Empowering Girls Through Sports Movement

Speaker 1 1:12

Welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast . I'm Coach Brie , a mental performance coach for girl athletes , and I am excited that you're here . Whether you are a sports parent just getting started on this journey with your athlete , or maybe you've got a lot of seasons under your belt , this podcast is for you . To help you know how to raise a confident and mentally strong girl athlete , and today's guests , steph and Amy of the Section Z , are also in alignment with that mission , which is why I'm so excited to have them on the podcast today . I'm going to get into who they are , what the Section Z is and the amazing work that they are doing for women and girls in sports in just a minute . But before I get into that , I do want to pause to give a shout out to somebody in our community . This is a mom whose daughter is going through our signature self-paced mental training program for girl athletes called the Elite Mental Game . Rivera posted this in our community for parents . She said first of all , thank you . I'm glad I found this amazing program for my daughter and myself . She is more confident now than ever . She is scoring goals and caring less about her coach and teammates attitude towards her . This program has changed her mindset for good , and I am so excited to see this because I know that your daughter , rivera , when she first entered the program , was really struggling with what her coach was thinking about her , which I know a lot of athletes do from time to time . It's very common to have challenging coaches , and athletes don't inherently have the skills to navigate that , and it can really impact their confidence and their mindset . So I just love this update that also . Not only is she more confident , she's scoring goals , so she's doing better . She's caring less about things that are out of her control , and the fact that you're noticing that her mindset has changed is just icing on the cake . So congratulations , I'm super excited for you . All right , let's get into it .

Speaker 1 2:57

Today's guest , steph , is an entrepreneur and founder of a female-owned business in a male-dominated industry . A former high-end fashion clothing designer and award-winning radio personality and host , steph founded the nonprofit organization Section Z in 2023 out of a desire to leverage the excitement of sports to create a more equitable future for young women . A serious accident in 2020 caused her to reflect on her own life and recognize the importance of athletics and team sports to the person she is today . In just the first year , steph has taken over 1,500 girls from underprivileged schools in the greater LA area to live sporting events and has developed curricula and programs designed to create a sense of belonging , connection and trust , uniting female athletes in a network and introducing girls to career options they didn't know existed , ranging from professional soccer player to physical therapist , to engineer , to astrophysicist . Her vision is to establish a dedicated Section Z in every sports stadium and create an inclusive network of inspired and empowered young women .

Speaker 1 3:59

Also joining is Section Z board member Amy Snow . Amy is a lifelong athlete and career researcher who has helped shape some of the world's biggest brands , including Google , amazon , nike , disney , meta , uber and Visa , among many others . She's conducted research in more than 20 countries and is a well-known expert in branding and strategy , innovation , philanthropic strategy and cohort studies . Amy has often said that the lessons she learned playing team sports were some of the most formative and valuable to success in the business world . As a working mom , amy raised two daughters who are also athletes .

Speaker 1 4:28

All right , given that background from both Seth and Amy , I hope that you are as excited as I was to interview the both of them and just hear what they have been doing , the waves they've been making in this industry , as well as how sports set women up for success . So you're going to learn a lot in this episode and , as a result , you might be compelled , as I was , to want to take action . So Steph and Amy at the end also provide ways that you can become involved in this movement . So stick around for that as well . And again , I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Steph and Amy .

Speaker 1 5:02

All right , welcome Steph and Amy to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast . Thank you , thanks , excited to be here . Yeah , same too . We were talking offline that our paths crossed a bit ago and then now they're crossing again , again . So I'm super happy to connect with both of you and get more ears on your mission and what you're all doing . So can you give us a little bit of a background on what Section Z is and and what you do ?

Speaker 2 5:32

yeah , I founded Section Z a little over a year ago and our mission is to leverage the excitement of live sports and set all girls up for success . And like sure that seems like really broad , you know , but for us there's a lot of people out there that are focusing on play right .

Speaker 2 5:50

And they're doing it really good . So we're like , okay , cool , let's partner with them and let's be additive to this to actually try and move that needle together . So what we focus on is exposing girls to a live sporting event so they can see that inspiration , that representation . And then we have workshops , we have special curriculum that we've implemented in schools and we have like panels that we moderate and talk about female executives . You know , it's that whole exposure and representation element that we're trying to bring to these young athletes .

