February 6, 2025 • 34 mins
Julie's Big Gorgeous Goals: Official Workbook is here! Order your copy today.
This conversation with Kristi Herold illustrates how play can be a transformative force in both personal and professional realms. With insights into her journey, the evolution of JAM, and the impact of recreational play on workplace culture, this episode offers valuable lessons on community and joy in entrepreneurship.
Kristi Herold is the founder and CEO of JAM, a multi-million-dollar global business that has connected millions of people through play since its inception as one of the largest adult recreational sports leagues
in the world. The JAM team has produced and delivered over 4000 playful corporate events, in over 30 countries since the summer of 2020 and the JAM team consults organizations helping them integrate fun and play into their “workPLAYce culture”. JAM has been awarded “Canada’s Most Admired Culture Award,” and certified as “Great Places to Work – Canada” multiple times.
Kristi's team is offering Figure 8 listeners a copy of her PLAYbook PDF and 25% off a JAM event. Get yours here!
You can learn more about JAM on their website. You can also connect with Kristi on LinkedIn or Instagram.
If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon, anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.julieellis.ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth?
You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Find Julie's writing at her blog or by ordering her book Big Gorgeous Goals and the brand new official companion workbook!
What did you think of this conversation? We'd love if you'd rate or review our show!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:04):
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure Eight.
Today I have Kristi Herold withme, the founder and CEO of JAM,
(01:11):
and Kristi helps people connectthrough play and she also helps
companies unlock profit throughplay.
Her vision is to get onemillion people playing annually.
JAM is one of the world'slargest adult recreational
sports league providers, as wellas her team of playmakers who
(01:32):
help corporate cultures thrive.
She also has authored a bookabo ut it, It Pays to PLAY- How
Play Improves Business Culture.
She consults companies oncreating thriving workplace
cultures and is a sought-afterspeaker delivering on important
messages about the power of play.
So today I am interested totalk to you, Kristi, and welcome
(01:54):
to the podcast.
Kristi (01:56):
Thanks for having me, Julie.
I'm excited to be here, lookingforward to our chat.
Julie (01:59):
Yeah, me too.
I'm so interested about how youcame to work in the world of
play.
Kristi (02:07):
Oh, it's so funny how you can connect the dots with
hindsight.
Now, you know, in my 50s I canlook back and it seems so
obvious to me.
But you know, when I firststarted doing it it wasn't that
obvious.
So I had grown up in Sudbury,went to high school in Sudbury,
Ontario, just four hours northof Toronto, and then I went off
to Queen's University inKingston and then I moved to
(02:28):
Toronto after university.
So I'm like a small town girlliving in the big city and I was
looking to meet people and Ithought, you know, I was a
pretty good athlete, I had grownup as a competitive ski racer
and I thought maybe I could joina soccer league or something to
meet people.
And when I started looking intosoccer leagues they were all
competitive women's leagues,much more, you know, intense
than something I would want todo or could handle.
(02:51):
And then I'd heard about theseadult recreational sports
leagues, these sport and socialclubs in Chicago and I'd heard
about one in San Francisco and Ithought, hey, maybe this is
something I could try and startin Toronto, because I'd always
been an entrepreneur, I'd alwaysdone little businesses.
All through high school,through university, I ran a
couple of businesses while I wasin university.
So I knew I wanted to be my ownboss and run my own business,
as my dad had done, and so Idecided to start what was
(03:15):
initially called the TorontoSport and Social Club.
It's now JAM Sports and, yeah,it was adult rec sports, started
off with basketball, soccer,beach volleyball, ultimate
Frisbee and flag football andhad 52 teams that very first
season in July, or I guess itwas May of 1996.
(03:36):
And now, you know, today we'llhave we'll have over 15,000
teams play in a huge variety ofleagues in 25 different cities
in Canada, the US.
You know, 29 years later, we'recoming up to the 29th
anniversary soon.
So, um, that's, that's kind ofwhy I started it.
But when I say connecting thedots seems obvious in hindsight
(03:57):
I've really realized I am verypassionate about building
community and connecting people,whether it's, you know,
starting I'm the one who startsthe book clubs with my friends.
I started a social group inhigh school the social committee
and I would run scavenger huntsand little murder mysteries and
stuff to raise money forcharities.
In high school I started acommunity musical theater group
(04:18):
that's now turned into threemusical theater groups in the
mid-2000s.
Um, and produce musical theater, like connecting people through
playing on stage, and and I,you know, happen to live in
Costa Rica now and I happen tobe the tournament director for
the tennis club running thetournaments here like I just
love it's, I just seem tonaturally like to organize
people to connect through play,so it is kind of funny.
(04:40):
Um, it seems obvious to me thatthat's just what I love to do,
so it's what I've made my work,my career work doing.
Julie (04:49):
Yeah, and it's so interesting, I think, to have
had so long in your businessbecause we talked about there
being sort of the three kind ofdistinct eras of how you've
worked in the business from thetime that you started it and do
you want to tell me about those,Because I think they sort of
neatly fall into 10 year chunkswhich is always interesting, how
(05:12):
that can happen.
Kristi (05:13):
Yeah, for sure.
Actually, it's funny you bringthis up because I just created a
LinkedIn post for tomorrowtalking about that, because I
was getting all these messagesthis week like congratulations
on your 29 years and I was like,wow, it's been 29 years and so
I was speaking, I just created apost about this.
But so the first 10 years was Istarted the business in 96 be
(05:36):
able to go to my I also hadthree children during that time
and I wanted to be there to takekids to school events and go on
field trips with them and Iwanted to be involved in their
lives and so I didn't want to betraveling.
So I was very focused on thislifestyle business, built a
(05:57):
great team, had about probably10 people back then, maybe not
even maybe eight or 10 people inthat period of time, and we
grew the business organicallyand it was lovely.
By 2006, I was like, okay, mykids are a bit older, they're,
they're out of diapers.
I want to be able to do thingswith them.
So I stepped back and let letthe team really run the day to
day operations.
(06:18):
And it continued with slow,steady growth and I started.
I started that's when I startedthe community musical theater
group raising money for charity,and I was producing musical
theater for fun and reallyaround a lot for my kids, played
a lot of tennis, took a lot oftime off.
That was sort of 2006 to 2016,and by 2016 I was very bored,
needed a big change, thoughtabout selling the business at
(06:41):
that time and then I decided toreally think about what's the
legacy I want to leave and whatbrings me the most joy, and it
was at that time that I got theawareness.
Well, what actually brings methe most joy is seeing people
playing.
Because of the work I do, whenI see people playing softball or
soccer or beach volleyball, itactually fills me with so much
(07:01):
joy.
Like to this day, my husbandwill tell you I'll be like pull
over, you know we're driving byLamport stadium.
I want to stop and see thepeople playing and I get out of
my car and I go and talk to themand I ask them what do they
love?
And I, it just makes me reallyhappy.
So at that time in 2016, I waslike why would I sell this?
Why don't I instead grow this?
And I think we had probablyabout 50, 60,000 people playing
(07:24):
annually at that time and Iwrote down the number 1 million
people playing.
That would be a legacy I wouldlove to leave, and I didn't know
how I was going to do it atthat point in time.
But I realized after sort ofthinking more deeply about it, I
was going to have to do itthrough mergers and acquisitions
versus organic or franchising,and I didn't know what that
meant.
(07:44):
I, you know, I took commerce atQueen's but didn't pay a lot of
attention in the financeclasses and and so spent a good
year meeting with people tolearn what does it mean to do an
acquisition?
How do I do that?
What's the strategy of a rollup Like?
How does this all work?
