This week's guest is Taryn McCarty! Hailing from Nerd St Gamers, Taryn has an illustrious background in community building, creating better access for gamers, and promoting inclusion. Taryn walks us through her career path, including many of the positive environments she's been in and how it's impacted her professional development.

Episode Resources:

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/practicing-self-care-when-everything-is-uncertain/

Welcome to the meta woman podcast we address the

issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

female talent and business executives operating in the

gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey, the

boss poss the metal woman podcast starts now.

Hello, and welcome to the metal woman podcast. I'm

your host Lindsey the boss path. Together, we're going to have

conversations about what it's like to be a woman in the gaming

industry, how we can better support women in the gaming

industry, and what we can do to build a better environment for

everyone. From struggle to success recovering it all are

returning listeners. Thank you so much for supporting the show.

And if you can tell a friend leave five star rating and

review you know, the whole podcast thing. And for our new

listeners. Welcome, and I hope you really enjoyed this episode.

You have an really awesome guest this week. I'm so excited to

introduce Taryn McCarty. Taryn is Head of Community Development

at nurture gamers. Welcome to the show. Taryn, if you could

just tell us a little bit about your journey and your

background. I would love to hear the Taryn McCarty biography.

Yeah,

thanks so much for having me. I appreciate you

reaching out and contacting me. Hi, everyone. My name is Taryn

McCarty, I'm the Head of Community Development for nerd

chic gamers. I am relatively new to the esports scene about two

years now. Prior to that, I was more in the advertising realm of

things. So basically, I was working from anywhere where

startup when Groupon was around to the Wall Street Journal,

worked for a few data startups had some exits. And my last

startup, I had some time to really think about what I wanted

to do. I'm a woman who's very passionate about sports, whether

it be women's professional sports, amateur sports, also a

huge fan of football and the Premier League more importantly,

but I really spend some time in sad like I really wanted to be

in sports unfortunate during recession. So I was just

thankful to have a job, nevermind be picky about what I

had. So I was sitting there and like, you know what I think I

really wanted to be involved in sports, sitting next to my my

friend's seven year old daughter at the time, and she was on

YouTube watching streamers. And you know, I'm a gamer myself not

competitive by any nature, but really just said, I need to

think about esports a little bit more at the time. And still

today I live in Philadelphia, I learned a little bit more about

nerd street gamers, and met John Danny and a few other members of

the nursery team and really heard their vision for what not

only what they wanted the company to do, but what they

wanted the entire industry to do. And I fell in love. So I

really wanted to be a part of everything that they were

growing. So I actually started off there in collegiate business

development. So I was working with colleges and figuring out

how to build their programs and their infrastructure. Come

pandemic, colleges were really struggling and figuring out what

their next moves were. But at the time, we were still opening

our local host facilities and really trying to engage with

local communities. So I kind of took that on and really started

building that out more not only from a localized level, because

we do have, as of last week, nine local host facilities

across the country. But really like how do we make an impact

bigger than that? So working also with national organizations

such as the Special Olympics.

Very cool. Can you tell me a little bit about how

your past experience at places like Groupon and tech startups

and other places have kind of translated to your current

position?

Absolutely. I think that the world is driven by

revenue. So I think as long as you understand some of

advertising and sponsorship opportunities, that definitely

helps. I've not only been in business development, but I've

also been in product management, from a software standpoint, but

also from physical standpoint. So I think really just being

able to hone in on a couple of my experiences in those realms

really helped me translate that to today, where I'm coming up

with creative ideas on the fly all the time, just saying this

is something that I'm seeing in the marketplace that's needed.

How do we make this come into fruition and going from there? I

think that we can all learn from traditional sports

organizations, too. And I see a lot of members of teams not only

come from traditional sports organizations, but also

companies that have various venue experience.

Gotcha. That's one thing. So in, in the esports

community, it seems like there's always this kind of push and

pull between wanting to be compared to traditional sports

and wanting to be completely new, and separate from

traditional sports. So how do you see that conversation?

Because there's certainly things you can pull. But is there I

mean, I think that I personally think that there's an

opportunity to do better than traditional sports have done as

well. So how do you see that comparison and what kinds of

Things do you like or dislike about it?

Yeah, I personally think we can learn from each

other. I think that, you know, esports has done a great job

right now we're growing so, so rapidly, and I think traditional

sports, you can see that they now understand that esports

isn't going away. And I think that find a lot of people are,

yeah, it's just very funny. Like, I feel like a lot of the

time is more convincing people. I always laugh because most of

my job is actually education, right? I'm trying to teach

people exactly what esports is, and different opportunities

behind it. Because everyone sees it as, oh, my kid plays, you

know, in the basement, you know, it's not necessarily a

competitive opportunity, where as you go to some of these

colleges, they know that not only is an opportunity, but it's

a recruitment tool for a lot of these different schools. Yeah.

So really just being able to work with that. But to answer

your question, I think that we can all learn from each other. I

think traditional sports has done a great job just in terms

of some of the actual infrastructure plays and their

various partnerships with other organizations that I try and

mimic if not replicate, like the Special Olympics like a couple

of other organizations. But I think that traditional sports is

now understanding that esports isn't going away, and they're

starting to really hone in and say, how do we partner? You

know, how do we get each team to understand what esports is, and

a couple of different influencers, both professional

players have come on board our team. But I think everyone's

really excited. And we see so many tremendous opportunities to

partner together, not only from the, you know, the sponsorship

standpoint, but also from a local community, like, can we

make a difference in these kids lives, that might not

necessarily have the opportunities to do so?