Speaker 1 6:24

Very great , and so , steph , you are the founder of this amazing movement organization . And Amy , what do you do for Section 3 ?

Speaker 3 6:32

I am a board member , and when I very first met Steph and heard about it , it was a topic that resonated with me .

Speaker 3 6:41

I have been in the work world for over 30 years .

Speaker 3 6:45

I work for a company that is primarily a male-dominated industry , and I am in a C-level position and typically find myself being the only woman in that room . And it hearkens back to when I was eight years old and the only girl in my T-ball league , and so immediately when Steph said that she was trying to help people so basically we all agree that sports have benefits , right , we all know that playing sports benefits all people , especially girls and young women , and yet not everyone has equal opportunities , and so when Steph told me that her focus was on trying to make those benefits available to everyone , I felt like that was a really powerful mission , and so my background in research and strategy was just sort of a natural thing to plug in to help her get the word out and collect some of the information that it seems everybody kind of wants to get their hands on . But it's difficult to do , and so that's the role that I play in helping her build it out and get the word

Benefits of Women's Sports Research

Speaker 3 7:50

out and scale .

Speaker 2 7:51

Like I think that , like to add to that , I feel like anecdotally , we knew all this stuff . But Amy was like I have this special set of skills which she does to prove this all , to make it make sense and to show on paper what we're doing is working . So it was super helpful that we did this research project that we did and I'm super happy that she's on the team and helps with everything . Like she's kind of downplaying a little bit but she's got like her hand in everything we do . I'm always like should we do this , should we do this ? She's pretty important part of the team .

Speaker 1 8:23

Yeah yeah , this research study is . I mean , I have it up right now and I was looking at it today and I'm like , wow , this is a lot . This is like 50 something pages of like just gold that , like you said , anecdotally we hear all these things , but this puts really like quantifiable numbers to it and helps it get a little bit more of a peek inside what's going on . Steph , I am curious , though , like a little bit of your story . What has made you passionate about this ? Like why did you decide to do this in the first place ?

Speaker 2 8:49

So , the long story short , in 2020 , I was in a really bad accident . I was tossed out of a golf cart . It flipped on me . I got airlifted out , I had a brain injury , I had like a laceration on my face and this was like March 6 , 2020 . So it was like right before the world shut down .

Speaker 2 9:07

So my experience of COVID and the pandemic is like very different than everybody else's . When they're like , oh , the grocery stores are empty , I'm like then I'm in bed , you know . So it was a very different experience and in that time period I had a lot of time to really kind of like go inward and my career history like I used to have a high-end clothing line we sold to like Saks Neiman Bloomingdale's . I was a talk show host on a country music station . I own a lighting business you know what I mean . Like I've done all these things and I realized that the common thread was sports and like being an athlete and those transferable skills has allowed me in my life to pivot from career to career and be successful in places where , like I didn't really technically have the background needed to do it . So I like had this thing . I was like , oh my God , like that was all going through my head and then I was like you know not to be like a downer or anything , but I was like what if something would have happened and I wouldn't have made it in that accident ? Like what's the thing that I'm building that's bigger than me so that it can live on ? So I was like I kind of had that , you know , all in my head and I was just like , okay , and I got better and I healed and all that stuff and I'm super lucky , lucky .

Speaker 2 10:19

And then I found myself I'm a season ticket holder at Angel City Football Club here in Los Angeles , which is the most well-known , the most valuable sports team , and I was at a game and I had front row seats as a season ticket holder for Angel City and I was so excited to go to the game , like pumped beyond belief . We have a pro women's team here . This is great . And like five minutes into the game I was literally like this wave of sadness came over me and I was just like man , like what would my life have been like if in high school this existed for me ?

Speaker 2 10:48

Like I worked in the sports industry in like 2003 and I got kicked out of the boys club , and you know what I mean . I was like , man , this is a movement . And then I was like , even if this did exist , I'm not sure that I would have been able to go when I was a kid . So how do I fix that problem ? How do I create access for all young girls so that they can be inspired by what's happening , how the landscape of women's sports is changing , and then how to really harness those transferable skills to set them up for , you know , career success .

