095 How They Launched a Female-Focused Sports Media Company called The GIST
The GIST is a women-founded and operated sports media brand that's leveling the playing field in sports.
Whether it's a newsletter, podcast or social post, we're all about providing a fresh and fun perspective on sports.
Imagine one night you’re hanging with 2 of your BFF’s, sharing a bottle of wine (or 2 or 3)… and all of the sudden in your drunken conversation, you get a genius idea!
You open up a fresh Google Doc… you write everything that the 3 of you are saying down… you feel like you’ve really hit the nail on the head with this idea!
HOW HAS NOBODY THOUGHT OF THIS YET? THIS WILL BE THE NEXT MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!
Then you head to bed.
Upon waking the next morning (with a slight hangover!) you wondering, “was it all a dream… was it really a good idea, like we thought?”
The GIST is a women-owned and operated media brand that's leveling the playing field in sport.
Whether it be through their newsletters, podcasts or social posts - The GIST is all about providing you with fresh perspectives in sports, without the overwhelm.
I’m married to a sports fan, so I’ve always been looking for a solution to get THE GIST of what’s going on in the Sports World and THIS IS IT!
The GIST has grown their community to millions of subscribers and they’ve worked with partners like Forbes, Business Insider and so many more.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or YouTube
Sign up for their free 4x-weekly newsletter to get "the gist" of what's going on in the sports world in less than 5 minutes.
Photo from https://www.adexchanger.com/publishers/the-gist-raises-1-million-to-grow-sports-newsletter/
Access the transcript for this episode:
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So today's episode, I've been hanging on to this one since November, and I've really been dying to share it because it is an amazing, amazing conversation. Let me set the stage for the story behind how the gist came to be. Imagine one night you're hanging. Two of your BFFs sharing a bottle of wine or two or three , and all of a sudden in your drunken conversation, you get a genius idea.
You open a Google Doc, you write it all down. You feel like you've really hit the nail on the head with this one, and you think, How has nobody thought about this yet? This is the next million dollar idea. Then fast forward eight hours, you wake up and the next morning. And you think, Was that all a dream?
Were we just so intoxicated that that seemed like a good idea? But in reality it's probably not. Well, you'll have to tune into this week's episode of the podcast to find out. This is kind of the birth story of the gist, but I'm gonna let Ellen tell it a little bit better than I do. As a female focused sports media company, the GIST connects and empowers women through sport.
They create sports, content, experiences, and community that are by women and for women, namely through their twice weekly newsletter, which uses a fun and female voice to give the gist of what's going on in the sports world. I have loved being a part of their newsletter, especially since I am married to a sports fan, and this is truly the solution I've been looking for in terms of getting digestible sports content without following it 24 7.
So actually, if you want to join their newsletter, head to kelsey rele.com/. Podcast slash the gist, T H E G I S T, and you can actually join their newsletter right from there. The gist has grown their community that they call Jers to over 60,000 across North America. That prob number is probably way up now, and they've been incubated with Facebook, mls, e, and Tech Stars, and have worked with partner.
Bumble the Ottawa Senators and Daum. Also, they just recently launched their own podcast. The gist of it is a weekly podcast on what's going on in the sports world. Host Ellen Hislop and Stephanie Rots Answer J's questions on current sports topics, like what to expect and Eat for the Super Bowl, how cocoa.
Broke onto the tennis scene and why? Why Raphael Nadal picks his wedge so much, expect a hilarious yet informative conversation with a refreshing female perspective on the world of sports. So again, if you wanna join that newsletter, which you definitely should, it's at kelsey re.com/podcast/the gist. So get ready to enjoy the story of the gist as I sit down with one of their co-founders, Ellen Hislop.
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Okay. So Ellen, welcome to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm so excited to hear more about the gist and this incredible female focused sports media company that you and your two co-founders have created. Uh, so thank you so much for being here. Yeah,
thanks so much for having me on. I'm excited to be
here too.
And I know this isn't your first podcast, so , um, you told. Citing news actually before we started recording, that there might be a podcast in your future. Is that
the case? Yes. We have a podcast in the works for the gist that we're super excited about that we'll be launching end of January. So definitely stay tuned for more info on
that.
So exciting. And are you yourself a podcast fan or do you just wanna put content, content out in that?
I love podcasts. I feel like everybody else. I got hooked with cereal back in, when was that? 2016 or something like that. Love cereal. And then I realized just all the amazing content that was on audio and in podcasting and was like, oh my gosh.
How did I not listen to podcasts before? So really, ever since cereal, I've been listening to different types of podcasts. And with the gist, it was actually something that all of our newsletter subscribers were saying, This is kind of what we're looking for next. And so really just listening to our audience and wanting to provide them what they're asking
for.
Hmm. And such a good business tip already. Listen to your audience. Right? Totally. When they ask, ask for something, that's usually what your next step is. So let's dive in. A few quick fire questions just so that the listeners can kind of get to know you a little bit better. So number one, where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town called Carlisle. Where is that? So Carlisle is between Hamilton and Guelph. Okay.
All right. So not far from where we're recording today. Not too Toronto. What's one thing you do every single day that's just non-negotiable like you have to do? Have a cup of tea. Hmm. And most people say cup of coffee, so I was expecting you to
I'm way too, I, I'm pretty high energy, so if I have coffee, I'm literally off the walls and my heart palpitates and it's horrible.
