Remarkable People Behind the Podcast!

Good morning, it's Guy Kawasaki. I'm in Santa Cruz, California. It is 10am Pacific in and I have already caught, according to my watch, about 29 waves today. So it's a good day and the day is only beginning. I may have another session today. So today we're starting a new technology platform. We are using ECAMM Live. And it's. And then ECAMM Live sends the signal to Restream and then Restream sends it to Periscope, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. Right, Jeff? So we got all that covered and you, you heard that we could play our own theme music in during the 32nd countdown. So. Yeah. So today is Wednesday, and every Wednesday we have a new episode of our podcast. And today's guest on our podcast is Randy Chastain. And if you have not remembered the name yet, you soon will because she is one of the most accomplished athletes in the world. And I think we can bring her on right now. Jeff, there she is. There she is. Hi, randy.

You've hit 29 waves. You hit 29 waves. That's a lot of waves.

Yeah, that's. You know, I, I think catching 29 waves is roughly equivalent to making a penalty kick with my left foot in the World cup against China. It's about the same.

You know, I, I think it seems like more to me. That's a lot of. That's a lot of swimming you have to do to get out there for 29 waves. Especially, especially there in Santa Cruz.

So while we're on this picture, before I forget, can you point out this may sound worse than it is, I don't want to be accused of sexual harassment, but can you point out the bra there she.

Oh, wait, it's on this shoulder. No, it's on this. There it is right there.

Yeah, right there.

That's. That's from the moment.

That's the bra. So for people who. So people who may not be knowing, what the hell are we talking about? Can you just explain. Explain the significance of that bra?

Well, the significance of that bra is as it relates to the women's World cup in 1999 that we played at the Rose Bowl July 10th and post last penalty kick, thankfully that went in for the USA that won us the World Cup. That bra was exposed to the 90,000 people in Stadium and millions of people that were watching at home and has now lived in infamy. It's very, It's. It has taken on a life of its own. It's traveled, it's met a lot of people it's had a lot of conversations. It, it actually, you know, it has stimulated actually a lot of really good civil discourse about, you know, the state of women's sports and female athletes. It's, I think it's perpetuated the platform and raised up the platform of women in sports in general. And so it's been, it's, it's been the topic of conversation for many conversations for 21 plus years.

After the game and before it got framed, did you wash it or is it, you know, it's still.

Oh, no, no, it was in the stack of bras to wear and I would put it at the bottom and then I would know, okay, if I get to this one, I know that I need to do the laundry because I probably should, I shouldn't be wearing it.

But every, every world class athlete has a system. Yeah, it's like Michael Jordan's boxers, right. Which he allegedly wear, wore from the University of North Carolina all the way to the Bulls.

Hey, I have, I have the same socks that I wore from 1999. I wore them all the way through my, till my last professional game, which was 11 years later, because they were the ones that. Yeah, I mean, I only wore them for games and I took quite good care of them and I, I haven't found a pair that are similar since.

Yeah, but I sent you some socks.

You sent me some great socks and I actually have them on right now. Check it out. Where, oh, where's my foot?

Those are merged. Those are merged for socks, ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah, I love them. They're great. I'm a huge sock fan. I like I told you this. I would have some knockdown drag out fights with my younger brother because socks were very special to me because of the way they made my feet feel in my cleats. And if I found the right pair, then I wouldn't have to ever worry about my feet.

Right.

My feet would feel good. I could just concentrate on the ball. But when your equipment doesn't fit right, I'm sure you feel the same way if you have a wetsuit that's pinching somewhere or something's not right, it interrupts.

Your pleasure of my wetsuit pinches everywhere.

Oh, well, then you need to find a new wetsuit.

And so while we're looking at your memorabilia, you got any gold medals you can show us?

Yeah. So this one right closer to me right there is the first ever women's gold medal ever in the Olympics. That's 1996. That's the op. That's the closing. That's the podium attire for the gold medal stand for the. The winning teams. That's what we would wear. And so that's from Athens, Georgia, where we played China to the final. Yeah, China to the final.

You. You have a history of defeating China. Maybe you should help Biden.

