Alexa Whippo
Alexa Tieu Whippo is a Communications and Multimedia Consultant for Deloitte in Gilbert, Arizona, following 18 years working in sports broadcast media. She has worked in radio, marketing, print, digital media, and broadcast television. She previously was employed at Bally Sports Arizona, FOX Sports Arizona, FOX Sports Digital Media, and ESPN.
Alexa currently serves on the University of Oregon Alumni Association Board of Directors as a proud alumna of the UO. She also is a member of the Women Empowered committee for the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce and an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). Alexa lives in Gilbert with her husband and their four children.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph roadblocks and lessons learned, Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and rocket Space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service four person podcast studio. Are you ready? How ready are you?
I am ready. Here we go. Let's do this. Who do we have today? This guest hails from Oregon where she was raised by her parents who are Vietnamese immigrants. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon and enjoyed a successful career with more than 18 years in sports broadcasting media for Fox sports and ESPN today. She serves as a communications and multimedia consultant for Deloitte here in Gilbert. She is a married mom of four and an advocate for women in business and sports media, please welcome Alexa whip.
Oh, welcome, welcome. Hello, we're so glad you're here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, So let's get started with what we call rapid fire, fill in the blank. Happiness is oh, rapid fire is not going to be very rapid for me. I'm really thoughtful. Um, happiness is, I think it really just ends with happiness is I know that's probably a weird answer, it is what it is, what's your hidden talent, It's not really hidden, but So I used to be a singer, I was signed to a record label when I was 21?
It was specifically for hip hop. So I was the girl who sang on the choruses and then I had like three other songs and production and then the record label shut down. But it's not really a hidden talent. I sing around my house singing, singing is your talent. Yeah. And playing trombone. I know that's odd to hip hop and trombone. I know goes together a concert. You will never forget. That's a good question because my parents never let me go to concerts. Very strict Vietnamese immigrants. So the first one I went to was a Z 100 like summer concert.
I don't remember the name, but it was Backstreet Boys were the headliner and I was an N sync fan. My sister made me go and that is why it's my most memorable first and that, okay, have you ever lived abroad? I have not. What is something people get wrong about you? I'm actually a really simple person. I think I come off not very simple. I don't know why appearances, maybe I like things just as simplistic as possible because to me that's the easiest way to go. Simple is good.
What makes you hopeful? Oh my kids, everything about them makes me hopeful about life, about the future and about what they can accomplish because I'm nearing the end already, you know, at 35. Um, not so many life changes that can happen at this point. Maybe a lot of things happened past this point, but um, for them, I have great hope. Are you more of a thinker or a doer? Well, as I'm thinking, I'm probably actually more of a doer, but every every do our thing has a lot of thought.
I'm a really, really solid mix of both. Okay. She's simple. Remember, right? I know if this is gonna be an easy one ready. If someone was to play in a movie, who would you want to be? Someone Play me? Me? Yeah, I would play me. Yes. What is your favorite pastime or hobby now? It's just resting because a two year old takes a lot. Okay. Maybe before kids. What is your favorite pastime or hobby? I used to just love going to wine bars with my friends. Those days will come back.
I promise. I miss those days. I have like one a year at this point, but I do have a Temecula trip in a couple of weeks for a friend's bachelorette. So that'll be fun. Last one. What is one thing you are grateful for? I'm grateful for my journey. I think so many things in this life can be looked at as negative or whatever happens to you is such a bad thing. But I'm grateful for everything that's happened to me. All right. And one more last one glass half full or half empty?
Half full. Do you ever feel like your business is stuck? It's time to get traction and move it forward. Call chris spear your business coach and certified US implementer will help you use the entrepreneurial operating system to get traction and achieve your vision call chris today at 4808483037, that's 48 oh 8483037. Very well then let's get this started. Alright, alright, so let's dig in from very beginning. So you are a middle child, parents are Vietnamese immigrants and you grew up in Oregon. What did childhood look like for you? So I alluded to it already very strict, I think my parents know this now but then it was a big struggle for us because they were immigrants and they wanted to raise us with Vietnamese values which are very much the ideas that Children stay home until they get married, there's no leaving, you don't leave the nest at all.