And so then, in 2017, did ourfirst acquisition, and between
2017 and the start of 2020, haddone nine acquisitions of other
(08:06):
sports leagues in differentcities and had really started to
scale.
When the pandemic hit, that feltlike a bit of a frying pan to
the face moment completely shutus down.
The mandates in Canada werereally, really harsh, as you'll
probably remember, and we lost18 months of revenue at that
time.
And then we started to survive,decided to do corporate team
(08:29):
building events, we startedrunning virtual team building
events for companies and we didover a million in revenue in
that first year runningcorporate team building for
companies all around the world.
So it definitely helped uscover some costs and survive the
pandemic.
And then now you know thepandemic is behind us.
Finally, it was a good three tofour years that it really hit us
(08:52):
hard.
We've done three moreacquisitions of sports leagues.
We now have the corporatebusiness is virtual as well as
in-person events and we do thoseall across North America and I
wrote the book it Pays to Playhow Play Improves Business
Culture because of the learningI got from the pandemic and the
corporate business that we hadbuilt.
(09:13):
And we rebranded the wholeorganization to be called jam.
So we have jam sports and jamcorporate and it's all about.
Our mission is connectingpeople through play and and,
like you said, hopefully we'llget a million people playing
every year at some point.
Julie (09:27):
It'll take us a while, but we're we're getting closer
and closer, one day at a timeyeah, well, I do feel like um,
that the real definition, Ithink, when people say, Julie,
you wrote Big Gorgeous Goals,about people who set big goals
and want to leave big legacies.
What is a big, gorgeous goallike?
And I think 1 million peopleplaying is one of those goals.
(09:51):
You didn't know how you weregoing to do it.
You didn't know how you wouldget there.
Did you have the knowledge, thepeople, the money, all of those
goals Like?
You didn't know how you weregoing to do it.
You didn't know how you wouldget there.
Would you, did you have theknowledge, the people, the money
, all of those different things?
But you knew that that waswhere you wanted to get to?
Yeah, and then that informs youknow all the way down to, like
the little steps that you starttaking every single day.
Kristi (10:08):
Exactly, and it just feels like such a good legacy
because I know that with everyone person, person that plays in
our leagues, we're changingtheir lives in a positive way.
When they go out and play asoccer game or beach volleyball
game and they they meet a newfriend, or they feel better
physically because they got thatexercise, or they're
socializing with their roommatesfrom university who they don't
(10:30):
get to see every day anymorethey get to see them only once a
week at their games or wherethey're getting to know a
co-worker better.
They go home a happierboyfriend or girlfriend or a
happier spouse.
They go to work the next day ahappier employee.
So it's not just it's impactingeach individual's lives
positively and it's creatingthis very positive ripple effect
.
And so I thought you know, Iknow we've touched over probably
(10:53):
close to 3 million lives sinceinception, but I want to be
touching.
Getting a million peopleplaying every single year would
just be.
That would be really cool.
It definitely feels like a big,gorgeous goal for sure.
Julie (11:03):
Definitely oh, and I can't wait to see you chasing it
.
You know, now that we have beenintroduced, and I know more
about your business, because Ithink it's so interesting that
you have grown so much byacquisition you know, I think
people often do an acquisitionhere or there, or they in fact
(11:24):
are able to sell their ownbusiness, like I did.
But you know the tune of sortof a dozen acquisitions that
you've completed, let alone anythat you may have decided
weren't quite the right fit.
I mean, that's a bigundertaking.
Kristi (11:39):
That's kind of been my full-time focus for the last
number of years.
I'm not really as involved inthe day-to-day operations.
That tends to be where I focus.
But you're right, it is.
It's a lot, and every time wedo a deal then it's a lot for
our team to integrate.
The last one we did was wepurchased the atlanta sport and
social club in march.
(12:00):
Um, and it's it's been reallyevery single one that the thing
to remember with acquisitions isthey're all really unique.
There's as much as you sort ofthink you have your system, well
, then you do a new one andyou're like well, that system's
not exactly going to work here.
Like you, you have to bob andweave.
Every single one has beenunique.
So you can't.
(12:20):
Actually you can, you can learnthe way, where to prioritize
the integration, etc.
But, um, but everyone isdifferent and comes with its own
, its own unique challenges andopportunities, and you, you know
positive things.
Julie (12:34):
So yeah, well, and even thinking about how do you listen
to understand where they mightbe doing things better than you?
Kristi (12:42):
Oh, absolutely.
Julie (12:42):
What are your re to improve across your whole
organization?
Kristi (12:47):
Yes, and I'm a big, I mean I make that really clear to
our entire team.
Like, just because we're bigdoesn't mean we're better.
Always right, we can learn from.
In fact, I use those words withmy team yesterday.
I was like, hey, just causewe're big doesn't mean we're
better.
Like we got to listen, to look,look and pay attention to what
are others doing, cause that'show we're going to get better is
learn from others constantly.
(13:08):
And whether it doesn't matterwhat size, lots of people have
great ideas out there.
So yeah, and so I love when wedo integrations to sort of take
the best of both worlds and try,and you know, get the best
practices going.
And also there's some regionalspecific things.
You know you can't.
Really curling isn't going tofly necessarily in Atlanta,
(13:32):
right.
So it may, though maybe we'llintroduce it.
Like, and floor hockey, whichis so popular in Ontario, isn't
going to be that popular inCalifornia necessarily, right?
So we learn.
And sports like kickball wedidn't used to run kickball in
Ontario until after we did ouracquisition in Michigan, and
kickball is huge in Michigan.
(13:53):
We're like, why aren't we doingthat?
And now we're doing that here.
You know, we did an acquisitionin Niagara and Cornhole was
really big there.
So we've we're started gettingCornhole going in other regions
now, so there's lots of goodlearning that comes both, both
ways, for sure.
Julie (14:08):
Right.
And then you're expanding thebusiness, not only from you know
, bolting on these acquisitions,but also expanding offerings
within each geography that youhave already.
Kristi (14:18):
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
And and we also, you know, Irealized when you were sharing
my bio that you we say that wewere one of year and a half ago
included youth leagues, and weactually just opened our very
(14:40):
first youth leagues inKitchener-Waterloo because we
run adult leagues inKitchener-Waterloo.
So we're taking our youthlearning from Niagara that we
acquired and we're putting thatinto place.
So you're totally right, Likethat's exactly it, and some of
it will work well and some of itwon't, but we're learning as we
go and you know, it's stuffthat we maybe wouldn't have
tried had we not done theseacquisitions.
(15:00):
So it's been really a lot ofgreat learning with the growth
that we're getting.
Julie (15:05):
Yeah, oh, that's really, really interesting.
And so you mentioned that youare really sort of out of the
operations and working a lot inthe acquisitions and the
strategy pieces of the business.
How do you kind of balance that?
Have you used a system like,did you use EOS or any of the
sort of different ways, or is itjust sort of been something
(15:28):
that you naturally fall into,that you are more the idea,
strategy, big vision person andyou need someone to look after
all the little pieces of ofmaking the wheels turn smoothly?
Kristi (15:41):
Great question.
So, yes, we use EOS.
We've been using EOS, uh, since2013 I think, if I'm not
mistaken.
An, you're an early one, thenan early adopter for sure, um
and um, and I am finding, aswe've gotten EOS to a certain
size, like that us has hasdefinitely strengths, um, but
it's almost like we are a littlebit that's sort of what we were
(16:04):
touching on earlier that someof the processes that we use to
get to a certain size don'talways keep working, um.
But so you know, we'reconstantly looking and trying
EOS improve and even when westarted eos we didn't take EOS
verbatim, like as an example.
