Breaking Barriers with LaunchBreak: The Power of Mentorship and Authentic Leadership

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This episode is Breaking Barriers with Launch Break: The Power of Mentorship and Authentic Leadership.

And I'm joined by Teresa Saputo-Creerand and Philippa Portney, former Division 1 tennis teammates at Columbia. Then they became seasoned business leaders and now the co-founders of Launch Break. And they launched this platform to turn the resilience and the leadership that's been forged in sports into career-launching opportunities for women who have competed at the collegiate, national, professional athletic levels.

And they're going to dive today into how intentional mentorship guides every member and authentic leadership comes from showing up fully, not perfectly.

And we'll unpack that and why the sports experience is a powerful foundation for professional impact. If you're a woman athlete who has competed at the collegiate, national, or pro level, you can join Launch Break for free today at launchbreak.com. All right, let's meet Teresa and Philippa. Welcome to TFR, This Feels Right. We've got the co-founders of Launch Break, Teresa and Philippa. So great to have you on the show. Before we get into this, I know that both of you were, were competitive tier 1 college athletes. So just out of curiosity, before like a big match, would you have a warm-up or like a ritual of some sort?

Oh boy, it was, it was several decades Joel, but I will. I think we probably played some roll songs, didn't we, Philippa? I think we probably had a few. The Cars and a couple of alternative bands. I think we had some roll songs before our matches.

And then I did something kind of embarrassing, and Theresa will laugh at this. This was pre-power bars and pre-energy bars. If I was in a long match, I would eat Twinkies. After I split sets or Hostess Snowballs or something like that. So not something that you would expect—

No.

An athlete to be eating.

And she lived to talk about it.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Cause aren't, aren't Twinkies the things that never have no expiry date? I think that's correct. Well, good, good, kudos to you. Well, that's great. So let's jump into Launch Break and—

Yep.

I'm so fascinated by the story of Launch Break. So Theresa, if you wanna start us off and just tell us, and then Philippa, what is Launch Break and why was this so important to you?

Okay. So thank you. First of all, thank you for having us on today. We're excited to be a part of this. We believe in what you are doing and how, you know, good communication should just make everybody feel right. So we appreciate that. Launch Break is an online professional and shared interest networking platform for athletes who've played women's sports at the collegiate, national team, or professional level. We launched it, pardon the pun, in January of this year.

2024. Sorry to interrupt.

I'm sorry, January of 2024.

Right, right. We've jumped ahead. Yeah, we've jumped ahead.

Yeah. Yeah, a year ago. And just through word of mouth, we probably had, you know, 75 to 100 members at a given point in January. And now we are over 1,700 members.

Terrific.

The genesis of Launch Break, to really talk about that, we'd have to go back, as I mentioned before, a couple of decades, maybe more than a couple of decades. Philippa and I were doubles teammates on Columbia University's tennis team. And at the time, Philippa was at Barnard and I was in the first class of Columbia College. So there was, there's a couple of undergraduate institutions at Columbia University. And Philippa was a year ahead and she had spent a year already playing D3 Seven Sisters competitive matches. And Columbia now had to sort of move the whole consortium of Barnard and Columbia to D1. So there was adjustments that had to be made, administrative, and then also, you know, expectations from the team members. And then not only that, with women for the first time as part of Columbia College, there was a whole bunch of, I would say, you know, adjustments that had to be made. Men had the primo practice times at the primo facilities.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of the alumni dollars that were coming in were going towards men's sports. And, you know, Title IX was new. And so there was a lot of different challenges. Our team bonded over it. We were not that competitive in the D1 league that we were in. But boy, could we advocate for our rights. And we did. And as a result, we really bonded and supported one another, supported other athletes at the university. And as a result, there's a number of us that have just remained close for, you know, 4 decades now.

Mm-hmm.

And through life's milestones, professional milestones, personal milestones, the ups and the downs. And I say this all because that's kind of the genesis of Launch Break. What Philip and I wanted to do, I mean, we've talked about how lucky we've been over the years. And what we really wanted to do was try to create a platform that was able to scale this idea to more, to more women, to be there for them across, you know, many different sports, many different colleges. I think we have representation from close to 700 colleges now. And across all generations and women that are working in all different industries. So that's what we tried to do. We want to have women have, you know, now they have 1,700 other women at their fingertips cheering for them.