Speaker 1 11:19

Yeah , wow , that's great . What an awesome mission that came out of that , for sure , and I love that you landed on this , as one of the solutions is just exposure , and we'll get into that in a second . But I know that our audience , listening , obviously believes in the benefit of sport and , as you mentioned , we talk about it all the time . We're like , yeah , these benefits are great and all this , but let's hit on the research a little bit . Why is it so beneficial ? We all believe that girls participate in sport and maybe you can hit on some of the research in that area , but let's just go there for a second .

Speaker 3 11:49

Yeah , I mean we designed what we think is the largest cross-sectional study of women's sports ever conducted in the United States , and the reason we did that is because we know that there's a huge appetite for this data . But it's tricky , it's hard to collect , it's expensive to collect , it's hard to analyze , and so we were inspired by the Harvard Health Study , which was a study that started in the 1930s with a cohort of men that went to Harvard . The goal was to find out what leads to happiness in life . So a very broad sort of boil-the-ocean objective . Eighty-six years later , we have the answer it is health , and physical health and sense of community and well-being . The well-being that comes from close relationships is sort of the high level answer to that study , and we believe and I think people who are active in the sports community know that those are probably the two leading benefits that come from being involved in sports as well . Right , but we don't want to wait 86 years to find that answer . So what we did is we decided to interview girls and women ranging in age from 9 to 75 . So as wide of an age range as we could possibly do . It's nationally representative , it's matched to census , so we have a high degree of confidence that it's representative of the average American girl and woman's opinion . And we can slice it by generational cohort right , so we can look at Gen Alpha , gen Z , millennials , gen X , boomers . And we can look for things like the impact of Title IX , which happened 51 years ago now right , so we can look at how has participation in sports actually changed with each generation since Title IX was passed . We can look at what percentage of girls participated , how important it was to them , who wasn't able to participate , the impact on mental health , the impact on socialization , social skills , leadership , perceptions of self , screen time , feelings of fitting in .

Speaker 3 14:02

So we basically tried to take this very robust data set of broad-based implications of participation , and so we looked at it in three levels participating in sports , watching sports and attending live sporting events . Because Steph's in-going hypothesis was that , yes , we all generally accept that you get these benefits from being on a team and participating in sports , but you also get similar benefits from watching , in that sense of fanship and engagement that comes from participation and watching and attending live sporting events . And so that's kind of how we structured it , that's how it came about , and we did . We found that girls who participate in team sports have significantly better self perceptions . They had really strong indicators of improved mental health , of sense of self fitting in . I believe I fit in , I believe I can make an impact in the world less screen time , less depression , less anxiety , less worry just so many things , so many positive benefits of participation and of attending live events .

Speaker 3 15:13

And I think one of the things that we think and talk a lot about is culturally . We are seeing a shift from there . Once was a time when there was a belief that to be successful in life , that meant having a high-level career and that meant going to college . And I think , culturally , we're seeing a shift into there are a lot of definitions of success and there are a lot of different paths towards a successful , happy life right , and so we tried to dimensionalize what does that look like ? By looking at the women and what career paths did they take and how did their lives unfold . And we try to focus on creating opportunities for young women that help them find career paths that will lead to a successful life , regardless of whether that means going to college or not . Right , because there are lots of careers .

Speaker 3 16:08

And we think and focus a lot on STEM .

Speaker 3 16:11

Stem is an area that girls I'm sure your audience is familiar that many girls drop out of sports at around age 13 or 14 . And we found that there's a very similar pattern among STEM , and girls believe that they're good at math and like science and engineering and all the STEM related subjects , and then , around age 13 or 14 , they suddenly their perception of their abilities and their interest in it plummets . And so one of our objectives is to leverage the excitement of sports to try to pull girls through and show them you don't have to have it all figured out right now . You are going to fail , and failure can be a good thing , and you come back tomorrow and you persist and you try again , and so that was sort of the intent behind the research , and so we collected lots of data around the benefits . And then also the other sort of big component of it was the ROI for brands , and I don't know , steph , if you want to build on that and talk about some of the ROI . Sure , I mean go ahead .

Speaker 1 17:18

What'd you say , brie ? Yeah , I think that's something that will be really good to hit on , because it's a different perspective that I hadn't considered until I saw this research that you sent over .

