Joining me this week is Holly Gray, the Human Resources Manager at Generation Esports. In addition to talking about esports and the importance of HR, Holly and I have a bit of a heart to heart about how to keep going when life is difficult, and also talk all about what Generation Esports is doing for students, veterans, and amateur players. Holly teaches me about the positivity of having kids play games in schools: higher engagement in school, better attendance, better grades because kids are getting to do things that make them happy! Hopefully that means the acceptance and normalization of it is coming.

Episode Resources:

https://generationesports.com/

https://edgeup.asus.com/2022/asus-gives-esports-programs-a-head-start//

Welcome to the meadow woman podcast, we address the

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Hello, and welcome to the meta woman podcast part

of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host, Lindsay

The Boss Boss. And from struggle to success. We're covering it

all. To our returning listeners. Thank you so much for supporting

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reviews and ratings you leave. And for all the new listeners

out there, I certainly hope you'll join me for a lot more

episodes. I love bringing fresh perspectives to the show. And

this is a I'm excited to introduce this person because

this is kind of an area I haven't covered so much yet.

Holly gray is a human resources manager at generation esports.

So she is the HR lead at generation esports. And I think

HR has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different

people. So I'm very fair talking about what it means in the

context of esports. So Holly, welcome to the show. Hi,

it's really great to be on. So excited

that you're here. Please introduce yourself, give

the audience your backstory and tell us you know, kind of what

you do in broad strokes

at generation esports Yeah, so um, I kind of got a non

traditional start into HR. And most people, I did the whole

traditional route growing up, I went to college, got my degree.

However, I didn't get my degree in HR, I got my degree in

apparel, textile marketing, which is essentially fashion

merchandising, I, for a very long time thought I was going to

be a buyer, like Rachel Green from friends, like I was I was

just gonna rule the world entered the job force in Kansas

City. And unfortunately for me, most of those companies that

were here in Kansas City kind of moved to coastal cities moved

out of state, or they just didn't do very well. So during

January of 2020, I was pregnant with my now two year old son,

and was unfortunately laid off and kind of had to return to

that. Yeah, no, super fun. When I tell people that I was laid

off, they're like, Oh, the pandemic, I'm like, oh, no, no,

something completely separate, much, much more fun. Yeah, so I

had my son, who's now to June of 2020. And I was very fortunate

to get to spend eight months of his life with him. During that

time, I kind of had to look at where I was going from a career

standpoint and took a career pivot. And you're probably

wondering, was that HR, it was it was marketing. I then pivoted

from Merchandising into marketing, I got the opportunity

to work at a small printing company in the Kansas City area,

and was unfortunately then laid off due to COVID.

Wow, a lot, just a string of good luck as well.

It was so fun. What What a time to be alive. I'm

telling you. I'm very great for my ego very humbly. And let me

tell you, as a quick interlude here, I

have spoken to several people who have felt

really down and out about their careers lately. And so this is a

good, this is a good origin story of like, just keep going.

Don't give up. Keep trying. So okay, now,

dark side notes. I know that does bring a good point.

Always keep going. Always keep trying. Because really, it's

it's a lot of hard work. And some of it's just luck. You

know, it just takes a lot of grinding a lot of networking and

just meeting and connecting with the right people kind of like

what we're doing today to find new opportunities. But yeah,

there's there's my spiel on that little motivational speaking for

you. But I was applying for jobs. My son is probably six

months old at this time. And I'm just applying for everything in

anything that comes my way. Right? And I see this job across

my LinkedIn feed and it says Marketing Associate generation.

Now in my mind, I'm thinking that this is either the coolest

job on the face of the planet or the biggest scam of all time,

but I think I have nothing to lose. So I'll apply. So I

interview I go down to this rinky dinky little office and

river marketing can study which we like to take new people by to

show them kind of where we started. It was a old department

office building that was converted into an office. I

interviewed and two weeks later I got the job I'm neither of my

bosses were in office. They're both virtual. They're both

really great people to learn from. And I started working in

December of 2020. Get those dates, right? I want to paint

you a picture to truly show you guys like word names. I'm a

picture painter, so bear with me here. I want you to imagine this

rundown brick, two storey apartment building with IKEA

black dusts. A smorgasbord of different chairs, and just

esports prising esports metals and random assortments of people

everywhere. And that's what our office was, I was brought in, I

said, I guess you could sit here, and we got to work.