Yeah, that's an amazing story of community and resilience that's come forward from this. So Philippa, what are your thoughts? I mean, that's a great introduction, Teresa. Philippa, what are your thoughts on Launch Break? Anything you want to add to that?

Yeah, I think the only thing I would add is that Teresa and I have been mentoring women and women athletes for years, and I think we kind of recognized that there was a gap in the marketplace, that there was no way to connect all these athletes across different sports and across different schools. And there are some sports that are just emerging sports. And so they don't have the same alumni background or alumni foundation that other teams have. And so we really want to make sure that they had enough support and a large enough network to succeed.

Yeah, to not be lost in the shuffle of that. Absolutely. So let's talk about— Philippa, you mentioned the word mentorship. So that's really interesting because, you know, in the business world we talk about what's the difference between mentorship and coaching. So let's talk a little bit about the mentorship that goes on on Launch Break. So Philippa, if you want to tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah. So, you know, mentorship is obviously really important for the mentor and for the mentee because I do think that mentors get something out of mentorship as well. And on Launch Break, we're really proud of the fact that over 30% of our members have volunteered to be mentors and we have a lot of success stories. stories where, you know, the mentors have guided, you know, young current student athletes in terms of getting jobs and understanding where to look for specific types of jobs. I also think that it instills confidence in the mentees when you've got someone who's there who you can ask questions of in a non-intimidating atmosphere. And I think that's what we do with Launch Break is people know right from the bat that these women have volunteered to be mentors. So they know that they're there to help them. And so it just produces a very congenial discussion, and it's— I think it's worked very well.

And could I chime in also just about, you know, communication and making it feel right? I think one of the reasons that our mentor-mentee relationships seem to be working out so well is we do provide guidelines.

Okay.

So, you know, the relationship should first and foremost be respectful. The mentee should expect to be deferential to the mentor, respect their time, don't flood their inbox, never ask outright for a job, and don't expect, you know, countless conversations. And then the mentor should also add true value more than just listening. They should provide some advice, suggest resources is always helpful, and make introductions if they think that makes sense. So we kind of feel like with these guidelines in place, you know, it's, it's easier for the relationship to progress. There's less pressure, and it should last longer. It just, you know, just feels right when these guidelines are on it.

So many soundbites there, Theresa. Thank you. But absolutely, you know, Philippa, Theresa, what you just said is— I agree. It's mentorship is that when you have the guidelines, because Sometimes people don't know how much should I be asking? Should I be, should I be asking this person for a job? Should I be asking this person for a recommendation? And as the mentor, should I just be coaching them or should I actually be giving them resources and advice? So then this comes into maybe talking about teams. And, and Teresa, if you want to talk to us about the idea of teams around this.

Yeah, I mean, there was a recent Women's Sports Foundation study called Play to Lead. And 7, 7 out of 10 of the women that responded to this survey, and the women were across all generations, said that like the number one takeaway from playing youth sports was how to be a better teammate. And we feel that that plays into leadership in a big way. Because when you are a good teammate, even if it is in a employer-employee relationship, then you're taking the time to get to know that person, which Philip and I actually— I mean, our company is small right now and we have interns and, you know, we haven't grown to the point where we have a team of employees. But what we do do is we make sure that we talk to as many of our members as we can and really get to know them. And in that way, I think our members feel very comfortable providing feedback, maybe constructive feedback on the platform in the same way that an employer would get to know an employee by just, you know, maybe taking them out to lunch or having a Zoom session if it's virtual and really getting to know what their strengths and weaknesses are so that, you know, you can make it easier for that person to succeed. And you can also make it easier for that person to grow their skill base because you know where their strengths and weaknesses are and You know, what kind of environment makes them successful.

I think everybody who works in any type of organization who just heard that would be, please, Teresa and Philippa, can you be our leader?

Join Launch Break.

Yeah, yeah. Could you be our Launch Break? Yeah. Teresa, Philippa, any thoughts on what Teresa just said?

Just that I think what we're trying to build at Launch Break is one huge team. And that, you know, what she was saying about communicating, and we try to get to know our members as much as we can, and we try to provide guidance for our members. And we have executive coaches on the platform who can kind of talk to, you know, we have women who have very successful careers in Launch Break and giving them some advice about how to lead teams, how to be a leader. So that, you know, that's— I think it's all really great.

Yeah, you know, I personally, you know, growing up, never played on a team. You know, my, again, background in theater. So there was that idea of us being performers and sort of having a common goal. And I think—

Yeah.