I can't have coffee. You don't need it. No. .
Is there a book or a podcast that you're really loving right.
I'm really enjoying how I built this. I love Guy Ross. He's a king. And I actually listen to Girl Boss Radio too, and I find it kind of depends on the interviews, but there was one with Anastasia Beverly Hills recently that I loved.
I love both of those podcasts as well. Uh, and what's your workout of choice right now?
workout of choice is a hit workout that changes days based on a push kind of workout and a pull workout.
Hmm, Very interesting. So we are going to zoom the lens back and kind of learn about your life before launching the gist.
And just to clarify for the listeners, you're one of. Three co-founders of the gist. Um, so maybe first tell us how did you meet the other two
founders? Yes, so my other two co-founders are JC De Hoop and Rosalind McLarty. And we actually met way back in first year of our undergrad at Queens University. So we all studied commerce at Queens together and have been friends for.
Now 10 years, which is
wild. Wow. I know. Crazy how fast time goes. You're like, am I that old? For
sure. .
And now, when you first met at in university, um, did you guys chat ever about entrepreneurship or opening a business one day together or was that just not on your, your roster?
Totally not on our roster at all.
Throughout university? Mm-hmm. and
so, Came after graduating? Like did you all go work corporate jobs? Um, talk about that time in each of your lives.
Yes. So after we graduated university, it was in 2014, so it's been about five years now. Um, we all started working in financial services, so I went to Chubb Insurance working as an underwriter.
Rosalyn is an accountant, so she was working at pwc. Mm-hmm. jc started working off for Hudson's Bay Company and then after a year or so switched into consulting and so definitely we're taking more of those traditional corporate roles coming out of a commerce program. Mm-hmm. ,
and through this time of being like, Big girls working your jobs, Were you still remaining friends and keeping in close contact?
What was your relationship with the two of
them like? For sure. Yeah, we were still super close friends. Uh, JC and I had a similar friend group, so we would see each other pretty often at the wheat on the weekends, at bars, those sorts of things. Rosalind and I played soccer together every weekend, so that was super fun to be connected that way.
And then the three of us actually once in a while would also, you know, grab drinks together, grab dinner, that sort of. Hmm.
And I know there's a little bit of a story about one night you were grabbing dinner and the conversation for what is now the gist kind of came up. So I'm wondering, can you like transport us to that dinner?
Where were you, when was it? What was the conversation that was happening that
evening? For sure. Um, so this was back in February, 2017, and the reason why all three of us were getting together was actually because I had torn my ACL playing soccer, and so couldn't see Ross on the pitch, Couldn't see JC at the bar.
So we decided to kind of all come together and grab some take. And a couple bottles of white Ryan at Rosalyn's apartment in her place, and we were just catching up as the gals do. And I am a super avid sports fan. Love sports, always thought that'd be something that I'd get into, but has just kind of been my passion and my hobby for.
Literally ever. Mm-hmm. and I started going off about what had happened in the Leafs game the night before and why I was so excited and why it was such a big deal. And in that moment, both JC and Rosalind, who grew up playing sports and would consider themselves sports fans, but wouldn't necessarily, you know, turn on Sports Center in the morning or go to Sports Net's website or be following the teams on their Instagram.
both of them said, Oh my gosh, this would've been so helpful for me to know going into my Dayday. My boss, she's a super avid sports fan, loves the Leafs and would've been so great to connect with her over what had happened with the Leafs last night. Uh, JC had just come from drinks with her group at work and you know, that conversation definitely came up and both of 'em were like, This would've been super helpful to know.
And they both said it's really interesting because listening to you. I'm asking questions, I'm engaged, but I've never in my life wanted to turn on TSN or Sports Net or go to a traditional sports site. And I said, You know, that's kind of funny. A lot of people, girlfriends and guy friends will text me if they're taking a client to the game or they're going on a date, or they don't know who to pick on their fantasy team, and they just need somebody to bounce ideas off of.
And that moment was kind of like a light bulb moment of wait. Is there a way that we could potentially scale the experience of what JC and Rosalind were having? We were looking at companies like The Skim, which is a daily newsletter out of the US and companies like bees that have done such a great job at creating this millennial voice and really knowing how to speak to women, but nobody had done it in sports and to us, sports are kind of that connective tissue across North America and really the world that can unite everyone regardless.
Age, gender, race, religion, CEO, intern, doesn't matter who you are, but for whatever reason, women are left out of the sports conversation and community so much. So literally that night opened the second bottle of wine that we had, uh, popped open a Google doc and just started writing down all of our ideas.
And then the next morning we woke up and texted each other and kind of said, We think this might be a good idea.
I love that all good ideas must be born out of like that second bottle of wine, maybe
that third Exactly, Exactly. Never hurts stuff a bevy or two. It really doesn't. It
just gets your creative juices flowing that little bit more than maybe they would if you didn't drink.
Totally. Um, I'm just wondering, were any of. Entrepreneurial kind of going into this conversation. Did you grow up around entrepreneurship? Because for a lot of people, that conversation might happen, but if you don't feel you are the person that can make this happen, or you don't have drive to create something from nothing, it's kind like, okay, I'll just go to work tomorrow and do my thing, everything.
Where did you feel?
