Alex Morgan On Retirement, Motherhood & What’s Next

You gotta put the pedal to the metal, you gotta turn your treadmill up. Oh, I lost the camera! Can't cheat winning while holding a camera! All friendships go out the door. Canada versus U.S. and it is a battle. This girl, Alex Morgan, how did you say my name? How do you f*** up Morgan? I don't know. Yes, that's the one I wanted! It was. Boom! What's up party people? I'm Julie Fowardy. Guessing who I am. I'm Abby Wambach. What am I doing? What are we doing? We're not in the office is what we're doing. Yes, that's right. That's right. You know, y'all know we have Alex Morgan, the soccer legend in the house, but Abby and I, full disclosure, have talked a lot about how can we combine work and work out. So, so much so that we pitched it to Peloton. Yeah, Jules, remember when we were in New York City trying to find the perfect sponsors and partners for this show? We sat down with Peloton and we pitched this idea to them. We were like, yo, what if we did a walk and talk on the actual Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus? What if we do that? And they loved it. They were like, yes. So guess what they did? They sent both of us these. They shipped these bad boys. Look at them. Look at them. Look at them. I want to hug it. I just want to hug it. It's so nice. It is. It's so nice. So here we are with this fun idea. We have no idea if it will work, but we love the idea that we can actually walk and talk. And we hope that you walk and talk with us because sweaty, salty party people are the best kind of party people. So get your shoes on, get on your tread or get walking wherever you are and join us. Join the party. Jules, I also think even if you don't have your walking shoes on right now, pause this. I give you permission to stop listening to us for one second, get your shoes on and go for a walk and listen to this and experience this with us while we are also walking. Do it. Yeah. I mean, Jules, for me, everyone does it. Yeah. I don't know if this is true for you, but for me, not having the need to go into a practice or go into a team training situation, working out is a kind of a hard thing for me. So one of the things that I have to figure out every single day, and I know this might be a surprise to people, but it is true. My teammates would be like, no, yeah, that, that, that tracks. It is so hard for me to get my runners on. It's so hard for me to get the kind of motivation I need to go out. So I feel like sign up. Yeah. So I have to like sign up for a class the night before that holds me accountable with like a 20 or $30. Don't show up fee. Yeah. You know, those classes, they're like, if you don't show up, you got to pay. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, $20 is enough motivation for me to just go. But getting the shoes on as soon as the shoes on for me, I'm just like, I'm like all systems go, but it's the, it's the getting to the shoes and putting the feet in and tying them up as soon as they're laced up. I'm good to go. What about you Jules? Like, is it hard for you to get motivated to work out? No, no, I actually, um, I actually get kind of like, yes, what I've learned is, um, I've wired. It used to be like that if I was like, okay, I got to go run. And it was for, you know, fitness. And I gotta, I got to run stairs and I got to run stadiums. I got to run Hills that I was like, Oh, I don't want to do that anymore. So what I quickly realized when I retired was we could have this conversation with Alex at her retirement party, which we're going to get to soon is, um, I quickly realized like, I have to make it more about the social community element. I have to make it where I'm chatting with friends, I'm engaging with people, I'm doing a class with others. So no, I haven't, once I made it more fun, I haven't had a problem with getting my shoes on. Nice. All right. Should we get this party started? I think so. All right. With the highlights and headlines, you'll want to celebrate this week in women's sports. Our party starter is brought to you by Ally, the bank that is your ally. Um, okay. First up let's talk WNBA viewership, women's sports surging numbers, as we all know. And what you may not know, this is a little bit of a DEI segment. Uh, the NBA, not WNBA, the NBA regular season tips off today, October 21st, and we couldn't help but revisit some interesting insight from front office sports and ESPN. And as you know, we love our numbers. So get this last season, the NBA averaged about 1.6 million viewers per game. It's down 2%, which actually puts it right in line with the NFL, which was also down 2%. And the NHL, which actually dropped 13%. But here's where it matters. The WNBA regular season averaged, Abby, 1.3 million viewers this season, which is, if you do the math, 1.3 million viewers for WNBA is 82% of the NBA audience. And that is huge. And then get this as well. Then you had the Chicago-Indiana fever game earlier in the year that drew 2.7 million viewers, which became the most watched WNBA regular season game on ESPN. And while women's sports are growing and gaining share, it looks like the boys are a bit flat. So you know what that says to me? That says to me, you got to put the pedal to the metal. You got to turn your treadmill up because the demand is here. It's going up and it's shifting the entire landscape of sports media. And what's next, right? Yeah. Where the viewership goes, where the viewership goes, so will the dollars. So let's go. And they're putting them in broadcast windows that are prime time. That's ABC or CBS or NBC. So that matters and it's working. Numbers are up. All right. But we still have a lot of work to do. The thing that I want to talk about in the party starter here is that I just recently saw that the collective at Wasserman said that 66% of female sports fans say sports organizations fail to connect with them. Let me say that again. 