Influencers with Andy Serwer: Billie Jean King

In this episode of Influencers, Andy is joined by Billie Jean King, legendary tennis player and author of the new book 'All In', as she shares stories from her childhood, her thoughts on the new generation of activist athletes, and why she says women need to 'follow the money'.

Video transcript

ANDY SERWER: World class athlete, trailblazer, and feminist icon-- all words which have been used to describe Billie Jean King, the former number one tennis player in the world and author of a new book titled "All In." Celebrated for her athletic ability, King was a fierce opponent off the court as well, using her immense fame to advocate for gay rights and equality for women.

BILLIE JEAN KING: And this platform that we've been given, that it's a privilege, and to make sure you treat it like a privilege, because it is. Very few people have this opportunity to be heard.

ANDY SERWER: In this episode of "Influencers," Billie Jean King joins me to share her thoughts on the next generation of female athletes and discuss her work as both the tennis champion and activist over the course of her career.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hello and welcome to "Influencers." I'm Andy Serwer. And welcome to our guest, Billie Jean King-- of course, winner of 39 grand slam tennis titles, longtime activist, and author of the new book "All In-- An Autobiography." Billie, welcome. Great to see you.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Great to see you, Andy. Thanks for having me.

ANDY SERWER: So your new book comes out after a controversial Olympic Games as athletes spoke out on issues from mental health, to uniforms they're forced to wear, to politics. What do you hope this book contributes to the moment that we're in?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I think this book contributes in that it covers a lot of areas. It covers sexuality, eating disorders-- so there's mental health in this book already. It talks about business as well. I've been a part owner of tournaments, kind of first woman's bank I've just invested in, Fidelity and Bank of America invested in it too.

And so not only have I been an athlete all my life, but I've also been in business as well, which a lot of people did not know at all about me. They think of me as a jock, an athlete, instead of a business person as well. And obviously, talking about equality-- how we can improve equity, equality, equal pay for equal work particularly is huge, because money equals mobility, power, choice, all those things.

So it's covered in the book. The book's called "All In." I'll just show you quickly what it looks like. I love this photo, because it's intense. I love it. The eyes are like eee-- I love it.

ANDY SERWER: You're pretty intense. And you know, I've known about your business acumen for a while because we knew each other when I was at "Fortune" and you would come to--

BILLIE JEAN KING: That's right.

ANDY SERWER: The conferences and talk about business. So I'm glad to hear that's in the book. The book also, Billie, talks about growing up in the '40s and '50s with conservative but supportive parents. So how did their encouragement, but maybe also limitations, prepare you for the life that you lived?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Actually did a very good job, because it gave us great values, a good moral compass. My dad was really-- he didn't realize it at the time, but he was really a life coach, not just a coach coach.

I mean, I remember him sitting me down at 12 years old and saying, do you really want to be number one tennis player in the world? Are you sure? There'll be a lot of heartache. I just want you to be happy, and healthy, and get your education. And of course, my mother agreed totally with him.

And he really would ask me these very, very important questions. Then at 15, he also didn't allow me to read my clippings anymore, because I was-- it's in the book-- I'm spouting off like, I can't believe I'm finally on the front of the "Press Telegram" in Long Beach, California-- it was our big newspaper. And they've got me losing in the first round, love and love. I mean, I've won tournaments, why didn't I make it then?

And he goes, just stop. He goes, what are you reading? He said, when did that happen? And I said, yesterday. He said, exactly. He said, it was yesterday. You have to let that go. It's history. Let it go.

And because of that, I don't want you to ever read about yourself or look at yourself again, because obviously, it doesn't do any good. And he was absolutely correct. So that helped me so much. In doing research for this book, I've read a lot of articles, especially when I was a junior, that I'm so happy that I did not read in the old days, because it would not have helped me at all.

They were very derogatory. They were tough. It wouldn't have helped me. And so I'm very thankful to my dad for that. And I'm very thankful to both my parents that gave us time and space. I have a younger brother, Randy Moffitt-- Moffitt's our birth name-- he played 12 years of professional baseball. And I think the reason we made it and the reason we welcomed pressure on the field or on the court so much is because of the way we were raised. They gave us time and space. And they never asked us, did you win-- ever.

ANDY SERWER: Wow.

