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Serena Williams Talks Success on the Court and in Life · Masters in Business

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  Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.
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  Speaker 1: This week on Masters in Business, we have an extra
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  Speaker 1: extra special guest. She is perhaps the greatest tennis player
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  Speaker 1: of all times. Her name is Serena Williams, and I
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  Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to be able to interview her at
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  Speaker 1: an event recently down in Florida, where we discussed not
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  Speaker 1: only tennis, but business philanthropy, what it's like to be
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  Speaker 1: so singularly focused on one single area for most of
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  Speaker 1: your life. She was absolutely delightful. I found this to
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  Speaker 1: be really a wonderful, uh conversation. It was actually at
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  Speaker 1: the Inside et F conference in Hollywood, Florida. There were
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  Speaker 1: about people in the audience, and when she was introduced,
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  Speaker 1: she came out to a standing ovation. It was actually
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  Speaker 1: kind of funny because she's on stage waving to the
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  Speaker 1: crowd and I'm kind of just waiting by the stairs,
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  Speaker 1: not wanting to, you know, step on her applause line.
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  Speaker 1: She kind of looked at me and Jess, come on,
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  Speaker 1: what are you doing. Let's go get out here. It was.
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  Speaker 1: It was pretty hilarious. I had a lot of fun
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  Speaker 1: with her. Anytime I could could make her crack up.
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  Speaker 1: Was was um just charming. She she really was was
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  Speaker 1: not only very thoughtful and savvy when it comes to business,
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  Speaker 1: but just delightful and charming. It's amazing that someone who
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  Speaker 1: is as fierce a competitor as she is could be
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  Speaker 1: so just, you know, lovely off court. Um. We did
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  Speaker 1: play a couple of sets of tennis and she won
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  Speaker 1: six three and seven six, so I have to give
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  Speaker 1: her that. But all told, this was really a wonderful experience,
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  Speaker 1: and I think you will find it every bit as
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  Speaker 1: fascinating as I did. With no further ado, my conversation
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  Speaker 1: with Serena Williams, which took place on January at the
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  Speaker 1: Inside et f S conference in Hollywood, Florida. I said
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  Speaker 1: earlier that I have the easiest job at this conference.
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  Speaker 1: The whole weekend. I just get to sit out here
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  Speaker 1: and chat with Serena Williams for a few minutes. Serena,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for doing this. We've been looking
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  Speaker 1: forward to it for a while. Um, let's start chatting
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about what's going on right now. It's
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Open, potentially your four major title. How difficult
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  Speaker 1: was it to make the decision not to compete in Melbourne. Um,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't that difficult actually to decide not to compete.
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  Speaker 1: I I really when I was there, well, I wasn't there,
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  Speaker 1: but when I was making the decision, UM, I didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to go to Australia just to compete. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to go or to any tournament just to compete. I
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  Speaker 1: want to go with the mindset, in the mind frame
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  Speaker 1: that I'm here to win. I'm not here just to
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  Speaker 1: show up and you know, just kind of take a
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  Speaker 1: space in the room. Uh So for me, that was
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  Speaker 1: really important. And when I realized that if I went
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  Speaker 1: to Australia, I would be just filling a seat, I
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  Speaker 1: knew that that's not how I've traditionally done my career.
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  Speaker 1: I've always entered with the mindset, frankly, to win. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want them all, but at least my mental
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  Speaker 1: was there. So, um I I didn't make it, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm okay with it. Have you been watching any of
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  Speaker 1: the Open I am a little bit not so much. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I don't allow my daughter Olympia to watch too much TV.
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  Speaker 1: So um so whenever she's like nap time or something
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  Speaker 1: and I'm home, I turn it on. Really fast on,
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  Speaker 1: but when she comes down, I kind of turn it off.
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  Speaker 1: So you started playing tennis as a kid, what was
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  Speaker 1: that like? Was that fun or did that become a chore?
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  Speaker 1: Did that become a job? Um? It definitely was super
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  Speaker 1: super fun in the beginning, but as like a nine
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  Speaker 1: eight year old kid, you definitely sometimes I want to
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  Speaker 1: go out and play with other kids and do different things.
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  Speaker 1: So then it became a little bit of a chore.
