Greatness Isn’t Accidental: Intentional Living with Sanya Richards-Ross

not that we do really want to be great and it was the first time that i realized that being great was not just going to happen because i was extremely talented it was only going to happen if i was intentional about doing all the things to get there so ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another exciting episode of Make Don Plugged and today i'm honored to be sitting with someone that you know as an Olympic gold medalist a world champion

an amazing mother but i know her as an amazing human being i'm talking about none other than the infamous the amazing the fabulous massage riches ross on how i do it i'm amazing make thank you so much for having me thank you for that wonderful introduction i'm just so excited for our conversation today i'm the honor one you know i feel like over the last couple of months i've really gotten to know you i mean i knew who you were what you were about your story again the

human that you are speaks volumes always saw people your legacy speaks when you don't have to in the legacy that you've built and that you are continuing to build as a mother as a friend as a business person i'm just so excited to have you thank you so much that means a lot coming from you because i just have so much admiration and respect for what you built as well so it really

means a lot amazing well you know how i always start this song yeah and i i ask about your be

caught yeah thing that's deeper than your why and it changes right like yeah and i would say for you with motherhood yeah because it's probably changed so if i were to say sonia today

“yes what's your because why do you keep doing the things that you do yeah i know that's how you”

start your show so i was really thinking about it um and i like that you say because and not why because everyone says you're why and i think because kind of feels a little bit different um as i was driving into your studio i was like what what what i'm what is my because and i actually have three okay i have three so my because is because i have one life um because i'm a mom and because i can those are the three things that i feel like um are the things that excite me they get me a

every day i have one life and i feel very blessed to be in this life and to have this experience and so i want to just live it to the fullest i want to have every experience i want to do everything that i feel like god has called me to be so that's my because i have one life because i'm

a mom i think not one self explanatory but you know my boys inspire me in ways i never thought

possible and i want for them to be the best that they can be so i want them to see that example in me i want them to feel the support feel the love and so they're a huge part of my because

“and because i can because i believe that anything i put my mind to i can do it and so that drives me”

as well so i want to start with that last one because you can yeah that's a book by the way i would like to say that that is your your next thing because you can because i believe in that yeah i know for you you know growing up in Jamaica and and where track and field is it is it right and and it's one of those things and i don't think people and i love Jamaica i want to go bay as my spot right and i don't think people understand the the culture

the the love that Jamaica has but then also you know there are certain times where it's like you see visions and and you're only going to go so far and i say it's same thing in the United States right like their places you grow up and it's like i'm only going to go so far here right

at seven is that where because i can start it absolutely absolutely i think um and i always

say this i feel like i got the best of both worlds being born in Jamaica uh we're track and field uh was the most popular sport where black excellence was always all around me um and i mean the person that really really instilled in me that i could and that i would and that i could and i can was my dad like i remember when i was nine years old i wrote for a great assignment that i had been Olympic champion okay and i had no idea at the time i had said this huge goal for my

life but as early as i can remember my dad would always say i got to be a world beta you had a

“bit you had a bit and i think he said it so much of the point that i started to believe in”

myself and so for me the foundation was certainly set by my environment being in Jamaica seeing excellence all around me seeing it what was possible in track and field and then being able to migrate to the United States where i just had access to so many great resources and kind of one coaches you know i think the combination truly allowed me to live out that dream and then

gonna continue to do it and you know it's that thing that i appreciate about you i mean we've seen

your dominance and i know you don't like to talk about it in that sense so this is me giving you your flowers right like there's only been one you right you've accomplished things that i can obviously say no one else has and it's that because i can't that that attitude that mantra yeah talk to us about you know now you're at the University of Texas yeah and track and field right is the thing like Jamaica Texas everybody thinks football now but i can promise you

track and field is the thing at Texas University as well talk to us about competing at that

level and finding your true sense then yeah i'm going to the University of Texas um i only

completed for you to for two years before becoming professional but they were certainly extremely important years for me when it came to seeing myself as a potential professional athlete and really understanding what it was going to take to be the best in the world because there are certainly levels to it right like you're the best in middle school best in high school but to be the best in college it really took a lot of discipline because it wasn't just only the track portion it was