BILLIE JEAN KING: They go, how was your day? And then we would just go full throttle, you know, when we didn't win. We'd be saying, I lost, err. And then he'd say, well, did you try your best? Or my mother would ask the same question. We'd say, of course we tried our best. Come on.

And then they'd say, that's enough. It's enough. Just ask yourself questions-- are you burned out? Have you played too much? Or are you not practicing enough? Those are the kind of questions they'd ask us. And I think they're been invaluable, actually, in real life in so many different ways in different stages of my life.

ANDY SERWER: Right. Right. I want to talk more about that media and reading your press clippings, because that's a hot button issue right now with athletes, of course, and we'll get back to that.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Don't read them.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Don't read them.

ANDY SERWER: So I want to talk to you about something else that really comes out in the book, which is-- maybe it's axiomatic but, you know, I was struck by this-- how much you really love tennis.

BILLIE JEAN KING: I do.

ANDY SERWER: Maybe that's an obvi-- but how did you get into the sport? What drew you to it?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, I grew up in team sports. But as a girl, there's very few-- we couldn't get athletic scholarships yet, there was really no future. I always wanted to travel as a child. It talks about me going up to the front of the class in fourth grade, and how much I loved to look at the map, and I always wanted to travel.

My dad was a firefighter. So I wasn't going to be able to go too many places. We didn't have that kind of money. But tennis changed all that when I got into it. But I played team sports.

I loved baseball. Basketball was my first love-- my brother's and mine. And then baseball, softball, volleyball-- all team sports. Everything I did was team, team, team. But Susan Williams asked me in fifth grade, did I want to play tennis? And I said, what's tennis?

I had no idea. And she said, well, you get to run, jump, and hit a ball. So I went out with her. But she played at a country club. So I thought, well, this isn't going to happen for me. But we also played on a softball team, and she told the coach, you know, I took Billie out to play tennis. And you know, and she goes, oh, we have free instruction here every Tuesday with Clyde Walker.

So I was there. And the first time I went out to meet Clyde and have a session, at the end of it, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be the number one tennis player in the world. And my poor mother, like, she picks me up and she goes, you have homework. She kept us grounded. She was great.

And then if you fast forward a year and a half, I started playing in tournaments to get a ranking. And I had an epiphany one day at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, which was the Mecca of Southern California tennis at the time, and I started daydreaming, and I realized that everyone wore white socks, white shoes, white clothes, played with white balls, and everybody who played was white. And I asked myself, where's everybody else?

And I thought if I could become number one in tennis, that maybe I could help change things. And basically that day, that epiphany moment is when I dedicated myself to fight for equality the rest of my life. And I haven't veered from that since that epiphany when I was 12 at the Los Angeles Tennis Club.

And I also knew through tennis that it was played all over the world. I mean, I had been dreaming about Wimbledon. That's the biggest tournament. And that tournament, you had to win to be number 1. So I would dream about it and I had books. I slept with my racquet, I slept with books.

Like, Althea Gibson's book was my first she-ro-- first Black to win a major in tennis. She's our Jackie Robinson of tennis. I read all the-- I read every book I could get a hold of. I love history. And I always tell young people that it's really important-- the more you know about history, the more you know about yourself.

And most importantly, the reason to know about history is so you can shape the future for yourself and for others. And it really helps to have this baseline of information about history.

ANDY SERWER: Right. You write about the fight for pay equity in tennis back in the 1960s and '70s. What did you learn from that fight? And how does it apply to the fight for pay equity that continues today?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, I've always felt I've been walking on a tightrope my whole life, because the most important thing is not to have people go away when you're trying to convince people of something for change. And I find this really hard on people that can't visualize it. Everything I do is I visualize, visualize, visualize. And I can see the way I want the world to look or this to happen.

And the one thing we learned when we were amateurs in the '60s and we were all fighting for professional tennis-- but what happened in 1968 when it became a professional sport, we finally got a check. Rod Laver, for instance, got a 2,000 pound check at Wimbledon, I got 750 pounds. So I knew that was going to be a challenge-- that we weren't getting paid equally.

But also, a lot of our events were being dropped because of our gender. And so that was becoming a problem. And my former husband told me that would happen. I said, no, it won't, they're my friends. But he's right.