66% of female sports fans say the sports organizations fail to connect with them. And I think that more women in leadership is going to be really important to improve this across all sports, not just women's sports, authentic storytelling that reflects the women's story, real lives and their real values. And really, it's like, this is the thing that I know the NFL has been struggling with for many years, trying to figure out how to relate to the female fan. And it's more than just making a pink colored jersey. It's more than that, right? We are more than half of the population. We are a huge demographic that buys things, but we want to feel included, right? And so that's why women's sports is so awesome because women and men and anybody in between can show up and feel included. We want to just make sure that our partner ally understands that we believe that you are doing the kind of work to promote fandom, to promote equality and equity. It feels like they're everywhere and it's because they believe in this. And women's sports and the rise of women's sports, we need those big brands and those dollars to help supplement the running of these leagues and teams. It's really important. It also demonstrates what it looks like when a brand really invests consistently, listens to the fans and builds belonging year round. Allies the best. We love you guys. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's working. I mean, there's a brand loyalty there amongst women's sports fans. That's obvious. All right. Last party starter for me, Abs. I don't know if you saw this USA rugby superstar, Ilona Mar got her own Barbie. Did you see that? So earlier, earlier this month and guess what? It had muscles. Yes, it actually had muscles. I'm so excited because you got any tools, you got any muscles? I don't, I don't, I don't. So it would be okay if they did a skinny Barbie of me, but Ilona, Ilona, she is strong, right? I could, I think they could have made her legs stronger to be fair, right? But her upper body was stronger, but like, she is a beast. She should have like these incredible strong legs. So that's a win that they gave her some muscles on the top half at least. Um, yeah. And, uh, there are four soccer players who've had Barbie dolls. Can you Abby? All right. So it's gotta be, it's gotta be Mia. It's gotta be Alex. Gotta be Pino. And then they made one for me, but I don't think that I don't know if they ever put it on the market to sell. So what's the answer? Yeah. You know who else has a Barbie outside of the soccer world? Who you may or may not know. You know her. Billie Jean King. Come on. Of course she does. The King. Of course it would be a travesty if she didn't have one. Yeah. Do you think she, she likes her Barbie doll better than her Billie Jean bling le boo boo? I don't know. That's a good question. I think she's going to take the boo boo. We're gonna have to ask her next time we sit down with her. Yeah. Yeah, we should. All right you guys, that is your party starter and thanks to Ally again for supporting this segment. As you know, Ally is just more than a bank and their do it right approach helps customers unlock their economic potential and guides their efforts as a leading sports sponsor in women's sports. Just like us, Ally believes that when women in sports win, we all have a reason to party. Ally DeBank, member of FDIC. Yeah. I have a, I have another idea to motivate you to run since it's so hard to get your, your, uh, your shoes on. My idea is we've been wanting to do a segment called Run It Back. So can you share, since we're about to talk with Alex, can you share one of your favorite moments that maybe you shared with Alex Morgan? And if it's not the one I'm thinking about, okay, I, I will be blown away. Well, I have a lot and a lot I can't share. Um, but the one I'm going to share is the 2012 Olympics. So yes, that's the one I wanted. So we get into this game against Canada and it is a bad ball. Yeah. So this game, of course, we're, we're trying to win this game to get into the finals. And, um, and it's the, it's literally the wildest game I've ever played in. It was like a scoring tit for tat game. Yeah. And Sinclair, Christine Sinclair had the most unbelievably epic game that somebody could possibly have against the United States. She scores three goals and she had a hat trick. Are you running? Yeah. I get so excited. I'm running. I like, I remember this game so well. I was in London covering the Olympics watching it. Yeah. So, and every, every goal that Christine scores, we equalize, right? It's like, yeah, cool. We, we equalize the first two, right? Pino got first two. Yeah. Yeah. You got the third equalized. It was a penalty. And that was actually like one of the most nerve wracking penalties because we needed to equalize in order to 80th minute-ish. Yeah. It was close to the end. I remember passing the ball out wide to Hayo, who Heather O'Reilly, who it's not a great pass to be fair. I put Heather out. And so she's got to like, she's got to like run to the sideline and get this ball. And she then delivers a ball into the box. Now I'm expecting for it to come to my head and I'm like, here we go. Well, Alex is in front of me and the ball, the way that the trajectory of the ball, my read on it was. Wait, this is like the 123rd minute, by the way. Yeah. It's like one of the latest goals that it's, so it is, you're right. It's the second. Might be the latest goal. It's the second extra time. Yeah. So there we are. The ball's coming in and it looks like it's going to come off the top of Alex's head. So I was like, no, like in my mind, I was thinking, don't hit it because it's going to go over. Give it to me. Yeah. Right. Let it go. I've got proof. I'm like right there. I'm ready for it. And Alex heads it and she ends up getting the perfect little arc trajectory and it goes up and over McLeod's head and she scores this goal and we end up winning the game, going to the finals in the Olympics, winning a gold medal for our country. But the best part of this story to me, kind of embarrassing, is when we came into the huddle and we were celebrating the I literally screamed in her face. I am in love with you! It's so Abby. It's so good. It is not embarrassing. In that moment, you're like, yes! It was just a total, a game changer in a way. It like, it solidified my run through this