“the school and like managing all of those things that i think really differentiates the ones that are”

able to make it to the next level and so being nurtured at the University of Texas i credit for sure with being able to transition and have a 13 year professional career because i started to understand how all the little things truly add up to make you you know the best in the world and so you know from going in the wait room six a.m. in the morning to eating well resting you know we had a nutritionist we had massage therapists like you know they did a really good job of

laying kind of the the blueprint of what it takes to be a great athlete and so you know coupling that with obviously i was my s major so my school load was also heavy i really think all of those things prepared me for what it took to be able to build a team professionally um put the right people in place to help support me to be my best so it was awesome i also met the love of my life there so you know to be able to go to my career yes my husband Aaron Ross two times to roll chant for the

giant so also being able to find that kind of partnership that kind of love and support you know all of those things happen for me at Texas and um i i look back at those is two of the best years of my life i you know i'm pausing because i'm a new England patriot i'm sorry my friend i'm sorry yeah Aaron sorry bro we got it we got a talk oh yeah you know 17 and oh that perfect season yeah okay i'm sure you let's come back to you let's come back to you um and so this next part

i call my unplug truth so the unplug truth and i'm going to start with this truth and i tease it a little bit there's only one you right and we talk about that dominance that you had here's

my truth there's never been a 400 meter sprinter that has dominated track and feel like you

have thank you and when you hear that and you really take that in yeah by what goes through your

“mind i think about um all the hard work um the people that really poured into me um i think as you”

get older you really really value those things even more like the coaches that sacrificed um to be there i i might my coach recently passed away coach caught hard who i just loved so much thank you i he coach that billet for 50 years um you talk about excellence and longevity and consistency coach Clyde Hart embodies all of those things and i think he is the greatest for her jemeter coach of all time but when you think about the people who make the sacrifice to help you to live

your dream you know i have a coach Bruce Johnson he's the one that comes to mind when i think about sacrifices i used to train between Austin, Texas and Waco it's about an hour and a half drive and um and coach Bruce Johnson was my strength coach and he would drive to come to my training sessions on the track two or three times a week just to make sure that it was complimentary to what we're doing in the weight room and that level of commitment and sacrifice that you just

“don't find people that do that and so when i think about my excellence on the track and the fact”

that i've run the most sub 50s ever run in history and was the thank you had in american record

and their love and their sacrifice and their commitment um to help them be great you know and

my loved ones my mom and dad who were there for every single track mate make my dad came to every workout wow my dad moved right when i went to Texas my family after my sophomore season moved to Texas as well and when i started with coach Clyde Hart after my sophomore year my dad would drive me to wakeo every day he would stay with me and wakeo um so i had someone there with me because you know parents understand at that age how important it is to have that kind of support yeah

and so you know as a parent now look back on those sacrifices and i i get really emotional because that takes a lot to to do that for someone that you love so i don't i won't get too emotional

“but yeah i think about the people that poured into me and loved on me and helped me to”

to live that very radical dream amen to that amen to that and in you hit on something i was actually going to talk about you know we've had a lot of great success in track and field in the United States yeah yeah absolutely yeah and on the women's side and sprinting we've had some really really good success yeah but the 400 you the 400 you i mean there's been what two american women two one goal only two and one of them is right here yeah multiple times yeah and you talk

about all the sub 50s yeah like here's an unplugged truth i don't know if i could ride a bicycle so 50 on the 400 like people don't understand how daunting the 400 is and just the the i personally think it's more mentally because more mental 100 200 yeah it's it's physical talent right sure but the 400 is timing yes it's it's really you against you and people look at it and you've got competitors and the different lanes and all that but it's really you versus you

and and you can't get distracted right like somebody's going to come out of the gate strong again yeah you know how that does yeah like talk about the mentality of the 400 yeah it's such a good question making i don't think a lot of people really appreciate that because they look at all sprints it's kind of the same but the 400 is its own beast and if you're inside the sport what people say the 400 is the hardest race on the track because they appreciate that it is

mentally and physically so challenging so taxing and you kind of have to strike the balance perfectly in order to win you know what you're trying to have that perfect balance of speed and endurance to be able to maintain and to be able to win so it challenges you in every single way but i want to share the strategy that my coach actually we used it's a win the 400 that i also think applies to

life so we called it the four p's okay and there was a fifth silent p that i'll share so the first

p is push the second p was pace third p p position and then the final p poise and also pray he needed to pray the last 100 yeah but you know this is the strategy that i would about in my

