If you think Orlando City’s Kaia Forgét will let you off the hook for having a bum knee, good luck! With a career steeped in not-for-profits and community building, Kaia joined the Club in 2015 in a dual role, as Director of Community Development for Orlando City Soccer Club as well as Director of Development for the group’s Foundation.
It’s two sides of the same coin, of course. Orlando City and its Foundation are dedicated to improving the lives of children through the beautiful game by providing opportunities for exercise, nutrition education, and mentoring. The Foundation also invests in local groups that are doing the same things.
What else is there to discuss? Quite a bit. The stadium is nearly complete. She puts up with my Bad Business Ideas™, even the one about drugging coworkers (although that may be a strong way of putting it). And she offers some advice on working at a non profit and a sports organization.
0:00 – Getting to know Kaia through a little game called Lions or Tigers and Bears.
5:46 – “How about Cyber Monday? Because apparently that’s today.”
9:46 – “No. No. I will not participate in the zombie apocalypse.”
15:21 – “And time zones too. Let’s get rid of those. Just one time for everybody.”
18:24 – Kaia has been in Central Florida for almost two decades, and circled back to the beautiful game after playing in college and professionally.
24:27 – “If you get up in the morning, and you put both feet on the floor, and you’re excited about where you’re going and what you’re doing that day, then keep doing that.”
31:20 – The Orlando City Foundation’s works on its own initiatives and has a grants program to help support like-minded organizations in the community.
36:57 – “Coming online at our new stadium which will be opening in March of 2017, we will host a farmer’s market on site there.”
41:39 – It’s about time for Bad Business Ideas™. Conditioner first inspired a smart shower head. And a way to get to shorter meetings.
44:04 – “Fast forward to 2016, and it has become, as far as I can tell, the single biggest hot button of this year.”
48:19 – “You’ll be Michelle Maltese, an incredibly efficient, loyal, and frankly underappreciated associate at Business Inc. I’ll be Larry Labrador, a guy who not only fears failure, but fears success as well.”
53:40 – Talking about Kaia’s college experience. Soccer in Buffalo, masters at UCF. How did she get there?
57:15 – “So not at all what I set out to do. Not soccer, not athletic training, not communication studies or TV. But working with the community.”
1:05:23 – Pop quiz hotshot! That never gets old. It’s from the Matrix, right?
