Frisco, Texas: Inside Sports City USA With Kelly Walker

Speakers: Monica Vallejo (host), Anjelica Cazares (host), Kelly Walker (guest, Visit Frisco). Lightly cleaned for readability. Brand and name spellings corrected. Authentic speech and Spanglish preserved.

Monica Vallejo: Hola, Amiga. And welcome to the Latina Leadership Podcast, a podcast by Latinas for all women. Get ready, because today’s conversation is really special.

Anjelica Cazares: Oh la. And welcome to the Latina Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Anjelica Cazares. We are here at the Frisco, Texas, what is this called? This is called the podcast, The Dallas Cowboys Podcast Studio. We are excited to be here, and we want to give a huge thank you to Frisco, Texas for inviting us out here, being a gracious host, an amazing host, and all the things that we’re doing. What I want to say is this is that we have the opportunity to do many things, but when we get an opportunity to record and to do the things that we love in a space like this, it’s quite amazing. So for that Frisco, thank you. Dallas Cowboys. This is a beautiful studio. I hope you enjoyed these episodes. See you soon.

Monica Vallejo: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Latina Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Monica Vallejo, and I also.

Anjelica Cazares: Have Anjelica Cazares.

Monica Vallejo: And we are so excited. Today we’re taking a trip to North Texas. But we aren’t just talking about any ordinary Dallas suburb. No, no, we’re talking about a city that looked at the sports world and said, hold my beer. We’re taking it all. I’m talking about Frisco, Texas, aka Sports City, USA. This is a playground for sports fanatics and families alike. We’re taking the Dow. We’re talking about the Dallas Cowboy World headquarters, which we are in the beautiful podcast studio, the PGA of America, FC Dallas, and oh, a little casual project that some may have heard of. Universal Kids Resort coming very soon. And did I mention that they just snagged the Good Housekeeping 2026 Travel Award for being one of the best family friendly, inclusive destinations? Because they did. Joining us today, the ultimate. We’re going to get the ultimate insider look, the woman who helps Frisco tell the Frisco story. She started as a coordinator, crushed it, and now she’s the communications manager at Visit Frisco. She’s also the amazing partner who helped us bring the Latina Leadership Podcast right here to Frisco, Texas. Please welcome the sports obsessed media relations rock star Kelly Walker. Oh, wow.

Kelly Walker: That’s a fight. An intro. Thank you.

Anjelica Cazares: Kelly, did you know that she’s been practicing that for a while?

Kelly Walker: That sounded great.

Monica Vallejo: Nice, I get excited. I love Frisco, I love North Dallas.

Kelly Walker: Thank you. I’m glad you love it here.

Anjelica Cazares: Yeah, she was she. I’m sure she, like, spent a while on that. But, Monica, we had to erase Kelly as a guest because we want to ask her all kinds of questions that we already have, like, cued up. So, Monica, take it away.

Monica Vallejo: I know, so we’re so happy to be here. And for the people who don’t know you yet, because I feel like your name is kind of, you know, especially with what’s coming, you know, FIFA, who are you and what exactly do you do?

Kelly Walker: Well, first of all, I’m so proud of all the things you listed there. So I’m excited to talk to you guys about those things. So yes, my name is Kelly Walker. I’m the communications manager for Visit Frisco, as you mentioned. And, Visit Frisco is a department in the city of Frisco. And our charge is to really tell people what’s happening in Frisco, Texas as far as a visitor standpoint. So everything we do has that lens of, of course, everything’s great for residents, but let’s bring visitors into town and show them all the amazing hotels and attractions and food and dining. But my specific role within that first Visit Frisco team is, really media relations? I, I really try to bring media here, literally from, from all the markets that we want to draw visitors from come to Frisco. Let me set you up with a couple, days of itinerary to see the things and then, you know, tell your audience about us. I also do that with, the influencer strategy. So it’s not always just traditional media. It could be influencers as well, podcasters like, you know. So I’m always I’m also doing outreach all the time with our agency partners. Thank goodness I have a lot of help. But we’re just always championing the Frisco experience because we think we have something here that’s really unique. Obviously all the sports. That is my personal passion. But just even beyond that, you mentioned Universal Kids Resort, so there’s something here for multigenerational families and couples getaways and all the all the thing. So that’s. Yeah, I’m also a mom, to to athletes and, grew up in sports. And so this is the perfect fit here. Yes.

Monica Vallejo: I love all of that. But let’s, talk about Sports City USA, because what makes a city decide that sports is going to be its identity?

