Nikki Weaver

Women’s elite sports have spent decades building their visibility… and now they have it.

Audiences are growing. Investment is increasing. Sponsors are paying attention. Women’s sport is becoming a significant commercial and cultural force in its own right.

But visibility comes with a new set of challenges.

What happens when the spotlight arrives before the infrastructure needed to support it?

I can’t help but consider this current debate from a communications, PR and broader strategic perspective, particularly in light of some of the difficult conversations currently playing out across women’s sport.

So I wrote a thing about it. Actually… I wrote several things about it, with more to come. It’s such a complex and interesting topic, I’ve been busily nerding out on it all week!

Jump over to my website (link in bio) and head to my blog to read The Visibility Paradox.

I’d love to hear how others working or involved in sport, media, marketing and communications are thinking about this shift.

THE SECOND DOOR IS OPEN. 🚪👀

Earlier this week, I wrote about the increasingly strange relationship between humans, AI, ATS and the job application process.

One of the problems I kept coming back to was this:
A CV can tell you what I’ve done, but it can’t show you how I think, create, solve problems or bring ideas to life.

So I built something that can.

My new online portfolio is now live.

It’s a collection of the work, ideas, brands, campaigns and creative thinking that have shaped my career across strategy, branding, communications, content and creative production.

It’s not designed to replace the CV, it’s just opening the door to a space where those all-important keywords become something tangible.

Come have a look. 👉 nikkiweaver.com

I’ve been thinking a lot about AI, ATS and what happens when we use technology to make recruitment more efficient... but potentially less human.

I’m a huge fan of AI. I use it constantly.
But I think there’s a growing difference between using technology to enhance human thinking and using it to replace it.

And as someone currently navigating the job market from the creative side, I’m finding the whole thing increasingly fascinating.

Because if we’re hiring people for their ability to think creatively, solve problems, communicate and bring ideas to life... why are we often filtering them based on how closely their CV resembles the job description?

I’ve written a longer piece about what I’m seeing, why I think it’s a problem, and the rather creative workaround I’ve come up with for myself.

The link is over on LinkedIn, so jump over and connect.

And yes...
I’ve also built a second door. 👀
Stay tuned for more on that.

If you were born between 1976-1984, you my friend, are part of the Xen Gen!

(And if you’re born any other time in the 1980’s we’ll grant you an honorary membership for being our closest generational allies.)

As Xennials we fit into both Gen X and Millenial, but also neither. We are the bridge generation who experienced childhood before the digital boom, and grew up at the same rate as technology.

From Cassette tapes to Spotify; Videos to Netflix; Floppy Disks to the Cloud; and everything in between. We are the kids old enough to remember using land lines, but young enough to TikTok.

Here’s some key facts about us Xennials:

> We were raised to be independent, adaptable and resilient long before anyone asked what it might cost us.
> We learned to entertain ourselves because boredom wasn’t considered an emergency.
> We became translators between generations by accident.
> We remember a world before comparison became a 24-hour activity.
> We grew up in public less than younger generations and in private less than older generations.

Asking the right questions… ⁉️

One thing I’ve noticed in my life is that the biggest shift doesn’t come from finding the right answer, it usually comes from asking a better question.

I’ve caught myself doing this more than once over the years. Getting stuck in a hyper-fixation loop trying to answer a question that had no clear solution and/or wasn’t moving me forward.

Instead of: “Why does this keep happening?”
A more useful question might be: “What pattern keeps repeating?”

Or the example I mentioned in yesterday’s post, instead of: “How do I make this fair?”, the re-frame could be: “What’s my next useful step?”

The questions we ask ourselves shape the way we experience the world. Sometimes a small shift in perspective is enough to unlock an entirely different way of seeing a situation.

I’m becoming less interested in having all the answers and much more interested in asking better questions.

✨ Which slide resonated with you most?



Photo by Samantha de Souza

They call it the ‘messy middle’ for a reason.

Evolution is rarely an easy process. I always think of the Rabbi’s analogy of the lobster. (Search You Tube for Rabbi Dr. Twerski if you want see the full vid)

I saw an early iteration of this video about 10 years ago and it’s stuck with me since then.

When the lobster is about to outgrow its shell, it has to endure a huge amount of pressure before it bursts out of its old shell. It then sheds, and has to hide under a rock until the new shell grows and hardens.

It’s such a great visual and it’s so incredibly true for humans. Before we outgrow each version of ourselves, we have to withstand the pressure and discomfort of our old self until it breaks away and leaves us clear to build the new one.

So if you’re feeling the pressure. If you’re feeling stressed. If you’re feeling uncomfortable. Take a moment to look around and reflect. Perhaps you’re just about to get your new shell.