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  Speaker 1: Especially as a teenager, it was like more or less
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  Speaker 1: goal oriented oriented because you think of you see these players,
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  Speaker 1: you see these teenagers that are actually professional, and it's like,
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  Speaker 1: oh my god, I want to do that too, And
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  Speaker 1: you realize that all the time that before that you
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  Speaker 1: wanted to, um go out there and just be a
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  Speaker 1: kid and just to kind of play with everyone else.
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  Speaker 1: You're you're really great purple those moments that you spent
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  Speaker 1: that few extra little bit of a time, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just working on your craft. So you're a kid, you're
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  Speaker 1: playing some and as did you ever stop and think,
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  Speaker 1: I know I'm going to turn this into a career
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  Speaker 1: and I can't even guess where this is going to
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  Speaker 1: take me. There was there ever a moment like that
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  Speaker 1: where let's see where tennis could go. Well, my um
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  Speaker 1: my dad he was always super super positive with both
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  Speaker 1: myself and my sister who you may or may not know,
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  Speaker 1: famous famous tennis where. Um So she My dad's was
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  Speaker 1: always so positive and he always taught us to think
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  Speaker 1: incredibly positive. He said, you know, you are what you think.
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  Speaker 1: If you think you're the best, you're going to be
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  Speaker 1: the best. If you think you're mediocre, you're gonna be mediocre.
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  Speaker 1: So that's kind of followed me throughout my whole life.
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  Speaker 1: Um So, I always thought I would be number one.
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  Speaker 1: I always thought I would win a Grand Slam. I
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  Speaker 1: never thought I would have so many Grand slams. Um
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  Speaker 1: but I always thought, you know, at some point that
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  Speaker 1: I would have an opportunity to hold, in particular the
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  Speaker 1: US Open trophy. So you're you've always been an excellent
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  Speaker 1: physical condition as a competitor. How difficult is it to
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  Speaker 1: maintain that peak physical condition as well as the mental condition,
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  Speaker 1: because that's clearly a big part of your game. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: mental aspect is a huge part of my game. Um,
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  Speaker 1: physical is tough as well. Uh, it's a part of
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  Speaker 1: the job. You know. One day a few years ago,
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  Speaker 1: I described and I realized that for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: I realized that my job is to stay fit and uh,
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  Speaker 1: simply put so, I was like, Okay, you have to
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  Speaker 1: have a better diet, you have to do this is
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  Speaker 1: that's my job. Literally, that's my job. So that's not
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  Speaker 1: my job. But no, but I was like, you know
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  Speaker 1: at Serena, and that gave me the motivation to just
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  Speaker 1: to work harder on that. So sometimes breaking things down
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  Speaker 1: like simple, so simple like that just can also help. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But mental has It's always been something innate for me.
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  Speaker 1: Like mentally, I've always just it always clicked. I've always
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be on top, to be holding the trophies too.
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  Speaker 1: I've always wanted that. So mentally I knew what it
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  Speaker 1: took to get there. And physically, um, even today, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just like because trying to get back and trying to
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  Speaker 1: get that physical back. I got the mental but I'm
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  Speaker 1: just trying to get that physical back. So as we
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  Speaker 1: all get a little older, our body changes a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: You just had a baby, How does the physical training evolve?
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  Speaker 1: How do you adjust over time as your routine the
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  Speaker 1: same as it was a couple of years ago. What
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  Speaker 1: sort of adjustments have you made. Um. You know, throughout
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  Speaker 1: the years, I make a lot of adjustments because I've
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  Speaker 1: been playing professional for like for almost twenty years, so
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  Speaker 1: it's a really long time. Um So throughout that time,
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  Speaker 1: I just you know, make adjustments because if I were
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  Speaker 1: doing the same thing twenty years later, I think I
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  Speaker 1: would be a little bit tired and it just I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't want to do it anymore. So every few years,
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  Speaker 1: I reinvent myself. I try to reinvent exercise. And also
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  Speaker 1: technology has really changed a lot in terms of helping
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  Speaker 1: athletes perform better, perform longer. To see lots of athletes
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  Speaker 1: and all sports, um that are playing deeper and playing
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  Speaker 1: and when they're a lot older. Um, So that's been
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  Speaker 1: super helpful for me. And also lots of new studies
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  Speaker 1: came out that was able to help performance peak of athletes.
