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Speaker 1: Welcome to an all new episode of Her Playbook, Brought

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Speaker 1: to you Mike Kendra Scott. Her playbook as a podcast

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Speaker 1: highlighting inspiring stories of women in sport and business.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to be joined by Keiah Clark, the CEO

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Speaker 1: of the w NBA champion Liberty.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me today.

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Speaker 3: Happy to be here.

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Speaker 1: I've got to say, the growth of not just the Liberty,

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Speaker 1: but the WNBA has been exponential over the last few years.

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Speaker 2: What have you noticed in your time in the league.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I'll start by saying it feels great.

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Speaker 4: This growth, this momentum has been a long time coming.

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Speaker 4: You know, when I think about my career and you

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Speaker 4: mentioned with the Liberty and the w between those two entities,

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Speaker 4: I'm nearly twenty years in the game, just in women's basketball,

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Speaker 4: So this moment feels incredible. And what I've noticed most,

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Speaker 4: I think is that it's the cultural shift. It's being

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Speaker 4: a part of the mainstream conversation when you work in

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Speaker 4: it and you've got your head down and your you know,

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Speaker 4: sort of thriving and wanting you know, visibility, wanting to

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Speaker 4: amplify what the women do. But it just wasn't resonating,

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Speaker 4: wasn't landing in that way. To see what's happened over

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Speaker 4: the last two or three years in pop culture tunnel fits,

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Speaker 4: it's translated to incredible viewership increases, corporate partnership, investment from brands,

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Speaker 4: investments from brands that want to do work with us.

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Speaker 4: All of that tide rising at the same time is

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Speaker 4: just remarkable. But I'd have to say there's a lot

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Speaker 4: of people, there's a true foundation of folks who saw

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Speaker 4: this and wanted it and worked toward it. And I'm

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Speaker 4: just so happy to still be around the sport when

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Speaker 4: it's happening.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned still being around the sport. You

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Speaker 1: played college basketball, When did you fall in love with

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Speaker 1: the game?

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Speaker 3: I did, believe it or not.

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Speaker 4: My mom asked me when I was about seven and

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Speaker 4: a half eight years old if I wanted to go

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Speaker 4: to basketball camp, and I said, nah, I just played

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Speaker 4: for fun. I just like to dribble my ball in

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Speaker 4: the neighborhood and shoot baskets. And immediately the following summer,

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Speaker 4: the bug bit me. I started watching basketball on television.

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Speaker 4: I was playing in the neighborhood mostly with boys. But

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Speaker 4: you know, when I say the bug bit me. I

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Speaker 4: completely fell in love right around eleven years old, and

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Speaker 4: it's never stopped.

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Speaker 3: The ball is life, The ball is life.

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Speaker 1: You got your first job at the Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 1: That's a cool first job.

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Speaker 2: How did that come together?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, happenstance. Quite frankly, I thought I was

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Speaker 4: actually going to be a GA for a tiny stent.

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Speaker 4: I was contemplating going into coaching, wasn't sure what I

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Speaker 4: wanted to do, wasn't sure if sports was right for me,

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Speaker 4: and ultimately didn't get the job. It was my first

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Speaker 4: moment of literal rejection, and it was at my alma mater.

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Speaker 4: But fortunate enough, I'm from Connecticut. I moved back home

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Speaker 4: and I'm not too far from Springfield. I had gone

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Speaker 4: to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame, you know, as

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Speaker 4: just a young hooper pretty much every summer with my mom,

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Speaker 4: and she happened to know someone who worked there and

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Speaker 4: we ran in to it was the CFO of the company, so,

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Speaker 4: you know, like parents do. She said, well, Kiya just

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Speaker 4: graduated from college, and I'm like, yeah, right, this guy's

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Speaker 4: going to get me a job. Literally three four weeks later,

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Speaker 4: I was.

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Speaker 3: An account executive.

