Classic Episode: Rai Benjamin on being a business, a brand, and an olympian

Rai is an American professional hurdler and sprinter specializing in the 400 m and 400 m hurdles. He is the second fastest man in history in the 400 m hurdles. He won a silver medal at his first Olympic Games in 2021 and at the World Championships in 2019 in the men's 400 m hurdles, and gold medals in the 4 × 400 m relay.

Rai discusses his journey to becoming one of the fastest people alive. The sacrifices athletes make, balancing an athletic career & personal life, representing himself as a business, his eating habits on and off-season, his future endeavors, and advice to anyone who wants to become an athlete.

Host IG:@itstanyatime

Guest IG: @kingben

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Pay money Movers, Welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenlands. Our

(00:23):
celebrity guest this week is an American professional hurdler and
sprinter specializing in the four hundred meter and the four
hundred meter hurdles. He is determined to become one of
the best hurdlers that's ever been, and so far he's
off to not just a good start, but a fast start.
In college, he set a four hundred meter relay record

(00:44):
and at the World Championships he won gold and silver,
and just this summer at the Olympics in Tokyo, he
brought home both gold and silver medals for Team USA,
breaking records in the process. I am honored and super
excited to welcome to the Money Moves Podcast one of
the fastest men alive, Team USA's own Olympian Rye Benjamin

(01:08):
hi Ry Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank you,
thank you for having me. Oh my gosh, you're happy
to talk and you know, chop things up. Yeah, let's
do it. Let's do it so ry. Congratulations on all
your success and hard work this summer. I think every
kid was at home watching you win gold medals and

(01:28):
it was truly a historic and incredible, incredible race to watch.
So congratulations, Thank you. How does it feel to be
back now? Are you back in the US? Now? Yeah,
I'm back in l A. Uh it was. It was
pretty good. It was kind of strange, you know, especially
you know, being in the village for like two weeks,

(01:50):
you know, kind of being confined to a space, and
then now you're back and it's like it just it
feels sort of weird, like it almost it's almost like
nothing ever happened. So yeah, it's been pretty good. Uh I.
I was in Oregon a day or two ago for
my last meet and now we're in like full vacation
mode right now. Okay, so now you get a little

(02:12):
bit of downtime. What does vacation mode look like for
a professional athlete? Because I can't imagine you're sitting around
eating five guys and like, am i am? How was
that shake Shack yesterday? And I just had pop Eyes
for for lunch today too, So I'm enjoying it. Okay, Well,
I guess I take that back. Yeah, yeah for me vacations,

(02:33):
Like I mean, of course, I don't have the luxury
of eating at you know a lot of good restaurants
here because of you know, dietary restrictions throughout the year.
So I'm trying to experience the l a food scene
some more. Um So that's the goal for this offseason. Um.

(02:54):
I'm going jet skiing next week with my boys and
uh some of their friends. We're go in a jet
ski from Long Beach to Catalina. Oh wow, I love this. Yeah,
that should be pretty fun. And then I'm heading to
New York back home for a couple of days. Uh,
so you know, hang out in the city a little bit,

(03:15):
you know, experience that food scene because I love food
and stuff like that. So that's that. Those are my
plans right now. That's great. Well you deserve it, so,
I know. You know, so many kids dream of being
an Olympic medalist and competing amongst the world's greats. And
one of the things we love to talk about on
the Money Moves podcasts is just excellence. And you truly

(03:36):
embody that can we talk about, you know, the mindset
that it takes to really become an Olympian and where
are you sort of first saw those sparks? Were you won?
Were you two? Were you three? Or did this come
late in life? Um? Well, first of all, it's it's
I know it sounds cliche, but it's a lot of sacrifice,

(03:56):
Like a lot of sacrifice, Um, not going home for Christmas,
not going home for Thanksgiving, you know, just being here
locked in on on on what it is that you
want to achieve in knowing that you know, this small
sacrifice right now is gonna set me up later along
in life for or you're going to reap the benefits later.

