my hands around? But you
know what we realized was that first and foremost, there
are really five things that we look at and evaluate
that we think that we are and that we try
to stay on point with. And the first is tradition.
It's what brought us to the Cowboys. What's the incredible
tradition of the Cowboys? But what is what? You don't
have this yet, so you will create this, And in
(21:37):
that tradition it became we are a brand that is
built on the grates that came before us. So it
was about Tom Landry and Bob Lilly and Troy Aigman,
you know, all of these great players that played before.
But what that created was an affinity for parents to
take their kids and grandparents to take their grandkids, and
(21:57):
it built this this culture. We can identify with this
wonderful tradition based on any of this lineage of people,
and we know that we stand on the shoulders of
those that came before us, so we can then reach
new heights. But we also know that we couldn't just
be generational, because then you would become nostalgic. So how
(22:20):
did you step out and become relevant even though all
of your great history was wrapped in tradition. Well, the
second piece of that puzzle is that our game in
both of your games is about competition. Most sports purists
don't really care about anything else other than the score
at the end of the game. They just want to win.
That's all they want to do is want to win.
So you have to make sure you keep your eye
(22:42):
on the prize, that you have the best players, the
best facilities, all the things that take to create a
successful team, and that's really important. But the other thing
about that competition is, you know, our game, particularly in football,
because we have so few you know, you can't fake it,
you can't script it, you can't predict it. I like
to say we're the greatest reality show on television. You
(23:03):
never know what's going to happen. You know, you wake
up to all this news that you didn't know transpired
through the night, and now you've got to deal with it.
That's the great thing about what we are as an
Intendina support. But we're also about entertainment, so we know
that people spend their very last dollar to come be
a part of who we are, whether that means simply
buying a piece of merchandise, a hat somewhere else so
they could be connected, or they're actually coming to the
(23:25):
game and having an experience and we know that we
actually had to deliver an experience at the game that's
better than what they can create at home. Because our
greatest competition is actually not the New York Giants, It
is the lazy boy in front of the TV being
presented by Fox, like that's where it is. Because people
can do that for cheap, they can bring in their
(23:45):
whole neighborhood. Everybody can have that community. That is valuable
to us. I'll never forget this. One of our greatest
sports sects that owned CBS at the time came in
to talk to the NFL and he said, the greatest
thing about your game and watching it on television is
wishing you were there. So it's like, oh man, I
wish I could be there, Oh man, I wish I
(24:05):
could be a part of that experience. So you created
at home and the best way that you can. But
that entertainment value is really important. The one that people
don't like to talk about now people are talking a
whole lot more about it is the business part of it.
And now that the league itself and other leagues have
become basically an asset class the finance world, that's a
popular topic has not been historically people don't know, don't
(24:30):
really want to know where Sanna got the presence. They
just want to know that the baby kid got to train,
like that's it. They don't want to know about the
work that it took to build the stadium to put
the players on the field. They don't want to know
that finance part. But at the end of the day,
if you don't have the finance part, you can't take
that back around and put the players on the field.
So that has to be a part of your plan.
(24:51):
And then at the end, for us, it was really
about innovation. How did you take all of those four
big big points and then innovator around them, Make it different,
make it new, make it challenging, meet people where they
are and craft that. And that has actually been our journey.
Is okay, what is relevant now? Things have changed so
much in the NFL where they are today then where
(25:12):
we both got in. You all came in like I
think a year or two after us, right ninety one. Okay,
we're in eighty nine, and so we were all this
was a whole different story back then. Now, media streaming,
everything is like changing by the minute. And we're doing
a podcast. What is it that we're doing. So we
have to look at that and figure out where are
(25:33):
the people and what do they want and how do
we make sure that we take our culture that they
can become a part of it, and what are the
things that might interest them that's outside of our game,
and how do we bring that into what we do
as a brand.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Can you talk us through how you balance those factors,
like balance the tradition and balance against the innovation and
have you ever innovated too far?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
We made missteps there? You know, that's so important because
it's the balance scret is in the balance, because if
you're just traditional and you're just working for those fifteen
up that love the game, you've missed all these kids,
like you've missed the future of your game if you
don't pull that in and on the innovation start. It's like,
(26:16):
how much does it take for us to get annoyed
by the things that a younger generation needs and wants?
But we want it the way that we have it.
So you know, if you think about that, just look
in this room and say what music do you want
to hear? That's an easy one, right, what music do
you want to play in the stadium full of one
hundred thousand people and they all have different musical choices.
What's the one that works? By the way, does anybody
(26:37):
know what's the most popular genre of music for sports? Now,
you got to think about, like everybody in this room
that works with everybody who let the dogs out, classic
rock and every culture. It doesn't matter if you're Hispanic,
it doesn't matter if you're white, it doesn't matter if
(26:58):
you're African American. It is classic rock. That's a little tidbit,
just so you know, that's a great one. You reference
a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
About like the generational fandom about how especially with NFL,
and we see this as well, that the that it
is it's something that bonds families. You are a fan
because your parent was a fan, because your family was
a fan.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
That was very true for us as a family.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And my sister actually wrote her college essay on three
generations of women bonding every Sunday and watching the NFL
and traveling to watch to watch football. And we actually
see generational fandom the opposite way from women's soccer that
it is often the child or a grandchild that has
an affinity for our team and becomes attached to our players,
and then it brings their parent or their grandparent to
(27:45):
a game, So we're actually building generational fandom the other
way up. Have you seen opportunity for that with the
Cowboys as well through these different innovations.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, I think so for sure. I think it's about,
you know, in our sport in particular and terms of
being in the stadium, because we've got to look at
this two ways, because only seven percent of NFL fans
ever come into a stadium seven percent. So you're spending
all the time, energy and effort on those eighty thousand
(28:16):
people that are there at the game, but all of
your fans are all around the world, and how do
you actually reach them to and spend as much time
in that engagement arena there as you do those that
come through your building. And I would say from all
of that, so that allows you to then go for
a younger generation outside the game, because maybe that ticket
(28:38):
price for the kid, or that you know that they
need their parent to be able to bring them there.
You want to make sure that you have an offering
that allows a family to be able to come to
the game. So you're not excluding family participation, but when
you step outside of the building itself, that's where all
the creativity can happen because as we know now we
(28:59):
can target very specifically each different demographic, each different age. Boy,
the things we know about people today is very spooky.