Oh, yeah, we've had, you know what? We had some amazing, amazing games against China. And very. What I love loved about playing China is that they had talent all over the field, and they. It was, you know, it was as much a mental game as it was a physical game. You had to be engaged every moment, which is very difficult. Humans don't focus in that capacity, and to try and get to that level is exhausting. Those games were exhausting. Always against China.

Yeah, yeah. So just how did you start. How. When did you start playing soccer? Was it something at 2 years old? You, you know, you bouncing a ball in your crib or.

No, no. Nobody in my family knew anything about soccer. I started soccer because it just happened to come to my neighborhood. Not for any specific reason in terms of somebody knew about it or played it and had shared it with me. My parents recognized that I love sport. I was always outside. I was either throwing a ball, catching a ball, kicking, you know, like on the playground, we would have that big red rubber ball. I love playing kickball and soccer came to my neighborhood and they said, hey, let's sign up. And that was it. I was in the summertime, springtime of seven to eight years old.

And for those of us who will never face this challenge, just what does it take to make an Olympic soccer team for the United States?

Well, you know, the great thing about making it to that level is that the journey doesn't look the same for everybody. So if there's anybody out there who's going to hear this story and say, well, that's not me, I'd say, don't worry. It doesn't have to look like that for you. For me, it was a very rocky road. It was up and it was down. You know, I would say that the one constant thing would be that, you know, you have to spend time doing it. This is not something that's just a hobby. You have to love it. You have to. You have to give in to the hours to better yourself. And, you know, that's outside of your. Your team environment. And because I honestly, Guy, if I told you, it's hilarious. What. When I think about right now, the difference between where I was when I was a kid in youth soccer and where kids are now in youth sports in general and the way the landscapes were different. So I played soccer twice a week and had a game on the weekend.

Okay.

So that would probably total to about five hours. Five hours a week.

Okay.

Now.

And what do kids do now?

Yeah, they're playing every day. They're. If they're not playing, they're getting a trainer. They're. They're exhausting themselves probably seven days a week trying to chase something, a rainbow. I mean, they're cha. They're chasing a pot of gold, to be honest with you. And I think some of it is because it's so heavy on the scale in one way that it's creating a lot of imbalance, a lot of injuries quitting the sport. So I think it's a slightly out of whack. You know the thing about, again, like I said, every pathway is different. But what I do value and I go back to a lot is I think back to my childhood and you know, know there was self discovery, there was more self discovery, more self guided learning, more pickup games, more just me playing against the wall than anything else because that was the circumstance I lived in. And so for me to find soccer on a higher level, it really took a lot of personal time. And honestly at the beginning, I will say I didn't, that that's, I didn't know that's what I was doing. I just love soccer. It made me happy and I, I wanted to do it as much as I possibly could. But I played baseball, I played basketball, I played volleyball. You know, I did other school sports and I love being on teams. Maybe that's what the draw really was initially is that I love being on teams and I love competing and I loved getting dirty. I mean, the two sports that my parents and my grandparents really wanted me to play were tennis and golf. Two sports that I really think are great now as an adult. But as a kid I was like, can't get dirty. I don't get to push anybody over, I don't get to kick anyone. Like, honestly I was like, that seems like fun, but that's not what I'm going to do.

Another question that many people cannot relate to. So we have to get into your head. What does it feel like to be an American athlete, or I guess any country's athlete at the opening ceremony of an Olympics?

That is a great question and an amazing feeling. I will tell you. The anticipation for that moment was almost as exciting as it was walking through the tunnel and into the stadium, you know, wearing your opening ceremonies outfit. And waving your flag and being with your teammates and every other best athlete in the world marching that was there for the parade. I'll tell you that the procession is not terribly long, but the wait was about four hours. And, yeah, it's crazy to think, because they have to get everybody together. So you convene in one. In one stadium, and then you walk to the stadium next to it. And so you. And because the United States, we go last, which I think was probably better because the other athletes are standing the entire time, at least in the other arena, we got to sit. And so, you know, you get to watch on the big monitors, all the teams process into the stadium, and the crowd going crazy and the lights and the flags and just the pure joy to make an Olympic team is incredible. I think the experience of the opening ceremonies is magical. And I hope that every athlete that goes to a or multiple Olympics has the chance to walk through the Opening Ceremonies, which is not always the case. And we actually debated and didn't walk through one Opening Ceremonies because we had a game that next day. The first Olympics in 1996. We decided, hey, we'd never been here. Soccer had never been here. We need to be. We need to be at this Opening Ceremonies, even though we were playing in Orlando and the Opening ceremonies were in Atlanta, really. But it's. Yeah, it's. It's remarkable. And there's a lot of, you know, who normally doesn't walk through Opening Ceremony swimmers, because they start their. Their trials right. And the preliminary races before the games begin, technically, with the Opening Ceremonies. Just like soccer, we begin before the opening ceremonies because there's so many games that need to be played.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know, on our podcast, which I truly enjoyed, and it's. It's live today. We're going to overlap with the podcast for just a second because I think it's such a great story. So this is in the. In the World cup against Germany in. And you inadvertently score against your own goalkeeper. And Carla Overbeck comes up and says what?