Eos is about breaking thingsinto 90-day chunks.
Our business is very seasonal.
We sort of say we have threeseasons a year, not four.
(16:27):
We call the winter is fourmonths, and then spring and
summer is four months, and thenour fall is four months, and
those are three distinct seasonsfor us.
And so we broke our EOS rocksinto these 120 day chunks.
That just worked better for us,you know.
So we're sort of always tryingto take what works and leave the
rest.
(16:48):
n helpful and I think justnaturally because my business
partner, rob, who I've workedwith since 1999, he is
definitely more the integratorand the the um operations guy.
He's kind of our COO.
Uh, he focuses on the day today.
And I think when I try and getinvolved in the day to day, um,
(17:09):
sometimes it goes well and othertimes I just make a mess of
things and annoy the heck out ofmy team.
So, um, you know, sometimesthey like it when I just leave
them alone.
Probably they prefer that.
Um, so I dab, I dab, I dabbleright now I'm probably more
mostly involved in theday-to-day on the corporate side
, but not even so much of theday-to-day.
It is more of the biggerpicture planning and how are we
(17:31):
going to grow and, and, um, thatkind of thing.
I just naturally seem to fallthere yeah, the, uh, the like.
.
Julie (17:39):
Oh, she came through, she's rocking the boat again
like the.
This sort of like the balancebetween the not opening the
doors to share the vision andthe ideas that you have for
what's possible for the business, because I still think that's
got to be incredibly importantfor the team's sort of
connectedness to the vision andthe motivation to really, you
(18:01):
know, reach for those stars andwhat you're trying to do so we
do a vision every three years.
Kristi (18:06):
So I actually just shared the vision for 2027 at
Jamboree.
Once a year, we have Jamboreeand that's our annual conference
where we bring our whole teamtogether for a few days of
learning and playing and and soI shared the 2027 vision and now
I actually have to take thevision that I shared and people
were like everyone loved it, thefeedback was great and they're
(18:27):
excited by it.
But now I have to actually takeit and break it down into I
always put it on a mouse pad,like the high level onto a mouse
pad, so it's always top, frontand center for everyone.
So mouse pad is in the worksright now and then really break
it down into these 120 daychunks to sort of go how are we
going to achieve this vision?
And it's amazing how well itworks.
(18:47):
Like I remember from my 2019vision, part of the 2019 vision
was that we were going to launchour own charitable foundation.
Part of the 2019 vision wasthat we were going to launch our
own charitable foundation andwe it was the last rock session
where we are choosing our rocksand I was looking at all the
things that we had accomplished,which was amazing in the last
three years.
But one thing was still thischaritable foundation hadn't
(19:12):
gotten started yet, and so itwas that quarter because we had
it really broken down.
We use a.
We sort of break it into ourown like checklist spreadsheet
almost.
We got Keep Playing Kidslaunched in December of 2019.
It actually had to get parkedbecause of the pandemic, but it
relaunched again.
We actually got kids playingthis past year, which is amazing
and so exciting that so 1% ofour revenues is getting
(19:35):
underserved children theopportunity to play sports for
free.
That's what Keep Playing Kidsis.
But had we not had that as partof a three-year vision, and we
had we not mapped out thatthree-year vision into these
120-day chunks, it wouldn't havehappened.
Right, it would have been thisshiny, happy idea.
Julie (19:50):
But that always somehow sat in a parking lot, never
actually getting going.
Kristi (19:55):
But it was really important to me.
I was like we said we were goingto make this happen, like we
have to make it happen now andwe got it.
We got it done and now wereally have kids playing because
of it and it feels amazing tosee like the full circle of
being able to help give backfrom the work we're doing is
awesome, so powerful stuff.
Having those goals and visionslaid out and and shared with the
(20:17):
team for sure.
Julie (20:19):
Yeah, and the idea of bringing the big, big, big
things into a place wheresuddenly you're like, oh, we
kind of act, we actually have adeadline for that.
Now it's time, because thatdeadline is coming and we
haven't made the progress weneeded to, so we gotta go.
Kristi (20:35):
Yeah yeah, exactly, and having the focus, we do see we
call it a season finals.
Three times a year we, we meet,the leadership team meets and
chooses sort of the companyrocks and then the departmental
teams choose their rocks um, youknow they're big projects that
they're going to work on and andthen at the end of the season
we reflect on how did, how didit go, which ones did?
(20:56):
Do we get all done and what'sthe?
What are the ones we've chosenfor the next, the next 120 days,
and um, it's really powerful tocontinue sort of seeing the,
the growth and traction that'shappening and gives the team
real buy-in to seecross-departmentally what
everyone's working on as well.
Julie (21:15):
e I'm imagining that at a play company you have a focus
on culture and what the workenvironment is like.
Tell me what that journey hasbeen like for you.
Kristi (21:26):
It's it's sort of funny, like I guess I just like to
have fun.
I really loved it.
I like to laugh.
I'm nothing makes me happierthan a good laugh, I mean, right
, so, and I feel like if I'mgoing to spend all my time
working with people, I want tobe able to work with people I
can laugh with.
And so I think, right out,right out of the start, you know
(21:48):
, back in the in the 90s, I justhad a a sense of wanting to
work with smart people andhard-working people, but people
that also like to have fun andum, so our culture has always
had that ingrained within it.
But we've really, I mean, wereally have a lot of great
initiatives.
Some have been around for for,like, we celebrate, we know how
(22:13):
to celebrate, we believe incelebrating and it doesn't have
to cost a lot.
Like, a lot of theseinitiatives don't have to cost a
lot.
We celebrate shout-outs, like,with a shout-out channel, every
day you'll see two, three, fiveshout-outs going off, where
someone's giving someone ashout-out for something usually
centered around a core value,and it's just a public shout out
in a channel so you can seeother great work being done by
(22:34):
your team.
We celebrate anniversaries, sowhen someone hits their one year
mark with us, they get their.
They're officially drafted toour team and they get their
veterans jersey.
It's a hockey jersey that saysjam on the front and their
number is the year they startedwith us.
So I'm a 96, you know Rob's a99.
Like, we've got people you knowand if you don't have your
(22:55):
veterans jersey, you'reconsidered a rookie.
Until you get your one yearmark, you, you have a, you get a
rookie hoodie and you've gotyour jam hoodie.
That's so when we take teamphotos, anyone in a hoodie is a
rookie and anyone in the hockeyj ersey is a veteran little
things like that.
Um, you know, know, we celebrate, we start every meeting we do.
If you've got four people ormore in a meeting, we we call it
(23:16):
, you press play to start, andso whoever's leading the meeting
takes three minutes to have aplayful connection.
You might play a little game,you might tell a riddle, you
might share a joke, ask a funnyquestion, of everybody.
It's just a playful interactionthat gets everyone sort of
feeling friendly and getting toknow each other as friends.
And then you land and you'relike okay, let's go, we're let's
(23:39):
get to work and you've had alaugh and um, and so it's just.
Those kinds of things are woveninto our culture naturally,
like because we we believe in itso much.
But then we have things likebook club that every two months
I lead book club and it's anoptional um thing for people.
If you're coming to book club,they and you have read the book.
(24:01):
We pay for the book um and wehave a great discussion whoever
shows up.
Usually we get 20 to 30 peoplecome to book club and we have
it's totally optional, done overa lunch hour and we have great
discussions.
They're all nonfiction that weread.
They're either a business bookor a self-help book or a
biography, and we learn a lotfrom it from from doing that.
But it's playfully, it's doneplayfully.
(24:21):
So we have things.
We have a house system likeHarry Potter.
