Closing the Dream Gap with Jayna Hefford | Episode 55

00:00:04 Jayna

Looking back, realizing that, you know, despite I was doing something that most young girls weren't doing, certainly a a less common path, I think a lot of parents may have redirected their girls to like, well, why don't you go to figure skating or why don't you do dance or why don't you do something else that more?

00:00:20 Jayna

Girls tend to be doing or they never did, that they never directed me away from hockey because it was less common or because they didn't see a future for me.

00:00:29 Jayna

And I think ultimately what they saw was that I loved it so much and I I wanted to work hard at it. And what more would you want for your kids and them to find something they love and want To work hard. At it.

00:00:43 Kristi

Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream. They want to turn into a reality.

00:00:54 Kristi

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years podcast. This week I have a guest that is a five time Olympian and four time Olympic gold medalist Jayna Hefford. Jana was a super long time member of the Canadian women's hockey team and like I just mentioned.

00:01:14 Kristi

She has won four Olympic gold medals over her career. She has also been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, and is just honestly so.

00:01:26 Kristi

Impressive. She served as the Commissioner of the Canadian Women's Hockey League for the 2018 to 2019 season and is currently leading operations consultant for the professional women's Hockey Players Association. So we talked about her playing career and I really tried to not fan girl too hard. I asked her about the length of her.

00:01:47 Kristi

Career and how she was so successful for so long. We also talked about retirement and what that process was like. Her and what she's doing now, including the like, enormous role that she has played and continues to play in the new professional Women's Hockey League. So it was an awesome conversation and you definitely won't want to miss it. She had so many really pertinent things to share. Yeah, it was just really fun getting the chance to talk to her.

00:02:13 Kristi

But before we get into that, here is an update on what is currently going on in my training. We are in Princeton, NJ, still another couple weeks before we head over to Europe for a little pre camp. And then the Second World Cup in Switzerland.

00:02:30 Kristi

So we've just been rowing, you know, in Princeton, and actually this morning it's Monday when I'm recording this. And it was like, finally warmer and finally a bit of nice water. So that was really a treat. Last week was pretty chilly in the mornings, kind of like needed a lot of layers and almost really hard to get warmed up and feeling good. When it's that cold. Pulled out. You know, we're just kind of deep in the hole right now, so practice feels hard because we're we're doing so much. But I think we're putting in some really good work and I think everyone's just excited to kind of get into a little more race vibes and race practices and stuff as we spend the next couple of weeks.

00:03:13 Kristi

Getting a little bit more ready to race and then you know as we go over to Europe and actually get to race in the Second World Cup so.

00:03:20 Kristi

So, you know, still definitely in the grind a little bit but getting closer to racing which is super exciting this weekend it was the 50th anniversary of Yale women's crew, which is super exciting, kind of crazy that it's only been 50 years since women have been rowing at Yale. But that was really nice.

00:03:41 Kristi

Event I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go because obviously we're training and this weekend was also a bigger garden Saratoga. There's a lot going on, but I was able to go with two of the other US athletes that also went to Yale, Margaret and Daisy. And we went just for a short time to New Haven and got.

00:04:00 Kristi

To go to the celebratory dinner and everything and hear everyone speak and just get to, you know, connect with old teammates and old friends and also just other people that maybe we didn't overlap with, but we're there celebrating the current team who beat Radcliffe on Saturday morning, which is very exciting. We missed that because we were doing our own.

00:04:20 Kristi

Growing pieces in.

00:04:21 Kristi

Princeton. Yeah, it was just a really awesome, fun celebration. And it just made me feel so lucky to be a part of such a cool group of women that has done just such impressive things during all of their time. Being an athlete at Yale, but then also afterwards, like, it's just such a amazing collective group. And I think it's just such a special.

00:04:43 Kristi

Bond, I guess. And I just feel really lucky to be a part of that group and it's just really cool. I was kind of independently thinking that like, it's crazy, we all fit into a college dining.

00:04:55 Kristi

Which is not that big and I was like, wow, it's kind of crazy the next time they'll do this is probably the 75th anniversary, and this group will be so much bigger, which is cool, but we won't all fit in here. And I was.

