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SERENA WILLIAMS: THE MINDSET THAT MADE HER THE GOAT BILLION-DOLLAR INVESTMENTS, NIKE & HER COMEBACK · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When someone tells you every day that you're gonna be great,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: at some point you start to believe it.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Talk about the mental fortitude that it takes to maintain
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: that level of excellence for over twenty five years.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: You guys are.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Looking at the biggest companies and you're looking at what are.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: The best in class doing?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: But as an athlete, have so many people look at
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you and say, Okay, she's the best. What do I
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: need to do to be the best and to beat
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the best? And I have nothing to lose while I'm
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: doing it.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Thirteen unicorns you invested in sixteen.
• 0:27
  Speaker 5: That means that company's valuation reached a billion dollars.
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: I thought my little thousand percent was nice.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: What was it like when you saw the first company
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: reached that billion dollar marble?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I remember I was on the court and I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: was thinking, why am I still on the court?
• 0:40
  Speaker 6: What inspired you to actually get into the VC world.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: My main thing is just letting people know, hire women,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: hire people of color, hire us sick Differently, is there.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: A story of a company that you may have missed
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: out on that Later on it was like, wow, I
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: wish I would have actually invested in that one.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Losing is a way to learn how to win. The
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: next time we all need to have those laws is
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to better ourselves.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: What are you looking at when you're evaluating a company?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Is there a need for this company in the marketplace?
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And the answer is yes, then we go on to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: step two.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Who needs it? How many people need it?
• 1:13
  Speaker 6: Serena? What's up?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Hey? I never had pyro pyro technique.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, that's the word. That's the word.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: And that was cool.
• 1:21
  Speaker 6: How you feeling I'm feeling good.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. Hey, this is fine.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: This is a kind of like a center stage is
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: center stage?
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Center court? Very similar?
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Yes, very similar.
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: So this is interesting because you're first female headliner at
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: a vest best clap it up for that.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome, Yan, Yeah, we can do it too.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I've been saying that for decades. We're we're just as good.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Right. Her name is Serena.
• 1:59
  Speaker 6: Also, so we I see your son, love. Your name
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: is Serena. I see it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Your name is Serena too.
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you love. Okay, before we start, what
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: are your words like? What is this?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: What does this feel to see this crowd of us
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: that's here to hear you you speak?
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: What's your words? To the to the crowd.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: It feels great, thank you for all for being here
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and coming out. And it feels good that I'm able
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to talk to people that look like me and give
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: some hopefully you guys get some good advice too. It
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: feels even better for that reason.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I want to start with just the mindset, right, growing
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: up Compton and working your way your childhood sensation and
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: fulfilling the prophecy. What is the mental fortitude that it takes,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: you know, twenty three time Grand Slam champion, Like, it's
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: very rare that we get an opportunity to speak to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: somebody that has done it at the highest level possible, right,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: It's just like, oh, it's for sure. When I think
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: of you, I think of Kobe and Michael Jordan, and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: you know that's that's the highest level. So talk about
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: the mental fortitude it that it takes to maintain that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: level of excellence for over twenty five years.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: It's not easy, for sure.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: You have to be either extremely mentally tough or a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: couple chips loose. I'm not sure which one it was
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: with me, but it takes a lot because when you
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: are playing at a high level and you're doing something
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: at a high level. People people want to play you,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: they want to be you, They want to face the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: best and see how they measure up like they have
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to lose. And it's like any company as well,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: when if we all out here, some of you guys
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: are entrepreneurs, probably most of you all entrepreneurs. When you
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: think about it, you guys looking at the biggest companies
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and you're looking at what are the best in class doing,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and so to have that always as an athlete a
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: different level obviously, but as an athlete, have so many
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: people look at you and say, Okay, she's the best.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: What do I need to do to be the best
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and to beat the best? And I have nothing to
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  Speaker 1: lose while I'm doing it. So it takes a lot
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  Speaker 1: of mental strength. But it also you know, I've been
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: reading a lot of motivational quotes lately.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: It's also how you look at it.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: If you look at things in a negative way, then
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: you'll see things in a negative way. But if you
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: look at things in a positive way with a positive spin,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: then you'll see it positively. I can say, Okay, well, gosh,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: everyone is so hyped to play me, you know, or
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and it sucks or I can say, you know what,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: everyone is so hyped to play me, and it's great
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: because they're making me better. And eventually I started to thinking,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: look at it like that.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: Okay, I'm glad you said that, because for most of
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: your career most people were saying she's great.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure if I'll ever be that great.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: Right, But talent is something that a lot of people possess,
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: what separates the elite or the daily habits.
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  Speaker 4: So what are some of the habits obviously.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: In business, but even as an athlete, that you possess
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  Speaker 5: that you see that your counterparts they lacked in.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Just this this will to always do better, just this
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: idea I always want to be better. I recently told
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: myself I need to be smarter, and just to segue
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: into business here, I just was like, I gotta do
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: something every day, and so you just let that everyday mindset, right,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: is what are you doing every day? And it doesn't
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: have to be ours, it can just be something very small.