She basically said, hey, don't worry about it. There's a lot of game left. We're going to win, and you're going to help us. And honestly, Guy, I think there's so many times I've said in my life, you know, sport is a microcosm of life. And it's. It really teaches us the lessons that we need to be brave, to have courage, to be a support system, to learn leadership, time management, and so on and so forth. And this is why I'm a Huge advocate for young boys and girls playing team sports. And this moment presented itself. Neither Carla nor I saw it coming, but I think the beauty of this moment is not just that Carlos.

Saw.

The need, but that she took action. You know, I think in a day right now where we need people to take more action for good, stand up for each other, be there for each other, this is a perfect example. She came over at a time when I could have immediately went to the negative space, which is what we do as humans. Right. I'm not good enough. I shouldn't be here. Why. Why did I do that? Why did the coach put me in this position? But we didn't. We didn't have time for that. Carlo's like, let it go. Move on.

Okay.

Lot of game. And I trusted her, and it was incredible. I'm. I'm so grateful, but I. And I use that moment so many times in my life.

Well, I spoke to her Monday night, and I recorded her answer. So that's on the podcast. So, yes, we got both your version, her version, and your version on the podcast.

So I hope I remember it the same way she does.

Well, I. She. She put one word in there that she says she dropped that starts with an F that you have not mentioned.

I was giving you the PG version. I. I know Carla. Carla is the. The R version all the time, but in a really good way.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Oh, I can hardly wait to hear this.

Unless. Unless Apple censors it. Yeah, it'll be there. So last. Last question for you. You know what. What sort of mindset does it take to become an athlete at your level?

If I could explain what it's like to be a duck in the water. Yeah, because the water rolls off the duck's back. Right. You have to have a short memory. You have to be okay with failing. You have to understand that it's a journey and not a destination, that there's a lot of factors that go into success, and you're not in control of all of them. And so you have to learn how to control the controllables, and you have to be able to filter out the things that don't help. You have to understand how to moderate your aperture, to open it up to the light and to close it when you don't need it and to shut out the noise. I mean, people say to me all the time, how nervous were you taking the penalty kick? And I wasn't nervous, to be honest with you, because my four teammates and Brianna making it five did their jobs before I had the fortune of taking the fifth penalty kick, but I had already gone through that process of practicing and being in that moment, and I had failed a lot. And so, you know, that was not that. That wasn't in my. In my head. My. In my head was, I'm going to make this. And so I think because of the process of learning how to win and how to lose and how to be a good teammate and picking moments and controlling the controllables, you learn how to handle pressure situations. I mean, Billie Jean King wrote a book, and I think it's probably the best line for athletes. Pressure is a privilege, and I think if you don't embrace that, then you won't find the ability to gain the next level of whatever it is. It could be in sports, it could be in business, it could be in relationships, whatever.

Great. One more question. So how's that remarkable tablet working out for you?

It's so good right here. I love it. Let me see today, this morning, I've already taken notes about. I have a project due, and so I'm working on some soccer things, and I love it. I carry it with me to practice. I have it in my car. I have it sometimes when I'm riding on my peloton, so I can. When something comes to my mind, I can write it down. It's been a godsend. Thank you for the gift. I appreciate it.

Well, some. Some hearts just fluttered in Norway, where.

