September 25, 2025 • 38 mins
The Golden State Valkyries are that team.
ICYMI, the WNBA’s 13th team absolutely crushed it in their debut season, becoming the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their inaugural campaign — but the on-court accomplishments are only half the story. The Valks sold out every single home game in 2025, creating an ultra-supportive women’s hoops fanbase that’s now considered the blueprint for success as the W continues to grow. Today, The GIST’s co-founder Ellen Hyslop sits down with Valkyries team president Jess Smith for a behind-the-scenes convo on the business behind the basketball, from making crucial decisions with the front office to her advice for young leaders. Don’t miss it.
Show notes:
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link
🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
ICYMI, the WNBA’s 13th team absolutely crushed it in their debut season, becoming the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their inaugural campaign — but the on-court accomplishments are only half the story. The Valks sold out every single home game in 2025, creating an ultra-supportive women’s hoops fanbase that’s now considered the blueprint for success as the W continues to grow. Today, The GIST’s co-founder Ellen Hyslop sits down with Valkyries team president Jess Smith for a behind-the-scenes convo on the business behind the basketball, from making crucial decisions with the front office to her advice for young leaders. Don’t miss it.
Show notes:
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link
🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, hellojisters, welcome or welcome back to another episode of
The Gist of It. Today is Thursday, September twenty fifth.
We're your co hosts. I'm Lauren Tescala filling in for
Ellen today, and I am Steph Rotts.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And y'all know Lauren. She's always doing interviews for us.
She's always on the pod. So welcome back, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thank you, Steff. It's always great to hang with you.
I love chatting with you and catching up. It's so fun.
I'm filling in for l but you will still be
hearing from her on this podcast because earlier this week,
she sat down with Golden State Valkyrie's president Jess Smith
for a truly great conversation about the business behind the
WNBA's most successful expansion team. I'm sure our gisters have
(00:44):
seen the run that the Valkyries went on in their
debut season. They were the first ever team to make
the playoffs in their debut season, which is just a
huge accomplishment. But their offcourt accomplishments are equally as impressive.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, when you said most successful to me, I didn't
even immediately go to their own court success, which is
a thing that truly very happened, But there was so
much to this team off the court that has been
so successful too, So really interested to or really happy
that you guys all get to hear straight from the
President Jessmith in this conversation. The Valkres sold out every
(01:17):
single home game at the Chase Center this season, leading
the league with an average of eighteen k fans per game.
For context, the average attendance in the WNBA is just
above eleven k or eleven thousand, So that's kind of
the off the court accomplishments. You know, that's also happening
as this is all happening, and this behind the scenes
(01:38):
look at the Golden States rise and their first season
under jess leadership is truly fascinating. And I'm so excited
for that conversation and talk about foresight, for Ellen to
be able to not physically be here with me and Lare,
but also still here on the podcast for everybody. So
love that we got to start with our segment.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
We got to call an audible. It's time to call
an audible. I'm so excited for this one. Just for
some background, I know you guys have been doing this
segment for a while now since the Little rebrand of
the podcast. But if you're not familiar, calling an audible
is a football term. It's when a quarterback changes to
play on the field. They're doing it on the fly.
So that's what we're doing. We're quickly pivoting before we
get into our one big story, and today we have
(02:18):
to talk about Canada women's rugby the Women's Rugby World
Cup Final. It is happening on Saturday. If you're listening
to this on Thursday, so you have a couple of
days to prepare. And like we said, Canada, they're in
the women's Rugby World Cup Final. You can't see stuff
right now, but she is lit up about this match
on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
It's at eleven am Eastern time and they are playing England.
And I need to underscore how big of a deal
this is for Canada to be in the final for
the women's Rugby World Cup. Because Canada does not have
a professional environment for rugby for men or for women.
So what it isn't even one of those cases of oh,
(02:55):
the women's team is underfunded and the men's team is
fully funded. That is not what happens in Canada for rugby,
whereas England is professionalized. The players on that team are
professional players. They get paid year round to play the
sport that they're playing. So I do think we need
to start there with the context. Obviously, as a Canadian,
(03:16):
I'm excited to see Canada excel on the sports stage,
but even just as a sports fan period, you really
do have to appreciate what those women have accomplished just
in being in the final.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I love that you brought up that point about
Canada not having that professional environment and England having it
for years, because we did a great story. Shout out
to Lisa and Uchilla, one of our producers. She did
an excellent story that was in our newsletter on Wednesday,
so we'll put a link to that in the show notes.
But it was about that crowdfunding that they had to
do to even get to the tournament. And you hear
crowdfunding and you're like, oh my god, they're not supporting
the women's team. We've heard it so many times with
(03:51):
different tournaments like this, and like you said, that's not
the case. It's women's and men's that's underfunded in Canada.
And it wasn't just crowdfunding to pay for travel and
pay for airfare it was to get them trained up
before they went there. It was operation win the World Cup.
So it's just such a difference in the story that
we typically hear around crowdfunding. It's it's disappointing that they're
not funded, but it's uplifting that they're like, the goal
(04:11):
is we're going to win this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah. Rugby Canada asked the head coach of the team
what they needed, what he needed for success at the
World Cup and he said three point six million, which
is the smallest budget at the tournament.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So, like you said, to even make it there, it's
amazing they've been playing so well. The other cool thing
about the Women's Rugby World Cup is the match that
they're playing in the Championship is expected to shatter the
attendance record. So the previous record for a fifteens match,
which is that's how many there's a difference. There's rugby
seven's rugby fifteens more players on the pitch. Of course,
the previous attendance record is fifty eight, four hundred and
(04:45):
ninety eight and we're expecting a crowd of eighty two
thousand in attendance for this match, so that's already so
many tickets sold. I've read a really great article before
this about Canada practicing with headphones because it's going to
be a rowdy environment. It's in England, the crowd is
going to be rooting against them, So they were practicing
with headphones in preparation for not being able to hear
each other during the match. So they're reading body language
(05:06):
leading reading those cues. So some cool behind the scenes
insight into their preparation ahead of this major match.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And what you might be more familiar with if you
watched rugby in the Olympics. That was the sevens that
Lauren just mentioned versus this is a different style in
the in the fifteen So this is the Olympics. Was
the sevens, this is the fifteens.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, I know we have to get to the interview,
so I want.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
To read out stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I do want to hear about your watch party plans.
Where are you going to be watching? What's what's your.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Plan, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I can't watch it live. This is going to be
Oh that's so tough of the good old PVR because
I'm one of the only millennials left on this planet
that actually has that device, So I will be recording
it because I have to work on Saturday while the
game is happening, and again reminder eleven am Eastern time,
and just from a historical standpoint, would encourage you.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
To watch this game, whether.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Or not you are an England fan or a Canada fan,
because I just feel like women's rugby has come so
far and it's such an accomplishment. So unfortunately, please don't
know and DM me.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Until some great thanks give her some time, but tune in.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Huge thanks to FANDUL for partnering with us on today's podcast. Lauren.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
We are already.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Halfway through the women's basketball semifinals with a pair of
game threes on deck tomorrow. What a time to be
alive and I cannot wait because the playoffs have already
lived up to the hypes that we all we promised, y'all,
and even though we're marching towards the finals, it's not
too late to get in the game. And that's where
Fandel comes in. You can place wagers on every matchup,
(06:39):
from money lines and spreads to player props and futures.
If you think you know which team will cut down
the nets this year, it's going to take it all.
It's truly not too late to lock in that future's
bed on FanDuel and watch the drama unfold and be
part of that drama. So download the Fansuel out today
and make those postseason picks count.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, as promise, We're going to get right into it.
