Indiana’s Volleyball Boom and Founding of the Indy Ignite

We have a venue that's not built and in a league that's not played, no

players

o otherwise, we've got this locked in.

But our marketing manager signing autographs, I am going to be the president of MLV Team Five, like you're the team.

Indy Pro Volleyball.

That is crazy.

You gotta balance confidence, vision, inspiration, and realness and directness.

If you're gonna be in this, like this is what it's gonna be about.

Everything's coming together. Now, it's the big day. Take me through how you were feeling then.

From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Hey, Indiana, if you've been thinking about upgrading your ride or refinancing your current loan, let me tell you about my friends At Elements Financial.

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My guest today is Mary Kay "MK" Huse, and she is the president and general manager of the Indy Ignite professional volleyball team, Indiana's first professional women's volleyball team. She leads the franchise's business operations fan experience, and long-term growth strategy, as well as in the role of GM managing all of the volleyball operations.

If you guys remember the episode that we just put out, hiring coaches, signing players, all the jazz, it's awesome. She's an Indiana native and a proud DePauw University graduate, go Tigers. She's passionate about making Indiana a national volleyball destination while expanding opportunities for women in sports and tech.

We're gonna be talking about. MK's road to the Ignite and really going all in on professional women's volleyball here in the state of Indiana and just the sport and how it's growing in general. We're gonna talk about building a franchise from Square Zero. How do you even start? What do you have to do?

What are the steps that go into it? And we're gonna talk about why Indiana, why volleyball and why now? Mk, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

So when I graduated from DePauw and I moved to town, this would be 2019, I was always looking on LinkedIn and trying to find the movers and shakers and Tiger alumni.

And your name has been near the top of my list, but this is the first time ever meeting. So I'm, I'm really pumped up about this conversation and I'm excited to dive into how you ended up as the president and general manager of Indiana's first professional women's volleyball team, especially when your background.Had almost CareerWise. Nothing to do with sports. Did you play sports in college?

I did.

You were on the tennis team, right?

I involved, now that I'm surrounded by professional athletes, I don't, I was a D three, so you know,

Hey, we gotta rep that loud

and pound. Come on. Yes. I played, uh, DePauw tennis.

Okay. And so going

Great D three program.

I mean, it actually is. It is. And great facilities for Division B. I

could never make the team now.

Oh, that's fair. I mean, I was on, I always say I was on the football team. I did not play football in college, but I was on the team and I became the social media guy by the time I was a senior because I could, especially now, football's good too.

I could not make the team, but, um, nevertheless, did. When you graduated from DePauw, did you know you wanted to get in like. Was the goal to try to get into sports or did you somehow just like fall into, did you go a different path to start

it? You know, the only, it was like a joke almost. I mean, I grew up with two older brothers.

My dad was a high school basketball coach in Indiana in the eighties, so you know its own religion. Did uh, did class, did classes ruin basketball?

Yes.

Yes. Everywhere I go I just find people from heyday because I think it was like 98 or 99 when they put in classes.

Yes.

And

it was right after I graduated high school.

They ruined it. Okay. So your dad was a basketball coach?

Yes. And then I had two older brother, I have two older brothers I played. Um, that was back when you could be a three sport athlete in high school and I played volleyball, basketball, and tennis. So sports is definitely like part of who I am. It's in my DNAI always joke that, um, I wanted to be the Colt's gm.

That's pretty safe at some point in my life. No, no skills whatsoever to do that other than, you know, um, armchair quarterback, but, so it's only like a joke really. Yeah. But then I, in my, I got, I was more excited about technology. Yeah. Um, really when I like late high school years. And then that technology kind of led me into understanding how much I loved entrepreneurialism and building things from scratch.

When did you graduate from DePauw?

2002.

Okay. So you go end up coming to Indianapolis at like, the high, the heyday of Indianapolis Tech. So to be someone that's interested in tech and entrepreneurship at the rise of ExactTarget, all that stuff like had to be just like the coolest place to land in the state of Indiana if you were interested in tech.

It was really, it was really, you know, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Yeah. I was really interested in it. My first. Real job was like this summer after my high school senior year I worked for In Motion, which is an internet provider. They're like the first internet service provider for Boone County.

And I was like resetting people's passwords and stuff. But that was, I mean, I, so I, that was, I was just at the center of Yeah. That and got addicted to it and yeah. Then you, you landed at ExactTarget and that's, you know, the golden story of ExactTarget in Indiana. I

was gonna, didn't you, you were at ExactTarget in Salesforce for like 15 years plus?

Yes,

that's, I mean,

I started at, I was an uh, or fellow right out of DePauw and worked at Rose-Hulman Ventures and through the, Orr Fellowship I did like a day visit to ExactTarget and then that's where I went next and I was employee. 55, 60 ish. Uh, we were about 8 million in revenue at the time. That's

insane.

Okay. So I was also an OR fellow, shout out. We love the, Orr Fellowship. Great. Time 55. Was Steve Fouty there at the time?

Absolutely.

Dude. He tells the greatest stories about ExactTarget that Scott's trunk was the locked filing cabinet. Yes. Where they get like the personal records and stuff. Like, you just tell me the story and I'm like, that is so cool.

Like,

it was like classic. My first day I did have training, which was a big deal, and then they were like, yeah, you're gonna sit, um, well here. And then they like grabbed like a lounge chair, put it against a table and they're like, this will work. And they handed me a list of 600 accounts and said, start calling these people, let's see if they're gonna renew.

Let's see how they're doing. Uh, my first role was an account manager. Yeah. And yeah, so it was very. Very classic startup stories

means so cool. Like, I just get, like, we're, we're in the early stage of our startup right now and it's very much like, eh, you know, like find a mouse here and find a monitor here and some chairs and put it all together and let's go.

Um, so fun. You ended up, and then you ended up, uh, I mean what as the EVP and COO of Marketing Cloud for Salesforce?

We raised about $150 million in 2009, and one of the top priorities was international expansion. And I had been asking like Scott Dorsey for years, like, Hey, whenever there's an international role I'm in.

And so I moved to London, spent three years in London opening up our offices outside of, um, it was funny, actually, our second office outside of Indianapolis was London, and then we opened a bunch of other ones in the US but so I was there for three years. Then I went to San Francisco for. Seven and we, we were a acquired while I was in San Francisco and so I had the opportunity to kind of like step outside of Marketing Cloud, do a bunch of other things, and then I was ready to move back to Indiana.

Okay. Wait, and that was a good time to get back into the marketing cloud.

Let's talk about that. Getting to grow up in Lebanon, go to Greencastle, you know, you end up in Indianapolis, then take a huge, I not, maybe not risk, but huge career move to go to London, then San Francisco. Why did you end up wanting to come back to Indiana

after seven years in San Francisco?

I was just getting the, the vibe of the place and started to get motivated by other things than just climbing the ladder, which I was, I was admittedly pretty focused on like just bigger roles, new things. I mean, in 15 years I did like 12 jobs

all within Salesforce. ExactTarget.

Yes.

Which, I mean, this is pretty cool.

So you were the heyday of like. The early Indi, I'll say Indianapolis Tech.

Yeah.

You know, scene like that's when Angie just was ripping. That's when ExactTarget was ripping. Then you go out to San Francisco and this is like when other really cool tech companies are ripping in San Francisco, you know, like, would that be like, what is it?

What years were that like, I mean that's like,

I was in San Francisco from like, uh, 2012 to 2018.

This is like really cool times when Meta, or I guess it would be Facebook and Netflix and all those cool businesses are like exploding

funny reels you see? Or Silicon Valley show. Like it's,

yeah,

it's not far off.

Like you're chilling, like you're probably chilling at with Blue bottle, blue Bottle coffee and Mark Zuckerberg walks in and his Allbirds and his vest and Patagonia and you're ready to rock. Like, that'd be pretty cool. But I mean like what was the final decision or like, you know, when you were making your pros and cons list of like.

Hey, now I want to, now it's time to leave San Francisco and specifically leave it to come back to Indianapolis.

