Data is the lifeblood of modern sports. It powers decisions, strategies, and player performance. From advanced analytics that fine-tune athletic techniques to the fan engagement that data-driven insights provide, its role is undeniable. How can harnessing data be the game-changer you’ve been looking for?
In this episode, I had an enlightening conversation with Maya Love, Founder of Mile High Analytics, an organization that helps young student athletes through data-driven curriculum. We discussed the powerful application of data for positive outcomes, differences between generation gaps, and community support. Our conversation also touched upon the significance of support networks, diverse perspectives, and striking a balance between challenges and action.
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Elevate Your Game through Sports Analytics with Maya Love
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. We live in an era of big data. There’s a lot of data being collected, a lot of data being used, and a lot of it being used for many different purposes, and one of the things that’s always fascinated me is how do we use this data for something good? How do we use this data for something that’s really going to help humanity as opposed to the joke I always make, help Instagram identify the moment you get pregnant so they can bombard you with diaper ads? My guest today, Maya Love, is a college basketball player as well as the founder of Mile High Analytics, where she helps people and organizations use their data for a lot of these kinds of good outcomes.
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Maya, welcome to the program.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Well, I’m so excited to have you here because I do want to understand we tap into a lot of power with all this data collection that started really in earnest roughly when Google became the default internet search around 20 years ago or something like that and, obviously, kind of like how money is, kind of like how influence is, all these things, they’re all tools, they’re tools that can be used for — they’re neither good nor bad until they’re used by someone to do a certain thing. What do you see as the biggest challenge in this era that we’ve kind of somewhat recently entered where we have all this data and want to use it for things that are really going to help humanity?
Starting off with the heavy hitters. I think a main challenge is to understand that these things are tools. I think I come from Gen Z and probably on the older side of Gen Z where a lot of our experience with these tools, per se, actually were intertwined with identity. When you look at Instagram, it’s less about networking or connecting with maybe a friend you — I know you used to have pen pals that you kind of met in a nice Discord chat but now, it can easily become an identity, how many likes, how many posts, have to have everything perfect layout, and so I think the first step is acknowledging that it is a tool, a very powerful tool, with so much information and access out there and with identifying it as a tool, I think next comes the educational piece, which I really like to be in that kind of wheelhouse with sports and data. There are so many ways to get out there and play, be active, and you can incorporate the data so whether you’re trying to perfect your shot, Steph Curry did that with the researcher at Berkeley using machine learning, or you’re really just trying to understand, okay, how does Messi kick, I’m this intrigued six-year-old, and getting out there and still going outside in nature. So I do see a balance of these tools but kind of having to break it down and being very intentional and I think that comes from the leaders around us and being intentional on how they’re describing it, kind of the rules of play, but also just being innovative and not scared of it and allowing it in the classroom because, as we’ve seen, it is so useful — people learn different ways and it allows us different touch points to say, okay, this guy on YouTube, I like his cadence. Again, doing Twitch, I love the way she outlined how to study. And so, again, there’s just so many things that we’re learning about ourselves and, at the same time, I think boundaries that come with anything good.
What is the general process of using kind of these math, this numbers, statistics, whatever, to improve athletic performance? Because I think a lot of people tend to think of these things as far apart, you go to high school and you’re either the nerd that loves numbers or you’re the athlete that loves to play the sport. What does the merging together kind of look like?
I mean, my own personal story, it’s all about packaging your — I use this word again but just your story and your narrative and so if I’m, say, a very strong defensive player and I’m getting ground balls, I’m creating turnovers, that is something that I can communicate to a coach by saying, “Hey, my freshman year, I was averaging maybe four turnovers per game on the other side of the team, now, my turnover rate is eight,” and just to kind of fill in that type of narrative and saying here you can see there’s growth potential and also consistency to my dedication to the game. But, oftentimes, I think I had a really cool feature in the AP Statistics who allowed us to take a real world example that impacted us as a study. So I was able to study my own stats, I was able to say, okay, maybe I have to work on the three pointe a little bit more, the stats aren’t growing, just want to demonstrate that that’s something that I’m committed to. But, again, I think that type of innovation and that teacher willing for us to tell our own story, build it and get comfortable was just incredible and I think definitely tip my hat to him.