Entrepreneurial to your doorstep? I
think that all three of us were in interesting time in our careers. We had been working for about three or four years, kind of in the awkward, what's next? You stay with your current company and go up the ranks. You try something different. And so as much as cut 2020 comfortable and happier current companies, there was what's next kind of looming in the back of our heads.
At the same time, we all kind of had different exposures to the. Side. So Roland's parents actually started their own accounting company in Ottawa that was super successful. J's parents more so were in the public sector side of things, but JC has always kind of had it in the back of her mind that one day she would have her own business and one thing or another.
Um, and myself, I was really exposed to entrepreneurship from my family, um, from my papa as well as my dad starting their own businesses. So it was always something that wasn't, not an. If that makes sense. It was always something that was there for us to be able to go into. Very
cool. And I wanna just, um, reiterate something that you said so beautifully because I mentioned to you before we started recording, my husband is like the largest sports fan in the world and he actually has his own sport pod.
Podcast and I feel like I can never really keep up with the conversation and I always kind of had this wonder of like, why is he so obsessed and like what is it about our society that people really do feel that strong connection to sports and the culture. And I love that you said it's something that kind of is cross-cultural and it's that common thread, or you use the word connective tissue.
Is that what you love about sports and about following them so closely?
Yes. I think with me for sports, you know, I've always been obsessed. So sometimes when I think about, you know, what is the true gut of it, I've literally been a fan since probably I was three years old. There's literally photos of me just watching the Jays on TV constantly.
But I think the biggest thing for me is that sports are something that can make you feel in a way that barely anything else can, and they make you feel in a. At the same time as this huge community of people. I don't think you could ever be in a stadium. Let's take the Blue Jays when they were in the playoffs a couple of years back, you have those, oh my gosh, is this happening?
Anxious feelings. But you have that with 35,000 people at the same time, and there's nothing really else in this world that can unite people like that and make everyone have that feeling and can make you forget everything else that's going on in the world. I think that a great example of that too is the Raptors.
Post game, post winning the championship, and all of us being out in the streets of Toronto after they won the NBA championship, everyone was smiling, everyone was happy. There was no, nothing bad going on. It was just everyone was so fired up and it didn't matter what you looked like, who you were, what you were wearing, where you came from, everyone was just high fiving each other.
And that just can't happen with anything else. And it doesn't happen with anything else. Mm-hmm. and so, Why I think, you know, sports are so magical and why, there's no reason why sports can be for everyone and should be for women too, just as much as they are for men. Mm-hmm. .
Yeah. Oh, I just love this so much.
And I think in a world where we are feeling so disconnected and we're working a lot in isolation, and people just have that general sense of loneliness or who knows what they're experiencing in their mundane lives, Sports are that draw of feeling rooted in a community. So for sure. Yeah. I just love that you've brought this into words cuz it's something that I've trying to, I've been trying to figure it out for a while, but I think you said it perfectly there.
So let's go back a little bit. You said you woke up the next day, you're probably experiencing that slight hangover in your of wine and you're texting each other and you're like, Hey, we might be on to something. I know exactly what the listeners are probably thinking like, Well then what the heck do you do?
Right? Like, what's that next step that you guys all took? So maybe take us to that moment. What did you do that next morning?
Yeah, so that next morning we were definitely texting and we're pretty excited and we had all talked to our respective roommates about our ideas at that point, and all of our roommate.
Kind of said, Ooh, this is something interesting. This is something that I would be into. And at that time we actually did initially think of a newsletter, and that was because we were all super interested in newsletters. So today the gist in our bread and butter is really a free twice weekly newsletter that gives you a.
The gist of everything that's going on in the sports world in less than five minutes, but also in an authentic, fun and female voice, and that it's also for a casual sports fan as much as it's for an avid sports fan. So really trying to fill that gap in the sports industry that is. Never really focus on women or casual fans.
It's always really focused on an avid male sports fan. Mm-hmm. . And that's been something that's been true from the beginning. And so what we did at the beginning was kind of put our caps back on of being business school students and kind of going through what we would do for a case study when we were analyzing other businesses and going through asking what audience would want, getting all of the feedback.
Looking at other comparators of businesses, how would you make money? Is there. Competitors in the space going through kind of that outline. I think the biggest thing for us was actually just asking literally anyone who would listen at parties, at dinners, a little bit less at the office, cuz we wanted to keep it close to our chest about what they thought of the idea.
Mm. I love that. So it sounds like you were kind of writing a business plan Totally. To be more casual and not sitting down and going through everything in detail, but yeah, everything from the target audience. Mm-hmm. to how we make money, profitability, that kind of stuff. Yes. You were putting together those ideas, and I love that you say you were asking around and telling people, because I find that with a lot of startup entrepreneurs and people who aspire to create a business, they keep it all.
Selves and they forget that you can create your first community members by sharing your idea even when it's in the early stages, right? It doesn't have to be. Perfect. Before you tell people, like get the word out there, hear people's feedback, get conversation going, and you're gonna pick up on things that maybe you didn't think of.
That's a really great idea. Um, so take us to then, like what's the, the plan for launching this business? You're obviously writing down your business plan, getting all those ideas from the three of you. Then what happens? Like, did you launch the newsletter first? Did you host an event? What really brought this to the public?