Um they were very fearful of american culture, just the bad things you see on the news which is exactly how the news is built, funny going into journalism. I learned that very quickly. Bad news is what sells and so bad news is what you report on right? So they saw these things about kids getting taken and poisoned during Halloween and just kept a very tight leash on us. Um, Vietnamese culture is very family oriented in the sense that you don't really do outside activities outside of the home, like outside of the home away from your family, so everything is done as a family unit, you go to dinner together, you go see friends together, your friends groups are your parents, friends, kids, right?
So it was a big struggle because there was also this very strongly instilled value that they wanted us to work for success or work towards success in our life lives. Um and I think I always struggled with that because I wanted to be a journalist when I was like 12 and I was like well I'm looking into this journalist thing, mom and dad and they keep saying I have to move out of the house, I have to move away from home to get a job and you're telling me that as a Vietnamese child I need to stay home but that I'm also supposed to be independent and go into the world and you're not letting me or you're not you're not providing me that outlet, right?
So college was a really great area of exploration for me as a person because I think it truly allowed me to make mistakes, go do stupid things um realized that I love to be everyone's d d more than anything. Um but also that I could still be true to those values that they instilled in me the hard like the work ethic um the family oriented, like I'm very family oriented now um but still be an american citizen because that's truly what they wanted was full integration and I was like, okay, if you want me to integrate, I'm going to go do all of these things in school.
I'm going to go do every single activity I can and I'm going to tell you it's so that I can get scholarships for college. But what it's really doing is getting me out of the house because I was the only way I could leave my home and where your siblings the same way. No, so my older sister was very much stuck at home and she didn't do hardly any activities. Um, I got into sports, I was a three sport athlete, um ended up being the captain of all three sports.
I was in band, I was in marching band, I was the drum major, I was in three types of choir, yeah, trombone, um, I was in the orchestra, you know, all of these things and my mom was like, okay, so your sister is going to have to do swimming now because you need a ride to swimming and we can't take you. So they forced her to do a sport because I needed a ride. So she was, she would have much rather just stayed home and that was obviously, maybe not obviously, but it was the rise of the internet and the rise of dial up.
Um, so she was actually very into like online message boards and gaming and things of that nature. So she would much rather have stayed at home. My brother is a boy, he has different rules. He's always had different rules. I love him to pieces, but he's always got to play by different rules because he was a boy. So, so, and that's an interesting spin on things for me in this conversation because you went into a very male dominated field and had that battle um in your career as well where there are different rules for for you than there were for others.
Yeah, I think there was a, there was a sense of like, it was it was a fight all the time and then it was really hard because you get pigeonholed into, well you're a girl, you have to be a reporter, you have to be a sideline reporter, you can't be a play by play person, you can't be an analyst, you can't do X, y and Z things because this is the role you have to do. And it almost caused this level of um even in college, I think I had friends who were female journalists, but I was like, oh, they're not going to sports, it's fine.
Like in my mind, there was almost like this is something that many women in this industry battle with is that we think that there's a competition and it's not really a competition, right? Whoever is going to get hired is going to get hired because of whatever the reason may be. But then it's time to fight for those other positions and those other roles that maybe they say that you shouldn't have. Um, so it kind of led to a different level of advocacy for me because I was always told like these are the roles you can have, you can be the anchor here in Idaho maybe, but that's not going to be your path unless you work for another 10 years or whatever.
There was just the arbitrary things that are put in your in play when you're trying to move forward in your career, you realize that when you look back like those were completely arbitrary, but it felt like this was the only path you could take at that time. And I'm curious to just where did you were with growing up in a strict household, where did your love for sports come from? My dad? So my brother is my sister and I are very close in age, We're two years apart And then my parents like to say that I was such a hellion of a child that they had to wait for a boy.
