TRANSCRIPT -Blending Community & Global Reach in the Modern Workforce With Julie Uhrman, Co-Founder & President, Angel City Episode 133

00:00:00 - Julie Uhrman

When you think about the future of work, how do I engage them? Whether it's membership or content, storytelling or experiences or travel, how do I make the Angel City fan that lives in England or Australia or Germany feel a part of us? We've sold merch in 50 different countries in all 50 states. How do I continue to engage that fan? 

 

00:00:25 - Christina Barsi

The workforce landscape is rapidly changing and Educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed. Before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?

 

00:00:41 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast. 

 

00:00:57 - Christina Barsi

And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and cohost of this podcast.

 

00:00:58 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships and PCC. Students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole.

 

00:01:32 - Christina Barsi

We believe change happens when we work together. And it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barsi.

 

00:01:40 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the future of Work. Good morning, good morning and welcome to our sixth annual Future of Work. And waking up early to be here with us today. It's such an honor to not only have you here present with us and talking to our speakers and our wonderful lineup of speakers, but also, this future of work lands on the centennial celebration for this campus. So yes, you can say woohoo.

 

00:02:07 - Julie Uhrman

That's good.

 

00:02:10 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

My name is Dr. Salvatrice Cummo and I am the Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development here at Pasadena City College. And our Future Work conference is really a key signature event that we do every year. We're very excited about it and pleased about it because it really brings forward our connections to industry, what we and how we can be positioning ourselves, our institutions, our systems to better align with our partners that we'll see here today. It's my pleasure to introduce our first keynote speaker, Julie Uhrman, Co-Founder and President of Angels City FC. Julie is a trailblazer in the world of sports and entrepreneurship, creating one of the most inclusive, forward-thinking soccer clubs in the nation. Her work not only transformed women's sports but also redefined how teams can serve their communities. Please help me welcome Julie Uhrman. Well, we're going to have a delightful conversation, Julie.

 

00:03:17 - Julie Uhrman

We are, we sure are. Thank you for having me.

 

00:03:19 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

You bet, you bet. I want to just kind of dive right in. I mean, you are at the forefront of career opportunities within this industry, within this sector, and I want to spend some time around looking at the startup models within this space. What career opportunities are you seeing moving forward as we prepare our students and upskill the existing workforce in this arena?

 

00:03:43 - Julie Uhrman

Well, that's a softball question to start with. Let me start by saying that I think sports has gone. Sports has had a significant transformation in the last 10 years. And if you think about what has fundamentally changed in sports, it's social media. It used to be the only way that you could connect with the team or connect with a player or learn about event was through broadcast media, right? So the games were broadcast on television. You'd have to listen to ESPN or read Sports Illustrated, the LA Times to understand what was going on. And your connection with those teams and with those players came through these large third party distributors of content, creators of content. With the advent of social media and the acceleration of participation of social media, you now can create a direct connection with your fan, with the athlete that you love and with the club that you love. You don't have to go through a Fox Sports or an ESPN or Sports Illustrated to create the connection. And the reason that that is so fundamental is it allows players to become brands, it allows players to talk directly to fans, it allows teams to talk directly to fans. And so when you think about the future of work and how the startup culture can play a meaningful role in sports, it's how do I identify who my fan is, how do I connect with my fan? What kind of stories do they want to hear? What type of events do they want to be a part of? How can they give back to their community, how can they give back to their club, how can they engage with their club? And so I think when you think about sports, it's not just about the 90 minute soccer game or the 3 hour football game or the 10 hour baseball game, right? It's really about how can I engage a fan and how can I transform them into being sort of an activist for the club.

 

00:05:34 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And I really appreciate you saying that because as we develop our programs and we think about Skills alignment and skill development. With the rise of what you just shared this, you know, with data analytics and really paying attention to how we engage with the fans and multiple different vehicles in which we do so, what would you say are some of the skills that we need to be paying attention to not only as educators, but also as young professionals kind of moving into this space?

 

00:06:03 - Julie Uhrman

Right. So if we break it into three categories, how do you find the fan, how do you engage the fan, and how do you build the sport? If you talk about how do you find the fan? It's exactly what you said. It starts with data and analytics. How can we use the tools we have today to understand who our true fan is? Because then I can build a product that resonates with them. So they want to come to the game. Some people want to come to the games because they love football, they love watching soccer. Other people want to come for a sense of community, for a sense of belonging. Others want to come because it's fun and exciting.

 

00:06:33 - Julie Uhrman

Others come because it's a FOMO experience. Right. But it better be for Angel City. Right? But the first question is, who is your fan and how do I connect with them? And that's really rethinking data and analytics. And when you think about data and analytics, it's almost two parts. One, we use data and analytics as relates to ticketing and ticket pricing.