Can you tell me a little bit more about that, and

about what nerd street does, just for people who aren't

familiar with it, or some of the projects you've worked on that

you're just really excited about in terms of getting the local

community connected, and what the mission is, because it's

also a national organization. So I know you're out of Philly, but

there's certainly other people working on other projects across

the country. So love to hear more about that,

of course. So at nursery, what we believe is

access opportunity and integrity. So access, you can

think about that from providing any type of educational or

competitive opportunities. But this comes for the access,

right? So if you're a kid that doesn't necessarily have access

to a PC or a console, how do we give these people access to high

end equipment, affordable raise in a place that is a facility

that they can understand and operate? So think about that,

that logo, hockey pucks and things like that. Opportunity is

more like how do we showcase these talents, to professional

sports teams to college sports teams, and building the path to

pro for these kids and making opportunities that they

necessarily wouldn't have. And then integrity, obviously, we

want everyone to make sure that they have the same opportunities

as everyone else, either internet access, or, you know,

purchasing power, whatever they're deciding to do. And I

think with with those types of things, it's our local host

facility kind of brings that barrier down, right, so you come

into our local facility, you have the same competitive

opportunities as the kid next to you. And that really helps a lot

of people in terms of, of understanding, you know, we've

we've gotten in a virtual world and we've grown a ton, but I

think that in person play is still the backbone to esports.

Ooh, I like that as a as a conversation point

there, because obviously, we've seen so many changes of the

pandemic, one of them being that it's haven't gotten to do any

type of in person activity for a long time here, kids and adults

to be fair. We have been struggling to, but how do you

see that shaping in the future? Because I think everyone kind of

immediately assumed that things like esports and competitive

video games, which is sort of automatically translate to the

virtual world, that it was very easy. We're lucky to be in to an

industry that offers that as an option. But how do you see in

person events, meetups, things like that? I don't know. Working

into the way competitive gameplay is developed in the

future. Yeah,

I mean, we the block is a perfect way of describing

this. We just opened our 20,000 square foot facility right on

Broad Street in Philadelphia. And the week before and the week

of, we had lines out the door for multiple events that we we

hosted the when the one we first opened, it was actually frag

Adelphia was sold out there was a line around the block. We had

a lot of different partners come in like I didn't know there was

gonna be a line around the block. We had a tremendous,

tremendous showing. And even this upcoming weekend, we have

our valorant frag Adelphia event, which is also going to be

insane. You can see it in players. They're really excited

to see each other team meats and you have various practices. But

when you're actually in person and you're having that

experience, it's a total different move. Likewise, you

know, we have a giant stage on on our facility, casters are

looking at them, just the entire feeling, you could feel the

energy that is totally different than watching his stream. And

there's nothing wrong with streams at all. Because, you

know, we all know that over COVID, I think esports actually

got a better reputation, especially from a parental lens.

Now, they understand it's not just about playing video games

in the basement, they understand a lot they that their kids got a

lot of social emotional learning that they wouldn't necessarily

find. But it still doesn't take place that that in person feel.

I mean, you know, we had a couple partners, it was everyone

was screaming, there was so much buzz in the air, you know,

especially during the championship series, there's a

lot of different excitement that you just can't replicate

digitally.

So then, just to complicate things a little bit,

we have this, I have this debate, I'm on the business of

esports, live after show every week, and we have a big a big

push that it's going to be Ready Player One type of future. So

you're going to pop on a headset, and be able to attend

things. So how do you think that's going to compare to in

person 1020 years down the line? Obviously, it's impossible to

exactly predict the future. But do you think that the magic of

in person is going to be able to overcome the magic of VR? I

guess? I think that Metaverse

and VR, it will definitely have its place. But I

think I don't see it happening sooner than later. I still see

that competitive play. And I do see sports isn't going away. I

see esports won't go away either. So I understand it, it

is a very debatable subject. I think that both will exist. Like

I don't know why you would want one or the other. If you could

have both.

I tend to agree with you. I know that there are

others that I work with who have a different view. But as someone

who is a huge traditional sports fan and a former athlete, I

can't imagine giving that up in the same way that I would

imagine that a lot of pro gamers Yeah, they, you know, you want

the stage and the real life interaction. And you're totally

right. I I attended pre COVID Big Apex tournament, and it was

so much fun. And it's just the the amount of things that you

can put on a screen that add to the experience to that you don't

get with traditional sports, right? All of the kind of

overlays and angles that you can get different players. It's so

cool, very fun to like,

our generation just still has that emotional

attachment to in person, you know what I mean? And that's not

going to go away for a little bit. I think I was actually just

watching an interview with Keanu Reeves. And he said that he was

at a dinner with like a 17 year old and he was explaining what

the matrix was, and how like he wanted to know if it was real

life or not. And the 17 year old said, like, who cares if it's

real or not like I wouldn't. And I think that's kind of the

difference between generations, right? Like, they don't actually

mind. Whereas we're kind of still emotionally attached to

the outcome there.

