Hi, everyone. I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who What Where, and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.

We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of

setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life.

Today on the show, I'm speaking with EA's head of e-sports, Monica Dinsmore.

EA, or Electronic Arts, is an industry leader in digital interactive entertainment,

generating the most game downloads on PCs and consoles out of any video game publisher last year.

Monica always knew she wanted to be in charge, but she didn't know which industry she'd end up in.

She began working in tech during the dot-com boom of the late 90s,

and then transitioned into finance for nearly 15 years,

but she realized she missed the startup culture of her early career

and made her next career move into gaming.

She first worked for Riot Games,

where she built an award-winning

team working across PR, communications, marketing, and more for League of Legends

e-sports in Europe. And today at EA, Monica has led the esports brands to garner record-breaking

engagement. For over a decade, Monica has been a pioneering leader in the male-dominated

esports world, and I am so excited for you to hear from her. Now, on Second Life, it's Monica

Dinsmore. All right, Monica, you ready? I'm ready. Let's go. Okay, so we like to start this podcast at the

beginning. So what did you study in school? And much more importantly, what did you think you were

going to be when you grew up? I studied economics and philosophy. There's a lot of dichotomies in my life, and I like to round out my

education, so lots of math heavy and business stuff, and then the creative stuff too. I also was a

little bit bossy on the playground, and so I kind of thought that I was either going to be the

...