But is it also allows for feedback And to me,
that's actually the most important thing, because if you're a
fan and you live someplace else, you actually can get
(29:19):
to be and tell me what you like and what
you don't like, and we can respond to that, and
we can almost respond in very real time of how
to make sure that we're doing something that is engaging
to you and inspiring to you. So all your kids
and their friends want to come and show up and
be a part of something, you know. I think one
of the things that is interesting about all of the
text on this is there has been such an incredible
(29:43):
shift to people wanting to celebrate a shared memory of like,
what are the things that are valuable to us? And
this was a heartbeat at the time, you know, back
when we were building our stadium fifteen years ago about
a shared experience, but COVID had to snap us into
realizing that what do we value the most? And we
value being around each other the most and our friends
(30:06):
and being able to get out and to interact and
be a part of something, and what can we bring
everybody to And that's where the focus is. Whether it's
in the building or outside the building, it's how do
we do something that creates the shared experience.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You've done so much in that space. You talk about
how sports is now an asset class. There's now this
growing popularity of investing in sports. A Rod was here
last year talking about his metrics and he was saying
how ownership in baseball is really now media rights, Like
that's really the core business now with baseball itself is
almost the ancillary product.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
How do you consider it? Now?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
You've built the Star, this incredible facility which is both
your training facility, places to entertain sponsors. You have all
these different businesses office space affiliated with it. How do
you think about all of your opportunities and assets and
where does the football team as the product fit.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Into that calculation? Yet again, another very complex question, so
we'll try to break it down. So obviously, media rights
are significant, are incredibly significant for the NFL. The value
of the media rights per team basically pays for you
to put a team on the field. And we at
the NFL are very different than every other league in
that we have a salary cap, we have a CBA,
(31:21):
and in that it designates based off the revenues the
league makes, how much money the payers get paid, and
so you get a pool of money from those revenues,
and then you have to decide which of the players
on your team get how much of that pool. So
that revenue stream is incredibly significant there, and that's broadcast rights.
So there's other forms of media too that you can
(31:43):
go out and do, podcast media and other things to
add revenue a revenue stream to your pool. Sponsorships are
incredibly important, obviously, you know, tickets and suites and things
like that are are significant. You know, for us, our
step into our headquarters was really about if we only
have ten games a year. I mean, you think about that,
we have this monstrosity of stadiums and we only visit
(32:06):
there ten times, and so you've got to figure out
what to do with the building on the other days,
and then you have to figure out how to engage
your fans on the other days. So we took that
concept and built it up at the Star. So that
was the interactive between all kinds of things that you
could do there to be able to touch your fans
and be an evergreen brand. But I think in that
ability to figure out how you grow those different revenue
(32:29):
streams and then address the different audiences, you definitely are
trying to give us something for everybody experience, so that
you can leverage that and leverage who you are as
a Cowboy brand into other opportunities. And that's our families
in the real estate business, as are you and have
a different kind of associations that we can use the
(32:52):
power of that brand to then accelerate the growth of
the other.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
After the break more from Charlotte, that.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
We can use the power of that brand to then
accelerate the growth of the other.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
You've done that incredibly successfully and very relevantly right now
with the cheerleaders. You have a new season of the
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on Netflix right now. There was a
meme around online of people who could said they couldn't
name a player a football player, but they could name
a cheerleader, which from a brand perspective, you've opened up
(33:39):
an entire new category of fan.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
You've created a secondary team.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
So how do you was that unconscious decision to say
this is a new category of fan that we were
going after to translate them, or is this just an
entirely separate business for you essentially?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You know, I think what this has shown us it's
an explosion of a business that's been there since the
seventies of a And I won't even say business because
there's really no business behind it, because there is no
business model of the cheerleaders. You know, it's not like
there's a variety show and you can buy a ticket
to go watch them. You know, we aren't the Rockets.
(34:14):
We don't have that platform. We are not them, So
that is it's not a business discussion. But here is
something that's part of your brand that came about in
the seventies and then has kind of been a part
of the growth of the brand. But more importantly, what
they really the value was great on ten games in
(34:35):
terms of their ability to entertain everybody, But the most
important thing they brought to the table was to be
able to go someplace else and to go visit our
troops overseas and bring a little Americana to them stationed
all over the world. That that was actually our primary
reason for even having them, and that was that just
brought people felt like, okay, I've got a little bit
(34:55):
of home here, you know, wherever they were located, and
that was that was really great. Then we started this
show on CMT for seventeen years. Who knew, not many,
not many, and it was having its own life over there.
Did you follow in? Okay? Well that was a different thing.
And as we all know, CMT and Netflix are completely
(35:16):
different types of platforms. And as the CMT route ended,
and basically CMT, you know, was my most network, television
is fading and the life is coming in on the
streaming side. So we decided, you know what, we're not
going to just close the door. Since they've closed the door,
Let's figure out if we can garner some interest on
(35:38):
another platform. And it's funny now in hindsight, back then
we were begging, will you take our show? Will you
take our show? Will you take our show? And we
got door shut after door shut after doorshut. Now you
kind of want to go back to him and I
told you shit. But Netflix went in and said, okay,
you know, we'll we will do this, but we're just
going to give it one year and we will see.
(35:59):
And so what became different was the fact that we
have an incredible director and Greg Whiteley and what really
the story was about or who are these women? What
do they do? How do they think? How do they
get here? And the story became about them. And as
that evolved and these stories came forward, people around the
(36:20):
world went crazy. Which was they could they could identify with,
they could root for, they could cheer for, cheer against,
I don't know whatever, but they were engaged and they
wanted to know more. And the show blew up and
everybody became, you know, so aware of what was going on,
and it really drew you know, for us, I think
(36:40):
the most fascinating thing about it, well, we already knew
that we don't actually have a whole lot of popularity
in Dallas. Oddly enough, their popularity is outside of Dallas.
And you know a lot of that is because, you know,
when you take off the uniform, then you look like
me going into Starbucks. I'll take a coffee and that.
But that's what you are. You're not a this Oh
(37:03):
that's somebody that I need to know, I need to meet.
So you're just too you are in Dallas, outside of that,
outside of the country. When they put the uniform, they
became something bigger, and people wanted to follow when one
had that curiosity. So we've been able to lean into that,
and these women have told beautiful stories. They've been incredibly vulnerable,
(37:23):
and I think the results of that is in the
popularity of the show.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah. Yeah, you made a lot of news this week
with the Cheerleaders that they now have a four hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Pay increase, which is incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
You know, some speculating that it came as a result
of the fact that there the fact that they were
working multiple jobs is now on the show and visible
for everyone to see on Netflix versus probably a smaller
audience on CMT. I'm personally speculating that you now view
them as athletes versus entertainment. That's my own lens on it,
but I'm curious to hear you talk through that decision.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah. Well, well, first of all, I think the thing
that we have always thought was the most interesting part
of the women that chose to be a part of
the Cheerleaders was they came to us with I mean,
it's a part time job, so everybody had a full
time career of something. So they were doctors, they were nurses,
they were attorneys, they were like anybody here in this room,
(38:19):
they had a career or they had an aim for
a career that dance was their passion. Dance was their hobby,
and dance gave them apart, gave them an opportunity to
be a part of something bigger, but their trajectory they
were pacing to whatever they were wanting to become. And
I think in that it made the conversation so interesting
(38:39):
because what they shared a lot between each other was well,
I'm fighting to become this, I'm fighting my journey to
do this, and then I'm going to do a family,
And how I am I going to do a job
and a family. You know, they became like every one
of us, this is what our mission is. As as
the show got more popular, the talent level dramatically increased,
(39:01):
so the training required to get to the talent level
that was it. I'll make this comparison our director now,
Kelly Finglass. If you've watched the show, they have shown
clips of her back in the eighties being a cheerleader,
and she was like, yes, we were doing jumping jacks
like you know that. It was the talent level was very,
very different, and now the talent level is extraordinarily high.
