To Dine For with Kate Sullivan

(Jazzy, New Orleans style music) KATE SULLIVAN: It is lunchtime in LA and I'm being transported to the "Big Easy" by a world-class athlete.

KATE: So nice to meet you.

ALLYSON FELIX: Very nice to meet you.

KATE: Allyson Felix is taking me to her all-time favorite restaurant.

A place she loves, that reminds her of her childhood.

ALLYSON: I think when we first starting coming, we would get the po'boy sandwich.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: The catfish.

Then as I got older, I was actually allowed to order a catfish dinner.

KATE: It is here over her favorite meal that she's sharing the incredible journey she's been on: to shatter records and shatter misconceptions of what's possible for a mother.

ALLYSON: I never saw a woman in my sport who was celebrated through motherhood while competing.

KATE: So when Allyson became pregnant, she knew there were unspoken rules.

ALLYSON: I did hide my pregnancy like so many of the women before me.

And so I, this time, that should have been like so happy... KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: ...and special, was isolating and lonely.

KATE: When getting pregnant meant a major pay cut, she turned into another kind of champion.

ALLYSON: Nike wanted to use me to tell women and girls that they could do anything, even though the contract before me said the exact opposite.

I knew what I had to do, I knew I had to leave.

I knew I was afraid, but I did it anyways.

KATE: She spoke her truth and she didn't stop there.

Today, we're hearing the full story of she created a footwear company from scratch, on a mission to change the game for mothers everywhere.

ALLYSON: And I feel like I ended up absolutely where I'm supposed to be.

KATE: What's better in life than a bottle of wine, great food and an amazing conversation?

My name is Kate Sullivan and I am the host of To Dine For .

I'm a journalist, a foodie, a traveler, with an appetite for the stories of people who are hungry for more.

Dreamers.

Visionaries.

Artists.

Those who hustle hard in the direction they love.

I travel with them to their favorite restaurant, to hear how they did it.

This show is a toast to them and their American dream.

To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... ANNOUNCER: At American National, we honor the "do"-ers and the dreamers: the people who get things done and keep the world moving.

Our local agents are honored to serve your community because it's their community too.

American National.

(Jazzy, New Orleans style music) KATE: Today I'm in Los Angeles on my way into Harold & Belle's Creole restaurant.

The person who's meeting me here is an Olympic gold medalist, the founder of an innovative footwear company, and a champion for moms everywhere.

I can't wait for you to meet Allyson Felix.

KATE: Allyson, how are you?

ALLYSON: I'm good.

How are you?

KATE: It is so nice to meet you.

ALLYSON: Very nice to meet you.

KATE: Thank you for doing this.

ALLYSON: Oh, my pleasure.

KATE: And I'm so excited to eat here, this place looks amazing.

ALLYSON: My favorite!

KATE: There really isn't a better neighborhood in Los Angeles for Harold and Belle's than Jefferson Park.

This 1.28 square mile neighborhood, may be small, but it's been called the "Soul of the City" because residents here have such a strong sense of community.

What started in 1969 as a social club has evolved into a Jefferson Park institution.

Harold and Belle's is the closest thing you can get to the "Big Easy" on the West Coast.

RYAN LEGAUX: What I think makes New Orleans food special is that it's, uh, truly American, born and bred.

It's you know, one of the few- maybe the only cuisine that can really truly say that it was born here.

KATE: Where else in LA can you get traditional Creole cuisine cooked homestyle?

Each meal starts with hot butter bread, and then it's all about gumbo, po'boys and seafood platters.

But it's not just the food that hits you at Harold and Belle's, it's the feeling of hospitality as soon as you walk through the door.

JESSICA LEGAUX: Definitely, uh, family environment in the main restaurant.

Every Friday night, we have a band in the bar.

It's a good time.

RYAN: There's a community here that's been coming and celebrating their special events at this restaurant for over 50 years.

There's staff that have worked here for almost that long, but some of them 30, 40 years.