And is part of it also determining what to work on? And would the stats ever say something along the lines of I’m just remembering my childhood and watching Shaq and he was famous for being such a powerful dunker and such a terrible free throw shooter.
Right.
Will the stats ever say, “Okay, Shaq, it’s okay that you can’t shoot free throws as long as you keep doing what you’re doing well,” or would sometimes it will say, “Hey, you should work on this”?
That's the power of a team. There's stat and information and then there's that culture piece. Click To TweetSo, of course, Shaq — that’s also what I was going to say, he will just hit two, some would get three or four, but then on the other side, it’s like okay, if we’re already going to have this negative margin, that means the rest of your team needs to fulfill it in some way or form. It’s kind of like playing chess really. It’s like, alright, if Shaq’s not going to make the nine free throws we need, we know we’re going to have to get those nine points in the first half. Because, again, some teams do amazing in the third quarter, some teams don’t and so if you know however your team’s swing, okay, run a deficit at minus three in the third quarter, then, again, that first second, we’re going to have to overload just for that. And so I think there’s a lot of creativity, and also just psychology, sports psychology, I think that’s where you bring them in and say, “Okay, what’s going on behind these free throws? What are you imagining? What do you need to imagine?” And I think that’s a great example of how people will always, always be in the middle of this data mix and of this kind of business insights, that’s more what I see as opportunity and less as a moment of fear of like, will I be replaced? Well, no, because who’s going to study the brain and the things that are just so hard to put in numbers?
Yeah, and a lot of the psychological stuff are hard to put into numbers and having studied some natural as well as social science, I know the difference. I know how, in natural science, a correlation coefficient of 0.75 is considered garbage, whereas in social science, a correlation of 0.5 is a reason to party, there’s like this huge difference between the erraticness of how human behavior and psychology works versus how you can actually study, say, the force of gravity and the wind resistance and how they will impact the terminal velocity of a raindrop.
Two different sides but they still have their benefit.
Yeah. Now, growing up, were you interested in basketball and athletics first and then math and numbers or did they kind of coincide with it?
I definitely think I was very active in my youth but I also really enjoyed school and so I think I never could say I had one favorite subject but definitely sports, if that was a subject. I have to say I covered it all. I did ice skating, gymnastics, ballet, it was just trying everything and seeing what stuck
but I would say math really came up in middle school where I just found myself not necessarily great at it but it was just so intriguing, it was starting to click, and then I didn’t really recognize it but when you’re trying to prepare to get recruited in college, really, you’re kind of doing your own stats. You’re doing averages, the ways that you can leverage yourself, especially if you’re not six foot like myself, I’m five ten, got to get a little bit more creative with how you’re pitching yourself and saying your instant impact, whether, for me, it was I think defense and rebounding was something that I knew instantaneously. I just like to do kind of the grunt work, but it was really in high school, I would say, they started to cross as just realizing my stats, breaking some school records and being like, oh, wow, this is something that kind of goes along with each other and realizing basketball is a very — I think versus baseball, I think — we’ve all seem Moneyball and predictions and things like that, that’s still relatively tricky in terms of doing some predictions and other fun fan engagement that you may see in some other sports.
Now, when you were growing up, how was your combination of interest in basketball, athletics as well as math received? Did people wrap their head around it or did they say, “No, you’re supposed to be in this box and not also that box”?