That's a very arrogance. Yeah,

it was. But you know, what, a few months later, we

were fortunate enough that after, oh, geez, I would say

years of the founders, our four founders just grinding and

working and talking and, and networking, we were fortunate

enough to raise our first round of funding. And that's kind of

when things started to kick into gear. And I first started to

realize that I was really good at working with people. And I

loved a lot of the people I've interviewed, I talk about how,

you know, sometimes your career path isn't necessarily the most

obvious choice. And sometimes it is, sometimes it's staring you

right in the face. And my whole life, I've loved talking to

people, I've loved working with people. And it was always just

kind of this obvious choice. But in my mind, and in society, I

feel like there's a stigma around HR that they're mean, or,

you know, they're kind of like the rule enforcers, but it

doesn't necessarily have to be that hardcore. Right? You know,

obviously, I'm here to uphold policy, and make sure that

people are safe, and the company is within compliance. But

ultimately, the thing that I like to focus on the most in my

job is the human aspect, the people, because in my mind, the

people are what makes a company great. It's what makes the

culture so special. And for me, I genuinely have never been at a

place before, where I was so excited to go into work the next

day, not only because of the mission, that is generation

esports, but also my coworkers, I was laughing so hard the other

day that I'm pretty sure I laughed off all my makeup over

just the silliest conversation about a birthday bot that I had

put into Slack. And it's like that on a daily basis. The

people here are kind and they're hardworking, and they're smart,

and they're determined, and it's so inspiring to see people who

you've helped bring into a company, just go forward and

just thrive. It is the most rewarding feeling. So not the

most traditional start. But that's how I got my start was

after series I, I was given the opportunity to be an office

manager slash people experience associate. And I took it.

Gotcha. And that makes sense. Can you talk about

because last time we spoke, we talked a lot about getting into

HR and what human resources is. So I would love for you to talk

about. Well, okay, I guess we should back up a little. If you

could give like a two sentence description of what generation

esports does.

What would it be? Yeah. Yeah, so generation esports is a

tournament based platform that also caters to Scholastic

esports. So predominantly, the high school arena, we run and

host a lot of tournaments and communities. But also, we are a

tournament based platform that enables communities to come

together and find that sense of belonging and find that sense of

community that a lot of kids, frankly, don't necessarily get

in high school, but are now getting because of the virtual

world we're moving towards.

Okay, so now let's talk about the role of HR at a

company that does competitive play experiences. So what is

your role in HR?

What do you Yeah, so that's an interesting question.

It's not as cut and dry as you think, because we are a startup.

So the term wearing multiple hats gets thrown around a lot

and that is true to its fullest extent. So my primary

responsibilities, I would think, are one employee engagement. So

that deals with the internal culture, how people are

developing how people are in terms of satisfaction, both Job

wise, and you know what they're getting out of the company, but

also hiring, onboarding. I'm in charge of policy implementation.

I assisted with the development of our handbook, I have hired or

assisted hiring over half the staff. So it's a lot of

groundwork that I've been so fortunate to be a part of. But

it's not just the simple onboarding, hiring termination.

It's so much more than that. It's running Office events to

bring kiddos into the office to run lay on events, you know,

it's kind of everything and anything to do.

That's what I was going to ask is, would you say

that the bulk of your time is spent on internal operations? Or

is like, what's the ratio? I guess, better question is,

what's the ratio of internal operations versus external

engagements of community? Again, I know you're a startup

tournament provider in the esports. Industry. So it's kind

of niche, but just wondering what that looks like.

Yeah, so I would say in this situation, most of my time

is spent in internal operations, I would even kind of consider

hiring internal, because I'm hiring for a job in the company.

So I'd probably say it's about 8020. Split. Because I'm also

the office manager full time as well. I do assist with company

outings, but also assist with bringing high schools in to kind

of learn about what we do here to learn about potential career

paths. I would like to get more into recruiting. Unfortunately,

I just don't have the bandwidth right now. But that's something

we're looking towards in the

gotcha. And one of the things that we talked about

before was that you were involved in getting a

certification specifically for HR. And I just would love to

hear from people who are looking. And I think that I can

kind of safely say that there's an HR crisis across the gaming

industry, whether we're talking about competitive play to game

development, like, everyone needs to be hiring HR folks. But

I want to know, for people who may be entry level, may not be

interested in getting a degree or may have a degree like

yourself, that is not an HR, what are the educational

opportunities or certifications or things that you might

recommend to someone who's looking to fill in where this is

desperately needed? But doesn't have the needs to start?

