The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP86 Leah Godfrey On Building Women’s Sport From The Ground Up

• Ntola • Season 5 • Episode 86

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In this episode of the Trailblazer Experience, Leah Godfrey shares her inspiring journey from a diverse academic background to becoming a leader in women's sports and community building. With over 30 years of experience, Leah discusses her entrepreneurial spirit, the importance of core values, and her transition from the food industry to women's sports. She highlights her initiatives, including the Sports Bra Initiative and her work with Neurodiverse Sport, emphasizing the need for systemic change and empowerment in women's sports. Leah also shares valuable insights on leadership, creativity, and the importance of nurturing the next generation of leaders.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Leah Godfrey's Journey
02:16 Early Career and Academic Background
06:09 Core Values and Entrepreneurial Spirit
10:59 Transitioning from Food to Women's Sports
14:40 The Bold Move into Women's Sports
20:46 Leadership in Women's Football and Neurodiversity
24:53 Highlights and Impactful Initiatives
30:27 The Sports Bra Initiative and Its Importance
34:10 Building a Sustainable Future for Women's Sports
43:13 Creative Storytelling and Brand Building
48:11 Empowering the Next Generation
54:48 Closing Thoughts and Takeaway Tips

Find Leah 

(2) Leah Godfrey | LinkedIn

https://www.instagram.com/_alt_elle 

www.neurodiversesport.com


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The Trailblazers Experience:

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys. I'm really excited with my guest today. We've already been chatting away, but for the audience who doesn't know who this Trailblazer is, I'm just going to read some stuff here. Today's guest is Leah Godifree, commercial and community-building creative with over 30 years' experience of strategic leadership across food, sport, culture, and more. From founding award-winning food ventures in Boston to leading a women's football club in the UK, in London, Leah's journey is anything but linear. And that's what makes it even more powerful and inspiring for today. She's the founder of L2 Foundry and Lt, platforms that support female founders, equity-centered campaigns, and grounded storytelling. Leah, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. I mean, I had to read that resume because I didn't want to leave anything out. And this show is all about celebrating women and their career journeys. You have had quite a ride.

Leah Godfrey:

It's been wild. I mean, you don't expect to be in multiple industries or other countries or anything like that. And I like, I love my journey. I love that it's like been spiky and different, and and I love the pivots and the pauses. But yeah, I've really I've enjoyed it. Like I do enjoy the crazy of it all, of it too.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean, and this is what it's all about, isn't it? This is what the show's all about, telling the stories. And you've talked about how you've just taken on a few interns. Let's start at the beginning so that we can inspire the interns or whoever's listening and thinking, wow, I don't know where my career's going. I don't know whether to pivot, I don't know what to do. Let's start at the beginning for you. So you're obviously you've migrated to the UK, you're American. Let's talk about the beginning and how you started. I mean, you launched a multiple food venture at the age of 26, but what was your upbringing like? What did you actually want to be when you were growing up? Did you study something different? What's the story?

Leah Godfrey:

I think I thought that I would go into a much more academic field than food. Uh, I was studying sociology, literature, history at university, doing an architecture internship, trying to kind of figure out where I might land. And I had been in food since I was 16. I did an apprenticeship in in baking at that point. And I really, really loved it, but it always felt like it was something that was a side hustle, that it wasn't who I was or who I was supposed to be in a lot of ways. And I just felt like more and more in love with it all the time. I I'm obsessed with ingredients and new flavors and oh God, anything new in the food scene. And I think that that energy and curiosity just kept drawing me in. And my third year of uni, we're at four years back home. Um, I was recruited for like a very high-level food role in Boston. And I was like, uh, I'm supposed to finish school and be an academic and, you know, be a sociologist or head in this direction. And it felt really dangerous and crazy. And I took it and I moved and I left uni in my third year, moved to Boston, and within about two years was part of a team that won Best of Boston caterer. It was an extraordinary time. I really loved it. I went on to go and work for a few more startup caterers, all of whom won awards. I was also baking as well and won Best of Boston Muffin and really enjoyed that. I started a wholesale cake company at 19, which in some ways, starting these two different catering companies and this wholesale cake company, I think I thought because I was lucky and they did well. And I, I mean, I worked really bloody hard, but they were well timed, they were well placed. I think I thought it might be easier to open companies going forward, but you know, live and learn. So that food is definitely the biggest part of my career, and it's not what I where I expect it to be at all. But yeah, absolutely loved it. Like it's probably one of my favorite parts of my career.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's interesting that you said something academic, but actually, baking is very technical. So it is. It requires precision, it requires, you know, understanding the different components and so on and so forth. My first one's son is he's very academic, but his passion is baking. And his baking, his goods are just uh probably comes from my. I mean, I used to bat bake in the heyday, but I'm not as good as my sisters, I'm not as good as my son. But there's a lot of precision, attention to detail, a lot of planning, you know. So, and if you're baking in bulk, you know, considering who's it going to be for, when do you start? So that entrepreneurial spark, I think that it's you've you've sort of always had it in a way.

Leah Godfrey:

Yeah. You know. I think, you know, I talk a little bit about this, like growing up, you know, having access to sport, and we'll get into this later, but Title IX created a dramatic parody, gender parody for women and girls. And I think that I grew up believing in that parody. I experienced that parody in sport and in school and in education. And I had two parents who definitely led me to believe I could go and do whatever I wanted. And there is very much that American mindset too. Like we're we're kind of built and molded and forged to go out and, you know, and be great. And sometimes we are and sometimes we aren't. But it's definitely our mindset overall as well.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah. So would you say in the earlier days, um, your, you know, your core values and your ethics, your upbringing were sort of one of the things that sort of make the secret source of who you are now. But even just being an entrepreneur, what did those early years teach you about creativity, risk, and just even resilience and running a business at a younger age?