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  Speaker 1: So um, it's been really interesting so that those that
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  Speaker 1: type of stuff wasn't available you know, ten, fifteen, twenty
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  Speaker 1: years ago, and it just started becoming more available in
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  Speaker 1: the past you know, seven years or so, and that's
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  Speaker 1: really been helped with me to be able to continue
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  Speaker 1: to evolve, which raises the next question, how much longer
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  Speaker 1: do you want to play for professionally. Yeah, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like there's one day I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna wake up and I'm gonna say I'm done. Um,
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  Speaker 1: And I know that when that will be, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: know the feeling. And I don't have that feeling yet.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't have it, um, you know in the last
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  Speaker 1: year with everything that happened, and you know, so when
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  Speaker 1: it comes, I don't know. So you're at twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret Court is a twenty four? Is it safe to
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  Speaker 1: say you want to go to well, you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: it's no secret anymore that, um, Margaret Court. I mean
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  Speaker 1: that I would love to catch up with Margaret Court. Um.
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  Speaker 1: She played in a different era, so her twenty four
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  Speaker 1: Grand Slams were a little bit different than the open
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  Speaker 1: air tennis. Long story, but arguably what you did was
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  Speaker 1: harder than what she did. Yeah, it was, yes, because
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  Speaker 1: it was a different draw and it was their different elements.
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  Speaker 1: So they changed it and I think the sixties or
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  Speaker 1: to open air tennis, and so that's when it will
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  Speaker 1: be came people like me playing. She also incidentally played
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  Speaker 1: an open air and tennis and won several Grand Slams
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  Speaker 1: an open air, so that was really awesome for her too.
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  Speaker 1: Um but um wait, what was your question? How far?
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  Speaker 1: How high do you want to set the bar for
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  Speaker 1: whoever comes after you? All right? Um, I think it's
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  Speaker 1: interesting when I there was eighteen was my first goal
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  Speaker 1: because Chris Everard and Martin Avratlova they both had eighteen
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  Speaker 1: Grand Slams each, and um, that was the thing. I
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  Speaker 1: was like, I got it and I had seventeen. At
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  Speaker 1: the time, I was like, I gotta get to eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: I've got to get to eighteen. I've got to get
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  Speaker 1: to eighteen. And then I put so much pressure on
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  Speaker 1: myself that I lost three in a row. I lost
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  Speaker 1: three Grand Slams in a row, really really bad, and
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't play. It was just way too much pressure.
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  Speaker 1: And I talked to my coach and he sat me
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  Speaker 1: down and he said, why are you trying to get
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  Speaker 1: to eighteen? And this makes no sense, Like everyone puts
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  Speaker 1: all this pressure on you. Um, your goal should be
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  Speaker 1: thirty or forty. Eighteen is such a logal Yeah, no
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  Speaker 1: pressure there so, but to me it made sense because
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  Speaker 1: I set my goal for just what was in sight,
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  Speaker 1: and I think subconsciously a lot of people set their
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  Speaker 1: goal on what's already there, why not reach for a
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  Speaker 1: higher goal. And so I really learned from that that, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret Court has twenty four, but why would I want
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  Speaker 1: to reach for that when there's more? And so, um,
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  Speaker 1: that conversation really helped me ended up winning. I think
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  Speaker 1: it was the US Open after that, um, and I
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  Speaker 1: just was able to relax. And so to answer your question,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll just whatever I'm able to get,
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  Speaker 1: if any Um, that's what I'll be going for. You
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  Speaker 1: did a recent Vanity Fair cover and in the article
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  Speaker 1: you discuss how once you stopped focusing on the short
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  Speaker 1: term and relax it really just changed the game for
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  Speaker 1: you and it became more fun to discuss that a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, it's on, don't you stop. Once I
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  Speaker 1: stopped looking at the short term, I was just able
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  Speaker 1: like something released. It was like this something chemically released
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  Speaker 1: in me, and I totally relaxed. I think I went
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  Speaker 1: four in a row at that point, and um, it
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  Speaker 1: was just it was a lot easier. You know, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: I think I know I and I think we a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people in this room. He real late put
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  Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on yourselves and and and it's
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's hard, so you just have to kind
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  Speaker 1: of just take a deep breath and you know, almost
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  Speaker 1: sometimes take a step back and then take those three
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  Speaker 1: steps forward. So so let's talk about the people in
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  Speaker 1: the room and the business that you're in. Um, it
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  Speaker 1: turns out that you and I both played tennis with
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  Speaker 1: the same racket. The Wilson Blade one oh four you
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  Speaker 1: use it to hit, serves a hundred twenty nine. It's
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  Speaker 1: kind of neon green and black and cool. That's why
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  Speaker 1: I use it. How how important is your equipment to you?