It’s nice to come from a community that is really just like go for it and very much like we might not understand it but they knew that I had just a high ambition for everything I did and I think with my competitive basketball team, my family, my school, it was all like excellence and character and academic, and so, again, really was our tool that just helped us become young women and young leaders, as my coaches would say, to carry on in our next stages in life. And so I think kind of the qualms with data and information, saying it’s just a tool, I have the echoes of my coaches saying basketball is just a tool but ensure that you have other tools in that shed so that you can continue to evolve as a human being and you’re just not stuck so I really thank them for that.
And how do you feel all the years of being part of a basketball team made you who you are today and made you the person who starts Mile High Analytics and doing all the things that you’re doing now? What did what did that experience kind of bring to you?
That’s a good question. I think you have to do the work. As exciting as starting a company, I think the characteristics of discipline, commitment, and accepting, I guess, learning from failure is something sports teaches you quite often.
and I think, to even start this business, I really appreciated the journey of my first time trying to get into the sports industry. The week before I was supposed to start, my offer was rescinded and so it was very much like, oh, wow, how can I get into this industry? Find mentors. That’s actually the time I kind of started my company because I saw a coach in the area who was coaching competitive high school. I said, hey, I could do your stats, understand how the young women are doing and so, again, I think turning that moment of, “Ugh, I worked so hard to get here,” and then not happening and then turning around and saying, “Okay, what can I learn from that? Do I still want this?” And, again, I think it also comes from taking feedback. Sometimes, often, I will say your coach or your teammates, because of the sense of urgency, the feedback is very direct, maybe not as gentle as you want and I can say I’ve done the same thing and so really getting used to putting yourself out there, I think connecting with folks like you and other people saying, “Hey, how is this working? How does this pitch sound? What’s funky about it?” and just removing yourself from the personal side and saying, “Hey, this was just something I’m passionate about, wanna grow for myself, my community, and my interests,” and so you have to do the work, I believe.
Yeah. Well, it’s interesting when I tried to come up with a mental model of what barrier does people have to overcome to get from point A to point B, and by point A to point B, I mean, point A being what I often refer to as living by the script, you’re just doing what you’re told, point B being where you want to go, where you’re operating the business or you’re living the life that you really want to be living, what are the barriers? And I keep thinking a couple of them are definitely sacrifice, some form of sacrifice in the form of hard work and I think of athletes hitting the gym when they’d rather be out having a beer with their friends.
Right, of course. Sleeping.
Or sleeping or something like that. And then I think of kind of overcoming some form of rejection, some form of failure. My sport back when I was a kid was baseball. A good hitter in baseball only gets a hit three out of ten times. A .300 batting average is considered a really good average in baseball, the average I think is .261 or something like that. Anyway —
Oh, wow.
— the same thing can be said for like three-point shooting, right? It’s not like school where you’re expected to get 80 percent right in order to not, quote-unquote, “fail,” you can correct me if I’m wrong but if someone shoots 35, 40 percent from the three-point line, that’s pretty good.
Very. Very. I see you baseball, you know your stats.
Yeah. I know some of that stuff. But do you think that the whole thing about sports giving you that hard work and discipline, that dealing with rejection and also how to work together as a team, do you think that a lot of today’s teenagers and young adults have the ample opportunities to find an experience of that nature to develop that resiliency and that discipline and self-confidence?
I think it’s tough. I think — as we all know, we went through a pandemic and I believe we’re just receiving so many kind of revelations post pandemic with how students are coming back to school. I do think I’ve just seen a lot of articles about how hard it us to adjust socially, and I think with young adults too, again, the increase of isolation. I do know there is a need for, I think, more interactions and also, I think — I don’t’ know, I think it’s just kind of a worldly event. I feel like there’s always challenges each generation has to go through and really determine, okay, what will be our stamp in this time, and I think my generation is really figuring out, okay, our stamp is sustainability, building community, again, finding more of our purpose and less kind of the money, the house, the cars, all these different stuff and so I do think it’s a challenging time. I also see the kind of, oh, the narrative being like we will build this, like we will find this and it will be a sustainable thing that we’re building, it just takes time so I think we’re in that rough growing period where it’s like we’re almost there, almost through it but there’s so many beautiful places and things that are popping up that I’m seeing, whether it’s community events in the park, again, sports, basketball, and how we interact with each other, so I think it’s just getting back to our groove.
