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Alright, welcome to our third episode of the KC Current Podcast.
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I'm Dani Welniak, your host, and here joining me is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Kansas City Current, and you know, everything else beyond, Jocelyn Monroe.
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Jocelyn, thanks so much for joining me today.
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Thank you for having me.
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It's such a pleasure to be here.
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Of course, we are sitting in River's Edge just above the Missouri River right now in this third episode.
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I'm gonna start it off, you know, with a Current Kick.
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Jocelyn, explain to me who is Jocelyn, in your own words.
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Hmm.
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Jocelyn is a girl from a small town in southern Georgia who found her Mary Tyler Moore moment in New York and LA and then landed in the Midwest.
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All around working in her favorite industry of sports.
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Okay, I like that. Short, sweet, beautiful, very explanatory of who you are.
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Now, I just need to let everybody know as well that Jocelyn and I at some point are going to have our own podcast on the side.
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We've had this discussion.
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Our desks are directly across from each other in the training facility.
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So we actually do have our own podcast because we just talk across the desk all time. So we just a podcast about mics.
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So welcome to our world with the microphone.
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Yes, and I um continually steal her golden stapler.
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So that just know is her prized possession, in case you guys were wondering.
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Thank you. Yes it is.
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It is now officially out there.
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The world knows Jocelyn.
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You gotta have something, gotta keep, gotta have something that you know reminds you every day.
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I've made it.
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I've got a golden stapler.
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Well, speaking of making it, we'll go into our first segment and take a little bit of a journey back on your background and how you got here to the Kansas City Current.
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What um what drew you to Kansas City?
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What drew you to the Current in particular?
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So as I mentioned, I started my career.
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Well, I started my career in New York City and then went to LA.
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I've been in sports or around sports my whole career.
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And as I was looking for my next challenge about three years ago, this opportunity found me and I fell in love with the vision of what Chris and Angie Long and the Mahomes, Patrick and Brittany wanted to do in women's sports.
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It was something that I had not heard before.
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It was something that was out of the, I say out of the box, but it was they wanted to be leaders and innovators and moving women's sports forward.
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And I had just started to really work in women's sports with the lat in my last role and really started to understand the discrepancy and the disparity between men's sports and women's sports from a real deep level, the resources, the investment, you know, having your own building, what that actually meant.
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When I started here, I came on my interview.
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It was a day that Candace Parker, who is a world-renowned, celebrated athlete, announced that she had never had her own locker.
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And so that moment just stopped me in my track.
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She's won a championship at every level she's ever played.
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She's, you know, and this know that she never had a place where she could put her things, leave them there, turn a lock, and come back and they would be there the next day, the next week, whatever, really kind of put an exclamation point for me on when I came and I heard more about the vision and what they really wanted to achieve and do here, not just in Kansas City and not just for the Kansas City Current, but for women's sports in general.
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I was like, I'm all in.
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If I have the opportunity to join this, I'm here.
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So at what point did you also decide, like even before that, that you didn't just want to promote brands, you wanted to shape the idea of brands?
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For me, I don't think there's a big difference in those two.
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I spent some time on the agency side, I came here from an agency, but if you're really doing an agency role well, you are a real partner for that brand and that brand team.
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So you are part of those conversations about how that brand gets developed, how that brand tells its story, how that brand presents and positions positions itself to the marketplace.
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And so it's not different to me, it's just a different angle at um working around and with brands.
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And so it for me was another evolution in my career on having a different perspective of being internal at a team, which was something I hadn't done in my career since the very beginning.
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And so coming into a team, coming into a young, fresh, new team, being able to be a part of those conversations where we are developing what the Kansas City Current and the Kansas City Current Organization and Current Landing and CPKC Stadium, what they will present to the world and what they will mean to the world and how that is perceived and how that story is told, was to me, it's all a part of just doing marketing well.
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Really being a great storyteller, which is what marketing is all about.
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We love storytelling, which is also why we're here.
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Um making some magic.
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And you talked about your team.
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You have just like one of the most creative, incredible teams I personally think in the world, obviously in the NWSL.
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Um, and you have to lead these phenomenal individuals on a daily basis, um, and also help create that brand.
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So maybe you can share with our listeners who's someone who's influenced your leadership style, and maybe, you know, how do you approach your leadership style every day in an environment like this?
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So a person who was really influential on my leadership style, unfortunately is no longer with us, but she was a leader of mine in my career very early in college.
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I wasn't even in marketing at the time.
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I was just a college student working somewhere to um have a job doing college, but she was a leader of leaders, which I think I am.
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I have a to you mentioned, I have a great team.
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They are all leaders in their own right.
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They're incredibly talented, they're really committed to this brand.
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So it's not about a lot of teaching, it's more empowering and allowing and finding ways to help them bring their best potential and bring their best selves for ward.
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And so she was really someone had who had surrounded herself with people like that, people that she knew their talent, she knew their skills, and her job every day was just to empower them and make sure they had the tools and resources to present their best work.
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And that's what I try to do every day, not to get in the way.
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I, you know, you have to have an you want to have a point of view and you want to share, and you want to make sure if there are places where you can help them develop, you're doing that.
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But it's also to get the best out of each person.
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And how do you, you know, lead someone who's already a leader and making sure that he or she has the opportunity to shine, grow, develop, bring new ideas.
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You don't want to be a wall to that, you want to be a door that opens up here, you know, to lead them to the next opportunity.
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Yeah.
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And it's just been phenomenal what we've seen in the KC Current grow and how the brand has grown.
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And we walk into work every day, and it's we want to be the best women's football club in the world We are.
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And we are the best women's football club in the world, you know.
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We have a little swag to us.
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We said that in July.
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No big deal.
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Uh it's still here.
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The women's best club in the world is still here.
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Um, just in case anybody missed that marketing memo.
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Um, but to that point, like as we're walking in, we understand that that is a trickle-down effect of a vision that has been set.