Kelly Walker: Well, this goes back to the 1990s when our at the time, City Manager George Purifoy sat down at a city council work session and said, what do we want to be? We’re we’re relatively young as a growing destination. And so at that time, they said, what if we had a sports personality? And that sort of stemmed, the idea to bring everything here from, a velodrome, which was a cycle outdoor cycle track, and then it brought the rest of the Frisco Roughriders, which is the Texas Rangers Double-A minor league affiliate, for baseball. And then that brought the Dallas Stars, which is the NHL team, their headquarters. They needed a place. So that brought that. And then we also had a minor league, the Dallas Mavericks G League basketball affiliate were sitting in the world headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys. So this effect just kind of kept growing. And, we we soon realized, okay, we have representation from all five major sports. I mentioned some. And then also the Major League Soccer, right, with FC Dallas. That’s not even incorporating PGA of America, who moved their headquarters here about three years ago. So we realized what other cities have, all that representation of somebody who either plays in the city or is headquartered in the city, and there’s really not there’s really not many. Because, as you can imagine, in the market, might have them, right, as a large area, maybe one’s in Arlington, one’s in Dallas, that kind of thing. But Frisco really has them. We we house them here or or they play here. So we’re really proud of that. That’s also grown though into beyond and on the field or a front office maybe it’s, in the medical space where even on the campus that we’re at today, there’s a medical facility that supports medicine. It’s also, on the same campus. There’s, tech. So we’re big in sports innovation. We have sports technology incubators here in Frisco. So we’ve been we call it the ecosystem. So Sport City USA is more than just, you know, a team. It’s everything from youth player development and sports to our professional partners and teams and organizations. So like I said, the tech and innovation as well. Yeah.

Monica Vallejo: That’s amazing. It’s honestly it’s genius. And I heard your team says you’re obsessed with sports Frisco Sports. So where does that come from and how does like the real deal enthusiasm change the way you actually get to do your job?

Kelly Walker: It’s true. And it’s it’s Frisco Sports because I’ve lived here now, for 16 years, but it’s my whole life before that. I’m really just from a few hours away. So it’s it’s any Texas sports? I’ve grown up watching, but I’ve just always my whole family was. We were all athletes into sports from gymnastics as a kid. Our softball, soccer, I think starting at age four with my sister. So, and grew up with my dad, always having a Texas Rangers game on the team. He. So it’s always been a part of my life that I’ve leaned into and played intramurals in college. That’s how I met my husband on the soccer field, at Texas Tech University.

Monica Vallejo: I love.

Kelly Walker: That. And so, you know, of course, we raised a little, little athletes, when they were little, younger. And so it’s just a passion of mine to watch and participate in sports. I played soccer up until I, was pregnant with my now 20 year old. So, Yeah, I love I love it all. But how it really comes into my. I mean, I’m so lucky that it comes into my work. Now, not all the things that I talk about in Frisco are sports related, but it’s a lot of it, as you can imagine. It’s so much of it. Which means I get to write about it, I get to pitch it to media, I get to explain to people what’s here.

Monica Vallejo: The dream.

Kelly Walker: It’s the dream. And then not only that, we bring a lot of sports events. Our office has a sports sales team who brings in events like, for example, the big 12. They will do their media days here, and pro days and things like that. Where I get to experience.

Anjelica Cazares: Might not know what what the big 12 is. What is it.

Kelly Walker: So big 12 is one example of a collegiate level, conference. Okay. So conference USA, the SEC, big 12, those are just examples of the Big Ten. Okay. Those are examples of, college level leagues. So it’s not one sport specific like the big 12 is who the. I keep saying that because that’s my college Texas. But and they’re also local. And so they’re like, you know, in this instance, they’re a client where they’re going to bring their pro day, meaning the seniors who are trying to go into the NFL draft with their job. Yeah, they they come here and work out here at Ford Center at the star. And so I get to be a part of all those events. I mean, we we have so many really unique sporting events here. We hosted nine days of international tennis, the Dallas Open. It’s a partnership with the Dallas Cowboys. So this facility turns into, six tennis courts and really high level, like, top ten in the world. Tennis players come through here. So I get to come and and and watch it and tell people about it. I mean, it’s it’s really amazing. So I bring that passion into my job and get to really just amplify all the things.

Anjelica Cazares: Kelly, I have a question. So I hear a lot of I hear a lot of it’s first of all, it’s a great tourist space. I mind you, I’m from Texas and I ask my husband, do I look like a tourist? He said, absolutely perfect. I’m in the game. So I hear there’s a lot of like, yes, sports, right? But as we went to Roughriders yesterday and we went to go experience what it was to to see an outdoor stadium and experience it, there’s a lot of, family things. So tourist. Absolutely. But for families, can you tell me quick question, can you tell me a little bit about like, what is it for the families that can have and do to not only be this, be their backyard, but their place that they call home at the level that, yes, you can have an amazing like soccer player, a a college pro or a NFL or PGA and so on. But for those who don’t have a sport.

Kelly Walker: Yes.

Anjelica Cazares: Those who don’t have sports kids, what would you what is it that that that, Frisco can offer?