 

00:06:52 - Julie Uhrman

How do you think about dynamic pricing? It's not just $10 and you walk in the door. Right. I think that is an old model and it certainly does a disservice to women's sports, where, you know, I think women's sports used to be thought of this charity, and if we make it inexpensive, people are going to come. The flip side of that is if you make it inexpensive, you are now making a statement about the value of the product and the experience. Right? So if it's inexpensive, then you're saying, well, maybe the product isn't that good. Right. Or even think about it this way, if I charge 10 or $15 for a game and it's raining Los Angeles going to get in their car or there's traffic. No, because for $10, you might decide it's not worth it. But if I paid $50 or $150, it's a much different decision making process.

 

00:07:38 - Julie Uhrman

So using data to understand ticket pricing for different areas within the stadium, for different experiences, and then also on that experience standpoint, how do you create a package for a different type of fan? If my fan is a family, what is the experience? And Price point for them. If my fan is a 21 year old millennial, I don't think they're millennials anymore. Gen Z, Gen X. I don't know what we've come to now, but what is that experience? Right. And so you can see how data not only has a quantitative role, but also plays a qualitative role as well.

 

00:08:10 - Julie Uhrman

I think AI is really fascinating as far as how do you communicate to your fans. So one of the tools that I'm asking my team to use is as we think about our advertising and our email marketing, if you're a designer, those are really boring things to design. Designing an email is really not that interesting. Designing an ad isn't that interesting. So there are now tools where we can provide a dozen different assets, a dozen different messages and let AI put them together and then point them to the right audience once we understand who those audiences.

 

00:08:42 - Julie Uhrman

So as you think about roles in the future of work and careers, data analytics, marketing, segmentation, messaging, pr, it's all really important. When we started Angel City, when you talked about, you know, thinking about it as a startup, who would you think? The first person I would hire is a coach, a general manager, head of sales. Right. The first person I hired was the head of pr. First person. Because everything is storytelling. Everything is storytelling. How do I get you to care about a brand new sports team? There are 11 professional sports teams in LA. There's you, USC, UCLA. How do I get you to care about a new team? Right. So what's going to cause you to connect with us? So I think the role of creating content, of storytelling through PR is really important.

 

00:09:30 - Julie Uhrman

I think the other benefit that young adults have today is you are digital first. You have been telling stories already forever, the span of your life on social media. That is incredibly important to a sports team. How do I tell the story about our players, our community, our games, our fans, on TikTok, on Insta, on threads, on Twitter, on Facebook? Each one of those platforms is different.

 

00:09:55 - Julie Uhrman

Each one of the audience members of those platforms are different. So how do I shape that narrative and how do I tell that story differently? And then the last thing is the game experience. So think about game day, think about the game day presentation from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. How do I engage a fan in this? And that's the pre game events that we have with the fanfrest where we create an experience for everyone and actually partner with PCC as a number of your students are ambassadors for us on game day. So there's operational roles. We have PR coordinators. Right. How do we make sure that we're satisfying all of the media outlets and making sure they get the right stories? How do we give opportunity to women? This is a women's game. The PA should be a woman. You think that's obvious? I think we're the only team in the league that has a female PA reader. Right.

 

00:10:52 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Let's talk about that a little bit about career opportunities and storytelling. Angel City promotes gender equity, social impact. How are those two pillars of the organization shaping career opportunities for women and specifically within underserved communities. Right. That we shared.

 

00:11:09 - Julie Uhrman

Absolutely. So I think what's important to note is Angel City was built with a bigger mission than just being a team in a city, which I think is how most teams think about themselves or more importantly, just winning championships. When my co founders, Natalie Portman, Karen Nortman and I sat down, we really talked about wanting to build a club that was representative of our community and gave back to our community because if we could lead with values and create an emotional connection with our fan base, they would be lifelong Angel City fans, regardless of how many rings that we won. And so the idea was very early on that we were going to use sport and entertainment to drive to equity. One of the things that was happening in 2019 when we were building Angel City was the MeToo movement. The time's up movement, talking about equal access and opportunity for women in sports. And with the MeToo movement in Hollywood, is giving women opportunities and access to not only have great roles to be directors and get paid accordingly. So we wanted to be able to use our platform to drive towards pay equity, gender equity, even visibility equity. And what that means is as we built our club, it wasn't just about what are the roles that we need to service the football club, but what are the roles we need to service our community. And so we developed its social impact model that stood for equity essentials in education, giving back to the community, young girls, non binary individuals, underrepresented communities that can have equal access and opportunity to sport, to nutrition, to education, to financial services, information, and to be able to use our platform to service them. So we created the first of its kind Angel City sponsorship model where 10% of our sponsorship dollars goes back into the community. To date, we've put $3.5 million to work, and as Jen Gardner said, we have another 3.5 million committed due to the length of our sponsorship deals. As we think about putting that to work, we created an internship program for BIPOC high school students so they can get opportunities to not only have the opportunity to look at a sports team, but also to be able to build their resume. We've had 27 kids come through our program that have gone on to UC Santa Barbara and UCLA and Princeton. We've also partnered with an organization in LA called Los Photos, which is giving young Latinos and Latinas opportunities to utilize their craft of photography and content storytelling and give them the opportunity to capture our games and then be able to share their content not only with Angel City, but with media partners. And so we are really intentional about how we work with our community, focusing on initially women and young girls and non binary youth.