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Mm-hmm. so. Really, after kind of going through the business plan, we looked at what needs to happen next and what do each of us need to be doing.
And so the way that we divide up everything is that I'll work on our content strategy, product strategy, because I am, you know, the avid sports fan and really am the voice of the gist. Mm-hmm. , Rosalind, especially with being an accountant is super analytical, really smart, and so she's working more so on the finance, operations and tech side of things, so, And then JC was more on the growth side of things.
So she's looking at how do we grow our audience? What brand partners can we work with? And so we looked at all of those three different areas and said, What do we all need to do in order to launch this? So right away I started working on our content for the website, making sure that that was all built up.
At the same time, Rosalyn's looking at. Different hosts for our website. Do we use MailChimp? What would the process be in sending out a newsletter? Jcs looking at how do we first get the word out about this event and all of those sorts of things. And so we basically, because it was a side hustle at the beginning, we didn't quit our jobs right away.
We would set aside every single Sunday to work on the business together. So we'd go over to Rosalind with some food and we'd work on the business plan. We'd work on content. We'd work. partners. Mm-hmm. . Um, we hired a graphic designer because that was definitely something that we weren't good at. Mm-hmm.
and just started going through all those motions. We knew that we wanted to launch the newsletter in 2017 and kind of have a soft launch. And I think one thing that's really important and what you kind of mentioned on doesn't have to be perfect. So we were like, minimum viable product, mvp, that's totally fine for us to launch with.
Mm-hmm. . And so we did. Launch a beta testing launch. Again, a theme for us is testing with our audience is everything, and we really wanna be ground up instead of top down so that we're opposite of what the sports industry is today. And so we did beta testing for our newsletter for five weeks and got feedback on our newsletters.
Look, tone, length, voice, everything that we needed to so that we could feel confident when we launched. Mm-hmm. . And then we're a big fan of parties, so we had a massive launch party in November, 2017, and it was actually two years ago yesterday. So, Cool. Mm-hmm. .
Well, congratulations, on that milestone.
That's
huge.
Yeah. It sounds like you guys had kind of the perfect medley of talents within your team. Did that just come really naturally, like we each know our place? Or did that take a lot of, I don't know, alteration to kind of find out what each of you does and what that happy balance so that everybody's working a similar capacity?
I guess
because we had been friends for so long and because we had gone through school together and played sports together, we knew each other well enough to kind of know what. , you know, what our strengths were and what our weaknesses were and where we could dive into. At the same time, we also. Because we were part of really great companies that onboarded us super well and asked us about our Myers Briggs and our personality traits and how we all like to work.
We all did that from the very beginning, and we all kind of talked about what would we all like to do? What is our strengths? Maybe this isn't a strength, but this is something that I'd like to dive into. And so all of us work on the business strategy together. All of us edit everything that we all do together, but it's been super helpful.
Part of the reason why we've grown so fast and been successful is being able to have a team that can work on. Three separate silos in that we completely trust each other to make good decisions in all of our different aspects. Mm.
Yeah. I think that's such a, a, it's just a really unique mix to have three people right from the get-go.
Mm. Who all have their own strengths. So I'd love to hear that. Um, were you. So you said you were working every single Sunday, or pretty much, I'm sure on the gist. Did it ever come to a point where you felt like it was not gonna be manageable anymore with your full-time jobs? And when did that transition of starting to think.
Maybe we're gonna need to leave our jobs in order to make the gist our full-time income. What was that like?
Yes, So after we launched in December, and at that time we were just a once weekly newsletter that would come out on Mondays, obviously, capacity wise, and I think it was less about us not. Not being able to manage, I guess the gist, it was more so we were so passionate about it.
So we'd be at work and instead of thinking about my underwriting job, I'd be thinking about, Ooh, what are we gonna do next for the gist? And what are we gonna write about this week? And what does that all kind of look like? And so it became more of, this is what we're thinking about more, and that we want to do more in terms of when we quit our jobs.
And really the decision around that. We were seeing a lot of organic growth and people forwarding the newsletter and people being excited about us being there. And actually one of our jers, which is what we call our community, one of our jers, let us know that there was an incubator program that you could apply to, and she was like, You guys have to look into this and you have to apply.
Called the Facebook Journalism Project. So it was with Facebook and the dmz, which is an incubator here in Toronto, and they were going to be providing a hundred K non-dilutive funding as well as 50 K in Facebook ad credits. And that's just such a game changer for anyone in the startup community. It's wild, especially non-dilutive.
And so we said, We're gonna work our butts off and put in the best application that we can. And we were selected in the top 10 across Canada to pitch, and then we were selected as the top five to be a part of the program. So once we got into that program, we said, Okay, we're all quitting our jobs and we're gonna go into it full time with this opportunity.
Wow. That's so inspiring. And I, I love to hear that you, you really put the effort in to be able to be one of those top five contenders. And I think it's especially, It reminds me, I, I was in a place about five years ago where I had a full-time job with a health food company and I remember showing up to work every day and I don't think I thought about my actual job once while I was there.
I was just constantly building my own brand and at that point I was like, I think I kind of know what I need to do next. You start to feel guilty. You're like, I'm showing up to this job, but I'm not mentally here , so I'm sure a lot of our listeners can resonate. Um, why don't you tell us a little bit more about what happened inside of this incubator program, cuz obviously that was a massive milestone for your business.