I like to speak from the standpoint of not trying to ever really shade any generation. There’s things I love about every single generation and kind of like how every generation has a story and we all have voices and we’re all experiencing things at different time. My generation, it was the challenge of coming into the workforce when the economy kind of went into the crapper with that whole 2008 economic meltdown and it was almost like a meltdown in our institutions, in a way. One of the things I always look at is that my generation, we were raised to think that if we just followed the rules that we would have exactly what our parents had. And then, of course, that whole thing got swept out from under us and what I’m admiring seeing a lot in your generation is, to be honest, standing up to bosses, a lot more of like — I think of the movie Office Space which is now 25 years old and how the boss would just come up and be like, “Hey, I’m gonna need you to come in on Saturday. Oh, and I’m gonna need you to come in on Sunday too,” and it was expected that the person regardless of what their plans were —
Just go with it, yeah.
— was just going to do it. Just going to do it. And I’m just really glad that someone is finally saying, “No, this is my day off, this is my day to rest,” or, “No, I’m feeling sick today. I’m not gonna put in all this extra and you’re not paying me more money to come in another day. So, no, not gonna happen.”
No, that’s good. I think there’s power in intentionality and I think that’s something that my generation is very much walking or running to that, I would say, and I think it’s exciting because I feel like when there’s a power of intentionality, whatever you commit yourself to, you will be committed to and so the time you’re at work, you’re working, you’re providing value, whether that’s nine to five, you’re an entrepreneur, you have a four-day work week. I mean, there’s just so much creativity with that, but I think the power of intentionality also just opened up more questions. So, why are we doing ways, a certain thing, why do I need to come into the office when X, Y, and Z or how can we create genuine bonds with each other that are not necessarily just tied to going out to the same happy hour place?
I see questions as just more opportunity to learn about each other and just to, again, build on the innovation, but it all starts with the power of intentionality Click To Tweetso I do love that about my generation and just how we’re, again, growing into it because I think there’s benefits of learning from just the older generations because, as you mentioned before, we will have our similar meltdowns versus — if it was already with the pandemic but then, again, there’ll be more so we can look to you all as well to really understand, okay, how do we incorporate this to be a little bit more realistic in what we’re dealing with and not try to take on all the burdens of the world?
Yeah, because people can only take on some amount of it. There’s always going to be a problem that you’re going to say, okay, but I care about this problem but I’m focusing on this one because I can’t possibly put time, effort, and energy into every single problem that exists right now. All you can do is just be intentional, even with little behaviors, such as how do I build a better connection? Just think about the person in front of you, what can I do to make the conversation I’m having build a better connection than just the standard, “What do you do?” or whatever, and there was a bunch of discussions actually at Startup Week just recently about how to come up with a different icebreaker question rather than “What do you do?”
Oh, wow. See, that’s what I’m talking about. I feel like I missed so many good sessions. There’s just too many.
Yeah, Startup Week is such a huge event and everything but —
Huge, yeah.
It’s so huge but it was weird, the icebreaker question that I came up with is asking someone what’s the worst icebreaker question you’ve ever heard.
Oh. I actually have this one. Someone asked us what was your favorite word but then the word they gave was probably like a $20 word. I’m like, okay, law school, that’s where you’re headed, but this was in the morning, I was caught off guard, so I feel like that question, but now I joined like a word bank so I’m ready. I’m ready. But don’t ask me that question right now because I don’t have it.
Oh, no, I was actually going to ask you a completely different favorite question.
Okay.
So, other than obviously Moneyball, the previously mentioned movie, what’s your favorite sports movie?