 

00:13:43 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Are there specific examples of that? I mean, you shared some, right? In general, in a nutshell. But are there specific examples of local community development as it relates to gender equity and social impact?

 

00:13:54 - Julie Uhrman

Gender equity? One of my favorite stories is one of our sponsors from our first two years was crypto. And there was a lot of concern around crypto because of the impact on the community and how it's really only for a certain segment of people that really understand it. And so there was a question about why Angel City was partnering with them. But what we learned was that when new financial instruments are brought to market, women are typically left behind. So when you think about cryptocurrencies and new financial instruments and mechanisms, men are early adopters and women are late to the party. So the time women get to the party like that opportunity potentially for the big upside or to be a first mover, they've missed.

 

00:14:36 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Why do you think that is, though? I mean, in your humble opinion, why do you think that is?

 

00:14:39 - Julie Uhrman

Because they are not being educated because they are not in the room. Right. And so we decided with that partnership with Crypto.com to address financial literacy and to help women be first movers. So we created a program that educated women. You know, on the one hand, we partner with the Downtown Women's center, which are women that are getting back into the workforce, that have been homeless and families. We've taught them about checking accounts and savings accounts and savings. So like the fundamentals. But then we also created a program to educate about all these sort of new financial instruments. And so it's sort of incredible to have this platform where we address equity essentials in education, where we can look at the marketplace and say, how can we help? How can we Make a difference. How can we get women on an equal footing with men? Because again, the goal of Angel City is to drive to Equity County. We've partnered with Ifund Women, which supports minority and women entrepreneurs. It not only gives funding, but education and resource and tools. We've launched a program called the Player 22 Fund, which allows former women's football players of any level, of any team, not just Angel City, to be able to get access to money through a grant program so they can have monies not only to support their educational endeavors. Maybe they want to be a coach or they want to get a license or they want to become a broadcaster, or maybe they have an entrepreneurial business that they want support in. So that's sort of another example. But we have about 15 different partners in LA that we work with and every time we bring on a new sponsor, we sit down with them and determine where our values align, where we can have that positive impact in the community. And then we develop a program around them.

 

00:16:13 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Excellent. And Angel City has built, has done so well in building a global brand.

 

00:16:18 - Julie Uhrman

It's not just local, we're not the Yankees, but we're working on it.

 

00:16:22 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

It's a global brand that has a very high emphasis on local impact. Yes, those dualities kind of offer some great opportunities and some challenges. Can you talk a little bit about what have you seen as positive impacts on that duality in our workforce?

 

00:16:38 - Julie Uhrman

When Angel City came to market, we made a lot of bold statements. We were female founded, majority female owned and majority female run, and we still are today. We talked about having a positive impact in the community while we won on the pitch, we talked about driving towards equity, which we know is a many year endeavor, but you have to take steps going forward. And we talked about being a global brand. And the reason for the global brand aspect was if you think about who has the most influence in the world, right. Who has the most ability to create impact, they're global brands. It's the Nikes, it's the Netflixes, it's the Apples. Right. Of the world, it's the Googles of the world. If you are a global brand, everybody is paying attention to what you say and what you do now, what you deal with that is different for everybody. So we felt like if the most ambitious goal there is is to use sport and entertainment to drive to equity, we wanted to have the best chance of being successful. So if we were a global brand, we would get the most attention and awareness on what we cared about. And then the goal was to convert you into a fan that drives revenue, that ultimately drives impact. So if we're a global brand and we can drive the most revenue, we can pay the players the most, and then we can have the most impact in our community. And I think leading as a global brand has helped because I don't think there's any way we would have been able to put $3.5 million to work, generate over $30 million in revenue, $13 million in sponsorship revenue. That doesn't happen if you have parties that are interested that not only are local, but national and global. We have sponsors like Gatorade, Johnnie Walker Heineken, Chevy Doordash, Sprouts, Birdies. They're really a combination of local and global because they know that because Angel City has this global presence and reach, you know, their involvement is bigger, they can reach more fans, they can reach more customers.

