March 10, 2021 • 27 mins
Everybody knows Venus Williams as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. But this multi-talented legend is also a seasoned entrepreneur, including the founder of the clean beauty line EleVen by Venus Williams. This week, Venus joins Bobbi to talk about how she learned her iconic confidence, why she loves beauty, and how her work on the court influences her decision-making in the office.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. Most people know Venus Williams
is one of the champion tennis players of our lifetime.
They know that she, you know, has won how many
(00:25):
Wimbledon Grand Slams like ridiculous. But what you guys might
not know is that Venus is also a really, really,
really amazing entrepreneur. She's had many businesses. She has also
launched a sunscreen line with Creto. She has a line
of lip products that just came out this week. I
(00:46):
cannot wait to try them. And I think that so
interesting because being an athlete, she has a different take
on beauty and makeup and skincare. Now, I was very,
very lucky years ago I did her make up for
the SPS. I brought my dad and my son and
she was so kind. I hope she remembers. Here's my
(01:08):
conversation with Venus Williams. Hey, Venus, Bobby Hair, how you doing,
How are you so good to see you? Thanks for
having me all of us. You must be exhausted. I
know you just came back. So many of my questions
are about what it means and how you get it
all done, Like, how do you you know? I mean,
(01:28):
come on, you have to put so much time into
your real job. You know, you're you're one of the
two greatest tennis players ever alive, you and your sister,
And how do you even have the time you know,
for that, let alone all the other brands? So come on,
tell us how you do it. It's called a great team.
That's the only way, you know, and I know you
(01:50):
know what that means to So, yeah, I don't think
I could compare much. But you know, I don't know
if you remember I did your makeup years ago at
the SPS. Yeah, that was a long time ago for
great times, it was a long time ago. But I'll
never forget because I brought my father and my son
and you were I'm sure you were exhausted. You were
(02:12):
so kind when I asked for you to take a picture,
and so many people who are somewhere up there are
not that kind, and you were, and you know that
that goes a long way. So you know, thank you,
and kudos to you. Thank you, thank you. It's good
to be talking to you again. Yeah, yeah you too,
you too, So tell me, like what it's like during
(02:36):
this pandemic to jump into yet another another brand. You
have been, You have many brands out there. I mean,
I did all the research and now you're into beauty,
which I think is so cool. Oh who isn't into beauty? Though?
I think all of us, even if you aren't a
beauty person, to some aspect, you're into beauty because we
(02:57):
all think about our well being and I involves our
parents and taking care of our skin and inside it out,
et cetera. So yeah, I am huge into viewing, much
like you. And it's a natural extension of being well
and being active. So you have to also protect yourself,
(03:17):
protect your skin. So a lot of people, especially women
of color, don't realize you have to wear sunscreen. Yeah,
but have you always won sunscreen? No? I haven't, and
it's something that makes me so nervous. I feel like
any day now I'm going to shrivel up into a
prune or a razor or something like that. But no,
(03:39):
I didn't start wearing it. And I was watching Serena
one day and donaldo me she always had long sleeves,
long pants and practice wearing sunscreen. And with Donald on me,
I was like, oh boy, and this is only like
five years ago, so it took me a long time,
and especially as a person of color, I just thought
I had a pass because, as you know, I had
(04:01):
extra sun protection. So I thought, but it's just as
important no matter what your color is. Yeah, no, it's
that's so important. So are you using your platform to
educate women about that? Yes, I think a lot of
people do use sunscreen with them. There's a lot of
people who weren't conforming like I was. So for those
who don't conform, yes, I'm happy to to help them
(04:24):
and to bring this message of self care for your skin,
but also on a daily basis of my coaches like
do you wear your sunscreen as you put it on?
And this I'm like the sunscreen patrol. But it is
extremely important for for health and well being. I do
think it's really interesting that you know, these beauty products
(04:46):
are developed by an athlete who's always outside. I know,
you know you live warm weather and you know you're
you're outside, So how are you going to use your
experience with the brand? Yes, so it's our sunscreen from
by my collection eleven by I'm myself so eleven and
(05:10):
it's a sunscreen of course, it's all all clean beauty,
all natural beauty, so it's a something that doesn't leave
a choppy residue, but it also has beautiful clean ingredients.
So we have a serum and we also have a
suncream as well, so I'm excited to be using on
a daily basis. But what I love also about the
(05:32):
serum too is it goes on so smooth. It's like
second skin, so you can put anything on top of it.
