 Hi, everyone. So glad you could join us for another episode of Adweek's Most Powerful Women in Sports. I'm Lisa Granitstein, and it's here where the world's greatest marketers, media pros, athletes, and coaches share their remarkable career journeys and how they achieve peak performance. We'd also like to hear from you. So hit us up with your questions. Today we'll be speaking with soccer great Carly Lloyd. We'll hear from Carly on grinding to glory and what it means to play with head and heart. Carly is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time women's world cup champion. Known as the clutch player, Carly scored the gold medal winning goals in the finals of 2008 and 2012 summer Olympics. In all, she spent 17 years with the U.S. women's national team retiring in 2021. Endorsement deals include an impressive roster of brand partnerships such as Nike and Volkswagen. Carly also is the author of the 2016 New York Times bestseller when nobody was watching my hard fought journey to the top of the soccer world. Lots to unpack here. So let's dive in. Carly, welcome to the show. Hi there. Good to chat. It's good to chat for sure. So let's start from the beginning. We have so much to get into here but I want to know where did you grow up? Tell us a little bit about that and how you got into soccer and who was your biggest influence. We'll start there. Yeah, so I grew up in Delran, New Jersey which is a very small working-class neighborhood, nothing special. Everybody knows everything about everyone. It was my roots. It was where I grew up. I had so many friends and neighbors that I was outside playing with around the block and just a really special childhood. I played any in all sports. My parents got me involved with soccer at the age of five. They also signed me up for swimming, softball, basketball and they also signed me up for piano and ballet and dance and it was torture getting me out of the house to go to those recitals and practices. I absolutely hated it. So it was a very good indication to my parents that sports were my thing and soccer. There was just that love for the ball. It was almost love at first sight and I just brought a ball with me everywhere. I went to my friend's house, my aunt's house. I was always practicing on my own and that's really what shaped the foundation for me. Wow and that passion really turned into a career. Obviously you went to Rutgers, you were on the team, you went through some of the different camps and the different programs and you write a lot about the fact that this was no fairytale. It was as you said freaking hard. In what way would you say that? I mean what don't people know about what it means to be an athlete at this level? Well when you're young and you're just playing on teams there's nothing to do but just play. It's for love of the game. There's nothing that really gets in the way of that. You're not an adult dealing with outside distractions, you're not dealing with the media, you're not dealing with business endeavors and just the pressures of having to perform day in and day out. It's just fun and as I've climbed the ranks and I've gotten through college and then onto the professional scene it's not as glamorous as people think. It is very very hard. I have talked about it openly in my goodbye letter and the player's tribune called it so hard to say goodbye. There's so many things that you have to navigate and you have to still perform at your best and there's things that are unpredictable. There's coaches who bench you, there's injuries, there's failures at major championships, there's losses. There's dealing with so many other things and it's really really challenging and that's why very few make it and I think the biggest thing that's gotten me through is that I just have always loved the game. I've always played for love of the game and that has always stood at the top of the mountain top aside from anything else. You're also known for your work ethic and your determination. Where does that come from? Was it just something you had to work on or was that always part of you? No, it wasn't part of me. I would say the will and the dedication and that inner motivation was always there for me but I didn't understand how hard I needed to work. I didn't love running when I was a youth player. I didn't understand the importance of running but when you get to the professional level and you're then immersed with the best players from all over you really need to be able to separate yourself and thrive and continue to perform. I had to learn that my work ethic always had to be there. I had to be the hardest working player at every single training session, every game, nothing else mattered but to give it my all for my teammates and so I think that over the course of my career just became my DNA but I had to work towards it. I had to get myself fit. I had to do all of the things that no one ever sees, run in snow, run in heat, run in rain, get up really early before a flight and get a workout in. It never stopped and I grew to love running and just pushing me to become a lot more mentally strong so it was definitely something I learned a little bit later on in my career but it's the biggest thing that kept me on the national team for so long. Yeah and you also are known obviously for being authentic, telling it like it is and just speaking your mind and of course this week you've done just that with Hope Solow, your former teammate on her podcast. You guys both take the hard road and it could be so easy just to be quiet. Why do that? Why go there? You know it's funny. I've played for 17 years on the national team. I was always different. I always went against the green not for any other reason but for what I believed in and what I thought was authentic to myself and I was never afraid to voice my opinion. I was never afraid to be different and I'm proud of that. I'm proud to have spent my 17-year career doing it the way that I wanted to do it and going out the way that I wanted to do it and speaking with Hope, things just kind of come out. You talk about a certain subject and it's not groundbreaking news. We won a bronze medal in Tokyo and we were disjointed the whole tournament. We didn't play well. We weren't a team. Collectively