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But also, how do you take a club in five, six years of its existence and you take it from a local and national club to now a global brand that it is becoming and is?
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I think it starts with that vision of doing something that has never been done before.
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I mean, our leader Angie Long said it well, you can't unsee what we're doing here.
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And so when you're doing something that is the first across the world, the world has to pay attention.
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And so then when you deliver it in such with such excellence, they have to sit up and really pay attention.
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And so what we're doing with CPKC Stadium, our performance center, our training center, Current Landing, it's really delivering for women's sports at a level that people are kind of shocked sometimes.
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Um, when we hosted the World Cup and the Nether- the Netherlands chose our facilities, it was really a moment where it was an exclamation point on we're not just building facilities that are built for women, but they're built for professional athletes to have the most incredible opportunity to bring their best selves to the pitch or the field of play every day.
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We've got the resources, we've got the opportunities for them to recover in the right ways, we are investing in them having the right nutrition.
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It's all the things that goes into professional athleticism and professional sports, whether male or female, and we've cut no corners in delivering that.
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And so I think people were a little surprised when they saw that it wasn't like, oh, what's this little stadium over here.
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And like.
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No.
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This is a state-of-the-art facility.
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Right.
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Where our players have a beautiful locker room that they can leave things in, and it's their locker, and it's beautifully decored, and it's private, and it's special.
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And our facilities provide our fans when they come into CPKC Stadium a great experience every match.
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Our fans have made it the hardest place to play in the NWSL.
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And so that comes from really investing in it and making sure that it's up to a standard.
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And I think that's the piece that people can't look away from.
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It's not just here, but it's here and it's excellent.
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for sure, and I also think there was a survey that went around general managers uh a year ago, might have been a little over that.
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Yeah, ish.
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Um, and one of the general managers was quoted saying, Um, when I think of the Kansas City Current, it's like they vomit teal.
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And the entire city is covered in teal everywhere, wherever you go.
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When you show up in the airport, there's teal.
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When you go out to coffee shops, there's teal.
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Like this city truly embraces that, but that's also a tribute to you and your team.
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So when someone thinks of the Kansas City Current, is that how you want them to think of the KC Current, or what comes to your mind as you're building this brand or helping build this brand?
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I think it's one of the ways. I mean, people remember and they buy with their eyes, and so if you're a visual person and our chill captures you and it it won't, it arrests you and it won't let you go, great.
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We love that.
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We that's one of the things we want you to remember.
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Yeah.
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If you come to CPKC Stadium and you have the best game of your life, you've never experienced soccer at that level and fandom at that level, and that's how you remember us, great.
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It's all in just intentional about making sure that when you experience the KC current and you experience CPKC Stadium, you have the best experience of your life with a brand, with a stadium, with a new um facility.
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We just want to make sure that you leave there with something that really sticks with you and you want to keep coming back.
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We're trying to build generational fans.
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We don't want you to come and be like, that was great, maybe, maybe I'll come again.
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We want it to arrest you and we want you to be like, I need to come back, I need to see that again, I need to have teal in my life, I need to wear teal to work.
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So we want you to really connect with our brand through our players, through our storytelling, through experiences at CPKC Stadium.
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So, yes, vomiting teal, I'm fine with that.
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As part of the second segment, it's important to talk about building the brand off the pitch.
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You talked about being a storyteller, and I just I love that about you because it draws people in and it helps build the brand.
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So when you're having conversations with fans and supporters, how is that storytelling component so important to building a brand identity, drawing those fans in, and even telling the stories of the players?
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I mean, people connect through stories.
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I I like to say everybody comes to sport, especially through a story.
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Yeah.
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Me, I came initially to it through watching baseball with my grandfather.
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Now, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but that turned the light on for me for watching sports and what sports could do, and watching him get excited in his chair and be so excited and yelling at the television.
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I was like, oh, this thing connects.
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And that was our moment together.
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So that was my moment of being introducing me to sport and drawing me into sport.
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And I think everybody kind of comes that way of I came through going, throwing the ball in the yard with my dad or going with my mom or going with my friends, and in especially in South Georgia where I'm from, Friday Night Lights is the thing.
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That's what you do.
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Yeah.
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If you're in high school or in middle school on a Friday night, you're going to the football game with your friends, and so it's a connector.
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And so when I talk to our fans, it's about how are they connecting around our games and how are they connecting around our brand, whether it's feeling seen and included when they come to our stadium around our cultural nights, um like Pride Night and Celebration of Black Culture in Kansas City.
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So how are they feeling like I'm connecting to this brand because they see me and we are mutually connected through our love for Kansas City, but I also they also feel that they're connected to our players by understanding our players' stories.
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And so understanding more about someone like a Dabinha or uh Temwa who really had to go against their culture to really play the game that they love, but they found a way to make their dream come true.
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That's a story that a lot of people connect to, maybe not through sport, but through other, you know, industries, adversities.
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And so when you see that these incredible athletes that are on the pitch also have a story of triumph, and they but they had to go through something to get there, or they've had you know some kind of connection with the parent or a sister or a dog, even it just connects people more to our players and to our brand.
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Yeah.
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And so finding that human side and just really telling that and letting that be the connecting point because I think that's the real connection where people stay and they continue to come.
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Yeah, and I think there's three big things I really want to talk to you about as we look forward, as we talk about that storytelling aspect of it.
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Um, KC Current Studios is officially open.
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And it is a production and content and broadcast hub, and it lines up with the drop of this podcast.
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So for you in particular and your entire team, what does having something like that?
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A studio built for a women's team by a women's team, what does that mean for you?
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What's the gravity of that?
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I mean, it's another exclamation point on us just leading the way.
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Like the Kansas City Current are always leading the way in that under the headline that women's sports and women's teams deserve all the same resources that a men's team might have at their disposal.
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And so for us as a team, getting a studio means that, you know, we are now able to produce all this amazing content on our terms, that are on our time.