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  Speaker 1: So I started just I downloaded the app where I
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: look at a new word that I don't know every
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: day and I just try just to somehow better myself
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: every day. The same as an athlete. It was different
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: for me. It was more on a yearly basis. Every
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: year I would just say okay, even if I was
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: number one or whatever ranking I was, I would say,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: all right, I'm doing great, but this is what I
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: want to do next year to be better. So it
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was never about becoming complacent, and it's about little things.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't change my entire game, obviously, and just like now,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I don't change I'm not trying to learn the whole
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Dictionary if that's even a book.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Anymore, or a thing. Yeah, exactly.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I just do fun things and I just try to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: make myself a little bit better. I'm trying to learn
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: another language or just something that I actually really enjoy
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and it, you know, just keeps my brain going.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Well, you're speaking Spanish backstage Italian.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: I like, Yo, she just changed her language on us.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: It's so fun. I love languages.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: It's you feel about balance because Shannon Shop I don't
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: know if you heard when he said that there is
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: no balance on the road the greatness and we've seen,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: you know, like I said, going back to Kobe and Mike,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: but I never really heard a woman's perspective on that, right,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: because a man like most of the time when I've
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: heard that said before is from men. You as somebody that,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: like I said, is on that level, but is also
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: a woman, a mother, a wife. What is your thoughts
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  Speaker 2: on bal because I'm sure that there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: women in here right that.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I love that question the way you put it, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I think you put it a different way, so you're right,
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  Speaker 1: you only hear I love that Shannon said that there
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: is no balance on the road to being great.
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  Speaker 3: I would like to challenge that.
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  Speaker 1: I think for me, I had to be balanced, and
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: at the time, I was mostly single and I didn't
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: have kids, so I don't know how to I don't
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: know how it would manage. Now if I were playing
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a full time tennis every day, I don't think that
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: would be possible. I think you do have to be
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: selfish in order to be the best, and again, if
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: you look at the best companies in the world, these
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: people are rather quite selfish. But I do think there
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: is a little more balance for me. When I was playing,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you know, not towards the end, but like in the beginning,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I never celebrated a win like I would just be like, Okay,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I'm on to the next one, but in the second
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: half of my career, you know, I celebrated the championships
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: because it was fun and it was like, you never
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: know if you're going to win another one, So it's
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: important to like enjoy those moments and try to create
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: a little balance, because you know, the sport is so
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: grueling and it's every day and it's so intense, so
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: it's important to just kind of just let your hair
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: down a little bit. And also, I didn't play every
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: as much as a lot of people played tennis. I played.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't play every week, so for me, that was balance.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I went to school when I was still playing. I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: went to pre med briefly, and then I also did fashion,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: so that also created balance for me, just to like
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: get out of my head of just balls hitting a
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: ball in a square box, which sounds absolutely ridiculous, but
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: so it's really important. It was really important for me
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: to have something different, which I realized now was actually
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: good for my mental health. At the time, I didn't
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: realize that, and I also feel like it was my
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: form of balance. So I personally, for me, I do
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: think you need to do one hundred percent.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Like you know, there's this adage that you have.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: In order to be the best at something, you have
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to focus on that one thing. But I feel like
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you can do that with a little dipping in little
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: other places as long as you're like ninety percent there can.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: I tell you something.
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: I've seen a lot of great athletes at the highest level.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: I've never seen someone win a major while pregnant.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: Clap it up for that, please. I got two kids, Serena.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: I was with my wife every day throughout the pregnancy.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Walking was a win.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: I want to talk about just that level of perseverance,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: that grit, that determination as you're playing as your obviously
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: your career is established.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: When did the.
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: Passion switch or did you start getting that itch for business?
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: Obviously you dabbled in fashion, but what you're doing now
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: is a little bit more complex.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: When did that that switch start to change for you?