It feels just like your skin, so silky smooth. And
a really important question do you put the serum on
first or the sunscreen on first? Because people are always
asking that question. Well, the serum is a sunscreen, so
don't you don't have to. It just goes on as
(05:55):
your sunscreen, so you can put your makeup on right
over it and it has no fact. And also actually
I like to keep the serum in the car too,
because I think that's a moment when in the places
whef you live, somewhere where you drive, you're getting so
much sun sometimes on one side of your face. Yes,
I have spots on my right side because my husband
usually drives seriously. So you got to keep it in
(06:17):
the car. Yeah, yeah, but no, but wait, you don't
understand as a as an entrepreneur, I you know who
also has a beauty brand a serum sunscreen. I don't
think there's anyone else who has done that that is
so innovative. There aren't as many and it's perfect for
Larry under makeup or is just want something very light
in our sun screen also is very light as well,
(06:38):
but this one takes it to the next level. And
to be able to have this kind of innovation with
all clean beauty products is something that was extremely important
to me in a platform that we stand on. And
how did this partnership with Credo, who I love by
the way, they're friends of mine and they're incredible. How
did this come together for you? Yes, we love Creto right. Uh,
(07:01):
if I'm on the website, I end up with like
a hundred things in my card use all this at
one time slowed down. So I've always been passionate about
clean beauty of always love Credo, and so when I
had the opportunity to partner with them, it was just
like I was doing a happy dance. So everyone in
the group is so amazing and just such a great
(07:22):
group of strong women and just opening barriers and doing something,
creating an unbelievable marketplace for people to do all things clean.
And where does the name eleven come from? So eleven
is about the pursuit of your best self. So it's
going past a ten and it's going to eleven. So
(07:43):
it's very, very exciting for me to spread this message
because you can still be on eleven and not have
your best day or even fail. It just means you
have to get more skills. And we don't ask for
less challenges, we ask for more skills. So that whole,
the whole idea of being eleven is that life is
up and down, but you always give that effort of
(08:05):
a level and it always pays off, even if it
doesn't pay off at that moment. And more anything, you
look back with no regret. You look back and say, hey,
I gave everything, and it prepares you for that next
that next question, how does being you know to become
(08:33):
this athlete that you are, which I know you know,
I've I've read every book, I've seen every every single
you know match? How does this prepare you for being
an entrepreneur? It is everything And I don't really think
I really, really, really really realized that until you start
(08:54):
getting more into management and you start to realize, oh, okay, well,
the things I'm trying to to build in my team
and things i'm trying to to own the board people,
all these are the things I learned on the court.
You learn to deal with so much pressure that and
the things that you learned from it. It's everything you
(09:15):
need in business. So I recommend every person to to
play a sport to challenge themselves physically, whether your young
person or at any age. It's extremely important. And you
have other brands too I want to talk about. So
tell me about the Venus Williams collection for Astura. Is
that how you say? Yes, it's called sutra. Yeah, so
(09:40):
tell tell me about that company. Yes, I live and
breed active self care and I discovered a sutra and
that we just provide active self care for everyone. So
it's scam of care and it's extremely exciting for me
to be a part of that too. I have a
whole shelf of my uture and there's some things that
(10:01):
I just don't travel without, especially my rose oil. I
give that one away all the time, so I'm always
running out. But it's about about how you feel and
also how you look. Obviously, but it's about how you
feel and being able to feel great. So there's some
amazing products with magnesium and those are to help you sleep,
(10:26):
and also there's products that are amazing for pain as well,
to ease your pain cream and all the different sprays.
What's in the pain cream, So magnesium, Well we should
start with the magnesium first. But I am and also
have these strange boozes that I get so and I
(10:47):
think they're just a product of you know, I live
with an autoimmune disease. So the one thing that I
couldn't think of anything to get rid of, and then
I was just like black and blue for no apparent reasons. So, uh,
the only thing I think of is to use to
use my pain cream, and they after weeks of being there,
it finally disappeared. So I've just found lots of different
ways to to use them. Yeah, magnesium is amazing. I
(11:12):
mean I've been taking ebbs and salts baths for forever
and so you know, I take magnesium before bed. It
shuts my brain off, it really helps. But I'm really
excited about these products. There's their sprays, skin cares. Do
you have any favorites? I do have favorites. So of
course they ease your pain. And active ingredients and mental
(11:36):
and other inactive ingredients as well. Um are in there,
including oil of Ba bab, oil anika, those sorts of things.
But not one of my favorites is the rose oil.
I use that all day and all night, and I
give those away like like going crazy. I love the
magnesium soaking salts. There's you know there, there are soap bars.
(12:02):
There's so many things that the Roman Therapy miss. Also,
I never leave home without my my Mr Mute Mood
lavender spray. Okay, Now, as far as beauty, you also
have your launching some new lip bombs, four colors. Tell
me about that. I'm I really excited. Do they have sunscreen? Yes?
(12:23):
So this is also in partnership with Creto. So we're
launching our lip bomb and it's four colors and one
of them is bright red. So it involves care for
your lips, extremely important, something that some people forget to do.
You've got to moisturize your lips, you've got to scrub
them also, they need care. So we want to protect
(12:46):
the lips also, and so we've got the clear color
and then we have the bright red. We've got the
bright reds called venus So and I love that one
because you can layer it to be bright or more mild.
So I'm extremely excited about those two. You know, you
could put it on your cheeks too when you're going out.
That's an old makeup artist, you know, hack. But well,
(13:10):
when I was growing up and all you had was
just all I had was you know, you're funding yourself
when you're like thirteen, so you just have one piece.