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Speaker 4: I was hired as account executive to essentially sell tickets

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Speaker 4: to the museum. So not quite sports yet, but a

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Speaker 4: sports museum. It was sports adjacent. And I just learned

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Speaker 4: so many, you know, fundamental tools about what it meant to,

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Speaker 4: you know, be in a business space, be in a

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Speaker 4: corporate space that lent itself to sports and athletics and

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Speaker 4: most notably the history of the game. I don't know

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Speaker 4: if there could have been a better beginning to my

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Speaker 4: career than to spend my lunch breaks walking through the museum,

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Speaker 4: you know, learning about the history of this game that

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Speaker 4: I love so much.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that redirection of the rejection, right, it's almost

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Speaker 1: like a blessing and seeing that there are so many

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Speaker 1: more possibilities within the world of sports business. Absolutely, And

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Speaker 1: you know, after that you took your talents to the

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Speaker 1: league office.

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Speaker 2: How did that transition come about?

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Speaker 4: Another cool story and I often share this one with students.

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Speaker 4: I wrote my thesis at NYU when I was studying

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Speaker 4: for my master's in Sports management on the WNBA. I

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Speaker 4: had never been to a game. I felt like the

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Speaker 4: target marketing was missing me. So I wrote this advanced

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Speaker 4: special project thirty page paper on the league and my

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Speaker 4: coach from college actually introduced me to someone who worked

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Speaker 4: at the league. So again right place, right time, perfect

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Speaker 4: conversation because I was so.

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Speaker 3: Hard on the w NBA.

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Speaker 4: I think in that paper she was intrigued, I think

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Speaker 4: a little bit to maybe prove me wrong, maybe show

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Speaker 4: me that it wasn't as easy as some may think.

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Speaker 4: But that woman who I presented the paper to ended

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Speaker 4: up maybe four or five months later, calling me up

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Speaker 4: and saying she had an entry level role. So I

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Speaker 4: got my start in team marketing and business operations at

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Speaker 4: the league office.

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Speaker 3: But from the start I focused on the double NBA.

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Speaker 4: You know, it was an NBA department and NBA job.

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Speaker 4: But at that time there were very few people who

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Speaker 4: were focused specifically on the women's side, and I was

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Speaker 4: happy to do it, happy to learn, and just became

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Speaker 4: a sponge.

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Speaker 3: Throughout those years.

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Speaker 4: There were some of the smartest folks and people who

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Speaker 4: still work in the industry were at the NBA at

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Speaker 4: that time and really just you know, lend themselves to

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Speaker 4: me and you know, taught me a ton about what

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Speaker 4: it meant to look at the franchise business and how

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Speaker 4: leagues actually support franchises.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and getting that background and Marketing is so important too,

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Speaker 1: especially in the W Now with the Liberty, can we

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Speaker 1: talk about Ellie. Ellie is a movement and what a

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Speaker 1: unique marketing tool she is, this flambuoyant elephant that has

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Speaker 1: dance moves that rival video dancers. I just need to

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Speaker 1: know everything about Ellie.

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Speaker 3: All things Ellie.

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Speaker 4: I mean, Ellie, as you said, is a is a movement,

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Speaker 4: She's a vibe. I have to say that from a

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Speaker 4: cultural standpoint, I think it's really the Brooklyn flavor, the

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Speaker 4: ability to dance, but the ability for many types of

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Speaker 4: people to see themselves in Ellie that makes her so cool.

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Speaker 4: We are so proud of where that portion of our

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Speaker 4: brand has gone, and we just continued to develop it.

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Speaker 4: Who thought that a mascot could pull off the things

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Speaker 4: that Ellie's been able to pull off, you know over time.

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Speaker 3: We're incredibly proud of it.

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Speaker 4: And what's interesting, and I think many people don't know,

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Speaker 4: The Liberty had a mascot previous to Ellie that was

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Speaker 4: very beloved. Maddie was a Golden Retriever Ish dog. Yep,

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Speaker 4: name Maddie, but Maddie was named after Madison Square Garden.

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Speaker 4: So in the move we made a decision, and it

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Speaker 4: wound up being a decision that continues to pay dividends

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Speaker 4: in terms of just fan engagement.

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Speaker 3: I can't say enough about.

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Speaker 4: Ellie really appealing to young people, appealing to growing adults,

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Speaker 4: appealing to retirees. There's something in it, and there's something

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Speaker 4: that resonates completely that we will continue to cultivate.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people might think, how is an

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Speaker 1: elephant New York? But Ellie is Ellis Island?

