Serena Williams | "Person to Person" with Norah O'Donnell

hi I'm Nora O'Donnell and this is Person to Person Our Guest is tennis Superstar and entrepreneur Serena Williams the greatest of all time he stopped playing competitive tennis just before her 41st birthday with the most grand slam wins of any American in open era history winning 23 Grand Slam singles over her nearly three-decade career Williams dazzled on the court in her signature outfits and off the court as a businesswoman owning a clothing line jewelry line and her own Venture Capital firm I know how debilitating a migraine can be she's now a paid spokesperson for ubralvi which treats migraines in adults Williams has been outspoken about her own battle with the condition and she joins us from her home in Florida to highlight the issue foreign [Music] Serena Williams thank you for joining us on Person to Person how are you thanks for having me first of all I'm good I'm really good I'm um I'm just really good good well it looks beautiful there in Florida last time I saw you you were with Gail King on there on the farm how are the animals any new animals on the farm um yeah Florida's been really good the weather's always so nice here I just feel so grateful for that um yeah no no new animals um I don't think uh I don't think Alexis can handle any more animals because I'm not I only do dogs so yeah no no new ones as of yet well it has been five months since you played at the U.S open do you miss playing tennis has it been yeah actually I do I definitely do yeah it doesn't feel like it's been that long um but yeah I miss I miss playing I've been doing it my entire life so I think it'll be something I will forever always miss I know you don't like the word retired but since it has been almost half a year since the U.S open how are you feeling about that word now I didn't retire I evolved I think there's a huge difference I think there's a lot of people that whether they're CEOs of a big company and they leave or they retire to go to another company they're still working and I'm doing the same thing I um I feel like I'm not retired I'm not laying around and really enjoying the fruits of my labor but I feel like you know I just kind of doing more things and in business and you know just so many different things and so it's like an evolution and I you know I just feel like I like that word better I think I'm allergic to the retirement where you're never going to get me to say that well that's good because I actually think the evolution word is better and I agree with you and you've had such a physically demanding career and now I feel like you have a really challenging business career you're doing so much sort of explain to people who don't know all the different things you're involved in yeah my my tennis career was incredibly physical as you know and it was a really incredibly mental and now through the evolution just doing everything I do in business it is I think the physical and mental of tennis completely prepared me for what I'm doing in business so I'm running s Ventures during Adventures it's a venture company that I actually I've been investing for over 10 years actually so a lot of people don't know that I was a low-key angel investor and then eventually I did a fund and we we invest in women and women of color and we also make sure we have diversity in a lot of the companies that we invest in I think that's super important that's kind of one of our ethos that we like to do also I run a fashion company still so you know there's a lot of exciting things with that and then I just launched a brand called will perform which was exciting to do as well so there's a lot of stuff happening in the Serena Williams Camp um and you know we I continue to do to and to be a part of some really amazing exciting work and and things of just increasing knowledge for so many platforms translate because you've talked about being such a perfectionist at the sport of tennis how does it translate with business and how do you decide what to invest in because I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that comes across your desk yeah I think it translates it's an interesting way because as a perfectionist like antennas if I made a mistake I would just go nuts which yikes yeah that was me but that's just what I wanted to always be the best and I think it's the same thing that I do in business it's like I still want to do the best but it's different you can't have that perfectionist attitude because I also invest in early stage companies so it's super important to understand that we invest so early that not 100 will make of them and we'll make it and it's still like okay I'm like okay yeah I understand that 100 won't make it but how do I get to get 100 to make it and that's that's the Serena in me yeah that's the Serena and me coming out but I understand that's just really not realistic but I always try to when I'm investing in companies always try to set myself up to think okay how do I make the best investment to make this come out to make us winners and so we really do tons of due diligence and we do tons of um of just looking at companies to make sure how we can support it and how we can make it be the best company and it's a lot of fun you know it's something that I've always enjoyed it's really fun so and given that I mean are you able to relax at all I mean I've read and listened to many of the interviews you've given and you say you still have trouble relaxing yeah yeah I I just I I haven't yet I haven't figured out the formula to relax um I feel like I'm getting better at it in terms of constructing my day to have time off but then of course the time off goes to my daughter and that's never super easy but um but at least I'm getting I'm getting that this morning I did sit down for like an hour and did nothing actually I turned on the TV and I started watching a movie which is something I know it doesn't sound like a lot but that's huge for me that was like a really big win for me um uh but yeah so I'm like I'm slowly ever so slowly super baby steps figuring out a way to to relax that's wonderful and how is