Oh, wow. Wow. This is going to be tough. I have to say Coach Carter is — yeah, it’s my favorite for a few reasons. My second is probably Love and Basketball but Coach Carter, I think, really, that movie just kind of represented how being a student athlete takes sacrifices and also how I think the power of sports to impact a community and why Coach Carter was so committed to disciplining the young men and teaching them principles that he knew would not just inspire them but plant seeds for their generation, for their legacy, and their community. And second reason who I love that movie was it was a movie we watched when we’re going to the state championships in high school.
So you got that mental connection.
Yeah. So I think I have a very personal connection. I was a freshman on the team so always nice just kind of play as hard as you can for your seniors. So, yeah, that’s my favorite.
And so you talk about the sacrifice, the sacrifice of being a student athlete, which sometimes to me feels like a similar sacrifice to having a full-time job but also starting a business or just taking on an additional thing. What do you think that sacrifice makes someone appreciate what they earn more?
I think if you, within your sacrifice, acknowledge the journey, it definitely allows you to appreciate the goals or when you’re a team, kind of like the big thing. Click To TweetHowever, I think I have seen it’s tough. I think sometimes when you get in that culture of starting your business and entrepreneur, balancing the nine to five, all these other things, it’s always like a half tube but my mom has always said don’t allow your blessing to become a burden and really just appreciating that current moment because nothing is guaranteed. You might fail, you might succeed, but within that journey, saying, wow, I showed up for myself, for my community, I think there’s so much beauty in that and that’s I think what makes the sacrifice worth it is acknowledging that beauty wherever in that current moment.
And so you’re probably referring to a moment I think a lot of listeners can relate to the idea what I always refer to as a person who rides century rides which is 100-mile ride, that mile 68 moment, and what I mean by it is that you’re getting kind of tired, you’ve been doing it for a while, it’s becoming a bit of a slog, and there’s still a significant distance before you get there or you’re still not necessarily seeing the destination, maybe there’s no guarantee of the destination, maybe there’s no guarantee you’re going to make it. When you get to that moment, is there any, when you’re just getting tired and you’re tempted to just be like, “I can just sleep in today,” whatever, or, “I might as well just drive to that burger joint instead of making a nice healthier meal,” what is your tactic around kind of being there, being present, and even as you’re alluding to, appreciating that moment, that mile 68 part of the slog?
Oh, I like this question. I think there’s a term and like exercise or working out where it’s called active rest. So after you have kind of a really tough lift or you’re just doing a lot that week, train for a triathlon, whatever, an active rest really is you’re still moving your body but not at the same type of pace as you would when you’re really trying to exert all your effort. And so I think, at that type of mile 68, I try to find things that allow me to feel active rest. So that’s building — I have a best case scenario journal actually and just kind of writing out best case scenarios. I think often I get in my head a lot and so just writing things out of best case scenario of this idea, best case scenario of the meeting, and really trying to, I think, take in good energy and really breathe out that energy of heaviness or doubt or kind of that sluggish. Another kind of method I do is I call someone. I would tell them, maybe how I’m feeling, this idea is really just not coming off the way I want, just to kind of, yeah, just to kind of get the mess out and I think that’s really emphasizing my community is such a gem, it’s such a gem because I know sometimes you’re riding the bike by yourself but often in cycling teams, they have a pacemaker, a leader, so you’re not just out there. But, again, I think I really try to bust my own mental grayness because I already knew it was going to be long and tough. Those quick reminders I think allow you to say, okay, let’s go another 20 and then I’ll probably call the people again or write out the journal again and just, again, get that active rest back up and running.
And when it comes to setting up a community, you talk about the person you call when you just need a little bit of encouragement, you just want to get it off your chest, like “This is getting hard,” is it always the same person? Do you have a variety of people? Do you suggest that we have like different types of networks, connect with people that are very similar but also people that are very different? How do you sort that out?
