Maria Sharapova’s centre court tricks for the boardroom

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2:25You can put in hours and hours. You can have all the talent, but until you get there and you do it, like there, no one's giving it to you.

2:41That's Maria Sharapova, the iconic women's tennis champion, five-time Grand Slam winner, and the world's highest-paid female athlete for a decade. Since hanging up her rackets, Maria has leaned into business as an investor, an entrepreneur, and as host of a new podcast appropriately named Pretty Tough. Sports analogies are rampant in business, but I wanted to hear from Maria firsthand about how the mix of both intense planning and instinctive reaction that's essential to success on the court translates in today's chaotic and unpredictable business environment. Maria takes us inside her on-the-job business training and shares where sport and business really do collide right now and where they don't.

3:28It's a fun back and forth, so let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.

3:41I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Maria Sharapova. Maria, great to chat with you. Thanks for having me on. I'm a huge fan of your work. Well, so first of all, I want to welcome you to the community of podcast hosts. I understand you're launching your own show, Pretty Tough, conversations with high-achieving women in all fields. Are you excited? Are you nervous? Do you get nervous? Oh, definitely. I get nervous. Yes. I've been working on the concept of pretty tough. It's been several years since I left the sport of tennis, traveled a little bit, had a son who's three and a half now, and slowly have been working on this concept around the meaning of a pretty tough woman, you know, playing into duality of being gritty and strong and persevering, but also having a side that is soft, that is motherly, and allowing women to be both without putting a filter on it.

4:38The end of the ice queen. I'm sure you'd love that label, right? I mean, I played into it pretty well with that fist bump. It's true. It's true. Well, listen, one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you, you know, many successful celebrities, athletes, actors, musicians, they don't want to talk about the business of themselves, of their brand, like they want to talk about their craft or their art, but it's very much a business too. Did you, did you always get that? Well, sport is a business. Um, walking through the tunnel of, of the U.S. Open, you know, the door opens and that is your platform.

5:23That's, you know, win or lose. The check gets bigger, the check gets smaller, you know, and the more you win, the more opportunities you have to say yes. And it's also, I mean, amazing lessons because the more, the more that the more chances you get to say no, the better opportunities come about. But I don't think I realized it. I mean, I, you know, I moved to the States as a young girl. I don't think I really acknowledged what, But like the full picture, the 360 approach to being an athlete, I was so I had my head down. I mean, I had horse blinders on for a majority of my career where all that mattered is the ball and the result.

6:02I was from the moment I woke up. But I also as I started making a little money and recognize that, OK, now I'm now I'm supported. My family supported. My team is supported. I can you know, I can hire a physio now. Oh, maybe now I don't need that immediate check. Maybe I can actually invest in a company that perhaps, you know, three, five, 10 years down the line, I'll see something, you know, in return. So the mindset shifts. You were so young when you first had success. I mean, you won Wimbledon in 2004, first to five Grand Slams. You were 17. At that point, do you remember how strategic you were about sort of brand alignment?

6:44Were you even making the decisions? I was from the first day. I mean, I remember after that victory, I remember getting out of the car to the Wimbledon ball and my manager, who's still my manager till this day, he looks over and he's like, there is not a camera lens that you will not love this evening. Like you make the most out of this opportunity tonight. Right. A week later, I'm back in California and I'm training for seven hours a day. But in that moment, maximize the potential. Within that week, you know, I took a few days off. I flew to Portland. I re-signed my Nike deal. My dad told me to get in the room.

7:21And there may be things you don't know. There are certain, you know, elements of the deal that you're not going to be familiar with. But you know what? This is your future. This is your money. And you need to be in that room. So he gave me, you know, I was a teenager. I'm 17 years old. What do I know about money? But for him to say, just be there, you know, and someone in the room, the C-suite individuals that will be, you know, talking this big game, they're going to see your face and it's going to be a little tougher, you know, to bring the deal lower to you. So I remember being in that room, just being like amazed by some of the zeros they were discussing.

7:58Right after that, I signed my first like non-sport deal with Motorola. They were just coming out with the Razor phone. It wasn't a big check, but the opportunity was big because I was going to be on billboards all over the world. And my manager, he's like, just wait. You take this one, people will see your face, will know your name, and that will grow into bigger things. So that was a really great lesson. I mean, it's so interesting because you put so much time and from an early age sort of into the tennis, into what gets you this attention. And then when the attention comes, it's like you have to learn that business piece of it on the fly a little bit, right?

8:38Like it comes at you, but you don't, you know, and the things that maybe from the outside look like it's fun, like you get to be celebrating winning Wimbledon. It's not fun. It's just a different kind of work. No, the next day, I mean, you're focused on winning the next one, which is the U.S. Open. There's only a certain amount of time that you're really allowed to think about your success, which in some ways is sad. But while you're holding the trophy, all the other opponents are training. The world is an end to watch this big moment in your life. And although you have to appreciate it and take it in, you can't believe the hype.

