September 3, 2025 • 43 mins
Sloane Stephens is a Grand Slam champion whose career has been defined as much by resilience as by remarkable wins. On this episode of She Pivots, Sloane opens up about her journey from a late-blooming tennis prodigy to a U.S. Open champion, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. She reflects on navigating the grief of losing her father and stepfather at a young age, building balance and normalcy in a sport that demands constant travel and pressure, and pursuing new goals - from higher education to a broadcasting career - while battling injuries. Beyond the court, she shares how founding the Sloane Stephens Foundation and launching her body-care brand, Doc & Glo, have allowed her to channel her values into impact, expanding her legacy far beyond tennis.
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Sloane, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sloane Stephens (00:00):
Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Seln Stephens.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. I'm
(00:34):
so excited to welcome the incredible Sloane Stevens to the
show this week. She's not only one of the best
tennis players in the world, She's conquered every challenge in
front of her on and off the court. My mom,
the biggest tennis fan, will be the first to tell
you that she is a powerhouse on the court. Sloane
first onto the scene as a teenager, taking down some
(00:56):
of the game's biggest names, and in twenty seventeen, she
shots the sports world by winning the US Open. And
what makes that victory even more extraordinary is that she
had been ranked outside the top nine hundred just months
before sidelined with the major foot injury. Instead of letting
that setback end her career, she used it as a
(01:18):
launchpad for one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history.
But Sloane's story doesn't stop there. She's continually redefined what
success looks like, and each plot twist has opened up
a new dimension of who she is. She became a
philanthropist early on, founding the Sloane Stevens Foundation to bring
tennis and educational opportunities to kids in underserved communities, and
(01:42):
she didn't just lend her name. She built programs that
today reached thousands of young people every year, And just
this year, she became the first tennis player ever to
win the Mohammed Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, recognizing not only
her impact on the court, but also her ruins as
a humanitarian and advocate. Then she made the leap into entrepreneurship.
(02:06):
Drawing from her own life as an athlete constantly on
the move, Sloan created doc and Blow, a clean, high
performance body care company. It's a brand rooted in her
value sustainability, inclusion, and self care. Plus, it's named for
her grandparents, who shaped her sense of resilience and purpose.
Sloane's journey reminds us that life is rarely a straight line.
(02:28):
It's full of twists and turns and pivots, and it's
the way you meet them that shapes the story you
get to tell. For Sloan, every setback became an opening,
every win platform to expand into something bigger. I can't
wait for you to hear her story. My name is
Slune Sevens.
Sloane Stephens (02:48):
I'm a professional tennis player, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist.
Emily Tisch Sussman (02:53):
Let's back up, Let's go all the way back to
the beginning. Let's go a little Sloan. Tell us about
was little Sloan another little fire Yes, devil Sloan. Yeah.
Sloane Stephens (03:02):
I grew up in Fresno, California, which is like a
very small, like agricultural town in California, right in the
middle of the state. I started playing tennis because I
lived across the street from the club and it looked
very fun. I started just in like summer camp and
just playing casually. I rode my back across the street
to camp into my lessons, and eventually we ended up
(03:24):
moving to Florida and I started playing more seriously. I
played an end academy there, I started homeschooling. I just
kind of like took like the normal course of like
kids moving to Florida to play more tennis and like
become better tennis players.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:41):
Where you stand out right away, where all of a
sudden it became like, Okay, this is the thing that
she's doing, or it was just a little more casual.
I think it was a little bit more casual.
Sloane Stephens (03:48):
I was good, obviously, I had like I was athletic,
I had good hand eye coordination, like I was good,
but I wasn't like the best in my group.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:55):
And I started a little bit late. I started playing tennis.
Sloane Stephens (03:57):
I was nine, So obviously when I got to Florida,
there had been girls that had been playing tournaments, like
they had like this tournament called Little mo and they'd
been playing since they were five, like playing tournaments. And
I was like, I don't even know to keep score,
Like it's like I don't even know all the rules
of this sport. But I started a little bit late.
I played a ton with my stepdad. He's the one
who like really got me into playing tennis. He played
(04:18):
tennis a bunch, and we would go all the time,
we would hit, we would go on the weekends. Like
it was just like kind of like a really fun
like family thing that we all did. No one else
in my family played tennis. My mom was a swimmer,
my dad was a football player. Everyone in my family
plays golf, and yeah, I somehow ended up playing tennis,
and I was not very not that I wasn't very good.
Emily Tisch Sussman (04:39):
I was good. I was always good, but I just
wasn't at the time.
Sloane Stephens (04:42):
Like I wasn't the number one in my group or
I wasn't like the standout in my age group or whatever.
So I was good, but I wasn't the best, which
I think kind of actually helped me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (04:51):
So I want to go back to when you moved
from California to Florida. Did you move to play That's
a very big family decision to move you across the country.
Sloane Stephens (05:01):
I always say that I was gonna come in. My
mom had a mid life crisis and was like, we're
moving to Florida. Everyone get up and we're going. But no,
I was born in Florida and I until I was three,
we moved, then we moved back to California, and then
we're moving back. It was to play tennis, I would say,
but it was also because my mom always wanted to
move back to Florida. So it was kind of like
all of that in one and honestly just kind of
(05:24):
like worked out that way. And yeah, I mean that
was kind of like Okay, we're gonna kill two boards
in one stone type of thing. It was super fun.
I went to like there was a school across the
street from the academy I went to. That's where I
met my husband in fifth grade. So like all of
these things happened, like it was great and yeah, I
feel like I don't know, Like I mean, I need
to ask my mom, Like I don't know exactly like
(05:45):
why she was like, let's get up and move. But
I just felt like it was a part of our
journey and it just worked, like it just made sense.
It worked like I had an uncle that was there,
two uncles that were there, and like.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:55):
It fell like home. Like it was great, Like from
the moment we moved there, it was like it was exciting.
I feel like the decision to move closer to the
academies in Florida and to start homeschooling are if you
look at an athlete's bio, two very big significant turning points.
We're like, all right, we're really doing this. Did it
feel like that at the time for you? No, not
(06:16):
at all.
Sloane Stephens (06:17):
I'm like I was so unseerious until I was like fifteen,
I got invited. It's like my first like usta like
camp where you go and like they look at your
game and you get I guess, like chosen from like
one of the best players in the country, and like
that was fun. Like that was exciting. But of course
I wasn't the number one in my age groups. I
was never like, oh, it's going to be me. Like
when I got invited to my first camp, I was like, oh,
(06:39):
hell yeah, it was exciting, right because I never thought
that that would have been me. So I think because
I was like, oh, like this is exciting, Like every
point was exciting, Like every time I got picked for
a camp or in the group to go like to
travel like international or whatever, it was like I was like,
this is great, Like I loved it. And I think
it was because I hadn't played for so long. I
(07:00):
hadn't experience like ten years of playing tournaments. I was
like three years into playing tournaments, and I was like,
this is so fun. Like I had that excitement up
until I was like a little bit older, so like
when kids were kind of dying out and quitting already,
I was like just getting it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:14):
I was just like, oh, this is fun.
Sloane Stephens (07:16):
I get to have my first sleepover at a hotel,
like there's no one like checking on us. Like that
was like exciting, right, Like all the other things that
had nothing to do with tennis were like very exciting,
and then tennis was just like my vehicle to like
do more.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:31):
You obviously come from an athletic family, but before you
started playing tennis, or even maybe around then, did you
have visions of what you wanted to be when you
grow up, Like did you think it was going to
be some version of an athlete or was this something
totally different? Not at all.
Sloane Stephens (07:45):
That's so weird because I never wanted to be a
professional atl Like I didn't think that was like so cool,
Like I just was like.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:51):
Okay, like I'm here, like yeah, I don't know.
Sloane Stephens (07:54):
Growing up, probably like when I was a little bit older,
like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, like my family on funeral homes,
So I always wanted to be an inbalmer, but it's
nothing to do with tennis, obviously, And before that, I
don't remember saying like, oh I want to be a chef.
I want to be a professional athlete, Like I don't
really remember that, and I think I always say, like
tennis shows me like I didn't choose cennis, and I
think that sometimes things are just kind of meant to align,
(08:16):
and I think again, Yeah, it just happened this way,
and like it was good.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:20):
I loved it.
Sloane Stephens (08:21):
It was competitive, Like I love everything about tennis, and
like I never woke up one day saying like I
want to be a professional tennis player.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:26):
But like, as it happened, I was like, this is
kind of cool. It's so funny. As you're talking through this,
I realized that this might not be striking to you,
but there is a lot of interest in the business
of funerals. Oh really, and like the fat I mean
six feet under is a huge Yeah, I know that's true.
I feel like the fact that you were a little
kid who wanted to be an embalmer is actually like
we should pause here. It's actually quite interesting. Everyone says
(08:48):
that they're like what, I'm like, yeah, it's so cool.
It was a family business.
Sloane Stephens (08:51):
Yeah, and like I think a lot of the times
my whole family worked at the funeral home, so there
was multiple so like to hang out with like my
family or like my cousins or like my uncles, Like
I'd have to go there and like see them like
they were working. So it was like the work day,
and I'd be like, oh, let's have lunch, let's do this,
and I just kind of got used to it, and
I really kind of this may sound word, but like
(09:12):
learning the business was like fun, Like it was like
a new thing obviously, and like there I don't think
there was six feet under at that point, but learning
the cremation and like how to do that and like
how to like take care of bodies and how to
you know, like when someone passes on, like the respect
that you'd want your family member to receive, like all
of those things. Like I think the emotional and like
(09:33):
delicate part of that I thought was always like really interesting.
And then we had an invalvemar at the funeral home
and her name is Jamie, and I loved her and
she was so great and she taught me everything, and
like she was so patient and like just like finding
out about bodies and like all the things they have
to do, and like, yeah, like it was just like
a thing that I was like, this is actually really cool.
Emily Tisch Sussman (09:53):
Do you think it informed your perspective at that time?
Like as a young kid, I mean, it seems like
keep a very very high emotional dielligence at a young
age to be so aware that people were being respected
in their last as they depart. So do you think
it influenced your perspective? I think so.