So just describe what it was like and maybe what some of the outcomes of it were. Yes,
so thank goodness we were in this incubator program because we had no freaking clue what we were doing. We still don't have a clue what we're doing. We're just figuring it out. No one really knows what, Yeah, we don't know what we're doing.
But it was super helpful being in that program. So the way that the program was structured is that it was a five month program that was broken down into milestones, and at the very end there was a big presentation. So the great part of it was actually that you didn't get the a hundred K right at the onset, you worked up to the a hundred K.
So there was milestones that you set throughout the summer and. As long as you hit those milestones, you would get 20 K unlocked for you. And then at the end there was this big presentation where you kind of got the final check of the remaining 40 K that was there, as well as the remaining Facebook ad credits that were there that you didn't have.
And so that was really great because it helped us kind of, Learn structure in terms of meeting different milestones, months to months, months over month. At the same time, we also were set up with different mentors within that program specifically, and those mentors really focused on either the journalism side, the kind of startup entrepreneurship, vision side of things, and then more so the marketing side of things with Facebook.
And they were so helpful in terms of making us actually. Think big and think about what we could be with the gist and what's our big vision and operationally what do we need to do and marketing wise, what do we need to test? And journalism wise, what processes do we need to be having in place? And having those mentors were super key.
And it was great being able to go into an office space every day and being surrounded by other startups and other people. Great ideas and awesome energy, um, and to learn from them as well. So it was a really, , uh, amazing experience. And it was also super hard at the same time because we had just gone from something that was structure for four years.
We knew exactly what was happening. We were getting paid, we were, you know, so set up in what we were doing. And then now it was like, Oh, you have to create your own schedule, which is awesome. But then at the beginning you're like, How do you create your own schedule? What do you do every day? So, um, it was, it was great to be a part of a program during that transition.
Yeah. I feel
like that's an amazing, amazing thing to get, um, yourselves into. When the program came to an end, like did you feel like your business was just booming and it had momentum around it and everything was going well with the gist? Um, Or what happened when the program was all
over? Yes. I wouldn't say booming.
I feel like, I think, you know, we had been seeing awesome growth and we had been seeing a lot of feedback and engagement from our audience and community really being like, Oh, this is awesome that this exists. I'm so happy that, you know, this exists. You guys who are listening, uh, the just sports.com, if you wanna be a juster and subscribe to our newsletter.
And you know, at the same time though, we were still mostly focused on Toronto. We were still learning, we were still trying to get into the sports industry and get some connections that way. We still felt like we had a lot to learn from other folks. And so when we. Graduated from that program, we opted to stay within the dmz, which is an incubator in Toronto, and they graciously had us.
And so we ended up staying in the DMZ actually until June. And that was awesome to still be a part of their community and have their resources. And we also started in another incubator, so we. Applied to and got accepted into what was called the Future of Sports Lab. And this was hosted in conjunction with Ryerson as well as mlsc, Maple Police, Sports and Entertainment who own the Raptors, the Maple Leafs tfc.
Um, and so it was really great to, and the Argos. Now I should add, um, it was really great to then have the sports lens on everything and really see what the inside of running an organization was like and where the just could fit with. For someone who
doesn't know what an incubator is, can you describe it in a nutshell?
For sure. The best way that I can describe it is thinking of an incubator for a baby when they're born and the baby doesn't do the best at maybe breathing by herself or needs some help with. Eating, but the incubator helps her slowly get stronger and learn to do those things by herself so that she gets to a point where she doesn't need the incubator anymore because she's strong enough.
That's really the exact same thing with a business, is you have a place to work. They provide you with different resources. They surround you with really great people so that they can help you grow until you don't need them.
And I think that's so important for anybody, whether you join an incubator or you hire a coach or a mentor, it's this transition.
When you decide to start a business or a brand, you don't know what to do because you've never done it before. Totally. So you can't be so hard on yourself when everything's not coming together like you imagine, because again, you, you don't have the experience. So it's. Vital to go seek out somebody who has and learn from them.
Right. And that sounds like exactly what an incubator does. It gives you the resources and the tools that maybe you wouldn't have access to otherwise. For sure. So then let's kind of. Pull it forward to where the gist is at today. Um, obviously it's grown a lot. It's only been a couple years, Right? Um, but you keep saying like, it started with just Toronto focus, but I believe it's expanded since then, right?
Mm-hmm. . So what are your markets now? What's the current vision of the gist? Um, maybe just describe where it's.
For sure. So really with the gist, our vision is to be the go-to source for sports, for women, for anything that a woman can need. And so while right now we're really focused on the media side of things and growing a really sticky brand and community, we think that there's a lot of opportunity for her to come to the gist for.
Her own merge for her to come to the, just for a way to connect with other female fans, for her to come to the, just to buy tickets for her to come for premium content. And so really where we're at with our company is probably 5% of what it could be one day, and that's really the way that we're thinking about it.
Right now, and kind of what I mentioned before, we have our free twice weekly newsletter that comes out on Mondays and Thursdays, but we have changed it in a lot of ways where we were just in Toronto, as you said at the beginning, we expanded to Ottawa in January of. What year are we in 2019? And uh, so that was our second city.