Leah Godfrey:

I think I didn't value risk as much as I would come to. I think I did feel like I was good at starting businesses and I could do that a little bit more fluidly. It wasn't really until I think my mid-20s that I started to do a lot more risk governance and policy and really head into a more sort of senior leadership role. And funny enough, like that stuff creates pause sometimes too. Whereas before I was like, yeah, let's just do this. I was like, let's think about this a little bit more. And so it was nice to grow professionally in that way.

The Trailblazers Experience:

What core values from your parents have sort of shaped how you approached entrepreneurship? And then, you know, what did those early entrepreneur days teach about, you know, risk and creativity? We hear a lot about that, you know, with entrepreneurs now. Creativity, risk, building community, building brand. You were already at the cusp of it in your early 20s. So what were some of the lessons that you learned there?

Leah Godfrey:

I mean, I think I come up from a, you know, grew up in a family that has a little bit of hyper justice, is keen to jump in, is keen to say this isn't right, and we're going to be a part of fixing it. And so I grew up with that mentality that, you know, you should always be thinking globally, you should always be acting locally, you should be focused on change in your life. And I definitely thought heading out into the world that it was my job to make it better. And I think that that was what was hard about food for me initially, is it felt it felt too far away for me from writing in politics and change. And I thought, am I doing enough in the world? And I think that I then really quickly got into community work through food. And I felt and I could feel the difference between doing a 10 million pound wedding, you know, and then doing a 5,000-pound rare plant auction for an up-and-coming, you know, land trust. And I was so filled up by that work. Like I think I can be a little not myopic, but really focused on the work ahead of me. And sometimes it takes me a moment to sort of assess and say, wow, this feels so much better that I need to do more of this. And part of the role in marketing at Whole Foods was like that. This is, I think, what helped forge creativity and community in a number of things. But at Whole Foods at the time, your donation budget was almost as big as your marketing budget. And so it was a fascinating way for me to really more formally enter marketing. I had done a lot of branding at that point, menu development, logos, lots of comms across my career. But I really figured out how to integrate that, I think, more so at Whole Foods, especially in that marketing role. So if you have money that you're meant to give away versus, you know, above the line spent, you're really precious about that. You want that money to have an impact. And so aligning right away with, you know, lots of different charities was really helpful. And it also helped me understand charity leadership and board leadership and what is an effective charity as well, because we wanted to be with people who are driving fast and getting it right. So I think that amalgamation all sort of happened at that time. And for me, in terms of creativity, like it really was baking and cooking that brought a lot of that out in me. And I think I didn't think I was a very good creative, despite that, for quite some time. It was surrounded by, I'm literally surrounded by a a wall, you know, an entire room with every piece of the wall covered in some emerging artist. And so I think I didn't acknowledge that about myself until a little bit later in my career when it became apparent that that was as well a skill set that I had.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's so interesting. I mean, everything that I've just read about you, even just us having conversations or when we've met, you've always been rooted in activism and giving back and, you know, whatever you're doing, you're saying, okay, the what's the end game of how can we help someone? How can we help people? Your resume is amazing. You've worked across Fortune 100 companies, boardrooms, etc. You know, you've talked about Whole Foods. How do you, well, two things. How have you found rising the ranks and being a leader, being a thought leader, being, you know, someone who's strategic and responsible for a big chunk of businesses throughout the years? Obviously, going shifting from entrepreneurship to then working for businesses, how was that for you at that time?

Leah Godfrey:

Well, I mean, you're really talking about like one career being based mostly in the US and then bringing that career over here for about 10 years. So doing consulting and strategy and lots of big events for charities, and then transitioning after a brief foray at Sotherby's into sport. And so when we talk about food, I think a little bit more about the US. And I feel like we're really talent hungry in the US. We're really good at spotting it. I always had standing offers in the US. There was always somebody saying, whenever you tire of this, come here and build for us. And so I felt seen in that industry. Um, and I felt seen as a whole person, like as somebody who was creative, who also could write your governance, who could write your mission, who could sit there and say, it's shrink, you know, and go through your PL. I felt really good and confident about myself in that industry. And I think that coming into women's sports in this country has been, I mean, I was in it only a few months before I realized that I needed to build a master's, that I actually was so out of my depth culturally that I would not be able to adapt my skills to be able to drive this forward because I was unaligned. And that's from being a very competitive American woman and coming over and seeing the state of women and girls' sport, which is roughly equivalent to the late 70s, early 80s in the US. And I also then had my American approach to it, which was we would burn the state house down. Like this is so unacceptable. We have we have a legal parity, so there's a way to deal with this. And there was none of that. Like coming into women's sports, it was really a lot of humility and acceptance for standards that are just not good enough. And so I would say the lack of sporting access to women and girls in this country also holds back larger feminist milestones. And I think that for me, when we talk about my career here, I think it can be a bit bumpy. We we really, in the top three tiers of women's football, I think we have three independent clubs, and only two of those are owned by women. So the vast majority of every place where I might work at, you know, aside from like the USL league, um, are male-owned clubs. And I think that for the most part, they have their eye on a bigger prize on the men's game, on in the space that they're comfortable. And they aren't necessarily opening up, you know, a lot of the avenues that we need, like workforce development to activate women's, which honestly stands to be a more, you know, a richer industry, an industry that brings clubs even more money than men's do. But making that transition, that's a little tricky in this moment. And I feel seen by my peers, um, I'm sought for, you know, loads of advice and consultation and lots of speaking engagements. And there are amazing women in this space. But I think that we still haven't sort of cracked the workforce knot and installing the right women into the right clubs to drive the change that we need that will affect the rest of the pyramid, ideally, for more holistic change.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's interesting that you've touched on that. I mean, not just uh women's football, but just even women founders of sports brands or activewear brands, they are far and few between, and yet we are the customer, we are the consumer. So interesting, even just to hear in in the sector that you've decided to focus on that that is these smaller numbers are just so there's there's there's a lot to do, but a lot to tackle.