tournament. It like, you need those kind of like moments to actually win a championship. And I remember getting the gold. I got that gold Raptor on my neck and Alex was to my left. And like, I just remember like patting her on the head. Like, good job. Love that head of yours. I love you and that head of yours. To show these party people what this, um, what this tread can do. This actually is my favorite part of this Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus is that you can turn it all the way down and do all this bodyweight stuff that it tracks for you off the tread. So shut it down. I mean, this, Jules, the screen swivels. I know, I know. It's crazy. The screen swivels. I mean, the Peloton is built for these, they're building this for breakthroughs. Truly this IQ, it's going to provide real-time strength coaching. There's going to be a ton of varieties. You get to choose from all these awesome instructors and teachers and coaches. Katie Wong. You want to do Katie Wong's workout? That's fun. It can personalize. Peloton IQ will also personalize plans and it'll give you recommendations. So you never are alone. It tracks your body. Like it, it, it actually helps you stay in form, which you're going to see. It's so good. It's so good. Yeah. Let me, let me get to that class. Let's go to Katie. Yes, it's working. Okay. We got to swivel the screen. This, this part is so cool. So I know. Well, and you can look at this. It can go anywhere, right? I'm going to go actually where I'm just going to be behind, behind my treadmill because that's where my mat is. And it tracks your body. All right. Yeah. Okay. So she's doing jumping jacks, right? And it counts them for you because it tracks your body. You don't even have to count. Oh my God. And if you pause, abs, check it out. It stops counting and then it picks up again. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Right. You see it counting? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And oh, okay. Abs now they want us to do these squat butt thingies and it gives you, look at your right lower screen. It tells you, I just say, mine says, try to go lower if you can. I'm trying to go lower. And if you get low enough, it's tracking your body movement. Try to go lower. It gives you a green check mark to count it. What? I can't go lower. It's just so much more than, than a tread. It's a tread plus it's got all these other freaking cool features that I'm into. I think it's time to get to the Alex Morgan retirement party. The party is part of the party is about to commence. Let's go pick up the pace. Here we go. Okay. So my family and I just got back from a trip that was absolutely incredible. Uh, we went to Lake or lane and it reminded me so much of those soccer travel days when we pile all onto buses with the team, when you're traveling with a family, you travel and you, you pile into a car and you drive to the house and our family, we just love to travel together. And as, as parents, we love it because it's basically, we are, are holding our kids, um, so close to us and they can't really go anywhere cause we're like in a new place really. And it's just our favorite because we, it's forced hangout time is what we call it. And there's nothing like exploring a new place with your family, trying out new foods, getting lost down side streets, all of it. And traveling as part of a team, it completely opened my eyes to just how big this planet is. And if you can pass off one thing to our kids, our, our, our hope and dream is to pass off the travel bug. And here's the thing while you're off making those memories, your home doesn't have to just sit empty. You can actually host your place on Airbnb and make a little extra cash, which you can then use to fund your next adventure. And now it's even easier with Airbnb's co-host network. A co-host can help with everything from creating your listing, managing reservations, messaging guests, even offering design and styling tips. They're local so they can handle the details while you're away. Find a co-host at airbnb.com slash host. All right. Party people abs. When you think of game day party, you might not think of Wayfair, but, and all you party people out there, you honestly should because Wayfair is the best kept secret secret for incredible and mind you affordable game day finds. And you could be setting up a tailgate. You could be hosting an indoor watch party. It doesn't matter. You need the right furniture. You need the right seating. You don't want people with like paper plates on their lap eating, right? Like that's like a, a host fail abs. You got, you got to get like disaster waiting to happen. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's all over the floor. It's not good. My dog swaggy is right there in your face. Yeah. It's not good. Well, for me, my big cozy sectional from Wayfair is for sure my favorite thing. Everyone piles on, everyone's got a great view and nobody's stuck in a squeaky folding chair. I mean, add in a sturdy coffee table for all the wings and dips winning before kickoff even hashtag winning. And here's the best part. Shopping at Wayfair is so easy. You can browse literally from your comfy sectional that you just got and you just keep adding to it, right? Everything I've ordered has been delivered free, fast hassle-free right to my door. Yeah. I'm also big on outdoor furniture. FYI at Wayfair, I get a lot of that actually, and pots and all of it. They have all of its side little tables. It's really great. So if you want to host like a champ this season, cause side tables also help with hosting. Wayfair's got your back. Wayfair is your trusted destination for all things game day from coolers and grills to recliners and slow cookers. So shop, save and score today at Wayfair.com that's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com Wayfair, every style, every home. All right. So Jules, you know, that us athletes, we know a lot about clothing. We have to, because yeah, after so many years in such specific high performance clothing and in the early years, it wasn't very high performance. I now have extremely strong feelings about everything