Hey socceristas and welcome back to The BIG LIFE Podcast! It's the last episode of Season 2 and we feel like we're ending it with a real bang with a very special guest! This season has been a whirlwind for Sam and Jordyn as they adjust to being on different continents while sharing their lives and experiences. They will be back in late July with more exciting content, covering women's college soccer inside and out with a focus, of course, on the Big Ten.
For our finale episode, we're thrilled to bring you an incredible interview with Andrea Brimmer, Chief Marketing and PR Officer at Ally Financial, who is a fellow Spartan, like our Jordyn! This is such a great episode with a super smart and passionate leader in the women's soccer space! Andrea shares her inspiring journey from Michigan State's first women's varsity soccer team to leading the charge in the growth of women's sports. Andrea discusses Ally's 50-50 media equity pledge and the significant strides they've made to support women's sports.
Andrea's story is also motivational in framing the importance of media coverage and investment in women's sports. She offers invaluable advice for athletes transitioning into professional careers. This powerful conversation wraps up Season 2 on a high note!
As always, follow Girl Soccer Network on Instagram, stay updated with Sam and Jordyn's journeys on social media, and reach out to us with any questions. We'll see you in late July to kick off the women's college soccer season! Have a great summer!
Please subscribe to the BIG LIFE wherever you love to listen. Subscribe to Girls Soccer Network's GSN Newsletter to stay posted about upcoming episodes. Find Jordyn and Sam on their Insta's @sam.cary @jordyn_wickes Follow us on Instagram (@girlssoccernetwork) Follow us on Twitter @girlssoccernet Subscribe to our YouTube channel @girlssoccernetwork6137Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hey socceristas and welcome back to the
big life podcast we are so so thankful to
have you guys here and so thankful so that you guys always tune
in week after week to the big life you know
i know that this season has been a bit crazy with jordan and
i getting used to being on different continents trying
to continue to get out content that you guys really can
(00:25):
relate to and discuss as we talk about our lives and
everything that's going on and i'm so grateful for everyone
who's tuned in on this journey for everyone who's reached out this
season has brought so many memories of vulnerability and
highs and lows from both jordan and i and i couldn't be more
thankful for our audience to keep supporting us that being said this is unfortunately
the last episode of this season yes of the season we will be back come end of
(00:51):
july august we will back covering women's college shocker from afar from my
perspective and in close from Jordan's perspective,
as well as what the fall can look like as a professional athlete and continuing
the highs and lows of this Swedish season for me and the Domos Vonskin.
There's so many moments and so many memories that I look forward to continuing
and going forth. But with summer, we're going to take a little break.
(01:14):
Jordan's going to enjoy her last summer before going into her senior year.
We can't bog her down with too much work.
And I'm in the middle of my season. I have four more games before a little bit
of break during the end or middle of July.
And then we are back at it with the second half of our season.
So, so many exciting things going on in the world with the big life.
And we're just so looking forward to coverage, you know, in the next season,
(01:36):
we're going to be talking about the Olympics. We're going to be breaking down games.
We're going to be talking about moments leading up to college soccer,
what those moments are like, what early fall games, you know,
last year we talked about them from both of our perspectives. So it'll be interesting.
What the big 10 looks like. There's so many questions that we will have answered
when we come into next season.
And I'm so, so excited to cover that all with you guys, Jordan,
(01:57):
unfortunately, like I said, we're balancing being on different continents,
time schedules, all these things.
And I actually am super, super lucky.
And my mom just got to Sweden this week. And then it's going to be followed
up by a little bit of summer of some amazing guests, including our own girls
soccer network, Maddie Sabatier, who edits these podcasts and does great things.
So I'm so excited to see her in Sweden.
(02:18):
So with some of my visitors kicking in, I have to be respectful for the people
that flew across the world, but also continue to give you guys all my focus.
So we're going to take a little bit of a break.
That way, when we're back, we're back and we're big and bigger than ever.
This is an incredible interview that Jordan has done with Andrea Bremer over
at Ally talking about the growth of women's sports, talking about all the ways
(02:40):
that Ally has supported women's sports and so many different things about the
the investment of the game and how we've seen it grow.
So it's truly an inspirational one to leave us on season two on a high note,
talking about so many exciting things in the future of the women's game that
we're so, so thankful to companies like that for contributing and giving us their time.
So this is an incredible interview to wrap up season two, and I cannot wait
(03:02):
to keep you all updated with season three.
As always follow girl soccer network on Instagram, follow Sam,
Carrie, follow Jordan, Wicca's keep to date on our journeys,
ask us questions, reach out.
We're over than happy to help but for now listen to
this incredible interview hey though see you guys
all right welcome back everyone to the
big life podcast today we have very special guest miss andrea brimmer so you've
(03:26):
made history and are leading the change in women's sports from a business perspective
but before you were the chief marketing and pr officer at ally financial you're
the leading from the field as a member of michigan state's first ever women's varsity soccer team.
Can you tell us a little bit about you and your soccer journey?
Yeah, it was a long time ago. I always joke and tell my kids it was like we
used to carve our ball out of a stone when I actually played.
(03:49):
But I started my soccer journey very early in the YMCA League in Livonia,
Michigan. I think I was in like fourth grade.
And it was the first time soccer was even available to anybody in the community.
And I just absolutely fell in love with the game and really played my kind of entire youth journey.
(04:12):
Played. We didn't really have travel teams. They were more like select teams back then.
So I played a lot of select soccer, played high school soccer,
and I played at Livonia Stevenson.
Livonia Stevenson was like a soccer powerhouse.
And I made the team as a sophomore, the varsity team as a sophomore,
and played three years of varsity soccer at Michigan State.
(04:34):
And my senior year was the first year they actually had a state championship for girls.
And we won the State Championship that year at Flint Atwood Stadium.
We beat Sangin up 7-0, which is a pretty good beatdown for a state championship.
And then came up to Michigan State. And when I came up to Michigan State,
(04:55):
it was still a clump sport, but there was a lot of emphasis and focus around
trying to achieve our city status.
And so the girls kind of came together and we bombarded the athletic department
and talked to anybody we could talk to and played as full of a schedule as we
(05:15):
could play and tried to bring as much awareness as possible to why we should get varsity status.
And we were able to achieve that while I was there. And I got to play four years at Michigan State.
We were only the second Big Ten team to have varsity status.
So it was pretty cold. But unfortunately, when I graduated, you know,
(05:35):
my soccer career had to end. There was nowhere to go.
You know, I played ODP, but there really wasn't a national team.
There was no such thing as, you know, national camps like there are now.
There was no professional women's soccer league of any sort.
And so I had to, you know, I had to get a job and go into real life.
(05:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I've heard that's a big part of your story is that
you want to be able to push so that no kid has to go and kind of end their career
without any options for her.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, it was a big hole in my heart, like it still is today.
My biggest dream would have been to play for the national team,
you know, play in an Olympics or play in a World Cup.
And that just wasn't a possibility. And so a lot of what I have committed and Ally has committed,
(06:23):
particularly with our 50-50 media equity pledge between men's and women's sports,
is that no little girl is ever going to have to feel like she's got a dead end
in her sports career or she isn't worthy of prime time or any of the things
that I felt as I transitioned out of sports and just like,
(06:43):
you know, you come out of college and you're in prime shape, you're in prime playing.
Condition and it just ends and it's really abrupt and it's a really hard transition.