 

00:18:20 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Any hurdles that you're willing to share around those dualities, if you want to.

 

00:18:24 - Julie Uhrman

Yeah, no, I mean, look, I mean, it's. I think the biggest hurdle is our. Is the narrative is this pitch. Right. To me, there is no other way to pitch Angel City, that we're an organization that leads with passion and purpose to drive to profitability, where we never sacrifice impact for revenue. So imagine going into a brand, let's say, with that pitch, what, you know, what they're used to hearing. This is our demographic, this is our reach, this is our audience. This is how you're going to reach them. This is how many more cars you're going to sell. Right. It's a very sort of transactional conversation. And when we come in and talk about impact and equity and having a positive impact in the community, and this partnership is a year round. It's not just, you know, for 13 home games a year. They don't understand. Right. It's something that sports them. And then you run into this whole challenge of are you a charity or are you a sports team? Like, you can't be both. You can't lead with impact and want to win football games. Right. You can't lead with impact and want to make money. Those two things don't coexist. And what we found when we were originally raising money for angel city is that 100 people we talked to agreed those things don't coexist. Like everybody said, no, they didn't get it. And then we started to having conversations with a different type of investor. They were celebrities and they were athletes, and they understood that we were building a platform that stood for both. And they recognized it in them that they are platforms that they use their social media to push their social impact agendas, whether it's to get the Latina vote out or, you know, food insecurity. And then they also use their platform to promote their latest movie or television show or directorial debut. So to them, they recognize that, you know, impact and sort of profit or caring about a business site, you can actually grow faster and get there sooner. And so they saw that in Angel City and it was a really big aha moment for us that we were initially talking to the wrong people when it was based on fundraising and that sometimes, look, it's so much easier to say no than it is to say yes for sure. Right. First of all, they made it easy. It's a two letter word. But secondarily, when you say no, the conversation's over and you've moved on. When you say yes, you have to be committed. You have to know why you're saying yes. You have to follow through, you have to care. And so with Angel City, it was, how do we make you care? And I think when you think about the future of work, if you think think about sports as a finite business, it's about how many fans we can get into the stadium and how many wins we have. You're missing out on the larger opportunity, on how do I engage fans, how do I tell my story to a broader audience? One of the things that we say at Angel City that we, you know, I will be honest, that we stole from Liverpool was right. 1% of your fans will ever come to a game. Right. 99% of your fans live somewhere else. So when you think about the future of work, how do I engage them? Whether it's membership or content, storytelling or experiences or travel, how do I make the Angel City fan that lives in England or Australia or Germany feel a part of us? We've sold merch in 50 different countries in all 50 states. How do I continue to engage that fan?

 

00:21:33 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

That's impressive, by the way. I don't even know where to start with unpacking, just how you pitched to investors. Because you're right, it's foreign. It's foreign to an investor to say yes, we could be profitable and have social impact. And it takes a different kind of entrepreneur to demonstrate that, to tell that story. And so I want to shift gears just a little bit and really talk about the entrepreneurship side of sports, entertainment and media and in your journey a little bit. So I thought that perhaps maybe you can share a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey, tell a little bit about your journey. And how can aspiring entrepreneurs be a part of sports, entertainment, and media? And where do you see the growth? Where do you see opportunity in that?

 

00:22:15 - Julie Uhrman

Got it. I think it's important to note that my first job in sports was with Angel City. I've also been a working woman in my career for a couple decades. We won't say how many, because that makes me feel older. No one needs to know. But the point is that I've had 13 different jobs. I've worked in seven different industries. And the message there is that careers are very long and it takes time to find what you're really good at. It's also okay to pay your dues and to actually learn and develop real skills that are going to have real value.

 

00:22:49 - Julie Uhrman

What is the through line, I guess, of my career is two things. One is the entrepreneurial nature. Whether I was my own sort of general manager or CEO or founder or I played an entrepreneurial role in an established organization, my path went through business development. Business development is a very fancy way for saying sales, but that's pretty much been my whole career. I've been, you know, selling something, whether it's something that I, you know, own and responsible for or somebody else's. And it's always been in sort of the content space. So whether that's video games, mobile content, mobile entertainment, TVs, movies, the streaming space, you know, I've always found joy in bringing entertainment to individuals.

 

00:23:28 - Julie Uhrman

And that's very much been my through line. And obviously it stopped and ended here with sports, which is an incredible passion, but not something I ever thought I could have a job in. When I was growing up, the only job I saw in sports was Jerry Maguire. So for the five of you that are as old as me in this room, you know that movie, I mention it to my son, who's 13, and my nephew, who's 16, and they had no idea what I was talking about.