Ooh, so then do you think in 10 or 20 years, we

might have a more Ready Player One style of attending events?

That as a preference, I'm not talking about the technology,

technology, I

see that even for concerts, right. I mean, I think

that people really tend to draw emotional experiences from

different events. And I think the gaming population definitely

has that, that that view. But I think there's a whole different

population that esports hasn't tapped into yet for that in

person really understanding that. And once that happens,

it'll be interesting to see the to navigate.

I think that it's, I mean, it's impossible to

predict what the world's gonna look like 10 years from now, I

don't I certainly don't think 10 years ago, I was thinking about

a pandemic. So who knows? But just to pull or to pull back a

little bit. Can you tell me a little bit more, you mentioned

the block and that it opened in Philly, but can you tell me more

about the development of that facility and what it does for

the local community and what kind of things you're looking to

do in other local communities or that kind of that path for

developing other other areas like the block and other places?

Sure. So we opened our 20,000 square foot facility,

right on Broad Street and callowhill in Philadelphia, come

visit us. It's has about 150 PCs. We have a console lounge,

we have food and beverage, we have a large staging area all

set up for competitive gameplay, huge LED screen casters. And I

think just in terms of the background of it is more of that

team room aspect. So like places that teams can come and practice

Have a safe place to play, and also have that high speed

internet access that wouldn't necessarily have the same

internet. So for practice purposes, in terms of like what

we're doing with the local community, everything. Right now

I'm talking with everyone from the city of Philadelphia,

whether that be their Philadelphia Parks and Rec

Department, getting them to understand who what we are. We

were thankful actually started a partnership with them during the

pandemic. So we started it completely virtual. They said,

we have all these kids that we know are siloed home, we had to

shut down our recreation centers, how do we help them? So

we hosted an MBA to K tournament on their behalf, which was

great, we had a ton of ton of kids sign up. But what we found

out is that a lot of kids don't even understand how esports is

competitively played. So we learned a lot from that in terms

of how we can train some of the rec leaders to empower these

kids. How does a bracket work? How does an esports tournament

work? What is discord, a lot of things that people take for

granted that, frankly, we really need to so there's a lot of work

that still needs to be done, which is why that whole

Metaverse conversation is kind of like yes, I do you see it

happening. But I think we still have a long way to go. But also

partnering with with other universities locally, right, we

have temple down the street St. Joe's is 20 minutes away. We

have six city colleges near us. How do we empower these kids to

be able to come in because we know that college hasn't been

normal for them in a couple years. So we'd love them to come

in and be able to offer some type of event or situation that

that they feel safe. And even if it's not just their esports

team, maybe it's just kids out that wants something else,

again. So really just being able to shout out those local

organization, always talking to different high schools in the

area. So it really just depends on a day to day basis. And

again, the block is really excited about it. But we also

have eight other facilities nationwide. So I'm not only

working with Philly, I'm working with Oceanside. I'm working with

Bakersfield. I'm working with St. Louis and trying to figure

out each community because they are so different. Bakersfield,

California, Bakersfield, California.

Wow, my sister was actually born there. That's

funny. Yeah, cuz that's not a very big city. They were in

Bakersfield. And they moved to attach me shortly afterwards.

But it's rare to hear that name. Yeah.

And you know, our store manager there. He's amazing. And

there's a whole different community like Bakersfield has

their own comic con, things that you wouldn't necessarily know.

But they have all of these different communities have their

own strengths. And it's just a matter of understanding them and

really being able to embrace them and tap into these local

communities and say, like, how can we help?

It's also nice that you all seem to have

locations, in not the main gaming cities, either.

Bakersfield is outside of LA, but quite quite a bit outside of

LA. And obviously Philadelphia has its own city, but I don't

know that you think of gaming hubs pretty much it's la New

York. That's kind of it. Maybe Chicago sometimes, but not

really. So it's really nice that these are spread across the

country in places that don't get a lot of the attention. And in

terms of building the gaming community was I don't know if

that was intentional or not. But

yeah, I think you know, our, we have a whole real estate

team that is in charge of figuring out and navigating all

of our different locals. And so far, they've done a great job

because I have had nothing but a great time with all the

different local communities and figuring out, you know, how we

can partner together. Our Texas facility is actually right

outside of Austin in Georgetown, Texas. What a cute, cool little

city that's just 20 minutes away from Austin.

never would have

thought about it. But it is a very, very cool city. Right. And

they have a college right across the street from our local host.

There's, there's a ton of different things to do. And I

think just more importantly, like, how do we get other

partners even from a state level, because a lot of a lot of

times when I'm talking to partners, they don't even

understand like how a land Center operates. You know, one

of my first partners in Texas was actually Special Olympics of

Texas, their specific state chapter. And we did a training

program for them. And actually this the Special Olympics of

Colorado because of our Denver facility, in saying like they

want to figure out how to bring esports into their, their

roster, but they don't understand how they can coach

some of their coaches how esports works. So we have that.

So how can we partner together and create that first ever

Special Olympics training program for them? Which is

exciting for us because it's a huge passion point for me. Able

to be nimble and saying like this is an opportunity that

should be in every state, not just these three states.