Basically? Yeah,

no, that's a great question. And, you know, I'm

never, I'm definitely not an expert on all things education

wise, I just know what I know, based off of my own research,

when I first got into this, I knew that I was going to need

more training, right, because I can't sit here and say that I am

the best of the best if I don't try to be. And so I sought out

ways to get higher education without necessarily signing up

for the full four year course, because I've already done that

before I have a two year old at home, I don't have time, I would

say especially for the working person, or somebody who might

have children or just don't have time, a great route take would

be a professional certificate from an accredited college, I

got mine from Michigan State University. And it was a very in

depth look of what talent management kind of looks like,

both from a corporate perspective and what you should

be doing on a day to day basis. I will say that in a more

nationally recognized saving setting. The SH RM or Sherm is a

nationally recognized organization for HR. It is kind

of like a subscription in a sense where you pay for a

membership, but it gives you access to all of these

documents, training, templates, basically anything and

everything you need, in terms of HR, one to learn from, and also

to kind of bounce new ideas off of and through Sherm, you can

take a accredited course. So I will be testing for my sh, RM

CPE, which is the lower level form this upcoming spring, but

in order to take that you have to be involved in the industry

for at least two years. So I will have to test sport this

spring, because that will be my two year mark. But I would say a

good starting point is definitely that professional

certificate.

That makes sense. And would you say that, again,

just asking for folks out there who may not be interested in

four year degrees. I'm also interested in highlighting

things that are alternatives to four year degrees. But would you

say that you feel that a degree was necessary to getting your

current role or do you think that certifications entry level

experience can kind of I mean Also it's Right Place Right

Time. But would it? Do you think it would be reasonable to

not have one as well? Yeah, I, in any other field that

I've been in marketing, merchandising, I would have

100%. Yes, you need a degree. HR is different though. I feel like

just like teaching and like service industry, people, human

resources takes a special kind of person, it almost takes this

sort of finesse and adaptability to be able to work with them. So

I wouldn't say necessarily that companies are looking for that

degree. Definitely a bonus. And I think what they're looking for

is good energy. I think they're looking for time. So a good

place to start is having a job out of college and maybe a more

corporate setting where you can take those skills, from

marketing and merchandising, from analytics, and then apply

them to an HR perspective. So they're looking for real life

experience. I would say a degree of some sort is always helpful,

but it's not necessary. And I definitely think with the way

that the US is moving, especially in regards to

education, I feel like it's becoming more and more not

necessarily outdated, but people are becoming more adaptable and

more versatile.

Definitely. I think it's a good thing, because

four year degrees definitely are not for everyone. And that's

okay, too. And yeah, I did six years I did undergrad and

Master's. And I did love it. I really love school. But it's not

something that I think is worth putting on everyone. And within

all of this. And we've been talking about a bunch of

different things. But one of the things that you noted is that

you're working on hiring and being involved in the hiring

process. And I know that you said that you want to get more

involved with recruiting down the line. But obviously, you're

still kind of in that hiring portion of things. So you get to

see what it's like to bring in candidates and all that. And one

of the recurring themes that's come up on this show is the

great resignation. And I've had several guests talk about

deciding when it's time to try to find a new job or trying to

start a business and I myself was part of the great

resignation. So from your perspective, what has it been

like hiring for an esports organization? And finding those

folks who may even be part of the great resignation or like

yourself have been let go from a job? And now they're kind of

looking for their next opportunity? How are you able to

find those people that are willing to work in the startup

atmosphere, stay competitive with other companies and make

sure that your hiring pool is kind of big and diverse?

Yeah, no, um, you know, that's an excellent question. I

would say that the answer is kind of a couple fold. I think,

for one, it's very helpful for us that we work in an industry

that is seen as kind of like the string trick, right, I get a ton

of people that will run across my desk, that will say, I've

always wanted to work in video games Was that a dream of mine,

and I think that resonates with a lot of people, especially when

our company in particular is working towards something that a

lot of people recognize and relate to being that they were

seen as maybe not the cool kid in high school, or, you know,

maybe they didn't necessarily fit in. And that's something

that a lot of us can resonate with. So for us, in terms of

being a startup, it's not hard to sell. Because what we are

trying to attain, and who we are trying to help is almost

inspirational in a way that I feel like it makes up for the

fact that it is a startup, I won't lie to you being a startup

means that we can't necessarily compete with the bigger

corporations in terms of salary. So a lot of times, what I try to

tell people is I try to talk about our benefits, right? I

implemented a paternity leave policy that both includes women

and men in this policy or birthing people. So what that

looks like is for women, it is a full three months of full pay,

which is not common in the industry right now. But it's

also among the full pay for men, as well, because, for me,

diversity is something that I don't like to just talk about

openly, I like to actually do something about. So I wanted to

make sure that 80% of our company is male, I want to make

sure that we're catering to those people too, because they

deserve to spend time with their families just as much as than

the rest of it. Additionally, you know, we've tried to stay

competitive with unlimited PTO. And that is, in its truest form.

