Serving up Success: Sloane Stephens of Doc & Glo

Summary

Episode Summary: Serving up Success with Sloane Stephens of Doc & Glo

Podcast: The Unshakeables
Host: Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business
Co-host: Kathleen Griffith, iHeartPodcasts
Guest: Sloane Stephens, Professional Tennis Player and Founder of Doc & Glo
Release Date: April 1, 2025

---

1. Introduction to Sloane Stephens and Doc & Glo

The episode opens with Ben Walter introducing Sloane Stephens, a renowned professional tennis player who channels her on-the-go lifestyle and passion for clean beauty into her entrepreneurial venture, Doc & Glo. Trading in-home stability for a 40-week touring schedule, Sloane found herself yearning for high-quality, fragrance-free personal care products tailored to her active lifestyle.

Ben Walter [00:20]: "Sloane has been traveling 40 weeks a year."

---

2. The Genesis of Doc & Glo

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, confined within bubbles and locker rooms, Sloane's dissatisfaction with available personal care products inspired her to create Doc & Glo. Combining her love for cosmetics and skincare, she began experimenting with formulations, initially sharing samples with family and friends to garner feedback.

Sloane Stephens [02:35]: "I came up with the concept and the idea during COVID... Everyone just smelled really bad, and I was like, there has to be a better way."

---

3. The Branding Catastrophe

Just weeks before Doc & Glo's official launch, Sloane encountered a significant setback. Her website designer informed her that the branding and packaging of Doc & Glo were strikingly similar to another company's, effectively rendering her original branding unusable.

Sloane Stephens [00:52]: "The website looks exactly like this other company's... identical down to the packaging."

Faced with this dilemma, Sloane had to abandon her initial branding efforts, incurring substantial financial losses and delaying the product launch by a year and a half.

Sloane Stephens [01:24]: "We literally have to start over from scratch completely."

---

4. Resilience and Rebuilding

Despite the unexpected crisis, Sloane's tenacity didn't waver. Drawing from her athletic mindset, she swiftly pivoted, redesigning the brand from the ground up. The experience reinforced her vision and commitment to providing clean, effective beauty products for active individuals.

Sloane Stephens [15:14]: "We've come this far. Like, we can't stop here. We have to have this brand launch."

---

5. Athlete Entrepreneurship and Leadership Insights

Kathleen Griffith delves into the parallels between athletic discipline and entrepreneurial resilience. She highlights the "singularity of focus" Sloane embodies, emphasizing the importance of a clear vision and unwavering dedication.

Kathleen Griffith [08:42]: "Think about what is the vision of what you're looking to create... having a singularity of focus to realize that vision."

Ben Walter adds that many successful executives share a background in competitive sports, suggesting that the competitive mindset significantly contributes to business acumen.

Ben Walter [10:33]: "A lot of the senior executives... played competitive sports and were reasonably successful at it."

---

6. Balancing Multiple Ventures: Business and Foundation

Sloane manages not only her tennis career and Doc & Glo but also her philanthropic efforts through the Sloan Stephens Foundation. She discusses the challenges of juggling these responsibilities, particularly the emotional labor involved in entrepreneurship compared to the physical demands of tennis.

Sloane Stephens [23:54]: "Running a business is more emotional labor, for sure."

Her foundation focuses on providing access to tennis and educational resources for underprivileged children, reflecting her commitment to community empowerment.

Sloane Stephens [24:05]: "Getting access to those kids to be able to play the sport of tennis... showing them that there's a little bit more on the other side."

---

7. Fundraising Challenges and Future Directions for Doc & Glo

As Doc & Glo seeks to scale, Sloane confronts the complexities of fundraising, including equity distribution and maintaining the brand's integrity. She expresses concerns over compromising ownership and the strategic decisions required to attract investors without diluting her vision.

Sloane Stephens [26:35]: "Where do you go from there? How much do you give away? What's smart?"

Looking ahead, Sloane plans exciting collaborations and retail expansions to make Doc & Glo more accessible, even considering giving away products to build brand loyalty and reach a broader audience.

Sloane Stephens [27:18]: "I want the brand to scale... to get as many people product in their hands to try it and experience it."

---

8. Navigating Brand Originality in a Competitive Market

The discussion shifts to the broader business landscape, emphasizing the fine line between inspiration and imitation. Kathleen Griffith advises entrepreneurs to ensure their brands maintain uniqueness to avoid legal pitfalls and preserve brand integrity.