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You know, we we love our agency partners, but it's now we can walk into a room and do our photo shoot whenever we can whenever we want to.
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And so it opens up opportunity for us to do more.
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Um, I talked earlier about my team and their potential.
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Now we have the opportunity to explore and tinker and figure out and go and test and try.
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And so that's when you find that that hidden nugget.
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That's when you are able to really pull back the layers of the onion and explore and say, what if we tried this?
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And we now have a space of our own to try those things.
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And it also sets us up to be able to better tell our player story because we now own the narrative, we own the opportunity to do that.
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And (KC Current) Studios gives us a framework by which we can now create our own content hub and we can tell all the stories we want to tell about our players.
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We can work with them to tell the layers of their story, how the as long as we want to tell them.
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And so that's just another connection point for us to really connect with fans, connect with the broader industry.
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Um, it gives us an opportunity to better deliver for our partners.
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When we think about content for partners, how do we do it in a way that's at the highest level?
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We now have all of those resources at our disposal, and it helps us, you know, keeps us on our toes, helps us be immensely creative and to create things that connect.
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We look forward to figuring out how to create something that's like a college game day that we can create, and you can come back to it in that cadence of every Saturday or Sunday or Wednesday or whenever we decide to make that moment, but then we can create and it can look the way we want it to look.
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It can speak about the things we wanted to speak about.
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We can tell the stories we want to tell that really connect with our fans and create that same kind of excitement and energy around women's sports that we have a place where we can tell our stories as well.
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And speaking of storytelling in women's sports, we just got a chance to be a part of an incredible opportunity, being a part of the fourth season of Ted Lasso, having Jason Sudeikis and the crew come here to utilize the KC Current as part of the inspiration behind season four, filming at CPKC Stadium, and really that moment in the first episode where Keely looks over the match and is just awestruck and inspired.
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I feel like a lot of us had those moments throughout the past couple of years being inside CPKC Stadium, but as a chief marketing officer, seeing that on the big screen and being a part of that experience, what was maybe uh a fun story for you?
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Um and also, if you guys go back and rewatch episode one, Jocelyn is very prominently right behind Keely in one of those scenes.
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So she got she got her little film, her film debut, a little film time, eh?
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Yes, I mean having Kansas City Current, CPKC Stadium um involved in this global entertainment property was a trem, uh just enormous pleasure, honor.
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It really will elevate our brand and continue to drive our brand across the globe.
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Um Jason's from here,
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Yeah.
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So it made sense, but there are a lot of clubs he had the opportunity to go and work with.
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I mean, it's a like I said, it's a global property.
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I think anybody would have been happy to be a part of that.
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But he saw that what we're doing here was really what he wanted to capture, and it was really going to represent what he wanted to put on the big screen.
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He wanted to tell a story that's about an upstart team that's really gonna take the world by storm.
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And that is exactly what the Kansas City Current and CPKC Stadium has done.
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And so to have our story almost memorialized, if you will, you know, that hopefully this content lives on forever, it's just a tremendous, tremendous honor for our brand.
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And I think, you know, it'll it it will help in some ways legitimize the story they're telling because they'll have a real life experience to kind of pattern and think about and say, hey, this is how they're navigating that journey.
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And so um it speaks to also the respect he has for our owners and what they're doing and what we're building here as really a pull mark in the women's sports society in women's sports industry that we are someone that teams should be trying to really think about and emulate, and that's an honor.
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No question. And thinking speaking of teams that need to think about us, the World Cup coming into town in Kansas City and having four men's teams, top-tier men's teams staying here in the area, but also the Netherlands choosing to utilize the KC Current Training Facility for their base camp.
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Um, how much does that mean and how much does that reflect on building a brand and also on the Kansas City Current as a whole?
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Were there any experiences that you had during the process that you were like, okay, this is a pinch me, pinch me moment?
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I mean, first having the Netherlands choose our facilities as one of four that were here in Kansas City, and choosing a women's facility.
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:54.480
You know, people thought, well, are they choosing a facility that's not gonna be able to meet their needs?
00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.839
I think by all estimations, their their team and their coach have said we exceeded their expectations.
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:10.000
Um beautiful grounds, beautiful facilities, facilities up to state their state-of-the-art standards, where they could come and train and feel very comfortable that they were going to be prepared when they went on the pitch.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:47.680
The other piece is the amount of just reach and scale that we, our brand saw just in partnering with them around the amazing content that happened around World Cup, whether it was the open training at our Riverside Stadium, or it was just, you know, their commentary following their training um path and us collaborating with them on that to on Ron Haywalk, which was, you know, 36,000 plus of Kansas Citians or Americans or citizens of the world coming together in Kansas City to celebrate the Netherlands in the way, or join them in their celebration in the way they celebrate a match.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:58.240
And so it was a moment, it was a pinch-me moment to be standing in, you know, this crowd of 36,000 other people and say our brand is in a way a part of this.
00:19:58.240 --> 00:19:59.599
Like they're here and they're staying.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.559
It's almost like having a guest at your home, having you know, a guest at your home.
00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:09.839
My guest at my home is, you know, on the biggest stage there is, and we had our leadership on the bus with them.
00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:18.799
And so to be really recognized as an important part of their journey here and them um really wanting us to participate in that was the coolest.
00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:20.960
It was it was the coolest moment of that.
00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.319
But then just again, the reach that our brand will get across.
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:31.440
We saw new markets, um, earned media in new markets that we'd never touched this um during our regular season cycle.
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:40.319
And so to have our brand now be talked about in, I think it was Germany, Brazil, India, markets that we don't necessarily reach week over week.
00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:44.240
And so this is just another um element that's gonna grow our brand globally.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:59.359
Yeah, and the fingerprints that the World Cup, I think, left here in Kansas City is just as big as the impact that I think Kansas City left on a lot of the teams that came here and the stories that will be told from that.