KATE: We are in for a treat today.

Starting things off with live charbroiled oysters and a house made bayou butter.

Then it's onto the main course, the famous catfish platter.

This plate comes piled high with fried shrimp and slow cooked red beans and rice with a mac and cheese side to complete the meal.

It's not exactly the type of food you'd expect a world-class runner to eat, but Allyson Felix doesn't always do what people expect her to do.

KATE: First of all, thank you for bringing me to Harold and Belle's, I'm so excited to be here.

ALLYSON: Always good to be here.

KATE: Tell me, of all the restaurants in Los Angeles, why did you choose this one as your favorite?

ALLYSON: So, this is such a special place for me.

Um, I grew up not far from here at all, and we would just always come here as a family.

So to me it's a place that feels like home.

It's a place of togetherness.

Any special event, this is where we're coming after and the food is amazing.

KATE: Tell me about your earliest memories coming here with your family.

ALLYSON: Oh my goodness, my memories go back to as young as I can remember.

Coming here, whether it was after church, um, it was always just family, you know, and we were usually celebrating something, whether it was a birthday or some life event.

Um, I just have such fond memories of sharing meals, um, with all of my loved ones and big groups as well.

KATE: Do you know the moment you realized you were good at running or you had a talent for it?

ALLYSON: Hmm.

It was somewhere in the middle of high school.

You know, I found it much later.

I, I kind of stumbled into it.

I went into it to make friends at a new school and then I fell in love with it.

And it was somewhere in the middle where I think a coach, you know, my family was telling me I had all this potential and I just loved racing.

I loved lining up against someone else and finding out right away who's the fastest.

And I think that that's the moment where it's like, this is, this makes me feel alive.

KATE: You have said that you believe your running ability is a gift from God.

ALLYSON: Yeah, I do.

I think it was something that my parents taught me early on, and I think I saw with all of their gifts as well that, that you know, it was a blessing to be able to have that.

And so just realizing that, you know, it's not of my own ability and not wanting to take that for granted that it was a gift and I wanted to do the best that I could with it.

KATE: Hello, what is this?

SERVER: So these are our charred grilled oysters.

KATE: Oh my gosh.

[chuckles] Wow.

SERVER: They're fresh oysters that we shuck, uh, in-house and then we, uh, actually add a little of our bayou butter to the top of those, which is just another way of saying just adding deliciousness on the top.

[Both laugh] BOTH: Thank you.

KATE: How weird does that look?

Oh wow.

Oh, that is delicious.

That's hot, but it's delicious.

ALLYSON: It is.

KATE: It's almost like I want to take a little bread and sop up some of that... ALLYSON: And the bread is so good here.

It's amazing.

KATE: Are you someone who has really had to watch your food for training?

ALLYSON: You know, I have never been good with food restrictions.

Um, as an athlete, that's probably not the best thing [laughs].

But I love food.

It makes me happy.

And I really enjoy it.

And so I, everything in moderation.

KATE: Right.

ALLYSON: Um, then I have my splurge days.

KATE: Yeah.

Hello!

Is this a splurge day?

ALLYSON: This is a splurge day.

(Both laugh) KATE: She comes across as low-key and chill, but let's be serious.

You don't get to be where Allyson Felix is without some serious discipline and training.

A 10 time U.S. National champion in the 100 meters, a three time world champion in the 200 meters, an 11 time Olympic medalist, the first female track athlete to win seven gold medals.

Allyson Felix is the most decorated track and field Olympian in history, but what really stands out is the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

It was her first race after earning a new title: mom.

KATE: Take me to Tokyo.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: And sort of the psychology of Tokyo.

When you were going into it, I know that was a dream to win gold.

Did you know it would be your last Olympics?

ALLYSON: Yes.

So I knew that it would be my last Olympics and Tokyo was very interesting.

Um, you know, it was my first games as a mother and I had so much adversity to get there.

I think for the first time when I got on that line, it wasn't about the result as much as all the other Olympics I had been to.