Leah Godfrey:

Yeah.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I'm gonna pivot now. 2020 was a bold move for you to say I'm moving into women's sports. You know, why? What what was the decision point or inflection point for you to say this is what I want to do?

Leah Godfrey:

It it had everything I love. You know, in 2020, this was a white space and nobody was even calling it that. We don't have a particularly deep commercial bench because we've not made money before. So there aren't those people that have been in previous emerging industries that say, Oh my god, this is a gorgeous product that nobody knows anything about. It's bloody lovely to be here, you know, and and there's just literally a slew of unmet needs, both from the players and the fans. And it just was so very obvious to me that this trajectory was not far, you know, far away. And so I, you know, that's the commercial part of me who's like, oh, great. I get to be a commercial monster. I get to build stuff, I get to scale. Like that's so exciting. And I'm gonna do it in a space that is it that means it will drive good. These are women, by and large, who don't have money, funds, support. We can change that. And we can also then, you know, up that confidence bar, up those feminist milestones that, you know, drive wider equity. So there was the commercial part that was just sexy and interesting and fun. And then for me, it was also like the dramatic lack of confidence in the women's sporting ecosphere that really like it just, I don't know, it had quite an effect on me. Um, I'm very data-driven. I listen, I ask a million questions, I'm really curious. And so I started by just immediately asking everybody sort of the same question for six months, girls and women, so that I could understand the answer to that. And part of it was like I would say magic wand, you can change anything in the women's game. What would you change? What is the first priority? And by and large, the answer was I want to play on a safe pitch on Sundays. We were not even at the point where women had the confidence to think about systemic change or, you know, or or equal access. It was just like, I just don't want to get injured on Sunday. Most of my pitches are unsafe. And actually, from a sociology standpoint, that's a fascinating piece of data. There are so many, like Python just splits off in a million directions from that one piece of data. And so I just started asking more and more questions. And I felt as though there was a real lack of confidence and unbelievable opportunity to move forward, and that I really just wanted to be a part of it, and that I brought a lot of the right skills to be an activator in this space. And it's been dramatically bumpy, mind you, since then. But worth it, like every day worth it to be a part of something that's much bigger and something that lives past us, too.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's so interesting what you said, having those interviews and talking to the women about what the foundational requirements are, what would make them happy. And it's Maslow's hierarchy of needs, really, where they're like, I just want a safe pitch. And you're thinking they might say, we want more funding, more sponsorship, more money, more this, and they're coming down to the basics. Is that pretty humbling, isn't it? Especially when you are saying, I'm coming into this sport, I want to make a change, I want to make a difference, and it's the the basics, the foundations that you're having to start with.

Leah Godfrey:

It is, and it's interesting because I'm definitely a systemic change type of person, and that's where I'd like to focus. But uh, it just means that you're advocating for a wider breadth of needs, but at the end of the day, you're still advocating for parity. You're advocating for more than a pitch without holes in it. And if that's where you need to start, fair enough. And actually, you know, if that it ties into the impetus of a lot of why women play sport in in general, too. There's a huge social draw. It's about being with friends. And so you may not want to, with your Sunday team, be part of a political movement. You may just be there to hang out with your mates and kick the ball around. And you should have that right. And so whether or not you're advocating for systemic change or you just want to play with your mates, I'm going to advocate either way, is what it comes down to.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah. So for the audience who don't know who you are, you are the CEO of a semi-pro women's club and obviously a CEO of neurodiverse sport. Name the club, talk about what neurodivorse sport is, and yeah, how do you see women's sport as a vehicle for broader equity across gender, race, and obviously neurodiversity, which I don't want to say it's a buzzword, but it's nice that neurodivergence is coming into the fold over the past few years, isn't it?

Leah Godfrey:

It really is. I mean, I think I've held a lot of roles, everything from, you know, volunteering to run the largest girls' league in London to, you know, work at BamRef and other charities. And I think being a CEO at in tier three and the FA Women's National League is really exciting. It's an interesting point because you do have considerable operating costs just managing your women's team, somewhere between, depending upon who you pay and what you do, somewhere between, you know, 100 and 400,000 a year. And that actually is income that you can compensate for with like appropriate fan engagement strategies. Tier three is a real sweet spot that way. And if we invest in those businesses ahead of them being in the first two tiers, we can make it so that they can survive that. The costs of being in those top two tiers right now outstrip revenue generation. I was actually really thrilled to be in that in that um particular division. Uh, I love tier three in a lot of women's sports because it's a little bit broken. It needs fixing. And if you tidy it before that move, you are in the best shape possible. My work at Neurodiverse Sport, I love that neurodiversity is is a is a big growing conversation now over here in Europe. And I didn't expect to end up doing what, you know, being at Neurodiverse Sport. I really liked what they did. I felt like they had just uh an organic impetus that was very simple and straightforward that aligned, I aligned with. Um, and they had a brilliant, brilliant founder, Cara McMurtry. And so over the course of the year, like what we accomplished together, what we were able to do was extraordinary. Um, she has this enormous, gorgeous brain. And I really wanted to get more of that out there. Her her views and understanding of neurodiversity uh just outpace her peers. And she's really a movement builder herself. So looking at how we would create operational procedures without any funding, and I joke a lot, but we basically were gluing together, I think, five CRMs and a few other random things to make everything work. And actually, I think that for me, starting so many businesses before and not having funding and always knowing like I'm gonna just graft, graft, graft until we can afford what we need helped me a lot in that. We started amazing conversations. And by the time that I stepped away, we were working with the RFU, the ECB, the LTA. It's not an NGB that we weren't speaking with. And UKSI had commissioned the white paper on inclusive environments by neurodiverse sport. We had an exclusive partnership with King's College, leading a research advisory board into neurodiversity, and then began forming a think tank in order to bring in a wide breadth of experts to lead this movement forward. So that for me is probably one of the most interesting scales. If somebody had said, like, do you want to start a think tank? Do you want to write a white paper? Do you want to, you know, spend a year with gorgeously neurodivergent people and loads of academics? I would have said yes, but I didn't expect it. And I really love it. Like highlight of my career, being able to contribute to that in a lot of ways, really rich conversation. So yeah, I felt as though it was important as well to bounce around and to understand, you know, how different things are run. Like it's a different country. I grew up in the US. How we run things, how we scale things, how we govern things is very different. And so being able to be at a fledgling, you know, startup think tank movement, and then also running a club, consulting right now for probably five different young female founders, all of that as well gives me data to be better at what I do more broadly as well, which I like.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, it feels like there've been quite a few transformative uh moments. What have been some highlights for you with the club and obviously with NeuroDiverse sports, if you were to name a few that sort of stand out?

Leah Godfrey:

Um, I think the white paper for us was a real standout moment to have Cara and you know our academic board recognized as, you know, the leading specialists on what inclusive environments look like. That for me was a really, really big win. We don't talk about this a lot, but you know, a bare minimum of team GB athletes, about 30% are neurodivergent on most teams, and that is as high as 70% on other teams. So this work was really vital, not only for the wellness of those athletes, but for performance as well. So I would say that sometimes it's the little things. One of the sports bra drives that I did uh for the Capital Girls League remains like one of my favorite little tiny initiatives that made a big deal, made a big difference. And it was one of the ways that I worked in moms who've been excluded very much so from club life and league life. And all of these moms came in and were like, I bought three sports bras to donate to the sports bra drive. And it it really brought them in in a way that was so powerful. So sometimes I think it's it's little things, campaign 243, working to support black and brown female officials, exploring their lived experience by forming another academic board with Lester and Loughborough. That for me feels really seismic, like making sure that we're touching on the most marginalized people within the game is important. And young girls are quite marginalized in sport, black and brown women are quite marginalized in sport. So for me, those feel like legacy-worthy, I suppose.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Definitely. Let's touch into the sports bra initiative.

Leah Godfrey:

So what was that then for in a so um sports bras are not seen as essential kit, and they are they're not. And they are. Yeah. They are. Yes. Um, and if you've ever worked out without one, you all know just how bloody essential they are. So I notice, I mean, this is girls' football. So, you know, a few other statistics. 56% of girls' clubs cannot grow down to pitch insecurity. You know, they're often like, you know, wearing hand-me-down kit from the boys' side or the men's side. They may not have kit. So it's not as though we're starting at like, you know, a regular starting point. Yeah. No, but I noticed that, like, you know, as a mom of a of a you know, a daughter who's roughly the age of the girls that I was supporting as well. I just noticed that we had a lot of girls that were that were clearly not wearing sports bras. And it just seemed crazy to me. Like it's these things are such just set standard in so many ways in the US that I was like, how do I, how do I deal with this? And so I actually started reading um and I read about the sports bra project in the US, which is run by Sarah Gyer Swick, I think her name is. She's absolutely wonderful. Connected with her, asked her what she did, what she normally does, and she's like, we throw sports bra drives. And I was like, this is literally the 70s. Like, I can't believe I'm gonna do this, but I'm going to do this. And so we did, and I hand drew this great asset for it, actually. Like I always draw women in non-human colors. So you've got a purple woman. She has on a phenomenal sports bra. She has a Capital Girls League tattoo on her back. And it went out because it was like, that's gonna cause conversation. Why is there a purple woman? Why are we heroing a sports bra? And it started a conversation that led on to do coaches have the right products in their bags for their girls? Do they have period products? Do they have hair elastics? Do they have a metal tin? Because when your girls go out on that pitch, what happens right before they run is they hand you all their jewelry. And so actually having a tiny metal tin to put everybody's jewelry in is important. So it opened up other conversations, which I felt were really important. And it was a loud and proud moment, too. Like you have a right to own a sports prawn. We're gonna make that happen.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean, that initiative could just run nationwide and everywhere, and just not even just for football, just for other sports as well. Because we're unfortunately these statistically, we're such a wasteful society. The amount of times you go and vintage or other resale platforms of people selling off the seven, eight sports bras they bought because they just don't like the color palette. And and imagine if those could actually be donated uh or even just to support those that can't afford them in those underprivileged um communities. It's just it's little things, isn't it? That actually I feel like there's there's that could be a uh a movement that just spreads even just to other uh women's sports areas.