00:05:05 Kristi

Like, where are they going to have this? It's nice to see the sport continue to evolve and the team continue to evolve and I just hope that only good things for you and screw. Forever. Yeah. So now we're just back in Princeton and training hard. And also like the regatta in Saratoga this weekend was a really big success. I'm really grateful to everyone that was there that, you know, worked really hard to make it so successful. And it's really awesome, you know, not everything goes perfectly, but we get a bunch of really nice messages from people that attend.

00:05:35 Kristi

Afterwards and it just makes me feel so appreciative of all the people and volunteers that I get to work with because they're all just so awesome and it's great when kind of independent parties notice that awesomeness. So that makes the job really like gratifying. And yeah, I think there was some really great racing and just really appreciative. The whole community there for buckling down and doing such. Amazing. Things. Yeah, feeling really appreciative of all the people that are around in my life right now. It is time for the main event, the my conversation with China, so I hope that everyone likes it.

00:06:15 Kristi

Thank you so much for coming on. I'm super excited about it.

00:06:19 Jayna

Yeah. Excited to chat.

00:06:20 Kristi

I have been reading all about you on the Internet so.

00:06:25 Kristi

I thought that it would be cool to talk about how you got into sports and if hockey was, you know, most of what you did when you were a kid or if, like it was kind of more, lots of sports.

00:06:38 Jayna

Well, I grew up in a a smallish town called Kingston ON right in the middle of Toronto and Montreal. Pretty big hockey town growing up. But I'd say for as long as I can remember, I I loved hockey and I don't know if it was something that, you know, was innate or I have an older brother who played. And so, you know, you follow your siblings around. And then my parents were. We're both very into sport.

00:07:00 Jayna

Arts and my dad played hockey as well. Not obviously professional, but hockey night in Canada was just, you know, was a thing in our House and you know, that was Saturday nights we'd watch hockey. And so whether that was learned or was innate, I'm not sure. But for as long as I can remember at the youngest of ages, I just loved the game. Any chance I had to play either on the ice, we had a rink.

00:07:21 Jayna

In our backyard that my dad had growing up, so like whether it was skating outside or playing, you know, mini sticks or playing Rd. hockey, whatever it was, I just, I love. I've always loved the game and and that passion hasn't left.

00:07:33 Kristi

Yeah, well, hockey is obviously just like enormous and. Did you feel like everyone you knew played hockey or it was just a really popular sport? Cause I just don't feel like in the US there's that sport.

00:07:47 Jayna

Well, I would almost maybe allude to baseball. Like, I feel like that's sort of in the US it's it's a bit of the fabric of who people are and doesn't mean everyone loves baseball, but it there's something about. I think baseball to Americans like the experience, the being in the stadium.

00:08:03 Jayna

The I don't know. Taking it all in, and I think that's for us. It's it's hockey, which is a little bit of who we are and I know is having my own kids. It was important for me that they learned to skate. It wasn't important. They learned to play hockey, that that would be up to them. But skating to us is a little bit like, you know, riding a bike and learning to swim. It's just it's something you do and so.

00:08:23 Jayna

I think for me growing up, I all the boys I knew played hockey. The girls I knew didn't play hockey, so that might have been the difference. But it is just a a part of the fabric of of Canada. I think in something that brings our country, obviously a lot of pride.

00:08:38 Kristi

Yeah, I watched your Hall of Fame induction speech and you kind of said this really cool thing that I totally like resonate with. Of you wanted to play like in the NHL because that was the, you know, option available at the time and nobody in your life kind of told you that that wasn't possible.

00:08:42

Hmm.

00:08:57

Hmm.

00:08:57 Kristi

So I was wondering if you could kind of talk a little bit about that. You know now you're. Playing such a. Role in women having opportunities, you know, on like women's teams and stuff, and that parallel between having quote UN quote like male role models for female, you know, the discrepancies there.

00:09:14

MHM.

00:09:15 Jayna

Looking back, realizing that, you know, despite I was doing something that most young girls weren't doing, certainly a a less common path, I think a lot of parents may have redirected their girls to.

00:09:27 Jayna

Well, why don't you go to figure skating or why don't you do dance or why don't you do something else that more girls tend to be doing or they never did that they never directed me away from hockey because it was less common or because they didn't see a future for me. And it I think ultimately what they saw was that I loved it so much and I I wanted to work hard at it. And what more would you want for your kids and them to find something they love?