So within jam we have fourhouses and the houses are the
names of the first four streetsthat the first four offices were
on.
So there's Cottingham, huronAvenue and Bridgeland and and
the houses within the houses wewe have challenges social
(24:45):
challenges, sports challenges,community, give back challenges
and you earn points for yourteam.
So just by showing up to bookclub, you'd earn points for your
team.
So just by showing up to bookclub you'd earn points for your
house.
And then we have, you know, abig cup at the end of the year
at jamboree and um, and we haveteam challenges all the time.
So it's just a fun way to sortof playfully get people uh
(25:06):
getting to know each other crossdepartmentally and fostering
friendship within ourorganization, and there's just
no end.
I could go on for days about allthe different things we do.
We believe it or not, weactually do get work done like.
These are all just littlethings that are happening on the
side, but they keep the culturereally fun and then our team's
more engaged, I believe, moreproductive because of that.
They're happier working here,so retention is really good.
(25:28):
Their recruiting is easy,because when someone loves
working at Jam, they're going totell their friends when job
postings come up.
It makes recruiting new peoplea lot easier, you know, a lot
less expensive.
So these investments in play.
Oh, and then, of course, wealso have like corporate sports
teams, right, like that'sobviously duh.
We have, you know, we'll have asoftball team and a soccer team
(25:49):
and a beach volleyball team anda floor hockey team, Like we
have all the company teams, andpeople choose to sign up with
their colleagues, and it's allpaid for by us, and so it's just
loads of ways to stay connectedand have a great healthy fun
culture.
Julie (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, and it doesn't like I think your point
about like it doesn't cost a lotor take a lot of time.
But the sort of vibe that itcreates and the desire for
people to then work hard to, youknow, work hard so they have
that time for play and they havethose, those things around them
, becomes woven into the justthe fabric of the company and I
(26:23):
believe that also because whenyou foster friendships this way,
if you don't, if you're notfriends with the people you work
with, you might finish yourwork and be like I, I'm done
checking out for the day.
Kristi (26:33):
I'm like I'm out of here If you are friends with people
you work with.
And it's a really busy time ofyear which right now, like it's
really busy for our team All thewinter season sports leagues
are starting up.
I know they're slammed rightnow, but I also know that team,
my team, will be constantlychecking in with each other.
(26:54):
Does anyone need help?
I'm about to wrap up for theday.
Is there anything I can do?
Hey, tony, you look stressed.
Hey Taylor, do you need helpwith that?
Because they've become friendswith each other.
They're not going to leave eachother out to dry.
That's just not the culture,and that could easily be the
culture if we didn't reallyfoster this building of
friendships and community withinour, our own team yeah, because
(27:15):
then it becomes about their,their winning and their winning
together together as a teamtowards a shared goal, right,
yeah, it's very much teamwork.
We're very team-centric, notfamily at jam.
We're big on that for sure.
Julie (27:30):
Oh, that's so interesting .
So now, as you're scaling up,what is next for you, what are
your challenges and what are youexcited about?
Kristi (27:43):
I'm excited about lots.
The most recent acquisition wasour biggest by far, the
atlantic acquisition, and it'staken a fair amount of energy
from my team to really um, toreally, you know, get it
integrated.
Um, we're not, you know, we'renot even at the one year mark
with it yet.
So once you sort of get a fullyear under your belt, that will
(28:08):
give everyone a little bit ofokay.
We did it here, we get noweveryone's got the systems and
um, because that takes time.
So I'm actually not even I'vegot.
I've got a couple otheracquisitions that I'm loosely,
you know, in contact anddiscussing but not actively,
actively pursuing at the momentbecause I want to make sure my
team's okay.
We've got some great excitingfacility projects going on.
(28:31):
Nothing I can talk about rightnow, but very exciting
opportunities to sort of lock infor long-term in some different
areas which will really allowus to build some and grow.
We have our corporate side.
We're really getting a littlemore focused on after the
pandemic, when we started tokind of we did these three
(28:52):
pretty good size acquisitions.
Post-pandemic took the focusoff corporate and corporate
needs a little bit um, a littlebit of focus and strategy, and
I'm excited about that andactually it's not going to be me
.
It's got one of our, one of myteammates, um kevin, who's
amazing.
Uh, he's going to be reallyleading the corporate and I'm
excited by the way he thinksthat that's just starting
getting going.
(29:12):
Oh, what else I mean?
There's just so much.
It just feels like we've got agood vibe right now and I'm
excited to have what will be ourbiggest year.
You know, last year was ourbiggest year ever and this
coming year will be our biggestyear ever.
So the growth is reallyexciting to see and feeling the
vibes from the team has beenreally exciting.
So there's good thingshappening.
Julie (29:33):
That's amazing.
That's amazing and I think whenyou feel like you've got a lot
of opportunities and a lot ofthings that are going right, it
really helps you with the thingsthat are challenging.
They don't feel as hard whenyou know you've got a lot of
things that are going in theright direction.
Kristi (29:50):
Occasionally I have to remind myself of that, right
like when you've had a rough dayand there's something going on
that's a bit stressful andyou're like, but keep in mind,
we just had our biggest yearever, like that's a good thing,
you know.
Julie (30:02):
And you're setting up to have more big years because you
know you've got, you've got theacquisitions, things are
smoothing out in terms of theintegration.
Kristi (30:11):
And well, and I think what I keep it's you know, it's
sort of the the um, the organicgrowth for years was like steady
, steady organic growth andearnings were steadily growing.
Alongside that, when you do,when you grow with investment,
it's different um, the earningsdon't show as quickly, and so
that's that's also really been.
(30:31):
It's really been interestinglearning for me, and it's always
this fine balance of, you know,growing revenue versus growing
the bottom line it's they don'talways line up right, and so
it's it's.
It's that's a fine balance aswell, for sure.
Julie (30:47):
Uh-huh, and staying kind of, I think, curious and open to
other metrics that are going totell you if things are going in
the right direction, while thefinancials are a little bit more
wavy or bumpy, as opposed tothat nice straight kind of
upward trajectory that you knowmight make us sleep better at
(31:09):
night but isn't necessarilygoing to get our business where
we want it.
Kristi (31:13):
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
So this is all.
It's amazing how much I justkeep learning.
You know, I'm never, I willnever stop learning.
I just every day learn some newstuff and keep implementing and
trying our best with a positiveattitude.
Julie (31:27):
Yeah Well, and I mean, who would have imagined in 1996,
when you kind of turned thelights on and opened your
computer and and started thatyou would be here still loving
it so much, having done so manydifferent things, weathered a
pandemic like all of the ups andall of the downs?
Kristi (31:54):
This was never the vision from 1996, right, I just
wanted a lifestyle business.
I thought it would just be me,you know, connecting people for
a few years through play, like.
But then it just people lovedwhat we were doing and it just
kept going and then it wasgetting bit yeah.
So you're totally right, it ispretty neat to look back to see
where we've come from and tojust see the number of lives
we've touched in such a positiveway, both of our players and my
(32:16):
staff.
That's the other really coolthing.
Like a lot of my teammates fromover the years, you don't keep.
Not everyone has been retained,obviously, you know, but, um,
but I would say the vastmajority, uh, who have come and
gone, still have strongfriendships with each other.
So I'll see, like on socialmedia, a wedding and I'll be
(32:36):
like oh, there's like three ofmy former teammates all at the
wedding together.
Like that's awesome that we,these people who never knew each
other before, only got to knoweach other working at jam, have
become such tight friends thatthey're standing for each other
in their wedding parties, youknow those kinds of things.
Or or they're godparents totheir children now and like it's
(32:59):
so cool for me to see that,because it it really that's the
part that the numbers areimportant but the lives we're
touching, it's just, it's supercool, it feels really good
awesome.