They waited six years. So my brother is six years younger than me because they waited five years now that I know how to have babies work. Um, so he is six years younger than me. So for the first six years of my life, I was like my dad's little buddy. Um, I'd like to say I was my dad's little buddy and my mom's best friend because I would be in the kitchen helping her cook and clean and do all the things that a girl supposed to do, but then my dad would be like, hey, come in here and fixing the sink, I need you to get in there because you're smaller than I am.
So he would help with the wrench and um you know, something fell in the sink or with the car. He's like, this is what a spark plug is. You know, he was very much, he would include me in things because I think he felt, I don't know that my sister was very much helping my mom. And so I was the one I actually floated in between them the most, I just like to um my, my term that I tell people is that I like the term Jack of all trades master of none, but I'm not that I'm Jack of many trades master of many.
I like to, if I'm going to be interested in something, I want to note all of the inner workings of how um it came to be how it operates now and what the future could look like. Right? So my first job at Fox sports people are like, why are you going to take a website job? That's not, I mean it's in sports, but it's not a reporter job. And I was like, why not? I mean the websites are going to be here forever now that the internet has launched.
So why not learn back end coding? Why not learn html coding? Why not learn these four different CMS? Is that we eventually changed to, I mean it's only going to make me a stronger person and I like knowing things in a weird way. I like being knowledgeable in the areas that I like that I'm interested in. So why not just learn as much as I can. Very much intrigued by how your, how it was for you growing up mother of four, right. I am a mother for have you ever thought about how that's translated into your life today?
Like how much of that has come through and you're doing oh, all the time. Because they always say you turn into your parents, right? My parents were extremely strict so I did make a conscious effort not to be that way. Um, it's also not super encourage or it's not a part of the culture to be very affectionate towards your Children. At least not at the time. I mean, I think maybe that was the age, the era and in general, not just immigrants, but my parents were very much like, we don't hug, we don't kiss.
We don't, we don't do physical contact as a family. It was not, no high fives. It was um, yeah, no high fives either. Sad. Huh? I mean, I tell my dad this all the time because he always says he's like, I'm so proud of you, right? And I was like, you never told me that as a kid, right? When I was in high school. And again, captain of too many things involved in too many things, doing too many things. But I got a lot of accolades for those.
I have literally, my parents have a book of all of these certificates that I have from honorable and you know, being the best citizen and things like that, right? And they never told me they were proud of me, but they would tell everyone else and they certainly showed you if they had a book. Right? Well I kind of started the book and then they kind of kept adding to it. But it was that I had all these things just piling up and I was like, hey, I'm just going to throw things in this thing.
But my, my dad's coworkers or my mom's friends would be like, oh, I heard that you did this and I heard all these things and I'm like from who? Because I don't, I don't know what my parents say about me, right? And they're like, oh, your parents are so proud of you, your dad's so proud of you. So it came to a head actually, I was like 16 and um, we had had some family. Uh, just some family discord. There was issues where my sister and I were not getting along and we were teenagers and all these things started happening and my parents were blaming each us and I think at a certain point I literally just said to them, do you guys love us?
Like do you love me? And they're like, what do you mean? I was like, do you love me? They're like, well, I mean of course we do, but you know, I'm like, you are raising american Children, you're raising Vietnamese Children in America. You want us to have these values and I understand that and I understand your core to the core values that you were raised with. We are american Children and sometimes like once every, I don't know, six months maybe just tell me you're proud of me and you love me, just tell me that.
Um and then from then on, like I went to college and I would end every conversation with, I love you and they'd be like, you know, they don't, they did not just say it now every time before we get off the phone they're the first ones to say it. But yeah, but it was a shift for them because it was not how they were raised and probably outside of their comfort zone. And so to meet you there now. Yeah, so you probably have a strong love language with your kids now.
Yeah, my love language. So mine is always, it's funny, we did the kids love language one, you can, you know, there's a kids version. Um one of my kids is very Words of affirmation. The other one's gifts, loves gifts, the babies too young to know, I don't know, but she just likes cuddling, so I'll do you no physical touch. Um, I'm a quality time person, but I'm very much um, a what is it now? I can't remember all five. It's the one where I like to do things for other people.