Here's Ellen's conversation with Golden State Valkyrie' team president Jess Smith.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Jess, welcome to the gist of it. We are so
excited to have you here.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
This is an honor. I listen to this podcast and
now I'm going to have to listen to my own voice,
which is awkward for everybody, but I'm so thrilled to
be here. I always appreciate all the conversations that you lead.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Honestly, that's the worst thing for us too, as podcasts
co hosts, so I'm always like, oh, hearing myself back
is brutal. And obviously, Jess, we've known each other for
a couple of years now, and so I'm really excited
to have us transition to chatting on the podcast and
having you on the pod, then just us running into
each other at different women's basketball events. So it feels
very full circle to have you on the gist of it.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
It does you know, this woman's sports industry is a
really connected one, and thankfully we get those moments of
community where we all run into one another, we're like,
how's it going? Tell me everything? And to be able
to have more formal conversations and really dig into what
is going on, I think is such a gift.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
So I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Let's talk about what's going on. I want to start
off our conversation, Jess. We have so many questions, but
I think it's good for us to start off our
conversation to set the scene a little bit of what
is exactly what is it that you do with the Valkyries,
What is your role and responsibilities? What is the differentiation
of president versus GM versus other leaders and a basketball organization?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So curious of what that looks like for you?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Good question, And it is different per team, but here
at Golden State is actually the same as they set
it up on the warrior side. So my job as
president of the organization is to run our business. My
job is to make sure that every facet of it
is successful, that we are not only driving revenue but
acquiring and deepening fandom. As much as we can, especially
as a brand new brand, and hiring the right people
(08:55):
to do that with us, right, building deep community and
making decisions every day that give us that best home
court advantage, but also candidly build a brand that is
outside of the Bay in total. And then our general
manager Ohema, she is incredible and been my partner in
all of this. Her job is all things basketball, so
we're really partners in this business. So everything you see
on court, whether it's hiring our coach or working with
(09:17):
her in collaboration on the things that she needs. Every
single player that you've come through this roster, right, it's
her job to find player experience, what does that feel
like for them? And same thing building a staff you
know that is able to reach the standards that she
has set but also that we collaboratively have set here
at Golden State. So it's incredible to do this work
with Ohemma. And I'd be remiss to not mention our
(09:39):
incredible coach Natalie Nicasse as well. So she's spent a
huge part of our ecosystem, and the three of us,
you know, are really connected in this whole experience. You know,
it's our first time taking the reins and leading at
the front. We've all been storyed Number two's learning and contributing,
whether it's Natalie at Las Vegas Aces winning two championships
before even being with the Clippers prior to that, you know,
(10:00):
working for USA Basketball, but then most recently, you know,
leading New York to their championship last year as a
part of that organization in the back end work as
assistant GM, and then myself having the most recent experience
of building Angel City Football Club. So it's been really
cool to just have the three of us come to
the table and say it's our time. We text that
to each other, right to be fearless, to take risks,
but to do the things that we talked about doing,
(10:21):
except now we get the chance to actually do it.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Love that so much.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Thank you so much for that breakdown of understanding what's
on the business side, what's on the players side, who
are all of who's responsible for all of that, and
some award winning folks on your team too, which is
just a testament to everything that you've built leading up
to this inaugural season. Obviously there's been years and years
in the works of building the Valkyries, not just this season.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Have you seen Netflix's Running Point. Have you had a
chance to watch that yet?
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Not yet. I feel like it's felt a little bit
too close to home.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Okay, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
How like, if you've watched it, how similar is it
to realize I have basketball?
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yes, what I will say as a proud partner of Sephora,
who's been incredible and taught me all the things by
the way about skincare and other things, they have a
whole moment in that too, So it is on my
off season watch journey. I've also not watched much television
except WMA or Woman's Sports over the last year and
a half, so I am looking forward to taking it
in and seeing Kate Hudson in that role.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Let me know when you watch it.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'm so curious what you think and how relatable it
is to everything that you're doing. Obviously a very different
market with the Lakers basically that comparison, but I'm really
curious because that is a big crowd favorite for our
audience too. I want to talk to you, Jess about
what an amazing season you've had with the Valkyriz. You
(11:44):
made it to the playoffs in their very first year,
you sold out every single home game at the Chase Center,
averaging eighteen thousand fans. Your season ticket holders were incredible
those numbers. You set an all time WNBA attendance record
with three hundred twenty seven thousand fans making the trip
to Valhalla, which is I think the best riad of
(12:05):
nickname ever. I haven't heard a better one. And so
I'm really curious, what do you feel like. We're the
most important business decisions that you and the team have
made to help you get to this point in your
inaugural year.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
First and foremost our brand, right, there were such deep
conversations as there should be about what our name would be,
what the color scheme would be, how this brand felt,
and you really have to understand what you're building and
who you're building it for before you can make those decisions.
And you know, naming a team is really interesting, right
because you know you'll have someone come in and say, okay,
(12:38):
should we be a natural disaster? Right? And you look
at fire wind Storm like there's a lot of things
in that that Or would you like to be an
animal that's known to be aggressive? Right? Cheetahs, jaguars, so forth?
And then there's Warrior type things Titans, Warriors and so forth,
and so we're kind of looking at all those pieces
of the puzzle as one does. But at the same time,
(12:59):
the team had put out a survey saying what should
the team name be, and it was to all folks
kind of within the Golden State ecosystem in the general market,
and it was a write in, and twenty five percent
of the people said Valkyries. And at first, when you're
naming the team, a lot of people didn't know what
a valkyrie was, you know. But once you do know
what a valkyrie is, and I think now with the
(13:19):
modern depiction that you see through the Marvel universe and
in other areas, we felt really connected to it pretty
quickly because it was very ownable. It was very our
own right. If we did our jobs well, no one
else could really come in and say they're the Valkyries
and the manner that we would.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And then the color scheme right was huge.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So often what you've seen over time is when there's
a men's and women's teams within the same ownership group,
is they're going to be similar colors, right, And that's
been thought of to be helpful in the past. We'll
know we're affiliated, we're drawing the same fans. But that's
also been part of what's held women's sports back from
what you're seeing today, is that you've assumed it's a
duplicative audience, when in fact, kind of what you're telling
(13:58):
this audience from day one is you have a more
storied product and then you have the one below it
that's in growth mode. But in their minds, they're kind
of melded in the same versus building something that can
be in own be its own legacy. And so for us,
as we thought about being unapologetic, bold, you know, relentless
in our pursuit of greatness, you know, we needed to
find a color that for us. Even when you saw
(14:20):
the color, people would think of the Valkyries. And that's
no small task, right, There's a lot of great colors
used in the WNBA, in women's sports, there's a ton
of great colors used here in the Bay Area. And
then also what color feels valkyries, right, what kind of
pays tribute to that name. So really choosing that valkyrie
violet for us was pivotal and I think everyone would
agree that that color and in our color scheme being
(14:42):
unique in this marketplace has certainly caught the attention of many.
In the first sixty days from launching our brand, which
we did on the twenty twenty four opening day for
the WNBA, we sold merchandise in seventy countries in all
fifty states.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
So really showcasing that a big piece of women's sports
right is lifestyle is the case connection to the brand
in addition to the on core performance, and I think
that was.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Really something that unlocked a lot for us.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
It allowed us to build community really rapidly, even before
we had a player on our roster, which we then
saw the results of once we were able to put
those things together. So brand was single handedly the most
important thing that we did. The second will always be
just hiring the best people.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Right.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
These are things that I can talk about, things that
I can say. I am a single person and we
have built a team over the last eighteen months of
seventy dedicated folks you know that work specific to the
valkyries between basketball and business. On top of having this
sport of our shared service accounts within Golden State, and
we are full of people that want to do great things,
(15:45):
be better, but our kind, you know, and I think
when people talk about our success just like you listed
all those things off, it's almost like I can't hear
it to like understand its impact, because for us, the
most important thing is that we've done it the Golden
State way, that we've done it our way right where
you really want to work every day with these folks
and keep going in a way that makes yourselves proud
(16:05):
more than anything that's comparative out in the marketplace.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Those are two really great nuggets in terms of hiring
people around you and people being your greatest assets, but
then also thinking about how you're building that brand, and
what I'm hearing too justs is that it's really a
fan first strategy that you've built out. And I think
expansion teams in the past have always had a harder time.
We've seen in the NHL with the Seattle Kraken or
(16:31):
the Las Vegas Schoolden Nights, We've seen some really great
expansion over there. I feel like though you all were
the first team really in women's sports to say, hey,
this is the rollout.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And then you.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
See Toronto kind of do something similar, you see Portland
do something similar. How much are you working or how
much do these other expansion teams reach out to you
and say, hey, what worked, what didn't. How much are
you all supporting each other in this business. How do
you kind of still feel like your competitors. What does
that look like in the wa MBA ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
I think what's really special about what's happening in the
WNBA right now is when you attend a president's meeting,
whether it's a current team or an expansion team, we
care first and foremost about building this league, getting as
many WNBA fans and future WNBA fans into this league.