Sloane Stephens (10:11):
I feel like I've experienced so much in my life,
and I think at a young age, like experiencing that
I kind of always had this sensitivity to death or
people passing away, and like, I don't know, like how
you want to be treated, Like you want your family
member to be treated with like kindness, and like even
as they're pass on, you don't want their bodies to
be like rough housed. You want them to be treated
with care, and like some families come and like dress
(10:32):
their family members, and some of them come and like
pray over them, and like everyone has their own thing
that they do. And I feel like in life and
even like in my professional career, everyone has their own
things that they do, and death is just like one
of those things that it happens to everyone, happens to
us all. And my life, death has been so striking
for me. Both of my stepdad passed away from cancer,
(10:53):
My biological dad passed away in a car accident. Both
my my grandparents passed away in COVID seven days apart
from me other. So I've had a lot of very
emotional deaths in my family, which some have been obviously
immediate and like tragic with like my dad and the
car accident and then cancer that was a very long
drawn out process. So I feel like I've been through
(11:14):
a lot of like the sequences of death. And then
obviously my family owned a funeral home, like I kind
of was like more in tune with like what was
going on and like how it works and like the
planning process and like all of that stuff. So yeah,
death has been a big part of my life, which
is kind of like weird and like strange to say,
but I think it's definitely like changed my perspective on
like living and just like being on earth and like
(11:36):
living every day to the fullest and like appreciating life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:39):
I think that definitely has had an effect on me.
Before she knew it, Sloan was on the fast track
to going through She reached a junior ranking of number
five in the world, and when three major girls doubles titles.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Lone, Stevens hopes to reach her first Grand Slam final.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:57):
Stay tuned for.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
The Junior Report Girl's Action, The last American girl standing,
Sloane Stevens look to reach her first Grand Slam Singles final.
She would have to get past number one Daria Gavrilova
to get there. Stevens came out firing, but drop the
first set seven to five. That seemed to get her
amped up, as she's cruised through a quick six to
one second set win.
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:19):
Soon she went pro and quickly reached the top one hundred,
becoming the youngest player in the top one hundred of
the Women's Tennis Association. But her family did their best
to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Sloane Stephens (12:31):
I feel like I've had like a very normal, normal life,
because nothing about a professional tennis player is normal and
nothing about the life is normal. But I feel like
for the most part, I had a very like I
was able to skip things and like go to family events,
and I was able to like still lose and like
go to sushi, like I still, like you know, was able,
Like my grandparents were still traveling a bit like with
(12:53):
me up until like twenty seventeen. My grandparents, like I
had to turn them in Hawaii, like they came like
a lot of my family like really was involved in
my tennis and like my journey, so like going to tournaments,
like someone would meet me there, like my aunt Jen
would come, my uncle see, like whatever. It was like
everyone was always really supportive and I never felt like
I was like alone per se, where I feel like
(13:13):
a lot of tennis players are often very much alone,
like when they leave home and like they go to
another country or whatever. It is, Like I never felt alone,
and I never felt that I was like isolated. So
every time I you know, every time that I started
a new season or something new, I never had that
feeling of like this isn't normal.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:29):
Like it was just very like.
Sloane Stephens (13:30):
Okay, like everyone cares, like everything involved, and I feel
like that was like everything that I did at home,
I also did when I was playing and when I
was traveling and I was on tour, So it made
it kind of gave me a little bit of balance.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:42):
You've alluded a little bit to the fact that it's
not a normal life. Can you tell us more about
what the actual like day to day is, how it
is abnormal. Yeah, So we're not a team sports. Everything's
by yourself and like I guess your team, but it's
like your coach, your physio and like whoever, like a
friend who you may travel with, and every week is different.
You pay for all your own expenses, pay for all
(14:02):
your own flights, you book all your own flights, to
book all your own hotels. You're traveling to a different
city every single week. You're responsible for yourself and then
three people with you or four people with you, whoever,
and literally every week could be different, as in your
bags to get lost this week, and next week, your
coach could be sick. The week after that, someone could
stub their toe and be injured, and you can't play
the tournament. And like there's.
Sloane Stephens (14:22):
Always like things that are happening, but they're also happening
six thousand miles away from home or five thousand miles
away from home, which makes it very abnormal because you
have no support. You just have the people that are
with you, like the people that are like basically you're
responsible for and that are responsible for you. So I
think in terms of like going to a tournament, you
kind of you know, like this is like the routine.
(14:44):
You go to a tournament. You get your badge, you
get your credentials, you go on site, you practice every day,
you go eat dinner, you get your massage, you do
all of those things you check off right, but they're
like by yourself. You have to like plan all those things.
Everything is on you to plan to make sure it
gets done. And with the travel and with the Grand
Slams and like the Olympics and like all these things happening,
(15:04):
it's a lot. I feel like a lot of people
are just like you appear and it's fine. I'm like, no,
my flight was late six hours and I just sat
in the airport and just waited, and then I showed
up here and I played the match today. Some people
just don't know like the things that you go through,
and that's totally fine. But it's like, I think every
week people expect you to show up and be your
absolute best, and I feel like sometimes that's actually very
hard considering like the circumstances or whatever it is that's happening.
(15:27):
I've probably in my career been to fifteen tournaments. Wacked
my bags did income, and I didn't have a racket,
I didn't have any clothes, and I was like wearing
like Madison's clothes and shoes. Totally fine, just like out here.
But it's fine, Like I think, it's just like a
normal thing. But you never like say, oh my bag's income.
Oh my Like it's just something that you like deal
with and then figure it out later.
Emily Tisch Sussman (15:48):
Sloan made her first big splash onto the tennis scene
when she beat Serena Williams at the twenty thirteen Australian Open.
The shock heard round the tennis world.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Nineteen year olds Stevens taking out one of the greatest
players ever to laced on a pair of tennis shoes
very way off.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:07):
That's a point in fact, two of them. Then daniar
Ald American against the bright Serena Williams in this.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Quarter final and that's it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:21):
Stevens the lava.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
She is swoll to semi finals, says the Freda.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:30):
Then the three say Serena Williams three said seven sixty upset.
Similar to the game of tennis, the game that can
switch point by point, Sloan's career did the same. Despite
her big win, she still had to put in the
work to make her dreams come true.
Sloane Stephens (16:52):
But I think in the sport and like how I've
dealt with things is like when I my goal was
to win a Grand Slam and I didn't win a
Grand Slam, and my coach is like one of the
coaches I had when I was like younger, he was like,
it's not if, it's when, and so like I always
just like, Okay, one day, it's like going to happen.
It's meant to be, Like it's in the universe. It's
it's already there. I just have to like wait and
(17:12):
have to work hard and I have to get there, right,
And like I always just like believed that, not necessarily
thinking like oh, I'm going to win a Grand Slam
for sure. It was just like that moment will come
or whatever, right, And I think that so many times
in our lives we want something so bad, but we
didn't realize, like we didn't take the step to get there,
Like we didn't like walk in the direction of whatever
(17:32):
it is that we wanted, whether that be like me
physically like playing tennis and working on my server or
whatever it is, or in like this new entrepreneurial role
that I that I have starting this company is like
I don't want to spend a lot of money because
it's expensive, right, but I'm like to do that. I
have to spend money to make money, Like I have
to walk in the direction of like, Okay, I'm going
to take some risk and then eventually I hope I
(17:55):
will be rewarded, right, And I think that goes for
everything in life. Is like you do have to take
the steps to like start whatever it is, and that
took the hardest part, Like the first step is the
hardest part. And I think when you take the first step,
then you can follow it up with two and three
and four and you can count from there. But if
you don't start, you're starting from nothing, right, And I
think that a lot of the times, it's just like
(18:16):
getting going, like having enough belief or enough like confidence
in that day to be like, okay, today is to day.
Emily Tisch Sussman (18:24):
And that was the mindset that led Sloan to win
the US Open in twenty seventeen May tennis history this
past weekend when she won her first major title the
US Opened. Before the win, she ranked nine hundred and
thirty four. Now she ranks number seventeen in the world.
Please welcome first time US Open Women's champion, Sloan's Stephens.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Twenty four year old Sloan Stephens. Oh my gosh, she
is a new US Open champion.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I had doing everything so comfortably. She's clear on her
decision making and strategically, she is just playing a better match.
Emily Tisch Sussman (19:29):
I always said, the only way to start is just
to start, and it has to be part of the process.
So you can't think too hard, like overthink what that
first step is going to be or it's gonna be perfect,
it's not going to be. Like if you know from
the beginning that not everything you do will end up
being the right choice, then everything that where you can
take information and then adjust course as you move forward.
(19:52):
You don't see it as like being too hard on yourself.
Oh I made the wrong choice. Yeah, it's like, Okay,
now I have more information and I'm going to make
a different choice moving forward.
Sloane Stephens (19:59):
But you got to just start. Yeah, you have to start.
So many times you talk about it, talk about it,
talk about it, even if it's I don't know, Like
I feel like there's so many things in life that
you're like we hang on to, like we don't just
do it. We don't like rip the band aid off,
we just like linger. I hate lingering. I hate the
lingering phase, Like I'm like, just do it already, Like
what are you waiting on? And I feel like sometimes
(20:20):
you get caught in that and then when you go
the opposite. Now, I'm like, nope, fire her, get rid
of her, do this, do that, buy this, buy this,
hire this packaging lady. Like I'm like, you kind of
get in the mode and you feel so much more
confident in like doing those things. But when you're in
the lingering phase, that's like that's the death phase. Like
that is like it stops you from doing everything.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:41):
You're just stuck. I'm like, oh, it's a terrible place
to be in.
Sloane Stephens (20:45):
But then when you like find the confidence to be
like okay, first step, then you're like, oh, yeah, she's fired.
She's this, she's that. Like you can like actually in
confidence do these things right. And it's like I think
that's where you like find your your true like confidence
or what they call your true like you like figure
it out, and you're figuring it out, and yeah, like
just don't linger.
Emily Tisch Sussman (21:08):
Slow. Never once lingered, even through all of her injuries,
she kept pressing forward, pushing herself. When we come back,
we talk through how she created a career and a
life for herself that became an extension of her success
on the court. You have definitely lived your life the
(21:35):
opposite of lingering. No, I can't linger. I cannot do it.
Every time you've had like a pause in tennis or
an injury or a type you filled it. Oh yeah,
you filled everyone no ways. I mean I pull up
my list here, like, yeah, I didn't believe this, Like
you filled every single one of them. I mean you
had broadcasting, higher education businesses, found day shit Like can
(22:01):
you just talk us through each one of these plot twists? Oh? Okay.
So I started.
Sloane Stephens (22:05):
I was the only person in my family he didn't
have a degree. So I was like, I'm not that's
not going to be me. So I decided.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:10):
I was like I'm gonna get my undergraduate degree, and
so I did. It was free. My motto was like
if it's free, it's for me.