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  Speaker 1: And what is decision making process like saying I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to use these sneakers and this racket. Um, equipment is important.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like if you're Sometimes I've noticed that some
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  Speaker 1: players will switch equipments because equipment because um, they have
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  Speaker 1: a sponsor that will pay them more. Then they'll start losing.
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  Speaker 1: So it's like, it's so important to have the right equipment.
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  Speaker 1: You don't want to go out on the court with
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  Speaker 1: a pair of shoes. It's gonna break, You're probably gonna
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  Speaker 1: start losing matches. In the long run, it ends up
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  Speaker 1: being bad for you. So the equipment is key. You
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  Speaker 1: really have to have a really good equipment, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: I have to say and vouch that you have a
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  Speaker 1: gray racket, okay, and you know I can't do the
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  Speaker 1: same things with it, but I can occasionally hit the
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  Speaker 1: ball over the net, which is which a good start.
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  Speaker 1: So you mentioned sponsors, What is the process like designing
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  Speaker 1: who do you want to work with as a sponsor
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: as an endorsement. The professional sports game has changed where
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  Speaker 1: that's really a substantial for those people who I wish
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Allen was out here to discuss the economics of sports.
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  Speaker 1: Um but that's an enormous portion of revenue for for professionals.
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  Speaker 1: What is that decision making process? Like you, you work with,
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  Speaker 1: you work with Wilson, you work with um it's still
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  Speaker 1: doing Nike, um, I forgot the watch company Piagre or
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: orm Presume okay, and but there's a run of different sponsors.
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  Speaker 1: What is that process like um SO for me? When
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you know, when when I the further one I got
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  Speaker 1: in my career, I really became a lot involved with philanthropy.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, when I was younger, I always
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  Speaker 1: was I've always wanted to I um SO one of
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  Speaker 1: the foundations that I look at for a sponsor is
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  Speaker 1: someone that says, this is what we can do for
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  Speaker 1: your foundation, this is what we can donate, this is
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  Speaker 1: how we can help you come up with different ideas,
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  Speaker 1: this is how we can be involved. And so for me,
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  Speaker 1: that means a lot to me, because I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to be involved with the company that genuinely doesn't care
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  Speaker 1: about the world that we live in. UM. So there's
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  Speaker 1: been so many times I've turned down things because they
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  Speaker 1: just didn't fit with who Serena as an individual and
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  Speaker 1: as a person is. And then I have other companies
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  Speaker 1: that I do work with. They all definitely have given
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  Speaker 1: and want to give and have given a lot to
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  Speaker 1: their own various charities and things that they do as well.
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  Speaker 1: So that's super super important to me. UM also have
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  Speaker 1: to believe in the product, So I'm not gonna use
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  Speaker 1: something that I just don't believe in. Friends Wilson actually
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  Speaker 1: use them. When I was like six years old, I
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  Speaker 1: was using a Wilson racket. They didn't pay me. I
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  Speaker 1: just love the product. So UM when the opportunity came
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  Speaker 1: to sign with Wilson, I was overjoyed. I was like,
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  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, this is what I use. Yeah, this
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  Speaker 1: is great. You know, so I don't when I when
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  Speaker 1: I do endure something, it's genuine. Another example's Gatorade. I'm
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: from Compton, California, and we couldn't really afford to buy Gatorade.
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  Speaker 1: So sometimes we'll be practicing on the public courts and
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  Speaker 1: my dad would leave the courts and go around the
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  Speaker 1: corner to the to the little um Corner market and
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  Speaker 1: he would buy one Gatorade. Back then, it was like
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: in a glass bottle and we would all share it,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and it was the treat of the life for me,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you know. And so when an opportunity came up for
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: me to be indorsed with Gatorade, I almost touch faint it.
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  Speaker 1: It was just because it was like, I've been using
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  Speaker 1: this fear. This is what I use, is what I
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  Speaker 1: do all my life, and it just tells such a
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  Speaker 1: great story. So a lot of the time, and I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: think every athlete kind of wants to be with Nike.