So if it's good for one market, because we feel
like that's good for the league, I think we're all
aligned in let's do that because all of us will
(17:23):
benefit from this continued growth. Second to that is, yes,
we all have a business to run that we're in
charge of, you know, with with the goals set forth
by ownership, and we want to be great from an
expansion standpoint. I talked to Teresa, you know at the Temple,
you know, pretty consistently, you know, over the years. It's
been good that she's had a couple of years to
like really build and get in there.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
I love their brand.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
I thought it was really beautifully done and the colors
that they rolled out is really reflective of Canada and
the city of Toronto, but uniquely their own at the
same time. So we chat, you know, as often as
is helpful and very candidly. There's so many people in
this league that have gotten it to the point that
allowed us to build what it is today as well. Right,
So I learned a ton from some of the current
(18:04):
markets too, you know, Alicia wit Seattle and Kia Clark
with New York, they answered every call, and I think
that that's who we want to be as a league.
If someone calls you and has a question and it's
going to help you succeed, go do that, right. I think,
you know, that's a really special alignment at this point
in time where the league growth and the team growth
are really aligned.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Love to hear that from a fan perspective too, because
I also think about when you're traveling to different markets,
how those fans show up, how they get to know
your athletes, your team when and if their team doesn't
make the playoffs or what have you too that it
really builds fandoms throughout the entire season as well. So
that's really interesting. You were talking about being great. And
(18:46):
one thing that the valkyrie Z owner Joe has famously
said is that he wants the team to win a
championship within the first five years. And so you're on
the business side of things, but how much are you
kind of thinking about that on core? Hey, we got
to go out there. I'm win a championship now within
the next four seasons. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 5 (19:06):
I mean, first and foremost, he's an incredible owner, him
and Peter Cooper. You know, I think what's unique is
they're not just saying a goal to say a goal.
They put a goal out there and then ask how
can I help you do it right? And they are
really by our side every day and find such joy
in the things that we do as well, like the
behind the scenes conversations of talking about players, teams, and
(19:27):
like how to make this all work. You know, there
is just so much expertise, but just almost and also
so much tenacity, you know, within the organization, ownership included.
You know, for us, we wouldn't be here myself, Ohamma
or Natalie if we didn't feel the exact same way.
To be quite honest, it's invigorating, you know, I think
so many people right now, especially you know, definitely throughout
(19:49):
the season, but as our season you know, came to
a close, are reflecting back at the capsule that just
happened over the last eighteen months for this organization to
enter the world. And if you're me or Natalie or Emma,
you're sitting here still with a chip on your shoulder
like this is unfinished business. We are not done yet.
We just entered the world. We are not relaxing, and
you know, of course there's reflection time so that we
(20:10):
can better our product. And whether that's me or the
two of them, you know, that's what's taking place. And
we are not We're just relentless right like.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
There's so much more to do.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
And I think what we saw this year was Okay,
we're doing a lot of things well, and we get
an opportunity to keep building on that for next year.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That chip on the shoulder is a very dangerous thing,
which I feel like I'm so excited for next season
for the Valkyries. You mentioned your experience beforehand just as
long as well as your teams, and we knew each
other back when you were at Angel City and that
was also an expansion team. And everything that you were
working on there. What parallels have you seen between operating
(20:53):
on the NWSSL side versus the WNBA side. Have you
seen any differences in fandom? What has that been through
you been like?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
For you, I think, first and foremost, I have a
lot of questions about myself.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Having gone through the past twice.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Like, Okay, you saw how hard it was to build
a team and you said, you know what, let's go do.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
That again in the wOBA this time.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
But both have just been equally rewarding to be a
part of. And you know, you release surround yourselves with
smart people that are are fun to build. Beside, there's
so many parallels. The reason I was able to be
really adamant about the things I knew would work here
at the Valkyries and then fuel them, you know, with
the stakeholders that we have are because the confidence that
(21:34):
I had built at Angel City by us kind of
being the first that did a lot of what the
playbook is right in City. You look at our brand
right La similar market, we built something that was our
own soul, Rosa, you know, this beautiful lifestyle brand that
really reflected you know, this new wave of women's soccer
and how these different ownership had come together to say
(21:54):
now's the time, right, you know, birth out of that
times up movement and the equal pay with the US
women's national team, you know over there, so that parallel
fandom very similarly, right, you know, we see you know
the data there first and foremost, it's fifty percent men
and women. I think so often people have this assumption
from an external point of view that this is a
women's product for women, but it's not. This is a
(22:16):
women's product for everyone. And that's actually what's making it
so powerful and societal shifting is that everyone is a fan,
you know. But when you layer deep into that, it
is the heart of the fan, the core season ticket holder,
the folks that are following and sharing everything that you're doing. Ultimately,
they want your product first.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Right. This is not you know, an NBA fan turning
to a WMBA fan.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
That fan exists, But when you look at this core audience,
it is a brand new fan that has been waiting
for women's sports to be this powerful so they can
invest in it in a way that holds their true
values for how they've wanted to see it. Or it's
this young, diverse audience that understands that supporting women's sports,
wearing the merchandise, buying a ticket, showing up, which is
all fun by the way, but doing that matters, right,
(22:58):
and really understanding where you spend time and money is
something that can make really big shifts. And that community
that's growing, you know here on top of the core
sports fans starting to come in and just understand all
this basketball is incredible, right, and so it's a really
interesting melting pot, you know, as we start to peek
into who our fans are and who's showing up.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I really love that everything is coming back to fandom
for you. Are you do you have a research team
internally who's constantly speaking to your fans, you have an agency?
What does that look like in terms of you constantly
being in touch with your fans and understanding what they want?
Speaker 6 (23:35):
We have.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
One of the benefits of being a Golden State is
one of the parts of our service and data department
is one of the best analytical teams that probably exists.
Interesting this gentleman Bendre, who's the head of strategy. A
Golden State helps oversee everything and we are getting all
the data. We are constantly looking at, not only our
own fan base growth, who's coming in, how they're coming in,
balancing that with social followship and like what those audiences
(23:58):
look like on that front, But we are also always
serving the market, right, So you can drink a lot
of your own kool aid often right where you're only
looking at the data inside your realm, but you really
have to challenge yourself to get outside and say, does
everyone know who the vlkyries are? And if they don't,
who doesn't know? And if they do, who does know?
What's working and what's not? I think more importantly to
(24:20):
understand who isn't coming in yet? Right from a fan perspective,
Like we say everyone watches women's sports, we really mean that.
So if there are segments of the market that we
don't feel like we are deepening quickly enough, I think
that awareness for us as a year two brand going
into next year will be really really important.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Data is queen, as they say, and asking all of
that information too is so helpful on that fan side,
not just the moneyball of it all, and the athletes
side of things too, which is where I think our
brains go oftentimes in sports. Is that data for encore,
But there's so much that matters in building a brand.
We don't have too much time left together justs. So
I have one more question for you. And this is
(24:59):
a little bit more abroad because thinking about our audience.
Not everybody's in sports, but a lot of folks are
sports fans, and I think that there's so much that
all of us can learn from people like you, people
like Natalie. And so for anyone out there who's working
in corporate who's looking to advance into a leadership role,
someone like myself who's currently in a leadership role, what
(25:20):
is your advice in growing as an effective leader?
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Yeah, it's so interesting, you know. I was just talking
to my husband about this. Actually, we went to an
event this weekend and I said, I'm now a person
an event that people want to talk to. And I
spent the last twenty years going to events and wanting
to talk and learn from so many other people and
both still exist, by the way, It's just an interesting
moment to kind of have to reflect and say, Okay,
the work that you've done have made you somebody that
(25:44):
people can ask this question of which is a privilege
and I don't take for granted. Thirteen year old Jess
would still just be like what so, so I always
have that acknowledgement internally of just you know, being proud
of myself, but then also not losing sight of what
got me here in the first place. And I think
that is the first point is just you have to
be yourself. I think for so long in my younger
(26:05):
career as I was coming through and I'm the first
person in my family to graduate college, so everything in
this world, in the professional and corporate world.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Have been new to me. You know.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I didn't have anyone I could ask questions of. I
didn't know how to declare a major correctly, like, none
of those things. And so when I would get into
work environments, I would just emulate other people's behaviors that
I saw were successful. And it wasn't until I did
enough of that and had enough of like the ten
thousand hours where you start to understand the more of
yourself that you put into something, the more genuine and
authentic that you can be, the confidence that you can
(26:35):
exude when you say I don't know, those are the
things that a good leader has. And when I think
of when I've been able to hire really good people,
when I've been able to retain really good staff. When
I've been able to feel connected to fans or employees
like those are the moments where I feel like we're
just talking as people and not necessarily talking above anything.