And that was such a foreign kind of concept to me.

But it was about, you know, being this representation for people to see me as a mother and as a woman who had overcome so much.

And I hope that other women would see themselves in me.

And, um, yeah.

So it ended up just being super memorable.

Um, even though it was like during... KATE: You won gold.

It was extremely memorable, you won gold!

ALLYSON: Yeah, but for all the different reasons than before, you know?

KATE: There is a momentum when something is your last, when you are giving something all that you have.

ALLYSON: I think knowing that it was gonna be my last games I was able to take in every moment, you know, it was very emotional.

Everything was for the last time, you know, and, and sometimes that felt really good.

And I think in other moments, it was more challenging.

It was a journey for sure.

KATE: I'm always curious when victory comes in milliseconds.

How you train for that?

ALLYSON: Yeah.

It can be very heavy.

You know, as an Olympian, every four years, my event is about 21 seconds [laughs].

KATE: 21 seconds!

ALLYSON: And so, if you mess up, you have to wait another four years to be able to have the opportunity again.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: And so you have to stay present in that moment.

And you can't also make that moment feel too big.

And I've trained and run the race a million times in practice, and it's just the environment that that changes.

KATE: How comfortable are you with anxiety and did races make you anxious?

ALLYSON: Yes, they did.

Um, I think experience helped me I, I figured out the tools that helped me move through that and for me it was on the track I know that that's where I'm the expert.

And so if I can focus on those technical things.

KATE: Yeah.

ALLYSON: It really, um, just kind of takes some of the pressure off.

KATE: How do you handle people who try to intimidate you right before your race?

ALLYSON: [laughs] To me, I, I've always felt like the work has already been done.

Like, you know, when you get to the race, it's about executing, but someone doing whatever their tactics are, it's not gonna change your preparation.

And so if you put in the work and you've done all the things, you're ready to go.

The race is just the fun part where you get to put it together.

KATE: Oh my gosh.

[Laughs].

Is this the catfish?

SERVER: This is the catfish platter.

We went ahead and put some fried shrimp on there as well.

KATE: Oh my gosh.

This is your order, right?

KATE: This is what you love.

ALLYSON: This is my order.

Yes.

KATE: When you would come as a younger girl, was this what you would get with your family?

ALLYSON: Yes.

So we, I think when we first started coming, we would get the po'boy sandwich with catfish.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: And, um, and then as I got older, I was actually allowed to, to order the catfish dinner [laughs] as a whole.

KATE: This is a rite of passage.

Thank you.

ALLYSON: Thank you so much.

KATE Oh wow.

This looks great.

I love that you were allowed to order this when you got to a certain age.

ALLYSON: I couldn't mess around when I was too young.

It was like, yeah, you're not, you're not there yet [laughs].

ALLYSON: So good.

KATE: Oh, wow.

I gotta try these red beans and rice too.

ALLYSON: Yeah that's my favorite as well.

KATE: That is delicious.

How has your brother helped you with your running journey?

Cause he, he came from a place of knowing since he was a runner as well.

ALLYSON: Yeah, he did.

I mean, he has always been just my hero.

You know, the classic older brother who's been a protector.

KATE: He's had your back.

ALLYSON: Always.

KATE: And that's who you want as an agent.

ALLYSON: Someone you can trust a hundred percent.

KATE: Yeah, and that's who you want as a co-founder of a company.

ALLYSON: Yes.

KATE: And you have co-founded Saysh with him.

ALLYSON: We have, and it's so much fun to build and to work together.

And we have all of those same shared values.

And so to put something into the world that we believe that needs to exist, nobody I'd rather build with than him.

KATE: In 2021, Allyson and her brother Wes, launched Saysh a community centered lifestyle brand with a simple mission, for her by her.

It's a brand that makes parents a top priority and it all started after Allyson walked away from one of the biggest brands in the business after she was penalized for pursuing motherhood.