Julie (33:16):
Well, I must say I can't wait to see you get to those 1
million people that are playingin your leagues a year, and how
you're going to get there andwhat interesting things are
going to happen.
I really want to thank you forjoining me today.
Kristi (33:29):
Thanks for having me, Julie.
I really appreciate it.
It was really fun to chat.
Julie (33:32):
Great Thanks, I hope you enjoyed today's
episode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure Eight isn't just apodcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
(33:54):
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
(34:17):
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
juliellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8.
Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book Big,gorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure Eight.
Today I have Kristi Herold withme, the founder and CEO of JAM,
(01:11):
and Kristi helps people connectthrough play and she also helps
companies unlock profit throughplay.
Her vision is to get onemillion people playing annually.
JAM is one of the world'slargest adult recreational
sports league providers, as wellas her team of playmakers who
(01:32):
help corporate cultures thrive.
She also has authored a bookabo ut it, It Pays to PLAY- How
Play Improves Business Culture.
She consults companies oncreating thriving workplace
cultures and is a sought-afterspeaker delivering on important
messages about the power of play.
So today I am interested totalk to you, Kristi, and welcome
(01:54):
to the podcast.
Kristi (01:56):
Thanks for having me, Julie.
I'm excited to be here, lookingforward to our chat.
Julie (01:59):
Yeah, me too.
I'm so interested about how youcame to work in the world of
play.
Kristi (02:07):
Oh, it's so funny how you can connect the dots with
hindsight.
Now, you know, in my 50s I canlook back and it seems so
obvious to me.
But you know, when I firststarted doing it it wasn't that
obvious.
So I had grown up in Sudbury,went to high school in Sudbury,
Ontario, just four hours northof Toronto, and then I went off
to Queen's University inKingston and then I moved to
(02:28):
Toronto after university.
So I'm like a small town girlliving in the big city and I was
looking to meet people and Ithought, you know, I was a
pretty good athlete, I had grownup as a competitive ski racer
and I thought maybe I could joina soccer league or something to
meet people.
And when I started looking intosoccer leagues they were all
competitive women's leagues,much more, you know, intense
than something I would want todo or could handle.
(02:51):
And then I'd heard about theseadult recreational sports
leagues, these sport and socialclubs in Chicago and I'd heard
about one in San Francisco and Ithought, hey, maybe this is
something I could try and startin Toronto, because I'd always
been an entrepreneur, I'd alwaysdone little businesses.
All through high school,through university, I ran a
couple of businesses while I wasin university.
So I knew I wanted to be my ownboss and run my own business,
as my dad had done, and so Idecided to start what was
(03:15):
initially called the TorontoSport and Social Club.
It's now JAM Sports and, yeah,it was adult rec sports, started
off with basketball, soccer,beach volleyball, ultimate
Frisbee and flag football andhad 52 teams that very first
season in July, or I guess itwas May of 1996.
(03:36):
And now, you know, today we'llhave we'll have over 15,000
teams play in a huge variety ofleagues in 25 different cities
in Canada, the US.
You know, 29 years later, we'recoming up to the 29th
anniversary soon.
So, um, that's, that's kind ofwhy I started it.
But when I say connecting thedots seems obvious in hindsight
(03:57):
I've really realized I am verypassionate about building
community and connecting people,whether it's, you know,
starting I'm the one who startsthe book clubs with my friends.
I started a social group inhigh school the social committee
and I would run scavenger huntsand little murder mysteries and
stuff to raise money forcharities.
In high school I started acommunity musical theater group
(04:18):
that's now turned into threemusical theater groups in the
mid-2000s.
Um, and produce musical theater, like connecting people through
playing on stage, and and I,you know, happen to live in
Costa Rica now and I happen tobe the tournament director for
the tennis club running thetournaments here like I just
love it's, I just seem tonaturally like to organize
people to connect through play,so it is kind of funny.
(04:40):
Um, it seems obvious to me thatthat's just what I love to do,
so it's what I've made my work,my career work doing.
Julie (04:49):
Yeah, and it's so interesting, I think, to have
had so long in your businessbecause we talked about there
being sort of the three kind ofdistinct eras of how you've
worked in the business from thetime that you started it and do
you want to tell me about those,Because I think they sort of
neatly fall into 10 year chunkswhich is always interesting, how
(05:12):
that can happen.
Kristi (05:13):
Yeah, for sure.
Actually, it's funny you bringthis up because I just created a
LinkedIn post for tomorrowtalking about that, because I
was getting all these messagesthis week like congratulations
on your 29 years and I was like,wow, it's been 29 years and so
I was speaking, I just created apost about this.
But so the first 10 years was Istarted the business in 96 be
(05:36):
able to go to my I also hadthree children during that time
and I wanted to be there to takekids to school events and go on
field trips with them and Iwanted to be involved in their
lives and so I didn't want to betraveling.
So I was very focused on thislifestyle business, built a
(05:57):
great team, had about probably10 people back then, maybe not
even maybe eight or 10 people inthat period of time, and we
grew the business organicallyand it was lovely.
By 2006, I was like, okay, mykids are a bit older, they're,
they're out of diapers.
I want to be able to do thingswith them.
So I stepped back and let letthe team really run the day to
day operations.
(06:18):
And it continued with slow,steady growth and I started.
I started that's when I startedthe community musical theater
group raising money for charity,and I was producing musical
theater for fun and reallyaround a lot for my kids, played
a lot of tennis, took a lot oftime off.
That was sort of 2006 to 2016,and by 2016 I was very bored,
needed a big change, thoughtabout selling the business at
(06:41):
that time and then I decided toreally think about what's the
legacy I want to leave and whatbrings me the most joy, and it
was at that time that I got theawareness.
Well, what actually brings methe most joy is seeing people
playing.
Because of the work I do, whenI see people playing softball or
soccer or beach volleyball, itactually fills me with so much
(07:01):
joy.
Like to this day, my husbandwill tell you I'll be like pull
over, you know we're driving byLamport stadium.
I want to stop and see thepeople playing and I get out of
my car and I go and talk to themand I ask them what do they
love?
And I, it just makes me reallyhappy.
So at that time in 2016, I waslike why would I sell this?
Why don't I instead grow this?
And I think we had probablyabout 50, 60,000 people playing
(07:24):
annually at that time and Iwrote down the number 1 million
people playing.
That would be a legacy I wouldlove to leave, and I didn't know
how I was going to do it atthat point in time.
But I realized after sort ofthinking more deeply about it, I
was going to have to do itthrough mergers and acquisitions
versus organic or franchising,and I didn't know what that
meant.
(07:44):
I, you know, I took commerce atQueen's but didn't pay a lot of
attention in the financeclasses and and so spent a good
year meeting with people tolearn what does it mean to do an
acquisition?
How do I do that?
What's the strategy of a rollup Like?
How does this all work?
And so then, in 2017, did ourfirst acquisition, and between
2017 and the start of 2020, haddone nine acquisitions of other
(08:06):
sports leagues in differentcities and had really started to
scale.
When the pandemic hit, that feltlike a bit of a frying pan to
the face moment completely shutus down.
The mandates in Canada werereally, really harsh, as you'll
probably remember, and we lost18 months of revenue at that
time.
And then we started to survive,decided to do corporate team
(08:29):
building events, we startedrunning virtual team building
events for companies and we didover a million in revenue in
that first year runningcorporate team building for
companies all around the world.
So it definitely helped uscover some costs and survive the
pandemic.
And then now you know thepandemic is behind us.
