We were lucky to catch up with Arielle Moyal recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Arielle, thanks for joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

When I started my company, I was scared people would forget about me and my worth. Especially in the world of sports, relationships can feel fickle. There are some memorable gifts I have received over the years that inspired me to do a new company seeding project in the hopes of introducing my new adventure with a tangible WOW moment. A limited item for 250 people that made an impact when announcing my new beginning.

I created a shirt with the new logo and our company motto, “good energy is contagious”. It sounds simple, but the details were what made the difference. I made sure the shirt was soft, something wearable and enjoyable, not an item to be tossed in a drawer to never be worn. The design was simple, but the look and material made it an item that could be a closet staple. I got custom poly mailers with our logo and other company motto to send them out. I did a custom insert with a note, and hand wrapped each shirt with fitted paper. Those paper pieces were then sealed with a max stamp custom made with our logo and in wax of the company colors. It was curated to every last detail, it was special. The kind of special I wanted to convey to those who received it, for them to know they mattered to me in my new moment.

To this day, I still see people wearing that shirt. And I get told all the time how it’s a favorite, how it starts conversations, and how much it was appreciated. I made an impact, that was the goal.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I stand before you as living proof of what it has meant in terms of opportunities for women in sports and the business world. My “how I got here” is wildly unique, but it teaches a few valuable lessons. To start, I was an athlete. A very good one, who played multiple sports but excelled the most in soccer. I would travel year round to tournaments, wake up early to attend 6am practices at high school before class started, spend my weekends dedicated to playing, and everything else it takes to excel at the highest level. I had some schools looking at me, interested, no offers yet… and then, during an away high school soccer game I stepped on an uneven part of a field and tore everything in my left ankle. I mean everything. I couldn’t walk for 6 months and had intense rehab. My ankle wasn’t the same the next season and eventually I was told to consider ankle surgery. I wasn’t even 18 years old.

I graduated high school in 2005. Before I had to chose where I was going to go to college, I had to make a different, very hard decision. Interest from some DII Universities to play soccer was still available, but they were contingent on me getting surgery, rehabbing, and seeing if I came out strong enough to make the team. My spot wasn’t guaranteed. In 2005, there was no NWSL. In fact, there was hardly women’s professional soccer unless you were a national team player. I had to ask myself whether I would follow my passion or follow logic. I followed logic and enrolled at UCLA. That decision changed my life.

I started my college journey as a chemistry major. I had always wanted to be a doctor. While in school, I needed to get a job and started in the UCLA Compliance and Recruiting department for UCLA Athletics. I worked there for four years and it was a journey; when all my friends were tailgating at football games on Saturday, I was chaperoning players and their parents on the football field side line. I worked very hard to make something of myself during that time. Not only was I working, but I was double majoring in school (Pre-med and Poli Sci), interning in the neuroscience department at Cedars Sinai, and interning in the suicide watch ER facilities at Kaiser Permanente. But in all of that, I found my niche. I wanted to help people and I was good at working with athletes. I just didn’t know, at the time, that eventually those two things would merge together.

I spent a lot of time on that backstory for a reason. Because it’s the foundation for what became my career and who I am. Whenever I needed a pulse on whether I was on the right path, I reference that time in my life. College is a time when you figure everything out. It’s about making mistakes, taking chances, and leaning into what life is presenting to you. I think it’s one of the only times where willpower, impulsivity, and your gut drive your decisions more than your logical mind. It’s why I think some of your choices can be the most pure, the most honest what you actually want and who you are. Many people push those feelings to the side and I think it winds them up in careers they “should” do. I took the MCAT eventually, and had planned to go to med school, but something told me not to. My gut told me not to. Instead, I pursued an insane idea at the time to follow a career in sports, working with athletes specifically. In August 2023, it was eighteen years of this athlete driven career. Listen to your gut.

Moyal Enterprises was announced on March 1st, 2022. The group is a destination for athletes who need assistance outside of their playing contracts, along with a place where agencies, teams, brand, and all other sport properties can find what they need to bridge strategy and execution for their athlete and sport verticals. We take a collaborative approach and put women at the top of our business model, the thing I am most proud of. Too many times were I at employers that wouldn’t allow women to be a part of the business model. We instead, made them the center of it.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I have a few simple rules. One, be honest. Two, have integrity (honesty when no one is watching). Three, be respectful to everyone no matter who they are. And four, when you mess up, be self aware enough to take immediate accountability.

Don’t deviate. Don’t take the low road. Stay high. Your reputation is everything in business and those that circumvent the rules will eventually feel the consequences of their actions. I have stuck to those rules and have a stellar career to show for it.

Any advice for managing a team?

Hire people for their job, and then let them do their job; don’t micromanage them! Learn from your employees as much as they learn from you. Allow people to fail, learn in their failure, and be better for it. Understand everyone has days where they aren’t productive and shift gears to match their temporary downward energy, instead of burning them out. Be vulnerable as a leader; it makes you more relatable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ariellemoyal.com
• Instagram: @ajmoyal
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajmoyal/
• Twitter: @ajmoyal