Which one is that Acts of service? Yes, that's me. I'm the acts of service person. So my husband's our quality time and physical touch and mine are acts of service and quality time. So, you know, it helps you build your relationship if you can lean a little bit more towards the other person's preferences. So I just, you know, he did the dishes last night and I was really happy. You know, it's just simple things. So you talked about, you always knew from a really early age that you wanted to go into sports reporting, but you shared a situation with us where you were, you were so driven that maybe you needed a little bit of an attitude adjustment and there was somebody in your life who helped you so that you didn't derail your own success.
Yeah, so my first job with Fox sports in websites, it was their first time launching this regional sports um hub, basically from Houston. There were 20 for brand new, like, basically brand new graduates, I think four people had been out of college for maybe four years max. Um and they launched this hub where we were managing 20 different websites for Fox sports regional networks um from one local hub. So we would be basically on the clock when the local people would be at home with their families, which was nice for them.
Um but we would get to copy at it and that's, I actually got, technically I got hired as an intern. I was right out of college. I had no prospects in the um In the reporting game. I literally had somebody in Texas tell me they wouldn't hire me because even though I was ethnic, I wasn't Hispanic, so I was not the right type of ethnic and that's why they wouldn't hire me. I look back on that now and I probably could have like sued them, but I was 22 or 23.
Um so I went from intern, I got hired at the end of the summer, I moved up and I learned every single position, like as I explained, I like to know things and so I learned every position and I learned the ins and outs of every position and so I was like, I want to be the person who helps kind of manage the day to day, even though it's not a manager position, that's the type of role you play as an assignment desk editor. So I started kind of just being high on myself and being like this is too easy for me, I don't understand why these people are having difficulties.
Um Just really brewed, I wasn't very nice, can I swear on this program you see whatever you want on this, oh see this is great. Um So so my boss pulled me into his office and he was like I know you want to be more than this and I know you learned a lot, you're doing a great job at your role but you Alexa will not get anywhere being a bit and that is exactly what you are to your colleagues and you have to remember that one of these people maybe your boss one day and they might remember that you were a bit and they won't hire you or they may not give you an assignment and that means he's like I know you're trying to fight right, you're trying to fight to be to show that you're worthy of this role, that you're worthy of whatever may come next.
But if you don't appreciate the people around you for everything that they are and maybe even the things that they aren't you will never make it in this in this career. It's all about humility and it really kind of it struck a chord obviously and it made me realize almost the first steps which I now know as servant leadership, but I didn't know that then. Um, but it was the first steps in really understanding how much you have to support others, no matter what type of leadership role you may be in and understand where they may be coming from and their difficulties to be able to one move forward as a team.
But to show that you are really worthy of being that leader and risky for that person to you because they invested in you right? To to be honest, and probably a really hard place for them to be in as well. But amazing that you heard it and received it the way you needed to. Yeah, I think it was one of those, it was prefaced by like, I can say this to you because I know you can take it, but I'm just going to say it plainly and I'm not going to beat around the bush, right?
You're a bit and I probably was I mean, I look back on it and I was I was not nice to people in college. The whole idea of like, I need to be the best so that I can go be, you know, I'm I'm fighting all these other women or all these other people for all these roles in the world where there really weren't that many if you look at the job, sports jobs boards, there were 100 okay, there were 100 people in my class, right? And then thinking about all the other journalism schools in the nation and in the world, how am I going to compete with these people plus those other people if I don't rise above.
So that mindset really did shift at that time, thankfully. Um, maybe not. I don't know. I mean, I feel like it has, but it is. Um, it definitely was a turning point in my life that helped me realize how important servant leadership really is. We can all wear crowns. Can I just give my, my 14 year old turned 14 on the 14th, she had a crown and she gave her friends crowns to be a part of her court for her golden birthday. Absolutely. Any kids walking around Gilbert High school with crowns on. Yeah.