We haven't had any issues with people using that. And I have

found that a lot of our employees, you know, really

appreciate that they appreciate not having to worry when a

family crisis comes up or maybe they're just feeling a little

burnt out and they need a break. So it's benefits like that, that

are more appealing and kind of offset that startup Maybe issues

that some people may face.

That definitely makes sense. I think you also I

know that you're not as involved in recruitment as you want to

be. But I believe we talked about some of the recruitment

strategies that you were putting in place to try to make sure

that the hiring pool was was quite large. And I was wondering

if you could mention some of those as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I'll be completely honest

with you these policies necessarily, but these movements

that I'd like to go towards haven't necessarily happened

yet, we're still working our way towards them, what I'm looking

at is pulling directly from HBCUs, which we have done in the

past, in order to pull in more of a diverse pool of candidates,

because I'm a firm believer that when you get different types of

people in an organization, the ideas that blossom from that are

so incredibly unique, and so valuable. So we're looking at

pulling from specific HBCUs, we're looking at going to job

fairs, to kind of cater towards more of those minority groups.

But also just making sure that we're looking thoroughly through

their backgrounds, we're looking at their experience, we're

looking not necessarily even at a college degree, but what

they've done in the past who they work for the kind of skills

they've attained. I personally, dig through every single

application that goes through my desk, I looked them over, I

sourced them as I go. It's not done through a formula. It's not

done through a machine. It's all done via personal touch. And I

don't know if I'll always be able to do that. But until then,

I just feel like everybody deserves a fair shake.

Looking through every resume is quite a tall

order. So I commend you for that. If you get a flood of

people applying from the show, I apologize.

No, I you know what I hope we do because we need

engineers. There's a plug. Oh, good. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So, engineers out there looking. Um,

so speaking of let's actually talk about what you do

generation esports. I know, you've given us a short

overview. One word that comes up over and over on generation

esports. Website is community, which is just a hot word in the

gaming industry in general. Yeah, sure. Part of your

platform is reaching local communities engaging with the

gamer population there, especially high school students.

So what is different about you what you do iGeneration esports

that actually brings the community together and

encourages not just one off events, but leagues. Yeah,

the thing that I'm super excited about in regards

to our company is the curriculum. Right. So we work

with schools, school districts, by implementing our curriculum

that we've actually developed in house by two of our employees,

Christy and Mike. They're amazing. They developed the

curriculum, I believe, a year or two ago. And what this is, is it

offers a step by step walkthrough for teachers to then

learn how to teach courses around esports in the classroom,

which then allows for students to one be able to learn

firsthand what it means to be an esports. What it means career

wise, what it means, from a competitive standpoint, it

teaches them about teamwork, collaboration, critical

thinking, and it applies it in a real life sense, which then

allows parents to kind of be a little bit more open to the

experience, because I feel like in the past, a lot of a lot of

hair, parents, or maybe people of the older generation, were

maybe not as open to the idea, because, you know, we've all

heard it before. It's just kids playing video games, you know,

go outside and get the fresh air. But it's not just about

that, right? In my mind. Gaming esports is one of the most

inclusive activities that you can participate in, if done

correctly, right. Because it doesn't discriminate by

hypothetically it doesn't discriminate by gender, or race

or sex, any of that. It is an all inclusive atmosphere where

these kids can come together, and truly one enjoy each other's

company but also compete in a very level playing field. And I

feel like by establishing that curriculum in the schools, it's

also going to allow for more kids to learn about esports

opportunities, as well. So I think that's kind of what makes

us different from some of our other editors.

Yeah, they've curriculum is definitely kind of

new. What has the response been like for you?

From schools? Yeah, so I I don't have hardcore numbers,

but from what I've been told and, and experienced, it's been

very openly accepted. And people are excited about it. I mean,

honestly, we've even had educators that have come to work

for us because they want to be a part of. Yeah, we've, we have a

lot of teachers on staff, which I think also makes us kind of

unique, because we get that teacher perspective, firsthand

what it's like to be in the classroom, what it's like to be

teaching and coaching these kids and what they need from us to be

one successful that for them, but also successful community

and what they truly want.

Gosh, Oh, wow. Okay, that's pretty cool. And

can you tell me more about because I know, so you have the

curriculum where you get into school. So what does it look

like? Like if I were in a school, and I called and said,

like, hey, I want to bring you in? What happens? What's the

process?

What sorry? What do you mean by that question?