You have the lipsticks, so you have to put it
on your eye. You gotta put in the cheeks, you know. Yeah,
but now that's what the girls are doing. And are
there other products that you're you know, working on either
(13:30):
in your head or they're actually coming out or yes,
lots of products. Of course, can't talk about it, yeah,
of course, yeah, but it's gonna be now. I'm very
excited about this whole thing. You also have been such,
you know, a role model for women of not just
in sports, but in confidence and feeling good in your
(13:51):
body and being so you and you know, for so
many years, we all kind of had this vision in
our head that we have to be a certain way,
and then you see these beautiful, strong, women who are
like like nothing else you've ever seen, and it made
all of us just realized that I need to feel
good about myself. So you empowering and all these great things.
(14:14):
I also know you have a line of athletic wear. Yes, yes,
so the athletic wear is called eleven, and the sunscreen
is also eleven. So they on the defense sun science
and sun serums and also the new lit bomb that's
launching now that it's just launches all eleven. So so
(14:36):
it's all under that umbrella. Yeah. And wellness is more
than what you wear. Wellness is so many other things.
So we've you know, started this skincare and the bomb
obviously to encompass that philosophy. And have you always been
confident or is it something that morphed into we'll Growing
(14:59):
up in my house, it wasn't an option. It had
to be. That was what we were taught to be confident,
strong and sure. So it was part of my upbringing
to be honest. But I was also um, super naive
and oblivious to the world around me. I got to
be a child, so I didn't think so much about
(15:21):
what I looked like. I didn't know that my look
was wet growing up. My sister and I were just
talking about that. She she says, you know, I knew
that I didn't look great, And she said, you know,
the next year, I promised myself I was gonna look better,
and I said, well, I didn't even know I didn't
look great at the time. So but we also were
not allowed to worry about what anyone else thought. So
(15:42):
we were taught there's no such thing as peer pressure.
You make your own choices. So I grew up in
a household that really emphasized confidence, and I'm glad that
it was something that was taught. And it's also something earned.
And by doing the work, you do earn confidence. So
it's good to start from me young age to pursue
something where you're disciplined, you know, whether that's music or
(16:06):
or sport or something that requires different discipline, as it
gives you that confidence. And how many hours a day
do you train? Oh, nowadays I get myself in four
or five good hours of training, so that's split between
the court and the gym, and then I do some
(16:26):
more time with physio, so I'm basically going nine to five,
just a little bit of a different way, but I
I have become what I think is feral. Now. I
hate being indoors. So even at the office, I gotta
step I gotta go walk outside every couple hours or so.
It's getting worse every hour. I gotta go step out.
(16:50):
Well I do. I do a lot of my meetings
um on when I'm walking. I just you know, I'll
walk for a couple hours just by you know, making
the phone calls I do. Interview is because it clears
the cobwebs out of my brain, that's for sure. Yeah,
I mean outside is refreshing. I've been threatening to like
do a zoom meeting in the pool. Why not? Why?
(17:13):
Why not? Why not? And I also know that you
are you know, you love design and you've had an
interior design firm since you're twenty three. Yeah, since I
was twenty three. And today we were actually just designing
some fabric h so, you know, getting down and write
(17:33):
down to the process of sketching and figuring out what
that looks like. And I don't think my design team
has seen me this meeting. When I when I love
the design, I get happy. So I literally started like
giggling and like we're like me, what's going on with
you like I'm but with the just the same terrible design.
I also get agitated. It's something about design that really
(17:54):
drives me and it brings out my eyes and blows.
So yeah, at the Star interior as we we design
mostly honestly commercial spaces of hospitality, hotels, comdominium, so all
those kinds of things. Um, we had a great project
with Serena just on the cover of Architectural diets Us
(18:15):
our special client. That was that's good. I don't know
how she got to but yeah, okay, yeah, I saw,
I saw it. It was really really beautiful, really really beautiful.
And did I miss any businesses? I mean, I think
that's enough, right, I think I should do anymore. Now
(18:47):
this podcast is I've been interviewing beauty founders, and since
the show is called Beyond the Beauty, I always asked
the same questions, So what does beauty mean to you?
Beauty is about feeling good? It really is, because if
you don't feel good, doesn't matter how conventionally beautiful you are,
(19:09):
you don't feel that way, it doesn't even matter. It's
about being comfortable with yourself, happy with you. And if
you aren't happy with yourself, there's ways to figure that
out too, So that to me, that's beauty. And what's
your daily skincare routine? Daily skincare routine? Usually the first
(19:29):
thing I do is get up and go train. So
I usually just wash my face, sometimes with just hot water,
but with just water, and then I put on my
my skincare, my sunscreen, and most of my routine it
comes after my training, So that's when I put on everything,
and then I have a night routine too, heavy creams
daytime is like my rose oil by a sutra, and
(19:52):
maybe some tea tree oils and light things and things
like that. So um, I keep it pretty simple. I
love to try so many things, but I have a
ton of problems scanned too, so I also have to
be careful. But it's sad. I love to drive new
stuff and not to be careful. And what about makeup
on a casual day of all about the lash and
(20:17):
lash will save your life or ruin it if you
don't have any. So I love a lash on the court.