from fabric to cuff height to breathability. Wait, let me just interject real quick and tell you how, how much I know about fabric, because it was like, you're talking about the old days. It was like heavy cotton that like you, if you sweated in it, you had these, remember those big gray, like sweat marks. Cause it was so thick and rough. The worst. It was like, it was like an extra 10 pounds on your body, by the way, FYI. And that's why I love Viorey's dream knit performance jogger. Honestly, they somehow figured out how to make parts of that feel like pajamas, but still look like I'm put together enough to wear anywhere. And when I'm on the road, it's what I travel in when I walk the dog, it's what I walk them in when I'm going to meetings, when I'm having coffee, when I'm just relaxing on the couch with my family. The magic is in Viorey's dream knit fabric. It's unbelievable. Have you felt it Jules? It's lightweight. It's soft. But it seems to never lose its shape. No matter how many times you wash it, no matter where you wear it, no matter how much you sweat in it or try to ruin these, these clothes, they don't ruin. No, no. And they're so light and airy that when you're actually working out in them, I was just running on the tread the other day when I was traveling and I actually felt like I had nothing on. I mean, it was just like, Oh my gosh, it's so light and airy and beautiful. Like I just, I actually ran on a treadmill again. Oh my God. Okay. So Viorey is an investment. Yes. In your happiness. And for all our listeners, this is the really cool thing. They are offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable clothes and versatile clothing on the planet at viorey.com slash welcome to the party. That's V U O R I.com slash welcome to the party. Exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. And not only abs will all our listeners receive that 20% off their first purchase, but you're going to enjoy free shipping on any U S orders over $75. And I love this free returns. So go to viorey.com slash welcome to the party and discover the versatility of your clothing exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. All right. And now party people to the party is part of our party, Alex Morgan, two time world cup champion, Olympic gold medalist and bronze medalist. And one of the greatest goal scorers, as we know in women's soccer history, she'll be honored at U S women's national teams, October 23rd match. That's this Thursday in Philadelphia, the same. And this is crazy. The same stadium where she scored her first international goal 15 years ago with 123 goals, 224 caps and a career that helped define a generation. Alex announced her retirement from club and country last fall and beyond the field, as we know she's built an empire together, just live tribe ventures and the Alex Morgan foundation, all of which, which Abby and I love are focused on creating opportunities and inspiration for women and girls everywhere. And she's someone Abby shared locker rooms with and battles with, and someone I covered watched admired through every step of her journey. And today we get to throw her her own welcome to the party retirement party, Alex Morgan, welcome to the party. What an intro. My goodness. Yes. Oh, the best kind of retirement party. My goodness. Well, how are you? Like, how is, how is early retirement going for you? It seems like you are more busy than ever. Um, we just want to check in. Like, how are you doing? How is this retirement going? You guys I'm so good. I'm like, I'm doing great. I love having my weekends free. I love like planning my own like day. And I also love choosing not to work out for like a week. If I don't want to, how long did it take you to stop? Like, you know, going, Oh, is that past enough? Or do I need to run this today? Did that take a while? Cause it took me a while. I still feel like I'm all about efficient workout. So if I could like kill myself in 20 minutes, I'd rather do that than take it slow for an hour. But sometimes like I haven't ran in like three weeks and I don't care. Like it's fine. Listen, take it from these old, old big bitches. We, we stay fit, but like, you just gotta like lower the bar a little bit because I'm thinking, okay, all of those years of playing soccer, I think it might, my, my, my ligaments and my joints might suffer. And so I'm just trying to do real easy, not a lot of impact. I walk more than I run. I lift weights, I lift weights. I think lifting weights is important. I like four or five days a week. And like, it's about trying to have joy rather than compete to be better every single day. How has that part been like mentally though? Cause I know obviously you have children. Charlie is five right now. Enzo is five months. How do you, how are you like balancing and juggling like the, not just the business side of it, but like the emotional side of getting and walking away from, from sport? Because that's basically been your life for so long. How has this transition been into parenthood? It's been really good, but obviously like an adjustment. I yeah, because as an athlete, we're conditioned throughout the years to like rush to the next thing. You rush to get water, you rush to get the balls, you rush to put on your Jersey. Like you rush to get out of the locker room. Like there isn't a time you're not rushing. Like you're even, even if you're like really early to get to training, you're still rushing to get to training because something happens. So it was a big adjustment. I actually just, um, walked in Portugal and Spain, the Camino de Santiago. I'm dying to do that. So I did that for a week and it was like, I had to retrain my brain to like not rush to anything because you're just walking all day. And there's really like, yes, there's a destination at the end of the week, but you're throughout the day, you're just like enjoying the like present moment. And you're like, I don't know, I could get to the end of the walk in six hours or eight hours, but like, there's no reason rushing this because if I get there in five and a half or six hours, it was just like a beer at the end of the road