There\u2019s no sleep for Golden State Valkyries President Jess Smith. The women\u2019s basketball team recently faced off against the Atlanta Dream in game three of the WNBA Finals, continuing a whirlwind season for the league\u2019s most valuable franchise. And as the leader of the team estimated to be worth $1 billion, Smith is learning how to make room for every part of her life without sacrificing the work she loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t subscribe to work-life balance, because it makes you try to set something up for failure versus I really try to live in gratitude,\u201d she tells Fortune. \u201cHow fortunate am I that the fix that I would want in this life is to actually be with my kids more, work more, be with my partner more, more time in self care. If that\u2019s my biggest problem, that\u2019s a great problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s plate has been full in her decades working in professional sports. The Valkyries made history in their inaugural season, becoming the first WNBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in its debut year. Serving as president since 2024\u2014just months after the team was first created\u2014Smith has helped build the franchise from the ground up, overseeing everything from its business operations to the fan experience. <\/p>\n
Before joining Golden State, the 41-year-old held roles across Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, and women\u2019s soccer, including leading revenue at Angel City FC. At the Valkyries, she helped drive record demand, with the team selling 10,000 season tickets ahead of its inaugural season.<\/p>\n
Her schedule is booked out, but chock-full of all the things that she loves. A lot of her approach to work and life came into focus once she had her two kids and began figuring out how to balance motherhood with a demanding career. Smith loves every element of her life, and isn\u2019t willing to sacrifice any part of her supercharged career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very freeing\u2014especially in becoming a mom and having to figure this out\u2014to just be honest like, \u2018I love to work.\u2019 And I tell my kids that I don\u2019t apologize to them for that,\u201d the Valkyries president says. \u201cI tell them, \u2018I love working, and someday you\u2019re gonna love working, and it\u2019s really fun. You get to come to the game.\u2019 I explain it to them, but I\u2019m not apologizing for what brings me joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Valkyries president says self-care is a non-negotiable<\/p>\n
Smith doesn\u2019t compartmentalize the professional and personal parts of her life. She loves a free weekend day when she can attend her kids\u2019 soccer games, and makes the effort to carve out vacation time. And she\u2019s extending the same mindset to her team of around 88 full-time Valkyries staffers\u2014from the star players to the front-office employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou absolutely have to take care of yourself\u2014period, full stop,\u201d Smith says. <\/p>\n
It can be tricky to play the balancing act; the WNBA team is constantly traveling and playing matches both in-season and during the offseason. For Smith, making it work means being intentional about when and how she steps away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means the work that needs to be done, I\u2019m committed to, I\u2019m going to get done,\u201d she continues. \u201cI\u2019m going to be where I need to be, and I\u2019m going to find those wins to make sure that I\u2019m being a full human being as well for other constructs in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith has strategized with fellow Valkyries leaders to ensure employees get the rest and recovery they need. The president has called on people managers to remind staffers they get two work-from-home weeks; off-season months of November and December are also prime opportunities to take a breather.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI also expect them to take time off,\u201d Smith explains. \u201cBut that involves planning, looking forward, so you can really make sure that you can take some real space.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Smith and her team are on the road as the Valkyries fight to take home the WNBA Championship Trophy. The San Francisco team will face off against the Atlanta Dream in game four of the Finals this afternoon. The team trails 2-1 in the series and will look to even the series before the Finals return to San Francisco for game five on Monday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no sleep for Golden State Valkyries President Jess Smith. The women\u2019s basketball team recently faced off against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[5786,402,525,9135,3006,134,13090,385,5284,403,99,434,1764,56935,9445],"class_list":["post-893298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta","tag-basketball","tag-careers","tag-executives","tag-family","tag-jobs","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-nhl","tag-san-francisco","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-women","tag-work-life","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}