Finally, it was a good three tofour years that it really hit us
(08:52):
hard.
We've done three moreacquisitions of sports leagues.
We now have the corporatebusiness is virtual as well as
in-person events and we do thoseall across North America and I
wrote the book it Pays to Playhow Play Improves Business
Culture because of the learningI got from the pandemic and the
corporate business that we hadbuilt.
(09:13):
And we rebranded the wholeorganization to be called jam.
So we have jam sports and jamcorporate and it's all about.
Our mission is connectingpeople through play and and,
like you said, hopefully we'llget a million people playing
every year at some point.
Julie (09:27):
It'll take us a while, but we're we're getting closer
and closer, one day at a timeyeah, well, I do feel like um,
that the real definition, Ithink, when people say, Julie,
you wrote Big Gorgeous Goals,about people who set big goals
and want to leave big legacies.
What is a big, gorgeous goallike?
And I think 1 million peopleplaying is one of those goals.
(09:51):
You didn't know how you weregoing to do it.
You didn't know how you wouldget there.
Did you have the knowledge, thepeople, the money, all of those
goals Like?
You didn't know how you weregoing to do it.
You didn't know how you wouldget there.
Would you, did you have theknowledge, the people, the money
, all of those different things?
But you knew that that waswhere you wanted to get to?
Yeah, and then that informs youknow all the way down to, like
the little steps that you starttaking every single day.
Kristi (10:08):
Exactly, and it just feels like such a good legacy
because I know that with everyone person, person that plays in
our leagues, we're changingtheir lives in a positive way.
When they go out and play asoccer game or beach volleyball
game and they they meet a newfriend, or they feel better
physically because they got thatexercise, or they're
socializing with their roommatesfrom university who they don't
(10:30):
get to see every day anymorethey get to see them only once a
week at their games or wherethey're getting to know a
co-worker better.
They go home a happierboyfriend or girlfriend or a
happier spouse.
They go to work the next day ahappier employee.
So it's not just it's impactingeach individual's lives
positively and it's creatingthis very positive ripple effect
.
And so I thought you know, Iknow we've touched over probably
(10:53):
close to 3 million lives sinceinception, but I want to be
touching.
Getting a million peopleplaying every single year would
just be.
That would be really cool.
It definitely feels like a big,gorgeous goal for sure.
Julie (11:03):
Definitely oh, and I can't wait to see you chasing it
.
You know, now that we have beenintroduced, and I know more
about your business, because Ithink it's so interesting that
you have grown so much byacquisition you know, I think
people often do an acquisitionhere or there, or they in fact
(11:24):
are able to sell their ownbusiness, like I did.
But you know the tune of sortof a dozen acquisitions that
you've completed, let alone anythat you may have decided
weren't quite the right fit.
I mean, that's a bigundertaking.
Kristi (11:39):
That's kind of been my full-time focus for the last
number of years.
I'm not really as involved inthe day-to-day operations.
That tends to be where I focus.
But you're right, it is.
It's a lot, and every time wedo a deal then it's a lot for
our team to integrate.
The last one we did was wepurchased the atlanta sport and
social club in march.
(12:00):
Um, and it's it's been reallyevery single one that the thing
to remember with acquisitions isthey're all really unique.
There's as much as you sort ofthink you have your system, well
, then you do a new one andyou're like well, that system's
not exactly going to work here.
Like you, you have to bob andweave.
Every single one has beenunique.
So you can't.
(12:20):
Actually you can, you can learnthe way, where to prioritize
the integration, etc.
But, um, but everyone isdifferent and comes with its own
, its own unique challenges andopportunities, and you, you know
positive things.
Julie (12:34):
So yeah, well, and even thinking about how do you listen
to understand where they mightbe doing things better than you?
Kristi (12:42):
Oh, absolutely.
Julie (12:42):
What are your re to improve across your whole
organization?
Kristi (12:47):
Yes, and I'm a big, I mean I make that really clear to
our entire team.
Like, just because we're bigdoesn't mean we're better.
Always right, we can learn from.
In fact, I use those words withmy team yesterday.
I was like, hey, just causewe're big doesn't mean we're
better.
Like we got to listen, to look,look and pay attention to what
are others doing, cause that'show we're going to get better is
learn from others constantly.
(13:08):
And whether it doesn't matterwhat size, lots of people have
great ideas out there.
So yeah, and so I love when wedo integrations to sort of take
the best of both worlds and try,and you know, get the best
practices going.
And also there's some regionalspecific things.
You know you can't.
Really curling isn't going tofly necessarily in Atlanta,
(13:32):
right.
So it may, though maybe we'llintroduce it.
Like, and floor hockey, whichis so popular in Ontario, isn't
going to be that popular inCalifornia necessarily, right?
So we learn.
And sports like kickball wedidn't used to run kickball in
Ontario until after we did ouracquisition in Michigan, and
kickball is huge in Michigan.
(13:53):
We're like, why aren't we doingthat?
And now we're doing that here.
You know, we did an acquisitionin Niagara and Cornhole was
really big there.
So we've we're started gettingCornhole going in other regions
now, so there's lots of goodlearning that comes both, both
ways, for sure.
Julie (14:08):
Right.
And then you're expanding thebusiness, not only from you know
, bolting on these acquisitions,but also expanding offerings
within each geography that youhave already.
Kristi (14:18):
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
And and we also, you know, Irealized when you were sharing
my bio that you we say that wewere one of year and a half ago
included youth leagues, and weactually just opened our very
(14:40):
first youth leagues inKitchener-Waterloo because we
run adult leagues inKitchener-Waterloo.
So we're taking our youthlearning from Niagara that we
acquired and we're putting thatinto place.
So you're totally right, Likethat's exactly it, and some of
it will work well and some of itwon't, but we're learning as we
go and you know, it's stuffthat we maybe wouldn't have
tried had we not done theseacquisitions.
(15:00):
So it's been really a lot ofgreat learning with the growth
that we're getting.
Julie (15:05):
Yeah, oh, that's really, really interesting.
And so you mentioned that youare really sort of out of the
operations and working a lot inthe acquisitions and the
strategy pieces of the business.
How do you kind of balance that?
Have you used a system like,did you use EOS or any of the
sort of different ways, or is itjust sort of been something
(15:28):
that you naturally fall into,that you are more the idea,
strategy, big vision person andyou need someone to look after
all the little pieces of ofmaking the wheels turn smoothly?
Kristi (15:41):
Great question.
So, yes, we use EOS.
We've been using EOS, uh, since2013 I think, if I'm not
mistaken.
An, you're an early one, thenan early adopter for sure, um
and um, and I am finding, aswe've gotten EOS to a certain
size, like that us has hasdefinitely strengths, um, but
it's almost like we are a littlebit that's sort of what we were
(16:04):
touching on earlier that someof the processes that we use to
get to a certain size don'talways keep working, um.
But so you know, we'reconstantly looking and trying
EOS improve and even when westarted eos we didn't take EOS
verbatim, like as an example.
Eos is about breaking thingsinto 90-day chunks.
Our business is very seasonal.
We sort of say we have threeseasons a year, not four.
(16:27):
We call the winter is fourmonths, and then spring and
summer is four months, and thenour fall is four months, and
those are three distinct seasonsfor us.
And so we broke our EOS rocksinto these 120 day chunks.
That just worked better for us,you know.
So we're sort of always tryingto take what works and leave the
rest.
(16:48):
n helpful and I think justnaturally because my business
partner, rob, who I've workedwith since 1999, he is
definitely more the integratorand the the um operations guy.
He's kind of our COO.
Uh, he focuses on the day today.