Speaker 2 17:27

Yeah , well , it's interesting because I feel like we serve an audience that's kind of like hard to reach , like the Gen Z girls , you know , for the most part , and I feel like what a lot of people do is try and talk at them in certain ways and like what we're doing is we're taking the thing that they love , a place where most of them feel like they fit in the safest , come from all different backgrounds , and we're taking them to something they love and we're saying look like we are on your level , we get the thing you love and look , here's how you can build from that thing or here's how you can be aware of what you're doing for that . And we all know that . I mean I think it's measured to be , or projected to be , a $1.3

Empowering Girls Through Sports Outreach

Speaker 2 18:10

billion industry . Women's sports now it is , and it's like the ROI that it's a more engaged audience from a business standpoint .

Speaker 2 18:18

You know what I mean . It's like they buy more merch , they're more engaged , they follow more on the social media , they have the buying power in the house , like there's all these things . And we've actually set it up in a way where we're kind of like a turnkey program , like we do these workshops and we have our own workshops built around our pillars , which is interesting to like . Throw the research in , like I'm sure you've heard that 94% of women in the C-suite stat like we've mentioned it . Now it's interesting because from our research that actually take a guess how many women are in the C-suite or called like owners in our country . Take a guess what the percentage is .

Speaker 1 18:54

Gosh like 10% , I don't know .

Speaker 2 18:56

Four , okay Four . So 4% of women are in the C-suite . So it's so crazy that we're like , yes , we know that they got there . We also know from our data that they like watch murder shows and hacks on Instagram . You know what I mean ? That's not going to lead you somewhere . But in the same sense it's like crazy to think what about the 96% ? So it's like we're setting these girls up for success and I feel like what we do is like if we had a partner that was a bank we have our own curriculum but we could do like a financial literacy , like we can customize programs to whatever partners would want , but we also have our own programs and like we've kind of flipped that C-suite stat on its head and our pillars we call the new sweet C's , which is confidence , confidence and collaboration , and we feel like those are the things that really set girls up for success .

Speaker 2 19:45

But in terms of ROI , you know , we do see these lifelong embedments , we do see these brands . We have a lot of in the research brand maps to show like what type of girls . You know , for example , one of the brands Deloitte . I'm sure a lot of women off the gate wouldn't know what Deloitte is , but because they they actually do a lot in women's sports . Like it comes up in the data that they're like they know about it . You know what I mean .

Speaker 2 20:09

Like certain things like that that I'm sure Amy could speak to better than me , cause I'm not the research person but like there's a lot of things that are really like proven now that they spend more money , they want to buy brands that support women's sports , and so we're offering these partners like it could be CSR , it could be DEI , like there's many different ways . It could be in-kind donations , like there's many different ways people can get involved to like help us move that needle of really leveling the playing field . So that's kind of like again why we did this research . And it was awesome because when Amy was like telling us that like yeah , we should totally do this research , she approached one of the big data collection agencies Protege , and they were right away on board , which was super awesome because it was like it allowed us to collect this data and to get this information , which , again , as Amy mentioned , is like a really hard thing for people to do . So we're super thankful that they kind of got on board and helped us collect this information .

Speaker 3 21:07

Yeah , they stepped up immediately . And so , yeah , like just to build on Steph's point about , like we've all heard that stat , 94% of women in the C-suite played sports growing up . And like , yes , we all agree playing sports has lifelong benefits , right , but that's a correlation . These women who made it to the C-suite also played sports . In our data , like Steph was joking about , we also found they like hack videos and watch murder mysteries , and they probably also grew up in privileged households and they probably also had engaged parents who were able to drive them to practice and buy equipment and provide transportation and to games and things like that , right .

Speaker 3 21:45

And so we've spent so much time as a culture talking about what led to the high levels of what we traditionally consider as a successful life outcome . Right , we spend so much time looking at this , but I think you know what we're trying to do is flip it on its head and say , okay , so in our research now we know that only 4% of women end up in C-suite or even owner of their own small business or company roles . That leaves the vast majority of women don't end up with that as their career path , right ? So if we all agree that this is beneficial and that it's worth putting time and resources and energy toward , then why are we leaving out these vast swaths of the population who would also benefit from it right ? And so a big part of what we did in our research was try to figure out what those barriers are and who is being blocked right , and so we found that the single greatest predictor of who is being subject to those barriers is socioeconomic status , and so it's households that make less than $50,000 , especially households that make less than $25,000 . That that tends to be single parent households that have a lot of kids , right , and not a lot of money .

