The confidence catalyst transforming leadership in sports and beyond
In this edition of Faces of Sports Tourism by Sports Planning Guide, we speak with Emily Jaenson, who knows firsthand that confidence isn’t something you’re born with—it’s something you build. Once too shy to order a pizza, she transformed herself into a trailblazing leader, becoming the first female Triple-A General Manager in nearly two decades. Now a best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, she helps professionals develop the confidence to take bold steps in their careers and lives.
In this interview, Jaenson shares how confidence fuels success in sports tourism, the impact of women’s sports on event planning, and why leaders should embrace new ideas. With insights on fan engagement, leadership, and personal growth, she proves that stepping outside your comfort zone isn’t just necessary—it’s the key to lasting success.
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Tell us about your background
When I was in high school, I was too shy to order a pizza. I had big dreams for what I wanted to do with my life but had no connections and a shy personality. How would I ever get there? I got into college at the one school I applied to for early admission: University of Illinois. I decided that’s where I would go and when my parents dropped me off for my freshman year, I quickly realized I was a minnow in an ocean. My freshman class was larger than the size of my hometown.
After several weeks spent crying in my dorm room, I realized that I needed to change to reach my goals…but what should change? How do I do that? I picked my eyes up from the ground, dried my tears, and when I looked up, I saw the other students succeeding, not overthinking it, confidently walking to class (they even knew how to get there!) to pursue their goal of receiving their chosen degree. I realized this was what I needed to do, too. I needed to improve my confidence and go after my dream. Slowly I began to try harder, and I went to class, trusted myself to succeed the way I had to get to U of I in the first place and had faith in myself that I could do it, too. When I started succeeding in this new challenge, I began to feel more confident and trust myself to perform well inside a new challenge. Confidence is a skill that you can improve over time but getting outside your comfort zone, surviving, and then showing up to do it again and again. This was a turning point for me, and I have applied this same strategy over and over again in each new change in my life.
Confidence has undeniably played a pivotal role in your success. If we view confidence as a skill that can be cultivated over time, what specific behaviors or practices would you recommend for individuals looking to strengthen their own sense of self-assurance?
Confidence grows when we do act on the items that make us the most nervous. This could be speaking up in a meeting and making your pitch, asking for a raise, talking yourself out of signing up for a half marathon because you can name a myriad of excuses as to why you can’t do it. When we speak up in that meeting survive, and maybe our idea has legs, we grow our confidence. When we prepare for the meeting with our boss, review our accomplishments, make notes on our job description as to all we have executed and then have a thoughtful conversation with our supervisor and survive, our confidence grows. When we sign up for the half marathon, make a commitment to training, show up for ourselves week after week and feel the satisfaction of reaching the finish line our race day, our confidence grows.
My best-selling book, Let’s Go! A Guide to Increasing Your Confidence, lays this all out in a how-to style manner filled with inspirational stories of people just like us who set their eyes on their goals, got uncomfortable in the pursuit and grew their confidence by identifying their “why” and going after the next meaningful step in their life. Being uncomfortable trying something new and doing it anyway has been the key to my success, and so many of my peers, with growing confidence.
What are some of the most significant personal or professional habits you’ve developed to maintain your own confidence and resilience over the years?
Growing my confidence has been an evolution. It’s like building a home, you lay brick by brick and over time form a sturdy structure. I won’t say that my confidence is unshakable. I think that’s impossible. Life is going to throw you for a loop. But you can be prepared, and you can think of the next challenge as an opportunity to try something new, to learn and to grow. The mindset of “this is happening for me” rather than “this is happening to me” is immensely helpful. When you encounter a difficult colleague, whether you manage them or they manage you, it is easy to let that take you down. Don’t. Think about what you can learn from them, good or bad, to help you in the future. Give yourself the gift of hindsight in the middle of a difficult situation. Get curious about how you can handle it differently than in the past. Does this produce different results? I use this strategy constantly.