And everyone has a different journey to what that means
(26:55):
for you, and your background is just something that you
have to you know, really am not trying to be
like anything else. The second is you have to be
really honest with yourself, brutally honest with yourself, you know.
For our team, I talk about prioritization every single day.
There's a book that I read in twenty fourteen. That
year of my life. I was getting married, I had
just had back surgery that I was recovering from. I'd
(27:18):
entered grad school with Ohio University. I was selling partnerships
with the Oakland A's, and I was doing all of
it well, but I wasn't doing any of it great.
And there was like this fire in me of just
I wasn't reaching my potential in all the areas of
things that I knew that I could, And the honesty
was I was doing too much to do them all
to the capability that I was able to. So this
(27:40):
book that I read is Essentialism by Greg McEwan, And
it's really simple. I think about it and I show
it all the time. You put a circle and say
you get ten points of energy. If you spend those
ten points of energy every day doing ten different things,
you're going to make a little bit of progress at
ten different things. If you put those ten points of
energy and you do two things, you're going to make
a lot of progress on two things. And we are
relentless and what we have like a quadrant of priorities.
(28:03):
There's so many things that you want to focus on
to be a good leader. You cannot lose sight of
what your goals are every single day, and you have
to work towards them in the simple ways every single
day and recourse everybody every single day. Is it really
nice to go do that?
Speaker 6 (28:17):
It is? Is it actually driving towards our goals? It's not,
you know.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And I think that type of honesty with yourself and
others in a caring way is really what I've seen
set leaders apart so helpful.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I really like all of that in terms of being
your true and authentic self.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
That essentialism. I need to put that on my list.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
And I love that piece that you said too, of
having confidence and saying I don't know. I think that
that is so hard as you're young in your career
where it almost feels like as a leader you're supposed
to have that information and people are coming to you
for that information, but there's so much power and saying
you know what, let me get back to you, let's
figure this out together, and showing that vulnerability I think
(28:56):
as well and being a leader. Jess, thank you so
much for joining us today. It's been such a fun conversation.
Really appreciate it and so looking forward to seeing what
the Valkyries get up to next year, and hope that
you find a little bit of time to relax this offseason.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
I will find a beach at some point with my
husband and two girls love a part of all of
this too, so I definitely will find a spot to
actually take in some reflection.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
It's just not yet. We're not done yet yet.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Another big shout out to our friends at fanjul for
supporting today's podcast. As I mentioned earlier, the WNBA playoffs
are in full swing and Fanguel is making every moment
even better. Not only did they partner with us to
help bring you our pro women's basketball bracket, challenge and
here's your friendly reminder to check the leaderboard to see
how you're doing. But they're also making it super easy
for women's basketball fans to place bets. Their app is
(29:51):
easy to use and built with options specifically for women's
hoops fans. Feeling good about that semi final comeback, You've
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FanDuel has bets for that. Honing in on your favorite
players postseason scoring average, you can wager on that too.
With FanDuel, the excitement of the postseason is literally in
your hands. Download the Fangil app today to get started.
(30:21):
It's time for the last segment of the pod or
personal training sesh. This is where we would love to
answer your questions about anything, and we mean anything in
the sports world, or respond to a hot take, share
some commentary that you would like for us to add
to the podcast. And today we're taking a question from
Dan who message Ellen on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So we will read from Dan Stam thank you so
much for damming us and setting this in so he writes, Hey, Ellen,
love the Just Pod. Had a question maybe for a
future personal training sash thinking about today's episode on Asia
Wilson with a bit of a spin on the men's
sports women's sports comparison. So for context there, we did
an episode on Asia Wilson on Tuesday. Go listen to
that if you haven't already. But it's about the marketing
and the miss opportunity around her winning for unprecedented WNBA MVPs.
(31:04):
So Dan continues, if we look at the NBA, while
there's obviously white men playing at a very high level,
most of the mega mega superstars are black men like
Lebron or Steph Curry or further back, Kobe Shack and Jordan.
How much do you think this is marketers and audiences
treating men and women differently, so they're less willing to
put a black woman in that social space of quote
sports superstar. For something the NBA did differently, maybe the
(31:26):
w could do differently as well to build that public stardom.
And he says, again, love the pod, So thank you
for the kind words, and thank you for submitting this
really really great question. Steph. I know you had some
thoughts right away when this came through, so I'll kick
it to you first and then we can get into it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Thank you, Lauren, and thanks Dan for the message I had. Yeah,
a couple initial reactions. I wouldn't necessarily give credit to
the NBA for them having black superstars. I think that
it's pretty safe to say that all of those men
really bet on themselves, especially if we're thinking historically and
we're thinking before the Lebron's and before the Steph Curries.
(32:01):
They truly had to see their own value. And I
think when you look into the brand deals that they
were first creating, they really did have to advocate for themselves.
And it took decades of professionalization in the NBA for
them to even get there to be able to do
that in the first place. So there's the decades of
(32:22):
them being able to play pro in them I mean
men in general, and then if you layer that on
with race, and then you layer that on with gender,
it gets so much more complicated. Black women just simply
have more barriers to break through. So I do think
that the WNBA, in a different way than the NBA,
does have more of a responsibility to make its black
(32:45):
stars more visible and celebrated so that hopefully the market
will catch up and will respond because there's just too
many layers for them and then too many barriers at
this point, still in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I really like that you brought in the responsibility
of the league, because you also women's sports are seen
as this progressive space. The w is the most progressive league.
The players are out there championing for equal rights and
they've been so vocal. So I really like that you
put in that responsibility is definitely on the league. And
when I read this question, I immediately thought of two studies,
and well, at first a study in an article from
(33:18):
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one era. There was first a
study on coverage of black athletes in the WNBA. Despite
being the majority of the athletes in the w they
were receiving so much less media coverage, and we'll put
a link to that. This was I think a twenty
twenty study and it got into the media coverage side
of things, and of course the w has a responsibility
to uplift their players to the media, so it's partially
(33:41):
on the coverage and it's partially on the league there too.
There was also a great Katie Barnes article about John
Quoll Jones a few years ago, so this was after
she won MVP, and it was about who gets to
be the face of the WNBA, and you talk about
the layer stuff, you're dealing with a black gay woman
as well, so there's so many layers and the article
got into that. So that was a really fascinating read.
But it's kind of like these issues were being vocalized
(34:02):
back then and now we're seeing it even more and
more with Kaitlin Clark and Paige Becker's and the coverage
that they're getting. So I think your point about the
w having responsibility here is a really apt one, and
I would highly recommend going back and checking out those
resources for folks.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Because the players are doing that themselves. They've got social
media now, they have their own hustle that they're doing
to platform and spotlight themselves, and of course they are
selling out merchandise.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
They are truly doing the damn thing.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But that's where the media and the league have more
of responsibility to really uplift.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And not.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Default go on what they think is going to be
quote unquote the most marketable because that's always going to
be a blonde, white woman, you know what I mean,
Like that's just the reality that we live in, and
I think they have a responsibility to make sure they're
actively pushing against that from a player perspective. But also
something that I wanted to bring back because I think
it's timely or bring up because I think it's timely
with this conversation is that this there was a lot
(35:01):
of coaching shifting in the WNBA, and there is a
reality now that there are no longer any black female
head coaches in the thirteen team league, So that also
needs to change. There's a whole ecosystem that needs to
be really focused on making sure that the women who
have built this league, black women are the ones who
(35:21):
are celebrated and given opportunities after playing as well. So
there is there is we have time we need, Like
obviously the NBA has had a lot more time, a
lot more decades behind them, but like the time is
now and there's there's no time, Like the president in
the league definitely needs to step up, but media needs
to step up and make sure that they are covering
(35:43):
things like in stories like the MVP of Asia Wilson.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Definitely, like it's the entire ecosystem, it all wraps up
into it. And just on that marketability point too, we've
seen Asia Wilson her shoes sold out immediately when she
dropped them, Angel Reese sold out her shoes and we're
seeing it with the stud buds now and that has
been so such a cool rise to watch and see
their presence and people really responding to it. So like
you're saying, the time is now. We've seen some progress
and it's like we just got to keep it going
(36:08):
and it's important to keep having these conversations too.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah, people like authenticity, like yes, give the people what
they want. That's a great question. Dan, Thank you so
much for giving us the space to talk more about that.
