Maria Sharapova: Career Grand Slam achiever, winner of five major tennis titles, and... podcaster?
After becoming one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time, Sharapova moved into the business world. Now, she has her own podcast, Pretty Tough, where she talks to other women about how they balance the different parts of their lives—often career, ambition, and motherhood.
Since retiring from tennis in 2020, Sharapova has expanded her business ventures, become a mother, and now has a nearly four-year-old son. On the latest episode of "Nice Talk," Sharapova shares what parenting has taught her about business—and why she decided to get into podcasting.
"There's so many lessons that you learn as a mother, and one of the things ... is this art of letting go," Sharapova says. "So much of the things that we do, we like to take control of, but at the end of the day, what having a little young girl or boy next to you teaches is that things often change, situations change. These little beings grow, and they kind of inform your actions right in front of you."
For example, she says, one minute a baby loves being in a swaddle, and the next, they don't. "You're like, "Oh, I want them walking,' and they're like, "Oh yeah, no. Now I walked and now I'm running,' and you're like, "Wait, slow down!"
Sharapova notes that "relearning this element of control" runs counter to how things are handled in professional tennis.
"A lot of my training, a lot of my performance, everything that I did with the way that I trained my body and my mind was this element of control and a schedule and routine and discipline. And all those are applicable, but you have to be ready to let go, and I think that also applies in business."
That said, Sharapova says tennis taught her how to handle losses in business the same way she handled them in her sport.
"You lose a lot, and you do it in front of millions of people, and there is real beauty and authenticity in being vulnerable in that moment," the 39-year-old says. "You work so hard and you're so confident, you go in and you lose. And then, how do you handle it? How do you talk with your team within the next hour when you wake up in the morning? Who do you call, and how do you speak to them about your loss? And then what do you do to change things around? The way that I was able to handle those situations certainly informed me in business, and also now being a mother."
With Pretty Tough, Sharapova seeks to connect with other women who refuse to be one thing only.
"I've always engaged in the concept of holding true to these two strong dualities of being thoughtful, being gritty, leading a team, but equally being a woman, and being motherly, and being soft, and being vulnerable in times that required it, and really not having to choose one or the other," she says. "And as I retired and had my son, I also realized that a lot of my mom friends very much felt the same way, they were either in a moment of being a CFO or a CMO or a CEO, or they were a mother, and the idea that you had to choose one or the other didn't resonate with me."
She adds, "I really truly believe that I could be both, and deep down inside, so many women feel the same way, but they're not allowed that breadth."
For more from Sharapova—including her memories of her conversation-starting 2006 tennis dress—check out this week's installment of "Nice Talk." The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.