00:09:52 Jayna

And want to work hard at it. So whether that's music or art or sport, it's really irrelevant. But finding something you care deeply about and you want to work for it. For me, that's what I want my kids to be able to do. And so I was able to be in this environment where, you know, I was encouraged to keep going and they could see, I love that they could see. I worked hard. They knew I was good at it.

00:10:13 Jayna

And they just, you know, kept fostering that dream, even though the dream that was realistic wasn't really in front of me until the first time I saw the women's World Hockey Championships, which were in 1990 on television. And that was the moment that I realized.

00:10:30 Jayna

Maybe that was something I could aspire to because the NHL wasn't realistic because I was a girl and so that's where my dream of playing for Team Canada started. And then it was a few short years later when they announced women talking to be an Olympic sport. So my dreams of, you know, playing in the NHL, winning Stanley Cups morphed into like maybe I can play for Team Canada and then maybe I could become an Olympian.

00:10:52 Jayna

So in the words of, you know, Billie Jean King, who we work a lot with and the you have to see it to be it, it's just so real for my story that it wasn't until I saw the possibilities that I could even dream that I might be able to achieve that.

00:11:04

Yeah.

00:11:05 Kristi

Yeah, I mean that's a pretty quick turn around though, like 1990 seeing it for the first time and then 1998 playing, you know, in in the Olympics.

00:11:14 Jayna

Yeah. The timing for me, you know, worked out really well. I was 13 years old when I saw that first women's World Hockey championships and I was well on my way in terms of competitive hockey. But I wasn't in a stream. I was still only 13, so I wasn't in a stream of like, you know, playing on a provincial or national team at that point. But being able to enter the stream.

00:11:35 Jayna

Before the Olympics, and then my first World Championships was in 1997 and it just happened to be the next year. 1998 was an Olympic year, so the timing was just so ideal for me that I got my feet wet with Team Canada and the very next season was an Olympic year, so I was a young player, but I had that opportunity in in the the early couple of years of my career.

00:11:54 Kristi

Yeah. And I don't want to, like, bring up old, like, less fun memories. But, you know, on paper it's like 4 time Olympic gold medalist. Obviously, in 1998, you guys didn't.

00:12:08 Kristi

And how did that experience? Kind of, I don't know, motivate you or maybe not. What was that experience like, especially as your first Olympics? And I feel like maybe you guys were the favorites in that Olympics. I don't know if.

00:12:21 Jayna

That's actually true. I think we were the favorites because we had never lost an international competition. So Canada had won the World Championships in 1990 in 92. 94 and 96.

00:12:32 Jayna

Even so, we entered the Olympics as the world champions from the year before. But anyone who followed it closely understood how close you know us and the Americans were. We played fourteen times before the gold medal game and we had won seven, and they had won seven. So the expectations on us were really around the history of our program.

00:12:53 Jayna

That we were favorites because of that, but we were pretty even teams and unfortunately we lost three to one with an empty net goal. So it was a two, one game in a gold medal game and.

00:13:03 Jayna

You know at the time certainly felt like a a massive disappointment. And you know, you feel like you've let people down. You let your country down. You know, you wonder if it was all worth it and what you did wrong. And, you know, all of those things as an athlete that that percolate in your head.

00:13:19 Jayna

And then I think overtime you find perspective in it all and I'm a big believer that you know you learn from every experience good or bad and sometimes you learn more from the ones you fall short of. So I think coming out of that one, yes 100% it motivated us you know in the next three years until the next Olympic Games you know you never forget that. Moment. That's the one that got away. And you were so.

00:13:42 Jayna

Costs and in terms of lessons learned, I remember taking away the lesson that because everything was so new, there was just all this excitement about the Olympics and getting to the Olympics and not really appreciating the day-to-day and the journey and all those opportunities we had to be full time athletes to train with and against the best athletes in the world. To travel around the world.

00:14:05 Jayna

There's so many opportunities you don't want to look beyond them and just kind of keep waiting for the next big event. So that was a lesson I took away from that year that moving forward, I wanted to make sure I really tried to stay present wherever I was. You know, if it's a training day, if it was an exhibition game, or if it was a gold medal game, just trying to to be present and stay in the moment and.

00:14:26 Jayna

You know each of my Olympic experiences. I felt like there was a really, you know, significant lesson I took away. And when you add those all up, they become life lessons and things that define you and and who you are.

00:14:38 Kristi

Yeah. 100 Percent.