And if you're listening and you'd like to be featured
on a future episode, please call. You can leave us
a voicemail at one four three seven five six four
five five seven nine. You can email us at pod
at the Just sports dot com, or you can DM
(36:33):
Ellen or myself on Instagram like Dan did so. Ellen
is at Ellen at the Gist and I'm at Stephanie Ron's.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yes, thank you again for some of that, and Dan,
we really appreciate it. And with that, that marks the
end of today's episode. Thank you so much everybody for
tuning in.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
We'll be back in your feed with the new podcast
on Tuesday. In the meantime, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
please rate, review, subscribe, and send in a personal training sash.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
This episode was edited by Savannah Held and produced by
Alisandra Puccio and le Minutillow Again. I'm Lauren Tuscola and
I'm Steph Rods, and we will shat with again next
week
Hello, hellojisters, welcome or welcome back to another episode of
The Gist of It. Today is Thursday, September twenty fifth.
We're your co hosts. I'm Lauren Tescala filling in for
Ellen today, and I am Steph Rotts.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And y'all know Lauren. She's always doing interviews for us.
She's always on the pod. So welcome back, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thank you, Steff. It's always great to hang with you.
I love chatting with you and catching up. It's so fun.
I'm filling in for l but you will still be
hearing from her on this podcast because earlier this week,
she sat down with Golden State Valkyrie's president Jess Smith
for a truly great conversation about the business behind the
WNBA's most successful expansion team. I'm sure our gisters have
(00:44):
seen the run that the Valkyries went on in their
debut season. They were the first ever team to make
the playoffs in their debut season, which is just a
huge accomplishment. But their offcourt accomplishments are equally as impressive.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, when you said most successful to me, I didn't
even immediately go to their own court success, which is
a thing that truly very happened, But there was so
much to this team off the court that has been
so successful too, So really interested to or really happy
that you guys all get to hear straight from the
President Jessmith in this conversation. The Valkres sold out every
(01:17):
single home game at the Chase Center this season, leading
the league with an average of eighteen k fans per game.
For context, the average attendance in the WNBA is just
above eleven k or eleven thousand, So that's kind of
the off the court accomplishments. You know, that's also happening
as this is all happening, and this behind the scenes
(01:38):
look at the Golden States rise and their first season
under jess leadership is truly fascinating. And I'm so excited
for that conversation and talk about foresight, for Ellen to
be able to not physically be here with me and Lare,
but also still here on the podcast for everybody. So
love that we got to start with our segment.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
We got to call an audible. It's time to call
an audible. I'm so excited for this one. Just for
some background, I know you guys have been doing this
segment for a while now since the Little rebrand of
the podcast. But if you're not familiar, calling an audible
is a football term. It's when a quarterback changes to
play on the field. They're doing it on the fly.
So that's what we're doing. We're quickly pivoting before we
get into our one big story, and today we have
(02:18):
to talk about Canada women's rugby the Women's Rugby World
Cup Final. It is happening on Saturday. If you're listening
to this on Thursday, so you have a couple of
days to prepare. And like we said, Canada, they're in
the women's Rugby World Cup Final. You can't see stuff
right now, but she is lit up about this match
on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
It's at eleven am Eastern time and they are playing England.
And I need to underscore how big of a deal
this is for Canada to be in the final for
the women's Rugby World Cup. Because Canada does not have
a professional environment for rugby for men or for women.
So what it isn't even one of those cases of oh,
(02:55):
the women's team is underfunded and the men's team is
fully funded. That is not what happens in Canada for rugby,
whereas England is professionalized. The players on that team are
professional players. They get paid year round to play the
sport that they're playing. So I do think we need
to start there with the context. Obviously, as a Canadian,
(03:16):
I'm excited to see Canada excel on the sports stage,
but even just as a sports fan period, you really
do have to appreciate what those women have accomplished just
in being in the final.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I love that you brought up that point about
Canada not having that professional environment and England having it
for years, because we did a great story. Shout out
to Lisa and Uchilla, one of our producers. She did
an excellent story that was in our newsletter on Wednesday,
so we'll put a link to that in the show notes.
But it was about that crowdfunding that they had to
do to even get to the tournament. And you hear
crowdfunding and you're like, oh my god, they're not supporting
the women's team. We've heard it so many times with
(03:51):
different tournaments like this, and like you said, that's not
the case. It's women's and men's that's underfunded in Canada.
And it wasn't just crowdfunding to pay for travel and
pay for airfare it was to get them trained up
before they went there. It was operation win the World Cup.
So it's just such a difference in the story that
we typically hear around crowdfunding. It's it's disappointing that they're
not funded, but it's uplifting that they're like, the goal
(04:11):
is we're going to win this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah. Rugby Canada asked the head coach of the team
what they needed, what he needed for success at the
World Cup and he said three point six million, which
is the smallest budget at the tournament.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So, like you said, to even make it there, it's
amazing they've been playing so well. The other cool thing
about the Women's Rugby World Cup is the match that
they're playing in the Championship is expected to shatter the
attendance record. So the previous record for a fifteens match,
which is that's how many there's a difference. There's rugby
seven's rugby fifteens more players on the pitch. Of course,
the previous attendance record is fifty eight, four hundred and
(04:45):
ninety eight and we're expecting a crowd of eighty two
thousand in attendance for this match, so that's already so
many tickets sold. I've read a really great article before
this about Canada practicing with headphones because it's going to
be a rowdy environment. It's in England, the crowd is
going to be rooting against them, So they were practicing
with headphones in preparation for not being able to hear
each other during the match. So they're reading body language
(05:06):
leading reading those cues. So some cool behind the scenes
insight into their preparation ahead of this major match.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And what you might be more familiar with if you
watched rugby in the Olympics. That was the sevens that
Lauren just mentioned versus this is a different style in
the in the fifteen So this is the Olympics. Was
the sevens, this is the fifteens.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, I know we have to get to the interview,
so I want.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
To read out stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I do want to hear about your watch party plans.
Where are you going to be watching? What's what's your.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Plan, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I can't watch it live. This is going to be
Oh that's so tough of the good old PVR because
I'm one of the only millennials left on this planet
that actually has that device, So I will be recording
it because I have to work on Saturday while the
game is happening, and again reminder eleven am Eastern time,
and just from a historical standpoint, would encourage you.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
To watch this game, whether.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Or not you are an England fan or a Canada fan,
because I just feel like women's rugby has come so
far and it's such an accomplishment. So unfortunately, please don't
know and DM me.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Until some great thanks give her some time, but tune in.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Huge thanks to FANDUL for partnering with us on today's podcast. Lauren.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
We are already.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Halfway through the women's basketball semifinals with a pair of
game threes on deck tomorrow. What a time to be
alive and I cannot wait because the playoffs have already
lived up to the hypes that we all we promised, y'all,
and even though we're marching towards the finals, it's not
too late to get in the game. And that's where
Fandel comes in. You can place wagers on every matchup,
(06:39):
from money lines and spreads to player props and futures.
If you think you know which team will cut down
the nets this year, it's going to take it all.
It's truly not too late to lock in that future's
bed on FanDuel and watch the drama unfold and be
part of that drama. So download the Fansuel out today
and make those postseason picks count.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, as promise, We're going to get right into it.