KATE: I'm really fascinated to hear the inspiration for Saysh and why you created this company.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: And I think probably to do that, we have to begin at the beginning, which is to talk about your journey with Nike.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: Like that's really the impetus.

ALLYSON: I was at a place in my career where I felt like I had done, I had accomplished a lot of things that I had set out to do, and I kind of was looking back and reflecting and I'm like, okay, I have the medals and I have all these, these things, but I didn't have what mattered most to me.

And I had always wanted to be a mother.

And so I thought, okay, maybe now is the time.

But I had a lot of fear around that because, um, in track and field, the culture of pregnancy was really silence.

KATE: Mm-Hmm.

ALLYSON: And I saw my friends struggle and just really go through a hard time.

I never, and I don't think that anybody sat me down and told me, you know, well, you need to wait to, to start a family.

KATE: But you saw it.

ALLYSON: I saw that I never saw a woman in my sport who was celebrated through motherhood while competing.

Instead I saw them struggle and have a hardship and childcare issues and all the things because they weren't fully supported.

KATE: It, it was almost like it was a deficit to have a child.

Like it was a knock on your career.

ALLYSON: It was kind of like this thing that said, you're now done.

I mean, it's been, uh, a teammate called it "the kiss of death" in track and field.

So that was in the back of my head.

But I kind of felt like, well maybe I've accomplished enough, you know, maybe it'll be different for me.

And what had been happening to women before me is that their contracts were either being paused or in order to secure a new contract, they would hide their pregnancies, secure a contract, and then go forward.

KATE: Right.

ALLYSON: So when I finally decided to that, you know, I did wanna move forward with it at the beginning, I did hide my pregnancy like so many of the women before me.

And so I, this time that should have been like, so happy.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: And special was isolating and lonely.

And I barely came out and wore baggy clothes.

I trained at four o'clock in the morning when it was dark.

And it was just, it was really, really hard.

Um, and then I eventually did disclose my pregnancy and I really shifted the fight away from a financial fight because even before I became pregnant, I was offered 70 percent less than what I had previously been making, so.

KATE: Wow.

ALLYSON: Age or whatever the things are.

But it just amplified my fear.

Because I thought if it's already at such a horrible place, starting off, well then when they find out I'm pregnant, it's just gonna go down from here.

KATE: You were like, this Is something that I've always wanted to be a mother, but this is perhaps the end of my career.

ALLYSON: Exactly.

I, I thought that I was gonna have to choose and I turned my fight to a fight for maternal protections.

And basically that just means that, uh, a track and field contract is performance based.

So you go to the Olympics World Championships, um, you get a medal.

KATE: Mm-Hmm.

ALLYSON: You get a bonus.

KATE: Yeah.

ALLYSON: But you don't, you get a reduction.

But if you're pregnant or if you just had a baby, um, there's nothing in place to protect you from those reductions.

And so I asked for that protection and I was actually told that I could have it.

KATE: You were told that you would have it?

ALLYSON: I was told that I had, and I was like, this is great.

KATE: Oh, this is exactly what you wanted.

Okay.

ALLYSON: This is amazing.

But the contract came back and there was no tie to pregnancy or to maternity or anything.

KATE: Wow.

ALLYSON: And so it was this moment where it was like, oh, they're saying that I'm okay, but the next person may not be.

And to me, that was a place that I, I wasn't okay with.

And so I ended up parting ways.

And, um, I wrote a New York Times op-ed, and shared my story.

KATE: In May, 2019.

Allyson put it all on paper.

The piece called out the culture and her sponsor, Nike, when it came to female runners and pregnancy, Allyson broke the unspoken code that female runners paid the price for pregnancy.

KATE: And when you wrote that New York Times op-ed, what did you wanna say?

ALLYSON: You know what, I was terrified because that's so far from who I am.

I'm like, I'm the person who doesn't wanna rock the boat.

I don't want any issues.

KATE: You're an athlete, not an advocate, or at least you were at that moment.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

I, I mean that was, it was so scary.