 

00:23:51 - Julie Uhrman

So I'm clearly a failed mom. And it is on the Netflix viewing list for this weekend. But all I knew growing up was that you could be an agent. It actually never occurred to me that there were jobs in sports. Like, it just didn't even. Maybe as a woman, like, again, we have this challenge where if you don't see it, you don't know that you can have it. And I think being on the stage is one of the things that starts to change that. And having more women in powerful roles seems change that. But when I realized that the company that Jerry Maguire, the real one, worked for, was in the Midwest and You know, I'm born and raised in Los Angeles and I'm like, well, that's not going to work.

 

00:24:23 - Julie Uhrman

I want to have my career here. I never thought about sports again. And so I think what's the sort of the lesson there is if you're passionate about an industry, you need to find out where they're located everywhere, and you need to see who's working in them and how to get your pathway there. There's a ton of internships in sports. I mean, there are 11 sports teams here. I mean, it's pretty incredible. I think that's one. I think two is specifically when you think about sports, people think about the act of playing the sport.

 

00:24:51 - Julie Uhrman

But as we mentioned, there's so much more around it, right? Like we have one game a week, there's six days of work that leads up to that game, right? Like, what does that game day experience look like? How are we getting people to know there is a game? How do we get people to buy a ticket for that game? How do we get sponsors to want to show up to support it? Right? And so there's a whole ecosystem, there's whole industry around the business of sport. Being an entrepreneur is hard. You hear more no's than you ever hear yeses. This concept of a thick skin is really important. Not taking things personally is important. But I think the biggest thing that I learned when I've heard nos, and you only know this in hindsight, is that for the most part, it wasn't that the idea was wrong.

 

00:25:33 - Julie Uhrman

It wasn't that the strategy was wrong. It really was that I was talking to the wrong person. You have to talk to someone who actually has a willingness and an openness to say yes. When we were first pitching Angel City, I talk about the hundred no's. Like that is actually not an exaggeration. When you listen to why they said no. It was LA's too crowded as a marketplace for sports. You're three females that have no sports experience. That part's valid. The three females sort of not so much, right? And if we asked them if they were soccer fans, most of the time they said no. If we asked them if they were women soccer fans, you know, outside maybe the list mix in the World cup, they would say no.

 

00:26:11 - Julie Uhrman

So in hindsight, it's like we just weren't talking to the right people. We weren't talking with two people that had a propensity to say yes if they believed in your mission, your strategy and your vision. And when we changed who we were talking to, the Yeses started rolling in. And so as an entrepreneur, it's make sure you're talking, talking to somebody who actually is interested in what it is you are saying. Because the first people that say yes, the first people that give you their money, it is not because of what you're selling. It is almost never because of what it's selling. They're giving you their money, they're giving you your yes or your support because of you, because of your passion, your enthusiasm, your commitment, your belief, your conviction in what it is you are going to bring to life.

 

00:26:51 - Julie Uhrman

And they believe that you are going to do everything possible, possible to make it happen. And they also know that if it doesn't happen, it's okay because they believed in you. So when you are selling and pitching it as an entrepreneur, you have to have that level of conviction and passion and dedication to what it is you're trying to do. Because once you get past the I'm betting on you, the entrepreneur, then eventually they're going to bet on you and the business.

 

00:27:14 - Julie Uhrman

But that takes time, right? And so having the education, have the skill, having experience, right? So if you want to be an entrepreneur in content development, what's the content that you've already created? And it's okay if it's on your social channels, but how do you show that you have an expertise or an understanding of what it is in today's environment with machine learning and AI like you can launch a website, you don't need five engineers as a partner to build something. I'm going to say something that you know better than I, but you can go to ChatGPT and say, what's the code to build X, right? And it's launched tomorrow, right? So I think there's an opportunity to show your passion, enthusiasm, more than just a PowerPoint deck, which is going to get you to a yes a lot faster.

 

00:27:57 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Are there problems that entrepreneurs should be looking at? Are there problems to be solved in this arena of sports, entertainment and media that you think that aspiring entrepreneurs can be paying attention to that you haven't yet seen?

 