I'm a part of the eyeliner club, so I love
a waterproof eyeliner that will change your life too. You
have that like that, that intense stare with the eyeliner
and you know, looking at your opponent down the court.
(20:39):
But I usually like to keep it pretty natural because
I actually feel more confident with less makeup and so
on a photoshoot, of course you're wearing much more, but
in real life, for me, I need less, and everyone
knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with health and wellness,
and I love to eat and I love to work out.
(21:00):
But I want to know, like what you eat on
a normal day, Like are you on a special diet
for your for for your tennis, or you on a
special diet for your health concerns. What's your normal Well? Well,
I mostly eat a plant based diet, but I veer
right and left all the time. I'm usually gluten free too,
until I run into some biscotti that I can't resive.
(21:22):
So I'm just a regular person doing the fight every
single day. But for the most part, I'm plant based.
And I guess this is something we didn't talk about.
I live. I don't know about you on on shakes,
protein shakes, green drinks, all of that stuff, so way
(21:43):
or or or vegan, I usually do. I prefer vegan,
so I do like p protein is really my my
base do you have a favorite green uh product that
you throw in or do you just do regular greens?
M I'll do regular greens and powders. I just picked
(22:05):
up one in Australia. It was like fantastic. I've never
had one so tasty. So I don't know what it's called.
The honest is my kitchen over there? Um. But in
terms of protein, actually, I just launched protein drink called
Happy Viking. So there's more. See, there's there's more. Okay,
(22:25):
Happy Viking. Yes, So what's different about this protein drink though?
It's it's really about fueling your body. So it's got
all nine amino acids, and it's got the d H
a Omega three's sunflower oil and so it's about fueling
your mind also, so it's a complete mind body macronutrients
(22:50):
twenty grams of protein for serving, so really taking in
every part of your body. But I survive off of
this stuff. I don't know about you, but so do I.
I I have the only way I get to eat sometimes. Yeah, well,
I I have bad digestion. I had a I'm the
only person that eats a really healthy salad for lunch
and gets the stomach ache. So I'll be Yeah, I'll
(23:11):
be having bone broth or a shake for dinner. I do,
I do my best one. You know, I'm either baby
food or or I'm like, you know, a ninety year old.
I'm not sure. So you digestion is not great? Then
you really need to cook your vegetables. Yeah, yeah, raw.
It may be hard on your stomach. Yeah, so it is,
and that's why I don't do it that much. Well,
(23:31):
what about things like the fun stuff like alcohol? Oh?
I love it? Oh yeah, yes, my kind of girl,
My kind of girl. What's your alcohol of choice at
the moment, I was doing a ton of bubbles, So
a lot of bubbles, anything with a bubble um. What
(23:52):
have I gone to recently? I have been drinking a
lot recently because I've been on tour. When I go
on tour, I don't I'm like a saint, So yeah,
I don't think about drinking. But yeah, a lot of champagne,
lot of rose. Yeah, I'm switching back to vodka recently. Yeah,
I'm I'm mostly a vodka. I do tequila on occasion
(24:14):
when I want to dance, so you know, it depends.
How about caffeine? Are you a coffee drinker. No, I
am not, are you. I haven't expresso every morning, yeah,
which I should. It's probably not good for my tommy,
but it's kind of my Between that and the vodka
at night. You know, you could you could fix anything
you want during the day, but those two things are
(24:36):
not a coachable Yeah. So I would drink more if
it didn't put much so much weight on you. So
I basically do you have to think about your weight
with all your your movement. I think it's just you know,
maybe a vanity thing and you can get anyway and
still be be a great professional athlete. Obviously if you
(24:59):
are carrying much away. Yes, it's probably hard around your joints,
and probably you're you start to lose your lose a step,
but I think you know, you have to gain probably
significant want to get there. Yeah, it's so it's so
awesome for you to share that with people that it's
not just us mere mortals that have to deal with
these things, you know. So no, I think that's incredible.
(25:22):
And one last, one last question is what do you
do for fun? Oh my gosh, Well, I've got this
little dog. He's always with me. He's over here on
the side killing I sing karaoke a ton of my
own microphone during quarantine, and I would sing at least
once a month for a few hours. That like was
(25:43):
very therapeutic. Um. I love movies, especially bad ones. I
spent a ton of time with my family. I love languages,
so lots of things that I do for fun. I
love to dance board. I love to dance, So you're
probably a fantastic dancer. Thank you for saying that. But
(26:05):
no one's gonna pay me to dance. Well, I I
I love to dance. It's my favorite thing. It's not pretty,
but I don't care. I don't care if I love
it happy right? It does. It makes me feel good.
So where could all these people that are listening to
that want more Venus? They want to buy all those
products because I I do. Yes, So for Happy Viking
(26:27):
you can go to Happy Viking dot com or Amazon
for eleven, you can go ahead and head over to
our our website loving buy Venus for Sutra and suture
dot com, and um, of course always go check out Creetle.