9:12You have to get back on the horse and train and get better because people will now know your game and your name and they'll want to beat you even more. But back to business as a young 20-year-old, I mean, you realize as a female, you're not playing until you're 60, right? Or retire. You're there until perhaps, I mean, 35 at your very best. And so in my early 20s, I recognized that there will be an end. And whether that's at the end is because of an injury, whether that's because I want to start a family, whether it's because I lose interest, the time will come. And so that business frame of mind, I loved every meeting that I got to participate in.

9:55And so I learned through people in boardrooms. I learned from not knowing. I learned from asking questions. For a lot of athletes and celebrities, their business is endorsements. I mean, that's sort of as far as they go. You've pushed farther as an investor, as an entrepreneur and as a strategic business leader. I mean, you're on the board of luxury fashion house Moncler, a public company valued at more than$16 billion. Is being on a board a different kind of pressure? Like how do you see your role on the board? Well, it's a different type of intensity. I mean, every meeting is like a UN meeting.

10:32They're done in Italian because it's an Italian public trading company. So every time you speak, I mean, there's a similar microphone like this. You press a button. It's your time to speak. There's a little bit of a delay. And the one thing I've really like that you really miss is the sense of like a match point, like in sport, you know, where there's there's this tension. You're constantly under a little tension. When you finish something that you've held this tension in, there's nothing really like There's nothing that really like gets your juices flowing. And being in that boardroom was one of the first times where I was like, wow, I'm in unfamiliar territory.

11:05I like this feeling of having to show up and having to prove something, not for everyone, but for myself. I took it as an opportunity to learn. I mean, you know, sitting in a room with Ramo Ruffini, talking about, you know, a potential succession plan, talking about the evolution of business. You know, Montclair is a seasonal business that's mostly focused on the winter months, right? How do you become a company that's not just relevant for 70 % of the time, but for like 95 % of the time? So it's, I learn, I love it. And I get to be in a room with smart people. You always had a reputation on the court as being a kind of a killer competitor.

11:43Are you as competitive about business in the same way? I don't think I'm as aggressive. I don't pump my fist as often, but I have a competitive nature. I love teamwork. I love the idea of having a goal and everyone having different perspectives and aligning on the same goal. Even though I played an individual sport, team was everything to me, right? Getting off the court, having a crap performance and like acknowledging that we just lost as a team. Like there are those moments that they were tough parts of my career, but I really miss them. You've got an investment portfolio, BetterUp, Therabody, Supergoop.

12:30You've also been an entrepreneur. I know you launched a premium candy brand, Sugar Pova, which unfortunately didn't work out well and shuttered in 2021. What lessons have you learned from leading a startup, from investing in startups? I had Sugarpova for over 10 years while I was playing and got it profitable after several years. It was an MBA on the job, ultimately. I mean, going into it, I didn't know what a P &L was. I didn't know what a strategic marketing plan was. Do you sell at a savings store or do you sell premium? Are you scaling a product that costs$5? How are you doing it by maintaining its quality?

13:11That was incredibly valuable and something that I now get to think about as I invest in companies. You mentioned your son, Theo, and how young you were when you moved to the States to train. You were five, not really, not much older than he is. Your dad was with you, but your mom wasn't able to join for like two years. do you reflect on the choices your parents made well when you're six years old your parents are making choices for you let's make that clear um but ultimately if things don't go well it's not like where you came from of what you had wasn't good enough it's just you have an opportunity and a little bit of hope that maybe there is a chance to become great at something and perhaps that's going to college.

14:01You know, that's not necessarily number one in the world. So kind of, I think when we think of success, we ultimately, we go to the very top, right? We think of, oh, you know, winning a Grand Slam. But I don't ever remember like thinking that that, I know that that existed, but I didn't really understand the magnitude of what that victory is or what it meant to others. All I knew is that I loved playing the sport. I was the first one in line. Like I want every weekend I played a different tournament in Florida. You know, someone I'd lose to one weekend, the next weekend I'd play them again and beat them.

14:36And like, wow, I mean, how incredible that within six days I improved. So those little things like encouraged me. They kept me, you know, they kept me up at night because I wanted to be better. And I think those are all, those were all the signs that, you know, both of my parents saw and said, wow, you know, she like loves this thing. You were the highest paid female athlete in the world for like a decade plus. And in a lot of ways, you sort of set the blueprint for athletes that followed. So much is changing right now so fast. Social media has such a role. Women's sports outside of tennis is getting a lot more attention.

15:16Do you look at the blueprint for female athletes differently? Like, is that blueprint in flux in some ways? Well, there's never been a playbook. And if there was, I think it's certainly being rewritten right now for female athletes. I think there's positives to it. There's also negatives. I think it's easy to get distracted in the world where there are more opportunities to make money and there are more opportunities to take advantage of a successful career, whether you are a Grand Slam champion or whether you are a college player. I remember, you know, great financial deals that I had to say no to, you know, because I knew that they would take up, well, one, too much of my time.