Speaker 3 23:06

And so an interesting thing that I'm sure you saw when you were looking at the research was , as a result of Title IX , 51 years later , the single most common extracurricular activity that girls participate in is sports . Now , that is the number one thing . When you aggregate sports as a category , that's the number one activity . But guess what the number two activity is ? Do you remember seeing this in the data ? Babysitting their siblings . That makes sense .

Speaker 2 23:31

Yeah .

Speaker 3 23:32

And so .

Speaker 2 23:32

I can tell you too , because it's crazy too , because , even though that's the biggest barrier when you ask how impactful it is to participate , it's the same across the board and even more , like 71% I think it is in that lower household income . You know , know that sports have great benefits and feel that . So it's like , if everyone is exposed to , to break that at least on the side too , of girls dropping out because of that , like 13 and 14 age , like , let's make sure that they're inspired , let's make sure they want to stay in it for at least the sports that the schools offer , you know .

Speaker 1 24:21

Yeah , yeah , absolutely . Can you then walk me through , like you know , kind of like the mission behind it ? How does this look Like ? How is Section Z doing this Like ? What does it look like ?

Speaker 2 24:33

So there's a couple of different ways . Right , we have . The one easy model is there's some family foundations that we work for and they will donate money and from that we will find the team . We will provide the transportation , a collaborative t-shirt , a little swag bag , food voucher , you know what I mean . Like we try and provide all the things that would be necessary for this event . Along with that , we either have like a pre or post game workshop . So that's like a family foundation , like that's how some of the ways and they can say wherever a family is located , we can do these anywhere in the United States . We're set up to do it . Now , if they're like someone's in Florida and we're like we really want to take a high school in Florida and we want them to go to whatever game in Florida , you know we can do that .

Speaker 3 25:18

So they can underwrite an activity . Right , that's what she's saying . Like a family foundation or an individual can say I want to get involved , I want to underwrite an activity , and it takes less money to do that than you would think .

Empowering Girls Through Sports Partnerships

Speaker 2 25:24

Yeah . And then we also have partnerships , like if someone is , you know , we have brands that sponsor an event . So we have a new relationship with League One Volleyball . I'm not sure if you're familiar but it's a new professional women's volleyball league . Their inaugural season's in January . We had a company , pcg Consultant Group came in and they want to show their support for their communities in Houston and in Dallas . So they are partnering with us and Love Volleyball and we are going to serve the Houston ISD and the Austin ISD in those two locations and we're going to take schools from those school districts to events there . So it can be like a partner , a family foundation .

Speaker 2 26:03

And then the team aspect . Like some about our partnership with Angel City is it's like they got one of their partners , klarna , on board , and you can see behind me it's like Angel City on the shirt , klarna section Z . We have a partnership together where we actually have the tickets the bus comes to pick up . Through a Chevy partnership that they have , the teams can use , within partnerships that they already have , establish this authentic touchpoint to the community that they help fund and pay for this experience . And with Angel City we've done a sustainable clothing curriculum with one of the players , jasmine , spencer . They had like looped and eco athletes come in and help with this curriculum and we implemented it . We have like a six week program . We did like a runway to sustainability or I'm totally messing up the name right now but that's okay , like it's over , but Sustain the Runway it was either Sustain the Runway or Runway to Sustainability One of those , but it was awesome and you should all check it out on Instagram . The girls got to like make reusable shirts and they got to like meet Jasmine and learn about sustainability . It's kind of like a really hands-on experience that we did after school . So there's like many different ways that this works .

Speaker 2 27:12

But you know , the game day it's again when we talk about barriers . We found the biggest barrier for section Z has been transportation , so we want to provide that transportation . Some of these girls live a mile from a stadium and they don't get to go to the game and because a lot of teams will give away tickets , right . But it's like the whole experience logistically has to be taken care of and I mean this is too like sometimes the good and hard of it is . I remember a couple of weeks ago to one of the games , the athletic director called me . It was like one of the girls couldn't make it , she couldn't get a ride to the bus and it's like my heart breaks because I'm like she's going to miss this experience that she thought she was going to because she didn't have someone at home to pick her up . And like , obviously we can't go pick up every kid you know what I mean but it's like still like that transportation and providing that really is helpful .