Whether you're in an organization or a team, when you have this common goal and the stories you shared about the beginning about, you know, where the men's teams were getting much more of the recognition and the money and the financing. And as your teams were coming together as a way to bond around that. And I think when you have that common goal, And feel safety. You mentioned the word, of course, that people feel safe and that psychological safety. So these are really great importance about team. And let's talk a little bit more about feedback because, you know, it's like such a difficult word when people hear that, people get anxious. But as you said, Teresa, when you were talking about the idea that when there's that team, there's that idea of trust, it makes it easier to give feedback. Do you want to expand on the idea of feedback?

Yeah, sure. I mean, getting feedback is crucial so that you have different perspectives. A diversity of opinions is important and makes teams feel included in decision-making and empowered, makes them feel empowered. Feedback also produces an open culture with engaged employees. I think according to a Gallup poll, 80% of employees who say, who say they have received meaningful feedback from their employers in the past week are fully engaged in what they're doing. So, and then, you know, at our startup, or at any startup, I guess, getting feedback will eliminate spending time and precious resources on something that doesn't make sense. In Launch Break, we have the ability, because it's a community, to poll our members frequently and ask for feedback from them. So that's kind of instantaneous feedback. We also have an advisory board and a board of ambassadors, and we are always asking them about our ideas and what they think. And this is kind of resulted in real-time tailoring our platform to suit our members' needs.

Yeah, I think you— again, I think you nailed it about the value of feedback. That 80% is a great statistic because people are not mind readers. So we can't read your mind as to what you're thinking or why you're being so passive-aggressive. But the idea that there's safety to give the feedback And I guess when it helps, when you have this common purpose or common goal that we're working towards, we're working towards your, you know, the, the individual athlete, the individual female athlete to going further with her career. Um, and, and, and we're all on board with that person being successful.

Exactly.

Um, is really, really helpful. Um, so, you know, let's just veer here for a second because not only were you, your backgrounds were as athletes, but then you You both went into either a corporate or to a nonprofit side. So how did you take from the sort of the corporate and the nonprofit, and maybe Philippa, we'll start with you on this one, how did you take those experiences working on that side to then, I guess, basically become an entrepreneur and a leader of your own?

Yeah, so I worked at Citibank for 10 years and I managed a small team of people. And I think It taught me a lot about being authentic and being approachable, because I really feel like, as we've discussed, you know, you want feedback and you want to be able to communicate with the people on your team. And so I didn't want to be intimidating in any way, shape, or form. So I want them to feel comfortable asking me questions, and that would also help me, you know, make their career experience better. I think we also learned what it's like to be successful in those environments and what the skills are that you need, which are grit, and you have to be thick-skinned. I had lots of people, you know, saying things that were tough to me, and I just, you know, didn't let it bother me. So I think, you know, understanding the qualities that you need to be successful in the workplace is helpful in terms of guiding our Launch Break members. And, you know, a lot of those qualities are what women athletes have already, which is grit, Resilience, strong work ethic. And I saw that when I worked at Citibank and in the corporate world.

So we'll come to you, Theresa, in just a second. But Philippa, I love this idea of grit and resilience and coming from this athletic background and being a female athlete on top of that. Yeah, so just to maybe— because grit can be an abstract word. So can you maybe define how you would see grit, if that's possible?

Yeah, I think, you know, maybe being tasked with an assignment at work that is difficult for you and, you know, being able to ask questions and, you know, try to uncover it and not be afraid to admit, like, if you're not good at something and just keep working through it and, you know, being successful because not everything is easy. And like, you may have some failures and you need to come back from them. And that's what we're used to as athletes. Like, I've lost lots of matches and then came back the next day and won another match. So it's just, it's very important to just never give up and be resilient and have that work ethic.

I love the idea that you, you know, you lose a match and then tomorrow's like another day. Like you got to just put it in the past. Whatever happened yesterday, maybe you learn from it. It was a failure, maybe learn from it, but don't dwell on it, I guess, is what, is what grit is.

Yeah.

Okay, great. And then, and then Teresa, any, any thoughts on, on this idea of, of grit?

Oh, I thought you were gonna ask me my thoughts on, you know, what led me to start Launch Break. So I have to switch gears for a moment.

Well, combine, combine those. Okay.