Olympia doing is she is she playing tennis Olympia is doing good she doesn't actually like to play tennis too much um so that's a little disappointing for me but uh she's actually really good at it so we are trying to figure out a way to get her to play a little bit and I know you told Gail that Olympia has been pressuring for a sibling maybe she would want to play tennis more if she had a sibling [Laughter] right who knows though I know with my two girls I have them play tennis and they play golf and their golf instructor says that with girls it's social at least for golf They need a a teammate or a playmate and then they're more likely to do it yeah you know Olympia loves being social and it's interesting because I don't think I grown up playing tennis I don't think I was I loved being social but looking back I was always with my sisters so obviously it was super social so that makes sense that you know that girls like to have that social Sport and it's a social aspect of that I think it's actually super super important and she loves being around friends she loves going to school you know so it's um I think that's an interesting point I definitely maybe if I have maybe I can push her into tennis by getting other kids to have like a group lesson I think that's what I'm going to do you just gave me a a nice clue because I really wanted to play at least a little bit because she's actually really good at it yeah Serena I don't think you're going to have any trouble changing that play group [Laughter] I have to I'll do it though and see yeah hopefully I won't have any trouble all right well when we come back we're going to talk to Serena about her lifelong battle with migraines [Music] and we're back with Serena Williams and Serena I know something you've talked about that surprised a lot of people is your lifelong battle with migraines you played tennis through migraines yeah migraine has actually affected me for a very long time I remember when I was younger you know as a teenager I didn't realize that I was having migraine I just thought that I would always say I have a headache I have a headache I have a headache but as I got as I got older understood that I was suffering from migraine and it was very difficult to imagine having to you can't lose it imagine losing a match because you have a migraine but migraines are very very difficult to deal with and they're very painful and sometimes you have to perform and you have to be able to go out there and it wasn't easy it wasn't easy to have to do that every day and just to kind of just put your pain in the back of your mind and just kind of deal with it and you know they're they're very serious you know problems so that's one of the reason why I partnered with ABV I wanted to raise awareness for the underrepresentation of migraine and when you had migraines and you told people you were suffering from these debilitating headaches what was the response you got well a lot of people couldn't believe that I wanted to talk about my migraine right because I feel like for some reason it's like a stigma to talk about it and then so many people came in and were like I I suffer from migraine and I was like I didn't know that and it was so it was such good feedback to listen and to learn how many people actually suffer from migraine that don't really talk about it I think it's so important to you know start that conversation because there are things that you can do to help and I feel like suffering in silence is something I've done for so so so so many years and I tell you it's not fun showing at Wimbledon and Court one and like the third round and you know you have a migraine but you still have to perform because no one in the the crowd the and no one that's watching on on TV understands anything but this is a player she's going to play and she has to win so it's like you have to continue to form no matter what so there have been tournaments where you were suffering a migraine yeah absolutely I think there's been many times because it's been happening for so many years but and obviously not all the time I think some of the adrenaline that would happen to me just getting ready for the match whether I was suffering from a backache a knee ache or a migraine the adrenaline would just kind of get me through it yeah Okay Serena this adds a new level to the greatest of all time that you achieved all that you did while suffering from migraines because as you know I'm sure and people have told you that that for many people that suffer with migraines you know it's like get under the covers and stay in bed all day yeah I I agree um and for me it was important for me to talk about it you know and and I couldn't necessarily go onto the covers and just avoid lights and you know it's like like I said it you know to pull out because you have migraine even though they're so intense a lot of people don't really understand that you know um and that's why um that's why I thought it was really important to just tell my story without realizing everything that would come back from it I know you are a paid spokesperson for a drug what was it like to find a solution that worked for you it was great to find a solution it took me years to arrive first of all at a migraine diagnosis but I'm also happy to say that after the journey I was able with the help of my doctor who actually recommended you bralvi for me I was able to work with that and have a prescription that could treat my migraine attacks in adults as an adult like when I was younger I never had that opportunity the most common side effect in the clinical trials were actually nausea tiredness and certain medications of course can't be taken with it so I know there's a huge disparity when it comes to migraines but I was actually stunned when we looked into the numbers only 47 percent of black people with symptoms are diagnosed with migraines compared to 70 percent of white people with with the same symptoms what does that tell us about how our health care System treats people of color yeah it's interesting right I think a lot of the subject that I've talked about in the past few years is how people