16:00Saying yes to incredible events that at the time as a young girl might seem really fun and interesting. But you also know that, you know, you've got to be on the other side of the world competing in Asia or Europe. There are a lot of sharks out there and you have to find the right people. saying no to potential opportunities is an essential part of business success to focus on what matters most as a wise colleague once told me bob we can do anything we just can't do everything so what are the toughest trade-offs that maria's struggled with and is failure really a good learning experience we'll talk about that and more after the break stay with us

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19:31Before the break, tennis icon Maria Sharapova shared her in-the-moment business training, from Nike's negotiating table to her now-shuttered candy brand. Now we talk about the mental side of business and sports, what's similar, what's different, plus what she's learned from actress Zoe Saldana, and whether anything in business really matches the intensity of center court. Let's jump back in.

20:01We talked about Montclair. You are a sports fashion icon. What was so important to you about fashion? On the court, off the court? Well, fashion on the court was a huge part of an athlete's identity. In my career of over 15, you know, 20 years, I worked with many different teams within Nike. And we're always striving to create unique looks, making sure that I was comfortable on court. How do you make it exciting? How do you, you know, wearing shorts like that was shocking for many, you know, having a tuxedo jacket. So all those little fun bits. I mean, it's it's it's your armor. It's your uniform.

20:42It's it's how you showing up, you know, the feeling of of putting on a dress in the locker room and knowing that there are a few eyes on you. I love the element of surprise and doing something different. I love being different. I loved wearing something that others weren't, right? If everyone was wearing black, I wanted to wear red. I wanted to stand out because you don't always have to follow the pack and you will be respected for it. And that uniform, that armor, it sounds like was also a support for the mental part of the game. So you thought about yourself the right way when you were going into battle.

21:21Sport teaches you to be selfish, to take care of your body, to take care of your mind. The idea of what is a routine, you know, of starting your day with focusing on yourself, strong body, strong mind, all those things flow into life. You know, how you handle challenges. There's no loss that I look back on and think it didn't teach me anything. Every loss taught me something. And a lot of times it's when I ended up doing my best work. There are times where you've got to have felt like, I just don't feel like doing this right now. Like, it's not a good day for me. looking back I remember we had like an intense season where it was an Olympic year so on top of the four grand slams you add the Olympics and I remember you know getting off the court with a silver medal and um and my my manager at the time was saying well what when do you want to fly to Montreal or I think we had a tournament in Canada and I was like wait we're not going to pull out of that we're playing that like next week and we had just come off of Wimbledon and then you had the Olympics and then you're meant to fly to Canada.

22:26And so there's just, it's, it's almost like a nonstop grind. And then you arrive in the city, right. And the city hasn't had a tournament in 12 months. So everyone is, you know, all fresh and ready to see you. And, you know, you've had, you have a bunch of commitments to the tournament. Um, so yeah, I mean, you, but that, that comes down to the team, like managing time when you start a season, I mean, planning that schedule is so important and being ready to pivot when you've had a result that's subpar and that, you know, you thought you were going to be toward the end of the tournament, you lose first round.

23:01You have to make adjustments to your schedule and you have to have the right people to make them with you. Failure or disappointment sometimes is endemic. It's endemic in business and in sport, right? As a tennis player, point to point, match to match, you sort of have to get comfortable with things not going your way sometimes, and you have to be willing to take risks on the fly. Business people talk about sports as an analogy all the time. Do those experiences practically translate into business? Like, what have you found to be similar and what's different? I think handling disappointment and the emotions with which you handle them are quite similar, right?

23:43In business, it's more mental than physical, but you give so much for an outcome that wasn't up to your standards. And so that's just, that's really deflating. I feel like I have a good understanding of investing your time into something that has no guarantees of results. You can put in hours and hours. You can have all the talent, but until you get there and you do it, like there, no one's giving it to you. You know, the only time I ever felt that was last year at the Hall of Fame ceremony where my dad turned around to me and said, He's like, this is the first time I felt like I'm at a Grand Slam and I know who wins.

24:18Because every time you get to a tournament and you get to an event, you can be the number one ranked player in the world. You can be as confident like all the way up here. But until you go there and until they put the net up and you play the match and you win match point, no one knows who's going to win. Whether you win or you don't win is in your control to a certain degree. Obviously, you're playing against somebody else. But in business, sometimes there's so many things that aren't in your control. And I wonder whether there are business lessons that tennis didn't prepare you for. The only thing in control is your serve because it's the first shot of the point.

25:01But everything else is based on adjusting, is based on pivoting, is based on unfamiliar territory. I mean, and within seven days of a tournament, you can have, it can hail, it can be sunny. Sometimes you go on the court being prepared to play a two-hour match. It's three and a half hours. Your recovery is very different. So the idea of change was always part of my life and my career. And always thinking about where I want to peak. Like, I want to peak at the majors. I want to peak toward the end of the second week of the major. I don't want to play my best tennis on a Monday of the first week.

25:41And that's not required. I just want to be better than the person that's in front of me. Right? I don't mean my best. You have to be good enough to get through. You don't have to be at your best for that match. You don't have to be. And that's hard to accept. You know, because we always want the best from us. And in some ways, you don't want to be because you don't want to expend resources on something that doesn't, shouldn't require those resources. Right? You want to give enough, but not too much. I always strive for being, you know, deliberate about how I played and the choices that I was making on court.

26:13My coach would say just like, don't be stupid. It doesn't have to go into three sets.