So I know that you have to curriculum, if I was,

say, a principal, and I called and I said, okay, like I want

generation esports at my school,

what would happen? Yeah, so first and foremost, we

have to be approved, I believe, by the district. And that may or

may not be necessarily correct, but I think that there are some

guardrails that go into place. But I think genuinely, generally

speaking, what happens is they contact us or one of our sales

reps, because they're kind of have each their own each

individual territories. From there, they kind of talked to

him about what it means to get that set up. And then they are

then diverted to our success team, which is a amazing group

of people who work with educators and parents on a daily

basis on onboarding them onto our platform and what that

means, and what that would look like, from a competitive

standpoint, but also from a curriculum.

And can you just go into more of what the

competitive landscape is like? Because I believe, like, I've

read an article by generation esports partners at Asus

hardware. But I don't know that I fully grasp like, I Are you

creating leagues for students to compete in? Is it like, are you

doing teams at schools? Like, what is the competitive play?

Actually, like we talked about the education part like now tell

me about the play part?

Yeah, so it kind of is separated into I would say, a

couple major categories. So we have the high school esports

League, which encompasses all high school students, from

public to private high schools. So those are going to be your

teams, your esports teams in the high school arena, we have the

mid Middle School, esports League, we have collegiate. And

then we also have the military gaming League, and we have

amateur. So kind of how those titles are named, that's kind of

the communities that they belong to. But essentially, what it is,

is they're divided up into routines. And they can

participate in tournaments within those communities. But

also, if they wanted to, they can also enter into amateur

communities as well. So we do offer amateur tournaments, like

the Triton cup that we host, and that's kind of an ongoing

tournament. Then we have also the bigger tournaments like high

school esports League, all major spring major and the national

championship as well. Okay, gotcha. So

that, okay, that makes a lot more sense. So

people within generation esports can then compete in their groups

as well. Um, how did you get involved in creating? Or do you

know, the origin story for the military League?

That's fascinating? Yeah, actually, that one's

relatively new. To be honest, I think it was just a lot of I

know, this person, this is what they're looking for. There was a

hole in what they needed and wanted in terms of esports and

competitiveness, and a lot of military, a lot of our military.

That's how they spend a good majority of their free time.

They like to play video games, relax, connect with people that

they may not see on a daily basis. So there was kind of this

hole in the environment. And we kind of went in and said, hey,

you know, we'll help you out with this. And we'll provide

that community for you guys so that you guys can connect,

interact, and just, you know, do what you love to do. Gotcha. Are

people competing generally within folks from

their area and in person events or is it mostly online

games? Now? Yeah, for now, it's mostly online.

Okay. I will say that most of the high school

teams usually have their own lab or sometimes they have like a

gaming area that they go to and together, but for the most part,

it is still remaining virtual Gotcha. That does make it well

that also makes it kind of easier to grow like a bigger

league to so you can get tournaments happening. Zooming

out a little bit. The way we're talking about this is obviously

so reminiscent of like little league Bay Small and all the

other. I mean, even Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts or all those other

kinds of activities that you sign kids up for when they're

younger? Um, how like, when do you think as someone who's been

here for been in esports for a little bit now, when do you

think that esports in gaming as a form of competitive player

activity that you sign your kids up for when they're younger, is

going to become the norm rather than it's still it's still a

little bit on the fringes to me. And I could be I could be wrong

in that assessment to feel free to prove me wrong on that. But I

still feel like I hear a lot of the like, you need to go outside

folks. So yeah, when do you think that that kind of tipping

point is going to happen?

So are you talking about timeline? Are you talking

about how old do you think these kids will be when they start

signing up?

Oh, I was talking about timeline. But I like this

angle of how old do you think you should sign kids up for?

Because that's, that's interesting.

So yeah, you

can answer both questions.