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Speaker 4: Right, Ellie is named after Ellis Island. But there's also

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Speaker 4: another connection point. So when we were researching what a

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Speaker 4: new mascot could be and you mentioned New York, it's like,

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Speaker 4: we don't really want to rat what other New York animals,

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Speaker 4: animals are associated with New York. We didn't want to

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Speaker 4: pigeon as a mascot. And I actually happened to come

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Speaker 4: across a story it may have been in the Times,

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Speaker 4: actually about the opening one hundred years ago of the

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Speaker 4: Brooklyn Bridge. So we were a team migrating from Manhattan

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Speaker 4: by way of Westchester to Brooklyn, and this story actually

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Speaker 4: spoke of people being afraid to cross the Brooklyn Bridge

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Speaker 4: when it opened, and there being a stunt where a

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Speaker 4: herd of elephant was paraded across the ridge to prove

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Speaker 4: out its safety.

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Speaker 2: That's so cool.

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Speaker 4: So one thing led to another and it's like, oh

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Speaker 4: my god, this is a cool connection point. But elephants

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Speaker 4: also represent strength and intellect and great memories. We're an

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Speaker 4: original team and we have a legacy, so we just

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Speaker 4: sort of spun off of that. Little did we know, though,

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Speaker 4: that Ellie was going to be the complete vibe on

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Speaker 4: the dance floor that she is. So people want to

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Speaker 4: try their hand at a battle, people want to try

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Speaker 4: their hand at a dance lesson.

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Speaker 3: We're here for it. I love it.

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Speaker 2: I love it.

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Speaker 1: And Ellie has done so much for the liberty, but

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Speaker 1: the league as a whole, the marketing of it has

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Speaker 1: grown exponentially. The twenty fifth season, the orange hoodie campaign.

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Speaker 1: I feel like that was a turning point. Was that,

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Speaker 1: in your point of view as somebody close to it,

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Speaker 1: something that really catapulted the w Absolutely?

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Speaker 4: I think, you know, just as we're talking here about

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Speaker 4: the current moment and the mainstream storylines around women's sports

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Speaker 4: as a whole, right around the w NBA, When I

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Speaker 4: think back to that twenty fifth season, the orange hoodie

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Speaker 4: and people wanting to not just say they support the

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Speaker 4: w or buy a ticket to a game, but to

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Speaker 4: wear that logo in bright orange on your back, I

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Speaker 4: think meant a ton. We can't neglect either that, you know,

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Speaker 4: one of the greatest to ever do it, Kobe Bryant.

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Speaker 4: You know, that image of him and his daughter sitting courtside,

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Speaker 4: you know, at games wearing that hoodie was iconic and

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Speaker 4: it was just the catalyst I think we need it,

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Speaker 4: not just you know about the thread, but about the conversation.

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Speaker 4: What does it mean to actually show up for these

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Speaker 4: women who are amazing at what they do? And you know,

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Speaker 4: as I said, he was a we all know, a

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Speaker 4: personal confidant to many of the players in this league,

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Speaker 4: was training his own daughter, you know, to to be

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Speaker 4: you know, one of the highest caliber players ever.

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Speaker 3: So you know, it was a special time.

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Speaker 4: I think, you know, like all things again, it's a

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Speaker 4: it's a catalyst laundry list of things though that were

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Speaker 4: happening at that time that sort of led to that moment.

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Speaker 3: I think that you know, sort of brought us where

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Speaker 3: we are today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now you've said in the past everything is sports marketing

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Speaker 1: when it comes to how you amplify sports and athletes.

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Speaker 1: How would you describe just like what goes into marketing

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Speaker 1: a team or a league.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, for us, you know, when you think about the

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Speaker 4: athlete themselves, you have to be player first minded or

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Speaker 4: it won't come off authentic. Especially in New York. You know,

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Speaker 4: the fans will tell you if something feels like it's performative,

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Speaker 4: like it if it doesn't resonate with what the brand is.

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Speaker 4: And as an original team, I feel like we have

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Speaker 4: a really strong person a really strong responsibility to ensure

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Speaker 4: that you know, the folks who fell in love with

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Speaker 4: this team in nineteen ninety seven because you know Tea

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Speaker 4: Spoon hit that shot or she ran up in the

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Speaker 4: stands in high five, you know Rosie O'Donnell. It's like

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Speaker 4: bringing that to the futuristic personification of it is really

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Speaker 4: what we're charged towards. So being in Brooklyn is different,

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Speaker 4: new and different for us. The way that our marketing

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Speaker 4: comes to life is really focused on and it begins

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Speaker 4: with players, and then it's the authenticity of what the

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Speaker 4: city represents and that grit and that grind and the

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Speaker 4: resilience and you know, we have superstars on our team,

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Speaker 4: but we have a journey women who do what they

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Speaker 4: need to do to get us to a win.