Leah Godfrey:

It could, and it's still it's still really, really needed. I mean, this is a conversation we're having all the time right now. And the the women who are are out there making sports bras are besieged with requests. And I I would say instead of having to decide, yes, we can give five sports bras away this month, like let's form a working group, let's start to empower people and let's not just make change in one area. And this is also a perfect example of how, like in education and in schools, we understand the power of parents. We specifically understand the power of moms who are often at that point split between work and home. In sport, we've not welcomed moms, we've not welcomed that parent workforce. And actually, I think moms would really love to be a part of what we do. And that was a great opportunity. It created so many wonderful conversations that, yeah, I I would absolutely back that. Okay, so what want to watch?

The Trailblazers Experience:

So watch this space, isn't it? Yeah. You're currently leading research on women's football workforce, player confidence, and and more. What insights have emerged from this and what excites you? The rise of Brentford Women, a free playbook for women's clubs.

Leah Godfrey:

We do a lot of research and data. I mean, that's definitely who I am in general. We put together the rise of Brentford Women as a free community and commercial playbook for women's clubs. A lot of the conversations right now are about broadcasts, they're about massive sponsorship. This affects less than 2% of the game. So it's really not data that's helpful to anybody else. Or, and so we thought, how do we start to shift that narrative and talk about, you know, how we grow value from the ground up? So women's sports has always been run for free by a whole bunch of amazing women. I think that there's this false belief that investment may just come and it won't, you know, we're we're not investable right now. And so actually shoring up the spots that make us more investable is a really important thing to do. And actually, we've got a lot of really, we have an unbelievably deep operational workforce because we've run everything without any money for a very long time. So we're good at it, which is wonderful. So leaning in on that operational workforce to um, you know, through throughout Brentford, what we talk about is is, you know, building partnerships and building them symbiotically, sometimes starting with in-kind partnerships so you can do test and learn cycles that prove that you can activate a partnership and then going for ones that might be cold hard cash, which would be exciting for us. So building partnerships. And then we talk a lot about social and digital. We kind of inherited the men's commercial creatives for a while there, and they put out exactly what men want to see. Well, women don't want to see that. A large part of our fan base don't know the rules of the game, um, they're here for the movement. So they don't want to see you scoring a goal, they want to see you making pancakes, they want to know what's in your grocery basket, they want to know what your day looks like. It is the unlived life for a huge part of our fan base. And so, anyway, talking about authentic storytelling and converting our channels, our social channels, to ones that are really. Thriving is a critical part of our growth. So we go through quite a lot of that in the Brentford deck just to really walk people through it. I've now presented that to the Independent Women's Club Network. They were absolutely lovely about it as well. And then with workforce, you know, I talk a lot about our operational debt, but there are very few paid roles. And I think that it's important to align an emerging industry and understand what to prioritize. So our early research on the workforce in women's football looks as though women's football is potentially women's football is at least 85% volunteer run. And that may be as high as 95% in the end. Knowing that there are very few paid roles means that we could potentially step back a little bit from recruitment and training people and maybe focus a little bit more on commercial and revenue generation so that we can afford people. So it's just about taking this wonderful workforce and saying, actually, yes, wonderful, we do need to upskill people and we do need to network, but potentially in month four, what we need to start with is making sure that the women that we do know that are running clubs for free are skilled to be able to drive them forward.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You know, a lot of what I'm hearing of what you're saying is you are sort of like making lemonade from lemons here. A lot of it is just taking what you have and seeing what do we focus on? You know, how can we drive impact? How can we make our organization or women's football lay the foundation so that when we do get the investment, it will come, we are ready for it. Is that a good way for so even women just listening to the podcast who might not be involved in women's sports and they're in different sectors? Would you say those are some good tips to have to say working with what you have to get the best out of it instead of saying, well, I don't have any funding, so there's nothing we can do. I don't have this investment, so there's nothing we can do. It's sort of like what how can you make impact with what you have right now?

Leah Godfrey:

Yeah, I mean, being in this position teaches you how to lead so much faster when you do have money. Um, I mean, it's a it's an absolute delight. Like I said, gluing together five different CRMs with, you know, an organization and doing it well, mind you. But then all of a sudden, when you can pay for, like, you know, the grand version of HubSpot, you're just like, oh my God, it's just so lovely, you know, and you move faster. So yeah, I don't, I guess I would say a lack of money or interest has never stopped me from starting a business. I've just had to go a longer route where I've said, okay, well, I'd really love to be able to launch the shock version of AltL right away. But actually, you know what? We we need to build up our socials. We need a megaphone to be able to announce this. So we're gonna have to wait on that. And we're gonna have to look at drop shipping because we're not gonna invest right away in our own product line. I think it is about being savvy and and being savvy like that, it's it's it's a skill that benefits you no matter where you are. Finding a route forward, you know, that's the exciting stuff. Those are the people I like to be around, the people who are like, don't care, we're gonna make it happen anyway.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and I think it's a very good mentality and mantra to have. You talked about the CRMs. I was laughing because even just in, you know, from a commercial perspective and the sectors I'm I'm in, yeah, you're going into organizations where you're having to stitch things together and say, how can we make this work? How can you do proof of concept? You know, how can we say, okay, this is going to make a return. And brand building, storytelling, that is now such a very big thing, you know, coming full circle of when you were starting the bakery business, it was all about community. And it's still now, even in a digital space, all about the community. They want to understand who is behind the brand or the product or on the pitch in your case. And it's how do you flip that narrative that still holds true now? And I think that's why I love doing this podcast because you hear the stories and the fundamentals are still the same, isn't it, of how you get things going and getting your message across for the movement that that is happening at the moment, especially with you. Tell me about L2 Foundry and Alt L. What inspired you to create these ventures and how do they serve as both strategic uh platforms and cultural interventions?