Like I said. So I was, I was, so, I was traveling the world, taking on new roles, and it was, it was really fun. I learned a lot. I was challenged a ton. Um, but then I started getting more motivated by like, the teams I was building and mentoring other people and figuring out like, you know, just more impactful things than just like, go, go, go on, like the next big job.

And so I was thinking about like, what would I do next whenever I left Salesforce and I actually was pretty focused on wanting to start my own thing. I've never been the person that like is sitting around trying to think of the big idea, but I did have this. Inclination towards like wanting to build something from scratch.

I'd done all these new initiatives from scratch, but within the like, safety net of a large corporation. Yeah. I mean, the London office was a startup too, but we had, you know, a bigger organization behind us funding us, kind of like letting us and a paycheck, you know, we were gonna be okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, so, but I, I got that itch, so I knew I wanted to do something from scratch and I actually knew I wanted to do it with. The Midwest culture. Yeah. Not the West Coast culture.

Oh. What did you like more about the Midwest culture versus the West Coast culture?

It's really cutthroat out there and

like, do you have a story or an example when you say it's cut?

Because I think it's like easy to like watch Silicon Valley and like you kinda laugh about it and everyone's like coding out of their, you know, their big mansion house with 50 startups backed into it. But I'd love to, if you have a story that you, of where you realize,

I dunno if I have a story, but I, I, um, I'll say I've met so many wonderful people in Salesforce and like still friends today, but when you're, you know, in the quarterly business review, there's no loyalties.

You gotta check those loyalties at the door. You know, it is like, who's performing, who's not performing? You know, what's gonna keep going, what's gonna not keep going? And it, it's, um, it's really lonely. It's probably the best word for it of it's kind of business before everything else. The Midwest culture's probably an overcompensation.

Um, I probably was too aggressive for that culture in my early parts of my career and I've kind of learned how to like soften the edges a little bit. Um, because like people, Midwest nice is a thing for sure. Want people to be direct and efficient. But yeah, it's just a little bit more personal, it's more people oriented, it's more relationship based and than my experience at West.

So yeah.

Okay. So you end up coming back and you had the urge to start something and you end up as uh, what, co-founder and CEO of Mandolin?

Yes.

At a very interesting time because this is like June of 2020, right. And it's a virtual events platform that like explodes.

Yes. So I actually, many people don't know this, but I was going to be an operating partner at High Alpha and I was due to start like later that month in May.

High Alpha had their sprint weeks and. Multiple times. There had been ideas that I had like talked with them about maybe doing and their sprint weeks. The whole concept is either generate an idea or somebody brings an idea and then you throw like 40 people at it for a week. You prototype, you call 50 potential customers.

Like you just, and you pressure test. Is this a, is this a thing or not?

When I heard about this for the first time, I thought that that was the coolest thing I'd ever heard of a company or a corporation or business doing. I was like, you get to just like, have ideas and sprint at it for a week. Like that's so cool.

It's pretty incredible. Pretty unique. Yeah. And um, so they had done the sprint week for what became Mandolin and had talked to, you know, their market interviews. So I, I kinda had this like due diligence packet handed to me of like, here's what we've done the last week. We wanna invest like the, the output of sprint week was, we're gonna do this, uh, but we really want it to be you and.

I talked to Scott for a while. I talked to Eric Tobias for a while who owns The Vogue, who had a unique perspective of, of the music industry. And they'd done all these interviews with different artist managers, venue owners, and that really validated this could be a thing. And it honestly came down to like, shit, they're gonna do this with or without me, which is very similar story to volleyball.

And I wanna do it, and if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it from the beginning. So yeah, within a week I dove in headfirst to starting Mandolin.

Moving fast really helps. And I mean, I feel like I remember it was kind of off to the races from the beginning.

It was, we, it was incredible. I mean, we, in week three we did a, our first friends and family, 'cause they actually in their sprint week were able to take it farther than, um, just a prototype.

Um, it was kind of almost an alpha version. Yeah. And then by three or four weeks later, we did a. Friends and family, just like dry run. We had a local artist at The Vogue, empty Vogue, just a film crew came in. Who's the artist? And Lily & Madeleine.

Lily & Madeleine. So you bring them on Fr. Friends and Family First Virtual concert.

How does it go?

It went really, it went pre like pretty well.

Were you, where were you at during the concert?

At The Vogue.

Okay. So, so like you still had some staff there?

Yes.

And how many people were watching at home?

We ended up having like 250 people log on.

And what was special about what you guys were doing versus just like hosting it on Zoom?

So one of them was, is the venue, I mean, uh, a Zoom from your living room couch does not have the same production quality.

What,

and Zoom in particular or any sort of online? Like isn't built really for audio. It actually like maximizes the video aspect of it and, and sort of sacrifices audio where we, this is music.

Yeah. Um, and it's an artist, um, by the truest definition of the word, you know, that that was, that's actually one of the hardest things was for the artist to overcome. Like, does my art trans like translate in this format? And getting them on stage with all the production and lighting and like a full what felt like a full show to them was a big step in getting people to like, try it out.

Yeah. Well and just like playing off the crowd with no crowd.

Yeah.

Like how do you really sell it?

Like,

I don't wanna perform for camera. Yeah. It's like not what they're in the business for. It's not their passion. So, but we, we learned a lot about like, kind of like the, the boring stuff logging in. You know, the, the backend like user experience of just like people getting into it, having, having a good experience.

And so it was great. Glad we did it. Um, always encouraged dry runs like that, uh, use using friends and family. Um, and then we had Judah & the Lion, the first week of July, so kind of six weeks after we started,

it's like, yep, we're ready to rock.

We're in. And we had like 3000 people join that and actually buy tickets for it.

Where did they, uh, where did they perform?

They performed in this really cool studio in Nashville, which is where they were based. And so we partnered with somebody there and yeah, studio, they're used to like, that's another place they're used to performing. Yeah. So that was really comfortable. They loved, they loved doing it.

What was the biggest event or biggest concert you guys ended up hosting?

We partnered with AEG and streamed. The Firefly Festival out on the East coast, and we had over a hundred thousand people, uh, join in at some point. I mean, their headliners were like The Killers.

That's crazy.

Uh,

Lizzo. Oh, I mean, total vibe.

Yeah. It was, it was pretty cool.

And this, the other piece, right, is as, as of the time goes on, you started in 2020, you moved very quickly, you know, you captured a lot of market share when it came to hosting this, but after 18 months or whatever, people are not that into going to virtual concerts.

Yeah. We, we obviously went into it knowing like there needed to be a post COVID strategy.

Yeah. Um, and really just using COVID as like a accelerator. And our long-term hypothesis was actually around data. And the artists don't know who their fans are. And that was a big part of like our, our market conversations of. Um, I remember Eric Tobias is a massive Counting Crows fan. We had the Counting Crows manager on the phone.

He'd been to over a hundred concerts and he's like, do you know how, like, do you have any idea how many concerts I've been to? And he is like, no idea. And, you know, coming from CRM world, my digital marketing we're like, what? Yeah. Uh, so it was the hypothesis was like, how do we help artists know who their fan is digitally and not have the venues and the ticketing companies and the DSPs, like Spotify, those are the ones that know who their customers are and they're holding that to kind of take a big piece of the pie.

So it was how do we drive a direct to consumer transformation for artists just like we, you know, many other industries had done, um, over the previous decade. So this concert was the first way, like we, we, we gave that data to the artists to say, Hey, here are your 3000 fans that just showed up for this livestream.

And by the way, livestream viewers are. Uber fans. So like that's who you're gonna make your most money from. So then you're upselling merch, you're making sure, you know, they're getting to their next live tour. Yeah. And we're giving them the tools to do that marketing really, really simply because an artist manager has about 75 different hats they wear.

Marketing's one of those 75, which usually like falls to the bottom of the bottom of the pile. So we were trying to make that easy, uh, and help them do that.

Wow. And that's like a, an interesting place to be at. You talk about joining, like taking this from zero to one, growing a startup and then like all the while in the back, you know, like we have to have another, like we gotta figure out what's next.