anyways. So, I mean, let's just enjoy it. It was awesome. That is on my to-do list. The whole thing is like 500 miles or something. So I know people go and do segments. Yeah, I did it. I didn't do that. I did a small segment. What I needed to do to get the certificate that said I did the walk. Oh, good. It's all about the certificate. How many miles was it total? You have to do at least a hundred kilometers or 60 miles. And so I did like just above that. You're like, right when I got to 60.01, I was like, thank you. Give me my certificate. But I think that this is like an important thing. I think that like being able to go slow. You're right. Like I've never was able to put words to the fast paceness and the hustle like the you're always like hustling to get to the next thing in order to gain the little marginal gains that you're out there for. But like going on the El Camino walk is like, oh, you have to actually look at all the flowers and the trees and the path and the step right in front of you. And what a good lesson in terms of trying to recreate that frame of mind and that perspective as you come back into your busy life with children and businesses and all of the things like what is the thing that you took away most from walking the El Camino? I what it really told me was just like or what? Yeah. What I took away from it was just to try to like really be present in the way of, OK, when I'm talking to my girlfriends at coffee or whatever, if we have the kids, you're like half in and half out. You know, you're kind of having a conversation, but you're also like seeing what your kids are getting into and you're answering a million questions and you always have a time limit. Oh, I have 30 minutes and then I got to get to the next thing or whatever it is or I got to get to work. And there just wasn't a time limit on it. So to be able to like dig into my thoughts more or if I'm if I was walking with someone actually like. Not only like be half in the conversation, but all the way in was something that was really new for me because I was I felt like I'm always one foot in one foot out because I'm always like, what's the next thing? My mind is in a million places, but it just couldn't be on the walk. So it was really like, OK, this is a good lesson for me to actually like be able to retain and information and think through that and actually just like dig into myself more on like where I am, how how am I feeling like what and and it was like really nice because there wasn't an end point and there wasn't like this thought's going to be this thought's going to be broken up by something I have to be doing in like five seconds. I'm so fascinated, too, by the fact that both of you I mean, you said when we asked the question, you know, is being a professional athlete hard, Alex and Abby texted you. You were like, hell, yes, much harder than what was what was the text tabs? It was like much harder than raising two kids, building two businesses, a foundation. And I think here's my theory on this now. I thought a little bit about this, right? Like you guys were such faces of the sport and that requires a different pressure, a different consistency to what you're doing, that you're always thinking I have to be the one scoring goals, driving this program forward, winning World Cups because the burden rests on my shoulders. Unlike this kid who was just like, I'm just going to cheer and be vocal and scream at people. But I didn't worry about I didn't worry about any of that stuff. Right. Do you think that that had something to do with it? Had to. I do. I actually Lynn's answer was really interesting to me because she was and I think it's true in some ways, but just like, well, it depends, like how hard do you want it? Because you could get you could get to the highest level by just being that good and working hard, but you might not just like want it all day every day and do like the little things that kind of drive you crazy and make you look crazy and you kind of are crazy. But I think that also that coupled with that burden in a little bit in a way definitely made it very hard. Lynn, and just for context, Lynn Beandolo answered, well, yeah, it's hard if you want to be great. That was her answer. It was so good. So good. And that's like that floored me that answer. I was like, oh, my God, it's about this pursuit of greatness. And so I have to ask Alex like you have started these businesses and you have your foundation and you have your family. So it's not like you've just stepped out of retirement in a lot of ways like I did that. I was like, I'm going to need to take some time like you have you have pre created a world to step into, which I think is really fascinating and smart in a lot of ways. But what are the hopes and dreams? And we're going to get more into the businesses like psychologically speaking, are you just transferring that kind of pressure from the time of being the face of your soccer for all those years into your new life? Or are you learning some lessons around some of the downfalls and pitfalls of of all of that pressure and what it can kind of exhaust you in? Like, are you trying to bring that with you or are you trying to leave some of that behind? Good question. Probably. Yeah. If I had to choose one of those, I'd say leave some of that behind. You know, I I do feel like it's weird in a team sport in soccer. You guys know this really well. You have to be like selfish and selfless and you have to have the right balance of that. And I feel like now in my post soccer career as a businesswoman and building a venture fund with Servando, my husband, I like I'm not selfish at all. And I'm not always like I'm not doing things or making connections with people to have an angle to be able to like get an edge like I wrote the way that we're building business is truly through like real connection. It's doing it with people we want to do it with. A lot of times in soccer, as much as we ended up making incredible friendships and relationships with people, we didn't get to choose that. We were put on a team and we were put under a coach and we had to make it work. And with