Well, I've got answers for both. So in terms of

timeline, I think we're kind of already heading towards that

path of it becoming more normalized. I grew up in a time

where watching anime or playing video games was sometimes seen

as taboo. I mean, I remember watching, you know, cartoons and

anime secretly at night without my parents knowing on a laptop

turned sideways, because I thought I was gonna get judged

or bullied. But now, it's so amazing that, you know, things

like anime, J, pop, kpop, gaming, all of that is becoming

more socially accepted. And I feel like we're heading more

towards this path of understanding and inclusivity. I

know that's kind of a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot in

the industry. But I genuinely do feel like these kids and young

adults are getting this opportunity that some of us

growing up maybe didn't have. And that's why this mission is

so important to us. So to answer your question, I feel like it's

in the near future, I definitely know that there are still going

to be barriers to entry. But the great thing about what we do is,

we've done studies around what it means to be involved in

activities like this. And we've seen an increase in overall GPA,

we've seen increases in general happiness among the student

body, we've seen, you know, increases of attendance at

school, because kids want to do this, they want to be a part of

it. And I think when parents see firsthand what that means to

their kid, it is the most valuable thing as a parent that

you can get as you're seeing your child firsthand. Find this

community and find happiness and something that maybe you didn't

think about firsthand. And I think because of that, the

acceptance and you know, the normalization of it is fastly

approaching us, especially with, and I know we're going to talk

about this more later. But the metaverse and with NF T's kind

of becoming this virtual baseball card kind of idea. I

think we're heading towards that path. Now. In regards to how

early to introduce your children, that's a question I

don't necessarily have a hard opinion on. Because you know, as

a parent, I would like to think that I have full control of what

my child see and season does on the internet. But I'm also one

of those people who's fully believes that he shouldn't get a

cell phone until he's in high school, because why does he need

to be on social media? I still think there are a lot of issues

with cyberbullying. And honestly, discrimination within

the gaming industry. I know I talked a lot about how it is

something that everybody can do. And that's true. But

unfortunately, the fact of the matter is, is that there are

still people out there who will judge you based off of your

gender or your race, and they'll say nasty things because it's

done virtually. So I think I would love to see it in an

elementary standpoint, I would love to see kids learning about

cyber safety and how to appropriately handle themselves

on the internet. Kind of like going all the way back to

kindergarten, you know, sharing is caring. Respect is mutual. I

think these are things that can be taught. I think that's

probably a little farther down the line, but I do think it

would be beneficial and I think it is possible.

I just had on Eve crochet a couple episodes ago

and she was she was telling me how her her child who was 11 or

12, I believe was heavily involved in online gaming and

and really loved it but didn't have a cell phone yet either.

And I wish I could remember the exact term she used. But she was

basically like no gaming is good. Gaming is beautiful.

Gaming is great. And it was something about like, healthy

online time. And she had a really like nifty term for

deciding like, what was healthy and what wasn't. And so yeah, I

think that you you and her and very much agreement on that and

I agree with both of you as well. And as you kind of alluded

to with discussion on the metaverse and a tease, and you

know, kids are already in it, because they're on Roblox, and

they know how to trade all this kind of virtual money and all

these kinds of virtual goods. And really, it's just us adults

that are like way behind whatever, eight year old. I

mean, my eight year old guys, like, understand economies

better. Why? No, I'm so cool, though. And I remember having

similar experiences. But like, Runescape, when I was younger,

and all kinds of stuff where I got to do the same thing that

I've now just stopped doing as I got older, unfortunately. Yeah.

But with this discussion on the metaverse and teason digital

assets, and also, one of the things that we've been talking

about on the show is how gaming is a way to get people more

comfortable with it. I think a lot of people get caught up in

trying to understand, like the architecture of the blockchain,

and when it comes down to it, like none of us understand the

architecture of the Internet, or any magical Wi Fi signal that

leads me to online worlds, do I know how that Wi Fi signal gets

broadcast to my device and makes it work? Like, no, not even

close? I'm gonna need to so but what I have understood, and what

I think really gaming has done is like, gotten people so much

more control, right? Even when we think about early cell

phones, like people were playing Snake on their phones before.

Before we had like phones, I could do like all of these

things now. So yeah, I'm just wondering, so you as you work in

a competitive esports organization that has programs

for kids, teens and adults. What do you think the role is of

esports in gaming and getting people more comfortable with

online worlds with digital assets and ownership? Like, do

you first see that something that a place like generation

esports is going to play a role in that transition?

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I can't really speak necessarily

on what I think the company is going towards. I would like to

think that

that could be costing your company strategy in

the next 10 years, I think that you would like, probably be head

of it or something. So definitely not to predict the

future just Marsa. Like, as someone who works in this, what

do you think is going to be that role?

Yeah, I think this role is more of a more of an

education. Right? So I don't know if you remember this, I

surely do. When I was growing up, they used to sell these

educational textbooks, right. And they had these little CD rom

this gates inside of them. And I look forward to doing it every

single year, because they were so fun. And it was educational.

And it taught me, you know, basic math and reading. But it

was also fun in a video game format. And I think that's kind

of what we're moving towards in terms of esports. And gaming is

that this can be seen as an educational tool for parents.