(39:23):
And these women are actually many of them want a
dance trajectory for their career versus a part of their career. Now,
we don't ever want to let go of that part
because I think it's really great that if you want
to go be an attorney or a doctor and you
also want to cheer, well, then come on, we want
to have a spot for you to do that. But
I think several of the women came to us and said,
(39:44):
you know what, we have an opportunity to really improve
this program, and here are the things that we think
would make of the enhancements work. And so we had
a great corporate dialogue with them of like, okay, how
do you see things, how do you think things could
be better? How do we work here to be better?
And they brought to the table the nuances that brought
the challenge, and so in that along with that coincided
(40:05):
because I do think this is important is the attention
and the awareness. You know, if the opportunities for them
to go appeer outside of the ten days a year
just went off the charts, So if in that that
also gives them the ability then to go be compensated
(40:25):
in a different environment besides ten days. You know, there's
a ten day perform a job piece, and then there's
everything beyond that. Well, when the show blew it up,
everything beyond that went up. So it's like, great, here
we go. We're all going up together. And that's what
we did. That's how we structured it. And I think
they were super excited about it, and I think as
(40:48):
we move forward, there's now they know how to have
that dialogue and almost say this. There was probably not
a lot of communication there it was, so we were
able to kind of establish that have a window in
of like, come on in, let me sit down. I'll
talk to you to exactly you know where my pain
points are, and you share yours, and let's figure out
how we grow together. And that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I just want to ask you our final she pivots
question that we ask of all of our guests. What
is something that at the time you saw as a
real low point and you maybe couldn't even see yourself
getting out of it, and now in retrospect you see
it as having really built you to launch you to
the success you are today.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I probably think the most visible low point because we've
we've had a few sports teams kind of takes you
up and up and down, and you're only as happy
as your last victory. So putting that aside, in the
mid nineties, we had a whole lot of success and
we had just come off of three big Super Bowl
wins and then one of our players made a really
(41:47):
unfortunate decision off the field and it totally impacted the
brand everything, and it was like negative highlight headlines for
for months, really challenging, and you know, my dad came
to me and said, well, how how can we counter
this conversation that's going over here, that is happening amongst them,
and what can we do as an organization to elevate
(42:10):
who we are in the midst of this negativity. And
it was at that time that you know, his comment was,
you know, I want to be this organization should be
the Jerry Lewis of something. So you may remember part
of you probably don't, but if you remember he did
the major telethons, you know, he was everything. He was
identified with community support and garnering everybody to help a
(42:35):
designated cause. So in that he's like, figure out how
we can become a Jerry Lewis of something, and so
in that process I met and got engaged with the
Salvation Army and the guy who was the head of
the Salvation Army at that time for the advisory Board
was also the CEO of Freeedolay, and he said, we've
got to do something for the Army to lift them
(42:56):
up and bring awareness. They're putting, you know, shoes on
people's feet, they are housing the homeless, they're helping people
with addiction, and nobody knows. He said, can you be
the voice box? So I realized that we had one
game every year that I knew we would have at home,
and that's Thanksgiving Day. Also recognize that on Thanksgiving Day
everybody has a generous heart. They want to give back,
they want to do something powerful for themselves, for their community.
(43:19):
And how could we take that sentiment and do something
big with it. I went to NBC Sports and asked
them to give us our halftime and for it, give
us the airtime. There, we partnered with Reeba McIntyre at
the time, and we launched the first ever national red
Kettle campaign for the Salvation Army the halftime in the
middle of our game. And now here we go on
(43:41):
the trajectory We will be thirty years next year and
we've raised over four billion dollars for the Salvation Army,
so you can make that When things are dark, there's
always a great opportunity in there to figure out how
to turn something around. But thank you all for your
time today.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Thank you so much, Charlotte, thank you, Thank you guys
for coming. Thank you so much for listening to this
special episode of she Pivots recorded live at the Aspen
Ideas Festival. The best way to stay up to date
with Charlotte you can follow her on Instagram at c
Jones Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots thepodcast dot com. This episode was
(44:51):
produced and edited by Emily Atavelosik, with sound editing and
mixing from Nina Pollock. Audio production and social media by
Hannah Cousins. Researched by Christine Dickinson and logistics and planning
by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin. She Pivots is proud
to be a part of the iHeart podcast network. I
(45:12):
endorse she Pivots
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Charlotte Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to she pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Welcome
(00:33):
back to she Pivots. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.
If you listen closely, you might just be able to
hear the Aspen trees and streams behind me because we're
recording from Aspen Ideas for the Aspen Ideas Festival. We're
all be sitting down with some of the world's foremost leaders, innovators,
and creators and bringing these insightful conversations.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
With you here on she Pivots.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Today, we're kicking off this special series of episodes with
my conversation with Charlotte Jones, executive vice president, chief brand
officer and co owner of the Dallas Cowboys, our Friendemi
Go Giants.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
This one we recorded live in front of an audience.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm so excited. She Pivots is one of the inaugural
audio first media companies to partner with the festival. It
was invigorating to be among brilliant leaders and thinkers from
around the globe to discuss and here ideas that will
shape tomorrow and help us understand today. Over the next
few weeks, you'll hear live, candid conversations from inspiring women
(01:36):
recorded here at the festival, from geopolitical issues, to economic issues,
to cultural issues and beyond. Each interview connects to the
larger cultural moment we're in, and of course, interreeves their
personal lives. I hope you walk away feeling as inspired
and determined as I did to continue to share our
(01:57):
stories and experiences to change the cultural landscape for a
better tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Let's jump right in. Hi, I'm Charlotte Jones and I
am co owner and Chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
This is our first live so welcome to she Pivots
Live from Asvin with the most incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Guests, our Charlotte Jones. Hi ready, I'm so excited to
be here with you today. Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
As co owner chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys,
you haven't just reshaped a team, You've reshaped an entire industry.
You've helped build one of the most iconic and valuable
global brands in all of sports, and you've done it
in a space that for so long, maybe someone argue
still is pretty dominated by men. On this show, I
talk to women about how they pivot, about how their
(02:48):
personal experiences shape their careers and the impacts they have.