Yeah, I think I do try to keep a variety of people, especially when that feeling is more doubt or this idea doesn’t make any sense, I’ll actually call someone who may not understand tech so that may be my great aunt, my great grandma, and just really, again, getting just such a different perspective, kind of birth my own, oh, that’s not that challenging. I’m overcomplicating it because if I can’t explain it to someone who’s not in this industry, then, for me, that’s kind of a flag of like, okay, let’s rework this. And so I think it’s a benefit of having a range and variety because sometimes you don’t know what your situation will call for. And also, I think you don’t always need to go to someone who will always give advice. I do think there’s the benefit of venting, a benefit of laughing in the conversation. And then maybe the second call is that person that you are looking for advice or just that mentor or sponsor because I think you’re more willing to receive it after a good laugh or kind of a good bit.
Yeah. That makes sense because we all need to get it off our chest. When there is venting, what is the right balance between keeping it bottled in and never talking about it and getting too caught up in that circular thinking of how bad this is and not moving on and getting to action?
Yeah, that’s a tough one. I think how I tried to create that balance is I’ll write down three bullet points of things that I’ve been keeping in or just have been sitting heavy, take a day or two to just leave it there on the paper, crumble it up, do whatever, and if any of those things are still popping up the next week, it’s like, okay, maybe I should talk to someone or maybe I should just — I’m curious about this, why does this keep coming up these different emotions or things like that and I think that’s a tool that has allowed me to not get lost. Because you could probably find ten things every day but not so much so I try to stick to the three or whatever if I do have to vent and just see, again, what I’m really holding on to and what I’m letting go. And, oftentimes, after writing those three down, it’s like, oh, okay, that was good enough. But if it keeps coming up, it’s like, okay, that’s where you need to probably process it out a little bit more, take a longer walk or allow yourself to have that check-in.
Focus on what matters, knowing when something doesn’t matter because I think we all know people who vent and vent a lot about little things, like, “Oh, those napkins over there, they’re all roughed up,” or whatever and just like, okay, does this really matter? And did going through kind of being a full-time student and also committing to basketball give you kind of the level of activity to make you say, okay, I don’t really have the time and energy to really worry about some of these little minor things in life that, in the end, are not worth your time and your energy?
Yeah, I think everything is mental. You get to a point where you’re tired, you may be a little hungry, the energy you have is for studying, is for going to see that professor or working on your shot and not necessarily thinking about, “Ugh, I didn’t do as well as I wanted to on that test,” or I think really how to have a short-term memory, acknowledge it happened but then moving on and I think that’s something I try to practice with my own business, as a cough, and really instilling in your student athletes of, hey, this game is not forever but your mental sanity and discipline is and just really acknowledging that you have to become a master of that because life comes at us all and that’s why I love sports, it kind of helps prepare you for the greater life lesson.
Now, this preparing for greater life lesson and, obviously, you mentioned playing sports can get you there with the ups and downs and everything like that, do you think people get any amount of that benefit from being, say, a really obsessive fan of a sports team where they feel that team’s win and losses, the people who are grumpy when the Broncos lose, the people who are really excited when the Nuggets win and anything like that?
I can imagine there is a level of that type of commitment. I guess being an athlete, I’m always like, man, you know how hard it is to perform at X, Y, Z level, but I love the culture that fans bring and the type of dedication. I know the Broncos aren’t doing well but if you’re a fan, then you get the good with the bad and the ugly and I do think it could serve as some good life lessons and knowing, again, there’s boundaries. I think even as a student athlete, it was often you have to commit to both, the student and the athlete part, because it’s easy to just want to be the athlete or want to just be a student, I think there’s also boundaries with the fan and just, I don’t know, I think sports gambling is a huge industry as well but it’s also like, okay, maybe not take a whole mortgage down. So I would say there are boundaries to being a fan but I think there are some lessons you can pull from that loyalty, again, building that community with all the tailgates and just, again, withstanding the emotional waves that comes with like —
Yeah, like Broncos fans this season are experiencing a good amount of disappointment but also like the Chicago Cubs just recently had a disappointing end to the season when there was hope of getting to the Playoffs and you’re going to experience events like that, you’re going to experience like when things don’t go your way and learn eventually you have to deal with it, no one is going to comfort you and it’s not like there’s a legion of people driving around the city in cars giving emotional support to every Broncos fan in the city.