Um, so I'm going to use a quote. I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg said something like, you know, women can have it all, but not necessarily all at the same time. And honestly, I think that's true of anybody, of men as well. But I've definitely had, you know, different chapters in my life and being a student athlete, working in marketing, working in sports marketing, spending, you know, time as a mom, working in the not-for-profit world. And I kind of feel like all of that went into, you know, basically prepared me for what Philip and I are doing today. And another great quote was, we recently had Shayna Stevenson, who is the Chief Brand Officer for the New York Liberty. She actually recently did a talk for Launch Break. And she said that working at the Liberty was, I think, the first time that she was able to bring her authentic self to the workplace.

Right.

And that's what I feel. I feel like all of these various experiences that I had in life, you know, kind of, they were all great, but they didn't sort of allow me to bring every aspect of who I am to the job. And that's what I feel I'm doing now with Philippa. And I think that's part of the reason work doesn't feel like work and that we're starting, you know, that we were having a good level of success for a startup.

And it feels right.

There you go. Soundbite. That's that. Well, you know, I love that both of you are sharing about this idea of authenticity. And, you know, again, you have such a varied background from being athletes to being mothers to being working nonprofit, profit, corporate leaders, et cetera. And then— but it's all, I guess, different personas we sort of have to wear in that. But to bring all of those and to find a place that you could actually be yourself, but bring all of these experiences and skills, and to help others find that voice that probably takes a long time to be able to find that voice about how can I be myself and basically not piss people off?

Yes, we, we don't— I don't think we piss people off. But you never know.

No, no, no. But that's what we're so afraid of. We're so— right, right. Yeah. There's a part of us that just wants to be people pleasers. And so we feel like we've compromised ourselves in a way to do that. So how can we do that and still be ourselves and not feel like we have to be always, you know, people pleasing in a sense? You know, my son is— both of my kids both worked— not worked, they were both very much on teams. And my son now does sports journalism. And this is how much women's sport has advanced. Like, he's covering the PWHL, the Professional Women's Hockey League. I love that.

Great.

He loves it. He's talking about it like no difference between him talking about that or, or the NHL.

Like, you know, exactly.

He loves all the players and everything, stats, and he's sharing, uh, what went on at the games last night. Um, and he's so excited that Toronto's gonna have, uh, I think next year or the year after that, a WNBA team. Like, you ready for that?

Oh, that's great.

That's great.

That's so—

yeah, if he ever wants to talk to any Launch Breakers who are ice hockey players, let us know.

Okay. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's true. If he wants to write an article, you know, he could tweet. And we have also Canadian members as well who may be local to Toronto. I don't know.

We do. And you know what? We have a member that is the reason that ice hockey exists at the collegiate level and in the Olympics. Because when she was in college, she took on Title— she took on— was it Title IX, Philippa? She took on Title IX. And the college that she went to and said, the men have, you know, the men have a team and the women just have a club. Why is that? And it took— the lawsuit took longer than her stay at the college. And so she had to keep working on it once she graduated, but they were successful.

That's amazing. Well, I will definitely take you up on that or have my son take you up on it and reach out and Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, this has been great. Let's go to maybe one final question here. And, you know, you said you have this sort of guideline for the mentorship. And, you know, what are the skills that you are trying to help these female athletes build upon? I don't know if that's a broad question, but I'm just curious about, you know, how are you helping them maybe sort of move from an athlete's mindset to maybe going to the corporate world?

Well, I think that the one thing we're really encouraging is to reach out to others, and we're providing that platform for them. And again, you know, I think I mentioned that it's women of all ages and across all industries. And a lot of our members are, you know, their whole identity has been wrapped up in sports and being an athlete. And a number of them are either looking to pivot from that collegiate experience straight out into the business world.

Mm-hmm.

Or since college, they've been maybe trying to prepare for the Olympics or representing their country or working as an athletic coach because that made the most sense when they first graduated. And now they too want to pivot. So what we're doing is trying to make them feel really comfortable about reaching out to potential mentors and then also giving them advice on the job search. what skills potentially to build, how to provide feedback on their interview skills, to provide feedback on their resumes. And then most importantly to— and a lot of the women already know this, but some don't realize it— that the skills that they built along the way being an athlete, skills like handling pressure, like learning from mistakes, decision-making, goal-setting, right? Because time management is so important. So you kind of have to look at your week and set goals for the week. Responding to criticism. I think Philippa mentioned that when she was working as an investment banker. I mean, she learned that basically because she was an athlete her whole life. So these women need to really realize that they can portray those skills that they learned along the way in their athletic career as being real strengths and real helpful in their business career.

