{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Is Anything Real?","title":"Lead the Room: Women in Sports, Outsider Advantage, and Real Leadership | Ep. 84 w/ Toni Will","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1472,"description":"Women in sports leadership are still way too rare, especially in men’s professional hockey.\nToni Will is one of the only women in the country leading a men’s professional hockey team, and her story challenges one of leadership’s most stubborn myths: If you don’t already know the room, you don’t belong in it.\n\nIn this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Toni Will, General Manager of the Kalamazoo Wings, women’s leadership coach, keynote speaker, host of Women In, founder of Empower Her, and author of Rebellious Success.\nToni entered men’s professional hockey after earlier chapters in banking and economic development. She didn’t walk in pretending she already knew everything. She walked in honest, curious, and willing to learn. That became part of her leadership advantage.\nThis conversation is about women in sports, leadership, outsider perspective, gatekeeping, access, community, confidence, and what happens when difference stops being treated like a weakness and starts being trusted as intelligence.\nAdam and Toni unpack why “I don’t know yet” isn’t a disqualification, why curiosity can be a serious leadership tool, and why the rooms most convinced they know exactly what they’re doing are often the rooms most allergic to change.\nToni also shares how her outsider lens helped her see the Kalamazoo Wings differently. She wasn’t emotionally attached to hockey in the same way a lifelong hockey purist might be. Instead, she was emotionally attached to the people, the organization, the community, and the experience being created for fans. That perspective mattered.\nBecause most people walking into a minor league hockey arena aren’t just looking for pure hockey. They’re looking for entertainment, community, memory, and belonging.\nThe episode also explores the Kalamazoo Wings’ Guinness World Records, including the largest lightsaber battle, and why those moments are not just fun stunts. They’re proof of culture, discipline, execution,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/ygROTLd9i0_eLtZIaqFi8L4-QpOmBc_9g4DQT9Zg2Ho/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lNGJh/NzkxYTJiZTljMTZm/M2YzZWZmZTA4YjFk/ZmJhNS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}