00:28:09 - Julie Uhrman

Yeah, absolutely. Fandom has fundamentally changed and sort of go back to where I started with social media as a way to connect. But the flip side of that is like when my parents and my grandparents were growing up, they were a fan of a sport. I'll give you an example. We'll talk about the World Series. I live in New York. I am a Brooklyn Dodger fan, period. Right? I am a Brooklyn Dodger fan. I'm a fan of Babe Ruth, right? I'm a fan of Babe Ruth. Bray Ruth gets traded to the Red Sox. I hate Ben Ruth. I am a Brooklyn Dodger fan, full stop, right? And I love baseball. But today with social media, I am a fan of Shohi Attani, right? He plays for the Angels. I'm a fan of the Angels, right? And then I watch baseball. He gets traded to the Dodgers. What happens? I am now a fan of the Dodgers, right? So fandom has fundamentally changed where you're a fan of a player first, then a team second, then a league third. And those allegiances, you're not born with them anymore. They're developed. I think fantasy sports has accelerated that too. When I watch the English Premier League on the weekends, I watch games play, but I'm watching my player, right? And it's like. And I want certain teams to lose because I need players to get a clean sheet that are playing against them, right? So that's changed. So as like an up and coming, you know, person in sports and entertainment, as you think about the future and work, it really is, how do I find these fans, how do I gauge these fans, and how do I create a connection so I don't lose these fans? Right? I think that's something that is an incredibly powerful tool. And we can talk about, you know, specifically data and analytics, content creation and storytelling, you know, live experiences. But it's changing, and the attention span of fans are changing. I think it got a lot worse. I think it's getting better. I think people are now wanting to watch the full game because it is exciting. And so how do we translate that into product? How do we think about, you know, content outside of just the clips? But how do we get you to engage, to then again, want to come to a game? Because it creates the sense of community, belonging that I think was lost during the years of the Pandemic and Covid that people are interested in bringing back. And then I would say, which is probably not so obvious, is there are a lot of unique spirits that are coming to market today, right? It is not just football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer. You know, you're seeing pickleball, you're seeing Tiger woods reimagine golf, right? And how do you add technology and simulation? It may work, it may not work, but it's fascinating to watch. You see the new Premier Women's Hockey League, right? So it's not just new leagues, but it's actually women, you know, getting an opportunity to play professionally as athletes. There's Padel, which is based in Europe. That's Sort of coming here. There's the darts league, there's the usl. There's a lot of new sports that are coming to market. So how can you play a role in bringing those to market and creating a future for them for both men and women?

 

00:31:03 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Excellent. Thank you. And we're going to take some questions from the audience in just a minute. But before I do, speaking of role, what role do we play? How can pcc, our institution, any other institution who might want to be a partner to Angels, how can we be better partners to you?

 

00:31:18 - Julie Uhrman

Look, you are the audience that we want to attract. It's incredibly powerful. When we talk about who the best fan is for Angel City, I'm sure you're thinking the mom or the family. The answer to that is no because it's too limiting. If I create only a family experience, how many of you are going to come, right? You don't want to come to the Ice Capades when you go to a sporting event, right? You want to come to something that is relevant to you in your experience. And so when I think about who is the fan that we need to nail, it's the 13 year old boy and girl, right? It's the Brooklyn Dodgers fan. If I can nail the 13 year old girl and boy to become a fan of Angel City today, I believe they could be a fan for their entire lives. And that's years of engagement, monetization, you know, word of mouth, storytelling, right? So you represent and you know, so basically the younger you are, the more valuable you are to me, right? So again, it's like, how can you help me tell my stories, right? How can you help me engage? How can you help me connect with your community, with your fan base, with your likes and interests, right? And so as we have a partnership with the pcc, right, we talk about youth and engagement. You partner with us on game days to make it feel warm and welcoming. But that idea of as like, I want to know what resonates with you. I want to know, like, what do you click on in TikTok? What story do you watch and why and where do you spend your money? Like, the consumer today has changed. We talk about consumers as being conscious consumers tonight. They actually want to know the values of the brand with which the product they're buying. Do they care? Do they give back? Are they environmentally friendly? Like, we actually care. We're not just making a decision based on price and quality. We're also making a decision based on values. So how do I connect to your values? Because if I connect to Your values. I can drive more revenue, I can pay my players more. I can provide more impact in the community.

 

00:33:09 - Audience Member

Right.

 

00:33:10 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you. That was great. We're going to pause here and take some questions from the audience.

 

00:33:15 - Audience Member

I'm curious how you respond to and.

 

00:33:17 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Include fan feedback when the goal is to have a diverse array of fans with a diverse array of experiences and perspectives.

 

00:33:23 - Julie Uhrman

And if the goal is social impact.

 

00:33:25 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And they are having different perspectives or feedback on what kind of impact and how to make that impact, how do you navigate those different perspectives?