****

00:14:40 Kristi

I have two questions. The first being like in kind of 1990 seven, 1998, did you think that your career was going to go on as long as it did? Or did you think that was maybe going to be your? Only Olympics

00:14:55 Jayna

I was pretty young so I I think I definitely felt like I was going to keep competing and maybe, you know, competing in another Olympics. Of course, nothing's given. So you don't sort of think beyond that sometimes you think in the four year cycles. But I was young, I was 21. I think at my first Olympics, so. I expected to continue playing.

00:15:14 Jayna

I didn't see a long term goal per se because we didn't have a women's professional league or an NHL for us to look towards, so I didn't know where that journey was going to lead. Aside from the fact that I was doing something I loved, I always thought I wanted to stay in hockey. I didn't know what I want to coach, what I want to, you know what that looked like, but. Again, I tried to stay present and focused on like what I was doing at the time. So.

00:15:39 Jayna

If you had asked me, then, you know, did I think I would play in 5 Olympic Games? I probably would have said no. You know, did I know I wanted to keep going and and keep keep competing for sure for for the foreseeable future at that time.

00:15:51 Kristi

And so my second question that's similar to that is like, how did you kind of manage that length of a career and to have success like for that extended period of time, it's very impressive.

00:16:05 Jayna

Thank you. I think you know from a team perspective we, you know had great leaders and.

00:16:10 Jayna

You sort of. You start as a young player and you're looking up to the leaders and then you sort of grow into a role where you become the veteran and the expectations change in terms of leadership. And so continuing to evolve as a person and as you know, a a leader, a veteran with your team is so important. You know, I get asked once you win an Olympic gold medal, it's like well. What? What more is there? Why do you wanna keep playing? You've already won a gold medal, but.

00:16:34 Jayna

My mindset was always that it wasn't about the gold medal, of course you wanted to win the gold medal. That was the goal, but it was about the opportunity to challenge yourself every day to try to find ways to be better, the competitiveness that you get through sport like some of those things, you just don't get in a day-to-day, you know, nine to five life.

00:16:53 Jayna

So I loved just being able to try to continue to get better and challenge myself after my third Olympic Games. I remember thinking I wasn't sure how long I was going to keep going and people start to ask you, well, when are you going to retire and what are you going to do when you retire? And you'd probably agree as an athlete, you're like, it's like the last question you want to answer because you don't know. You're like, you're still competing and you're trying to figure out.

 

00:17:16 Jayna

What that transition looks like, and I remember thinking, OK, you know, I think I want to still compete, but if I do, I want to make sure that I can have an impact. You know, I I felt like I was in a position that I could have just kept coasting, doing what I'd always done. And I probably could have made the team and maybe my.

00:17:32 Jayna

The role would have changed a little bit. Alternatively, I could really find ways to continue to grow and get better because as these younger players were coming up, they grew up in a different world where they had skills coaches and they were on the ice more than I was and they, you know, they were really good and fast and strong and all these things. And so I was like if I'm going to keep going.

00:17:53 Jayna

I need to get better. I can't just put it on cruise control and and keep going. And so I I went and I started working with the skills coach and I really worked on my shot and my, you know, offense and and different things that some of the things were my strengths already. But I always knew there was ways to get better at those.

00:18:09 Jayna

As it turns out, I had some of my most productive seasons. At the back. Half of my career. And so it's something I was really proud of and that I was able to continue to evolve as a player, find ways to get better, and for me the consistency was always important. Consistency of, like my teammates knowing what they were going to get from me every game and not being that player that was like really good.

00:18:31 Jayna

One game and then maybe not great the next. I wanted them to know what they were getting from every game, both my teammates and my coaches and so. And I guess the last part of that is in order to have a a long career, you have to be a bit lucky as it relates to health as well.

00:18:44 Jayna

And I had a fairly injury proof career. I guess, you know, I had some minor things, but I I'd like to think because of my preparation and how I approached training, I was able to keep my body healthy throughout my career. I really never missed an extended period of time and and that that does take some good fortune as well. So I think when you compile all those things together. That's how I would relate to the the sort of longevity and the success I. Saw in my career.

