Emily Tisch Sussman has done a lot of impressive things in her career. Now four seasons in, the former Vice President of Campaigns at the largest democratic think tank in Washington D.C. created She Pivots looking for inspiration to embrace her own. Interviewing big names like Hillary Clinton, Priyanka Chopra, and Sophia Bush (among others) emboldened her to step into her own power, especially as a new mother. In today's episode, Emily talks about embracing her greatness in each chapter, what it was like to become a mother, and learning about her strengths as an interviewer. Plus:How she felt as a dramatic post-baby weight-loss, what her wellness routine looks like today, and how she feels about her newest chapter as co-owner of New York's Gotham FC.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are never going to gain confidence by always doing
things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing to build on.
You have to do things that are hard.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, hey, Emily, here, you are listening to episode three
hundred and seventy five of Hurdle A wele on this
focus podcast, where I talk to inspirational people about everything
from their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips
on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.
We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My
goal through these discussions is to empower you to better
(00:43):
navigate yours and move with intention so that you can
stride towards your own big potential and of course have
some fun along the way. Transparently, I've been thinking a
lot about the intro. I've been thinking a lot about
the things I've been reading about whether or not I
should be no bring these episodes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It's crazy, what is this?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Almost eight years into podcasting and I'm still learning many things.
So stay tuned because you may be seeing some shifts
over here on the heart and feed.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I digress.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm so excited to bring you my conversation today with
Emily Tish Susman.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
She is the co owner.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Of Gotham FC, the National Women's Soccer League team based
here in New York will technically New Jersey. The team
serves as the only NWSL team in the Greater New York,
New Jersey region, to be specific. Emily's also the host
of the She Pivots podcast with a background in politics. Today,
(01:43):
we talk about how she made the pivot from working
in Washington, DC to having a family, moving up north
and getting involved heavily in women's sports. Emily gets really
vulnerable today in a way that I'm not entirely sure
I've had a guest open up about her journey. Emily
(02:06):
talks about her pregnancy, conceiving rather quickly, and the hardships
that went hand in hand with pregnancy and not feeling
super connected to her children after birth. It is something
that I'm sure many women can relate to, and also
something that I don't really feel like many people speak on.
So for that to Emily, I'm super appreciative of you
(02:30):
opening up. I know that isn't easy. We also talk
about her own personal wellness journey and how that ebbed
and flowed as she has evolved as a person, evolved
within her career, talking about how it was almost impossible
to have any balance, so to speak, between her personal
and professional life when she was working in Washington, DC.
(02:52):
We talk about the state of women's sports and how
she became co owner of the Gotha, what she brings
to the team as their Chief Vibes Officer, not an
official title, but she wears the badge of honor proudly,
and what she's looking forward to next.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I really appreciate.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Emily's tenacity, how she is so unapologetically herself.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I do want a flag.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Like I said, She's very open about her journey to motherhood,
and this episode does include that open dialogue about trying
to conceive motherhood pregnancy. So, depending on where you are
in your personal journey, take that information how you will.
I appreciate you for being here, for being a hurdler,
and for listening. Make sure you're following along over on
(03:35):
social It's over at Emily Body. I'm over at Hurdle podcast.
And last little bit of housekeeping, subscribe to the weekly
Hurdle newsletter. The link to do that is in the
show notes. With that, let's get to it, let's get
it's a hurdling.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Today.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I am sitting down with Emily Tish Susman. She's a
co owner of the Gotham FC. She's also the host
of the she Pivots podcast. How are we doing today, Emily,
Welcome to hurdle.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Feeling good. Great that I'm at hurdle makes it a
great day. It makes it a great day. It's a
beautiful day. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Gotham right now, sixth in the league, a familiar place
for you. How are you feeling after last night's win.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Vibes are high, feeling great. The team is really jelling
in the second half of the season. Vibes are high
with the team. They're about to go on a bit
of a West coast swing. And look, we do well
on the road.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We do it well on the road. Oh, I'm so
excited for you. I remember the uh, how do you
say it? Maybe the famous sixth place year where you
were in sixth place for a little bit and then
we had to rally around Krieger and we know how
that ended.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I mean, I love that you're going. You got like
the deep cut, Oh, the Gotham Deep Cut. So Gotham
was ranked six in the league, eked into the playoffs,
made it through the play, I to the championship and
won and became national champions. That was actually we closed
and bought the team majority owners of the team two
days before the championship, So that was actually basically our
(05:12):
first day with the team and the NWSL National Women's
Soccer League and women's soccer had never been acknowledged at
the White House in a championship event the way like
the Super Bowl winning team goes. So the first thing
that I was really able to provide to the team
given my background, which I know that we'll get into
in my political background, was being able to set up
that visit with President Biden. And that was the first
(05:32):
time it's ever happened for women's soccer.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
No big deal, just a casual, just a casual trip
to the White House. It's so fun to see what's
going on here. And before we do get into your background,
I do think that probably a question you get very
often is what is it that you do as the
co owner of the team. So let's lay that groundwork
and then we'll get into everything.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's a great question. So our actual ownership group, we
have an ownership group that's made up of me, my sister,
and my cousins with my sister as the head of
our ownership group. We came in as controlling minority with
the pathway to majority. We are now majority owners, but
we knew from the beginning that we would be controlling owners.
My sister has ended up although it wasn't the intention.
My sister has ended up really functioning as the president
(06:13):
of the team, so she really runs the day to
day of the team.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
What I do is that we call me the Chief
Vibes Officer, the title you never aspired to but fill
very well. I really appreciate that. Although maybe I have
been aspiring to my whole life, we don't know. I've
always been building to it.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So I bring culture to Gotham and Gotham to culture,
so we can get a little bit more into that later.
I love this.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh my gosh, well a fun seat to be in
for sure. And again, maybe you didn't aspire to do
something like this, at least you didn't, let's say, a
decade ago. So let's bring it back and talk to
me about your time working in Washington, d C. Politics,
a stone's throwaway from where we are now.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, quite a different career. I started in quite a
different career. My background is actually I'm a lawyer. I'm
a constitutional law turm. I worked on campaigns, some for people,
some presidential, some congressional. Mostly I worked on issue campaigns.
So I was the lead lobbyist on the repeal of Donastontel,
which was the law that mandated that we fire gay, lesbian,
the transgender Americans from serving military service. We repealed that
(07:16):
law under the Obama administration. I stayed in DC for
a decade running issue campaigns. So our policy people would say,
this is what I want to happen to the law.
They would meet with me and I would figure out
does it go through Congress, does it go through states,
does it go through the White House? And I had
the Obama White House outsourcing campaigns for me to run
for them. And part of that, I spent a decade
(07:36):
on cable news as a commentator. So I did like
the talking head stuff for ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and I
did a ton of Fox News, a lot of Fox News,
and I did that for about I did that for
like more than fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
The way that you say that, And I did a
ton of Fox News.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yes, there's like something on that I hear it Yeah.
It was well because people are like, wait, but aren't
you a Democrat? And I'm like, yeah, I was a
Democratic strategist on Fox News. Yeah. Almost every day, all
the sides need talking heads. Yeah. Well, after a while,
I just said it. It wasn't worth it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
But yes, What was the most challenging thing about being
let's say, like a face to so many of these issues.
I feel like that would come with a certain amount
of hurdles in itself.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It definitely did. I mean I had to speak on
every issue everything, I had to speak on it, and
so I was able. It wasn't just things that I
was an expert on. It was things that I had
to get schooled up on and then put a political
lens on, so I would always have to go back. Fortunately,
I worked at a multi isssue think tank, so I
was able to call on our experts and get me
very quickly. I mean it could be the same day
that I was booked on the topic, so I'd have
to learn pretty quickly what I needed to know enough
(08:47):
to be in that segment. I'd say some of the
hurdles were that I always had to stand my ground.
What I actually I have a great picture of me
in the middle of Hannity and Tucker Carlson where they
both look screaming mad and I look super calm, And
I use it in media trainings like who do you
think is winnings? Argument? Obviously me because the audience listens
(09:09):
sort of to what you say, but on cable news,
quite frankly, they're just looking to see if you can
take the hit. So I would stay calm through it,
and I would make a very clear and fact backed
up point in response. That was one of the hurdles.
I'd also say A big hurdle is that if I
was the face of it, I got a ton of
hate mail. Always. I was used to it, so I
would get it. They would call the hotline where I work,
or they would you know, call like the front desk
(09:30):
where I worked. They would try to figure out my email.
It was mostly pretty vague when it came from the right.
There were some times, especially in presidential primaries, where I
would also get attacked by the left. I was a
media spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign in twenty sixteen, and
I spoke fairly neutrally about the presidential candidates in twenty twenty,
and then I was also attacked by the left, and
that was much more specific and much more hateful.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You really had to stand on your ground and where
you were, and then also get really familiar in what
it was that your definition of so success was. When
you think about your definition of success at that time,
what comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It was super clear to me what success was. It
was getting bookings, it was winning campaigns, and even really functionally,
it was my title. It was a corner office. It
was head count under me. Like I was super clear
with what my definition of success wasn't everybody around me
understood what it was like I really cared about a
job title that other people in my field could understand,
(10:30):
and particularly the talking head stuff like the cable news
stuff came at a real look. My job was demanding,
long hours, always had to be on call, always had
to be up on everything, particularly the cable news stuff.
Because I had to be able to be close enough
and flexible enough to a studio. I would sometimes for
(10:51):
months at a time, I would get up at two
thirty in the morning to be on air by five
to set the news for the day. It was physically
really hard for me, and when I started to get pregnant,
had kids. I had three kids in this span of
three and a half years. It became physically impossible for me,
and that really changed my definition of success.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, so let's talk about before having kids, what taking
care of yourself beyond work looked like for you. So,
did you have any semblance of like a personal wellness routine?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
No? No, And I would have laughed at anyone who did. Right.
I did work out, like I would go to a
workout class either before or after work most of the time.
But once I started, once I got pregnant, it was
like a zero. But no personal wellness meant literally nothing.
There is a sense that if you work for the
greater good, then nothing else should get in the way.
(11:43):
Like what you're everything you're doing, is for greater change,
and so you can't put anything about yourself ahead of that.
Not sleep, not wellness, not anything. It sounds a little toxic.
I yeah, I mean I think there's you know, I
actually feel kind of mixed about it, to be honest
with you, Like it really pushed me out of the
entire industry once I did have other needs. But I
(12:06):
do think there is something to the fact of there
are campaigns that I won simply because I outworked to
the other side. And I think if you work on
a presidential campaign, yes, you have no balance and there
is no wellness, and I'm not sure there can be.
The stakes are incredibly high, and so you have to
treat it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So as you get to this place near personal life
where you are ready to have children, your definition, as
you said, of success starts to shift, and what you
deem to be important starts.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
To shift a bit as well. Talk to me about
how that felt, but not because I wanted it to.
I really didn't. I it turned out I was the
most fertile person on the face of the planet. I
assumed it would take me about a year after going
off Foirth control to get pregnant, and it took me one month.
I really wasn't ready. There was no part of me
that was like yearning to have children, felt connected to babies,
like I really was reviled by them. I was sick
(12:57):
immediately when I got pregnant, and I was really resentful.
I was resentful that my husband didn't understand that I
was having this loss. I was at the height of
my career. I did not want to slow down, and
I didn't see any reason too. But I was so
sick during my pregnancy is that I had to at
least make adjustments, Like I was sleeping under my desk
every day at three pm, I would under my shoepile.
I would just like take a little sigiesstics. My eyes
were physically closing. I was nauseous all day. Every day.
(13:21):
I couldn't work out, and so I gained about one
hundred and forty pounds in total, and it was like
just to get me through, and I was miserable and
I felt so lonely. So my definition of success became
trying to keep up. And then after I had my
first child, I became pregnant eight months again later, so
I met there was like no transition between it and
(13:43):
then again like eighteen months later, a little less than that.
And every time I cried. Every time I cried, I
was like, I can't do this again. I can't go
through this. All I'm trying to do is feel like
myself and myself is working and myself is working hard,
and myself is working hard in politics, and I've worked
so hard for this reputation and for what I've accomplished.