Transition and for those people that don't want to
have that transition I don't want them to have to feel like there's
nowhere to go absolutely and you know
me and Sam talk about it a lot just how much everything's changed
(07:05):
in our time here I'm going into my senior year Sam is now playing professionally
over in Sweden she's normally the co-host here unfortunately because she's in
Sweden she couldn't make it today but just how many options there are for us
now that weren't even here when we started this process and how much women's
sports and especially women's soccer is growing.
Yeah, it's amazing. And it's awesome. I'm so happy for you guys.
(07:27):
Yeah, thank you. And we owe it a lot to you. And you guys paved the way for us.
Especially being a Michigan State alum, I love hearing the story of how you
guys got the varsity status that I can now just sit back and enjoy. And it means so much.
And you mentioned Allie's 50-50 pledge, which I definitely want to dive a little
bit into because as you trailblazed at Michigan State leading the way there.
(07:48):
You also led the way in terms of media rights and equity and equality in terms
of women's and men's sports for Ally Financial.
Can you tell us a little bit about the pledge and what it means?
Yeah, absolutely. And before I do, just on your note about us paving the way,
you guys are definitely making us proud.
So back-to-back Big Ten championships, deep run in the tournament.
(08:08):
It's incredible to see how you guys seize the opportunity and what's happening with this program.
And I saw a stat in social media the other day about Jeff having one of the
highest winning percentages, like right up there with legendary coaches like
Anson, which is just really cool to see Michigan State in that company.
So kudos to you guys. But the pledge
(08:29):
really emanated out of the 50th anniversary of Title IX and is a product of
Title IX and also being on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation that was
started by Billie Jean King with a really big primary focus to protect Title
IX, which is coming under siege.
There's a lot of pressure around Title IX.
(08:50):
We wanted to do something substantive to recognize that 50th anniversary and
to celebrate the power of what Title IX has done, particularly for so many women.
And we saw this really interesting insight that less than 5% of the media coverage
was going to women's sports.
And we did some quick back of the napkin math and realized that as a brand,
(09:13):
95% of our investment was going into men's sports media and about 5% was going into women's.
And we never would have thought about it if we hadn't seen that stat, to be honest with you.
And so we just came up with this crazy idea of what if we could get to 50-50
and what if we could pledge that publicly?
(09:33):
And I'm really good friends with Julie Foudy, who was, you know,
one of the 99ers and a pretty big name in the soccer world from her time with
the national team and ESPN and all the things that she does there.
Has a good podcast of her own, Left or Permitted, which is awesome.
And I called Foudy. She was hosting the ESPNW Summit. And I said,
(09:56):
hey, we've got this big announcement we want to make.
Can we make it live at the summit? And she's like, absolutely.
So we live streamed into the summit and surprised everyone.
My team, all the people that were in the audience, and people just went wild. And it's pretty cool.
Two years later, by the end of this year, we're going to be within spinning
distance of being right at 50-50 between men's and women's sports.
(10:20):
That is absolutely incredible. And it breaks my heart a little to hear the initial
stat, less than 5%. That's a tough pill to swallow as a woman in sports.
So to see you guys kind of paving the way, what kind of pushback did you get?
I And I don't assume that that was an easy thing to do. That's a large jump. Yeah.
You know, the biggest pushback is that there is this misperception.
(10:44):
I don't know that many people believe it today, just two years later.
But at the time, there was this massive misperception that nobody wants to watch women's sports.
And, of course, when it's on at 3 o'clock in the morning on ESPN 10,
no, nobody wants to get up and watch it.
But when you put women's sports in primetime slots, you put them on Saturday
(11:07):
afternoons, you put them on primetime slots on the weekends,
the numbers have demonstrated that people will watch.
And I could rattle off a whole bunch of statistics, but we were instrumental
in getting the NWSL championship game moved to primetime.
And there was a 76% increase in viewership. We had almost a million people that
(11:31):
watched the game that night versus.
Really low number the year before when it was on, you know, 12 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.
Look at the women's, you know, basketball championships. I don't think anybody
needs to repeat those numbers.
Outperformed men's March Madness the last two years in a row.
NWSL is shattering all kinds of viewership records this year just by having
(11:55):
a broadcast contract that has a lot of prime time slots and access.
And so the biggest pushback was really that, that people don't care about women's
sports. Nobody's going to watch.
And we had to overcome that by creating the media and forcing the legacy media
platforms to think differently about the opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when you say you had to change kind of the media and create it,
(12:21):
when you're trying to buy 50% of media rights for women's sports,
did you have to create the media to buy yourself or is it moving around? How did that look like?
Yeah, so I'll give you a great example. We did a multi-million dollar deal with
Disney, who owns obviously ESPN and ABC and Hulu and a lot of big platforms, right?
(12:44):
And I sat with Rita Farrow, who's the head of Disney Advertising and Sales,
and we talked about this vision for 50-50.
And we literally sat down, her team and my team, and part of the multi-million
dollar deal was that we said 98% of our investment had to go into women's sports. And...
(13:07):
The women's sports that they carried, whether it was soccer,
volleyball, basketball, softball, had to be moved into track and field,
had to be moved into prime time slots that we would not accept like a 3 a.m.
Softball game on ESPN.
So we literally sat for months and the network moved around media and programming
(13:32):
to put them into time slots that were acceptable to us.
And then we also created what we call in the industry shoulder content.
And it was really cool. What we did is we worked with ESPN and we produced two
different sports center segments that were all written by women,
(13:53):
all women anchors, all women behind the camera, 100% female produced,
created, and delivered.
And that was shoulder content that surrounded the media that focused on the
sports that we had moved into primetime.
So that's one great example. The other example was the work that we did with
(14:15):
CBS and NWSL to move that championship game into primetime. And,
you know, I know we talked about it before, but think about it.
That was two years ago. It was the first time a women's championship game in
any sport had been played in Network Prime.
And that was because we demanded that the game get moved and put together a
(14:37):
substantive media package around it that would allow CBS to be able to monetize
and drive revenue off of having it in primetime.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's
a huge undertaking and we've seen how it's grown in the past two years.
And you have the shirts where everyone watches women's sports.
You got the Caitlin Clark era in the WNBA now.
(14:59):
You're building stadiums for women's only sports. It has grown so much.
And a large part of that is what you guys started there with this 50-50 pledge.
So you talked about the conversations in the media and being able to obtain
those from an outside view.
How was it like getting your team on board with this idea and the company convincing
them to move, you know, 45% of your funding from wherever it was into women's sports? Yeah.
(15:23):
You know, look, from the team perspective, it's really interesting.
My sports marketing team is primarily all women and everybody's a former athlete.
So you've got myself obviously playing at Michigan State.
My head of sports marketing was the captain of the basketball team at Princeton.
Or no, Yale. I'm sorry, she'll kill me if I say Princeton, Yale.
(15:45):
That's like saying we went to Michigan. again.
Never. Everybody played a sport.
I've got softball players, soccer players, basketball players.
And so there was a lot of heart and a lot of pride for doing this.
And the point that I think is really important that I want to underscore there
is that when you have women sitting at the the table in decision-making positions,
(16:12):
you can have different conversations.
And so that part was a really easy conversation. I would say across,
you know, our CEO and kind of across the C-suite and our board,
it's also been a huge pride point. Everybody.
Believes in this, not just because it's the right thing to do,
(16:32):
but because it's delivering business results.
Our brand value is the highest it's ever been.
It took a 32% jump year over year, the highest it's been in five years.
We're at historic highs across all of our KPIs that we measure.
We've delivered billions of impressions. The amount of attention that we've
(16:54):
gotten as a brand, you know, in the media, in the process, being the architect
of this movement is incredible.