And part of the reason this conversation feels so personal
to me is Charlotte and I have been discussing is
that I grew up in the family that owns half
New York Giants and now we own Gotham FC. So
the world of sports, team dynamics, family business, this is
all familiar to me.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yes, Emily, we're frenemies, so we're like friends and enemies
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, my son almost wore his Giants hat, but out
of respect for you, he's gonna switch this Giant's hat
for we need a great rival.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Please take your hat.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So I have about a million things that I could
ask you of how you built a global brand to
work in with your family, So I want to go back.
We always start my show in chronological order because I
feel like in order to understand how we got to
the success we are today, we have to understand where
we started Yeah, so welcome again. Let's go back, little Charlotte.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Oh, that is so funny. Honestly, I wanted to dance
on Broadway. That's really what I wanted to do. I
had background and dance. That's what I did when I
when I grew up. That was my hobby, that was
my passion, that was my sport. Unfortunately, I was not
great at it. You know, I didn't have a voice,
I can really couldn't do any of the things that
would actually launch you to Broadway. So I studied and
(04:04):
in that I became a great student. And then I
went off to school in California. I went to Stanford.
And at Stanford, I went there because a gal came
to our school, you know when you have all of
the school days where they're showing, and this girl was
a dancer on Broadway, but she had gone off to
study in Florence at Stanford. And I'm like, that's what
(04:26):
I want to do. I want to go to school
in Florence, and my way there is to get into Stanford.
So I went out to Stanford and I actually went
out there with a human viole, with a path to
be a doctor. So I was pre med and I
went through this core of human biology and it's the
first two years of Stanford. At the end of those
two years, I decided, you know what, the four walls
(04:47):
of a hospital is really not meant for me. I
knew then that I wanted to help people. I really
wasn't sure how or what that would look like. I
finished my degree at Stanford and really didn't know where
to go. My Dad's like, hey, why don't you go
into politics. So i'body, well, that's a pivot. That's a
pivot inly, like go to med school, then go to politics.
(05:08):
And I thought, well, that's crazy. But I remember when
I was a junior. We all have had to do
this when we were in high school, and you have
to go interview somebody famous and then write an essay
on him. So I went and interviewed our sheriff at
the time, who was like this walking tall sheriff. He
worked under Bill Clinton, and he was like infamous in
the town because he actually took all the prisoners, chained
(05:30):
them to the governor's office the fence outside of the
governor's office, and left them there until they passed prison
reform and then he armed every seven eleven with a
shotgun instead. If anybody comes in, you're allowed to shoot them.
Like he was a crazy, crazy character, So let me
go interview him. So I went to interview him. I
wrote this great paper and at the end of it,
I said, and he's probably going to land in Congress.
(05:53):
I got an a on the paper with a comment
that said, oh lord, I hope not from my teacher.
And fast forward to my graduation. I reached out to him,
got an interview, and went to work for him in
Congress on Capitol Hill. And that was the beginning of
an adventure that was probably one of the toughest points
in my career. And I know a lot of people say, wow,
(06:15):
you work in a world of all men and probably
a lot of aggression and all the things that go
along with that. Congress was a lot harder, and it
was had so many more challenges for me as a
young female. On Capitol Hill, I had a renegade boss,
and I didn't have much leadership. Thank goodness, our senator
from Arkansas said, come across the hill, let me show
(06:37):
you the ropes, and that's okay. I'll help you navigate
this path forward. Well, my congressman switched parties in the
middle of the night. I was in charge of his office,
and I woke up the next morning and he goes,
come with me, let's go into this meeting. It turns
out its press conference. Now we're no longer going to
be Democrats, We're going to be Republicans. So when we
sat there and I was like, what in the world
is going on. About that time, my dad decided to
(06:58):
buy the Dallas Cowboy and he was back on this
journey and I would call my dad and be like,
oh my gosh, you're not going to believe what happened
to me today. And here he is fighting all these
fires back in Dallas, and he'd say, you know what, Charlotte.
He goes, you got to grow up. You got to
put your big boy pants on. And it builds character.
It builds character. Like every call was just like, get
(07:19):
over it. It builds character. So I'm over fighting my
own battle. He's fighting all of these battles. He comes in,
he buys the team, and at the time, right before
he bought the team, he comes to visit my brother
and I in DC and my brother was at Georgetown
and he said, you know, look, I think I want
to buy the Dallas Cowboys. And we looked at him,
we looked at the financials around it. It was terrible.
(07:40):
It was losing thirty five thousand dollars a day, over
a million dollars a month. The team was one in
fifteen and on top of that, thirteen percent of the
Dallas Cowboys was owned by the FDIC, Like we truly
were America's team. You had a piece, you had a piece,
You had a piece. It was a disaster and so
as a financial disase all of these things happening. Were like,
(08:02):
why in the world do you want to do this?
And he just said, you know, sports is my passion.
I've always wanted to be involved in football. Now is
the time. And sometimes you can't wait till the perfect setting.
When the crosshairs lined up, you got to take the
shot and you got to jump in. And my brother
and I looked at him, were like, all right, you know,
good luck with that, and he said, you know, you
just got to know one thing. If I do this,
(08:25):
it might just change our life a little. That's the
only time my father has ever underestimated anything he has
ever said to us. And off we went on this
incredible journey and like about a year into me working
on the hill that year, the only game we won
was in Washington one in fifteen. That was great, at
(08:46):
least I could go to work. But then I got
a call from him and he said, Charlotte, he said,
I got to ask you this question, like, okay, and
he said, what is the difference between biker shorts and hotpants?
I'm like what? They were crazy, Like what are you doing?
He said, there's a line of women outside of my
office thinking that I'm trying to change the iconic cheerleader
(09:08):
uniform from hotpants to biker shorts. He said, I don't
even know where they trained. I don't even know where
they are. Can you just come down to help me
and get me out of this mess? So I left DC.
I went down for what I thought was a weekend,
and in it we found out it was another one
of the rumors. We were being sued about everything that
was walking at that time. And got in there and
(09:29):
figured it out, you know, changed the leadership, you know,
found this other cheerleader to run it, and you know,
looked at my dad and I'm like, okay, I'm headed
back back to DC and he said, no, I want
you to stay. And I said, well, Dad, I do
what you know. And he said, you know, I need
somebody by my side that I can trust, somebody that
will lay awake at night and try to figure out
(09:51):
how to solve all these problems. And I said, well,
you know what, I don't know anything about running a
professional football team. And he looked me dead in the
eye and he said, that's okay, neither do you. Why
and off our journey began. What a journey.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You mentioned that your brothers were there as well. Did
they step in in the same way like it came
for you? It wasn't like it sounds like. It wasn't
this big decision where it says, now we're going in
as a family to go run this team together. It
came a kind of piecemeal in projects. Did the same
happen for your brothers as well? Well?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I will say this. My older brother is a chemical
engineer by trade. Our family business was oil and gas,
so he was planning to go into family business when
he got the call and said the family business is
switching to football. He played football at the University of Arkansas.
That was his passion. He's like, my bags are packed
and I'm ready, when do we start? So he was there,
(10:43):
my brother was at Georgetown when on to law school.