Like, let's pull another rabbit outta the hat and like keep going because Yeah. You know, as time goes on, it would be interesting, like, what I find crazy is that like today with like Twitch or all these live streaming platforms, like the younger generation watches, people watch things. And so it's like if, if you, like, if someone figured out how to get Kai Sinat watching the Jack Harlow concert and reacting to it, like joining it on that stream, like that sounded crazy to me to watch someone watch a concert.

But like that would happen. It would. And like people would go and like, it's like I watch, I mean, not a ton, but I'll watch like clips and stuff of people like playing video games or watching people play video games. And I'm like, what am I doing? This is like, the internet is such a silly place. Um, so after what, um, just three years.

Is that when you guys Yeah, we spent

three and a half years, yeah,

three and a half years. I think you guys end up spinning things down with Mandolin. We, we

had to unfortunately.

The last piece I wanna touch about this, 'cause I obviously we're here, we're talking about volleyball and, and building there. I think that this is a part of the entrepreneur journey that not a lot of people talk about.

Um, you know, growing really fast, like building your team all that's really fun and coming to the end and having to make those decisions is not fun.

That's an understatement.

Yeah. Right. I mean, it's, it's very challenging and, and like has to be, um, I'm guessing from the outside, like the emotional, like talk about being Midwest nice.

Yeah.

Like it's not cutthroat around these parts for usual. Take me through how you were feeling and how you deal with just like that stress and emotion and then somehow you end up wanting to go start something basically again and getting it back on

the ground floor. I think that's actually the definition.

Insanity. So I'll have to

Yeah.

Dive into that later. Um, yeah, it was really hard. I mean. We all believed in it. And that's probably the hardest part is you can't reconcile it in your head of like, we believe in this. We're getting all these validating points along the way. And in, in this particular case, even for the data platform we were building, and in the vision I just described, we had all of the artist managers, we built amazing relationships with, develop trust.

We'd help them make money in a time when they were not making money and good money, um, telling us, absolutely, this is exactly what we need. We, we've, we've been dying for this. Um, but like, not willing to spend the money on it yet. Mm. And not willing to prioritize the time on it yet. And so you have all these people telling you we need it.

Um, but your bank account is not giving you what you need to like buy the time. So it, it's the, my biggest lessons were. Startups timing. You can't, you can't control timing. And it's really everything, um, for a market. And you can't, it has to be like this pain point that like, they can't live without whatever you're giving them.

Yeah. Because if they can kind of live without it, it's just gonna take too long. And that's where, that's where we found ourselves. And we had hired a really great mix of people from the technology industry, industry that were building an amazing software. And, but then a lot of people from the music industry who had never done anything with technology before.

And were kind of learning that, but had all the relationships and the knowledge of how the music industry worked. And we had come together and had really built like a very special culture, uh, virtually, which is, um, really hard to do. Um,

yeah.

But I mean, we, we even had like a virtual holiday party that got like.

Crazy. It's like, um, when you're just like working with everyone, like every day it was just, uh, in 20, it was just really unique and special

in 2026. Does that sound crazy to say? We had a virtual holiday party that got crazy at the time. We're like, this is sick. Like, let's go. Like everyone had their own, like

everyone shooter bottle.

People were dancing on the screen. There's like people were doing toasts and

that's so,

yeah. Um,

that's wild.

So anyway, we had built that just such that special culture and we all believed in it. Like it was amazing. The team was not just like looking at me to solve it all that we were trying to help as well.

And I was being as, uh, you know, completely transparent with where we were and yeah, trying to raise money and what our options were. And, um, we, we grew up to 80 people and um, kind of in that, in those last days, we still had a good nine or 10 of us that were kind of pursuing all the different options that we had together.

So it's funny, I still look on it despite the outcome. I look on that time like very fondly.

Yeah. Do you have advice for other leaders that might be listening to this episode on how to communicate to their team in times of hardship? Like I think that sometimes, um, the optimistic entrepreneur can be like, everything's fine, everything's fine.

And then all of a sudden it's like, I lied and the wheels are falling off, like we're on fire. Like, it's like the dog typing on the keyboard and the flames and you're like, everything is fine. Like, how would you, what advice would you give to leaders that might be going through challenging times, um, on how to communicate with their team without like, inciting panic but also being real?

Yeah, that's the, that's the balance to strike, which is really hard, is you wanna be inspirational, you wanna keep sharing the vision, getting the enthusiasm behind that. Every person in a startup is making a personal sacrifice to be there. And whether that's financial time, opportunity, cost, whatever. Um, so that is the balance to strike.

And I have really have only even before startups, just known to be like really direct tackle hard conversations sooner rather than later.

Yeah.

Um, and be transparent. Just 'cause you're sharing all that information, you can be clear about like what you're taking on yourself versus what you need from them.

But people want context. People want the whole story. And I think it's a false noer the thing that, like if you're not being transparent, like you're protecting people from things. 'cause we're all adults and people wanna know sooner rather than later. So you gotta, you gotta balance. Confidence, vision, inspiration.

Yeah. And realness and directness and yeah. If you're gonna be in this, like this is what it's gonna be about,

that's such a hard balance to strike. Yeah.

And it's also why startups aren't for everyone. Yeah. You know, I think the hiring process is really important too. Like that transparency has to start right up front.

You can't sell a dream that you're not, you know, and then, and then they get there and you're like, and by the way, here's all the hard shit.

Like what? Like, I remember someone saying like, uh, a or fellowship, someone was like, yeah, our boss said we only had like nine months of runway left or something. And I was like, me, I'm pretty risky.

I'm like, I get nine months. That's a a long time. It's a long time. They're like, like, nine months and we're gonna be out. It's like, well, yeah, if you don't make another dollar in nine months, yeah. You're kind of screwed. Like, you should have figured out how to make some money. But like, not everyone, like some people are really drawn to stability and mm-hmm.

Knowing that, you know, years from now, there's still gonna be a paycheck coming in. And that is just a piece of startups that, uh, that some people. Uh, it's not built for everyone. Yeah. And, and so for you, after finishing a very challenging yet still fun, and you say you look back on it fondly, you know, your time with Mandolin amazing, but then you get out of, you know, that, uh, how, how it ended and you decided to dive back into the ground level of another startup that's not in tech.

How did the opportunity to get involved with the Indy Ignite come about?

I had started, I had joined a board, um, out in New York and like really leaned into helping them and had done a couple of consulting gigs just through my network, and I was really enjoying it. I was like, this is awesome. I'm like, tackling really, really hairy problems and then I'm like going to sleep at night.

Um, yeah. And so I was, I was interested in joining something that. Where I could have a meaningful impact and thought that I don't think I can like, find that fit just in like an interview. And so I, my plan was to work with a bunch of different companies, add value where I could, and probably somewhere along the way that would turn into like a place that was a longer term fit.

Yeah. And I did that for about three months.

The class, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a year

to I it all figured out.

Yeah. Three months. Okay.

And as part of that, and then I also, when I moved back to ND I got married and um, my wife and now my two kids, um, were 10 and 14 at the time. And the 14-year-old played volleyball.

And so I like dove into what is high school and club volleyball in the us. Um, now like in, starting in like 2021 and, um. So that was like interesting. And through that network I just had breakfast with, um, the co-founder and owner, gem Schumacher, and he was a friend of mine, like a fellow volleyball parent.

I was on Indiana Sports Board and Eric, uh, Indiana Sports Corp board. And she knew this was like happening. And this was in 2024 and no, 2023. And um, just said you should just meet with Jim. Like he's trying to figure out how to start this thing. And wait, who

were you meeting with?

So his name's Jim Schumacher.

Yeah. And he is the co-owner and co-founder of

who was making the intro.

Just a friend of mine who met him through, um, the sports core

board. Yeah. And, you know, you should go

in, you should just, you should just have, you know, I met with him. He's really trying to figure out how to build something. You should, you should talk to him, see how you can help.