And so it's been this unreal pride point across Ally.
And I think the thing that I like about working here is this is a culture of like innovation.
And if you've got an idea, try it. If it works, great. If not,
fail fast and move on. And so I really didn't get any pushback.
(17:17):
I think the harder part was just doing the actual work. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So you mentioned that your team is full of athletes.
What are some of the qualities that you think, you know, led to that?
Are you searching them out or do they have certain characteristics?
What are the benefits of having athletes surrounding you in a job?
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of hiring athletes for a number of reasons.
(17:40):
And I think I watch my team exhibit a lot of these characteristics.
First, athletes are highly competitive. We have a drive and a spirit to win.
And that's important in the business world. You know, you are part of a team
and you want your team to win.
You want to go out there and be able to kick some ass. And it's fun to have
(18:02):
soldiers around you that want to do the same thing.
Second, I think athletes kind of take no for an answer.
And, you know, like set them up and we'll knock it down.
And so much of this work is so hard to get done. And I love the drive that the team has.
Third, you know, you know, as an athlete, the time management is paramount, right?
(18:25):
Your life is not the same as somebody that's not playing a sport at Michigan State.
You're trying to get your schoolwork done. You've got to maintain a certain grade point average.
You've got practice. You've got training. And, oh, by the way,
you've got to get on a plane and go fly across the country and play,
you know, play a soccer game.
And so the time management skills are so critical, particularly with how full
(18:50):
and how busy our plates are.
And then lastly, I think just the team camaraderie and, you know,
everyone's got each other's back.
And, you know, you come by it naturally as an athlete.
You want to lift one another up. You want to see your teammates succeed.
And that team aspect is so important. And so those characteristics ring,
(19:13):
you know, really true for me and what I see exhibited with my folks every single day.
Absolutely. I love that. You know,
you're obviously speaking to a group of athletes here as the audience.
So I love that the characteristics and qualities that we have on the field also
translate off the field and to see you're surrounded by them in the business world is incredible.
It's a superpower. And for the athletes that are listening, like really,
(19:38):
when you go out to the professional world and you start to do your interviews
and you start to try and sell your brand, make it a big part of your conversation
because it, number one, it resonates.
And number two, there's a lot of truisms in it that employers are looking for.
So I would definitely make it a big part of, you know, your kind of elevator pitch.
(19:58):
Absolutely. I love that. Yeah. And I love that you mentioned the benefits that
you had from this 50-50 pledge as well, that it wasn't a charity case, right?
You saw the payoffs. It was an investment in women's sports and you got to watch it grow.
And there was payoff for Allie Financial and you guys, you paved the way in
that way and you got the payoff as well.
I think that's what a lot of people think when you throw money at women's sports
(20:20):
and you're starting something like that. Was it a charity case?
Yeah. There are a lot of brands that kind of had this perception,
especially when we started this, because the other aspect of what,
you know, I think all of us have tried to do on the team here at Ally is have
a really open playbook and share that with other brands.
Like how did we do it and encourage other brands to do something?
(20:44):
We started this thing called the Women's Sports Club and we've done it with
an organization that's run by Angelo Ruggiero, who was the captain of USA Hockey's
won a bunch of gold medals and.
And she works at a company called Sports Innovation Lab. And the Women's Sports
Club is several hundred brands strong now.
(21:06):
And you can't just join it. You have to be invited.
And the ticket in is you have to commit to doing something meaningful in women's sports.
And so part of what we've done is open the playbook to say, here's how we've done it.
And this isn't something like sits in your charitable giving budget. it.
Like you've got to make it a meaningful part of your marketing mix and you have
(21:30):
to go out and do real things and it will pay an annuity,
but it takes a, you know, it takes a different type of thinking because you
can't today value women's sports in the same way that you value men's sports
and a little bit of it, it has to be investment minded.
And so that's been a big part of what what we've tried to do with,
(21:51):
with our focus on women's sports as well as bring others along on the journey with us.
Absolutely. I love that. I love the call to action. Cause you know,
as much as you guys have done, you're only one, you know, one,
you know, it takes, it takes a village.
Yeah. A thousand percent. And that's what we say, like, we're not going to be
able to climb the whole mountain by ourselves.
We need the state farms of the world. We need the Googles of the world.
(22:14):
We need these big other brands and you know, the deltas of the world.
And it's been awesome to see how they've come into it in a big way.
Yeah, absolutely. I've heard you tell the story of when you found out that the
AFC women's team, when they bought the team, they didn't even know there was
a woman's side to it. Yeah. That's crazy.
(22:38):
Isn't that crazy? So Rob and Ryan, especially Rob,
super, super focused on women's sports, loves women's
sports his home all better production companies producing
a lot of content around women's sports really believes in the
thesis you know i actually
filmed an integration for rexum that's actually going to be on tomorrow night
(23:01):
on rec and on welcome to rexum and so tomorrow would be june 7th they'll be
out tomorrow night on welcome to rexum so check it out if you get a chance but
what he was stunned by is that when they bought the team Whole year,
no one ever told him there was a women's team.
And then they went, and the women are good. Like, they're ballers.
(23:21):
And they were crushing it. He said that he was appalled at where they were playing.
If anybody's been watching Rex on their stories, they're all so interesting.
And they were chagrined to find out that it just never occurred to anybody to
tell them there was a women's side.
I don't even understand how that could possibly happen. That is so mind-blowing
(23:46):
to me that it's over a year before you even know that there's a whole other
side to what he bought it. I think it shows the, you know, it's funny.
I'm surprised at how much further behind in terms of some of the progress a
lot of the European nations are relative to equity in women's sports.
But I think this last World Cup changed a little bit of that.
(24:07):
And, you know, focus like Wrexham, etc.
Are helping with that. I'm hearing rumors that maybe the next time Lasso is
going to be focused on a women's AFC team, which could be really fun.
So you know we'll see but
yeah it's it's pretty mind-boggling and
I think uh Rob and Ryan were pretty ashamed to know
that it wasn't part of anything that anybody told them about and I know they've
(24:30):
got big aspirations for that Wrexham team yeah yeah I love that and obviously
this is a woman's soccer kind of podcast so I'd love to dive into a little bit
with your partnership with the NWSL a bit more um yeah yeah how did how did
you guys get involved with NWSL, what drew you to them?
Well, I came by it naturally, being a huge soccer fan.
And, you know, we looked at our sports portfolio. I mentioned that stat of less
(24:55):
than 5% of the media coverage.
Well, to compound the pain, less than 1% of brand sponsorships go into women's sports.
And when I looked across our portfolio, we had always partnered with WICC,
the Women's Friendlies.
WNBA was taken by U.S. Bank and if you think about it really the only other,
(25:19):
professional women's league out there is NWSL and
we originally thought about doing a team deal be in front of kit for a team
and that didn't fully materialize and so I started talking to the commissioner
of the NWSL at the time and said hey you know what's available for our category The category is open.
(25:39):
So if you want the category, it's yours.
And we can do a sleeve sponsorship because it's a league-owned asset and you
can be on the sleeve of every kit.
And it was cheap at the time. I mean, it was really cheap.
And we jumped in immediately and have really blown it out.
And it's really exciting to see today. day
(26:01):
not only did we extend our relationship with the nwsl we
are official partners of the players association as well like
i said we're on every kit we've built tons of content around
it we're bringing it to life every single day
we're you know proud media partners with espn who carries a lot of the nwsl
games so it's been really cool to see how his sponsorship has grown over the
(26:25):
years and the things we've been able to do yeah yeah absolutely obviously being
a soccer fan that's That's kind of the first time I was introduced to your guys'
brand and then you start seeing it everywhere and you start seeing the NWSL
grow and obviously your guys' advertisement and support with it.