(04:18):
But um, I think I noticed how driven I was, um,
probably my sophomore year in high school, Um, just to
be you know, even great then on on that scene,
wanting to be the best in my area in New York.
And uh, I think it started from there. And I

(04:39):
think that work ethic um through track kind of golled
over into my personal life. And uh, I think I
got even more so serious about it my junior year
in college. My first two years, I kinda I was
just having fun, you know, you know, your first year
in college you kind of want to experience some things,
and and and and do a lot, and you know,

(05:01):
I was definitely having fun, but I think I kind
of locked in on what it is I needed to
do my junior year in college. And did you go
to college on a track scholarship? Yeah, I went. So
I went to u c. L A for two years
and then I transferred to USC for my last two years.
But I only ran collegiately one year and then I

(05:22):
went pro. But I gotta say I experienced both both
ends of l A, you know, the U. C l
A side and the USC side, So it definitely is uh,
definitely was a great experience. So when you talk about
this drive and being able to tap into that drive, Um,
what does the training schedule of an Olympian look like?

(05:42):
Because I think a lot of times, you know, I
want our audience and our young listeners out there to
really understand that mindset and what it takes to be
excellent at that level. So tell us about, you know,
an average training day. So in the fall, that's when
I mean, that's what we call it, that's what the
money is made. Um, and that's when you put the

(06:02):
big deposits in. It's it's pretty hectic. So um uh,
we start at I probably lift that around ten o'clock
and I lived for about an hour, sometimes an hour
and twenty, depending on how long the lift is and
how strenuous it is. And then we come back for
a second session during the day from one to maybe

(06:25):
about three o'clock. And um, in between that time you're
doing you're doing prehab stuff to get prepared for practice,
to get ready for that second session, and it's it's
it's a lot of running, a lot of technique stuff
getting done. UM. So that's Mondays and Tuesday's Wednesdays, I'm

(06:45):
up at four fifty because we have practice at five
am in the morning, and it's like we're running hills
out here in l A and it's it's pretty dark.
So you're like, you're you're going to practice and it's
like you can't see anything at all, and it's it's
dark outside, and it's like, yeah, run up this hill
a few times. We're usually out there for like an
hour or two hours sometimes. So that's a Wednesday and uh,

(07:10):
and then we have the rest of the day off,
but it's a it's a lot of those days back
to back to back. UM, Saturday sometimes we have off,
but it just depends on what we're doing that week.
So with this Olympian mindset, and you talked about you
know in the falls where the money is made, do
you correlate this to making deals that can actually translate
into money or you know, cultivating your skills and talents

(07:33):
as a hurdler. I mean, I'll go with that lot.
The latter statement, um is cultivating those skills and realizing that, Okay,
this is what I need to do to get better
in order for me to have a successful spring season.
So for a lot of us, the pandemic was a
hard hit to our day to day regiments. Obviously it

(07:55):
pushed the Olympics back in extra year, but how did
it affect your training regiment? And did you notice the difference?
Was it a benefit? Uh? For me? Was it was
rough because now you spent so the pandemic hit, what
was it March? About March so in you spent the

(08:19):
later half of preparing. January came around, you're preparing, February
came around your preparing and you know, I felt really good.
And then as an athlete and as a person like
you set goals like this is where this is what
we're training for. So now we're going to work back
from that in order to get there. And the goal

(08:43):
was the Olympics, and now you take the end goal
away and now it's like what are we doing? Like
what then? Like what's happening now? And when COVID first started,
everyone was just scared mind us, like we didn't know
what to do. We didn't know the effect of this,

(09:04):
of this virus and stuff like it was rough, like
it's really rough. So and now we're all indoors, sitting down,
and then it was just a moment where I was
just lost and it was like do we keep practicing?
How can we keep practicing? Facilities are closed? And then
they announced that, okay, it's being postponed, so now we

(09:26):
have to find ways to train um without being on
a track. So I don't know if you're familiar with
l A, but like we were just everywhere at Griffith Park,
at Culver City, in the neighborhoods, like people were coming
out on their on their front steps like watching us
like run in their streets like it was legit crazy.

(09:47):
It was. We were doing everything. I was like, you know,
doing workouts in the alleyway here downtown, like it was
just it was just ridiculous anywhere you can get anywhere
you can and and and we worked because we knew
that all right, Like we can't take the whole year
off because that's just not something you can afford to do, uh,
in this sport. So you know, we worked and we

(10:09):
were able to salvage you know, whatever it was of
the season that we have doing it safely. Um. Thankfully
none of us, you know, got COVID and we were
really safe about it. And uh, you know, we did
what we needed to do. But that year was just
very trying, and it just made you realize that I
can't take things for granted because just you know, things

(10:31):
could just disappear from right in front of you just
like that. So it was just one of those moments. Well,
I applaud you because I know that hard work paid
off and you know, getting to the Olympics and taking
home the medals you did, like it is a huge accomplishment. UM.
A couple more questions for you and then we'll let
you go. So I mean, in addition to being a