But because this happened over the course of a very long time, I ended up actually having my daughter and I had a, a traumatic birth experience and a really hard situation.

And just looking at my daughter, um, it just gave me that courage and that strength to say that her generation is not gonna deal with this.

KATE: Mm.

ALLYSON: And so that's what I wanted to say was just that, I didn't think it was right.

And I think that women should be supported.

KATE: What did you hope that was heard from companies that sponsor athletes that, that are moms?

ALLYSON: I wanted companies to know that they have to be deeper than marketing.

You know, to tell women and girls that they can do anything and then internally not support them and not give them protections around maternity.

That that's not okay.

And for me personally, I couldn't be the face of that.

Um, I would feel like I'm lying.

KATE: You spoke your truth.

ALLYSON: Yes.

KATE: And then you had that moment where like, oh my gosh, I just spoke my truth.

ALLYSON: Yes.

KATE: Right.

ALLYSON: And then I had parted ways with, with Nike over that.

Um, they did change their policy about three weeks after the op-ed.

They did.

They offer now today 18 months of maternal protection.

So it, it took a fight, but it happened.

KATE: You made an impact ALLYSON: Which is incredible.

And a lot of other people who contributed, KATE: But at that moment, right.

When they did change their policy.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: I'm sure you felt in a way, vindicated.

But was there a part of you that was still angry?

ALLYSON: I definitely, there was a part that was still angry because I just felt like this is what I had asked for privately, and it wasn't, it wasn't, um, done.

And so I, I thought it was really sad that I had to say this in public in order for it to happen.

KATE: Mm-Hmm.

But isn't it amazing the, the power of being angry.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: To galvanize us towards what we wanna do.

ALLYSON: Yeah and it did that, it took me to a whole new purpose.

Um I, left there and, um, I had a new, uh, partnership with Athleta for my apparel, and I really felt empowered there.

I saw a different way to do business there.

97% female, female led and I started to just learn.

And coming off the heels of that, I still didn't have a footwear sponsor.

And as a runner, like that's crazy.

KATE: Right.

Hello?

ALLYSON: That's the one thing that is very important.

And so I was still training for the, the Olympics were gonna be the next year.

And I was training and I was having a conversation with my brother and I was just telling him like, I am so tired of begging companies to see my value and my worth, and I just felt like I had been through so much.

And he just kind of turned to me and was like, "well, why don't we just do this ourselves?"

And so I, I slept on it and the next day I just felt like, yeah, you're right.

Like, here is our opportunity to be the change makers.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: You know, instead of asking somebody else to do it.

And, um, and so we embarked on that journey and, uh, created Saysh, our company and it is for women by women.

And what we thought we were creating was shoes for me to run in the Olympics.

KATE: Right, spikes?

ALLYSON: Yeah.

Other women would want to, you know, stand with me.

And as we went down this journey of learning, we realized that shoes are typically not made for women.

And at that point they really hadn't been.

So a shoe is made off of a last, which is a mold of a foot.

It's a mold of a man's foot to make women's sneakers.

And when we learned that, it was just like, no [laugh].

KATE: Game over.

ALLYSON: No.

And so that has been just, you know, our calling, just that women deserve better.

I didn't re-sign with Nike, and I'm here to tell the tale.

But more than that, I'm here to tell you that you can do it too.

Once you find the courage to believe in yourself, your own worth, your own values, it gets easier.

It's when you take a stand, that you start to understand how to overcome that fear and how to make a change for yourself and sometimes for others.

KATE: Isn't it amazing when you think back to when everything was going on with Nike and before you wrote the op-ed, you could have so quietly kind of suffered in silence and been angry and been upset and hurt.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: And just let it go.

ALLYSON: And I feel like I ended up absolutely where I'm supposed to be.

KATE: Do you?

ALLYSON: I do.

I think that I had to come to a certain place to be able to do all of that.