Sloane Stephens (22:17):
So I decided to go to college because it was free,
and I was like this is great. So I did
that and I ended up getting injured. So I ended
up getting injured. It gave me a little bit more time.
I did some broadcasting to get extra credits because I
did live TV. Like I was like, okay, like let
me figure out this scam, like what am I going
to do? And so I did that and I got injured.
I was out for eleven months. I played five tournaments
(22:37):
when the US Open was in my last semester of school.
Pretty much failed it for sure because I was like, guys,
I get no. So I finished that out, and then
of course, three months later, the not even three months,
like two months later, the lady was like, oh, we
have a scholarship for a master's tree program, and I
was like, hmmm, I'll think about it. And three days
(23:01):
before like the scholarship deadline, she was like, have you
thought about it? You're gonna do it, and I was like, fine,
I'll do it. So then of course I got my
master's degree. And then that was when COVID happened. So
I was like finishing as COVID was killing us and
like all of that was happening. So I finished that
up and I was like, I'm never going back to
school again. That's great, lovely, I'm not gonna. I don't
even know what I'm going to do with these degrees
(23:22):
at this point, Like I don't even like use like
pemda's anymore. I don't even like I've used no ever
math problems that I've ever learned, Like I've used literally
nothing that I learned at school. So school didn't like
they didn't teach me anything about three pls and slas
and like any of these things.
Emily Tisch Sussman (23:37):
So I'm like, I went to the wrong school.
Sloane Stephens (23:38):
I don't pick the wrong degree obviously whatever, And that
was just something that I always just wanted to do.
I was like that was exciting to me, like getting
my degree, and like my grandpa came here.
Emily Tisch Sussman (23:48):
From Trinidad, he went to Howard, he.
Sloane Stephens (23:51):
Became an ogun, and like for me, like education was
always just something that pushed us forward. And I obviously
wanted to make my grandparents proud, like my mom went
to Harvard and my mom has to her doctorate. Everyone
in my family's like very into school. So that was
just something that was like a part of me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (24:07):
So I did that.
Sloane Stephens (24:08):
And then in twenty thirteen, when I was a little
bit younger, like going back a little bit, I started
the Lone Semens Foundation. I was like always like giving
away my money and doing things, and my uncles like,
you need to do this in a more organized manner.
So we started the Lone Sevens Foundation, and we are
mostly in Compton. We do all of Compton Unified School
District and we service about six thousand kids a year,
which is awesome. We do tennis learning. We now have
(24:30):
an esports team. We do soccer, which is super cute.
My husband played soccer for a long time, so we
use him as our like little soccer inspo, which is cute.
And yeah, like we kind of just I love kids,
and I think being able to have give the kids
the opportunity to like do cool things that they would
never do, I think is really important. And I think
my journey of like playing tennis and all the amazing
(24:52):
things I've been able to do, like tennis has been
my vehicle. But I feel like there's so many different
things and things in the world that kids don't get
to experience just because are on their couch. Like the
next best athlete could be like on their couch because
they just are not in gaftter school program, whatever it
may be. So we've done a ton of that and
that's just like really my passion. I feel like that's
what I'm going to do like when I retire. Like
(25:13):
I love going down and seeing the kids. I love
just like being involved. Like we know, I know all
of our families, all of our little like esports captains
and like all any thing. So that for me is
like really like my passion product that's like my heart, Like,
that's what I really love to do.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:29):
Just this summer, Sloan received the Muhammed Ali Sports Humanitarian
Award at the SP's for her work with her foundation.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Please welcome the recipient of the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award,
Sloan Stevens. When Sloan Stevens established her foundation, the initial
mission was clear to grow tennis in the local community. Today,
the Sloan Stephens Foundation serves over fifteen thousand students a year.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:56):
Salona is grave. She is the high and everyone how
she gets back.
Sloane Stephens (26:01):
To the community.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:02):
That's just what I want to do now.
Sloane Stephens (26:05):
No limit to what we can do when we pull
our resources, relationships and platforms. So let's keep showing up
for the next Mia and the next one hundred after that, because,
like Muhammad Ali said, service to others is the rentinue
pay for your room here on earth.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:20):
Thank you. But that's not all she's been cooking up.
Outside tennis. Sloan had yet another plot twist when she
started her bodycare company, Doc and Glow.
Sloane Stephens (26:34):
I started my bodycare brand called doc and Glow, which
is named after my grandparents, my grandparents growing up like again,
the super supportive of my whole career, in my life
and my tennis and my journey, and like my grandparents
never pushed like always to my mom, like don't push
her too hard, like make sure she loves it what
grandparents do right. And my grandparents She's picked me up
from school and like take me to eat, and like
(26:54):
I just had such a great and strong relationship with
my grandparents. And I feel like when I was starting business,
I was like, I want to be connected some way,
Like I want to be able to like really put
my all into it, but it needs to be something
that I'm like super connected to.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:06):
So when we're coming out.
Sloane Stephens (27:07):
With names and things, they were like, oh, like off
Court and this and that, I was like, nah, like
that's not gonna work. So I'm gonna name it something
that I really love and I'm passionate about and I
can like build my whole story around because I it
relates to me and that's what I really feel. So
that's how we got to Dock and Glow. And I
started this business like during COVID and it was like
my COVID baby, like my brain baby that made all
(27:29):
the sense in the world in my head. But wasn't
on paper yet, so I like started that process during
COVID and then last year in August we launched.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:37):
So we're still a newborn. We're a baby still.
Sloane Stephens (27:39):
But it's actually been so fun and like so fulfilling,
like learning something new, something I knew nothing about, something
that I'm not good at, something that I'm like figuring
out as I go, something that I'm like learning about
portals and like urban outfitters and like all these things,
like that's new and that's fun, and yeah, like I've
just done so many different things, but I've had fun
doing every single thing, and I've been super passionate about
(28:02):
every single thing. And like I don't invest in something
unless I love it, like I like have to be
one thousand percent in or I feel like it will
never work. Like I feel like you have to again
like that step forward, like you have to have two
feet in to make it actually thrive and bloom and
like see it grow. And that's what I've done with
like those four buckets, and I'm proud to see like Okay,
like I got my degrees, Like I did what I
(28:23):
needed to do, Like I'm proud of that. Like the
foundation is going amazing, Like I'm proud of that. We're
servicing so many kids, that's so great. Like with Doc
and Glow, Like we earned two retailers already, and we're
like doing all these we just got a Gem Amenities
project and like all these things are happening, and like
I'm proud of that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (28:37):
But it's like I'm all in with those things. So
it feels really good. How can you? So I say
this as a place with someone who is also very
all in.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
Yeah, if I do something, it's all the way. Yeah,
So I really feel that, Yeah, how do you keep
all of these things going? Like you've had the foundation
going at this point for a twelve years. Yeah, plus
you're continuing to play professional tennis, building a startup, which
many people find to be more than full time.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:03):
Yeah. How And again I say this coming from a
place to someone who really knows, Like, if I'm all in,
I'm all in. Like, if you're really all in, how
do you manage all of those things at the same time.
I don't I just perfect, But I don't. I just
I'm day to day. I feel like I have a
really good team, a strong supportive team. I am not
afraid to delegate like, if I can't do it, I
don't know it, Like, I'm not going to pretend that
(29:25):
I do.
Sloane Stephens (29:25):
I'm going to find someone who does. I'm going to
hire the person that can do it properly. I'm not
the person who's like, oh, I can do all things. No,
I can't. I'm not good at that. I'm not good
at this. I don't know the logistics person from dat
afraid and blah blah blah. I don't like, I'm going
to hire someone who can figure it out. And instead
of trying to force fully do everything myself, I'm not
afraid to be like, figure it out, find somebody who'll
(29:45):
do it. And I think that that's really helped me
manage like all of the things because I'm not afraid
to just say, like I actually, for the next three months,
I can't do this because I'm getting ready for A
B and C. So someone else is gonna have to
do it. And I'm okay with that, Like that's totally fine,
Like it's a okay to like delegate and give it
to someone else, like they can figure it out. I'm
going to pay them to figure it out. And That's
(30:06):
been a really important part of my life like and
my tennis career. I'm just going to make sure that
I can give myself like all of those resources and
like use them adequately so that I don't suffer and
I don't struggle. And I understand a lot of people
don't have that many resources, but like use what you have,
like use what's in front of you. And I feel
like when I didn't have anything when I was like eighteen,
and I didn't have a ton of money to travel
(30:27):
and do all those things, like you just made it work,
whether it be your mom or your brother or like
a family, like whatever it is, Like you make it
work with the resources you have, and then you build
those resources and you network and you figure out more
people and you figure out more ways to like make
it happen for yourself. And I feel like I've done
that really well because I don't know, like again, as
a tennis player, my life has been so sheltered and
so focused on like being a professional athlete that like
(30:49):
I haven't learned all of these things. But like I'm
the best networker, I'm the best resourcer, I'm the best,
like I can make it happen, And I feel like
that's a big part also of being successful these you
have to figure out who and what can do what
for you, how they can do it, how efficiently they
can do it, and how they can help your team.
And that's like also more than half the battle.
Emily Tisch Sussman (31:12):
After the break, Sloan takes us through the more personal
side as we talk about the relationship of being a
professional athlete and building a family. Stay tuned. You've also
(31:36):
talked about fertility and being a professional athlete, which I
think is only a topic that we're going to talk
more and more about with the inclusion of women's athletes
and women's sports in more center culture. And this actually
pertains across sectors that women are often really rising in
responsibility and rising in leadership, like not just in athletics,
but in business as well, at the point where if
(31:58):
they want to be caring and conceiving a child, like
this is the time, Like this is the fertility moment. Yeah,
this is the moment. Yeah, so how are you How
have you thought about that? How are you thinking about that?
Has it played in? Yeah?
Sloane Stephens (32:09):
So I've frozen my eggs twice, which I this is
always so weird because I always said that I wanted
to have a surrogate I don't know why, but my
aunt did it like twenty years ago, and I was like,
I'm going to do that. I don't know why, guys,
I really have no idea why this came to me. Why,
I don't know. But I always had this vision of
having a surrogate. I'm not sure why, truly, I like
(32:29):
think about all the time.
Emily Tisch Sussman (32:30):
I don't know why. Anyways, So I always knew that
I was going to play tennis for a long time. Obviously.