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Well, my entrepreneurship started when I was in fourth grade.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I used to buy a box at edmund Donuts and
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: there was a dollar and I sold each one for
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: twenty five cents and a hustling American hustler, that's they
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: call it hustling, but that was an entreprene But my
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: dad was also entrepreneur, as well, he had his own business.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: He had like a security business, and he never really
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: worked for anyone.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: And looking back, I don't know what that meant.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: When you were younger, you just thought, oh, wow, this
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: guy really does his own thing, you know, And so
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I think he kind of taught myself. And are the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: kids in the house that all the sisters that you know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: you really want to just be your own boss, and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you always want to work for yourself, and you always
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: want to create, and you always want to.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Just do things for yourself.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: And I've literally my whole life, that's all I've ever seen,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: and that's all I've ever known. And I kind of
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: just feel like I'm joking. But I was really in
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: fourth grade, I think, is when I first noticed it.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: And then I remember I used to sell We used
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: to have these fantastic garage cells. I don't know, you know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: we would sell all kinds of stuff, like crazy.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Shoes and stuff. I'm not sure if I should have
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: done that at the time.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I was young, and we would make a killing, so,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: but it was always something.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: And then eventually I ended up going to.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Fashion school and eventually I just gott into investing really early,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: about fifteen sixteen years ago, I started looking more into
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: investing and what that meant, what that meant for the future,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: what that meant for s, technology changes, et cetera. So
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I kind of started looking more into investing.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking about that, what inspired you to go into
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: the venture capital world? And really, you know, it's one
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: thing to invest, but it's one thing to actually have
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: your own fun and then you know, grown into successful fun.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about that, But what inspired you to actually
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: get into the VC world.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Well, So I was investing for several years before I
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: decided to get into the VC world.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I was always an angel investor. I didn't know when
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I first started investing. I didn't know the word angel.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't know early stage. But that's kind of the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: place that I ended up. And I always loved investing
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: in early stage companies.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I think I loved seeing them grow. I think I
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: loved seeing things form.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Like a seed and then you see the seed grow
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: into a plant, and then you see the whole journey.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I think there was something about that that really resonated
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: with me. So I was at a conference once and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: this lady was on stage and she was talking about
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: how less than two percent of all VC money went
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to women, and then fractions went to people that looked
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like me, people of color, and I was just like, gosh,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: if I want to start a business, then I have
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to have them.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: I have to go get a loan from.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: The bank because I'm not going to be able to
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: get VC money. And you know, it was just, it
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: was just it hit me like a ton of bricks,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and I said, for me, I think the best way
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: to change that is not necessarily giving out more money.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's changing who's writing the checks. We need
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: more women writing checks. We need more people like us
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: writing checks, because if the same person is writing the check,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: it's obviously going to go to the same friends and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the same people that look like them. So in a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: way it makes sense, like okay, and I see why
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: they're doing it.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: I would do it too. Hints why we need people
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: like me writing.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Checks so we can put money and we can invest
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: in ourselves, and we can invest in other companies that
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: are that are going to be great and support as well.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of that was the original. That was
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: how I got into VC. I never wanted to do
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: a startup and I ended up starting this and it
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: was a startup, and you know startups are as you
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: all know, it's takes a tremendous amount of time, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that's kind of it was very natural, and I decided
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: that this is what I wanted to do. I wanted.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I don't feel like I'm gonna change that number. I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: never tried to change the number. My main thing is
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: just letting people know. Hire women, hire people, hire people
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of color, hire us hire I think differently. You know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: be diverse, and I think that's so important when you
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: have that diversity, not only when you're looking at companies,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: but also on the cap table and also when it
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: comes to just people writing the checks.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: This is interesting. I want to get this number right.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: Thirteen unicorns you invested in sixteen sixteen. I knew I
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: was gonna get it right. Sixteen unicorns. Explain with a
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: unicorns for those who are not familiar with the word unicorn,
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: and in terms of venture capital, that means that company's
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: valuation reached a billion dollars, yes, a billion, a billion.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: I thought my little one thousand percent was nice. You
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: got sixteen billion dollar company that you've invested in, which
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: is an amazing feed.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: Kind of a two part question, what.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Was it like when you got you saw the first
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: company reached that billion dollar marvet?
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: What was that feel? In life?
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: What's up? Earners?
• 16:12
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  Speaker 6: Or sponsorle.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Well, I remember I was on the court and I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: was thinking, why am I still on the court.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: That's literally was my first though.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, that was literally my you asked, that was my
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: first thought. But it was really exciting, you know, because
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: it was kind of cool to see.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Then continue to grow.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: The first company that I invested had reached a billion.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: They were already pretty far along, like they were not
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: super far along with they were like you know, one
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollar company, But then I had a couple
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: of more companies that started as a seed and watching
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that seed grow into a plant. It was really really
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: exciting because being able to be there and help and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: say we should try this, or you should try that,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and what if you did this?
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: And seeing those.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Companies grow to be billion dollar companies was really really awesome.
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: So the second part is you've done it, so there's
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: obviously a track record of success. What are you looking
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: at when you're evaluating a company to say this is
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: one that I can see the potential growth and that
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: one I'm not sure we're going to participate in.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Well, first, the first thing I look at is just
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: just rely on my team.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: And hear their thoughts.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I also look at the one of the very very
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: first thing is is there a need for it? You know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: is there a need for this company in the marketplace?