Larry King was completely right-- not that Larry King. Larry was completely right, and I was completely wrong. And so what happened in 1970, nine of us-- called the original nine-- signed a $1 contract with Gladys Heldman. And that is the birth of women's professional tennis. And the three things-- we were willing to give up our careers for three things-- that any girl in the world if she was good enough, that she'd have a place to compete.

And number two, to be appreciated for our accomplishments not only our looks. And number three, and this was so exciting for us at the time, to be able to make a living playing the sport we loved. And we were willing to give up our careers for that.

So every time you see a player get the money, the check at a tournament, whether it's a major tournament, or a grand slam tournament, or whether it's one of the WTA or ATP Tour tournaments, every time someone gets money-- a woman gets any money, it goes back to that moment when we were willing to give up our careers in 1970.

And our group was the first group ever to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. And we're so happy. There were seven of us that showed up. All of us are still alive, but this is pretty exciting. And then we're going to be celebrated at the US Open as well.

This is a huge day, and it's still relevant to today. And that's why it's important to know history, because we're the reason they get the checks now because of that moment theat we were willing to give up our whole careers. So it's very important. You have to make very hard decisions. You can't have everything.

And we work with women's sports all the time-- different sports. And we hope that soccer eventually gets more pay. We hope that women's ice hockey will eventually have a league. We have a long way to go. We are in our infancy.

And so we got a long way to go. We're so far behind. I mean, baseball's over 150 years old. NHL is over 100 years old. We are so late in the marketplace.

ANDY SERWER: And what about business, Billie? Because there's still just 41 women CEOs at companies on the Fortune 500. What needs to change to create more opportunities for women to attain leadership positions there and throughout society?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, one thing I've noticed, and, Andy, it drives me crazy, is that when a woman leads, people think we only lead for women. They never think of us leading for everyone. Like, oh, Billie works on gender equity. She works on gender this or-- no.

When I do something, it might be for women, but it's for everyone. Because when you help one person, you help the world to be a better place. So we have to change that or we'll never get a woman president, we will not get more women CEOs. And I want women-- and I want girls to go into sports, because here's what they learn. They learn the culture that men have created in business, and in sports, and most of our lives.

And it's so important that we learn how to navigate. I've been in boardrooms before. And a guy will say something or the woman will say something and she didn't get it. It's either over her head or she'll say something she didn't really hear, and it's because she hasn't been around the culture.

So it's like reading between the lines. And 94% of women in c-suites in business identify with being an athlete. And 50% of those-- I think I have this right-- they played college sports-- they had a scholarship to college or at least played varsity-- or D-1, D-2, D-3, depending upon the school-- NAIA or whatever. But so these are the things that we have to keep pushing.

But you'd never hear-- people might come up to me and say, thanks for what you did for women's tennis. Well, first of all, I fought for pro tennis. And that helped the guys. it didn't help me in the end. And so that gets irritating.

But they'll come up and say, thanks what you did for women's tennis. But they'll never go to a male and say, thanks what you did for men's tennis. They'll say, thanks what you did for tennis. And that's the way women have to be perceived if we're going to be in leadership positions.

ANDY SERWER: Billie, you're an icon. And so I got to ask you-- what's the best and worst thing about being an icon?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, I don't think-- because my dad didn't let me read all those clippings, that was really helpful. One thing I always think about is take your ego every time before you walk out the door in the morning and put it on a shelf. Put your ego up there. Just get rid of it, because the day is a new day.

And I'm a human being first, just like everyone I meet. And always respect them, be kind to them. But I don't think of myself as an icon. But the best thing about my life is that the relationships I've been able to make in my life, the friendships, the connections, the opportunities I've been given because I've been an athlete and because people believed in me-- I mean, without the people of Long Beach, California, I never would have made it.

I wasn't the poster kid in the juniors. Karen Hanft was. She's from San Diego. I was probably never 3 or 4. But the people in Long Beach, the Long Beach tennis patrons, the Century Club-- all those people believed in me and they paid for my way back East for the first time. They paid for my first trip to Wimbledon.

These are the things in amateur days people don't realize that's the way it worked. And it still works that way with the young kids when they're trying to get to tournaments. You know, everything costs money. But you know what? If you're talented, people will come and help you.