Kelly Walker: Yes. There is so much more beyond sports. Yeah. Although I’m a sports nut, I recognize that and love it as well. We love our arts and culture and our community here as well. So if you’re talking kiddos that are on the smaller age, yes, the younger age groups, smaller but younger, we have some really unique. Okay. The first thing is KidZania. You guys might have heard of this. There’s a there’s over 30 in the world, but guess how many are in the US? One here in Frisco. And it’s a city imagined by kids built to where kids can walk in and role play careers and jobs. There’s a there’s a Spotify podcast studio in there. The real brands like real things they can touch and feel and go in and experience how to be everything from, a doctor to a, pest control guy who’s spraying, you know, fake bugs around. And they love that stuff. Fireman, all the things. And so that’s a really cool attraction here that we’re really lucky to have. It’s attached to stone. Bryan Mall, which I would say is another big thing. We’re an anomaly. And that’s down by our center, which is our shopping mall here. It’s kind of what put us on the map as far as visitors coming up here. It’s it’s located right next to Ikea, which is another thing people come up here for, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Monica Vallejo: You can’t miss it.

Kelly Walker: You can’t miss it. But, our mall is great, and it’s. Is that. That’s what I mean. An anomaly. It’s really strong, really popular, really busy. And it’s also attached to one of our great hotels, the Hyatt Regency. So families can come there and have everything in walking distance, walk across. And if they do want to go to sports to to Ryder’s Field. But that’s just one example. Universal Kids Resort will be another one, stacked right on top of that for that younger, child and family. And that’s, that’s going to be a whole immersive experience that’s outdoors. So KidZania is indoors. We all know what a theme park is like, but we don’t really know yet what this is like because this is really first of its kind, designed for the really younger demographic. I mean, like they designed this.

Monica Vallejo: To still be there five.

Kelly Walker: Years old, looking up from from that height and and all the things that.

Monica Vallejo: They have to let the adults ride with them. Right. So we’ll be able to say.

Anjelica Cazares: That to you, I say that you.

Kelly Walker: Can. Adults are, of course, welcome and will enjoy it, but.

Anjelica Cazares: I’ll let it go and.

Monica Vallejo: I might like. I’m better than the big crazy.

Kelly Walker: Ride to meet you. Yeah, I can’t do the flips anymore. But then our even like back at least simple things like our public library is not your average library. It is a good library, right? It’s a family’s dream. It’s it’s modern. It’s bright, it’s loud. You can you can go in there. And kids are welcome in their their story time. There’s a cool little theater. There’s there’s a hands on stem area where kids can go in and BattleBots and do.

Monica Vallejo: And that should be free, right? That’s it.

Kelly Walker: Is free. It is all free. It is a it is a City of Frisco amenity. There is a quiet space in the top level, but, there’s a teen space with videos and stim backpacks and there’s just I.

Monica Vallejo: Love that there’s space lot.

Anjelica Cazares: To do that. It’s it’s cool. Pretty amazing. You know, I just a follow up question with that is the fact that, that we’re talking about because you mentioned it very briefly and I caught it and I was you mentioned, technology and sports. Right. And we’re moving in the way of technology, I think sports and technology. Okay. Like a bionic leg. What are we looking at? That’s seriously where my mind goes. So we’re talking about man. What? So yeah. So what is it when we talk about technology and sports? Because if you’re the sports capital of the world and technology’s coming, it’s coming whether we like it or not. When we talk about technology, what are we looking at? What’s the infrastructure to that?

Kelly Walker: Right. So before I go to I can’t not mention one other technology. And when you said technology, I thought, oh yeah, I didn’t say sci tech museum. We have it’s a science tech museum, but it’s for kiddos. It’s in our Frisco Discovery Center. So while that’s for kids, the adults love it too. I love it too. We’ve had kids. I’ve had my kids birthday parties in there.

Monica Vallejo: You’re like, get out of the way.

Kelly Walker: It’s all hands on learning as well. But on the the sports tech side, I will say honestly, it’s not my specialty. So I’m not talking about the no, I have such, but there’s an office, here just in walking distance where you walk in and it is all that, that incubator of like venture capitalists, like, let’s pour resources into sports technology. And just one example, when you walk into that office, there’s a a putting green. And so there’s there’s lasers and cameras coming out of the ceiling that is projecting onto the green, the turf. That shows I think I’m saying that’s right. Angulation, angulation, the different curves of the green on the, on a putting course. Right. And the speed and all these lights come on. So it’s.

Anjelica Cazares: Like your form.

Kelly Walker: It teaches you everything from where your feet are standing. I mean, there’s just so many technical pieces that this technology will, will teach you or pick up on. You’re doing a lot of that. Technology is out at the PGA of America Coaching Center. Where I mean, it will tell you, you know what? You’re right. Two toes are putting too much pressure on this side. And let’s even you out in your swing.

Monica Vallejo: And you how to do the.

Kelly Walker: Clubface in the hitting in the ball and that all the and more than you can. Even more than I even know to think of. They have thought of the camera watching it. And we’ll tell you, okay, how it impacts your play.