And that's it's good to know about Georgetown

because I have beef with Austin. That was just there in October

and not enough 24 hour pharmacies, which I did not know

I was so accustomed to, but when you need those reports and

markers at midnight, and there's no way of accessing them, quite

annoying. And anyway, it's such a like, I'm glad to know that

there's other cities because we were staying, I was there for

the Formula One race. So we're saying your Circuit of the

Americas. And like two and a half minutes outside of Austin,

there was just nothing. So yeah. Maybe we didn't go far enough to

the three minute mark.

is a market that is just booming, like crazy

exploding.

Yeah, yeah, Miami, that's the new tap salutely.

I have had a couple friends that have lived there

over the last eight years, nine generally visit them once a

year. And every year, something is just crazier and more

different than every time I go there. It's very funny. It's

coming a little bit more el la than I ever anticipated.

That's what I've heard some grumbles from some local

Austinites who say that,

so still get those that's all that matter,

right toward cheese tacos I tried to do it

lived up to expectations as There you go. One of the best

taco places in Austin, though. But I wanted to go back to when

you talked about Special Olympics and partnerships. That

was one of one of the questions I have here is, is how have you

been able to develop these relationships with sponsors and

partners? You know, you talked about the Special Olympics. On

the other side, we've seen celebrity partnerships and

sponsorships. I specifically saw Juju Smith Schuster who I love

the Steelers wide receiver. So that was really fun. But when

you're looking for partnerships and sponsorships, what are you

looking for? How are you able to collaborate with different

people at Nerd street? What's kind of the mission of those

collaborations? Can you just speak a little bit about that?

Yeah, so

the three mission wares in earlier that isn't something

that we just look to just for, you know, people that we want in

our facility, we also look for them in various partners. Juju

is an amazing partnership that we have, we're really expanding

on our partnership with him. But really seeing the passion that

he has not only for esports, but also the his surrounding

community is huge. So I anticipate us doing a lot more

community work than I ever anticipated, which is a great,

great news for me and great news for the community. I think from

other standpoint, it's really just understanding your audience

to, for example, I have a partnership with Thomas

Jefferson University's neurodiversity and autism unit.

Dr. Wendy Ross's is their leader there. And basically, a huge

portion of gamers are actually either autistic or somewhere on

the spectrum. So when we're having these nine stores, how

are we training our staff? How are we understanding the needs

of these of these individuals. So they actually came up with a

training program for our entire retail staff, and we are

planning on giving it to them at least two, three times a year,

we just had our kickoff a couple months ago, but really just

being able to understand your population, you know, everyday

someone's that, you know, I have a really close reputation to

with our store managers, because they're the ones they're boots

on the ground, they're saying this is happening. We have, you

know, this is Brentwood de are we have a school that just came

in, you know, if this is a need that that community has, then we

should be partnering in that way. And I think understanding

those needs really helps our business development team

understand different sponsorships that they can have,

not only nationally, but locally, because a lot of the

times that they're looking for this to solve the same problems

that we are. So I think it's just a matter of finding those

those little navigating answers that the local community can

only serve, but also being able to just like have partnerships

and reputations, you know, I'm lucky enough that I just pick up

my cell phone and I can text a lot of my different partners.

Because you know, we're all in this together. Like that's what

I always say to them. Like, we're building this entire

industry together, like how can we do it in a way that benefits

everyone. But also, it's not just about the kid that wants to

be a professional esports player, it's about our broadcast

team. Like we're going to need more kids that want to be

casters and want to operate cameras and really understand

how broadcast works. I'm in business development, we need

marketing we had it's an entire industry that we really need to

empower and grow. So how can we do it with like minded partners

on this, that's a good point, because part of the

reasons why I start part of the reason why I started this show

was because I wanted to highlight not just streamers,

and people who are very forward facing and public facing which

is great. They, they have their own struggles in their own

difficulties. But there's, you know, they're 1% of the picture

and 1% of what you can do in gaming. And so the other 99%

Often I think gets a little lost. So I like that that's

that's sort of a focus when it comes To celebrity partnerships,

or I don't know if celebrity is the right word, but I don't know

people who have a large following when it comes to

partnerships with that type of person. Are you seeing a lot of

crossover? Like as in? Are they able to bring their audience to

you all? Or is it more so that your audience enjoys having them

or seeing the things that they do? I think it's a little bit

of both. But I think it also depends on each individual

event or thing that you're planning. But again, goes back

to that first made, like, I think we can learn from each

other and leveraging different audiences to be able to expose

different audiences. But you know, it's huge. He was amazing.

He has an amazing following. But he also has that local community

following from Pittsburgh that I think, you know, we don't have a

local host there, but I have no eventually we would love to,

especially because of the good things that he's doing.

Highlight that within the community. So really just being

able to draw, like, how can we help another community with our

esports knowledge, knowing that he has that reputation from the

local community and just trying to find and like, navigate those

like little partnerships are always like that, that's, that's

the exciting thing for me, like my days are so different. And I

love that. I mean, it's just like, I'm always running around

meeting really cool people and doing different things. But I'm

just lucky that we're all able to figure this out together.