It's awesome. It's professional women's volleyball. And she had a daughter playing. I said, I, and, um, I'm like, sure. So I really went into it being like, I am gonna do what I can. I don't have a full-time job right now, so maybe I can help in some way. And, um, yeah. And then Jim and I sat there for three and a half hours, and about five days later I started building Indy Ignite.

No way.

So

what was, so

I'm only realizing, telling you this right now, the strong parallels of Mandolin and, and, uh, yeah. And ignite in terms of the decision making process. I knew that the parallel the parallels in like what we're doing, but

as you sat there in your three and a half hour primary meeting, you know, doing your due diligence obviously, uh, what were the things that really drew you into the Ignite?

Obviously I had, I had come back to Indy. To start something, get back to a community that I knew, you know, in the Indianapolis tech community gave me a lot. I had wanted to give back to it. Mandolin did a little bit, not as much as I had hoped. And one of the things I really missed in London, in San Francisco is just being part of a community.

So that, like being back here, but then when, if you work in a company that's not really connected to the community, it's hard to, it's hard to feel that. So just the fact that this was local, um, and you may not, may not know this, but the music industry isn't booming in Indianapolis. Whoa. A little bit more la, New York, Nashville.

Um, so just the combination of like, wow, this is local, has a direct local integration and impact. Um, it's building something from scratch. He has a business background despite like the passion to start this for volleyball. Um, and then. Just through the pure business lens, I had seen volleyball up close. I mean, you go to one of these tournaments downtown, there's 30,000 people that have come to town for a volleyball tournament.

There's 200 courts with four teams each, you know, on the courts. It's, um, it's just be, it's just exploded. And so even that's fun. And it was like an opportunity to, it felt like a non-profit mission with a for-profit like business challenge. Yeah. Like how do we build this thing from scratch, but then how do we build it to be sustainable before, you know, beyond any of us are even around anymore.

It was just like a different challenge than I had seen previously in my career. And all of the, um, the crossover of just like all my, my love of sports and my love of business and my desire to give back to the community and then like this women's sports vision of just like, how do we grow this and. How do we build a team that's becomes a bunch of mentors and like little girls can aspire to be?

Yeah. It was just like, I don't think an opportunity that checks all of those box boxes really would ever exist again.

So you end up five days later. Accept it, what was the original role?

President Jim. So Jim had started it saying like, I'm gonna be the owner.

Yeah.

Um, and with his friend Don Hutchinson and Don Hutchinson has a full-time job, um, with ER management.

And so they knew like, Hey, we're gonna start this. We're gonna be the owners, but we, like, the first thing we have to do is figure out who's gonna, who's gonna build it and run it.

What existed when you took over? Like, like, you know, you're talking about these two co-owners and then it's you. Mm-hmm. And like, what were there, like what did you take over?

Like, was it

even like, uh, we bought a franchise.

So you bought a franchise from a piece of

paper

from the professional.

At the time it was the PVF. It's not MLV, but yes.

MLV. Okay. So they're like, okay, great. We're gonna bring a franchise, Indianapolis, you, you know, pay your money, whatever. So you have a piece of paper, says you have a team, and do you have a deadline of when you have to get a team created?

We had committed to joining the 2025 season,

which had a year, which would be the second season of MLV?

Yes.

Okay. So you had a year.

And we had a project going with, um, innovative to figure out what our name and brand was gonna be.

So you, and that was,

I think that's

it. So you took the role of I am going to be the president of MLV teams.

Five. Like you didn't even, like, you didn't have a name like, like you're the team. It was like, like team, team number

five. It was, it was. PVF in Indy. PVF No Indy Pro Volleyball. That was volleyball. That was the working name. Volleyball, Indy Pro Volleyball.

Volleyball. That is crazy.

Yeah, it was.

So where do you start? Let's go like day one. You are now, like, you wake up, it's Monday morning, you're the president of Indy Pro Volleyball. What do you, what do you do?

Yeah. You start making a list of all this stuff you have to get done. Yeah. Okay.

So

top of the list. Yeah. I mean, I started, I started, we obviously INNOVATIVE was an amazing partner and we got the brand and the name and, and started talking about, um, I'm a, I'm a move fast.

Yeah. Like, sooner the better. Let's launch this. Let's let people know this is gonna, you know, be here. And it was very much about like, how do we start building the brand versus foremost. Did you guys

end up, I feel like I heard the story you guys ended up working with the Kelly School of Business, like their MBA program.

Downtown to like help with the naming process. I think I read an article about this.

They were part of, they were part of INNOVATIVE's project and then like there was MBAs that, uh, BA class that like did an analysis of the market and that's pretty cool.

Like there's, there's multiple stakeholders coming to the table, uh, shall also shout out to Kelly Evening.

BA they're, they're a sponsor of ours. So I That's a great working segue in there. That's awesome. So you start with the name and you wanna get it out there. How

long?

Yeah, we, we chose one of those big volleyball tournaments. 'cause we were in club season, it was January 24. And so we said, let's, let's go big at one of these local, the club tournaments.

We have a lot of people from outside of Indie there, but all the local clubs go as well. And let's make sure we ingratiate our volleyball community first and foremost. Yeah. 'cause we knew it was big, passionate, talented, and we did a big. Launch at Central Zone at the end of January saying we're ending IGN night and we're coming in January, 2025.

What did the process look like with INNOVATIVE? Like, did you sit around a boardroom and they're like, okay, like here are your naming, like here are some options we come together with.

They had narrowed it. Jim and Don had narrowed it down with them, but that's exactly what they did. And um, and then I helped kind of tweak like no more than tweak the logo, which I think is best in the league.

It's, it's phenomenal name and, and logo.

The Ignite. Come on.

Yeah.

What was the thought process to tie it into Indianapolis and like, you know, how did you land on, what was the final straw that said We are gonna be the Ignite?

It was the, the narrative around like lighting a spark and this being the start of a movement.

Yeah. But then the fire of, um, racing and basketball and like tying that, tying in our sports roots into that as well. And then the. Um, at the top of the, uh, building in the Monument Circle is Lady Victory. That's her name. Yeah. And she's holding a torch. The torch. And the logo is designed after the torch that Lady Victory is holding.

And then we had to,

that's ball that's,

then we had to fight. We had to like, make sure it wasn't too close to New York Liberty. And, um, that's a little bit more known than, than Our Lady Victory, but we're, we're making her known now.

Yeah, absolutely. That is Elite Ball Knowledge. Not that many people know that.

The, the, the Monument, monument Circle, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is two parts. The Obelisk and Lady Victory at the top. I just did a whole thing for the Indiana State Museum breaking this down, so I was like, deeply and designed by two different people. Like two different artists. One commissioned the Obelisk and one commissioned Lady Victory.

Oh.

The more you know that is Elite downtown Indy Ball Knowledge. Um, so you guys end up picking the name Ignite. You launch it at a local Indiana, Indianapolis volleyball tournament. They club tournament. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Where Yeah, people come from the Midwest and beyond. Yeah. You know, India like Indiana is a hub for club volleyball.

It's crazy.

It really is. It really is.

Then once you have a name, what's the first hire you have to make? Like do does, is the chicken or the egg? Is it staff? Is it players? Is it coach? Is it like what gets the ball rolling? Of getting people involved with this?

Indiana produces tons of incredible talent.

One of those was Kenzie Knuckles who played at Yorktown State Champion and then went and played, uh, collegiately at Nebraska, which is, you know. Always, always a top five school.

Yeah.

Um,

and Yorktown is, that's Munciana.

It's Munciana played at Munciana.

People gotta know Munciana volleyball.

Yes. Come on. Yes. Yeah. So Kenzie Knuckles, volleyball, celebrity.

I mean, she came to Central Zone and we had a line of people wanting to sign her, uh, give her autograph. And she was a few years out of college, but she, the league had recruited her to play. She had chosen that she did not wanna do that, but she wanted to be involved. And she was still in Nebraska, kind of helping that team out.