It was really a pleasure. This means a lot to me.
Thanks so much. All right bye For more podcasts from
(26:49):
I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. Most people know Venus Williams
is one of the champion tennis players of our lifetime.
They know that she, you know, has won how many
(00:25):
Wimbledon Grand Slams like ridiculous. But what you guys might
not know is that Venus is also a really, really,
really amazing entrepreneur. She's had many businesses. She has also
launched a sunscreen line with Creto. She has a line
of lip products that just came out this week. I
(00:46):
cannot wait to try them. And I think that so
interesting because being an athlete, she has a different take
on beauty and makeup and skincare. Now, I was very,
very lucky years ago I did her make up for
the SPS. I brought my dad and my son and
she was so kind. I hope she remembers. Here's my
(01:08):
conversation with Venus Williams. Hey, Venus, Bobby Hair, how you doing,
How are you so good to see you? Thanks for
having me all of us. You must be exhausted. I
know you just came back. So many of my questions
are about what it means and how you get it
all done, Like, how do you you know? I mean,
(01:28):
come on, you have to put so much time into
your real job. You know, you're you're one of the
two greatest tennis players ever alive, you and your sister,
And how do you even have the time you know,
for that, let alone all the other brands? So come on,
tell us how you do it. It's called a great team.
That's the only way, you know, and I know you
(01:50):
know what that means to So, yeah, I don't think
I could compare much. But you know, I don't know
if you remember I did your makeup years ago at
the SPS. Yeah, that was a long time ago for
great times, it was a long time ago. But I'll
never forget because I brought my father and my son
and you were I'm sure you were exhausted. You were
(02:12):
so kind when I asked for you to take a picture,
and so many people who are somewhere up there are
not that kind, and you were, and you know that
that goes a long way. So you know, thank you,
and kudos to you. Thank you, thank you. It's good
to be talking to you again. Yeah, yeah you too,
you too, So tell me, like what it's like during
(02:36):
this pandemic to jump into yet another another brand. You
have been, You have many brands out there. I mean,
I did all the research and now you're into beauty,
which I think is so cool. Oh who isn't into beauty? Though?
I think all of us, even if you aren't a
beauty person, to some aspect, you're into beauty because we
(02:57):
all think about our well being and I involves our
parents and taking care of our skin and inside it out,
et cetera. So yeah, I am huge into viewing, much
like you. And it's a natural extension of being well
and being active. So you have to also protect yourself,
(03:17):
protect your skin. So a lot of people, especially women
of color, don't realize you have to wear sunscreen. Yeah,
but have you always won sunscreen? No? I haven't, and
it's something that makes me so nervous. I feel like
any day now I'm going to shrivel up into a
prune or a razor or something like that. But no,
(03:39):
I didn't start wearing it. And I was watching Serena
one day and donaldo me she always had long sleeves,
long pants and practice wearing sunscreen. And with Donald on me,
I was like, oh boy, and this is only like
five years ago, so it took me a long time,
and especially as a person of color, I just thought
I had a pass because, as you know, I had
(04:01):
extra sun protection. So I thought, but it's just as
important no matter what your color is. Yeah, no, it's
that's so important. So are you using your platform to
educate women about that? Yes, I think a lot of
people do use sunscreen with them. There's a lot of
people who weren't conforming like I was. So for those
who don't conform, yes, I'm happy to to help them
(04:24):
and to bring this message of self care for your skin,
but also on a daily basis of my coaches like
do you wear your sunscreen as you put it on?
And this I'm like the sunscreen patrol. But it is
extremely important for for health and well being. I do
think it's really interesting that you know, these beauty products
(04:46):
are developed by an athlete who's always outside. I know,
you know you live warm weather and you know you're
you're outside, So how are you going to use your
experience with the brand? Yes, so it's our sunscreen from
by my collection eleven by I'm myself so eleven and
(05:10):
it's a sunscreen of course, it's all all clean beauty,
all natural beauty, so it's a something that doesn't leave
a choppy residue, but it also has beautiful clean ingredients.
So we have a serum and we also have a
suncream as well, so I'm excited to be using on
a daily basis. But what I love also about the
(05:32):
serum too is it goes on so smooth. It's like
second skin, so you can put anything on top of it.