Kathleen Griffith [19:34]: "Am I copying or am I setting my business up for someone to copy me?"

Ben Walter echoes this sentiment, distinguishing between copying a product versus a brand and advocating for originality to foster genuine success.

Ben Walter [20:58]: "I'd rather be copied than accused of copying."

---

9. Sloane’s Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Concluding the episode, Sloane imparts her philosophy on perseverance and dedication. She encourages business owners to adopt a championship mindset, emphasizing that success is a matter of "when," not "if."

Sloane Stephens [28:23]: "It's not if, it's when. Because you put all the work in, you've dedicated yourself... the end is win, not if."

---

10. Reflections and Closing Thoughts

Kathleen Griffith and Ben Walter reflect on Sloane's remarkable ability to juggle multiple demanding roles. They commend her for exemplifying the athlete-entrepreneur archetype, inspiring listeners to adopt similar resilience and focus in their ventures.

Kathleen Griffith [31:52]: "I think you can absolutely do well by doing good."

Ben Walter [32:09]: "She's really running three businesses... that seems like a lot."

The episode wraps up by highlighting the synergy between athletic discipline and entrepreneurial success, leaving listeners motivated by Sloane Stephens' unyielding spirit and strategic acumen.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Sloane Stephens [03:09]: "I wanted to create products for people who could also have their own little hotel in their bag."

• Kathleen Griffith [08:42]: "Spend time really solid time on crafting your vision, and then you have that singularity of focus to realize that vision."

• Ben Walter [10:33]: "There is no doubt that that competitive mindset translates."

• Sloane Stephens [28:23]: "It's not if, it's when."

---

This episode of The Unshakeables masterfully encapsulates the intersection of sports, entrepreneurship, and resilience. Sloane Stephens' journey with Doc & Glo serves as a compelling narrative of overcoming adversity, maintaining unwavering focus, and leveraging athletic discipline to build a meaningful and impactful business.

Transcript

[Ben Walter]

Globetrotting is one of the big perks of tennis player Sloane Stevens career.

[Sloane Stephens]

It's Rome, it's Paris, it's New York. It's all of these places, right?

[Ben Walter]

The downside, she's always on the go.

[Sloane Stephens]

We're away from home. Well, I would say probably more than you. We travel like 40 weeks a year.

[Ben Walter]

Sloane has traveling down, but the personal care products available to her left a lot to be desired, especially for a woman playing tennis all day, every day. During COVID she was inspired to start her own company, DOK N Glo, to provide the clean beauty products she so craved. She has put her heart, her energy and her own money into the company. A few weeks before launch, she heard from her website designer.

[Sloane Stephens]

We hired a company to do all of our branding, and we were working on the website. We had already had the products, and one of the website designers called us and was like, hey, do you guys know that your website looks exactly like this other company's? Everything down to, like, the packaging, like, identical.

[Ben Walter]

She couldn't believe it. She had the products in her hand, the branding was set, and now she couldn't use any of it.

[Sloane Stephens]

That was my like, oh, shit. I just paid so much money for this. We literally have to start over from scratch completely.

[Ben Walter]

Welcome to the Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. On the Unshakeables, we're sharing the daring moments of small business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stor of how they got through it. Joining me today once again is Kathleen Griffith. Kathleen, have you ever worked with an athlete business owner before?

[Kathleen Griffith]

I have not directly worked with an athlete business owner, but it's who I admire most.

[Ben Walter]

And our guest today is absolutely someone to admire. On today's episode, Doc and Glo. From the Globetrotting, Sloan Stevens. As much of the world knows, Sloane Stevens is a tennis player. This informs so much of what she does and who she is. You'll hear more about it over the course of the episode, but it's also how she came up with the idea for Doc and Glow in the first place.

[Sloane Stephens]

I came up with the concept and the idea during COVID when we were, like, playing and obviously being a professional tennis player. We were traveling, but we were in bubbles. So we were always all together, but we could never use the locker rooms. Everyone just smelled really bad, and I was like, like, there has to be a better way. Like, why is it so smelly? Why is everyone stinky?

[Ben Walter]

In between sessions, Sloane and the other players mostly just hung out in their rooms. She always loved cosmetics and skincare products, so she started experimenting. Soon she was giving out little samples to family and friends.