 

00:33:34 - Julie Uhrman

That's a great question. Well, I'll talk about it in two ways. I'll talk about it for game day and then I'll talk about it for community impact. But when you said that, you know, I think most people thinking you can't be all things to all people. Right? And I think when you're a startup, the first thing someone tells you is to determine your product market fit and who is your consumer base. You talk about the tam, right? The total addressable market. So you got to say, everything's an X billion dollar business, because then people will care. Right? And if you get a tiny, tiny percent of it, you're successful. Right. Typically in startups, especially technology startups, you start an arrow with a very clear vision of who your audience is and you grow. With Angel City, we actually did the opposite because we didn't want to say that a sports fan is only a soccer mom, is only a 13 year old girl. That would be incredibly limiting. So as we built the game day experience in Angel City, we had two mantras, actually, we'll say three that are still relevant today. One is we said we wanted an experience for everyone, truly an experience for everyone. And then we had the conversation, what does the family experience look like? What does the millennials experience look like? What does the Plus50 experience look like? Right? What does the experience look for all? And we spent a lot of time thinking about the demographics and the age group. How do we create experience for everyone? And with our fan fest, we made sure that there was a reason that you would want to come early and engage. And that could be with our entertainment, our giveaways, our partners. You will have a spirit station, but we'll also have a bar. And then we'll have a dj and maybe we'll have a drag show for a pride. Like, how do we make sure we're bringing in the LGBTQ community? So we were really intentional about an experience for everyone. And that's not easy and that's not common. I would go to NWSL teams a game, it was an away game. And their fan fest, and I kid you not, their fan fest was bouncy house. Bouncy, bouncy house. Dj, bouncy house, bar.

 

00:35:17 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Yeah, yeah.

 

00:35:19 - Julie Uhrman

So on one hand, bar. And I was like, on one hand, I'm like, this is amazing. They had something like, that's how low the bar is for, like, they actually had something. So like, that was super positive. But then also my next thought was, well, I'm not going to come early to games. There's nothing here for me. Right? So we're really intentional about that. As it relates to your question about community, yes, you have to be thoughtful and narrow because our first year, interestingly, we had something like 30 different community partners. So we were a mile wide and an inch deep. And we didn't feel like we were having enough impact because after a year it was like, these programs are really good.

 

00:35:58 - Julie Uhrman

If we doubled down here, if we spent more money, we'd be able to have more impact. So now I think we have like 1315 now, something like that. And so we decided to go smaller and deeper. So when we bring in sponsors, the other thing that's really interesting, everybody wants to own their niche, right? So they don't want to share. But with Angel City, we really talk about the fact that if we can put more money to work, right, if we can provide more resources to our partners, we can actually have more impact.

 

00:36:24 - Julie Uhrman

Our Player 22 fund has five different sponsors partnered. Like that never happens. We have multiple partners who want to share something, but they recognize the impact and they're willing to share because the impact is more important than saying, I do this alone. And so we have fewer partners. Downtown women's shelter, the LGBTQ center in West Hollywood, the 22 elementary School.

 

00:36:45 - Julie Uhrman

Elementary School. Anyway, so we have smaller partners where we go deeper with them and we really focus, I said, on this concept of equity essentials in education. Equity talks about getting access to, you know, young girls, binary youth, but also, you know, minority owned women owned businesses. So we define it fairly clearly. Essentials is twofold. One is, yes, access to low, no cost soccer play and instruction. But it's also this concept of if I don't have the core essentials to play a sport, it doesn't matter if there's a pitch across the street from me.

 

00:37:19 - Julie Uhrman

So next weekend we are celebrating our 2 millionth meal that we've delivered with doordash to address the last mile in food insecurity in la. So the question is, well, how does that have Anything to do with sports. Well, if I don't have three square meals a day, I can't play. Right, Right. So we're addressing the essentials of nutrition. Some of our partners, we address transportation. If I can't get to a pitch, I can't. Doesn't matter if the instruction is free, if I can't get there. So we address transportation through essential. The number one reason young girls stop playing sports. Number one reason they can't afford a sports bra. It's just, like, devastating and mind blowing. And as you take a step back, it makes sense. First of all, men sports wars are really expensive. I think mine is 10 years old. They're expensive. It's not something you buy every year. Like, they are expensive. And then secondarily, you know, if you come from a family that puts boys first and boys don't need or have a sports bra, it's not getting. There's no hand me down to girls. Right. So we partnered with Nike, and We've distributed over 22,000 sports bras to young girls in need when we kick started ticket sales for Angel City.

 

00:38:25 - Julie Uhrman

And I could give you sort of other examples of sort of the essentials, but to your point, it's. We try to be a little bit more narrow but very specific. Young Girls, underrepresented, women owned businesses, minority owned businesses. You know, we try to take care of our community first. We have a global brand and global reach and awareness that we can drive the revenue to drive the impact that we can have locally.

 

00:38:44 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Yeah, thank you. That was amazing. We have one more back there and then down here.

 

00:38:47 - Audience Member

Okay, thank you for the question.

 

00:38:48 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

You said you worked in many different.

