Dustin Heise 0:00

Right on. Hey Nolan Teeson. So good to spend some time with you today. I know that we struggle to get time together. We love time together, but it's not easy these days, both of us CEOs of winter sports. You're crushing it in the curling world. So grateful to just get some time with you today. Today's guest is Nolan Tyson, CEO of Curling Canada and a longtime leader in sport, who has helped shape everything from athlete experience and championship delivery to marketing, innovation, and fan engagement. A CPA by training, Nolan has built a career at the intersection of business and high performance sport with a strong focus on using curling to bring people and communities together. My man, thanks so much for taking some time today.

Nolan Thiessen 0:39

Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. I uh I'm looking forward to the conversation.

Dustin Heise 0:43

Well, we uh we often cross paths at meetings that we both are at within the Canadian sport ecosystem. You're a tremendous leader, Nolan. You've always been someone that has extremely high values and holds himself to account. And you know, we spent years both on the business side of curling and the sport side of curling. What was the defining moment that you realized sport could be so much bigger than just the competition itself?

Nolan Thiessen 1:07

Well, I don't know. For me, it was probably a little bit later in life because um I think I had the, you know, I had the high performance competitive itch when I was a kid, and I thought sports was all about beating people on the field of play, um, which I love to do, and I still love when our Canadian teams do that as well. But I think for me, one of the big ones for me was actually five years ago during the pandemic when we put on the bubble in Calgary, we delivered, you know, um seven events in 81 days. We cycled through 500 people safely through our through our ecosystem. And the larger piece of that was it gave fans something to watch when they're having to sit at home that they've that they're used to every February and March of tuning in and watching some curling. It gave the curlers an opportunity to compete because they hadn't been able to all year. You know, it gave television people the opportunity, but also, you know, importantly for me, it allowed a ton of people at Curling Canada to stay employed and and we kept making payroll and we kept everybody working and um and contributing to kind of a larger cause. And that for me is where I kind of took a step back and said, you know, sport is so much more than just who wins and loses. It's such a such an important part to Canadiana and being a part of this country. But, you know, I think just what it what it contributes is just so much more than than just the field of play, which took me a while to to learn as a from from my younger days.

Dustin Heise 2:44

It's incredible to hear that so well articulated, but just you've got such a high performance mindset. So of course, when you're when you're locked in like that to a North Star, but then on your way to the North Star, you see the impact and the difference you're able to make in people's lives when you take a step back and saw all of the, and you said ecosystem, but the ecosystem being just so broad and full of stakeholders that care so deeply about sport and your sport. And you were a shining example of in that time of challenge for all NSOs, for all Canadian sport, to see what was possible. That was incredible, man. Hey, you know, you've called community the lifeblood of curling. You know, what do you think curling from a unique perspective does differently bring people together?

Nolan Thiessen 3:29

I think for us it's the community hub, that sense of belonging. The cool thing is, is it can be different things in different places in the country, right? I mean, I grew up in in small town Manitoba. I live in larger centers now, I live in in Edmonton area, and you can see you just see like the draw, that that community pride that people have of being a part of something, which I think we we lose and we have lost a bit in in our society, and we just need to hold on to those opportunities for people to to be part of something. And then I think when I when I say that as well, we have a unique opportunity because of what our sport is to be sport for life, to be a a true sport that I I mean I say it to people all the time. We we have programs that concentrate on youth and and bringing people into the game at a younger age and growing that affinity. But I say to them, I'm like, you know, you can get a kid to curl when they're 12, and then they may not come back until they're 40, and then they still have 40 years of lifespan with us where they can be a member, they can be a a contributor, you know, and that's what's special, I think, about our sport and what we're trying to focus on as much as anything.

Dustin Heise 4:50

I agree. I think that that's a beautiful way to put it too, Nolan. I think that, you know, for even someone like myself in my 40s, I've had a couple chances in my life to get to curl. But I do think that there's gonna come a time where I can get a crew together and we could put together a team and actually get out there and do it. And I have no doubt that that's gonna happen in my life, and that's an exact reason. And then I'm gonna have another 30 years to continue to do that. I I love how you put that.

Nolan Thiessen 5:16

And there's lots of people that that's exactly it. It's you know, for them, curling is once every couple of years with some friends for a weekend event to just have a good time and laugh and enjoy each other's company. And like that's amazing. That's that's exactly what sport, that's that's the best of sport, right? That's what sport um can provide. And and I think that's where those opportunities are just what we all have to focus on as in our system in particular.

Dustin Heise 5:47

Yeah, I love that. I mean, and you've had such an incredible experience and and you know, your pathway, you know, from athlete liaison to CEO, you've seen the sport from different angles, man. I mean, unlike many other CEOs can, you know, which experience most changed the way you lead?