It feels just like your skin, so silky smooth. And
a really important question do you put the serum on
first or the sunscreen on first? Because people are always
asking that question. Well, the serum is a sunscreen, so
don't you don't have to. It just goes on as
(05:55):
your sunscreen, so you can put your makeup on right
over it and it has no fact. And also actually
I like to keep the serum in the car too,
because I think that's a moment when in the places
whef you live, somewhere where you drive, you're getting so
much sun sometimes on one side of your face. Yes,
I have spots on my right side because my husband
usually drives seriously. So you got to keep it in
(06:17):
the car. Yeah, yeah, but no, but wait, you don't
understand as a as an entrepreneur, I you know who
also has a beauty brand a serum sunscreen. I don't
think there's anyone else who has done that that is
so innovative. There aren't as many and it's perfect for
Larry under makeup or is just want something very light
in our sun screen also is very light as well,
(06:38):
but this one takes it to the next level. And
to be able to have this kind of innovation with
all clean beauty products is something that was extremely important
to me in a platform that we stand on. And
how did this partnership with Credo, who I love by
the way, they're friends of mine and they're incredible. How
did this come together for you? Yes, we love Creto right. Uh,
(07:01):
if I'm on the website, I end up with like
a hundred things in my card use all this at
one time slowed down. So I've always been passionate about
clean beauty of always love Credo, and so when I
had the opportunity to partner with them, it was just
like I was doing a happy dance. So everyone in
the group is so amazing and just such a great
(07:22):
group of strong women and just opening barriers and doing something,
creating an unbelievable marketplace for people to do all things clean.
And where does the name eleven come from? So eleven
is about the pursuit of your best self. So it's
going past a ten and it's going to eleven. So
(07:43):
it's very, very exciting for me to spread this message
because you can still be on eleven and not have
your best day or even fail. It just means you
have to get more skills. And we don't ask for
less challenges, we ask for more skills. So that whole,
the whole idea of being eleven is that life is
up and down, but you always give that effort of
(08:05):
a level and it always pays off, even if it
doesn't pay off at that moment. And more anything, you
look back with no regret. You look back and say, hey,
I gave everything, and it prepares you for that next
that next question, how does being you know to become
(08:33):
this athlete that you are, which I know you know,
I've I've read every book, I've seen every every single
you know match? How does this prepare you for being
an entrepreneur? It is everything And I don't really think
I really, really, really really realized that until you start
(08:54):
getting more into management and you start to realize, oh, okay, well,
the things I'm trying to to build in my team
and things i'm trying to to own the board people,
all these are the things I learned on the court.
You learn to deal with so much pressure that and
the things that you learned from it. It's everything you
(09:15):
need in business. So I recommend every person to to
play a sport to challenge themselves physically, whether your young
person or at any age. It's extremely important. And you
have other brands too I want to talk about. So
tell me about the Venus Williams collection for Astura. Is
that how you say? Yes, it's called sutra. Yeah, so
(09:40):
tell tell me about that company. Yes, I live and
breed active self care and I discovered a sutra and
that we just provide active self care for everyone. So
it's scam of care and it's extremely exciting for me
to be a part of that too. I have a
whole shelf of my uture and there's some things that
(10:01):
I just don't travel without, especially my rose oil. I
give that one away all the time, so I'm always
running out. But it's about about how you feel and
also how you look. Obviously, but it's about how you
feel and being able to feel great. So there's some
amazing products with magnesium and those are to help you sleep,
(10:26):
and also there's products that are amazing for pain as well,
to ease your pain cream and all the different sprays.
What's in the pain cream, So magnesium, Well we should
start with the magnesium first. But I am and also
have these strange boozes that I get so and I
(10:47):
think they're just a product of you know, I live
with an autoimmune disease. So the one thing that I
couldn't think of anything to get rid of, and then
I was just like black and blue for no apparent reasons. So, uh,
the only thing I think of is to use to
use my pain cream, and they after weeks of being there,
it finally disappeared. So I've just found lots of different
ways to to use them. Yeah, magnesium is amazing. I
(11:12):
mean I've been taking ebbs and salts baths for forever
and so you know, I take magnesium before bed. It
shuts my brain off, it really helps. But I'm really
excited about these products. There's their sprays, skin cares. Do
you have any favorites? I do have favorites. So of
course they ease your pain. And active ingredients and mental
(11:36):
and other inactive ingredients as well. Um are in there,
including oil of Ba bab, oil anika, those sorts of things.
But not one of my favorites is the rose oil.
I use that all day and all night, and I
give those away like like going crazy. I love the
magnesium soaking salts. There's you know there, there are soap bars.
(12:02):
There's so many things that the Roman Therapy miss. Also,
I never leave home without my my Mr Mute Mood
lavender spray. Okay, Now, as far as beauty, you also
have your launching some new lip bombs, four colors. Tell
me about that. I'm I really excited. Do they have sunscreen? Yes?
(12:23):
So this is also in partnership with Creto. So we're
launching our lip bomb and it's four colors and one
of them is bright red. So it involves care for
your lips, extremely important, something that some people forget to do.
You've got to moisturize your lips, you've got to scrub
them also, they need care. So we want to protect
(12:46):
the lips also, and so we've got the clear color
and then we have the bright red. We've got the
bright reds called venus So and I love that one
because you can layer it to be bright or more mild.
So I'm extremely excited about those two. You know, you
could put it on your cheeks too when you're going out.
That's an old makeup artist, you know, hack. But well,
(13:10):
when I was growing up and all you had was
just all I had was you know, you're funding yourself
when you're like thirteen, so you just have one piece.