It's been incredible. And as you said, being a part of the advocacy for the
players and that players group as well, not just on the business perspective,
(26:48):
but being able to be there for the actual players on the field is incredible.
Yeah, part of it, Jordan, that was really interesting to me was getting to know
so many of the players on a personal level and understanding their stories and their journeys.
You probably know starting salary in the NWSL is $35,000 a year.
(27:09):
Right? What are you going to do with $35,000 a year?
Spending time talking to people like Ashlyn Harris and her telling me,
you know, I played on two, you know, I played in two world cups,
played in Olympics and played professional soccer for 15 years.
And as I retire, I've got to figure out, you know, where to go from here because
(27:35):
I'd never made enough money playing soccer to support my family or sustain my life.
You know, you heard those stories over and over again from players that we've all idolized.
Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy, Hallie Wagner, Ashlyn, you know,
the list kind of goes on and on.
And then what happened a couple of years ago with all the scandals that plagued
(28:02):
the NWSL and those stories,
you know, we really wanted to jump I've been to the Players Association because
we wanted to show players that they had a voice, they used it,
and we were not going to abandon them for doing the right thing.
And so a big part of our sponsorship has been about how do we shine a light
on the sport and how do we help the athletes monetize?
(28:24):
And whether it's putting money directly in their pocket through Team Ally and
letting them be brand advocates for us, or just the sponsorship itself and the
media investment that we're making, which allows player salary to grow.
Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. I love that. I love that you were there for them.
Like that, cause that's, that's probably one of the biggest fears is that everyone's
(28:44):
going to leave as you go through all those controversies and you start to stand
up and hear their voices.
So I'm sure that meant a lot and has continued to mean a lot throughout your
guys's partnership with them.
What do you hope the future looks like for women's sports and it's women's soccer specifically?
Yeah. I mean, I think the, I hope that this country becomes the place where
(29:05):
the best players in the world play.
I do think the NWSL is attracting an incredible caliber of athletes.
You look at all the international players now that are coming here.
Barbara Banda's like tearing the league apart right now, right?
So there's the saying within the NWSL, the best played here.
And I hope that that brings true.
(29:27):
I'm super excited for the direction of the national team. I love Emma Hayes.
And that's a great story. In January, I get this text.
Andrea, you don't know me. I'm Emma Hayes. I coach Chelsea. I'm going to be
the new coach of the national team.
I love what Ally's done for women's sports.
I'd love to spend some time talking to you. And I was like, what?
(29:49):
Is this a prank? And so I got on a call with Emma and first thing she said is
I want to open an Ally bank account because I want to support you guys,
which I thought was incredible.
And we spent a lot of time with her and I love the direction of what she's doing with the team now.
And I feel like all the players, like you really see their level of play coming
(30:12):
up because they realize they're not going to be in the same old, same old anymore.
You want a spot on this national team, you're going to have to earn it, keep it.
So I hope we get back to world dominance in terms of the national team.
And then I think in general, my hope is that you start to see the league expand.
You know, we get to a healthy number of teams
(30:32):
that there's more opportunities and places for players like yourself
to play and that they make a real salary and
that they're able to sustain themselves and and
create a good life for themselves through through athletics and that we get
to a point where we're not calling it women's sports anymore it's just sports
you know did you did you see the AFC game last night or did you see the you
(30:56):
know Angel City game last night or Or did you see the KC list?
Instead of having to say, oh, did you see the women's game in Kansas City, right?
I hope we can get to a point where women's sports becomes ubiquitous and,
you know, synonymous. I think we're getting there.
One of the things that I love seeing is how many little boys are in those stands
trying to get, you know, female athletes autographs and autographs.
(31:22):
That a lot of female athletes are becoming their idols. And I think that's really cool.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I love what you said with it being,
you know, on the equal playing field with men's sports where you don't have
to say it's a woman's sport.
Cause I always used to remember filling out like paperwork for physicals or
whatever it may be, where it's like, check what sport you do.
And it was like soccer and women's soccer.
I was like, okay, like if you're going to do one, like that's men's soccer,
(31:47):
right? Like, what do you mean?
Like even like the Instagram handles and stuff that I've definitely
seen change throughout the recruiting process now but when
I was going through it like they would have like Michigan
men's team and then they'd have you know a Michigan
or they'd have the Michigan State soccer team
and they have the Michigan State women's soccer team and you're like why like
(32:07):
what they're like what like yeah yeah I didn't always it always made me angry
so I love that you said that and we're definitely seeing the change in it now
and like you said I see a bunch of guys where I'm gonna buy them for my brothers
that Everyone watches women's sports shirts, and they're everywhere.
And it's been great to see kind of the change throughout it.
And I got to ask, can you explain the tattoo? I love the story when you came
(32:30):
and you spoke at Michigan State, your little tattoo and the story behind it
on your arm. Can you give a little bit on that?
Yeah, I got the tattoo, and I'm actually wearing a bracelet that was a birthday
gift to me. It says, like a girl.
That was a gift, actually, from Ashlyn Harris and Sophia Bush, which is pretty cool.
So i've always hated when
(32:51):
people refer to like oh you throw
like a girl or guy you kick like a girl like it's it's
something that i feel like men have
said to us our whole lives and i even hear
other women say it like oh don't throw like a girl or don't
do this like a girl and i felt like
the double entendre take your power back yeah
(33:12):
you're damn right i kick like a girl you want want to feel it
come over here you know you're damn right I punch like a girl
you want to see how I throw like a girl and so to me the tattoo was acknowledgement
of taking our power back number one and number two for me it's something that
I look at all the time like if I'm in meetings where I feel like the conversation
(33:34):
is not going in the right way I might touch the tattoo too.
Like it's, you know, my little, my little secret kryptonite.
And it reminds me that I have this incredible platform and that I have to use
the platform to help other women.
And so for me, there's this duality in the notion of, of what like a girl means
(33:56):
that reminds me every single day that while it's a good day for women, it's not a great day yet.
There's a lot of work that That needs to be done still, particularly in women's sports.
And this is just my like, keep going, head down, keep going, don't stop.
I love that. I cannot tell you how much I love that. That is incredible.
(34:17):
I love the tattoo. And I know you're very, very busy and I appreciate your time coming on.
Do you have any advice to leave our audience with here? What do you hope they take away?
Yeah, no. And first of all, it's been a blast being on it. So I'm happy to.
So thank you guys for the invite.
I appreciate it. I wish Sam could be with us too, but give her my regards.
You know, advice that I would have is what you're doing as a student athlete is very special.
(34:42):
It's an incredible time in your life.
Stay in the moment. Enjoy it. I know it's hard and I know it's a grind,
but, you know, the joy comes through putting the time in on the grind and it's
going to pay off for you, not just in your athletic career,
but as you graduate and go into the professional world.
(35:03):
You know, I think I was telling you guys when I was up at Michigan State last
time, it's amazing to me. You know, I'm a CMO at a Fortune 250 company,
and the first thing everybody wants to talk about is, oh, you played soccer at Michigan State?
That's so cool. Tell me about it. No one's like, oh, tell me what it's like
being a C-suite executive, or tell me about this.