I think that's also a good point. Because I

think usually we're thinking in terms of audience size of, I

don't know, one to 10 million, and it's like, really, you can

think about audience sizes one to 10,000. And do that a bunch

of times, and it's more meaningful to those smaller

audiences, and then you're able to kind of build off that. So I

don't know when we talk about this influencer thing is sort

of, sort of like, well, even if Juju Smith Schuster only brings

2000 people, those 2000 people are going to be highly dedicated

to him, and highly dedicated to what he's doing, and therefore

probably more likely to actually pick up on some of the things

that he's interested in. So it might be a good thing, to have

just a small portion of that audience come over, but exactly

and and that's so translatable to to like local

communities like Brentwood, in St. Louis has a huge Smash

community, and they are all in touch with each other on daily

basis, like that's more important to us than going after

a professional celebrity there. Because we know that they have

the local community's best interests at heart. And we want

to be able to tap into that existing community and say, hey,

please come play at our facility will host your Meetup will host

your event, instead of playing siloed at home.

That's a really interesting strategy. And one

that I like, I think there's this whole authenticity question

that goes around constantly in the gaming community. And

everything has to be authentic, authentic, authentic, which it's

a word that it when used in the proper context is a very

powerful word, I tend to think it gets overused a bit. And that

authenticity is maybe prioritize to a fault. But this is the

truest sense of the word in that it's it's truly a grassroots

effort to build a real community, rather than I don't

know, a overly hyped. Yeah, creation of an organization. Oh,

yeah. And a

lot of times, you know, when you're building out, when

you're thinking you're building out like a rec league, or things

like that, the hardest part is getting that ice time getting

that field time we have it. So please, like figure out like we

let's figure it out together and getting you in our actual

facility, because we have that infrastructure taken care

of already. That's so cool. What a cool idea for,

you know, a company really. But I also want to go back to

because you are head of community development. And you

touched a little bit on talking about, especially neuro atypical

people, but it how do you think about diversity, diversity and

inclusion? More generally, when you're building these spaces?

And what have you kind of done to make that a priority? Or what

practices you employ to kind of make sure that there's a strong

and inclusive community? Yeah,

I think our company does a really good job of it. I

think we can always get better. I mean, I think everyone can

always get better than that. But I think we always are trying to

have someone in the room a little bit different than

everyone, right? I think that's the only way you're going to be

addressing diversity and inclusion is if you see someone

in that room that looks like you or that represents you. And I

think esports is kind of in that inflection point where they're

realizing that and they're trying to make differences. When

I'm when I'm making decisions and partnerships and things like

that, I'm constantly thinking like, how can we make this

better? How can we have different partnerships with

people that we might not necessarily think that might be

a partner but that definitely would be a Good person to have

in the room for the for these different things. So it's not

only that it's just sitting on different boards like hearing

different opinions hearing what's going on in various

cities. There's always a there's always an official elected

government official that wants to talk about some type of thing

with esports. Because they understand it, and they know

they need to get behind it. Um, but again, education, huge

piece, but that's, uh, yeah, that's my long winded answer and

diversity than I, you know, it's not just it's not just a gender

issue. It's not just a race issue. It's an everyone issue.

How do we get everyone to be comfortable with the decisions

that are made not only from a personal standpoint, but from a

company standpoint,

and one piece of that, that I'm so excited to

talk about, because in my former life, I worked on technology

policy, is broadband access. And you've talked a lot about just

having the facilities open. And being able to offer the

infrastructure that people need is one way of incorporating more

of the local community. But I would love to just nerd out on

broadband development. And I know that you guys have kind of

programs or things to sort of help people who don't have the

connection access that they might need in gaming. So I would

love to hear about that. And just to hear about what you've

seen in terms of broadband access, and how it hurts people,

or how how it plays into the gaming community, just talk to

me about broadband, haven't gotten to do this in a little

bit.

For us, it's actually keeping it really simple. It's

saying, I know that my internet is completely different from my

neighbor's internet, which is completely different from their

neighbor's internet. And I think when you're thinking about

building inclusion in esports, and knowing what people may or

may not have, regardless of their income, or any of their

background, it's going to be different across the board. So

when you're thinking about really building an esports

generation, that has that equity, it's really just being

able to say, like, let's just level set here, like, let's all

get on the same internet access, just to make sure that like,

you're not paying more, or you have better internet access. So

therefore, you're actually winning. Um, and I think more

importantly than that, it's getting kids again, face to

face. Really just understanding and kind of like level setting

that toxicity as well. Right. So I think there's there's a number

of different things that we could do there. But our 401

location is a special place because actually has its own zip

code. It has the highest Internet access on the East

Coast, which is why we chose it. So we are very excited to be

there. And there's no it's actually the net neutrality

building for those listeners that want to look it up. But it

is if I'm told, if you are streaming Netflix from Boston,

chances are it's coming out of this building. So there's

there's a number of reasons we chose 401. But but most

importantly, it really is that broadband Internet access that

you touched on,

which one is the 401 building. So

that's that's our North Broad Street. Look at the block, if

you will. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, that's Yeah. Okay.

That's wild. Okay. That's very cool. That you guys are that

close? To where all the magic happens? Basically.

Same building?