[Sloane Stephens]

I started off thinking very small. I wanted to create something that fit my lifestyle and the struggles that I have gone through as an athlete and just being an active person in general. And I always take everything I have with me on the go because I travel 40 weeks a year. So to be able to have like my favorite perfume or my favorite lotion, like, I literally am a traveling hotel, so for me it's very normal. But I wanted to create products for people who could also have their own little hotel in their bag.

[Ben Walter]

Okay, so what are your products do? What's the premise?

[Sloane Stephens]

So basically, they're all fragrance free except for one, which is a body scrub. But I'm a fragrance girly, so I wear a ton of fragrance. And I always felt like when you wear deodorant, everything is always like masking your smell but not actually taking away the odor. So you still have bo. You're just putting like a very heavy scented deodorant on top of it.

[Ben Walter]

Instead of bo, It's BO and flower.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, I just wanted something that was clean and for the purpose of taking away the bo, but also just so that you could still express yourself through your fragrance or your perfume or whatever, your cologne.

[Ben Walter]

Her sample products were well received by friends, which inspired her to make some products for real.

[Sloane Stephens]

We custom formulated six products. It was like a whole process of figuring out what ingredients we wanted to put in it. Obviously, like the whole brand story kind of when you develop products, like, you have to stick to whatever that is.

[Ben Walter]

So talk to me a little bit about the brand identity. As a professional sports player, you already have an image and a brand and a following. So whatever you come up with has to work with that image and brand because that's part of how you're going to sell your product, definitely.

[Sloane Stephens]

So I wanted to be in clean beauty, things like that that were my personal preference of what I wanted to create and what my vision was for the brand. And obviously being an athlete, like, all of those things are very important. Just in general, the brands that I resonate with the most are the ones that have the most connection and have best storytelling. I name the company Doc and Glow after my grandparents who I feel like in my life taught me the most about self care. And my vision, I feel like for my brand is very clear. My vision for my tennis career has been very clear. And for the brand. I know clearly, like, what I want to work towards, where I want the brand to live. I know what consumers I want to reach. Is that difficult? Absolutely. The same thing with tennis. Like, I knew I wanted to win a Grand Slam one day. Is that difficult? Absolutely. I had to train every day and do all these things. And I think in any job that you do or any passion project that you have, you have to have a clear vision in order to execute it. And I feel like the way the space is moving and where wellness is going and where self care is going, it's become more of like a premium thing. But I feel like self care and wellness is literally for everyone.

[Ben Walter]

So you found a chemist to make the product that you wanted, and then I assume you found a manufacturer to make the stuff.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, we did. And all this has been very expensive.

[Ben Walter]

I should mention Sloane has been funding all of this on her own, using her tennis money to pay for Doc and Glo.

[Sloane Stephens]

We found a manufacturer, we created our bottles, our packaging, did all of that. Process started with the first two SKUs, and it's been obviously a very long process in terms of me being a tennis player and learning from scratch. Learning it on the floo fly has been interesting and difficult. Super challenging, but also super rewarding just to be able to do something different.

[Ben Walter]

Most of the small business owners we talk to on the show have a ton of energy and a great deal of focus on their business. But Sloan, she's next level. I just want to back up for a second. So you're still playing professional tennis, right?

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah.

[Ben Walter]

You haven't retired. That's still like quite a job.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yes.

[Ben Walter]

You have to train, you have to tour, you have to do all the things that go along with being on the professional tennis tour. You got your MBA while you were doing that, which pretty impressive, I have to say. That didn't sound easy.

[Sloane Stephens]

No, no. Definitely was not. When I started knowing nothing about scale, knowing nothing about how I was going to get the brand out there, knowing nothing about retail, my biggest and best skill is like, I'm not the smartest. I don't know everything, but I am the most resourceful person you will ever meet in your life. And I will find someone to teach me. I will find someone who knows how to do it very to tennis. Like watching people, seeing them play and then being able to play with them at some point in my life, I'm very much in my learning period right now, but I'm using all of the resources I have to make the business as successful as I can with what I have right in front of me. It sounds so cliche, but the championship mindset of, like, you keep going, like, you bet on yourself, you keep going, you keep fighting, you keep competing, until eventually you get to where you want to be.

[Ben Walter]

Kathleen, what did you think of Sloan's story?