Additionally, I set goals to constantly challenge myself. Most recently this has been through sport. Can I run a marathon? Yes. Anyone can run a marathon if you show up for your training and just take one step after another. Can I qualify for the Boston Marathon. Yes. If I work hard, add in a focus on nutrition, intervals, and never skip a run. This rigorous goal setting helps you to focus and weed out the distractions. Racing has been an awesome metaphor for my life. If I want to do my best, I have to keep working at it one step at a time, fuel my efforts appropriately, and focus. This develops resilience, too. When you have a setback, how do you overcome it? And, when I succeed, I intentionally look back and measure how far I have come, and I talk about it.
Wow, I remember when a few months ago I was nervous to run six miles; I just completed twelve and I enjoyed it! Planning and looking forward is important but so is looking back to acknowledge how far you have come. The backwards review fuels and empowers you to move toward your next goal because you know you have made significant progress in other areas of your life—so why not this one? Why not you?
In your book, Let’s Go! A Guide to Increasing Your Confidence, what specific areas of confidence are addressed and what makes it a unique resource for readers?
My book is certainly one I would say is made for busy professionals, but it doesn’t just focus on improving your work output. The focus is on improving your life. What we do at work affects our life at home and vice versa so we have look at the whole picture. What are my goals and how does the pursuit or abandonment of those goals affect my entire life? Why am I pursuing this goal? What will keep me motivated to push forward and not return to baseline. These areas all relate to our confidence because at its core confidence is not about arrogance, if you are confident, you are not conceited, if you are confident, you are a person with high self-trust and you keep the promises you make to the one and only you.
For the sports tourism industry pros who read this magazine. You might be a person who has worked in this industry for ten plus years, maybe thirty, and you know what you are doing. You are confident in your skills to get the job done. But there’s always a curve ball no matter how many years you have been in the biz.
Scenario one is where you have an idea for a new event you want to pitch the Board. You have been trying to tell yourself to move on from this idea because it will be too much work, you don’t have the staff, it’s too novel. You have come up with every excuse in the book to shut it down but alas, you keep waking up at 3 AM thinking about it. You require a new kind of confidence to enter this new territory.
Scenario two is where you have hired a skillful 25-year-old who has crazy ideas about engagement. You are dismissive. You tell this person to read more docs in the shared file about how we do it around here. But they are persistent, and the ideas break through your tough exterior.
Both scenarios require a new kind of confidence. Let’s Go! Addresses how to increase your confidence no matter what level of professionalism you reside. Life and work will continue to challenge us, and you must be confident enough to make the pitch, get curious, admit you might not know it all, apply humility, be willing to try something new, and work outside your comfort zone.
Your work helps people reduce fear and anxiety while fostering motivation and authenticity. What are some of the most profound changes you have witnessed in individuals who have applied your methods?
I had a woman who ran her family’s sports business for thirty plus years but dreamed of becoming a tailor during her retirement attend a women’s conference where I spoke. While planning for this moment in her life, she kept extending her time in the business, refusing to teach hand over the torch and shelved her dreams. After attending my keynote and confident goal setting workshop her plans changed. She emailed me to let me know she signed a lease on a storefront and finally planned a hand off to her VP. This blew my mind. You never know the dreams in an individual’s heart and the ideas they may put off until it’s too late. The point is she acted in on her life.
I had a 30-something tell me that she spent the entire year pushing off her goal of running a half marathon until, in the middle of my keynote in December, she signed up for a race. You might think this is something small—but taking action on a goal creates tremendous ripple effects in your life. Who knows where this woman will be in a year if she commits to her goals, keeps the promises she makes to herself, and completes her race. Who is she on the other side? Someone more confident, certainly. Where will that new level of confidence take her?
I’m fortunate enough to hear from so many people after my keynotes. I open my inbox to them—and often even my cell—to share their goals and their wins. Ask me a question, seek advice. I care about what happens after you have an idea to improve your life. I believe in the ripple effect of winning as it makes an impact on countless individuals around you. We should not hide our wins; we should not conceal our efforts. Share them so that others may have the permission to go after their goals, too.