But, um, as soon as we announced there was a team, she found us. And so, like, I'm ready to move home and I wanna help, I wanna help build a professional franchise, um, here. So that was, um, like I said earlier, sometimes it's better to be lucky, lucky than good. And I, I definitely consider that. So Kenzie started in February.

Um, we started figuring out.

But

not as a, how we get our name out more.

Not as a player,

not as a player marketing manager.

Oh, oh, so like you had volleyball celebrities that weren't even gonna, that weren't signing up to play for the team. She came on to be like part of the, the office staff?

Yes.

Oh, like, imagine like that's kind of a cheat code.

Your marketing manager is signing autographs in the volleyball league. Like,

talk about wearing multiple hats, right?

Yeah. Like, oh my gosh. Okay. So, so that was like kind of the first thing that set it in motion.

Yeah. And it was, it was really, I was starting to construct like, what does the team need to look like?

But also we're on, we're, we're. We're bootstrapping this, and so I can't like just hire a bunch of people right away, like 11 months before we're hitting the court. So we knew it was gonna be really about like how do we go out in the community and just like get our name out there more. Start building honestly a database of people that could be ticket buyers and who.

Yes. Always comes back to data

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What one comes first?

Starting to talk to sponsors was something I started doing week one.

Like, how do you sell that to someone? It's like, Hey, it's not there yet, but this is gonna be really cool. Would you please give me money for something that's gonna come out next year?

It's a, it's a tough sell. I won't, uh, it's, it's sort of like people talk about raising money.

And you have to like, you have to first do it on a vision, then you have to execute. Yeah. And then you have to do it on data. That's kind of like sponsorships.

Yeah. You're like selling, you're racing on roadmap.

Yeah,

for sure. For sure. Like, it's gonna be awesome. Like, we're gonna have a DJ and we'll have brand activations.

Like, it'll be so cool. And like meanwhile it does like, I dunno, how old was the Fishers Event Center? Did you even know you guys were playing there at that point?

We knew we were playing there. We announced that in February.

Like when did that

open? Um,

was that even built?

That opened in November, opened about six weeks before opening night.

So the venue

gets Yeah. I, I always said like, we don't, we have a venue that's not built and in the league that's not played. Um, and a team that hasn't played the No

players

otherwise, otherwise we've got this locked in.

But our marketing manager's signing autographs. So like we're doing something right, like.

That's all. Okay. Who is the first, I gotta know, the first community partner. The first sponsor that wrote a check and signed up and said, I want to be a sponsor of the Indy Ignite

Taylor's Bakery. Reached out to us. Yes. Shout out. And, um, so like, let's, let's let us help. Um, we wanna do this. So we, we did maybe get two or three inbound leads and the rest was just, um, you know, shout

out

Taylor's Bakery.

It's like, so now our marketing manager's signing autographs. We've got pastries, like things are starting to come together. Let's go. You

want a nice cookie?

Yeah,

we got that.

Okay. So where in this process did things finally like, start to feel like there was momentum and you were gonna like, one, everything was gonna come together, you can start signing players.

Like where was the momentum really rolling into opening night?

So we hired our coach in, so the season, one of the things I did from January to May of that, that was the first season of the league. So I went. And saw every venue on a game day. Met with other presidents, tried to like, take their learnings, you know, obviously asking them like, what should I be, what should I be worried about right now?

What should I be focused on? What should I get a head start on? Um, so, so to see it make it tangible was really exciting. It was also like, oh, this is a good product. Like this is engaging edge of your seat. So that was like a good, uh, confidence builder I would say for us of seeing the first season of the league go so well.

Yeah, like volleyball is entertaining to watch. Like it's got a lot of action. I remember like, you know, we would go to, you know, high school volleyball games or whatever, and like when they get really going and there's like tons of hits and digs in the whole nine yards, you're like, it's, it's fun. Versus like, again, I love all my indie sports friends.

I've been to a few 11 games and sometimes if you show up to the wrong game, it's like there's not a lot of action that goes on. And I'm sitting there watching soccer and I'm like waiting for. Like, I think hockey is a good, does a good job of, there's always action going on there. Volleyball is similar to that.

Yeah. I think volleyball's the best. I mean bias obviously, but you know, there's a point scored like every 20 to 30 seconds. So yeah, our team in particular, but generally it's just a really gritty sport. Like what these players are able to get to is really exciting. Um, and then, but then when you get to see like how hard they hit, how high they jump.Um, it's, it's really, it's, it's pretty unexpected if you've never seen it before,

dude, I think we need to do a marketing campaign and you bring out your hitters and I'll just go on the other side and try to dig some out and they just blast them at me.

that would be so fun.

I they would

love it.

I said, do that and then the fuel do the same thing.

Put me in the goal and have them hit slap shots at me. So like, people can, this is the, the age old thing of like, they need to put a normal person in the Olympics. Yes. So you can see really how big the gap is. Like, just imagine like, is Ainise is she an outside hitter? 'cause she's like 6 tall.

She's a setter.

She's a setter. Oh gosh So there's, they're even taller. She's like

short. She's not sure. But

I mean, she Towers So for me, just so, so the listeners, lemme paint you a picture there. So it's like there's, you know,

a, we've got who's the tall? We've got 6'6 Middle Cara Cresse Um, and then we've got a couple 6'3"s One's a middle one's, um, an outside.

Yeah. Alright, comment on this. If you wanna see me try to try to return, uh, a spike from a 6'6 middle hitter, uh, leave a comment on the video because I think that would be, must watch television.

Absolutely.

Um, we could even, we could even live stream that one. There you go.

So you end up signing like, how do you learn about players? Like, I mean, yes, you were, you know, in the high school, middle school club volleyball scene, but like, that's still a long way from like signing professional players, learning about coaching coaches, like putting a roster together. Like how do you learn and teach yourself what goes into roster management?

I mean, that was a, that was a team sport for sure. Our second hire, uh, is, was Randi Raff, who was our director of community engagement. And we got somebody from the volleyball community to lead community engagement. She'd been a college coach for 20 years and, um. Was ready to do something different. And I mean, it was, it was me, Kenzie, Randy, Jim and Don who both have, you know, Don's played and coached volleyball for 25 years.

Jim's kids are really good. Um, his daughter right now just played at UCLA this year and played at Wisconsin her freshman year, which are both really good programs. So, I mean, is she, he, he's, he's gotten to know a lot of people through that and a lot of parents and so, and there was a lot of people playing.

So we hired our coach in early June and we, free agency started June 30th. And so all of us were just calling all the existing players, um, that were playing in MLV and, you know, trying to get them from other teams. The, one of the things the league is doing. Is having all the contracts be one year, which, which creates challenges.

There's people we would love to sign for more than one year, but it is to continue to incentivize new franchises to come on and not feel like they're too far behind. Mm-hmm. Like they have a, a, a big pool to recruit from. So

is that hard though, to build loyalty? Like you think about like fan loyalty where it's like, oh, you know, so-and-so's played here for a decade?

Yeah. I love, it's like, oh, if your favorite player's gonna be on your least favorite team next year, you're kind of like,

that was, that was the returners were important to us for a lot of reasons. Um, that's one of, one of many. And so to have seven returners this year when, you know, everybody's on a one year contract was a big, that is good.

It was a big deal.

What was the most surprising or hardest part about building a professional volleyball roster?

Gosh, the first roster was just like a mad house because we were the unknown team and people had to. Feel ready to go to a market that'd never done it before and they were in a market had never done it before.

They're all experiencing year one of a franchise. So to go do it again, you know, is a lot to ask people. So naturally they had a little bit of this like, let's build something. We know how to do it better. We wanna help more than just on the court, which was awesome. Um, that was surprising to me how many cared about that, how meaningful it is to them to be a part of this movement, not just, Hey, it's really cool I get to play professional volleyball, but like, how important it's for them to see us succeed beyond themselves and know they were on the, on the ground floor Yeah.

Of this professional league. So we, we got people who were more aligned to that, which was awesome, but not, not something I like. Uh, thought out, thought through before we got a couple of Hoosiers. Of course. So that was, those were some of our first calls. We had Kylie Murr and Carly Skjodt, Kylie, another, um, Munciana, uh, girl.