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: And the answer is yes, then we go on to
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: step two. Okay, yeah, we could see this happening. Who
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: needs it? How many people need it? So we we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: dive a lot into the numbers. We don't really do
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: with the emotions of oh I love it, I love
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the founder, it's great we're more or less like, you know,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: just what are the numbers, like how many customers would
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: we need, what is the possibility of them getting to
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: have all these customers, and et cetera.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of how we look at it.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Initially and then and we can just continue to dive
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and do lots of work from there.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Is there a story of a company that you may
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: have missed out on that later on it was like, Wow,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I wish I wish I would have actually invested in
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: that one.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I like to think that I didn't miss out
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: on it. And the thing is it helped me.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I always say that losing is a way to learn
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: how to win the next time. And it's not necessarily
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a failure. It's a bettering yourself. We all need to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: have those losses to better ourselves. So I had an
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: opportunity to invest in this really cool company, and I
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: loved it. I said, this is the future. Oh my god,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: this is like, this is amazing. I get it. I
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: totally get what they're trying to do. I want to
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: do it. But I was in the middle of playing
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: a tournament at the time.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: It was like right up at Grand Slam season and.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I was in Rome playing there, and then I went
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: straight to French Open and then I remember thinking, Okay,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I'm going to call back. I'm going to figure this out,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like I really want to do this deal, and I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: think I may have won the French Open that year,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: so I never had a chance and I got really
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and then it was Wimbledon right after. It was just
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of things happening. Eventually the deal left and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I forgot about it. Things happened, and then it came.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Back and it was just too far.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Looking back, it wasn't too far, but it was still
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: too far gone. And I was like, Okay, the lesson
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: there is that I need a team, and that's when
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I got a team. I was still doing this is
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: when I was only doing personal investments, but that's when
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I got a team. I was like, I'm not in
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Delegation is so important because I used to think I
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: could do everything myself, and I still do, but I've
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: learned that more and more as day goes by, I
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: learned that I really need people that can help me
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: vet take care, take the phone calls, take the time
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to do things that I simply don't have time to do,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and that company was Uber, but I love that I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: recognized something Uber.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, man, I love that.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I recognized greatness and I really understood what they were
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: trying to do.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: So it would have been.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Seventeen, but I took solids in the fact that I
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: recognized that A I really wanted to do it or
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: B I really wanted to do it, but I just
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I needed a team. I was doing it all by myself,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: but then I was able to get a lot more
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: because I did develop that team and I did get
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: someone else that was able to help me take care
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of all the nuances behind the scenes.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I just want to follow up on that because that's
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: important people to understand capacity overload or something that we
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: all deal with is happening to me before where it's
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: like you pride yourself and when you forget something or
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: when you realize that you didn't call a person back,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: there's always that one aha moment where it's like, I
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: don't have the capacity to do this anymore without somebody
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: helping me. And that's extremely important for people to understand.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: You're only going to go as far as the people
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: that you hire, you work with, you have in your circle.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: So whether that's an assistant, whether that's a partner. If
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: you don't have enough money, you got to partner with somebody,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: give them equity. But really talk about the value from
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: sports world to business world of having strong, qualified people
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: that you can rely on that can help you further
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: as opposed to doing everything yourself.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: It's so important and and.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: A lot of the things I talk about now it
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: really evolves around team.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: Team can make or break you, but you need someone.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: That's why I said delegate, Like, it's great if you
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: want to you're starting something, you want to put everything
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: on your shoulders. It's okay to delegate because that load
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: gets heavy. It gets heavy to a point where you
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: might forget things, or you might not be able to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: do as much. You might not be as good as
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you actually can be without someone, you know, helping you along.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And I learned that, and I felt like it was
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a hard lesson to learn, but I was I was okay,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you know. I also tried not to live too much
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: in the past, you know, and just try to keep
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: moving forward.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: You play in a sport, obviously, if you're not playing doubles,
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: most of the times you're by yourself, so it can
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: feel very isolating. When you're doing it in a solo career,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: it's great because everything falls on you and all the
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: successes happened because of you. I wonder in the world
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: of business, did you have to learn leadership and like,
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: what was that process like of delegating to people? Now
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: when you know that the results are not solely dependent
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: on your business acumen, it's kind of that team that
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: you talked about building.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had to learn leadership, but I was fortunate
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: enough to learn leadership in tennis. Tennis start out as
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a completely solo sport and it still is. However, when
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I first started playing professional tennis, it was just myself
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and you know, my dad and my sister and everyone
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: else had themselves and maybe a coach and that's it,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and that's how tennis was. But as time grew on,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: as the years passed, we really started to develop teams.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Tennis players got more much more professional or more into
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: just the whole big picture, and teams got grew from
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: like two three people to like sex six seven, eight people,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: which is a small team, but at the same time
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: you're leading that entire team. And so for a number
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of years I had to create a team, and I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: was actually one of the first.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: People to start this.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Professionalism of just getting a lot of people on my
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: team to bring out the best in myself in order
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to try to reach records and break records, and so
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: that doing that was a full time job in itself,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: and so I found it. And finding another leader to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: delegate more and finding just everyone that could fit in
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the right pieces, and having team meetings, having team calls,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: like doing everything together and delegating and being the leader
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: of that team really taught me a lot about how
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: to lead when I went to VC. Of course at
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the time, I didn't know that it was teaching me that,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: but I definitely was able to get a tremendous amount
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of experience of building and growing and dealing with different
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: personsonalities and dealing with people that don't like each other
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And I'm still figuring out a
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: way how to make it work for the greater good.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Speaking about team working family, I know we all saw
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: the movie King Richard talk about your dad liked When
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: did you actually buy into the vision that he had
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: for you or did you always believe in the vision
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: that he had for you?
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: And I know he was.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Your first coach you know, we all know the story,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: so kind of what is your thoughts on looking back
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: on it now, like how that molded you to who
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: you are today.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: When someone tells you every day that you're gonna be great,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: at some point you start to believe it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: And clap it up for that that's important.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I always say that my dad is way
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: ahead of his time. He's doing things that the people
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: now are just starting to do. And he told myself,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: he told my sister every day we were going to
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: be number one, we were going to win Grand Slams,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: we were going to be the best. And then he
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: told us to tell ourselves that we were the best,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and we had to look in the mirror and tell
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: ourselves that we were the best.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I think there really is something to positive re you know, reinform,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: reformation to yourself and telling yourself every day that you're great,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: You're you're going to be the best, positive affirmation, you
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: know what. I'm so many places right now, but I
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: want to be here, So I feel like there's something
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to that.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: And so I.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Don't know, And I still think even with all that positivity,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I still think there was like a little part of
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: me because I was I was really small when I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: was growing when I was young, and I didn't I
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: didn't grow up until much later in life, and I
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't that big, and I wasn't that strong, and I
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: wasn't that good, and I just hit lobs all the time,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and so I couldn't really I mean, I was I
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was a fighter, that's all I had, which I also
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: think was good that I was small, because I learned
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: how to fight, you know.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: But I was like, are you sure this includes me?