And for the older generation, like, Hey, here's the benefits

of, let's say, NF T's for this organization. And you can

collect cards, and it's going to be valuable. But it's also

really fun for these kids to kind of like play through. And

it's exciting when you open a virtual pack, and you look

through what you got, and oh my gosh, I got a super rare, shiny,

whatever, whatever you have. And it kind of makes it an idea

that's easy to understand for parents, because I know for me,

I still collect Pokemon cards. It's a physical thing. I love

it. There's a thrill, a rush that I get when I open it up,

and I find a hollow and it's a hyper rare and I put it in my

binder and then I show it off to all my friends. It's the same

thing. It's just a digital format. And it's something that

all these brands are jumping on board with doing. So we're

seeing major corporations we're seeing. I mean, I think the NFL

just launched something similar. Yeah, I think you're right. So

it's, it's something that is going to be more universal, but

also something that people across the world participate.

And I think that's pretty exciting. And in terms of the

metaverse I think this is just another way for us to connect

with each other as human beings. I saw that I'm not trying to

plug Roblox or anything but I I was on Tik Tok the other night

and I was just going through my videos and Charlie FCX was

having a live concert. And that's that's a cool idea that

me some random person can join some other random person across

the world to go experience this artist live together that I

would have never met. You know, Suzy Joe from wherever and she

would have never met me but now we're here together appreciating

an artists together and that's a really cool collaborative idea.

And I think it's so broad right now that a lot of people that's

why they're having a hard time wrapping their minds around it.

But as we continue to shape it and develop it, I think we're

going to start realizing how valuable that kind of connection

is.

Yeah, I like that. I always think about Paris

Hilton had like a whole experience within Roblox. I was

like, if anything gets me on to the robots platform, it will

absolutely be Paris Hilton experience Island. I am all the

way in. I'm doing that. Right. Before we get into our last

segment, I'm going to kind of summarize what we've talked

about so far, which has been so much fun, and we've covered a

lot. So we start off with a very inspirational story, actually,

about all the job transitions you've had, and how a lot of

finding opportunities is hard work. And a portion of it is

luck. But you just got to keep going because you never know

what might happen. And we talked about HR and what it's like at a

competitive tournament provider. It's a lot of your work is spent

on internal operations, making sure employees are engaged,

being involved in the hiring process, creating the employee

handbook. So making sure that the day to day stuff is really

smooth. For folks that want to get involved into that

professional certificate opportunities and universities

offer an in depth look at talent management, and can provide the

tools to be successful in that role. Sherm is one thing that

you mentioned, it's a nationally recognized test for standards

and HR. And I know that you mentioned that that's a bit more

of a process. But if you're truly interested in that role,

it's something to consider. I asked you how you're able to

kind of go through the hiring process and find folks that are

interested in generation esports. And you mentioned that

you can really sell the mission of it. And that good benefits

are a way that you've been able to remain competitive with

generous pay from larger companies. So things like really

good family leave policies, unlimited leave mental health

days, all that kind of stuff. We talked a bit about recruitment

strategies. It's just something that you mentioned that you

wanted to get more into one thing that you mentioned that

you've been trying to implement, or re implement, or do more of

as well directly from HBCUs. And one thing that you do that I

love is that you read every resume, which is time consuming.

But as someone who has gone through many sad hiring

processes, I appreciate knowing that there's a human on the

other end who might actually think about me for an incident.