You know what I'm gonna say? Norway. You know what? Actually, I was talking about Norway soccer this morning in my notes, because I have to do a project that talks about some different trends. And Norway was also one of our greatest nemesis for the US national team and probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been on the planet. We didn't play Norway in Norway, but one time, and it was spectacular. Just the fjords and the water and the people. And we. We took a spectacular fishing boat trip with the Norwegian team, which I don't think in men's soccer happens, where the two teams get together for a social hour. But we did, and we fished, and we saw them do a traditional dance. And I just thought the country was beautiful. And so I hope I have a chance to get back to Norway at some point.

I swear that Norway has the best sushi in the world. I truly believe that.

Okay, can I tell you this? I don't know how much time we.

Have, but we got till next Wednesday.

But this is a story that I want to tell because this is the kind of fun we had and then the kind of conflict that we would have, and then we'd find resolution. So we're competitors on our team. So Julie Foudy, a name I'm sure you're very familiar with, one of our captains, with Carla Overbeck, we were out on this, I think it's, you would call it a ship in Norway. And they are hosting the US Team and they had this beautiful spread of food. I mean, it's like all this fresh fish literally from the water we're probably floating on. And, you know, we're, we're talking about fishing and somebody, one of the Norwegian liaisons says, hey, would you. Do you want to fish? And Julie Foudy and I are like, yeah, we do, we do, we do. We want to fish. So they get us and they take us to the front of the, the boat and all of a sudden they produce something I had never seen in my life, which is, it looked like a spindle of fishing wire that then had like 20 hooks on it. Right. Usually if, you know, you have a fishing pole with one hook at the end, and I was like, whoa, that's a lot of hooks. Like, okay. So they throw. We throw it in and we get a bite right away. And we pull up this fish and this fish is. This is not a fish tail. This fish was a good sized fish, like that big. And we pull it up and Julie and I are like, oh, my God, we caught a fish. You know, and immediately I go into, throw it back, throw it back, throw it back. And Julie's like, no, we're not throwing it back. I was like, well, what do we need it for? We have all this food over here. That would be wasteful. We're not keeping this fish. Throw it back. So now the fish is on the deck of the boat and Julie and I are having a fight about the fish. As the fish is like, We're fighting over.

That is going to be a. That's going to be a gift someplace. We're.

Don't you dare. Oh, it probably will. And I had my eyes closed, so I have no idea what that looked like, but probably terrible.

It was good.

Anyway, so this fish lay on the deck and it's flopping and it's trying to breathe and it's. Of course it's. It's fighting for its life. And Julie and I are fighting over whether we should keep the fish or not keep the fish. So all of a sudden, the fish stops moving. And I look at her, I said, see what you did? The fish is dead. We didn't need this fish. Like, we could have thrown the fish back. She's like, no. And we pick up the fish and we throw it back into the water. And I'm upset, and we both are looking at the fish, and the fish is on top of the water. All of a sudden, the fish goes and it takes off. Oh, my God. I felt so happy at that moment, but I was so mad at her because we didn't need to keep the fish because we had all this other fish, and that's how competitive we are. We were fighting over the fish, but the fish fooled us all because the fish was playing possum and the fish got away.

Oh, fish lovers all over the world gonna send you tweets of support now.

Yeah. Only. Only catch what you are going to eat. Right? That's how I feel.

So I will tell.

That was. It was a funny day.

I would tell you what kind of sushi I had in Norway, but then I would take so much crap for it. I don't. I don't want to tell you what kind of sushi I had.

It was good.

Oh, God. So we're gonna. Thank you very much for doing this. Thank you very much for doing the podcast. For those of you who want to hear one hour of Brandy Chastain wisdom and remarkableness, download the podcast. It's a fantastic podcast, and there's about 60 seconds of Carla Overbeck in it, too.

Awesome. I'm so grateful that she. That you guys had a conversation.

Yeah, that. It was fantastic. All right, we'll let you go. Thank you so much.

All right. Hey, catch you on the ways, brother.

Yeah, you always say that. Bye. Watch. Watch for the. The flopping fish. Gif. So you're. You're now.

Oh.