And then we were getting a lot of feedback from our audience saying, I'm in Halifax and I love the gist, but I don't just wanna get information on the leafs and you are, What's up this week section? Or Hey, I'm nbc, when are you gonna start talking about more of the West Coast teams or just Canada in general?
So that was super awesome feedback. And so now we actually have a Canada-wide newsletter, a Toronto newsletter, an auto and newsletter. and we're also in the US so we expanded into the US on September 5th, and we have a US-wide newsletter as well as a Philadelphia specific newsletter. And with the US we were actually part of another accelerator program.
So a little bit different from an incubator and accelerator is. You've kind of got stuff going on. You already have traction, you know what's happening, but the accelerator really helps you take it from point A to point Z as fast as possible and connects you with a lot of amazing people and investors and things like that.
So we are a part of a Techstars accelerator based in Philadelphia that was tied to Comcast NBC Universal. And so we lived in Philadelphia from July until October, and that was part of a really big reason of why we ended up launching in Philly first, and was a great time to actually learn about the US audience by actually being there for three months.
And so that really helped us expand into the us. In addition to our newsletter, we have daily social media. Through through Instagram, so@thejustnews.ca for Canada at the Just USA for the US because we are recognizing that the audiences are pretty different and what people are interested in is very different.
It's obviously we love hockey here a little bit less in the US and then our website is a place where we have more of education and resources for people looking to get. Be on different types of sports. So we have guides, glossies, FAQs, and deep dives on things from, you know, if you needed help on what's a Gordy how hat trick, or you wanted a guide on the FIFA Women's World Cup, or you wanna dive deeper on motherhood and maternity leave sports, you could go to our website and a couple of other things.
I have expanded kind of product-wise. I are really excited about. Is we host a free weekly NFL football pool that's hosted through Facebook Messenger where you can play for free. You just select who's going to win each week, and you have a chance to win some awesome prizes from the gist or from some of our partners, including a year long subscription to the zone.
And what's been awesome about that is, 85% of our ERs have never played in a pool before. Yeah. And a lot of that is stemming from either women not being invited or not feeling like they wanna put money down on it or feeling like nervous being in a different community. But it's kind of shown, you know, when you invite women, you provide access and you provide them with the content.
Yeah. It's awesome. They'll participate and be involved. Um, and then the last part is, is we do host events. So viewing parties, panels, Live events, all of those sorts of things, which have been a really great way to grow the community. So that's really where we're at right now. We're back in Toronto, but we're expanding throughout the US and Canada pretty rapidly with those localized newsletters next year,
so Amazing.
Um, one thing that I wanted to kind of pull out from what you just explained was the fact that you've really segmented down your newsletter, and I think this is such an important point for anybody, no matter what your business is. Oftentimes blanket content. Like if you're trying to appeal to everyone, you're not appealing to anyone.
No. So I think that's a great takeaway. It's like whether you have a newsletter or you're hosting, um, like different workshops, try to segment it down so that you're really speaking to an audience that wants that exact content. And this is a perfect example of not sending people in the US. Like Toronto Sports News.
So I think that's really, really smart. I'm sure you've learned a ton about email marketing just from starting the gist and from go growing your newsletter list. Um, do you have any tips, whether it be for segmentation or in terms of like content or design for people who are sending out newsletters for their business?
It could be anything, but is there anything valuable you've learned?
Yes, so that's an interesting question because so much of what we do is more actually on the news side and providing the value, but I think the biggest thing on the email marketing side of things is you still have to think about what value you're providing the end user.
And you can't just be sending out an email to send out an email, You know, it's like, Oh, I'm supposed to be doing email marketing, so I'm going to be doing email marketing, but what are you actually providing to your audience in the end? Do you want to. Give them a discount if it's a product, Do you want to give them some insight?
If you are hosting a workshop and it's a tidbit of information, do you wanna be entertaining and fun and give them an update that way on the business? So just really thinking about the value that you're providing at the end of the day. And then the second would be just be so authentic and let your personality shine as much as you can, because.
So often, especially with a millennial generation, you're really choosing to be part of a community and really choosing to support something because you really feel attached to the people behind it and the message behind it. And so being able to communicate that to the best of your ability is really important.
Mm, such a good point. I love that you say kind of just like right authentically and find your voice, because I know a lot of people feel like it has to be perfectly curated and written like a robot wrote it, and sometimes it's okay to. Type your newsletter the way you speak. Oh
my gosh, that's a huge, that's a huge reason why we have our community's grown to over 60,000 now.
Yeah. And a lot of it is, you know, people read our newsletter and the way that we write it is we want you to feel as though you're talking to your sports obsessed, witty, best friend. We want it to feel like you and I are just having a conversation. So we'll add, you know, Welp or shake my head or af or making it conversational because.
No offense, but a lot of things on websites these days, like kind of boring, super journalistic right down the middle, you wanna feel like, especially in an inbox, it's so personal. Someone's subscribing to you. This is where they answer their emails from their boss, their mom, their friends. It's super personal.
So you need to make it be personal to what they want to. Mm-hmm. . Yeah,
and I think the, the lesson to draw there is to. Take a moment to decide on what you want your brand voice to be. I mean, obviously if you're a scientist and you're providing data , like you'll wanna have a very polished newsletter. But if you're a, a lifestyle brand or, or writing about a topic that really gets you giddy, make sure that is conveyed through the way you type.