00:19:10 Kristi

Yeah, I 100% resonate with the. Like just being steady. I feel like there's really something to be said for that. I feel like it's great when people have these like knockout performances, you know, like once in a blue moon. But I'm just like, I just want to show up every day and be consistent. And that's what you can count on, you know. And then when you get to like those big key moments, you don't have to, like, pull something out that you've never done before.

00:19:35 Jayna

Right. And in such a high stress environment like the Olympics, right? Like there's just such an intensity about it and a, you know, a pressure that goes along with it. So some people, you know that that can eat at them and it really changes who they are and how they perform. And sometimes it's for the better, sometimes it's for. The worse. But being that person that people can count on that your performance is going to be there regardless of the moment, was really important to me.

00:20:02 Kristi

How was the transition away from hockey when you finally did decide to retire?

00:20:09 Jayna

I mean I I think for me it was fairly smooth and I know it's not for every athlete, but one thing that I did as I was sort of getting on the back end of my career and again that moment when people are asking you like what are you going to do next?

00:20:23 Jayna

And when are you going to retire? And and so as I was thinking about how much I hated answering that question, I went back. I had, I had done my undergrad degree at the University of Toronto. I went back to school and I did continuing education courses, which are basically designed for folks that are working full time. But, you know, trying it one night a week or.

00:20:43 Jayna

Whatever. So I went back and I started doing some business courses on sort of a part time basis while I was still training and I didn't realize how important that would be to me, both in terms of like, actually like the education I'm receiving.

00:20:57 Jayna

It was something I was going to be able to put on a resume which I knew, but I think what I didn't realize how important that was was it gave me a whole different mental mindset. So the next time someone said, what are you going to do when you retire? I can still say I don't know, but I was able to say, you know, I don't know, but I've been taking this marketing course and I've really enjoyed, you know, learning about that.

00:21:17 Jayna

Or a finance course or a sport management course and it just allowed me to a have confidence in knowing that I was attaining other skills, and it also brought into my network. You know, I was then engaging with people outside of just my team and the the the high, intense training environment.

00:21:35 Jayna

And so I think doing that, having something else to work towards in the back end of my career was really important. And the other thing I think was that I was able to retire on my own terms. And you know it, it does become difficult for athletes. I think when you don't feel like you've got to do that and whether an injury ends a career.

00:21:56 Jayna

Or, you know, you don't make a team that sort of stuff could be really challenging. And then you're sort of left with that decision being made for you. And I know that I'm fortunate because that wasn't the case for me. So, you know, I appreciate that. And I think that that helps the transit.

00:22:12 Jayna

So after I retired, I then had my son's priorities obviously changed pretty quick with kids, and then I came back into the game sort of helping on the coaching side with a a good friend of mine who leads the University of Toronto hockey team, got my feet wet a little bit there. I knew coaching wasn't the end goal for me as much as I loved the game.

00:22:32 Jayna

I just didn't feel like that gave me what I needed. And then from that point, I sort of moved into more on the leadership side of the game through the Canadian Women's Hockey League and then on to the professional women Hockey Players Association and into what I'm doing now, so.

00:22:45 Jayna

I I I think the transition can be really difficult for athletes, but I think when you can sort of find ways to build other things into your life, as you start to face those questions that helped.

00:22:55 Kristi

Me. Yeah. Is there anything that you miss just like about the kind of day-to-day of training or the old?

00:23:04 Jayna

Life. Yeah. You don't appreciate when you're in it. How awesome it is that, like your job, is to to eat well, to sleep well and to, you know, train. Nobody can appreciate it unless you trained at a high level. Obviously like I think you can appreciate this when you're in the training. You're like, God, this is awful. It's so hard this workout with socks.

00:23:23 Jayna

You know, but now you know as much as I love what I do. It's sort of like I gotta get to the gym. How am I going to fit in an hour of going or go for a run? And naps don't happen. Sometimes you're squeezing in food while you're on a meeting. And so the lifestyle, you know, as difficult as it as it is in many ways is also a pretty. Nice. You know, you really are focused on you and it's.

00:23:46 Jayna

In many ways it's it's a bit of a selfish thing that you're in because it's all about how you are preparing yourself, how your body feels. You don't have to worry about a lot of other things. It's it's really about you and your performance. You know that part I I miss. But the biggest part I miss is obviously like the teammates and the time you have with your teammates traveling on the bus. In the dressing room, the best some of the best things about sport is those moments. So those are the things I definitely miss.