Leah Godfrey:

I mean, I think that with Alt L, I was conscious that we weren't telling the stories that we needed to, and that I personally thought that there are a million glorious stories out there that would be of interest to people. So it I started because it just didn't exist. That this is actually a project I would have liked to have done funded for a lot of reasons because it's like I what I did struggle with the bandwidths to do all of the interviews, to build the website, to keep the socials going. But I was also conscious that most of the platforms out there, even the female-led ones, are male-owned right now. And so when you're growing those platforms, you're not actually contributing like to the wider women's ecosphere as directly as you could be. And it also felt like a lot of the platforms were male-owned, that the content was more in line with what we know that the men's fan base wants. We started and we we've written some great stories and done some great events. We did a great piece on Team GB boxer Viv Parsons. There's Nicola M. Bark, who also goes by the Burmese Python and is a pro boxer. Like these are just fabulous, interesting women. Um, and one of the things that I did as well is I was conscious that we have a lot of unpaid creatives in women's sports, like more than any industry I've ever been in in my life. And they are very much like this critical lever for us. And I was like, how do we keep them here? How do we get them experienced? How do we move forward? And so we did a number of events that partnered up-and-coming creatives with pro athletes, like a like a Viv Parsons. And this meant that we had lots of different photographers coming down and capturing Viv. They walk away with wonderful content that's probably worth worthwhile to them financially and also just uh in development. They got to meet each other, and I get to see them too now because like I've connected so many, specifically photographers, and I now see them all liking each other's stuff on LinkedIn and on Instagram, and it grew their network, which was really, really lovely. So Altel was meant to be a somewhat less political, like more focused on the stories and unearthing those narratives. But it is something that, you know, I have to own up to putting on the back burner for L2, like often. Um, because L2 is, you know, the research and the data there, that for me feels a little bit more transformative and I feel a little stretched between the two of them. But with like with L2 Foundry, like one of the projects we're doing now every year for the last four years, I've done just for my own personal edification, a global review of women's sports content. So I'll usually go, you know, country to country, go through major leagues and then look for real outliers to see what's going on. And we're seeing a huge increase in storytelling in women's sports, and some people are getting it right, but broadly, we are not seeing the digital growth that we would expect to see at this stage of our commercial growth. And so I thought, I think maybe I'll do a big piece on that. So we're currently doing like, I don't know, it's like a 70-page deck at the moment, but it is the absolute best of women's sports content that's out there right now. And it's another roadmap that women can look at and say, okay, wow, I didn't think to do color grading. And yes, my fixtures should be pinned. And wow, like, yes, uh, maybe I have been sticker bombing and a little bit too much canvas salad. We can move away from squad collage, you know, vibes, like where all everybody's, you know, looks terrible and is meshed into a thing. Like, that's not really us. So for me, the L2 Foundry work where I get to contribute and ideally make it so that people think, oh, I could do that or reflect, that for me feels more powerful, I suppose. So I do stay in that lane a little bit more. Yeah.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean, I love the fact that you are through Al's mission, just you know, telling the untold stories, you say, of athletes, coaches, CEOs, visionaries who are defining the game and content is key, isn't it? The more information you put out there, the more you shine a light, the more we get to see who these amazing and hopefully women are in that space. And if you don't do it, it's just not gonna happen. And then what will happen is, as you know, we've seen it's the same people who appear in the regular publications and it's yeah, it's constantly being cycled. And we want the younger generation who is coming up to see that there are these role models out there, that there are different ways that you can have impact in the sports and have all these untold stories uh brought to the forefront.

Leah Godfrey:

Now, agreed. And I think, again, like we are going to be hugely dependent upon creatives to move this forward. We've got to find funding for them. We have to integrate them into clubs. If you look at forgetting her name at the moment, there is a commercial creative that just went into Saracen's rugby, and she has put together a rebrand that will stop you in the street. Um, and it is it has got a vernacular font, it's got unbelievable color grading, it's got fans, like proper, real fans. And like you buy into the Bosch of this, like you see it right away, and you're like, I am now a Saracens fan. That's the power of a creative who is commercial, who understands affinity building, stakeholder alignment, who is, you know, and also just fashionable and bloody cool when she is. So I think for me, there's not been as big an understanding of what a huge role creatives will play in this rise. And um, yeah, definitely keen to keep supporting them.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You're a creative at heart, isn't it? What does success look like for you? Because obviously the metrics feels like the you're not chasing the money, you know, you are chasing the movement. But what does success look like to you in terms of the agency?

Leah Godfrey:

I think for me, I'd like to have a little bit more of an impact in the middle of the pyramids. I'd start, I'd really like to start to work with more tier three, tier four, tier five clubs in football. In in rugby, cricket, basketball, netball, and hockey, that's tier two currently because they're much smaller pyramids. But for me, being able to work with those clubs more directly and say, okay, great, now we're going to institute, you know, a new sort of digital vibe and look. Now we're going to start to build events. And we're looking to just scrape together a little bit of money across these three or four things so that we can fund one little auction. And that auction has the potential to give us 40,000 to start next season with. So for me, going in and bite-sizing and supporting clubs to be solvent so that women have more agency within these clubs. Um, and so that, frankly, they start to be bought. And we have a lot of American and European interest in investment, but you know, it's attached to the men's side. It may or may not have the men's reputation. It doesn't have an Instagram account. Like, investors don't know what to do with this because they're like, I think it's a good long game, but it looks so messy right now. So I'd like to change that messy look, get proper investment, and then I don't know, get to actually maybe just do creative stuff. That that I would love to be able to do that.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Oh, well, there's so much to do in women's sports, isn't it? Because it's like you're not only reimagining the fundamentals of the baseline of what does the pitch look like. And then we're talking about the cultural leadership, you know, whether it's the equity and looking at how black and brown people, you know, fit into the whole thing. And then we're talking about, well, how do they position themselves from a from a brand and marketing? There's so much to do. And I love your just gritty attitude of just, I'm just gonna get in there and we're gonna fix what we can with what we have, because that is the way that one moves forward. The question in all of this is, Leah, how do you then find time for yourself? Or is that not even a thing? How do you stay grounded? What keeps you then? You know, how do you power this energy, this drive to, because you are giving yourself to a sport, but you genuinely care. You generally care about these things.