You work with a wide variety of groups, including Fortune 500 companies, sports organizations and national conferences. How do you tailor your approach to different audiences, while maintaining a consistent message about building confidence?
My message is consistent, but the delivery is malleable, and I find out what can make the biggest impact by speaking with the organizer. What does their audience require? What are they looking for? What are the pain points? Then, I help to solve that problem on stage or in a workshop. I have a tailored approach but a consistent message: Let’s improve your confidence so we can all reach our full potential at work and in our personal lives.
I love to speak on stage because my goal is simple: Impact one person in the audience. If one person hears the message, uses the skills I teach, and that creates a win in their life, that has a ripple effect on everyone around them.
Given your advocacy for women’s leadership, how do you perceive the growth of women’s sports influencing sports tourism, and what opportunities does this present for the industry?
The growth of women’s sports has had a significant impact on sports tourism, creating a new avenue of opportunities for the industry. As female athletes and teams gain more visibility and recognition, there is a growing demand for events, both at the local and international level, which presents new opportunities to boost tourism. There is an increased demand for women’s major events and when you bring these in, you have the opportunity to bring in a new audience.
In addition to who’s traveling, you can also diversify your partnership. What companies in your area are looking to target women? From my days in baseball, I know women purchase twice as many tickets as men because they are the primary buyers for their families and tend to recruit larger groups to join in on the fun.
As the first female General Manager in AAA Baseball in nearly two decades, what strategies did you implement to enhance fan engagement and drive attendance?
I think one of the most important things I did was listen to the fans. What did they love about their experience at the ballpark? What would they change? We deployed a lot of surveys that led to us moving up the game times from the historic 7:05 to 6:35 and even earlier at the beginning of the season. We selected promotions we already knew the fans would love because they told us! We found new ways to communicate through texting and segmented email. We found out what mattered and did more of that. I know listening and then taking what you learned and applying it to your customer’s experience is the key to success in any business.
As someone who’s been deeply involved in sports, do you see any new trends emerging in the intersection of leadership and sports tourism that event planners should be aware of moving forward?
Yes, people want unique experiences. We have so many choices today about where we can travel and how we can invest our time, you have no choice but to make it special. What sets you apart? What makes your event unique? I was speaking with a woman who works in tourism in Rockford, IL, after a keynote I did at the US Sports Congress. Every summer of my teenage years I played in the Watermelon Soccer Tournament in Rockford, IL with my club soccer team. I told her how much I enjoyed that tournament. Why did I enjoy it? Because the summer soccer tournament ended with a ticket to the waterpark! It was so fun. That tournament offered a unique and memorable ending for all the players. Make your event special. Make it easy for attendees—less friction on the whole experience and big memories. I’d always ask my staff, what’s on their camera roll when this event is over.
What are your future goals for continuing to impact and help others grow in confidence?
My main goal is to speak on as many Zooms and as many stages as possible to share how to build your confidence. More confident employees will not only improve their business outcomes because they are more goal-directed but they will also improve their own lives because more confident people have better relationships. Simply put, understanding what confidence is and how to get more of it will change your life. What an honor it is to speak to employees, leaders, athletes young and old, and share this transformative message.
What’s your favorite sport to play or watch?
I love football; I grew up in a household with an open door on Sunday to come on in, grab a beer and some food, and watch the game. The NBA and NHL are also favorites. College football and basketball. I love a live sporting event of any kind. If the TV is on, it’s sports. It could be Ironman world championships, women’s soccer, WNBA or the Super Bowl, we are watching it.
Personally, I love running, which some people roll their eyes at, and I might have four years ago but today it’s my meditation and my reps at staying consistent and pursuing bigger goals out of the office. I also had a kickball team for two seasons with my husband and I am proud to say we were the champs!
Who do you root for?
I root for success for everyone in life. Early in my career I was competitive but when I stopped competing and stopped supporting, everything changed. Let’s Go!