Here's Ellen's conversation with Golden State Valkyrie' team president Jess Smith.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Jess, welcome to the gist of it. We are so
excited to have you here.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
This is an honor. I listen to this podcast and
now I'm going to have to listen to my own voice,
which is awkward for everybody, but I'm so thrilled to
be here. I always appreciate all the conversations that you lead.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Honestly, that's the worst thing for us too, as podcasts
co hosts, so I'm always like, oh, hearing myself back
is brutal. And obviously, Jess, we've known each other for
a couple of years now, and so I'm really excited
to have us transition to chatting on the podcast and
having you on the pod, then just us running into
each other at different women's basketball events. So it feels
very full circle to have you on the gist of it.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
It does you know, this woman's sports industry is a
really connected one, and thankfully we get those moments of
community where we all run into one another, we're like,
how's it going? Tell me everything? And to be able
to have more formal conversations and really dig into what
is going on, I think is such a gift.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
So I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Let's talk about what's going on. I want to start
off our conversation, Jess. We have so many questions, but
I think it's good for us to start off our
conversation to set the scene a little bit of what
is exactly what is it that you do with the Valkyries,
What is your role and responsibilities? What is the differentiation
of president versus GM versus other leaders and a basketball organization?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So curious of what that looks like for you?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Good question, And it is different per team, but here
at Golden State is actually the same as they set
it up on the warrior side. So my job as
president of the organization is to run our business. My
job is to make sure that every facet of it
is successful, that we are not only driving revenue but
acquiring and deepening fandom. As much as we can, especially
as a brand new brand, and hiring the right people
(08:55):
to do that with us, right, building deep community and
making decisions every day that give us that best home
court advantage, but also candidly build a brand that is
outside of the Bay in total. And then our general
manager Ohema, she is incredible and been my partner in
all of this. Her job is all things basketball, so
we're really partners in this business. So everything you see
on court, whether it's hiring our coach or working with
(09:17):
her in collaboration on the things that she needs. Every
single player that you've come through this roster, right, it's
her job to find player experience, what does that feel
like for them? And same thing building a staff you
know that is able to reach the standards that she
has set but also that we collaboratively have set here
at Golden State. So it's incredible to do this work
with Ohemma. And I'd be remiss to not mention our
(09:39):
incredible coach Natalie Nicasse as well. So she's spent a
huge part of our ecosystem, and the three of us,
you know, are really connected in this whole experience. You know,
it's our first time taking the reins and leading at
the front. We've all been storyed Number two's learning and contributing,
whether it's Natalie at Las Vegas Aces winning two championships
before even being with the Clippers prior to that, you know,
(10:00):
working for USA Basketball, but then most recently, you know,
leading New York to their championship last year as a
part of that organization in the back end work as
assistant GM, and then myself having the most recent experience
of building Angel City Football Club. So it's been really
cool to just have the three of us come to
the table and say it's our time. We text that
to each other, right to be fearless, to take risks,
but to do the things that we talked about doing,
(10:21):
except now we get the chance to actually do it.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Love that so much.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Thank you so much for that breakdown of understanding what's
on the business side, what's on the players side, who
are all of who's responsible for all of that, and
some award winning folks on your team too, which is
just a testament to everything that you've built leading up
to this inaugural season. Obviously there's been years and years
in the works of building the Valkyries, not just this season.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Have you seen Netflix's Running Point. Have you had a
chance to watch that yet?
Speaker 6 (10:51):
Not yet. I feel like it's felt a little bit
too close to home.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Okay, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
How like, if you've watched it, how similar is it
to realize I have basketball?
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yes, what I will say as a proud partner of Sephora,
who's been incredible and taught me all the things by
the way about skincare and other things, they have a
whole moment in that too, So it is on my
off season watch journey. I've also not watched much television
except WMA or Woman's Sports over the last year and
a half, so I am looking forward to taking it
in and seeing Kate Hudson in that role.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Let me know when you watch it.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'm so curious what you think and how relatable it
is to everything that you're doing. Obviously a very different
market with the Lakers basically that comparison, but I'm really
curious because that is a big crowd favorite for our
audience too. I want to talk to you, Jess about
what an amazing season you've had with the Valkyriz. You
(11:44):
made it to the playoffs in their very first year,
you sold out every single home game at the Chase Center,
averaging eighteen thousand fans. Your season ticket holders were incredible
those numbers. You set an all time WNBA attendance record
with three hundred twenty seven thousand fans making the trip
to Valhalla, which is I think the best riad of
(12:05):
nickname ever. I haven't heard a better one. And so
I'm really curious, what do you feel like. We're the
most important business decisions that you and the team have
made to help you get to this point in your
inaugural year.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
First and foremost our brand, right, there were such deep
conversations as there should be about what our name would be,
what the color scheme would be, how this brand felt,
and you really have to understand what you're building and
who you're building it for before you can make those decisions.
And you know, naming a team is really interesting, right
because you know you'll have someone come in and say, okay,
(12:38):
should we be a natural disaster? Right? And you look
at fire wind Storm like there's a lot of things
in that that Or would you like to be an
animal that's known to be aggressive? Right? Cheetahs, jaguars, so forth?
And then there's Warrior type things Titans, Warriors and so forth,
and so we're kind of looking at all those pieces
of the puzzle as one does. But at the same time,
(12:59):
the team had put out a survey saying what should
the team name be, and it was to all folks
kind of within the Golden State ecosystem in the general market,
and it was a write in, and twenty five percent
of the people said Valkyries. And at first, when you're
naming the team, a lot of people didn't know what
a valkyrie was, you know. But once you do know
what a valkyrie is, and I think now with the
(13:19):
modern depiction that you see through the Marvel universe and
in other areas, we felt really connected to it pretty
quickly because it was very ownable. It was very our
own right. If we did our jobs well, no one
else could really come in and say they're the Valkyries
and the manner that we would.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And then the color scheme right was huge.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So often what you've seen over time is when there's
a men's and women's teams within the same ownership group,
is they're going to be similar colors, right, And that's
been thought of to be helpful in the past. We'll
know we're affiliated, we're drawing the same fans. But that's
also been part of what's held women's sports back from
what you're seeing today, is that you've assumed it's a
duplicative audience, when in fact, kind of what you're telling
(13:58):
this audience from day one is you have a more
storied product and then you have the one below it
that's in growth mode. But in their minds, they're kind
of melded in the same versus building something that can
be in own be its own legacy. And so for us,
as we thought about being unapologetic, bold, you know, relentless
in our pursuit of greatness, you know, we needed to
find a color that for us. Even when you saw
(14:20):
the color, people would think of the Valkyries. And that's
no small task, right, There's a lot of great colors
used in the WNBA, in women's sports, there's a ton
of great colors used here in the Bay Area. And
then also what color feels valkyries, right, what kind of
pays tribute to that name. So really choosing that valkyrie
violet for us was pivotal and I think everyone would
agree that that color and in our color scheme being
(14:42):
unique in this marketplace has certainly caught the attention of many.
In the first sixty days from launching our brand, which
we did on the twenty twenty four opening day for
the WNBA, we sold merchandise in seventy countries in all
fifty states.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
So really showcasing that a big piece of women's sports
right is lifestyle is the case connection to the brand
in addition to the on core performance, and I think
that was.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Really something that unlocked a lot for us.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
It allowed us to build community really rapidly, even before
we had a player on our roster, which we then
saw the results of once we were able to put
those things together. So brand was single handedly the most
important thing that we did. The second will always be
just hiring the best people.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Right.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
These are things that I can talk about, things that
I can say. I am a single person and we
have built a team over the last eighteen months of
seventy dedicated folks you know that work specific to the
valkyries between basketball and business. On top of having this
sport of our shared service accounts within Golden State, and
we are full of people that want to do great things,
(15:45):
be better, but our kind, you know, and I think
when people talk about our success just like you listed
all those things off, it's almost like I can't hear
it to like understand its impact, because for us, the
most important thing is that we've done it the Golden
State way, that we've done it our way right where
you really want to work every day with these folks
and keep going in a way that makes yourselves proud
(16:05):
more than anything that's comparative out in the marketplace.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Those are two really great nuggets in terms of hiring
people around you and people being your greatest assets, but
then also thinking about how you're building that brand, and
what I'm hearing too justs is that it's really a
fan first strategy that you've built out. And I think
expansion teams in the past have always had a harder time.
We've seen in the NHL with the Seattle Kraken or
(16:31):
the Las Vegas Schoolden Nights, We've seen some really great
expansion over there. I feel like though you all were
the first team really in women's sports to say, hey,
this is the rollout.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And then you.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
See Toronto kind of do something similar, you see Portland
do something similar. How much are you working or how
much do these other expansion teams reach out to you
and say, hey, what worked, what didn't. How much are
you all supporting each other in this business. How do
you kind of still feel like your competitors. What does
that look like in the wa MBA ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
I think what's really special about what's happening in the
WNBA right now is when you attend a president's meeting,
whether it's a current team or an expansion team, we
care first and foremost about building this league, getting as
many WNBA fans and future WNBA fans into this league.
