115: How to Stay Hungry and Sustain Success

1. Trust with your assistant begins by realizing your need to let go.

Once they’ve proven they can do the job, you’ll trust them more, which begins a cycle of trust between you and the assistant. Start by passing off the things you don’t like or simply aren’t good at, such as scheduling. Then over time, you should naturally begin passing along even more important things. Letting go will eventually become natural. But that can’t happen until you realize your need to let go in the first place.

2. Your relationship with your assistant is a two-way street.

You will hold them accountable to the job you hired them for. But they should also be empowered to hold you accountable to the expectations you set for them and to be able to speak truth when you need it. The best assistants have the ability to lead their leader, providing focus and clarity when things get overwhelming.

3. Clarify your preferred method of communication right away.

Make sure your assistant knows the best ways to reach you, whether that’s instant message, text, email, or (yikes!) a phone call. Also, help them understand when and where each method might be preferred. For instance, a text message is great for something a little more urgent, like a lunch order, but an email might be better for communicating more information and an issue that might not need an immediate response.

Kim Stone:

You know, being in the sports and entertainment industry — and especially Oak View Group and Tim Leiweke — believes deeply in diversity, equity and inclusion. I am a byproduct of that, right? Like I am a woman running one of the top venues in the country, so it’s great. But I know that also comes with an obligation to help others. It’s, it’s not an obligation. It’s a — somebody helped me; I need to help somebody.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step. The most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BELAY — the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now to your hosts. 

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step. The practical business podcast that helps you run your business, so it stops running you. I’m Ryan, and today’s conversation is incredible and one that I’m very jealous I didn’t get to be a part of. BELAY CFO Lisa Zeeveld is talking to Kim Stone. She’s the president of UBS Arena and Oak View Group East Coast Executive Vice President. During her illustrious career in professional sports, Kim Stone has served in executive leadership roles for two of the world’s top MBA brands, the MiamiHeatand the Golden State Warriors.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Kim spent nearly 25 years working within theHeatorganization, serving most recently as the VP of Human Capital and Special Projects, as well as Golden State Warriors Chase Center General Manager. She’s a great example of someone who has learned to excel and transition well across a variety of different roles and fields. She’s gonna share some of the biggest lessons she’s learned about embracing new challenges, building sustainable success, developing other leaders, and much more. No matter where you are in your career journey, I think there’s so much value and inspiration in Kim’s story. So let’s jump into it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Welcome to the podcast, Kim. I’m so excited to get to talk to you today.

Kim Stone:

Thank you, Lisa. This is day four for me at my new job, and so it’s an exciting day for me as well.I don’t think that we could have scripted this better for the topic we’re gonna talk about today, so thank you. I’m very excited to participate.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, and thank you, day four of a new job, and you’re willing to talk to me. Wow. I am definitely humbled by the opportunity. I’d love to start off with a question to help our listeners get to know you better. And I’d love to know, when did you first fall in love with sports?

Kim Stone:

Gosh, great question. It really goes back to my childhood. From the earliest that I can remember, even in the neighborhood I grew up in, we were always playing sports. It was a little neighborhood in North Carolina, and I’d play with football with the boys. I mean, it was tackle football. We just were having fun. And that’s what when I was growing up in a small town in North Carolina, that’s just what we did and we played. And then that became just a love of playing in high school. And I had a phenomenal high school coach who  — we were state volleyball champions and did very well — were incredibly competitive in basketball too, and she was a phenomenal coach.

Kim Stone:

And so those team sports taught me life skills that I still use today because I was never the best athlete, but I learned that everybody has a key position to play on a team. And in basketball in particular, I would be like the defensive specialist, right. I’m never gonna make ESPN, but you know, there’s a need. So a little long way of saying that love of sports happened at an early age and then just continued through high school where I had a great coach and then I loved journalism. So I was the sports editor of our high school newspaper. And then that led me to ending up at North Carolina to get my degree in PR and journalism, which led to this amazing niche industry that I learned about that was a college sports information director. So you’re basically a PR director.

Kim Stone:

And I got to do that for the when I was in school at North Carolina. And then that led to my first job at Miami as an assistant sports information director, which led to an opportunity to work with MiamiHeat. And, and then on it goes, right. So that’s a very long-winded answer to your question, but I think that’s my journey with sports and my love of sports evolved over time. And the fact that I got to marry it with a career is just, I’m just, I’m probably one of the most lucky people in the world.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Well, you teed me up just perfectly because I was gonna ask about your career. So you’re telling me that you went straight out of college to theHeat. Is that right?