You have the lipsticks, so you have to put it
on your eye. You gotta put in the cheeks, you know. Yeah,
but now that's what the girls are doing. And are
there other products that you're you know, working on either
(13:30):
in your head or they're actually coming out or yes,
lots of products. Of course, can't talk about it, yeah,
of course, yeah, but it's gonna be now. I'm very
excited about this whole thing. You also have been such,
you know, a role model for women of not just
in sports, but in confidence and feeling good in your
(13:51):
body and being so you and you know, for so
many years, we all kind of had this vision in
our head that we have to be a certain way,
and then you see these beautiful, strong, women who are
like like nothing else you've ever seen, and it made
all of us just realized that I need to feel
good about myself. So you empowering and all these great things.
(14:14):
I also know you have a line of athletic wear. Yes, yes,
so the athletic wear is called eleven, and the sunscreen
is also eleven. So they on the defense sun science
and sun serums and also the new lit bomb that's
launching now that it's just launches all eleven. So so
(14:36):
it's all under that umbrella. Yeah. And wellness is more
than what you wear. Wellness is so many other things.
So we've you know, started this skincare and the bomb
obviously to encompass that philosophy. And have you always been
confident or is it something that morphed into we'll Growing
(14:59):
up in my house, it wasn't an option. It had
to be. That was what we were taught to be confident,
strong and sure. So it was part of my upbringing
to be honest. But I was also um, super naive
and oblivious to the world around me. I got to
be a child, so I didn't think so much about
(15:21):
what I looked like. I didn't know that my look
was wet growing up. My sister and I were just
talking about that. She she says, you know, I knew
that I didn't look great, And she said, you know,
the next year, I promised myself I was gonna look better,
and I said, well, I didn't even know I didn't
look great at the time. So but we also were
not allowed to worry about what anyone else thought. So
(15:42):
we were taught there's no such thing as peer pressure.
You make your own choices. So I grew up in
a household that really emphasized confidence, and I'm glad that
it was something that was taught. And it's also something earned.
And by doing the work, you do earn confidence. So
it's good to start from me young age to pursue
something where you're disciplined, you know, whether that's music or
(16:06):
or sport or something that requires different discipline, as it
gives you that confidence. And how many hours a day
do you train? Oh, nowadays I get myself in four
or five good hours of training, so that's split between
the court and the gym, and then I do some
(16:26):
more time with physio, so I'm basically going nine to five,
just a little bit of a different way, but I
I have become what I think is feral. Now. I
hate being indoors. So even at the office, I gotta
step I gotta go walk outside every couple hours or so.
It's getting worse every hour. I gotta go step out.
(16:50):
Well I do. I do a lot of my meetings
um on when I'm walking. I just you know, I'll
walk for a couple hours just by you know, making
the phone calls I do. Interview is because it clears
the cobwebs out of my brain, that's for sure. Yeah,
I mean outside is refreshing. I've been threatening to like
do a zoom meeting in the pool. Why not? Why?
(17:13):
Why not? Why not? And I also know that you
are you know, you love design and you've had an
interior design firm since you're twenty three. Yeah, since I
was twenty three. And today we were actually just designing
some fabric h so, you know, getting down and write
(17:33):
down to the process of sketching and figuring out what
that looks like. And I don't think my design team
has seen me this meeting. When I when I love
the design, I get happy. So I literally started like
giggling and like we're like me, what's going on with
you like I'm but with the just the same terrible design.
I also get agitated. It's something about design that really
(17:54):
drives me and it brings out my eyes and blows.
So yeah, at the Star interior as we we design
mostly honestly commercial spaces of hospitality, hotels, comdominium, so all
those kinds of things. Um, we had a great project
with Serena just on the cover of Architectural diets Us
(18:15):
our special client. That was that's good. I don't know
how she got to but yeah, okay, yeah, I saw,
I saw it. It was really really beautiful, really really beautiful.
And did I miss any businesses? I mean, I think
that's enough, right, I think I should do anymore. Now
(18:47):
this podcast is I've been interviewing beauty founders, and since
the show is called Beyond the Beauty, I always asked
the same questions, So what does beauty mean to you?
Beauty is about feeling good? It really is, because if
you don't feel good, doesn't matter how conventionally beautiful you are,
(19:09):
you don't feel that way, it doesn't even matter. It's
about being comfortable with yourself, happy with you. And if
you aren't happy with yourself, there's ways to figure that
out too, So that to me, that's beauty. And what's
your daily skincare routine? Daily skincare routine? Usually the first
(19:29):
thing I do is get up and go train. So
I usually just wash my face, sometimes with just hot water,
but with just water, and then I put on my
my skincare, my sunscreen, and most of my routine it
comes after my training, So that's when I put on everything,
and then I have a night routine too, heavy creams
daytime is like my rose oil by a sutra, and
(19:52):
maybe some tea tree oils and light things and things
like that. So um, I keep it pretty simple. I
love to try so many things, but I have a
ton of problems scanned too, so I also have to
be careful. But it's sad. I love to drive new
stuff and not to be careful. And what about makeup
on a casual day of all about the lash and
(20:17):
lash will save your life or ruin it if you
don't have any. So I love a lash on the court.