00:24:12 Kristi

Yeah, I totally get that.

00:24:15 Kristi

You mentioned kind of younger players coming in, like how was the transition, you know, throughout your career, like with different teammates? I don't actually know how big, like, how many players would you say are on a roster at any given time? I'm sure the Olympics have like a specific number, but that's probably a bigger group that travel that trains most of the year.

00:24:35 Jayna

20 to 23 would be the hockey roster, and so you would have your top third that are sort of veterans that were typically I'd say over the course of my career like 30 plus. And then you got your middle age group, which is, you know, well out of college, 25 to 30 and then you've got a third of your roster that are pretty young and some of them are still in college at the time. So.

00:24:56 Jayna

As I said, you go from that point of being the rookie and young and you're just sort of soaking everything in. There aren't a lot of expectations for you as a leader and then you move into that middle group where it's like, well, you've been here long enough. You gotta find ways to contribute.

00:25:11 Jayna

And learn a bit more on the leadership side and then you get to that. You know that top end and in my career that came I would say sometime between my third and 4th Olympics where some of our really key leaders had retired at that point and there was these gaps within our team and who was going to fill those roles. And you can never.

00:25:31 Jayna

You know, I don't think perfectly fill the role of of a leader cause you may not have the same style or the same skills or expertise.

00:25:39 Jayna

But collectively, myself and a few of the other veterans I think had to figure out how we fit into our team identity and how we helped create that and build that. And so I think we got challenged, you know, by the leadership to like, OK, we need you now to be a leader, whereas maybe in the early years that wasn't the expectation of you. So as much as you're trying to still. And Pete and make a team and get better on the ice. The expectations of being a leader and a veteran sort of add to that as well.

00:26:07 Kristi

Yeah, I feel like it's so interesting that the transition from going kind of like the new kid on the block or whatever to being a more veteran person, it feels like happened so fast, or at least for me, it feels like it happened very quickly. And now there's just, like, so many young people everywhere. And I'm like, I don't feel that old. I don't understand. How this happened?

00:26:28 Jayna

Yeah, and old in sport is is so relative, right? Because yes, you don't feel old in your life, but you feel old in. Sport.

00:26:35 Kristi

So now you are doing like a few different things. According to the Internet from what I found. And it seems like you've got some big roles in the new like professional Women's Hockey League. I don't know if you can just talk a little bit about. That.

00:26:53 Jayna

Yeah, I think it's important to to add some context that you know for the last 45 years, I was leading the professional women's Hockey Players Association, so.

00:27:02 Jayna

This was a group of the best players in the world, including Hillary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield, Murray, Phillipe Pullen, and these players recognized that there was a gap in our sport. They decided they were going to stick together, create this united voice and advocate for.

00:27:18 Jayna

A professional women's Hockey League, and there were leagues around the world that existed, but none that would be considered professional in the sense of the the infrastructure and the resources they provide and the ability for them to be full time athletes. So I LED the day-to-day operations of that and we created something called the Dream Gap Tour and that was really, you know, about going back to my childhood where there was nothing for young girls to dream about if they wanted to be.

00:27:40 Jayna

In hockey and yes, maybe Team Canada, Team USA, but there's very few people that get that opportunity. So we called it the Dream Gap tour because we knew that if we could create this type of league that we were talking about, we could close the gap of what a young girl could dream to become and what a young boy could dream to become in hockey.

00:27:59 Jayna

So it was a really inspirational powerful, you know, four years with that organization and the players as the as the face of that and continuing to lead the way and through that work we created a business plan for a professional women's Hockey League.

00:28:13 Jayna

We took that out to find investors. We were working with Billie Jean King and Alana Claus, which you know so fortunate to to obviously have them as mentors and leaders with what we were trying to build and and then we were able to get at the table with Mark Walter, who's one of the most prominent sport owners in the world with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chelsea FC Lakers, the Sparks. Sort of goes on and on and.

00:28:34 Jayna

So when we were able to connect there and and they looked at our modeling and did some of their own modeling. And finally, after 4 1/2 years, we got to a point where they announced that they were going to start a league and.

00:28:45 Jayna

Now the professional tally we launched January 1st, we're just approaching our first playoff season and the launch to date has just been incredible. It's exceeded all of our expectations as it relates to you know, attendance and merchandise sales and sponsorship sales and viewership on linear and digital networks. And we're obviously at a a point in time where women's.

