Case study 01 · Founder & Editor-in-Chief
WAGS Redefined
I identified a gap in the market and created a solution to the problem: a platform and community for the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes and coaches, through media and live events. Five channels, one community.
Executive brief
- The problem
- Women connected to professional sports were written about, never written for. No owned platform existed where they could speak for themselves across teams, leagues and cities.
- What I owned
- Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Full P&L: editorial strategy, five channels, a contributor team, corporate partnerships, events and press.
- The strategy
- Build the community first and the media around it: feature members as protagonists, give them something to be proud of, then monetize through partnerships and live events rather than ad impressions.
- What I built and led
- Five connected channels: a 20K organic social following, a 200+ post newsroom with 30 contributors and 2 correspondents, three print and digital magazine issues, a 1,000 subscriber owned newsletter, and 8 live events from Super Bowl pop ups to private brand rooms to the WAGcademy conference. I chaired a 9 woman planning committee for a year, secured 31 speakers, and brokered advertising across website, magazine and social.
- What changed
- 733% platform growth in a year, $50K annual revenue up from $6,405, average order value from $53 to $878, 100 attendees across five leagues at WAGcademy, 25+ sponsors and vendors activated, and 8 earned press placements.
01
Social
20K organic followers, zero paid
02
Website
200+ blogs, 30 contributors, 20K monthly views
03
Magazine
First digital + print magazine for WAGS · 3 issues
04
Newsletter
1,000 owned subscribers
05
Live events
WAGcademy, Super Bowl pop-ups, private brand events
The opportunity
Women connected to professional sports were written about, rarely written for. So I built a destination where they could use their own voices, regardless of team, league or location.
“I learned how to build content with a community rather than simply create content for an audience: identifying stories, elevating member voices, and creating a platform where people could see their experiences reflected.”
Pillar 02 · Website
wagsredefined.com, the newsroom behind the community
What it was
The owned home of the brand. A real editorial operation, not a blog afterthought.
- 200+ blogs from 30 contributors and 2 embedded correspondents
- ~20,000 unique page views a month
- My role: commissioning, editing every post, setting pillars and cadence, keeping voice consistent
Why it matters
- Contributors were community members, so writing turned readers into makers
- Content scaled without me writing it all; each contributor brought their own audience
- The site fed social, the magazine and the newsletter
Pillar 03 · Magazine
WAGS Redefined, The Magazine
The first digital and print magazine for WAGS, built from the community it covered.
What the work included
- Editorial strategy: pillars, formats, publishing rhythm
- Interviews, member profiles and cover features
- Photo direction and production for each issue
- Print and digital editions of three issues
Pillar 04 · Newsletter
Owned email, 1,000 subscribers
Why email
The one channel that didn't depend on an algorithm. Email made the audience ours.
- Style Roster: a partner launch written as editorial, not an ad
- A female-founded sports-fashion platform introduced in the magazine's own voice
- A subscriber who loved the newsletter became a collaborator in it
Pillar 05 · Live events
The community, in a room
Not one annual event but a run of private and mid sized activations: Super Bowl pop ups, intimate dinners and brand events with names like Louis Vuitton, and the flagship WAGcademy conference in Los Angeles.
- Super Bowl
- Pop-up activations built around the league's biggest week
- Louis Vuitton
- Private brand events hosted for members, invite-only
- Mid-sized
- Recurring 30 to 100 guest formats: dinners, styling suites, panels
- WAGcademy
- The flagship conference. 100 attendees, 5 leagues
“Wagcademy is all about putting that mission into action by helping us make connections, share hard-earned knowledge, and build each other up.”
What it was
The platform's live expression, from small private rooms to a conference and festival hybrid, mentoring women through business, finances and hardship.
The line-up
- Sarah Centrella, best selling author of the #1 self-help book Hustle, Believe, Receive
- CleRenda McGrady, best selling author of Push Thru! Redefine and Create Your Own Success Story; wife to NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady and mother of five
- Diann Valentin, Bravo TV host, To Rome for Love; love and relationship expert
- Raven Thomas, ABC Shark Tank winner, million dollar deal with Mark Cuban
What I ran
- Concept, positioning and a year-long build with the WAGS Redefined team
- Speaker curation across and beyond the WAG community: 31 speakers and panelists negotiated and secured
- A 9 woman planning committee assembled and chaired on weekly calls for a year
- Corporate partnership: a full sponsor roster led by presenting sponsor Bank of America, with category partners including Pro Athlete Travel
- Brand environment, styling activations and on-site experience
- Press strategy and media relations, with an agency-issued national release
- Cross-league recruitment: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS
Sponsors & vendors
Bank of America presented; a wider roster (Pro Athlete Travel plus styling, beauty, hospitality, print and production vendors) was integrated into the experience, not bolted on as signage.
Culture in the room
- Women from five leagues, mentored, photographed, styled and taken seriously
- Hosted conversation over lecture; partner activations that gave rather than sold
- Speakers' books sent home with attendees
Service day: Dream Center with the LA Dodgers
The conference opened with service, not a stage.
- Day before WAGcademy: a back-to-school drive with the Dream Center and LA Dodgers
- Members packed and handed out hundreds of backpacks of school supplies
- Set the tone: by the next day, the room felt like a community, not a guest list
Fans → ambassadors → advocates
- Social found people; the website made them protagonists in 200+ stories
- The magazine put them in print; the newsletter gave a direct line and partnership surface
- Live events, from pop ups to private brand rooms to WAGcademy, put it all in a room and turned attendance into identity
The mechanic: feature people as protagonists, give them something to be proud of, make it easy to pass along.
Pillar 01 · Social
20,000 followers, grown organically
What it did
20K organic followers, zero paid acquisition, built by posting the community back to itself.
Why it matters
Organic scale signals real message fit, and it seeded the magazine, the list and the conference.