Danica Patrick's tips for breaking barriers: Find a target and aim higher

After winning the Indy Japan 300 in 2008, the first Indy Car series race won by a female driver, Danica Patrick painted the big picture.

"I feel way too young to be giving life advice, but this is a great platform to have," the then-26-year-old Patrick told The New York Times after the win. "This reaches outside racing. This is about finding something you love to do, and following through with it."

Over a decade later, Patrick is still drawing from that experience to share advice that reaches beyond her sport. In an interview with LinkedIn News, the star athlete and entrepreneur highlighted the key to achieving barrier-breaking feats: aiming far beyond the barriers.

"It's because you set your goals far beyond what culture or history has ever said has been done,” she said. “Even if you get halfway, you probably did something that is unique and different.”

These days, Patrick is still achieving unique feats, just in different arenas. Since retiring in 2018 from professional racing, the 38-year-old star has been leveraging her fame to build a collection of businesses that includes multiple wine brands, a fitness book, an athleisure line and a brand of luxury candles.

She's also the host of her own podcast, Pretty Intense, which shares the same name as her book and features guests from practically every walk of life, from actor Matthew McConaughey to NBA champion Chris Bosh to business mogul Gary Vaynerchuk.

"All of the companies that I have, they're all rooted in inspiring and opening people's minds up to other perspectives and other ways of doing things," she said.

The story of how she's gotten to this point is compelling. In her interview with LinkedIn News, she discussed how an expectation to win was key to making history, how a certain embrace of femininity impacted her career, the consequences she once worried would come with that embrace and her aim to soften the rigidity around people's world views.

The interview is the first of eight episodes featured in the fourth season of Next Play, the LinkedIn News series highlighting athletes' business endeavors and careers outside of sports.

If you haven't already, check out the episode in the video above and follow Danica Patrick on LinkedIn here .

The Starting Five

Each edition of this newsletter will share five sports trends, stories or figures on LinkedIn that are worth following. Check out this week's starting five below.

Women Breaking Barriers

As part of the debut of our interview with Danica Patrick, Linkedin News capped off Women's History Month by inviting others to share names of more female barrier breakers.

Among those who did so were tennis star Sloane Stephens, who shouted out another athlete: her mom. "She is the first African American swimmer to be named a First-Team NCAA D1 All-American and the only All-American in Boston University's women's swimming history," Stephens wrote on LinkedIn about her mother, Dr. Sybil Smith . "She continues to lead by example to this day, inspiring the youth we work with at the Sloane Stephens Foundation."

To see the other names shared by LinkedIn members, including NFL star Kelvin Beachum and Dr. Jen Welter, click here .

The NFL's new diversity mandate

During its annual meeting of franchise owners, the National Football League expanded the "Rooney Rule," a policy that partly guides teams' processes for interviewing coaches.

"The new policy mandates that all 32 teams interview at least two women and/or persons of color when filling key roles, and all teams are required to employ a ‘female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority’ as offensive assistant coaches in 2022," LinkedIn News editor Jake Perez wrote.

You can read more about the rule change, and what people on LinkedIn are saying about it, here .

A new record for women in sports

Last Wednesday's UEFA Women's Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, arguably the two biggest soccer brands in the world, broke a record.

In a post on LinkedIn, Haiwen Lu, an executive for digital sports broadcaster DAZN, shared a first-person view of the historic moment.

"Still buzzing from witnessing a women’s sports world record shattered as part of the 91,553 strong crowd at Barcelona vs Real Madrid at Camp Nou in Barcelona on Wednesday (breaking the previous pro women’s soccer crowd record of 90,195 set in 1999 during the iconic women’s World Cup finals between USA and China!)," she wrote . "So proud of all the endless commitment and work from DAZN and our partners, all to propel the game forward by giving the competition and its epic players more visibility and more coverage than ever before. The growth is real, the ripple effect is real, the momentum is real."

Tiger Woods is back (sort of)!

Just over a year ago, global golf star Tiger Woods suffered a car crash that led to serious injuries in both legs — so serious that it was feared his career would end.

This week, Woods announced that his participation in the Masters — golf's most prestigious competition, which begins Thursday in Augusta, Georgia — is a matter of a "game time decision."

While it's questionable whether Woods will compete and, if he competes, whether he can perform to his usual standards, he still unquestionably commands a crowd. It remains fascinating to watch, which is likely why this post from Front Office Sports , highlighting the audience following Woods during practice rounds in Augusta, has been gaining steam on LinkedIn.

OBJ's Next Play

Months after winning the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams, Odell Beckham Jr. announced on LinkedIn that he will be speaking at Bitcoin 2022, a four-day conference in Miami starting April 6.

It won't be his first expression of affinity for cryptocurrencies. During the 2021 NFL, Beckham, along with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, made headlines after accepting part of his salary in Bitcoin.

In a post on LinkedIn , the star athlete also asked for recommendations of people to meet at the event.

On Deck

The upcoming edition of Next Play will feature baseball legend Alex Rodriguez . Rodriguez — also known, of course, as A-Rod — earned over $400 million in salary during his 22 years in Major League Baseball. (That's not even counting the income he made via endorsements during that time.)

Since retiring in 2016, A-Rod has been a superstar businessman as well, having become a co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx in 2021 while continuing to grow, among other businesses, his real estate firm, Monument Capital Management.

During the interview, he will discuss how investing in properties was core to his strategy of setting up his Next Play.

What did you think of this edition of Next Play? Share your thoughts with a comment below and, if you'd like to see the series grow, share the article as well.