Nolan Thiessen 6:03

I think early on, I think it was really important for me. I'll I'll I'll shout out Katherine Henderson at Hockey Canada, right? Like she was our CEO at the time when I was kind of at the end of my competitive career, and I had talked to her and she said, Hey, you know, come on board and let's find something for you and and when you're done. And and so, you know, she gave me opportunities, but for me, I think I said, I remember saying to her, look, like I'm a CPA, I don't need the finance skill set. I need to learn the other skill sets of what being in the sports system is all about. And Kathy really brought me along to show, you know, particularly from an amateur sport association, okay, like, you know, you've got all of these other people that you need to talk to. How do you create can not necessarily consensus, but connection with people so their voices are heard, so they understand why you make decisions and those types of things. I think for me, early on, it was okay, these decisions that I thought were easy when I was an athlete are not as easy as you think. There's, you know, a ton of different competing factors, but how do you ensure that you hear everybody's voice, but then you own the decision, right? I think that's the leadership side of it, is where you sit there and go, okay, I've heard you. I understand your issue, and I understand your issue, and this is what we're trying to do to make sure that it's not debilitating to anybody, but we have to pick a path, right? Like nobody likes a leader who sits there and goes, Well, I I don't know, like I can't, I can't make the decision. At a certain point, as a leader, you have to say, okay, we have to make a decision and we have to learn and live with the consequences. And that's but you know, snap decisions are is not how my mind works. I need to talk to people.

Dustin Heise 7:54

Well, I think too, your ability to translate to athlete, you completely understand that. I would imagine that they also can comprehend the fact that you do understand them. You've been in those shoes. Yeah. You've been on the ice in those similar circumstances and and you understand the impact of a decision. They also haven't had the same opportunity necessarily to see the all the lenses and the scope that you have to to manage. But you know, that's where that trust is built because you do take the time to to listen. I could see that. And you know, I think the other piece, you know, when you when you look at the biggest sporting moments that put such tremendous pressure on teams, you know, for example, you know, you have the Olympics and other high performance environments. You know, what has that taught you about building trust when the stakes are in fact the highest? And, you know, we're coming off of a games where that's exactly the case and you know, we rose to the occasion.

Nolan Thiessen 8:44

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's it's also understanding like putting yourself in their shoes, right? Like I know when you're a kid and you sit there and say, I want to play in the Olympics, because you think that would be the coolest thing in the world, because it's the biggest stage for sport. But then understanding that when you're in the Olympics and when you're expected to deliver results, and I love the pressure that curling has where we are expected to meddle and we are expected to compete, but there's a lot of pressure with that, right? And there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of people that are watching that don't we're lucky at curling, right? We got a lot of television coverage. That being said, like we're even higher with the magnifying glass on us when it when the Olympics are on. Absolutely. So putting yourself in those athletes' shoes to sit there and say, I know they're at this event that they've always wanted to play in, and and and I know we've got they're unbelievably talented, but they're going through a lot because they feel that pressure and stress. So how do you just make their lives easier, right? How do you that's what I tried to do this this first time as in my leadership role at the at the games was sit there and go, how do I ensure that these athletes know that we got their back, right? We're there, we'll win or lose. We appreciate all of the work that you've put in to get here and what you're going to do here. And how do you know that look, we we got you, we are supporting you. Obviously, we had the you know, we had the moment that went viral at the games, and even in some of the conversations I had, we got into some conversations about rules and all those other things, and I I took a step back and said, okay, everyone, just remember, what are we here for? We are here to support this team. We are not here to adjudicate the rules of the sport, we are not here to look at video replay, like that's world curling's job. World Curling's job is to is to adjudicate the sport. Our job is to support these athletes and ensure that they have whatever they need to try to succeed for their dreams and our dreams. So yeah, just putting yourself in someone else's shoes, understanding what they're going through, and then we'll help you understand what they might need.

Dustin Heise 11:03

I love that, man. But I can tell how much you care about the athletes, every single one of them that went out and represented curling Canada. But I feel the exact same way about all of our athletes that went and represented Canada and the Canadian snowboarders, like how well they represented themselves, the sport, Canada. This last game was so incredible with how Canada's athletes, you know, rose to the occasion and just showed Canada's very best, uh, both on and off the field to play. I mean, you guys were unbelievable examples of that as well.