Like, don't come across as someone you're not, because people are imagining the voice coming through you. And I love in your guys' newsletters that you have that like the emojis and the different, um, like exclamations in that it makes. , like I'm chatting with a friend. Mm-hmm. . And so that's really appreciated.
I know you're also in your expansion plans, you've launched some sort of ambassador program mm-hmm. , and I'm assuming this is in an effort to kind of expand the reach and, and the people that you partner with. So do you wanna just describe what this ambassador program is and what the purpose behind
it was?
Definitely. So we kind of have two different ambassador programs going on right now. So I'll go through the first one, which we call our just ins. Yeah. And then I'll go through the second one that's our Athlete ambassador program. Yeah. So our just influencer program is really wanting to incentivize and reward those amazing people in our community that are so supportive of the gist.
So everyone when they sign up for the gist is given a unique referral link and when. , they send that link to their friends, and their friends sign up through that link. They get credit for signing up a friend. And so once someone refers at least five friends, they're officially a dis influencer. And what that means is that you are invited into an exclusive Facebook group with all other dis influencers where you get access to different types of content, access to the founders directly.
Access to all those other jers who are also posting. And so that's a really great community. And then on top of that, you get different swag. So at five you get a webcam blocker. , then a just tow to just crewneck at 35 and so on and so forth. Very cool. Really, it's once you hit that five, you can keep on being a part of our community as well as getting the swag as you continue to share, and that's been really awesome to see how that has grown and to learn a lot from our power users because they really are the most.
Supportive of the gist and take action with the gist. And then the second program is really our Athlete Ambassador program. And the reason why we decided to launch our athlete ambassador program is twofold. So the first being female athletes receive less than 4% of sports media coverage right now, which is absolutely ridiculous.
And part of the reason why the just exists, we put men's and women's sports coverage in a level playing field so that you get one stop shop, both men and women in our newsletter. But we also wanted to highlight the amazing stories of these women because they just aren't highlighted enough we thought.
And so we sought out amazing Canadian female, either Olympians or Olympic hopefuls, or just people who had really incredible stories that we wanted to really bring into. The just team and bring them on as just influencers. And so we've kind of chosen those athletes that way and um, they've been awesome.
So, we'll, we'll write content on them. They'll share on their platform. So that's the second part of what you were speaking to is the reach side of things. So asking those. Um, athlete ambassadors to share the content that we provide with them to share anything new that's going on with the gist. And in return, you know, we're writing this content on them, we're profiling them on all of our channels.
When they do something amazing, which is literally all the time, we do our best to share it. Um, we'll send them swag and things like that, ask them to be part of our community more. And so that it's a really a two-way relationship. They're our jers, are able to actually hear about them and know about them and hopefully follow them on their socials.
And then we're also able to, you know, hopefully be associated to these amazing people and hopefully people will subscribe from
that too. Mm-hmm. , I love that. And I think Ambassador, Ambassador programs, they were. They seemingly were very popular like five, 10 years ago, and then I, I don't know if they kind of just phased out or they were overused, but I feel like you've got such a unique approach to it, and it is really valuable to tap into the audiences of people who have an amazing following already.
Sure. Yeah. It's just something that I think we can all think about in terms of our own business, like how you can extend the reach of your community through something like, So let's talk a little bit about your daily operations right now. What does a day in your life look like? And I'm sure it's all over the place, but paint a picture for the listener that's like, I don't even know.
Like how are you managing this life right now? ,
I don't even know how we're managing this life right now. Oh, I'm, I'm sure you get this from so many people, but our day-to-day literally is never the same. And what we're focusing on is really different depending on the month and the week and different things that come up.
Are we in a pitch competition? Do we have a presentation? Are we meeting with investors? Last week I was in New York and Philly this week I'm here next week I'm in New York and Philly. And so it really kind of ebbs and flows depending on what's happening. Um, . There's two constant days really for me, which would be Sundays and Wednesdays when we're writing and editing the newsletter.
We have a team of content contributors now who are amazing and are fully part of that, and it's really, you know, prioritizing those in the evenings to write really great. Newsletter and have a great product for our adjusters at the end of the day. Um, always editing and reviewing everything that we're doing social media-wise and keeping our finger on the pulse for sports.
But then it's, you know, doing other things like strategy in terms of what is our product going to be next? What podcast recordings do we have now? How do we do different drip campaigns? How can we survey our audience? What's our next marketing strategy? Um, what does our financial model look like? But then, Doing all of those.
Mm-hmm. , obviously, what's different than working in a corporate world is that you could think about all this strategy and then sometimes. Other people can do kind of the Monday and stuff, but in a startup, you think about all the high level strategy, but then you're also the person putting the referral rewards together, bringing them to Canada Post and sending them out.
And so, um, it's, it honestly ranges from day to day. I could barely give you an answer on that. But the constant is, you know, I'm always watching sports, always keeping my finger on the pulse there. Mm-hmm. , um, and, and having a lot of. I love
that. And I think that's kind of the beauty of entrepreneurship is that no two days look the same and we have to be okay with that.
And in fact, I think that really fuels us is that when we get up tomorrow, like our day is gonna be
completely different than ever. And like when I hear people say, Oh, work. Same old, same old. I'm like, oh my God. If I ever said work was same old, same old, I actually make me quit that job. Yeah. Because that's
the day that I need to find something
better to do.