Sloane Stephens (32:35):
I turned thirty two last week, and like, I don't
know what my timeline is. I don't know when I'm
going to be able to have a child. I don't know,
like maybe next year could be the best year of
my career, and I don't want to retire. I have
no idea, truly, And so freezing my eggs was just
a part of like being proactive and like making sure
that I have the option when I was ready. I
don't know, Like I honestly don't know. So for me,
(32:55):
freezing my eggs was like that's like my security blanket.
I know that one day I will be able to
unfreeze these babies and like make them real people, and
like that would be the goal. But just having the
option on your terms when you want to do it.
I feel like is really important. Like a lot of
people's dreams is to have a family. And like, of course,
(33:15):
if I retired from tennis at thirty five, and like
I didn't have that option, like I'd be a little worried,
Like I'd be like, oh, hey, what do I do now?
Like this has to work, this has to go well. This,
like I have to be able to conceive and like
get pregnant right away, Like all those things would be
super stressful on me and would limit my opportunity to like,
you know, have children or maybe whatever, like I don't
(33:37):
know down the line. And so being proactive, I think
is the best thing that you can do. So that's
why I chose to freeze my eggs, obviously not knowing
how long I'm going to play tennis, what I'm going
to do. And I think it's hard because obviously as
a male athlete, you have you literally never have to
think about this literally ever. And seeing like our counterparts
playing men tennas traveling like we're traveling with them and
(33:58):
they never have to leave the sport.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:59):
They can play till they're four.
Sloane Stephens (34:00):
It's so easy and it's like, I'm so jealous, Like
you don't get a period, you don't have to carry
a baby, you don't have to do anything. Yet we
don't have any like rules in place or things in
place to actually make sure that we're supported. We're supported,
so if you do want to freeze your eggs or
you do want to take maternity leave, like I think
a lot of areas have gotten better, Like a lot
of sports have gotten better, like women's tennis soccer, like
(34:23):
they have one's national team. Like we've taken steps, but
like we need more steps, Like we need more advancement
obviously with these rules and things like that, to like
cover people who do want to start a family, because
I think it's like you shouldn't have to choose between
your career and your dream.
Emily Tisch Sussman (34:38):
One of the first guests that I had on She
Pivots that I knew from the beginning when I started
the show I wanted to have on was Alison Felix,
the Olympian The Runner because she was able to move
policy from the sponsor perspective. Yes, because so many athletes,
especially in individual sports, it's not the sport that pays
them really the money to keep going into the sponsorships. Yeah,
and so she was able to move the needle on
(34:59):
that by blowing the conversation open and having an opit
in the New York Times and really starting that conversation
about sponsors not dropping athletes once they become pregnant. On
the tennis side, is their conversation around it? Like how
did you think to take those steps? Was it something
that you put upon yourself? Is their locker room conversation?
Do you have sponsors that talk to you about it? Like?
(35:20):
Is it existing? How is it building right now?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
No?
Sloane Stephens (35:23):
This I'm again me being like my own person and
doing my completely my own things all the time. I
just like this is what I'm doing and you guys
can know, and like this is what I'm regardless of
if you guys help me or not, Like, this is
what I'm doing. So that was completely on me. And
as people have spoken about it more and we've talked
about it more. I think WTA just launched a maternity
(35:43):
fund last month, I think it was or this month,
Like it just happened, and I feel like it's not
spoken about enough, Like it's such a hidden like thing.
But when I froze my eggs up at the first
time I've recruited like twenty five people to like to
freeze their eggs.
Emily Tisch Sussman (35:55):
I'm like, you must do this.
Sloane Stephens (35:57):
I guess you are that person. Or people are texting
me like oh what should I do. I'm like, do
it now, Like you have six weeks, do it now.
And I think that that is important. I feel like
sharing your story is important, so it helps other people.
But it's like been a thing that like you don't
talk about. It's such a secret.
Emily Tisch Sussman (36:14):
I feel like I hear two conversations as you're just
talking through this that I could definitely see converging here.
One is that now that I spend more time talking
to femal professional athletes, the focus on your body and
it feels like you really need to control a lot
of the input output exercise rest, like you know, you
think a lot about your body. And also women who
(36:35):
have trouble conceiving really feel the guilt of that, like
that something is wrong with their body. And so I
can see the convergence of those two things being like
an explosion.
Sloane Stephens (36:44):
Yeah, but that's something The pressure of that is like
like a ton truck like on you, because it's like
something that you so badly want again, and it's something
that sometimes it's not something that you can control. But
then like even going through that process of like men
don't go to the doctor like as much as women do, right, women,
like you have to go, You're getting your blood tests,
you're doing all of these things to make sure that
this can happen. But like on the other hand, like again,
(37:08):
men love you, but like if you don't have to
deal with it, So it's like it's it's it's hard,
and especially when you put that just being a normal
human being, not being a professional athlete. So then when
you put being a professional athlete on top of that,
where like your teams are also on top of you
to like stay in shape, to eat real, to sleep well,
to do all these things, Like that's also pressure in
itself to make sure that you're performing on the field
(37:28):
and doing your job well. Like there's like a lot
of things that go into it. And I think it's
like now we're talking about it more, which is great
because it's not a secret, Like it's not something that
we need to like hide, like it's not something we
need to be ashamed of. Like this is conversation, Like
this is your life. And I feel like it's it's
just not spoken about enough.
Emily Tisch Sussman (37:47):
Yeah, right, And the only way to normalize it is
just to tell everyone all the time.
Sloane Stephens (37:55):
And recruit everyone you know to pree their eggs or
get a check up, or go see the doctor, like
get your blood check, like whatever it is. Like, make
sure that you're spreading the word and telling the next
person so that you can be helpful in some way.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:06):
Yeah, is there It can be something that we've talked
about or doesn't have to be. Is there something that
you saw as a real low point for you at
one point and now in retrospect, you see it as
having really launched you into the person or position that
you're in now.
Sloane Stephens (38:20):
I would say, okay, not to go back to death.
But I feel like at the beginning of my career,
my dad and my stepdad both died early, which I
was like sixteen and I was fifteen and seventeen around,
and I feel like because I had like a better appreciate,
like that was like the lowest point. Like I found
out over the phone and at the US Open in
(38:42):
the parking lot that my dad had passed away, And
it was like nine o'clock in the morning and I
was sitting in front of the credential office and I
was like what is Like?
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:49):
I was like so confused. I'm like, what is happening?
Sloane Stephens (38:52):
Like this is like a complete life crisis at the moment,
and again a very low point in my life, just
as like a sixteen year old, like seventeen year old
like figuring it out. I was playing junior US Open,
Like I flew to the funeral, I came back and
played another match that I won, and like there's just
like a lot of things happening. But I feel like
because I experienced those things, I was sitting in the
(39:14):
parking lot learning that my dad had died at seventeen,
and then at twenty five, I was holding the trophy
at the US Open, winning the tournament. I feel like
those moments prepare you. You don't know why, you don't
know like what the like why the low point?
Emily Tisch Sussman (39:29):
Why? Like how you got here?
Sloane Stephens (39:30):
Obviously I know why my dad had passed away, but
like you're thinking to yourself, like why is this happening
to me? Why am I here? And I feel like
after my stepted had passed he had cancer. He was
one who really like played tennis with me and got
me into it. I was super confused, So I was like,
do I want to play tennis? Like did I want
to play tennis only because it was fun and it
was a family thing, Like I didn't like I was
kind of confused, right, And that was like another low point.
(39:52):
So like I feel from like sixteen to seventeen, I
really questioned like my identity as a tennis player and
if I wanted that to even be like my identity
because there was like some very like low points in
that those couple of years, and I was like, I'm
really not sure, but like I feel like that prepared
me to be like the person I am today, but
also like it prepared me to be the competitor that
(40:12):
I was. Like as I had a professional career, like
I felt like I was ready for anything, right, Like
nothing gets worse than that, Nothing gets worse than like
a phone call of your parent dying playing a tennis tournament,
like there's like nothing that was like going to be
worse than that. So I was like, oh, I'm good.
Nothing will beat me, like I can only beat myself.
And I think that that was like my perspective like
(40:32):
throughout my career, so I never felt that I was
I was never beaten, Like the only person that ever
beat me was myself. Like I would go out and
like not play well, but I was like, oh I
beat myself.
Emily Tisch Sussman (40:41):
She didn't beat me.
Sloane Stephens (40:42):
And I feel like that was something that I always
carried with me that just kind of helped me get
through like the bad days, because I always was like,
you know, tennis is my identity. But like I can
still go home, like I have a wonderful family, Like
I can still go and like see everyone I love,
I can call like the people I love, like I
can I have people that I can count on, And
like the lowest day, I feel like I lived through
(41:03):
that already, and I lived through it twice, so I
was like, yeah, it's just me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (41:08):
Do you think you'll pivot again?
Sloane Stephens (41:10):
Of course I'm gonna pivot like fifty more times because
I love it. I feel like there's so much opportunity
in the pivot, right, there's so much space. I always
say there's so much space, and there's so much opportunity.
There is a million ways to go, there's a million
things that you can do, and I just feel like
I can do all of those things, and like I
may not be successful at all of them, but like
that's just gonna put me somewhere else. That's going to
(41:31):
put me on another base and then pivot from that
to go into something else. And I feel like the
pivot is what makes you who you are, right. You
learn a lesson every single time you have to pivot, right,
whether good or bad, Like there may be a pivot
that's like leads you into something more amazing, like something
that you're like, oh, this is why I was doing that, like,
and I feel like that's always something that people are
(41:52):
so afraid to pivot again, like taking that first step.
They're afraid to like make that first move, and I'm like,
take the steps. Everybody, come with me, like we're doing this.
And I feel like the pivot is what you have
to really embrace in order to find your true north,
like where you're going and the people who are If
you linger, you never figure it out. If you pivot
(42:15):
and you're like, this is where I'm going. It may
not be where I want to go or what I
want to do, but I'm here for a reason and
this is how I got here, and we're going to
figure it out. And that's like that's a joy of pivoting.
Emily Tisch Sussman (42:28):
Thank you. So much for being on No, thank you
so much. This is great. Sloan is still playing professionally
and is still full of plot twists. She's working as
a commentator while still building doc and Glow and growing
the Sloan Stephens Foundation. Keep up with her on her
many pivots on Instagram at Sloan Stevens. Talk to you
(42:50):
next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots.
I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave
us a rating and tell your friends about it us.
To learn more about our guests, follow us on Instagram
at she Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our
newsletter where you can get exclusive behind the scenes content
(43:11):
on our website at she pivots thepodcast dot com. This
episode was produced and edited by Emily Atavelosk, with sound
editing and mixing from Nina Pollock. Audio production and social
media by Hannah Cousins, research by Christine Dickinson, and logistics
and planning by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin. She Pivots
(43:34):
is proud to be a part of the iHeart Podcast Network.