There's always some way and some person will make the difference. But I think it's relationships is the most important thing I've learned. As far as the downside, I think I always dreamed if I could lead that I would be more connected.

But actually, sometimes, that leaves you more alone. And that was a hard thing for me to wrap my mind around. So it's that you get closer in some ways, but you are farther away than others. And I think being connected to the universe and to people is really one of the most important things.

Like, when you look at the moon or the sun-- I know this sounds cheesy, but this is who I am-- I always know anyone who looks at that moon, we're all looking at the same moon, and we're all looking at the same sun. And to me, it feels connected to the universe.

I know in therapy, when I'm having trouble is when I feel disconnected. And then I know I need to pay attention to that.

ANDY SERWER: As a long time activist, what's it like watching the new wave of athlete activists take shape?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I love it. Are you kidding, Andy? This is a dream I've always had for every generation-- that we will use, they will use this platform that we've been given, that it's a privilege-- and to make sure you treat it like a privilege, because it is.

Very few people have this opportunity to be heard like kids in sports today. I mean, you look at Naomi Osaka, you look at Phelps, you look at Simone Biles, you look at all these different people who are speaking out-- but people are actually listening to them. That probably wouldn't have happened quite so much back in the old days.

And with social media, it makes a huge difference. We only had traditional media. So I think young people should be very thankful they have the social media to get the word out. They're all an author now, they can say.

But it goes fast. Sometimes it's here and gone faster. Also, it can be negative. And also put your phone down every so often, it'd be really good, especially at dinner with the family. I think I would just insist on it if I were a parent. But I'm not a parent, so it's easy for me to say.

But I think the kids need breaks sometimes and all of us need breaks from the phone. I make a point to put my phone down and just take a break every so often.

ANDY SERWER: Oh, hell yeah.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We all know that one, don't we? It's tough. It owns us. It's always stimulating us, which is for children and young people, I think you got to be really careful.

And the one good thing is I think hopefully it helps people know they're not alone and be connective. But then when you get bullying, cyber bullying and all those things, that's not good either. But I just hope kids find their authentic self, take good care of themselves.

And it's OK if you don't feel good-- ask for help, which I think Naomi, and Simone, and Phelps, and all these guys are really helping. I think it's great.

ANDY SERWER: With the NFL season about to start, how do you think Carl Nassib coming out will impact the sport and beyond?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, all of us in the LGBTQ+ community have been praying that male football players would come out. But what we really need is the quarterbacks to come out and support them. Because a quarterback-- this is just my opinion-- that they're the leader of that team, especially on the field.

They need to come out and back up every single player on that team, particularly someone who's come out. Because he needs them to be for him. I know the Players Association said all the right things, I know the NFL said the right things, but how is his daily life?

How are the guys really treating him? And I know some linemen came out on his behalf, which was really great. But we need people to feel comfortable in their sexuality, and not feel threatened, and to feel accepted. Everyone wants to be accepted and loved. And so this is really important.

But we need more male athletes to come out. But we need straight male athletes to support them. And of course, we're going to support them. I think the women, obviously, have supported them if they're gay. But we need all straight people to support, because they have the most power still. They really do. In numbers, they have the most power. But we need to be for each other, no matter who we are.

ANDY SERWER: Right-- team leaders. Hey, who is your favorite tennis player in the game today? And why?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I don't have a favorite. But I love-- I actually like most of the players, especially if I get to know them as a human being. If I like them as a person, then I'm like, come on. Like, you got to win. I love people who-- I love Naomi, and I love Serena, and Venus, Coco Gauff is also speaking out. She's our young one coming up. I think she might be 17 now.

She's playing really well I love the fact that they're using Bianca Andreescu. She's another great one. She speaks out. She's got leadership potential as well. I just look at each of the players and try to think of each country that each one of them could be a leader-- like, Kvitova for the Czech Republic.

As far as guys, I love watching Tsisipas play. I love the fact that Fritz is doing well in America. I love the fact that-- oh, I know-- I love Sebastian Korda. I think he's adorable. He's great. And remember, his two sisters play on the LGBT-- I mean, not LGBT-- the ladies golf-- professional golf association.