It can't be same old, same old. I want to be able to say something like, Oh, this is really cool, or This was super challenging. What do you think about this? Or do you know somebody like this? Um, and Yes. When it's same old, same old, that's when you know you gotta get out.
Yeah, I know. I think the day I die will be the day I stop learning and growing and experiencing life.
Absolutely. And all the newness that can come with each day. Uh, last couple of questions here. Is there a business tool or a resource that you just feel like you can't live?
Google Calendar, . Oh yeah, yeah. Yep. Especially when you can see other people's calendars and with our team. Mm-hmm. . Um, we have the three of us of course, being full-time founders, but then we also have a social media manager too.
And being able to seat into each other's calendars is very helpful. Mm-hmm. ,
good tip. And because you work with a team and you're two co-founder, Probably very closely. Do you have any tips for communicating successfully and keeping those channels of communication open?
Yes, so I think. Kind of to what we were speaking about earlier and really getting to know the people who you're working with and their work styles and their expectations, and setting up processes and operations.
That sort of stuff at the very beginning is super necessary and it's been. Really helpful for us this entire time that we've been working on the gist, both as a side hustle and full time. Um, for the, for the three of us, we have co-founder check-ins actually every kind of three months, which are really great and a lot of the times they end up being more personal things and how we're feeling and where we're at as opposed to just the business side of things.
But then we also have our business strategy meetings every three. We also have weekly kind of big rocks that we go through. And so every single Monday we set a goal for the week. That's an overarching goal for the entire company. And then we also set a goal for each of us for a week as well. And then we have a check in on where are we at with this goal.
Why did we hit it? Why didn't we hit it? How do we feel about that? And kind of go forward from there. And I think one of the cool things about actually working with all women is that women are so intuitive and we are great communicators and we are really creative and we're super supportive of one another.
So even with our content contributors, we have eight content contributors that work the, just as kind of a side hustle for them. They have their full time jobs. Yeah. And. Love the gist. They wanna support us and they're so good at what they do and we want them on our team really badly. Um, it's, you know, texting, A lot of the time it's being on the phone with them.
It's recognizing that we're working with millennials and Gen Zs and it's a little bit less on email and it's more on text message and Slack sometimes. And, um, the biggest thing I think for distributed work is, um, text and phone call. Like pick up the phone and call people and see how they. ,
That's a good point because we're so easy to just email or text, but a simple phone call where you can really hear the person's tone and their voice can just solve so many issues in a short amount of time.
So great advice there. Um, if somebody wants to learn more about the gist, where should they go? Where can they find you? Where can they subscribe to all your newsletters and amazing content that's
coming? Yes, so you can check out the just sports.com. So the just is G I S T, not j i s T, Um, the Just sports.com.
And assuming the majority of your listeners are Canadian, they could check us out on Instagram, the just news.ca. And the same thing on Twitter, The Just news ca. Okay.
Awesome. And I will plug all of that in our show notes so someone can head over there if they want to subscribe. Um, and one final question that I asked to all of our guests.
Like I mentioned, there's a lot of people listening who, they wanna start a business like this, they wanna start creating content, and they have that yearning in their heart, but they just have no idea where or how to begin. So I'm wondering what advice might you offer this person based on your own experience?
Yes. I think based off of my own experience and our own experience, I think that it's super important just to first say, you know, are you super passionate about this? And is this something that you can wake up every single day and is going to get you outta bed because, Being in a startup and being an entrepreneur is hard, and it's not super glamorous.
There's certainly glamorous times like being invited to cool games and stuff like that for us, but it's, um, it's really difficult and it's definitely a journey. And so you really have to be passionate about what you're doing. And I think once you kind of check mark that off, it's okay. You just have. Do it.
And I really do recommend starting it off as a side hustle at the beginning. And I think you learn a lot about time management and what you need versus what is a want, and really focusing on that minimum viable product and just getting that MVP out there as soon as you can and iterating and iterating and iterating is the most important thing.
But it's kind of what Nike says. You just gotta do it. Just do
it. It's so true, and I think you and your co-founders, you're the perfect example of really marry. Something that you're passionate about and that lights you up with your talents and your strengths from your past career and just your overall life experience into one amazing brand, an amazing company.
And it's just really inspiring to myself and to everyone listening that it is possible, right? We live in this day and age where, You can create something out of nothing. You can identify a gap in the market and take action on it almost the next day, right? Mm-hmm. . Um, and it is possible to find a career path that.
is something that you love already and maybe you've just never considered that you can make this, um, part of your income and part of your career. So thank you so much for sharing your story. Um, we'll have to check in again in a year or two and see where the gist is at and I wish you guys all of the success and just know that I am an avid subscriber because this is absolutely a product.
I need in my life as someone who can't keep up with sports news. So thank you so much for being on the show, and I wish you all the best. Yeah, thanks
so much for having
me, and thanks for being a Jer . Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis.
So if you could help me out by rating and reviewing this show on your iTunes app, I would be so grateful You. Support the show by taking a quick screenshot of the episode and sharing it on your Instagram stories. Just make sure to tag me at Kelsey Ryle. If you're feeling stuck, uninspired, stagnant, bored, or confused in what your next step should be, it's time to take action.
Please reach out because I would love to connect with you. I'll catch you in the next episode.
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