Kim Stone:

I had a, no, straight out of college to the University of Miami as an Assistant Sports Information Director.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Gotcha. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Okay.

Kim Stone:

So the Hurricanes football team, at the time, was dominating college football. And so it was an amazing job to get at just starting your career out because you’re dealing with the top media in college football. And so that was a wonderful opportunity to get to know some of the most important media figures at the time. And, and funny enough, a little funny side story is Dwayne Johnson at the time was a rookie on the University of Miami hurricane football team. And so now Dwayne Johnson, big movie star wrestling. So that, that tells you how long ago I did that. But so I started out at UM in that position. And then as part of that, I would side like had a part-time job on this statistics crew for the MiamiHeat.

Kim Stone:

So I was doing my full-time job with doing part-time statistics crew for the Heat. And then what happened is there was a opportunity that opened in the PR department for the Heat. And then that’s where I, how I first started in the Heat and grew through that organization for 23 years, then went, took, took a new job with the Warriors to open their new building. for two years, COVID hit, it was really hard on my family and my son in particular. So we pivoted back to Miami was near friends and family. Yeah. And then it was gonna take an amazing opportunity to get me out of Miami. And that is what this job is here at UBS arena in near Belmont park in New York. So it’s Long Island and the good news is my brother lives nearby. So we do have family nearby. Oh, that’s so I still have family. And it’s an opportunity to be president of an amazing state-of-the-art venue that is sort of changing the sports entertainment landscape here in a very competitive New York market. But it’s a lot of fun. So that’s a sort of quick recap of my job and my career.

Lisa Zeeveld:

So moving from particularly a sports team into an arena, right? So now is how different will your role look in that manner?

Kim Stone:

So it’s a good question of the various jobs I’ve had throughout my career. I spent the vast majority of it as a general manager and in particular in Miami, I spent it was 13 years as general manager for what is now FTX Arena. But at the same time that I had that job, I also had responsibilities for the service and retention of the Miami Heatseason ticket holder base, which is actually a job I did for 15 years. And so in 13 of those 15 years, it was simultaneous to be in general manager for the building. So I tell you that, wow, because it just sort of sets the, the stage that for me running an arena, I’ve always been part of team sports too. And so what, what, in both Miami and in Golden State, those venues were operated by the team.

Kim Stone:

And so the team was the primary tenant. What’s unique here at UBS arena is the New York Islanders of the, of the NHL are one of the tenants. And then we built this venue to be one of the best experiences for artists coming to the venue and sound quality and the overall concert experience for guests. So sometimes when you build an arena and it’s hyper-focused on sports, there are some qualities that make for a better concert experience. So you have to sort of sort of balance that here they did balance it. And so in my role here, so I tell you that because usually, the prior two venues I’ve worked in, the team set the strategy and the vision for the arena here. It’s the team and music.

Kim Stone:

So we really focus on the music experience and, and how to, how we work with shows and tours. So it’s very exciting. So it’s a little different, so that’s the long way of answering your questions. So it’s a little bit different. Yeah, because I don’t have direct team responsibilities. I’m not overseeing the service and retention of the Islander season, particular base like I did in Miami. Right. That’s so now I’m focused on making sure that we run a state-of-the-art arena. That’s gonna be one of the top in the world, and we give you a world-class experience, whether you’re coming as a guest, whether you’re an employee or whether you’re an artist.

Lisa Zeeveld:

That’s incredible what an awesome opportunity you have. And I love how you’ve been able to bridge all your experience together, but there’s been a lot of transitions in there as we talked about your career. And I’m sure that it wasn’t all easy. I mean, you mentioned going from Golden State, you were ready to get back to Miami and you wanted to be around friends and family. I’d love it if maybe you could give some advice to our listeners on what it is like for you, or maybe some of the best ways that you’ve learned to handle a transition throughout your career.

Kim Stone:

You know, change is hard, right. Even when it’s welcomed and exciting change, it is different. And I think it’s sort of for me, it falls into a couple of buckets. One is managing the your career change and that’s your, the, the people you’ll be working with your work environment, your commute or not commute, like these sorts of what, what your work life is. And then, and then there’s managing the personal aspect of it. You know, my family to say the least, my family has been incredibly supportive, especially this, this move after only being in Miami for one year where — like we moved back to Miami and in — and even when we moved to San Francisco, the thought was we would raise our son on the west coast, then COVID hit and the world changed, right. So you have to be flexible.

