Unrivaled expertise
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Leveling The Playing Field
We’re so excited that The Call Up is out in the world. The centerpiece of the platform is our new podcast, How I Got the Call Up, where we interview accomplished women from across the industry about their careers and ask for practical advice that anyone can apply to their careers.
And we couldn’t have asked for a better first guest: Unrivaled chief brand officer (CBO) Kirby Porter, who talked to us about how anyone — founder or not — can be entrepreneurial in their career. Scroll on for more on her invaluable insights and so much more.
- Love, Ellen & Jacie
💪 Be a builder
📝 Kirby Porter isn’t just any C-suite exec: She was named Unrivaled’s CBO at just 27 years old, after a career that spanned working for corporate and venture capital firms, launching her own podcast, and founding a startup called New Game Labs. At Unrivaled, she’s responsible for crafting how the league shows up in the world — and making sure more of the world gets to see it.
💡 The takeaways: Porter said that having an entrepreneurial mindset doesn’t only mean starting a company or a side hustle. You can view your own career as a startup, and you’re the founder. That means having a vision or a mission, but it also means being realistic about “who you are, what you’re good at, and what you can do today to move the ball forward.” Her advice:
- Don’t wait until you’re in the C-suite to take action. Be proactive about the things you can control right now — figure out who you can reach out to, what you can learn, and what you can share about yourself. In other words, go on offense in your career.
- Founders and entrepreneurs have common traits: They think big, identify opportunities, take action, and are very passionate (or even obsessive) about what they’re doing. You can do that in any role or job — or in finding your new one.
- Think beyond your job description. Set a goal to reinvent what your job will be by the time you leave it. Always be learning, and find ways to take action and improve.
🎤 The mic drop moment: “The fun part of entrepreneurship is starting. It’s fun to start things, right?... It’s not fun when you have to be consistent when it’s working, but also when it’s not working.” Persistence and consistency are key.
🎧 A coffee chat with an Unrivaled exec? Yes, please
Did you think we’d stop at a newsletter? We started The Call Up to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build a career in sports, and we thought the connections and actionable advice should go beyond your inbox.
- 🎙️ Listen to How I Got The Call Up, our new podcast for honest conversations with women across the sports industry, hosted by The GIST’s co-founders.
- 📱 Follow The Call Up on socials for career advice, industry news, opportunities, and insights you can put into play.
From the entry-level job to the boardroom, we’re here to help you plan your next move. Your career is already in motion — let’s see where it can go.
🎧 Find a sports business podcast like Morning Buzzcast from the Sports Business Journal or the first and only daily women’s sports pod: Good Game with Sarah Spain.
📖 Her No. 1 book rec is The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. Sounds about right that the queen of LinkedIn would suggest a read from the website’s founder. We loved Porter’s note on coming back to this book in different stages of her career and how it’s helped her identify the tangible things she can do in the moment to further her entrepreneurial journey.
📰 Want to know more about Unrivaled? Here’s a new interview from co-founder Napheesa Collier on why they founded the league, the pain points it solved from the WNBA, and the importance of athlete branding. Counting down ’til January 8th.
🧢 Welcome to the Coach’s Corner, where we answer reader-submitted questions about working in sports. This week’s question comes to us from Emmy — she asked Kirby:
- How do you learn to lead rooms where you were often the youngest person there, and what advice would you give to women who are still learning to own their voice early in their careers?
Porter’s response brought her back to an early job in brand marketing at PepsiCo where she had to figure out who she was now that she wasn’t a basketball player trying to win a championship. She took time to find what that next level was for her as a professional and identified her own key markers of success.
- That’s also where she became obsessed with the idea of athletes as business leaders who start companies, record podcasts, or launch investment firms, and realized that’s what she wanted to do someday — but the lesson is what she did that day.
“What are the very first little steps that you can take to get there?” recalled Porter. She had a vision and instead of keeping it as a daydream, she leaned on her existing skills of creativity and storytelling to start a podcast to establish her brand and voice within the industry.
- She was quick to point out that not every episode was good, but just like basketball, you can’t win the championship in a day — you have to get through the whole season. Same with establishing yourself as a leader and developing your voice.
⏭️ Next week, we’re interviewing Susie Piotrkowski, ESPN’s head of women’s sports programming and espnW. Have a question for her? Submit it here.
🏈 You’ve got opinions, why not put’em to work? In partnership with the NFL, our free-to-play Weekly Pick’ems game is your chance to call the winners, compete with fellow GISTers, and vie for season-long prizes.
- Need some inspo? Robert won last week’s challenge and scored a $100 NFL Shop gift card. All you have to do is choose who’ll win each matchup this week, and you could be next.
💌 Consider this your official invite. Nothing to lose, lots to learn, and a whole NFL community to gain. May the Hail Marys be ever in your favor — make your picks now.
🏆 Calling all sports industry girlies: Submit your recent sports career win here, and you might get a shoutout in this newsletter. Got a new job? A promotion? Finished a big project? Let us know so we can give you your flowers. For example…
🏅 The GIST’s very own Jacie deHoop was named to Adweek’s annual Sports Marketing MVP list. Jacie, you da real MVP.
Today's email was brought to you by Rachel Fuenzalida and Katie Kehoe Foster. Editing by Molly Potter. Ops by Elisha Gunaratnam. Ads by Ali Haberstroh. Managing edits by Molly Potter and Katie Kehoe Foster. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.