What does it actually take to build women’s professional soccer in Canada from the ground up?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Tom Gilbert, CEO of Ottawa Rapid FC and one of the co-founders behind the Northern Super League, for a conversation about vision, belief, business, and what it takes to build something before the rest of the market fully catches up.

Tom shares how he met Diana Matheson during their Executive MBA, how the two joined forces to help bring women’s professional soccer to Canada, and why Ottawa became such an important part of that story. He also reflects on what it meant to build Rapid FC quickly, attract 7,000 fans to the home opener, and create a club identity rooted in culture, community, and a fan-first mindset.

Together, Jenny and Tom explore:

• what it takes to build a women’s sports franchise from scratch

• why women’s sports can no longer be viewed as charity or social impact alone

• how business momentum is changing the future of women’s soccer

• what it means to build belief before the results fully speak for themselves

• how culture, team values, and community rituals help shape a club’s identity

• and why this moment matters not just for Ottawa, but for the future of women’s professional sports in Canada

  
  

This is not just a sports story. It is a leadership story. A startup story. A city-building story. And a reminder that some of the most meaningful things we build start with people willing to believe early.

And if you’re in Ottawa, come out on Thursday, July 16 to catch some of the best soccer you’ll see anywhere. Jenny will be shooting the T-shirt cannon at halftime, and it’s going to be such a fun one.

Find out more about Rapid FC here: https://www.rapidfc.ca/

What does it mean to succeed at someone else’s success, not at their expense?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Mike Lipkin: motivator, coach, consultant, entrepreneur, author, and creator of the Potentiator framework, a leadership philosophy built around helping other people perform at their best.

Mike has spent decades helping leaders, teams, and organizations think bigger, communicate better, and create the conditions for people to thrive. In this conversation, he shares the idea at the heart of his work: that the strongest leaders are not diminishers, they are potentiators. They know how to draw out courage, confidence, creativity, and excellence in others.

Together, Jenny and Mike explore his five practices of potentiators, the importance of robust resilience, courageous creativity, and champion-level communication, and why the best leaders and salespeople operate from an abundance mindset, not scarcity.

They also talk about:

• why reciprocity is the real currency of success
• how real salespeople open relationships instead of just closing deals
• what it means to practice “altruism at a profit”
• the kinds of leaders who bring out the best in others, including their mutual friend Silvio Stroescu
• and Mike’s beautifully bold vision of manifesting a brainstorming trip to Borneo one year from now

This episode is energetic, expansive, and full of possibility. It is a conversation about leadership, generosity, ambition, connection, and what happens when you decide to build a life rooted not just in personal success, but in helping others rise too.

To lern more about Mike here: https://www.mikelipkin.com/

This July 1 episode of Tune Up Your Warrior is not a surface-level Canada Day conversation.

It is a deeper reflection on humanity, dignity, compassion, and what it means to build systems that do not just function, but actually see people.

Jenny sits down with Nadia Ferrara, whom she first met while speaking on a panel together for International Women’s Day on Parliament Hill. What began as an instant personal connection grew into a meaningful friendship grounded in shared values around leadership, humanity, and the kind of world they both want to help build.

Nadia brings an extraordinary breadth of experience to this conversation. Her path spans art therapy, work with Indigenous communities, more than two decades in the federal public service, ombudsperson roles, and large-scale leadership in cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, compassion, and people-first systems. In the episode, she shares how an Indigenous elder encouraged her to step into government as what she calls a “compassionate bureaucrat,” and how that has shaped her mission to humanize bureaucracy from the inside out. These same themes are central to both your recap and the original episode outline.

Together, Jenny and Nadia explore trauma-informed leadership, cultural humility, belonging, authentic leadership, consequential accountability, and the importance of creating safe spaces where people feel seen, heard, and valued. They also talk about the need to separate basic human dignity from political ideology, and why systems only change when the people inside them are willing to lead with empathy, integrity, and hope.

This is a conversation about humanity as infrastructure, hope as practice, and the kind of leadership that leaves people feeling more human, not less.