I endorse she Pivots
Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Seln Stephens.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. I'm
(00:34):
so excited to welcome the incredible Sloane Stevens to the
show this week. She's not only one of the best
tennis players in the world, She's conquered every challenge in
front of her on and off the court. My mom,
the biggest tennis fan, will be the first to tell
you that she is a powerhouse on the court. Sloane
first onto the scene as a teenager, taking down some
(00:56):
of the game's biggest names, and in twenty seventeen, she
shots the sports world by winning the US Open. And
what makes that victory even more extraordinary is that she
had been ranked outside the top nine hundred just months
before sidelined with the major foot injury. Instead of letting
that setback end her career, she used it as a
(01:18):
launchpad for one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history.
But Sloane's story doesn't stop there. She's continually redefined what
success looks like, and each plot twist has opened up
a new dimension of who she is. She became a
philanthropist early on, founding the Sloane Stevens Foundation to bring
tennis and educational opportunities to kids in underserved communities, and
(01:42):
she didn't just lend her name. She built programs that
today reached thousands of young people every year, And just
this year, she became the first tennis player ever to
win the Mohammed Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, recognizing not only
her impact on the court, but also her ruins as
a humanitarian and advocate. Then she made the leap into entrepreneurship.
(02:06):
Drawing from her own life as an athlete constantly on
the move, Sloan created doc and Blow, a clean, high
performance body care company. It's a brand rooted in her
value sustainability, inclusion, and self care. Plus, it's named for
her grandparents, who shaped her sense of resilience and purpose.
Sloane's journey reminds us that life is rarely a straight line.
(02:28):
It's full of twists and turns and pivots, and it's
the way you meet them that shapes the story you
get to tell. For Sloan, every setback became an opening,
every win platform to expand into something bigger. I can't
wait for you to hear her story. My name is
Slune Sevens.
Sloane Stephens (02:48):
I'm a professional tennis player, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist.
Emily Tisch Sussman (02:53):
Let's back up, Let's go all the way back to
the beginning. Let's go a little Sloan. Tell us about
was little Sloan another little fire Yes, devil Sloan. Yeah.
Sloane Stephens (03:02):
I grew up in Fresno, California, which is like a
very small, like agricultural town in California, right in the
middle of the state. I started playing tennis because I
lived across the street from the club and it looked
very fun. I started just in like summer camp and
just playing casually. I rode my back across the street
to camp into my lessons, and eventually we ended up
(03:24):
moving to Florida and I started playing more seriously. I
played an end academy there, I started homeschooling. I just
kind of like took like the normal course of like
kids moving to Florida to play more tennis and like
become better tennis players.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:41):
Where you stand out right away, where all of a
sudden it became like, Okay, this is the thing that
she's doing, or it was just a little more casual.
I think it was a little bit more casual.
Sloane Stephens (03:48):
I was good, obviously, I had like I was athletic,
I had good hand eye coordination, like I was good,
but I wasn't like the best in my group.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:55):
And I started a little bit late. I started playing tennis.
Sloane Stephens (03:57):
I was nine, So obviously when I got to Florida,
there had been girls that had been playing tournaments, like
they had like this tournament called Little mo and they'd
been playing since they were five, like playing tournaments. And
I was like, I don't even know to keep score,
Like it's like I don't even know all the rules
of this sport. But I started a little bit late.
I played a ton with my stepdad. He's the one
who like really got me into playing tennis. He played
(04:18):
tennis a bunch, and we would go all the time,
we would hit, we would go on the weekends. Like
it was just like kind of like a really fun
like family thing that we all did. No one else
in my family played tennis. My mom was a swimmer,
my dad was a football player. Everyone in my family
plays golf, and yeah, I somehow ended up playing tennis,
and I was not very not that I wasn't very good.
Emily Tisch Sussman (04:39):
I was good. I was always good, but I just
wasn't at the time.
Sloane Stephens (04:42):
Like I wasn't the number one in my group or
I wasn't like the standout in my age group or whatever.
So I was good, but I wasn't the best, which
I think kind of actually helped me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (04:51):
So I want to go back to when you moved
from California to Florida. Did you move to play That's
a very big family decision to move you across the country.
Sloane Stephens (05:01):
I always say that I was gonna come in. My
mom had a mid life crisis and was like, we're
moving to Florida. Everyone get up and we're going. But no,
I was born in Florida and I until I was three,
we moved, then we moved back to California, and then
we're moving back. It was to play tennis, I would say,
but it was also because my mom always wanted to
move back to Florida. So it was kind of like
all of that in one and honestly just kind of
(05:24):
like worked out that way. And yeah, I mean that
was kind of like Okay, we're gonna kill two boards
in one stone type of thing. It was super fun.
I went to like there was a school across the
street from the academy I went to. That's where I
met my husband in fifth grade. So like all of
these things happened, like it was great and yeah, I
feel like I don't know, Like I mean, I need
to ask my mom, Like I don't know exactly like
(05:45):
why she was like, let's get up and move. But
I just felt like it was a part of our
journey and it just worked, like it just made sense.
It worked like I had an uncle that was there,
two uncles that were there, and like.
Emily Tisch Sussman (05:55):
It fell like home. Like it was great, Like from
the moment we moved there, it was like it was exciting.
I feel like the decision to move closer to the
academies in Florida and to start homeschooling are if you
look at an athlete's bio, two very big significant turning points.
We're like, all right, we're really doing this. Did it
feel like that at the time for you? No, not
(06:16):
at all.
Sloane Stephens (06:17):
I'm like I was so unseerious until I was like fifteen,
I got invited. It's like my first like usta like
camp where you go and like they look at your
game and you get I guess, like chosen from like
one of the best players in the country, and like
that was fun. Like that was exciting. But of course
I wasn't the number one in my age groups. I
was never like, oh, it's going to be me. Like
when I got invited to my first camp, I was like, oh,
(06:39):
hell yeah, it was exciting, right because I never thought
that that would have been me. So I think because
I was like, oh, like this is exciting, Like every
point was exciting, Like every time I got picked for
a camp or in the group to go like to
travel like international or whatever, it was like I was like,
this is great, Like I loved it. And I think
it was because I hadn't played for so long. I
(07:00):
hadn't experience like ten years of playing tournaments. I was
like three years into playing tournaments, and I was like,
this is so fun. Like I had that excitement up
until I was like a little bit older, so like
when kids were kind of dying out and quitting already,
I was like just getting it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:14):
I was just like, oh, this is fun.
Sloane Stephens (07:16):
I get to have my first sleepover at a hotel,
like there's no one like checking on us. Like that
was like exciting, right, Like all the other things that
had nothing to do with tennis were like very exciting,
and then tennis was just like my vehicle to like
do more.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:31):
You obviously come from an athletic family, but before you
started playing tennis, or even maybe around then, did you
have visions of what you wanted to be when you
grow up, Like did you think it was going to
be some version of an athlete or was this something
totally different? Not at all.
Sloane Stephens (07:45):
That's so weird because I never wanted to be a
professional atl Like I didn't think that was like so cool,
Like I just was like.
Emily Tisch Sussman (07:51):
Okay, like I'm here, like yeah, I don't know.
Sloane Stephens (07:54):
Growing up, probably like when I was a little bit older,
like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, like my family on funeral homes,
So I always wanted to be an inbalmer, but it's
nothing to do with tennis, obviously, And before that, I
don't remember saying like, oh I want to be a chef.
I want to be a professional athlete, Like I don't
really remember that, and I think I always say, like
tennis shows me like I didn't choose cennis, and I
think that sometimes things are just kind of meant to align,
(08:16):
and I think again, Yeah, it just happened this way,
and like it was good.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:20):
I loved it.
Sloane Stephens (08:21):
It was competitive, Like I love everything about tennis, and
like I never woke up one day saying like I
want to be a professional tennis player.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:26):
But like, as it happened, I was like, this is
kind of cool. It's so funny. As you're talking through this,
I realized that this might not be striking to you,
but there is a lot of interest in the business
of funerals. Oh really, and like the fat I mean
six feet under is a huge Yeah, I know that's true.
I feel like the fact that you were a little
kid who wanted to be an embalmer is actually like
we should pause here. It's actually quite interesting. Everyone says
(08:48):
that they're like what, I'm like, yeah, it's so cool.
It was a family business.
Sloane Stephens (08:51):
Yeah, and like I think a lot of the times
my whole family worked at the funeral home, so there
was multiple so like to hang out with like my
family or like my cousins or like my uncles, Like
I'd have to go there and like see them like
they were working. So it was like the work day,
and I'd be like, oh, let's have lunch, let's do this,
and I just kind of got used to it, and
I really kind of this may sound word, but like
(09:12):
learning the business was like fun, Like it was like
a new thing obviously, and like there I don't think
there was six feet under at that point, but learning
the cremation and like how to do that and like
how to like take care of bodies and how to
you know, like when someone passes on, like the respect
that you'd want your family member to receive, like all
of those things. Like I think the emotional and like
(09:33):
delicate part of that I thought was always like really interesting.
And then we had an invalvemar at the funeral home
and her name is Jamie, and I loved her and
she was so great and she taught me everything, and
like she was so patient and like just like finding
out about bodies and like all the things they have
to do, and like, yeah, like it was just like
a thing that I was like, this is actually really cool.
Emily Tisch Sussman (09:53):
Do you think it informed your perspective at that time?
Like as a young kid, I mean, it seems like
keep a very very high emotional dielligence at a young
age to be so aware that people were being respected
in their last as they depart. So do you think
it influenced your perspective? I think so.
Sloane Stephens (10:11):
I feel like I've experienced so much in my life,
and I think at a young age, like experiencing that
I kind of always had this sensitivity to death or
people passing away, and like, I don't know, like how
you want to be treated, Like you want your family
member to be treated with like kindness, and like even
as they're pass on, you don't want their bodies to
be like rough housed. You want them to be treated
with care, and like some families come and like dress
(10:32):
their family members, and some of them come and like
pray over them, and like everyone has their own thing
that they do. And I feel like in life and
even like in my professional career, everyone has their own
things that they do, and death is just like one
of those things that it happens to everyone, happens to
us all. And my life, death has been so striking
for me. Both of my stepdad passed away from cancer,
(10:53):
My biological dad passed away in a car accident. Both
my my grandparents passed away in COVID seven days apart
from me other. So I've had a lot of very
emotional deaths in my family, which some have been obviously
immediate and like tragic with like my dad and the
car accident and then cancer that was a very long
drawn out process. So I feel like I've been through
(11:14):
a lot of like the sequences of death. And then
obviously my family owned a funeral home, like I kind
of was like more in tune with like what was
going on and like how it works and like the
planning process and like all of that stuff. So yeah,
death has been a big part of my life, which
is kind of like weird and like strange to say,
but I think it's definitely like changed my perspective on
like living and just like being on earth and like
(11:36):
living every day to the fullest and like appreciating life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:39):
I think that definitely has had an effect on me.