And I think when I try and getinvolved in the day to day, um,
(17:09):
sometimes it goes well and othertimes I just make a mess of
things and annoy the heck out ofmy team.
So, um, you know, sometimesthey like it when I just leave
them alone.
Probably they prefer that.
Um, so I dab, I dab, I dabbleright now I'm probably more
mostly involved in theday-to-day on the corporate side
, but not even so much of theday-to-day.
It is more of the biggerpicture planning and how are we
(17:31):
going to grow and, and, um, thatkind of thing.
I just naturally seem to fallthere yeah, the, uh, the like.
.
Julie (17:39):
Oh, she came through, she's rocking the boat again
like the.
This sort of like the balancebetween the not opening the
doors to share the vision andthe ideas that you have for
what's possible for the business, because I still think that's
got to be incredibly importantfor the team's sort of
connectedness to the vision andthe motivation to really, you
(18:01):
know, reach for those stars andwhat you're trying to do so we
do a vision every three years.
Kristi (18:06):
So I actually just shared the vision for 2027 at
Jamboree.
Once a year, we have Jamboreeand that's our annual conference
where we bring our whole teamtogether for a few days of
learning and playing and and soI shared the 2027 vision and now
I actually have to take thevision that I shared and people
were like everyone loved it, thefeedback was great and they're
(18:27):
excited by it.
But now I have to actually takeit and break it down into I
always put it on a mouse pad,like the high level onto a mouse
pad, so it's always top, frontand center for everyone.
So mouse pad is in the worksright now and then really break
it down into these 120 daychunks to sort of go how are we
going to achieve this vision?
And it's amazing how well itworks.
(18:47):
Like I remember from my 2019vision, part of the 2019 vision
was that we were going to launchour own charitable foundation.
Part of the 2019 vision wasthat we were going to launch our
own charitable foundation andwe it was the last rock session
where we are choosing our rocksand I was looking at all the
things that we had accomplished,which was amazing in the last
three years.
But one thing was still thischaritable foundation hadn't
(19:12):
gotten started yet, and so itwas that quarter because we had
it really broken down.
We use a.
We sort of break it into ourown like checklist spreadsheet
almost.
We got Keep Playing Kidslaunched in December of 2019.
It actually had to get parkedbecause of the pandemic, but it
relaunched again.
We actually got kids playingthis past year, which is amazing
and so exciting that so 1% ofour revenues is getting
(19:35):
underserved children theopportunity to play sports for
free.
That's what Keep Playing Kidsis.
But had we not had that as partof a three-year vision, and we
had we not mapped out thatthree-year vision into these
120-day chunks, it wouldn't havehappened.
Right, it would have been thisshiny, happy idea.
Julie (19:50):
But that always somehow sat in a parking lot, never
actually getting going.
Kristi (19:55):
But it was really important to me.
I was like we said we were goingto make this happen, like we
have to make it happen now andwe got it.
We got it done and now wereally have kids playing because
of it and it feels amazing tosee like the full circle of
being able to help give backfrom the work we're doing is
awesome, so powerful stuff.
Having those goals and visionslaid out and and shared with the
(20:17):
team for sure.
Julie (20:19):
Yeah, and the idea of bringing the big, big, big
things into a place wheresuddenly you're like, oh, we
kind of act, we actually have adeadline for that.
Now it's time, because thatdeadline is coming and we
haven't made the progress weneeded to, so we gotta go.
Kristi (20:35):
Yeah yeah, exactly, and having the focus, we do see we
call it a season finals.
Three times a year we, we meet,the leadership team meets and
chooses sort of the companyrocks and then the departmental
teams choose their rocks um, youknow they're big projects that
they're going to work on and andthen at the end of the season
we reflect on how did, how didit go, which ones did?
(20:56):
Do we get all done and what'sthe?
What are the ones we've chosenfor the next, the next 120 days,
and um, it's really powerful tocontinue sort of seeing the,
the growth and traction that'shappening and gives the team
real buy-in to seecross-departmentally what
everyone's working on as well.
Julie (21:15):
e I'm imagining that at a play company you have a focus
on culture and what the workenvironment is like.
Tell me what that journey hasbeen like for you.
Kristi (21:26):
It's it's sort of funny, like I guess I just like to
have fun.
I really loved it.
I like to laugh.
I'm nothing makes me happierthan a good laugh, I mean, right
, so, and I feel like if I'mgoing to spend all my time
working with people, I want tobe able to work with people I
can laugh with.
And so I think, right out,right out of the start, you know
(21:48):
, back in the in the 90s, I justhad a a sense of wanting to
work with smart people andhard-working people, but people
that also like to have fun andum, so our culture has always
had that ingrained within it.
But we've really, I mean, wereally have a lot of great
initiatives.
Some have been around for for,like, we celebrate, we know how
(22:13):
to celebrate, we believe incelebrating and it doesn't have
to cost a lot.
Like, a lot of theseinitiatives don't have to cost a
lot.
We celebrate shout-outs, like,with a shout-out channel, every
day you'll see two, three, fiveshout-outs going off, where
someone's giving someone ashout-out for something usually
centered around a core value,and it's just a public shout out
in a channel so you can seeother great work being done by
(22:34):
your team.
We celebrate anniversaries, sowhen someone hits their one year
mark with us, they get their.
They're officially drafted toour team and they get their
veterans jersey.
It's a hockey jersey that saysjam on the front and their
number is the year they startedwith us.
So I'm a 96, you know Rob's a99.
Like, we've got people you knowand if you don't have your
(22:55):
veterans jersey, you'reconsidered a rookie.
Until you get your one yearmark, you, you have a, you get a
rookie hoodie and you've gotyour jam hoodie.
That's so when we take teamphotos, anyone in a hoodie is a
rookie and anyone in the hockeyj ersey is a veteran little
things like that.
Um, you know, know, we celebrate, we start every meeting we do.
If you've got four people ormore in a meeting, we we call it
(23:16):
, you press play to start, andso whoever's leading the meeting
takes three minutes to have aplayful connection.
You might play a little game,you might tell a riddle, you
might share a joke, ask a funnyquestion, of everybody.
It's just a playful interactionthat gets everyone sort of
feeling friendly and getting toknow each other as friends.
And then you land and you'relike okay, let's go, we're let's
(23:39):
get to work and you've had alaugh and um, and so it's just.
Those kinds of things are woveninto our culture naturally,
like because we we believe in itso much.
But then we have things likebook club that every two months
I lead book club and it's anoptional um thing for people.
If you're coming to book club,they and you have read the book.
(24:01):
We pay for the book um and wehave a great discussion whoever
shows up.
Usually we get 20 to 30 peoplecome to book club and we have
it's totally optional, done overa lunch hour and we have great
discussions.
They're all nonfiction that weread.
They're either a business bookor a self-help book or a
biography, and we learn a lotfrom it from from doing that.
But it's playfully, it's doneplayfully.
(24:21):
So we have things.
We have a house system likeHarry Potter.
So within jam we have fourhouses and the houses are the
names of the first four streetsthat the first four offices were
on.
So there's Cottingham, huronAvenue and Bridgeland and and
the houses within the houses wewe have challenges social
(24:45):
challenges, sports challenges,community, give back challenges
and you earn points for yourteam.
So just by showing up to bookclub, you'd earn points for your
team.
So just by showing up to bookclub you'd earn points for your
house.
And then we have, you know, abig cup at the end of the year
at jamboree and um, and we haveteam challenges all the time.
So it's just a fun way to sortof playfully get people uh
(25:06):
getting to know each other crossdepartmentally and fostering
friendship within ourorganization, and there's just
no end.
I could go on for days about allthe different things we do.