00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.559
But as we wrap this up, I got some fun ones for you.
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:03.839
We're gonna do a lightning round.
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:04.240
Alright.
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:04.960
If you're down?
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:05.759
I'm down.
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:06.720
Okay, cool.
00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:09.680
Well, you're gonna get to know Jocelyn real well here as we wrap things up.
00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:10.880
Coffee or tea?
00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:11.519
Tea.
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:13.680
Okay, favorite match day tradition?
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:21.920
Standing in the West Sideline Club, it's kind of become our match day meet point.
00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:32.240
Kind of nobody said this is where we were gonna meet, but it just became the place where we all, like if you're not actively doing the job at the moment, this is just a place we come and we watch the match.
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:33.519
So that tradition.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:42.880
We unveiled uh CPKC Stadium in Legos, and Jocelyn made herself as well as Raven Jemison, and they put themselves in the stadium right there, which I thought was like perfect.
00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:48.640
So now I will like visually remember you as a little Lego human in that place in CPKC Stadium forever.
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:49.279
Absolutely.
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.240
Um okay, a woman leader who inspires you?
00:21:52.880 --> 00:22:00.480
Well, I'm inspired by the women I work with every day, you included, obviously Angie and her continued vision and pushing all of us forward.
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:19.359
Um, I mean, when I think about the women in our office and in our organization, we all we all left a career, and I don't want to say left, but we transitioned from another role that was really probably a career trajectory position and saw the vision of this new upstart organization and said, no, I want to be a part of building that.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.880
So that's also definitely very something that's very inspir inspiring to me.
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:27.920
But I'll go off sports for a moment, and there's a woman called Jenny Clark.
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:36.319
She is a HR professional, and I found her actually on Instagram, and she just gives the best advice.
00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:47.759
It's just how to navigate the world and the work world, especially, and she's it's just so clear and actionable, and so she really inspires.
00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:51.839
I just I kind of go back to her when I do scroll a little bit and hear what she has to say.
00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:52.480
That's good.
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:53.839
Okay, I'll take that to heart as well.
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:56.079
So I'll make sure that I am in on that.
00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:58.480
Uh, one word to describe Kansas City.
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:00.480
Today, hot.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:04.240
Hey, you know what? A lot of the World Cup teams said that too.
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:04.720
So you know what?
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:05.039
Yeah.
00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:06.160
You just gotta get used to it.
00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:07.599
In general, nice.
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:09.279
People here are very, very nice.
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:13.759
It it is um in the heart of the country, and people here are very welcoming.
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:22.720
And um, a lot of I think people have come here from other places, and it's got a lot of um growing and evolving culture in the in the makers movement.
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:27.839
So a lot of entrepreneurs and artisans and artists and and uh um chefs.
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:30.799
I saw Mukul was talking about chefs in the last episode.
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:36.000
So a lot of that kind of culture is really here that was one thing that surprised me about Kansas City when I came here.
00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:37.440
Okay, the last one for you.
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:38.640
Finish the sentence.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:41.039
The future of women's sports is?
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:41.599
Bright.
00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:43.599
Oh, I love that.
00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:48.319
It is growing so fast and in so many different directions.
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:58.720
You are seeing new leagues, volleyball, softball, um, all of these sports are really just getting organized around, you know, a path to professionalism.
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:15.359
And so it's just gonna be so much opportunity for young female athletes as well as young female professionals who want to work in sports to really continue to grow this industry and make it somewhere that's really really a part of the sports conversation.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:17.039
Jocelyn, I love that.
00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:18.319
You inspire me every day.
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:19.279
Thank you so much.
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:21.279
It's just a blessing to be able to work with you.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:25.359
So thank you for taking the time to jump on this podcast, the KC Current Podcast.
00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:29.359
But maybe you guys should watch out for a Jocelyn and Dani podcast coming soon.
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:31.279
Hot takes, left and right.
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:32.319
No, I'm just kidding.
00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:33.920
Um, but seriously, thank you so much.
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:34.640
Thank you for having me.
00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:37.119
KC Current would not be what it is without you.
00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:40.000
Episode four, just wait for it.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:42.480
Lauren Holiday Impact Award honoree.
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:46.400
Izzy Rodriguez, as well as somebody from Early Start, is gonna join us.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.319
So you guys do not want to miss that one.
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:49.279
It's gonna be great.
00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.400
So thank you so much for joining us on the KC Current Podcast.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.520
Alright, welcome to our third episode of the KC Current Podcast.
00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:11.279
I'm Dani Welniak, your host, and here joining me is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Kansas City Current, and you know, everything else beyond, Jocelyn Monroe.
00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:12.960
Jocelyn, thanks so much for joining me today.
00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:14.080
Thank you for having me.
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:15.439
It's such a pleasure to be here.
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:22.559
Of course, we are sitting in River's Edge just above the Missouri River right now in this third episode.
00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:25.679
I'm gonna start it off, you know, with a Current Kick.
00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:30.239
Jocelyn, explain to me who is Jocelyn, in your own words.
00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:30.960
Hmm.
00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:42.479
Jocelyn is a girl from a small town in southern Georgia who found her Mary Tyler Moore moment in New York and LA and then landed in the Midwest.
00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:46.000
All around working in her favorite industry of sports.
00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.000
Okay, I like that. Short, sweet, beautiful, very explanatory of who you are.
00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.280
Now, I just need to let everybody know as well that Jocelyn and I at some point are going to have our own podcast on the side.
00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:58.479
We've had this discussion.
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:01.840
Our desks are directly across from each other in the training facility.
00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:07.760
So we actually do have our own podcast because we just talk across the desk all time. So we just a podcast about mics.
00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:09.920
So welcome to our world with the microphone.
00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:13.760
Yes, and I um continually steal her golden stapler.
00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:17.040
So that just know is her prized possession, in case you guys were wondering.