Yeah. Have you seen kids come in and talk about

lack of access at all? This is just I'm just curious. From a

digital as someone who again, has researched, the digital

divide is basically just the divide between those of us who

have high speed internet and those of us who don't. But I'm

just so curious as to what you've seen, you know,

conversations or stories or anything like that, that you've

seen at Nerd Street, and what it's like for people who are

maybe the ones who don't have great access?

Yeah. So during the pandemic, some of my partners

reached out when you're thinking about kids really going from a

in person, school world to a virtual world. I think that's

unfortunately, where you saw a lot of the disconnect in

internet options. So that being said, you know, with example,

for Philly Parks and Rec, they had to open up what they called

access centers, so that kids that might not necessarily have

access to internet had a place to have access to internet so

that they could go on and have school in person, not in person,

but virtually. We really just wanted to be able to say like,

how can we help you like maybe during the day when we're

closed? We can open it as another access point. We have

these high NPCs we have this internet access, how can we

expand it to the local community in those needs? So I think the

pandemic was great for some issues, just in terms of like

understanding esports but I think it also a lot of the

education surrounding internet and especially in a virtual

learning world.

I've been saying it for two years. Now that I'm

surprised that more esports organizations and companies

don't prioritize Internet access as a means to move the industry

forward, as there's a lot of people out there who would play

more games, if they could. You know,

we're lucky that for some of our partners like

they're, they know that they need to make esports in every

single rec center, but again, internet huge issue for them. So

how can we help them have opportunities through maybe some

of our partners to kind of bridge that divide?

So crazy that Yeah, I suppose I'm lucky to

start out in tech, and kind of moved into gaming as more of a

niche industry, because getting the bigger view on these on

these issues is really important. And it's, I'm glad to

hear that you guys are actually thinking about it. And I hope in

the future that more companies do think about it, because like

I said, it's a kind of an untapped economic opportunity

there, of when people do actually have internet access.

But I want to switch gears a little bit, because in a

previous conversation we kind of talked about, this is the man or

woman podcast. So I do want to touch on how being a woman did

or didn't affect your, your career trajectory. And I know we

briefly discussed this before. And one of the things that you

had said is that you try not to, I don't know if this is the

exact right phrasing, so you can feel free to correct me if I'm

wrong, but you try not to dwell on your gender, and just sort of

do your job. Well. And this is something that what you what you

that that viewpoint is what I hope that all women can

experience in the future for sure. I don't think any of us, I

think that there's a large portion of women, and I'm not

trying to speak for everyone here that just wish it wasn't an

issue at all. Like why not just hire me, because I'm the best

person for the job. Regardless of however I choose to express

my gender identity shouldn't matter. It didn't matter because

I'm an expert in the field, or I am good at marketing, or I'm

good at whatever I'm good at. And that's the reason why I'm in

the position that I'm in. So I think that it's actually nice to

hear that you're someone who may have experienced that kind of

career trajectory. I'm sure there's been bumps along the

way. But I think that definitely speaks to the types of

environments you've been in and the people that you've worked

with, that you have been able to leave gender at the door. And

again, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that. But can you talk

a little bit about the types of the types of settings you've

been in and how you've been able to be where you are today, as a

result of that? Yeah,

you're, by the way, you're totally spot on. For me,

I really don't, don't talk about my gender, I don't discuss kind

of like being a woman in the workplace, because it really

isn't an issue for me. I think for me, I'm just trying to get

the job done and be the best possible version of myself for

myself for myself, both personally and professionally.

And I try not to compare myself, I think that's a huge thing that

I used to do a lot is saying, like, why can I be in this

position? Or why can I be doing this industry, when at the end

of the day, it's more of an imposter syndrome with myself,

then someone limiting me, if I ever, I've never felt this way,

but if I ever did, I would probably just leave and move to

a new company. I'm very thankful that in not only my current but

my past jobs, I've never felt like gender was an issue

whatsoever. I've I feel like in our current work, we know that

we need to be more inclusive, not only of women, but other

different, you know, get making sure that there's someone like

everyone in the same room. But I think just even in my previous

jobs, I've been able to not only carve the path for myself, but

also like my career trajectory, and in some of the bosses that

I've had, whether they be women or whether they be men. I think

another huge thing for me, and this is something that took me a

while to figure out is is finding like cool, powerful

women that I I was just like that is really cool to be and

aspire to be like them and really like see things that

they've done and see what they focus on and see what they're

reading what they're doing on a daily basis. Because chances

are, if you can, if you can kind of mimic that and really like

think about different leadership standpoints. That's more

important than really dwelling upon being a woman. I think it's

just it's just awesome to be able to find not only Mike women

but mentors just to help you navigate that too. But also

being able to oh, I forget what they call it like your little

executive board for yourself. Like there are a number of women

that I can call and say like different issues and and they

can say to me now you're making this up and you're head or

actually, you should focus on this. And that's when you start

getting people saying, Hey, I found this newsletter, I think

you should join, hey, there's a speaking opportunity. I can't do

it. But I recommended you and finding that group of women and

finding that group, not only women, but but professionals, I

think is really, really important.