[Kathleen Griffith]

I love all things sport. I love athletes. I'm so excited to dig into this one. I don't know if you're familiar with John Wooden's pyramid of greatness. No, he's got this great pyramid of success where at the top of the pyramid is competitive greatness. And so the whole concept is just about embracing competition. That's where you've got to be. And I think for business owners, we think there's almost something wrong with that too, because there is such a spirit of collaboration, which is great. But at a certain point, as Sloan talked about, you've got to have grit, you've got to know when to battle back, and you've got to know when to put your elbows out.

[Ben Walter]

This is sort of the golden age of athletes as entrepreneurs, and I think that's driven almost entirely by social media. I mean, it used to be you had a career, and then the most you could hope to do after that is maybe the occasional endorsement deal. Whereas now, because athletes are brands themselves and they have a megaphone in the form of social media, they take that competitive spirit and they channel it. And it's a smart thing to do financially, given what they do for a living and how long they can do it.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Yeah, they've gotten so much more savvy, not only in creating their own brands, but taking equity in bigger brands that ask them to do commercial endorsements. I think Naomi Osaka, she had something like 20 equity positions across Sweet Green and all of these different brands that she was asked to endorse. So a lot smarter. I mean, I think going back to Sloan and the mindset of an athlete in general that's so fascinating to me is the singularity of focus. Like, you have to have such a strong vision, which is what she talked about. And one of the things I encourage entrepreneurs to do is think about what is the vision of what you're looking to create. If you could remove every limiting belief, every aspect of self doubt, every constraint, what would you go create if you could do? Be have anything, and then 5x that, like, it should be something that you can't do in five lifetimes. And she talked about having a vision that is so lucid and clear for her team. Everyone knows how to go and execute. So for anyone who's listening, I think spend time there, really solid time on crafting your vision, and then you have that singularity of focus to realize that vision. That's what great athletes do, and it's something that we can adopt as entrepreneurs.

[Ben Walter]

Yeah, well, she seems to have cracked the code.

[Kathleen Griffith]

That is true. One other thing that's interesting, and I'm curious what you see on the corporate side of the house, but I'd come across a study years ago that I think it was like, 95% of women who are in the C suite played competitive sports at some point. So do you see the athlete mindset also playing out internally where you are?

[Ben Walter]

Oh, yeah. I mean, a lot of the senior executives I've worked with over the years. And by the way, this was true. I've been an executive in the US and the uk, so I've been on both sides of the Atlantic. So they were different sports, but a huge percentage, men and women. Doesn't matter. Of the executives that I have worked with played competitive sports and were reasonably successful at it. There is no doubt that that competitive mindset translates. I'm always wary of sort of causation and correlation. So I think there's something to the sports piece of it and the fact that you have to work on it, you know, compete as a team or as an individual and be driven and all that. But I think it's also the bigger driving force is the fact that when you play sports or do any other sort of outside activity that requires a lot of time, it forces you to focus that energy that much more succinctly all the time. Right. If you're a varsity athlete in high school and you got good enough grades that you did well, you had your stuff together, I think that's a pretty potent combination. Okay, let's get back to Sloan. So you have a vision for your brand. You launched the product just last year, right?

[Sloane Stephens]

In 24?

[Ben Walter]

Yeah.

[Sloane Stephens]

We were six months old.

[Ben Walter]

Wow.

[Sloane Stephens]

We're a baby. We're newborns now.

[Ben Walter]

What I find amazing is, so our show, the Unshakables, is all about the tough moments that entrepreneurs and business owners have to go through. And you're pretty new, and you've kind of already had one. Right.

[Sloane Stephens]

Oh, my God. So before we even launched, we hired a company to do all of our branding. We went through a whole brand discovery. We created basically an entire company, and we're moving forward in the market with it. And this was going to be our launch. This was going to be what our brand Represented going to market, and we were working on the website. We had already had the products. We were in full motion, and one of the website designers called us and was like, hey, do you guys know that your website looks exactly like this other companies? Down to, like, the packaging, like, identical. It was basically like a knockoff. So much so that the website developer would not create our website. The company that designed all of our stuff didn't take any accountability for it. We got a bunch of emails back being like, oh, things are always similar in the market and things look alike. That was like, the worst thing that's happened to us. Everything else has just been like a. Ah, damn. But we'll figure out a way. We'll pivot. That one was like, I felt like I had just got stabbed in the heart because I was like, oh, my God, what are we gonna do?