00:29:06 Jayna

Sports is thriving and there's real demand there, and we're seeing that across multiple sports and it's.

00:29:12 Jayna

It's so exciting to be a part of that movement and that excitement and we have certainly felt the love from fans across North America, certainly around the P WHL I lead all the hockey operations for the league. We've prided ourselves on professionalism, on the athlete experience, really still ensuring that the players are at the forefront of what we're doing.

00:29:33 Jayna

We've tried to be innovative and creative in how we present the game and it's been a really amazing, you know, last eight months really we've we've been working on an incredibly aggressive timeline, but.

00:29:44 Jayna

We have incredible people behind the league that wake up every day and just can't wait to work on it because they're passionate because they care because they understand how meaningful this is to future generations. In addition to the current generation. And ultimately I think what we're seeing through all of women's sport right now is this is like a societal.

00:30:04 Jayna

Leap. It's goes well beyond hockey or basketball or soccer. It's really about encouraging young girls and and women to be leaders to dream big, to know they can become athletes and have a future in.

00:30:16 Jayna

For and then also for young boys and the next you know leaders, the next generation that like what a powerful, inspiring woman looks like and that they can go out and and cheer for them in the same way they cheer for their favorite NHL team. So what we're doing is just so meaningful and it's it's bigger than hockey but it's been an incredible first number of months. For us.

00:30:38 Kristi

I mean, it's been super cool to, like, follow. It's funny, you know, you always get the background timing of things, but the timing of the launch seemed so perfect. Kind of as you were touching on. It's just this, like, amazing time women in sports.

00:30:54 Kristi

All of these other factors coming into it obviously like years in the making, but the timing of it seemed really kind of ideal. I don't know if that was just like sort of.

00:31:03 Jayna

A coincidence? It's a little bit of a coincidence, I suppose. I mean, I think we would have loved to see this happen two years ago or three years ago, but now in hindsight, you wonder if if that timing.

00:31:13 Jayna

Wasn't right and we wouldn't have seen the same level of success we've seen to date. So I think we're just thrilled with where we're at and you know for people to start understanding what investment potential looks like in women's sport.

00:31:27 Jayna

And it moving beyond being the right thing to do into being something that could be really financially viable for for people to get in early. So I think the timing has been perfect for us. Again, as athletes, you never want to wait and patience can be hard to to build something like this. But I think you know we.

00:31:47 Jayna

This this window of time has really allowed us to succeed really quickly. In the early days.

00:31:53 Kristi

I think the other thing that's where I'm kind of curious about is like, obviously there's this huge rivalry between the US Women's hockey team and the Canadian women's hockey team, but a lot of the players are playing together on a lot of these teams. So I don't know if you have any sort of insights into.

00:32:12 Kristi

What that's been like, or if it's like not a thing, because I saw that they also played on their national teams kind of recently as well.

00:32:18 Jayna

Yeah.

00:32:23 Jayna

Yeah, I think it's really unique. There's this incredible rivalry between Canada and the US because they've been the top countries in the world.

00:32:29 Jayna

For many, many years and it's it's an awesome rivalry. But the last 4 1/2 years have really brought those players together for the greater good and for the sport and with a united goal of, you know, growing the game, leaving it better than they found it. So there is a a united front from those.

00:32:48 Jayna

Theirs. But when they get with their national teams, that rivalry like kicks right back in. You know, they're professionals. And and your day-to-day job. Some of them play together. Some of them go to college together, but once you put on that Canada jersey or that USA jersey, all of that rivalry just comes back. And it's such a a fun rivalry to watch and to be a part of and.

00:33:09 Jayna

But at the end of the day, there's a lot of respect between the players and and what they've been able to do for the game.

00:33:15 Kristi

Do you have any favorite memories from any of those games? Maybe. Maybe not like the the headline memories, but just other fun things.

00:33:25 Jayna

Yeah. I mean, of course there's, you know. Those moments of you know when you have a chance to win and you stand on the blue line and you see your flag and your anthem, but each journey is like, so different. It's a different group of people, different challenge. So I have lots of fond memories, and there's the the on ice ones. And then as we've talked about before, it's like the off ice stuff. It's the funny stories that happen along the way. And the those times you share with your teammates that.