And um, Carly Skjodt played at Carmel High School and then uh, was an All American at Michigan. Um, so we got a couple Hoosiers. That was awesome. Yeah. Um, we got a couple boiler makers, which was awesome. Blake Mohler and Grace Cleveland. Uh, Grace Wade now both played at Purdue, so not from Indiana, but played at Purdue and Hoosier.

Rich Ho Your ties. Great program. So yeah. I think probably what was most surprising in the end was that it happened, that it came together, you know? Yeah. It was just like, we'll just take this a step at a time. And then we got just an incredible group of players. It was awesome.

Take me through how you were feeling on the home opener First.

Day, uh, like this product, this venue one now exists and people are coming into it. This team exists, this roster, like everything's coming together and now it's the big day. Take me through how you were feeling then.

Well, first I like didn't sleep all of December and early January to, because it was like, God, I hope people come.

Um, and people were buying tickets, but, you know, not, not at the rate I had hoped for. And the thing about live event, there's a hundred things that make live events really hard. One of them that just makes it hard on your nerves is most of the tickets are bought, you know, 72 hours before the game. So, yeah.

Um, but we did sell out like four days before the game. Um, so I got some sleep, which was awesome. Um, and yeah, and then opening night was just really overwhelming, uh, packed house. I think everybody was blown away at the experience. So excited about our team. We came out, played not a really great first set, and so I was like, oh God, what is this gonna be?

And then we came back and won three in a row and the place was just on fire. We gotta win. Uh, I so many people walked out of opening night with their favorite player already. It was so great.

That's sick. I went to you talk about, like at first getting a, being a little apprehensive. I went to Caitlin Clark's home first home game in Indie, and I think it was against the Connecticut Sun.

I think it, I don't remember. We got beat by like 35 and I was like, walked out of there and I was like, I don't, I don't know. And then after that they like start to get it together. Yeah. And they go on around and like it all ends up working out. But like the first time it's like. I mean, they haven't played a professional volleyball game together as a team or a professional volleyball set as a team.

Right. Like everyone's figuring out the chemistry and jelling and like what you do in practice. Like it, this is real. This is a game. Yeah. It's

very different.

The nerves, like, I don't know a lot of them. Uh, like where does, what college, like what size college does the average professional volleyball player come from?

They're all big. I mean, our, our players between last year and this year are all coming from top programs, which is,

yeah,

Louisville, Pitt, Nebraska, uh, Purdue, IU had a crazy great year this year. Um, UK so sizable schools with really, um, great reputations in volleyball. Yeah.

Well it's even like though takeout Nebraska.

'cause they obviously have the outdoor, like whole spectacle, but I don't know. What's the average attendance at a big 10 volleyball game?

It depends on the gym they're playing in. So like the, the gym Purdue plays in all but two of their matches. Um, Holloway. Only seats like 3000. Yeah. So, so like for if, if that actually

for some of them, like that opening night sold that crowd in Fishers.

There's like a lot of people, a lot of nerves.

Like, it was awesome though because like people who have played at Nebraska, Penn State, um, win Purdue volleyball plays at Mackey, they sell it out. So they've played in front of 18,000 people. That's sick. Um, and that's becoming more on the regular, like NCAA are setting attendance records like every weekend of every season.

It's, it's crazy. But the, the team did tell me like. That was like more electric than any like big Big 10 or SEC volleyball match like we've played in. Um, and they're all, you know, playing in the Final Four and stuff. So that was really exciting. That's it, that was highly validating of like, this is what, this is what the, uh, central Indiana Sports Nation can bring.

Yeah, I mean if there's one thing about Indiana and sports, it's just like it. We go wild for 'em.

We do.

So coming out of year one, um, I think there were six teams,

seven teams in year, one of the League eight teams. In our year one last year.

And how many teams are there in this season?

This year's, there's eight again.

We, we lost Vegas, but gained Dallas, um, which is a great market. And we have three more joining for 27.

Okay. So this year there's eight. Next year there'll be 11.

Mm-hmm.

That's pretty cool. Like you talk about growing, when you think about why professional women's volleyball is positioned to continue to grow, what gets you excited about that and what should people know about why this sport is gonna continue to grow?

Why we need to get in and, and be a part of the Ignite right now on the ground floor?

So it has, it's funny, it's globally huge. It's one of the sports that like us is a little late to the game. Um, so if you watch even the Olympics, like women's professional volleyball is one of the most followed sports in the Olympics.

Asia has huge leagues. Um, Europe has multiple leagues, Turkey. Always does. Well, Turkey and Italy are kind of leaders in both, like the professional leagues that they have, as well as how those countries do on the world level, um, Brazil as well. Um, so first of all, it actually is proven already globally. It just hasn't been proven in the us but I think we're gonna have a quick acceleration of that.

NCAA totally to me, a leading indicator and year over year, the viewership of that just continues to grow. This year's 2025 season view, uh, TV viewership was up almost 40% just in one year. And so, and it, it just keeps growing at that clip. So it really is like, as we talk about for Indy Ignite games, if we can get somebody there once they wanna come back.

Um, and yes, part of that's the game day experience we put on and we're like really proud of it. But ultimately it is the sport itself. It is these players. It is the pace, the action, the talent, the athleticism, and. You can't stop watching it once you star. Um, it's just how do we get more people introduced to that first time faster?

When, when you think about the fan experience at an Ignite game, what makes it so special?

We have built a community really quickly, and it's a mix of die hard volleyball fans to people who literally, their first volleyball match they watched was at an Indy Ignite game. And they're just like Central Indiana sports fans who are now volleyball fans, experts, some, some of them, um, say the classic

armchair expert, right?

Yes. Um, and so that, that community we've built the traditions we're building, um, you know, when, when you come to match, you know, on our set point you stand up, you chant light it up in, in line with each hit, um, on our side. And so it's just, um,

that's who is gonna think of that? Like, who's just like, yeah, we need to, you know, this is gonna be our, our.

Tradition, like someone's sitting around a boardroom and is like light it up.

That those are things we talk about in, in that's business meetings, which is pretty, that's a

pretty cool job,

which is pretty awesome.

Like that's if you guys are ever looking for like some outside, you know, you know, free consulting on that.

Like, Hey, just show up. We're, we're working on, uh, if we're gonna have like a drum or a band or like what we're doing next for fan experience, like, just come in and let's brainstorm some ideas. We'll take you up on it. Yeah, there we go. I've been pitching that idea to so many businesses and sports teams across the state and have not been hit up one time.

So we'll see if this one pans out,

well be, be prepared.

Yeah, right. Okay. So you have fun traditions. The Fishers Event Center is also a brand new venue that's freaking awesome. Like it, no matter whether you go to a concert or a game or whatever it is there, uh, it is really cool. So I think all that makes it a perfect storm.

It is, it's a perfect size for us. There's no bad seat. Yeah. That really, I mean, as cliche as it sounds, it's really, really true. Yeah. Um, and it, and it makes the energy. It just is palpable. It really, it really does.

One thing that Indiana is doing is really pouring into women's sports and growing that to make Indiana and Indianapolis the capital of women's sports in the world.

Why do you, well,

on our business plan, we had signed, signed Caitlin Clark in month four of our

Did it work? I mean, that would that

That was a nice, that was a nice tailwind we got.

But I mean, just like, you know, put it on the, like you can sit on the bench, like just hang out there. Come for a game, one day contract.

That would be awesome. Why do you believe that Indiana is positioned to become the capital for women's sports?

I knew we had hosted some cool events. You know, I'd been to the sup, I went to the Super Bowl parties in 2012, but I have absolutely been blown away by both the sports community of how all the teams are lifting each other up and how supportive they've been of us.

Coupled with. Just the quality of events we can put on. And I mean, just the volunteer Army alone is unique to anywhere else in the, in the us. I mean, we have been rated really highly on when we've hosted the Super Bowl or the All-Star game for N-B-N-B-A and now WNBA, like, it's just a, it's a really, really special place that is probably still not well known enough of just like how, I think you've just been here all the time, you just you to kind of take it for granted.