Nolan Thiessen 11:34

I remember watching during the Vancouver games, and and I forget the athlete's name, but they were they thought they were going to meddle and then was doing an interview after, I think got fourth or fifth and and kind of said, like, I'm sorry, Canada. And it was like, no, no, no. Like you are wearing the maple leaf, representing us on the biggest stage in sports. Like you have nothing to be sorry about, right? And that's that's one of those things where you sit there and go, Yeah, how do you make sure that every single athlete that, you know, shows up at the games knows, you know, you got 40 million people behind you and they're sporting you.

Dustin Heise 12:13

And then some you're right, you're absolutely right, man. You know, as I look back and continue to, you know, have watched curling, you know, with my grandparents, my parents, and seen that they're, you know, curling has deep grassroots. And the sport is also evolving. You know, what is one change you could believe could bring an entirely new generation to the game, Nolan?

Nolan Thiessen 12:32

I think some of it is just changing the way we think, changing the way as a system we deliver the sport. I think it served us extremely well for a lot of years to have a have sort of a business model and a system based around league play at facilities, right? You know, but that being said, trying to get somebody to sign up for a 24-week league right now is a big commitment because people have extremely busy lives. They've got, you know, kids or parents, and you you got a lot of different things that you gotta weigh. So I think just changing that mentality to go, you're right, the that community aspect is what we're providing, but we can provide it in shorter stints, or we can provide it in different ways for people, or to your point of like, I just want to go try it, right? Be able to be malleable with how people want to consume your sport, as opposed to just saying this is how you consume our sport, right? Because that's that's not how how society works these days, right? People want people kind of want a la carte.

Dustin Heise 13:35

Yes, they do. And you guys are coming up with ways for them to get that. I mean, that's that's the fun and exciting part, especially in the role that you're in. You know, and then looking back at your career, you know, what was one decision or defining moment, you know, that completely changed the direction of your path in business or sport.

Nolan Thiessen 13:52

I would say so. The the one that I can think of was so there's sort of two, I guess I would say. One was from a sport perspective. So I was a baseball player growing up. I played high school and college baseball in the States. And after my baseball career, I remember thinking, what went wrong, right? Because as a kid, I thought I'm I'm named after a baseball player, I'm gonna be standing on a major league mound, striking people out, right? Like that was that was my thought. Yeah, absolutely. And I remember the end of my baseball career being like, so what what kind of went wrong? And I internally said, I don't think you worked hard enough. I think you I think you just thought you were just eventually going to just everything was gonna improve. And you didn't look for what can I do to improve every day to get better. And I think when I started to chase the curling dream, I sat there and said, I'm not gonna make that mistake again. Like, what do I gotta do to get better? What do I gotta do every day to win a world championship this year? Right. And just that mentality change, I think from a sport perspective, that was probably the defining moment was me just taking ownership of what went wrong with my baseball career, so to speak.

Dustin Heise 15:04

And then from a business career, let me just acknowledge that is absolute gold, Nolan. That was absolute gold for you to be able to share and reflect that. Yeah. I just can't thank you enough for sharing that because that's gonna serve anybody listening. It serves you to this day in business and this is exactly how and why people that make it wherever they end up ultimately making it, that's the mindset shift. I couldn't be more stoked and proud of you. I mean, that's just cool. That's such so insightful and reflective of how you got to where you're at. So I didn't want to cut you off there, man.

Nolan Thiessen 15:40

But I used to- No, no, no problem. No, and it it it was, right? Like it's taking ownership of your own journey, right? And your own career and and understanding all of that, right? And just saying, like, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna let hard work or get in the way, right? I've got goals and I want to achieve them. And then from a business perspective, I still struggle sometimes in those sort of big networking type of things. And but the defining moment for me was, you know, towards the end of my curling career, sending a note to the brand new CEO of Curling Canada who I'd never met in my life, and just said, Hey, I just want to introduce myself. And she was gracious enough to say, Hey, let's go out for breakfast when I come to the briar. I'd love to meet you. And from that, um, it turned into my mentor, right? Uh, Katherine Henderson, right? So for me to be having the guts to just say, Hey, I'm gonna share this. I'm just gonna reach out, and then for Kathy to then bring me in. And I always tell this story a couple years into my career in the business side. Kathy said, You should have big goals. And I said, I do have big goals. And she said, you know, to think of a leader that sat there and said, You should want my job one day. And right, and I'd only been working with Curling Canada for a couple years, and to be able to sit have the leader of the organization who you really respected to be able to say, like, I'm not gonna do this job forever, and I think you have the skill set to do this job one day was amazing. So I think just being able to reach out and say, Hey, I'd love to meet you, which was uncomfortable for me to do, ended up being um super valuable, obviously, because it created my business mentor, and then uh, you know, she was able to say, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna show you some things because you need to learn this um for for one day whenever you want to do my job.