Even though it is so weak. So apparently I got, it was fairly confusing for some that's thought about, I forgot about that. So talk to us about your, okay, so you're in the journalism world and then you decided to get out? Yeah. What happened? Why? What made you move? I love journalism. Still, I love sports broadcasts. I love sports. Okay. My first love was sports. Not the Chiefs, but not the Chiefs say what you will, but look at the records. Okay, sorry. So my, I will say this.
My old manager, his uncle was Len Dawson. And so there was always a little bit of Chiefs. Like I root for him for him. I rooted for him, Not for the Chiefs. My old manager, just to be clear. Um, but he was happy when the Chiefs won, you know, and then we would talk about uncle Lenny and that was always great. Um, so yeah, sports were my love. Broadcasting was always my love and I did it. I like to say I did my dream job and got out.
So it was my dream. I was 12. I want to be a reporter. I did. My first job was in radio when I was 16. Um, and people were like, Oh, so you were just doing things like filing papers and stuff and I was like, no, I was on the air. I was a producer for a radio station and I was doing on air board operation on the weekends and Nascar would be running and they're like, okay, you're going to, if there's a rain delay, you have to broadcast, you have to tell everyone there's a rain delay, go on the air and then cut to our, our other programming and then cut back and do all of the on air announcements.
At the age of 16. They gave me that much power Guys. Think about how crazy that is. Um, I think about how crazy that is sometimes. Um, but went into school, I had, I had 13 internships when I left college because I started doing internships when I was a freshman, like a crazy person. Um, and did the website thing, I learned a lot about back end design, um, with the wigs, if you know what a wysiwyg is, what you see is, what you get for those of you who do not.
Um, and then moved into the reporter anchor role in Idaho, worked in Arizona here for um, Fox Sports and then Valley Sports. And then I just realized at a certain point I wanted to be more, I wanted to be a leader, I wanted to be a manager and I talked to my general manager and he was just really honest with me who's retired since, um, I asked him, how am I supposed to move up when my managers have been here for 10, 15, 20 years and he's like, you're going to have to leave, you're gonna have to leave and gain management experience somewhere else.
You can always come back. He's like, you have based knowledge obviously and you have so many years under your belt that if you wanted to come back to sports broadcasting, I have no doubt I've worked for every team, um, in some capacity, so I've no doubt that if you want to come back, you can come back, but he's like, you gotta go. So I left, I left to, I actually, the funny stories that I didn't even know what Deloitte was at all, Like not even a glimmer of this is what Deloitte is when I saw the job posting for a communications consultant and I was like, well this place is down the street, so, and right now they're fully remote, so why not?
You know, um just the time and effort that you put into broadcast and sports is a lot and it is definitely a passion job, but there was no more moving up for me, so I had to go, so what do you love about what you're doing now? I get to use all the skills that I that I have. I mean in different ways and now I am getting to lead more projects, there's a lot more project management experience that I'm gaining, but also I still get to be a little bit tactical in that like design phase, right?
Like, hey, put this together. I'm like, yes, I mean I'm an adobe and I'm doing things in Photoshop. Um but also it's still very much in the realm of what I like to do, which is tell people's stories, right? Um because I'm a communications consultant, that's the number one thing we do is we're communicating a story to an end user um, to get them to understand what's happening. So I've always, that was my biggest part about reporting. Anyway, my mom is like, oh, you want to be on tv?
And I was like, no, I just like talking to people and telling like their best version of their story from, from a point where they can't, if they can't communicate it, I can communicate it for them. Um I always told my, when I was reporting, I would tell people, I was interviewing. I'm like, I'm never going to make you look bad. Don't worry about anything. You say. If you say, um, if you say f it, whatever, if you say whatever or if you look, you think you look bad, I will make sure you look great and that's an audio and visual. Right?
So I had people literally email me after, I would do stories like, oh my gosh, you really captured my story or hey, you really didn't make me look bad. Right? That's my goal was to always just kind of be that storyteller cool story. I recovered story story is hard because stories are, they are personal and I think I've done most so many events like super bowls, but I think the coolest story that I got to cover really like being there and seeing the work that was being done, um, was, was any of our community, just our community service stories.