Do you have any advice for people who aren't in

an environment? Because we've clearly seen, there's been a lot

of recent news, a lot of lawsuits that I obviously

there's people in positions where this isn't, it's not the

same experience, which is completely normal. And I'm

actually glad to have someone on who has a pot who's had a

positive experience in the tech and startup world, because I

unfortunately find that that seems to be the rare end of the

spectrum, then ones who have had negative experiences. But do you

have any advice for people who are stuck in a either neutral or

negative environment? So maybe, maybe it truly is a toxic

workplace? And obviously, in that case, it's good to leave?

But what about an environment where it's not necessarily

toxic, but you're also kind of just treading water? There's no

where up to go? There's nowhere down to go? Do you have any

advice for people who might be in sort of that middle ground

position? Yeah,

I think that is a difficult spot to be in. Because

I think, you know, from a personal perspective, you know,

it's, it's getting new in some ways, and then from a

professional experience, you know, that you could be in a

better environment. I think it's really just being able to sit

with yourself and saying, How can I be the best version of

myself right now, I think that sometimes, you know, your

manager, and you might not get along, sometimes you might not

necessarily be in the right role. But I think if the company

is willing to kind of work with you, and they know your worth,

then it's definitely of interest for you to kind of like level

set, and be that authentic version of yourself. And if it

sometimes jobs don't work out. And it's not the end all be all.

But I think knowing that you aren't the best version of

yourself. And if you're not the best version of yourself,

chances are the company could have done better to right, they

could have just in terms of like they could have helped support

you a little bit more. And they want you to be the best version

of yourself to for the for the company's aspect, they want to

be able to be as successful as possible. So if you're not set

up for success, chances are the company isn't. And I think just

being able to have that honest, authentic conversation with

either your boss HR, whoever you think should be involved in that

is really helpful. Now, the hard part is that knowing esports is

pretty much a startup for the most part. I think a lot of the

times it's better to come up with a solution and present a

solution than it is to come with a problem. So a lot of the times

when I've had issues either, you know, a lot of the times I dwell

on my product management background, because there's a

lot of always like issues and roadmaps and whatnot. It's

always better to lead with a solution than lead with a

problem. Because once you're solution oriented, the chances

are everyone else understands that you're really trying to

solve this problem and not just be negative.

Right. And I think that that's an important

distinction. Also, just for people who have the opportunity

to work with managers and bosses who are open minded. And that

is, obviously that is a huge piece of it. Sometimes I think

that people are more open minded than we'd expect. But other

times, it can definitely come back to bite you in the butt.

Yeah,

you know, the thing is, it's, it's okay, like, we're all

figuring this out together. We're all human beings, people

mess up, jobs are imperfect. Companies are imperfect, people

aren't perfect, it is what it is. But I think just being able

to lead from a place of authenticity is the most

important part for you, whether it be a skill set, or whether it

be a job, like whatever you need, you gotta you gotta let

that meet your demands.

And I think also, it speaks well to like this

experience. And this device speaks well to what's going on

under the street as well. So I think it's really cool that

you're able to offer this kind of advice from a gaming company

perspective and from working at gaming a gaming company now for

a couple years. Like that's it's really refreshing to have a

positive experience or positive feedback on on the workplace

culture where you're at. That's, like I said, That's not I mean,

it's not like this is supremely rare. But certainly we've seen a

lot of news lately about Yeah, and I'm,

I am very lucky, right? I mean, I'm aware of that. And I

feel for people that are put in those positions because they're

not always easy, but whenever I join a company or join a

position, I really joined for the people and the culture of

obviously the job is important, but if you can find those people

that know that your people and have each other's backs if you

spend more time, I know we're all virtual, but like at work,

then you do really with your family. So really being able to

have that, that candor and that experience has been really

influential in my career.

That's really cool. Speaking of sort of

wellness and mental place, and all of this stuff, you were

recently published in a story on preserving self self care when

everything is uncertain. And I liked that because as you talked

about with imposter syndrome, mental health, I think has been

a big focus. It's been a big focus for a long time. But I

think it's become especially highlighted during the pandemic.

And we're all thinking about working from home, personal

culture, that kind of thing, everyone's coming to grips with

it. I'll definitely put a link in the show notes. But the piece

was basically asking different female leaders how they were

dealing with all of the general uncertainty of the past couple

years. And I liked it because it was a whole bunch of different

leaders. And like you said, it's important to read up on other

female leaders. And your piece of advice was on which I think

the Bible is piece of advice is extremely apt for community

development, the head of community development, I

couldn't I read this, and I thought, oh, my gosh, Taryn is

totally in the community development mind frame. Um, but

your piece of advice was to maintain connection with those

who you connect with on a daily basis in innovative ways.

Whether it was sending a personal note having coffee or

FaceTime, or having a company gaming event for your coworkers,

chances are you're feeling how you're feeling is similar to

someone in your group. And outreach is the best way to

foster any connection, whether it's personal or business

reasons. So I just think that that speaks to your passion for

community development. Is that sort of similar to almost a

whole conversation we've had about how you do what you do at

Nerd street? But what is the past year been like for you, as

a woman in the industry, but also, as someone who is in a

community development role? Who's focusing on in person

events? What Has everything been like? Yeah,

it's been crazy. I think every day is different.