Anjelica Cazares: So it’s this way where like I, a lot of our athletes look like they got like power injected with all kinds of stuff because they’re being really precise there. So they are stronger, faster. And they I mean they just they excel what we used to I go back and I look at some football like type of things or soccer, even soccer. And I’m like, where, where are we? Where do we get what Mars did we get these athletes from? Like, there are so much better at what they do. And so when you talk about technology and coming in, you look at Frisco and you look at all these amazing buildings and you can tell it’s futuristic, you can tell there’s a lot happening, am I right? I think that.

Kelly Walker: Yes, I agree okay. And it does a lot of the research and technology. It improves player performance in physique and health. I mean, even when you talk about, like on the women’s side, there’s, there’s sports health institutes here that they’re studying why women have more like ACL tears in their knees, for example, and the ways that they may be need to build and strength in different.

Monica Vallejo: All the time to avoid.

Kelly Walker: That. Yeah. Then I know again. But it all makes for a better athlete. We, we see it in, in the FC Dallas soccer players. They wear harnesses that are really like a biometrics. It’s somebody knows how, how they’re doing at all times and how far they’re running in their sprint speed. And the bursts and all the things. I’m sure all the football has that as well. I don’t know if they wear those during the games, but but here at the star, they have those performance centers where they also know from technology and research they need to rest. And there’s like sleep pods and all these things that help rejuvenate. We’ve all seen those leg, you know, the things that compressors or compressors. So it’s to me it’s the advancement in the technologies. It pulls all those things together. It might be just like a bit of improvement at a time, but when you when you put it all together years over the years.

Anjelica Cazares: Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. I’m so nosy.

Monica Vallejo: So sorry. Well, I wanted to shift a little bit because, you know, we’re talking destination marketing. Let’s. That’s what you do. It’s changed so much with the rise of creators and social media. So how do you decide who to partner with? And what does a place like Frisco gain from independent voices?

Kelly Walker: We do get a lot of outreach from creators, which is great. So we do have to vet vet them, right? We can’t just say yes to everyone. We’re we’re very responsible with, with our budget, and how we put it out there because we need a certain amount of return back to make it even make sense for us. So thankfully, I have an agency partner. I mentioned that earlier that helps us. They help us. We have tools, social media tools where we can go in and say, okay, this profile, where’s their audience, where they geographically located. And that’s easy to say. Is that one of our markets that we’re going after? And then also the demographics of who they’re who they are. Is it is it someone who typically is our traveler audience? So we can kind of just check off boxes there and see if that works. But then also just the alignment with our brand. Is it a family? Is it family friendly content that we’re going to be proud of putting out there and collaborating and, you know, going into into business with as far as social media goes. So there are a lot of things that we we want to double check, triple check. And, and we work closely with them or their agent or representative to make sure that the message is authentic. We want someone to come here, even if it’s, somebody who focuses on, food. You know, we want to make sure that we know what they’re going to cover. And it’s, you know, our barbecue or our burger, all of the things that we want to try to put out there in the world. So it just aligns and makes sense and I’d say, I think you ask like, what do we gain from it? Or how do we benefit from it? We can say all, all the things about ourselves all day long. But when someone else is saying it, you know.

Monica Vallejo: It’s so much more than like a traditional ad, like, for sure, it’s, you know, when you see someone having so much fun and you’re like, oh my God. I’m like, on how they go, let’s go.

Kelly Walker: Right. They agree it looks validates, right. It validates. But then also those creators see things we don’t even see. I, you know, I’ve been here a bit and I like to talk about it a bit, but I might not see the same menu item that they just fell in love with. Or when their kids are running through the library and they see something else. I, I don’t have little kids right now, so I don’t see those things. So they the point of view that they bring to the the content is really fun to watch because I’ll set them up with an itinerary and then I’ll see the finished product. I’m like, well, that looks even better than you know. I could have imagined it because they found some cool little nugget recently. An example was I sent them to a really great, Tex-Mex place, and they, they really, grabbed on to the fact that it was like, where the world’s first, like, frozen margarita machine, and they have, like, an on a plaque at La Hacienda Ranch over here. And, and so it was just funny that they pulled that out and they wanted to talk about that. I’m like, go for it. Right. Hey, if that makes you.

Anjelica Cazares: Happy, if that’s what we’re exactly right. Yeah. You know, I, I so I have a follow up to that one actually, is I, the audience that comes on here and watches it and they’re like, I nearly got really Frisco. Like, why can’t I just go to Dallas? Why can I just. Yes, Dallas is a destination. But the thing is that Frisco does get overlooked because they’re thinking, They’re probably thinking y’all are probably trying to get on horses. And the hat, I know the hat doesn’t help, I know that I know this Hollywood. I know that right. But but there is. I miss it all the time. Because when we road trip, we just drive right past it and it we don’t not that we don’t take a second look, but obviously people who want closer destinations and want to be able to do something outside of Dallas. Yes. Beautiful. Gorgeous. All that great stuff. But when you talking about Frisco, I look at the buildings and I think, okay, this is up and coming. Something is really happening north of Texas. So when we talk about destinations and we talk about this being a destination, what would you and this we’re talking to? Women who are audience who got a little bit of spending money. They like to shop, we love to drink. We love to go out to eat.