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Because I can see why you might want to bet
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: on her, but are you sure you want to bet
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: on me?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Of course I never said that, but that's kind of
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in the back of my head. I'm like, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be that good. But you know what,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: when I went out there and I started playing, I
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: just I don't know, I just I think those those
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: words kept coming back, as you're going to be number one,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and I believed it. And then the only way to
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: do be that is to go out there and be
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: fearless and play fearless and do everything you know as
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: hard as you can for as long as you can.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: And you definitely were number one as you're saying it.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: I'm thinking to myself because I have two kids, and
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: I'm telling them both they're going to be number one.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: Only one of them is going to be number one.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Not necessarily they could both be. Venus was number one too.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: This is true. I'm going it. I'm going to.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: But put them in different sports. It's just too much stress.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: So I want to talk.
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: We obviously a great example of brotherhood. But the bond
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: between you and your sister is evident.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: Obviously, when you're competing against each other, you want to win,
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: but you don't want the other to lose.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: That's in the professional setting.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: But you've also invested together, right, I remember when you
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: had the investment in the Miami Dolphins.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: Talk about growing.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Together as athletes but also as business women, because I
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: think that gets overlooked.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was really exciting. I love football. I always
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: say I love American football, but it's so fun. So
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: then this upper need to invest in the Dolphins came up.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: Like eight Miami Dolphins fans right there?
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Hey, yes, there's three, there's three or three? Yes? Three?
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, there they go.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to countless because not many of us.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: But it was really cool because I you know, I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: had by then, I've been living in Florida, South Florida
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: for so many years, and it was my new home,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and you know, it was a no brainer.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: It was a no brainer. And man, was.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: At a good investment because I mean, you now you
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: look at the valuation of any football team and we
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: we put we invested ages ago like well over I
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: think we were looking at the other day.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: I think it was like seventeen years ago.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: It was before I started other investments, so it was
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a very long time ago. And and it was just
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: cool to say that we own a you know, a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: football team or where we have ownership and a football
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: TA team and it was great. And then we got
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: to know the owners, and you know, that opened so
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: many other doors for you.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: You get to know even more people.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Really, VC and entrepreneurship is really all about connections, So
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: you can't forget that. It's really about who you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: what you know, and who they can introduce you to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and vice versa. You know who you can introduce other
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: people to to open the door for them as well.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: So and and so just that investment was great, but
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: on the on another aspect, It was also great to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: get to know other people and get to know and
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: get our foot into other doors, other really big doors.
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: Troy's winning your sneakers right now? What Troy?
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: Yes, Oh, let me put these up. Talk close up,
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: talk close up. So I am a sneakerhead.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: It was they're dope and tows you. I put mine
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: in storage.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: You you you might know these sneakers.
• 30:49
  Speaker 7: Yes, I can't believe you're wearing them.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: So, I mean, obviously this is a collaboration with the
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: great Virgil. Yes, yes, obviously fashion was a role that
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: you played in.
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: Talk about choosing partnerships in the world of business, because
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: your brand itself is a strong one and who you
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: align with is important. Talk about how you're going about
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: picking and choosing who you're gonna align with.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Well, I got lucky with Virgil, Like I just I've
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: always was a fan of his, and you know, when
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: we got a chance to work together, I just jumped.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I was actually supposed to work with Versace and something
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: happened and it didn't work out, and then it was Virgil,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and I was like, this is awesome, what so much more?
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I love VERSACEI but it was like, this
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: is so much more awesome because it was Virgil, you know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: and so it was just such an amazing opportunity to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: work with him. And so anyway, that ended up just
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: being really fortunate being at the right place.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: At the right time.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I'm but when I work in align with someone, there
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: has to be some authenticity for it. For me, like
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: my whole life, I wanted to be with Nike, I
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: mean at the time, and Jordan was with Nike. So
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: every athlete wanted to be with Nike at the time,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: and so it was just like iconic and I was
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: one of those as well, and so for me that
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: was like end goal kind of thing. So for me,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: if I really, if I'm aligning with someone, even like
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a row, like, it really has to be very authentic, Like,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you know, do I use it?
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: Is it something that I do? Is it something that
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: I believe in?
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Is it something that I because if it isn't, I
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: think I think nowadays more than ever, the consumer can
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: kind of read through people that aren't honest and they're
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: just like, oh, they're just doing this for a paycheck,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: you know, And so I try not to do that.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: I try to do things.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: That I really truly use and passionate about and you know, think.
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: About well talk about specifically.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: That's why I asked that question about Nike specifically, like
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: you know you you wanted the faces of Nike, especially
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: when it comes to tennis. You have a long relationship
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: with Nike. How has that relationship with Nike evolved? Like
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: we see Lebron's relationship with Nike, we see Jordan's relationship
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: with Nike.