You know, the coyotes go and see kids at phoenix Children's hospital. So I'm there. The D bags go and see kids at phoenix Children's hospital going to, um, the coyotes do a playground build every year and we got to do that. But also interview players about why they think it's important. So those types of stories are really impactful to me because then we get to go back and see what the impact truly is for those schools. For those kids in the neighborhoods and those ones were. I think the best because the kids are always awesome.
Like I got to see my favorite player who or not because I don't know anything about hockey, but it was really cool that they did, but they're very excited, you know? All right. So you shared a mantra with us. Never regret anything because at one time it was exactly what you wanted. Love that. It's on my phone. It's like my background on my phone. It's like a graffiti. Um, it was a picture I found, I don't know, perusing the internet back in the old days of the internet, not even the new days.
Um, and it was just like dang, that's it. Like I've done a lot of things in my life and I've learned something from every single piece of it. Kind of what I said about journey, being grateful for my journey. I've done a lot of crap, a lot of stupid stuff, but I've done a lot of great things too. And I think you have to appreciate every piece of it even at the lowest moments of your life. Like man, that was a bad decision. But you know what?
Four months later this happened. So now it's fantastic. The only way I could have done this thing four months later was if this one piece happened. So I don't regret anything what's tomorrow look like for you. Like tactically what tomorrow? Yeah. Um, I'm sorry, that's just me. This is why Sarah and I might get a little bit. Um, I don't know. I never, everyone's like, what's your five year plan? What are your goals? Like I just want to be happy and I want my kids to be happy, healthy and safe and hopefully enjoying whatever they're doing in life because gosh, that means my 20 year old will be 25 my 16 year old will be 21 oh gosh, my 16 year old should not be 21 you know, 14 year old will be 19, hopefully in college and then the baby will be seven school, you know, seven is crazy because everything up until then is crazy.
So it is um, it's just making sure that I'm growing as I keep moving forward every day. It's so, it's really like, um I'm very, oh, jeez, what's the word? I like to look within myself quite often to make sure that my path currently is aligning with what I really enjoy. So a lot of inward reflection, reflection. Um, and that's what the future looks like is lots of reflection I guess actually appreciate the fact that it doesn't always have to be mapped out. Like it's okay to just take it as it comes and some days, especially when you're raising a family, that's the best that we can do and that's good enough, especially since my kids.
So the older kids are my step kids, but they're mine. Um, and so I never thought in my wildest dreams, I'd be like, I think when a married guy who has three kids and then make a baby with him, I think that's what I'm going to do. If I looked at what I truly wanted when I was 20 something, I'd be like, you know, married 2. 5 kids. White picket fence. Maybe. Actually that's probably not what I was thinking because as a reporter, I knew I was going to be moving a lot, but I was dating a guy at the time and I told him, you know, you're going to have to move with me and then I ended up marrying a guy who had deep, deep roots in Arizona.
So there was no moving anymore, but you are planted here and it's fine. It's actually, I actually very much like and enjoy Arizona. My family does not, it is too hot for them, but I love it. Not my gc, not my current family. I mean my parents, they do not like hot things. Do they enjoy trips to Vegas? I don't know. I don't, I don't think my mom has ever been to pig. Oh no, she has, we've gone shopping in Vegas. They do, I also enjoy Vegas, but not anymore.
I actually haven't been in six years, five years for a friend's wedding they got married in Vegas. Yeah, well, thank you for being here. This has been a very interesting conversation. I love learning about your journey. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a little while journey where people call me a bit and I learned to reflect, you know what, that's everybody's journey, right? Like we really, we all have those moments of self discovery and then we learn and we grow, but you don't regret it because it's what you wanted exactly at that time.
That's right, it's true. 100%. 100% well, if you like this episode and I absolutely love this episode, so I hope you did too join us, join our journey, subscribe to our tribe and learn more about the shows that we have for our show. Thank you for being here, guiding growth conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.
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