We believe it or not, weactually do get work done like.
These are all just littlethings that are happening on the
side, but they keep the culturereally fun and then our team's
more engaged, I believe, moreproductive because of that.
They're happier working here,so retention is really good.
(25:28):
Their recruiting is easy,because when someone loves
working at Jam, they're going totell their friends when job
postings come up.
It makes recruiting new peoplea lot easier, you know, a lot
less expensive.
So these investments in play.
Oh, and then, of course, wealso have like corporate sports
teams, right, like that'sobviously duh.
We have, you know, we'll have asoftball team and a soccer team
(25:49):
and a beach volleyball team anda floor hockey team, Like we
have all the company teams, andpeople choose to sign up with
their colleagues, and it's allpaid for by us, and so it's just
loads of ways to stay connectedand have a great healthy fun
culture.
Julie (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, and it doesn't like I think your point
about like it doesn't cost a lotor take a lot of time.
But the sort of vibe that itcreates and the desire for
people to then work hard to, youknow, work hard so they have
that time for play and they havethose, those things around them
, becomes woven into the justthe fabric of the company and I
(26:23):
believe that also because whenyou foster friendships this way,
if you don't, if you're notfriends with the people you work
with, you might finish yourwork and be like I, I'm done
checking out for the day.
Kristi (26:33):
I'm like I'm out of here If you are friends with people
you work with.
And it's a really busy time ofyear which right now, like it's
really busy for our team All thewinter season sports leagues
are starting up.
I know they're slammed rightnow, but I also know that team,
my team, will be constantlychecking in with each other.
(26:54):
Does anyone need help?
I'm about to wrap up for theday.
Is there anything I can do?
Hey, tony, you look stressed.
Hey Taylor, do you need helpwith that?
Because they've become friendswith each other.
They're not going to leave eachother out to dry.
That's just not the culture,and that could easily be the
culture if we didn't reallyfoster this building of
friendships and community withinour, our own team yeah, because
(27:15):
then it becomes about their,their winning and their winning
together together as a teamtowards a shared goal, right,
yeah, it's very much teamwork.
We're very team-centric, notfamily at jam.
We're big on that for sure.
Julie (27:30):
Oh, that's so interesting .
So now, as you're scaling up,what is next for you, what are
your challenges and what are youexcited about?
Kristi (27:43):
I'm excited about lots.
The most recent acquisition wasour biggest by far, the
atlantic acquisition, and it'staken a fair amount of energy
from my team to really um, toreally, you know, get it
integrated.
Um, we're not, you know, we'renot even at the one year mark
with it yet.
So once you sort of get a fullyear under your belt, that will
(28:08):
give everyone a little bit ofokay.
We did it here, we get noweveryone's got the systems and
um, because that takes time.
So I'm actually not even I'vegot.
I've got a couple otheracquisitions that I'm loosely,
you know, in contact anddiscussing but not actively,
actively pursuing at the momentbecause I want to make sure my
team's okay.
We've got some great excitingfacility projects going on.
(28:31):
Nothing I can talk about rightnow, but very exciting
opportunities to sort of lock infor long-term in some different
areas which will really allowus to build some and grow.
We have our corporate side.
We're really getting a littlemore focused on after the
pandemic, when we started tokind of we did these three
(28:52):
pretty good size acquisitions.
Post-pandemic took the focusoff corporate and corporate
needs a little bit um, a littlebit of focus and strategy, and
I'm excited about that andactually it's not going to be me
.
It's got one of our, one of myteammates, um kevin, who's
amazing.
Uh, he's going to be reallyleading the corporate and I'm
excited by the way he thinksthat that's just starting
getting going.
(29:12):
Oh, what else I mean?
There's just so much.
It just feels like we've got agood vibe right now and I'm
excited to have what will be ourbiggest year.
You know, last year was ourbiggest year ever and this
coming year will be our biggestyear ever.
So the growth is reallyexciting to see and feeling the
vibes from the team has beenreally exciting.
So there's good thingshappening.
Julie (29:33):
That's amazing.
That's amazing and I think whenyou feel like you've got a lot
of opportunities and a lot ofthings that are going right, it
really helps you with the thingsthat are challenging.
They don't feel as hard whenyou know you've got a lot of
things that are going in theright direction.
Kristi (29:50):
Occasionally I have to remind myself of that, right
like when you've had a rough dayand there's something going on
that's a bit stressful andyou're like, but keep in mind,
we just had our biggest yearever, like that's a good thing,
you know.
Julie (30:02):
And you're setting up to have more big years because you
know you've got, you've got theacquisitions, things are
smoothing out in terms of theintegration.
Kristi (30:11):
And well, and I think what I keep it's you know, it's
sort of the the um, the organicgrowth for years was like steady
, steady organic growth andearnings were steadily growing.
Alongside that, when you do,when you grow with investment,
it's different um, the earningsdon't show as quickly, and so
that's that's also really been.
(30:31):
It's really been interestinglearning for me, and it's always
this fine balance of, you know,growing revenue versus growing
the bottom line it's they don'talways line up right, and so
it's it's.
It's that's a fine balance aswell, for sure.
Julie (30:47):
Uh-huh, and staying kind of, I think, curious and open to
other metrics that are going totell you if things are going in
the right direction, while thefinancials are a little bit more
wavy or bumpy, as opposed tothat nice straight kind of
upward trajectory that you knowmight make us sleep better at
(31:09):
night but isn't necessarilygoing to get our business where
we want it.
Kristi (31:13):
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
So this is all.
It's amazing how much I justkeep learning.
You know, I'm never, I willnever stop learning.
I just every day learn some newstuff and keep implementing and
trying our best with a positiveattitude.
Julie (31:27):
Yeah Well, and I mean, who would have imagined in 1996,
when you kind of turned thelights on and opened your
computer and and started thatyou would be here still loving
it so much, having done so manydifferent things, weathered a
pandemic like all of the ups andall of the downs?
Kristi (31:54):
This was never the vision from 1996, right, I just
wanted a lifestyle business.
I thought it would just be me,you know, connecting people for
a few years through play, like.
But then it just people lovedwhat we were doing and it just
kept going and then it wasgetting bit yeah.
So you're totally right, it ispretty neat to look back to see
where we've come from and tojust see the number of lives
we've touched in such a positiveway, both of our players and my
(32:16):
staff.
That's the other really coolthing.
Like a lot of my teammates fromover the years, you don't keep.
Not everyone has been retained,obviously, you know, but, um,
but I would say the vastmajority, uh, who have come and
gone, still have strongfriendships with each other.
So I'll see, like on socialmedia, a wedding and I'll be
(32:36):
like oh, there's like three ofmy former teammates all at the
wedding together.
Like that's awesome that we,these people who never knew each
other before, only got to knoweach other working at jam, have
become such tight friends thatthey're standing for each other
in their wedding parties, youknow those kinds of things.
Or or they're godparents totheir children now and like it's
(32:59):
so cool for me to see that,because it it really that's the
part that the numbers areimportant but the lives we're
touching, it's just, it's supercool, it feels really good
awesome.
Julie (33:16):
Well, I must say I can't wait to see you get to those 1
million people that are playingin your leagues a year, and how
you're going to get there andwhat interesting things are
going to happen.
I really want to thank you forjoining me today.
Kristi (33:29):
Thanks for having me, Julie.
I really appreciate it.
It was really fun to chat.
Julie (33:32):
Great Thanks, I hope you enjoyed today's
episode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
Figure Eight isn't just apodcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
(33:54):
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon, anywhere you might live.
For more about my growth andleadership training programs,
visit www.
julieellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
(34:17):
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
juliellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8.
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