“book and i also say i think it applies to life because i do feel like the 400 does mimic life”

when it comes to how challenging it is physically and emotionally um in the ways that we can be challenging life so the first 50 you got to push out the blocks as hard as you can you forget you're running a 400 you run it like a pure sprint because that's the only part of the race where your speed does not impact the final 400 it doesn't dip into your systems and start to affect how you're going to feel in the final 400 so you get out as hard as you can so i think about life

when you're doing something new there's this like you know energy you have like you're pushing with all your might you know you're doing the new podcast on the new show and you're like enthusiastic and you have this push an excitement but then you got to pace yourself right so after 50 meters for the next one 15 before you get to the 200 meter mark you've got to find your pace right and this is where you don't slow down but you settle into a rhythm that you can maintain

i think the same thing with life you start this new project then you got to start pacing yourself right you got to find a rhythm because you will burn out right if you try to keep that pace over and over again a lot of times that's what while a lot of people quit or fail is because they

burn out and so you got to pace yourself and find a good rhythm and then the third P coach

“heart would always say was the most important P this is where you have to position yourself to win”

the race so you talked about that in the 400 how a lot of times it is like mono and mono it's just me versus me so for the first 200 i'm not looking at anybody else i'm just solely focused on getting out hard and hitting my pace the pace i feel it's good to me i don't want to get distracted and run too fast because this person's gone out too fast i got to stay focused but in the third 100 now i got to start looking where are people at how do i position myself

to win this race same thing in life i feel a lot of times when you're starting on something new you got to position yourself for success sometimes that means moving to L.A. to get the opportunity going to the right university like putting yourself physically in position to be successful and then the final 100 was all about poise so this is the part of the race where the mind is

right and you have to like quiet that chatter in your mind stay poised and focus on the finish line and trust that everything that you have done is going to show up and you're going to be able

to cross the finish line first in the same while always say it's like there comes a moment in your

career where you're going to have to trust the process you're going to have to show up with poise and confidence go on camera knowing you've done it do the interview do the presentation with the poise knowing you have done all this work and then we always say you pray and this is continuously throughout you know just trusting God asking God for guidance but those were the four pieces that i had to use every single time i was racing that proved successful 99% of the

time when i didn't run the back stretch too fast and i mean saying my pace i was really able to be successful and to cross the finish line first so i love that strategy and the parallel to life and

i'm thinking business and leadership outside of that like that's amazing because i only had one

pea i ran the 400 one time and it was passed out because as soon as i crossed over it was a wrap i was out and i said i was going to throw the discist into the 100 and i was good yeah i was good i was funny and that's a good lesson now but amazing and so we talked a lot about what you've done in track and i want to go to the segment i call high tape since i'm going to give you a high take right now i'm going to look at the camera when i do this so you've heard a lot of

son is accolades right can't be touched here's a high take as much as you think she accomplished and track she's even better off the track uh son i told you this when i i met you for your show beyond the curve by the way it could make sure you're checking that out yes thank you but um seeing you in action in the business world and the team and family you've surrounded yourself with so impeccable i don't know many better leaders of people

“than you because of a few things and in no order but when i think of you this is the truth i think”

of excellence i think of standards i think of family and i think getting it done those are the four things that i think about you outside a track how did what you did in track and the dominance that you had and the standards that you have how did that work for you when track was done yeah and it's like hey i still have more things i want to accomplish right and i would say recognizing you for me personally for the things you've done

off the track is what i'm most proud of for you thank you so much i really appreciate that i also truly appreciate um i remember when i i had a mentor a years ago and he said to me you had to think of like three or four pillars of your brand i was still running when he was telling me this and he was like you know what are the things that are important to you and then that's so i had those things in my mind and then he says okay those are the things you want to present to the

world and everything that you're doing everything that you're doing you want to show that so the fact that you literally said four things of which three of those things were on my list of yes excellence family so my my what when i did this a few years ago i wanted to have show people it's excellence