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  Speaker 1: So um, that was like that was another one that
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  Speaker 1: was just really genuine. So I always follow those guidelines.
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  Speaker 1: I always try to be true to myself. You're you're
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: not gonna see someone different here and then meet me
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  Speaker 1: somewhere and see a totally different individual. So I always
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  Speaker 1: try to be true to myself and true to people
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: that I line up with. You're dressed quite fashionably this evening.
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  Speaker 1: You started a fashion line. How did that come about?
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And how hands on are you with with a fashion line? Um?
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  Speaker 1: So I'm very hands on, maybe two hands on. I'm
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: going to have to figure out a way to take
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  Speaker 1: at least one hand out. Um. I went to art school.
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  Speaker 1: I went to the artist dude to Fort Lauderdo, which
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  Speaker 1: is just down the street from here, um, whoop, whoop um,
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  Speaker 1: And I studied fashion. So when I was when I
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: was young, I used to we couldn't you could? You know,
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  Speaker 1: you have a baby doll and you can change, you
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  Speaker 1: can buy different outfits for it, but we couldn't afford
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  Speaker 1: the outfit. So my mom taught us how to sew,
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  Speaker 1: and I would always make my baby doll different outfits
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  Speaker 1: from socks that I probably looking back that I probably stole,
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  Speaker 1: Like why did I get those socks? Um? So I'd
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: always make different outfits from I had like a million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: I always make different outfits for my baby dolls. So, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I've always just been a fashion person and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: have always loved designing and I designed everything I did
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  Speaker 1: for I've been wearing on the court most collections, not all, UM,
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  Speaker 1: but a lot of the collections I designed for UM.
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  Speaker 1: And so it was a no brainer after going to
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  Speaker 1: school studying it to start a collections. So I did.
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  Speaker 1: I've done that for our don't know nine to eight
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  Speaker 1: nine years and now I'm starting a different collection. So UM, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's been really fun. It's a lot of work.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm incredibly hands on, but because I
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: know the art and I know the skill, and it's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: not something I'm just putting my name on and then
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: just um going out to practice, which is wouldn't be
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a bad thing because I could use a little extra
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: practice nowadays. But UM, I'm super involved. So you're also
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: involved in a number of boards of directors. What asset
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: do you bring to these boards? And these are not
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: just similar to the fashion You're not just putting your
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: name on this. These are real time consuming UM meetings
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: where important decisions get made. Yeah, very important decisions get made. UM.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Tell us the boards you're on as a as a start,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: why just recently joined the board of survey Monkey. UM.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: A lot of businesses use them very very very big company. UM.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: So that was really exciting me. In fact, we had
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a call yesterday. We have a meeting in February. First
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Q one meeting is in February, so that was exciting
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: for me. UM. I just joined a board with a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Billy jan King just for UM that helps involves different
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: foundations in terms of making change inequality, which is again
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: something that I truly truly believe in. And uh I
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: got asked to join another board UM a few days
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: ago for a new sports league that's starting that I'm
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: deciding whether I would join it or not. But um,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: it's interesting because I have always had this really side
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: business mind that I often bring to the court with
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: me and that I have always just just just had
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and I like to say I got it from my dad.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: But UM, I love it. I really love being a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: part of the boards. I love my first board meeting,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: while was a little nervous, I just kind of sat
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: there with like a deer in headlines like should I
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: say something, should not say something? What do I do? Um?
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: The second one I was I was in giving birth
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and I missed that one, so I was like, I promise, guys,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: it's not my fault. The baby's going So that one
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: was really tough, but UM, I will all be at
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the next one, and UM it's good. Like you said,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: a ton of decisions are made about the about the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: company and about how it's gonna be rant run and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and how how it's gonna do. You're also on the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: board of the new Verizon ao L Yahoo Comb. Yes,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: so you have you seem to have an inclination towards technology.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I know, it's yeah, all right, I'm actually we're I'm
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: actually I'm Tim Armstrong wanted me to be the chairman
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of the board of advisors on that one. So we
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: have tons of meetings coming up because we have our
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: our first board meetings for OATH it's a new al
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Verison company. UM, so we have our first board meeting
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Q our first que one actually is in a couple
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: of weeks, so we're excited about that one as well. UM,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: that's a great opportunity. I do love technology, and like
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I was saying earlier, UM, technology affects our lives, from
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: sport to equipment, to running a company to running business
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: like survey Monkey, Like it really affects our lives. And
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: so for me, UM, I've always been. Especially I think, um,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of people now are really trying to get
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: into tech and just trying to think, well, what's the future,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: What's what's the next Facebook, what's the next you know, Tesla, um,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and and just figure out. Basically it's cliche in San
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Francisco to say change the world, but that's what these
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: companies are doing. That these companies are changing the way
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: people think, the way people function, to way people drive,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the way people catch rides, um, the way people ask questions.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: So oh, um, this is this is a new this
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: is a new time, and I'm and I don't want
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to be left behind. I want to be a part
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of that new time. So I always try to educate
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: myself and try to stay at So who are you?