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: We've seen Kobe's relationship with Nike. I feel like every.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Athlete has their own special relationship with Nike. Phil Knight,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: what's your relationship with Nike? Phil Night, Well, I think
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: my relationship is a little different.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Nike has grown a lot with me, and I feel
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: like we've grown a part in the past, and then
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: we grew together, and then we got lock and step
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and now I have a building and all the things
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: and also.
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: As a building a Nike.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: By the way, not many people have that, not many,
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: but it.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Was really important for me at the time when we
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: weren't really necessarily meshing and growing together that they One
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: of the big things for me was I said, I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: don't see myself every time I have a meeting.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: I don't see me.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I see so many people that don't look like me,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and it is exhausting and like I don't see enough
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: women and it was it was a.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: Really at the time.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It was with Mark Parker, and it was a very
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: interesting conversation. And kudos to Mark because he literally changed
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: what Nike is internally. If you guys were to see
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Nike internally, it is so different than what it used
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to be. And all because of those conversations that I
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: continue to push and now it's just like I'm like, Okay,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: we need a little diversity still too, right, But it's
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a good thing.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I love it. I love it so much.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Because all the bosses are women, are black women, and.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: I absolutely love that.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: And uh, and it feels good to know that I
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: had a first hand in that and I and it
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: feels good to know that a company that big could
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: listen to an athlete like me and say, Okay, we
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: hear you, and we're actually going to do something about this.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And we also notice that there can be a lot
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: of change made. And so so my relationship with Nike
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: is is interesting. I'm always like I'll text the CEO
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: like I'm at Disney and I see under armour here.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Why is Nike not here, and he's like on it.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: And so I'm always trying to build the business because
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: that's what I do. I mean, I'm and I don't
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: even realize.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: It, aha moment.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I'm building businesses daily with investing and talking to founders,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: and so I guess without even thinking about it, I'm
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: just I'm doing the same with Nike on a different
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: level because they're Nike, but still every little bit counts.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And I love that the CEO now he also hears me,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: kind of like Mark Parker did, and so they're so
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: open to change, They're so open to like listening and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: making it a great place. And so yeah, I think
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: that that my relationship with them is really really evolved
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: into something deeper than an athlete wearing Nike clothes.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Let me just follow up on that, because essentially what
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: you're saying is like you advocated for more women, more
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: black women to be in the office, right, that was
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: bothering you and and they and they realized how valuable
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: you were, and they and they changed their system for that.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Were you ever a little apprehensive or even nervous to
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: be like, Okay, well I am who I am, but
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: this is a you know, multi billion Dollar Company. Maybe
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: because a lot of times people say athletes, maybe they
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: don't they don't speak out enough, or they don't want
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: to ruin relationships, so they don't want to. What gave
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: you that confidence to say I'm not I'm not comfortable
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: with this. I have influence, and I have enough confidence
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: in my influence to make changes.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I'm not afraid of stuff like that.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: And there's so many things that I do that I
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: don't talk about because I truly believe when you like you.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've never even told that story or
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: maybe very rare, but there's so many things that I
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: do that I'm not looking to be pat on the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: back for pat patted on my back floor like I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: do it because it's the right thing to do and
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: it's gonna help other people. So outside of this room,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: I mean that story my who knows if people get
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: to know that story much more.
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: But fast exclusive, that's what we call that one.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: But I wasn't afraid because I was exhausted.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: I literally was exhausted of seeing another designer or another
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: person that just didn't understand what I wanted. And it's
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: so funny now I don't even have to say much
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: they get it. You know, if you're designing for someone
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: that looks like me, you need someone maybe that looks
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: like you too, to get it, to get my body,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: you know, to get what I would like like. You know,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: it's it's unspoken, you just get it, you know. And
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: so it's it's a difference. And so to be the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: best athlete at the time, the best lady athlete.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Or man whoa.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: No, no, this is not I said what you said,
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: and we might not debate that either. We we said
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: what we said, the greatest athlete.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The greatest athlete, and to not have representation, I was
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: exhausted and it was absolutely no fear.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: It was actually frustration.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: And I don't think I was this calm when I
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: spoke to the CEO at all, but I think he
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: heard the passion behind this. This this this has to change.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: And now, like I said, now, when I when I
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: was just at Nike HQ, it was so many people
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: there in positions top top top positions, black women, women,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: just everyone, just in top positions black men.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: That just didn't have that opportunity before.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: And to see that was just good because also diversity
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: is real, like you get different results when you have
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: you know, when you have diversity at the table, like
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: everyone needs to be at the table. It just can't
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: be just one person. Has to be like everybody because
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the world is not one person, it's everybody. You really
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: need everybody to see different views and different point of views.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: How would this person feel about that, How will that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: person feel about this? It just all comes together a
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: little bit better when you can just have, you know,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: just the hope everyone there.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: So yeah, no, I wasn't afraid.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And like I said that, he was very amazing because
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of people he didn't have to listen to me.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: So I do give him just as much credit, if
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: not more, because he's the one that actually put it
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: into play.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: And that's what I always say. We need support too.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: We can say what we want to say, but we
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: need people to support and to push the message through.