So if it's good for one market, because we feel
like that's good for the league, I think we're all
aligned in let's do that because all of us will
(17:23):
benefit from this continued growth. Second to that is, yes,
we all have a business to run that we're in
charge of, you know, with with the goals set forth
by ownership, and we want to be great from an
expansion standpoint. I talked to Teresa, you know at the Temple,
you know, pretty consistently, you know, over the years. It's
been good that she's had a couple of years to
like really build and get in there.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
I love their brand.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
I thought it was really beautifully done and the colors
that they rolled out is really reflective of Canada and
the city of Toronto, but uniquely their own at the
same time. So we chat, you know, as often as
is helpful and very candidly. There's so many people in
this league that have gotten it to the point that
allowed us to build what it is today as well. Right,
So I learned a ton from some of the current
(18:04):
markets too, you know, Alicia wit Seattle and Kia Clark
with New York, they answered every call, and I think
that that's who we want to be as a league.
If someone calls you and has a question and it's
going to help you succeed, go do that, right. I think,
you know, that's a really special alignment at this point
in time where the league growth and the team growth
are really aligned.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Love to hear that from a fan perspective too, because
I also think about when you're traveling to different markets,
how those fans show up, how they get to know
your athletes, your team when and if their team doesn't
make the playoffs or what have you too that it
really builds fandoms throughout the entire season as well. So
that's really interesting. You were talking about being great. And
(18:46):
one thing that the valkyrie Z owner Joe has famously
said is that he wants the team to win a
championship within the first five years. And so you're on
the business side of things, but how much are you
kind of thinking about that on core? Hey, we got
to go out there. I'm win a championship now within
the next four seasons. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 5 (19:06):
I mean, first and foremost, he's an incredible owner, him
and Peter Cooper. You know, I think what's unique is
they're not just saying a goal to say a goal.
They put a goal out there and then ask how
can I help you do it right? And they are
really by our side every day and find such joy
in the things that we do as well, like the
behind the scenes conversations of talking about players, teams, and
(19:27):
like how to make this all work. You know, there
is just so much expertise, but just almost and also
so much tenacity, you know, within the organization, ownership included.
You know, for us, we wouldn't be here myself, Ohamma
or Natalie if we didn't feel the exact same way.
To be quite honest, it's invigorating, you know, I think
so many people right now, especially you know, definitely throughout
(19:49):
the season, but as our season you know, came to
a close, are reflecting back at the capsule that just
happened over the last eighteen months for this organization to
enter the world. And if you're me or Natalie or Emma,
you're sitting here still with a chip on your shoulder
like this is unfinished business. We are not done yet.
We just entered the world. We are not relaxing, and
you know, of course there's reflection time so that we
(20:10):
can better our product. And whether that's me or the
two of them, you know, that's what's taking place. And
we are not We're just relentless right like.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
There's so much more to do.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
And I think what we saw this year was Okay,
we're doing a lot of things well, and we get
an opportunity to keep building on that for next year.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That chip on the shoulder is a very dangerous thing,
which I feel like I'm so excited for next season
for the Valkyries. You mentioned your experience beforehand just as
long as well as your teams, and we knew each
other back when you were at Angel City and that
was also an expansion team. And everything that you were
working on there. What parallels have you seen between operating
(20:53):
on the NWSSL side versus the WNBA side. Have you
seen any differences in fandom? What has that been through
you been like?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
For you, I think, first and foremost, I have a
lot of questions about myself.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Having gone through the past twice.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Like, Okay, you saw how hard it was to build
a team and you said, you know what, let's go do.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
That again in the wOBA this time.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
But both have just been equally rewarding to be a
part of. And you know, you release surround yourselves with
smart people that are are fun to build. Beside, there's
so many parallels. The reason I was able to be
really adamant about the things I knew would work here
at the Valkyries and then fuel them, you know, with
the stakeholders that we have are because the confidence that
(21:34):
I had built at Angel City by us kind of
being the first that did a lot of what the
playbook is right in City. You look at our brand
right La similar market, we built something that was our
own soul, Rosa, you know, this beautiful lifestyle brand that
really reflected you know, this new wave of women's soccer
and how these different ownership had come together to say
(21:54):
now's the time, right, you know, birth out of that
times up movement and the equal pay with the US
women's national team, you know over there, so that parallel
fandom very similarly, right, you know, we see you know
the data there first and foremost, it's fifty percent men
and women. I think so often people have this assumption
from an external point of view that this is a
women's product for women, but it's not. This is a
(22:16):
women's product for everyone. And that's actually what's making it
so powerful and societal shifting is that everyone is a fan,
you know. But when you layer deep into that, it
is the heart of the fan, the core season ticket holder,
the folks that are following and sharing everything that you're doing. Ultimately,
they want your product first.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Right. This is not you know, an NBA fan turning
to a WMBA fan.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
That fan exists, But when you look at this core audience,
it is a brand new fan that has been waiting
for women's sports to be this powerful so they can
invest in it in a way that holds their true
values for how they've wanted to see it. Or it's
this young, diverse audience that understands that supporting women's sports,
wearing the merchandise, buying a ticket, showing up, which is
all fun by the way, but doing that matters, right,
(22:58):
and really understanding where you spend time and money is
something that can make really big shifts. And that community
that's growing, you know here on top of the core
sports fans starting to come in and just understand all
this basketball is incredible, right, and so it's a really
interesting melting pot, you know, as we start to peek
into who our fans are and who's showing up.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I really love that everything is coming back to fandom
for you. Are you do you have a research team
internally who's constantly speaking to your fans, you have an agency?
What does that look like in terms of you constantly
being in touch with your fans and understanding what they want?
Speaker 6 (23:35):
We have.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
One of the benefits of being a Golden State is
one of the parts of our service and data department
is one of the best analytical teams that probably exists.
Interesting this gentleman Bendre, who's the head of strategy. A
Golden State helps oversee everything and we are getting all
the data. We are constantly looking at, not only our
own fan base growth, who's coming in, how they're coming in,
balancing that with social followship and like what those audiences
(23:58):
look like on that front, But we are also always
serving the market, right, So you can drink a lot
of your own kool aid often right where you're only
looking at the data inside your realm, but you really
have to challenge yourself to get outside and say, does
everyone know who the vlkyries are? And if they don't,
who doesn't know? And if they do, who does know?
What's working and what's not? I think more importantly to
(24:20):
understand who isn't coming in yet? Right from a fan perspective,
Like we say everyone watches women's sports, we really mean that.
So if there are segments of the market that we
don't feel like we are deepening quickly enough, I think
that awareness for us as a year two brand going
into next year will be really really important.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Data is queen, as they say, and asking all of
that information too is so helpful on that fan side,
not just the moneyball of it all, and the athletes
side of things too, which is where I think our
brains go oftentimes in sports. Is that data for encore,
But there's so much that matters in building a brand.
We don't have too much time left together justs. So
I have one more question for you. And this is
(24:59):
a little bit more abroad because thinking about our audience.
Not everybody's in sports, but a lot of folks are
sports fans, and I think that there's so much that
all of us can learn from people like you, people
like Natalie. And so for anyone out there who's working
in corporate who's looking to advance into a leadership role,
someone like myself who's currently in a leadership role, what
(25:20):
is your advice in growing as an effective leader?
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Yeah, it's so interesting, you know. I was just talking
to my husband about this. Actually, we went to an
event this weekend and I said, I'm now a person
an event that people want to talk to. And I
spent the last twenty years going to events and wanting
to talk and learn from so many other people and
both still exist, by the way, It's just an interesting
moment to kind of have to reflect and say, Okay,
the work that you've done have made you somebody that
(25:44):
people can ask this question of which is a privilege
and I don't take for granted. Thirteen year old Jess
would still just be like what so, so I always
have that acknowledgement internally of just you know, being proud
of myself, but then also not losing sight of what
got me here in the first place. And I think
that is the first point is just you have to
be yourself. I think for so long in my younger
(26:05):
career as I was coming through and I'm the first
person in my family to graduate college, so everything in
this world, in the professional and corporate world.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Have been new to me. You know.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I didn't have anyone I could ask questions of. I
didn't know how to declare a major correctly, like, none
of those things. And so when I would get into
work environments, I would just emulate other people's behaviors that
I saw were successful. And it wasn't until I did
enough of that and had enough of like the ten
thousand hours where you start to understand the more of
yourself that you put into something, the more genuine and
authentic that you can be, the confidence that you can
(26:35):
exude when you say I don't know, those are the
things that a good leader has. And when I think
of when I've been able to hire really good people,
when I've been able to retain really good staff. When
I've been able to feel connected to fans or employees
like those are the moments where I feel like we're
just talking as people and not necessarily talking above anything.