I don't want to lose it, and everything in the
(14:04):
cultural conversation that I looked to was about like this
work life balance or like it just implied that you
had chosen to be with children or desired to be,
and I had no desire to be. And once I
had kids, I felt no connection to them as babies.
I just really resented them. I just I to this day,
I don't feel connected to babies, and I was really
(14:27):
embarrassed about that. Like I, I didn't feel like I
could talk to anybody about it. I didn't feel like
I could look to any way around it because I
understand that other women really want this and struggle to conceive,
and I really feel for them, and I felt very
lonely in the position that I was in. Yeah, entirely understandable.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So as you are navigating all these emotions, did you
find some sort of an outlet to express how you
were feeling and help cope with what you were dealing with?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
No? Not really, I just kept finding ways to work,
like I just I, you know. I. Eventually, after the
second kid, I couldn't go back to the Think Tank
after my second maternity leave because the pace was insane.
I had no child's care on the weekends. That's when
Trump in the first administration was dropping new policies. I
had to run our rapid response for it. I just
found different ways to start consulting. I would, you know,
this is sort of pre work from home era, and
(15:21):
still I was. I would sit in the bottom of
my closet and work all day because that was the
only place I could close the door. Yeah, and they
couldn't find me. And then I thought I had figured
out a way to do it with the third kid.
Like I had a political podcast at the time, I
felt like I had found my outlet to be able
to still talk about the things that I cared about.
And I had all female experts on and so I
(15:43):
felt like I was maybe moving something forward. They got
felt kind of worth doing. And then three weeks after
I had the third baby, was the pandemic, was the lockdown,
and it just it all shattered.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So when it shatters, and when you are now home
with three babies, is coming to terms with this reality
that is it's about to be very different than it was.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
How do you feel lost? I felt totally lost. I
didn't know who I was. There was no part of
me that I could connect to the part of me
that made me feel more most normal was working, and
that part was totally unavailable to me. The thing that
I had to do was take care of three kids
under three and a half, and I did not feel
(16:28):
like myself. I was just scrolling through these, like you know,
Instagram videos of people doing cute things with their kids
all day and I was like, oh my god. My
one son was three and he had twenty minutes of
preschool on zoom a day. And there was one day
that they had us do an activity that involved like cooking,
(16:48):
and I cried through the entire thing. I was like,
this is too much pressure again to this. So I
just I tried to found to find ways that I
could and I just tried to find things that made
me feel the most normal, and that was building something working.
The thing that it eventually came to was, if I
feel so lost, women have gone through things that are
(17:10):
way worse than this, I know they have. I need
to hear something actually worse to make me feel better.
And I need to hear something. I am going to
be fundamentally changed after this. I am not going to
come out of this the same person, and I don't
want to know everything about resilience is not connecting to me,
because that feels like going back to something that I was.
I can never go back. I am fundamentally changed. I
(17:33):
want to know that I can move forward with my
work experience, with the personal experience that I've gone through,
and build something different and maybe it can be maybe
as good. Like I don't need it to be better
than it was, like I just needed to be. I
just need to feel meaning in it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, I need to feel meaning in it now before
we talk about what that thing is. I do want.
I do feel like I need to garner an understanding.
Were you like googling to try to find other women
like you, because when your community is immediately available to you,
you're trying to seek understanding somewhere and you knew that
(18:10):
you couldn't be the only person in the world that
felt this way. So did you find community anywhere to
talk about how you were feeling? No?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Not really, I mean, you know, like I had, I
had my mom chats, like I became even closer with
other friends of mine from college who also had newborns,
so we were in the same situation and toddlers. We
were in the same situation. I ended up connecting with
like random people from my past who were in a
similar situation to me, and we had those like real
(18:38):
close pandemic relationships where we helped each other through it.
I don't know that I was googling people, but every
time I found a story that sounded similar to mine,
like I didn't want to hear other mommy stories that
I found depressing, I was like, oh God, this is
going to get worse right before it gets better. I
(18:59):
wanted to find that felt big, like that someone had
gone through what I now call an intervening life event,
and I would just get so excited when I found
that story. Sometimes I would just DM them and just
find them. I dmmed a lot of Peloton instructors. Yeah,
I think that's how I found community. There are a
lot of Peloton instructors that have been on the show.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And then I think the secondary question here I thought
someone might be wondering, is you went off birth control.
You knew you wanted to be a mom, but you,
because you had never done it before, weren't sure what
it would feel like at the different stages of bringing
up your children.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah. I mean I understand that there is an intellectual
divide there like, yes, I was off birth control, but
everyone I wasn't the youngest. I had never gotten pregnant
before everyone I knew, including in people in my own family,
it had taken them a year after being off birth
control for the birth control to leave their family to
get pregnant. And I just wasn't that psyched about it,
(19:53):
Like I felt like I had nothing about it felt
concrete and exciting to me. So I felt like I
had a year to get used to the idea and
hope that something would click. And I would hear stories
about people saying, oh, you know, like the second I
saw the baby, my perspective change my life. And I
was like, maybe it'll click then, and you know what,
it didn't. I was like, oh, thank god, these you
(20:14):
know this birth is over. This sucked.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Like you come to this place where you're like, okay,
is there a way for me to channel what feels
like my purpose and like really utilize my life understanding
and practice to create something new?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And that is where the basis the idea for Sheep
of Its comes from. Yes, yeah, you know. The thing
that I said when I was still in politics is
that I wasn't an issue expert. I was a function expert.
I was an expert on the function of how to
build a campaign, and that can really apply to anything.
So I took that process and I took that mindset,
and I took it to this cultural challenge. Now, even
(20:48):
when I was in politics, I said, some people change culture.
That feels way too broad and hard for me. I'm
going to change laws, and all of a sudden, if
that was unavailable to be like, maybe I'd try this
big amorphous culture change thing. I had built a podcast
with a production company, this political podcast that I'd had before,
called Your Political Playlist, and I thought, this time, I'm
(21:08):
going to do it myself. I'm going to do every
piece of it myself. And if it's going to feel
important enough to me and not maybe not like important
for the world, but important to me, then I need
to learn every piece of the business. And so it took.
I ended the political podcast so that I had space
and understanding, and I did a little bit of like
a tour, like I went around and tested ideas with people,
(21:28):
people I respected, people that I didn't know as well,
that were maybe in the media industry, and said I
have this idea. I actually had two ideas at the time.
One became she pivots, interviewing women to understand how they
go through something and come out better on the other
side with a different career. And I actually had a
second idea at the time, also about raising sensitive boys,
that my son is incredibly sensitive, and I didn't see
(21:51):
anything in current culture about celebrating his sensitivity. It was
all about overcoming it. So I wrote articles on both
of them, and I pulled them both in magazines, and
the sensitive son one ended up becoming the number one
article on Reclare for I think about a month, and
then I launched one with sheep pivots, But I kept
them both going at the same time to see, like,
(22:12):
which feels right, which feels worthy enough for me to
really lean into. But even as I was putting these
things out into the world and saying this is my
culture change moment, this is my new thing, I was
still having a lot of doubt in myself one that
anybody wanted to hear anything cultural from me, except for, like,
you know, political commentary. And part of the reason I
(22:34):
had that doubt was actually external doubt that I had
shopped these ideas around to every talent agency and nobody
knew what to do with me. They were like, oh,
we like you, Emily, we like you a lot, but
like your background's news and you're not trying to be
a news anchor, so we really don't know what to
do with this concept. So I really got that external
(22:55):
feedback that like it didn't live anywhere, And I was
also struggling to feel like it was real enough, Like
I changed laws, I worked with. The White House is
sitting around talking about how I really hated being locked
in with three babies. Good enough, right, Like I really
struggled with that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, And so you said that you wanted to learn
all different aspects of the business of what it would
take to create this new type of podcast for yourself.
What was the most challenging one for you to get
into to really feel like you could.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Grasp, well, I understanding the actual mechanics of audio was
like a real ya. I still wouldn't say I really
got that. I did a lot of like making pillow
forts and sitting in them, a lot of trying that,
so those went pretty badly. Eventually I figured out that
I could outsource that piece in a good way, but
(23:47):
I also really felt like it was important for me
because I had this big insecurity around does anybody want
to hear anything about culture change from me? And is
it important enough? I really felt like I needed a
media partner for it. So I went around, and you know,
the agencies wouldn't take me as a client and pitch me.
So I did it myself. And so I went out
and found contacts at all these different kinds of media
agencies and so pitching to them differently. You know, some
(24:10):
wouldn't even take a meeting with me. Some would take
it and then say, well, you're not really what we're
looking for. It was a lot of rejection and so
being able to pitch myself in a way that felt
good and important enough when I really doubted it myself,
I say that that was a That was an interesting
piece of the journey too.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There are a lot of people that hear this and
they think to themselves, wow, I wish I could even
begin to garner that level of self belief because despite
the amount of rejection that you received, you were still
willing to, as the kids say, stand on business right.
You were still willing to put yourself out there. So
for someone that comes to you and has that level
(24:49):
of concern that says, I don't even know if I
could ever do that, if I could ever be the
person that has that much confidence in myself to go
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What do you say to them? Well, I take the
advice of this same as when I was meeting with
people who were coming out of college networking for jobs
is to understand who you're meeting with and have a
really specific ask for them in that and understand what
level they are compared to you. Right like, if you're
just out of college or if you're re entering the workforce,
go to the people that you know really well and say,
(25:18):
what are my skill sets? Like you can see it
differently than I can, how would you pitch me? And
that can help you build and really be crystal clear
about what you're pitching, what you should lean into, and
how you should talk about yourself. And then once you're
ready to enter a different industry than you've been in,
or maybe expand the industry, then you can go one
step remove to the people you might be like you
(25:39):
know one or two connections away from on LinkedIn and say, hey,
would you take a meeting with me? But once you've
done that, once you've gone to someone who's step in
that industry. You do need to be prepared. You can't
waste their time. That's not the person that you have
a brainstorm in conversation with and it's like, what do
you think I should do? Like I just sort of
love this field, you know, like that's the kind of
all you have with your girlfriend. Yeah, have it with them,
(26:01):
and then once you've got that really solid, then you
can make the leap to talk to someone who's like
steeped in the industry, but also that part as well.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Have that conversation with your girlfriends. So often when it
comes to career, you know, we think about getting together
with the girls and we're talking about like who knows
what what happened over the weekend and kind of trying
to take a break from maybe the madness that is
the work week. But your friends, your squad can be
truly the best place to pulse check so many things
(26:32):
when it comes to what it is that you're doing
and who it is that you want to be. When
you said, just now, okay, what do you perceive of me?
These are people that know you front and back. Why
don't you ask them?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
And a lot of people don't think Okay, I actually
have this built in support squad that can give me
some really great feedback relevant to you know, beyond what
we're doing on the weekends here.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah. Absolutely, we don't even realize how strong our skills are,
especially when it comes to interpersonal skills and EQ. We
are often very strong in these spaces and can be
leaders among our peers. And especially if you're just born
that way, you may not realize that's a skill.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And sometimes just born that way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
just a natural leader, but you may not realize it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I had a really interesting conversation in the last couple
of months with someone, you know, I have young kids.
I'm in a community people with young kids. A mom
who has three kids, who hasn't worked outside of the
home in about twelve years. And she said to me, well,
I really haven't worked and I don't have any skills.
And I was like, ugh, hold up, you are a
leader among your peers, you are incredibly organized, you have
(27:39):
a ton of skills. And what actually made me insane
is that she was like, well, my husband said I
really need business skills, and I was like, you have
business skills, you just have been applying them in a
different context. You need someone outside of you to tell
you that you have those skills and apply them in
this context. But you absolutely have them.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, and sometimes you just need that other to kind
of like remind you who the hell that you are.