Leah Godfrey:

Yeah. Um, you know, I wouldn't say I always get that part right. I I have a family that are really supportive and understand that I'm an immersive person. Like I want to be, I think in order to really drive change and understand something, like you do have to be quite immersed in it. So I won't say, yeah, I won't say that I always get that right. I think there's also the fact that we, you know, we don't have any independent reporting. So like we don't talk about the harder stuff, but that that's all there too right now. And and I think that I do quite a lot of consulting in the safeguarding and and welfare space. And I think there are ups and downs, right? There are moments where you're just like, you know, I want the lionesses to win less so because I want the lionesses to win, and more so because I know what it does for the sport.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And so, like, you know, the impacts across the whole ecosystem is more valuable than anything else, isn't it?

Leah Godfrey:

Anything else. And the same thing with um with red roses. So for me, like those, those moments, a moment where, you know, you know, where I was able to land the academic board who donated their time for campaign 243. And that board is now evolving into a larger, much more interesting project. Like that, that work, that's what fills me up. And I would say as well, like whenever I can be in girls' sports, whether it's like going to see a friend who's officiating or going and just checking in on a club that I love and know, like being around girls, being in girls' sport, there's it will fill you up like you will not believe. And for me, like having run a number of leagues, having that contact on Saturday and Sunday and getting to see the girls was kind of like what recharged my battery for a week of what feels like very hard cultural change sometimes. So I try and be mindful of it, but I'm also like me, I'm hardwired this way. You know, like I I know that I don't have a typical brain or typical energy levels. And so I just use those for good instead, right? Yeah.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Well, giving it giving back and and and paying it forward is is is really key. For someone who's listening who's thinking, wow, you know, I'd love to pivot my career and get into women's sports. Yes, that's a good thing. And you know, what do you think are are some of the traits that have helped you as a leader in this space? Resilience. Definitely resilience. Yeah.

Leah Godfrey:

Um and also I think like I do describe myself as like a bit of a bulldog. I can be quite relentless in pursuit. Because I'm not pursuing nesting yachts, and because I've done all of my data to make sure that what I am pursuing is the best option for everybody, I'm not gonna go slowly. So I think that being, you know, being relentless, being resilient, I think looking at it more as like um a journey, a journey that you expect to be a bit spiky is really helpful. What I tell a lot of young founders is most great odysseys, most unbelievable stories start with a failure. It's just part of the game. You're going to have wins and you're going to have losses, and you learn equally from both if you're good at your job. So for me, I think it is really about being resilient. You know, you mentioned at one point like your through line. And for me, that's like an interior thing. That is understanding what your strengths are, understanding what your weaknesses are, and then understanding the people in environments that activate those strengths that feed and fuel them, what you need, whether that is cheerleaders or pure silence. You know, we know ourselves. And I think like being very clear and honest with yourself about what you bring and what you don't bring, creating an environment that activates all of the best of you, and then just, you know, continuing to test and learn everything that you do is how I approach these things.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Do you know really just talking about that through line, it's it's so difficult nowadays, isn't it? Because people are either stuck because they don't know what sectors or what direction they want to take. I mean, there's some careers which are very linear, isn't it? You once you've studied to be an architect, this is the direction you're going. And once you've studied the medical field, but for everything else, there is, you know, there are these highs and lows, and that there's a lot of pivoting, I think, in terms of finding yourself in terms of the career, your identity, and I think as women as well, because we go through different phases. Yeah. And obviously, if you've had a family and so on, or if you're a caregiver, they are most times your journey as lots of crossroads and and lots of um different things. So, how do we empower the next generation to be bolder in terms of how they build their own careers moving forward? It's a tough one.

Leah Godfrey:

No, I mean, no, I mean, I I have, you know, uh I have, you know, to seven interns most of the year, and I think about this quite a lot. I think it really it's the first of all, I think that leaving school, not not everybody knows the breadth of stuff that they need to know in order to be successful in business. So being conscious that there could be deficits that you could quickly fix up and and and and support are really helpful. I think that like teaching again that failure is is absolutely just part of the game and that you need to just go out and try things and get them wrong is really important. And also just like, I think I I cheerlead a lot, I build a lot of confidence, and and I think that allow and allow people to get it wrong and right. And I I often say too, like, yes, I'm going to be very opinion, uh, you know, I'm a senior leader, I have extensive and broad experience. So I'm gonna tell you what I think this ad should look like, but it doesn't mean that I'm right. And it's really important that when you're taking in information from all the people that lead you, that you're parsing it and that you're figuring out what works and what doesn't. And that's why I always explain to you why I think something works or why it doesn't, because I'm leaving room for other people to contribute why it does or doesn't work for them. So for me, it's about people-centric environments and creating those for the next generation in a way that feels empowering and gives sort of dual agency that the organization should always be focused on being the best version of itself simultaneously to expecting that of its employees or volunteers.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and then that's how we bring, you know, the young people along on the journey, isn't it? Because they'll be adding their creative flair or making it shorten shop or the cultural relevance or consumer relevance, which I think a lot of brands unfortunately sometimes are missing, and that's why they're they're failing because they just really just can't understand and grab the sight, guys, of actually what matters.