Before she knew it, Sloan was on the fast track
to going through She reached a junior ranking of number
five in the world, and when three major girls doubles titles.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Lone, Stevens hopes to reach her first Grand Slam final.
Emily Tisch Sussman (11:57):
Stay tuned for.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
The Junior Report Girl's Action, The last American girl standing,
Sloane Stevens look to reach her first Grand Slam Singles final.
She would have to get past number one Daria Gavrilova
to get there. Stevens came out firing, but drop the
first set seven to five. That seemed to get her
amped up, as she's cruised through a quick six to
one second set win.
Emily Tisch Sussman (12:19):
Soon she went pro and quickly reached the top one hundred,
becoming the youngest player in the top one hundred of
the Women's Tennis Association. But her family did their best
to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Sloane Stephens (12:31):
I feel like I've had like a very normal, normal life,
because nothing about a professional tennis player is normal and
nothing about the life is normal. But I feel like
for the most part, I had a very like I
was able to skip things and like go to family events,
and I was able to like still lose and like
go to sushi, like I still, like you know, was able,
Like my grandparents were still traveling a bit like with
(12:53):
me up until like twenty seventeen. My grandparents, like I
had to turn them in Hawaii, like they came like
a lot of my family like really was involved in
my tennis and like my journey, so like going to tournaments,
like someone would meet me there, like my aunt Jen
would come, my uncle see, like whatever. It was like
everyone was always really supportive and I never felt like
I was like alone per se, where I feel like
(13:13):
a lot of tennis players are often very much alone,
like when they leave home and like they go to
another country or whatever. It is, Like I never felt alone,
and I never felt that I was like isolated. So
every time I you know, every time that I started
a new season or something new, I never had that
feeling of like this isn't normal.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:29):
Like it was just very like.
Sloane Stephens (13:30):
Okay, like everyone cares, like everything involved, and I feel
like that was like everything that I did at home,
I also did when I was playing and when I
was traveling and I was on tour, So it made
it kind of gave me a little bit of balance.
Emily Tisch Sussman (13:42):
You've alluded a little bit to the fact that it's
not a normal life. Can you tell us more about
what the actual like day to day is, how it
is abnormal. Yeah, So we're not a team sports. Everything's
by yourself and like I guess your team, but it's
like your coach, your physio and like whoever, like a
friend who you may travel with, and every week is different.
You pay for all your own expenses, pay for all
(14:02):
your own flights, you book all your own flights, to
book all your own hotels. You're traveling to a different
city every single week. You're responsible for yourself and then
three people with you or four people with you, whoever,
and literally every week could be different, as in your
bags to get lost this week, and next week, your
coach could be sick. The week after that, someone could
stub their toe and be injured, and you can't play
the tournament. And like there's.
Sloane Stephens (14:22):
Always like things that are happening, but they're also happening
six thousand miles away from home or five thousand miles
away from home, which makes it very abnormal because you
have no support. You just have the people that are
with you, like the people that are like basically you're
responsible for and that are responsible for you. So I
think in terms of like going to a tournament, you
kind of you know, like this is like the routine.
(14:44):
You go to a tournament. You get your badge, you
get your credentials, you go on site, you practice every day,
you go eat dinner, you get your massage, you do
all of those things you check off right, but they're
like by yourself. You have to like plan all those things.
Everything is on you to plan to make sure it
gets done. And with the travel and with the Grand
Slams and like the Olympics and like all these things happening,
(15:04):
it's a lot. I feel like a lot of people
are just like you appear and it's fine. I'm like, no,
my flight was late six hours and I just sat
in the airport and just waited, and then I showed
up here and I played the match today. Some people
just don't know like the things that you go through,
and that's totally fine. But it's like, I think every
week people expect you to show up and be your
absolute best, and I feel like sometimes that's actually very
hard considering like the circumstances or whatever it is that's happening.
(15:27):
I've probably in my career been to fifteen tournaments. Wacked
my bags did income, and I didn't have a racket,
I didn't have any clothes, and I was like wearing
like Madison's clothes and shoes. Totally fine, just like out here.
But it's fine, Like I think, it's just like a
normal thing. But you never like say, oh my bag's income.
Oh my Like it's just something that you like deal
with and then figure it out later.
Emily Tisch Sussman (15:48):
Sloan made her first big splash onto the tennis scene
when she beat Serena Williams at the twenty thirteen Australian Open.
The shock heard round the tennis world.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Nineteen year olds Stevens taking out one of the greatest
players ever to laced on a pair of tennis shoes
very way off.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:07):
That's a point in fact, two of them. Then daniar
Ald American against the bright Serena Williams in this.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Quarter final and that's it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:21):
Stevens the lava.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
She is swoll to semi finals, says the Freda.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:30):
Then the three say Serena Williams three said seven sixty upset.
Similar to the game of tennis, the game that can
switch point by point, Sloan's career did the same. Despite
her big win, she still had to put in the
work to make her dreams come true.
Sloane Stephens (16:52):
But I think in the sport and like how I've
dealt with things is like when I my goal was
to win a Grand Slam and I didn't win a
Grand Slam, and my coach is like one of the
coaches I had when I was like younger, he was like,
it's not if, it's when, and so like I always
just like, Okay, one day, it's like going to happen.
It's meant to be, Like it's in the universe. It's
it's already there. I just have to like wait and
(17:12):
have to work hard and I have to get there, right,
And like I always just like believed that, not necessarily
thinking like oh, I'm going to win a Grand Slam
for sure. It was just like that moment will come
or whatever, right, And I think that so many times
in our lives we want something so bad, but we
didn't realize, like we didn't take the step to get there,
Like we didn't like walk in the direction of whatever
(17:32):
it is that we wanted, whether that be like me
physically like playing tennis and working on my server or
whatever it is, or in like this new entrepreneurial role
that I that I have starting this company is like
I don't want to spend a lot of money because
it's expensive, right, but I'm like to do that. I
have to spend money to make money, Like I have
to walk in the direction of like, Okay, I'm going
to take some risk and then eventually I hope I
(17:55):
will be rewarded, right, And I think that goes for
everything in life. Is like you do have to take
the steps to like start whatever it is, and that
took the hardest part, Like the first step is the
hardest part. And I think when you take the first step,
then you can follow it up with two and three
and four and you can count from there. But if
you don't start, you're starting from nothing, right, And I
think that a lot of the times, it's just like
(18:16):
getting going, like having enough belief or enough like confidence
in that day to be like, okay, today is to day.
Emily Tisch Sussman (18:24):
And that was the mindset that led Sloan to win
the US Open in twenty seventeen May tennis history this
past weekend when she won her first major title the
US Opened. Before the win, she ranked nine hundred and
thirty four. Now she ranks number seventeen in the world.
Please welcome first time US Open Women's champion, Sloan's Stephens.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Twenty four year old Sloan Stephens. Oh my gosh, she
is a new US Open champion.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I had doing everything so comfortably. She's clear on her
decision making and strategically, she is just playing a better match.
Emily Tisch Sussman (19:29):
I always said, the only way to start is just
to start, and it has to be part of the process.
So you can't think too hard, like overthink what that
first step is going to be or it's gonna be perfect,
it's not going to be. Like if you know from
the beginning that not everything you do will end up
being the right choice, then everything that where you can
take information and then adjust course as you move forward.
(19:52):
You don't see it as like being too hard on yourself.
Oh I made the wrong choice. Yeah, it's like, Okay,
now I have more information and I'm going to make
a different choice moving forward.
Sloane Stephens (19:59):
But you got to just start. Yeah, you have to start.
So many times you talk about it, talk about it,
talk about it, even if it's I don't know, Like
I feel like there's so many things in life that
you're like we hang on to, like we don't just
do it. We don't like rip the band aid off,
we just like linger. I hate lingering. I hate the
lingering phase, Like I'm like, just do it already, Like
what are you waiting on? And I feel like sometimes
(20:20):
you get caught in that and then when you go
the opposite. Now, I'm like, nope, fire her, get rid
of her, do this, do that, buy this, buy this,
hire this packaging lady. Like I'm like, you kind of
get in the mode and you feel so much more
confident in like doing those things. But when you're in
the lingering phase, that's like that's the death phase. Like
that is like it stops you from doing everything.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:41):
You're just stuck. I'm like, oh, it's a terrible place
to be in.
Sloane Stephens (20:45):
But then when you like find the confidence to be
like okay, first step, then you're like, oh, yeah, she's fired.
She's this, she's that. Like you can like actually in
confidence do these things right. And it's like I think
that's where you like find your your true like confidence
or what they call your true like you like figure
it out, and you're figuring it out, and yeah, like
just don't linger.
Emily Tisch Sussman (21:08):
Slow. Never once lingered, even through all of her injuries,
she kept pressing forward, pushing herself. When we come back,
we talk through how she created a career and a
life for herself that became an extension of her success
on the court. You have definitely lived your life the
(21:35):
opposite of lingering. No, I can't linger. I cannot do it.
Every time you've had like a pause in tennis or
an injury or a type you filled it. Oh yeah,
you filled everyone no ways. I mean I pull up
my list here, like, yeah, I didn't believe this, Like
you filled every single one of them. I mean you
had broadcasting, higher education businesses, found day shit Like can
(22:01):
you just talk us through each one of these plot twists? Oh? Okay.
So I started.
Sloane Stephens (22:05):
I was the only person in my family he didn't
have a degree. So I was like, I'm not that's
not going to be me. So I decided.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:10):
I was like I'm gonna get my undergraduate degree, and
so I did. It was free. My motto was like
if it's free, it's for me.
Sloane Stephens (22:17):
So I decided to go to college because it was free,
and I was like this is great. So I did
that and I ended up getting injured. So I ended
up getting injured. It gave me a little bit more time.
I did some broadcasting to get extra credits because I
did live TV. Like I was like, okay, like let
me figure out this scam, like what am I going
to do? And so I did that and I got injured.