I was having this really beautiful conversation with a friend
yesterday about this broader concept of confidence, and confidence isn't
something that just drops down overnight on the lucky chosen right.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Confidence is something that comes from repetition.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
And so when you take the time on the days
that you feel good, on the days that you feel bad,
on the days that you feel med, and you still
show up anyway, that is where confidence comes from.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I would even build on that and say and doing
hard things that you are never going to gain confidence
by always doing things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing
to build on. You have to do things that are
hard to be able to have any semblance of confidence
and really feel like you know who you are.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, And so for you, the hard thing is starting
this podcast at the time you are in pillow forts,
you're brainstorming, you're shopping these ideas. When do you really
feel like you're starting to garner the momentum?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I think when I put the well I did. The
big one is that I got a handful of guests
that I felt really good about. So I said, let
me just try this. I'm going to try something that
feels concrete that I can pull off. I can do
ten guests in a season, I can have an arc,
and let me start to go out to people whose
either stories haven't been told or people whose stories may
(29:18):
have been told but never this aspect of it, because
I really wanted to uplift the personal piece out of
their professional narratives. Once I had a little bit of
that idea and that roster together, I did find a
partner who really believed in me, and it was a
partner that I really expected. It was Marie Clair Magazine,
so they were willing to take me on as the
first podcast for the magazine. I became a contributing editor
for the business column for the business section of the magazine,
(29:40):
which also felt like a little strange to me, like
I was coming out of government and policy. I wasn't
really sure I could be a business reporter, but it
was understanding that it was kind of the same skill
set that I was applying across the board, and the
fact that they were willing to take that chance on me.
It made me feel I would never really say that
I've had like a full imposter syndrome, but I was like,
oh my god, I pulled it off, Like I'm still
(30:03):
checking to see if this idea is real, and they
believe in me enough to launch this with me, like
they believe they are taking a chance on me building
their brand. Like I kind of pulled it off.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, you pulled it off. And then in practice, how
did it feel?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
It felt good. Yeah, it felt really good. I loved
doing the interviews. It took me a while to get
into the rhythm. I still had to check myself about
being personal in any way because I was very good
at cable news. I was very good at being buttoned
up clear. She was well media trained. She was well
(30:41):
media trained, Like people don't realize, but it's a real
skill to be able to pull new thoughts in your
head and never move your head and never move your
eyes so like always look straight. Like I was really
good at that. And even if you listened to the
early at like the early episodes of my show, I
basically edited myself out of it entirely, like you barely
ever hear me asking questions, yeah, because I didn't feel
(31:01):
secure in it.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
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dot com slash hurdle today. Early on, what would you
say was the most helpful piece of feedback that you got?
(34:05):
Because to you here, you're saying you don't hear me
ask questions. I remember early on a mentor of mine
said that people are going to come back to your podcast,
yes because they are good guests, but because they like you.
And so if you aren't having a conversation, if you're
just there being a talking head and asking through a
list of questions, then you're going to lose people. So
(34:26):
that was the best piece of advice that I had
got that I received.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So what was yours? Well, the feedback actually came from
the guests. At the end of every episode or the
end of every conversation I've interviewed, the guests would say,
oh my god, I've never shared it like that before.
I have never shared so much. I've never felt so
good about a conversation. And after doing that capsule of ten,
I thought to myself, you know what, I am kind
of good at this, and I don't have to hide
(34:50):
behind the guest story. People can hear me ask the
questions too. And so from the end of the first
season to the beginning of the second season you'll hear
like a real shift in the way that we edit
the show, because is I keep more of my question
asking and more of my edit in And that really
did come from the guest But I actually had a
big hurdle even before that, is that I had this big,
you know, insecurity that I'm trying to overcome. And I
(35:12):
put together an email list of all my personal and
professional contacts to announce the facts that I am now
doing a personal podcast and I'm sunsetting my career as
a political strategist, which also felt like I thought everyone
was going to laugh me out of town. Although I
was already gone, I couldn't tell if I cared, and
you know, saying this personal thing and saying that I struggled,
and it was so vulnerable and I'm trying to have
(35:34):
a new identity around it, and I launch it, and
I launch it with this podcast called Pivot, and I
knew enough that I had to trademark it, or I
at least had to do a trademark check. So I
had hired an intellectual property attorney to do a trademark
check for me. And one of the things that I
had done in creating like all the different like the
business of the show, is that I had created different
formats for it. So one of them is that it
would be an award and then I would get to
(35:56):
interview people after I gave them the award. I did
not have a very ip attorney. They had done the
trademark check as the copyright the check as Pivot Awards,
and they didn't tell me that. So within two weeks
of launching the show, I get a cease and desist
order from Vox Media, who owns the parent company that
(36:16):
owns the podcast called Pivot, and I'm like, it's all gone.
I just did this major, I just rebranded myself and
I screwed it up. And I went through almost two
months of back and forth them saying well, here's the
kinds of names you can use, and I was like,
but none of them were pivot. And going through that
really solidified for me that once I'm going to fight
(36:38):
for this, I care enough to do it. And two
it's the pivot that I care about. No other name
or title was acceptable to me. My mom gave me
the idea for she Pivots, and at first I had
I was. I was like, well, maybe I want to
interview a man from time to time, and then I
realized I actually don't care. So I was fine with
she pivots.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
So it was fine after I realized that men don't
need to be in the space.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
We've heard enough. We've already been there. Yeah, we've heard
enough from men.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
And so I mean, at first you hear it, you'r
lukewarm to the idea, and then you really get on board.
For you, when you get on board, do you feel
it deep in your you feel in your chest?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah, that's fighting for it. Oh yeah, I just fought
for this and I care. I care way more than
I realized that I did. Okay, And so she Pivots
is born. She Pivots is born.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Wow. Okay, And so now, as you said, you go
through that first season. The second season becomes more in
depth than the third, and so on.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
You've done four Uh, yeah, we're going into season five now, yep.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yep, going into season I've had about one hundred and
thirty five guests. Can you imagine four seasons ago saying
that sentence out loud?
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Oh my god? The lift to get to ten the
first ten in the first season is probably the same
lift that it's been afterwards. Yeah, it was so it
just felt so big and so hard, and everything felt
like a decision. No, I never could have I never
could have amenda with it.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You know, you talked about how important it was to
you to really make sure that your guests were telling
stories in ways that maybe they hadn't told these stories before.
When you reflect yourself on some of the stories that
you've told, what comes to mind for you when you
think about maybe some of the things that you've spoken
about before but haven't really brought new light to as
of late.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Well, I'm incredibly proud of the vulnerability that the show brings,
the level that people feel comfortable telling me different aspects
of the story that are so personal they often I'm
really the thesis of the show is to integrate the
personal into the professional, to show why we've made these
professional choices and how we're better because of this personal
(38:33):
thing that we went through. And we're just not used
to thinking of our lives that way. We're not used
to thinking of our professional stories that way. So I'm
incredibly proud that I've helped the people who have gone
through it even make that connection for themselves. And a
lot of what I've learned through going through the interviews
is that it brings out a different vulnerability in me
(38:54):
that I'm willing to say things that are personal and
willing to talk about things that are personal, and I
get more and more comfortable with it as I go.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, So, now that you have this platform and this
place to get personal, when you think back to the
woman who felt so alone, who felt so othered in
this otherwise very quote unquote normal experience, what comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I'm proud of how far I've come. I really talking
about pivoting. It's become a much more popular word and
much more popular concept, which I think is only for
the better. The more we're talking about it, the more
people are likely to get touched by some conversation, and
hopefully they feel connection to it. I mean, you can
hear as I talk about it right now, Like I'm
(39:43):
pretty clear on talking about how not excited I felt
about being pregnant, how alone I felt in all of it,
how little connection I felt to even my own babies.
And I understand that that is still hard to talk
about and hard to hear. I think for a lot
of people, really specific in talking about it, because I
felt like there was no one that could have felt
(40:04):
more alone in those feelings than me, Like it was
so unacceptable to feel those things. So I don't sugarcoat
it in any way. I don't try to give it
a positive lens. Now. It was what it was, and
I will say that now because of that, I really
have unique relationships with each of my kids, and I
(40:27):
parent them for who they are, and I don't do
it because of what I'm trying to project on them.
I am proud of the relationship that I have with
my kids, and I think it's in some ways different
than other people's. But I can live with my parenting
choices because they're all my own. How does motherhood make
you feel?
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Now?
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Now? I feel joy around it. I think that being
with my kids has I think They're super interesting, Like
they see things differently than I do. And there it's
brought out a lot of things that I thought adults
couldn't do. We're like thought was embarrassing, you know, Like
(41:08):
I jump in the pool with my clothes on. I
have the biggest bruise you've ever seen on the back
of my leg cause I fell out of a tree
because we were limbing trees. We have farm animals now,
things that I never thought were possible as an adult,
and things that I never definitely never thought when I
was like a power lady in a power suit, like
(41:29):
on Capitol Hill, Like I definitely never thought would be
part of my life. Right, I'm proud of who they are,
and I'm proud that I bring them along with I'm
honest with them, and I'm proud of how I bring
them along with me and my work. And I think
they're becoming. They will be great adults. They will be
great adults. Yeah, Like that's how I parent them, Like
(41:50):
I think about what kind of adults they would be
and what kind of lessons they have to learn now,
And part of that is building confidence. Not everything can
be easy.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Not everything can be easy, And I mean going back
to talking about how at the time, when you were
working in Washington, DC, you didn't really feel like you
had any sort of steady, consistent wellness routine. What does
wellness and taking care of yourself look like these days?
It's incredibly different.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
While I was building sheep pivots actually really coincides with
my own not to sound cliche, but like wellness journey
along with it. You know, I had gained so much
weight with my first pregnancy, really hadn't lost it before
the second, had lost most of it before the third,
but then gained about sixty pounds again, and that coincides
with as I'm redoing my life like I had always.
(42:32):
There was a piece of me that, when I was
still working in politics, felt like if I dedicate as
much mental energy and time as it's going to take
to lose this weight, people will look at me and
think I'm not serious about my job. Everything has to
be being serious about my job. And so all of
a sudden, I had no job and I had to
redo the whole thing. It was also during the lockdown,
and I thought I cannot come out of this with
(42:53):
the same body that doesn't feel like it's mine. I
had a lot of health problems. They had thought I
had a breast cancer scare after I had had the
second Maybe I did not have it. I slipped a
disc from delivery. My abs were totally separated, like I
had just had a lot of issues from not just
the pregnancies and the deliveries, but also carrying so much
(43:14):
weight for about five years, and I thought, I cannot
come out of this the same person. I have to
really prioritize this and take this seriously. So before my
third baby was one years old, I went down to
a health clinic in Florida. I went for two weeks.
It's called Critticken. It's for people who are basically old
and I have heart disease. I was neither of those things. Nevertheless,
(43:34):
that program really worked for me. Why did you choose that, Loe?
Why did I choose it? It's a great question. I
think probably because I'm a vegan and always have been,
and so it could work for me. And so the diet,
you know, it's sort of like an outdated idea of
what dieting is, or like what eating healthy is, and
it's very vegetables. First, didn't I felt like every other
(43:54):
like nutrition or you know diet or like anything I
had looked at was like, well, if I'm not going
to eat fish, but this one was very vegetables first
and vegetable protein first, and so that really worked for me,
and I super focused on it, and I lost the
rest of the weight and got tone within about six months.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
And it was a very serious endeavor for me, and
it really has changed my life where I'm stronger than
I've ever been. Fitness is a very serious part of
my life now and it really never had been before,
Like I really prioritize it in my day. I do
something pretty aggressively active every day, and it's changed my
relationship to me even change my relationship to my kids
(44:34):
and parenting that I hadn't realized how much I was
always trying to end the play or not play the sport,
or not pick them up, like because it was hard
for me. And now because I'm strong, I'm driving it
or I can stay in it with them, and it's
made our relationship much happier, much more joyful.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Beyond the diet component of it, you talk about doing
something physically demanding every day, what does the movement component
of your overall wehill and this routine look like.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I'll do pretty heavy weights two to three times a week.
I've been working with the same trainer he helped me
rehab my back after the slip discs. I've been working
with him for a long time, very dedicated to him.