Monica Vallejo: We love a good meal.

Anjelica Cazares: We do. What would you say? What would you tell them? This is what you really got to stop at. And kind of like, if you’re in Dallas, okay, fine, whatever. Spent half a day here, what would your perfect day be?

Kelly Walker: Okay, first of all, shopping is one of the top reasons people do come to come through here. Obviously there’s there’s plenty of retail in the Dallas area too. And but we do we kind of did like my, my pitch for me there. But we do really feel that Frisco is a standalone. Yeah. Trip. Right. Not just to drive through or drive by, but come here. We’re we’re a quick airport. You know, ride from the airport, and we’re, easy to access from different highways throughout the metroplex. So a really great road.

Monica Vallejo: Short drive from Houston.

Kelly Walker: Yeah. Yeah, from from. Yeah. We’re really easy to get to. And the central time zone for, for other, people coming in from all over the country. So the shopping is, is one of the top things people do when they’re here. Yeah. So let’s see, ladies coming in. This sounds a little crazy.

Anjelica Cazares: No word for it.

Kelly Walker: Okay.

Anjelica Cazares: If you got me in a pond, before after it.

Kelly Walker: This just sounds crazy, but I’m just going to say a lot of ladies love the Omni PGA. So it’s PGA. Anything you kind of default to think, oh, that might be a man’s thing. They have a smoker’s ball out there at the resort. So we have two golf resorts in Frisco. People don’t really. That’s not normal for a city of our size. We’re 240,000 population city. So to have two golf resorts, they kind of flank either the south in the north side of our city, with great spas. But the just to know, you could get away for the day you have if you even if you don’t stay at that specific resort, you can go there. And if you have a spa service booked, you have access to it for the whole day. Yeah, y’all, it’s no phones.

Monica Vallejo: Oh my God. Meaning? Oh, you get to do the no foul.

Kelly Walker: You get to not be bothered by you know the calls, the text, the family asking what do we need. The grocery store. Whatever. And there’s a, there’s a private pool with the spa. So you can. Yes. It’s only there’s two adults only at that Omni. One’s on the rooftop and, like, it’s a infinity pool that looks over the golf course, but this other one is just for spa people, so, like, everyone’s chilling without their technology. There’s a really healthy, little cafe attached to it. And then you can also go in and do the sauna, the steam room, get your massage, your nails, your hair, whatever. Anyway, that’s a nice little girls.

Anjelica Cazares: Sounds really nice. Really know that sounds perfect. And where did you.

Monica Vallejo: I know, and.

Anjelica Cazares: I get the address.

Kelly Walker: It’s it’s the Omni PGA Frisco Resort. My girlfriends, my college girlfriends came here recently, and, we just did a little staycation at, just a hotel walking distance from here. So we actually walked around the star for everything we did. We never got in our car. We walked to coffee.

Monica Vallejo: That’s what I love about this space. It’s it’s walkability.

Kelly Walker: Walkability. We walked between both for coffee one day here at the star. Ascension coffee and food one day. There’s Tex-Mex here. There’s. There’s everything at the star. We didn’t. We literally didn’t leave. And it was all of our girl stuff. Heirloom haul is a really great spot for, like, lunches and tea. And there’s just so much.

Anjelica Cazares: There’s so much to do.

Kelly Walker: And shopping here, too. Yeah, that Lucchese boots is here. I know you, you said like, yeah. Yes. We’re not on horses. We know we’re not from that.

Anjelica Cazares: No I didn’t when you said golf resort. I do golf. What I do is rent the golf cart and ride the golf cart. Yes. Course, because I like the drinks on the golf course.

Kelly Walker: You you need to go to PGA, then DJ Frisco because it’s, it’s they actually made this whole space so that non golfers would fall in love with it too. And see you go out there and there’s toddlers to grandparents. Yeah. There’s a free 318 holes batting course. That’s the largest in the country for grass. I love it there’s so much there’s some there’s.

Monica Vallejo: Some of that gives you more money for the drink and.

Kelly Walker: The food and bars and restaurants and drinks, and you can walk around with your drinks, and it’s a nice spot, and you don’t have to even.

Anjelica Cazares: Be, you know, consider.

Kelly Walker: Being a.

Anjelica Cazares: Golfer. Yeah. Or staying there. You just keep track like you do your spine. You do.

Kelly Walker: Correct. That’s that’s the thing. As a resident, I live about ten minutes just in the road from my house, and that’s a family go to for us. Because we just, we can take a putter and a ball and go up there and putt and have, there’s like, we have this little routine where we, we go to the, ice house to barbecue restaurant. We have appetizers on the patio and watch everybody golf, and there’s country music playing, and they’re open. It’s all lit and open till midnight, and you can putt. And anyway, that’s a.