“family um and not not get it done my word in my head was like like i think it was completion or”

one of those words and so for you to be able to regurgitate to me the very same things that i hoped to put out there um it just means so much to me because it means that i've done a pretty good job of really trying to to set those standards and so for me make our remember when i was in high school my dad said to me as i was like my career was going great i was the high school athlete of the year broke the high school national record that still stands today in the 400 I mean things were going

really well from the track and my dad said sand i never want you to be one dimensional um i want

you to always see yourself beyond being a track and feel that thing and so ever as early as that i remember always thinking to myself how will these skills that i am developing and honing how will i be able to use them post track and field how will these skills serve me and

“whatever i choose to do next and so in my final year of my career in 2016 i remember being extremely”

intentional about my transition because i knew i was in a retire that year because i had had three surgeries on my right big toe after lending so i won the Olympics effectively on a broken big toe my doctor had wanted to have surgery prior to the Olympics and i was like no i'm not taking that risk thank god i didn't because my first surgery was not successful i was out all of 2013 i think it's super long story short i had three surgeries before the 2016 Olympics and so

this thing that could potentially cause me even for further damage so i knew i was in a retire in 2016

“and so that entire year i was really intentional i said this prayer the entire year i said god”

thank you so much for this incredible gift that has allowed me to see the entire world but i know

that every blessing is not meant to last a lifetime and so and god as i give this gift back to you i pray that you leave all the good stuff with me all the memories all the lessons as i begin to see myself is more than an athlete and so that whole year i'm like you know okay what do i love to do i do i love television i knew that i love business i knew i loved you know bringing people together and so when my the commentator who is my now colleague Lewis Johnson interviewed me

after i final race he said to me what will you do next you dominate on the track what can we see do next and make i had thought about it for a whole year so i said i want to start a family i want to write a book and i want to start commentating and i literally wrote three books i was in the commentating booth three days after that interview and i got three boys so i was able

“to you know check that full list but to make a long answer very short make i think it was my”

intentionality you know i didn't wait for life to happen i didn't wait for the retirement and then start thinking okay what will i do next i was intentional two years prior to retirement and especially the last year about okay how do i parlay all of these things and i i tell you everything that i learned in track and feel has a place in business i have you know i the resiliency the hard work determination to focus the delayed gratification all of it you know it shows up in my business

world and and i i'm just so grateful i'm so grateful for the experiences i love all of that and you know i i kind of talked about beyond the current i'm gonna go talk to us about starting that show and why you wanted to do it and what you see happening with that going into the future yeah so i was very very fortunate to have make on my show this is gonna be the first season of the show and once again this show was an answered prayer i asked god i really wanted to have my own show

and i wasn't sure if it would be a podcast or tv show but i knew that i wanted to have conversations like this with great people who i admired and i wanted to talk about things that felt really authentic to me and so the show is called beyond the curve because i talked to people who have

pushed beyond that first curve in their life which means to me they have done this incredible thing

that they loved but yet they continue to push beyond and continue to do great things and so the show is related to start this fall i got a call make a random call this from scripts network and they were like hey we want to put together this show would you be interested and what i love was that they allowed me to have a lot of creative input yeah so i'm exactly producer on the show so the show you know starts with i open up the show tell them who my guest star have wonderful

guests and i have this moment at the end where i share some insights and inspirations based on what i've learned or what the kind of the theme of the show was and so it's everything i would have wanted and i'm so excited about it and i i feel like it's just going to continue to grow and grow and get better and better but thank you for being a guest on my show and bringing your insights it was phenomenon i'm really excited about it no i love it and i can't wait for it to

come out again beyond the curve everybody make sure that you're going to go view that thank you leave sand some great comments and reach out like you're going to love it just trust me i'm not going to give too much away but i promise you're going to love it yeah i'm going to be great thank you so sand this fourth segment called the room for every great person that i know there was a room a meeting a dinner a conversation yeah that really changed their outlook

on their business their career their profession uh-huh was there a room or a moment uh-huh that you can look back at say it was that introduction it was that dinner was that conversation yeah that catapulted whether it was your athletic career your business career whatever such a good question um the the first one that comes to mind once again was a conversation with my father so i was it was after my junior year in high school and um i had been you know running really well

my whole life one almost every race i ran in but my junior year i suffered my first like really like major injury i'd pull my hamstring muscle at the state championship and um didn't compete

as well and in the summer we always have these huge summer competitions i still went and competed