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Obviously have an enormous background in sports, and there were
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: a number of people who mentored you and that who
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: were your business mentors. So my business mentors are One
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of my business mentors are is Cheryl Sandberg, which she's
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: so she's so great. Um, she's been very, very amazing.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: She actually was very helpful with getting me on that
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: survey Monkey board. UM. In fact, she recommended me and
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: wanted me on that one. UM. Hannah Wintour was another
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: very very powerful woman, super super super smart. Um Tim
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Armstrong and I've gotten incredibly clothes. He's the CEO of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: A O L and now Verizon All yeah who combination.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Um yeah, I have quite a few, but it's it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: been really great. Um, Alexis Ohanian, I probably should mention him.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: We're married, so found founder of Reddit. How much time
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: do you spend trolling around on on subreddits? Um? He
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: really more le more does VC work now more than anything.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: So he has a VC firm. Um, oh god initialized? Okay, Um,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: he's had it for many years, but um, he's definitely
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: doing a d percent of initialized now. So that's super cool.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: That's super fun. That's a whole different investing and and
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and just a whole different side and a whole different
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: world that I'm part of as well. But it's fun.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: It's it's really fun to see him, you know, go
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to work and go to bat for that and you know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: basically throwing a baseball in the air and hoping it
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: lands in a hoop. It's crazy. So tennis obviously has
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of parallel as to the world's of business.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: What has tennis? What you about business. Well, Tennis has
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: taught me UM that it's important to stay focused in
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: your business. So for instance, when I started my investing, UM,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it was very another mentor of mine. UM he also
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: is uh one of the pinterest main pinterest people. He
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: was telling me that it's very important to to have
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a focus. And I'm like, I could focus. I can
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: do that. I do that in Tennis a lot. So
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: but he would say that you could have a focus
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: on what you want to do. So I knew that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I wanted. My focus was going to be. UM. Female
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: founders another focus of mine were UM, oh my gosh,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I think I have mom brain. I have a really
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: bad case. Um, oh my goodness, good lord anywhere, So
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: let's talk about your sundation. Then, yes, I can't think
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of the word. I'm kind of mad. Now I know
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: we're on time. Then I tell you, it only gets
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: worse as you get all different equality. Equality. So I'm
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: looking for you know, people equality as well, so different
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: races and so for me that's super important and so
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that's what I focus on. So let's let's bring up
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the foundation because you specifically establish this to promote equity
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: through education, gender, race, disability, anything that stands in the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: way of a person achieving UH their potential. First, that's
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: a giant target. So I have to ask, what are
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you doing to accomplish that target? And how do you
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: measure if you're actually making progress? Because really, just making
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: everybody better, that's a pretty big bogey, it is. But
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the thing we strive is to make one person better,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: because that one person can make one person, and that
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: one person and make one person before you know it,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: it makes a lot of people better. Hopefully it's more
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: than one person, but usually we just strive for just
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that one to make that one person better. And UM,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: for me, I think that is super important to UH
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: to do. So let's talk a little about some personal stuff. UM.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: What athletes do you follow on social media? I noticed
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you've retweeted Kobe a couple of times. Who else do
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: you follow? I follow Kobe, I follow UM. I don't
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: follow a lot of the rule I think I follow Lebron, Jamee. UM,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I follow Venus. That doesn't count, though. I follow a
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: lot of tennis players. I followed Caroline was NIACKI I
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: follow Were you watching her today? No? I was practicing myself,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: but I was happy she won. She didn't just win,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: she coasted. Yeah it was good. I was happy for
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: But you mentioned Venus. So you have a number of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Olympic golds, both for singles and doubles with your sister.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: How do the Olympics differ from regular open competition. I
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I love the Olympics. A tennis player never grew up
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: thought about playing the Olympics. We thought about US Open, Wimbledon,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Australian Open, French Open, and that was it. So when
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: there was an opportunity to play for the Olympics, you know,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's that Sully. And then when
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: you go and you see all these athletes from all