00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:17.599
Thank you. Yes it is.
00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:19.840
It is now officially out there.
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:21.040
The world knows Jocelyn.
00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:26.560
You gotta have something, gotta keep, gotta have something that you know reminds you every day.
00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:27.439
I've made it.
00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:29.359
I've got a golden stapler.
00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:38.560
Well, speaking of making it, we'll go into our first segment and take a little bit of a journey back on your background and how you got here to the Kansas City Current.
00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:40.959
What um what drew you to Kansas City?
00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:42.879
What drew you to the Current in particular?
00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:45.680
So as I mentioned, I started my career.
00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:48.560
Well, I started my career in New York City and then went to LA.
00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.599
I've been in sports or around sports my whole career.
00:01:51.599 --> 00:02:06.719
And as I was looking for my next challenge about three years ago, this opportunity found me and I fell in love with the vision of what Chris and Angie Long and the Mahomes, Patrick and Brittany wanted to do in women's sports.
00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:10.319
It was something that I had not heard before.
00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:16.800
It was something that was out of the, I say out of the box, but it was they wanted to be leaders and innovators and moving women's sports forward.
00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:32.800
And I had just started to really work in women's sports with the lat in my last role and really started to understand the discrepancy and the disparity between men's sports and women's sports from a real deep level, the resources, the investment, you know, having your own building, what that actually meant.
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.800
When I started here, I came on my interview.
00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:43.840
It was a day that Candace Parker, who is a world-renowned, celebrated athlete, announced that she had never had her own locker.
00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:46.960
And so that moment just stopped me in my track.
00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:50.000
She's won a championship at every level she's ever played.
00:02:50.000 --> 00:03:11.840
She's, you know, and this know that she never had a place where she could put her things, leave them there, turn a lock, and come back and they would be there the next day, the next week, whatever, really kind of put an exclamation point for me on when I came and I heard more about the vision and what they really wanted to achieve and do here, not just in Kansas City and not just for the Kansas City Current, but for women's sports in general.
00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:13.039
I was like, I'm all in.
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:16.159
If I have the opportunity to join this, I'm here.
00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:26.719
So at what point did you also decide, like even before that, that you didn't just want to promote brands, you wanted to shape the idea of brands?
00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:29.759
For me, I don't think there's a big difference in those two.
00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:38.719
I spent some time on the agency side, I came here from an agency, but if you're really doing an agency role well, you are a real partner for that brand and that brand team.
00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:47.520
So you are part of those conversations about how that brand gets developed, how that brand tells its story, how that brand presents and positions positions itself to the marketplace.
00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:54.000
And so it's not different to me, it's just a different angle at um working around and with brands.
00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:03.759
And so it for me was another evolution in my career on having a different perspective of being internal at a team, which was something I hadn't done in my career since the very beginning.
00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:27.439
And so coming into a team, coming into a young, fresh, new team, being able to be a part of those conversations where we are developing what the Kansas City Current and the Kansas City Current Organization and Current Landing and CPKC Stadium, what they will present to the world and what they will mean to the world and how that is perceived and how that story is told, was to me, it's all a part of just doing marketing well.
00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:31.040
Really being a great storyteller, which is what marketing is all about.
00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.560
We love storytelling, which is also why we're here.
00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:35.759
Um making some magic.
00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:36.959
And you talked about your team.
00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:44.720
You have just like one of the most creative, incredible teams I personally think in the world, obviously in the NWSL.
00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:52.160
Um, and you have to lead these phenomenal individuals on a daily basis, um, and also help create that brand.
00:04:52.160 --> 00:05:02.800
So maybe you can share with our listeners who's someone who's influenced your leadership style, and maybe, you know, how do you approach your leadership style every day in an environment like this?
00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:11.920
So a person who was really influential on my leadership style, unfortunately is no longer with us, but she was a leader of mine in my career very early in college.
00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:13.439
I wasn't even in marketing at the time.
00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:21.759
I was just a college student working somewhere to um have a job doing college, but she was a leader of leaders, which I think I am.
00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:23.519
I have a to you mentioned, I have a great team.
00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:24.959
They are all leaders in their own right.
00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:28.160
They're incredibly talented, they're really committed to this brand.
00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:37.279
So it's not about a lot of teaching, it's more empowering and allowing and finding ways to help them bring their best potential and bring their best selves for ward.
00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:50.160
And so she was really someone had who had surrounded herself with people like that, people that she knew their talent, she knew their skills, and her job every day was just to empower them and make sure they had the tools and resources to present their best work.
00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:52.639
And that's what I try to do every day, not to get in the way.
00:05:52.639 --> 00:06:00.079
I, you know, you have to have an you want to have a point of view and you want to share, and you want to make sure if there are places where you can help them develop, you're doing that.
00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.720
But it's also to get the best out of each person.
00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:12.480
And how do you, you know, lead someone who's already a leader and making sure that he or she has the opportunity to shine, grow, develop, bring new ideas.
00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:17.759
You don't want to be a wall to that, you want to be a door that opens up here, you know, to lead them to the next opportunity.
00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:18.240
Yeah.
00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:23.519
And it's just been phenomenal what we've seen in the KC Current grow and how the brand has grown.
00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:29.120
And we walk into work every day, and it's we want to be the best women's football club in the world We are.
00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:31.439
And we are the best women's football club in the world, you know.
00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:32.720
We have a little swag to us.
00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:34.560
We said that in July.
00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:35.759
No big deal.
00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:36.800
Uh it's still here.
00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:39.199
The women's best club in the world is still here.
00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:42.399
Um, just in case anybody missed that marketing memo.
00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:50.800
Um, but to that point, like as we're walking in, we understand that that is a trickle-down effect of a vision that has been set.
00:06:50.800 --> 00:07:03.759
But also, how do you take a club in five, six years of its existence and you take it from a local and national club to now a global brand that it is becoming and is?