But we do it outdoors. I really care about there
being a lot of natural light, so I'll be outdoors
almost any time that I can. Beyond that, I might
take a class. I really like like a good heavy movement,
(45:25):
like a hard you know, like a like a tremble
like I don't. I don't love a yoga. My running
goes in waves. It's usually pretty bad. But I will
at least do like a good hard, aggressive walk with
a weight to invest on to try to get that
in everything. She's a rocker.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So talk about a one eighty right,
because you went from this place of really not putting
any heavy emphasis on this for yourself to now really
investing in yourself. I firmly believe that when you take
the time to invest in yourself, there is nothing to
regret in that because it only pays back to you
and gives you that real word tenfold.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
It has been incredibly warning, but I have to say that.
I also think there's like an edge of it, Like
I do think to some degree we thinking about ourselves
too much. And I use it as a tool to
let me live the life that I want to live.
I don't organize my entire day around figuring out the
right fitness class that I want to go to, Like
if I can't do it in a way that fits
(46:22):
into my day and gives me the ability to accomplish
the things that I want, then I throw on a
vest and I go outside, Like I don't overthink it.
I do think that's an important piece that there's a
balance to it too, because I do see a lot
of I think people overthink like am I doing it
exactly right? Am I getting exactly the right routine? Am
I doing the skin thing whatever it needs to be?
(46:45):
And I think, to some toge we're thinking about ourselves
too much. Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
I also think that when it comes to such a
big transformation like the one that you've had, there's a
lot of quote unquote shoulding yourself typically involved in that,
Like you probably we're exposed to so many different things
that you could do and constantly wondering should I be
doing this, Should I be doing that?
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Should I be doing that?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
How did you get to a point where you were
able to listen to yourself intuitively and trust that the
path that you were on was the right path for you.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
I think probably once I started to see results from it,
Like once I started to get stronger, once I started
to feel stronger, I think that I was like, oh, okay,
this is worth it, this is right. And once I
started to be able to be much more active with
my kids and pick them up quite quite frankly. Yeah, Oh,
it's so.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Special and it's so rewarding, and it's just now that
you're in this place, As someone who also went for
her own health journey, I can sympathize and relate to
You can't imagine going back.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
No, No, I really can't. It's like a very strict
part of my day, my week because I'm so proud
of how far that I've come and I'm so happy
with the things that it facilitates me to be able
to do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Then, as you now are strong and feeling good in
your body and able to play with your kids, you
segue into the women's sports space, You're like, well, now
that I'm in this place.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
It's a perfect time for me to really get on
board with that. I know, I'm so intense and I
do something, I go all the way in.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
But the thing is is that you and your upbringing,
you were really around sports quite often. Give us some
context on that before we talk about the end ofsl So.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I grew up in New York City. When I was
nine years old, my grandfather bought fifty percent of the
New York Giants. So being a part of sports ownership
is a very big part of our family tradition. We
went to Giants games every single week with my grandparents,
sat next to them, always with them, had dinner afterwards.
It would go into the off season. We often went
to away games. It's been like a very big part
(48:42):
of our family identity. It's one of the things that
our family organizes around. Even if I wasn't kind of
sporty and like playing a lot of sports myself, it's
been a big part of our family culture.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yeah, and so having that as a background, when this
opportunity came around to get involved with the Gotham it
felt now question mark question mark.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Yeah, I think we're I think we were kind of
figuring it out. So I had three kids very close
in age. My sister actually went through the same thing
with the three kids. She had been the head of
global marketing for Peloton and left when she had the
third kid. So my sister started a sports VC fund
to invest on behalf of our family, leveraging our position
in the Giants and the access that we had into
the sports world. And I thought, cool, go for good,
(49:24):
go you like, what a cool thing you're doing. That
seems perfect. And she made a couple of different investments, smaller,
and then she saw that the biggest opportunity was in
women's sports, particularly in women's soccer, particularly in New York.
They wanted her as the lead investor because of her
operating background with Peloton, and again I thought, go you
(49:48):
go off, have a great time like that. I would
have nothing to do with it. We fast forward to
the second day that we signed in as owners were
in the national Championship. I flew to San Diego where
the championship game was for the championship, basically just to
support her, and thought like, what a cool investment this is.
And from the context of being around I mean, I've
(50:09):
been to almost every Super Bowl my entire life, from
the context of being around what the NFL has built
to and what that business looks like. To see what
I had walked into when these were the champions this
was the championship game. The level of business was just
so different that it did feel like this, all of
(50:33):
this background that I had could actually be useful. So
from the minute I stepped on the ground, I was
figuring out ways even really just to help my sister
get her hands around it and figure out how do
we turn this into the business of the future and
the business that these athletes deserve because they've always worked hard.
(50:54):
It wasn't the athletes, it was the business around them,
and that has just grown over the last eighteen months
basically almost been almost two years.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
What's the biggest difference in what's going on with the
team now versus eighteen months ago?
Speaker 1 (51:07):
How long can this podcast.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Look?
Speaker 1 (51:10):
I'd say the biggest difference is the two things that
my sister brought into it leading the team. One is
the understanding that we will be the first global sports
brand for women. There are other global sports brands that
people understand, like Real Madrid or the Dallas Cowboys or
the Yankees, like you can see their logos anywhere in
the world and you understand what it means. That person
may not even understand who the starting ten are, you know,
(51:33):
but you understand what that global sports brand means. There
was no global sports brand for women, and it will
be US, and so we make decisions based on that
with that as the north Star. The second thing she
did is that she reoriented US as a live events business.
So she brought over the head of live Events and
Activations from Peloton. She brought over a lot of other
marketing people from Peloton to really be thinking about how
(51:56):
do we make this a wrap around experience for everyone
who shows up. People have to feel like they are
attached to every piece of the experience. They also additionally
need to understand the stories of our players, because that's
how we're You know that people get attached through players
and through the stories of them, and they are and
they're worth it. Yeah, every one of them has an
incredible story and they're incredible people, and they are worth it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
It can be challenging when people are so attached to
the players when there are changes within the roster. I
know that you guys went through a lot of changes
at the top of this season. How did you handle
that in a way that really showed your biggest fans
that you truly do care about them.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
We had we had our GM speak directly to our
to our audience and to our fans, and she spoke
directly about how the slogan of our team that we
talk about that like really gets into the values is
always building, never finished. We are always building the team
of the future. We are never satisfied with where we are,
even if it's winning a national championship, but we are
always thinking ahead because we are planning not just for
(52:57):
this season, not just for next season, but we are
planning to be a global franchise, and so we are
always building, never finished.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I am just like sitting here and again the confidence
that radiates from the way that you talk about what
it is that not only you are creating what you
expect from this brand. It's really beautiful and it beckons
the question.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
How do you maintain it?
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Because there are going to be hurdles, There are going
to be things that don't go as you'd hoped right,
and so those otherwise shake that confidence. How do you
come back to this through line of we've got this
and this is what we are going to be well.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
I actually think implicit in the question is the two
things that it is. One is keeping your north star.
You know where you're going. If you know where you're going,
then you just make every decision focused on that you
don't get distracted by pieces along the way. And the
second piece is to expect that the form will change.
I feel like this in my podcast, in my investments.
(53:58):
We can see it in Gotham. You have to understand
that there will be hurdles and that things will change. Look,
I started an award show and then got sued on it.
You know, like the form changed, and my core north
star was to be able to move culture by telling
stories of women who have changed their lives for personal reasons.
And I got to be able to do that, but
(54:20):
the form changed. So understanding that it is part of
the process and not getting derailed by it, I think
is an incredibly important piece of being able to move forward.
I'll also say, you know the other piece of it.
You know, I have confidence talking about it. I get
that from the players. They are so confident in their
abilities and we have confidence in them. One of the
(54:41):
things that was transformative for me that first weekend that
I went out and met them at the championship. We
stayed in the hotel with them, so I got to
see them interact, and they go on their walk before
every game together, walk with me, when with mey, our
coach says, And to see them interact. I had never
been around women who were so physically strong and also
(55:02):
so unapologetic about being physically strong. And I thought to myself,
I I need to see this. I want every insecure
mom in my class to see this. I want my
kids to see this. These are the role models that
I want my kids to see, the role models that
I want my daughters to see. But by the way,
my daughters see a lot of strong women, these are
(55:22):
the role models I want my son to see because
I want him to also know that women can be
physically strong and have confidence. Yeah, oh my god, chill's
just thinking about it. We love strong women.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
And speaking of strong women, obviously, women's sports at the
crux of such an unbelievable moment in culture period right now.
We are seeing so much momentum and it must feel
some kind of way to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
It feels incredible, honestly to have walked into something and
then see its skyrocketing almost immediately. It does put a
little bit of pressure on us, to be honest, to
like move a little faster, like faster than maybe we
would have normally internal rondomitess or like building to what
we want to. But again, like our athletes have always
been at this level and they've always deserved it, So
it's the right kind of pressure. Yeah, And so when
(56:09):
you say the pressure to move a little bit faster,
how do you keep up with that? How do you
execute in a way that aligns with your north star
when maybe you're having to do things at a little
bit more quicker of a clip. I think it's putting
people in place that you really trust and you think
have good judgment and to not micromanage them. And actually
my sister does that incredibly well. She has put very
(56:30):
good people in senior positions and doesn't micromanage them. And
then I bring in we have entirely different skill sets,
so she is managing the team. She's actually now the
president of the entire league of the chair of the
entire league of the NWSL, So we have incredibly different
skill sets. I bring in, as we say, like the
vibes officer, right, like I'm the she Vibes officer. I
bring culture to Gotham. I bring Gotham to culture. So
(56:53):
being able to work also, my sister and I never
thought we would work together. By the way, how is
that for you? It's been great because we do have
very different skill sets. We're very close, but we're very different.
And owning that I think is so powerful. Owning and
sitting in what you know to be true. It's not
about ego, It's just about facts. Yeah. Yeah, our kids
(57:14):
are very close and the facts that we can and
we can see each other every weekend at games. We
live in two different places now, but we see each
other every weekend of games. And the fact that we
are able to create for our kids what was so
incredibly formative for us in our childhood. The fact that
we can do it for our kids and that we
can do it for women is very important to us.
(57:35):
I say that is essentially one of our north stars
as well.
Speaker 2 (57:38):
Like personally, someone comes to your Instagram page, they see
a podcast host obviously a co owner of The Gotham.
But when you look in the mirror, Emily, what is
it that you see looking back at you?
Speaker 1 (57:51):
I see someone who is finally comfortable in every piece
of themselves. I was so serious when I worked in policy,
and I worked so hard, and I was so proud
of it, and I couldn't be that silly. I couldn't
be that fun. You know. I started dying my hair
(58:11):
lavender during the pandemic because I wanted to do something
that gave me a little joy. And now we like
to say this is my natural purple. I could never
be doing the job that I had done with it,
and I don't do it for anybody else. I do
it for myself because it brings me joy. I'd say,
I now see someone who finally embraces every part of themselves.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
When you think about the woman that was beside herself
in the midst of having three children within three years,
the woman who felt so lost, so unsure, so othered
by the circumstance.
Speaker 1 (58:46):
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you offer
her during that hurdle moment. It's so hard to say
what advice would be, because I think I had to
live through that low point to be able to get
to this high point. Yeah, I don't think I ever
really truly believed that I could be as comfortable in
(59:09):
my own skin as I am now, and I never
truly believed that I could be as happy as I
am now. I just didn't believe it was going to
be possible. I thought I'd have to find some other
compromised version of myself. Yeah, so you know, I guess
the right answer is, you know, like, hang on, You'll
make it like you're going to get through this. But
I do think I had to have lived through that
load to be able to have the perspective to gotten
(59:31):
to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (59:33):
What do you tell yourself on the days that you
don't feel so shiny or so confident? Are so good
as you are?
Speaker 1 (59:39):
That I probably need to rest? Is like the biggest thing.
I'm like a go go until I crash, And sometimes
I just need to crash. It's it's just so hard
to where I am. Oh my god. And that is
the advice we will leave them with. Emily.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
I'm so happy that you were able to come to
the studio today talk to us. How do people keep
up with you? How do they follow along with you?
How do they keep up with the Gotham Give Me
the Beats.
Speaker 1 (59:58):
You can find the podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts
called she pivots or with iHeart. You can find it
in the app as well. You can find us also
and our guests on she pivots, the podcasts on Instagram
and Gotham FC has its own account you can see
all the players. Our team does a really good job
of getting to know all of our players in their personalities,
so I definitely recommend it. And we have three home
games less less this season. Oh my gosh, I need
(01:00:21):
I need to get you need to need to get over.
