The Long Game: How to Sustain Excellence Across Decades and Keep Raising the Bar
How do you stay at the top of your game — not just for a season, but for a lifetime? In this inspiring conversation, SUE BIRD shares the lessons learned from a career spanning three decades as one of the most celebrated athletes in sports history. From Olympic gold medals to WNBA championships to entrepreneurial leadership, Sue reveals the mindset strategies, motivational tools, and disciplined habits that have helped her consistently perform at the highest level.
Drawing from her personal journey — including coming back from injuries, facing evolving competition, and navigating the pressure of constant expectations — Sue explores the importance of adaptability, mental toughness, and the willingness to reinvent yourself. She shows how excellence isn't a one-time achievement, but a continual process of learning, resilience, and setting new goals even after reaching the summit.
Whether you're an athlete, an entrepreneur, a leader, or someone striving for personal growth, Sue’s insights offer a powerful roadmap for anyone who wants to sustain success, evolve with purpose, and keep raising the bar — no matter where they are in their journey.
Winning Beyond the Game: Entrepreneurship, Activism, and Reinventing Your Legacy
SUE BIRD explores how the mindset of elite athletes translates into entrepreneurial success. As a co-founder of groundbreaking ventures like TOGETHXR and A Touch More, and an active investor and owner in professional sports teams, Sue reveals how she built her business portfolio by aligning passion, purpose, and smart investment. This conversation offers a candid look at navigating entrepreneurship, investing in your vision, and using influence to drive innovation and social impact.
Unfiltered, unstoppable, and impossibly cool Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe bring the heat from the mic to the main stage with A Touch More
SUE BIRD and MEGAN RAPINOE aren’t just legends on the court and the pitch—they’re a force of culture. On their podcast A Touch More, the pair serve up a smart, unfiltered take on everything from politics to pop culture, and they do it with the kind of chemistry you can’t fake.
What makes them electric on stage? It’s not just the Olympic medals or the World Cups. It’s the way they talk (honest, funny, occasionally fiery) like you’re eavesdropping on a conversation you wish you were part of. They don’t shy away from tough topics, and they don’t do canned inspiration. It’s real talk, with real stakes, from two people who’ve actually changed the game in sports, media, and culture.
If your event needs a high-impact headliner, Bird and Rapinoe bring brains, boldness, and a point of view. You’ll laugh, you’ll think, and you’ll definitely hear something new.
After a celebrated career spanning three decades, Sue Bird left her mark on the WNBA, women’s basketball, and the broader world of women’s sports.
Bird retired in 2022 after a historic run as the world’s premier point guard, during which she won five Olympic gold medals, four World Championship medals, two NCAA championships, and four WNBA titles. She is also a five-time EuroLeague champion, a thirteen-time WNBA All-Star, the 2021 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year, the WNBA’s all-time leader in assists, and was voted by fans as one of the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of All Time.
In 2024, Sue’s jersey was retired by the Seattle Storm (making her only the second player in franchise history to receive that honor) and officially joined the team’s ownership group. Bird will be inducted into both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this year and it was recently announced that she will serve as the first-ever Managing Director of USA Basketball for the upcoming Olympic cycle.
In 2021, Bird co-founded TOGETHXR—a women-centered media and commerce company—alongside Alex Morgan, Simone Manuel, and Chloe Kim, to further the progress, culture, representation, and coverage of all women and girls in sport. Through TOGETHXR, Sue produced Power of the Dream, a documentary by director Dawn Porter on the WNBA’s fight for social justice, which had a significant impact on U.S. politics in 2020; Row of Life, a feature documentary following Angela Madsen—a former Marine, three-time Paralympian, and renowned ocean rower—on her attempt to solo row unsupported from Los Angeles to Hawaii; and the six-part podcast series Summer of Gold, which chronicled the American female athletes who dominated the 1996 Atlanta Games. It was recently announced that Summer of Gold will be adapted into a television limited series, with Bird serving as one of the executive producers.
Last year, Sue hosted Sue’s Places, a basketball-focused take on Peyton Manning’s signature ESPN+ original series, where she explored the history and traditions of college basketball. Over the past several years, she and best friend Diana Taurasi have co-hosted the popular ‘alterna-cast’ The Bird & Taurasi Show during coverage of the Women’s Final Four and Sue Bird: In the Clutch, a documentary chronicling her groundbreaking career, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently streaming on Netflix.
At the end of 2022, Sue and her fiancée, soccer legend Megan Rapinoe, launched A Touch More, a production company focused on elevating stories about revolutionaries who move culture forward. The company champions narratives centered on identity, activism, and underrepresented communities. Their first scripted TV series, Playing the Field—based on the bestselling novel Cleat Cute—is currently in development. The ensemble series is set in the world of women’s soccer and follows a young player navigating life as a rookie, her dream of making the national team, and a budding romance with the team captain.
Bird and Rapinoe re-launched their podcast, A Touch More: The Podcast, last year. Originally an Instagram Live series that began during the height of the pandemic, the show quickly gained a large following for its candid and wide-ranging conversations, which has continued since the re-launch of the show. Sue and Megan serve as executive producers of the podcast through their A Touch More banner. The show was recently named one of Apple’s “Shows We Love” for 2024 and won the Webby Award for Best Sports Podcast this year. In May, Bird will debut her first solo podcast, Bird’s Eye View, focused on the upcoming WNBA season.
Sue has quickly established herself as a trailblazer among former athletes transitioning into mainstream media. Her sharp perspective and vocal advocacy for racial, gender, and LGBTQIA+ equity have made her a cornerstone in athlete representation and allyship. She continues to be a visible and outspoken activist for Black lives, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, health and wellness, and expanding opportunities for girls and marginalized communities.
Bird currently resides in both New York and Seattle.
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