Speaker 1 28:04

Wow , okay , so it's like everything is taken care of .

Speaker 2 28:07

With us it's turnkey program , everything is taken care of . With us it's turnkey program , everything is taken care of . We work our partnerships that way . We bring the schools and we bring , like their coach , their athletic director , their principal , whoever from their school wants to go , so that it's kind of like their experience when , like they show up on the bus . I kind of get on the bus and like the thing I like to say is that we're like the facilitator of fun , we're not in charge , don . I like to say is that we're like the facilitator of fun , we're not in charge , don't be asking me to go to the bathroom . But , like you know , like we want to make sure that this experience is totally like wrapped up , got a bow on it so that it's all turnkey for you , which seems to be working . We've had a really great success with this program over the past year and a half .

Speaker 3 28:44

Yeah , so like basically just said another way , like Steph has figured out all the logistics right , she's got the schools , she's got the program figured out to bring the girls , find the bus , get the tickets . She has the relationships with the league , she has the relationships with the team . In many cases she has relationships with the athletes and it's scalable to anywhere in the US . And then , like the sustainable clothing example was because that particular athlete has an interest in sustainable clothing and so by getting a specific athlete on board or getting a specific brand on board , that's what she means . By leverage the excitement of live sports , right Now that we've mobilized this really hard to reach audience , whatever that other partner has a passion for , has an interest in , or whatever industry they're in , we're now able to leverage that excitement to put together a panel discussion , put together a custom curricula .

Speaker 3 29:39

Do you see what I'm saying ? Now that you have that audience there , she takes them to the game . It's now this community of girls who otherwise would be left out , and then you're able to teach them either our 3C curriculum or some other curriculum , or we do these great panel discussions with women who are employed in a whole range of careers within a stadium a league right , and so it could be anything from people who helped build the stadium to people who are in charge of you know , marketing , to people who are in charge of global partnerships , or there's a whole range of jobs that these young women never heard of and would have no way of even knowing exist had they not attended this experience and been able to sit there and be able to ask these women questions .

Speaker 1 30:26

Yeah , that's awesome . Can you share , Steph , I mean , or Amy , any now that this has been going for a year and a half , like what's a experience or story that stick with you stands out that highlights the benefits of what you've been seeing .

Speaker 2 30:42

Oh , there's a so many cause . We asked them to like write some in their post game survey . But as far as like specific career path , there's been a lot of the responses . I've been . I didn't even know a job like this existed , which , again , there is data that you can only aspire to , what you see . So breaking that barrier and having that exposure , there's been comments that were more so to the effect of now I feel like I can play soccer too , cause the players on the field look like me . Like that you know what I mean Like that representation of seeing that diversity on the field has been a big one .

Speaker 2 31:18

I remember that came in as a text from one of the coaches that organized it . They like sent it to me to show me . And then another thing came in that says we have a poster I think it's behind me . It says athlete today , leader tomorrow . That someone took that poster and put it over their bed in their bedroom and taped it up on the wall .

Speaker 2 31:39

So again , I feel like that feeling , part of something I felt included today . I felt safe at this event . I felt part of something I felt like I don't have to have it figured out all right now . I feel like if I fail , it's okay , I can just keep going . You know , like I have more confidence in myself , I feel more comfortable in my own skin . I just pulled up a couple of things . I'm just reading them , you know what I mean Like . So these are like some of the things that these girls say after this experience , which , to us , you know , that's our ROI right . Like that's good enough for us as the investment that we're trying to do with this , that we know that these girls are being affected in a way that's positive .

Speaker 1 32:18

Yeah , yeah , I mean , that's where it's at and I love that you had the research around like , yeah , participation is great , but so is being in a live sporting event , like I hadn't even really considered that .

Speaker 2 32:29

That like feeling like you're part of something , seeing it , like wow , yeah , I mean listen , sports and it's funny like I can't say that I came up with this , but a friend of ours I'm sure you're familiar , you know Jen Welter is the first female , but she's a friend of ours and , like she said it the other day , we were like brainstorming about something and , like most sports , if not all , come from a relationship . Someone introduced you to the sport . Someone said let's go play . Someone said we should watch . It's something that like gets passed down generational .