Ives are immaculate.
Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Lives are immaculate. From the Chief Vibe Officer herself, I'm
over at Emily a body at Hurdle podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Catch you guys next time.
You are never going to gain confidence by always doing
things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing to build on.
You have to do things that are hard.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, hey, Emily, here, you are listening to episode three
hundred and seventy five of Hurdle A wele on this
focus podcast, where I talk to inspirational people about everything
from their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips
on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.
We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My
goal through these discussions is to empower you to better
(00:43):
navigate yours and move with intention so that you can
stride towards your own big potential and of course have
some fun along the way. Transparently, I've been thinking a
lot about the intro. I've been thinking a lot about
the things I've been reading about whether or not I
should be no bring these episodes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It's crazy, what is this?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Almost eight years into podcasting and I'm still learning many things.
So stay tuned because you may be seeing some shifts
over here on the heart and feed.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I digress.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm so excited to bring you my conversation today with
Emily Tish Susman.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
She is the co owner.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Of Gotham FC, the National Women's Soccer League team based
here in New York will technically New Jersey. The team
serves as the only NWSL team in the Greater New York,
New Jersey region, to be specific. Emily's also the host
of the She Pivots podcast with a background in politics. Today,
(01:43):
we talk about how she made the pivot from working
in Washington, DC to having a family, moving up north
and getting involved heavily in women's sports. Emily gets really
vulnerable today in a way that I'm not entirely sure
I've had a guest open up about her journey. Emily
(02:06):
talks about her pregnancy, conceiving rather quickly, and the hardships
that went hand in hand with pregnancy and not feeling
super connected to her children after birth. It is something
that I'm sure many women can relate to, and also
something that I don't really feel like many people speak on.
So for that to Emily, I'm super appreciative of you
(02:30):
opening up. I know that isn't easy. We also talk
about her own personal wellness journey and how that ebbed
and flowed as she has evolved as a person, evolved
within her career, talking about how it was almost impossible
to have any balance, so to speak, between her personal
and professional life when she was working in Washington, DC.
(02:52):
We talk about the state of women's sports and how
she became co owner of the Gotha, what she brings
to the team as their Chief Vibes Officer, not an
official title, but she wears the badge of honor proudly,
and what she's looking forward to next.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I really appreciate.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Emily's tenacity, how she is so unapologetically herself.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I do want a flag.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Like I said, She's very open about her journey to motherhood,
and this episode does include that open dialogue about trying
to conceive motherhood pregnancy. So, depending on where you are
in your personal journey, take that information how you will.
I appreciate you for being here, for being a hurdler,
and for listening. Make sure you're following along over on
(03:35):
social It's over at Emily Body. I'm over at Hurdle podcast.
And last little bit of housekeeping, subscribe to the weekly
Hurdle newsletter. The link to do that is in the
show notes. With that, let's get to it, let's get
it's a hurdling.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Today.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I am sitting down with Emily Tish Susman. She's a
co owner of the Gotham FC. She's also the host
of the she Pivots podcast. How are we doing today, Emily,
Welcome to hurdle.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Feeling good. Great that I'm at hurdle makes it a
great day. It makes it a great day. It's a
beautiful day. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Gotham right now, sixth in the league, a familiar place
for you. How are you feeling after last night's win.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Vibes are high, feeling great. The team is really jelling
in the second half of the season. Vibes are high
with the team. They're about to go on a bit
of a West coast swing. And look, we do well
on the road.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We do it well on the road. Oh, I'm so
excited for you. I remember the uh, how do you
say it? Maybe the famous sixth place year where you
were in sixth place for a little bit and then
we had to rally around Krieger and we know how
that ended.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I mean, I love that you're going. You got like
the deep cut, Oh, the Gotham Deep Cut. So Gotham
was ranked six in the league, eked into the playoffs,
made it through the play, I to the championship and
won and became national champions. That was actually we closed
and bought the team majority owners of the team two
days before the championship, So that was actually basically our
(05:12):
first day with the team and the NWSL National Women's
Soccer League and women's soccer had never been acknowledged at
the White House in a championship event the way like
the Super Bowl winning team goes. So the first thing
that I was really able to provide to the team
given my background, which I know that we'll get into
in my political background, was being able to set up
that visit with President Biden. And that was the first
(05:32):
time it's ever happened for women's soccer.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
No big deal, just a casual, just a casual trip
to the White House. It's so fun to see what's
going on here. And before we do get into your background,
I do think that probably a question you get very
often is what is it that you do as the
co owner of the team. So let's lay that groundwork
and then we'll get into everything.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's a great question. So our actual ownership group, we
have an ownership group that's made up of me, my sister,
and my cousins with my sister as the head of
our ownership group. We came in as controlling minority with
the pathway to majority. We are now majority owners, but
we knew from the beginning that we would be controlling owners.
My sister has ended up although it wasn't the intention.
My sister has ended up really functioning as the president
(06:13):
of the team, so she really runs the day to
day of the team.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
What I do is that we call me the Chief
Vibes Officer, the title you never aspired to but fill
very well. I really appreciate that. Although maybe I have
been aspiring to my whole life, we don't know. I've
always been building to it.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So I bring culture to Gotham and Gotham to culture,
so we can get a little bit more into that later.
I love this.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh my gosh, well a fun seat to be in
for sure. And again, maybe you didn't aspire to do
something like this, at least you didn't, let's say, a
decade ago. So let's bring it back and talk to
me about your time working in Washington, d C. Politics,
a stone's throwaway from where we are now.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, quite a different career. I started in quite a
different career. My background is actually I'm a lawyer. I'm
a constitutional law turm. I worked on campaigns, some for people,
some presidential, some congressional. Mostly I worked on issue campaigns.
So I was the lead lobbyist on the repeal of Donastontel,
which was the law that mandated that we fire gay, lesbian,
the transgender Americans from serving military service. We repealed that
(07:16):
law under the Obama administration. I stayed in DC for
a decade running issue campaigns. So our policy people would say,
this is what I want to happen to the law.
They would meet with me and I would figure out
does it go through Congress, does it go through states,
does it go through the White House? And I had
the Obama White House outsourcing campaigns for me to run
for them. And part of that, I spent a decade
(07:36):
on cable news as a commentator. So I did like
the talking head stuff for ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and I
did a ton of Fox News, a lot of Fox News,
and I did that for about I did that for
like more than fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
The way that you say that, And I did a
ton of Fox News.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yes, there's like something on that I hear it Yeah.
It was well because people are like, wait, but aren't
you a Democrat? And I'm like, yeah, I was a
Democratic strategist on Fox News. Yeah. Almost every day, all
the sides need talking heads. Yeah. Well, after a while,
I just said it. It wasn't worth it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
But yes, What was the most challenging thing about being
let's say, like a face to so many of these issues.
I feel like that would come with a certain amount
of hurdles in itself.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It definitely did. I mean I had to speak on
every issue everything, I had to speak on it, and
so I was able. It wasn't just things that I
was an expert on. It was things that I had
to get schooled up on and then put a political
lens on, so I would always have to go back. Fortunately,
I worked at a multi isssue think tank, so I
was able to call on our experts and get me
very quickly. I mean it could be the same day
that I was booked on the topic, so I'd have
to learn pretty quickly what I needed to know enough
(08:47):
to be in that segment. I'd say some of the
hurdles were that I always had to stand my ground.
What I actually I have a great picture of me
in the middle of Hannity and Tucker Carlson where they
both look screaming mad and I look super calm, And
I use it in media trainings like who do you
think is winnings? Argument? Obviously me because the audience listens
(09:09):
sort of to what you say, but on cable news,
quite frankly, they're just looking to see if you can
take the hit. So I would stay calm through it,
and I would make a very clear and fact backed
up point in response. That was one of the hurdles.
I'd also say A big hurdle is that if I
was the face of it, I got a ton of
hate mail. Always. I was used to it, so I
would get it. They would call the hotline where I work,
or they would you know, call like the front desk
(09:30):
where I worked. They would try to figure out my email.
It was mostly pretty vague when it came from the right.
There were some times, especially in presidential primaries, where I
would also get attacked by the left. I was a
media spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign in twenty sixteen, and
I spoke fairly neutrally about the presidential candidates in twenty twenty,
and then I was also attacked by the left, and
that was much more specific and much more hateful.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You really had to stand on your ground and where
you were, and then also get really familiar in what
it was that your definition of so success was. When
you think about your definition of success at that time,
what comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It was super clear to me what success was. It
was getting bookings, it was winning campaigns, and even really functionally,
it was my title. It was a corner office. It
was head count under me. Like I was super clear
with what my definition of success wasn't everybody around me
understood what it was like I really cared about a
job title that other people in my field could understand,
(10:30):
and particularly the talking head stuff like the cable news
stuff came at a real look. My job was demanding,
long hours, always had to be on call, always had
to be up on everything, particularly the cable news stuff.
Because I had to be able to be close enough
and flexible enough to a studio. I would sometimes for
(10:51):
months at a time, I would get up at two
thirty in the morning to be on air by five
to set the news for the day. It was physically
really hard for me, and when I started to get pregnant,
had kids. I had three kids in this span of
three and a half years. It became physically impossible for me,
and that really changed my definition of success.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, so let's talk about before having kids, what taking
care of yourself beyond work looked like for you. So,
did you have any semblance of like a personal wellness routine?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
No? No, And I would have laughed at anyone who did. Right.
I did work out, like I would go to a
workout class either before or after work most of the time.
But once I started, once I got pregnant, it was
like a zero. But no personal wellness meant literally nothing.
There is a sense that if you work for the
greater good, then nothing else should get in the way.
(11:43):
Like what you're everything you're doing, is for greater change,
and so you can't put anything about yourself ahead of that.
Not sleep, not wellness, not anything. It sounds a little toxic.
I yeah, I mean I think there's you know, I
actually feel kind of mixed about it, to be honest
with you, Like it really pushed me out of the
entire industry once I did have other needs. But I
(12:06):
do think there is something to the fact of there
are campaigns that I won simply because I outworked to
the other side. And I think if you work on
a presidential campaign, yes, you have no balance and there
is no wellness, and I'm not sure there can be.
The stakes are incredibly high, and so you have to
treat it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So as you get to this place near personal life
where you are ready to have children, your definition, as
you said, of success starts to shift, and what you
deem to be important starts.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
To shift a bit as well. Talk to me about
how that felt, but not because I wanted it to.
I really didn't. I it turned out I was the
most fertile person on the face of the planet. I
assumed it would take me about a year after going
off Foirth control to get pregnant, and it took me one month.
I really wasn't ready. There was no part of me
that was like yearning to have children, felt connected to babies,
like I really was reviled by them. I was sick
(12:57):
immediately when I got pregnant, and I was really resentful.
I was resentful that my husband didn't understand that I
was having this loss. I was at the height of
my career. I did not want to slow down, and
I didn't see any reason too. But I was so
sick during my pregnancy is that I had to at
least make adjustments, Like I was sleeping under my desk
every day at three pm, I would under my shoepile.
I would just like take a little sigiesstics. My eyes
were physically closing. I was nauseous all day. Every day.
(13:21):
I couldn't work out, and so I gained about one
hundred and forty pounds in total, and it was like
just to get me through, and I was miserable and
I felt so lonely. So my definition of success became
trying to keep up. And then after I had my
first child, I became pregnant eight months again later, so
I met there was like no transition between it and
(13:43):
then again like eighteen months later, a little less than that.
And every time I cried. Every time I cried, I
was like, I can't do this again. I can't go
through this. All I'm trying to do is feel like
myself and myself is working and myself is working hard,
and myself is working hard in politics, and I've worked
so hard for this reputation and for what I've accomplished.
I don't want to lose it, and everything in the
(14:04):
cultural conversation that I looked to was about like this
work life balance or like it just implied that you
had chosen to be with children or desired to be,
and I had no desire to be. And once I
had kids, I felt no connection to them as babies.