It would later join us. But I think from my
dad's perspective, he surely was looking for something that would
bring us all in. He wanted a family effort here,
and I think none of us realized. When I got there,
I thought I was just coming to help try to
figure out how to get it out of a hole,
(11:03):
and that I would then go back and start a
trajectory of my own career. And then I woke up
and it's thirty five years later and I'm still working
from my dad. That's what of good.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
There is a really interesting family business dynamic in it,
and I've definitely seen this in my own family, our
own family businesses, that there can be sort of a
crushing sense of lack of autonomy as a person is
coming up into their own career. If the expectation from
the outside it's like you know, the succession outside, like
or the family you run the business, but as the
person who's coming up in it and trying to learn,
(11:35):
legitimately gain skills, trying to earn respect of your peers,
trying to earn respect of those who work with you.
It can be a challenge. Did you feel that you
had gained enough of that in your career, your pre
career on the Hill as you entered or was that
still something that you grappled with as you entered the team.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Oh, I think I'm the number one leader of Imposter
Syndrome Camp. Like I think every time I've said into
particularly that situation, it was like, I don't know what
I'm doing. And unfortunately my dad when I moved and
I got there, you know, I went and found my
own office, cleared out a broom closet, you know, kind
of do what you guess do. And then I went
(12:13):
up to him and I was like, okay, you know,
I'm here. What do I do? And he just looked
at me and he said, find a way to stop
losing money, and whatever you do, don't tarnish the star.
And at that point I had no idea what that
actually meant. And I think when I got into it,
and I realized that the only thing of like true
value was was what people really felt that they were
(12:36):
a part of, and that was the brand of the Cowboys.
So it's like, what, how did you go about and
start and to solve the problems that you had and
then to turn around and grow from them without messing
with what people were so reverent about. And for me,
I didn't know what that looked like. And I think
the good news is that neither did our family. I mean,
(12:59):
none of us knew really what we were doing. And
for me that was like such a benefit as opposed
to going into an established family business that's that's been
there for generations. This was This wasn't the oil and
gas business. This was a football team. And it wasn't
just a football team, you know, it was a culture.
And to figure out how why did people you know,
(13:19):
gravitate to this culture and this sport and this game.
What did it mean to them? And how did we
build upon that? And for me, you know, every day
and continues to be is a learning curve. And I
think rather than develop the anxiety about not knowing what
to do, the greatest thing was that both of my parents,
because my mother got really involved, we all kind of
(13:40):
had to roll up our sleeves. Was that they were
okay with failure. You know, it's like you're going to
bump your toe. It's not going to work. Then you
got to like pick it up, you know, go off,
you know, get back in there, fight again, you know,
build character like all that stuff. And you know, here
it was. That was my journey. It was like figure
it out. Just get in and figure it out. And
everything is really a crisis. And I think from day
(14:00):
one when we started, we started in a crisis. Every
crisis that has come along, you know, has had a
lot of drama associated with it. And how did you
solve for that? And I think, you know, I laugh
a lot of times and those if you may have
a similar experience. But when I was in college, all
of my peers would like run over me rising to
the career center. You know, it's like, ah, I got
to get this job. I got to get this job,
(14:21):
got to get this job. And my friend and I,
you know, we're in the trample, like going, oh my gosh,
where's everybody going, you know, like what is the deal?
And I think we realized that as much as we
were perfectionists, that we could accept imperfection. And in that process,
she's now a superior court judge, you know, in LA
and amazing. And I've had my own trajectory and we've
(14:45):
noticed that those who had just perfection and couldn't accept
a flaw in their perfection could then no longer handle Okay,
I've got a job, now I want a family. How
do I balance both of those? You know, imperfection sets
in really quick, kind of slaps you in the face
as soon as land, and you have to live with it.
You have to live with it and be comfortable in
(15:05):
that imperfection and knowing that that's okay. And I'm still
going to figure out how to be the best that
I can in the moment that I'm in, whether it
be my job, with my family, with my community, in
my career, and my spiritual life. I need in that moment,
I need to be my best and be okay when
I fall.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You brought us to this moment perfectly because the lens
that I look at these conversations in these stories is
the intersection of the personal and professional. How we've come
up with our whole lives of coming up with these
professional narratives to always explain why we made these professional choices,
and often there was a lot going on personally behind
it that drove those decisions. So while you've had this
(15:45):
incredible career and build this unbelievable brand. And we will
get back to that part, the brand building part. I
want to bring the personal life in here. Where were
you in your career, in your trajectory when you marry
for the first time, had children?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
How did you manage that piece?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Where were you in the career and then how did
you manage it?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I find three kids a lot, by the way, like
a lot, like I can't believe you did this?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Well? You know, I think I was young. I think
that's the key to that was helpful. You know. I
we bought the team, I got married shortly thereafter, then
had three beautiful kids and they all came. But that
was that was was part of my dream, you know.
The dream that was not part of my dream was
(16:27):
running a football team. So it was like, yeah, I
knew I wanted to do that. Now I just had
to figure out how to do that. Along with that,
I am blessed because my best mentors are my parents.
They're super supportive in all of that, and that meant family.
So when I had my daughter, she's my oldest, we
set up a nursery at work. You know, she had
(16:48):
a At first, I was a commuter from Arkansas to Dallas.
I think we were the only two Meet and Haley
that had a reserve seat on Southwest airlines. Were like
run through the airport and they're like, wait, here comes
Charlotte Door. I commuted back and forth every week with her,
and then my mother would keep her while I went
to work, and then I would come back. And I
(17:08):
lived with my parents with my baby, y'all. And you
gotta know this. So we're in this one bedroom apartment,
one bedroom apartment, and the other room that I was
in was the study. So they made it into a bedroom.
No door, like, no door, I'm in the study. The
(17:29):
dining room was my mom's closet. Our breakfast table was
the little coffee table that was in front of the sofa,
like literally like put a towel on the coffee table.
That's where we ate. And I raised my daughter in
and out of that study, and I remember so vividly,
you know she of course, they wake up every couple
of hours. Then my dad would get up because he
(17:50):
would hear her, and he would come in my room,
sit on my bed and said what can I do?
And I'm basically sitting there like nothing, and no, he
sat there and to this day. He said, every father
should be a grandfather first so they can appreciate what
it takes to be a mother. And so in that,
(18:12):
you know, it's like I would have zero sleep, then
my dad and I would leave in the morning and
go to work, and my mother would take over. Haley
and that journey began. So she became a part of everything.
And probably one of the greatest things we do with
our organization is have a kid's Christmas party. So all
the players, all everybody that has children in the organization
bring the kids and we have this massive blowout, which
(18:33):
is awesome because you know, we have a family culture.
We are a family. We built a family culture, and
I think everybody feels a part of that.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, oh, I love that. Stay tuned for more of
Charlotte after the break.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
We have a family called Sure. We are a family.