ANDY SERWER: LPGA.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Yeah, thank you. I got all these-- ah, anyway. Nellie's number one in the world right now-- Nellie Korda, in golf. Jessica Korda is her older sister who's doing fantastically well. Nellie just won the gold in Tokyo in Japan.

And their younger brother is Sebastian Korda. So they are adorable. Their dad and mother were professional tennis players. So what a family. Anyway, they're really good kids-- they're great kids. So I'm all for them every single day.

But Taylor Fritz is a good guy who I mentioned earlier. He's from California too. And his mother, Kathy May, played on the tour. So if I have a personal-- and I'm forgetting tons of players, but I like most of them. I just want them to be healthy and pay the price. You've got to pay the price to be great. There's no shortcuts.

Djokovic-- unbelievable. He never shortcuts anything. That's why he's number 1 right now. Federer and Nadal-- we'll never have to players like them again as human beings, on and off the court. I'm sorry they're getting near the end. I've been through a few generations now-- I'm going to be 78 this year.

And so I've seen this ebb and flow of change. And it's difficult when the older ones start to get older. I hate it. I always want them to play like they did when they're young. And then they've got this new wave of players-- Medvedev, Rublev. I mean, we've got so many great new ones coming along now.

But we're definitely starting that change of generations. So there's sadness for the older ones and excitement for the younger ones.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah. People say that the Golden Age of American male tennis players is over-- or at least it's waned. Is there a reason for that?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Oh, for sure. The big reason is in the United States if you look at male and female sports, if you're a male, you're really torn. You've got NFL, American football, we now have football, or soccer we call it, and you also have-- you have NBA, you have MLB.

And every guy growing up, these are the places you should play, especially NFL, baseball, and NBA. Those three things really are the biggies. Soccer's starting to go up. So you've got 700 guys in each one of those that make it.

Those three things we don't have for girls. There's no baseball for girls, there's a WNBA-- we do have that, but we're 25 years old, the men are 75 years old. So we're so late, again. But at least we have a good WNBA, which is exciting.

Hockey, we have nothing for girls-- I didn't even mention that earlier. These are the sports all the boys are driven to play. So what does that leave tennis? Not as many guys going into it. We need to find a way.

And my biggest disappointment in tennis is that they have not adopted team enough. When a child starts in a sport, they'd much rather play on a team. They do not like to play against their friend. They want to play with their friends.

So I am huge on team tennis, particularly at the beginning to get the numbers up. We have 4 million new people in tennis this year because of COVID, though. We need to keep them. We need to nurture them and keep them going, because out of that, there's going to be some champions.

ANDY SERWER: Let me ask you about college athletics. College athletes can now make money off endorsements. Should they be paid outright, Billie?

BILLIE JEAN KING: I think they should get paid or at least have money in escrow until they graduate. But it's going to hurt a lot of the sports that aren't considered at the top. It's going to help the football players, it's going to help the basketball players-- males, mostly. But I think it's going to be really difficult to figure this out for most of the other sports, because they're the ones that get the most attention.

But it's always been like that. I wrote an article back in the '70s about Ohio State. I'll never forget Woody Hayes-- and their budget-- I looked up their budget. It was $13 million at that time. This is back in the '70s. So I went, wow, they're pros. They're not amateurs.

I remember talking about it. So we have to find a way to make it work for everyone, though, because you don't want to have to drop, say, men's wrestling, or women's wrestling, or tennis, or other sports. So I've always felt college tennis should have team tennis-- men and women on the same team.

I think we could be the third-largest sport in collegiate sports if we would do that. But I don't think they're going to. But if I were in charge, that's what I would do. I'd go out and get money. You've got to have the money. You have to follow the money.

And it's another thing-- girls are not taught to follow the money the way boys are. So I'm big on telling women to go make a lot of money and then get into a non-profit. But we're always encouraged to go into non-profit work. And there's not as much money in non-profits.

So become a billionaire, go do your non-profit, give back. But don't just think about being a non-profit, because girls are supposed to always be the supportive one. Because boys and girls, all genders, can be supportive. But I really think girls and all people-- follow the money, have some money, because that gives you opportunity, gives you power. And also, you're allowed to give money back to others who really are under-resourced that need it.

ANDY SERWER: All right, let me ask you a wild card, Billie-- what are you binge-watching right now?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Oh, "Ted Lasso." We just finished that second-- I'm like-- and they're only doing it once a week, they're killing me.