of color are treated different in health care and just raising awareness for that and I didn't even know that disparity in migraine until I started learning more about it and I think one of the symptoms is just first of all black people and people of color often don't feel comfortable talking about pain or they just do suffer in science or don't mention it and at the same time unfortunately some doctors feel like pain level in certain people um doesn't count as much as it does and and you know other people and so you know that is shocking and very sad to hear but um but it's really about just raising awareness right and just just really talking about it and just having uncomfortable conversations and just making them comfortable and just talking about things that you're suffering from and not feeling bad about it because there's absolutely nothing to feel bad about especially except for when you're having a migraine attack that's the only time you should feel bad about it because it can be very painful but otherwise it's just like someone would say my back hurts it's it's you know it's literally these the same thing in terms of having the comfortability to talk about it right and be able to ask for help which is so incredibly important when we come back I want to talk about Maternal Fetal health for women and also about Black History Month when we come back foreign [Music] s and Serena you've talked about this before that you nearly died after giving birth to Olympia and you're sharing that story I think has raised so much awareness about the disparity in maternal health for black women have you seen any positive changes since then yeah I don't know if I've seen a ton of changes it's interesting I shared my story not again not expecting to get that much feedback I literally was just sharing my story I think everyone has a birth story right but my story was my story and then so many people started to talk about how unfortunately black moms don't get the same care and I learned that there's colleges or I don't know if there still are let's I really hope not that was telling some of their future doctors that this is how Latina moms work this is how black moms they want work this is how white moms are like the the black moms don't need a lot of care the Latino moms they don't need a lot of care and that was really shocking and I I I thought that that's what that's why this is happening because the teachers that are teaching this are telling their students that you know black women don't need Cara's mom and that they can handle a lot more pain so I think it's important for me just authentically telling my story got so many people to talk about the conversation and um in a real authentic way right because that's what we want to have is these authentic conversations well it's a very authentic conversation and it's an incredibly important topic I feel so passionately about it too this should not be a problem women should be able to get the health care it shouldn't be yeah yeah and when you're a mom it should be the happiest time of your life right and it should be the most exciting time to do exciting things and to be with your child and also it's the most scary time I know for me it was very frightening I didn't know what to expect and you don't you don't really know you just kind of push it in the back of your mind and then all of a sudden you're there and you're like oh my gosh um but yeah so it should also be a happy time so for that to be such an issue and such a Rarity it's um is talk about the word unfair yes unfair is exactly right but I do think the awareness about it is incredibly important and there has been new awareness about it not only because of what you have done but others in the medical community and the press as well I hope have brought new attention to it February is Black History Month um you have done so much to inspire so many people in sports athletes when you look at the game of tennis and the people that you've inspired too how does that make you feel you know it makes me feel great I just played tennis to be the best that I could be and then I played tennis to be the best in the world and to be number one and you know through that without realizing it you inspire people and and then it feels good to know that you can inspire people and also feels a little humbling like wow I inspired you that's kind of cool because at the end of the day I just feel like I'm just myself and so it's really it's really incredible to to have been put and given such a great talent to be able to be an inspiration as well well that t-shirt that your husband wore that said the greatest female athlete of all time with the female crossed out after he was pictured with that in the stands I went and bought that shirt too because I just think that not only to wear it but wear it proudly but for my daughters on the opposite side so yeah yeah exactly exactly and I don't know some guy any guy who won a grand slam when they were nine weeks pregnant like you Serena Williams yeah that was a little crazy though I don't know that was I don't know how that happened but you knew you were pregnant right you knew you were pregnant I did I did I did and it was crazy because I was I couldn't play long points if you go back and look at it all my points are like five six balls and if they were longer than that I would lose the next point but nobody picked up on it so I was happy well it's been incredible to watch all right so our final question we do ask people on person to person and this seems like a ridiculous question to ask Serena Williams but what is your superpower my superpower I I read people well I think that's my superpower yeah want to hide it for me wow that's a good superpower that translates on the court and off no doubt Serena Williams always a pleasure to talk to you thank you thank you so much always good to talk to you as well [Music]

Channel: CBS News

Views: 10,726

Keywords: cbs news, person to person, norah o donnell, serena williams, tennis, entrepreneur, migraines, health, sports, business

Id: zdfx78tOT6g

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2023