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: I'm glad you said the word support because it makes
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: me think of where the biggest support comes from, and
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: that's usually home, and that's usually family. Obviously, your partner
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: is extremely successful in the world of business, you're extremely
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: in the world of business. Do those conversations ever collide
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: at home or do we keep that separate?
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: Do we bring business, or do we pitch ideas? Do
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: we run ideas by each other because obviously publicly traded company,
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: extremely successful, fun, how do those conversations go.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: We really do.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Not talk about business at all. Our kids are really
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: young and pretty wild actually, with all due respect one especially,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: it's super wild. So when we're at home, we just
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: are basically chasing and playing with them, and they take
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of our time, and I think we work
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: so much respectively, just we just kind of want to
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: come home and unwind and relax. Now if there is
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: something to be said, I often asked because he's also
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a fantastic designer for he's great at coding or just
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: so many things, so I'll ask questions. If if there's
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: any questions, I'm usually asking them because he has a
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: lot more experience and that stuff. So and I always
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: feel like I want to learn. And that's why I
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: said the other day, I was like, I just need
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: to get smarter because I got to keep up with him.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: He's always learning something new. He was teaching.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Himself coding a couple of months ago, a new version
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: of it from AI, and he was writing a program
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: for Olympia so she can do it when she does work,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: she puts it in the program and it logs in
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: and he sees it, and I was like, Okay, I
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: gotta get smarter because none of that is making sense
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: to me. I'm going to fall back. So it's really
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: kind of fun that way.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: What industry is the technology do you think will create
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: the biggest opportunities over the next ten years or so.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I feel like outside of AI, I wonder.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: I think events.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I think because with the growth of AI, I feel
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: like there's not gonna be a lot of real things.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: So live events, whether that's concerts and finding a way
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: to monetize that, whether that's through ticket selling or just
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: having more live events, maybe even at smaller arenas, having
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: more live, intimate, live events. I think that's why sport
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: is doing so well now. So I think sport will
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: continue to grow. I think women's sports will continue to grow.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: There's a new volleyball league, there's a new flag football
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: league that's going to come for women as well. So
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like those things are going
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: to continue to grow. I think there's gonna be some
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: deep tech, deep space tech that's going to continue to
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: grow in that industry. And obviously you know AI is
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: going to grow every direction. So I think those are
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: some of the things I.
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: Wonder as you look at the landscape of the path
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: that you've trailblazed, and you're looking at the young especially
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: black women that are playing tennis now, obviously when you
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: see them and you've competed against a lot of them.
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: I know Coco Golf talks about how much he idolizes
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: you when you watch them in the world of professionalism
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: in terms of just playing tennis. How do you feel
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: as they get into the world of business, Right, we
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: see sponsorships, we see deals. Are you giving them a
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: call saying, hey, this is something you should do.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: Hey shy away from that?
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: Like what role do you see or do you see
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: a role for yourself in the mentorship of the next
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: generation of the great athletes?
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Well, when it comes to other people getting their coin,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I mind my own business.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: I stay in my lane. But no, I think it's great.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: You know, anytime I see someone you know, winning out
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: off the court, I think it's you know.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: It's great.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I believe that there's space for everyone. You know, this
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: world is so big and there's so many things, so
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: much money in these sponsors for these players to go around,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: like I feel like it's more of an encouragement, you know,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And I think it's great that they can go out
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: there and get what they can while they can, because
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the life of an athlete is usually short, you know,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know how short anymore, but usually.
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: It used to be short.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: So I always feel I always feel good about it.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I feel like, go kudos. And I usually try to
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: like the ads, and you know, I always try to
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: like the photos and I see how the ads go,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's pretty cool.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: I'm all about it.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: What advantage do you think you have over somebody that
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: may have came up through the tradition venture route, like
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: somebody from Silicon Valley, you coming from being an athlete
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: and now being in a VC. What advantage point do
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: you have that they may not have?
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: I think, you.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Know, I think in venture you see a ton of failure,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: well in early stage venture, because we because I'm in
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the early stage space, we see a lot of companies
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: that don't make it. I think the advantage that I
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: have is the resilience of showing up and understanding that
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: you know you don't do well every day, but you
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: continue to show up every day and you've got to
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: stay positive. And so I think it's you know, it's
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: something that I've I've done as an athlete, you know,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and also just the value of hard work. I think
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: for me, there's nothing too good for me to do.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I literally will do everything when it comes to hard work.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: And I think that's because of my background and you know,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: growing up as an athlete, growing up in Compton, like
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: all all of the things. I think that it's really
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: become a competitive advantage.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: I wonder you've had a tremendous career thinking back.
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: Obviously it comes with ebbs and flows, right, you have
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: pits and falls. Is there a mistake that you look
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: back now and say, I'd be willing to make that
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: again because of all of the lessons that you learn
• 46:21
  Speaker 5: from going through.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: It, well, in sport or in life.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: I'm interested in both.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: Huh? Are both in life? Is there a mistake that? Yeah?
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: I definitely that mistake again? What was the question?