What happened there, Jeff? Are we live? You're still live. Okay, so that was Brandi Chastain, and she obviously won Olympic gold medal. She's also the, I think, the greatest example of exuberance in sports history, maybe, which is the 1999 World Cup. She scored against her own goalkeeper against Germany, and then she came back and tied the score. And then the next round against China, she was, I think, the fifth penalty kick in overtime or, you know, instant death. And. And she scored, and then she whipped off her jersey and whipped it around her head and did this great, iconic photo that you will see with the links to the podcast. We like that photo so much, we actually paid 175 bucks to getty to get it. You guys better like that photo because we hardly ever have to buy Photos, but that's one we did buy, by the way. I have two systems that we have introduced. One. One is I'm trying to create a little bit, you know, how like Seth Godden has a tribe and Gary Vee has a tribe. Well, I don't have a tribe. I have an ohana. So I'm trying to create an extended ohana. You see that text number there? 831-609-0628. If you send a text message to that, it'll show you how to join the guy Kawasaki Ohana, where on a infrequent basis you will get a text message from me about something that is truly remarkably important to me. Trust me when I tell you I will not abuse that. Right? So 831-609-0628. Little bits of technology are waiting, standing by. So I hope you'll do that. And should we also put the link up, guys, so that if people are on a computer not close to a phone, they can go, go to this link HTTPs, you know, all that crap. It's join subtext. S u b t dash x t dot com guy text me so you see it there. So that. Or 831-609-0628 please do one of those two things so I can create my ohana. And let's see what else. Oh, I don't know if you view this as a positive or negative, but the company Cameo reached out to me and asked me to join. So I joined. And I had no idea what this company does, but you can go to Cameo and find me. And then for $50 I will create a personalized shout out to you. So people have done it to give it to their colleagues, to give them encouragement and it's quite interesting. So I only the recipient side, I get a little message that says, you know, Tomas wants you to create a little video shout out to him and his brother talking about startups in, you know, I don't know, Lithuania or something like that. So if you have a birthday or a celebration or you want to pump up somebody, just go to Cameo, look for me and I'll do that for you too. So yeah, so do you have any questions here? And let's see, I listen to all the podcasts. So damn good. So inspiring, so entertaining. Let's just take a screenshot of that comment. So, yeah, I have to tell you that I think I've done about 70 episodes, so, you know, a year and a half or so. And I wish I started podcasting earlier. I love podcasting. I love the research. I love the, you know, all the preparation. I love the interview itself. You know, I didn't know Brandy Chastain until three weeks ago, and now I feel like we're BFFs and it's because of the podcast. And then I also like the editing. So the way I work is I take the uploaded conversation and I do the first pass on editing the conversation. And then Jeff C. The designer, sound designer, reverses what I did sometimes because I tend to cut too much. But using the famous Guy Kawasaki metaphor, I am the Mr. Miyagi of podcasting. So I like. It's like a little bonsai for me and I'm fixing it. And then he, he does his sound design magic by putting in the music and stuff and cleaning up my mess. And then Peg Fitzpatrick kicks in and she does all the marketing. And then so she, she puts in the marketing magic. So I, I would say that each podcast probably represents 10 or 15 hours of work from us. So if you think podcasting is as simple as press the record button and upload if you got a surprise coming. So thank you for those kind words about. I think as I look back over my career and I've been an evangelist, a speaker, a writer. What else? I think that in all my career, my finest work is the podcast. Seriously. So I hope you'll subscribe to the podcast or, you know, at least join the ohana. Let's see, any other questions here, Brandy? I'm gonna self promote here too. I love creating messages. So Brandy has, I guess Brandy has cameo too. So you could get a cameo shout out from Brandy and you could get one from me. So wow, Brandy, if you're still there, how much do you charge? I'd like to know. I only charge 50 bucks. Let's see what Brandy charges. So, okay. What. Any other questions? Because I have to rest for a few hours before I can surf again. So let's see. Yep, that's how you join my ohana. 