When it comes to working with education, and what you do a

generation esports you have a fully developed curriculum that

offers step by step walkthroughs for teachers to learn how to

teach courses, around esports in the classroom, so for any of you

that are in the education industry, let's go check out

generation esports. Students can learn what esports careers

actually are, as well as learning teamwork,

collaboration, critical thinking and all kinds of other kinds of

skills that you will learn in the classroom. You also have

leagues for middle school, high school, military and amateur

people who are interested in competing participants in each

of these can participate in tournaments within those

communities for can also join into tournaments in the amateur

league, which is kind of a good way of creating digital

experiences with lots of people in lots of places, and still

allowing for flexibility to move up if you are so inclined. We

talked we ended with kind of a discussion on the metaverse

future tech, what is going on with all of that, and you

noticed that we are heading more towards inclusivity kids are

getting an opportunity to join communities that might have been

found out a few years ago or just know frowned on

misunderstood. People felt apprehensive about things like

anime and gaming. And there's still quite a few people who

feel apprehension. But as you noted, that's finally starting

to turn the other way. And we will hopefully very soon see the

normalization of all these activities in terms of local

leagues, community leagues the same way we see a lot of sports

or outdoor clubs or all kinds of other things. And doing this has

positive results, you've noticed that you all have seen higher

engagement in school, better attendance, better grades. And

that comes because kids are doing stuff that makes them

happy. So it keeps them engaged in what they're doing. And we

entered talking about how we can use gaming to kind of get into

the metaverse. competitive gaming and or just gaming play

in general is going to be an educational experience for folks

in order to get them comfortable with online worlds with things

like digital assets and ownership, which are such murky

ideas right now. And as you noted, it's sort of reminiscent

of the CDs that used to come in the back of textbooks esports

and gaming can show people what's fun about interacting

with Blockchain tech like NF T's. So now that I've done all

of that, we're gonna get into the very last question. This is

a section I like to do at the end of every show because

there's a chance for you to kind of look back and offer words of

wisdom, which you also did at the top of the show. So this is

a very nice book and the question I'd like to ask each

guest that comes on is what is one thing you would like to tell

your younger self about getting into the gaming industry and

being successful.

Yeah, so something that my parents always told me was

that if you find a job that you enjoy doing, you will never work

to date. And that's true. The problem is, is that a lot of us

don't necessarily know what would make us happy as adults.

And it's tough because as 18 year olds, a lot of us are

expected to go into the workforce or college and figure

it out. And in my opinion, that's a really young age to

figure out like, I didn't have it figured out. And I think

that's perfectly normal, I would tell my younger self to just

keep my ears and eyes open. And to just really be true to myself

as corny as that sounds. If I had figured out that, yeah, I

love being with people I love following process and rules. And

I love enabling people to find their best selves and help them

grow in their careers, I get a lot of satisfaction from service

and the service industry, maybe I would have discovered that

this was my true path all along. And it's hard to be true to

yourself. But I just think that if we stop worrying about what

other people think of us all the time, and that's not necessarily

to mean that you shouldn't care about what other people think.

Because I definitely think you should care about other people's

feelings. But really just be true to yourself and what you

want what would make you happy regardless of what other people

think whether it's nerdy or lame, quote, unquote, or uncool,

you know, do what makes you happy. Because ultimately, at

the end of the day, I wake up every morning, excited to go to

work, excited to see my coworkers, and there's nothing

more fulfilling. So I would just say to just as lame and corny as

it sounds, just really be true to yourself. Just think about

what you want. What about your parents want what society wants,

think about what you want? And go for it. You know, the worst

case scenario is that somebody says no, and then you've tried

to find out,

you know, it's been incredible about doing this

show is that so many people have given that same piece of advice.

And what that says to me is that a lot of folks spend time trying

to kind of fit in or worrying and if austere syndrome is

something that comes up all the time, and it's like, no, just be

you.

I mean, I'll be honest, when I, my mom, she tells the

story all the time. And it's so funny, I went to college, I

said, Mom, I'm going to major in kinesiology. Right, because my

mom, she got a doctorate degree. I just wanted to make her proud.

That's all I wanted to do. And she said, Why do you want to do

that? I said, because, you know, it's, it's a good job. She said,

Is that gonna make you happy? And I said, it should I'll make

enough money. And she goes, No, no, that's not gonna make you

happy. And I said, Would you'd be really proud of me? She's

like, I don't care what you do. I just want you to be happy. And

I was like, Yeah, I don't want to major in kinesiology. She's

not really great at math. I'm like, no or not. I don't know

why I thought this was a good idea. And she's like, you just

need to make you happy. And I'll be proud of you no matter what.

And I needed to hear that. But for the longest time, I was

like, I'm gonna do ABC and D, and my parents will be so proud.

Because I'm a people pleaser. There was another side, I should

have been an HR I love. You know, making other people happy.

It's what I thrive on. And so I needed to hear that and I hope

that there are people in everybody else's lives, who will

keep it real with them and be like, No, I don't think that's a

good idea. I think that's

a great story to end on. Holly, where can people

find you follow you find generation esports? Learn more?

Yeah. So

for me, you can find me on LinkedIn. My first name is

Holly, last name, re gr a why. It's just a blonde girl with a

red t shirt on my profile, just add me on LinkedIn. Um, in terms

of generation esports, you can follow us on pretty much every

social platform. We've got Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn,

please go follow us. We're constantly pumping out brand new

ideas, collaborations campaigns, and we have a lot of exciting

stuff that's gonna be happening in the near future. So I really

hope that you guys will come take a look and see what we're

all about.

So fun. For all the listeners out there. Don't

forget to leave a five star ratings and reviews. Tell a

friend about the podcast. And check out other holodeck media

podcasts including metal business and business of

esports. I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn at

Lindsey pass. You can catch me Wednesday afternoons on the

business of esports live after show and you can catch this

podcast in your feed every Tuesday. See you next week.

Thanks for joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to

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