Monica Vallejo: Nice little that that is really where people watchers, we like we all. Oh yeah. That sounds perfect.

Anjelica Cazares: You know Monica it’s so. Yes. You built our next itinerary. Yeah. That sounds amazing. That sounds perfect. Yes. But but there’s some things that are happening this summer. And if you’re going to come for the summer and you’re going to come and watch one of the games, let’s talk about FIFA. Yeah.

Monica Vallejo: I know we are. Days. Yeah. Okay. Two weeks. Weeks. Yeah. We’re days right? Days away. So the World Cup is coming and North Texas is going to be a massive hub. And you’re right in the thick of it. So you guys are throwing, there’s an FC Dallas soccer celebration and Simpson Plaza, free fan festivals. Can you tell us what you know? Does an opportunity of that massive scale feel like for a team, your destination marketing team, and what are you most focused on right now that were days away?

Kelly Walker: Yes, I remember when we were years away and one year countdown and then months, and then it’s like, okay, it’s this moment. It’s a lot of a lot of collaboration from our team of 20. We have people on FIFA World Cup planning committees all over the place. I’m specifically on the communications committee. And so I have a lot of media focus. So I’ll be at the media center in Dallas a lot, talking to the, you know, hundreds and hundreds of international media, that have come through. They’ve already come through. We’ve been talking to them all this time and hosting them here, which is really fun to have. Also part of my job. But, and then someone on my team is on the, the marketing side and someone on my team is on the planning. Several of us are on the planning of the FC Dallas soccer celebration, because that’s also collaboration with the city. And that’s a I mean, us planning a 34 day outdoor watch party, is substantial. There’s a lot of planning and that goes into it. But ultimately, so we have to collab and share, go to the go to our committee meetings, learn, come back, report, share, plan, figure out what we need to do for people to do stuff. Yeah. We’re also attempting to set a Guinness World Record as part of our World Cup. Which one tactic? So we’re setting one. It’s spelling out the largest number, which we’re doing. 2026 26 with soccer balls, we have 1200 soccer balls sitting over at FC Dallas right now, ready to get blown up. And we have we’re going to plop them out. And yeah, the Guinness World Records adjudicator will be here and counting and.

Monica Vallejo: Clawing and.

Kelly Walker: Acing all the things. So that’s when.

Anjelica Cazares: Does that little ping.

Kelly Walker: That’s happening on June 4th. Okay. June 4th. Okay. One of our great parks here in Frisco.

Anjelica Cazares: Okay. Is it like is it is that a viewing thing that we can pay.

Kelly Walker: You or sits in?

Anjelica Cazares: Yes.

Kelly Walker: Okay. Anyone’s welcome to come back.

Monica Vallejo: Come out June.

Kelly Walker: It’s online. It’s at 9 a.m. on June 4th. And, what.

Anjelica Cazares: Do you do with the soccer.

Kelly Walker: Balls? We’ll have some special guests like Monica Paul. The.

Monica Vallejo: Amazing.

Kelly Walker: Amazing, amazing. And we.

Anjelica Cazares: Have Monica, who will be.

Kelly Walker: Giving a few remarks and placing some of the balls. And then our team will help place the majority of the balls, of course, to get it. All right. But yeah, the community is welcome to come out and cheer us on. There’ll be some music and some activations happening, I think. So it’ll be a fun community event. Yeah, but, but really, all these things. Right? Even this, this studio that we’re in is a tactic to kind of. Let’s get people like you to come up here and see Frisco. It’s all really with the focus on visitation. We want visitors to know Frisco’s just a kick away. That’s our campaign. I love to see it on the wall here. We’re just a kick away from all of this. Action. We’re just a kick away from the airport, from Dallas, from Arlington. All these things where you can come up here and experience Frisco. Even if you’re not going to a match right at actually at Dallas Stadium, there’s a lot of soccer here to come consume. Even here, the Dallas Cowboys will have the football plaza out front will actually be more of a soccer pitch. And so there’s just so much soccer like transformation.

Monica Vallejo: And so we’re should be you know, people be locked in. Is it the visitfrisco.com. You’re also on Instagram visit Frisco.

Kelly Walker: Yes. Visit Frisco or Instagram is at Visit Frisco but visitfrisco.com is a really perfect place to start. When you go there, you’ll be greeted a little soccer ball icon. Frankie will greet you and you can ask Frankie, like, what should I do if I’m in the area for World Cup? Where should I go? Where’s the spa? You can ask Frankie all kinds of things and, you’ll get info back, itinerary, building help, suggestions, details, all that good stuff. And we do have a soccer hub on on visitfrisco.com Frankie would probably point you to that gives a lot of suggestions for trip planning.

Monica Vallejo: And I just want to say, you know, we’re from Houston and there’s a lot going on because we’re hosting, things as well. But I’ve just been so impressed with North Dallas because we’ve been here a lot to promote.