Leah Godfrey:

I agree. I feel like you see that a lot in social media right now. It looks like everybody's given their own account to a 19-year-old because they've gone, okay, well, this is obviously young and I don't know what to do, and we're just gonna give it to kids. And and and to be fair, like the kids have done that. Well, some of them it works, isn't it? Yeah. I agree. Um, I can think of a few kids that are absolutely smashing it at 19. But I think that like that for me is the perfect place for balance. You have a fresh perspective. You have kids who don't delineate between virtual and real life. They have a different experience of all of this and how they see it and believe it and understand it is more paramount than it may be for people my age or your age. I think I'm older than you. Um, but I think what I was saying to them about this, because we were going over, um, we were reviewing one of the sites for this major social media piece that we're putting out. And I was just like, this just isn't interesting. And it's because this person at 19 doesn't have enough life experience to know what to ask. When we look at these six reels, this one she's nailed it because she's caught a cool moment, she's caught a cool little saying, the light worked, she did it just right. But the other times she didn't have enough material to work with. Whereas, like, I don't belong front of camera, I don't belong interviewing players, I do belong behind you, going, ask her what she buys for groceries. Like everyone will, you know, like that's where we work. So I feel like if there could be less lines between you know this much and are allowed to do this, and I know this much and I'm allowed to do this, and more collaboration too, that that is where the real exciting stuff happens.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, the exciting stuff happens when you just, you know, the bringing that collaborative spirit, isn't it, into the fold is really key. Leah, what is something that we haven't talked about that you want to bring front of mind?

Leah Godfrey:

You've been so good. Um, I'm trying to think. I've talked about the you know, the workforce project that we have off on, the social media, the shop. I'm not gonna talk about quite yet. Almost everything else really exciting is ND8 right now. I know, right? Right, guys. You're gonna have to watch the part two, isn't it? I'm like, can't talk about the talk about that. Um, yeah, like I'm on the cusp of quite a few big little announcements, and I'm like, I can't talk about any of them right now.

The Trailblazers Experience:

That's good though, isn't it? If you think if we now just pivot and go full circle from, you know, baking all those years ago to now consultancy and having an impact in women's sports and you know being in boardrooms, that is you've had quite a ride, Leah.

Leah Godfrey:

I have had quite a ride. It's funny too, because like I I keep joking that I'm like really hoping to be able to make like a considerable like impact and feel like I've, you know, like at least help shore up the middle of the pyramid. Like that for me feels like that would be really a really wonderful life accomplishment. But I'm also sat here and I'm like, I would really like to fix the NHS. Like there are still other major projects that I look at and think I want to talk to my sister about that. She's I just like I just feel as though like that's actually one of my strengths is coming in and untangling a pile of crazy core fundamental issues. It's the processes, you know. So I don't I don't know what comes next, but some other big pile of crazy, I hope, and then, you know, retire and open a bakery. So yeah, go go full circle, isn't it? Yeah. Absolutely retire and open a bakery. I can't wait.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Leah, we've come to the end of the podcast and we always ask our guests to close the episode with the Trailblazer takeaway tips. It could be a mantra, a mindset, a piece of advice for listeners who want to lead with purpose and build something meaningful. What takeaway do you have for our trailblazers?

Leah Godfrey:

You know, I spent some time actually writing a little bit about this. Like I really liked this, and I thought this is an important question to get right. Um, I think it will sound like most of what I've said, but I just wrote, you know, that you should be clinically curious, that being curious well beyond like your subject matter, um, curious in general is actually that all of that external data is what you bring back in. And I just feel like that's really helpful throughout my career, being able to connect the dots and connect people and say, oh, but actually in fashion they're doing this and we could do this. So I think that being curious, being intentional, being relentless, and absolutely being kind are critical, have a detailed and resilient plan, nurture strong allies, don't believe in imposter syndrome, and don't be afraid to fail.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Leah, you are so humble. Uh, you know, for the audience, we could have actually talked for three or four hours because Leah just needs her own episode where she's talking about her impact because she does a lot of grassroots stuff and initiatives, things that are not about the money, but about the people. And I think, Leah, we need another episode where we're just talking about that in itself. But that just speaks volumes to who you are as a person as well. So thank you so much for giving your time, you know, telling your story. And I am really certain that you will inspire some woman or even a young man out there.

Leah Godfrey:

Amazing. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really loved this conversation. It was gorgeous. Thank you.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Social plugs that you'd love to do. So where can people find your sp your club, your, you know, plug your your socials now?

Leah Godfrey:

This is your moment. Um so um you can follow me on LinkedIn at LeahGodfrey Alt L is on um all social channels. You can follow my Instagram, but I won't follow you back only because my Instagram is literally like my old life. It's creative and food, and I'm trying not to have any sport on there. Um, so yeah, my my Instagram will just show you that I'm a photographer and a cook and love all sorts of other random things as well. Yeah, I think that's that's it for plugs for me at the moment. Yeah, and I think L2 Foundry website will be publishing a lot more reports soon too. So another place to check out. Thank you.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And for the audience, you know where to find us on the Trailblazer Experience Podcast, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever listen to your podcast. So until then, stay bold, stay curious, and keep trailblazing. Thank you. Bye.