Lauren Holiday had done it all on the field.
She retired in 2015 as a World Cup winner and two-time Olympic champion with the United States women's national team, and two-time National Women's Soccer League champion.
But after coming out on the other side of a life-threatening brain tumor that was discovered during her first pregnancy and giving birth to a second child four years later, Holiday was ready for something more again.
"I remember telling [her husband] Jrue, 'Hey, I don't know if this is all I want to do,'" Holiday told ESPN.
On Wednesday, she and Jrue, a two-time NBA champion, were announced as the newest investors of the North Carolina Courage through their Holiday Family Trust.
Holiday will be hands-on, serving as an advisor and ambassador for the club, including involvement on the technical side.
"I want to be an impact everywhere that I go," Holiday, who won the inaugural NWSL MVP award in 2013 and has a league community service award named after her, told ESPN.
"So, yes, I'm an investor in North Carolina but I think I have invaluable insight being as I was part of the league when it was in its inaugural season."
Courage majority owner Steve Malik told ESPN that the "aligned values" with Holiday were clear from their first conversation. Malik declined to share a percentage of ownership for the Holidays, but said it was "substantial" and ranked among the top five in the team, which has roughly two dozen investors.
The Holidays' investment is exclusive to the Courage and not the co-owned North Carolina FC men's team.
Holiday remains part of Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital Group, which previously held investment talks with Angel City FC, the Portland Thorns and Seattle Reign before nearly purchasing majority control of the Courage late last year. She has also divested from her involvement in Angel City.
The deal ultimately fell through after reaching the final stages. "While there wasn't any particular reason [the Avenue deal didn't happen] during [doing our] diligence, we just grew in respect for them -- I think likewise during that process," Malik told ESPN about the Avenue Capital Group negotiations.
"At the same time, the league had -- still has -- a dynamic scenario going on with rules around private equity, and we just weren't able to get to a place that was going to satisfy those requirements."
Malik added that the negotiations were happening parallel to expansion talks. The Courage were valued at $108 million at the time, right as a group in Denver without any existing assets was preparing to pay $110 million to enter the league.
Holiday remained interested in the Courage despite the Avenue deal falling through.
Lasry has been an advocate for Holiday, she said. It was when Jrue was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, the team Lasry used to own, in 2020 that Holiday felt the urge to get involved in the sports investment and leadership space.
She took a course with an executive coaching firm, and they asked her about her goals. Holiday's answer related to a word that she kept coming back to with the Courage as she explored the opportunity: culture.
"They have built a club that's very close-knit," Holiday said." There's a culture there that the girls really like each other. I know they've been through hard times, but I feel like they've come out on the other side in a really beautiful way. That is what really drew me to the club."
Malik said the culture has improved in North Carolina through increased administrative support and staffing investment. The club was rocked by scandal in 2021 when it became the epicenter of the NWSL's reckoning with abuse, amid allegations against then head coach Paul Riley, who led the Courage to two NWSL championships.
"I do have a unique perspective in that I'm the longest tenured owner, board member," Malik said.
"One of our big lessons is that there needs to be multiple people involved with the technical leadership in terms of providing inputs around, for instance, critical HR functions like safety, security, feedback. A place for, and a person for, the team to be able to bring forward any concerns, to make sure that we're an organization that has a process in place to gather that feedback and then improve."
Malik said that North Carolina has added their own player feedback mechanisms on top of league requirements, created a wider player leadership group, and made tangible changes from that feedback like moving players to higher-security housing units.
Holiday said her experience playing in the league in its first three seasons gives her more insight.
Much has improved from her days of playing on high school football fields, when multiple teams (including the only one she played for in the league) folded due to instability, but minimum standards are still moving targets across the league.
Among the immediate tasks for the Courage is the appointment of a new chief soccer officer, who will sit at the top of the technical staff reporting chain. Holiday will interact with that person once they are hired as part of her hands-on approach.
Facilities remain arguably the biggest challenge for the Courage.
WakeMed Soccer Park is the smallest venue in the NWSL -- its capacity is below the league's average attendance -- and Malik said there is an "urgency" to finding "a more ambitious solution."
Holiday will weigh in on that process, too. She jokes that she has come a long way from Googling P&L (profit and loss) statements on her first calls with Lasry years ago.
"For me, this is just the beginning," Holiday said.
"I would be lying to you if I said I didn't have my hopes, and my eyes, set on being more heavily involved in the future and having a voice at a league level.
"But it's not just my voice. I'm super passionate about other women getting involved on the investment side for us to truly have ownership in our league, in the league that we helped build, and the league that we all love and believe in so much."