It's always about my time as a student athlete. and
(35:26):
it's a very very special time so enjoy every
minute of it embrace the slop of it all and and
draw on everything that you're learning whether you're
going to go into professional sports or whether you're going to go into the
business world or whatever you're going to do when you're going to go out and
be an innovator creator an entrepreneur like just draw back on the experiences
(35:49):
that you've had as a student athlete because they are unique and they'll that
definitely bode well for you in life.
Awesome. I absolutely love that. Embrace the slop.
It's quite the seg, but it's a great, great quote to take away from this all.
And like I said, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done,
paving the way for me, particularly as a Michigan State women's soccer player
(36:09):
now, and then as a women's sports as a whole and what your company has done
and you forefronting that.
So thank you so much for everything and especially for coming on today.
I really, really appreciate it. And yeah, I've learned a lot.
Thanks. My pleasure. I'm excited to come up and watch you guys and see you on
the pitch. Awesome. Thank you.
Hey socceristas and welcome back to the
big life podcast we are so so thankful to
have you guys here and so thankful so that you guys always tune
in week after week to the big life you know
i know that this season has been a bit crazy with jordan and
i getting used to being on different continents trying
to continue to get out content that you guys really can
(00:25):
relate to and discuss as we talk about our lives and
everything that's going on and i'm so grateful for everyone
who's tuned in on this journey for everyone who's reached out this
season has brought so many memories of vulnerability and
highs and lows from both jordan and i and i couldn't be more
thankful for our audience to keep supporting us that being said this is unfortunately
the last episode of this season yes of the season we will be back come end of
(00:51):
july august we will back covering women's college shocker from afar from my
perspective and in close from Jordan's perspective,
as well as what the fall can look like as a professional athlete and continuing
the highs and lows of this Swedish season for me and the Domos Vonskin.
There's so many moments and so many memories that I look forward to continuing
and going forth. But with summer, we're going to take a little break.
(01:14):
Jordan's going to enjoy her last summer before going into her senior year.
We can't bog her down with too much work.
And I'm in the middle of my season. I have four more games before a little bit
of break during the end or middle of July.
And then we are back at it with the second half of our season.
So, so many exciting things going on in the world with the big life.
And we're just so looking forward to coverage, you know, in the next season,
(01:36):
we're going to be talking about the Olympics. We're going to be breaking down games.
We're going to be talking about moments leading up to college soccer,
what those moments are like, what early fall games, you know,
last year we talked about them from both of our perspectives. So it'll be interesting.
What the big 10 looks like. There's so many questions that we will have answered
when we come into next season.
And I'm so, so excited to cover that all with you guys, Jordan,
(01:57):
unfortunately, like I said, we're balancing being on different continents,
time schedules, all these things.
And I actually am super, super lucky.
And my mom just got to Sweden this week. And then it's going to be followed
up by a little bit of summer of some amazing guests, including our own girls
soccer network, Maddie Sabatier, who edits these podcasts and does great things.
So I'm so excited to see her in Sweden.
(02:18):
So with some of my visitors kicking in, I have to be respectful for the people
that flew across the world, but also continue to give you guys all my focus.
So we're going to take a little bit of a break.
That way, when we're back, we're back and we're big and bigger than ever.
This is an incredible interview that Jordan has done with Andrea Bremer over
at Ally talking about the growth of women's sports, talking about all the ways
(02:40):
that Ally has supported women's sports and so many different things about the
the investment of the game and how we've seen it grow.
So it's truly an inspirational one to leave us on season two on a high note,
talking about so many exciting things in the future of the women's game that
we're so, so thankful to companies like that for contributing and giving us their time.
So this is an incredible interview to wrap up season two, and I cannot wait
(03:02):
to keep you all updated with season three.
As always follow girl soccer network on Instagram, follow Sam,
Carrie, follow Jordan, Wicca's keep to date on our journeys,
ask us questions, reach out.
We're over than happy to help but for now listen to
this incredible interview hey though see you guys
all right welcome back everyone to the
big life podcast today we have very special guest miss andrea brimmer so you've
(03:26):
made history and are leading the change in women's sports from a business perspective
but before you were the chief marketing and pr officer at ally financial you're
the leading from the field as a member of michigan state's first ever women's varsity soccer team.
Can you tell us a little bit about you and your soccer journey?
Yeah, it was a long time ago. I always joke and tell my kids it was like we
used to carve our ball out of a stone when I actually played.
(03:49):
But I started my soccer journey very early in the YMCA League in Livonia,
Michigan. I think I was in like fourth grade.
And it was the first time soccer was even available to anybody in the community.
And I just absolutely fell in love with the game and really played my kind of entire youth journey.
(04:12):
Played. We didn't really have travel teams. They were more like select teams back then.
So I played a lot of select soccer, played high school soccer,
and I played at Livonia Stevenson.
Livonia Stevenson was like a soccer powerhouse.
And I made the team as a sophomore, the varsity team as a sophomore,
and played three years of varsity soccer at Michigan State.
(04:34):
And my senior year was the first year they actually had a state championship for girls.
And we won the State Championship that year at Flint Atwood Stadium.
We beat Sangin up 7-0, which is a pretty good beatdown for a state championship.
And then came up to Michigan State. And when I came up to Michigan State,
(04:55):
it was still a clump sport, but there was a lot of emphasis and focus around
trying to achieve our city status.
And so the girls kind of came together and we bombarded the athletic department
and talked to anybody we could talk to and played as full of a schedule as we
(05:15):
could play and tried to bring as much awareness as possible to why we should get varsity status.
And we were able to achieve that while I was there. And I got to play four years at Michigan State.
We were only the second Big Ten team to have varsity status.
So it was pretty cold. But unfortunately, when I graduated, you know,
(05:35):
my soccer career had to end. There was nowhere to go.
You know, I played ODP, but there really wasn't a national team.
There was no such thing as, you know, national camps like there are now.
There was no professional women's soccer league of any sort.
And so I had to, you know, I had to get a job and go into real life.
(05:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I've heard that's a big part of your story is that
you want to be able to push so that no kid has to go and kind of end their career
without any options for her.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, it was a big hole in my heart, like it still is today.
My biggest dream would have been to play for the national team,
you know, play in an Olympics or play in a World Cup.
And that just wasn't a possibility. And so a lot of what I have committed and Ally has committed,
(06:23):
particularly with our 50-50 media equity pledge between men's and women's sports,
is that no little girl is ever going to have to feel like she's got a dead end
in her sports career or she isn't worthy of prime time or any of the things
that I felt as I transitioned out of sports and just like,
(06:43):
you know, you come out of college and you're in prime shape, you're in prime playing.
Condition and it just ends and it's really abrupt and it's a really hard transition.
Transition and for those people that don't want to
have that transition I don't want them to have to feel like there's
nowhere to go absolutely and you know
me and Sam talk about it a lot just how much everything's changed
(07:05):
in our time here I'm going into my senior year Sam is now playing professionally
over in Sweden she's normally the co-host here unfortunately because she's in
Sweden she couldn't make it today but just how many options there are for us
now that weren't even here when we started this process and how much women's
sports and especially women's soccer is growing.
Yeah, it's amazing. And it's awesome. I'm so happy for you guys.
(07:27):
Yeah, thank you. And we owe it a lot to you. And you guys paved the way for us.
Especially being a Michigan State alum, I love hearing the story of how you
guys got the varsity status that I can now just sit back and enjoy. And it means so much.
And you mentioned Allie's 50-50 pledge, which I definitely want to dive a little
bit into because as you trailblazed at Michigan State leading the way there.
(07:48):
You also led the way in terms of media rights and equity and equality in terms
of women's and men's sports for Ally Financial.