Anjelica Cazares: Hey, Micah. Careful. Don’t compare homegirl, because that that becomes sticky.

Monica Vallejo: And I like them both. But Gary impressed with her first scout.

Anjelica Cazares: Oh, you’re going to get booted from Houston. They’re going to be like really?

Monica Vallejo: I love her and I love Houston. And they have just. But I’m so I’m so glad that you’ve been able to to come and see it because otherwise I’m impressed. Yeah. I would just be like a number nine and not even know Frisco over here. Frankie is going, hey, come see us and see.

Kelly Walker: But it’s important that we all, they all have such different.

Monica Vallejo: Personalities like.

Kelly Walker: You mentioned. The.

Monica Vallejo: And you can do better.

Kelly Walker: Go to Fort Worth Stockyards and you can do both. Yeah, that’s what it is. You know the beauty of Texas, it’s so big and there’s so many cultural personalities here that you could spend so much time in Texas and really absorb a lot of different types.

Anjelica Cazares: Absolutely. I did a road trip around Texas and so just did so much to do. Right. Because the comparison, there is no comparison when you’re going to El Paso to Amarillo, completely different when you’re talking about Dallas and Fort Worth, even though they’re like maybe 40 miles away from each other, it’s completely different. It’s not the same. So when we talk about Frisco compares Dallas not the same. Yeah, it’s not the same. You’re not going to get the same. Like yes, it’s the same highways. We got the 1012 you know lane highways. Yes. Absolutely. You’re going to be able to get around easily around Frisco than Dallas. Absolutely. But it’s different.

Kelly Walker: And thank goodness. Yes. Right. We don’t want cookie cutter cities everywhere I love all the different. Yeah.

Monica Vallejo: Yeah. And and the fact is it’s like it’s easy driving. You can do both. There’s two busses on the way from Houston. I’m just saying and so it makes it easy.

Kelly Walker: I know those buckets. Well, we do a summer trip through Houston and, Galveston, and, we know the buc-ee’s. That’s our. That’s how we plan our trip.

Monica Vallejo: And you’re like, it’s like a warm hug. You’re like, I’m. We can stop and I’m there. Yeah.

Anjelica Cazares: So the fired rapper, because I want to get to know Kelly. Good to know a lot of what you know.

Monica Vallejo: This is about like the sports.

Anjelica Cazares: Okay, okay. You know, I want to. Kelly. I want to get to know you just a little bit because you’ve. How long have you been here?

Kelly Walker: Well, I’ve lived here for 16 years. I’ve worked for the city. I did some part time for three, and I’ve been here full time. Three more years.

Anjelica Cazares: Where are you originally from? You make Texas. Waco, Texas. Okay, kids?

Kelly Walker: Yes.

Anjelica Cazares: Okay. How many?

Kelly Walker: I have a 15 year old, almost 16 year old boy, Today’s his last day of ninth grade, And I have a 20 year old girl who’s halfway done with college at Texas Tech.

Monica Vallejo: Nice. Wow.

Anjelica Cazares: Oh, almost empty nester.

Monica Vallejo: I know she’s about there.

Anjelica Cazares: About it? Yeah, honestly, I know her. Okay, so when we, I do want to get to know you a little bit. I know you’re passionate about the things that you do. What is it that you love about your job the most?

Kelly Walker: The sports piece. Because that’s what I love the most. People, like, make fun of our family because we’re pretty much always at a game. Like it doesn’t.

Anjelica Cazares: Matter. Like a soccer game.

Kelly Walker: Friends. Facebook, soccer. Well, we moved here and immediately became, FC Dallas season ticket members. Okay, so we go to every soccer game. Okay. Unless we just for some while, if somebody gets married, we have to leave town. But like, we’re always at FC Dallas games and then we also we came season ticket holders at the Frisco Roughriders. They have 70 home games a year. We go to we have to stop.

Monica Vallejo: So again going back to that, it’s such a it’s a park within a park.

Kelly Walker: It’s that’s my warm to do. Yeah. Because because growing up with my dad teaching us like to love baseball. So my son actually works at the ballpark. So I mean it is oh we might run.

Anjelica Cazares: Into him then all the time. Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Walker: Do you a little 15 year old, curly haired kiddo. And.

Anjelica Cazares: So I’m thinking back to my we’re.

Kelly Walker: Always at sports, and that’s okay because, that’s what we choose to do. But to have such a big part of my job revolving around the sports that I love, like, it’s just so perfect for me. I’ve always been in media, marketing, advertising in some way or another, but this combines like that, you know, this Frisco cheerleader anyways, and get to talk about the things that I would be doing on my personal time anyways. So it all just works really well together.

Anjelica Cazares: Okay, so if you were to point people in one direction in terms of like, I think to to visit in Frisco, you got two hours in Frisco, what would you do? One thing I know, I know that’s hard.