I was out for eleven months. I played five tournaments
(22:37):
when the US Open was in my last semester of school.
Pretty much failed it for sure because I was like, guys,
I get no. So I finished that out, and then
of course, three months later, the not even three months,
like two months later, the lady was like, oh, we
have a scholarship for a master's tree program, and I
was like, hmmm, I'll think about it. And three days
(23:01):
before like the scholarship deadline, she was like, have you
thought about it? You're gonna do it, and I was like, fine,
I'll do it. So then of course I got my
master's degree. And then that was when COVID happened. So
I was like finishing as COVID was killing us and
like all of that was happening. So I finished that
up and I was like, I'm never going back to
school again. That's great, lovely, I'm not gonna. I don't
even know what I'm going to do with these degrees
(23:22):
at this point, Like I don't even like use like
pemda's anymore. I don't even like I've used no ever
math problems that I've ever learned, Like I've used literally
nothing that I learned at school. So school didn't like
they didn't teach me anything about three pls and slas
and like any of these things.
Emily Tisch Sussman (23:37):
So I'm like, I went to the wrong school.
Sloane Stephens (23:38):
I don't pick the wrong degree obviously whatever, And that
was just something that I always just wanted to do.
I was like that was exciting to me, like getting
my degree, and like my grandpa came here.
Emily Tisch Sussman (23:48):
From Trinidad, he went to Howard, he.
Sloane Stephens (23:51):
Became an ogun, and like for me, like education was
always just something that pushed us forward. And I obviously
wanted to make my grandparents proud, like my mom went
to Harvard and my mom has to her doctorate. Everyone
in my family's like very into school. So that was
just something that was like a part of me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (24:07):
So I did that.
Sloane Stephens (24:08):
And then in twenty thirteen, when I was a little
bit younger, like going back a little bit, I started
the Lone Semens Foundation. I was like always like giving
away my money and doing things, and my uncles like,
you need to do this in a more organized manner.
So we started the Lone Sevens Foundation, and we are
mostly in Compton. We do all of Compton Unified School
District and we service about six thousand kids a year,
which is awesome. We do tennis learning. We now have
(24:30):
an esports team. We do soccer, which is super cute.
My husband played soccer for a long time, so we
use him as our like little soccer inspo, which is cute.
And yeah, like we kind of just I love kids,
and I think being able to have give the kids
the opportunity to like do cool things that they would
never do, I think is really important. And I think
my journey of like playing tennis and all the amazing
(24:52):
things I've been able to do, like tennis has been
my vehicle. But I feel like there's so many different
things and things in the world that kids don't get
to experience just because are on their couch. Like the
next best athlete could be like on their couch because
they just are not in gaftter school program, whatever it
may be. So we've done a ton of that and
that's just like really my passion. I feel like that's
what I'm going to do like when I retire. Like
(25:13):
I love going down and seeing the kids. I love
just like being involved. Like we know, I know all
of our families, all of our little like esports captains
and like all any thing. So that for me is
like really like my passion product that's like my heart, Like,
that's what I really love to do.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:29):
Just this summer, Sloan received the Muhammed Ali Sports Humanitarian
Award at the SP's for her work with her foundation.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Please welcome the recipient of the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award,
Sloan Stevens. When Sloan Stevens established her foundation, the initial
mission was clear to grow tennis in the local community. Today,
the Sloan Stephens Foundation serves over fifteen thousand students a year.
Emily Tisch Sussman (25:56):
Salona is grave. She is the high and everyone how
she gets back.
Sloane Stephens (26:01):
To the community.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:02):
That's just what I want to do now.
Sloane Stephens (26:05):
No limit to what we can do when we pull
our resources, relationships and platforms. So let's keep showing up
for the next Mia and the next one hundred after that, because,
like Muhammad Ali said, service to others is the rentinue
pay for your room here on earth.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:20):
Thank you. But that's not all she's been cooking up.
Outside tennis. Sloan had yet another plot twist when she
started her bodycare company, Doc and Glow.
Sloane Stephens (26:34):
I started my bodycare brand called doc and Glow, which
is named after my grandparents, my grandparents growing up like again,
the super supportive of my whole career, in my life
and my tennis and my journey, and like my grandparents
never pushed like always to my mom, like don't push
her too hard, like make sure she loves it what
grandparents do right. And my grandparents She's picked me up
from school and like take me to eat, and like
(26:54):
I just had such a great and strong relationship with
my grandparents. And I feel like when I was starting business,
I was like, I want to be connected some way,
Like I want to be able to like really put
my all into it, but it needs to be something
that I'm like super connected to.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:06):
So when we're coming out.
Sloane Stephens (27:07):
With names and things, they were like, oh, like off
Court and this and that, I was like, nah, like
that's not gonna work. So I'm gonna name it something
that I really love and I'm passionate about and I
can like build my whole story around because I it
relates to me and that's what I really feel. So
that's how we got to Dock and Glow. And I
started this business like during COVID and it was like
my COVID baby, like my brain baby that made all
(27:29):
the sense in the world in my head. But wasn't
on paper yet, so I like started that process during
COVID and then last year in August we launched.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:37):
So we're still a newborn. We're a baby still.
Sloane Stephens (27:39):
But it's actually been so fun and like so fulfilling,
like learning something new, something I knew nothing about, something
that I'm not good at, something that I'm like figuring
out as I go, something that I'm like learning about
portals and like urban outfitters and like all these things,
like that's new and that's fun, and yeah, like I've
just done so many different things, but I've had fun
doing every single thing, and I've been super passionate about
(28:02):
every single thing. And like I don't invest in something
unless I love it, like I like have to be
one thousand percent in or I feel like it will
never work. Like I feel like you have to again
like that step forward, like you have to have two
feet in to make it actually thrive and bloom and
like see it grow. And that's what I've done with
like those four buckets, and I'm proud to see like Okay,
like I got my degrees, Like I did what I
(28:23):
needed to do, Like I'm proud of that. Like the
foundation is going amazing, Like I'm proud of that. We're
servicing so many kids, that's so great. Like with Doc
and Glow, Like we earned two retailers already, and we're
like doing all these we just got a Gem Amenities
project and like all these things are happening, and like
I'm proud of that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (28:37):
But it's like I'm all in with those things. So
it feels really good. How can you? So I say
this as a place with someone who is also very
all in.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
Yeah, if I do something, it's all the way. Yeah,
So I really feel that, Yeah, how do you keep
all of these things going? Like you've had the foundation
going at this point for a twelve years. Yeah, plus
you're continuing to play professional tennis, building a startup, which
many people find to be more than full time.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:03):
Yeah. How And again I say this coming from a
place to someone who really knows, Like, if I'm all in,
I'm all in. Like, if you're really all in, how
do you manage all of those things at the same time.
I don't I just perfect, But I don't. I just
I'm day to day. I feel like I have a
really good team, a strong supportive team. I am not
afraid to delegate like, if I can't do it, I
don't know it, Like, I'm not going to pretend that
(29:25):
I do.
Sloane Stephens (29:25):
I'm going to find someone who does. I'm going to
hire the person that can do it properly. I'm not
the person who's like, oh, I can do all things. No,
I can't. I'm not good at that. I'm not good
at this. I don't know the logistics person from dat
afraid and blah blah blah. I don't like, I'm going
to hire someone who can figure it out. And instead
of trying to force fully do everything myself, I'm not
afraid to be like, figure it out, find somebody who'll
(29:45):
do it. And I think that that's really helped me
manage like all of the things because I'm not afraid
to just say, like I actually, for the next three months,
I can't do this because I'm getting ready for A
B and C. So someone else is gonna have to
do it. And I'm okay with that, Like that's totally fine,
Like it's a okay to like delegate and give it
to someone else, like they can figure it out. I'm
going to pay them to figure it out. And That's
(30:06):
been a really important part of my life like and
my tennis career. I'm just going to make sure that
I can give myself like all of those resources and
like use them adequately so that I don't suffer and
I don't struggle. And I understand a lot of people
don't have that many resources, but like use what you have,
like use what's in front of you. And I feel
like when I didn't have anything when I was like eighteen,
and I didn't have a ton of money to travel
(30:27):
and do all those things, like you just made it work,
whether it be your mom or your brother or like
a family, like whatever it is, Like you make it
work with the resources you have, and then you build
those resources and you network and you figure out more
people and you figure out more ways to like make
it happen for yourself. And I feel like I've done
that really well because I don't know, like again, as
a tennis player, my life has been so sheltered and
so focused on like being a professional athlete that like
(30:49):
I haven't learned all of these things. But like I'm
the best networker, I'm the best resourcer, I'm the best,
like I can make it happen, And I feel like
that's a big part also of being successful these you
have to figure out who and what can do what
for you, how they can do it, how efficiently they
can do it, and how they can help your team.
And that's like also more than half the battle.
Emily Tisch Sussman (31:12):
After the break, Sloan takes us through the more personal
side as we talk about the relationship of being a
professional athlete and building a family. Stay tuned. You've also
(31:36):
talked about fertility and being a professional athlete, which I
think is only a topic that we're going to talk
more and more about with the inclusion of women's athletes
and women's sports in more center culture. And this actually
pertains across sectors that women are often really rising in
responsibility and rising in leadership, like not just in athletics,
but in business as well, at the point where if
(31:58):
they want to be caring and conceiving a child, like
this is the time, Like this is the fertility moment. Yeah,
this is the moment. Yeah, so how are you How
have you thought about that? How are you thinking about that?
Has it played in? Yeah?
Sloane Stephens (32:09):
So I've frozen my eggs twice, which I this is
always so weird because I always said that I wanted
to have a surrogate I don't know why, but my
aunt did it like twenty years ago, and I was like,
I'm going to do that. I don't know why, guys,
I really have no idea why this came to me. Why,
I don't know. But I always had this vision of
having a surrogate. I'm not sure why, truly, I like
(32:29):
think about all the time.
Emily Tisch Sussman (32:30):
I don't know why. Anyways, So I always knew that
I was going to play tennis for a long time. Obviously.
Sloane Stephens (32:35):
I turned thirty two last week, and like, I don't
know what my timeline is. I don't know when I'm
going to be able to have a child. I don't know,
like maybe next year could be the best year of
my career, and I don't want to retire. I have
no idea, truly, And so freezing my eggs was just
a part of like being proactive and like making sure
that I have the option when I was ready. I
don't know, Like I honestly don't know. So for me,
(32:55):
freezing my eggs was like that's like my security blanket.