00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:08.639
I think it starts with that vision of doing something that has never been done before.
00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:13.839
I mean, our leader Angie Long said it well, you can't unsee what we're doing here.
00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:20.319
And so when you're doing something that is the first across the world, the world has to pay attention.
00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:26.319
And so then when you deliver it in such with such excellence, they have to sit up and really pay attention.
00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:36.959
And so what we're doing with CPKC Stadium, our performance center, our training center, Current Landing, it's really delivering for women's sports at a level that people are kind of shocked sometimes.
00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:58.079
Um, when we hosted the World Cup and the Nether- the Netherlands chose our facilities, it was really a moment where it was an exclamation point on we're not just building facilities that are built for women, but they're built for professional athletes to have the most incredible opportunity to bring their best selves to the pitch or the field of play every day.
00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:05.279
We've got the resources, we've got the opportunities for them to recover in the right ways, we are investing in them having the right nutrition.
00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:13.360
It's all the things that goes into professional athleticism and professional sports, whether male or female, and we've cut no corners in delivering that.
00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:18.560
And so I think people were a little surprised when they saw that it wasn't like, oh, what's this little stadium over here.
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:18.959
And like.
00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:19.199
No.
00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.040
This is a state-of-the-art facility.
00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:21.279
Right.
00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:29.920
Where our players have a beautiful locker room that they can leave things in, and it's their locker, and it's beautifully decored, and it's private, and it's special.
00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:36.080
And our facilities provide our fans when they come into CPKC Stadium a great experience every match.
00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:39.279
Our fans have made it the hardest place to play in the NWSL.
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.519
And so that comes from really investing in it and making sure that it's up to a standard.
00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.399
And I think that's the piece that people can't look away from.
00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:48.879
It's not just here, but it's here and it's excellent.
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:55.519
for sure, and I also think there was a survey that went around general managers uh a year ago, might have been a little over that.
00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:57.120
Yeah, ish.
00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:05.840
Um, and one of the general managers was quoted saying, Um, when I think of the Kansas City Current, it's like they vomit teal.
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:10.799
And the entire city is covered in teal everywhere, wherever you go.
00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:12.559
When you show up in the airport, there's teal.
00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:14.799
When you go out to coffee shops, there's teal.
00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:19.519
Like this city truly embraces that, but that's also a tribute to you and your team.
00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:30.080
So when someone thinks of the Kansas City Current, is that how you want them to think of the KC Current, or what comes to your mind as you're building this brand or helping build this brand?
00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:40.080
I think it's one of the ways. I mean, people remember and they buy with their eyes, and so if you're a visual person and our chill captures you and it it won't, it arrests you and it won't let you go, great.
00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:40.720
We love that.
00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:42.879
We that's one of the things we want you to remember.
00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:43.200
Yeah.
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:52.480
If you come to CPKC Stadium and you have the best game of your life, you've never experienced soccer at that level and fandom at that level, and that's how you remember us, great.
00:09:52.480 --> 00:10:06.240
It's all in just intentional about making sure that when you experience the KC current and you experience CPKC Stadium, you have the best experience of your life with a brand, with a stadium, with a new um facility.
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.600
We just want to make sure that you leave there with something that really sticks with you and you want to keep coming back.
00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:13.440
We're trying to build generational fans.
00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:17.360
We don't want you to come and be like, that was great, maybe, maybe I'll come again.
00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:25.919
We want it to arrest you and we want you to be like, I need to come back, I need to see that again, I need to have teal in my life, I need to wear teal to work.
00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:33.120
So we want you to really connect with our brand through our players, through our storytelling, through experiences at CPKC Stadium.
00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.919
So, yes, vomiting teal, I'm fine with that.
00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:40.720
As part of the second segment, it's important to talk about building the brand off the pitch.
00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:48.080
You talked about being a storyteller, and I just I love that about you because it draws people in and it helps build the brand.
00:10:48.080 --> 00:11:00.399
So when you're having conversations with fans and supporters, how is that storytelling component so important to building a brand identity, drawing those fans in, and even telling the stories of the players?
00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:02.960
I mean, people connect through stories.
00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:06.960
I I like to say everybody comes to sport, especially through a story.
00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:07.360
Yeah.
00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.679
Me, I came initially to it through watching baseball with my grandfather.
00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:21.600
Now, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but that turned the light on for me for watching sports and what sports could do, and watching him get excited in his chair and be so excited and yelling at the television.
00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.159
I was like, oh, this thing connects.
00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:25.600
And that was our moment together.
00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:29.360
So that was my moment of being introducing me to sport and drawing me into sport.
00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:41.279
And I think everybody kind of comes that way of I came through going, throwing the ball in the yard with my dad or going with my mom or going with my friends, and in especially in South Georgia where I'm from, Friday Night Lights is the thing.
00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:42.320
That's what you do.
00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:42.559
Yeah.
00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:48.559
If you're in high school or in middle school on a Friday night, you're going to the football game with your friends, and so it's a connector.
00:11:48.559 --> 00:12:03.840
And so when I talk to our fans, it's about how are they connecting around our games and how are they connecting around our brand, whether it's feeling seen and included when they come to our stadium around our cultural nights, um like Pride Night and Celebration of Black Culture in Kansas City.
00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:15.519
So how are they feeling like I'm connecting to this brand because they see me and we are mutually connected through our love for Kansas City, but I also they also feel that they're connected to our players by understanding our players' stories.
00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:28.639
And so understanding more about someone like a Dabinha or uh Temwa who really had to go against their culture to really play the game that they love, but they found a way to make their dream come true.
00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:34.399
That's a story that a lot of people connect to, maybe not through sport, but through other, you know, industries, adversities.
00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:50.799
And so when you see that these incredible athletes that are on the pitch also have a story of triumph, and they but they had to go through something to get there, or they've had you know some kind of connection with the parent or a sister or a dog, even it just connects people more to our players and to our brand.