 

00:38:51 - Julie Uhrman

Industries and now you're in sports. We were intentional again, about building a club that was representative community, not just in the front office, but on the soccer pitch. Angel City is a majority female ownership group, you know, over a third LGBTQ representative of a number of different nationalities. We're really intentional because we want Angel City to feel like our community, and we want our community to feel a sense of belonging with Angel City. So you're never done. It's. We're not. We haven't hit our goals yet. We're not perfect yet. We have, you know, internship programs and entry level programs that allow us to be able to reach people that may not have the perfect experience or the perfect background. I think one of the challenges that you run into is when you want to diversify, at least at the C level suite, sometimes the talent pool isn't there for the experience or the backgrounds. You want. So you have to create pathways. So we're incredibly focused on creating pathways. We have a woman general manager, we have a woman head coach. Right. This idea, if you see it, you can be it. And to create the pathways and develop it, we also recognize that there aren't enough women in coaching. So as part of one of our 10% sponsorship models, in partnership with Gatorade, we created the Angel City Coaching Network. We have provided licenses to over 116 different coaches. And the idea is that to help women, non binary individuals, Hispanic, Latino, black individuals become coaches so that when they go back into their community, right. Their community can see what's possible. And so we're incredibly essential. So yes, every million dollars will help and we will.

 

00:40:25 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Do you have more questions? Do you have a billion dollars?

 

00:40:27 - Julie Uhrman

But it's really important for us to create the pathways in every sort of level of our organization.

 

00:40:35 - Audience Member

I just have a quick question. One just. Thank you so much. You are just a huge role model of mine. And thank you. As an entrepreneur and as a woman and woman of color, I feel like I get in a lot of rooms where I know I am there to.

 

00:40:48 - Julie Uhrman

Check a box for them.

 

00:40:49 - Audience Member

And sometimes I'm like, worth it, but sometimes it just feels a little grimy. And so I wanted to know if there's been moments for you where you're like, you know what, actually this was worth it. A little bit of like Wall street, you know, where you're like, I don't know if you could just, if you're vulnerable enough or if this is the right moment just to share how do you walk that line and what that experience has been like for you.

 

00:41:11 - Julie Uhrman

I don't know if this is the popular answer. To me, it doesn't matter how you got in the room, you're in the room, right? Like you now have a seat at the table. It's funny, when I was doing a lot of talks about like women entrepreneurship and women in gaming because that's not really in sports. And at one point I was like, I sort of like resented it. Like I didn't want to talk about it anymore. But then I realized, like, my story is actually unique and it can be inspiring in a way. And now I love it and I do it all the time. And I guess my point to you is you now have a seat at the table. You get to talk about your experience. You get to talk about the community you represent. You get to talk about the viewpoint from your position, right? If you walk into that room thinking that you are lesser Than or you're just checking a box, or you're just there so that everyone feels good and you don't use your voice, that is truly shame on you because you are in the room. They have to listen to you. And I would almost argue that the only way to get you to settle down is if they do what you want them to do. Right? And so, like, you have so much power once you're in the room, and now you have to have the data to back it up and you to have the experience and you have to be able to walk the talk. Right. But I do think that our culture is changing. I think the fact that you're wanted in that room, whether it's checking a box or it's for some other means, is because they actually do value diverse thinking. And if you look at, there was a stat that was said the other day, like, at least in sports, 77% of women are sports pants. Oh, my God, how many people have you not? And that's sports fans, that's men's sports fans. That's women's sports fans. And I think that you have the opportunity to be able to utilize, you know, your experience both professionally and personally, to make a difference in the boardroom. M I C level. Like I said, we have men, women, you know, every aspect of the LGBTQ community, multiple nationalities. Now, the balance isn't right. You know, maybe we only have one of our head of legal as an African American man. Yes, we only have one African American RC suite. But at least now we can get that point of view. And it's important, I think you have to demand your time to be heard and demand your voice and to push back. Because at the end of the day, again, I go back to our fans. Our customers are conscious consumers now, and they're broad. Right. And so you have to find that message that resonates with them and creates that connection. I think the second part of using your voice and this is also as powerful as you have to hold the door open, right? You were able to walk through. Now that you've come through, you literally need to hold the door open and pull the next person in. So when you want to bring in a new program or talk about somebody, be thoughtful about who you bring into that room and how you tell that story, you know, the seat at the table is sort of the first step. Opening the door, holding it open and pulling someone through, you know, is what I focus on doing every day. And you have that opportunity to do that. And it's a, you know, with great power comes great responsibility, whatever the Spider man quote is. But it's really quite true. So it's like you should be excited that you're in the room no matter how you got there. And now it's like think about what you're going to do now that you have that seat and you have your voice.

 

00:44:12 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

That is a beautiful way to sunset this conversation. Julie Uhrman, everyone give a round of applause, please. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been absolute pleasure, absolute pleasure. Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show Notes to collaborate, partner or just chat about all things Future of Work. We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.