But having like Indiana Sports Corp, we were the first state in the US to have a sports commission. Um, that's incredible. So it's really been a part of our roots for a really long time. And. It honestly only makes sense to then like establish just that much bigger of a vision for us, because we have the momentum, we have the capability, we have the community and the stakeholders and the leadership that can take it there.

And from a women's sports perspective, obviously we have the fever and you know, a lot of people don't understand how committed the Simons have been to keeping, you know, having the fever from nearly the beginning of the WNBA and now being one of the highest valued franchises in the WNBA, um, is a, is a huge commitment and, and amazing foundation.

And like the fact that we get to be another really credible data point alongside that of like, Indiana is a volleyball state. We have an incredible professional franchise already. We went to the championship match last year. Uh, you met Lauren. Uh, we're gonna win some titles.

Oh yeah.

So I just, yeah, it's.

Kind of why wouldn't it be the place? Yeah.

Uh, one coach, I'm a fan, like from the first minute I could just, I would not want to be on the receiving end of, uh, her dismay, let's just say. Like she's got some great intensity to her, which I love from a coach. Um, so I,

it's, it's not fun. I have been

and has been around professional volleyball forever.

That was the biggest thing for me. After year one, we had, we, we were a pretty high rookie team. We relied heavily on the draft transitioning from NCAA to professional when there's no one that's like really done it before. Getting someone that has that experience and is coming in with a strong point of view of what professional volleyball is, not just like, what's another level of volleyball in the us um, is really huge.

There's, it's, it's a lot. Kind of in the weeds of just like style of play, but also how you coach professional athletes differently than you coach college athletes. It's kind of like baked into all of these other professional leagues, but since volleyball is new, um, getting someone with that experience was really important to me.

And just her, I mean her championship winning mentality, and it's been proven with her experience.

Has it been hard to build a culture that this is professional? You know, like, and, and, and like, not just like, oh, it's volley Like, I think that one of the things that I think about building something from scratch, even like for, from our, our perspective, when you build a business that is like an Instagram, YouTube, modern media company, and they're like, oh, like, it's kind of like a joke, you know, like, okay, one day maybe you'll grow up or whatever.

When you're building a First of Lee in a town that has Caitlin Clark and the Fever and the Pacers and the Colts like. Almost like this level of, no, you need to take this seriously and like this professionalism, like we're this is pro, like treat this like you treat any pro team. Has that been a challenge and how do you think about and, and approach that and tackle that?

I wouldn't say it's been a challenge, but it has been something we've had to be deliberate about. We've had to be deliberate about making sure people know this is the top level league in the us. You know, they're not, they're not, um, a minor league feeding into something else. Like this is a top level of play that you can achieve in the US Yeah.

Uh, for the sport. And there's just like other things that come off of that, right? Like their people know their names from college and they, they can follow them. We, we will, even without contracts, we'll have franchise players that stay with us for a long time and they're not gonna like be playing in a different like level on any given day.

And so there's expectations of play. You gotta translate that into like the game day experience itself and the professionalism we wanna bring to. It. Like we want that, um, people are paying a really good price to come and be entertained. And yes, a lot of that's volleyball, but it's not just volleyball And, um, setting our own expectations really high and making sure that we're always meeting them when every time.

'cause every game we put on is somebody's first game, and that's the first impression. So we're making first impressions day in and day out. And so that, um, level of quality is really, really important for setting, for setting the right tone. And, and then on the volleyball side, it's not, these players take it very seriously, but they haven't done it bef, you know, they haven't done it before, haven't done it for very long.

We have one player from Italy who's been playing for nine years, so that was like important to just like, bring a pro in and like knows what this is like. Yeah, we have a couple of our pit pit alums actually that have played internationally and come back. Um, and so they knew what it was like to play over there and.

Can kind of compare and contrast, and I think we're doing a lot of things well. Yeah. But there is, um, we, Lauren and I have to talk, you know, every day about the expectations we set with the players too, of what it means to be professional. Because people don't appreciate all the different things off the court we expect them to do.

You know, they have to do media. We're doing, um, they do sponsorship appearances. They do club appearances. So they have a, they have an agenda from every morning they wake up to every night when they go to bed. That is pretty well prescribed. Wow. Um, and intense. And so, and then there's a, a high level of degree of them taking care of themselves because this is their job.

Yeah. I think, uh, if, if I had to think about how you hit the level of fan engagement of a team, or, or like, I kinda talk about this when I, when I talked about the Indianapolis Indians. It's like you go to a game and it's so much fun and you love it and it's a night out and you know, you're in downtown indie with the sky.

But no one. Okay. 10% of people, maybe 20% of people know their record going in there like no. Like, yes, you want your home team to win. Mm-hmm. But know like where they're standing in the division or are they on the way to a title or what? And it's like, because they might be watching the Pirates or the Cubs or whoever else,

right?

So I think if I had to visualize, it's like, it's like three years from now when people are walking in, like they know, yeah, we're 12 and two, gotta win the middle of the road. We gotta win this to make it to the championship or whatever, to the playoffs. Like that's how you know that it's, you know, like people have become ravenous fans of the sport.

Not just like, oh, it's something fun to do on a Thursday. Like that can still be true, but like you want 'em to be fans of the franchise and they walk in and they know.

Absolutely. Yeah. That is like such a great tangible example of what it. I mean, when I say like, we wanna be thought of alongside the Pacers, fevers and Colts.

'cause that's the case of every Pacers fevers and Colts game, right? Yeah. Um, and yeah, that's exactly it. I do think, I mean, we have almost a thousand season ticket holders who a a hundred percent know that

let's

go. Um, they're watching every away game. Um, we had a watch party for our first match that we had to turn people away from, um, of our first season ticket holders as they're, they are, they are invested.

And I even think a lot of the casual fans are like, paying attention.

Well, I, I think that's interesting too. Uh, and like, this is not a dig at like the Fuel or the Indianapolis Indians or anything like that. 'cause I love all of our sports teams, but I think from like a, the Indian's perspective, they don't really get to control their roster.

Right. You know, like they're told who comes up, who goes down, all that piece. But for you all, it's

like,

yeah, you can't invest in like getting the fans to know the players. 'cause they could be gone tomorrow,

literally tomorrow, you know? And it was like super cool to have Paul Skees and it's like, oh man, like.

You can't like throw him a bag to stay with the Indianapolis Indians. Like the guy's gotta come win the Cy Young. So it's like, for you guys though, it's like you could get a player that the fans love and you can work out the contracts every year to make sure they keep coming back and fans keep like, you know, building that rapport and connection.

So maybe that's the, that's the difference. It's like if you control both fan experience and roster management, that's where you can really create the magic of like, people walk in and they know their favorite player and they know the record, they know what we have to do to get to bring a title

back home.

I mean, you made it when they're criticizing who's the starting lineup is. Right. That's

That's true.

That's true. That's the real tell.

Like, oh gosh, did you see that live stream? Like, I don't know. The middle hitter got dug up by the internet boy a couple times. Like, we might need to figure that out. Oh, I love it.

Well, this has been super fun. If you had one final, maybe like let's say a pitch. To a listener that's never been to an Ignite game, maybe not been to like a collegiate volleyball game either. So they don't know like the, what they remember is like high school volleyball. Like seeing that, like what would the pitch be of why we need to come to an Ignite game.

It's just come join the community and see what it's all about, because you will be on the edge of your seat. You will see the most athletic, uh, volleyball that exists really in the world. Um, and it's a fabric of who Indiana is now. Um, and so if you live here, you've gotta be a part of that.

Absolutely. I love it.

Okay, we're rounding up. We have a couple fun questions here as we finish up the show. This question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences in apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. My question for you.

Why do you call Indiana home?

It's the people

time and time again we hear you just can't beat the people of Indiana, the people of the Hoosier State, they are incredible and part of why we love it here, okay, and

our players coming from outside of here, comment on it. You know, they come here, they move here for five, better part of six months, and, um, they love it.

