Women in sports leadership are still way too rare, especially in men’s professional hockey.

Toni Will is one of the only women in the country leading a men’s professional hockey team, and her story challenges one of leadership’s most stubborn myths: If you don’t already know the room, you don’t belong in it.

In this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Toni Will, General Manager of the Kalamazoo Wings, women’s leadership coach, keynote speaker, host of Women In, founder of Empower Her, and author of Rebellious Success.

Toni entered men’s professional hockey after earlier chapters in banking and economic development. She didn’t walk in pretending she already knew everything. She walked in honest, curious, and willing to learn. That became part of her leadership advantage.

This conversation is about women in sports, leadership, outsider perspective, gatekeeping, access, community, confidence, and what happens when difference stops being treated like a weakness and starts being trusted as intelligence.

Adam and Toni unpack why “I don’t know yet” isn’t a disqualification, why curiosity can be a serious leadership tool, and why the rooms most convinced they know exactly what they’re doing are often the rooms most allergic to change.

Toni also shares how her outsider lens helped her see the Kalamazoo Wings differently. She wasn’t emotionally attached to hockey in the same way a lifelong hockey purist might be. Instead, she was emotionally attached to the people, the organization, the community, and the experience being created for fans. That perspective mattered.

Because most people walking into a minor league hockey arena aren’t just looking for pure hockey. They’re looking for entertainment, community, memory, and belonging.

The episode also explores the Kalamazoo Wings’ Guinness World Records, including the largest lightsaber battle, and why those moments are not just fun stunts. They’re proof of culture, discipline, execution, accountability, and leadership that knows how to bring a community into the room.

The deeper thread is access.

Toni and Adam talk about unequal starting lines, allyship, women in sports, and what it means to use access not as a trophy, but as a door handle - or, in Toni’s language, an elevator - for someone else.

In this episode:

• Why women in sports leadership still matters
• What Toni learned walking into men’s professional hockey
• Why “I don’t know yet” isn’t weakness
• How curiosity became a leadership advantage
• Why outsider perspective can reveal what insiders miss
• The business cost of sameness
• Why fun isn’t frivolous in leadership
• What Guinness World Records teach about culture and execution
• How access can become architecture for others
• Why allyship requires more than good intentions
• The Outsider Advantage Audit for leaders, founders, sports executives, and allies

The big takeaway: You don’t need permission from the room to lead it. Sometimes the leader the room needs is the one willing to question how it’s always been done.

Guest: Toni Will
General Manager, Kalamazoo Wings
Women’s Leadership Coach
Keynote Speaker
Author, Rebellious Success
Host, Women In

Website: https://www.toniwill.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonildaniels/

Email: tonilwill78@gmail.com

Host: Adam W. Barney
Transition Leadership Coach
Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full
Creator of EnergyOS

👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min

Subscribe to Is Anything Real?: https://isanythingreal.adamwbarney.com/

A very quick bonus episode and an unusual ask from me.

👉 Vote here: https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

Is Anything Real? is currently #3 in the Top Host competition, and the first cut happens tonight.

12 is lucky. 1 sounds better. 😉

I've spent a lot of time building this show around conversations that challenge assumptions, get past the noise, and hopefully leave people thinking a little differently. And every guest, listener, comment, share, and conversation has helped make it what it is.

So I'm asking for a little help today. If you've enjoyed the show and you'd like to help me make a run at #1, I'd genuinely appreciate your vote.

No big pitch. No elaborate campaign. Just a quick, slightly unusual ask from a guy who's grateful people keep showing up for these conversations.

Vote here: https://tophost.org/2026/adam-w-barney

Thank you. Seriously! ❤️

— Adam W. Barney
Host, Is Anything Real?

Investing is not neutral.

Your money is not sitting in some ethical waiting room. It is building something, financing something, and rewarding something. Whether you meant to or not, your portfolio may be voting for yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

In this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Pete Krull, longtime sustainable investing advisor and founder of Earth Equity Advisors, for a conversation about sustainable investing, legacy industries, greenwashing, long-term thinking, representation in finance, and why “safe” investing is often just nostalgia with better packaging.

Pete has spent more than 22 years in what he once called counterculture Wall Street: helping people invest not in the economy of yesterday, but in the cleaner, more resilient, more resource-efficient, and more equitable economy of tomorrow.

This conversation challenges the idea that sustainable investing is soft, niche, political, or simply values theater. Because every investment strategy has a worldview baked into it. The question is whether that worldview is honest about where the economy is actually going.

Adam and Pete unpack why traditional finance often gets to hide its assumptions behind the word “normal,” why broad market indexes can reflect yesterday’s economy, and why future readiness matters more than nostalgia.

They also get personal: inherited money, inherited worldviews, fossil fuels, circular economies, generational change, and what happens when you start asking what your money is actually building.

Pete also shares practical questions investors can ask, including how to look beyond fund labels, why greenwashing requires better receipts, and how to start with one account instead of trying to overhaul an entire financial life in one weekend.

NOTE: This episode is educational and not financial advice. Talk with a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

In this episode:

• Why investing is not neutral
• Why your money is already making a statement
• Why sustainable investing is not just values theater
• How legacy industries shape the investing conversation
• Why indexes can reflect yesterday’s economy
• Why future readiness matters in portfolio thinking
• What greenwashing gets wrong
• Why the answer to greenwashing is better receipts, not cynicism
• How inherited money can carry inherited worldview
• Why circular economies matter
• Why finance still has a representation problem
• How to run the “Money Is Building Something” audit
• What questions to ask a financial professional

The big takeaway:
Your money is building something.

The only question is whether you know what it is building...and whether that still matches the future you say you believe in.

Guest: Pete Krull
Founder, Earth Equity Advisors
Sustainable Investing Advisor

Earth Equity Advisors: https://www.earthequityadvisors.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkrull/

Email: pete@earthequityadvisors.com

Host: Adam W. Barney
Transition Leadership Coach
Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full
Creator of EnergyOS

👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min

Subscribe to Is Anything Real?: https://isanythingreal.adamwbarney.com/