I think early on, there's no way I, I definitely wouldn't have spoke out or taken the moment and found the courage.

Um, but I think, I think motherhood changed me, you know, I think it gave me a different outlook.

KATE: And you wanted to create a better world for her.

ALLYSON: Yeah, absolutely.

And that's been the driving force I think every day.

You know, when you wake up and it's really hard and, you know, it's, there's challenges here, there and putting out all these fires and I'm just thinking about, you know, her and, and what I want the world to look like.

KATE: This is why we do it.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: Yeah.

ALLYSON: Absolutely.

KATE: You really have kind of shed a light on a lot of things that women haven't been able to talk about.

ALLYSON: Mm-Hmm.

KATE: Um, which is the bias against them in the workplace.

You know, your workplace was on the track field, but, it's the same story for women in corporate America.

ALLYSON: Absolutely.

KATE: That they hide their pregnancies, that they don't feel comfortable because they think it's going to be a hit against them.

ALLYSON: I've talked to so many women who have dealt with that and who continue to this day, too.

And I think that there's a lot of companies who will say the right thing and the right thing is on paper, but you know, you know, when you share that news that your assignment is gonna change or this, you're gonna be pulled back or not get that promotion.

KATE: Right.

ALLYSON: And it's hard.

And I think we do have to have these conversations if we're ever going to really change the culture of, uh, women at work.

KATE: What is the vision for Saysh?

Where do you wanna take this brand and this company?

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: That this, that you have really just begun.

ALLYSON: I'm so excited for the future.

There's so much that I wanna do.

And you know, at the core is this idea that women deserve better and showing up for them.

So I love that we're able to do things differently.

We have a maternity returns policy that says that, um, for women, a lot of people don't know that their feet can change sizes when they're pregnant.

KATE: Oh yeah.

ALLYSON: And then that size, that change in size is permanent.

KATE: [laugh] Yes.

ALLYSON: [laugh] So if you have a pair of our shoes, we'll give you your new size.

And so just doing things like that, pushing the industry, um, showing up.

I just, I really wanna put forth this company that sees women and, um, knows their value.

KATE: How do you think you have changed through this process?

When you think back to pre the, the, the situation with Nike to creating Saysh.

ALLYSON: Yeah.

KATE: To the 2020 Olympics?

How are you different from it?

ALLYSON: So we launched Saysh at the Olympic trials.

So I competed in our shoes at the Olympic trials and then just the absolute highlight of my entire career in Tokyo, crossing the finish line and then looking down and seeing like these beautiful shoes made by my company.

KATE: Yes.

ALLYSON: And it was just this very special victorious moment because it's like, I literally did this in my own shoes.

KATE: [Laughs] Yes you did.

KATE: Yes, you walked a mile in your own shoes.

ALLYSON: My own shoes [laughs].

KATE: Well, congratulations on all your success.

ALLYSON: Thank you.

KATE: I wish you the very best.

It's fascinating hearing your story, really.

ALLYSON: Thank you so much.

KATE: Yeah.

Can I do a toast?

ALLYSON: Let's do it.

KATE: Cheers to you, Allyson, and to the future of Saysh.

ALLYSON: Oh, thank you.

KATE: Yeah.

KATE: Allyson Felix is as inspiring as they come.

Not just because she's a world-class athlete and one of the most decorated Olympians of all time, a study in talent, discipline, and mindset.

No, she's inspiring because when she saw an injustice, instead of going along to get along, she did an about face, a pivot, and created an entirely new lane.

She is writing a new story with Saysh and running a new race with entrepreneurship, one that allows mothers to dream too and become whatever they can conceive.

KATE: If you would like to know more about the guests, the restaurants, and the inspiring stories of success, please visit todinefortv.com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at To Dine For TV.

We also have a podcast, To Dine For the podcast is available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... ANNOUNCER: At American National, we honor the "do"-ers and the dreamers: the people who get things done and keep the world moving.

Our local agents are honored to serve your community because it's their community too.

American National.