We've built a family culture, and I think everybody feels
a part of that.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, oh, I love that. So I want to come
now to this branding piece. You have done such an
unbelievable job. You have truly set the standard globally for
the brand. I'd say across all sports, sports that were
often considered entertainment and not the business of sports that
we consider it today, and this is a place where
I actually specifically want your advice, Like, yes, we have
(19:25):
a legacy brand, the New York Giants, but also in
the last year and a half, we bought Gotham FC,
the women's professional soccer team in New York, and my sister, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Everyone will call for that. I want to come to
a Gotham game.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
And what's been There's been so many interesting things about
this journey. But my sister is the president of Gotham
and I now spend almost half my time on building
up the brand, trying to help her build up the
brand for the team. Before we bought this team, we
lived in New York. We didn't even know there was
a women's soccer team in New York. Our brand awareness
were starting like real low, Like we've got a lot
(19:58):
of runway for growth. You know, it's all upside, It's
all upside. My sister runs the team. She comes from
a marketing background, and what she always says is that
there are many iconic global brands, global sports brands in particular,
and the example that she always uses is the Dallas
Cowboys that you can see someone wearing Dallas Cowboys gear
all over the world and they may not actually be
(20:19):
able to name your quarterback, but they identify with the brand.
Yeah yeah, okay, like people here want to identify the quarterback.
You guys know your football, great chocolates. And so that's
what it is to be a global brand, and there
has not been one for women's sports yet and we
believe that we can be it. And so we're making
a lot of decisions. My sister are leading this around
(20:41):
the team and which blocks move first to be a
global brand. And this is a place that I'd love
to get your advice. Yes, you may have started as
thirteen percent of the FGIC America's team, but you built
a global brand.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So what decisions did you make with that in mind?
And what did you have to lose? Well, that's a
loaded question right there, and a lot of opportunity for
both of you to figure this out. But for us
it was it's really been and this has evolved you
know over time. First you get in and you're kind
of scattershooting on what is all of this and what
(21:15):
do what do I have my hands around? But you
know what we realized was that first and foremost, there
are really five things that we look at and evaluate
that we think that we are and that we try
to stay on point with. And the first is tradition.
It's what brought us to the Cowboys. What's the incredible
tradition of the Cowboys? But what is what? You don't
have this yet, so you will create this, And in
(21:37):
that tradition it became we are a brand that is
built on the grates that came before us. So it
was about Tom Landry and Bob Lilly and Troy Aigman,
you know, all of these great players that played before.
But what that created was an affinity for parents to
take their kids and grandparents to take their grandkids, and
(21:57):
it built this this culture. We can identify with this
wonderful tradition based on any of this lineage of people,
and we know that we stand on the shoulders of
those that came before us, so we can then reach
new heights. But we also know that we couldn't just
be generational, because then you would become nostalgic. So how
(22:20):
did you step out and become relevant even though all
of your great history was wrapped in tradition. Well, the
second piece of that puzzle is that our game in
both of your games is about competition. Most sports purists
don't really care about anything else other than the score
at the end of the game. They just want to win.
That's all they want to do is want to win.
So you have to make sure you keep your eye
(22:42):
on the prize, that you have the best players, the
best facilities, all the things that take to create a
successful team, and that's really important. But the other thing
about that competition is, you know, our game, particularly in football,
because we have so few you know, you can't fake it,
you can't script it, you can't predict it. I like
to say we're the greatest reality show on television. You
(23:03):
never know what's going to happen. You know, you wake
up to all this news that you didn't know transpired
through the night, and now you've got to deal with it.
That's the great thing about what we are as an
Intendina support. But we're also about entertainment, so we know
that people spend their very last dollar to come be
a part of who we are, whether that means simply
buying a piece of merchandise, a hat somewhere else so
they could be connected, or they're actually coming to the
(23:25):
game and having an experience and we know that we
actually had to deliver an experience at the game that's
better than what they can create at home. Because our
greatest competition is actually not the New York Giants, It
is the lazy boy in front of the TV being
presented by Fox, like that's where it is. Because people
can do that for cheap, they can bring in their
(23:45):
whole neighborhood. Everybody can have that community. That is valuable
to us. I'll never forget this. One of our greatest
sports sects that owned CBS at the time came in
to talk to the NFL and he said, the greatest
thing about your game and watching it on television is
wishing you were there. So it's like, oh man, I
wish I could be there, Oh man, I wish I
(24:05):
could be a part of that experience. So you created
at home and the best way that you can. But
that entertainment value is really important. The one that people
don't like to talk about now people are talking a
whole lot more about it is the business part of it.
And now that the league itself and other leagues have
become basically an asset class the finance world, that's a
popular topic has not been historically people don't know, don't
(24:30):
really want to know where Sanna got the presence. They
just want to know that the baby kid got to train,
like that's it. They don't want to know about the
work that it took to build the stadium to put
the players on the field. They don't want to know
that finance part. But at the end of the day,
if you don't have the finance part, you can't take
that back around and put the players on the field.
So that has to be a part of your plan.
(24:51):
And then at the end, for us, it was really
about innovation. How did you take all of those four
big big points and then innovator around them, Make it different,
make it new, make it challenging, meet people where they
are and craft that. And that has actually been our journey.
Is okay, what is relevant now? Things have changed so
much in the NFL where they are today then where
(25:12):
we both got in. You all came in like I
think a year or two after us, right ninety one. Okay,
we're in eighty nine, and so we were all this
was a whole different story back then. Now, media streaming,
everything is like changing by the minute. And we're doing
a podcast. What is it that we're doing. So we
have to look at that and figure out where are
(25:33):
the people and what do they want and how do
we make sure that we take our culture that they
can become a part of it, and what are the
things that might interest them that's outside of our game,
and how do we bring that into what we do
as a brand.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Can you talk us through how you balance those factors,
like balance the tradition and balance against the innovation and
have you ever innovated too far?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
We made missteps there? You know, that's so important because
it's the balance scret is in the balance, because if
you're just traditional and you're just working for those fifteen
up that love the game, you've missed all these kids,
like you've missed the future of your game if you
don't pull that in and on the innovation start. It's like,
(26:16):
how much does it take for us to get annoyed
by the things that a younger generation needs and wants?
But we want it the way that we have it.
So you know, if you think about that, just look
in this room and say what music do you want
to hear? That's an easy one, right, what music do
you want to play in the stadium full of one
hundred thousand people and they all have different musical choices.