Kim Stone:

And then in Miami, the thought was, we go back to Miami and like, now this is where we’re gonna raise our son. and now I’m pivoting to New York and they have just been incredibly supportive. Right. So I recognize that’s not for everybody, but I have an incredibly supportive family. Managing and making sure that your family is the top. And I got a great piece of advice. Many years ago, I was working with Ron Rothstein who was actually the first ever head coach of the Miami Heat. I worked with him when he was head coach of the women’s professional basketball team, a WNBA team we had in Miami. And Ron had an amazing relationship, not only with his you know, wife and his kids, but his extended family and this, and he was a lifetime NBA coach that he was traveling.

Kim Stone:

He was always gone. He was working nights and weekends and holidays. And I said to him, once I said, how is it that you’ve created such a great family bond? And he said, well, the reality Kim is that in this profession, you, everybody likes to say that your family’s number one and works. Number two, he said, but the reality is your work is number one. And your family comes second because of the demands of the job he said, but here’s the difference. He said, when your family needs you, they’re number one and you have to do that. And true to form. We were an expansion team in the WNBA, one of the most important things for an expansion team is to, is your draft, your expansion draft. And so we were planning for the expansion draft who, what top players from other teams did we wanna try and to be, to be part of launching our WNBA team, very, very important, very important decisions to be made. So we’re, we’re having this discussion, we’re on a little bit of a timeframe and his phone rings and he picks up the phone and it’s his wife and his wife is notoriously bad with directions. 

Kim Stone:

And so for the next 10 minutes, he literally gave her directions from where she was to where she needed to be. I mean, literally he’d be on the phone and he would say, okay, now go two blocks and when you get near the tree turn, right. And we would literally wait while she drove the two blocks and then it, and so he did that for 10 minutes. And so like, I saw what he said in action. And it was to that level. Right. So managing the transition from my family, especially at this time, because my family won’t move up here for nine months because the timing of my hiring didn’t work with the school admissions cycles that happened.. And that’s important. So they’re gonna stay in Miami, we’re gonna be flying back and forth. We have plans about that. So I will always be sure to answer whether, even if my son FaceTimes me or calls me if I’m in a big meeting, they can wait 10 minutes. It they can wait because at that time it might just be directions that they meet need.

Kim Stone:

It might just be something else that might in terms of my work might be viewed as like, maybe it’s not as important, but you know what they need me. And they often are willing to let me take a lead in my career. So when they need me, even if it’s for directions, I learned and saw firsthand what that means. And so that’s sort of the two buckets and then there’s managing yourself and your time. Part of what you all do and talk about is sort of that self care. And I think the pandemic, right, one of the good lasting things is self care, wellbeing and mental health have come to the forefront. And so I think even today, it’s day four, anytime you’re coming into a new job, especially a new job like this, you are just drinking through a fire hose.

Kim Stone:

And so this morning I actually slept in later than I was supposed to. And I got some got, instead of getting coffee this morning, I got a green smoothie. And just trying to and I’m gonna leave a little bit early today because it was, it’s been an exhausting four days and, I need to recharge and refresh. And so to me, COVID has given us all the opportunity to say that and to say, Hey, ‘I just need a little bit of, like, I need to take these last two hours off.’ And nobody’s judging you negatively. You know, as much as they, I think it would’ve been a penalty before because I can go pretty hard.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Well, I think that you have to, I mean, you’ve had such phenomenal success in your career. You’re driven your passion. I mean, again, you came outta college and, and really jumped into the ideal job. I’m sure that most people listening are going, oh my gosh, that would be a dream job for me. And you did that. And so I think it’s important that you’ve put in parameters in place yeah. To take care of yourself and to take care of your family, but are there seasons when having all that drive and that passion wanting to, to rise throughout your career, that you’ve had to pause and kind of had to be happy with where you’re at and maybe put some things on the back burner. I mean, how do you do that? You know, taking care of yourself and, and saying, right, now’s not the ideal time to pursue that next challenge or opportunity.