(10:53):
highly trained athlete, you are also a business. You know,
can you tell us about you? Look at you know,
your athletic We're as a business opportunity, um and how
you sort of manage that? Uh well, I like to
sometimes refer to myself as a walking billboard for Nike,

(11:14):
because I mean, you know they, you know, they and
the essence pay me to perform well and support and
represent their brand as well. But you know, through do athletics,
like as a business. If I think of myself as
a business, it's it's from a marketing sense, you know.
Um I I I don't necessarily get too involved in

(11:40):
the nitty gritty of actually running a business because it's
so time consuming what I'm when I'm doing right now. Also,
it's very time consuming, so it's hard to really navigate
that whole you know, like all right, like how do
I build a business from the startup and all that
type of stuff. But I look at it from a
marketing standpoint, like how can I represent myself on an

(12:02):
international stage, on a global stage? Um? And you know,
be personal, be relatable and and be able to sell
a product. And that's the way I look at it.
And you know, so far, I think I've been doing
a good job, you know, I I think I have
been and uh I try to be responsible with you know,

(12:25):
the way I even spend money and how I allocate
funds and stuff like that, and it's been a lot
of saving. Um. I like cars, so everybody has advice.
I can see the second fastest man in the world
should like cars. I like, I like cars, so like
that's my that's my hobby and stuff like that. So

(12:45):
all right, so now you've gotta tell us, like what
cars do you have and what's your dream car? So
my dream car is a Lamborghini eventa door SPJ that's
my dream car. But right now I have I have
a range Rover and I just bought an outright. Yeah,
so that's It's it's been pretty exciting here the past

(13:06):
couple of days. But yeah, but I I tried to
be smart about it. Um, I try to make if
it doesn't make sense economically, then I will never ever
make that decision. But I mean it's it's, you know,
one of those things where I worked hard and that
was my goal. You know, I told myself if I meddled,

(13:30):
if I meddled twice, I would get that car. And uh,
you know, I got it done. And that was like
one of my that was my only treat to myself. Actually, Wow,
that's got to feel so good. Like now I felt
really it was unreal because you know it's like, as
a kid, you saw that car. It wasn't like Iron
Man and you want that car and you you I

(13:50):
was walked into dealerships and saw it and like you
just have no idea of how you're gonna get there
and how you're gonna do it, but you just know
you're gonna do it. And it was just surreal to
just drive off the lot of car. It was just
honestly insane. Oh I love it. What a feeling. Yeah,
and it's been it's been pretty good. But you know,
as as a as a person and as a as

(14:12):
a business, I try to represent myself as best as
I can because as athletes that that's what we could do,
and that's what I could do in this moment. Definitely,
post track, I definitely want to venture into, you know,
the financial side of of of business. Um, so you know,
we'll see, we'll we'll see. You know. I I know

(14:33):
quite a few people here in l A. And you know,
being a USC alum that also helps tremendously because I've
met so many amazing people that just genuinely want to
help you, so, I mean hopefully, you know, when this
is all said and done, then I could venture into
something else, you know, pretty exciting and do some things
there as well too. Well, that's great, and we will

(14:55):
definitely be looking out to see more from you, shaving
off times, war medals, and of course entrepreneurial pursuits. You know,
there's a lot of people in the Money Moves audience
that have young kids, up and coming athletes that would
of course love to follow in your footsteps and pursue
their dreams to become a professional athlete. And I know
a lot of the legalities are changing now in terms

(15:17):
of sponsorship at the collegiate level and in high school.
Can you offer any advice to our audience on how
parents and athletes can help, you know, monetize and pursue
those goals? Uh? Yeah, sure, I mean it's been very interesting, uh,
these past couple of months with this new n a
lie thing going on. I wish right when I was

(15:40):
in school, I mean, who couldn't use some money? But
of course, but it's it's it's very interesting, and it's
a very tricky situation because now you were giving young
kids essentially you know, some won't even be eighteen or
just turned eighteen, and and you've never handled this much

(16:00):
money before, and it's like what do I do with it?
And like you can't spend it all because of course
you have to pay taxes on that money, depending on
you know where it is where if if you're in
Florida here in California, you have to pay taxes with
that money and stuff like that, and you have to
be smart with it because, like I said, nothing lasts forever,