the, you know, the best of the situation. But now in our job today, we get to choose who we talk to every day. We get to choose who we work with every day. And that's really different. And I'm really enjoying that. That's so interesting to me because you're trying to get away from the transactional approach to the way people do business. And I think that that's really, really beautiful. I want to like circle back to one thing that you said, because one of the things and I just need to highlight this for our listeners. One of the things that I was always the most amazed about you is that all the world championships we ended up playing together in and the ones that I saw you playing after my retirement, I was like, more amazed by your ability in world championships to do what the team needed. You were such a team player during these world championships when the other teams were really focusing on X-ing you out of the game and not giving you any chances. You would make these selfless runs. You would defend your ass off like the entire game. And sometimes that meant that you didn't score goals. And by the way, you're forward. That's what you're out there to do. And then you turn that kind of on its head and won us championships in many ways in the most selfless forms. And I just need to say, out of all of the accomplishments that you have, when I watched you do that and you scored a lot of goals in world championships, this is not to say that you didn't, but I think that you should have probably scored 50 more goals in world championships had it not been for the fact that all these other teams were trying to defend you out of these games and the selflessness of those runs of the defending. Alex Morgan defended so much. Just go back to the tapes, folks. She was such a high level defender. And after these games, when I was not on the team, I would text her. I'm like, you are working so hard for the team and that matters. And I'm just so impressed. And I just want to say, yes, maybe the selflessness gets to transfer over into business. But I want to ask a question, a follow up on that. Is part of the selfishness that we had to have as players a sense of confidence because we were so schooled in it? Is there any imposter syndrome that you're experiencing in the business world? Worrying about, do I deserve to be doing all of these things? Because I know that I experienced that. Well, first of all, thank you for that. I did defend a lot and I hate defending. Don't we all? I'll leave that to Julie. Nope. I left that to Shannon Box and Michelle Akers. Yeah, but that was not the fun part. That was a grinded out part. I do feel like I enter in rooms and sometimes I'm like, what am I doing here? And what's the thread of connection here in where I can provide value? And I know I do provide value in that, but it is humbling. But it's also incredibly challenging because in a way like, you know, Abby, like we always challenge ourself in soccer and we always told ourselves that we can get better every single day. Even from when you retired the month leading up, it was like you were presented with a new challenge in how can I help my team win with not being on the field for 90 minutes? And that was a different outlook for you than you've ever had in most of your career. So I think now it's like, it is very different, but it's also very similar in the way just challenging myself to like think outside the box and be like, how can I learn every single day? But I'm almost like, it's almost like thinking I'm at the beginning of my soccer career because I really have so much to learn. And I feel like I'm entering into this space that like everyone has been here for years and years. If anything, they like also did schooling and finance. They have been around and gone to all of these conferences and done all these panels and have built all these connections with people in the venture and finance world. And I'm like, hey guys, like here, you know, here I am. I mean, I've been at this now for over five years, but it's also like, that's very new when it comes to the venture world. So for sure, I'm like, but I'm not like in the same, in the way that like with soccer, you kind of show up and you have to be like, I'm here. Like you almost have to like have that confidence. I feel like now I am more open and willing to be like, yeah, I know that I don't know everything and I have a lot of learning to do, but I'm also confident in my abilities and where I stand right now and like how I can like lead my company. And that must be so refreshing though, for the people who do, who are experts in that business. Cause I'm sure there are athletes who step into it and are like, I'm a bad-ass. I know everything because I'm a bad-ass athlete, which doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad-ass business person as well, but they come in with that mentality. So I'm sure that they love that. You're like, I'm here to learn. What is your biggest motivator? Because I know you have all these options to support all these different groups, but what's your biggest motivator and what you get your investment behind or you put your energy behind? Well, we're actually are, so I have my media company together and that, you know, I've been building for the last five years. Venture, the focus into venture has been more like the last three or four years. And I would say that as me and my husband started our fund, we were focused more on sport and health tech on SAS and some consumer goods. But as we realized that you know, with our history and experience in sport, like where we're finding ourselves right now is in a lot of sport deals is a lot in a lot of sport investments. And there are a lot of opportunity right now both men and women's sports, but especially women's sports. So it's having the experience that we have to vet those and to decide where, what we're going to back. And so we, we are actually really sport focused to now, which was a little unexpected. Cause I think we were like, we want to like go a different direction. Like sports is so like, it's so cliche. But that is just, you know, that's where we can really provide