Kim Stone:

I think it’s a very personal criteria and, and way you come about that. And, and you just described my entire last year <laugh> wasn’t going back to the Miami Heat. I took a very different job. It was executive vice president of human capital and special projects were, which were two distinctly different areas. So human capital was human resources, DE and I initiatives, culture and inclusion as well as learning and development for our, for our company and centralizing that on under an executive. And then the special projects was building, doing a master plan to renovate FTX arena. So two very different but it’s very, it’s a very, they would, people at theHeatwould tell you it’s a very Kim job because one was a well established HR team. And I was just pulling together and, and just helping them, helping lead them.

Kim Stone:

The special projects was a complete brand new group that I had to pull together, the talent I had to put the, I had to plan it from the bottom up. And so when I left, I did a lot of transition and I think they’re in a very good place, but I tell you that because the challenge is just always making sure that for me in that moment last year was very different because I was in Golden State, a very high profile job, a very hard-charging organization that does amazing. They are an amazing organization. Yeah. I always say I’m a better executive because I was, I went and worked for the Golden State because I learned so much, right. I grew up a lot. I got a lot, I got challenged quite a bit.

Kim Stone:

COVID was incredibly challenging. Opening a 1.6 billion arena is really challenging, and I was just tired because usually, you open a building and then you get a —  somebody describes it as you’re sprinting toward a marathon. And that’s really what it is. So I just needed a break. So last year it was a little bit, it was a break simply because I wasn’t working events anymore. So I wasn’t working nights and weekends. So my schedule became my own. And so it meant more time for my family. It meant I could be there for my son. So as I’m transitioning back into overseeing a venue again I don’t have the same responsibilities because I’m not responsible for the event production, but I’m ultimately responsible for the whole organization. So my family and I have talked a lot about what does that look like?

Kim Stone: 

But in stepping back last year from the hard-charging aspect of what my career has been, it was interesting. I struggled. I felt a sense of like being out of place. Because the things that the traits and characteristics that I had always relied on in the hard-charging forward gotta get past, COVID gotta pull everybody together take it on your shoulders and move forward was not what was needed in my new job. And so it was a really hard, it was a pivot, it was an abrupt pivot. And so I just learned over time to give myself a break and to really understand, and just to like, not judge myself to critically … there was a little bit of imposter syndrome that even at my level and what I’ve done imposter syndrome still can creep in there.

Kim Stone:

So I just had to recognize it, address it. I’m big on mental health. I’ve always been, even when I started in my career, I always say you’ve got doctors for every other part of your body. Why don’t you have a doctor for your mind? Totally. Right. Because your minds are so powerful, your thoughts are so powerful. So anyway, that was my experience stepping back last year. And I would’ve been just fine doing all of that. But this opportunity Oak View Group is well respected in the industry. They’re doing some amazing things and I’ve always had a bucket list of things I wanted to do in my career. And the last one was to own my own successful company. And so fortunately, with the way my situation is structured with Oak View Group, I have quote unquote skin in the game as it relates to the company as well. And that’s just exciting. Right? Those are very rare things that you get to do. And I was like let’s go make this, let’s go try this. Let’s we’ll try it. We’ll see what happens.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I love that. Yeah. You know, do you think that she would’ve been ready for this responsibility in this next phase? Had you not kind of had that opportunity to pause? Right. Because I think that sometimes it is that hit to the ego to kind of step back, but really now you have the energy and the excitement because perhaps you had that moment of risk in your career.

Kim Stone:

You’re spot on. I mean, that is really true. Yeah. It really is true because when you’re forced to make an abrupt quick pivot or not forced, but when you choose. So in that, you’re right. And then you get that. I got a lot of time to reflect. I got a lot of time to consider. And I was happy. I was not seeking jobs. I was getting phone calls. I was saying, thank you. But no, thank you. You know, I was not, this was not in my life plan at all, at all. And, but you you’d just be open to opportunities and when they come your way, but to your point, that pause helped me get clarity around who I am. What’s important to me, the things that I want to do and achieve, and this was just part of that.

Kim Stone:

And, and as I look ahead to where I wanna be in five years and where I wanna be in 10 years this is a critical part to that. I will also say, I don’t think I would be ready for this president’s role if I hadn’t had the opportunities and the experiences in my life. you know, from, from theHeatas an exceptional, one of the top five organizations in the NBA, the Warriors are the top revenue producing team in the NBA. Just the way they think they’re very innovative, creative. They’re always pushing the envelope. I loved it. Their owner is a venture capitalist, and that comes through, comes shining through. Sure. And then now this opportunity Tim Leiweke who owns Oak View Group is, is in that same vein of like startup entrepreneurial well respected. So leadership matters. and so I’ve been with underneath some great leaders throughout all of that. And I always say if I’m half the leader that they were, they are those leaders that I’ve worked for, then I think I’ll be okay. And so I’m, I’m, it’s, it’s my life experience combined. That is why I think I’m ready for this. It’s not why I think — it’s why I am ready for this opportunity.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, that’s great. You just mentioned something about being empowered and working with other great leaders, but in your career journey, I’m sure that you’ve had to prepare other leaders to take on responsibilities as you’ve moved on. So what have you learned? Is there something that kind of sticks out to you that you could share about how to raise up a great leaders or some traits that you’ve picked up from other leaders who’ve led you?

