What a pleasure to sit down with my friend, Maya Kuppermann. Being a female founder is rare, and it is so important to know people who are living a similar experience to you. I'm constantly inspired by all that she and Ruthwick Pathireddy are building at Temelio. It is markedly harder for female-founded enterprises to succeed. As Dana Kanze and her colleagues note, "Although nearly 40% of all privately held firms in the United States are founded by women, only 2% of U.S. venture capital financing is allocated to female-founded firms." The fact that WinWon and Temelio continue to be trailblazers in their respective industries is a feat worth celebrating. Many friends outside of the sports world often suspect that I may have had an even harder time as a female founder in this industry, but I am glad to tell them it is quite the opposite. I have found many women in leadership positions who have become great friends and inspirations to us (I can't name everyone in one post, but I'll shoutout Danielle Lynch, @CoachAltorfer, and @Brittney_Kellar), and I have met many men who are among the strongest advocates of female leadership I have encountered in my career. Shout-out to @NikRule and his efforts at both William Penn University and the Heart of America Athletic Conference. During our conversation, Maya and I discussed one topic I want to revisit here. In business and in life, women often face what is called a "double bind," meaning we expect them to be two things at once that are at odds with each other. Catalyst's 2007 insight, "The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership," made the term common lingo. They found that women leaders who act in ways seen as typically feminine are often judged to be less competent, and those who act in ways seen as typically masculine are often judged to be less likable. A lose-lose situation rather than a "WinWon" (had to). For female founders, the double bind might be that we expect them to be cautious and ambitious in the same breath. I often describe this as walking a tightrope, where those I interact with on a day-to-day basis may expect me to be kind and declarative simultaneously. This is something that Sarah Yu, Maya Kuppermann, and many other women I know have learned to do quite harmoniously. However, even if we do it well, it's an energy-consuming reality that I think more of us need to be aware of. In the sports world, I'm glad to know so many people who will care about the double bind, more than likely research the sources I'm sharing here, and may know them already. We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding (journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465…) The double-bind dilemma for women in leadership: (catalyst.org/insights/2007/t…)

I keep asking coaches how they got into coaching. Almost every answer starts the same way: "𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩..." The best leaders leave more than wins behind. They create people who want pay it forward.

The more coaches I talk to, the more I realize: Building a great culture isn't always about adding more. Sometimes it's about removing friction. Less confusion. Less chasing people down. More clarity. More time to actually lead.

You hear people mention the self-fulfilling prophecy all the time, but do you know the story behind it? In 1965, psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson ran an experiment in a California elementary school. They gave every student an ordinary IQ test, then told teachers that a handful of them (chosen entirely at random) were "growth spurters" poised to bloom that year. Again, randomly selected. They weren't special (I mean I am sure they were, but not according to this IQ test). But eight months later, when tested again, those randomly chosen students had gained more IQ points than their peers.  What happened? During those 8 months, the teachers stood a little closer, waited a beat longer for an answer, smiled a little more, corrected with a little more care. The belief created the reality. Psychologists call it the Pygmalion effect, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy where one person's expectations quietly lift another's performance. Unfortunately, the Pygmalion effect goes both ways. Long before the season or the school year begins, we may already believe an athlete "likely won't get many minutes," or have a student who "isn't very good at math." Then, we give these people quiet signals that tell them that's exactly what we think. It's as simple as less eye contact and thinner feedback, but it is internalized, and we're unsurprised when people play down to our lowered expectations.  Last week, I had one of my first tennis lessons. The instructor spent 5 minutes talking about how women are not as good at serving or slams because they didn't grow up throwing footballs like boys did (yes, this is frustrating for a lot of reasons, but let's focus on the self-fulfilling prophecy for a second). Maybe he's right, or maybe the reason that my husband slammed it down so much better than I did was because the instructor had just told us that would happen.  Expectation is not just a prediction; it's an input.

It's the beginning of the school year. Every coach is about to lose hours to this... "Coach, where's the schedule?" "Can you send me the roster?" "What time is practice?" A coach recently laughed because those questions had almost disappeared. Coaches don't want more software. They want fewer interruptions.

At WinWon, we run a series called Coach's Corner. I've now interviewed hundreds of coaches, and one thing stands out: very few mention wins when they define success. More often, they talk about mentorship, long-term relationships, and trust. They talk about people: both the people who coached them 20 years ago, and the people they hope their young athletes will be in 20 years. My 8th grade basketball coach changed my life, and I still credit him with many of the values I hold dear today. When I think about being gritty, I think about his determination when we were losing. My mother still likes to remind me that we won a lot of games we had no business winning, mostly because Coach Terry never gave up. When I think about giving up today (and if you're a founder, you have definitely thought about giving up), I think about the full-court press we ran when we were down by 10 with a few minutes left. That's when we were successful, yes, when we ended up winning, but also in games we'd come to lose, because it was never really about the W.   Coach Terry changed my life. Who has changed yours? @WinWonTech #keepplaying #coachimpact

WinWon is live in Alabama! Excited to see everyone in the @SSACsports in a few days!

Love this @CarringtonsDojo

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Two great friends of WinWon for the first installment of the WinWon Film Room. Thanks for joining us!

All of us at WinWon are so excited too! Just the start of everything with the @AACsports