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Speaker 3: And I'm so.

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Speaker 4: Happy they finally got us to the most ultimate wins

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Speaker 4: in the last season. But you know, if you're fourteen

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Speaker 4: years with the team, what you know better depiction of

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Speaker 4: what all those years of bringing together a fan base

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Speaker 4: who really valued values, what the marketability of the liberty

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Speaker 4: are it? Just you know, it feels incredible to be

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Speaker 4: now champions in the WNBA. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now looking at your role and how it's grown and

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Speaker 1: expanded and you personally and professionally, who's been a mentor

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Speaker 1: to you in your career?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Several mentors?

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Speaker 4: You know, I know many people refer to them as

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Speaker 4: board of you know, who is your personal board of directors?

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Speaker 4: And you know, I look at it sort of in

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Speaker 4: three different categories. There's my family, most notably my mom.

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Speaker 4: I've already mentioned her two or three times in this interview.

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Speaker 4: She'll find this and she'll listen to it. So I

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Speaker 4: have to make sure. But just someone who can be

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Speaker 4: she is someone who I can vent to who I

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Speaker 4: could have a completely in depth technical conversation about things

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Speaker 4: that may be stressful at work or things that might

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Speaker 4: be really great at work, and She may or may

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Speaker 4: not know the difference, but I know she's in my corner. Likewise,

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Speaker 4: I have several teammates people I played with in high school,

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Speaker 4: people I played with in college who aren't in professional sports.

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Speaker 4: They think, you know, everything I do is the coolest

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Speaker 4: thing ever, and you know, to share with them sort

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Speaker 4: of a behind the scenes look or you know, challenging days,

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Speaker 4: great days. To have just a cohort of people who

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Speaker 4: know the game and understand how much this means to

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Speaker 4: me from a personal standpoint and from a passion standpoint,

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Speaker 4: is really incredible and remarkable. But the key piece of

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Speaker 4: my border because it's definitely folks who I've worked with

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Speaker 4: along these twenty years in and around you know, the

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Speaker 4: teams and the sports. So most notably, I would say,

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Speaker 4: you know, the former commissioners of this league have been

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Speaker 4: just amazing. Don to Orange and Val Ackerman alike are

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Speaker 4: people who I can call up and just you know,

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Speaker 4: bounce ideas off of. You know, they were a part

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Speaker 4: of the pioneership of this league. They built the groundwork

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Speaker 4: of where we are today. So spent a lot of time.

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Speaker 4: But there's many, many, many colleagues that I call on

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Speaker 4: a week week to week basis, on a month to

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Speaker 4: month basis, there's people I don't call for you know,

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Speaker 4: a year, or we may not connect, but there's always

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Speaker 4: this sort of uh sisterhood or this you know, camaraderie

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Speaker 4: about what we do, because I think there's a perception

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Speaker 4: that it is easy and when things are going well,

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Speaker 4: that everything is going well, and it just is great

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Speaker 4: to have you know, sort of that you know, realistic

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Speaker 4: truth serum type conversations behind the scenes. But definitely helped me,

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Speaker 4: help helped me through a lot of great days. But

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Speaker 4: also the folks who called as soon as we want

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Speaker 4: are the people who were standing in the audience and

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Speaker 4: during the parade just you know, great time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now, when you look at I mean, obviously you've got

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Speaker 1: a lot of people in your corner, but you're in

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Speaker 1: a lot of people's corner. I'd imagine as the CEO

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Speaker 1: of a WNBA team, not just a woman, but a

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Speaker 1: woman of color in a high position in a league

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Speaker 1: made up of about eighty percent black women.

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Speaker 2: How important is that representation?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, incredibly important, and it's something that I don't take lightly.