Kim Stone:

Yeah, that’s well said because I this is where I give a lot of credit to Eric Woolworth, because that’s a great question. So Eric Woolworth is the current President of Business Operations for the Miami Heat. And so I’ll I never forget. In 2006, he calls me into his office and it was Thursday at like five o’clock. And the only time you go see the president Thursday at five o’clock is because maybe you no longer have a job so I went and asked him, ‘What can I bring to your office?’ And he said, ‘Oh, nothing just come.’ And I was like, oh no. Oh no. Okay. What did I do? So, so that sort of self-doubt that creeped in, what did I do? So I sit in his office and he sits down and he says, ‘We’ve lost our second GM in a row, second GM in four years. I don’t want the churn on the GM side. You know, would you consider being general manager for American airlines arena?’ Becauseit, so it was only four years old at the time. No, sorry. Six years old at the time. And I was like, what me? It’s like, I don’t, I, I’m not a typical G I didn’t grow up in the, in the facilities industry. I’m coming to it through team sports. I don’t know what it means to run a building. I had like, I was trying to talk him out of hiring me.

Kim Stone:

He said, I’m not asking you, I’m not hiring you to change the light bulbs. I’m hiring you to lead a team. He said, and you know how to lead. And so, so I, I give you that story because that really, for me was powerful because it made me think. And then we went on and did some amazing things together. at American Airlines arena one the top in Florida, it was the top venue in Florida, always top 10 in the US. And, and typically top 15 in the world in terms of tickets sold and stuff. So we did some amazing things. And so I know deeply and in the product of somebody being willing to take a chance on a good leader, right? It doesn’t have to always be a subject matter expert. Somebody who has always done it, it can be a leader.

Kim Stone:

So I give you that story because when I look — and I just had a recent in my departure from the Heat this time when I started the special projects, I identified talent more than I identified people who knew construction. because I’m like, I got the construction piece. There’s I know how to do that. And we can get consultants to help with that, but I need leaders. I need people who can help bring change to our organization. So identified a guy and was able to start working with him. And now he is running that division and he’s in line to become a vice president. And so what I did is I just refined processes, procedures, leadership, how to hold people accountable, what are the main focuses and priorities. So I’m so proud of him because I remember when, when I asked him to join my special projects team, he was like, oh what, same, same sort of reaction that I had with our, I said, but I see in you the things that I need to put together, this team.

Kim Stone:

So it’s about talent, about identifying talent versus somebody that is a technical expert, right? A technical some jobs, you need a technical expert, but when you need leadership and development and desire and passion those are things that really help you identify. So I, so I’ll identify that in people. And then I care about people. I really am invested in others’ success. It is not about me. It has never been about me. It’s about we, because if I, I have eight senior vice presidents who report into me, I need to make them successful. Right. I need to, I always tell ’em I’ll block and tackle you score the touchdowns.becauseI don’t care. I don’t care if I get the, the accolades. What I care is that this one hits the premium seat revenue goal that this one hits their corporate goal, that this one runs events, world class, like tell me what is getting in your way of being able to do that.

Kim Stone:

And if it’s whatever it is, let me know. And then I’ll also hold them accountable. The so, so that’s sort of my approach it’s worked for me. It can be exhausting because you, my area of opportunity is to be more of a situational leader. Yeah. And that’s, that’s part of my on growing growth and I, and in development as a, as a leader myself and the world continues to change. And so for anybody listening to your podcast one of the things that is about core value for me is like lifelong learning. Like you, you can’t think, you know it all because the world is changing around you. So as soon as you stop learning, the rest of the world is starting to pass you by. And then you’re gonna turn around one day and go what happened? Why, you know? Yes, because you’re not upskilling, you’re not staying relevant. You’re the way people want to be led. Now there’s more generations in the workforce now than there were previously. And so I have to be able to motivate all those various generations. And so instead of them fitting my style, right. I tried to understand them more.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, no, I love that. And you really had a, a huge responsibility as far as diversity and inclusion as you came back to the Heat. And so I’d love to hear just a little bit about maybe some of the things that you spearheaded or even what you noticed and, and how it helps an organization to really have initiatives around diversity and inclusion.