831-609-0628. Operators are standing by. Actually, it's just a database standing by. And I will tell you something. You need to know this. So when I send a text message, it goes to everybody who's joined this thing. But when you reply, it's not a group reply, it's a point to point reply. So I send you a text message, you reply, it only comes to me. And then I reply and it only goes to you. So it's not like this. This is like a widely publicized public discussion. It goes out one Too many. It comes back one to one and one to one. From that point on in that conversation, Brandy Chastain charges 200 bucks. Oh. Ladies and gentlemen, is Brandy Chastain worth four times Guy Kawasaki? That is the question of the hour. Put your comments in there. Is brand new. Worth four times Guy. I mean, just because she won two World Cups and a gold medal and she's in the National Soccer hall of Fame, and. And she's Bay Area hall of Fame, and she coaches a boys team now at an all boys school. Is she worth four times Guy Kawasaki? I tend to think she does. She is. Oh. Oh, my God. Okay, so Brandy says, that's for friends, but 2500 for businesses. What the heck, man? I'm like you. You guys better jump on it now while I'm 200, when I'm 50 bucks, because I'm gonna make a change. Okay, let's see. Question. Did you get the munchies on the second Covid jab? Okay, so I have to tell you the whole story, because I swear I got. I've been. I have both shots now. And after I got the first shot, I came home and I went surfing, because what else would you do after you get your first vaccination? Okay. So now I go surfing. I come back, and I am so tired and I am so hungry. So I drive to a bakery in Santa Cruz called. I think it's Rosales, and it has the best tamales maybe I've ever had, but certainly the best tamales in Santa Cruz. So I go to this bakery, and I'm standing in line, and this bakery, it forces you to look at all the baked goods before you get to the tamales place. So I, of course, buy the Mexican word for apple turnover or whatever that is. So I buy that, and I buy four chicken tamales. And before I even get out of the parking lot, I've eaten the apple turnover and one tamale. Okay? So then I get home, and I'm so tired and I'm so hungry, I just whacked the next three tamales, and I'm like, drifting in and out of consciousness. And so I tell my son, oh, I just have this craving for a Coca Cola, so go get me a Coca Cola. So my son, who always listens to me, yeah. Goes and gets me a Coca Cola. And while he gets me a Coca Cola, he not only does that, but he brings me back, and it's it. And it's it, for those of you are not familiar, is a sandwich, an ice cream sandwich. So cookie on each side and ice cream in the middle. So I'm. Now I'm sitting there and I'm like, I can barely keep my eyes open. And I just had four tamales, one apple turnover, one Coca cola, and one eats it. And that was moderna shot number one. Moderna shot number two. Like, no reaction whatsoever. No pain, no rash, no fever, no nothing. I hope they didn't give me a placebo. So, yeah, long answer to your question, eric. Moderna number two. No, nothing @ all. I did not go surfing after that because I just did not want to take a chance that I would have the tamale rush again. But, yeah. So what else? One of the questions. It's more than you ever want to know. Okay, so Brandy's saying that we shouldn't compare each other, but she's worth four times me. All right, so. And she also says that her. Her cameos are minutes long. My cameos are seconds long. So there's a lot of key. Maybe. Maybe Brandon, I should do one to get 250 bucks. Okay, any other questions? Because I'm getting hungry again. It's been a long time since I had breakfast. Okay, going once, going twice. So, LinkedIn user, I am currently reading your book and working for a startup. Wish me luck, please. Well, LinkedIn user, for $50, I could wish you luck personally. So go to Cameo. This is such a commercialized message today. Too much coffee. I had two cups already, so. Okay, so there, there's. You see that how you get your cameo. Cameo.com Guy Kawasaki. Duh. And yeah, so Cameo, join my ohana with a text message and be sure to download Brandy's episode because it is fantastic. You want to learn about world cup and world level world class soccer, the issues facing women's sports, equal pay, standing at the national anthem. All those kind of things are covered in the podcast. Okay, so I think I'll end it there. And I hope you like our new system. We are now using ECAMM Live and Restream. So, yeah, tell me about the quality of the audio and the video too. I'm curious about that. So, you know, because I'm like, really into high quality video and audio, so there's no bras behind me and I don't have a gold medal, but I love surfing. So let's see. Okay, I. I think I'll sign off here. So have a great day. Remember, remember, vaccines are on the way. In fact, California tomorrow, April 1st. That's a good day. April 1st. You don't have to be 65 anymore. It's. I think it's 50 and older starting tomorrow. So get your vaccination, man. It's like 90% efficacy. Like, what else in your life has 90% efficacy? I can't think of anything. So get your vaccination until you do well. Even after you do, wear a mask, wash your hands, and don't go into crowded places. For those of you in states like Florida and Texas, don't listen to your governor. Your governor's not thinking about your health. Your governor's thinking about reelection. All right, everybody, take care. Bye.