But I think the most thing that I learned during the pandemic is

to be as present as possible, because you really don't know

what the next day will be thinking too much in the future,

you're just going to drive yourself crazy. For me, really,

what has been a major focus, like that article was, was

awesome. And it was in the height of the pandemic, when I

was having zoom happy hours and yoga classes with friends across

the country. And we were we weren't quite burnt out from

that yet. And I think, you know, after that, I definitely keep in

touch with a lot of my friends more so like, pre pandemic than

I do, during the height of it. But I think now it's, it's

really just being able to stay present and saying, like, I'm

really enjoying this client meeting today. And yes, you

definitely have aspirations and goals and things, but by

thinking too, too far in advance and trying to get there, and

really, you're just gonna burn yourself out. Hustle culture is

real. And I think that there's definitely a benefit. And some

people thrive from that. But I think more importantly, is

trying to figure out like, what do you need in this moment?

Like, what does the company need in this moment? How can I enjoy

this moment? Rather than if I do this, then later, I'm going to

do this to make two years from now do this, like, yes, it is

always important to have goals, aspirations, but really just

being able to say, present, I think, is the best thing that I

can do, not only for myself, personally, but myself

professionally. I'm lucky enough that I've been traveling a

little bit for work and you know, meeting cool people,

again, had a couple, you know, stints with with being sick, but

at the same time, just being able to stay as present as

possible.

Definitely helps. Um, well in what are some of the

changes that you kind of hope stick around from this past

year? I don't think we talked about that enough. Like we all

talk about, like, oh, let's get back to normal, let's get back

to normal. But there are certain things that have changed that I

could be for the better. So have you Has there been anything that

you're kind of hoping sticks around about the past year or

two years?

It's a great question. I think for me, that that

present thing is definitely what I'm trying to do this year. I

think it's really just made me realize how we put so much

pressure on ourselves to really go a million miles give

ourselves some time to rest, whether that be mentally or

physically. And I think that that's a huge thing is just

being able to like, honor your limitations both mentally and

physically and knowing that your limitations might not

necessarily be other people's has like limitations. I tend to

have a lot of energy physically so I know what my limitations

are, but knowing mine are not necessarily the other person's,

but also being able to kind of like get in your own like,

routine that you might not necessarily have. There are

definitely things I miss pre pandemic, like I miss my podcast

time commuting to work. And I miss, you know, taking 30

minutes to go to lunch and things like that, that I don't

necessarily do on a daily basis. But I think how I've how I've

changed, those habits are more like, maybe I could do a

meditation, I'm making my lunch at home, there are good things

to it. But I think it's more just staying present, and doing

the best thing for you both mentally and physically.

Yeah, I definitely relate on the podcast time for

me, I was taking the train every day and got to read so many

books. And now it's like, I mean, obviously, the same amount

of time exists than a day. So I just carving it out is so much

harder. When you're at home, there's so many more

distractions. So I totally get that. So just to summarize, real

quick, we talked a little bit about what nourish st is doing

the core tenants at community development work, which was

really cool building partnerships and sponsorships

that actually kind of have a more grassroots feel and getting

involved in the local community. And we talked a lot about

broadband access, which was great. So I hope that more

people can kind of learn about broadband access and learn about

the digital divide. And kind of the gaps where the gaming

industry has a lot of potential to not only fail, but to gain

from, we discussed a little bit about the previous work

environments, you've been in how gender hasn't really been a

factor, you've been able to be your authentic self, put your

best foot forward, and really develop a career trajectory

that's meaningful to you. So I talked about how having an

executive board is a great way of keeping yourself in check and

having someone to bounce ideas off of. And finally, we talked

about maybe keeping some of the changes in the pandemic, maybe

keeping our reframe to mind when it comes to overwork or under

work or energy, and hopefully, finding time to listen to

podcasts, or read books. But I like to end every episode with a

moment of reflection, just a chance for you to think back on

your career. And the question I'd like to ask is, what is one

thing you would like to tell your younger self, about getting

into the gaming industry and being successful? I think if I

can

say to my younger self, I would say do exactly

everything you're doing make mistakes, take chances, do

things that scare you. Because it's just going to build you

into a stronger person. And I still try and navigate through

that because I know in another 10 years, I will feel the same

way.

Right. That's what I always thinking, you know, my

younger self, and years ago, I, I would love to give her advice.

But the advice comes from experience. So in 10 years, I'm

sure I'll have advice for current day mean, why would I do

that? But that's, you know, part of being alive, I suppose. Yeah,

absolutely. Taryn, thank you so much for coming on today. It was

such a joy to have you. I can you tell people where they can

find you if you want to be found and what any projects you're

looking forward to or things you want to brag about? Yeah,

I mean, Taryn McCarty, find me on LinkedIn, find me my

website, my first last name calm. Find me on Instagram,

Twitter, whatever is easiest links to this to Lindsey. But

um, and if I can help at all anyone navigate their career, I

always try and give back because enough people have given to me

too. So however, I can help grow this industry and make more like

minded people. Happy to do so.

Thank you so much. That's a great way to end. And

if you haven't already, listeners, please leave a five

star rating and review. Tell your friend about the podcast.

You know that thing? Anyways, thanks so much. And we'll see

you next week. Thank you.

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

subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get your

podcasts, leave a five star review and tell your friends

family and colleagues all about us. Also, make sure to follow

meta TV on all socials to get more of the best Metaverse

content anywhere. Tune in every week for another episode of