Can you tell us a little bit about the pledge and what it means?
Yeah, absolutely. And before I do, just on your note about us paving the way,
you guys are definitely making us proud.
So back-to-back Big Ten championships, deep run in the tournament.
(08:08):
It's incredible to see how you guys seize the opportunity and what's happening with this program.
And I saw a stat in social media the other day about Jeff having one of the
highest winning percentages, like right up there with legendary coaches like
Anson, which is just really cool to see Michigan State in that company.
So kudos to you guys. But the pledge
(08:29):
really emanated out of the 50th anniversary of Title IX and is a product of
Title IX and also being on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation that was
started by Billie Jean King with a really big primary focus to protect Title
IX, which is coming under siege.
There's a lot of pressure around Title IX.
(08:50):
We wanted to do something substantive to recognize that 50th anniversary and
to celebrate the power of what Title IX has done, particularly for so many women.
And we saw this really interesting insight that less than 5% of the media coverage
was going to women's sports.
And we did some quick back of the napkin math and realized that as a brand,
(09:13):
95% of our investment was going into men's sports media and about 5% was going into women's.
And we never would have thought about it if we hadn't seen that stat, to be honest with you.
And so we just came up with this crazy idea of what if we could get to 50-50
and what if we could pledge that publicly?
(09:33):
And I'm really good friends with Julie Foudy, who was, you know,
one of the 99ers and a pretty big name in the soccer world from her time with
the national team and ESPN and all the things that she does there.
Has a good podcast of her own, Left or Permitted, which is awesome.
And I called Foudy. She was hosting the ESPNW Summit. And I said,
(09:56):
hey, we've got this big announcement we want to make.
Can we make it live at the summit? And she's like, absolutely.
So we live streamed into the summit and surprised everyone.
My team, all the people that were in the audience, and people just went wild. And it's pretty cool.
Two years later, by the end of this year, we're going to be within spinning
distance of being right at 50-50 between men's and women's sports.
(10:20):
That is absolutely incredible. And it breaks my heart a little to hear the initial
stat, less than 5%. That's a tough pill to swallow as a woman in sports.
So to see you guys kind of paving the way, what kind of pushback did you get?
I And I don't assume that that was an easy thing to do. That's a large jump. Yeah.
You know, the biggest pushback is that there is this misperception.
(10:44):
I don't know that many people believe it today, just two years later.
But at the time, there was this massive misperception that nobody wants to watch women's sports.
And, of course, when it's on at 3 o'clock in the morning on ESPN 10,
no, nobody wants to get up and watch it.
But when you put women's sports in primetime slots, you put them on Saturday
(11:07):
afternoons, you put them on primetime slots on the weekends,
the numbers have demonstrated that people will watch.
And I could rattle off a whole bunch of statistics, but we were instrumental
in getting the NWSL championship game moved to primetime.
And there was a 76% increase in viewership. We had almost a million people that
(11:31):
watched the game that night versus.
Really low number the year before when it was on, you know, 12 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.
Look at the women's, you know, basketball championships. I don't think anybody
needs to repeat those numbers.
Outperformed men's March Madness the last two years in a row.
NWSL is shattering all kinds of viewership records this year just by having
(11:55):
a broadcast contract that has a lot of prime time slots and access.
And so the biggest pushback was really that, that people don't care about women's
sports. Nobody's going to watch.
And we had to overcome that by creating the media and forcing the legacy media
platforms to think differently about the opportunity.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when you say you had to change kind of the media and create it,
(12:21):
when you're trying to buy 50% of media rights for women's sports,
did you have to create the media to buy yourself or is it moving around? How did that look like?
Yeah, so I'll give you a great example. We did a multi-million dollar deal with
Disney, who owns obviously ESPN and ABC and Hulu and a lot of big platforms, right?
(12:44):
And I sat with Rita Farrow, who's the head of Disney Advertising and Sales,
and we talked about this vision for 50-50.
And we literally sat down, her team and my team, and part of the multi-million
dollar deal was that we said 98% of our investment had to go into women's sports. And...
(13:07):
The women's sports that they carried, whether it was soccer,
volleyball, basketball, softball, had to be moved into track and field,
had to be moved into prime time slots that we would not accept like a 3 a.m.
Softball game on ESPN.
So we literally sat for months and the network moved around media and programming
(13:32):
to put them into time slots that were acceptable to us.
And then we also created what we call in the industry shoulder content.
And it was really cool. What we did is we worked with ESPN and we produced two
different sports center segments that were all written by women,
(13:53):
all women anchors, all women behind the camera, 100% female produced,
created, and delivered.
And that was shoulder content that surrounded the media that focused on the
sports that we had moved into primetime.
So that's one great example. The other example was the work that we did with
(14:15):
CBS and NWSL to move that championship game into primetime. And,
you know, I know we talked about it before, but think about it.
That was two years ago. It was the first time a women's championship game in
any sport had been played in Network Prime.
And that was because we demanded that the game get moved and put together a
(14:37):
substantive media package around it that would allow CBS to be able to monetize
and drive revenue off of having it in primetime.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's
a huge undertaking and we've seen how it's grown in the past two years.
And you have the shirts where everyone watches women's sports.
You got the Caitlin Clark era in the WNBA now.
(14:59):
You're building stadiums for women's only sports. It has grown so much.
And a large part of that is what you guys started there with this 50-50 pledge.
So you talked about the conversations in the media and being able to obtain
those from an outside view.
How was it like getting your team on board with this idea and the company convincing
them to move, you know, 45% of your funding from wherever it was into women's sports? Yeah.
(15:23):
You know, look, from the team perspective, it's really interesting.
My sports marketing team is primarily all women and everybody's a former athlete.
So you've got myself obviously playing at Michigan State.
My head of sports marketing was the captain of the basketball team at Princeton.
Or no, Yale. I'm sorry, she'll kill me if I say Princeton, Yale.
(15:45):
That's like saying we went to Michigan. again.
Never. Everybody played a sport.
I've got softball players, soccer players, basketball players.
And so there was a lot of heart and a lot of pride for doing this.
And the point that I think is really important that I want to underscore there
is that when you have women sitting at the the table in decision-making positions,
(16:12):
you can have different conversations.
And so that part was a really easy conversation. I would say across,
you know, our CEO and kind of across the C-suite and our board,
it's also been a huge pride point. Everybody.
Believes in this, not just because it's the right thing to do,
(16:32):
but because it's delivering business results.
Our brand value is the highest it's ever been.
It took a 32% jump year over year, the highest it's been in five years.
We're at historic highs across all of our KPIs that we measure.
We've delivered billions of impressions. The amount of attention that we've
(16:54):
gotten as a brand, you know, in the media, in the process, being the architect
of this movement is incredible.
And so it's been this unreal pride point across Ally.
And I think the thing that I like about working here is this is a culture of like innovation.
And if you've got an idea, try it. If it works, great. If not,
fail fast and move on. And so I really didn't get any pushback.
(17:17):
I think the harder part was just doing the actual work. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So you mentioned that your team is full of athletes.
What are some of the qualities that you think, you know, led to that?
Are you searching them out or do they have certain characteristics?
What are the benefits of having athletes surrounding you in a job?
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of hiring athletes for a number of reasons.
(17:40):
And I think I watch my team exhibit a lot of these characteristics.
First, athletes are highly competitive. We have a drive and a spirit to win.
And that's important in the business world. You know, you are part of a team
and you want your team to win.