“but i didn't run well because i wasn't healthy and so i remember i'll never forget i was in a”

car with my dad we were driving home from one of our final summer trainings and he says sand do you want to be great and i said yeah of course like why also not be doing this and he says no but we do you really want to be great and it was the first time make that i realized that being great was not just going to happen because i was extremely talented it was only going to happen if i was intentional about doing all the things to get there and i remember my senior year i mean

practice it was the first time i started to watch other athletes who had competed the married

Jose Perex in the 400 from France who had won um Kathy Freeman's like all the greats in my event and i was like okay this is what is really going to take it's not just going to happen by chance and so i would say for me that was um a room my dad's car you know where we had this conversation that really opened my eyes to what it really took to be great and to be excellent and i would say that's the first one i would also say the second one in my kind of business and

career there's this woman that i just have so much admiration for her name is those must say John yeah and um and i had a wonderful opportunity to meet her many years ago i want to say

I was probably like maybe two or three years out of retirement and we had this conversation and it

“wasn't anything so much that she said it was just her presence and i remember saying to myself”

wow like this woman has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world and what i loved so much was how she showed up so authentically you know i feel like especially sometimes as black women we feel this need to conform a bit you know just show up to be more um you know i guess i don't say manageable but just where people can take us right like we i don't know if i'm expressing that to you well but you know it's like you're constantly trying to fit in or to and one thing that

uh both showed me was you can show up fully authentically in these rooms and they need you there they need you there and i feel like she just gave me permission to do that you know just being in her presence and so now when i go to rooms or when i have experiences i show up you know fully myself they might hear the way i want it i'll face the way i want it my big hoops like fully showing

“up as as who i am and i feel like that has served me so much as well in my career and it was because”

of her it was just being with her and seeing her and seeing how she moved that really inspired me and she still inspires me to this day she's one of my mentors and really good friends and i just i really appreciate her for the way she shows up i love that a lot and and here again i'm going to give you a lot of credit on things you don't talk about but the world needs to understand i want everybody to to really come close on this one you do so much for others that goes unrecognized

because you don't do it for recognition yeah and again i applaud you for that because i'm just going to be honest use of the words of making make only so don't take it any other way but there are people that every time they do something there's a camera there there's an article written about it that's not you and and where i want to go with this is here you also are creating rooms in moments and conversations for others thank you what's the criteria to get in a room with

sand and and by that i mean what do you look for when you want to mentor someone yeah um when you're doing things again that people don't know about with with with with mothers and single parents out of the community or you're doing things to activate youths right or you're doing things to get people into track and feel yeah again the things that you do that you don't ask credit for right i want the world to know that those things are happening yeah was it taking to be a mentee of

sand um so you know another another another great question so there are two things that i'm really passionate about that i did i get to do um one is like you said with mothers so i have i found an organization called mommy nation about eight years ago um that specifically supports black moms on their mother her journey and about four years ago we started our nonprofit where we help mostly we've helped homeless moms we've also tried to do our part with the black

maternal mortality crisis and help families who've been affected by that as well and so in that space

“when i think about the women i like to be in rooms with they're just i love being around moms”

especially single moms because i just can't imagine how hard it is to be a single mom um and to continue to be the best version of yourself while also showing up for this little human that you love so much and so i love being around moms and trying to help them and to inspire them and to connect them and give them resources as something that i truly truly enjoy and then i i love love love young people especially young girls there's a statistic that's between the age of seven and

fourteen um that young girls fall out of sports twice as more you know as 50 times more than 50 percent more than boys do um and so and a lot of times that's because i think young girls are like

trying to find their identity and they don't always feel like their femininity necessarily fits

inside of sports i think women have done a much better job of showing them that you can be all of those things but it still happens and i'm much higher rate than for young for boys and so my desire

sports is such a great life teacher and if you get those experiences you understand how to