[Ben Walter]

And of course, while all of this is going on, Sloane still has to show up and play tennis.

[Sloane Stephens]

I was at a tournament in Rome, as one is. But anyway, everyone was just like, wait, wait, we can't tell her. And I was like, what do you mean?

[Ben Walter]

Sloan wanted to know what was happening. And if you thought getting bad news about your business during a huge tournament would stop her, think again.

[Sloane Stephens]

One of my better skills is that I move on fairly quickly, which everyone thinks I'm a little bit crazy for, But I am able to just kind of put it in the back of my mind. When I was younger, a sports psychologist told me, like, when you get upset or things happen, you gotta just flush it. Gotta flush the emotional energy down the toilet. You just got to flush it from your brain. If I let tennis affect the rest of my life, you know, something is always affected, the Doc and Glo side. Like, I can't let that affect me at practice the next day or my match the next day or whatever it is. So being able to flush things and move on has been super helpful.

[Ben Walter]

Even though she wasn't able to move forward with the first round of Dock and Glow designs, she was able to find the bright side.

[Sloane Stephens]

Imagine if we went to market with that brand and, like, it would have been like, Sloan Stevens, copy someone else's brand. And I'm happy that we were able to catch it. The brand that you see now is a completely different brand than what we started with. But what I really do think about is the people who don't have the means or the money to pivot in those situations and start from scratch. So a lot of, like, amazing ideas get squashed at the very beginning because there's not enough money, not enough funding. At that point, I was like, okay, I can either let this kick my ass, or I'm gonna have to fight back. And I think that was when we really buckled down and, like, figured out what we were gonna do. How are we gonna do it? And then the vision became even more clear because we were, like, up against it.

[Ben Walter]

More constraints.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, exactly. And I was like, we've come this far. Like, we can't stop here. We have to have this brand launch. People have to see it. They have to see what we worked hard to get to, what we've created, the products we've gotten here. So we need to, like, finish it.

[Ben Walter]

Okay, so how long did it delay your launch?

[Sloane Stephens]

Oh, easily, like, a year and a half.

[Ben Walter]

Oh, wow.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, it was a long process.

[Ben Walter]

It was a long process of burning cash while you were figuring it out.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, a lot of burning of cash. Lot of trying to find ways to be scrappy and, like, figure out, okay, like, we've already done this. We need to just, like, change the color. We need to change this. And, like, going through all those details.

[Ben Walter]

Were tough, which the grit feels a little bit different than when you're grinding it out there on the court.

[Sloane Stephens]

Everything about tennis is definitely a grind between the travel, the tournaments. Like, again, tennis has afforded me so many amazing things in my life, and, like, I love tennis and the sport of tennis, but it's hard.

[Ben Walter]

Yeah, it sounds hard.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah. But so is entrepreneurship. It's all hard.

[Ben Walter]

So once you got through that moment and you redid your brand, what was your proudest moment? Was it sort of seeing that product out there for the first time? Was it your first sale? Talk to me about some of the highs since then.

[Sloane Stephens]

Oh, so many good things. So when we launched, we, like, I had, like, a little on the NASDAQ billboard, which was super cute. And then we did a launch party, and then when we launched the actual brand, when it went live, seeing, like, the first person, like, buy something that wasn't my mom or my husband, I was like, this is a random person. They just bought something that was super fun. And I feel like you work so hard, you don't know if anyone's gonna buy it. You don't know if anyone's gonna be interested. You don't know if anyone's gonna cover it. And Vogue covered it and Glossy and espn, like, all these people covered it. And I was so thankful for that. But I was like, you never actually know what the response is gonna be.

[Ben Walter]

Well, congratulations on your success.

[Sloane Stephens]

Thank you.

[Narrator]

When you run a business, it helps to have a full service banking solution that has products, tools and resources your growth in mind. That's what you'll get when you switch to Chase for business as a new customer, you'll even get rewarded with a special bonus. Choose Chase and you'll receive the personal attention you deserve along with a large scale presence including 4700 local branches and 15,000 ATMs. Plus you can enjoy innovations like the Chase Mobile app which lets you do your banking on your phone. There are so many easy ways to get the guidance and tools you need to grow with Chase. You can meet with a banker in person, use the online support center or find helpful information in the resource center. And Chase Business Complete Banking offers built in card acceptance a wide range of options for accepting payments and making deposits. So switch [e-mail] choosechase and get rewarded with a special bonus. This account has a monthly service fee that can be reduced from $15 to $0. Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. Deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2024 JP Morgan & Co. Let's take.