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: these different countries and this is their life every once
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: every four years, this is this is their moment in
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: time and they may never come back, and you realize
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: how amazing it is to hold a gold medal that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: someone else has as well, in a field that they've
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: worked for for twenty years plus, for just that one day.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: And as much as I love my Grand Slams trophies,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: which I would never give up, I for me, my
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Limbit gold medals mean more to me. So tell us
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: something important that people don't know about your background. Well,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: that's I told you about the tennis story and the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: gatorade and the Wilson one, the fashion one. Guys probably
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: didn't know that one. Um Oh, I was, well, I'm
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: going back to but I'm studying. Um I like again,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going back. Wh'm studying premed at u Massa and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: what do you want to do with premed? So the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: whole point of me studying premed was because I like
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: a holistic approach of medicine UM, and I wanted just
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to have that. You know, in order to do the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: holistic background, you still have to have the premed um.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: But the whole purpose was if I ever had kids
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: that way, you know, I'd be able to know what
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to do, what not to do, and how to help
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: them and how to not help them. And so then
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Olympia popped up and it was just like, oh, so
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: let's talk. Let's talk about books. You you travel a lot.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I have to thank you're reading all the time on planes.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: What have you tell us about some of your favorite books? Um?
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I love autobiographies. UM I read Cheryl Samberg wrote two books.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: You wrote Leman and then Option B. Yeah, which was
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: they're both great books. Also love to read fantasy novels
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: like dragons and stuff like. Give us a title. Well,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: there's this book called fable Haven that I love. Obviously
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I loved all the Harry Potter books. Um. I just
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: recently read this book sky Raiders, which is another Brandon
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Meal book. Okay, I'm talking way too much about that.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Clearly that's the majority of my reading. Tell us about
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: a time you failed. It could be on the quarter
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: or fail failed, and what did you learn from it? Um?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I felt a lot. I felt so
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: many times, was in fashion and I don't know. We're
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: working on this new collection. It could it could fail too.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: But um. The thing about failing is it's it's good
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: because if you fail, you don't Sometimes you don't know
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: how to be better if you're always doing right, or
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: you can just kind of stay in this plane and
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you're probably like, well, how come I'm not here? How
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: come I'm always here? But if you fail, then you fall,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and then you kind of can rise up higher than
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: you ever would have if you didn't fail. So every
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: time I lose, which I absolutely horror, um, but every
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: single time I lose, I get ten times better. Um,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: And that's failing that's what it does for you. What
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: do you do to relax when you're not on the port? Um?
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I watch a ton of Netflix. I'm a total d
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: C comic nerd really, but I do still like Marvel.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I love Marvel comics as well. Um but yeah, so
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I just was watching Catching Up with um a show
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: called Young Justice. But anyway, you do Avengers, Justice League,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: arm and what do you like? The whole everything? Everything?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I'm really honestly think I was a superhero in a
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: different life, on a different dimension. Feel like I was
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Miss Marvel or something come here to Earth to save
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: us from bed. Yeah, I'm no more or less like
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the alien Invaders. Yeah. Um, if if a young person
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: came to you and said they were thinking about being
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: a professional athlete, what sort of advice would you give them? Well,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: you have to work hard. You have to believe in yourself,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and even when other people don't believe in yourself, and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: you hear negativity, and now with social there's so many
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: things negative that you can read about yourself. You just
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: have to be so positive and you have to love
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: you and believe in you more than even more than
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: your parents probably whatever believe in you, and so that's
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: what it takes. And UM, my last tennis question, what
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: is it that you know about being a professional athlete
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: today that you wish you you years ago? Oh? How
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: to how to move the ball around more, how to
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: raise the ball, we're more technical stuff. I don't know,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: that's a good question. I feel like if I wish
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: were just to, um take my losses the way I
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: take them now, which is awful, but imagine what they
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: were before. So if I could do that that way better?