Speaker 2 32:58

I'm a New York Jets fan . I got the bad end of the stick there . You know what I mean . Like that's kind of like what it's all about relationships and these girls being able to bond with their teammates and relate . And like I mean I would argue that sports is the biggest unifier in the way . Like it doesn't matter if you're in a sports game , you know , and your team's winning . It doesn't matter the race , religion , socioeconomic status , political views of the person beside you . You're high . Fiving them when your team wins . You know what I mean . Like that's what sports does . Five of them when your team wins . You know what I mean . Like that's what sports does . And building that community and the fact that we can take that experience and build on that to set girls up for success in a place where we all know that women have been like , trying to get equality is like a no brainer . To figure out how to have more and more impact and do that .

Speaker 1 33:49

Yeah , yeah , that's so good and I love also that you mentioned . I know we're wrapping up , we're right about time , but it just made me think of all these things , like I just hadn't ever considered this , but like I live near Seattle and , like the Mariners , they always give away , like you know , like free tickets to this group or that group and that , and you think like , oh , that's a good idea , but without , like all the transportation and logistics and the coordination , like there's still a ton of barriers to that , even A ton of barriers and then , too , without the like , follow-up and like having the events and keeping in touch with these girls .

Speaker 2 34:21

You know , it's almost like we're trying to build for lack of a better word the sorority around this right .

Speaker 2 34:28

It's like a lot of these young women won't get to go to the fancy college and have the sorority so that two years later they can call in a favor and get the interview and do this and the networking and all you know what I mean . It's like what ? If you don't have that experience , how do we keep that community going ? How do we create networking ? And it's crazy . We have a , a partnership with AEG and , like some of the panel events , we have high level female executives coming in and talking to these girls and they're like reach out to me , I'd love to help . You know what I mean . Like they're getting an opportunity to have that connection by just attending a Sparks game . You know what I mean .

Speaker 2 35:03

It's like it's just stuff that's right there , but it is it's more of . You know the , the given the tickets . It's like and it's so funny because you say the given tickets like our tagline is it's more than a ticket . Oh , really , yeah , so it's like our experience is more than a ticket and we appreciate all the tickets Don't get me wrong but like the encompassing thing of section Z is it's more than a ticket because it's a game day experience . It's a community that we're building , it's a movement that we're trying to raise the needle you know what I mean Like there's a lot more that goes into it , but getting on their level and having that bond and building that trust that we actually care about these young women is kind of step one . And I feel like some people start somewhere else and we feel like this is a really good step one for us .

Speaker 1 35:46

Yeah , absolutely . Well , I'm super inspired by what you're doing and like so happy to have you on the podcast , and we'll be looking also for ways we'll chat about how we can be involved also , because you guys are just I don't know you , you also can get . You got me fired up , so I'm sure the people who are listening are also . So , for those that are resonating with all this , where can they find you ? How can they get involved if they want to ? Can you just give us all those details ?

Speaker 2 36:13

Yeah , to find us , go to our Instagram . It's at the section Z . You'll see a lot of our game day experiences . You can also check out our website , the section zcom . You know there's obviously a donate button on our website

Sharing Data for Girls' Sports

Speaker 2 36:27

on one of the pages . If there are people that you know are lucky enough to have the funds where they could share , and especially some of your listeners that know the benefits that participate in your programs . Like being able to have some of this for other people is a really nice thing to be able to do . But yeah , I mean mostly on our socials , instagrams , like our lead one , but give us that follow . You can always reach out to us on our website . We're pretty friendly .

Speaker 3 36:50

If you've got some good ideas . Also , like we collected this data as almost like a public service , Like we're a 501c3 . Protege donated the data collection , which was very gracious of them . We're like sort of open platform about our data . So if you want a copy of our report you work for a company that you think would be interested in this write to staff and we'll share it with you yeah , okay , awesome .

Speaker 1 37:15

Well , thank you both . This has been amazing and , like I said , just really inspired with what you're doing for young girls and really appreciate you sharing so generously with our community . Thank you both awesome , thank you .