What's the one that works? By the way, does anybody
(26:37):
know what's the most popular genre of music for sports? Now,
you got to think about, like everybody in this room
that works with everybody who let the dogs out, classic
rock and every culture. It doesn't matter if you're Hispanic,
it doesn't matter if you're white, it doesn't matter if
(26:58):
you're African American. It is classic rock. That's a little tidbit,
just so you know, that's a great one. You reference
a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
About like the generational fandom about how especially with NFL,
and we see this as well, that the that it
is it's something that bonds families. You are a fan
because your parent was a fan, because your family was
a fan.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
That was very true for us as a family.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And my sister actually wrote her college essay on three
generations of women bonding every Sunday and watching the NFL
and traveling to watch to watch football. And we actually
see generational fandom the opposite way from women's soccer that
it is often the child or a grandchild that has
an affinity for our team and becomes attached to our players,
and then it brings their parent or their grandparent to
(27:45):
a game, So we're actually building generational fandom the other
way up. Have you seen opportunity for that with the
Cowboys as well through these different innovations.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, I think so for sure. I think it's about,
you know, in our sport in particular and terms of
being in the stadium, because we've got to look at
this two ways, because only seven percent of NFL fans
ever come into a stadium seven percent. So you're spending
all the time, energy and effort on those eighty thousand
(28:16):
people that are there at the game, but all of
your fans are all around the world, and how do
you actually reach them to and spend as much time
in that engagement arena there as you do those that
come through your building. And I would say from all
of that, so that allows you to then go for
a younger generation outside the game, because maybe that ticket
(28:38):
price for the kid, or that you know that they
need their parent to be able to bring them there.
You want to make sure that you have an offering
that allows a family to be able to come to
the game. So you're not excluding family participation, but when
you step outside of the building itself, that's where all
the creativity can happen because as we know now we
(28:59):
can target very specifically each different demographic, each different age. Boy,
the things we know about people today is very spooky.
But is it also allows for feedback And to me,
that's actually the most important thing, because if you're a
fan and you live someplace else, you actually can get
(29:19):
to be and tell me what you like and what
you don't like, and we can respond to that, and
we can almost respond in very real time of how
to make sure that we're doing something that is engaging
to you and inspiring to you. So all your kids
and their friends want to come and show up and
be a part of something, you know. I think one
of the things that is interesting about all of the
text on this is there has been such an incredible
(29:43):
shift to people wanting to celebrate a shared memory of like,
what are the things that are valuable to us? And
this was a heartbeat at the time, you know, back
when we were building our stadium fifteen years ago about
a shared experience, but COVID had to snap us into
realizing that what do we value the most? And we
value being around each other the most and our friends
(30:06):
and being able to get out and to interact and
be a part of something, and what can we bring
everybody to And that's where the focus is. Whether it's
in the building or outside the building, it's how do
we do something that creates the shared experience.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You've done so much in that space. You talk about
how sports is now an asset class. There's now this
growing popularity of investing in sports. A Rod was here
last year talking about his metrics and he was saying
how ownership in baseball is really now media rights, Like
that's really the core business now with baseball itself is
almost the ancillary product.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
How do you consider it? Now?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
You've built the Star, this incredible facility which is both
your training facility, places to entertain sponsors. You have all
these different businesses office space affiliated with it. How do
you think about all of your opportunities and assets and
where does the football team as the product fit.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Into that calculation? Yet again, another very complex question, so
we'll try to break it down. So obviously, media rights
are significant, are incredibly significant for the NFL. The value
of the media rights per team basically pays for you
to put a team on the field. And we at
the NFL are very different than every other league in
that we have a salary cap, we have a CBA,
(31:21):
and in that it designates based off the revenues the
league makes, how much money the payers get paid, and
so you get a pool of money from those revenues,
and then you have to decide which of the players
on your team get how much of that pool. So
that revenue stream is incredibly significant there, and that's broadcast rights.
So there's other forms of media too that you can
(31:43):
go out and do, podcast media and other things to
add revenue a revenue stream to your pool. Sponsorships are
incredibly important, obviously, you know, tickets and suites and things
like that are are significant. You know, for us, our
step into our headquarters was really about if we only
have ten games a year. I mean, you think about that,
we have this monstrosity of stadiums and we only visit
(32:06):
there ten times, and so you've got to figure out
what to do with the building on the other days,
and then you have to figure out how to engage
your fans on the other days. So we took that
concept and built it up at the Star. So that
was the interactive between all kinds of things that you
could do there to be able to touch your fans
and be an evergreen brand. But I think in that
ability to figure out how you grow those different revenue
(32:29):
streams and then address the different audiences, you definitely are
trying to give us something for everybody experience, so that
you can leverage that and leverage who you are as
a Cowboy brand into other opportunities. And that's our families
in the real estate business, as are you and have
a different kind of associations that we can use the
(32:52):
power of that brand to then accelerate the growth of
the other.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
After the break more from Charlotte, that.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
We can use the power of that brand to then
accelerate the growth of the other.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
You've done that incredibly successfully and very relevantly right now
with the cheerleaders. You have a new season of the
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on Netflix right now. There was a
meme around online of people who could said they couldn't
name a player a football player, but they could name
a cheerleader, which from a brand perspective, you've opened up
(33:39):
an entire new category of fan.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
You've created a secondary team.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
So how do you was that unconscious decision to say
this is a new category of fan that we were
going after to translate them, or is this just an
entirely separate business for you essentially?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You know, I think what this has shown us it's
an explosion of a business that's been there since the
seventies of a And I won't even say business because
there's really no business behind it, because there is no
business model of the cheerleaders. You know, it's not like
there's a variety show and you can buy a ticket
to go watch them. You know, we aren't the Rockets.
(34:14):
We don't have that platform. We are not them, So
that is it's not a business discussion. But here is
something that's part of your brand that came about in
the seventies and then has kind of been a part
of the growth of the brand. But more importantly, what
they really the value was great on ten games in
(34:35):
terms of their ability to entertain everybody, But the most
important thing they brought to the table was to be
able to go someplace else and to go visit our
troops overseas and bring a little Americana to them stationed
all over the world. That that was actually our primary
reason for even having them, and that was that just
brought people felt like, okay, I've got a little bit
(34:55):
of home here, you know, wherever they were located, and
that was that was really great. Then we started this
show on CMT for seventeen years. Who knew, not many,
not many, and it was having its own life over there.
Did you follow in? Okay? Well that was a different thing.
And as we all know, CMT and Netflix are completely
(35:16):
different types of platforms. And as the CMT route ended,
and basically CMT, you know, was my most network, television
is fading and the life is coming in on the
streaming side. So we decided, you know what, we're not
going to just close the door. Since they've closed the door,
Let's figure out if we can garner some interest on
(35:38):
another platform. And it's funny now in hindsight, back then
we were begging, will you take our show? Will you
take our show? Will you take our show? And we
got door shut after door shut after doorshut. Now you
kind of want to go back to him and I
told you shit. But Netflix went in and said, okay,
you know, we'll we will do this, but we're just
going to give it one year and we will see.