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's go to our speed round before
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: we open this up, uh to the audience. This will
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: be our lightning round. Ten questions, uh in sixty seconds.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Favorite Grand Slam, most challenging opponent, venus Uh, favorite subreddit? Um,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I'm really not interred it. There's a lot of there's
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of like dungeons and dragons stuff. There's so
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: interesting interest. Um favorite none ten in this athlete? No,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: non tennis f non tennis f Um. That new ice
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: skater that that the young guy, he's awesome. What is
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: what is your favorite city to eat in? Oh? New Orleans? Easy?
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Vigny a Star trek or Star Wars star track? Um?
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Other than your sister, who's your best friend on tour, Caroline.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: That was that was really that was a later Um,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: what's the number one item on your buffet list? Um?
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Huh okay, okay, that than four old time favorite movie? Impossible?
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Impossible because there's too many good ones. You got Forrest Gump,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: you got the color purple, you have Friday, you have Shawshank, Redemption,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: you have you know what it's you can't you have
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I even like gentlemen prefer blondes. You know the impossible
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: old squine you can impossible online. And what's the favorite
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: song that you sing to your daughter? Definitely mo Wanna? Um, Yeah,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the mo Wanna songs. I love them all. I don't
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: know if she likes the way I sing them. I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: love saying them to her. So that's ten questions in
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a minute. Let's go to Slideoh, you mentioned you like technology.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: We use the technology here that people can ask questions
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and they'll come up on the screen and we could
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: pick them. Let's let's start running some of the questions
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: from slideo if we can. So the problem with technology
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: is that often it does not work. No, it works.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I am I enjoy technology, and I love that lightning around.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: That was fine, I have another fifty. We could do
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: this for an hour going. Do we want to do?
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Do we want to do? Uh? The slido? All right?
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: So bring them out a dad and I have it
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: on my phone this time. This is not me speaking,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: although it's true. I have a father of daughters. And
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I will let Barry finish the rest of the question.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I'm the father of daughters. You instill depositive attitude. What
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: suggestions do you have to instill positive self image amongst daughters?
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Another great question and very important for me. I believe
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: it starts young. I believe it starts two months out
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: the wound. I really do. Um. I was in a
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: store I won't mention which one, and I saw the
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: girl section and it said Mommy's princess and Daddy's princess
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: and cute and you know, adorable. And I was in
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the boy and I went to the boys area and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it said curious, I'm a thinker, I'm smart, Um, I
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: can do anything. And I was just like, what you know?
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: And I would have never noticed it before. That's why
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: I say it starts. And this was like zero to
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: three months, three to six months clothing, So it starts now.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: It starts instilling that positive telling your daughter you can
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: do anything, you can be the best, just the way
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: we tell our sons. And it's something I have to
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: do too, because I have a daughter and I need
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm actively working on that. So
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: someone asked the question, mom, brain is real? How do
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: you do all that you do? And how do you
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: balance work in life? It is real? I I write
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of things down. Balancing work in life is
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: easy for me because I made it. You know, I
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: work from I have to be done at one at
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the latest usually, but I wanted to be here with
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you guys, so um, but my everyday life, I'm trying
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: to be done at one that I can spend the
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: rest of the day with my daughter. I can take
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: phone calls, which is fine, but um, as long as
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I'm at the house, I'm good. You've achieved great success,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: you have great poisoned grace. How do you remain so
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: grounded amid the fame and fortune? I have four older sisters,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: have three older sisters, and I'm the youngest of five. Um,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: and my mom if you ever met her or she
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't play. So if I'm not humble, they give me
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a whack in the head. So you're a very competitive person.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: One day you're gonna have to figure around forty five
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you'll retire from tennis. What's going to replace the competition
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: of tennis in your post tennis life. The competition I
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: want to be the I want to have a really
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: strong voice on those boards. UM. I definitely am competing
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to be on other boards as well. UM. So that's
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: very competitive. And of course the fashion with this new
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: company that we just started, um, that is going to
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: be a lot of competition to you know, outdo some
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: of the other people that are doing their own minds
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: as well. That is all the time we have. I
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: want to say thank you to Serena Williams. This has
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: been one delightful thank you so a pleasure. I take
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: you back to thank you hello, thank you so much.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Thanks all right, Serena Williams. M