Monica Vallejo: My gosh, I don’t know that PJ is laughing.

Kelly Walker: Yeah, already. I already did PGA talk so much. So I’ll go back to saying check the calendar and if it’s a Frisco Roughriders day, I got to do that. And if it’s hot out, go get in the lazy river because that’s in right field.

Monica Vallejo: And we we wanted to jump in.

Kelly Walker: It’s very unique. And if you’re flying solo without kiddos there’s been 21 and overnight. So if you’re on a night where it’s 21 and over, it’s a party out there. It is. It’s called rowdy in the River. It’s fun. But if you have kiddos, it’s a really family friendly ballpark, and there’s even a playground and there’s there’s plenty for kids. So I would say, because I love baseball so much, hit up a Frisco Roughriders game. First choice. There’s there’s a lot, but that would probably be like my first look. Like when I go out of town, I will go to a baseball game. Okay, check out it.

Anjelica Cazares: So now we know where to find you. Yeah, I, we know where to find you. We go, we know we got seasons tickets. Girl.

Monica Vallejo: We know where to go. Because we’re part of the Latina Leadership podcast. I wanted to talk to you about leadership. You know, what kind of leader do you see yourself as, you know, what’s your type of leadership? You know, for your team when you, so have to. I’m just going to jump.

Anjelica Cazares: In here, Monica. Because the question is, and it’s. I see what you’re doing. The question is, the question is, do you consider yourself a leader? Why and why not?

Kelly Walker: Yes, I do okay, I do.

Monica Vallejo: I know she’s the leader.

Kelly Walker: No I do, I mean in that like I just as a woman I it doesn’t stop or start when I walk in the door at work. Okay. Like to me leadership is also within your family, your community, your schools like everything. So inherently in my personality, yes, I’m definitely a leader. I’m not. I don’t have anybody on. I’m not a manager at work. I’m I’m a part of a team. So I don’t have somebody underneath me. But I don’t think that really even defines leadership. Solely, so in Frisco, we do we do Cliftonstrengths finders and my, some of my top strengths are harmony and communicator. So part of my leadership style is I like to take in all the information from my group, my team or people, and figure out how to make really, you know, make decisions for outcomes that are going to make everybody as happy as possible. I know you can’t make everybody always happy, but what’s going to keep the most balance in harmony, in the project that we’re working on? To keep on deadlines and those kind of things. So, I love that the harmony aspect of let’s try to, let’s try to hear everybody out and get to a conclusion that makes sense for everyone. I think I was on like our school PTA boards for ten years plus I can’t remember exactly the amount of years, but same thing there. Just like listening to everybody’s input and like, what’s the good, what’s what are the solutions that we can talk through and hear everybody’s voice? And then on the other piece of my cliftonstrengths is the communicator piece. I will over talk and communicate in order to make sure everybody has, like, all the information. I really want everybody to understand. And so again, just getting the best outcomes.

Anjelica Cazares: That’s a great leader quality that you have. Kelly, thank you so much for that. And so white. Monica because I mean you can talk girl I know, but Kelly has a day and she has a.

Monica Vallejo: Teacher to meet you. And it’s congratulations on everything that you’re doing.

Anjelica Cazares: Yes.

Monica Vallejo: We so you know, we’re a day and and we’ve enjoyed ourselves. So much. So thank you for having us.

Anjelica Cazares: Wait, just really quick, before we wrap it up, I would like to ask you this. Can you give us parting words for our audience? Just some parting words of of maybe inspiration. Whatever it is, you know.

Monica Vallejo: Where it’s coming and you know.

Anjelica Cazares: How it may be. Yeah. You give it to us, Kelly.

Kelly Walker: Wow. Okay. It wasn’t expecting that. And I’m just, like, flipping from a baseball game to my leadership style, so I don’t know the best, part of the parting words, but I will say from a fiscal standpoint, my parting words would be, don’t assume, right that that we’re connected to, you know, the cities that we’re connected to, like, like try us as an independent trip, a destination for your family or your your loved one, or however you’re traveling. And, you know, give us a couple days and I think would surprise you on how much is here in Frisco, Texas and how much, the variety of things you can enjoy when you’re in, in our little town.

Anjelica Cazares: Yeah. Oh my God, that’s amazing.

Monica Vallejo: I know, so book those flights. Yeah, grab those jerseys. We’ll see you in Frisco. So until next time.

Anjelica Cazares: Yeah. Yes. No. Yes. Because we we usually have like I say both.

Monica Vallejo: Yeah.

Kelly Walker: What’s your send off.

Anjelica Cazares: We have a send off. Absolutely. Kelly, thank you so much for coming on the podcast with us. We absolutely appreciate the hospitality. You given us, the graciousness that you’ve invited us in, I think, and we love that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But with that.

Monica Vallejo: Until next time, we’ll.

Anjelica Cazares: See you next.

Monica Vallejo: We’ll see you soon and stay inspired.