Oh, that would be funny though.
It would be funny because there are people who are talking about kind of emotional support for entrepreneurs, for business founds, groups around the grief of having your business fail, having your business not work out, or around a lot of the other issues that come out, like issues that entrepreneurs can relate to such as, “Oh, this was a really promising lead and a really promising customer then they just suddenly ghosted me,” or, “I had my website hacked,” or something like that, or suddenly got a bad review and no one likes the business owner that’s going to look at every review and then just try to respond back to every bad review, like, “No, no, it’s not overpriced. Do you understand this, this, and that?” That doesn’t come off well at all.
Right, right, but we’ve all been there so that’s why I’m laughing.
A hundred percent. I’ve seen isolation as a big issue probably for almost my whole life, before social media was causing it, it was television and suburban housing design and kind of always living in isolated age. What can people do intentionally today to help make things better?
I think it comes down to authenticity. I know when I was starting out my business, I was so nervous just to describe what I was doing, my why, but when I started to put myself out there and just be authentic and honest of where I was at, I noticed that I was starting to attract people who I really wanted to be in community with, so I do think it’s easy to create a persona, that’s a very short-term approach because you have to keep that up and I think that’s where the isolation and loneliness comes from, whether you’re in a community or not. Authenticity and honesty is the first one. And then I think also really putting yourself out there. I joined a lot of meetup groups or perhaps take a free course, just a week course here in the Denver region and, again, just kind of got out there, “Hey, I was interested in your story,” and here, and sometimes, that’s enough and other times, okay, maybe this isn’t the space for myself but I still had I think that exercise of, again, being myself, showing up, telling my story and so many different ways. It definitely has been rewarding to slowly build that community. And just knowing it takes time and I think that is tough, especially coming just post-grad, going straight into a pandemic, like, “Oh, I need to catch up maybe on all these social years, social times,” but it’s like, no, you’re going to have to wait and just, again, be patient because whatever I think is good and you want to, I don’t know, just build very firmly, it will take time and that’s something that I’m committed to. But it’s tough. It’s a challenge.
Yeah. I mean, it is a challenge because there’s that temptation to try to become the person that’s going to be accepted, because we’re all trying to have this instinct to avoid rejection but also if you fake it ’til you make it, all you’ve made is a fraud so you will eventually be rejected because people will eventually find out you’re not really the person that you’re, the persona, that persona, the avatar, whatever, that you’re making yourself out to be. With Mile High Analytics, what is your impact? What is the impact that you’re having on the people and the world around you?
We aim to be a solution towards our nation’s digital divide and so we do that by being a technical partner to support meaningful business and community impact, and I really want to emphasize community because as much as we love to say business insight, business analytics, it’s the who we really focus on and who can benefit from this information, whether it’s your constituents, educating them in digital literacy, or actually being curriculum for young student athletes or just young students who like to play to just help with that gap in math and science here in our state, but also that type of leadership empowerment. I think when we do focus more on community, you understand, okay, how do we empower them to now understand their own data and turn that into information that they can use for their tools, and so, really, we’re about kind of building the tools, showing them how to use it, and then, hopefully, kind of creating that space and that confidence with like, alright, we don’t really need you all anymore and I think that’s something I get really excited and passionate about. I mean, I’m a third generation Denverite, I think I know these streets, I know a lot of these communities, and so it just brings me a lot of joy, really.
And does knowing that impact, does that also help keep you going on some of those rougher days, days where you’re doing and you’re doing but no progress is being made?