And everyone has a different journey to what that means
(26:55):
for you, and your background is just something that you
have to you know, really am not trying to be
like anything else. The second is you have to be
really honest with yourself, brutally honest with yourself, you know.
For our team, I talk about prioritization every single day.
There's a book that I read in twenty fourteen. That
year of my life. I was getting married, I had
just had back surgery that I was recovering from. I'd
(27:18):
entered grad school with Ohio University. I was selling partnerships
with the Oakland A's, and I was doing all of
it well, but I wasn't doing any of it great.
And there was like this fire in me of just
I wasn't reaching my potential in all the areas of
things that I knew that I could, And the honesty
was I was doing too much to do them all
to the capability that I was able to. So this
(27:40):
book that I read is Essentialism by Greg McEwan, And
it's really simple. I think about it and I show
it all the time. You put a circle and say
you get ten points of energy. If you spend those
ten points of energy every day doing ten different things,
you're going to make a little bit of progress at
ten different things. If you put those ten points of
energy and you do two things, you're going to make
a lot of progress on two things. And we are
relentless and what we have like a quadrant of priorities.
(28:03):
There's so many things that you want to focus on
to be a good leader. You cannot lose sight of
what your goals are every single day, and you have
to work towards them in the simple ways every single
day and recourse everybody every single day. Is it really
nice to go do that?
Speaker 6 (28:17):
It is? Is it actually driving towards our goals? It's not,
you know.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And I think that type of honesty with yourself and
others in a caring way is really what I've seen
set leaders apart so helpful.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I really like all of that in terms of being
your true and authentic self.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
That essentialism. I need to put that on my list.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
And I love that piece that you said too, of
having confidence and saying I don't know. I think that
that is so hard as you're young in your career
where it almost feels like as a leader you're supposed
to have that information and people are coming to you
for that information, but there's so much power and saying
you know what, let me get back to you, let's
figure this out together, and showing that vulnerability I think
(28:56):
as well and being a leader. Jess, thank you so
much for joining us today. It's been such a fun conversation.
Really appreciate it and so looking forward to seeing what
the Valkyries get up to next year, and hope that
you find a little bit of time to relax this offseason.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
I will find a beach at some point with my
husband and two girls love a part of all of
this too, so I definitely will find a spot to
actually take in some reflection.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
It's just not yet. We're not done yet yet.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
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(30:21):
It's time for the last segment of the pod or
personal training sesh. This is where we would love to
answer your questions about anything, and we mean anything in
the sports world, or respond to a hot take, share
some commentary that you would like for us to add
to the podcast. And today we're taking a question from
Dan who message Ellen on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So we will read from Dan Stam thank you so
much for damming us and setting this in so he writes, Hey, Ellen,
love the Just Pod. Had a question maybe for a
future personal training sash thinking about today's episode on Asia
Wilson with a bit of a spin on the men's
sports women's sports comparison. So for context there, we did
an episode on Asia Wilson on Tuesday. Go listen to
that if you haven't already. But it's about the marketing
and the miss opportunity around her winning for unprecedented WNBA MVPs.
(31:04):
So Dan continues, if we look at the NBA, while
there's obviously white men playing at a very high level,
most of the mega mega superstars are black men like
Lebron or Steph Curry or further back, Kobe Shack and Jordan.
How much do you think this is marketers and audiences
treating men and women differently, so they're less willing to
put a black woman in that social space of quote
sports superstar. For something the NBA did differently, maybe the
(31:26):
w could do differently as well to build that public stardom.
And he says, again, love the pod, So thank you
for the kind words, and thank you for submitting this
really really great question. Steph. I know you had some
thoughts right away when this came through, so I'll kick
it to you first and then we can get into it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Thank you, Lauren, and thanks Dan for the message I had. Yeah,
a couple initial reactions. I wouldn't necessarily give credit to
the NBA for them having black superstars. I think that
it's pretty safe to say that all of those men
really bet on themselves, especially if we're thinking historically and
we're thinking before the Lebron's and before the Steph Curries.
(32:01):
They truly had to see their own value. And I
think when you look into the brand deals that they
were first creating, they really did have to advocate for themselves.
And it took decades of professionalization in the NBA for
them to even get there to be able to do
that in the first place. So there's the decades of
(32:22):
them being able to play pro in them I mean
men in general, and then if you layer that on
with race, and then you layer that on with gender,
it gets so much more complicated. Black women just simply
have more barriers to break through. So I do think
that the WNBA, in a different way than the NBA,
does have more of a responsibility to make its black
(32:45):
stars more visible and celebrated so that hopefully the market
will catch up and will respond because there's just too
many layers for them and then too many barriers at
this point, still in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I really like that you brought in the responsibility
of the league, because you also women's sports are seen
as this progressive space. The w is the most progressive league.
The players are out there championing for equal rights and
they've been so vocal. So I really like that you
put in that responsibility is definitely on the league. And
when I read this question, I immediately thought of two studies,
and well, at first a study in an article from
(33:18):
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one era. There was first a
study on coverage of black athletes in the WNBA. Despite
being the majority of the athletes in the w they
were receiving so much less media coverage, and we'll put
a link to that. This was I think a twenty
twenty study and it got into the media coverage side
of things, and of course the w has a responsibility
to uplift their players to the media, so it's partially
(33:41):
on the coverage and it's partially on the league there too.
There was also a great Katie Barnes article about John
Quoll Jones a few years ago, so this was after
she won MVP, and it was about who gets to
be the face of the WNBA, and you talk about
the layer stuff, you're dealing with a black gay woman
as well, so there's so many layers and the article
got into that. So that was a really fascinating read.
But it's kind of like these issues were being vocalized
(34:02):
back then and now we're seeing it even more and
more with Kaitlin Clark and Paige Becker's and the coverage
that they're getting. So I think your point about the
w having responsibility here is a really apt one, and
I would highly recommend going back and checking out those
resources for folks.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Because the players are doing that themselves. They've got social
media now, they have their own hustle that they're doing
to platform and spotlight themselves, and of course they are
selling out merchandise.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
They are truly doing the damn thing.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But that's where the media and the league have more
of responsibility to really uplift.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And not.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Default go on what they think is going to be
quote unquote the most marketable because that's always going to
be a blonde, white woman, you know what I mean,
Like that's just the reality that we live in, and
I think they have a responsibility to make sure they're
actively pushing against that from a player perspective. But also
something that I wanted to bring back because I think
it's timely or bring up because I think it's timely
with this conversation is that this there was a lot
(35:01):
of coaching shifting in the WNBA, and there is a
reality now that there are no longer any black female
head coaches in the thirteen team league, So that also
needs to change. There's a whole ecosystem that needs to
be really focused on making sure that the women who
have built this league, black women are the ones who
(35:21):
are celebrated and given opportunities after playing as well. So
there is there is we have time we need, Like
obviously the NBA has had a lot more time, a
lot more decades behind them, but like the time is
now and there's there's no time, Like the president in
the league definitely needs to step up, but media needs
to step up and make sure that they are covering
(35:43):
things like in stories like the MVP of Asia Wilson.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Definitely, like it's the entire ecosystem, it all wraps up
into it. And just on that marketability point too, we've
seen Asia Wilson her shoes sold out immediately when she
dropped them, Angel Reese sold out her shoes and we're
seeing it with the stud buds now and that has
been so such a cool rise to watch and see
their presence and people really responding to it. So like
you're saying, the time is now. We've seen some progress
and it's like we just got to keep it going
(36:08):
and it's important to keep having these conversations too.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah, people like authenticity, like yes, give the people what
they want. That's a great question. Dan, Thank you so
much for giving us the space to talk more about that.
And if you're listening and you'd like to be featured
on a future episode, please call. You can leave us
a voicemail at one four three seven five six four
five five seven nine. You can email us at pod
at the Just sports dot com, or you can DM
(36:33):
Ellen or myself on Instagram like Dan did so. Ellen
is at Ellen at the Gist and I'm at Stephanie Ron's.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yes, thank you again for some of that, and Dan,
we really appreciate it. And with that, that marks the
end of today's episode. Thank you so much everybody for
tuning in.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
We'll be back in your feed with the new podcast
on Tuesday. In the meantime, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
please rate, review, subscribe, and send in a personal training sash.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
This episode was edited by Savannah Held and produced by
Alisandra Puccio and le Minutillow Again. I'm Lauren Tuscola and
I'm Steph Rods, and we will shat with again next
week
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