00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:51.039
Yeah.
00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:59.039
And so finding that human side and just really telling that and letting that be the connecting point because I think that's the real connection where people stay and they continue to come.
00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:06.480
Yeah, and I think there's three big things I really want to talk to you about as we look forward, as we talk about that storytelling aspect of it.
00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:10.799
Um, KC Current Studios is officially open.
00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:20.799
And it is a production and content and broadcast hub, and it lines up with the drop of this podcast.
00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:26.000
So for you in particular and your entire team, what does having something like that?
00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:34.000
A studio built for a women's team by a women's team, what does that mean for you?
00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:35.279
What's the gravity of that?
00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:38.720
I mean, it's another exclamation point on us just leading the way.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:50.879
Like the Kansas City Current are always leading the way in that under the headline that women's sports and women's teams deserve all the same resources that a men's team might have at their disposal.
00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:59.039
And so for us as a team, getting a studio means that, you know, we are now able to produce all this amazing content on our terms, that are on our time.
00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:05.279
You know, we we love our agency partners, but it's now we can walk into a room and do our photo shoot whenever we can whenever we want to.
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.080
And so it opens up opportunity for us to do more.
00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.480
Um, I talked earlier about my team and their potential.
00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:16.000
Now we have the opportunity to explore and tinker and figure out and go and test and try.
00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.200
And so that's when you find that that hidden nugget.
00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:23.600
That's when you are able to really pull back the layers of the onion and explore and say, what if we tried this?
00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.480
And we now have a space of our own to try those things.
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:32.960
And it also sets us up to be able to better tell our player story because we now own the narrative, we own the opportunity to do that.
00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:41.440
And (KC Current) Studios gives us a framework by which we can now create our own content hub and we can tell all the stories we want to tell about our players.
00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.000
We can work with them to tell the layers of their story, how the as long as we want to tell them.
00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.360
And so that's just another connection point for us to really connect with fans, connect with the broader industry.
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.639
Um, it gives us an opportunity to better deliver for our partners.
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:58.720
When we think about content for partners, how do we do it in a way that's at the highest level?
00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:07.039
We now have all of those resources at our disposal, and it helps us, you know, keeps us on our toes, helps us be immensely creative and to create things that connect.
00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:22.559
We look forward to figuring out how to create something that's like a college game day that we can create, and you can come back to it in that cadence of every Saturday or Sunday or Wednesday or whenever we decide to make that moment, but then we can create and it can look the way we want it to look.
00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.480
It can speak about the things we wanted to speak about.
00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:34.879
We can tell the stories we want to tell that really connect with our fans and create that same kind of excitement and energy around women's sports that we have a place where we can tell our stories as well.
00:15:35.120 --> 00:16:05.600
And speaking of storytelling in women's sports, we just got a chance to be a part of an incredible opportunity, being a part of the fourth season of Ted Lasso, having Jason Sudeikis and the crew come here to utilize the KC Current as part of the inspiration behind season four, filming at CPKC Stadium, and really that moment in the first episode where Keely looks over the match and is just awestruck and inspired.
00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:20.879
I feel like a lot of us had those moments throughout the past couple of years being inside CPKC Stadium, but as a chief marketing officer, seeing that on the big screen and being a part of that experience, what was maybe uh a fun story for you?
00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:29.759
Um and also, if you guys go back and rewatch episode one, Jocelyn is very prominently right behind Keely in one of those scenes.
00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:34.000
So she got she got her little film, her film debut, a little film time, eh?
00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:51.840
Yes, I mean having Kansas City Current, CPKC Stadium um involved in this global entertainment property was a trem, uh just enormous pleasure, honor.
00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:57.919
It really will elevate our brand and continue to drive our brand across the globe.
00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:00.240
Um Jason's from here,
00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:00.399
Yeah.
00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:05.599
So it made sense, but there are a lot of clubs he had the opportunity to go and work with.
00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:07.279
I mean, it's a like I said, it's a global property.
00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:09.599
I think anybody would have been happy to be a part of that.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:18.400
But he saw that what we're doing here was really what he wanted to capture, and it was really going to represent what he wanted to put on the big screen.
00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:23.759
He wanted to tell a story that's about an upstart team that's really gonna take the world by storm.
00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:27.599
And that is exactly what the Kansas City Current and CPKC Stadium has done.
00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:37.920
And so to have our story almost memorialized, if you will, you know, that hopefully this content lives on forever, it's just a tremendous, tremendous honor for our brand.
00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:53.039
And I think, you know, it'll it it will help in some ways legitimize the story they're telling because they'll have a real life experience to kind of pattern and think about and say, hey, this is how they're navigating that journey.
00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:12.960
And so um it speaks to also the respect he has for our owners and what they're doing and what we're building here as really a pull mark in the women's sports society in women's sports industry that we are someone that teams should be trying to really think about and emulate, and that's an honor.
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:30.000
No question. And thinking speaking of teams that need to think about us, the World Cup coming into town in Kansas City and having four men's teams, top-tier men's teams staying here in the area, but also the Netherlands choosing to utilize the KC Current Training Facility for their base camp.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:36.799
Um, how much does that mean and how much does that reflect on building a brand and also on the Kansas City Current as a whole?
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:41.680
Were there any experiences that you had during the process that you were like, okay, this is a pinch me, pinch me moment?
00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:49.759
I mean, first having the Netherlands choose our facilities as one of four that were here in Kansas City, and choosing a women's facility.
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:54.480
You know, people thought, well, are they choosing a facility that's not gonna be able to meet their needs?
00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.839
I think by all estimations, their their team and their coach have said we exceeded their expectations.