we weren't on the same page so this isn't breaking news. I just think that no one wants to speak about it and in order for the culture and the mentality of the team to change it's important to talk about it because there's a lot of younger players that won't talk about it because they're a bit scared to. I feel like it's kind of my obligation to help make the national team next generation of players continue to play for that that way and that mentality. People have a lot to say these days. So with that, and I do want to talk about the culture and ways to change it, the women's soccer is going through so many changes right now. There's waiting on a new commissioner. There's a whole slate of new coaches. There's new teams even. What is it going to take to change this culture? Let's talk also about the equal pay settlement, which I know you're not so wowed by but let's talk about all that. Yeah, I'm all about doing things the right way and sometimes doing things the right way is going to take time and you have to build things from the ground up. You don't build a building and put the roof up. You build the building with the first layer of brick and then you just layer brick after brick after brick after brick then you put the roof on. What people don't understand is you can't half-ass things. You can't do things the wrong way. What we're finding with the NWSL, the National Women's Soccer League, and some of the things with the national team that we've been going through on the equal pay front is things just weren't done the right way. Now it's like we've had all these issues come out and now it's like, okay, we're in year 12. Now we have to put all these things in place and it just doesn't work that way. We're almost now starting at year one because the things weren't done in actual year one. So my hope is that this is a lesson for all, that it's not about what things look like from the outside in. You can't have all these flashy things and sponsors and this and then your team not have a field to practice on or proper field to practice on. Everything's a bit backwards. So my hope is that this is a reset and teams, organizations, owners, they all start to figure it out because you have to do things slow the right way and just build it year after year after year. On the equal pay front, yes, it's definitely a historical moment. It's been a long fight, it's been six years of this and what I've said in various podcasts with Hope and Lexi Lallis is there's still a ways to go. I'm in this newly fresh retirement phase and I'm not expecting to have gazillions of amount of money where I can just put my feet up and not do anything. But we're not really prepared for the future. We're not as professional soccer players. We leave the sport and then that's it. There's no health benefits, there's no retirement funds, there's no pensions, leagues all across the country, NFL, Major League Baseball and I'm sure the NBA, players have these pensions that are set up. If we don't invest in our own retirement, we will not have anything. So it's a historical moment but we still have a ways to go and my hope is that in the next coming years, players that retire will have some sort of security because we are retiring in our 30s, close to 40s. This isn't a 55 or 65-year-old player that's retiring from the sport so we still have a lot of years left and it would be nice to be able to have some of those benefits. Do you see yourself getting involved in more of the legal battles to do that or is that for maybe another generation to fight another player? Yeah, I've been talking about it a lot with our Women's National Team Players Association. I've been mentioning it a lot. I know some former players have had to sue the Federation when they have retired because of all the injuries that they've had. You're not protected. We give everything to the sport and our bodies take a huge hit. In order to avoid that, we need to set up something that can help provide that. I think that that is obviously on the next generation of players. I don't know how we get there. Even in the National Women's Soccer League, hopefully we can get there at some point. I've always been hopeful and would help in any way possible, but I think that that's definitely a big thing. Do you think it's harder now to be a professional athlete or now or when you were coming up, especially in women's sports? I think now is harder. The first half of my career was without social media. You just played. There wasn't much outside noise. Then second half of that, you've got more people invested. You've got news outlets and coverage, which is great because that's what we want. Then you have the social media world. You have the critics. You have the doubters. You have people that just want to slap labels on you, people that want to push certain narratives against you and whatnot. It's really hard. It's a really, really hard world to navigate. That's why I think it's so important, which I've spoken upon on culture of a team. It's so important to collectively have the will to win championships be the biggest focus because as soon as players start to have other things that become bigger than that, that's where the problem lies. It's a very, very tough world to navigate. It's amazing the opportunities that some of these players are having, being able to earn extra income, being able to make posts, being able to build the brands. I'm all for that. I'm the first to admit I've built my brand. I've done commercials. I've done shoots. I've done endorsements. My number one focus was always that I'm a professional soccer player and that is my ultimate duty to be the best version of myself, to help my teammates win. That was always bigger than anything else in my life. They have a lot to navigate. It'll be interesting, but I'm definitely rooting them on. What was it like to watch the Olympics, the Winter Olympics and actually the Summer Olympics with both Michaela Schifrin and Simone Biles going through their struggles, through their performances and taking heaps of social media abuse? You must have been really feeling for them. You get a lot of that too on social media. That must be really tough. Oh, yeah. The block button comes in really handy. It's just like I just don't