They. Especially around where they live in Fishers, like people calling 'em out at the coffee shop and the breakfast place. And when they're coming from other communities, they're not used to that and they love it.

That's sick. Well, yeah, I mean if you ever see, saw the clip with Lauren, she talks about how Switzerland, how Fishers is a model of Switzerland.

Like totally checks out. Let's go. Um, okay. We have some rapid fire hits for you. So in high school volleyball. Basketball, tennis.

Yes.

One lesson you learned from each of those sports

volleyball is, and this is one of the things I haven't mentioned that I should have of like, it's really positive. You come together after every point, everybody's lifting each other up.

Like it is like positivity and optimism and like forgetting the past and only moving forward.

The, that was my favorite part was like our high school volleyball team would have like the chants, like a little ace, ace in your face, like, come on. Like I can't remember all the rest of 'em, but I just remember that one.

And they'd come in and they'd say their little chant and I'd be like, in the student section for the volleyball team, like all the football players would be there. Like, yeah, look, Ace's in your face. Number four, come on.

I mean, you watch, every time a hitter turns around, they're either getting wildly celebrated or they're, they have five people telling 'em to shake it off and let's go.

Okay, so positivity.

Positivity,

yep.

Basketball is all about teamwork. Playing your role, knowing your role. Um, seeing the court, which is kind of the parallel of like seeing the big picture.

Yeah.

And this is all about mental strength 'cause you're out there all alone. I did play doubles in college, but I played singles in high school and that was, I mean, you just, the mental toughness you have to learn, um, is just like nothing else.

Okay. Best memory from DePauw slash DePauw Tennis.

DePauw Tennis is easily our Hilton head trips, all things DePauw as we played hard and, uh, we, we've worked hard and we played hard, um, which was, you know, all, all the fun memories. And DePauw overall is just like, just walking around in this bubble that like, doesn't exist anywhere else in the world or anywhere else.

Again, in life of just like, you just have a high of, you know, everybody, everybody's awesome. You're having a good time, you're high achievers and. You own the campus collectively.

It's like a weird little microcosm that only exists in Greencastle on DePauw's campus. And you words just don't describe it.

It's true.

Yeah.

I tried, but yeah.

Okay. So you've worked in the music industry and you've worked in the sports industry. Where do you think if, if you had all of the events in the world, where do you think the greatest overlap of sports and music are? Like is there a place you've been to or a thing or an event or, I don't know what, this question just kind of came to me off the top of my head, but I'm thinking of like, there's a lot of people who love music and a lot of people who love sports.

Mm-hmm. Has there ever been a time where you've seen them come together in a crazy, insane way?

Probably going into the snake bit at the 500

there it is. Sports Snake Pit,

I mean Super Bowl, incredible. Concert at halftime stands are filled with like corporate people, not like real fans.

Game day. Who has the coolest job on, besides player, obviously Player is very fun.

Who has the coolest job on game day for the Indy Ignite

Pepper?

Yeah,

she became a fan favorite very early on.

I don't know if you guys listened to the episode, uh, that we did with, um, the coach and, and he say, uh, but I like said, oh, pepper, like named after the drill, and enlightened them on the fact that Pepper, I think was named after the drill of Pepper.

Like it's not of all,

how did I not know that?

Well, sometimes these people just don't put it all together. And she's like, I never thought, and I was like, ball knowledge, I've got it.

That was another great business, meaning designing a mascot,

like it's a person in a head. So designing a mascot without like a full body cover is semi challenging.

'cause like, you know, what if. You know, what if you get a different sized person who wants to ends up being pepper, and it's like pepper, all of a sudden you grew six feet. Like what? Like that's got, oh, like, I don't know. I think that's an interesting one. Finally, uh, before I do have the same three questions that we ask everyone, but throughout your career you've been in various leadership roles all the way from big enterprise to sports, to startups.

If you had a piece of advice for aspiring leaders out there that want to grow teams, that want to advance their career, that want to, you know, end up working in these really cool opportunities, what would your advice be?

First of all, do it

if only a brand had that as their slogan.

As I said, like my last two, uh, ventures, which have been incredibly.

Impactful to me, I did because I couldn't imagine not doing it. Um, so just kind of jump into the unknown. You'll never, you'll never regret it. You'll always regret not doing something more than doing something, in my opinion.

Yeah.

And in terms of how to go about it is just like hire people smarter than you and power the shit out of them and get outta their way.

Amen to that. I love it. Okay. These are the same three questions we ask every guest that comes on all about the state of Indiana. So from your time in London to your time in San Francisco, all the places you've been working with the music industry in Nashville and meeting with every president of every Major League Volleyball team, if you could shout it from the rooftops, what's one thing the world needs to know about Indiana?

Indiana's a volleyball state.

Yeah. Come on. Okay. Wait, how are, like, when you think of, obviously high school volleyball, Muncie. That's all good. How are our colleges? Like how is iu? Purdue is Notre Dame.

So IU and Purdue are both in the Sweet 16 this fall.

Oh, let's go.

Yeah. Um, Indiana Wesleyan has been the NAIA champion for the last three years,

three B

for the NCAA championships.

This year we had 46 Hoosiers playing in the like D one NCAA championships, which was the sixth largest state. And of course you got like, you always have like Texas, Florida, California in there because they have so many people.

Yeah.

Um, and then, and then it was Illinois, Ohio, Indiana. So Midwest is the best.

Let's go. The volleyball belt. Come on. That's awesome. Indiana's a volleyball state. Okay. Now here's your opportunity to enlighten us about a place or a thing in Indiana that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?

Diavola pizza at the bar.

The one on like 54th in college?

Mm-hmm. Or 54th in the Monan?

Yes.

Oh yeah.

Have you had it?

Oh yeah. Okay.

Maybe. Maybe it's not a hidden secret. Well, I

live in

Bri. It's for people in that live in Zionsville.

Oh yeah. Okay. So here's the thing about Diavola. One, you need a date spot, like a romantic spot. Get a reservation there. The mood lighting is good.

Like I would say not a first date, you know, like this is like, okay, we've established some type of relationship here and let me just tell you, it is just a total vibe. It's and delicious food, really good food. The pizza is so good. Uh, could

compete with any city in the US for

sure. Actually, before I asked my girlfriend.

To become my girlfriend. It was before a date at Diavola. So you two, anyone out there looking to start a romantic relationship, you two could have a re relationship. So she said yes. She did say yes. If we, she said no, we were probably going to McDonald's or probably not going anywhere. Um, but she said yes and we had dinner at uh, Diavola.

Look at that

nice

fun spot. That's a good dinner gem. Finally, this is where we source new guests and learn about people with incredible stories. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things.

Emma Halter and Cara Cresse are Hoosier rookies on our team. They played at Texas and Louisville respectively.

Emma's got two national titles, Kara Final Four last year.

Where were they from in Indiana?

They're legit.

Like what high school?

Um, Emma is Roncalli, which is a volleyball mainstay and Kara's from Fort Wayne.

Heck yeah. That's awesome. So that's pretty full circle to go, like, from Indiana to a huge school, compete for Final Four national titles.

Yeah. Top, top five, arguably, um, top 10, arguably top five programs.

And then you're like, I'm coming home. Like, let's go. So fun. Uh, it was great to hang out, it was great to learn more about your journey. I mean, incredible from tech to startups to now volleyball. Like I love it. Uh, I just, this was, this was a really fun one and I'd been wanting to meet you for, you know, years at this point.

So, uh, awesome to hang out. Great to learn about the Ignite. If people want to buy tickets, if they wanna learn more, if they wanna get off your ass and go to an Ignite game, what, what, when's the schedule? When's uh, when's the season wrap up? How much time do we have left?

Our last home game is May 1st, so we have, um, yeah, 14 home games total.

And indyignitevb.com. That's our handle for Instagram. Um, follow us. There's really fun content from our players. It's the best way to get to know us.

I love it. Well, this has been great, and we will see you out at the game.

Thank you so much for having me.

This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.

Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle.

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.