such immense value. And it's really exciting actually to be able to, to focus in on something that like I've worked out my whole life and now on the business side, like being able to actually poke holes at like a business model as both a former player and now as like an owner and investor. Yeah. I mean, it's incredible. And the, the investments that you're already invested in San Diego wave FC, you were one of the first into the unrivaled women's basketball league that's founded by Stewie and fee. It's just, you know, I just feel like if there's anybody in the, in the world that I want to win at the game of post retirement, it's you Alex, and you have put so much of your heart and energy into preparing yourself for this time. We have to know the story though, about the together. I was just going to say, I need to know. Yeah. Where did everybody watches women's sports come from? Can you tell us like the origin story of that? Because I love that shirt and I see it ******* everywhere. It really is ******* everywhere. It's great. But we, so we, you know, the team came up with this motto and we are a media company, but we have you, we have been able to create really cool merch, you know, matching sets, you know, shirts with certain slogans and the everyone watches women's sports. It was kind of a way to like flip things on its head in that, you know, I feel like you guys know it's been you know, people are very like, nobody watches women's sports and people wanted to make a play on that. And we were like, no, we're just going to say it as it is. Like women's sports is a movement right now. We're going to capitalize on this. Like, and we think that this is going to be a hit. I got the shirt and I was like, and they're like, can you take a picture in this ball? I'm like, can I take a picture in this? I'm living in this. So it went out and within a couple of weeks, it was insane, like sold out everywhere. We saw not only like fans in the stands, but broadcasters, like people on the street, like I would see people walking through the airport and I would just be like walking past them like cool shirt, like with my hat, like they have no idea. I'm like, nice shirt there. Um, and then all the collaboration started, which was awesome. And, um, and you know, then obviously, you know, working with Nike, being able to have a Jersey sponsor with the London city line. That's so cool. The only, um, the only, uh, women's team in the, in the, in the WSL that is not attached to a men's team. Um, and it just, yeah, I guess it just took off and we were ready to capitalize on it as a business, um, and a media company. Um, and it's, it's really helped our business a lot, which is great. That's amazing. That's such a great story. Um, let's, let's review a full circle moment that we realized with this game on Thursday, your retirement game. Um, it's at Subaru park, which is where you scored your first international goal 15 years ago. And we dug a little deeper and we figured out that one Abby assisted on that goal. And two, of course I was actually calling that game. And so we were all there. How fun is that? I mean, how amazing. And I'm just one, Oh, somebody's here. Is that for you? It's somebody at my door. You guys, I don't know who it is. Sorry. Um, um, yeah, I know how, wow. And Julie, I didn't actually know that you were calling that game. I didn't either until Abby told me this morning. She's like, I went back to find that goal. It's a good one. It's the one where the ball gets popped up. I run it down and I flick header it over to you, Alex. And you just open your, your body up and just like volley it. It was like a half volley and you just place it in the back post. It was, it was an incredible goal. And actually, because you were so new to the team, Julie, didn't say your last name perfectly correct. Like we came to learn. And then also she was like in, in her, she was like, actually, that was a really good finish. And then fast forward a couple of weeks. Shockingly, this girl, Alex Morgan, how did you say my name? How do you **** up Morgan? That's what I said. I said, I was probably so excited about the damn gold goal. Yeah. She said morning. And then remember Alex, we've got to fast forward a few weeks where you end up scoring that goal in Italy to give us the edge, um, on the home and away match to actually qualify women's world cup. So that was like, almost didn't qualify for the 2011 world cup. That goal was enormous. Um, wait, just to go another layer, actually the ball came in that you flicked from Heather mitts down the right side. She's going to be there. She said she lives in Philly area. So we got everyone coming back together. We're all going to be back together again. Abs. Any other questions before we get to the party popper? No, I think we go party popper and then we got to play her the video. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alex, we typically do a party popper, which is kind of a rapid fire with our guests at the end of the interview, but we've, we've, we've, uh, we've called an audible here and we're going to pivot and we're going to do a blind ranking of your top five moments as a player. Okay. So for this, I don't want to mess it up. Those of you party people who don't know what a blind ranking is, essentially you have to play something into a list without knowing what else we're going to throw at Alex, uh, to be ranked. So top five moments as a player for Alex Morgan. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. Winning your first world cup in 2015. Where are you going to put that one in the five? Three. Three. Would you say three? Three's out. Okay. Your tea sipping game winning goal in the semifinal of the 2019 world cup versus England in Lyon, by the way, where you also played. That was awesome. Um, but it was a semifinal goal. And, um, yeah, you know, if there's other Olympic or world championships, I got to put that higher. So I'm going to say four. Okay. I thought that might go a little higher. Okay. Achieving equal pay with the U S women's national team. That's one. Yes. I knew that was going to be one. I knew it. Okay. Your 2012. Oh, this goal, this could be my favorite goal of all time, by the way, you're you know, where I'm going, your 2012 Olympic semifinal. Y'all, if you haven't seen this game, you need to go rewatch this game against Canada and the semifinals of the 2012 Olympics. Alex Morgan scores in the 123rd minute for it. They ended up winning that goal. They ended up winning four to three and then go on to beat Japan in the final for the Olympic gold medal. I still think it's like the latest goal. It is still today. Oh, well, I'm obviously not putting out five, but now I'm nervous for the fifth one. What it's going to, you know, because that's not going to be number five, but I have to put that at number two. Okay. That's going to number two. So what did I, what did I place last? Oh God. Winning your second world cup in 2019, after scoring six goals to co-lead the entire world cup with Megan Rapinoe. Okay. That was your last baby. That's your last place. All right. I didn't crush it, but I didn't do, I didn't do terrible. No, that was good. That was really good. Really good one. There's a lot of really good moments to pick from. So it's tough. Yeah. We wanted to do 13, but we didn't want to keep you for four hours. So your top 13 moments. We also wanted to do AARP, fun things to do in a retirement list. We did. We looked that up and it's like, try macrame. Cultivate a flower arranging hobby. I was like, Oh my God, this would be so good. You're lucky. We're just, we just retired from one career and we moved on to the next. So let's, let's recircle in like 30 years guys. We have one last thing for you, Alex. Well, two really, but one, one that, um, we need your help with because clearly Julie and I are very competitive. We need to get our competition in different ways. And, um, we did this segment. It's a minute to win it. We both have these Peloton treads and, um, these tread pluses they're incredible. They're actually really, really cool. I have one too. Yeah. They're amazing. And so we both got on there. We set it to one minute and whoever got the furthest distance wins and you had to control your speed. Who between Julie and I do you think one, and we're going to then play you the video. Julie. Are you ready? Are you on it? Here we go. Can you see three, two, one start. Come on Jules. Get up there. I know that's what he said. It takes too long. That's what I noticed. Yeah. Oh my gosh. My speed is too. Sorry. Abs. I really think it is going to be Julie. 45 seconds. What are you showing? 42 long strides. I was like, I'm going way too slow. Okay. The form. Okay. That's the rule. What's your speed? Yeah, exactly. Oh, I lost my camera. Oh, I was all about filming. Why did I? Can't she win while holding a camera? I'm down to my last 10. Alex is so stressed. Wait, Abby, is Abby cheating right now? Oh, she might be. What are you doing Abby? I had to turn it down. I didn't cheat because I turned it down and I was trying not to fall off the back of it. What was your distance? What's your distance? 0.17. Oh, shut up. Seriously? Yeah. Look at this. Take a screenshot of it. Oh my God. I'm so mad. I'm 0.15. Oh my God. Why would I ever root against Abby? I should never do that ever again. I thought I was stupid. Oh, Abby, Abby, I'm so sorry. I'm never, I am never rooting against you again in my life. Listen to me. I, I even called it. I was like, Alex is for sure going to choose Julie. She saw me at the end of my career. She knows I can barely move now. She, that would, that would be what I thought. That is what I said. I still run like Abby doesn't run because of her ankle and she still beat my ass. I was like, this is why I, yeah, all of this combined. I'm like Jules, but you're right. I'm disappointed in you. I am disappointed in myself as well. I couldn't get it going fast enough. That was, I learned from that. I learned and I'm going to get better. Alex, I'm going to get better. You know that when you press the middle of the like toggle, it goes up 1.0. So you can just press the middle button. Oh, I did not know. Well, see, this was my mistake. I said to Allie, I've done some post run analysis. I clicked it on the screen though, by the way, her name's Abby. Sorry. I told, I told Abby, I clicked the 6.0 on the screen. So then it just kind of gradually brought me there instead of like, but I'm impressed because I probably would have like my hammy would have gone after 30 seconds. So we might just, that's going to be our next one. Since you have it, it's the best. Thank you so much, Alex, for, for being with us. It's so, so great to have you on. I can't wait to celebrate you on Thursday night and party. People join the telecast. It comes out on TNT, October 23rd, Philadelphia. Um, so join us to celebrate Alex on Thursday and while you're at it, don't forget to subscribe to our welcome to the party YouTube channel. Click on that little bell icon. So, you know, when we go live, especially with this bad boy. Yeah. And it would really mean a lot to us if you rated left a comment and subscribe to our podcast. I read all of them. There's, there was 591, five star. We are a hundred percent right now, Julie Apple podcast reviews or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We really love it. If you followed us on Tik TOK, Instagram, uh, at welcome to the party show where basically Julie, Billy, and I will bring you, bring the party straight to your feed. Um, and also another shout out to Kate Diaz for our theme music. We love you, Kate. So we do a little party pose. Like you just pose and whatever way you want for your party pose. Okay. I know mine. Ready? One, two, three. Oh wait. My finger has to be up. All right. Who's on three. One, two, three. That was really bad. Can we do this again? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So on three, one, two, three. Yes. Welcome to the party is an independent production brought to you by treat media. Treat media makes art for humans who want to stay human forever. Dog is our production partner, and you can watch our full conversations on the welcome to the party, YouTube channel and follow us at welcome to the party show on Instagram and Tik TOK.