[Ben Walter]

A second here and let's really dig in. I was struck particularly by her oh my goodness moment because today's world is so filled with near copies and sort of copies and almost copies and fast followers. I mean there are whole brands out there whose stated raison d'etre is I'm gonna watch for what someone else does that hits and I'm gonna copy it as fast as I can and be really efficient at manufact manufacturing it and take market share. So I'm curious your view on that because she got to a point where she couldn't do it because she felt like it was too close of a copy. How do you think about that?

[Kathleen Griffith]

I'm of the school that nothing is original anymore, so everything is a remix, a revamp. You're not coming up with anything original. And my lawyer once said to me, and don't come to me for legal advice, but would the reasonable person of sound mind see this as being a knockoff or being a dupe? So I think that's first and foremost a really good question to ask yourself when you're creating something we've seen recently more and more of what you're describing. Birkin Bags Are you familiar with Birkin bags?

[Ben Walter]

First of all, I mean to the degree that I know anything about any bags, yes. But that's about as far as I would take it.

[Kathleen Griffith]

So wildly overpriced bag by Hermes. They can range anywhere from 20 to 30 grand a pop. And Walmart just came out with their dupe, which is unapologetically a dupe. I mean, it is pretty much a near carbon copy minus not having the Hermes logo on it. And this thing, it was so brazen of them. They marketed that way and it's selling like hotcakes. I mean, it's completely sold out. So I think it is something that you need to ask yourself, am I copying or am I setting my business up for someone to copy me?

[Ben Walter]

Yeah. I also think there's a difference between copying a product and copying a brand. You know, a brand is something that really will be likely copyrighted or patented or it'll have some kind of anti infringement legal framework around it, number one. Number two, how do you define a product? I mean, is it a Birkin bag, is it a purse, is it a bag of a certain shape and size versus if it's a brand, then you're talking about colors and logos and trademarks and things that are likely a bit easier to protect. The last thing I would say about that though is I would rather be copied than accused of copying. Because you want to start with something that you think is original and if someone is copying you, that's a sign that you're doing something right versus if you're accused of copying someone, then you're just in a mess of stuff that you don't want to be in.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Yeah, I remember someone gave me that advice early days that you can try to protect your brand as much as possible, but it ultimately comes down to how much you're willing to reinforce that legally in market and take action. And for a lot of small businesses, it's up that you can't do. So I'm definitely aligned on the school of better to be copied than get caught copying. That is not a place you want to be. And it's smarter to go back to square one and start from scratch and scrap what you've done if you find yourself in that position.

[Ben Walter]

Really good insight, Kathleen. Thanks. Let's hear how Sloan's story ends. Tennis in particular offers an interesting analogy for entrepreneurship. Because, you know, if you play in the NBA, you're a salaried player. You get paid to show up. Yeah, tennis and golf and these individual sports aren't like that. You're essentially a business yourself. Right. You have a team and you win and you pay them whether you win or not. So tell me about some of the things you learned about managing a team, leading people, pulling the right people together that you've been able to port over. Cause that is a different experience than many other team sports.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, definitely. From 15 years old, I've had a coach, a physio, an agent. I've had massage therapists. I've had all these people on my team who you have to manage, like, week in and week out.

[Ben Walter]

And pay.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah, and pay. And they travel with you all year long. Like you, your team members, more than you see your family. It's not really managing them. I just know, like, how to handle it. I know my boundaries. I know what keeps me balanced. I know how much or how little or whatever it is. And then I also know how much they all cost. So it's like not wasting anyone's time and making sure that everyone is here to do a job. We're here to win, we're here to work hard, and we're here to go home.

[Ben Walter]

So is your relationship with your dock and Glo team different than your relationship with your tennis team?

[Sloane Stephens]

There is actually some overlap of team members too, yes. But I feel like, no, it's pretty much the same. I'm like, so blah. I'm just like, business is business, and we need to figure it out and we need to move on. And in tennis, I'm like, okay, we show up. We are here to play coach, come with a plan. Physio, come with whatever. Massage sticks and things and exercise equipment. Like, everyone has, like, a plan. And I feel like with a startup and a small business, you have to be so scrappy. And, like, everyone kind of has to do a bunch of different things, whether they like it or not.