“win how to lose gracefully how to set goals all of those things and so um i love being around”

young women and so everything that i can do whether there is through the DM me and we connect or have a mom who has a friend who has a daughter i'm one face time all the time talking to young girls and just you know trying to do everything that i can to inspire them and also with through my content like i really try to do you know the best that i can to stay very positive and so encourage people in that way but i am a people person i love being around people so

it's very easy to connect with me if you have something that you're inspired about and you think that there is synergies like it's it's not very hard to get in a room with me because i just i just love connecting with people yeah so the latest foundation or nonprofit let's give the name of that again yes and i'm gonna make sure that it's scrolling here we'll have links in our show notes and descriptions awesome but what's the name it's mommy nation give so m-o-m-m-i nation gives i we've raised

over three hundred thousand dollars towards supporting homeless moms in our community and like i said also mentioning helping at the black mortality crisis so i we've helped a couple families who've lost the mom during childbirth and the dads are with the kids by themselves i also work with for cure for moms on that but ultimately the goal is to discontinue to help the community by helping moms who have different needs to be able to you know keep thriving yeah and so yeah

so that's a huge passion of mine Nike has been a great supporter of our organization and some other sponsors crunchmaster super fee they really help us out a lot so it's been really great cool so i have a challenge for everybody that's watching or listening to this episode for me i want you to support

the foundation and here's what i'm gonna do the whole month of July whatever's collected i'm

gonna match but i need you to if you're watching if you're listening send sand and i a message on LinkedIn or Instagram sorry on Instagram tag is both so that i can confirm it

“and then i'm gonna match whatever you give because it's that important and hold me accountable”

i know you will yes um because here's what when people think of nonprofits and foundations you know they think that it's got to be huge numbers every dollar matters it wears the foundation where you located so the foundation's located yes if you're in the Atlanta area and i know that we have a hundred thousand viewers and listeners in Atlanta you can donate your time yeah because that is just as important as dollars yeah um being available being present matters

the most and again i'm only a couple hours from here i'm gonna come down to i'll have my sister my mom and we're gonna do that because it it it's moments like these that truly impact lives not even just change lives but i'm all about impacting lives and you impact by action and there's no one that does more action than you and i want to make sure you're getting the love that you deserve for that and so we want to support oh my goodness thank you so much make that means

so so much to us and like you said the lives of the women make some of these moms that we have high in our community i don't want to get emotional about it but it just sometimes takes just a

little bit of love a little bit of support to completely change your lives and the most incredible

thing about when you impact the life of your mom is that you're impacting the life of a family correct and so it's just it's it's really been beautiful and and that truly means a lot to us thank you so so very much i got you and i i mean it'll hold make all of it i know i said it on feel so i'm gonna do it but you are a man of integrity so i know thank you so much no it means that much to me i mean you've heard a little bit of my story in my past and so like hey yeah

that touches me and i don't want to support him do my part to make sure that it's thriving

“and that life is going to be impacted absolutely thank you so much cool so i'm gonna get you out of here”

on my unplugged five rapid fire okay got to go okay ready i'm ready who's the better cook you were here oh the pencil is on the meal but my husband will throw down i'm actually in love yep i'm gonna give it to my husband yeah yeah i'm coming over i'm coming over i'm coming over excuse me so sorry

witnesses in the four hundred i would have to stay christina arugum from great Britain so

in 2008 when i lost the gold medal she won gold and then i won gold in London and she got the silver so yeah that was definitely my big nemesis in the four hundred good stuff if you did not do the four hundred what event would you have done definitely the hundred really yeah and i was actually really make the plan was for me to go out supposed to run the four hundred once my senior year

“after all the research and go back to the one two broke all the records my dad was like i think we should”

stay here i was like no but i always have the four hundred found me but yes i would have definitely

been a short springer there you go i love it i love it what's one thing that motherhood taught you about you because for me father had taught me patience i didn't know it yes that that is very true um it's taught me unconditional love unconditional love i mean i just i can't imagine how much god loves us because the love i have for my boys it's just i just there's nothing they can do there's just i just love them to death i would say truly truly unconditional love okay so last one

as the story of saying continues to be written and we're on the last page the last paragraph the last sentence what's one word you want to make sure is there to define you oh my goodness make i that's a that is a good one oh my goodness what is one word that i hope is there to describe me um i would say the word they just keeps coming in my head is just love like i hope that

“people would have always felt loved around me supported they felt god's love in me so yeah i think”

that word would be love there we go there we go so i'm so honored to have you yeah i mean the world that you were here you know my huge fan of you again everything you know the track

yeah amazing but what you have done often what you're continuing to do

just makes my heart smile thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

“and to all the viewers on this news remember here because there's your superpower go in”

you