(16:21):
and that money will be it could be gone quickly.
And especially being a freshman in in college, you see
all these nice things and you think that, Okay, I
have the money to buy it, so let me go
do that. But you know, sometimes it's just not the case,
and it's not the smart move right now. Um, like

(16:41):
I said, like, do you guys hear I mean, like
I said, like, if it doesn't make financial sense, you know,
in two to five years, then don't do it. But
I mean, the the advice I would have is, you know,
sit down, speak to your kids, talk to them about
the importance of money and saving money and and you know,

(17:05):
spending responsibly. Um, I'm not saying that you. I'm not
saying to not go buy things that you like and
stuff like that. But you know, have them make that
important decision. It's it's it's their life, and at some point,
you know, they have to take accountability for what they're doing.
But I mean it's a it's a it's an awesome

(17:27):
time right now for kids coming out of high school
to make money. And like I said, like if you're personable,
if you're relatable, I mean that goes a long, long
long way. And being the face of a brand that
could you know, that that could push and and and
and sell numbers. I mean, like you're you're in a

(17:47):
you're in a great position, and especially being on the
collegiate scene where things like March madness is like crazy.
You know, people you know love football when it's on
and stuff like that. So it's a great time. It's
a fantastic, pretty exciting. Yeah. Yeah, to market yourself and
and you know, be that young person and be that

(18:08):
individual that you've seen on the TV, whether it's like
Steph or Lebron or right or yeah me, you know,
Kevin Durant. You know, but it doesn't matter, you know,
you know, be that person and you know, don't take
it for granted. And the one thing I would say

(18:28):
is is just you know, no matter since you would
just be respectful, that would go a long way, a
very very long way. And that's that's my two cents
on that's great advice. That's that's a whole dollar right
there of advice. You've got a great head on your shoulder.
So such a pleasure talking to you. And I'd be
remiss if I didn't ask you what your favorite songs
on your playlist were. I need to know what Olympians

(18:50):
trained to, So like, what are you listening to these days?
And what when you got metal? Listen to everything? I'm
kind of drink if you're watching this as a can neant,
I'm a true fan. So I love that you mentioned Drake. Yeah,
I listened to a lot of Drake. Uh, but I
have a lot of Drake on the playlist. I listened
to a lot of g herbo Um, a lot of

(19:13):
young Dolf. I'm like, secretly like the biggest young dolphan.
I feel like the best trapper coming out the South,
you know, honestly, Uh, no shade to anyone else, but
let's tell you a lot of young Dolf I listened
to Hans Zimmer. I really like his his his movie scores,

(19:33):
stuff like that. So I think that's like sometimes you
just wanna you just want to, you know, chill and
get to that. It's like more of a meditative type. Yeah. Yeah,
for me to think about what it is I have
to do without you know, having everyone um wrap it
you and stuff like that. So I mean it's ah,
that's uh, that's basically my my playlists and honesty. That's great. Okay, last,

(19:59):
but not what's your average training day meal? Look like?
Average training day meal? Uh? So in the morning, I'll
have two eggs or three, depending on what I'm doing
that day, um, some bacon, avocado toast, and sometimes I'll

(20:20):
have coffee like I have like a little coffee maker
behind you. That's pretty nice. Um, and uh, for lunch,
I'll probably have something like depending on because of course
I have to go run in the afternoon, so I'll
probably have like a sandwich or something like that. And
then for dinner, I'll probably do salmon or steak, some potatoes, rice. Uh.

(20:43):
It just yeah, it depends on what I'm feeling that day.
I'll just go to Whole Foods. I'll look up an
I'll look up a recipe online and then I'll go
to Hope Foods and grab what I need and just
make that that night of wow. Well, we love it, right,
it was such a pleasure having you here on the
Money Moves Podcast. We're really proud of the work you've
put in. Thank you for representing Team USA this summer,

(21:03):
and congratulations on winning these medals. All the best to you.
I hope you shave off seconds and minutes off your
time in the future. Thank you so much for being here,
Wishing you all the best, all the best, Thank you
so much. Thank you guys for having me appreciate it
so much. All right, stay tuned, and right before you leave,
can you tell everybody where they can find you on
social media? Okay? So on Twitter, i am Underscore King

(21:28):
Ben Underscore and it's also the same on Instagram as well,
Underscore King Ben. Okay, so you've heard it there, follow
him there and we'll keep our eyes peeled for what's
coming next for you. All right, Money Moves, fam that's
all we have for this episode of the Money Moves
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(21:50):
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