(35:59):
And so what became different was the fact that we
have an incredible director and Greg Whiteley and what really
the story was about or who are these women? What
do they do? How do they think? How do they
get here? And the story became about them. And as
that evolved and these stories came forward, people around the
(36:20):
world went crazy. Which was they could they could identify with,
they could root for, they could cheer for, cheer against,
I don't know whatever, but they were engaged and they
wanted to know more. And the show blew up and
everybody became, you know, so aware of what was going on,
and it really drew you know, for us, I think
(36:40):
the most fascinating thing about it, well, we already knew
that we don't actually have a whole lot of popularity
in Dallas. Oddly enough, their popularity is outside of Dallas.
And you know a lot of that is because, you know,
when you take off the uniform, then you look like
me going into Starbucks. I'll take a coffee and that.
But that's what you are. You're not a this Oh
(37:03):
that's somebody that I need to know, I need to meet.
So you're just too you are in Dallas, outside of that,
outside of the country. When they put the uniform, they
became something bigger, and people wanted to follow when one
had that curiosity. So we've been able to lean into that,
and these women have told beautiful stories. They've been incredibly vulnerable,
(37:23):
and I think the results of that is in the
popularity of the show.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah. Yeah, you made a lot of news this week
with the Cheerleaders that they now have a four hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Pay increase, which is incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
You know, some speculating that it came as a result
of the fact that there the fact that they were
working multiple jobs is now on the show and visible
for everyone to see on Netflix versus probably a smaller
audience on CMT. I'm personally speculating that you now view
them as athletes versus entertainment. That's my own lens on it,
but I'm curious to hear you talk through that decision.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah. Well, well, first of all, I think the thing
that we have always thought was the most interesting part
of the women that chose to be a part of
the Cheerleaders was they came to us with I mean,
it's a part time job, so everybody had a full
time career of something. So they were doctors, they were nurses,
they were attorneys, they were like anybody here in this room,
(38:19):
they had a career or they had an aim for
a career that dance was their passion. Dance was their hobby,
and dance gave them apart, gave them an opportunity to
be a part of something bigger, but their trajectory they
were pacing to whatever they were wanting to become. And
I think in that it made the conversation so interesting
(38:39):
because what they shared a lot between each other was well,
I'm fighting to become this, I'm fighting my journey to
do this, and then I'm going to do a family,
And how I am I going to do a job
and a family. You know, they became like every one
of us, this is what our mission is. As as
the show got more popular, the talent level dramatically increased,
(39:01):
so the training required to get to the talent level
that was it. I'll make this comparison our director now,
Kelly Finglass. If you've watched the show, they have shown
clips of her back in the eighties being a cheerleader,
and she was like, yes, we were doing jumping jacks
like you know that. It was the talent level was very,
very different, and now the talent level is extraordinarily high.
(39:23):
And these women are actually many of them want a
dance trajectory for their career versus a part of their career. Now,
we don't ever want to let go of that part
because I think it's really great that if you want
to go be an attorney or a doctor and you
also want to cheer, well, then come on, we want
to have a spot for you to do that. But
I think several of the women came to us and said,
(39:44):
you know what, we have an opportunity to really improve
this program, and here are the things that we think
would make of the enhancements work. And so we had
a great corporate dialogue with them of like, okay, how
do you see things, how do you think things could
be better? How do we work here to be better?
And they brought to the table the nuances that brought
the challenge, and so in that along with that coincided
(40:05):
because I do think this is important is the attention
and the awareness. You know, if the opportunities for them
to go appeer outside of the ten days a year
just went off the charts, So if in that that
also gives them the ability then to go be compensated
(40:25):
in a different environment besides ten days. You know, there's
a ten day perform a job piece, and then there's
everything beyond that. Well, when the show blew it up,
everything beyond that went up. So it's like, great, here
we go. We're all going up together. And that's what
we did. That's how we structured it. And I think
they were super excited about it, and I think as
(40:48):
we move forward, there's now they know how to have
that dialogue and almost say this. There was probably not
a lot of communication there it was, so we were
able to kind of establish that have a window in
of like, come on in, let me sit down. I'll
talk to you to exactly you know where my pain
points are, and you share yours, and let's figure out
how we grow together. And that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I just want to ask you our final she pivots
question that we ask of all of our guests. What
is something that at the time you saw as a
real low point and you maybe couldn't even see yourself
getting out of it, and now in retrospect you see
it as having really built you to launch you to
the success you are today.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I probably think the most visible low point because we've
we've had a few sports teams kind of takes you
up and up and down, and you're only as happy
as your last victory. So putting that aside, in the
mid nineties, we had a whole lot of success and
we had just come off of three big Super Bowl
wins and then one of our players made a really
(41:47):
unfortunate decision off the field and it totally impacted the
brand everything, and it was like negative highlight headlines for
for months, really challenging, and you know, my dad came
to me and said, well, how how can we counter
this conversation that's going over here, that is happening amongst them,
and what can we do as an organization to elevate
(42:10):
who we are in the midst of this negativity. And
it was at that time that you know, his comment was,
you know, I want to be this organization should be
the Jerry Lewis of something. So you may remember part
of you probably don't, but if you remember he did
the major telethons, you know, he was everything. He was
identified with community support and garnering everybody to help a
(42:35):
designated cause. So in that he's like, figure out how
we can become a Jerry Lewis of something, and so
in that process I met and got engaged with the
Salvation Army and the guy who was the head of
the Salvation Army at that time for the advisory Board
was also the CEO of Freeedolay, and he said, we've
got to do something for the Army to lift them
(42:56):
up and bring awareness. They're putting, you know, shoes on
people's feet, they are housing the homeless, they're helping people
with addiction, and nobody knows. He said, can you be
the voice box? So I realized that we had one
game every year that I knew we would have at home,
and that's Thanksgiving Day. Also recognize that on Thanksgiving Day
everybody has a generous heart. They want to give back,
they want to do something powerful for themselves, for their community.
(43:19):
And how could we take that sentiment and do something
big with it. I went to NBC Sports and asked
them to give us our halftime and for it, give
us the airtime. There, we partnered with Reeba McIntyre at
the time, and we launched the first ever national red
Kettle campaign for the Salvation Army the halftime in the
middle of our game. And now here we go on
(43:41):
the trajectory We will be thirty years next year and
we've raised over four billion dollars for the Salvation Army,
so you can make that When things are dark, there's
always a great opportunity in there to figure out how
to turn something around. But thank you all for your
time today.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Thank you so much, Charlotte, thank you, Thank you guys
for coming. Thank you so much for listening to this
special episode of she Pivots recorded live at the Aspen
Ideas Festival. The best way to stay up to date
with Charlotte you can follow her on Instagram at c
Jones Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots thepodcast dot com. This episode was
(44:51):
produced and edited by Emily Atavelosik, with sound editing and
mixing from Nina Pollock. Audio production and social media by
Hannah Cousins. Researched by Christine Dickinson and logistics and planning
by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin. She Pivots is proud
to be a part of the iHeart podcast network. I
(45:12):
endorse she Pivots
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