Kim Stone:

I have to give the Golden State Warriors immense credit in this area, like just by the byproduct of being in San Francisco, there is a, just a, a cultural approach to equity that happens in San Francisco. It’s just part of the culture. Sure. And in, and what that means is there’s a, there’s a deep dedication, appreciation and understanding of it. And so they worked intentionally every day and then, so to go through COVID to go through all the social justice movements that happened during that timeframe. We would take opportunities at the beginning of, of large, we had one large weekly meeting where we brought everybody together to talk about business. And we would take time at the beginning of that, just to let people express how they’re feeling about a situation that had just happened in, in the world. I mean, there’s, so it just felt like things were happening left and right.

Kim Stone:

So it was amazing to be with the Warriors during that timeframe because they navigated it so expertly and that’s from Rick Welts. Rick Welts was my boss there from his leadership style to the HR executive Erin Dangerfield. She was just phenomenal in understanding the moment and what was needed. And so I learned so much about myself, about the situation. So then coming back to Miami and overseeing D, E and I there couldn’t be two states that are more opposite in the nation than Florida’s governor and the governor of California. They couldn’t be more different in terms of just their approach to society. And Florida overall is incredibly conservative. California overall is incredibly liberal, right? So that is just what it is. So the politics of the area have an impact on the culture of the area.

Kim Stone:

So you come back to Florida where governor DeSantis was putting in a legislation to prevent companies from allowing conversations to restrict the, don’t say gay bill, like we know about that. There’s a stop woke act that just went into place July 1st, that bans companies from conducting trainings that you’re gonna have to research this more. But, in effect, what it did is you, you have to be careful about any diversity training you do, because the unintended impact of making somebody feel bad about themselves was essentially what that was. So it couldn’t have been more different. It couldn’t have been more different. And there were there was, this is legislation, which means it’s law. So you have to, so what, so the beautiful thing, there is the Miami Heat going again, back to Eric Woolworth, Nick Harrison, from the ownership, they believed deeply in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Kim Stone:

So we just found ways to thread the needle. So we couldn’t, we were like playing basketball with one arm tied behind our back because of the governor’s politics, but we found ways to do it. So, so I, I give you those two extremes because in San Francisco you were very free to have conversations and it’s just part of the culture. And then in, in Florida, because of the politics, again, you’re very restricted and you have to be very careful and the diversity of a, of opinions, not everybody’s on the same page about how, how you should be doing things. So it was just, it was a, it was a delicate balance, right. And now I’m in New York. Yeah. You know, in New York is, is somewhere probably a little, little more, little less like Florida and a lot more like California. And so just learning that, and then my industry being in the sports and entertainment industry and especially Oak view group, and Tim Leiweke believes deeply in diversity, equity and inclusion. I am a byproduct of that. I am a woman running one of the top venues in the country and eventually will be one of the top in the world. Once we get a few we need few more months under our ourselves.

Kim Stone:

So you know, it’s great. But I know that also comes with an obligation to help others. Yeah. It’s, it’s not an obligation. Somebody helped me. I need to help somebody.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Well, this conversation has been so valuable. Kim, thank you so much for your time. I love it. I know that our listeners are probably as enthralled as I am in your story and the impact that you have made across this, this phenomenal country. So thank you so much, but I do wanna ask, I’ve got one more question for you. So would you mind staying around for maybe some bonus content?

Kim Stone:

I’ve had so much fun. Thank you. And it would be my pleasure. Let’s never end.

Lisa Zeeveld:

All right, guys, we’ll definitely stick around. You’re not gonna wanna miss this, but in order to hear the clip, you must subscribe to our email list and we’re gonna send you a link to all of that amazing bonus content, or you can always visit onenextsteppodcast.com where you can find the link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Wow. That conversation was absolutely incredible between LZ and Kim. I just, I hope you took so much away from that like I did. I really hope you leave this episode, feeling inspired and motivated to take on your next big career milestone. Thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step to make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify. If you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to BELAY solutions.com for more episodes, show notes and helpful resources. Visit onenextsteppodcast.com.