00:33:53 Jayna

Sort of link you for life and you know, when I see former teammates, it always brings us back to those funny moments or those times that were just really great experiences. And so definitely lots of those along the way.

00:34:07 Kristi

No. Yeah, I just. I just think it's really cool. It's very fun to be a fan. I hope to get to a P WHL game soon.

00:34:16 Jayna

1. Well, let me know when you wanna get to a game. We will get you out.

00:34:20 Kristi

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And I don't know if you have any questions for me. Sometimes we just like end the show with kind of flipping the script.

00:34:28 Jayna

You know, for me and what I get asked a lot and you know, I think one of the greatest things about sport, especially for women and girls is, you know, the confidence, how it develops, confidence in people and young girls specifically. So I think my question for you as an athlete would be.

00:34:46 Jayna

You know, how do you manage keeping your confidence when depending on the sport, sometimes it's, you know you get negative feedback, you hear the things you don't do, all the things you need to do better at. And then for some sports, it's about timing. You know, you don't hit your best speed or, you know, whatever the case is, depending on the sport. So like maybe strategies that you use. To maintain. Your confidence when people are always kind of evaluating you.

00:35:13 Kristi

I would say that I was once told you should only be concerned when you stopped getting coached because getting coached just means that they think you have potential and that you can.

00:35:24 Kristi

Get better and that if you stop getting coached, it means they've given. Up. So when people give me constructive criticism, I just try to think of it as a positive thing, even when it's like pretty clearly not. But that's just an easy like mind flip to do confidence is really hard and it's really.

00:35:35 Jayna

Right.

00:35:45 Kristi

Be easy to climb a few rungs of a confidence ladder and then so easily to get pushed back down. You know, like it feels like you work so hard to build confidence and then one thing happens and it just can go right back down. So I just always try to remember like I'm doing the best I can. I want other people to also be doing the best they can. And that other peoples's performances aren't a negative reflection of me.

00:36:12 Kristi

Sort of like if I beat somebody. That doesn't mean that I'm a better person than them or you know that my mother loves me more than their mother loves them, like, right. None of that is true. And then I try to remember, like, why I've previously been confident in myself so that I can try to rely on some of those, like previous.

00:36:32 Kristi

Moments to maybe build me back up when I am lacking confidence. Right? Yeah. I mean, it's definitely challenging. Like, I'm curious if you have any thoughts or like what you relied on as a player. And I'm sure now is in like a professional career. It's probably very similar.

00:36:48 Jayna

Yeah, I mean, I I love your first part about, you know, when people aren't coaching you, that's when you should be concerned. I think that's a great message. I think for me, when I felt like maybe I was losing confidence or maybe I wasn't playing as well as I hoped I would try to mentally flip back to, well, what are my strengths? And as a player, I was fast.

00:37:09 Jayna

I was a good skater. I was offensive. So you know, if things were not going well, you're not getting bounces. I would just like, I'm just going to be the fastest player out there. I'm going to focus on just being really fast and being great on the floor, check and make it difficult on the other team and not worry about like, all the things you need to do as a player.

00:37:27 Jayna

And I felt like that always sort of grounded me back into just relying on my strengths and what I'm good at. And then eventually you sort of broaden back out to start thinking about everything else again, but sometimes trying to be, you know, fast and smart and good on the defensive end and all of these things maybe feel a bit more overwhelming than just like, hey, this is my skill, and I'm going to go out and I'm going to do it really, really well.

00:37:50 Jayna

So that was one thing that.I used as an athlete.

00:37:53 Kristi

Control your controllables. I think is always really helpful.

00:37:57

Yeah.

00:37:58 Kristi

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I super appreciate you taking the time.

00:38:02 Jayna

Yeah. You're welcome.

00:38:03 Jayna

And good luck to.

00:38:04 Kristi

You thank you. Thanks.

00:38:10 Kristi

Thanks for listening and thank you so much to Jenna for coming on and sharing with me. I cannot imagine how busy she is, so I really appreciate her taking the time and sharing so much and like I feel like I learned a lot as an athlete and a person. So I just hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

00:38:27 Kristi

To leave you this week, I'm sharing a classic quote, but it just seemed pertinent for right now. So as said by Benjamin Franklin, by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Thanks and have a great week. See you next time. Bye.

00:38:44 Kristi

I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our ASK. Christy, anything segment head to our website, theotherthreeyears.com.