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: Is there something that you be willing to go through
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: again because of the lessons you learned from.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: Going through it? Oh, you got a flash bad? Just now,
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: you had a flash bad? Just now.
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: We're gonna talk about that after the bad stays, because.
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: Now I need to know.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: I would do that lesson again. And then tennis. Yeah,
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: you know, I had lost a.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Tough match once and it sucked, but if it meant
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: but I won so much after that that I would
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: probably lose that match again, even though it was really hard.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: It was a super hard loss for me, but I
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: learned a lot from it.
• 47:23
  Speaker 6: So you're back.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: You're back, but there are some things I wouldn't do
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: again too that that list is way longer.
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: Though you're back, right, And now the question, hold on,
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: you said she's back, and no one person's clapping the
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: great one is back?
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, just her fun every now and then that we gotta.
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: We gotta help people understand that this is not an
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: everyday thing.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: No, you never know where I'm gonna pop up.
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: That is also true.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: You're back, but you know it's always it's always the
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: comeback is always hard. So you know, you got new
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: tennis players that grew up on you. Now they're your competition,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: and now that gut it for you, right, So what's
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: the thought process from you don't have anything to prove.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Obviously you're the greatest tennis player of all time. You
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: want twenty three Grand slams? You know you've done it?
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: What is the thought process? And you coming back like why?
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: And what is your goal? Is your goal to win
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: a Grand Slam, win Wimbledon? Like is that your goal?
• 48:33
  Speaker 5: No?
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: God, No, Honestly, I just wanted my daughters to see
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: me in a different light, you know, especially my older daughter.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: She was so young when I when I transitioned, retired,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: or whatever evolved evolved.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: I'm coming undone.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I come undone after an hour, I don't know what
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say next. So I really thought it would
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: be nice for her to see me. You know, there's
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like she doesn't I don't know,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: appreciate what mommy has done in a way or doesn't
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: understand it. So I'm like, okay, you need to understand this.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: But also no, no, no, I think it's really cool for
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: her to kind of just see what hard work looks
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: like because she sees me out there every day. Not
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: for long because I have different boundaries and I'm balancing
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: it out, but you know, she I want her to
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: understand what is possible.
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: And my other daughter, she's.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: That's the wild one.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I'm glad at a night off. She's fun, but uh,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: you know we uh I think I think she could
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: see a little bit. Maybe she's fun, you know.
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: When we've got the playverage of watching you grow o.
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: You know, world tennis and the world of business. You've
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: done it all to many it feels like you are successful.
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: I wonder how you measure success at this stage of
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: your life. What does that look like?
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: Like? What are the metrics to say, you know what,
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: that was successful?
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: I think if we're talking about tennis, I think it
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: would be which I never thought I would say in
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: my life, winning a few matches, not a tournament.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: Yikes. Oh boy. And also because like I don't have time,
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: like I need to go. Also because.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: Also I think measuring some success for me is also
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: just how I am throughout the day because I'm a
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: full time mom and I love being a mom, and
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I'm always with my kids every single day. I even
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: do my work around the kids. So for me, they
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I've lived my life and now I live for them,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: to be honest, and so I measure my sex on
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: you know, did I cook dinner?
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: How did I do? Did they like it?
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: You know if the kid isn't in school, like you
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: know it, did it go well? How many meltdowns did
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: my baby had the little baby have? And was I
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: calm in those meltdowns? Because I wanted to be able
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: to melt down, okay, and me to be calm and
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: not go crazy. You know, it's hard, you know, to
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: show up every day for a kid. And and it
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: also makes me appreciate my parents so much because they
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: were like they I don't know how they did it.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: They were so amazing, especially my dad going to play,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: going to tennis every day with us. I tell you,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: I cannot do that with my daughters. I'm like, you
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: are on your own. I need a day off or
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: let's do something else. So I just I measure my
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: success on just how I am as a parent now.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, I read all the books, like you
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: know what to say to a three year old or
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: a two year old, and you know how to how
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: to communicate, and so did I do a good job
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: with that?
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: And yeah, that's kind of how it is for me now.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: Ay Man, what's some what's the what's some last words
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: that you can give to a group of people that's
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: trying to get to the next level. Like I said,
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: there's various next levels, but you somebody that have actually
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: achieved the highest level, right, so it will be at
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: your parting words and to see entrepreneurs, investors and people
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: that's really trying trying to better this situation.
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: What do you want to leave the crowd with?
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I haven't seen the highest level.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I think there's always been for improvement, and I'll leave
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: you with that. Never get too complacent, never think you're
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: at the highest level. There's always someone doing better or
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: working harder to beat you, or to do better or
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: you know, more successful.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: And for me, that's okay.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be the biggest, baddest in the house.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be the best, my personal best.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: And I think everyone has to realize that your personal
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: best might not be you know, going to the moon
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: or whatever you know, but each each goal counts you Like,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: for me, my goal is just to be a great
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: mom and that that's all.
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: That's my biggest goal, and that's a huge goal.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: And so I think that just setting whatever goal you is,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: don't be don't be ashamed that whatever that goal is,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: it's fine.
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: Just stick to it.
• 53:23
  Speaker 6: Well, serena.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you for taking time at your schedule for serena.
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: Stand at your feet for the greatest.
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: Of all time.
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.