“Expect the unexpected” has never hit so hard as it did this year. As CEO of a small business based in live, in-person events, this year was a challenge. But while the circumstances of having to pivot from our annual summit were unexpected, the forced pause led us to unexpected growth and the opportunity to share our collective Lead knowledge, skills, and experiences with all of you in new and exciting ways. 

In reflecting on this year both personally and professionally, I wanted to share some of the lessons I’ve learned in 2020 and a few areas where we’re taking action in 2021:

1. Never underestimate the support of a good team. 

This was true as an Olympic athlete, and it remains true as a business owner. We all have difficult days - mentally, emotionally, and physically - and in a pandemic, those days can be even more frequent and intense. As we all adjusted to the “new normal,” I was able to be transparent with my team, collectively grieve the loss, and then devise a plan to move forward.

A strong and supportive team allowed us to continue moving forward with a positive outlook, which allowed us to launch the Lead Academy courses, rebrand our company as Lead Sports Co. to encompass the Summit and Academy, and grow our team all in a challenging year.

2. Always have a Plan B. 

Whether the year is smooth sailing or rough waters, always, always have a Plan B. If you can, have a Plan C too. Having a Plan B saved us in 2020. For those new to Lead, the foundation of our business is a 4-day in-person leadership summit for teenage girl athletes. Every year since 2017, this event has sold out - in recent years, within weeks. This is not something we take for granted and we realize how fortunate we are to have a loyal customer base and a network of incredible event speakers that truly connect with our participants. 

As exciting as it is to have an in-demand event, we knew early on that we would need to expand and diversify our offerings. After months of planning and scripting, we recorded our first suite of online courses geared towards teenage girl athletes in April 2019 (nearly a year before the pandemic hit). The Lead Academy launched just as everyone headed home to work and attend school remotely. What was coincidentally a solution to the problem of having to postpone our in-person event also accomplished a long-term goal of being able to serve more of our community than just the girls who attended the summit. 

3. Don’t be afraid to hire people that are better than you. 

In my experience, this has been the most impactful way we’ve elevated our business. No one person can do everything and do it well. Everyone on our team has different strengths, and it’s my job to give them the tools and sense of empowerment to do theirs. I’m not personally big on social media, but our Communications team shares motivational, educational, and entertaining content across six different platforms. Sales can be intimidating for some, but our Sales Lead tackles new projects fearlessly. If I expected myself to be in multiple places and positions at the same time, we wouldn’t benefit from the different strengths and perspectives.

We have a team of women who are excellent at what they do individually and who all buy into the vision of changing leadership opportunities for young women in sports.

4. We must continue to identify and bridge the gaps we face with diversity. 

Period. Our roots as a business are in a predominantly white sport (swimming), and we have strived since day 1 to be an inclusive and diverse platform. This year was a hard look in the mirror that we are not doing as much as we could. The Black Lives Matter movement has been eye-opening as a youth-education leader, and I can take responsibility that my efforts up to this point have not been enough. 

I look forward to continuing to work with my team to create opportunities for girls from underserved communities and Black girls who face systemic racism. We will actively seek out hard conversations and new perspectives in order to make this happen. I believe we can and should be leaders who actively work to create change within sport.

5. It is never the wrong time to stand up for yourself or your business. 

Finally, I can’t express enough how valuable this lesson has been to me. Soon after I launched my business in 2017, a conflict involving our intellectual property began with USA Swimming, the national governing body that I represented for 21 years of my athletic career. Within months of publicly launching the LEAD Summit, USA Swimming announced their own She LEADS Summits, which have since come to include additional We LEAD Summits.

As a business owner, this has been frustrating, demoralizing, and exasperating. And as a former National Team Athlete, this has been hurtful. We have never asked for USA Swimming to discontinue hosting leadership opportunities for swimmers. We have asked - privately - numerous times since 2017 that they discontinue the use of a LEAD acronym in leadership summits aimed at teenage girls. Each and every time, we’ve been met with a simple “no.”

The confusion this causes our customers and our brand is noticeable and endless. After nearly four year in business, we were still answering inquiries from confused customers wondering whether we are affiliated with the USA Swimming events. In September, we took a more official approach and sent USA Swimming a cease and desist letter, via our legal counsel at Heitner Legal. I did not make this decision lightly, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. 

Ultimately, it came down to this: Another business (regardless of how big they are or how close you are to them) using your name, brand, and ideas for profit is simply wrong. I hated the idea of being backed into a corner with this decision, but I was left with no choice. If we allowed this to continue, it would be at the cost of my team’s intellectual property and hard work, free of charge to the organization that chose to steal it.

I asked myself two big questions: 

If we were a bigger business would they be treating us with such dismissiveness and contempt?

If I were an Olympic men’s team alumnus, would they take my requests more seriously? 

How did this end for us? It hasn’t. 

USA Swimming replied to our cease and desist with a letter from their lawyer, stating they launched their LEAD Summit brand before us and that I copied them (gaslighting). To be more specific, they asserted, “In fact, it appears that Lead Sports did not begin using LEAD until after USA Swimming first used its mark,” which they stated was “as early as June 11, 2017.” However, our brand publicly launched in April 2017, and the first summit had completely sold out by June 2017, when USA Swimming began using the LEAD mark. 

I posted an open letter to USA Swimming on Monday, January 4 requesting two things:

1. They will discontinue the use of “LEAD Summit” for their youth leadership programming, and

2. Make a commitment to former, current, and future members of USA Swimming that the organization will not infringe on another business or property founded by members of this community.

You can read my entire open letter here.  

As a small, woman-owned business, we are standing up for ourselves and our community. If you feel inclined to join us in asking USA Swimming to do the right thing, please respectfully express your thoughts directly to Tim Hinchey (thinchey@usaswimming.org) and Morgan Weinberg (mweinberg@usaswimming.org). Instead of continuing to handle this matter privately, we hope that bringing it to light for our community will help them make the right decision and end their frivolous and hurtful use of our name and likeness with their summits.

Thank you for reading, and cheers to a new year full of growth, opportunities to learn, and a continued commitment to our mission of elevating and empowering girls and women in sport. 

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." -Emerson

Kara Lynn Joyce

Founder/CEO, Lead Sports Co. 

3-time Olympian (04, 08, 12)