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Speaker 4: I didn't have a lot of women of color to

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Speaker 4: look toward when I was, you know, working my way

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Speaker 4: through sports, working my way through corporate America, and this

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Speaker 4: notion that you know, I'm now CEO or leading a team,

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Speaker 4: I'd never forget sort of those coordinator days, those manager days,

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Speaker 4: those days of first managing people, the days of building

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Speaker 4: a team. And I like to think that I lead

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Speaker 4: with a lot lot of empathy because of that. You know,

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Speaker 4: I look at a lot of my staff and it's like, well,

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Speaker 4: sort of done every job here, So you know, I

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Speaker 4: know how you're feeling, or maybe I don't know how

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Speaker 4: you're feeling because we're in a new time and space.

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Speaker 4: But we can take a time out and we can

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Speaker 4: have a conversation, we can work through things, and it

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Speaker 4: really is about getting people to be their best in

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Speaker 4: the workplace. So I think that representation just as a

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Speaker 4: human being. And then as you mentioned, you add on

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Speaker 4: the intersection of being a woman and a woman in

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Speaker 4: women's sports, and then being a woman of color. I

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Speaker 4: think it's incredibly important, and which is why you know,

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Speaker 4: sometimes my team even says, what you're too accessible. You

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Speaker 4: take all the calls and you do all the informational interviews.

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Speaker 3: It's important. It's important.

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Speaker 1: It is so important and also, like you said, the

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Speaker 1: human being element of it, because yes, you are a CEO,

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Speaker 1: but you're also a mother and a wife and a daughter.

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Speaker 1: How do you balance all of your roles and take

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Speaker 1: care of your business but also yourself personally?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't.

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Speaker 4: If I'm being really real, it's it's always going to

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Speaker 4: be a work in progress. I think I was given

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Speaker 4: just the biggest nugget of wisdom when I was entering

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Speaker 4: into leadership by someone at a at a former company,

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Speaker 4: someone who worked in people practices, who said, you know,

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Speaker 4: you're going to miss some things at work because you

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Speaker 4: prioritized home. You're going to miss some things at home

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Speaker 4: because you prioritized work.

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Speaker 3: But you need to be okay with that.

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Speaker 4: You have to find a way to give yourself grace

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Speaker 4: to know that you're intentional and your giving your best

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Speaker 4: when you're in each of the distinct places, but that

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Speaker 4: you're no less a mom or no less a professional

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Speaker 4: at either time. It took me years to even have

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Speaker 4: an ounce of that grace that that person was describing.

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Speaker 4: And I'm super proud that you know, my kids are

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Speaker 4: actually twelve and eleven.

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Speaker 3: It sounds weird at this time of year. My daughter

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Speaker 3: will be thirteen soon.

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Speaker 4: But we're just now at the point where this is

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Speaker 4: a this is a work in progress for the whole family,

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Speaker 4: and not that it's like work for them, but it's

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Speaker 4: like mom has a career and dad has a career,

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Speaker 4: and I've told them, you know, with a big smile

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Speaker 4: and with every single morsel of me, I hope you

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Speaker 4: find something that you love to do when you grow up,

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Speaker 4: as much as mommy loves what she does. So this

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Speaker 4: is not that I love you less. I want you

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Speaker 4: to find your thing and I'm demonstrating that I'm gonna

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Speaker 4: model that to you, and we're in It helps when

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Speaker 4: you get to be on a parade float because I

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Speaker 4: got a little a little I bought a little time

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Speaker 4: with them, I think in terms of you know, this

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Speaker 4: being all worth it, you know, for the wins, but

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Speaker 4: also it was just they're two super fans. They can't

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Speaker 4: get enough of not just the liberty, but of the

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Speaker 4: WNBA of other women's sports.

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Speaker 3: My son consumes all in sports.

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Speaker 4: It's just sort of like, you know, not in a

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Speaker 4: forceful way, but to watch a fan become a fan two.

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Speaker 3: That you bore, it's something really special.

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Speaker 4: So you know, it gives me different, active, an insight

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Speaker 4: when I think about our fan engagement with you know,

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Speaker 4: the youth demographic, even you know, it's it's a beautiful

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Speaker 4: thing to have a team.

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Speaker 2: I love that.

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Speaker 1: Kia Clark, thank you so much for taking the time today.

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Speaker 1: Kea Clark, CEO of the w NBA champion New York Liberty,

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Speaker 1: joining us today on her playbook, Brought to you by

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Speaker 1: Kendra Scott,