[Ben Walter]

You have to, right?

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah. Like, that's what you have to do as a small business owner. And I feel like my relationship with both sets of team members are very strong, but very different. Just in terms of doc and GLOW is, like, so much more fun, and we get to do other things, and we don't have to be on a tennis court. And, like, everyone's like, this is great. And I feel like my tennis career has been also so fun. Cause it's like it's Rome, it's Paris, it's New York. It's all of these places. Right. But it's like physical labor.

[Ben Walter]

It looks like physical labor.

[Sloane Stephens]

Physical labor. And I would say running a business is more emotional labor, for sure.

[Ben Walter]

Interesting. Yeah. Now, this wasn't the first enterprise you founded, right? You founded a foundation.

[Sloane Stephens]

Yeah.

[Ben Walter]

Tell us about your foundation, and tell us how running a foundation is a bit different than running a business, right?

[Sloane Stephens]

Oh, man. Yeah, it very much so is. So I founded the Sloan Stevens foundation in 2013. We do all of Compton Unified School District. We do recess tennis, after school tennis, and Saturday tennis. So every school in Compton has the opportunity to play tennis. The goal of getting rackets in hands of people who would never even consider tennis or think about tennis or tennis is too expensive. It's inaccessible, all of those things. Getting access to those kids to be able to play the sport of tennis, and then on top of that, also having the educational component be very important. So during the summer, we do summer reading camps. We do SAT and ACT prep. Like, we do all of those things. My mom's a school psychologist, so she's been in schools for a really long time. And education has been a really big part of our family and our lives. And then obviously, the tennis part is really important. And my true belief is, like, one of the best players in the world probably is just sitting on their couch, and they just haven't picked up a racket yet. So finding those kids, giving them the access, introducing them to something new, whether it be you can be a professional player or just get a college scholarship or work as a commentator or work as a PA, whatever it is, there's so many opportunities, and I feel like tennis is so overlooked because it's seen as a sport that's very rich or inaccessible. And so giving kids access to that and showing them that there's a little bit more on the other side is the main goal.

[Ben Walter]

Now, obviously, running a nonprofit is different than running a small business. One of the biggest differences for Sloan has been the need to fundraise.

[Sloane Stephens]

Fundraising is difficult. Grant writing is extremely hard. And then I feel like begging people for money is so, like, it's been very hard no matter how good the cause is. No, exactly. Some people are like, I'll give you money for DOC and glow. I'm not gonna give you money to your foundation. I'm like, this is basically free for you. Like, you could help a thousand kids with your donation or your whatever it is. And I feel like it's difficult. Again, something that was self funded for the first seven years was the foundation. I funded it myself just to keep it going. And JPMorgan Chase does our financial literacy classes, so that's been super helpful. Our par and our kids love that. So we've had some amazing sponsors come in and really help us and give us support. And I think that's kind of what keeps us going.

[Ben Walter]

The Sloan Stevens foundation is still going strong and it's almost time for Doc and Glo to go out fundraising, if it's going to scale and succeed. Sloan has some conflicting thoughts about that.

[Sloane Stephens]

Figuring that out is quite stressful, but I feel like in due time. But where do you find the money? Who do you ask? Ask money of? How much percentage of your company do you give away? Like, the company is me, I'm 100% me. And like my mom, like, that's it. So it's like, where do you go from there? How much do you give away? What's smart? All of those questions are now coming into play because I want the brand to scale. I want the brand to do well, but it takes a lot of money.

[Ben Walter]

It does take a lot of money, and raising money is difficult and it's a very personal decision. So, successful tennis career, successful foundation, and now an emerging successful business. What's next for Doc and Glo?

[Sloane Stephens]

Next for Doc and Glo, I would say we're going to do some really fun collaborations in 2025, which is really exciting. And then our retail arm is growing, which we're very excited about. And, yeah, I just want more people who live active lifestyles on the go to be able to experience the product and just try it. And even if that means giving people product for free so they can just. I created something for people for it to be accessible and for it to be fitting to their lifestyles and whatever that may be and whatever movement that may be, and that's just the goal, to get as many people product in their hands to try it and experience it.

[Ben Walter]

That means the better it goes, the more you have to invest.

[Sloane Stephens]

Definitely. But we're on the way. We're on the way. I feel like money is definitely an obstacle, but when you're putting it towards your dreams and something that you really care about and you're passionate about about, it's not an obstacle.