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:10.000
Um beautiful grounds, beautiful facilities, facilities up to state their state-of-the-art standards, where they could come and train and feel very comfortable that they were going to be prepared when they went on the pitch.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:47.680
The other piece is the amount of just reach and scale that we, our brand saw just in partnering with them around the amazing content that happened around World Cup, whether it was the open training at our Riverside Stadium, or it was just, you know, their commentary following their training um path and us collaborating with them on that to on Ron Haywalk, which was, you know, 36,000 plus of Kansas Citians or Americans or citizens of the world coming together in Kansas City to celebrate the Netherlands in the way, or join them in their celebration in the way they celebrate a match.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:58.240
And so it was a moment, it was a pinch-me moment to be standing in, you know, this crowd of 36,000 other people and say our brand is in a way a part of this.
00:19:58.240 --> 00:19:59.599
Like they're here and they're staying.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.559
It's almost like having a guest at your home, having you know, a guest at your home.
00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:09.839
My guest at my home is, you know, on the biggest stage there is, and we had our leadership on the bus with them.
00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:18.799
And so to be really recognized as an important part of their journey here and them um really wanting us to participate in that was the coolest.
00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:20.960
It was it was the coolest moment of that.
00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.319
But then just again, the reach that our brand will get across.
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:31.440
We saw new markets, um, earned media in new markets that we'd never touched this um during our regular season cycle.
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:40.319
And so to have our brand now be talked about in, I think it was Germany, Brazil, India, markets that we don't necessarily reach week over week.
00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:44.240
And so this is just another um element that's gonna grow our brand globally.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:59.359
Yeah, and the fingerprints that the World Cup, I think, left here in Kansas City is just as big as the impact that I think Kansas City left on a lot of the teams that came here and the stories that will be told from that.
00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.559
But as we wrap this up, I got some fun ones for you.
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:03.839
We're gonna do a lightning round.
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:04.240
Alright.
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:04.960
If you're down?
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:05.759
I'm down.
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:06.720
Okay, cool.
00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:09.680
Well, you're gonna get to know Jocelyn real well here as we wrap things up.
00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:10.880
Coffee or tea?
00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:11.519
Tea.
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:13.680
Okay, favorite match day tradition?
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:21.920
Standing in the West Sideline Club, it's kind of become our match day meet point.
00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:32.240
Kind of nobody said this is where we were gonna meet, but it just became the place where we all, like if you're not actively doing the job at the moment, this is just a place we come and we watch the match.
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:33.519
So that tradition.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:42.880
We unveiled uh CPKC Stadium in Legos, and Jocelyn made herself as well as Raven Jemison, and they put themselves in the stadium right there, which I thought was like perfect.
00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:48.640
So now I will like visually remember you as a little Lego human in that place in CPKC Stadium forever.
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:49.279
Absolutely.
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.240
Um okay, a woman leader who inspires you?
00:21:52.880 --> 00:22:00.480
Well, I'm inspired by the women I work with every day, you included, obviously Angie and her continued vision and pushing all of us forward.
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:19.359
Um, I mean, when I think about the women in our office and in our organization, we all we all left a career, and I don't want to say left, but we transitioned from another role that was really probably a career trajectory position and saw the vision of this new upstart organization and said, no, I want to be a part of building that.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.880
So that's also definitely very something that's very inspir inspiring to me.
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:27.920
But I'll go off sports for a moment, and there's a woman called Jenny Clark.
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:36.319
She is a HR professional, and I found her actually on Instagram, and she just gives the best advice.
00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:47.759
It's just how to navigate the world and the work world, especially, and she's it's just so clear and actionable, and so she really inspires.
00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:51.839
I just I kind of go back to her when I do scroll a little bit and hear what she has to say.
00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:52.480
That's good.
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:53.839
Okay, I'll take that to heart as well.
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:56.079
So I'll make sure that I am in on that.
00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:58.480
Uh, one word to describe Kansas City.
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:00.480
Today, hot.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:04.240
Hey, you know what? A lot of the World Cup teams said that too.
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:04.720
So you know what?
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:05.039
Yeah.
00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:06.160
You just gotta get used to it.
00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:07.599
In general, nice.
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:09.279
People here are very, very nice.
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:13.759
It it is um in the heart of the country, and people here are very welcoming.
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:22.720
And um, a lot of I think people have come here from other places, and it's got a lot of um growing and evolving culture in the in the makers movement.
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:27.839
So a lot of entrepreneurs and artisans and artists and and uh um chefs.
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:30.799
I saw Mukul was talking about chefs in the last episode.
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:36.000
So a lot of that kind of culture is really here that was one thing that surprised me about Kansas City when I came here.
00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:37.440
Okay, the last one for you.
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:38.640
Finish the sentence.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:41.039
The future of women's sports is?
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:41.599
Bright.
00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:43.599
Oh, I love that.
00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:48.319
It is growing so fast and in so many different directions.
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:58.720
You are seeing new leagues, volleyball, softball, um, all of these sports are really just getting organized around, you know, a path to professionalism.
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:15.359
And so it's just gonna be so much opportunity for young female athletes as well as young female professionals who want to work in sports to really continue to grow this industry and make it somewhere that's really really a part of the sports conversation.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:17.039
Jocelyn, I love that.
00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:18.319
You inspire me every day.
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:19.279
Thank you so much.
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:21.279
It's just a blessing to be able to work with you.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:25.359
So thank you for taking the time to jump on this podcast, the KC Current Podcast.
00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:29.359
But maybe you guys should watch out for a Jocelyn and Dani podcast coming soon.
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:31.279
Hot takes, left and right.
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:32.319
No, I'm just kidding.
00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:33.920
Um, but seriously, thank you so much.
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:34.640
Thank you for having me.
00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:37.119
KC Current would not be what it is without you.
00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:40.000
Episode four, just wait for it.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:42.480
Lauren Holiday Impact Award honoree.
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:46.400
Izzy Rodriguez, as well as somebody from Early Start, is gonna join us.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.319
So you guys do not want to miss that one.
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:49.279
It's gonna be great.
00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.400
So thank you so much for joining us on the KC Current Podcast.