You want to go out there and be able to kick some ass. And it's fun to have
(18:02):
soldiers around you that want to do the same thing.
Second, I think athletes kind of take no for an answer.
And, you know, like set them up and we'll knock it down.
And so much of this work is so hard to get done. And I love the drive that the team has.
Third, you know, you know, as an athlete, the time management is paramount, right?
(18:25):
Your life is not the same as somebody that's not playing a sport at Michigan State.
You're trying to get your schoolwork done. You've got to maintain a certain grade point average.
You've got practice. You've got training. And, oh, by the way,
you've got to get on a plane and go fly across the country and play,
you know, play a soccer game.
And so the time management skills are so critical, particularly with how full
(18:50):
and how busy our plates are.
And then lastly, I think just the team camaraderie and, you know,
everyone's got each other's back.
And, you know, you come by it naturally as an athlete.
You want to lift one another up. You want to see your teammates succeed.
And that team aspect is so important. And so those characteristics ring,
(19:13):
you know, really true for me and what I see exhibited with my folks every single day.
Absolutely. I love that. You know,
you're obviously speaking to a group of athletes here as the audience.
So I love that the characteristics and qualities that we have on the field also
translate off the field and to see you're surrounded by them in the business world is incredible.
It's a superpower. And for the athletes that are listening, like really,
(19:38):
when you go out to the professional world and you start to do your interviews
and you start to try and sell your brand, make it a big part of your conversation
because it, number one, it resonates.
And number two, there's a lot of truisms in it that employers are looking for.
So I would definitely make it a big part of, you know, your kind of elevator pitch.
(19:58):
Absolutely. I love that. Yeah. And I love that you mentioned the benefits that
you had from this 50-50 pledge as well, that it wasn't a charity case, right?
You saw the payoffs. It was an investment in women's sports and you got to watch it grow.
And there was payoff for Allie Financial and you guys, you paved the way in
that way and you got the payoff as well.
I think that's what a lot of people think when you throw money at women's sports
(20:20):
and you're starting something like that. Was it a charity case?
Yeah. There are a lot of brands that kind of had this perception,
especially when we started this, because the other aspect of what,
you know, I think all of us have tried to do on the team here at Ally is have
a really open playbook and share that with other brands.
Like how did we do it and encourage other brands to do something?
(20:44):
We started this thing called the Women's Sports Club and we've done it with
an organization that's run by Angelo Ruggiero, who was the captain of USA Hockey's
won a bunch of gold medals and.
And she works at a company called Sports Innovation Lab. And the Women's Sports
Club is several hundred brands strong now.
(21:06):
And you can't just join it. You have to be invited.
And the ticket in is you have to commit to doing something meaningful in women's sports.
And so part of what we've done is open the playbook to say, here's how we've done it.
And this isn't something like sits in your charitable giving budget. it.
Like you've got to make it a meaningful part of your marketing mix and you have
(21:30):
to go out and do real things and it will pay an annuity,
but it takes a, you know, it takes a different type of thinking because you
can't today value women's sports in the same way that you value men's sports
and a little bit of it, it has to be investment minded.
And so that's been a big part of what what we've tried to do with,
(21:51):
with our focus on women's sports as well as bring others along on the journey with us.
Absolutely. I love that. I love the call to action. Cause you know,
as much as you guys have done, you're only one, you know, one,
you know, it takes, it takes a village.
Yeah. A thousand percent. And that's what we say, like, we're not going to be
able to climb the whole mountain by ourselves.
We need the state farms of the world. We need the Googles of the world.
(22:14):
We need these big other brands and you know, the deltas of the world.
And it's been awesome to see how they've come into it in a big way.
Yeah, absolutely. I've heard you tell the story of when you found out that the
AFC women's team, when they bought the team, they didn't even know there was
a woman's side to it. Yeah. That's crazy.
(22:38):
Isn't that crazy? So Rob and Ryan, especially Rob,
super, super focused on women's sports, loves women's
sports his home all better production companies producing
a lot of content around women's sports really believes in the
thesis you know i actually
filmed an integration for rexum that's actually going to be on tomorrow night
(23:01):
on rec and on welcome to rexum and so tomorrow would be june 7th they'll be
out tomorrow night on welcome to rexum so check it out if you get a chance but
what he was stunned by is that when they bought the team Whole year,
no one ever told him there was a women's team.
And then they went, and the women are good. Like, they're ballers.
(23:21):
And they were crushing it. He said that he was appalled at where they were playing.
If anybody's been watching Rex on their stories, they're all so interesting.
And they were chagrined to find out that it just never occurred to anybody to
tell them there was a women's side.
I don't even understand how that could possibly happen. That is so mind-blowing
(23:46):
to me that it's over a year before you even know that there's a whole other
side to what he bought it. I think it shows the, you know, it's funny.
I'm surprised at how much further behind in terms of some of the progress a
lot of the European nations are relative to equity in women's sports.
But I think this last World Cup changed a little bit of that.
(24:07):
And, you know, focus like Wrexham, etc.
Are helping with that. I'm hearing rumors that maybe the next time Lasso is
going to be focused on a women's AFC team, which could be really fun.
So you know we'll see but
yeah it's it's pretty mind-boggling and
I think uh Rob and Ryan were pretty ashamed to know
that it wasn't part of anything that anybody told them about and I know they've
(24:30):
got big aspirations for that Wrexham team yeah yeah I love that and obviously
this is a woman's soccer kind of podcast so I'd love to dive into a little bit
with your partnership with the NWSL a bit more um yeah yeah how did how did
you guys get involved with NWSL, what drew you to them?
Well, I came by it naturally, being a huge soccer fan.
And, you know, we looked at our sports portfolio. I mentioned that stat of less
(24:55):
than 5% of the media coverage.
Well, to compound the pain, less than 1% of brand sponsorships go into women's sports.
And when I looked across our portfolio, we had always partnered with WICC,
the Women's Friendlies.
WNBA was taken by U.S. Bank and if you think about it really the only other,
(25:19):
professional women's league out there is NWSL and
we originally thought about doing a team deal be in front of kit for a team
and that didn't fully materialize and so I started talking to the commissioner
of the NWSL at the time and said hey you know what's available for our category The category is open.
(25:39):
So if you want the category, it's yours.
And we can do a sleeve sponsorship because it's a league-owned asset and you
can be on the sleeve of every kit.
And it was cheap at the time. I mean, it was really cheap.
And we jumped in immediately and have really blown it out.
And it's really exciting to see today. day
(26:01):
not only did we extend our relationship with the nwsl we
are official partners of the players association as well like
i said we're on every kit we've built tons of content around
it we're bringing it to life every single day
we're you know proud media partners with espn who carries a lot of the nwsl
games so it's been really cool to see how his sponsorship has grown over the
(26:25):
years and the things we've been able to do yeah yeah absolutely obviously being
a soccer fan that's That's kind of the first time I was introduced to your guys'
brand and then you start seeing it everywhere and you start seeing the NWSL
grow and obviously your guys' advertisement and support with it.
It's been incredible. And as you said, being a part of the advocacy for the
players and that players group as well, not just on the business perspective,
(26:48):
but being able to be there for the actual players on the field is incredible.
Yeah, part of it, Jordan, that was really interesting to me was getting to know
so many of the players on a personal level and understanding their stories and their journeys.
You probably know starting salary in the NWSL is $35,000 a year.
(27:09):
Right? What are you going to do with $35,000 a year?
Spending time talking to people like Ashlyn Harris and her telling me,
you know, I played on two, you know, I played in two world cups,
played in Olympics and played professional soccer for 15 years.