[Ben Walter]

That's awesome. So I have one last question for you, which I ask every guest on the show, which is, if you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring or current business owner, what would it be?

[Sloane Stephens]

Okay. Well, my favorite quote of all time I always say this is, it's not if, it's when. So I feel like if you work hard and you fight for your dreams and you again, rowing in the same boat, it's not if it's going to happen, it's when it's going to happen. Because you put all the work in, you've dedicated yourself to doing whatever it is and you will be rewarded in the end. So the end is win, not if.

[Ben Walter]

That's terrific advice. Sloane Stevens from DOC and glow. Thank you for being on the show.

[Sloane Stephens]

Thank you for having me.

[Ben Walter]

Okay, just thinking about her story. She's really running three businesses. She's running her tennis career, which is a business. She's running DOC and glow, which is absolutely a business. And she's running her foundation, which, you know, is not for profit, but it's certainly a business. I was just in awe that she can do all three of those things. That seems like a lot.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Yeah. I actually loved your point. It was something I hadn't thought about before, that when you are an individual athlete in certain sports, like a tennis, you're essentially an entrepreneur because you're making money if you win, and you're not if you lose, and you still have a team to play. So I thought that was brilliant. I'd never thought about it that way. The breadth of responsibility that she's taken on. I see a lot of this with entrepreneurs, and it was certainly my own experience. I had this very thriving, successful brand consultancy. Then my next thought was, how do I pay this forward to other women entrepreneurs who are starting out, who don't necessarily have the network or the resources or the tools that they need, and so started channeling and funneling a lot of the money that we were making in my business into this passion project that has now certainly taken on a life of its own. And so I think you can absolutely do well by doing good. And it's something ideally, though, that you can embed in your existing business as opposed to needing a separate business that does well. That's something I'm still looking to do. Like, how do you reconcile those two worlds? And perhaps there's something she can do to bring her foundation more front and center into Dock and glow. Have a percent of the proceeds get donated. Just make that more obvious for consumers, because we know that model works. We've seen it work with TOMS and other brands. Buy one, get one, give one. It's a formula that can consumers really love.

[Ben Walter]

We see so many entrepreneurs trying really hard to either pay it back or pay it forward. I mean, pay it back just in terms of how philanthropic they are and pay it forward. I'll give some examples. You know, we're lucky enough at Chase to run programs for. For veterans, for diverse women, all kinds of areas that have been historically underpenetrated with respect to entrepreneurship. To help coach those individuals and help them develop the skills they need, we have something called coaching for impact. We coach all these entrepreneurs. They graduate from the program. We've graduated thousands. And so many of them come back to us and say, how can I help? Who. Who can I mentor? Who can I coach? I've gotten so much out of this I want to give to the small business community around me. We've had guests on the show who tell us how they helped a competitor get off the ground because they just believed in that person and what they were doing, and they wanted to be constructive, and they figured they could handle another competitor, and they'd rather that than someone they really believed did not ever get their start.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Yeah. It's incredible to see how small business owners rally around each other too.

[Ben Walter]

Kathleen, this has been one of my favorite stories, and I'm super grateful that you came on the show to explore it with me. Thanks for being here.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Same here. I'm so inspired. I think I'm gonna go pick up a racket or something this weekend and try my hand at tennis again. But, yeah, super inspiring. Loved her story and. And I think we can all embrace that athlete mindset just a little bit more.

[Ben Walter]

All right, Watch the backhand. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Unshakeables. If you liked this episode, please rate and review it. Our next episode is exciting because it's right here in my own backyard in New York City's thriving Chinatown. Five friends who really wanted to preserve their neighborhood ended up opening one of New York's coolest restaurants.

[Kathleen Griffith]

It's a love letter to our community. We are Cantonese kids born and raised.

[Ben Walter]

In New York during the millennium. You got the Internet, you got trl.

[Kathleen Griffith]

You got pop culture.

[Ben Walter]

So it's a mix of both worlds.

[Kathleen Griffith]

And that's what we want it to feel like.

[Ben Walter]

We want to celebrate our culture, be unapologetic about it, and just show people.

[Kathleen Griffith]

Hey, this is what we're about.

[Ben Walter]

I'm Ben Walter, and this is the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. We'll see you back here soon.

[Sloane Stephens]

Real customer, compensated.