I just really resented them. I just I to this day,
I don't feel connected to babies, and I was really
(14:27):
embarrassed about that. Like I, I didn't feel like I
could talk to anybody about it. I didn't feel like
I could look to any way around it because I
understand that other women really want this and struggle to conceive,
and I really feel for them, and I felt very
lonely in the position that I was in. Yeah, entirely understandable.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So as you are navigating all these emotions, did you
find some sort of an outlet to express how you
were feeling and help cope with what you were dealing with?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
No? Not really, I just kept finding ways to work,
like I just I, you know. I. Eventually, after the
second kid, I couldn't go back to the Think Tank
after my second maternity leave because the pace was insane.
I had no child's care on the weekends. That's when
Trump in the first administration was dropping new policies. I
had to run our rapid response for it. I just
found different ways to start consulting. I would, you know,
this is sort of pre work from home era, and
(15:21):
still I was. I would sit in the bottom of
my closet and work all day because that was the
only place I could close the door. Yeah, and they
couldn't find me. And then I thought I had figured
out a way to do it with the third kid.
Like I had a political podcast at the time, I
felt like I had found my outlet to be able
to still talk about the things that I cared about.
And I had all female experts on and so I
(15:43):
felt like I was maybe moving something forward. They got
felt kind of worth doing. And then three weeks after
I had the third baby, was the pandemic, was the lockdown,
and it just it all shattered.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So when it shatters, and when you are now home
with three babies, is coming to terms with this reality
that is it's about to be very different than it was.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
How do you feel lost? I felt totally lost. I
didn't know who I was. There was no part of
me that I could connect to the part of me
that made me feel more most normal was working, and
that part was totally unavailable to me. The thing that
I had to do was take care of three kids
under three and a half, and I did not feel
(16:28):
like myself. I was just scrolling through these, like you know,
Instagram videos of people doing cute things with their kids
all day and I was like, oh my god. My
one son was three and he had twenty minutes of
preschool on zoom a day. And there was one day
that they had us do an activity that involved like cooking,
(16:48):
and I cried through the entire thing. I was like,
this is too much pressure again to this. So I
just I tried to found to find ways that I
could and I just tried to find things that made
me feel the most normal, and that was building something working.
The thing that it eventually came to was, if I
feel so lost, women have gone through things that are
(17:10):
way worse than this, I know they have. I need
to hear something actually worse to make me feel better.
And I need to hear something. I am going to
be fundamentally changed after this. I am not going to
come out of this the same person, and I don't
want to know everything about resilience is not connecting to me,
because that feels like going back to something that I was.
I can never go back. I am fundamentally changed. I
(17:33):
want to know that I can move forward with my
work experience, with the personal experience that I've gone through,
and build something different and maybe it can be maybe
as good. Like I don't need it to be better
than it was, like I just needed to be. I
just need to feel meaning in it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, I need to feel meaning in it now before
we talk about what that thing is. I do want.
I do feel like I need to garner an understanding.
Were you like googling to try to find other women
like you, because when your community is immediately available to you,
you're trying to seek understanding somewhere and you knew that
(18:10):
you couldn't be the only person in the world that
felt this way. So did you find community anywhere to
talk about how you were feeling? No?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Not really, I mean, you know, like I had, I
had my mom chats, like I became even closer with
other friends of mine from college who also had newborns,
so we were in the same situation and toddlers. We
were in the same situation. I ended up connecting with
like random people from my past who were in a
similar situation to me, and we had those like real
(18:38):
close pandemic relationships where we helped each other through it.
I don't know that I was googling people, but every
time I found a story that sounded similar to mine,
like I didn't want to hear other mommy stories that
I found depressing, I was like, oh God, this is
going to get worse right before it gets better. I
(18:59):
wanted to find that felt big, like that someone had
gone through what I now call an intervening life event,
and I would just get so excited when I found
that story. Sometimes I would just DM them and just
find them. I dmmed a lot of Peloton instructors. Yeah,
I think that's how I found community. There are a
lot of Peloton instructors that have been on the show.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And then I think the secondary question here I thought
someone might be wondering, is you went off birth control.
You knew you wanted to be a mom, but you,
because you had never done it before, weren't sure what
it would feel like at the different stages of bringing
up your children.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah. I mean I understand that there is an intellectual
divide there like, yes, I was off birth control, but
everyone I wasn't the youngest. I had never gotten pregnant
before everyone I knew, including in people in my own family,
it had taken them a year after being off birth
control for the birth control to leave their family to
get pregnant. And I just wasn't that psyched about it,
(19:53):
Like I felt like I had nothing about it felt
concrete and exciting to me. So I felt like I
had a year to get used to the idea and
hope that something would click. And I would hear stories
about people saying, oh, you know, like the second I
saw the baby, my perspective change my life. And I
was like, maybe it'll click then, and you know what,
it didn't. I was like, oh, thank god, these you
(20:14):
know this birth is over. This sucked.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Like you come to this place where you're like, okay,
is there a way for me to channel what feels
like my purpose and like really utilize my life understanding
and practice to create something new?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And that is where the basis the idea for Sheep
of Its comes from. Yes, yeah, you know. The thing
that I said when I was still in politics is
that I wasn't an issue expert. I was a function expert.
I was an expert on the function of how to
build a campaign, and that can really apply to anything.
So I took that process and I took that mindset,
and I took it to this cultural challenge. Now, even
(20:48):
when I was in politics, I said, some people change culture.
That feels way too broad and hard for me. I'm
going to change laws, and all of a sudden, if
that was unavailable to be like, maybe I'd try this
big amorphous culture change thing. I had built a podcast
with a production company, this political podcast that I'd had before,
called Your Political Playlist, and I thought, this time, I'm
(21:08):
going to do it myself. I'm going to do every
piece of it myself. And if it's going to feel
important enough to me and not maybe not like important
for the world, but important to me, then I need
to learn every piece of the business. And so it took.
I ended the political podcast so that I had space
and understanding, and I did a little bit of like
a tour, like I went around and tested ideas with people,
(21:28):
people I respected, people that I didn't know as well,
that were maybe in the media industry, and said I
have this idea. I actually had two ideas at the time.
One became she pivots, interviewing women to understand how they
go through something and come out better on the other
side with a different career. And I actually had a
second idea at the time, also about raising sensitive boys,
that my son is incredibly sensitive, and I didn't see
(21:51):
anything in current culture about celebrating his sensitivity. It was
all about overcoming it. So I wrote articles on both
of them, and I pulled them both in magazines, and
the sensitive son one ended up becoming the number one
article on Reclare for I think about a month, and
then I launched one with sheep pivots, But I kept
them both going at the same time to see, like,
(22:12):
which feels right, which feels worthy enough for me to
really lean into. But even as I was putting these
things out into the world and saying this is my
culture change moment, this is my new thing, I was
still having a lot of doubt in myself one that
anybody wanted to hear anything cultural from me, except for, like,
you know, political commentary. And part of the reason I
(22:34):
had that doubt was actually external doubt that I had
shopped these ideas around to every talent agency and nobody
knew what to do with me. They were like, oh,
we like you, Emily, we like you a lot, but
like your background's news and you're not trying to be
a news anchor, so we really don't know what to
do with this concept. So I really got that external
(22:55):
feedback that like it didn't live anywhere, And I was
also struggling to feel like it was real enough, Like
I changed laws, I worked with. The White House is
sitting around talking about how I really hated being locked
in with three babies. Good enough, right, Like I really
struggled with that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, And so you said that you wanted to learn
all different aspects of the business of what it would
take to create this new type of podcast for yourself.
What was the most challenging one for you to get
into to really feel like you could.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Grasp, well, I understanding the actual mechanics of audio was
like a real ya. I still wouldn't say I really
got that. I did a lot of like making pillow
forts and sitting in them, a lot of trying that,
so those went pretty badly. Eventually I figured out that
I could outsource that piece in a good way, but
(23:47):
I also really felt like it was important for me
because I had this big insecurity around does anybody want
to hear anything about culture change from me? And is
it important enough? I really felt like I needed a
media partner for it. So I went around, and you know,
the agencies wouldn't take me as a client and pitch me.
So I did it myself. And so I went out
and found contacts at all these different kinds of media
agencies and so pitching to them differently. You know, some
(24:10):
wouldn't even take a meeting with me. Some would take
it and then say, well, you're not really what we're
looking for. It was a lot of rejection and so
being able to pitch myself in a way that felt
good and important enough when I really doubted it myself,
I say that that was a That was an interesting
piece of the journey too.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There are a lot of people that hear this and
they think to themselves, wow, I wish I could even
begin to garner that level of self belief because despite
the amount of rejection that you received, you were still
willing to, as the kids say, stand on business right.
You were still willing to put yourself out there. So
for someone that comes to you and has that level
(24:49):
of concern that says, I don't even know if I
could ever do that, if I could ever be the
person that has that much confidence in myself to go
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What do you say to them? Well, I take the
advice of this same as when I was meeting with
people who were coming out of college networking for jobs
is to understand who you're meeting with and have a
really specific ask for them in that and understand what
level they are compared to you. Right like, if you're
just out of college or if you're re entering the workforce,
go to the people that you know really well and say,
(25:18):
what are my skill sets? Like you can see it
differently than I can, how would you pitch me? And
that can help you build and really be crystal clear
about what you're pitching, what you should lean into, and
how you should talk about yourself. And then once you're
ready to enter a different industry than you've been in,
or maybe expand the industry, then you can go one
step remove to the people you might be like you
(25:39):
know one or two connections away from on LinkedIn and say, hey,
would you take a meeting with me? But once you've
done that, once you've gone to someone who's step in
that industry. You do need to be prepared. You can't
waste their time. That's not the person that you have
a brainstorm in conversation with and it's like, what do
you think I should do? Like I just sort of
love this field, you know, like that's the kind of
all you have with your girlfriend. Yeah, have it with them,
(26:01):
and then once you've got that really solid, then you
can make the leap to talk to someone who's like
steeped in the industry, but also that part as well.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Have that conversation with your girlfriends. So often when it
comes to career, you know, we think about getting together
with the girls and we're talking about like who knows
what what happened over the weekend and kind of trying
to take a break from maybe the madness that is
the work week. But your friends, your squad can be
truly the best place to pulse check so many things
(26:32):
when it comes to what it is that you're doing
and who it is that you want to be. When
you said, just now, okay, what do you perceive of me?
These are people that know you front and back. Why
don't you ask them?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
And a lot of people don't think Okay, I actually
have this built in support squad that can give me
some really great feedback relevant to you know, beyond what
we're doing on the weekends here.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah. Absolutely, we don't even realize how strong our skills are,
especially when it comes to interpersonal skills and EQ. We
are often very strong in these spaces and can be
leaders among our peers. And especially if you're just born
that way, you may not realize that's a skill.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And sometimes just born that way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
just a natural leader, but you may not realize it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I had a really interesting conversation in the last couple
of months with someone, you know, I have young kids.
I'm in a community people with young kids. A mom
who has three kids, who hasn't worked outside of the
home in about twelve years. And she said to me, well,
I really haven't worked and I don't have any skills.
And I was like, ugh, hold up, you are a
leader among your peers, you are incredibly organized, you have
(27:39):
a ton of skills. And what actually made me insane
is that she was like, well, my husband said I
really need business skills, and I was like, you have
business skills, you just have been applying them in a
different context. You need someone outside of you to tell
you that you have those skills and apply them in
this context. But you absolutely have them.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, and sometimes you just need that other to kind
of like remind you who the hell that you are.
