Today we’d like to introduce you to Jess McAlister.
Hi Jess, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been in the golf space going on 10 years, having started with an idea around bringing social media marketing, influencer marketing, and the creator economy into golf. This was around 2017, 2018. With that, my first company was born and scaled to a handful of fresh faces across athletes, media personalities, and new influencers and creators in the golf space. It also educated and consulted for brands, large corporations, and organizations in sports and golf on how to scale that side of the business. We quickly became the AOR for large, well-known corporations and brands in the golf space, and our growing talent roster and then COVID hit. With golf being the first live sport to come back with no fans or spectators, a lot of brands and organizations had to figure out how to move multi-million-dollar on-site property activations to still be able to reach their fans and audience socially, digitally, and linearly. So that’s where we came in, leveraging our stable of creators, we were able to grow even faster than we were before COVID and went to the moon. Because we grew so fast, we ended up selling our company to a big three talent agency to keep growing. I stayed on for a year and left along with some of my core talent and brands, as well as my staff under me and soon after launched CATALYST9- a NEW brand marketing and talent management firm predominantly focused on the women’s market in golf. One year into that, I acquired minority ownership of Women’s Golf Magazine, a 20-year-old print and digital publication out of Australia, to launch in the U.S. in 2025. And here we are!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not. If it were a smooth road, don’t you think everybody would do it? I think, in general, starting and owning and operating a business is really difficult and really challenging for someone personally, emotionally, mentally, physically, all the things. No matter how you cut it, what type of company or industry you’re in. Then you become an entrepreneur and have multiple companies. It just gets harder. Nothing ever gets easier. The hard just becomes easier to handle. Also, when you’re doing it alone and bootstrapping everything yourself, it only makes things that much harder. Well, yes, outside capital and investors sound nice. It’s not always the right move. While business partners sound nice so you’re not alone, I can tell you from experience, that too is sometimes not a good move or fit. I don’t recommend starting a business if you’re not ready to be challenged in every single way possible in your life! But the fruits of your labor can be so worth it while challenging 99% of the time. That 1% knows that you did that, you built that, and you don’t have to answer to anyone. In my case, my job is to service people as well as brand, and there’s nothing more meaningful and exciting for me when you see that come to life or you see the successes of your clients and your partners.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
CATALYST9: a leading boutique brand marketing and talent management firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, servicing clients nationally and internationally. We’re best known for being the catalyst to the creator economy in golf about nine years ago, across both brand and talent. We work with many consumer brands, tournament organizations, large corporations, sports marketing agencies, and golf divisions on the brand side. We also represent upwards of 35 talent across broadcast media, creators and influencers, and athletes in the golf space. We are absolutely experts in what we do and understand the golf consumer market as well as the B2B market. Today, we specialize in women’s consumer strategies and women’s golf strategies on the brand side, and our talent are predominantly women in the space. What sets us apart is I’ve been doing this for quite a while, and my background is in celebrity marketing and partnership, so this is not new to me. I’m just golf-obsessed and decided to launch businesses in golf because why not? What I’m most proud of, brand-wise, is rebuilding after losing everything I had and watching my former company completely dissolve away from the vision that I had originally had. It is to be able to run it back and scale it even bigger- not just for myself and my team, but for my amazing clients in the industry. What I would want readers to know is that we love what we do so much. We offer, like I said, marketing and advisory services to brands in the space of wanting to tap into more female golfers and female consumers. On the talent side, pretty generally, we offer management services. We’re pretty selective about who we work with.
WOMEN’S GOLF MAGAZINE: WGM is the only existing print and digital media publication, 100% fully built for women in the golf space in the United States- that’s about us, but it’s also what sets us apart from anyone else currently. Also, WGM is not a golf publication. It is a lifestyle magazine rooted in golf. While yes, you get education and instruction, equipment reviews, course reviews, tournament information, and player information, you also get everything else that we know and love: beauty, fitness, wellness, skincare, nutrition, travel, etc. While we’re not new, we are new here. It’s really exciting to be coming off the heels of a globally known and one of the longest-standing women’s golf publications in the world to be able to provide this value and resource for the burgeoning women’s market here in the United States. What I’m most proud of is this: this is probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done in my life, and I’ve done a lot, so that says something. I didn’t have owning a media company on my bingo card, but culturally, I just felt like we needed this, and no one else was doing it. I couldn’t understand, so I did it. For the women and the girls, something that I can leave behind for the future that I hope is as meaningful for them as it is for me. It’s such an incredible magazine, especially the print version. It’s something that you would collect and keep on your coffee table, and you could always reference back to. We wanted to make it something novel and beautiful, and something that women would want to collect versus a monthly that just gets tossed in the trash. You can subscribe to the magazine at womensgolfmagazine.com for print or digital or both, and we hope you enjoy!!!
What matters most to you? Why?
This is both personally and professionally. What matters most to me is integrity, my faith, and the passion for what I do day to day. As well as my family and my businesses. I believe in always doing the right thing on behalf of others and being in the service of others through my businesses. While it’s not always a fun decision or it’s a tough one to make, you always have to have integrity in everything you do because that always pays off tenfold.
Pricing:
- WGM: Print $14.95, Digital $10.95
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.catalyst9.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesssmcalister/
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/womensgolfmagazine/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessmcalister/
- Other: https://www.womensgolfmagazine.com/subscribe/