I know that one day I will be able to
unfreeze these babies and like make them real people, and
like that would be the goal. But just having the
option on your terms when you want to do it.
I feel like is really important. Like a lot of
people's dreams is to have a family. And like, of course,
(33:15):
if I retired from tennis at thirty five, and like
I didn't have that option, like I'd be a little worried,
Like I'd be like, oh, hey, what do I do now?
Like this has to work, this has to go well. This,
like I have to be able to conceive and like
get pregnant right away, Like all those things would be
super stressful on me and would limit my opportunity to like,
you know, have children or maybe whatever, like I don't
(33:37):
know down the line. And so being proactive, I think
is the best thing that you can do. So that's
why I chose to freeze my eggs, obviously not knowing
how long I'm going to play tennis, what I'm going
to do. And I think it's hard because obviously as
a male athlete, you have you literally never have to
think about this literally ever. And seeing like our counterparts
playing men tennas traveling like we're traveling with them and
(33:58):
they never have to leave the sport.
Emily Tisch Sussman (33:59):
They can play till they're four.
Sloane Stephens (34:00):
It's so easy and it's like, I'm so jealous, Like
you don't get a period, you don't have to carry
a baby, you don't have to do anything. Yet we
don't have any like rules in place or things in
place to actually make sure that we're supported. We're supported,
so if you do want to freeze your eggs or
you do want to take maternity leave, like I think
a lot of areas have gotten better, Like a lot
of sports have gotten better, like women's tennis soccer, like
(34:23):
they have one's national team. Like we've taken steps, but
like we need more steps, Like we need more advancement
obviously with these rules and things like that, to like
cover people who do want to start a family, because
I think it's like you shouldn't have to choose between
your career and your dream.
Emily Tisch Sussman (34:38):
One of the first guests that I had on She
Pivots that I knew from the beginning when I started
the show I wanted to have on was Alison Felix,
the Olympian The Runner because she was able to move
policy from the sponsor perspective. Yes, because so many athletes,
especially in individual sports, it's not the sport that pays
them really the money to keep going into the sponsorships. Yeah,
and so she was able to move the needle on
(34:59):
that by blowing the conversation open and having an opit
in the New York Times and really starting that conversation
about sponsors not dropping athletes once they become pregnant. On
the tennis side, is their conversation around it? Like how
did you think to take those steps? Was it something
that you put upon yourself? Is their locker room conversation?
Do you have sponsors that talk to you about it? Like?
(35:20):
Is it existing? How is it building right now?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
No?
Sloane Stephens (35:23):
This I'm again me being like my own person and
doing my completely my own things all the time. I
just like this is what I'm doing and you guys
can know, and like this is what I'm regardless of
if you guys help me or not, Like, this is
what I'm doing. So that was completely on me. And
as people have spoken about it more and we've talked
about it more. I think WTA just launched a maternity
(35:43):
fund last month, I think it was or this month,
Like it just happened, and I feel like it's not
spoken about enough, Like it's such a hidden like thing.
But when I froze my eggs up at the first
time I've recruited like twenty five people to like to
freeze their eggs.
Emily Tisch Sussman (35:55):
I'm like, you must do this.
Sloane Stephens (35:57):
I guess you are that person. Or people are texting
me like oh what should I do. I'm like, do
it now, Like you have six weeks, do it now.
And I think that that is important. I feel like
sharing your story is important, so it helps other people.
But it's like been a thing that like you don't
talk about. It's such a secret.
Emily Tisch Sussman (36:14):
I feel like I hear two conversations as you're just
talking through this that I could definitely see converging here.
One is that now that I spend more time talking
to femal professional athletes, the focus on your body and
it feels like you really need to control a lot
of the input output exercise rest, like you know, you
think a lot about your body. And also women who
(36:35):
have trouble conceiving really feel the guilt of that, like
that something is wrong with their body. And so I
can see the convergence of those two things being like
an explosion.
Sloane Stephens (36:44):
Yeah, but that's something The pressure of that is like
like a ton truck like on you, because it's like
something that you so badly want again, and it's something
that sometimes it's not something that you can control. But
then like even going through that process of like men
don't go to the doctor like as much as women do, right, women,
like you have to go, You're getting your blood tests,
you're doing all of these things to make sure that
this can happen. But like on the other hand, like again,
(37:08):
men love you, but like if you don't have to
deal with it, So it's like it's it's it's hard,
and especially when you put that just being a normal
human being, not being a professional athlete. So then when
you put being a professional athlete on top of that,
where like your teams are also on top of you
to like stay in shape, to eat real, to sleep well,
to do all these things, Like that's also pressure in
itself to make sure that you're performing on the field
(37:28):
and doing your job well. Like there's like a lot
of things that go into it. And I think it's
like now we're talking about it more, which is great
because it's not a secret, Like it's not something that
we need to like hide, like it's not something we
need to be ashamed of. Like this is conversation, Like
this is your life. And I feel like it's it's
just not spoken about enough.
Emily Tisch Sussman (37:47):
Yeah, right, And the only way to normalize it is
just to tell everyone all the time.
Sloane Stephens (37:55):
And recruit everyone you know to pree their eggs or
get a check up, or go see the doctor, like
get your blood check, like whatever it is. Like, make
sure that you're spreading the word and telling the next
person so that you can be helpful in some way.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:06):
Yeah, is there It can be something that we've talked
about or doesn't have to be. Is there something that
you saw as a real low point for you at
one point and now in retrospect, you see it as
having really launched you into the person or position that
you're in now.
Sloane Stephens (38:20):
I would say, okay, not to go back to death.
But I feel like at the beginning of my career,
my dad and my stepdad both died early, which I
was like sixteen and I was fifteen and seventeen around,
and I feel like because I had like a better appreciate,
like that was like the lowest point. Like I found
out over the phone and at the US Open in
(38:42):
the parking lot that my dad had passed away, And
it was like nine o'clock in the morning and I
was sitting in front of the credential office and I
was like what is Like?
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:49):
I was like so confused. I'm like, what is happening?
Sloane Stephens (38:52):
Like this is like a complete life crisis at the moment,
and again a very low point in my life, just
as like a sixteen year old, like seventeen year old
like figuring it out. I was playing junior US Open,
Like I flew to the funeral, I came back and
played another match that I won, and like there's just
like a lot of things happening. But I feel like
because I experienced those things, I was sitting in the
(39:14):
parking lot learning that my dad had died at seventeen,
and then at twenty five, I was holding the trophy
at the US Open, winning the tournament. I feel like
those moments prepare you. You don't know why, you don't
know like what the like why the low point?
Emily Tisch Sussman (39:29):
Why? Like how you got here?
Sloane Stephens (39:30):
Obviously I know why my dad had passed away, but
like you're thinking to yourself, like why is this happening
to me? Why am I here? And I feel like
after my stepted had passed he had cancer. He was
one who really like played tennis with me and got
me into it. I was super confused, So I was like,
do I want to play tennis? Like did I want
to play tennis only because it was fun and it
was a family thing, Like I didn't like I was
kind of confused, right, And that was like another low point.
(39:52):
So like I feel from like sixteen to seventeen, I
really questioned like my identity as a tennis player and
if I wanted that to even be like my identity
because there was like some very like low points in
that those couple of years, and I was like, I'm
really not sure, but like I feel like that prepared
me to be like the person I am today, but
also like it prepared me to be the competitor that
(40:12):
I was. Like as I had a professional career, like
I felt like I was ready for anything, right, Like
nothing gets worse than that, Nothing gets worse than like
a phone call of your parent dying playing a tennis tournament,
like there's like nothing that was like going to be
worse than that. So I was like, oh, I'm good.
Nothing will beat me, like I can only beat myself.
And I think that that was like my perspective like
(40:32):
throughout my career, so I never felt that I was
I was never beaten, Like the only person that ever
beat me was myself. Like I would go out and
like not play well, but I was like, oh I
beat myself.
Emily Tisch Sussman (40:41):
She didn't beat me.
Sloane Stephens (40:42):
And I feel like that was something that I always
carried with me that just kind of helped me get
through like the bad days, because I always was like,
you know, tennis is my identity. But like I can
still go home, like I have a wonderful family, Like
I can still go and like see everyone I love,
I can call like the people I love, like I
can I have people that I can count on, And
like the lowest day, I feel like I lived through
(41:03):
that already, and I lived through it twice, so I
was like, yeah, it's just me.
Emily Tisch Sussman (41:08):
Do you think you'll pivot again?
Sloane Stephens (41:10):
Of course I'm gonna pivot like fifty more times because
I love it. I feel like there's so much opportunity
in the pivot, right, there's so much space. I always
say there's so much space, and there's so much opportunity.
There is a million ways to go, there's a million
things that you can do, and I just feel like
I can do all of those things, and like I
may not be successful at all of them, but like
that's just gonna put me somewhere else. That's going to
(41:31):
put me on another base and then pivot from that
to go into something else. And I feel like the
pivot is what makes you who you are, right. You
learn a lesson every single time you have to pivot, right,
whether good or bad, Like there may be a pivot
that's like leads you into something more amazing, like something
that you're like, oh, this is why I was doing that, like,
and I feel like that's always something that people are
(41:52):
so afraid to pivot again, like taking that first step.
They're afraid to like make that first move, and I'm like,
take the steps. Everybody, come with me, like we're doing this.
And I feel like the pivot is what you have
to really embrace in order to find your true north,
like where you're going and the people who are If
you linger, you never figure it out. If you pivot
(42:15):
and you're like, this is where I'm going. It may
not be where I want to go or what I
want to do, but I'm here for a reason and
this is how I got here, and we're going to
figure it out. And that's like that's a joy of pivoting.
Emily Tisch Sussman (42:28):
Thank you. So much for being on No, thank you
so much. This is great. Sloan is still playing professionally
and is still full of plot twists. She's working as
a commentator while still building doc and Glow and growing
the Sloan Stephens Foundation. Keep up with her on her
many pivots on Instagram at Sloan Stevens. Talk to you
(42:50):
next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots.
I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave
us a rating and tell your friends about it us.
To learn more about our guests, follow us on Instagram
at she Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our
newsletter where you can get exclusive behind the scenes content
(43:11):
on our website at she pivots thepodcast dot com. This
episode was produced and edited by Emily Atavelosk, with sound
editing and mixing from Nina Pollock. Audio production and social
media by Hannah Cousins, research by Christine Dickinson, and logistics
and planning by Emma Stopic and Kendall Krupkin. She Pivots
(43:34):
is proud to be a part of the iHeart Podcast Network.
I endorse she Pivots
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