I love that.

Philippa, thoughts on this?

Yeah, I think what's also nice is when you have a mentor who maybe is a little bit more senior in their roles, they can kind of give you advice about like what steps or what skills you might have to take to get to where you want to get to. Like very often it's hard to get the exact job that you want, but sometimes it's just important to get the skills and then maybe the next job is the job you want. And so just talking to some people who've had that experience and can guide them in terms of career decisions and people who have been there before, I think, is really helpful.

This feels right. This is so insightful about being able to talk. We dismiss ourselves so much about, oh, dismiss our wins or our victories or things that we learned. So helping these female athletes and go, no, look, these are the things that you don't realize that you've mastered. that you figured it out. And you have to find a way to be able to say it. And maybe not say it in a way that you feel like you're boasting but say it in a way that how it relates to the path you want to take. And then, being able to maybe ask the questions as you said, Philippa, about what else am I missing? How do I complement? Not how do I start again but how do I complement the skills that I have to maybe towards the job that I want to get to?

Yes.

This was really insightful. So now I'm going to ask just our final question, and nothing to do with Launch Break, but just each of you individually. And I know you've taken this path of, you know, going towards being athletes into being business people into running your own business now. But maybe going back to, you know, young Teresa, young Philippa, you know, young Philippa, what did you think you wanted to do when you grew up, when you were as a young Philippa?

Gosh, I don't think it was what I'm doing today. I think I always had like some interest in doing something in finance. And I remember years and years ago, like, I don't know why I remember this, like Craig Nettles, who like, I think was a third baseman for the Yankees or something, even though I'm not a Yankee fan, like had some financial problems. And I kept thinking, oh, maybe I can combine my love of finance with helping athletes. So maybe there was a little bit of that.

Yeah.

But, you know, you can't predict your career. You know, I have triplet boys and I took a little bit of a break. And that's where I actually spent so much time mentoring women was because I needed to do something part-time. But you can't predict where you're going to wind up. I think you kind of understand what you're good at, what you enjoy, and just find something you enjoy. And then that should be whatever it is. It may not be what you were expecting.

But Philippa, I think what you just said is that you are doing exactly that. Maybe not, you know, literally, but the idea was, I see an athlete who might have a problem that they don't know, they don't— that it's not their expertise. How can I help them? And I think that's exactly what you're doing right now.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, Teresa, young Teresa, what, what did— what was the plan? What was the hope?

Um, honestly, I think it wasn't my plan, but, um, my hope was to be doing something that, uh, was as fulfilling and satisfying as this company is, and working with Philippa and helping. Um, athletes around the country and hopefully around the world one day. I mean, our sport in our family was tennis, um, and we enjoyed it as a family. My dad, even more than my mom, was, you know, really instrumental in making sure that I played and my brothers played pushed us to improve and to maybe play as long as we can, not necessarily to be the best or to win tons of matches, but just because of the camaraderie and the doors it could open for you. But in a very simple sense, when I'm around tennis now, it kind of makes me feel like I'm home. And so this platform is just a total extension of that feeling. I mean, sports has always been a big part of my life. Through tennis, talking about opening doors, I mean, through tennis is where I met my best friends in the world, which, you know, really have a connection to every big decision or every milestone in my life. So, you know, this is honestly everything I could have hoped for to be able to do this at this point in my life.

What a nice bookend to how we started, which was we talked about this idea of community. And intentions. And both of you, I think, just described that in your hearts and in your minds, it was— it's always been about creating a community to be yourselves and knowing what your intentions are versus where the money is, which, you know, can be a trap because you're not actually being very happy about what you're doing. But when your intentions— you go back to what is important to you, community and helping others.

Yeah.

And to be your authentic selves, I think is a great bookend to that. So, Philippa and Teresa, thank you so much for being a guest on TFR, This Feels Right podcast.

Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of TFR, This Feels Right.

And if this felt right, then please leave a review, comment, or ask us a question. And of course, we ask if you could kindly follow us. So You don't miss an episode of Impactful Communication Skills. And speaking of impactful communication skills, you can learn more at our website, thisfeelsright.ca. I'm your host, Joel Silverstone, and happy to connect with you on LinkedIn. And we'll see you on the next episode of TFR, This Feels Right.