have time for negativity. If you have the audacity to write something that is just so degrading, you deserve to be blocked. I don't need to see that. Dealing with and seeing Simone and Michaela, those two sports are, those are like prime Olympic sports. They have the weight of the world on them. I couldn't imagine. They're so successful. They've been champions through and through. We as athletes, we aren't always on top. There's days where we perform amazing. There's days where we're average. There's days where we're poor and it just happens. We're all humans. I just don't think people understand that. There's so much that goes into preparing for a moment like that. There's so much pressure. I was really, really proud of Michaela and even Simone of just how they dealt with it. People can be really cruel. We as athletes are doing the impossible. We are a very select few that actually reach this top. For people to have the audacity to say the things that they do, it's just a shame. I wish the world were kinder and nicer and unfortunate. What sports do you like to watch? We'll start there. What are you watching these days? What's fun for you? I actually, I do watch some golf. I used to think golf was very, very boring. Your husband plays golf. He does, yes. I'm always like, man, why do we have the golf channel on? I've really grown to like it and I'm going to start golfing as soon as the weather breaks and gets nicer. Golfing, I watch NFL. Soccer obviously is big. I tune into any and all sports that I can. Tennis is fun. I enjoy watching tennis. I'm a sports fan through and through. What about growth areas for women in sports? Where do you see the next big sport? Is there one on the horizon? I would have to say I'm a bit biased. Techball, one of my sponsors. Techball really just took off in the last couple of years. It's a table, almost like table tennis, but it has curves and it's with a soccer ball. But they are trying to become an Olympic sport and ESPN is airing a lot of the games. It's really fun to play. It's really hard, but I see that sport on the horizon. I'm going to have to look that up. I've actually never heard of it. Wow, okay. We're almost out of time. Two more questions for you. What would be the best piece of advice you'd give to women now entering the sports arena? We'll start with as a pro athlete and then maybe if there's front office you want to share. Speaking on the experiences that I went through and I don't know how to have it all figured out, but what's worked for me is staying true to myself, really valuing that. I think right now in a world that we live in, it's very hard to get pulled in so many different directions. It's really hard for some people to stand alone and not follow the crowd, but it's been the most rewarding and proudest accomplishment that I've ever felt at the end of my career to really go through 17 years and to have been my true authentic self. Another thing I would say is just competing against yourself, worrying about yourself. So many people want to compare themselves to others. They want to judge and say, oh, that person isn't as good as me. Just focus on yourself. Put all your time and energy into being the best version of yourself and you'll really start to thrive and you'll really start to become a better version of yourself. I think that that is so incredibly important. Another thing, the last thing I would say is there's challenges, there's obstacles, there's setbacks, there's so many things, but I really believe we grow as human beings when we face those head-on and when we use them as opportunities. They can be the biggest teaching tool ever in our life, and it's okay to be uncomfortable. It's okay to go through some challenging situations, but just be open to growing and learning from them. So what's next? What's next for you? What's next? I've got some things down the pipeline that can't really share at the moment, unfortunately, but staying involved within the game, I don't want to leave the game altogether. So definitely men's World Cups, women's World Cups, things with US soccer, broadcasting perhaps, maybe a book on the horizon, and from a personal standpoint, just enjoying time with my husband, family, friends, nieces, and in the very near future, starting a family with my husband. So that's some goals as of now. That's some big goals. Well, best of luck. This has been fantastic. I really appreciate it. Before we go, I just want to get your takeaways, and then we will send you on your way to do whatever's next. Yeah. So I touched a couple, two and three, I touched on a little bit, but my number one, better every day. That is my motto. That is something that I lived for every single day of my career. There were good days or bad days. There were some days I didn't feel like getting out of bed. There were some days where it was easy to get out of bed and go work out, but I just always remained focused on doing something every single day to just be better every day. And it doesn't have to be a two-hour thing, or it could be 15 minutes. It could be 10 minutes. It could be reading a book that can help you make you better. So that's a big one. Number two, competing gets yourself, only worrying about being the best version of yourself. Like I said, you can spend all your time and energy worrying about all these other people, but the best way to continue to make yourself better is to just compete against yourself. You're just trying to be better than you were the day before. The last one, turning setbacks, challenges, or obstacles into a positive and opportunity to learn, grow, and become better. Like I said before, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to be challenged. Don't be afraid to fall. Just get back up again. Tackle it head-on and use it as an opportunity. There's so many lessons that we can take away in life, mostly from our own experiences and from others' experiences. So it's very important to use those as an opportunity. Carly, thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you. Thank you. So next time, we'll be back for most powerful women's sports on March 9th with Naz Aletaha, the global head of League of Legends e-sports. So hopefully we'll see you then. Until then, have a good rest of the week.