Case study 02 · Identity-based community
The Sport Sorority
I identified a gap in the market and once again set out to galvanize people around a cause I cared about. The Sport Sorority community was born from my solution to the problem: a membership community, a co-hosted virtual summit and a member-written newsletter for women in sports, built on relationships so members do the recruiting.
Executive brief
- The problem
- Ambitious women in sports had networks by accident and no shared room: education, mentoring and job access sat behind whoever you happened to know.
- What I owned
- Founder and community lead: positioning, pricing, programming, the membership platform, the summit, the newsletter and every partner relationship.
- The strategy
- Charge for membership so the community self selects, then deliver value on a calendar: classes, mentorship cohorts, coaching calls and member written editorial.
- What I built and led
- The Locker Room paid membership at $300 annual dues with 50 founding members and 27 classes, an 8 pair mentorship cohort, the Locker Room to Board Room Leadership course, the member written newsletter, and the co-hosted Standing in Sisterhood summit.
- What changed
- $10K sponsorship raised for the first summit, 125 virtual attendees, 15 speakers programmed, and a membership where members recruit members.
Mission
Connect next gen women leaders to sport opportunities.
What we deliver
Education, mentoring, networking and career opportunities.
Who we champion
Ambitious women in sports committed to breaking barriers and never settling.
Vision
A community where women in sports connect and thrive worldwide.
Membership
The Locker Room, the membership club
The official membership community of The Sport Sorority. Recurring classes on leadership, career development and industry coursework.
- $300
- Annual dues. A paid membership, not a free follower base
- 50
- Founding members who joined at launch and set the culture
- 27
- Classes hosted on the platform, a recurring programming calendar
- 8
- Mentor and mentee pairings in the first cohort of our 12 week mentorship program
- Weekly
- Coaching calls with the founder and a high-performance coach
- Daily
- Slack channel messages driving member participation, motivation and community
Inside the platform
A members-only site, not a group chat
Its own domain, member logins, an orientation path, a leadership roadmap ("The Playbook") and a self-paced course library.
Membership, in the mail
Something physical with her name on it. Cost effective retention that turns a transaction into a relationship, and members posted it unprompted.
Virtual courses · built with members
Stress, Sleep & Nutrition, an e-course written by a member
Members with credentials authored and taught their own courses. She brings expertise, the community gets education, she leaves with a platform of her own.
Members selling it for us
Every member got a spotlight page with her name, photo and title, built to be screenshotted and shared. Launch reach came from members, not paid promotion.
In their words
Members described the membership in their own words, the clearest retention signal there is. Hear it from the members.
Virtual summit
Standing in Sisterhood, a virtual summit co-hosted with the NBWA
Co-hosted with the National Basketball Wives Association (NBA wives & SOs, 501(c)(3)): the first Standing in Sisterhood Virtual Summit. Multiple days, multiple sessions, programmed and produced by me and packaged for sponsors.
- $10K
- Sponsorship raised in the middle of the pandemic, for a first year virtual event
- 15
- Speakers and panelists booked, briefed and run of show'd
- 125
- Virtual attendees from the women in sports community
- Press
- Sports media coverage including Highlighther Media (now Bleacher Report W Sports)
Co-hosts
The Sport Sorority × National Basketball Wives Association.
My role
Programming, run of show, speaker booking, sponsor integration, promo assets, live-day social.
Why it mattered
Two audiences, one room. That gave sponsors a reason to fund it and made #SISSUMMIT a shared hashtag.
Programming: mental wellness
Mental health wasn’t a side session. It bookended the whole summit.
Two of the highest-attended sessions were built around emotional health, not career hacks.
Self Care Crash Course
Devi Brown on practical mindfulness, opening day one.
Healthy State of Mind
Nina Westbrook (LMFT) and Dr. Morgan Thomas on therapy and the mental load inside sports families.
Stand Up SIS
Allyship panel, moderated by Sabrina Galloway with Holiday, Collins, Rose and Sabathia.
Engagement, none of it requested or paid for
Members posted the sessions themselves: panel graphics, livestream stories and clips they filmed off their own screens.
Newsletter
Member-written, member-bylined
Members pitch and write every piece, shipped with a real byline, headshot and bio.
Contributor spotlight
Ash Kavanagh
Sports Administration grad student at UNC, corporate sponsorships at Learfield IMG College, host of 5 Minute Fan.
The loop
Read, pitch, publish, share. A byline worth bringing your own network to.
What this taught me about community
Strong communities aren't built by broadcasting at people. They are built by relationships, genuine care and creating something people recognize as for us.
“That concept translates directly from women in sports to any professional community: same need for recognition, same need for peers who understand the work.”