I'm a part of the eyeliner club, so I love
a waterproof eyeliner that will change your life too. You
have that like that, that intense stare with the eyeliner
and you know, looking at your opponent down the court.
(20:39):
But I usually like to keep it pretty natural because
I actually feel more confident with less makeup and so
on a photoshoot, of course you're wearing much more, but
in real life, for me, I need less, and everyone
knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with health and wellness,
and I love to eat and I love to work out.
(21:00):
But I want to know, like what you eat on
a normal day, Like are you on a special diet
for your for for your tennis, or you on a
special diet for your health concerns. What's your normal Well? Well,
I mostly eat a plant based diet, but I veer
right and left all the time. I'm usually gluten free too,
until I run into some biscotti that I can't resive.
(21:22):
So I'm just a regular person doing the fight every
single day. But for the most part, I'm plant based.
And I guess this is something we didn't talk about.
I live. I don't know about you on on shakes,
protein shakes, green drinks, all of that stuff, so way
(21:43):
or or or vegan, I usually do. I prefer vegan,
so I do like p protein is really my my
base do you have a favorite green uh product that
you throw in or do you just do regular greens?
M I'll do regular greens and powders. I just picked
(22:05):
up one in Australia. It was like fantastic. I've never
had one so tasty. So I don't know what it's called.
The honest is my kitchen over there? Um. But in
terms of protein, actually, I just launched protein drink called
Happy Viking. So there's more. See, there's there's more. Okay,
(22:25):
Happy Viking. Yes, So what's different about this protein drink though?
It's it's really about fueling your body. So it's got
all nine amino acids, and it's got the d H
a Omega three's sunflower oil and so it's about fueling
your mind also, so it's a complete mind body macronutrients
(22:50):
twenty grams of protein for serving, so really taking in
every part of your body. But I survive off of
this stuff. I don't know about you, but so do I.
I I have the only way I get to eat sometimes. Yeah, well,
I I have bad digestion. I had a I'm the
only person that eats a really healthy salad for lunch
and gets the stomach ache. So I'll be Yeah, I'll
(23:11):
be having bone broth or a shake for dinner. I do,
I do my best one. You know, I'm either baby
food or or I'm like, you know, a ninety year old.
I'm not sure. So you digestion is not great? Then
you really need to cook your vegetables. Yeah, yeah, raw.
It may be hard on your stomach. Yeah, so it is,
and that's why I don't do it that much. Well,
(23:31):
what about things like the fun stuff like alcohol? Oh?
I love it? Oh yeah, yes, my kind of girl,
My kind of girl. What's your alcohol of choice at
the moment, I was doing a ton of bubbles, So
a lot of bubbles, anything with a bubble um. What
(23:52):
have I gone to recently? I have been drinking a
lot recently because I've been on tour. When I go
on tour, I don't I'm like a saint, So yeah,
I don't think about drinking. But yeah, a lot of champagne,
lot of rose. Yeah, I'm switching back to vodka recently. Yeah,
I'm I'm mostly a vodka. I do tequila on occasion
(24:14):
when I want to dance, so you know, it depends.
How about caffeine? Are you a coffee drinker. No, I
am not, are you. I haven't expresso every morning, yeah,
which I should. It's probably not good for my tommy,
but it's kind of my Between that and the vodka
at night. You know, you could you could fix anything
you want during the day, but those two things are
(24:36):
not a coachable Yeah. So I would drink more if
it didn't put much so much weight on you. So
I basically do you have to think about your weight
with all your your movement. I think it's just you know,
maybe a vanity thing and you can get anyway and
still be be a great professional athlete. Obviously if you
(24:59):
are carrying much away. Yes, it's probably hard around your joints,
and probably you're you start to lose your lose a step,
but I think you know, you have to gain probably
significant want to get there. Yeah, it's so it's so
awesome for you to share that with people that it's
not just us mere mortals that have to deal with
these things, you know. So no, I think that's incredible.
(25:22):
And one last, one last question is what do you
do for fun? Oh my gosh, Well, I've got this
little dog. He's always with me. He's over here on
the side killing I sing karaoke a ton of my
own microphone during quarantine, and I would sing at least
once a month for a few hours. That like was
(25:43):
very therapeutic. Um. I love movies, especially bad ones. I
spent a ton of time with my family. I love languages,
so lots of things that I do for fun. I
love to dance board. I love to dance, So you're
probably a fantastic dancer. Thank you for saying that. But
(26:05):
no one's gonna pay me to dance. Well, I I
I love to dance. It's my favorite thing. It's not pretty,
but I don't care. I don't care if I love
it happy right? It does. It makes me feel good.
So where could all these people that are listening to
that want more Venus? They want to buy all those
products because I I do. Yes, So for Happy Viking
(26:27):
you can go to Happy Viking dot com or Amazon
for eleven, you can go ahead and head over to
our our website loving buy Venus for Sutra and suture
dot com, and um, of course always go check out Creetle.
It was really a pleasure. This means a lot to me.
Thanks so much. All right bye For more podcasts from
(26:49):
I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
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