Dustin Heise 17:36

Absolute gold again. I just want to double-click on a couple of pieces in there of just the the the importance of mentorship and just how critical that is, and I have no doubt that you'll continue to offer and serve others in a similar capacity. And I think that the other piece that just the risk that you were willing to take and come out of your comfort zone and throw it out there, and how often that will serve people, but you always have to take some risk in order to get to where, you know, the destination that you are unsure of what that could look like. But no doubt, of course, it gets you to a place where you know you you've unlocked a a really cool chapter of your life, obviously, and and on a really amazing path, Colin.

Nolan Thiessen 18:22

Yeah, and it it was one of those ones where I could I could be done my on-ice curling career and I could have just gone back and, you know, I I already had my designation, my CPA letters. I can just go back into sort of the finance world. But I said, I want to take my business knowledge and I want to apply it to this thing that really matters to me, right? So how do I do that? And I'm like, I don't know, just call Kathy, this is this person that you've never met, and say, hey, I'd I'd love to talk about how I can contribute, right? And then that leads to to a small role that then leads to an actual permanent position, and then that leads to someone who says, Hey, I'm going to uh I'm gonna bring you along here, but then, you know, and also you talk about risk, getting that phone call in the middle of the summer, the one year when all of a sudden Kathy's like, hey, just so you know, in about two hours, public knowledge is gonna come out that I'm the gonna be the new CEO of Hockey Canada. And she's like, I know you're gonna want my job, so like, let me help you. And I'm sitting there going, Oh my goodness, I did not think it was happening already. So what am I ready for this? Right. So yeah, it was, but yeah, that that risk, taking on that risk of just going out of my comfort zone was was probably the defining moment in my business career.

Dustin Heise 19:39

Love that, man. Also, shout out to Kathy Anderson, who's been a mentor with so many, uh, myself included.

Nolan Thiessen 19:46

Couldn't agree more of how she always jokingly says that. She's like, I let she's like, I bring people in under my and just kind of keep them as a part of of my like, she's like, she she's a great judge of talent, she says. Uh just a gem.

Dustin Heise 19:58

Okay, man. This has been an incredible chat, but you're it's kind of one of those some summary questions for you to share a little bit on. So in one year's time, what is one defining moment that you hope to look back on and realize has kind of changed everything for you? I'm gonna ask the same question on a five-year time horizon as well, Nolan. So yeah, I'll just share a little bit about where you're thinking might might what life or the business might look like in a year, and then on a five-year time horizon.

Nolan Thiessen 20:22

I've really tried to make a bit of a a switch from being just I'm trying to be a bit of a different CEO and and take on even more of a leadership role of curling in Canada as opposed to just curling Canada. And I think a year from now, you know, we've got some stuff coming out this fall, and and you know, we've got follow-ups in the spring, and and it'll be a long conversation with the whole system. But for me, a year from now, being able to change a bit how people think about our game is is probably where I'd love to be. And and that came from first working with our member associations, but then having sort of the guts to say, hey, okay, I'm I'm drawing a line in the sand now, and I'm I'm transitioning to try to speak to the whole system and and really try to challenge us to be better. That would be a year from now where I hope to be, where where we've got people talking about the game in the right way as opposed to just, oh, this is how it used to be.

Dustin Heise 21:24

Yeah. Totally. Five-year time horizon?

Nolan Thiessen 21:28

Well, lots of things, right? I mean, we we say we want more people curling, we want them curling better, we want them curling more often, but most importantly, we want experiences, memorable experiences that people value. So for me, it there's five years from now, I mean, depends which pillar of our system. Um, I know my high performance director would say five years from now would be we've got X number of medals at the at the Olympics and the Paralympics. You got it. Um, but then my grassroots person would say, I want clubs to be even more full than than they are today. So yeah, it's it's wide-ranging, but for me it's it's thinking differently. I said it about the one year, but it's that doesn't change overnight, right? Um there's there it's it's often easier to just do what was done last year. It takes guts to say, well, we're gonna try something different. But I think showing the whole system that, hey, you've you've got a national governing body who also has the guts to try to do something different with you. So we're right there with you, and that's where I hope to look up in five years and just have more people curling and even better.

Dustin Heise 22:34

Man, they've got a great leader of their organization. And not only in Canada, Nolan, you'll continue to lead and transform the sport, but I know you'll have a global impact through that in Canada as a leader and in yourself as a leader. Your humility, your your ability to lean in and uh and self reflect on on where there's opportunity. I have no doubt that uh, you know, your entire career is going to be fun to watch and support and get behind you. So Nolan Tyson, thanks so much for your time today, my man. And uh look forward to seeing you again soon.

Nolan Thiessen 23:03

Thanks, Dustin.