EO Wonder Podcast: A Successful Coach on Leadership, Culture, and Resilience

In the latest episode of the EO Wonder podcast, host Kalika Yap (EO Los Angeles) sits down with longtime volleyball coach and founder of After the Game, Morgan Wijay. Morgan brings nearly three decades of coaching experience and a track record of building championship teams.

Her work with young athletes and their families focuses on building a positive mindset and confidence — lessons that translate directly to entrepreneurs and business leaders who must create culture, manage adversity, and assemble complementary teams. This episode explores how Morgan shapes teams through empathy, how she reframes failure as growth, and why leaders should surround themselves with people who have complementary talents. A few key excerpts from the conversation follow: 

Kalika Yap: I was so impressed, as a CEO and founder myself, seeing you come in as the new "CEO" of the volleyball program, and you brought us all together at this retreat because culture is really important to you. Tell us a little bit about why culture is so important, and how you build that?

Morgan Wijay: When you are building culture, there are a few things you have to do. You need to create moments that you show your girls that they matter beyond being a volleyball player, and I think it is really hard when you are being competitive and you are going for a win, and you have to create other ways to show, “Hey, I care about you.”

We took the varsity team: They just completely disconnected from their phones and disconnected from volleyball, and had a chance to just be sisters and really get to know each other. You are starting to see them as sisters, as friends, as other girls who are struggling with the same insecurities you are struggling with. You are creating a culture that is based on love, empathy, understanding, acceptance.

Kalika Yap: The season was full of a lot of challenges. How do you deal with challenges and adversity when you are faced with them?

Morgan Wijay: When you face a challenge, you have to sit here and say, “Is this adversity worth my energy?” I think that is my first question, because there are a lot of petty things that people will bring to you that, in the grand scheme of the season, are not as important. “Is this adversity going to teach us a lesson? Is this something that we need to go through?”

Adversity is not fun. Sometimes it is not fun working with different personalities, but I look back at my kids’ lives, my life, other teams, situations, if I did not have those very challenging moments and those adverse moments, I would not be who I am today. I would not have the wisdom and the experience. Most importantly, the trait you gain is empathy.

Kalika Yap: You were handed this team and players, but you also got a chance to choose the coaching staff. Tell us a little bit about how you choose people.

Morgan Wijay: Surround yourself with people who are good at those things that you are not: That is very important. When you are a CEO, every CEO has a strength, and every CEO has their pitfalls and their weaknesses. I think it is important that you find the people around you whose strengths are your weaknesses. Then, you can really build something special.

Listen to the full EO Wonder interview with Morgan Wijay on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.