I was having this really beautiful conversation with a friend
yesterday about this broader concept of confidence, and confidence isn't
something that just drops down overnight on the lucky chosen right.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Confidence is something that comes from repetition.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
And so when you take the time on the days
that you feel good, on the days that you feel bad,
on the days that you feel med, and you still
show up anyway, that is where confidence comes from.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I would even build on that and say and doing
hard things that you are never going to gain confidence
by always doing things that come easily. Otherwise there's nothing
to build on. You have to do things that are
hard to be able to have any semblance of confidence
and really feel like you know who you are.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, And so for you, the hard thing is starting
this podcast at the time you are in pillow forts,
you're brainstorming, you're shopping these ideas. When do you really
feel like you're starting to garner the momentum?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I think when I put the well I did. The
big one is that I got a handful of guests
that I felt really good about. So I said, let
me just try this. I'm going to try something that
feels concrete that I can pull off. I can do
ten guests in a season, I can have an arc,
and let me start to go out to people whose
either stories haven't been told or people whose stories may
(29:18):
have been told but never this aspect of it, because
I really wanted to uplift the personal piece out of
their professional narratives. Once I had a little bit of
that idea and that roster together, I did find a
partner who really believed in me, and it was a
partner that I really expected. It was Marie Clair Magazine,
so they were willing to take me on as the
first podcast for the magazine. I became a contributing editor
for the business column for the business section of the magazine,
(29:40):
which also felt like a little strange to me, like
I was coming out of government and policy. I wasn't
really sure I could be a business reporter, but it
was understanding that it was kind of the same skill
set that I was applying across the board, and the
fact that they were willing to take that chance on me.
It made me feel I would never really say that
I've had like a full imposter syndrome, but I was like,
oh my god, I pulled it off, Like I'm still
(30:03):
checking to see if this idea is real, and they
believe in me enough to launch this with me, like
they believe they are taking a chance on me building
their brand. Like I kind of pulled it off.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, you pulled it off. And then in practice, how
did it feel?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
It felt good. Yeah, it felt really good. I loved
doing the interviews. It took me a while to get
into the rhythm. I still had to check myself about
being personal in any way because I was very good
at cable news. I was very good at being buttoned
up clear. She was well media trained. She was well
(30:41):
media trained, Like people don't realize, but it's a real
skill to be able to pull new thoughts in your
head and never move your head and never move your
eyes so like always look straight. Like I was really
good at that. And even if you listened to the
early at like the early episodes of my show, I
basically edited myself out of it entirely, like you barely
ever hear me asking questions, yeah, because I didn't feel
(31:01):
secure in it.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
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dot com slash hurdle today. Early on, what would you
say was the most helpful piece of feedback that you got?
(34:05):
Because to you here, you're saying you don't hear me
ask questions. I remember early on a mentor of mine
said that people are going to come back to your podcast,
yes because they are good guests, but because they like you.
And so if you aren't having a conversation, if you're
just there being a talking head and asking through a
list of questions, then you're going to lose people. So
(34:26):
that was the best piece of advice that I had
got that I received.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So what was yours? Well, the feedback actually came from
the guests. At the end of every episode or the
end of every conversation I've interviewed, the guests would say,
oh my god, I've never shared it like that before.
I have never shared so much. I've never felt so
good about a conversation. And after doing that capsule of ten,
I thought to myself, you know what, I am kind
of good at this, and I don't have to hide
(34:50):
behind the guest story. People can hear me ask the
questions too. And so from the end of the first
season to the beginning of the second season you'll hear
like a real shift in the way that we edit
the show, because is I keep more of my question
asking and more of my edit in And that really
did come from the guest But I actually had a
big hurdle even before that, is that I had this big,
you know, insecurity that I'm trying to overcome. And I
(35:12):
put together an email list of all my personal and
professional contacts to announce the facts that I am now
doing a personal podcast and I'm sunsetting my career as
a political strategist, which also felt like I thought everyone
was going to laugh me out of town. Although I
was already gone, I couldn't tell if I cared, and
you know, saying this personal thing and saying that I struggled,
and it was so vulnerable and I'm trying to have
(35:34):
a new identity around it, and I launch it, and
I launch it with this podcast called Pivot, and I
knew enough that I had to trademark it, or I
at least had to do a trademark check. So I
had hired an intellectual property attorney to do a trademark
check for me. And one of the things that I
had done in creating like all the different like the
business of the show, is that I had created different
formats for it. So one of them is that it
would be an award and then I would get to
(35:56):
interview people after I gave them the award. I did
not have a very ip attorney. They had done the
trademark check as the copyright the check as Pivot Awards,
and they didn't tell me that. So within two weeks
of launching the show, I get a cease and desist
order from Vox Media, who owns the parent company that
(36:16):
owns the podcast called Pivot, and I'm like, it's all gone.
I just did this major, I just rebranded myself and
I screwed it up. And I went through almost two
months of back and forth them saying well, here's the
kinds of names you can use, and I was like,
but none of them were pivot. And going through that
really solidified for me that once I'm going to fight
(36:38):
for this, I care enough to do it. And two
it's the pivot that I care about. No other name
or title was acceptable to me. My mom gave me
the idea for she Pivots, and at first I had
I was. I was like, well, maybe I want to
interview a man from time to time, and then I
realized I actually don't care. So I was fine with
she pivots.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
So it was fine after I realized that men don't
need to be in the space.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
We've heard enough. We've already been there. Yeah, we've heard
enough from men.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
And so I mean, at first you hear it, you'r
lukewarm to the idea, and then you really get on board.
For you, when you get on board, do you feel
it deep in your you feel in your chest?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah, that's fighting for it. Oh yeah, I just fought
for this and I care. I care way more than
I realized that I did. Okay, And so she Pivots
is born. She Pivots is born.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Wow. Okay, And so now, as you said, you go
through that first season. The second season becomes more in
depth than the third, and so on.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
You've done four Uh, yeah, we're going into season five now, yep.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yep, going into season I've had about one hundred and
thirty five guests. Can you imagine four seasons ago saying
that sentence out loud?
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Oh my god? The lift to get to ten the
first ten in the first season is probably the same
lift that it's been afterwards. Yeah, it was so it
just felt so big and so hard, and everything felt
like a decision. No, I never could have I never
could have amenda with it.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You know, you talked about how important it was to
you to really make sure that your guests were telling
stories in ways that maybe they hadn't told these stories before.
When you reflect yourself on some of the stories that
you've told, what comes to mind for you when you
think about maybe some of the things that you've spoken
about before but haven't really brought new light to as
of late.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Well, I'm incredibly proud of the vulnerability that the show brings,
the level that people feel comfortable telling me different aspects
of the story that are so personal they often I'm
really the thesis of the show is to integrate the
personal into the professional, to show why we've made these
professional choices and how we're better because of this personal
(38:33):
thing that we went through. And we're just not used
to thinking of our lives that way. We're not used
to thinking of our professional stories that way. So I'm
incredibly proud that I've helped the people who have gone
through it even make that connection for themselves. And a
lot of what I've learned through going through the interviews
is that it brings out a different vulnerability in me
(38:54):
that I'm willing to say things that are personal and
willing to talk about things that are personal, and I
get more and more comfortable with it as I go.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, So, now that you have this platform and this
place to get personal, when you think back to the
woman who felt so alone, who felt so othered in
this otherwise very quote unquote normal experience, what comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I'm proud of how far I've come. I really talking
about pivoting. It's become a much more popular word and
much more popular concept, which I think is only for
the better. The more we're talking about it, the more
people are likely to get touched by some conversation, and
hopefully they feel connection to it. I mean, you can
hear as I talk about it right now, Like I'm
(39:43):
pretty clear on talking about how not excited I felt
about being pregnant, how alone I felt in all of it,
how little connection I felt to even my own babies.
And I understand that that is still hard to talk
about and hard to hear. I think for a lot
of people, really specific in talking about it, because I
felt like there was no one that could have felt
(40:04):
more alone in those feelings than me, Like it was
so unacceptable to feel those things. So I don't sugarcoat
it in any way. I don't try to give it
a positive lens. Now. It was what it was, and
I will say that now because of that, I really
have unique relationships with each of my kids, and I
(40:27):
parent them for who they are, and I don't do
it because of what I'm trying to project on them.
I am proud of the relationship that I have with
my kids, and I think it's in some ways different
than other people's. But I can live with my parenting
choices because they're all my own. How does motherhood make
you feel?
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Now?
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Now? I feel joy around it. I think that being
with my kids has I think They're super interesting, Like
they see things differently than I do. And there it's
brought out a lot of things that I thought adults
couldn't do. We're like thought was embarrassing, you know, Like
(41:08):
I jump in the pool with my clothes on. I
have the biggest bruise you've ever seen on the back
of my leg cause I fell out of a tree
because we were limbing trees. We have farm animals now,
things that I never thought were possible as an adult,
and things that I never definitely never thought when I
was like a power lady in a power suit, like
(41:29):
on Capitol Hill, Like I definitely never thought would be
part of my life. Right, I'm proud of who they are,
and I'm proud that I bring them along with I'm
honest with them, and I'm proud of how I bring
them along with me and my work. And I think
they're becoming. They will be great adults. They will be
great adults. Yeah, Like that's how I parent them, Like
(41:50):
I think about what kind of adults they would be
and what kind of lessons they have to learn now,
And part of that is building confidence. Not everything can
be easy.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Not everything can be easy, And I mean going back
to talking about how at the time, when you were
working in Washington, DC, you didn't really feel like you
had any sort of steady, consistent wellness routine. What does
wellness and taking care of yourself look like these days?
It's incredibly different.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
While I was building sheep pivots actually really coincides with
my own not to sound cliche, but like wellness journey
along with it. You know, I had gained so much
weight with my first pregnancy, really hadn't lost it before
the second, had lost most of it before the third,
but then gained about sixty pounds again, and that coincides
with as I'm redoing my life like I had always.
(42:32):
There was a piece of me that, when I was
still working in politics, felt like if I dedicate as
much mental energy and time as it's going to take
to lose this weight, people will look at me and
think I'm not serious about my job. Everything has to
be being serious about my job. And so all of
a sudden, I had no job and I had to
redo the whole thing. It was also during the lockdown,
and I thought I cannot come out of this with
(42:53):
the same body that doesn't feel like it's mine. I
had a lot of health problems. They had thought I
had a breast cancer scare after I had had the
second Maybe I did not have it. I slipped a
disc from delivery. My abs were totally separated, like I
had just had a lot of issues from not just
the pregnancies and the deliveries, but also carrying so much
(43:14):
weight for about five years, and I thought, I cannot
come out of this the same person. I have to
really prioritize this and take this seriously. So before my
third baby was one years old, I went down to
a health clinic in Florida. I went for two weeks.
It's called Critticken. It's for people who are basically old
and I have heart disease. I was neither of those things. Nevertheless,
(43:34):
that program really worked for me. Why did you choose that, Loe?
Why did I choose it? It's a great question. I
think probably because I'm a vegan and always have been,
and so it could work for me. And so the diet,
you know, it's sort of like an outdated idea of
what dieting is, or like what eating healthy is, and
it's very vegetables. First, didn't I felt like every other
(43:54):
like nutrition or you know diet or like anything I
had looked at was like, well, if I'm not going
to eat fish, but this one was very vegetables first
and vegetable protein first, and so that really worked for me,
and I super focused on it, and I lost the
rest of the weight and got tone within about six months.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
And it was a very serious endeavor for me, and
it really has changed my life where I'm stronger than
I've ever been. Fitness is a very serious part of
my life now and it really never had been before,
Like I really prioritize it in my day. I do
something pretty aggressively active every day, and it's changed my
relationship to me even change my relationship to my kids
(44:34):
and parenting that I hadn't realized how much I was
always trying to end the play or not play the sport,
or not pick them up, like because it was hard
for me. And now because I'm strong, I'm driving it
or I can stay in it with them, and it's
made our relationship much happier, much more joyful.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Beyond the diet component of it, you talk about doing
something physically demanding every day, what does the movement component
of your overall wehill and this routine look like.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I'll do pretty heavy weights two to three times a week.
I've been working with the same trainer he helped me
rehab my back after the slip discs. I've been working
with him for a long time, very dedicated to him.
But we do it outdoors. I really care about there
being a lot of natural light, so I'll be outdoors
almost any time that I can. Beyond that, I might
take a class. I really like like a good heavy movement,
(45:25):
like a hard you know, like a like a tremble
like I don't. I don't love a yoga. My running
goes in waves. It's usually pretty bad. But I will
at least do like a good hard, aggressive walk with
a weight to invest on to try to get that
in everything. She's a rocker.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So talk about a one eighty right,
because you went from this place of really not putting
any heavy emphasis on this for yourself to now really
investing in yourself. I firmly believe that when you take
the time to invest in yourself, there is nothing to
regret in that because it only pays back to you
and gives you that real word tenfold.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
It has been incredibly warning, but I have to say that.