ANDY SERWER: I know, they don't let you binge it.

BILLIE JEAN KING: We binged the first two seasons-- oh, I love Ted Lasso. I just love him as a coach. You know, I've coached as well. And I go, if I could coach like him all the time-- he is adorable. Oh, I love that show.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, it's great. I love it too. So you have a tennis stadium named after you in New York. But what do you really want to be remembered for, Billie?

BILLIE JEAN KING: Well, I appreciate you saying stadium, it's actually the facility. Arthur Ashe has the stadium. And Louis Armstrong has the stadium-- Louis Armstrong, I think he probably would rather be called. I think championing equality-- just absolutely metal to the pedal-- just that and also I think people know I love people. I do. I really, like, love people.

You have to really, really bother me a lot for me not to like you. I mean, like, my partner Alanna always says, I can't believe you. You always forgive. You always start over. I said, yeah, I do, because maybe that's why I have my name on so many things.

I don't know. I don't think about it. I think about just making the world a better place. That was my 12-year-old epiphany. Nothing's changed.

ANDY SERWER: Let me ask you one more. And you talked about writing an article directly back in the 1970s. But now, because of social media and outlets like the "Player's Tribune," athletes can go directly to consumers. On the other hand, they also get direct feedback through social media. Does that make the world more fraught and more difficult for athletes or improve their stead?

BILLIE JEAN KING: This is where they have to have discipline. This is where they have to decide. It's really important to not take anything personally. I try to teach that when I coach, and it really works if you can do it.

And what I find with most athletes, they think the whole world knows what's going on about them and they don't. Every human being has their own trials, and tribulations, and good, and tough times. People have their own lives. And I think athletes think everybody knows what they're doing.

If you've ever talked to an athlete, when you walk up to them, they think you know exactly what's been going on in their life, like, if they're winning, or losing, or what's going on. I think they need to think that the world is a lot bigger than that and make sure they include people when they think, make sure that you think-- if you're going to be a professional athlete, I think we need to do a better job of rookie schools, how we help them with agents, we help them understand the budgets, understand the business of what you're in.

You know, my firm has my own tournament, so I knew it. But that helped me lead. That helped me to make better decisions. That helped me understand how to make things work because I knew both sides as a player and a business person. Very few players take the time to ask the promoter, for instance, say, every week in the tournament, how did you do?

It's just not about the players. So the players need to understand the business. They need to understand that it's important to talk to the media. I'm not saying we have to relook look at it and maybe we're not doing it the right way, because I think it's good that Naomi and Simone are talking about how they're feeling, which I think is very important.

But I knew as a professional athlete, my job was to go in and talk to the media after every single match, every single day if they're there, because we needed them. They told our story. And I still think we need that-- I think we need everything. Not just social media, not just traditional media, but we have all of these.

The reason athletes are making so much more money today is because of all these elements. But I'm not sure the athletes understand that. And the more they understand, I think they'll be more comfortable, I think it'll take away the pressures that they feel sometimes.

Because if you understand something, it just helps. So I would really teach the business side to young professional players coming up if they want to be great athletes. I think it's really important-- or Olympic athletes, because sometimes they're not professional. But they need to understand the responsibilities that go with being an athlete. For tennis players, it's not just winning matches.

That is not why you make all that money. You make that money because of media content, because of the betting, because of all these revenue streams that come in. So I think it is our obligation to give them attention and also share our thoughts with them. And it's not easy, but you don't have to-- you know what, I always tell an athlete, just like my parents used to tell us, you don't have to do this if you're unhappy.

Don't do it. So I think that if they're having challenges, take a hard long look. Maybe decide not to play. It's OK. Whatever you want to make your life, be OK.

ANDY SERWER: All right, some really great thinking there. Billie Jean King, tennis legend, icon, activist, and author of the new book "All In."

BILLIE JEAN KING: Yeah, baby.

ANDY SERWER: Billie, thank you so much. Hold that up.

BILLIE JEAN KING: All in, Andy. You're all in. You sound like you're all in. Anyway, thank you so much. Go, Yahoo.

ANDY SERWER: Thank you very much, Billie. You've been watching "Influencers." I'm Andy Serwer. We'll see you next time.