And as I retire, I've got to figure out, you know, where to go from here because
(27:35):
I'd never made enough money playing soccer to support my family or sustain my life.
You know, you heard those stories over and over again from players that we've all idolized.
Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy, Hallie Wagner, Ashlyn, you know,
the list kind of goes on and on.
And then what happened a couple of years ago with all the scandals that plagued
(28:02):
the NWSL and those stories,
you know, we really wanted to jump I've been to the Players Association because
we wanted to show players that they had a voice, they used it,
and we were not going to abandon them for doing the right thing.
And so a big part of our sponsorship has been about how do we shine a light
on the sport and how do we help the athletes monetize?
(28:24):
And whether it's putting money directly in their pocket through Team Ally and
letting them be brand advocates for us, or just the sponsorship itself and the
media investment that we're making, which allows player salary to grow.
Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. I love that. I love that you were there for them.
Like that, cause that's, that's probably one of the biggest fears is that everyone's
(28:44):
going to leave as you go through all those controversies and you start to stand
up and hear their voices.
So I'm sure that meant a lot and has continued to mean a lot throughout your
guys's partnership with them.
What do you hope the future looks like for women's sports and it's women's soccer specifically?
Yeah. I mean, I think the, I hope that this country becomes the place where
(29:05):
the best players in the world play.
I do think the NWSL is attracting an incredible caliber of athletes.
You look at all the international players now that are coming here.
Barbara Banda's like tearing the league apart right now, right?
So there's the saying within the NWSL, the best played here.
And I hope that that brings true.
(29:27):
I'm super excited for the direction of the national team. I love Emma Hayes.
And that's a great story. In January, I get this text.
Andrea, you don't know me. I'm Emma Hayes. I coach Chelsea. I'm going to be
the new coach of the national team.
I love what Ally's done for women's sports.
I'd love to spend some time talking to you. And I was like, what?
(29:49):
Is this a prank? And so I got on a call with Emma and first thing she said is
I want to open an Ally bank account because I want to support you guys,
which I thought was incredible.
And we spent a lot of time with her and I love the direction of what she's doing with the team now.
And I feel like all the players, like you really see their level of play coming
(30:12):
up because they realize they're not going to be in the same old, same old anymore.
You want a spot on this national team, you're going to have to earn it, keep it.
So I hope we get back to world dominance in terms of the national team.
And then I think in general, my hope is that you start to see the league expand.
You know, we get to a healthy number of teams
(30:32):
that there's more opportunities and places for players like yourself
to play and that they make a real salary and
that they're able to sustain themselves and and
create a good life for themselves through through athletics and that we get
to a point where we're not calling it women's sports anymore it's just sports
you know did you did you see the AFC game last night or did you see the you
(30:56):
know Angel City game last night or Or did you see the KC list?
Instead of having to say, oh, did you see the women's game in Kansas City, right?
I hope we can get to a point where women's sports becomes ubiquitous and,
you know, synonymous. I think we're getting there.
One of the things that I love seeing is how many little boys are in those stands
trying to get, you know, female athletes autographs and autographs.
(31:22):
That a lot of female athletes are becoming their idols. And I think that's really cool.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I love what you said with it being,
you know, on the equal playing field with men's sports where you don't have
to say it's a woman's sport.
Cause I always used to remember filling out like paperwork for physicals or
whatever it may be, where it's like, check what sport you do.
And it was like soccer and women's soccer.
I was like, okay, like if you're going to do one, like that's men's soccer,
(31:47):
right? Like, what do you mean?
Like even like the Instagram handles and stuff that I've definitely
seen change throughout the recruiting process now but when
I was going through it like they would have like Michigan
men's team and then they'd have you know a Michigan
or they'd have the Michigan State soccer team
and they have the Michigan State women's soccer team and you're like why like
(32:07):
what they're like what like yeah yeah I didn't always it always made me angry
so I love that you said that and we're definitely seeing the change in it now
and like you said I see a bunch of guys where I'm gonna buy them for my brothers
that Everyone watches women's sports shirts, and they're everywhere.
And it's been great to see kind of the change throughout it.
And I got to ask, can you explain the tattoo? I love the story when you came
(32:30):
and you spoke at Michigan State, your little tattoo and the story behind it
on your arm. Can you give a little bit on that?
Yeah, I got the tattoo, and I'm actually wearing a bracelet that was a birthday
gift to me. It says, like a girl.
That was a gift, actually, from Ashlyn Harris and Sophia Bush, which is pretty cool.
So i've always hated when
(32:51):
people refer to like oh you throw
like a girl or guy you kick like a girl like it's it's
something that i feel like men have
said to us our whole lives and i even hear
other women say it like oh don't throw like a girl or don't
do this like a girl and i felt like
the double entendre take your power back yeah
(33:12):
you're damn right i kick like a girl you want want to feel it
come over here you know you're damn right I punch like a girl
you want to see how I throw like a girl and so to me the tattoo was acknowledgement
of taking our power back number one and number two for me it's something that
I look at all the time like if I'm in meetings where I feel like the conversation
(33:34):
is not going in the right way I might touch the tattoo too.
Like it's, you know, my little, my little secret kryptonite.
And it reminds me that I have this incredible platform and that I have to use
the platform to help other women.
And so for me, there's this duality in the notion of, of what like a girl means
(33:56):
that reminds me every single day that while it's a good day for women, it's not a great day yet.
There's a lot of work that That needs to be done still, particularly in women's sports.
And this is just my like, keep going, head down, keep going, don't stop.
I love that. I cannot tell you how much I love that. That is incredible.
(34:17):
I love the tattoo. And I know you're very, very busy and I appreciate your time coming on.
Do you have any advice to leave our audience with here? What do you hope they take away?
Yeah, no. And first of all, it's been a blast being on it. So I'm happy to.
So thank you guys for the invite.
I appreciate it. I wish Sam could be with us too, but give her my regards.
You know, advice that I would have is what you're doing as a student athlete is very special.
(34:42):
It's an incredible time in your life.
Stay in the moment. Enjoy it. I know it's hard and I know it's a grind,
but, you know, the joy comes through putting the time in on the grind and it's
going to pay off for you, not just in your athletic career,
but as you graduate and go into the professional world.
(35:03):
You know, I think I was telling you guys when I was up at Michigan State last
time, it's amazing to me. You know, I'm a CMO at a Fortune 250 company,
and the first thing everybody wants to talk about is, oh, you played soccer at Michigan State?
That's so cool. Tell me about it. No one's like, oh, tell me what it's like
being a C-suite executive, or tell me about this.
It's always about my time as a student athlete. and
(35:26):
it's a very very special time so enjoy every
minute of it embrace the slop of it all and and
draw on everything that you're learning whether you're
going to go into professional sports or whether you're going to go into the
business world or whatever you're going to do when you're going to go out and
be an innovator creator an entrepreneur like just draw back on the experiences
(35:49):
that you've had as a student athlete because they are unique and they'll that
definitely bode well for you in life.
Awesome. I absolutely love that. Embrace the slop.
It's quite the seg, but it's a great, great quote to take away from this all.
And like I said, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done,
paving the way for me, particularly as a Michigan State women's soccer player
(36:09):
now, and then as a women's sports as a whole and what your company has done
and you forefronting that.
So thank you so much for everything and especially for coming on today.
I really, really appreciate it. And yeah, I've learned a lot.
Thanks. My pleasure. I'm excited to come up and watch you guys and see you on
the pitch. Awesome. Thank you.
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