I also think there's like an edge of it, Like
I do think to some degree we thinking about ourselves
too much. And I use it as a tool to
let me live the life that I want to live.
I don't organize my entire day around figuring out the
right fitness class that I want to go to, Like
if I can't do it in a way that fits
(46:22):
into my day and gives me the ability to accomplish
the things that I want, then I throw on a
vest and I go outside, Like I don't overthink it.
I do think that's an important piece that there's a
balance to it too, because I do see a lot
of I think people overthink like am I doing it
exactly right? Am I getting exactly the right routine? Am
I doing the skin thing whatever it needs to be?
(46:45):
And I think, to some toge we're thinking about ourselves
too much. Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
I also think that when it comes to such a
big transformation like the one that you've had, there's a
lot of quote unquote shoulding yourself typically involved in that,
Like you probably we're exposed to so many different things
that you could do and constantly wondering should I be
doing this, Should I be doing that?
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Should I be doing that?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
How did you get to a point where you were
able to listen to yourself intuitively and trust that the
path that you were on was the right path for you.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
I think probably once I started to see results from it,
Like once I started to get stronger, once I started
to feel stronger, I think that I was like, oh, okay,
this is worth it, this is right. And once I
started to be able to be much more active with
my kids and pick them up quite quite frankly. Yeah, Oh,
it's so.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Special and it's so rewarding, and it's just now that
you're in this place, As someone who also went for
her own health journey, I can sympathize and relate to
You can't imagine going back.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
No, No, I really can't. It's like a very strict
part of my day, my week because I'm so proud
of how far that I've come and I'm so happy
with the things that it facilitates me to be able
to do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Then, as you now are strong and feeling good in
your body and able to play with your kids, you
segue into the women's sports space, You're like, well, now
that I'm in this place.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
It's a perfect time for me to really get on
board with that. I know, I'm so intense and I
do something, I go all the way in.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
But the thing is is that you and your upbringing,
you were really around sports quite often. Give us some
context on that before we talk about the end ofsl So.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I grew up in New York City. When I was
nine years old, my grandfather bought fifty percent of the
New York Giants. So being a part of sports ownership
is a very big part of our family tradition. We
went to Giants games every single week with my grandparents,
sat next to them, always with them, had dinner afterwards.
It would go into the off season. We often went
to away games. It's been like a very big part
(48:42):
of our family identity. It's one of the things that
our family organizes around. Even if I wasn't kind of
sporty and like playing a lot of sports myself, it's
been a big part of our family culture.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yeah, and so having that as a background, when this
opportunity came around to get involved with the Gotham it
felt now question mark question mark.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Yeah, I think we're I think we were kind of
figuring it out. So I had three kids very close
in age. My sister actually went through the same thing
with the three kids. She had been the head of
global marketing for Peloton and left when she had the
third kid. So my sister started a sports VC fund
to invest on behalf of our family, leveraging our position
in the Giants and the access that we had into
the sports world. And I thought, cool, go for good,
(49:24):
go you like, what a cool thing you're doing. That
seems perfect. And she made a couple of different investments, smaller,
and then she saw that the biggest opportunity was in
women's sports, particularly in women's soccer, particularly in New York.
They wanted her as the lead investor because of her
operating background with Peloton, and again I thought, go you
(49:48):
go off, have a great time like that. I would
have nothing to do with it. We fast forward to
the second day that we signed in as owners were
in the national Championship. I flew to San Diego where
the championship game was for the championship, basically just to
support her, and thought like, what a cool investment this is.
And from the context of being around I mean, I've
(50:09):
been to almost every Super Bowl my entire life, from
the context of being around what the NFL has built
to and what that business looks like. To see what
I had walked into when these were the champions this
was the championship game. The level of business was just
so different that it did feel like this, all of
(50:33):
this background that I had could actually be useful. So
from the minute I stepped on the ground, I was
figuring out ways even really just to help my sister
get her hands around it and figure out how do
we turn this into the business of the future and
the business that these athletes deserve because they've always worked hard.
(50:54):
It wasn't the athletes, it was the business around them,
and that has just grown over the last eighteen months
basically almost been almost two years.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
What's the biggest difference in what's going on with the
team now versus eighteen months ago?
Speaker 1 (51:07):
How long can this podcast.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Look?
Speaker 1 (51:10):
I'd say the biggest difference is the two things that
my sister brought into it leading the team. One is
the understanding that we will be the first global sports
brand for women. There are other global sports brands that
people understand, like Real Madrid or the Dallas Cowboys or
the Yankees, like you can see their logos anywhere in
the world and you understand what it means. That person
may not even understand who the starting ten are, you know,
(51:33):
but you understand what that global sports brand means. There
was no global sports brand for women, and it will
be US, and so we make decisions based on that
with that as the north Star. The second thing she
did is that she reoriented US as a live events business.
So she brought over the head of live Events and
Activations from Peloton. She brought over a lot of other
marketing people from Peloton to really be thinking about how
(51:56):
do we make this a wrap around experience for everyone
who shows up. People have to feel like they are
attached to every piece of the experience. They also additionally
need to understand the stories of our players, because that's
how we're You know that people get attached through players
and through the stories of them, and they are and
they're worth it. Yeah, every one of them has an
incredible story and they're incredible people, and they are worth it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
It can be challenging when people are so attached to
the players when there are changes within the roster. I
know that you guys went through a lot of changes
at the top of this season. How did you handle
that in a way that really showed your biggest fans
that you truly do care about them.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
We had we had our GM speak directly to our
to our audience and to our fans, and she spoke
directly about how the slogan of our team that we
talk about that like really gets into the values is
always building, never finished. We are always building the team
of the future. We are never satisfied with where we are,
even if it's winning a national championship, but we are
always thinking ahead because we are planning not just for
(52:57):
this season, not just for next season, but we are
planning to be a global franchise, and so we are
always building, never finished.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I am just like sitting here and again the confidence
that radiates from the way that you talk about what
it is that not only you are creating what you
expect from this brand. It's really beautiful and it beckons
the question.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
How do you maintain it?
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Because there are going to be hurdles, There are going
to be things that don't go as you'd hoped right,
and so those otherwise shake that confidence. How do you
come back to this through line of we've got this
and this is what we are going to be well.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
I actually think implicit in the question is the two
things that it is. One is keeping your north star.
You know where you're going. If you know where you're going,
then you just make every decision focused on that you
don't get distracted by pieces along the way. And the
second piece is to expect that the form will change.
I feel like this in my podcast, in my investments.
(53:58):
We can see it in Gotham. You have to understand
that there will be hurdles and that things will change. Look,
I started an award show and then got sued on it.
You know, like the form changed, and my core north
star was to be able to move culture by telling
stories of women who have changed their lives for personal reasons.
And I got to be able to do that, but
(54:20):
the form changed. So understanding that it is part of
the process and not getting derailed by it, I think
is an incredibly important piece of being able to move forward.
I'll also say, you know the other piece of it.
You know, I have confidence talking about it. I get
that from the players. They are so confident in their
abilities and we have confidence in them. One of the
(54:41):
things that was transformative for me that first weekend that
I went out and met them at the championship. We
stayed in the hotel with them, so I got to
see them interact, and they go on their walk before
every game together, walk with me, when with mey, our
coach says, And to see them interact. I had never
been around women who were so physically strong and also
(55:02):
so unapologetic about being physically strong. And I thought to myself,
I I need to see this. I want every insecure
mom in my class to see this. I want my
kids to see this. These are the role models that
I want my kids to see, the role models that
I want my daughters to see. But by the way,
my daughters see a lot of strong women, these are
(55:22):
the role models I want my son to see because
I want him to also know that women can be
physically strong and have confidence. Yeah, oh my god, chill's
just thinking about it. We love strong women.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
And speaking of strong women, obviously, women's sports at the
crux of such an unbelievable moment in culture period right now.
We are seeing so much momentum and it must feel
some kind of way to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
It feels incredible, honestly to have walked into something and
then see its skyrocketing almost immediately. It does put a
little bit of pressure on us, to be honest, to
like move a little faster, like faster than maybe we
would have normally internal rondomitess or like building to what
we want to. But again, like our athletes have always
been at this level and they've always deserved it, So
it's the right kind of pressure. Yeah, And so when
(56:09):
you say the pressure to move a little bit faster,
how do you keep up with that? How do you
execute in a way that aligns with your north star
when maybe you're having to do things at a little
bit more quicker of a clip. I think it's putting
people in place that you really trust and you think
have good judgment and to not micromanage them. And actually
my sister does that incredibly well. She has put very
(56:30):
good people in senior positions and doesn't micromanage them. And
then I bring in we have entirely different skill sets,
so she is managing the team. She's actually now the
president of the entire league of the chair of the
entire league of the NWSL, So we have incredibly different
skill sets. I bring in, as we say, like the
vibes officer, right, like I'm the she Vibes officer. I
bring culture to Gotham. I bring Gotham to culture. So
(56:53):
being able to work also, my sister and I never
thought we would work together. By the way, how is
that for you? It's been great because we do have
very different skill sets. We're very close, but we're very different.
And owning that I think is so powerful. Owning and
sitting in what you know to be true. It's not
about ego, It's just about facts. Yeah. Yeah, our kids
(57:14):
are very close and the facts that we can and
we can see each other every weekend at games. We
live in two different places now, but we see each
other every weekend of games. And the fact that we
are able to create for our kids what was so
incredibly formative for us in our childhood. The fact that
we can do it for our kids and that we
can do it for women is very important to us.
(57:35):
I say that is essentially one of our north stars
as well.
Speaker 2 (57:38):
Like personally, someone comes to your Instagram page, they see
a podcast host obviously a co owner of The Gotham.
But when you look in the mirror, Emily, what is
it that you see looking back at you?
Speaker 1 (57:51):
I see someone who is finally comfortable in every piece
of themselves. I was so serious when I worked in policy,
and I worked so hard, and I was so proud
of it, and I couldn't be that silly. I couldn't
be that fun. You know. I started dying my hair
(58:11):
lavender during the pandemic because I wanted to do something
that gave me a little joy. And now we like
to say this is my natural purple. I could never
be doing the job that I had done with it,
and I don't do it for anybody else. I do
it for myself because it brings me joy. I'd say,
I now see someone who finally embraces every part of themselves.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
When you think about the woman that was beside herself
in the midst of having three children within three years,
the woman who felt so lost, so unsure, so othered
by the circumstance.
Speaker 1 (58:46):
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you offer
her during that hurdle moment. It's so hard to say
what advice would be, because I think I had to
live through that low point to be able to get
to this high point. Yeah, I don't think I ever
really truly believed that I could be as comfortable in
(59:09):
my own skin as I am now, and I never
truly believed that I could be as happy as I
am now. I just didn't believe it was going to
be possible. I thought I'd have to find some other
compromised version of myself. Yeah, so you know, I guess
the right answer is, you know, like, hang on, You'll
make it like you're going to get through this. But
I do think I had to have lived through that
load to be able to have the perspective to gotten
(59:31):
to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (59:33):
What do you tell yourself on the days that you
don't feel so shiny or so confident? Are so good
as you are?
Speaker 1 (59:39):
That I probably need to rest? Is like the biggest thing.
I'm like a go go until I crash, And sometimes
I just need to crash. It's it's just so hard
to where I am. Oh my god. And that is
the advice we will leave them with. Emily.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
I'm so happy that you were able to come to
the studio today talk to us. How do people keep
up with you? How do they follow along with you?
How do they keep up with the Gotham Give Me
the Beats.
Speaker 1 (59:58):
You can find the podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts
called she pivots or with iHeart. You can find it
in the app as well. You can find us also
and our guests on she pivots, the podcasts on Instagram
and Gotham FC has its own account you can see
all the players. Our team does a really good job
of getting to know all of our players in their personalities,
so I definitely recommend it. And we have three home
games less less this season. Oh my gosh, I need
(01:00:21):
I need to get you need to need to get over.
Ives are immaculate.
Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Lives are immaculate. From the Chief Vibe Officer herself, I'm
over at Emily a body at Hurdle podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Catch you guys next time.
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