Absolutely. The stats and the skills are always fun, the database innovations, but being able to draw from the energy of the community, that’s what it’s about because you’re not always going beyond, you’re not always going to have the lead who follows through, but just knowing and recognizing like, wow, this is just some really cool stuff how the community is engaging, understanding their data, understanding all this artificial intelligence, and also understanding the boundaries that come with it so that they can create that within their own households or on and off the court.
Obviously, I’m of the belief that some aspects of our relationship with technology culturally have gotten a little bit out of whack with the amount of time people spend, say, endlessly scrolling and endlessly watching videos and stuff like that. Now, you talked a bit about kind of the intentionality and understanding the use for it. Do you see us making progress toward finding a balance where instead of just being Luddites and saying, “I’m gonna totally shun all this stuff because it’s caused this mental health disaster,” or the people who are just unable to even fulfill their promise to themselves to get to sleep when they say they do because they’re watching TikTok reels for another 3 hours, making progress toward finding that right relationship where you’re using everything for the powerful aspects of it that they are, all this data out there can be used for something good without suckering you in and costing you years off of your life by the time it’s all said and done?
I think we are. I think we’re seeing a lot more apps out there so that you’re not on TikTok for that long, a lot of reminders. Again, I think we’re in that adjustment period.
There’s still so much tech out there that’s moving very fast. Click To TweetI mean, seeing the music or really just the media industry going through kind of the qualms of tech and AI and just learning those boundaries, it will require discipline because once the cat’s out of the bag, the cat’s running fast so I think trying the catch that cat and just saying, alright, what do we do with this, I think that’s a place where we’re at and it’s just going to take some time and I’m excited to see how my generation really balances everything.
Well, I’m excited for that balance to be found too because it’s just always so much better to be hopeful than it is to just say everything is going to shit and it’s easier for someone older just to be like that, like I think the first instance of some older group of people ragging on the younger generation dates back to early ancient Greece, this isn’t a new thing, there’s always going to be something that’s different, that’s going to look and be like, “Oh, man, the world’s going to shit. These young people are not gonna be able to run anything,” blah, blah, blah, and then, usually, it ends up fine and myself as example, is it really that big of a deal that we eat avocado toast instead of cereal and then wipe our face off with a paper towel instead of a napkin, does that really ruin the world? I mean, come on, right?
That’s funny.
Well, Maya, thank you so much for joining us today on Action’s Antidotes. I really hope that you help make the use of data less intimidating to some people, make our communities better and help build people, which is really one of the things you really do is helping build people, build people into more resilient, the same way that you were built by your entire experience in basketball.
Man, thank you so much for having me and just, yeah, creating this space for me and I just feel encouraged, the stuff like yourself, trying to create that sweet spot being tech and people.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. And I would also like to thank everyone out there for listening, tuning into Action’s Antidotes. Hope that you’re inspired today and I hope that you’re inspired today to be intentional and to really think about that thing that you’re willing to sacrifice for. You’re not going to have these X plus Y equals Z clear-cut results like they teach you in school but it’s probably going to end up being a more rewarding experience than most of the other things that life hands at you.
Absolutely.
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About Maya Love
Maya Love is the Head Technology Manager and Founder at Mile High Analytics, LLC. Love’s company aims to be a solution towards our nation’s digital divide by being a technical partner to support meaningful business and community outcomes.
Mile High Analytics expertise lies in statistical analysis, data interpretation and visualizations, business strategy and storytelling. Being able to draw experience from both public and private sectors over the past 4 years, Love’s mission is to provide a bridge between data and business through strategic leadership, community input, and data analysis.
As a 3rd generation Denverite, Love found home the best place to start her company, as her long term goal is to bring data to life via sports, leadership empowerment, and data science in a future data sports academy to the local area.
Beyond data and dreams, she finds fulfillment in coaching basketball, scavenging for tea shops and cherishing moments with her dog, Izzy.